It’s been a roller coaster
“I did something,” texted one of my lifelong friends on Sunday night. Attached to his message was a photo of odds, a bet, and what he stood to gain should the long shot bet pay off.
The bet in question? That the Dallas Mavericks would be crowned NBA Champions come June of 2025. My friend believes in belief and I respect that.
Just around a year ago the Dallas Mavericks began a campaign which culminated in them losing to the Boston Celtics in the 2024 NBA Finals. They’d retooled the roster just before the NBA Trade Deadline, bringing in both Daniel Gafford and PJ Washington to revamp a middling group that didn’t have enough grit. It paid off.
The odds this year have fluctuated wildly. On February 1st, the evening after the Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis swap, the odds checked in at +2300, a sign the betting markets really didn’t believe Nico Harrison’s logic that this deal made Dallas better. By the evening of the deadline on Thursday, February 6th, the odds on the Mavericks winning it all changed to +7000, essentially classifying them as a super long-shot.
By this past Saturday those odds had stabilized some at +4800, which is odd considering the injury news for the Mavericks only seems to get worse, not better. But they did close the pre-All-Star break with a fury, winning four of five . As if write this now though, on the evening of the 17th, the odds of a Dallas Mavericks championship sit at +8500, the same as the Houston Rockets. The odds essentially confirm what we know: Dallas isn’t a title team.
Given the health luck of the Mavericks they seem unlikely to duplicate their amazing run from 2024. But given that run, it’s hard to truly rule them out. Unless they take a dive starting soon, Dallas may hang around in the fringes of the odds for the upcoming postseason.