Who Will Win the 2016-17 NBA Title? Sportsbooks Announce their Favorites at Preseason’s End

Written by: Mark This entry was posted on Friday, October 21st, 2016

With just a little less than a week remaining before the 2016-17 NBA regular season tips off, now’s a great time to get in on all the basketball futures action while the odds are still hot off the preseason press.

If you’ve followed even a just little bit of the league from the previous season, then you can pretty much assume that last season’s winningest teams remain as the top dogs of the NBA. However, one decorated franchise has surprisingly climbed the rungs of the oddsmakers’ rankings once more to put a twist to our list of favorites to win the NBA title, which you can read more about below.

And if you’re still in search of a viable sportsbook site for your betting thrills, check out our very own sportsbook review section for some tried and tested online bookies.

Final Preseason Futures Odds for the 2016-17 NBA Championship

Golden State Warriors (-175)

Having won an NBA-record 73 wins last season and with the blockbuster signing of former league MVP Kevin Durant, it stands to good reason then why the Golden State Warriors are the clear-cut favorite to win their second NBA title in three years.

The Warriors already boast the most prolific three-point shooting corps ever seen, and Durant’s addition to the team will only turn this nuclear bomb of an offensive unit into a full-on supernova. About the only negative takeaway from Golden State is some personality issues with the fiery Draymond Green, but even his antics will act as a catalyst of sorts for the Dubs to come back with even more ruthlessness after they were denied of a repeat in June following a regular season for the ages.

Cleveland Cavaliers (+300)

Forget Cleveland merely being deemed as “Believeland”; the Cavaliers have finally ended their city’s major-sports-title drought with an NBA Finals performance in June that’s likened to a fairy-tale ending come to life. The Cavs, mind you, still have the best player on the planet in LeBron James ready to bring more glory to his home state. And with last season’s core still pretty much intact for the upcoming campaign, it’s really hard to bet against The King and his trusted cohorts’ reign over the NBA realm.

San Antonio Spurs (+900)

Life on Earth guarantees us three things: death, taxes, and the San Antonio Spurs in NBA Title contention. For as long as mastermind head coach Greg Popovich is at the helm, the Spurs are as frightening of a ball club as the two teams mentioned earlier. They’ve made the playoffs for 18-straight seasons, winning five titles in the process and with their latest coming just a couple of years ago.

While San Antonio will begin this season without all-time great Tim Duncan, his successor in LaMarcus Aldridge appears to be in prime form to continue Duncan’s job in the post. Throw in defensive savant Kawhi Leonard and his ever-improving offensive repertoire, and the Spurs have as good a shot to win yet another Larry O’Brien Trophy as with their previous seasons of fundamental basketball excellence.

Boston Celtics (+1,600)

If you’re still baffled as for why the Boston Celtics are this high up in the oddsmakers’ eyes, perhaps it’s time that you marvel at what general manager Danny Ainge has done for Beantown in the wake of the Big Three era. Ainge knows how to draft talent, and the Celtics’ homegrown culture can somehow be likened now to what the Warriors have done with their own organization.

Boston only made one big splash in the offseason, but it’s definitely groundbreaking. The signing of four-time All-Star Al Horford only adds further value to the team’s already robust lineup of young talent consisting of Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Marcus Smart and Kelly Olynyk just to name a few. And as the Cavaliers appear to be the only other real threat in the East, we really shouldn’t write the scrappy C’s off from title contention that hastily at all.