The Milwaukee Bucks finished the regular season with the best record in basketball at 60-22 straight up and 47-31-4 against the spread. Giannis Antetokounmpo’s play was a major factor in the team’s success, and it could land the big man his first ever NBA MVP Award.
NBA MVP, Coach of Year, Rookie of Year betting lines
Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks is one of the many big betting favorites at sportsbooks heading into this year’s NBA Awards Show.
Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Antetokounmpo is a -500 favorite on the NBA MVP odds at sportsbooks monitored by OddsShark.com. The 24-year-old enjoyed career bests in scoring with 27.7 points per game, rebounds with 12.5 per game and assists with 5.9 per game. He will be trying to hold off James Harden (+225 to win MVP) and Paul George (+5000) for the award. Harden, who won the award last year with 30.4 points per game, had 36.1 per game this season and a historic streak of 32 straight games with at least 30 points scored.
Milwaukee Head Coach Mike Budenholzer is a -400 favorite to win Coach of the Year. Budenholzer led the Bucks to their best record since 1981 and a 16-win improvement over last year’s 44-38 SU record. Other candidates in this category include Los Angeles Clippers Head Coach Doc Rivers (+300) and Denver’s Mike Malone (+800). Rivers coached a team that few pundits had making the playoffs to an impressive 48-34 SU campaign.
One of Doc Rivers’ biggest weapons was Lou Williams off the bench. Williams averaged 20 points per game as the team’s sixth man in just 26.6 minutes per game. He is a -800 favorite on those NBA odds to win the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award over Domantis Sabonis (+600) and Montrezl Harrell (+800). Williams won this award in both 2015 and 2018.
In just about any other year, Trae Young’s 19.1 points per game and 8.1 assists per game would make him a clear favorite to win Rookie of the Year. But this year, he’s sitting on the board at +300 at betting sites behind Luka Doncic (-900). Starting the season as a 19-year-old, Doncic was sensational for the Mavericks averaging 21.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and six assists per game.
Rounding out the award contenders are Rudy Gobert (-400), Antetokounmpo (+300) and Paul George (+900) for Defensive Player of the Year and Pascal Siakam (-1600), D’Angelo Russell (+400) and De’Aaron Fox (+5000) for Most Improved Player.
For more odds information, betting picks and a breakdown of this week’s top sports betting news check out the OddsShark podcast. Subscribe on iTunes or Spotify or listen to it at OddsShark.libsyn.com.
