I guess Vegas didn't learn its lesson last year and are once more underestimating the Kings at its own risk.
I mean, 11 wins over where they had us last year is still a pretty decent jump.
But yeah, this is basically already baking in injury regression hitting us. So essentially, they're saying we won't see any jump in-house from the likes of Keegan/Davion etc and won't really benefit from a 2nd year of continuity. I don't think it's a truly egregious line, but we probably should be where they have the Grizz and Mavs at 45.5. So there's some value there imo. Granted, haven't checked schedules if we get super screwed by B-B, huge east coast trips, etc.
First glance, I like Under on Nugs, Warriors, Lakers, Suns. Obviously won't bet all of these, but just taking advantage of these higher win totals in a super uncertain is pretty strong
Nuggets just finished a deep playoff run, lost an extremely valuable piece to their rotation and weren't able to replace him. And the West is just flat out better; it's going to be harder for them to separate from the pack like they did last year.
Suns: Lots of star power, but no time to figure it out. Basically an entire new roster of 9th/10th man role players around Beal/Booker/KD. Can they all share the ball? Can KD and Beal stay healthy? Can they gel with Vogel off the rip? 52 is a big ask for all these questions to be answered and accounted for year 1. This would be the team i'd hate to play in the playoffs though. Easily could be like the 7 seed because of gelling/injury problems and just click at the end of the season and rampage through everyone.
Warriors; 1 year older and got significantly older with CP3. If he stays healthy, he'll be an upgrade on Poole, but that's a big big ask. And a bit underrated is how much shot creation Poole has been for them the last few years. That pretty much solely falls on Steph now.
Lakers: Improved depth for sure, but still reliant on AD and Bron healthy. Started to see a few signs of Bron falling a bit last season, does he actually start to regress this season? Can either guy play 60+ games? And again, just bet on the West being better and beating each other up.
Pacers over 35.5 wins: All their youth is a year older, added quality rotation piece in Bruce Brown, a top 10 pick in Jarace Walker, got Obi Toppin off the scrap heap. In the weaker Eastern conference and this is a bet that Hali can stay healthy for more than 56 games next year. If he plays 70? They crush this are in the mix for one of those lower east seeds.
Pretty funny though they have 6 West teams at either 45.5 or 43.5. Just throwing their hands up and saying "Hell, I have no idea which of these teams are actually good or not"