I was in Las Vegas last weekend and checked out the odds line for next year's champion.
If you had to pick one team outside of the top 3, who would you pick?

Maybe we can have some kind of fantasy league where you can buy teams and get points
for advancing thru the playoffs? Anyone game?


Here they are:

San Antonio.......7/2
Dallas............7/2
Phoenix...........4/1
Cleveland.........8/1
Miami.............8/1
Detroit..........12/1
Houston..........15/1
Chicago..........15/1
Utah.............18/1
Denver...........20/1
Golden State.....25/1
New Jersey.......25/1
Toronto..........25/1
LA Lakers........30/1
LA Clippers......30/1
Washington.......35/1
Indiana..........40/1
Orlando..........40/1
New Orleans......50/1
Sacramento.......50/1
Portland.........50/1
Minnesota........75/1
Milwaukee........75/1
New York.........75/1
Seattle..........75/1
Boston..........100/1
Charlotte.......100/1
Philadelphia....100/1
Atlanta.........150/1
Memphis.........200/1

[Edited by - panos on 27-07-2007 10:42 AM]

The east really sucks, Cleveland and Miami are high cuz someone gotta represent the east.

What were the odds before the 1999/2000 season when the Rams won the Superbowl coming off a 4-12 season? Like 100-1?

We will be a factor in the playoffs.

gambling is a disease.

btw, give me $100 on pheonix

Posted by Panos:

Posted by djsunyc:

gambling is a disease.

btw, give me $100 on pheonix

That's too easy.
Who's your pick outside of the top 3?

miami.

I'll take Chicago (and did in Vegas)
I think they are a really good team, great defense, smart ball, play hard.
Plus I think they have lots of pieces to get their "Rasheed Wallace" to put them over the top.

Posted by islesfan:

Put me down for $100 on the Knicks.

I'm a REALLY bad gambler.

75/1
If officials will fix 30-40 Knicks season games and a couple of play-off series the gangs get get huge profits...
Tell me about underdog...

Denver at 20/1 is not bad. If Melo and AI gel and Camby and Nene stay healthy -- that's a strong team.

West teams are just hard to pick when you know they have to get past the Spurs and perhaps the Suns as well.

If I had to put money down on a team outside of the top 3, it would be on Chicago or the Nets.

At 12/1, I would also put money on Detroit.

Posted by COSSUCKS:

What were the odds before the 1999/2000 season when the Rams won the Superbowl coming off a 4-12 season? Like 100-1?

We will be a factor in the playoffs.

Bad comparison. The NFL is more prone to upsets and randomness because of single game matchups. Frankly, I think the NBA is the TOUGHEST league to pull off an upset. Just look at when we pick the playoffs. People get the ENTIRE playoff correct all the time. No other sport has so many people getting EVERY SINGLE matchup correct. If they get one wrong, it's usually a 4-5 matchup, because the 4 and 5 seeds are so close that actually the #5 seed wins more often than the #4.

But, at any rate, Knicks 1/75 chance is reasonable, and possibly generous.

If I had to pick a team outside of the top 3 to win the championship, I say it's the Bulls. No way that one of San Antonio, Dallas and Phoenix wind up in the NBA finals. As was said earlier, someone has to come out of the east, so just one upset. That being said, my pick is Chicago.

Posted by Panos:


New York.........75/1

So you're saying there's a chance!