We enter the NBA All-Star break still catching our breath after one of the busiest and most eventful trade deadlines ever.
As the dust settles it’s a great time to take a look at how things are shaping up when it comes to some of the big betting markets around the league, like title winner, MVP and so forth.
Hoops head Peter Sharland takes a look at how some Paddy’s top basketball offerings look right now and proffers a few best bets…
NBA betting Tips
Eastern Conference Winner – New York Knicks
Western Conference Winner – Oklahoma City Thunder
NBA Championship Winner – Oklahoma City Thunder
Sixth Man of the Year – De’Andre Hunter
Rookie of the Year – Stephon Castle
Most Improved Player of the Year – Cade Cunningham
NBA Finalists and Winner
The Boston Celtics are currently 5.5 games back as we prepare to enter the home stretch and they are the odds-on favourite to defend their title in the East. The Cleveland Cavaliers are of course the big movers since November and you can get them down at around the 3/1 mark to win the conference if you fancy it, though, while the Cavs are a fun story, it does tend to feel as if they might get found out in the play-offs.
The Knicks are a wildcard here. They stood pat at the deadline and won’t have a ton of room when the buyout market opens up in March. That suggests they like what they think they’re going to get from someone like Mitchell Robinson.
Could we get a run for the ages in the Big Apple? They’re around 5/1 and represent interesting value. A New York-Boston play-off series could be historic.
The West seems on paper a bit more straightforward with the Thunder 8.5 games clear of their nearest competitor and currently a smidge below evens to win the conference title. But we’ve seen time and time before that regular season play is not always indicative of what happens when we get to the post-season.
That brings us to the Denver Nuggets, currently priced at 5/1 to represent the West in the Championship series this summer.
Yes, they are not a perfect team but Nikola Jokic is playing out of his mind at the moment and when he’s like that he’s the best player on the planet and we wouldn’t bet against him.
Fancy a flier? If you like what we’ve seen from Luka Doncic in a Lakers uniform in limited minutes then the purple and gold have shortened to as low as 7/1 to come out of the West after their stunning trade moves.
Don’t forget Luka led the Mavs to the Western Conference title last year, he knows how to win and his running mate – some guy by the name of LeBron James – isn’t too shabby either.
On a similar note let’s look at the NBA Championship odds and work backwards.
The Lakers and the Nuggets are 14/1 and 13/1 respectively. It’s a tall order but both have the kind of star power that means if they go on a run they’ll be unstoppable. As we said before we really like what Denver could do if Jokic stays hot.
If you want our pick right now though, it’s the Thunder. There’s a reason that they and Boston are so much shorter than anyone else. Our wildcard bet is absolutely Denver, and don’t sleep on New York in the East, but OKC look like champions at the moment.
One market we like is NBA Finalists, which effectively is a combo bet predicting the winners from each conference. Boston v Denver at approximately 8/1 and New York v OKC a tad higher look like really enticing bets.
If you want to get a bit freakier Boston v LA (imagine) is one to consider.
Individual Awards
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is running away with MVP and is currently priced accordingly. Similarly, presumptive Coach of the Year Kenny Atkinson is way under evens right now. Frankly the only bet we’d consider in either of these markets is Nikola Jokic at 7/2 in the MVP race.
If you think he and the Nuggets can claw back the Thunder he could offer nice value. Don’t even ask us about Defensive Player of the Year.
The three markets we’re mostly looking at are Most Improved Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year.
Let’s start with the latter where we have a hard time betting against column-favourite Payton Pritchard. However, we could see a world where someone talks us into De’Andre Hunter if the Cavs do end up finishing as the No. 1 seed in the East.
For Rooke of the Year things have gotten interesting as prospective winner Stephon Castle has moved to the bench after the Spurs acquired De’Aaron Fox at the deadline.
What will probably end up saving Castle is that the two of the other main contenders are on the same team and might share votes/attention. Despite this, we really like the possibility of Memphis’ Jaylen Wells at a generous price.
The Grizz are chasing down a top seed in the West and he will play a vital role in that moving forward.
Finally looking at MIP it’s a really interesting battle between Cade Cunningham and Norman Powell. At 8/11 we like how Cunningham is priced and we think the Pistons will have a lot to say in the run-in.
Yes, he’s odds-on at the moment but this is a case where we think it’s worth it.
NBA Tips
Eastern Conference Winner – New York Knicks
Western Conference Winner – Oklahoma City Thunder
NBA Championship Winner – Oklahoma City Thunder
Sixth Man of the Year – De’Andre Hunter
Rookie of the Year – Stephon Castle
Most Improved Player of the Year – Cade Cunningham
*All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.
Read More
- Get the latest NBA Basketball odds on PaddyPower.com
- Basketball Betting Strategies: Three Tips for NBA Bettors
- How to bet on basketball: Your complete guide
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