Fade the Field Ep. 11 NBA Finals Preview!

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Fade the Field, a Seven Oracles original. I am your host, Arumula, aka Coach Jean Clemens, joined as always by my guy, Chris James. CJ, how you doing, man? Doing all right today. Hoping I do better than my last poker session. Three times cracked aces. So, hope we do a lot better today. Yeah, we crackes is bananas. I'm sorry. I don't mean to laugh at it, but you know, this stuff sometimes it's just laughable when you think about like how ridiculous the like the the runouts are, right? Like, why are you still in this hand? That's my biggest issue in poker is when people are in hands they have no business being in. Like, why are you still even here? Oh, well, I had a feeling. That's not poker. like what are we doing? I had a feeling. Then you lose all your money and you're like, "Oh, yeah. It just didn't it just just it just didn't fall my way." No, no, no. It doesn't fall your way most most of the time. Her terrible decisions, but this particular time it worked out for you. Yeah, exactly. That's that's crazy. Um I have had a a good week. Obviously, another school year in the books. We I am officially into summer break. Shout out to all the teachers out there who have to deal with um you know the kids that we love. We'll just say that. They have to deal with the kids that we love and now we get a chance to not have to deal with them for a few months or a couple months or for however long you're without it. I actually only have a few weeks and then you know we're back to football. But I I enjoy always putting that that that exclamation point on the end of a a school year. And I think the fact that it it always ends in graduation is the is the way that they lock teachers in for next year. Like it always ends on this high note and and and all this hope for the future. And I think that's what gets people going. But enough about us. The Western Conference Finals was everything that we wanted it to be from a competitive standpoint, right? From a competitive standpoint, we got seven games. The NBA was able to max out. Congratulations to them on how they, you know, how they set this up or how it played out. Whichever you want, whichever one you want to believe, right? Like, shout out to them. We got seven games. What did you think about game seven and and how game seven unfolded? You know, to your point, the seven games, it started off with a double OT game that was excellent. It gets bookended with another game where you saw the the upandcomers go off to that lead. They kept the lead and then you saw the champs get that first lead of the game. You're like, uhoh, here it comes. Now when company held up, I loved it because it went back and forth. There was good basketball played. There wasn't any of the foul grifting to the extent that there had been. That was the game that we've been looking for throughout the series that we only got a handful of times. All right. I'm going to say something controversial. Um, we want to probably clip this up, but and I want to get your I want to get your your thought process on this. Yeah. If I am of the belief that if you that a lot of people are not watching these game, a lot of the people who talk about basketball, they're not watching the full game. They're only watching highlights. And and and this is the reason I'll say it because everyone keeps telling me how absolutely like phenomenal Victor Wimbeyama is at everything. And I go, if you watch the highlights of Victor Wimbby, he looks like the alien. He looks like somebody that's otherworldly. He looks like somebody that won't be stopped. But if you watch the game from beginning to end, there is there are large portions in that game where he just looks like he's there. He doesn't look like the he doesn't look like what would happen if Michael Jordan was 7 foot2 and or 7 foot6 or whatever like you know it just doesn't look like that. And so I sometimes I know that we live in a hyperbole world where everybody is going to say the most like like they're going to take it to the to the tenth level of what it is, but I can't get behind this. Wimby is just this unstoppable force that nobody's ever going to figure out what to do with. I think he's really, really good. And his height is something that gets people afraid because the league is not built off of aggressive offensive play the way it used to be in the um late 90s, 2000s, even into the 20 the early 2010s where people would attack the basket relentlessly regardless of who's down there because they were trying to catch a body. Now, the only there's only a couple people in the NBA who make it a point to try to dunk on everybody, right? There's there's Anthony Edwards, there's John Morant, and maybe there are a couple more people that may not have as big a name, but I remember specifically everybody trying to catch a body in the LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Dwayne Wade, in the Kobe Bryants, in the Michael Jordan. in those eras like everybody was trying to catch a body and I don't think that's the case today and that's why a guy like Wimbeyama is so defensively dominant because he's just scaring people from even trying. That was the issue with Chad with Chad home room. What do you think about this this idea of when all of a sudden being the greatest player ever? Well, I'll start off with game seven specifically