Best NBA Futures to Bet On Right Now: Kings Go All Out this Season

With the NBA currently in the All-Star break, it’s a great time to look at some futures bets for the rest of the season. The teams are settling in, some teams are making a playoff push, and some teams are preparing for the draft lottery. Let’s dive right in to make a winning NBA pick. 

NBA Pick: Sacramento Kings to Win the Pacific Division (+500) at BetMGM 

The Sacramento Kings are at 5 to 1 to win a division in which they are currently in the first place. The Kings are 32-25 on the year. The Los Angeles Clippers are 33-28. The Phoenix Suns are 32-28. We can’t count out the reigning NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors who are currently .500 with a record of 29-29. 

So why is the first-place team third in the NBA odds? Let’s take a look. 

Don’t Jump the Gun on the Suns

The Phoenix Suns are currently the favorite to win the Pacific Division by NBA odds of -140. The Suns have had the best record in the NBA in the last two seasons. They then shook up the landscape of the league when they made a blockbuster trade to acquire Kevin Durant. With these things in mind, it’s easy to see why the bookmakers have put the Phoenix Suns as the top team in the West. However, I do think their projections could be a tad bit too optimistic. 

Kevin Durant is currently sidelined with an injury and we are not sure of his timetable for return. We also don’t know how quickly Durant will fit in with his new teammates. Durant is one of the greatest players the NBA has ever seen, but expecting him to mesh with new teammates right off the bat and propel the Suns to the top of the division is a little farfetched. The Suns’ team will be focused on the playoffs and will not be necessarily willing to risk it all in order to make a regular season push. 

The Suns are an excellent team and a proper favorite to win the championship. But expecting them to go all in just to win the division at these odds is not a bet that I want to make. 

Clippers’ Lack of Consistency

The Los Angeles Clippers are +300 to win the Pacific Division. The Clippers have a deep roster and are another team that is quite live to win the NBA championship. However, they are a team that has never cared about regular season results. The Clippers have been wildly inconsistent this season. 

A team takes on the personalities of its leaders, and the Clippers’ team leader is Kawhi Leonard. Leonard is very conservative in his approach to injury and injury management and rest. He only cares about being ready for the playoffs and will not hesitate to miss games if he does not feel 100%. The team is taking on this personality as many times they have completely no-showed and got blown out in the regular season. Other times they look like the best team in the league.

It is hard to trust the Clippers to care about the regular season. Their main goal is to be healthy for the playoffs. Los Angeles doesn’t care about seeding, they just want to enter the postseason as rested and healthy as possible. 

The other wrench in L.A. is their addition of Russell Westbrook. Westbrook was a great player but he has not shown an ability to lead his team to wins anymore. Westbrook is a ball-dominant player and it caused problems with fit in the last two teams he has played for. The Los Angeles Lakers fans were clamoring to get rid of Westbrook and his departure is viewed by addition by subtraction. A ball-dominant player who does not space the floor does not help the Clippers as much as his big name would suggest. 

This is not to say that Westbrook cannot help the team. However, there will be another adjustment in getting Westbrook acclimated to his new team and to his new role. This could cost the Clippers regular season games as they hunt for the proper mix to make Westbrook an effective complement to the team in the playoffs. 

Kings Have Something to Prove

The Sacramento Kings are one of the best stories in the NBA this year. The Kings have the longest playoff drought in the NBA. The Kings added Domantas Sabonis last season and have filled out the roster to complement him and all-star point guard De’Aaron Fox. By adding shooters to surround the two dynamic playmakers, the Kings have one of the top offenses in the NBA. 

The Kings’ defensive deficiencies will cause them some problems in the playoffs, but in the regular season, an elite offense can rack up many wins. Teams do not specifically game plan for the grind of the 82-game season. This means that a team is simply able to outscore opponents in a way that is not possible during a seven-game series. 

Sacramento also cares about the regular season more than any other team in the division. Their long stretch of futility means that this season is more important to the team and the fans than it is for any other team. The Kings will not get lackadaisical in their approach and will need to be attempting to win as many regular season games as possible. This is a team still trying to prove itself as a potential playoff team and does not have the confidence or resume to be able to coast during the regular season. We can expect them to go all out to win every single game remaining in the regular season. 

The Sacramento Kings may not do well in the playoffs but we can expect them to make a strong push to end the regular season. We are getting the team that is currently in first place at 5 to 1 odds. The NBA odds are far too great considering the teams above them in the odds are both trying to implement new players. The Kings made no moves at the deadline and can continue with the consistency and chemistry they have built this season. The best NBA pick to bet on right now is the Sacramento Kings to win the Pacific Division. 

NBA Pick: Sacramento Kings to Win the Pacific Division (+500) at BetMGM