Whew. Breathe, y’all.
The trade deadline has finally passed, and what a deadline it was. I’m not sure anyone saw the bevy of moves that occured coming, especially the big ones involving names like Kevin Durant. KEVIN DURANT!
That obviously means a few teams also changed their championship fortunes this season, which makes now good time to see what the odds say. We took a snapshot of what the odds looked like around this time on Wednesday, so how have they changed?
Well, the Phoenix Suns (+1800 to +450) are the biggest movers after grabbing the biggest fish available, Durant, from the Brooklyn Nets, who consequently saw their odds tumble drastically from +2200 to +10000. But there wasn’t really much more movement at the top.
The Milwaukee Bucks, who added Jae Crowder, maintain the second best odds in the East but actually went backwards from +500 to +550, likely because the favored Boston Celtics bolstered their rotation with the addition of Mike Muscala.
The Cleveland Cavaliers remain the third-favored team out the East at +2000, followed by the Miami Heat (+4000), who leapfrogged the Nets for fourth without actually actually improving their title odds. The Atlanta Hawks (+12500), New York Knicks (+12500) and Toronto Raptors (+15000) didn’t move much either, holding 6 thru 8, though the Knicks did move up from +20000 odds to jump Toronto after acquiring Josh Hart from Portland.
In the West, the Suns are followed by the Denver Nuggets, whose +700 odds didn’t change despite grabbing Thomas Bryant. The Los Angeles Clippers were the next biggest movers, going from +1200 to +1000 after trading for Eric Gordon and Bones Hyland. Those odds are now second-best in the West, jumping the Golden State Warriors’ slightly diminished +1500 odds and the Dallas Mavericks, who haven’t moved much since landing Kyrie Irving (+1400 to +1600).
Sixth in the West are the Los Angeles Lakers, who took a massive leap from +5000 to +2800 after busy deadline that got started well before Thursday with the pickups of Rui Hachimura, D’Angelo Russell, Malik Beasley and Jarred Vanderbilt. They jumped the New Orleans Pelicans, who dropped to +3000 and are followed by the Sacramento Kings, whose +10000 odds didn’t move at all.
