NBA Futures: Milwaukee Bucks Pass the Boston Celtics as Title Favorite

Posted on: March 22, 2023, 03:29h. 

Last updated on: March 22, 2023, 06:36h.

Pauly McGuire Read More

Expertise: Sports Betting, Sports.

For only the second time since the season began, the Boston Celtics are no longer the betting favorite to win the 2022-23 NBA championship. The Milwaukee Bucks are the new consensus favorite to win the NBA title at +330 odds, moving ahead of the Celtics at +340 with less than three weeks remaining in the regular season.

The Bucks are the best team in the NBA with a 51-20 record and were the first team to pass 50 wins. The Celtics are 50-23 and became the second team to reach the 50-win mark.

The Bucks hold a two-game lead over the Celtics with 11 games remaining on their schedule. The Celtics have only nine games to go, so they’ll be hard-pressed to catch and pass the Bucks for the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference.

The defending champion Golden State Warriors are +1200 odds to win back-to-back championships. All-Star shooting guard Steph Curry returned from a leg injury, but forward Andrew Wiggins hasn’t played since February 13. Wiggins missed the last five weeks due to a personal matter. Neither he nor the team had elaborated on specifics, which has led to rampant speculation that it’s more of a mental health issue than a physical ailment.

The Best from the East Top the Futures Board

The Celtics began the season as the front-runner to win the championship at +600 odds. Aside from a two-week stretch early in the season, the Celtics were the betting favorite for most of this season. A couple of weeks prior to the All-Star break, the Celtics saw their title odds shrink to a season-best +250.

Bucks forward Khris Middleton finally returned from wrist surgery and they headed into the All-Star break on a heater. Their title odds quickly improved thanks to a 16-game winning streak. You can now back the Bucks at +330 odds to win a second championship in the last three seasons.

At the start of the season, the Philadelphia 76ers were +1500 odds to win the title. After a slow start, their odds bottomed out at +2200 after the first eight weeks of play. Their best odds of the season occurred before the All-Star break at +900, but now they’re +1000 odds and fifth overall on DraftKings’s futures board.

Wild, Wide-Open West

In the preseason, you could have backed the Phoenix Suns to win the championship at +1200 odds. They reached their best odds early in the season at +900 before bottoming out at +2000 in late January.

The Suns were +1800 odds before they secured Kevin Durant in a trade with the Brooklyn Nets before the trade deadline. Their odds jumped to +450 after the trade and narrowed to +370 in early March before disaster struck.

Durant suffered a freakish ankle injury during pregame warmups against the Oklahoma City Thunder. He appeared in three games before the injury sidelined him for the last two weeks. At +475 odds to win the championship, the Suns are still the third-highest team on the board and the highest team from the Western Conference. If the season ended today, the Suns would earn the #4 seed in the West with a 38-33 record.

The Sacramento Kings currently sit in third place in the Western Conference. Very few people expected them to make the Play-In Tournament, so it’s sort of a shock that they can potentially secure the #3 seed in the West.

The Kings are currently +6500 odds to win the title, which is a stark contrast from their preseason odds of +70000. One futures bettor can bank $10 million if the Kings win the NBA championship this season. They made a wager at +75000 odds and another one at +35000 odds during the preseason.