- Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown has moved from +100 at the end of last month to -900 in the latest Bet365 NBA Coach of the Year odds boards.
- Brown has steered the Kings to a 43-29 SU record, third-best in the Western Conference.
- The Kings reset to finish with their first winning seasons since 2006 and are 4 wins away from ending the NBA’s longest-ever playoff drought.
Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown has obliterated the Coach of the Year field at the top NBA sportsbooks.
According to Bet365, the Kings’ bench tactician is now a massive -900 betting favorite to win his second Coach of the Year award.
Boston’s Joe Mazzulla, who was the betting favorite heading into the All-Star break, has dropped to a distant second with his +600 odds. No other coach has odds shorter than +1000 to win the award.
Brown took over as the betting favorite at the end of the previous month when the Kings won their first five games after the All-Star break. But at that point, it was still a close race with Brown listed at +100 odds and Mazzulla at +180. Since then, the odds have titled heavily in Mike Brown’s favor.
The season began with Mazzulla and Minnesota’s Chris Finch as the +1200 co-favorites at the best NBA betting sites. At +8000, Brown was in the bottom five for the opening Coach of the Year odds. But Brown and the Kings have changed the narrative of the race.
The Kings will finish with a record over .500 for the first time since 2006 👑 📈 pic.twitter.com/F4HcH1rCY1
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) March 17, 2023
Kings Will Finish With a Record Over .500 For First Time Since 2006
At 43-29 SU on the season, the Kings are in third place in the Western Conference team standings before Wednesday’s games. They are 5.5 games behind the conference-leading Denver Nuggets and just two off the second-seeded Memphis Grizzlies. With the No. 4 seed Phoenix Suns 4.5 games back, there is a good chance that the Kings finish in the Top 3.
Similarly, the Kings have a comfortable lead in the Pacific Division team standings. Their latest magic number to clinch a playoff spot is four. That means a combination of four wins by the Kings or four losses by the team that is in the 7th seed.
That could come as early as next week. Currently, only the Nuggets have booked an official trip to the postseason.
With 43 wins in the books as of Wednesday’s schedule, the Kings will finish the 2022-23 NBA season above the .500 mark. This is the first time, since 2006, that the Kings will end an NBA season with a winning record.
Longest Playoff Drought is Over
Entering the season, the Kings carried the dubious distinction of having the NBA’s longest longest-ever playoff drought at 16 years. The last time the Kings were in the postseason was in 2006 when there was still no iPhone, Instagram, Twitter, and even the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Sacramento entered the 2022-23 NBA campaign with +170 odds to make the playoffs and opened with the longest odds to win the Pacific Division at +25000. The top NBA sportsbooks also gave them a 34.5-win total for the season. But with the regular season down to its final two weeks, Sacramento has defied the odds.
🔙Last time the Sacramento Kings played in the playoffs, there were no:
– Oklahoma City Thunder
-iPhoneHow far will the Kings get in the playoffs?➡️https://t.co/kwwmONpUy2#NBA | #SacramentoProud pic.twitter.com/AFcPUackOS
— BetUS NBA 🏀 (@BetUS_NBA) March 20, 2023
The Kings have already cashed the OVER on their regular season win total. Once they clinch the inevitable playoff spot, they will also pay out at plus-money odds. If somebody was crazy enough to bet on them to win the Pacific Division before the start of the year, that bettor would be smiling all the way to the bank.
Clinching a Playoff Spot is Just the Beginning
But clinching a playoff spot will only be the beginning for the Kings. The job at hand is to win the championship. The Kings’ 71-year title drought is the longest in NBA history, 7 years more than the next team – the Atlanta Hawks.
The Kings have not made it to the Western Conference Finals since the 2001-02 season when the Lakers edged them in seven games. After that season, the Kings made two trips to the second round, followed by two first-round exits. Since then, the land has been barren, until this season.
Unfortunately for Sacramento, the betting sites aren’t too high on them winning it all this season. As of the latest title odds at BetOnline, Sacramento is listed at +4500 to win the NBA championship.
Interestingly, six Western Conference teams in Denver, Golden State, Memphis, the two Los Angeles squads, and Dallas, have better odds to win the 2023 NBA title than the Kings.
