There aren't many question marks at the top of next week's NBA Draft.
Auburn's Jabari Smith, Gonzaga's Chet Holmgren and Duke's Paolo Banchero are the clear-cut favorites to be selected No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3, respectively, next Thursday night. However, the draft will completely open up when the Sacramento Kings are on the clock with the fourth pick.
Purdue's Jaden Ivey is the odds-on favorite to go fourth at every American sportsbook, but Iowa's Keegan Murray and 19-year-old Australian phenom Dyson Daniels are both realistic possibilities. I'm belly laughing at the thought of bookmakers handicapping what the always-unpredictable Kings' front office will do.
After the Kings make their pick, the Detroit Pistons are up at No. 5 and NBA Draft sources are telling me Detroit is falling for Arizona's Bennedict Mathurin, an exceptionally-athletic 6-foot-6 combo guard that gets buckets. Mathurin's ability to knock down open threes, put the ball on the deck and finish with authority at the basket make him an ideal puzzle piece to pair with Cade Cunningham.
The Athletic's James Edwards III shared his two cents on Mathurin earlier this week:
"Mathurin, in a traditional sense, is a perfect pairing next to Cunningham. He?s a true shooting guard with a college résumé that gives evaluators a better idea of how his game will translate to the next level."
American sportsbooks were dealing Mathurin at double-digit odds for weeks, but those odds have gotten progressively shorter as his stock continues to rise in the eyes of NBA executives.
Mathurin's odds to go fifth in NBA Draft:
+650 FanDuel ($100 wins $650)
+750 BetRivers
+800 DraftKings
+1000 Caesars ($100 wins $1,000)
Why would you bet +650 when you can make the exact same bet at +1000? A hundred-dollar bet wins you $650 at FanDuel if Mathurin goes No. 5, but you get an extra $350 on a winning ticket at Caesars.
Always be shopping.
It's impossible to know exactly what the Pistons are thinking, but there's no way Mathurin should be 10-1 to wind up in the Motor City. A Cunningham-Mathurin combination could be dangerous for a decade and if he's on the board at five, Detroit will have a tough time passing on him in Thursday's NBA Draft.
Bennedict Mathurin taken fifth overall +1000
RECORD: (118-114, +31.7)