to your point. It wasn't a wimpy game and part of that was because they didn't allow OKC to get those calls that were iffy at best. So, it was a straightup game and the rest of the players who were really good players. They have a great young Nucleus on their team, they were able to just take over and Wimi didn't have to be, you know, quote unquote dominant. It's the gravity thing. You brought up Michael Jordan. So, when something new comes in and it changes how the math is being processed, Jordan's quickness and his aggressiveness was something the league hadn't seen or at least not at that age. So, people didn't know how to react to it. They were able to counter it with physicality, which they eliminated some because they needed Jordan to, you know, survive. Same thing with Wimi. If this was a different era, people would be more aggressive. And now you've seen everything's moved to either outside or fast break layups. So there aren't people trying to quote unquote catch bodies as much as they are like, "Oh my goodness, what do we do with this?" People are adjusting. There's guys in the league who can play them well. Giannis plays him well. Anthony Davis played him well. It's just that it's so new and there's people who they're used to more finesseful basketball. As far as what he's going to do, he's going to keep changing the math cuz he's going to get bigger, stronger, faster, and better at being dominant. So, the league just has to catch up. And heck, quiet is kept. It's ugly. It's terrible, but in the last two games, it was effective. That Hardenstein push, he wasn't scared to shoot that little nasty jumper over him, and it worked more times than it didn't. So, you just have to find ways around him and just to not be as affected by the quoteunquote gravity that he takes up. Yeah. I don't think he's a I don't think he's like I think he's a star. We've talked about it before. I think he can change the math of a game. I'm just not here to be like, oh, he's going to be the next like people are crown, oh, what are what are they going to do with what are the United States going to do with France? They're they're going to beat them because that's what they always do. like this idea that all of a sudden Wimyama is the one force that's going to Wimyama is not LeBron James, ladies and gentlemen. I'm sorry. I I hate to break the news to y'all. This is not about to be a 9-year 10-year run of NBA finals for Wimyama. And that's where we're going to start to really see the like I don't think I don't think LeBron James gets the credit he deserves because there's a lot of hate. This is a hater society that we're in now. Like that's where we're going to start to all of a sudden see the beauty of and and the appreciation for LeBron James. We're never going to see another player go nine and 10 straight years of NBA finals and and because it's just so hard. And so this idea that oh if you don't get the championship now when is about to run off you know eight straight they said the same exact thing about OKC last year and now OKC's at home or on a boat getting ready to fish and the Spurs are in the finals. Yeah. No. So number one on LeBron and his eight straight you know four and four Miami then Cleveland. Yes. people went way too far trying to protect Michael Jordan instead of just appreciating the greatness that they saw in front of them. You can just you can enjoy both. Uh with Wimi, I don't see it just because the league does have its level of turnover and also we don't know how his body's going to hold up at that size. LeBron James has been extremely durable to a point where I don't know if he's a human himself. But the other portion is, and this is gonna sound like I'm downgrading Wimby, it's more so that whole unit and how they function have been good. Wimby right now is like 13 personnel in the NFL where the Rams were really good with it, but it doesn't mean anyone else can be good with it. And Wimby again, once you learn that you can deal with it, hey, maybe you take a 15-footer and bring back the mid-range game instead of just always trying to get to the hoop. and that's going to force him to have to come out and now you can get back door cuts and dunks and things like that. So, the game will have to evolve to kind of counteract him. It was hard to evolve against LeBron James because again he just go watch highlights of 2011 LeBron different beast. Yeah, 20 2011 LeBron 2007 LeBron was nasty. like that 2007 LeBron was when he when he single-handedly eviscerated one of the best defensive teams in the history of like basketball by himself and and so it's just it's just interesting though I I love basketball. We we can talk about the lore of it all all day, but we have a we have a finals, right? We have an NBA finals to get to. Um, and and it it's really just this this first question I think comes down or or or starts at rest versus rust. Let's get into the let's get into that thought process right now on with our first question and that is who wins game one. It's pretty simple, right? The Knicks have been sitting back chilling, waiting. They put BTA swept in I mean sorry swept the Cavs out of there. Spurs had to go seven hard fought games some overtimes involved. Um a lot a physical game because everybody was falling you know all that kind of stuff. Um what do you think happens? Who wins game one of the NBA finals? So I'm going to go with the money and my