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Uproxx
Right now all eyes are on the NFL. The final preseason games were recently played and the regular season is about to begin. On top of that, college football is starting as well, so we understand that the focus is sliding away from basketball.
That said, we are less than two months away from tip-off of the NBA season, and we are starting to get a solid look of what the finalized rosters might look like. So, let’s take a glance at the top five teams. Not necessarily those at the top of the power rankings, but who Las Vegas and sportsbooks say are the five best.
The Los Angeles Lakers +345
The Lakers have bounced back to the top of the NBA odds boards to win another NBA Championship. For a hot second, the Los Angeles Clippers were at the top of the list, but it looks like public action has pushed the line. If you are unfamiliar with the way betting lines work, that means that the latest move to number one is artificial. So much action is coming in on the Lakers that they moved the lines to accommodate and try to reduce value so that people take a risk with other teams.
That said, the Lakers are looking solid this year. They have a legitimate powerhouse of a team that is not only loaded in their starting five but has a deep bench as well.
Number-one team in the league, of that I’m still not sold. There is a whole lot of fresh faces over there. But they will definitely make the playoffs for the first time in years.
The Los Angeles Clippers +390
Getting to the playoffs was not good enough, so the Clips have undergone a firesale over the last couple of years and completely rebooted their team. It’s actually quite amazing, we thought they would be in for a long rebuild process, but suddenly they have Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, Patrick Beverly, Ivica Zubac, Maurice Harkless, and they are looking like a perennial contender once again.
The Lakers have better odds, but the Clippers might just end up with better ‘intangible’ team dynamics. They could turn into an instant Western Conference powerhouse.
The Milwaukee Bucks +545
The Bucks are back and they have the best odds in the Eastern Conference to win the NBA Title. That said, a couple of key components are gone, and I don’t think they will have the same kind of dominant regular-season they did last year. However, they are still a top playoff seed out East and are going to have a great season.
The Philadelphia 76ers +762
The Sixers were so close last year. Something we have said about them over the last couple of seasons is that they would be a serious threat come 2019. They have made the playoffs two years straight after a five-year drought and their uber-young roster finally has some post-season experience. Now that they are finally maturing, the Eastern Conference needs to watch out. The Sixers just might be crowned Eastern Conference Champs in 2020.
The Golden State Warriors +900
The rest of the Western Conference can finally breathe a sigh of relief; the Warriors are no longer an unsolvable calculus problem. This is the first time in years that the GSW are not starting the season as heavy odds-on favorites to win it all.
Sure, Kevin Durant is gone, but the Warriors won before he came along. Andre Iguodala has departed, which hurts, and Boogie Cousins went a couple of hundred miles south. But Boogie didn’t contribute much so that isn’t a huge loss. The Warriors still have Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, as well as Draymond Green, and they picked up D’Angelo Russell, so they’ll be able to rotate Klay (when he's healthy), Steph, and D’Angelo to always have a high-scoring floor general on the hardwood.
Don’t count the Warriors out. They’re still going to be hard to beat and will make both the Clips and Lakers work for it out West.