Kyle Lowry and the Raptors aren't being priced as high as you'd expect for the second-best team in the East. (Photo credit: michalkajzerek via Foter.com / CC BY)
This entire NBA season feels like a lengthy coronation for the Golden State Warriors, doesn’t it?
Any time we turn on ESPN, the talking heads are gushing over how good the Warriors are, whether they’ll break the Bulls’ record, how unstoppable Steph Curry is, and so on.
With more than a month to go in the regular season, you already would have to lay more money than you could win if you want to bet Golden State on the 2016 NBA championship betting odds. On March 11, when we’re writing this, the Warriors are -150 favourites at Bodog to win the NBA title.
Not sure about you, but we’re not big fans of laying that kind of juice on an NBA futures bet. Yes, Golden State will probably win the title, but as good as the Warriors are, they’ll still have to win 4 rounds in the NBA playoffs first.
A lot can go wrong before June. An injury to Curry, Draymond Green or Klay Thompson would probably sink them, and if you don’t think that can happen, look at what happened to the Cavaliers last year when they lost both Irving and Love.
So with that in mind, let’s take a look at 3 other NBA teams that present a lot of value when it comes to the 2016 NBA championship betting odds.
San Antonio Spurs (+400)
If you’ve been paying attention to the NBA, you probably already know this, but the Spurs are REALLY GOOD.
Golden State gets all the attention because of its historic pace, but San Antonio is just 3 games behind the Warriors. They’ve also won 40 straight games at home.
The Spurs, not the Warriors, lead the NBA in average margin of victory. San Antonio is also incredibly deep (they blew out the Timberwolves by 25 points the other night despite sitting Duncan, Parker and Ginobili, and without Gregg Popovich on the bench).
It seems inevitable that San Antonio and Golden State will collide in the Western Conference playoffs. If the Spurs can steal a game in Golden State, they would just need to win their 3 home games to claim the series.
Toronto Raptors (+3300)
We’re not just being homers here. Toronto is the second-best team in the Eastern Conference right now, and the top team – Cleveland – looks extremely vulnerable these days.
The Raps are 25-7 at home, but also an impressive 18-13 on the road. Even if they lose a home game at the start of a series, this team shouldn’t be fazed by the need to win a game or two in enemy territory.
Toronto seems motivated by last year’s embarrassing first-round sweep at the hands of the Wizards. We haven’t seen the complacency in the Raptors in the second half of the season like we did a year ago.
Do we think Toronto will win the NBA title? No, they can’t beat the likes of Golden State or San Antonio in a 7-game series when they meet up with the Western champion (although Toronto did give the Warriors two very tough games and also beat the Spurs this year).
But at these generous odds, all they have to do is reach the NBA Finals and then you can hedge off this bet for a significant profit. And if they finish second in the East, they’d avoid the Cavaliers until the conference final, when you could also hedge your bet to cash a profit as well.
Miami Heat (+5000)
If there’s some value on the Raptors, then there’s a ton of it on the Heat. Miami is 37-27 this year despite playing much of the season without Chris Bosh.
Bosh announced today that he intends to return from the blood clot that has kept him out of action. That’s a hell of an addition to a Miami lineup that already is second-best in the legaue defensively and boasts multi-time champions Dwyane Wade and Udonis Haslem, sharpshooter Joe Johnson, shotblocking machine Hassan Whiteside, veteran Luol Deng and wildcard Goran Drajic.
Miami’s lower in the standings so they’d likely have to go through Cleveland earlier, which explains why the Heat is listed at 50:1 on the 2016 NBA championship betting odds. But if they can beat the Cavaliers and get into the East final, you’ve got yourself a lottery ticket.