NFL Draft Grades, NBA rumors, and More: Fade The Field

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Fade the Field, a seven Oracles production. I am as always your Oracle Arumula, Coach Jean Clemens, joined by my guy CJ Chris James, chopping it up with CJ. CJ, how are you doing, man? I'm doing well today. You know, getting things done on this end. How about yourself? I'm I'm doing well. I I saw you just dropped another um another video. Just telling people what, you know, what are you what are you working through in the offseason right now as far as um football has to go? Sure. So, now that the NFL draft is completely done, I've been trying to cycle through and put out the draft grades. I want to give appreciation to all 257 players that were drafted. So, I assess each pick, combine them by the teams in each division. I just put out my seventh episode of The Grades with the AFC West and I still have the NFC West to go to complete the series. That's what's up. And and make sure you're following him at CJ Florida 9. Um checking out his podcast wherever you get your podcast from. Um and then obviously while you're over here YouTube before we get started, make sure you hit that subscribe button on the YouTube channel. Make sure you giving every one of our our things. fade the field, the antenna, chopping it up with CJ. Like, make sure you're giving everybody five stars, man. We don't want to see them four stars. Like, go ahead and just get that extra star. Even if you think it's four stars, go ahead and get at five stars because why not, right? Like, what do you have to what do you have to lose by it? And and it's the same way with a with a sub and a follow. A sub and a follow cost you nothing. Nobody's trying to ask you for money. Go ahead and hit that subscription. Hit that follow. We really do appreciate it. You know what I don't appreciate? I don't appreciate the Cleveland Cavaliers. Like, not at all. I don't appreciate them at all. And I'm going to tell you like I we we we're just getting word as we're recording this um you know at at at 3:30 in the afternoon on on Tuesday, May the 26th, the Cleveland Cavaliers have announced that not only are they bringing Kenny Atinson back, but they are planning on signing James Harden to a longterm deal to stay in Cleveland. And I'm just going, do they think that the East is going to get any easier than it was this year? Like, so that's a an interesting combination of things to do. Uh, number one, the James Harden long term, it's not that James Harden is a great player. He's a Hall of Famer or MVP. I mean, he's up there in age, and part of his game has diminished just because of Father Time. He's still a pretty good player, but a long-term deal giving him a lot of money, especially that he'll demand doesn't make a lot of sense. Then Atinson, I'm 50/50 on that. I wish they would have still given a little bit of a chance to staff, but that's neither here nor there. They feel like they found their coach, so let's see if they're right. Yeah. I mean, I'm just I just don't see how you watch that series unfold and you don't change something like something major. and and and I just don't understand looking at the model of how teams are winning right now and going, "No, we need a unless James Harden's going to take a major haircut, right? Unless he's planning on cutting off his beard." Like, I don't see him taking the type of money that allows us to build up a bench, like a bench that can actually be formidable. That is the way teams are winning now. They're winning because they they have formidable benches that can come in and give you legitimate beat your head in type of like type of minutes. You're not getting that from Cleveland. Um, the James Harden thing works in the regular season because teams don't get a chance to game plan for you when they're flying in from, you know, from New York on a red eyee to or from California on a red eyee, you know, and they've got to play at 7 o'clock at night and then they got to fly out and go to, you know, to go to Detroit the next night. But in the playoffs, that's a different story. And so I'm just surprised that right now these are the only two dominoes we've seen. And so maybe there's something coming, right? So I don't want to take that away. I'm not as mad at the Kenny Atinson returning, even though I've seen coaches get fired for less. I am my about the James Harden thing. Like I just don't know how you get to where you're trying to go with him there. So there are four teams here in the conference finals. All four of those teams could score. They score in bunches if they needed to in different ways, but there's only one team out of the four that refused to get back and play defense. And I don't mean they didn't play defense in the half court consistently. They were getting run outs on him. If he ran back what, a 37 or whatever year old player, 36, however old James Harden is, player, that's not his bag. To your point, the bench, they don't have players on their bench that do