The draft is over, and the world is still reeling at the implications.
2019-2020 NBA Title futures odds since the draft have shifted drastically at top betting sites. And because there are so many different prices available, you should check to see which have the best options starting with this sportsbetting.ag review.
The Lakers opened at +250 to win it all next season, and since have moved to +350 or 3.5 to 1. The Golden State Warriors have fallen from 8 to 1 to 10 to 1. Meanwhile, the Memphis Grizzlies improved from +22500 to +15000, almost cutting their long-shot odds in half (granted, they still have a snow-ball’s-chance type odds).
So do the odds reflect post-draft upgrades? Let’s have a look?
New Orleans Pelicans
You could say that the Pelicans made out the best. Not only did they get Zion Williamson, but they got Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, Josh Hart, and a slew of Picks. It isn’t a championship team right away, but it is a team that can instantly compete at a high level and be built upon. Plus with the amount of future draft picks that New Orleans has stocked up, they have a lot of trading negotiating power, and ability to keep stacking with top young talent in the coming years.
They got out of Solomon Hill’s contract and picked up a little bit of cap room for free agency. Then they have a couple of first-round picks still coming from the Lakers. They also grabbed a heavily protected first-rounder in 2020 from the Cleveland Cavaliers via a three-way trade with the Atlanta Hawks. That said, it is so heavily protected that it will most likely turn into two second-rounders. That’s ok, because they are already sitting on seven second-round picks … so their new count would come to nine!
Now let’s look at the rest of what the Pelicans did. They got the No. 1 pick, the guy everyone was chasing in Zion Williamson. They also nabbed the No. 4 pick as part of their trade deal. But they traded down for the No. 8, No. 17, and No. 35. They were able to grab a top prospect Center in Jaxon Hayes with that 8th overall pick. Then, with their No. 17 pick they grabbed a pure shooter in Niel Alexander-Walker, and with the No. 35 pick, a good swing player on the wing who can sharp-shoot the ball and quickly transition to play stellar defense.
The Pelicans are suddenly loaded with young talent with plenty of room to grow and a ton of opportunity for stacking on this in the future with picks or by augmenting their roster now for some added experience by trading away some of their pick stock. Either way, they are playoff bound soon.
Atlanta Hawks
The Hawks are another team that had a great draft. They picked up Cam Reddish who despite being phenomenal, was flying under the radar with R.J Barret and Zion Williamson on the court with him. They also picked up De’Andre Hunter. This is some serious talent to add to their young core Trae Young, John Collins, and Kevin Heuter. Over his two seasons, Collins increased his points per 36 minutes from just over 15 to 23.4, sinking nearly 1200 points in his 2018-2019 campaign.
Now they just need to keep up their depth chart and gain a little bit of experience and the Hawks will be a playoff-ready team.
