The best bookies for basketball had odds for the 2024-25 season the second the 2024 Finals wrapped up. There are no NBA games for several months, but here at BetZillion we will still be providing frequent coverage of the world’s best basketball league.
Markets are already available for the respective conferences, the Finals winner, and regular-season MVP. A lot can change between now and the end of next season, particularly with the Draft and free agency to come, but we can still make informed betting decisions to identify early value.
Here are our three best bets from the opening odds provided by the leading NBA bookmakers.
Denver met their most difficult matchup in the 2024 playoffs. They still forced the Minnesota Timberwolves to seven games, and there’s a good chance the Timberwolves will be a different prospect in 2024-25 due to their salary cap crunch.
The Nuggets won 57 games and had the fourth-best net rating. That was despite Jamal Murray playing only 59 times in the regular year.
A look back at our best dunks of the year 💥 pic.twitter.com/F6InPA5cik
— Denver Nuggets (@nuggets) June 19, 2024
No one is writing off the Nuggets, and the Western Conference remains very competitive, but this price still seems a bit harsh. They remain the team to beat in the West – they would’ve matched up well with the Boston Celtics in the Finals, and Boston is heavily favoured to represent the East again in 2025.
The combination of competitive odds and basketball live betting platform on bet365 makes it a compelling option for bettors and they already have multiple markets for next season. One of which is MVP. We love the value on Luka Dončić to finally win his first MVP award after leading the Dallas Mavericks to the NBA Finals.
Dallas was 9.5 points per 100 possessions better with Dončić on the floor in the 2023-24 regular season. He finished third in MVP voting and won his first scoring title along with a fifth straight All-NBA First Team nod.
Put simply, Dončić has a compelling case as the best player in the league. He was only 0.2 assists and 0.8 rebounds shy of averaging a triple-double last season. Dallas projects to be a top-four seed in 2024-25 season after their superb run following the All-Star break last term.
— Luka Doncic (@luka7doncic) June 5, 2024
It’s a matter of time before the Slovenian wins an MVP. He’s wrongly been favoured going into other seasons, but he has a good enough team around him to mount a much more sustained push into 2025.
If Dončić is our pick among the favourites, this is our longshot shout for MVP.
The San Antonio Spurs were 6.9 points per 100 possessions better with Victor Wembanyama on the floor last season. Yes, they were still -3.1 in Wembanyama’s minutes, but there were meaningful signs of progress after the break.
Wembanyama had a higher usage than Steph Curry and Jayson Tatum after All-Star. His true shooting was better than Anthony Edwards’. A 26.1% assist rate was better than Curry, Tatum, and Edwards. His rebounding percentage was marginally worse than Nikola Jokic over that span, too.
Following the break, he averaged more points per 100 possessions than Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, and Damian Lillard. His assist average was better than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and he rebounded more than Giannis Antetokounmpo. The 6.4 blocks were in a league of their own.
Good win yesterday. The first of many #GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/Mu8QQ9AGAf
— Wemby (@wemby) October 28, 2023
Plenty of people will lump on Wemby for Defensive Player of the Year, but MVP is worth consideration at this price, too. San Antonio can make multiple win-now moves this offseason thanks to their haul of assets and cap space. Wemby’s play down the stretch might make them believe they can be a contender. He’s absolutely going to be in the mix for the award if they’re a top-six team.