that either. And I watched that all throughout that series. It was kind of embarrassing at a point because they have athletic enough dudes to do that. Wade seemed to be the only dude who was doing it. Yeah. I I just don't I don't like it. I the the combination of getting that news so fast after you just got BTA, right? Like in four, they they didn't even gentlemanly like we both said it was going to be a gentleman sweep, right? Like that's what we both said. 4-1 gentleman sweep. They find a way to get one. No, they just laid down. We said it at the beginning that the way You know what? Let's get Let's get into this because I think I think a lot of this is important. Let's go to our first Let's go to our first um topic of the day. Like, how impressive was the Knicks sweep of of Cleveland? Let's not even focus on Cleveland. Let's focus on the team that that came to play, that got it done, that's been running rough shot through the the the the Eastern Conference. How impressive was this Knicks sweep of Cleveland? The most impressive thing about the sweep wasn't it happening, it was the consistency with which in the Knicks have played. They had a let down game one. That was the one that we thought either that one or game three that Cleveland could pick up, right? you know, the the the time off type situation, all that. New York stuck to their guns. They're playing the same style of basketball. They're not faltering. Carl Anthony Towns isn't making mistakes like he's made in the past. They look like a fresh, healthy team because they weren't run down during the season. So, the most impressive thing wasn't just that they swept because we s we saw B to A happening. It was that they've remained consistent in what's made them good in this run. Yeah. And [clears throat] I I want to know what you I want to know what you think about this because I was I was trying to I was I was I'm listening to to people talk. You know, everybody's got an opinion and and I'm hearing people say, "Oh, well, this was like the easiest run that you know, you've had and that the the Knicks made it easy this was an easy path." And my my counter to that was always, well, yeah, but they made it look easy. Like, it's one thing to have an easy path. There's another thing to make it look easy. The Detroit the Detroit Pistons was the they were the number one seed. They didn't make it look easy, right? They they they they fumbled the bag. They had the same opportunities that the Knicks had, and yet they didn't make it look easy. the the um the the Boston Celtics who had their guy back and and seemed to be trending towards 3-1, right? They seem to be trending towards another run. They were up 31 on a team that the Knicks just ran and and was like move. They didn't make it look easy. So now like it feels like we're trying to find ways to devalue what the Knicks have done and I'm just not here for it, man. They they made it they made it look easy. That's why it looked easy. You know, two things can be true at the same time and you have to leverage the one that makes the most sense for the team. So what I mean by that is yes, they got to play a six seed, a seven seed, a four a four seed. That's great. But when you play those lower seeds, you know what you're supposed to do? B to A the whole time. B to A. And for 10 straight games or 11 now, the Knicks did that. So basically, if they were ekking these out, I would understand the point of view that this was an easy path for them and maybe they're not a real threat, but they've been destroying teams. They went down by 22 and came back. So I I think it's disingenuous to take that away from them. Again, easy path, but they made easy work of that path. Yeah. Because that's the thing. It's it's only an easy path if you make easy work of it, right? And so, but but I I don't want to take anything away from it because it's not the Knicks fault that those teams beat teams that they weren't supposed to beat, right? I I'm just I'm just wondering cuz in my cuz in my mind I'm going, "Oh, well, people might think that people may think that um Detroit would have gave them a better a better show." And I'm going, how? They can't score. Like if Detroit can't score, I think Detroit would have had a little bit to them. Yeah. Okay. A game, but right. We're still talking Baker's dozen or a regular dozen, right? Like, so it's like I I I just look at it and go, what team was going to be a you the Knicks were salivating. They wanted Boston. The Knicks didn't want to have to play Philly. They wanted Boston. Yep. because they wanted to get some revenge. They wanted their lick back. This isn't a team that went into this thing and went, "Oh, let's try to duck the smoke." They were hunting for the smoke and the smoke never came because those teams didn't get it done. That's not on that's not on the Knicks. And and I'll say this, if you don't if you're not impressed with what the Knicks did this year, you shouldn't have been impressed at all what the Thunder did because they had two seven