Hard as it is to believe, the 2022-23 NBA season tips off Tuesday night, so we'll start hitting on some futures odds trends. Today, let's look at the 2022-23 MVP odds from Caesars Sportsbook. Two players stand out from the pack by far in terms of betting action at the book: The Mavericks' Luka Doncic and Pelicans' Zion Williamson.
Doncic is the +390 MVP favorite and there's really no surprise there. He's always among the leaders and appears destined to win at least one award in his career if he stays healthy and fit. Luka admitted he was n't in shape to start last year and he wasn't quite the same player for several weeks but ended up putting up typical numbers: 28.4 points, 9.1 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game. He was named first-team All-NBA for the third straight seasons, joining Kevin Durant, Tim Duncan and Max Zaslofsky (!?) as the only players to earn the honor three times before age 24.
Still 23, Doncic might have to carry an even bigger load this year as the Mavs lost their second-best player, guard Jalen Brunson, in free agency to the Knicks. Doncic and Joel Embiid had opened as +600 co-favorites for NBA MVP, but Luka's odds have dropped because he has taken more than three times as much money as any other player, a whopping 36.9%. He's also second in tickets at 17.1%. One Indiana bettor dropped $8,000 on Doncic at +600 and another $3,000 on +500 for a total potential win of $63,000.
“I think this level of action makes sense, just from the standpoint that Luka is probab ly the most important player to a team,” said David Lieberman, lead NBA trader at Caesars Sportsbook. “If you take him off the Mavericks, they're probably not a playoff team without him. With [Nikola] Jokic winning the past two, it feels like that they'll give it to someone else and Luka slides into that obvious new choice. Luka is such a dynamic player, and he's still young so he can take another step forward.”