An Early Look At The 2019 NBA Championship Odds

With training camp set to start this week and preseason to follow soon, the NBA’s 2018-19 season is fast approaching. And after all the player movements this past summer, we expect a better, interesting and more entertaining season ahead of us.

Last season, we saw the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers play each other in the NBA Finals for the fourth consecutive season. But that monotony will be broken this year with the transfer of LeBron James to the Los Angeles Lakers. James’ departure from the ‘Land will give rise to a new powerhouse in the East. Meanwhile, the Warriors’ stranglehold in the West will be challenged once again by the Houston Rockets who added more firepower in Carmelo Anthony. Who will emerge in the East? Will the Dubs continue their dominance in the West? Which teams will play in the Finals? Who will be the next champs?

Who Will Be The 2019 NBA Champs?

Without further ado, we go directly to the most important question of the season: Who wins it all this year? To answer that question, let’s take a look at the 10 best odds to win the 2019 NBA Finals:

No doubt the Golden State Warriors are once again favored to win the 2019 NBA championship. The question here really isn’t “why?” but a “why not?” because the Dubs have dominated the NBA since 2015. They have reached the Finals in the last four seasons, winning it all on three occasions. Not only have the Warriors kept the core of their 2015 title team, they added Kevin Durant two seasons back to win the championship in 2017 and 2018. Now they’ve added a fifth All-Star in DeMarcus Cousins for the 2019 wars and there goes your competitive balance.  Who beats a team whose starting unit is composed of five current All-Star players?

As they say though, you may have five (or more) great players in one team but there is only one ball. So no matter who they are, they must play as a team to win. Golden State has been able to do that (twice already) with Durant. It remains to be seen this season with Cousins added to their fold. But if there’s a team or two that could seriously challenge the Dubs, I think it’s the Houston Rockets and the Boston Celtics.

Like the Rockets, the Boston Celtics were one game away from advancing to the 2018 NBA Finals. The Celtics went on a Cinderella ride all the way to the East Finals while playing without their two All-Star summer acquisitions in Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving throughout the entire playoffs. With Hayward and Irving back at full strength plus Boston retaining the overachieving line-up of last season, Boston is without doubt the biggest threat in the East.

Who Wins The East and West?

With the departure of LeBron James from Cleveland, there is a new beast in the east. The Cavs used to be the perennial Eastern Conference favorites but with James now strutting his stuff in Los Angeles, the Boston Celtics have emerged as the frontrunners.

Unlike the East where there are three or four teams who have a legit chance of winning the conference, the West is obviously a two way race between the Warriors and the Rockets. The Dubs have won three out of the last four NBA Finals and have even gotten better with DeMarcus Cousins. However, some rumblings plus injuries last season forced them to settle for second place in the West to the Houston Rockets. Houston had their best regular season in franchise history last year and with the addition of Carmelo Anthony, they look to be even better. Between these two teams, I’m going with the one with the proven track record.