game series where the best well the best player in one of the series got hurt by the way. They were chilling in that finals game and against Denver, Aaron Gordon goes down in game seven and he was giving them fits. So, which one was more impressive? I'm going with the Knicks, not the Thunderers run last year. Yeah. I mean, but but that's the but that's the thing is like in every one of these like nobody was saying this about Milwaukee when they didn't have to face like KD. What? They had to face KD, but Kyrie and James Harden were out. Like nobody said anything about that. like like this these things happen. It's a war of attrition. You can't be mad at the Knicks because they are the ones that got it done. Like shout out to them. Let's do the next one. Which like like we know the Knicks are going to be there, right? The Knicks are going to be there. And as we're talking right now, I'm looking on uh I'm looking on Koshi and the Knicks are trading at 30% to win the um NBA Finals. They're almost they're they're a bigger favorite than San Antonio. And that's only because San Antonio has to, you know, right against Oklahoma City. But I I think if if San Antonio wins, they'll immediately jump ahead of Oklahoma City, right? But as of right now, they're trading at 30%. So, you're essentially getting 3.1 um you know, X on your money if you bet New York right now. The question is, which of these teams, Oklahoma City or San Antonio, do you think the Knicks match up better with? I actually I actually think it's the Thunder. And the major reason is because the Thunder give you hell on two sides of the ball, right? Defensively, they get up, they hand check, and then they're able to effectively double team. Jaylen Brunson doesn't have time for any of that nonsense. He's not going to deal poorly with that. The other thing they can do that a lot of other teams can't is you'll notice Hardenstein's not picking up. That big's not picking up 94 ft. So, they have another ball handler and Carl Anthony Towns who can bring it up, advance, and get it over the half court line. Against San Antonio, though, they're not going to be able to do much in the paint other than maybe Brunson doing some work, but they're not going to get those easy buckets in the paint, and those guys can press out from San Antonio to affect the three-point shooters. Yeah, I I think that San Antonio is the worst of the two matchups. And I'll go back to what you were talking about and and I'm gonna I'm gonna preface this by saying they're the worst of the two matchups. But even if they win, the Knicks have a path to a championship because if they win, that means that Oklahoma City beat them. And to your point in in in in earlier episode, the Knicks are the Bizarro World Oklahoma Cities, Oklahoma City Thunder, right? And so I was I was thinking about that because I wanted to I wanted to go further in depth into that and see if you were following me on my bizarro world. Jaylen Brunson and Shay Gil Alexander are the same basketball player. One just happens to be 6' n, right? Like they play a very similar game. They're able to draw. They're able to draw like like stupid fouls that they should never get. Um they have a they have a keen sense of turning up in the fourth quarter, right? They were guys who were undervalued at the beginning of their careers who've risen to the levels that they are now. So I I look at that and go that's to me that's the catalyst for why if if Shay can get his get his gun off then you know Jaylen Brunson's going to get his gun off. Yeah. And to your point of the the uh bizarro or funhouse mirror style. One is watchable and one is completely unwatchable. So all of it matches up well. Right. You have one big who really isn't an offensive threat but he gives you a lot on the defensive end and rebounding. Hardenstein versus uh Mitchell Robinson. You have another big who sometimes he can hit threes, he can do different things and chat. And then you have Cat. You have all these three-point shooters who can D up. They play aggressive defense on those wings. And then you have underrated guys and JDub and then Anobi. So yes, it is a bizarro version, but again, one team is watchable, one team is completely unwatchable. Yeah. Like Oklahoma City makes it look like you you don't have to do this, right? Like that's the difference. Like Jaylen Brunson, it's like yo, you got to do everything cuz you're at the end of the day, you're 6'2, right? Like at the end of the day, you're going up against the trees. You're not a tree. With with with with Shay, it's like, yo, like you ain't got to do this, my guy. We We saw you in We saw you in LA. We saw you with the Clippers. You didn't do this at all. You attack you attacked the basket and just dumped on people. You didn't fall off the and all this other stuff like you didn't fall every five seconds you get. That's what I'm saying. I don't know why this has happened over the last two and a half years. I I think it's hard to argue with the results for him though. Like