NBA Futures Betting – Are the Nets Ultimately the Winning Pick?

A question the is perhaps on the minds of NBA handicappers as we come out of the All-Star break: are the Brooklyn Nets going to win the NBA title? I feel better about their chances right now than I did early in the season.

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And it’s not because I’m fickle. This picture looked a lot different at the season’s outset. Kevin Durant was coming back from an Achilles injury; Kyrie Irving was joining him, but all that meant is that they might need more than one basketball on this team, since Irving was to have it in his hands all the time. It didn’t help that Irving came off as temperamental and just a little selfish. And we saw some of that early on as well.

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Steve Nash is a first-year head coach, but Durant and Irving made it clear that things would basically run by committee; well, at least in so many words.

And even before any personnel moves were made, there was some attrition that affected the team’s depth, when Spencer Dinwiddie, a great point producer whether it’s off the bench or in a starting role, was lost for the season with an injury.

Irving took a leave of absence of sorts; the Nets were not cohesive on the floor. They didn’t play much defense. And some of this took the team backwards, like just one more story of underachievement when you bring the wrong superstars together.

But along came the deal for James Harden and everything changed. The ironic thing is, Harden was a REAL problem child in Houston, where neither management nor the players wanted him around any more than he wanted to be there.

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The Nets made the trade to bring him in, and there was, well, a trade-off, as Brooklyn’s general manager, Sean Marks, had to deal off a significant part of the bench, which included high-scoring Caris LaVert and center Jarrett Allen.

But really, Harden has taken over this offense, to the extent that his presence overcomes the absence of Durant, who has been resting a hamstring. I looked at Harden’s Usage figure in Houston, and the fact that he seemed to shoot the ball whenever he had it, and didn’t appreciate his basketball intelligence enough.

Harden seems to know how to find the right guy in the right place for the right shot, and he has adapted to the proposition that he doesn’t have to go out and score 30 every night. He leads the league in assists, and he has allowed Irving to do what he is more suited to doing, which is playing off the ball as a shooting guard.

And Brooklyn is second on the list of favorites at America’s Bookie to win the NBA championship at +240 (the Lakers are at +225).

The Nets aren’t the most up-tempo team in the NBA, but they can run when they need to – a product of the influence of Nash and assistant Mike D’Antoni – and they can nail three-pointers too. Joe Harris, in fact, may be the best in the NBA at that particular art.

All this fuels an offense that is the best in the NBA. The Nets are tops in the league in field goal percentage and three-point percentage, shooting over 50% and 40%, respectively, in those categories.

Defense is a challenge, frankly. And that might continue. But the Nets are going to work on that. They are doing some things to shore up the bench. Blake Griffin is headed to the borough and will give this team some quality minutes, and the key is that he will be allowed to slide into a role and not have to handle too much.

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There were some roster moves the Nets had to make regarding players on ten-day contracts. Let’s hope, for their own sake, they hold on to Iman Shumpert and Andre Roberson,because these are guys who can defend.They can join the likes of Bruce Brown and center DeAndre Jordan and maybe stop some people.

Right now the Nets are within striking distance of the #1 spot in the East. The Western Conference may be wide-open, and who knows who will emerge from among the Jazz, Lakers, Clippers or maybe a darkhorse.

When Brooklyn is at full-throttle, with Durant back, they have the ability to overwhelm just about anybody with their offense. They could probably win without Irving. They can’t win without Durant, at least in my opinion. But they certainly can’t afford to have Harden less than 100%.

I don’t think any team in the Eastern conference is going to beat them, even the Sixers, who are ahead of then in the standings. So the Nets have a better chance of getting to the finals than any of those West teams, so they’re worth a mid-season futures play.

The Play: BROOKLYN +240

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