2020-21 NBA Awards Odds: DPOY, Sixth Man & Most Improved
Updated: Wed, Apr 21 2021, 2:18pm
Hoop heads and NBA fans are ready to block the bookies and launch from downtown for the 2020-21 NBA season and some of the best season-long futures bets to wager on are in NBA awards odds.
Those include the Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved Player of the Year. Odds Shark also has betting analysis for the more prized hardware in NBA Most Valuable Player and NBA Rookie of the Year.
The best basketball betting sites have newly released NBA awards odds for each of these accolades and below we break down the candidates to snag the trophies for the 2020-21 season:
NBA Defensive Player of the Year Odds
After opening as the +250 favorite in NBA Defensive Player of the Year odds, the stars seem to be aligning for Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert to win the third DPOY award of his career. The defensive anchor for the team with the NBA’s best record, Gobert has been his usual dominant self in the paint. The Frenchman is averaging 2.8 blocks per game (career high) while also grabbing 13.4 rebounds, both ranking in the top three in the league.
Utah’s defense has been its key to success in recent years and if it maintains this pace during the regular season, it will be hard to overlook Gobert’s contributions, especially since he also ranks at the top of the NBA in contested field-goal percentage in the paint. However, there are two players in the East who may challenge Gobert: the Indiana Pacers’ Myles Turner and the Philadelphia Sixers’ Ben Simmons.
Turner has been a monster down low. The Texas product is leading the NBA with 3.5 blocks per game and chips in with 1.1 steals per contest. He opened the season at +5000 to win this award and the main thing holding him back is his rebounding, at 6.4 boards per game. There are guards in the NBA who average more rebounds than that.
In the preseason, I bet on Simmons in DPOY odds at +1200 and his odds have gone all the way down to +200 as the Sixers continue to roll in the East. Simmons may not have the obvious defensive box score stats of Gobert and Turner but he’s still putting up a respectable 1.6 steals per game along with 7.6 rebounds.
Where his impact is lost on the stat sheet is how he impacts the game defensively on the perimeter. He’s typically tasked with guarding the opposing team’s best player at the three-point line and the narrative exists now in the NBA that he’s the best perimeter defender in the league over the likes of studs like Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.
Simmons will likely end up earning All-Defense First Team accolades this season and he scored 42 points on Gobert and the Jazz in a heated matchup in Utah back in February, furthering the narrative that the Frenchman may not be as invincible defensively. Simmons might not end up winning it this year but he’s planting the seeds in the minds of voters who may have award fatigue when it comes to Gobert this season or next.
| Player | Odds |
|---|---|
| Rudy Gobert | -250 |
| Ben Simmons | +200 |
| Myles Turner | +800 |
Odds as of April 14 at BetOnline
NBA Sixth Man of the Year Odds
The Sixth Man of the Year competition may have some new blood this year after Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell (+1800) dominated in recent seasons, but at his current pace, Jordan Clarkson pretty much has this wrapped up.
The former Laker and Cav has bounced around the league trying to find a role suited to his skill set and Utah has seemingly unlocked his offensive potential. Clarkson is averaging 17.2 points through 51 games this season and has yet to start a game.
His most significant improvement has come in his three-point shot. He’s hitting at a 36.9 percent clip on an average of 8.6 attempts per game, both career highs. Considering Clarkson only averages 25.4 minutes of game time, head coach Quin Snyder has given him the greenest of lights to fire away when he’s on the court to pace the offense while Donovan Mitchell sits.
| Player | Odds |
|---|---|
| Jordan Clarkson | -1000 |
| Joe Ingles | +500 |
| Jalen Brunson | +1000 |
| Montrezl Harrell | +1800 |
| Chris Boucher | +3500 |
| Shake Milton | +4000 |
| Terrence Ross | +4000 |
Odds as of April 14 at BetOnline
NBA Most Improved Player of the Year Odds
Playing for his third team in his seven-year career, Julius Randle of the suddenly relevant New York Knicks is the odds-on favorite for the NBA Most Improved Player award. The point forward is averaging career highs in most categories like points (23), assists (6.1) and rebounds (10.7), and most importantly the Knicks are in the playoff hunt in the Eastern Conference.
Randle’s resurgence, after he was essentially discarded by his two previous teams, has been a revelation in the Big Apple. He played in the all-star game for the first time in his career and it’s difficult to find a player in the league who has improved this much year over year. But the next player on the oddsboard still has an outside shot in Most Improved Player odds.
After not even being listed as a betting candidate for any NBA award, the Detroit Pistons’ Jerami Grant bet on himself when opting to go play in Detroit instead of sticking it out with Denver. The eighth-year forward has increased his points per game from 12.1 to 22.5 and is getting starter minutes on a bottom-five team in the NBA. While it can be viewed as empty calories, that doesn’t mean he isn’t deserving of the award.
Grant has been the No. 1 scoring option for a team that is clearly in rebuild mode. But he isn’t just putting up points. He’s averaging career highs in rebounds and field-goal percentage and has started in 48 games for the Pistons, who’ll likely finish in the basement.
That’s the main problem with betting on Grant – the Knicks are playing much better as a team and voters tend to reward team success if two candidates have similar stats. With some people throwing the notion out there of Randle being an NBA MVP candidate (laughable, I know), it’s clear that talking heads have a higher regard for the Knicks’ candidate.
| Player | Odds |
|---|---|
| Julius Randle | -250 |
| Jerami Grant | +175 |
| Christian Wood | +1100 |
| Zion Williamson | +2200 |
| Zach LaVine | +3300 |
| Jaylen Brown | +4000 |
Odds as of April 14 at BetOnline
How to Read NBA Awards Odds
When you go to any sportsbook, you’ll see prop odds for the various NBA awards listed like so:
Sixth Man of the Year
Lou Williams +150
Spencer Dinwiddie +300
Terrence Ross +500
Generally, favorites are represented by the minus sign (-), whereas underdogs are shown by the plus sign (+). In this case, the player with the lowest odds is the front-runner, the rest are dogs.
If you were to bet $100 on Williams, you’d get a payout of $250 – you get your $100 back along with your winnings of $150. That same $100 on Ross would give you $600 – your original money is returned coupled with your prize of $500. Bets on underdogs are riskier, which is why they come with greater rewards.
To find out what you’d win based on your bet amount and the odds offered at the betting site, check out our Odds Calculator.
What is an NBA Prop Bet?
This is a wager on the occurrence or non-occurrence of specific player or team milestones that may not directly relate to the outcome of a certain game. The prop bet here is on odds to win different NBA awards. These are set by oddsmakers early but you’ll notice that the lines move as the season progresses. A coach could be a lock for Coach of the Year in December only to see his odds shift as his team underperforms in February. We suggest jumping on odds you like when you see them to get the most value out of your bets.
