The NBA is on a one-day break, and with just a few games remaining this season, there are some NBA awards odds that need updates. Some odds have swung wildly in the last few days, and some races have taken dramatic turns. Let’s take a look at three awards races in the NBA and see where the odds have shifted.
ff course, be sure to check out OddsShopper’s futures board to ensure you’re getting the best value on any NBA awards bets.
NBA Awards Odds Update: Three Awards Swing Wildly
Several awards have seemingly been locked up for a while: Mike Brown for Coach of the Year, Lauri Markkanen for Most Improved Player and, the most overwhelming season-long favorite, Paolo Banchero for Rookie of the Year. However, three other major awards have seen sizable shifts in odds in the last week or so. Here is where where things stand now on DraftKings Sportsbook.
NBA MVP
This has been the most hotly contested — and, frankly, toxic — awards race for months now. Not too long ago, Nikola Jokic was the runaway favorite. A few weeks later, it was Joel Embiid ending the discussion with a string of strong performances. But then Embiid sat out a game against the Nuggets and Jokic took the top spot back. But with Jokic now suffering his own series of games missed due to injury, Embiid is back comfortably in front at -250 to Jokic’s +240. Giannis Antetokounmpo has also dropped back a bit despite dominating against Embiid’s 76ers on Sunday night.
For what it is worth, the latest ESPN straw poll (released March 30) placed Embiid narrowly in first, but Jokic took the most first-place votes (42 to Embiid’s 40). That said, Jokic has missed three straight games since then, so the greatest advantage he had over Embiid — availability — is no longer much of an advantage; Embiid has only played 57 fewer minutes than Embiid at this point.
With only a handful of games left and Embiid’s odds distancing themselves, this looks like Embiid’s to lose.
NBA Defensive Player of the Year
The flip-flop continues with Defensive Player of the Year odds. Jaren Jackson Jr. and Brook Lopez have spent a ton of time as the odds-on favorite for the award all season, with Lopez in the top spot for much of March. But Jackson and the Grizzlies have been on fire for a few weeks, winning 8 of 10, with Jackson blocking 2.8 shots per game in that span. Lopez and the Bucks have also been excellent, but he is only averaging 2.1 blocks per game in this stretch.
That margin is very slim, but this race has been neck-and-neck all season, so those tiny fluctuations in production have had strong impacts on the odds. Jackson’s Grizzlies and Lopez’s Bucks are second and third in the NBA, respectively, in defensive rating (both trailing Cleveland, but Evan Mobley is out of contention for Defensive Player of the Year). Lopez leapt ahead of Jackson less than a month ago by blocking 14 shots in two games, so the few matchups left could easily swing these odds again. Jackson has not locked it up quite yet.
NBA Sixth Man of the Year
The odds here are shocking. Malcolm Brogdon has been a slight favorite for the most of the second half, and Immanuel Quickley was not in the race at all as of a month and a half ago. But a hot March has thrust Quickley not just into the Sixth Man of the Year race, but distantly into first place at -525. Quickley has averaged 19.8 points, 4.3 assists, 4.1 rebounds and 32.1 minutes per game since March 1, which is excellent production, but he also started eight of those games. One could argue that he was not really a sixth man through much of his defining stretch in this race, though he has only started 18 of 78 games total this season.
Brogdon, meanwhile, has started zero games — and is thus a truer sixth man — but the Celtics’ modest play in March coupled, with Brogdon being much more of a peripheral contributor than a scorer, has moved him back to second. He is still comfortably ahead of the rest of the field, but Quickley’s rise seems to have — in the blink of an eye — put this race out of reach.
