Stephen A. Smith shreds Wolves, then appears to pick Minnesota over LA in wild rant

Stephen A. Smith may have delivered one of the strangest rip sessions of his career on Monday when he basically tore the Minnesota Timberwolves to shreds and indicated that it'll be virtually impossible to advance past the Los Angeles Lakers, only to then make it sound like he's picking the Wolves.

It was an odd turn of events at the very end of his rant. Let's break it down.

"I'm telling you, Ant-Man need to be that superstar in order for it not to be [the Lakers in] five, or four. I think that he has to be a superstar in order to push this to a six or seven game series, because he's going to have to deliver two games himself," Smith began.

"But I got some other names to call out. Yo, Jaden Daniels (yes, he said his name wrong), did you know that LeBron James is shooting 55% from the field when you guard him? What you gonna do about that? What you gonna do about that? Uh, Minnesota, did you know that Luka had a field day with you en route to the NBA Finals last year? What you gonna do about that? What you gonna do about that?"

Quick pause before more Smith ranting to point out that Luka Doncic averaged 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 2.2 steals per game to lead the Mavericks over Minnesota in last year's conference finals.

"That's what I'm saying," Smith continued. "McDaniels, 55% shooting, LeBron can't do that. Julius Randle, LeBron averaging 46% shooting when you guard him. That has to change. Yo, Julius Randle, when you were with the Knicks, as great as you were in the regular season, you tailed off precipitously come postseason. What you gonna do about that?

"Rudy Gobert. Liability. Defensively. On the basketball court for Minnesota. Whenever Luka shoes up... Luka get out a damn cab and Rudy going to be allergic to seeing him. It's a problem. He's going to have to be on the bench."

Gobert on the bench? He has been criticized in the past for teams playing him off the floor in the postseason, so Smith isn't stretch too far with that hot take. That said, the Lakers are also a much smaller team who many believe aren't going to match up well with Minnesota's size.

At this point, you're convinced that Smith is picking the Lakers to roll over the Wolves in the first round. Wrong! Smith, instead, appears to be putting all of his eggs in Anthony Edwards' basket.

"I'm just saying, there's a lot that has to happen, I know it. But it starts with Anthony Edwards. A superstar has to show up for the Minnesota Timberwolves, and I believe that brother will. Anthony Edwards, I'm predicting it right now, he going to put on a show," Smith concluded.