Brooklyn Nets Have Put Their Drama Behind Them, Bet Prices Enticing

Posted on: November 28, 2022, 12:45h. 

Last updated on: November 29, 2022, 05:58h.

Chris Sheridan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Live Casinos, Sports Betting.

The Brooklyn Nets will not get on an airplane again until Dec. 9. They have just begun a seven-game homestand, their longest in 11 years, and it appears they have put all of their drama in the rear-view mirror. Tonight they play one of the dregs of the NBA, and it is worth noting that their odds of winning the championship are all over the place … depending upon the place.

Here are the Nets’ championship odds as of Monday morning from the nine sportsbooks licensed in New York:

  • BetRivers: +2000
  • FanDuel: +1700.
  • PointsBet: +1600.
  • Caesars: +1600.
  • BetMGM: +1600.
  • ResortsWorld: +1600
  • WynnBet: +1500.
  • DraftKings +1100.
  • BallyBet: Unavailable.

For a 10-11 team that has not won more than two consecutive games all season, those odds still convey a degree of respect. The Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks are still considered the class of the conference and have the shortest odds of any two teams in the NBA at all nine books. But the Miami Heat also have a 10-11 record and are priced anywhere from +2000 to +3500 in the championship futures market.

Kevin Durant is averaging 29.3 points per game, the highest in the first 21 games of a season for KD in his career, besting his 29.0 ppg in the first 20 games of his MVP season in 2013-14 with Oklahoma City.

https://twitter.com/BrooklynNets/status/1597019942875852800

Why The Nets Low Regard in New York?

The dysfunction that defined the Nets in the month of December made them look like a dumpster fire. But anyone with a pulse could have seen that coming. Durant and Kyrie Irving were clearly unhappy with Steve Nash’s coaching, and he was a lock to be the first NBA head coach fired.

Owner Joe Tsai toyed with the idea of hiring suspended Celtics head coach Ime Udoka, but ultimately decided that Jacque Vaughn was not only a safer choice, but perhaps a better choice. He was already privy to the Nets’ locker room politics, and importing Udoka would have had ramifications throughout the organization. That would range from the scouting department to the media relations department, which would have had to explain why the Nets were taking on a coach who was deemed disposable in Boston for his inappropriate relationship with a female team employee.

Right now, New York sports fans are so enamored of the Jets, who got three TD passes from new starting quarterback Mike White, and the New York Giants, who are tied with the San Francisco 49ers for the fourth-best record in the NFC, and there is only so much love to go around. Also, New York has always been a Knicks town, and the ‘Bockers are the team that fans would prefer to read about and watch until they suffer their inevitable annual collapse.

Remember, the Nets have an older fan base centered in Long Island from the days when they were an ABA team and played at Nassau Coliseum. They also have a New Jersey fan base from their days at the Meadowlands and in Newark. In Brooklyn, they offer an opportunity for fans who have been priced out of Madison Square Garden to attend an NBA game in person.

Tickets for tonight’s game against the Orlando Magic were available Monday morning for as low as $18 on the secondary market. By comparison, a seat for Bucks-Knicks at MSG on Wednesday night was going for $70 on the low end and more than $9000 on the high end. You need to win a bunch of bets or have an extraordinarily high salary to get inside the Garden and hobnob with out-of-work comedian Pete Davidson as he rebounds quite nicely from Kim Kardashian.

What Should We Expect From The Nets in December?

Well, for starters, we should not expect to see them at +2000 to win the championship by the time Santa Claus has returned to the North Pole.

BetRivers almost always has the most enticing NBA odds, and this particular Monday is a case in point, and how that is not always the case when it comes to the NFL. BetRivers lists the Giants at +8000 to win the Super Bowl, while DraftKings, BetMGM, and PointsBet has Big Blue at +15000, and FanDuel has that same bet at +12000. BetRivers also lists Durant at +3000 to be the NBA’s Most Valuable Player, while Bet365.com has Durant and Donovan Mitchell of Cleveland both listed at +1800.

As we outlined last week, the MVP race looks to be a three-way affair between Jayson Tatum, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Mitchell for now. But KD is lurking. What he needs more than anything is a string of successes to get himself into that conversation, and this homestand offers that opportunity.

The Nets are favored by 10 1/2 against an Orlando Magic team that is tied with Houston and Detroit for fewest wins in the NBA (5). The Wizards, Raptors, and Celtics visit on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, followed by the Hornets and Hawks next week. That’s before the Nets finally fire up their charter plane for a Saturday night road game against Indiana.

“It’s still early for this group,” Vaughn told reporters. “They really haven’t played together. And Ben (Simmons), as you see, is just feeling better physically, which is helping us. For him to go coast-to-coast and get easy baskets for us, to push the pace for us, to get open shots for everybody else … they’re learning how to play with him and play with his pace. So hopefully we’re growing. Those combinations are going to change as we get healthier, and they’ll continue to play better with each other.”

Brooklyn will not be on national TV until Dec. 21, when Golden State visits, and NBA-TV will also televise their two ensuing games against Milwaukee on Dec. 23 and Cleveland on Dec. 26. The Nets have already played more road games than every NBA team except Utah, Denver, and Detroit, and if we have said this once, we have said it 1,000 times: It does not matter what your team looks like in November; it matters what they look like in mid-April.

https://twitter.com/BrooklynNets/status/1597240144142008320

So Where Are The Value Plays?

Betting NBA futures is one thing; betting games on a nightly basis is another. And in an NBA season in which numerous Eastern Conference teams have been ravaged by injuries, you have to know your depth charts in order to succeed.

The Nets have a very deep roster that includes the league’s most accurate 3-point shooter (Yuta Watanabe), best field goal percentage shooter (Nic Claxton), and the lesser Curry, Seth, who came off the bench against Portland on Sunday afternoon and dropped 29 points on Portland.

They are working on Simmons’ confidence in a peculiar way, often using him at center while letting Irving or Durant be the primary playmaker. Simmons had team-highs of 12 rebounds and eight assists in 34 minutes while taking only three shots, making one, and not attempting a single free throw against Portland.

Simmons has only two double-doubles this season and is priced at just +215 at DraftKings to have one tonight, while Claxton is +190 to have his eighth. So if you are building a player prop parlay (only one pick per game is allowed by the nine books operating in New York), you go with the likelier of the two: Claxton.

Building player prop parlays off consistent performers is the trick to wagering on November/December basketball, and there is a slate of 10 games tonight. A parlay of double-doubles by six players who get them often: Claxton, Mason Plumlee (Hornets), Josh Giddey (Thunder), Nikola Jokic (Nuggets), DeAndre Ayton (Suns), and Myles Turner (Pacers) has odds of +28740, meaning a successful $10 wager would pay $2,884.03.

What about wagering on the Nets to win three in a row for the first time all season? That is unavailable in New York, and that is something we will advocate changing as the Empire State’s law evolves. The politicians love the money, and they will eventually give the public what they want.