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The 2021-22 NBA Season should be an interesting one in the Pacific Division, a division that has each of the top four betting favorites in the Western Conference, and four of the top seven for the NBA Championship. The Phoenix Suns are the reigning divisional champs, capitalizing on a regular season in which most of their divisional opponents dealt with a significant amount of injuries from start to finish. The Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors have both gotten healthier and made some key additions, while the Los Angeles Clippers are actually down to fourth in the DraftKings Sportsbook betting odds largely due to the absence of Kawhi Leonard to begin the season. There isn’t a lot separating these teams, however, as the win totals range from 51.5 to just 45.5 in this group on DraftKings Sportsbook.
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Los Angeles Lakers
Championship Odds: +400
Regular Season Wins: 52.5
MVP Contenders: LeBron James +1500, Anthony Davis +2500
DPOY Contenders: Anthony Davis +700
The Lakers made headlines this offseason in acquiring Russell Westbrook, and it’s entirely up in the air as to whether or not this move will help them regain their championship-level status. The Lakers started the 2020-21 season extremely well, but it wound up being derailed almost entirely due to injuries, with LeBron James missing a large chunk of the second half of the regular season and Anthony Davis getting hurt in the playoffs. There was a case to be made that the Lakers were the best team in the NBA when they were healthy, so it may not actually take much for them to get back to that status in the coming season. The Westbrook experiment is bound to be entertaining, but James and Davis are obviously much more important to the team’s success.
The biggest concern when the Lakers emptied out their roster depth to trade for Westbrook was that they wouldn’t be able to get by without competent role players, but they seem to have actually done pretty well in filling out the roster. None of Trevor Ariza, Carmelo Anthony, Kent Bazemore, and Kendrick Nunn are great players at this stage of their careers, but they all should at least be positive contributors. It’s enough to have made the Lakers the favorites for the Pacific Division and the favorites for the Western Conference, though they’re still behind the Brooklyn Nets in overall odds to win the NBA Championship.
Phoenix Suns
Championship Odds: +1700
Regular Season Wins: 51.5
MVP Contenders: Devin Booker +2500
6th Man Contenders: Cameron Payne +2500
The Suns won the Pacific Division in 2020-21 and made it all the way to the NBA Finals, ultimately coming up short against the Milwaukee Bucks. They’ll enter the 2021-22 season with roughly the same roster, making virtually no changes to the core of players that produced a miraculous playoff run in last season’s shortened season. The Suns clearly benefited from the Lakers’ aforementioned injury issues, and also benefited from Kawhi Leonard’s injury during the playoffs, but there’s no question that it was more than just good fortune that got them all the way to the finals. Still though, the teams around them are improving heading into this season, and the Suns will likely need a step forward from some of their younger players in order to replicate the success they had a season ago.
Golden State Warriors
Championship Odds: +1100
Regular Season Wins: 47.5
MVP Contenders: Stephen Curry +900
Most Improved Player Contenders: Jordan Poole +1200
The biggest storyline for the 2021-22 Warriors is almost certainly Klay Thompson, who missed the entirety of last season with a torn Achilles, and the season before with a torn ACL. Thompson was an integral part of many of the Warriors’ best teams over the past several years, but it’s now been two full seasons since he stepped on the court. Thompson is expected to make his debut roughly a month or two into the season, and until then, the Warriors will be counting on some of their depth to support their superstar Stephen Curry.
Golden State added Otto Porter Jr. along with rookies Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody this offseason, and they’ll also be hoping for better production out of last year’s top pick James Wiseman. There’s a lot of uncertainty on the Warriors’ roster for this season, but as long as Curry remains as good as he’s been throughout his career, this team is going to be in the playoff hunt regardless of what else happens. They may need a lot to break right if they’re hoping to go deep into the playoffs, but there are certainly enough pieces on the roster to give them a chance to make it happen.
Los Angeles Clippers
Championship Odds: +1700
Regular Season Wins: 45.5
Most Improved Player Contenders: Terrance Mann +2500
Last season’s NBA Finals run came to a grinding halt for the Clippers when Kawhi Leonard injured his ACL against the Utah Jazz, though the Clippers did manage to close out the series without him before ultimately losing to the Suns. The Clippers were probably the NBA Finals favorites at the time of Leonard’s injury, so the case for them getting back to where they were is an easy one, assuming Leonard is fully healthy for the playoffs. Leonard is going to miss a large chunk of the upcoming regular season, however, so the Clippers are going to have a hard time competing in the Pacific Division despite how much depth they have on their roster.
Eric Bledsoe and Justise Winslow were added to the roster this offseason, and younger players like Ivica Zubac and Terrence Mann could still theoretically take a step or two forward and help to produce a strong supporting cast for Paul George. Still though, this is a highly competitive division, and the Clippers are likely to be a notch below the upper tier until Leonard returns.
Sacramento Kings
Championship Odds: +25000
Western Conference Odds: +13000
Pacific Division Odds: +15000
Regular Season Wins: 36.5
Rookie of the Year Contenders: Davion Mitchell +1800
The Kings are clearly the distant fifth team in the Pacific Division, despite the fact that they actually have a lot of talent and probably aren’t a bad team. The Kings’ guard situation is an obvious bright spot, as De’Aaron Fox and Tyrese Haliburton have a chance to become one of the NBA’s best backcourt tandems for many years. Beyond that, there’s clearly potential for Marvin Bagley to develop into a strong contributor, though to this point in his career he’s been far too inconsistent. The Kings didn’t actually do much to improve their roster this offseason, aside from drafting Davion Mitchell in the first round, who enters the season in the second or third tier of Rookie of the Year favorites. This team could wind up being interesting, but it’s much more likely that they’re still a few years away from making noise in the Pacific, especially because of how good all of the teams in front of them are.
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