rationale behind it is what we saw at the end of game seven. I'm going to take the Knicks covering at worst but winning outright. And it's not even the whole rest rust thing for the Knicks. I think that there'll be variable moments in the game where they look like they're a little off cuz they've been off for a while and then also they'll be healthy down the stretch. It was the emotional toll that was taken on on the Spurs. They celebrated like they won a championship. And maybe with a young team like that, they may think we're at a certain level and the Knicks with older guys on that roster may come out, hit them in the face, and it's a different situation. They don't hate the Knicks. They felt like they had an actual engagement with not liking OKC. And since they don't play like OKC, the Knicks have a legitimate way to get certain things done on offense, I think it can shock the Spurs. They might get behind and not be able to catch up as readily as I think they would in the rest of the series. Yeah, it's it's a it's a great it's a great debate about rest versus rust. I do believe you you make a great point about the Spurs and how they how they celebrated. It's almost as if they've they they had an exhale before they they should have exhaled and now they got to struggle to get their breath back. Right. like right they they they they they blew out and that exhale only supposed to it's only supposed to come when you're holding up the Larry O'Brien. It's not supposed to come for whatever the Western Conference trophy is called, right? Like so I think that's that's something that you that you have to be aware of is is like did they do too much right at the it it was emotional, right? It's it's seven games. It's emotional. Wimy's French. Yeah. If you know, you know, right? Like if you know, you know, right? Like they like we get it. It was hard. But this isn't how you conduct yourself. I think I heard Kevin Garnett say, "Hey, man, he was doing too much. He was doing too much cuz you still got four more games to win." And that team over there, that team in New York, they're playing with a level of confidence, a level of almost like um destiny. that you're going to have to cut out of them. You're not just going to be able to take it. You're going to have to cut it out of them. Like they have a feeling. They believe that they are destined to be the first team to win in New York. So for you to to to act as if it's already over, as if you won the championship because you won the Western Conference, that's going to add more fuel to the fire over there. Um, interesting enough with Koshi right now, the the Knicks to win, the Knicks to win game one is is trading at 37 cents. Um, that says two and a half um two and a half to one on your money. You could also take the Knicks or excuse me, the Spurs um wins by over five and a half. you can go no on that and that's going to bring you back, you know, 80 um 80% on your on your dollar. So for every dollar you invest, you're going to get back 81 cents. So not a bad return. Um that's a minus that's like a minus 120 if we were changing this into, you know, sports sports betting terms. Not a bad return. Um if you're looking at the Knicks in in game one, Yeah. And and again to your point, that's insurance. If the Spurs do end up winning at the end of the game, it won't be a Spurs blowout. I just don't believe, especially in this game one with how everything's set up. So that's a good insurance bet to make sure that worst case scenario, you get something back on you or low return. Quickly, is there any concern that the Knicks and how they played in game one against Cleveland if that could show themselves in game one against the Spurs and therefore give the Spurs a chance to get the dub? No. And part of it is because I think the circumstances were just so different. It's almost the same thing as to why Cleveland was able to go up on New York in that first game. It's just those expectations, the emotions, and how you're going to respond. I just think the Knicks are in a different mindset here where they don't feel like they're kind of resting on their laurels like they did in game one against the Cleveland Cavaliers. All right, let's get into the next question. And the question is who wins or excuse me, who is the finals MVP? A lot of this may depend on who you believe wins the championship, right? Who who you believe wins the the Larry O'Brien. There's obviously two names that everybody is going to talk about here, right? You've got Jaylen Brunson, you've got Victor Winyama. Before we talk about those two real quick, is there anybody else that you believe has a chance to almost steal the MVP in this in this series? one guy and it's because kept [clears throat] he's kind of been the New York Knicks best player. That's Carl Anthony Towns because if he if they win the the NBA finals unless Jaylen Brunson's dropping 35 a game they're going to take in the defensive portion of him having to be in the paint have some defense on Wimby that all was going to come into play. And remember, this is always a narrativebased award because we've seen a player be the best player on the floor and not get it multiple times. So, Carl Anthony Towns is he he's able to defeat the defensive in the past. He's been the guy who might let you down. All these things, plays well, is still working as the fulcrum of the offense and is playing defense on