NBA 2020-21 Season Odds: Best Division Winner Bet In Each Conference
There aren't many locks for division winners this season
Don't look now, but the start of the 2020-21 NBA season is right around the corner.
The league is set to open its new slate Dec. 22, a mere 72 days after the Los Angeles Lakers finished off the Miami Heat and claimed their 17th NBA championship in franchise history.
With a new season comes a new board of opportunities to make a little cash, including prices on division winners. We're not saying they're locks, but it might be wise to place a future bet on one of, or both of these teams.
Toronto Raptors (+350 to win Atlantic Division)
The Atlantic has a chance to feature the most exciting division race in the NBA this season. Save for the New York Knicks, you could make a case for each team coming out on top.
Why do we like the Raptors? Honestly, it has more to do with their competition. It could take some time to get the ball rolling in Brooklyn, where Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant will need to build chemistry on the fly under first-year head coach Steve Nash. The Celtics potentially could have a truly troublesome situation on their hands with Kemba Walker, whose knee injury will sideline him for at least the first few weeks of the campaign. There also are legitimate concerns about Boston's secondary scoring. As for Philadelphia, Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid have yet to prove they can consistently be a dominant duo, and it remains to be seen how the 76ers will fare under new head coach Doc Rivers.
Toronto isn't bereft of concerns either. The departures of Serge Ibaka and Marc Gasol aren't small potatoes. But Aron Baynes should be a fine replacement in the frontcourt, and the Raptors also managed to keep Fred VanVleet in house. Fourth-year forward OG Anunoby could be bound for a breakout season, too.
Is Toronto a legitimate NBA title contender this season? Probably not. But it could grab the top spot in the Atlantic while the rest of the teams in the division deal with their respective issues.
Los Angeles Clippers (+120 to win Pacific Division)
That obviously isn't an incredibly appealing price, but you'd be hard-pressed to find a better mark for a Western Conference team with a realistic shot of winning its respective division.
Similar to the Raptors, the Clippers could benefit from the obstacles their rivals need to overcome. The odds-on favorite Lakers played into mid-October and LeBron James will turn 36 at the end of the month. The Purple and Gold probably would utilize load management over the course of a conventional campaign, so the strategy might be used to an even greater degree given the quick turnaround.
We're also expecting Kawhi Leonard and Co. to play with a chip on their shoulder this season. The Clippers fell short of expectations in the Orlando bubble, losing to the Denver Nuggets in a seven-game semifinals series. They then had to watch their intra-city rival claim basketball's most coveted hardware.
There might be a level of a learning curve with new head coach Tyronn Lue, but he arrives in Los Angeles with a championship pedigree and plenty of experience dealing with multiple superstars on the same team. Lue appears to be more of a player's coach, which could bode well for Leonard and Paul George.
The fact of the matter is, the Lakers' warranted confidence might result in them not caring too much about where they finish in the division standings. It might not be of the utmost importance to the Clippers either, but being ahead of the Lakers would be a nice tone-setter heading into the playoffs.
