NBA Preseason Betting: Luka Doncic MVP, Mavs Finals Odds

Vegas has a lot of confidence in Luka Doncic to win the NBA's MVP award this season. However, that confidence is lowered when it comes to the Dallas Mavericks' place in the championship race.

Dalton Trigg | Oct 4, 2022

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NBA preseason is the time of the year where every team in the league can be optimistic about their chances for the coming year. After all, everyone is 0-0, and no one knows how a season will play out with injuries, trades and other factors that can shape the league's landscape.

The Dallas Mavericks, despite losing their second-best player in Jalen Brunson over the offseason, still have high hopes for the 2022-23 season after coming off a Western Conference Finals appearance.

Dallas got much bigger and versatile in the frontcourt with the additions of Christian Wood and JaVale McGee, and Spencer Dinwiddie's move into the starting lineup next to Luka Doncic ensures the starting unit won't have a player any shorter than 6-5. The Mavs are also getting Tim Hardaway Jr. back from his foot injury, as well as adding a promising young rookie in Jaden Hardy.

Despite all of that, though, Vegas isn't very high on Dallas' chances to win the NBA championship this year. As of right now, the Mavs have the 12th-best odds of winning it all. The teams ranked ahead of them include: the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers, Denver Nuggets, Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, Phoenix Suns, Brooklyn Nets, Milwaukee Bucks, Los Angeles Clippers, Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics.

When in comes to MVP odds, Vegas is much higher on Doncic's chances there than it is on his team's chances to win a title. For the third consecutive year, Doncic is the betting favorite to win MVP at +450. Joel Embiid is second at +500 and Giannis Antetokounmpo is third at +525.

We don't make the rules when it comes to sports bettings, but personally, we'd be willing to bet the Mavs will have much better than the 12th-best odds to win a title if Doncic performs well enough to win MVP. Coming into this season in the arguably the best shape of his career, Doncic is poised to potentially take Dallas to new heights yet again.

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Published Oct 4, 2022

DALTON TRIGG

Dalton Trigg is the Editor-In-Chief for Dallas Basketball, as well as the Executive Editor overseeing Inside The Rockets, Inside The Spurs, All Knicks, and The Magic Insider. He is the founder and host for the Mavs Step Back Podcast, which is a proud part of the Blue Wire podcast network. Trigg graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi’s College of Business and Economic Development with a bachelor’s degree in entrepreneurship in 2016. After spending a few years with multiple Dallas Mavericks-related blogs, including SB Nation’s Mavs Moneyball, Trigg joined DallasBasketball.com as a staff writer in 2018 and never looked back. At the start of 2022, he was promoted to the EIC title he holds now. Through the years, Trigg has conducted a handful of high-profile one-on-one interviews to add to his resume — in both writing and podcasting. Some of his biggest interviews have been with Mavs owner Mark Cuban, Mavs GM Nico Harrison, now-retired legend Dirk Nowitzki and many other current/former players and team staffers. Many of those interviews and other articles by Trigg have been aggregated by other well-known sports media websites, such as Yahoo Sports, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report and others. You can find Trigg on all major social media channels, but his most prevalent platform is on Twitter. Whether it’s posting links to his DBcom work, live-tweeting Mavs games or merely giving his opinions on things going on with Dallas and the rest of the NBA, the daily content never stops rolling. For any inquiries, please email Dalton@MavsStepBack.com.