Wimby. I think he can sneak in there and win that MVP. If if you like Carl Anthony Towns, by the way, ladies and gentlemen, he's trading at six cents right now. So like like think about it this way. If you put if you if you invest $10 on Carl Anthony Towns and um that brings back $156 if he wins MVP. But don't think about him winning as the the chances of him winning increasing. just watch and see if he has games that point to his ability to win. And if and if he's having games that will point to his ability to win, then there's a there's a good chance he can get this thing done. Like, so like thinking about this from an investment standpoint, and I and I know my I know my video's out, CJ, but you can still hear me, right? Yeah. Yeah. So, if we're thinking about this from an investment standpoint, right, if he goes out and he crushes it in the first two games, you think he's still going to be at 6%. He might go up to like 35% or 40%. And now the dependent upon what you invested on it, you might cash that out and and and take your winnings, take your profit that you made because now his stock is is more valuable than it was when you bought it. So I would tell anybody if you want to just throw a little something on Carl Anthony Towns to win it, like you could you could be in a situation where you make a a little bit more money than what people would believe. 100%. And that's how you play this, especially in these markets. You're working against the mindsets of other people. They're going to believe in Wimby, obviously. They're going to believe in Jaylen Brunson. These are the known quantities. And they're also going to have a lack of affection for how well Cat has played in these playoffs. And yeah, you can reinvest whenever you want to. You can put it somewhere else. The Knicks win game one. Those odds are going to go up. And if you're a believer in, let's say, the Spurs, now you can invest a little bit more on that as Wimy's numbers come down. You see what I'm saying? Like these markets flip for a reason. It is like the stock market and you can make yourself some good coin by doing this and playing it that way. So when we're talking about the MVP, obviously we're talking about, you know, Winyama and Jaylen Brunson. That's those are the two that most people believe are going to win MVP, you know, when when it's all said and done. Wimyama trading at 62% right now or 62 63 cents, excuse me. Jaylen Brunson trading at 32 cents. Where are you leaning as far as the the MVP? So, if I had to, we already talked about the long shot. It doesn't make any sense for you to invest any money in Wimby right now. I would personally wait to see how this game one plays out. And the major reason is because I do feel like New York can win this first game and you'll get a little better return. It was much like when you had the field having so much up on the Thunder. The Thunder lost to the Spurs. So, you're able to flip that if you really believed in the Thunder and get a better return on investment. If you're going to invest anything right now, I bet it on Jaylen Brunson because there is the other factor of he now feels like the the New York underdog type story and being at, you know, one third. So, I'm I'm assuming you're getting like two to one on your money, basically is how it's coming back out. So, I would go that way if you had to put money down right now uh for someone to be the true favorite to win the MVP. Yeah, I think I think obviously you might want to just go with whatever you you believe is going to happen in the series, right? Like if you think if you think the Spurs are going to win the if you can do it right like if you can combo it together take the Spurs to win the series take winama as the MVP that's going to you know allow you to to maximize your investment. Um the same thing for the Knicks. And obviously if you think the Knicks are going to win, it's going to be a much better payout because everyone believes that the Knicks, well not everyone, but a lot of people believe that the Knicks are just kind of going to be sacrificial lambs here. So like when we look at and we and we take into all those all those things into account, like I can see I can see why a lot of people are on Winyama. But if if the Knicks get this done, this is the Jaylen Brunson like coronation. Like to me, this is going to be the I I just think it's a good I just think it's a good story. I think it's a a a testament to someone who who was willing to sacrifice, who was willing to like work his way up from the bottom. Like it's it's the story is going to write itself. the am the the the the type of money he's going to command on his next contract because he gave up so much money on his first deal in order to get the pieces that were necessary to win the championship. I think if if they get it done, he's going to be the MVP. Um and as even as good as Carl Anthony Towns plays, I think they'll find a way to give this as a a thank you to, you know, to to Jaylen Brunson. um regardless of what happens what happens there. Let's let's go into the next question. Yeah. And this one is interesting. It's like how many Knicks playoff games will Timothy Shalomé attend? I I was thinking about this when I when I brought it um to your attention because he's been at a lot of Nick games and and um you know I think right now the number is at five or six. No one like like the who's who's who's making the