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  • 12/13/2023
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:02 But we entered the year with a group of the big four,
00:06 two teams out of the Eastern Conference, Boston and Milwaukee.
00:10 Two teams out west, the reigning NBA champion Denver Nuggets and
00:14 the Phoenix Suns that were the only four teams with three digits in their NBA
00:19 championship odds, and that's where it remains.
00:23 The Celtics remain the favorite.
00:25 It's where they were in the preseason plus 380.
00:28 Now plus 370 for the Celtics.
00:31 Denver entered the year with one of those best prices, tied for
00:35 the third best odds at plus 550.
00:37 They're a mover up the board, take off $1.50.
00:41 The Bucs back by just over a half dollar, but still plus 440.
00:45 And Phoenix moves back by $1 as well, plus 550 to plus 650.
00:49 But Donnie, the story for me remains, there's four teams, and
00:53 only four teams that the odds makers look at as the truest contenders
00:58 to win an NBA championship this season.
01:00 >> I would agree with it though, to be honest.
01:02 And also one of the bigger market movers so far in the early season has been
01:05 the Philadelphia 76ers.
01:07 And look, I am a Sixers fan.
01:08 Over the summer, a part of me was saying repeatedly,
01:11 this seems like a throwaway season for the Sixers.
01:13 You're not gonna get much for James Harden.
01:15 Do you wanna burn out Joel Embiid in a season that you can't do anything with?
01:19 And this might be a best version of the Sixers that we've seen over the past two
01:22 to three years, at least early in the season.
01:24 I know there's a long way to go, injuries do happen.
01:26 But Joel Embiid is a better version of his MVP self from last year,
01:30 which is pretty impressive.
01:31 But if we do focus on the top here,
01:33 doesn't it feel like it is a four team league at this point right now?
01:36 If you sold me on the Celtics to win a championship, I'd buy it.
01:39 If you sold me on the Nuggets, same thing.
01:40 The Milwaukee Bucks, absolutely.
01:42 And the Phoenix Suns have the star power if they get right and
01:45 stay healthy once the playoffs come, of course, they can win it as well.
01:48 Then you hit that second tier of teams that we're talking about.
01:51 The Sixers, the Lakers, the Warriors, the Timberwolves,
01:53 all nice basketball teams.
01:55 But when we put them in a seven game series against each other,
01:58 nobody's selling me that those teams are gonna be able to beat those top 14
02:02 that we talked about here.
02:03 So unlike the NFL where it's like, okay, you got the 49ers up top and
02:07 it's like, boy, oh boy, maybe five or six teams can actually win this.
02:10 It looks like it's really only four teams that could possibly win a championship
02:14 in the NBA, barring disastrous injuries.
02:17 [MUSIC]

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