The all-star break in the NBA is not the mathematical midpoint of the season, but it's a dividing line for when the intensity ramps up. Post-ASB teams are starting to solidify their rotations and make a strong playoff/seeding push. For the bad teams, it's time to “evaluate talent” for next season, which is a fancy way of saying “tanking”. However, this upcom ing draft is being viewed as one of the worst in the last 10 years so I'm curious of how much definitive tanking we see. Also, the play-in tournament has given more teams incentive to play hard to the last game. With the “middle of the season” upon us, let's take a look at the current favorites for NBA player awards and see if there is any potential value still left to be had in the form of NBA futures bets.
NBA MVP odds and best bet
Luka Doncic is having the best season of his career. He's 2nd in the NBA in scoring (34.3) behind only Joel Embiid, who is no longer eligible to win the award. The Mavericks are 2-0 since making their big trade at the deadline to acquire PJ Washington and Daniel Gafford and sit 7 games out of the 1 seed in the West. Doncic has 10 triple-doubles (3rd-most) and 30 double-doubles (7th-most) with the 2nd-highest usage behind (again) only Joel Embiid. It will take a slight decline from Denver along with voter fatigue for Jokic combined with Dallas rising to the top of the west for Luka to be vaulted into the top 2, but at 13/1 odds, I think that's a reasonable number.'