Bucks, Lakers Favorites in Updated NBA Championship Odds After League Announces 22 Team Return to Play Format

• The NBA is set to return to action at Disney World in Orlando with a July 31st start date
• 22 teams will take part in eight regular season games before the playoffs, with the potential for a play-in tournament for the final playoff seeds in each conference
• The Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers are the two favorites to win it all

The NBA is coming back. ‘NBA back’ was trending on Twitter on Wednesday as news came out about the league’s plans to restart the season.

Only eight teams are excluded from the plans to resume the regular season in July 31st in Florida. All 16 playoff teams were as good as guaranteed to be in the group coming back, but there was extensive discussion and speculation about which teams would join them. Six outside the playoffs as it stands will be returning, five from the Western Conference and one from the East.

Eight regular season games will be played by each team to determine playoff seeding. Tweaks to the schedule obviously need to be made, with teams likely fulfilling as many of their remaining fixtures as possible and plugging the gaps.

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the eight seed in each conference needs to have a four-game lead over the nine seed to avoid a play-in tournament. If it’s fewer than four, a play-in tournament will take place with a double-elimination for the eight seed and a single-elimination for the nine seed.

The 2020 NBA Championship odds can be found in the table below, followed by a look into who can benefit from this disrupted season.

2020 NBA Championship Odds

Odds taken Jun. 4th

Veteran Beneficiaries

There are pros and cons to the season’s long break for each team. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard and Ben Simmons are fully healthy. Others who were carrying minor injuries got a chance to rest up for a prolonged period.

Injuries healing is an obvious change to proceedings, but for the older players (including a certain LeBron James), this could be a harder call. Rest, in theory, seems like a good thing for players on the north side of 30. On the other hand, stopping and starting might be more challenging for the league’s veterans.

Chris Paul and LeBron, for instance, were playing brilliantly before the season was halted, but will the interruption to their rhythm see them need time to get back to that form?

In that regard, the eight regular season games could prove beneficial, serving as a mini-preseason for the already secure playoff teams to get up to speed. Without competitive basketball for several months, it might take time for players to build up the momentum and conditioning for a deep playoff run.

Reporting on the NBA’s return with @elleduncanESPN on @SportsCenter. pic.twitter.com/eMOsycO70M

— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 3, 2020

Paul and James are two hard players to judge here. In other cases, it’s more obvious that the rest will have helped. The Houston Rockets will be rejuvenated, and the explosive Russell Westbrook will surely benefit. Perhaps the older players on the Toronto Raptors are fresher than they might have been after a regular season riddled with injuries.

The Disney Environment

As reported by Woj, players and team staff will be allowed to eat at outdoor restaurants and play golf. They are the closest things to normality about the NBA’s return, though, with games being played in echoey gyms. There will be no fans, there will only be limited media.

Teams that earned home advantage through their regular season performance have lost that. Measures are being put forward to provide some sort of advantage to those who performed best in the regular season, but anything will likely prove gimmicky compared to the benefit of playing in front of your home fans.

The most dominant at home, the Philadelphia 76ers, are an interesting case here. They were woeful on the road, but near unbeatable at Wells Fargo Center. Who knows where playing in front of no fans leaves them.

It was due to be the Lakers and Clippers for a Conference Finals showdown in the West. All seven would have been at Staples Center, all seven would have been in front of Lakers-heavy crowds. Rest could benefit both teams, but there’s no doubt it’s the Clips who gain from playing in an empty gym.

Underdog Potential

The possibility of a play-in opens the door for more teams to sneak into the playoffs. We are seeing the NBA take a great leap into the unknown, and with such unprecedented circumstances, the betting market is wide open. The three best teams in the league are far clear as favorites to go all the way, but that doesn’t tell the full story.

A lot of the second-tier teams, from Houston through to Dallas, will fancy their chances. Say one or two get hot through the eight regular season games – who knows what comes next?

The prospect of injuries is always a factor in the playoffs, but that’s a major consideration here. Muscle and soft tissue injuries have been prevalent in the Bundesliga since it returned.

While the six weeks of preparation should help players get ready, injuries are a concern. A couple of big players get sidelined and an underdog can suddenly have a favorable path deep into the postseason.

New Orleans lose their schedule advantage and even if they make it in, would be set to face the Lakers in the first round. It’s teams like Philadelphia, Dallas and Oklahoma City who are ones to watch out for.