Blazers, Pistons, Knicks favorites to win NBA Summer League
The NBA Summer League is back in Las Vegas after a one-year hiatus and back on the betting board at valley sportsbooks.
Shortly after the Westgate posted futures odds Wednesday on the winner of the Summer League championship game, a bettor wagered $500 to win $6,000 on the New York Knicks (12-1).
The Westgate lowered New York to 10-1 after the bet but bumped them back up to the 12-1 third choice on Thursday after a report that Knicks forward Kevin Knox will miss the Summer League.
“Knox is going to be a big blow, but they’ve still got a lot of talent,” Westgate vice president of risk Jeff Sherman said. “When we made the odds and evaluated the teams, we thought they’d be a popular team with the public.
“Look at the roster with Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin, they have good young players who are going to be involved.”
The Portland Trail Blazers are the 8-1 favorites and the Detroit Pistons are the 10-1 second pick to win it all.
“Portland has a very veteran-laden team,” Sherman said. “It looks like they’re going to give some NBA veterans an opportunity to showcase and try to get a minimum deal with another team.”
The Blazers will feature veterans Michael Beasley, Kenneth Faried and Emmanuel Mudiay.
“You usually don’t see guys like that playing in the NBA Summer League,” Sherman said. “I think they promised them some good run to potentially get a contract with some other team to get in the league.
“With those guys probably getting considerable playing time, we thought they should be the favorite.”
Detroit will be led by Cade Cunningham, the NBA’s No. 1 overall draft pick, second-year players Saddiq Bey and Killian Hayes and third-year man Sekou Doumbouya.
Cunningham said he wants to go undefeated and to win the Summer League championship. Coach Dwane Casey said he loves the rookie’s mindset.
“You want to go with the mentality to win,” Casey said. “That’s what we want to see, as much as anything else. There’s nothing wrong with Cade saying we want to go undefeated.”
All 30 NBA teams will play five games each as a total of 75 games will be played at the Thomas & Mack Center and Cox Pavilion, starting with Sunday’s 1 p.m. matchup of the Boston Celtics and Atlanta Hawks.
Under a new format, after every team plays four games, the two teams with the best records will meet in the Aug. 17 championship game. The other 28 teams will play a fifth game on either Aug. 16 or 17.
Seeding for the title game will be determined by winning percentage with tiebreakers that could come down to point differential.
“When we get to the fourth game, if we have teams on the cusp of getting into the championship game against teams that have been eliminated, we can see some pretty big spreads,” Sherman said.
Fourteen teams have title odds of 20-1 or less while the reigning NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks are tied for the longest odds at 60-1 with the Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and Atlanta Hawks. The Brooklyn Nets are 50-1.
“The teams that did very well last year are all the longest shots because none of them have solid draft picks on their Summer League team,” Sherman said. “It’s almost in inverse order what you see in NBA title futures.”
Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com. Follow @tdewey33 on Twitter.