that's the problem is he's had so much success with it. Now you're going to get it because this is the path to the championship that he's been able to make. Fix it. Yeah, the league needs to definitely fix it. Correct. Let's move on to the next one. shifting our full attention over to the Western Conference Finals. It's been a fantastic finals. Um, not from necessarily a watchable standpoint with OKC, but just from a competitive standpoint. It's like boxers, they're going back body shot after body shot after body shot, right? It's a three-game series now. Who wins the Western Conference Finals? I said it before and I'mma stick to it. I have the Spurs winning either six or seven. I just think that they're the better team. And it's all going to be dependent on who's refereeing the game because the officiating has dictated whether or not the Spurs have won games. I mean, if it's officiated anywhere close to last game, this isn't even a series anymore. It's too straight for the Spurs and they win in six. But I think that they're going to dial the reigns back. They're going to give some calls to OKC in game five and try to keep it close. So, OKC um 42 is is trading at at 29%. Um and I mean a decent market $1.8 million on the on the exact. Right. So, if you think OKC can take the next two, you can get that at 29%. If you think that the Spurs can win the next two, that they've unlocked something right with their with their blowout win, it's 20%. is 22% for San Antonio to win 4-3. I I agree with you. I think that this is the Spurs series because you can't you just can't guarantee turnovers. And the place where the Spurs become vulnerable is when they turn the ball over. But if you can't guarantee turnovers, right, you're in trouble. If they get more possessions than you because they don't turn the ball over as much, like then you're in trouble because the thing that they do that the Spurs do defensively, they're not dependent upon turnovers. They're dependent upon you not not wanting to attack the basket at all because Wimi is there, right? The alien is there and he's sending everything back. And so because they have Wimby there, their defensive prowess is, hey, drive the lane if you want to. Oh, yeah. You I know you see Wimby out there by a three-point line, but he needs two steps to get back to the rim. And so they're they're they're turning OKC into a jump shooting team or a team that gets fouled. And I think that that's advantage Spurs. So I I'm with you. I I I would be willing to to lay at at 20 and 22%. I would be willing to lay something and invest in both of those just to because I know that I'm going to make a profit regardless of which one hits. I'm going to absorb whatever I lose from the other bet it um from the other investment. So, it's like I I I I would hedge my bets, you know, I would put the investment in in both and make sure that I'm getting my maximum there. And then the only way I strike out is if is if OKC loses. And even if they lose, you can't say it's a bad it's a bad um investment because the odds were so good on it. Yeah. No, it makes complete sense. And I will say one thing schematically that I haven't seen enough in this series and I understand from a fatigue standpoint, but if OKC if the Spurs get up, I think they should play Wimby at the forward and have Cornet come in so he can take that punishment down low and Wimby can do more of that weak side play just for a few minutes like a two-minute span, get him back out. That type of thing. Play him more like Hartinstein and and correct and in and chat together. See, and I think that and I think that the the counter to that is they should probably put Hartenstein on the bench a little bit more. Like I think OKC got to get him off the got to get him off there because if you're not going to score inside, if we're not going to give us any type of scoring prowess inside, let me put another shooter out here so that I can spread the floor and let my best post player Shay operate down there off the bounce. And you get the added benefit of less physicality on Wimby because that's what Hardstein has offered in this series for the last single game. Yeah, the it's been interesting. Like I again I'm looking forward to the finals. I'm hoping that it's the Spurs just for parody sake, right? I got I'd love a And then I just want to see can can cat can can can get over over the hump over the the um the the thought process that he's just this soft dude you can't win with cuz that's been my that's been my assessment of him like you can't win with him like big because he doesn't do what's necessary in the moments and and to their to to Mike Brown's like credit. He's not asking him to like he's not asking be a post player. And so I never even thought about that. Like I never even thought because it just makes no sense to me for you to be that big and that talented and not go down on the block and and just murder some of these guys they're putting on you. But if that's not him, then quit trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. and and now he's unlocked something in Cat that hasn't been able to be unlocked in his time in the league. He's always been a guy who can score the ball, right, and and put the ball. He He's a supremely talented guy, but it's allowed his mentality to change and and to be more of a finesse facilitator than having to be more of a physical presence. Yeah, he he plays like tall man even though he's big man because literally if he wanted to be big man, he he's got all the tools and the size. He's got that. I mean, not Jokic Bill, but it's not too far off. He could dominate on the block if he wanted to. He could he could be a high post monster if he wanted to. But I I digress. It just It just makes me sad. Let's go to the next one. And this one gets away from the the the the the play on the court. We're we're looking beyond now. It's like which team will pick first in the NBA draft? Like, and I think I think this comes because if we're assuming if we assume um Deb Bansa is the number one pick, who is going I is is Washington keeping that pick or is somebody going to come in and trade for that pick? I'm assuming that's where that's where we're going with this, right CJ? 100%. So, three years ago when the Alien was in the draft, that was one of the few times, you can go back to LeBron also. There's a 0.0000% chance that that number one pick could be traded. The Bance is really good, but he's not particularly those guys, right? So, it's tradable. It's whether or not Utah wants to leverage their quote unquote future. And personally, I'm putting money on Utah, and I think they're trading at uh 3.28x. So, and the reason I'm doing it, they have someone who facilitated the young man getting to Utah, then going to BYU, they have to to keep people in that building with all the whether it's tanking or not, all the stuff they've done that hasn't seen above board, they have to go get him. Even if it's multiple first round picks, even if it's player swaps, whatever to get him in the building, he's more useful in Utah than he is in Washington because it doesn't change Washington's fate. Yeah, I I would agree with you. Um the pro my problem with Washington is that the Bansson needs to be on the ball, right? And so like like if Debans needs the ball and he doesn't have the ball, how effective is he playing off the ball? Like I don't know. And if he's playing off the ball, then is he better than Michael Porter Jr.? like right like if he's like if if he's playing off the ball is he better than um um DJ Edgecom right I can start naming names and and I know everybody thinks that this draft is super deep and and I don't understand it but cool let's let's rock with there how many people in this draft are you taking over Dylan Harper I'm taking Dylan Harper number one overall in this draft like knowing Knowing what you know, right? Knowing what you know. Are you taking any of these guys over Dylan Harper? I'm not taking any of them over Stefan Stefan Castle. Stefon Castle, but that's two years ago, right? So, yeah, I'm just saying. But yeah, like now the only thing I think is good as far as Utah, right, they're not necessarily forfeiting their future because they have so many young assets on their team right now. Ace Bailey, Keonte George. Keonte George is a is a is a killer, right? Marketing for for all intents and purposes, he's not that old. Like he's not like a aging veteran. He's just a veteran compared to some of these other kids on the team. So it be it it goes, does this trade make sense for Washington? Ace Bailey. Ace Bailey goes back to Washington. Give me some give me some um some first round pick swaps, right? Give me first round pick swaps and Ace Bailey and let's get it done, right? Like um but like for me, I think that if if Washington is planning to keep that team together, that team doesn't ascend if AJ Deansa is the pick. It has to be AJ. I mean, it has to be a somebody that's going to fit into what they need. And I don't think they need a AJ. Yeah. I I I think that they would do better with getting a Darren Peterson at two if they made that move. Kind of switch things around and got more capital on the way in. They could actually be a competitive team in the East. We've seen how the bottom of the East is run. So, I I think it's a move they should make, but let's see if they fall for the banana and tailpipe and just go with Deansa and make the roster situationally not playable on Yeah. I just cuz cuz it's like where does he fit in at? Like they've got all of those young guys already that are over there that that all play the same position he plays. But if you bring a Ace Bailey over, now you're bringing a Ace Bailey over and a Dar and a Darren Peterson in the draft. or even if you if you love Darius Auff or um the kid the kid Davis out of um UNCC, that becomes a like a a legitimate high upside second unit because those those first unit guys, the two your two main like stars, they're not young, right? Even though Trey Young's not old, he's