U.S. sportsbooks changed the odds of Milwaukee Bucks winning the NBA championship after ESPN reported a three-team deal involving superstar guard Damian Lillard from Portland Trail Blazers.
The Milwaukee Bucks moved ahead of the current champion Denver Nuggets to become the favorite to win the title at Caesars Sportsbook. After the news of the deal came out Wednesday afternoon, Milwaukee was +375. After the Nuggets, the Boston Celtics were +500, and the Phoenix Suns were +550. At Caesars, no other team had chances of less than 10 to win the title.
Sources told Wojnarowski that Portland will get Jrue Holiday, Deandre Ayton, Toumani Camara, Milwaukee’s unprotected first-round draft pick in 2029, and Milwaukee’s unprotected swap rights in 2028 and 2030.
Sources told Wojnarowski that the Suns will get Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little, and Keon Johnson.
Before the deal, some casinos had the Bucks as far back as +850, behind the Nuggets, Celtics, and Suns. At DraftKings, people had bet on Denver, Boston, Phoenix, and the Miami Heat to win the NBA title. Milwaukee was fifth.
Jeff Sherman is a longtime Las Vegas bookmaker in charge of the SuperBook’s NBA odds. He said there hadn’t been much betting interest in the Bucks this offseason, and there wasn’t a rush of interest before Wednesday’s story.
“No liability [on the Bucks], not that much interest, and we didn’t get hit on anything today as the news broke,” Sherman said.
Sherman changed the number of wins for Milwaukee’s season from 52.5 to 55.5. He also changed the point spread for the Bucks’ game against the New York Knicks on Christmas Day from Milwaukee -3 to Milwaukee -4.5.
The Heat were thought to be one of the favorites to sign Lillard. On Wednesday, at Caesars Sportsbook, their odds of winning the title went from 6-1 to 25-1.