confirmation. We'd obviously have to get full confirmation on it. But like if you look at the what it's [snorts] trading at right now, it's interesting because there's a lot of people who who look at um like Timothy Shalamé and and almost like he's the mascot for the, you know, for the team um right now. And that that's the way that they've kind of been looking at um him in this role or in this or in this um series as hey he's the he's the mascot. He's the guy that um everybody is is is kind of looking towards if he's there then we feel good about you know the the the chances to win if you will as as crazy as that might sound. um to to have one person kind of be the I don't know the face if if the face is the right word but you know his whether it's nine whether it's nine um games or 10 games or 11 games how many games do you see Timothy Shalamé um being involved in or or being in attendance at um for the Knicks? So here's a question. So is this inclusive of the games he's already been? Yeah. Yeah, it's already it's already the games he's already been, which I which I said was at five or six. Like it there's some reports of five, there's some reports of six. I don't know exactly what the numbers are um as far as right which one it is. But how many do you think it ends up being at the end of of this of this run? For clarity purposes, I'm gonna just say the more the additionals. So NBA Finals only. put that in and like once you get com confirmed number that's when you put this in. I'm going to go with four additional and here's my rationale. I think he's going to be at game one even though it's in San Antonio. I don't think he goes to any other San Antonio games unless they make a game seven and he goes to at least two of those games in the Garden. So I'd say plus four slash plus five if you think this series is going seven total games. But I don't think he's going to more than one maybe two games in San Antonio if it goes seven games. Okay. So, I'm I'm getting um I'm looking at confirmation. It's five confirmed. Five confirmed, which means that you think he's going to attend nine games. Correct. That's that's my number. You can make an adjustment to 10, but I think it's nine. Okay. So, here's here's what here's why I think this is interesting, right? Um, not only is he not only does he have to attend these games because he's a Knicks fan and and maybe to a certain extent he has to attend these games because of superstition, but there's also business in this, right? He's one of the the biggest marquee stars in the world right now. He is highly visible. He's got in tote a Kardashian and the it Kardashian, right? Like the one that everybody is on right now. So he has that not a bad flex to be able to show up with, you know, a Kardashian every every, you know, every game. But then also on on that, Doom 3 comes out this fall and it is right up against right up against the the Doomsday Marvel movie. And so the more um goodwill, the more free pub that going to a Knicks game allows him to get, the better. So, I wouldn't be shocked to see him at every single Knicks game and I wouldn't be shocked to see him at every Spurs game because why would you not, right? Like, somebody's going to pull some type of string to get Timothy Shalomé inside the building. He's not Joe with with all due respect to, you know, to to Joey Crack, right? Like with all due respect to the man Joe Carter Gina, like I love Fat Joe, but Fat Joe's level of stardom is not on the same level as Timothy Shalamé's right now. And so I could see NBC pulling some strings to get Timothy Shalamé courtside at the Spurs game so that they could pan to him three, four times in the game. So, if this game goes beyond four games, which I think it will, I think there's a chance he might be at every single game. And if that's the case, I like the 10 and possibly even the 11. Um, for for for market sake, the nine is trading at 84%. So, most people like you um think that he will be at at least at least four of those games. The 10 is trading at 69%. The 11 is trading at 30%. And there's a liquidity rewards pool for people. If you have the most um if your bids rank in the top 1,000 shares, there's an opportunity on Kowi for you to get um even more benefits. So, I'm I'm going to lean towards that tier 11 and roll the dice. I like the gamble if this is a long series that Timothy Shalamé shows up to all of those games because it he's almost become a part of the the story and now that he's a part of the story, it it pays for him to be at all of these games. Yeah. No, I I like the nuance that you provided there for folks, the context because again, we're we're hammering this home. You can always cash out. You don't need it to actually hit. You just need the odds to turn in your favorite. Absolutely. Let's get to the last one today. You guys know what it is. It's It's our predictions. Who's winning the NBA Finals? And more importantly, CJ, how many games are they doing it in? If y'all remember, my boy said, "Hey, listen. this thing is most likely going seven because the referees are going to dictate what happens. When he talked about the Western Conference finals, he said Oklahoma home city is going to win this one. The Spurs will win that one and then game seven's going to lay out for you to play. So, if you want to get your bread up, if you want to make some nice investments, CJ's talking. Everybody else should probably