not young. And we know that Anthony Davis is like one rolled ankle away from being out the game again. So now you have you have different like you can play with the lineup more. You you make yourself a deeper team. I think if you just bring AJ in, then there's clamoring for you to make AJ the man. And I'm just not 1,000% convinced that AJ is a number one option in the NBA. I think he would be an elite level number three option. I think he would be a good number two option. And yeah, to me that's going to make a difference. Yeah, I I'm all about team building, team construction. And there is an argument that Peterson is better than Deansa. I pick him the Bansa first, but again, does it appeal to my roster? And do I need to make moves in Washington? I think they need to move out of it. So for your money, put it down right now, 3.28x, you get a little bit of scratch back for something that 99% has a chance. just it just makes sense. 99% of the time it makes sense. So that's a that's a great value to put that out there. Um again, you want to you want to you want to try to get your money into nothing's guaranteed, but you want to try to get your money into areas into investments that are going to yield profit without a lot of um risk, right? And so when you hear when you hear stuff like, oh, 3.2, it's not going to make you a millionaire, right? Unless you're putting a million on it, right? But it's going to make you money. And the the point of investment is if you want to if you want to invest and you want to be extremely aggressive, that's when you add in those those those 10x and 12x and 14x and they're that reason because you're not going to win. like those aren't going to win very much, right? But on the off chance that one does, then you you you strike a windfall. But then on the situation of these is is if you just keep if you just keep cashing these checks, right? If you just keep making these small investments, small investments turn into big investments very very quickly. So, um looking forward to that. Looking forward to the World Cup. Go over to the sevenoracles.com and make sure you check out the World Cup edge tool over there. I'm telling you, we are get we are printing out money over there, investing in the World Cup and World Cup teams. Not only not only teams to advance out of um out of out of pool play, but scorers players are scoring games. Um score totals, whether people are going to score over two and three goals or under two and three goals. There's so many different ways in order to invest in the World Cup. if you're going over on Koshi or on Poly Market where I know it's crazy because Poly Market is a world um exchange and the world cares about the World Cup like we care about the World Cup. So go over to the sevenoracles.com that is the seven oracles thoracicles.com and check out everything. It's free over there right now. Also, I'm just going to say this out loud to you. the Bitcoin edge tool if you like just slot machine video game stuff like that like where but you can get an advantage over the house Bitcoin Edge Tool it's free right now on the sevenoracles.com go check that out um CJ tell everybody where they can find you what when when's your own podcast on and all the jazz sure so during the NFL regular season I'll have four shows a week that play periodically on Monday Wednesday, uh, Thursday and Friday. But right now, you can find it wherever you find your favorite podcast. It's Chopping It Up with CJ. That's Chopping It Up. The WC CJ. I'm doing those draft grades, finishing them up, and I'll be doing different shows throughout the offseason to try to keep you entertained. And you can find that wherever you find your favorite podcast as well. Yeah. And definitely check him out again, um, in social media at CJF Florida9. Um, check me out, Jean Clemens. Um, we always appreciate all of you guys that come hang out with us. Um, who support our real, support our clips. Um, check us out on social media. Um, we do appreciate it. Make sure that you subscribe to the YouTube as we continue to build this. Make sure you go over to the Seven Oracles. Um, sign up for the for the newsletter. Sign up um or or subscribe to the Seven Oracles. There's a lot of stuff and you want to get on board before we get to football season. I promise you cuz we're going to be so locked in during football season. You're not going to want to miss these fade to field podcasts on Tuesdays. Like trust me, this this man over here, this man over here is a license to print money during football season. That gentleman over there, I I think I'm nice with it. I ain't even gonna lie to you. I think I'm nice with it. This dude over here, you want to be ready. and then what we're doing over at the seven Oracles with our NFL edge tools and and all of the different things we're going to bring. You're going to want to be a part of it. So for um for Chris James, CJ49, I am Coach Jean Clemens aka Arumula. This has been Fade the Field, a seven oracles production. Until next time, peace.