Nuggets, Bucks Co-Favorites to Win 2024 NBA Title

Denver and Milwaukee are tied for the best odds to win it all next season ahead of Boston and Phoenix.

The Nuggets won the NBA Finals on Monday night for the first time in franchise history and opened as early co-favorites with the Bucks to raise the Larry O’Brien Trophy again next June.

Denver and Milwaukee lead the field at +460, just ahead of the Celtics, who can be bet at +500. At +700, the Suns are the only other team with odds shorter than +1000. The Warriors round out the top five contenders at +1200.

Nikola Jokić led the Nuggets to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference and made a solid case for winning his third straight MVP — he ultimately finished second. With Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. healthy, along with key offseason additions like Bruce Brown and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Jokić had enough to get Denver over the hump this postseason.

Ron Chenoy/USA Today Sports

The Nuggets dispatched the Timberwolves in five games, the Suns in six, swept the Lakers and then beat the Heat in five games in the Finals. Jokić was named Finals MVP and he became the first player in NBA history to lead the playoffs in points, rebounds and assists.

The core of coach Michael Malone’s roster should be intact for the coming year with Jokić, Murray, Porter and Aaron Gordon all under contract. Brown has a player option and can become a free agent but he’s already made it clear that he wants to stay in the Mile High City. That degree of stability could be key to a potential repeat. The last team to go back-to-back was Golden State in 2017 and ’18.

Milwaukee entered the playoffs as the favorite to win its second title in three years. That hope was short-lived as the top-seeded Bucks suffered a massive upset against Miami in the first round, which led to the firing of coach Mike Budenholzer. A Giannis Antetokounmpo-led roster should be contending for the title year in and year out, so the front office has a crucial offseason ahead with Brook Lopez set to hit free agency while Khris Middleton has a player option. The first big move was tapping Adrian Griffin to replace Budenholzer.

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Only Milwaukee won more regular-season games than Boston, which led the league in net rating under first-year coach Joe Mazzulla. The Celtics could also be at a crossroads this summer with Jaylen Brown eligible for a massive payday after he was named to the All-NBA Second Team. The duo of Brown and Jayson Tatum have advanced to four conference finals in six years, including this past season, when they fell to the Heat in seven, but the C’s have just one championship appearance and no rings to show for that recent run.

Phoenix was the only team to take more than one game off Denver in this postseason and entered the playoffs as the favorite to win the West. Phoenix sacrificed depth for top-end talent at the trade deadline and while Kevin Durant and Devin Booker won a playoff series against the Clippers they couldn’t get it done against Denver. That duo should have the Suns in contention annually but there was quite a bit of change in Arizona this offseason: Coach Monty Williams was fired and it was reported that the team intends to waive Chris Paul, but new coach Frank Vogel called that a “misunderstanding.”

Plenty of the teams further down the list are also facing their fair share of uncertainty heading into the summer.

Longtime Warriors general manager Bob Meyers stepped down a few weeks ago and Draymond Green has a player option. Golden State’s trio, specifically Stephen Curry, is still playing at a high level but the two-timeline approach may have backfired. James Harden’s future with the 76ers (+1300) alongside Joel Embiid could be in doubt and though the Lakers (+1500) just had their deepest playoff run since 2020, they’re still relying heavily on LeBron James, who’s entering his age-39 season.

Miami (+2700), which advanced to the Finals for the second time in four years, comes in with the 10th-best title odds behind the Cavaliers (+2100) and Clippers (+2300). Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo are both still under contract, the Heat are led by one of the best coaches in the league in Erik Spoelstra and Damian Lillard made it clear in a recent interview he wouldn’t mind a trade to Miami.

The next group of teams — Mavericks (+2700), Grizzlies (+3000), Pelicans (+3600), Kings (+4500) and Knicks (+5000) — are all interesting as well but for one reason or another they’re not as easy to trust as the teams ahead of them. The Hornets, Magic, Pacers and Pistons are all tied for the longest championship odds at +50000.

The key dates to watch this offseason are the draft on June 22 and the start of free agency on June 30. There’s plenty of time between then and the start of a new NBA season in October.

2023-24 NBA Championship Odds

Denver Nuggets +460
Milwaukee Bucks +460
Boston Celtics +500
Phoenix Suns +700
Golden State Warriors +1200
Philadelphia 76ers +1300
Los Angeles Lakers +1500
Cleveland Cavaliers +2100
Los Angeles Clippers +2300
Miami Heat +2700
Dallas Mavericks +2700
Memphis Grizzlies +3000
New Orleans Pelicans +3600
Sacramento Kings +4500
New York Knicks +5000
Toronto Raptors +6500
Minnesota Timberwolves +6500
Atlanta Hawks +10000
Chicago Bulls +12000
Brooklyn Nets +12000
Portland Trail Blazers +13000
Oklahoma City Thunder +13000
Utah Jazz +16000
San Antonio Spurs +16000
Washington Wizards +25000
Houston Rockets +25000
Charlotte Hornets +50000
Orlando Magic +50000
Indiana Pacers +50000
Detroit Pistons +50000

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