NBA Betting: 2011-12 NBA Championship Futures
by Bodog Sportsbook | Jul 21 2011
The NBA released its 2011/12 regular season schedule on Tuesday, but whether or not those games and their related
basketball betting opportunities actually happen remains to be seen.
That, of course, is because of the ongoing NBA lockout, which threatens to swallow the entire season whole. The latest word is that the players and owners are nowhere close to even beginning serious bargaining. In fact, the most common NBA news items we get these days are reports on players scoping out opportunities to play overseas.
So where does that leave the average NBA bettor? By all accounts the NBA lockout is going to be much tougher to resolve than the NFL lockout, and we're just seeing a light at the end of the tunnel now in the football situation after four months. If the NBA lockout is still going on four months from now we'll have already seen a couple weeks' worth of games get cancelled.
Back in 1998/99 the NBA lockout went on for so long that the season was reduced to 50 games, with the San Antonio Spurs eventually winning the NBA championship. For the upcoming season the Spurs are listed back at 28/1 odds to take the title – but could a lockout actually help them on that futures list?
It might, since the Spurs are a veteran team that probably wouldn't mind putting older stars like Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, and Tim Duncan through a shortened season. That sort of situation could help the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics as well, with players like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett getting less wear and tear if they aren't forced through an 82-game grind.
Los Angeles is already the second-favorite on the odds at 11/2 to win the NBA championship in 2011/12, with the Celtics sitting at 10/1 to claim the title. The defending-champion Dallas Mavericks, another older team, sit at 9/1 on the title odds.
Tops on the NBA title list are the Miami Heat at 5/2, and they're probably happy that the lockout has at least shifted the focus away from their loss to the Mavericks in the NBA Finals last month. The Chicago Bulls sit at 7/1 odds, with the Oklahoma City Thunder rounding out the top tier of contenders at 15/2 odds.
The New York Knicks fell to the Spurs in that 1999 NBA Finals, but with Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire on the roster for next season they're at respectable 20/1 odds to win the title and make Madison Square Garden basketball relevant again.
Another NBA story lost in the lockout news has been Dwight Howard's status with the Orlando Magic – as it stands, he can get out of his contract and become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2012. Orlando, at 25/1 to win the next NBA title, wants to convince Howard to stick around by bolstering their roster – something that can't be done during the lockout.
Other NBA championship futures odds on the board right now: Portland Trail Blazers (25/1), Memphis Grizzlies (30/1), Atlanta Hawks (40/1), Denver Nuggets (50/1), Houston Rockets (50/1), and Los Angeles Clippers (50/1). As well, the Phoenix Suns sit at 70/1 odds to win the next NBA title, and they're one of the teams that can't afford to miss an entire season – star guard Steve Nash isn't getting any younger.
Check out the complete list of available
NBA futures while betting at the
Bodog Sportsbook.
