97 bets over two nights gave us wild results and a dizzying viewing experience.
Welcome to Bettor Ideas, the laboratory where BetFTW tests out new, innovative or downright puzzling strategies to get rich gambling on sports. Have a betting scheme you want us to try? Tweet your ideas to @Bet_ForTheWin or email us at AskBetFTW@gmail.com.
Today we’re taking a deep dive into the Max Under theory. In the most simple terms, the strategy calls for taking all available alternate line under props and creating a single game parlay for each NBA player. And we mean each and every player. This is not a strategy where you pick and choose which players you want to bet. If you’re deploying the Max Under, you take every player you can.
The vast majority—if not all—of these bets will fail, miserably, which is why Max Unders call for reducing your typical units to a fraction of what you’d normally wager. The goal is to hit on one, maybe two, and more than cover your losses.
BetFTW tested this theory out on two different nights in mid-January and included results below. Here’s how it worked out and everything else you need to know about playing Max Unders.
Setting up Wednesday’s tilt between the Nets and Bulls in Chicago
USA Today‘s Jeff Zillgitt joins On Site to set up Wednesday’s marquee NBA matchup between the Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets. The Bulls (-2.5) are playing their second game in as many nights after throttling the Detroit Pistons, 133-87 on Tuesday at the United Center.
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HoopsHype’s Michael Scotto and Yossi Gozlan previewed the NBA trade deadline a month away, including potential trades for the Lakers, Celtics, Bulls, Hawks, Rockets, Clippers, Thunder, and Mavericks on the latest edition of the HoopsHype podcast.
For more interviews with players, coaches, and media members, be sure to like and subscribe to the HoopsHype podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and anywhere else you listen to podcasts. Listen to the podcast above or check out some snippets of the conversation in a transcribed version below.
Stephen Curry enters 2022 as the leading contender for the MVP award with Kevin Durant in striking distance and Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic also lurking.
To determine the top contenders for the MVP award, HoopsHype anonymously polled 20 media members who voted on last year’s official NBA awards for their current top five MVP rankings.
As with the official vote, the top player received 10 points, the second received seven points, the third received five points, the fourth received three points, and the fifth player received one point for each ballot.
Checking in on preseason favorites and current leaders
As the page turns from November to December, we somehow find ourselves already a quarter of the way through the 2021-22 NBA season. Each team has played around 20 games or so and there’s a somewhat large enough sample size to gain an understanding of what to expect going forward.
From a betting standpoint, there have also been quite a few takeaways. Between health concerns, player availability and general inconsistent team and player performances, the oddsmakers have done a good amount of flip-flopping. Let’s take a look at some of the line movement across NBA futures, including notable risers and fallers throughout the awards races.
In what felt like a litmus test game for the Bulls, Stephen Curry and the Warriors dominated the final three quarters en route to a 119-93 win.
Golden State improved to an NBA-best 11-1 behind Curry’s game-high 40 points, and outscored Chicago 35-17 in a game-changing third quarter.
Behind a strong first quarter from Zach LaVine, the Bulls threw the first punch by opening up a 29-23 lead at the end of one. The game turned in the middle of the second quarter, as the Warriors put together an 18-5 run to take a 51-45 lead into the halftime locker room.
The third quarter was a Curry masterclass, as one of the best players in the world lived up to that label. The Warriors sharpshooter had 9 of the first 11 points of the period for Golden State, as the Bulls fell behind 86-62 heading into the fourth.
The Bulls fell to 8-4 on the year, and will see the Clippers on Sunday evening as part of their west coast road trip. Here is a look at individual player grades for Chicago:
Notre Dame safety Kyle Hamilton is on the short list of the best defenders to ever dawn the iconic gold helmet. His second interception of the 2021 opener at Florida State showed the national audience what Notre Dame observers had already known, and assuming he decides to enter the NFL draft early, he’ll undoubtedly have his name called really early in the first round.
Hamilton does it all as he’s the rare combination of speed, size, and instincts that make him an elite defender, but he does have one flaw that keeps showing itself time and time again and it has nothing to do with football.
Kyle, Kyle, Kyle. I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. I know you’ve stated this opinion before but can this be the final time?
Yes, LeBron James is a better passer and rebounder than Michael Jordan ever was. Not that James can’t take over a game scoring, he certainly has during the very big moments, but Jordan never completely vanished in a key postseason moment like James, either. What one accomplishes obviously goes into the debate but what about what one doesn’t do?
In June of 2011 James at his absolute peak of dominance. He was completing his first year in Miami and after some difficulties during the regular season, still helped guide the Heat to the NBA Finals. It was with the Heat leading the series 2-1 that James folded up like a cheap suit and scored just eight points in game four. Miami lost complete control of the series, ultimately falling to a less talented Dallas Mavericks team in six games.
Eight points in an NBA Finals game for a man who likes to be called “The King”. Let that sink in.
The tide of that series changed because of James and that’s not meant as a compliment to King James (insert eyeroll). I don’t care what happened before or after, the 2011 NBA Finals will forever keep LeBron James from being the greatest basketball player of all-time.
