Brooklyn Nets to win the Atlantic Division (+270)
Brooklyn Nets to win the Eastern Conference (+410)
The Nets hold NBA’s season-long winning streak of 12-straight games, but despite that and the value starting to disappear across the board, Brooklyn is still a team worth buying into the Futures market.
On the season, Brooklyn ranks 1st in true shooting percentage (61.7%), 3rd in assist-to-turnover ratio (19.6), 4th in offensive net rating (115.9) and 10th in defensive net rating (111.7). The Nets finished 9th at the highest in any of those categories last season, so they have improved drastically on both sides of the ball.
The Nets just needed a year to work together after the James Harden trade and Kyrie Irving vaccination dilemma.
Kevin Durant is back in the MVP conversation and with Irving, the two Nets’ stars combine for 56.1 points, 11.7 rebounds and 10.1 assists per game this season.
Now, we are seeing the improvements for the Nets whereas a team like Boston or Milwaukee are fighting to get back to the NBA Finals with key bench departures.
Brooklyn has had role players like Royce O’Neale, Seth Curry and Nicolas Claxton that have stepped up throughout the season, while guys like Joe Harris, T.J. Warren and Ben Simmons could make a difference in the postseason.
Brooklyn has the 16th toughest strength of schedule remaining (.500) and still has meetings with the Spurs, Rockets, Hornets, Pistons and Thunder. The Nets have three games versus the Celtics and 76ers left, plus two against the Bucks, so there is plenty of opportunity to gain control of the East.
Over the past 14 games, the Celtics are 7-7 and the Bucks are 6-8 in that span compared to the 76ers who are 11-5 in the past 16 while dealing with injuries. The Nets are playing their best basketball of the season at 17-2 in the last 19 games and 14-2 since the start of December.
I played the Nets to win the Atlantic (+270) and Eastern Conference (+410) on FanDuel. This is +200 and +240 on DraftKings. I would play these down to +200 and +300.
Picks: Nets to win the Atlantic (0.5u), Nets to win the East (0.5u)
NBA Player Futures Already Locked In
1u: Bam Adebayo DPOY (+700)
1u: Tyrese Haliburton MIP (+460)
0.25u: Tyrese Maxey MIP (+1200)
0.25u: Anthony Edwards MIP (+850)
0.25u: Malcolm Brogdon 6-Man (+1600)