just be quiet. Floor is yours, CJ. You know, while I do favor the the Knicks in game one, and I think that they are going to make this a really good series, I'm taking the Spurs I'm taking the Spurs to go the distance. This will be a seven game series. The teams, they they have their own things they do well. I think some of the irritants that the Spurs have on their defensive side will get into the nonjayen Brunson guards and forwards for the Knicks. So, I'm taking it in seven because I respect what the Knicks have done. I think they're a much better team than people give them credit for, but the Spurs match up way too well with them and will give them problems. So, Spurs and seven. And furthermore, advice for your money on this one, I'm going to say let game one play out. If you do believe in the Spurs to win the series and believe in them in seven, let game one play out. And the major reason is because if they do lose this game, those odds are going to flip in your favor. You're going to get more people putting money in the Knicks. It's the largest market in the country, one of the the largest markets in the world. The support will come in, the money will come in, and you can actually fade that side, get your kick on the Spurs, make more money, because this is all about popular demand, popular belief, however you want to to phrase it. And that's where you can make even more bread in this one is making sure that the uh Knicks get a little bit of kick in game one and get that victory. I'm not going to be surprised if the Spurs win. Um the logical pick is the Spurs to win. Um the for me the opportunity to make money is on the Knicks to win. And this again is where I will tell people going on prediction markets is different than sports betting because if the Knicks, let's say if the Knicks win like game one and game two, the if you if you're on a sports betting site, they're not going to and you have the Knicks to win the series, they're not going to give you a cash out with two games. And if they do, the cash out's going to be ridiculously small. But on Koshi, if the percentage right now for the Knicks to win, right, um, if we're talking about the series win, um, the New York Knicks to win is trading at 37%. This is a market that has $249 million being traded in it right now. That's just right now. It'll be it'll be 260. It'll be 270 tonight by the time game one starts. But right now, it's trading at it's got $249 million being traded inside of it. So, we're saying that the Knicks, you know, that the Knicks um to to win the total is 37%. If the Knicks go out and win game one and game two, the type of money that's going to come in on the Knicks, that is going to turn to 60s something%. It might be ready. It might be time for you to cash out right then and there and then reinvest what you initially invested on what you think will happen for the next five games, right? And so that's something that you can do at a much higher clip on a prediction market site than you can if you're talking about traditional sports betting. And so that's why I really like being able to find the the avenues and the odds um in in these things because I think there's the opportunity to make more money in these um series game spread. By the way, I've got I've got series total games. Um, how many how many total games in this series do you think it's over? If you think it's it's a seven game series like like CJ just talked about, going over six and a half total games is trading at 30 cents. Which means that if you get to game five, right, if you get to game five and it's 32, that's going to be a much higher number. If you're 22 after game four, that's going to be a much higher number. It's time to cash out at that point. Like to me, that's the way I'm looking at this thing, CJ. I'm not necessarily looking at it as in choosing the the logical choice of a winner. For my own heart and feelings, I want to see the Knicks win. I don't care about the whole winama thing. Like, I want to see the Knicks win because I think that would be a great like story. Um, but from my wallet, I'm trying to get in on where the money's at. And the money is on these Knicks. Yeah. No, it makes sense. I mean, going back a couple of episodes when we talked about, you know, the show's called Fade the Field for a reason. We said take the field. It was when before game one of the Western Conference Finals, OKC, for whatever reason, was getting twothirds of the market. We're like, no, you have three teams, well really two, who can make the finals. Oddly enough, those teams both made the finals. take advantage of the situation when it offers you. You get that cash out value. You also have the chance to just straight up win. Absolutely. And and make sure that you're you're checking out everything we're doing over at the Seven Oracles, seven oracles, the7Oracles.com. Go and check out all the stuff we have going on over there. Um, make sure that you are subscribing to the YouTube channel, supporting everything, catching us on social media. um at CJ Florida9. Um you can catch me at Jean Clemens. Um make sure that you follow the Seven Oracles on your socials. Um the Seven Oracles. We appreciate all y'all. For all the people that are joining us on X today, for all the people that are joining us on YouTube, we appreciate it. Until next time, I am Coach Jean Clemens. That is my guy CJ Chris James. Y'all have a good one.