James guiding Cleveland to a shocking 2016 NBA Finals upset over a 73-win Golden State team was incredible, but it doesn’t erase what happened five years earlier. It should also be noted that Draymond Green’s idiocy that series should be thanked daily by Camp James.
As should Ray Allen for his heroics bailing out James and the Heat in the 2013 NBA Finals.
Sure Jordan’s teams lost series over the years and he missed game-winning shots or went cold down the stretch at times, but did he ever just bury himself in a corner not wanting to take on a challenge?
Kyle Hamilton was just 10 years old during the 2011 NBA Finals so he was certainly old enough to remember it, just like I was 11 years old during the 1997 NBA Finals when the other legend in this debate faced a Game Five road contest with the series tied 2-2, and did anything but fold up.
Sure, I’m a Chicagoland kid that grew up at the peak of the Bulls dynasty but even without viewing things from that lens it’s not a debate. It’d be like anyone who says Aaron Rodgers is better than Tom Brady. Sure, Rodgers may be more talented at many things, but when it actually comes down to winning time, who walks out with the huge victory time and time again?
Kyle Hamilton is a great football player, seems like a great young man that you’d be proud to have as a friend or family member, but he couldn’t be more wrong about who the greatest basketball player of all-time is.
It is officially NBA trade deadline day. We just got our first big trade of the day with Nikola Vucevic going to the Chicago Bulls.
This one wasn’t expected at all — earlier on Thursday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted that the Magic needed to be blown away with an offer to consider moving their All-Star center.
Message received, apparently. The Bulls went all-in for Vucevic and now seemed primed to make a playoff push as they play through the second half of their season.
The Magic are on the cusp of tearing things down to the studs and rebuilding. Vucevic was the first piece and there are certainly more to come.
This feels like a win-win for everyone. Let’s dish out some grades.
If you’ve attended many basketball games, college or pro the last decade, there is a good chance you saw Mr. Maas’s memorable halftime show.
If you’re a college sports fan, specifically basketball, the name David Maas probably doesn’t ring a bell.
He didn’t lead a team to any Final Fours as a player or a coach and he wasn’t some inspirational walk-on that got to play a couple of seconds on Senior Day.
No, he wasn’t any of those things, but to anyone who has attended many college basketball games over the last decade-plus, there’s a good chance you saw Maas perform.
He wasn’t dribbling or dunking a basketball, but instead performaing as one-half of the “Quick Change” act that has entertained the masses at basketball games both professional and collegiately for years.
Maas, who made up one-half of the “Quick Change” act died on Sunday from COVID, according to the agency that represented him.
It’s with a very heavy heart that we announce the passing of our friend David Maas. Many of you may know him as part of the quick change duo, David and Dania. He was taken by COVID-19 yesterday.
Maas and his wife Dania performed their “magical transformation” all over the world including London, Monte Carlo, and Japan just to name a few and the couple also helped teach Katy Perry their magic as she used it while performing the hit “Hot N Cold” years back.
Sports fans may not remember his name but they’ll certainly remember the performances Maas put on for them at countless games over the years.
One of the professional caps I’ve worn included covering the Chicago Bulls for roughly two years. It was a thrill when you heard that “Quick Change” was going to be the halftime entertainment because those nights you knew there’d be as much discussion in the media workroom asking, “how’d they do that?” as there would be a conversation of the actual game.
According to Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer, the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls have discussed a trade involving Wendell Carter Jr. and draft picks.
Since the Golden State Warriors landed the No. 2 overall selection in the 2020 draft, there’s talk of a potential trade for the pick. With Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in the rotation, Bob Myers and Steve Kerr could deal the pick to acquire a win-now option that helps push Golden State back to the postseason in 2021.
As the draft rapidly approaches, Kevin O’Connor of The Athletic is reporting the Warriors and Bulls have discussed a deal involving a former Duke Blue Devil.
According to O’Connor, the Warriors and Bulls have discussed trading the No. 2 overall pick for Wendell Carter Jr. and the No. 4 pick in the 2020 draft.
In 2018, the Bulls landed Carter Jr. out of Duke with the No. 7 overall pick on draft night. Prior to entering the draft, the former McDonald’s All-American averaged 13.5 points on 56.1% shooting from the field with 9.1 rebounds and 2.1 blocks in 37 games for coach Mike Krzyzewski’s program.
During his two seasons in Chicago, Carter Jr. is averaging 10.8 points on 50.8% shooting from the field with 8.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.1 blocks in 27.2 minutes per game.
Although he’s posted steady numbers in his two seasons in the association, Carter Jr. has dealt with injuries. Carter Jr.’s rookie season was cut short due to a thumb injury. As a sophomore in 2019-20, Carter Jr. missed time with an ankle injury.
While the Bulls could move up to target a player like James Wiseman or LaMelo Ball, the Warriors add a 21-year-old former top-prospect to a position of need while opening up the opportunity to draft a wing.
Moving from No. 2 to No. 4, the Warriors could target a player like Iowa State’s Tyrese Haliburton or Maccabi Tel Aviv’s Deni Avdija. Golden State could leave draft night with needed depth on the wing and the frontcourt.
