About a month into our offseason, I took a look into the LA Clippers’ odds to win the NBA Finals this year.
I was disgusted with what I saw.
The Clippers were sitting with +3000 odds to win the title, according to WynnBET. That was the 11th-best odds to win the Finals in the NBA, and the seventh-best in the Western Conference.
Nowadays, things are looking a bit better.
The LA Clippers’ odds to win the NBA Finals are now +1300.
The LA Clippers‘ odds to win the championship are now over twice as good.
They now have the sixth-best odds in the league to win the Championship, and the fourth-best odds of any team in the West.
They should still be higher, as Kawhi Leonard seems to be making solid progress on his ACL injury. Every team ahead of them in the Western Conference (the Lakers, the Warriors, and the Jazz) didn’t make it as far as the Clippers last year, with or without Kawhi.
So while it’s true that Leonard is going to miss significant time, the Clippers have already dealt with that adversity and handled it very well before.
Also, the Brooklyn Nets have +210 odds to take the chip, which are the best odds in the NBA. Again, though, they couldn’t even make the Conference Finals in a lesser conference last season, and will likely be without Kyrie Irving for a long time with his refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
It is nice, however, to see the stock rising a little bit as we enter the season here. We’re peaking at the right time as far as the book sees it, and we’re getting more respect in general. Just recently, FiveThirtyEight gave us the second-highest chance to win the title out of anyone in the league.
Now, it’s just going to come down to execution and chemistry as a team without our franchise player.