History might be repeating itself in the NBA, and if so, the oddsmakers are offering investors a potentially profitable opportunity this season.
The last time an irresistible force met an immovable object in NBA history … it was so long ago, the video clips were in black-and-white.
Fortunately, the result was etched permanently in indelible ink: The shot-rejecting Bill Russell won five Most Valuable Player awards; the finger-rolling Wilt Chamberlain captured four.
If FanDuel had existed at the time, the lights would have shined quite bright in the oddsmaking factory. After all, how could you possibly bet against a guy who scored 100 points?
There have been great shot blockers and, surely, big-time scorers in the last 60 years, but they’ve never been on a collision course quite like this season. Suffice it to say, physicists are subscribing to Peacock at the speed of light.
Victor Wembanyama is the modern-day Russell. And that might be selling him short. His shot-blocking is so electrifying, even ESPN is rescripting its dunk-or-nothing highlights mentality.
And Nikola Jokic is rewriting so many NBA records, Wilt is wilting in GOAT conversations by the day.
Russell, of course, has championships to attach to his MVP credentials. But he didn’t have one when he won his first in 1958 on the strength of a league-leading rebound average and – even though it wasn’t considered an official stat yet – an uncanny ability to block shots.
Wemby has the latter. No doubt about it. He sent back five or more 13 different times last season. Six or more 10 times. Seven twice. Eight three times. Nine against the Clippers. Ten against the Trail Blazers.
Did I mention he couldn’t even buy himself a cold one after that Portland game because he was just 20 years old?
Already, he has become the greatest rejector since Harvard Law School.
It took Russell more than shot-blocking to earn his MVP awards, and certainly Wemby can do other things.
He had 23 rebounds head-to-head against Jokic last January … on the Frenchman’s 21st birthday, no less.
He recorded a half-Wilt: 50 points against the Wizards in November. He buried five or more 3-pointers 10 times, and even had 11-assist and five-steal games.
The question is: Can the Spurs win enough to capture America’s attention? They don’t award hardware to losers.
Look at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. After years of toiling in LotteryLand, he won last season on a Best Player On The Best Team campaign, beating out the Better Stats On Not-The-Best Team incumbent, Jokic.
No way Wemby gets the Spurs to 60 wins this season. But having taken them from 22 to 34, would 50 be enough? It could depend upon how interested NBC is in showing a Spurs-Bucks game in March.
FanDuel lists Gilgeous-Alexander as the MVP favorite, with Jokic, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo in closest pursuit. Let’s label them the four to beat and find four longshots with a fighting chance.
Victor Wembanyama (+1200)
Coincidentally, SGA greased the path for Wemby’s serious candidacy by earning bonus points over Jokic last year for being a better defensive player. At 12-to-1, Wemby backers would have to hope it becomes a trend.
Paolo Banchero (+10000)
The door is wide open in the East with the Celtics and Pacers out of the running and the Bucks prepared to burn another year of Giannis’ prime. The Magic are as likely as anyone to fill the void, and if so, Banchero gets the Jayson Tatum ceremonial Best Player On The Best Team In The East vote.
Jaylen Brown (+30000)
Brown gets his chance to be a savior in Boston, with little expected from the Celtics in the wake of Tatum’s injury and the losses of Al Horford and Jrue Holiday. The bar is pretty low: Given his massive defensive superiority over Tatum, all he’d have to do is match his teammate’s scoring and relatively meager shooting percentages to give his believers their money’s worth at 300-to-1.
Cooper Flagg (+100000)
Not sure FanDuel offers exactas, but can you imagine cashing Wemby at 12-to-1 and Flagg at 1,000-to-1 as the win and place? Flagg enters the league with a head-start: He’s a generational talent joining a winning team. At 1,000-to-1? You can’t get 1,000-to-1 from FanDuel that today is October (and maybe in the Cook Islands, it isn’t).
This news was originally published on this post .
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