2011 NBA MVP Betting Lines
With the 2010-2011 NBA basketball season well underway, it’s time to get your MVP futures bets in. LeBron James has walked away with the award the last two seasons, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to do it with the Miami Heat in 2011. FYI – no player has won the MVP award in three consecutive seasons since Larry Bird did it in the 80’s.
Here are the 2011 NBA MVP betting lines as of January 17th. For the most current lines, they can be viewed at Sportsbook.com. Some online sportsbooks have stopped offering lines for the 2011 MVP award, but they’re still on at Sportsbook.com.
Kevin Durant MVP Line: +250
Kevin Durant is one of the favorites to win the 2011 NBA MVP award and for good reason. He leads the NBA this year with 28.5 points per game, plus 6.2 rebounds and 3 assists per game. Durant has the same +250 odds right now as Amar’e Stoudemire.
Durant is just force, and he’s the lifeblood of the Oklahoma City Thunder. As of today, the Thunder are 7.5 games out of first place in the West, but that’s good enough for 3rd in the division.
Bet on Kevin Durant to Win the NBA MVP Award
Amare Stoudemire MVP Line: +250
Amar’e Stoudemire is loving his move to the New York Knicks, and his numbers are showing it. He’s second in the NBA behind Kevin Durant in scoring (26 PPG), while adding another 9 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. He is the man in New York right now, and he’s been the major reason that the Knicks are above .500 this year. If the Knicks can continue to improve and put W’s on the board, Amar’e has a good shot at the MVP award.
Bet on Amar’e Stoudemire to Win the NBA MVP Award
Derrick Rose MVP Line: +300
Man is this kid good or what? This amazing Chicago Bulls guard just turned 22 years old and is already a one-man show. Rose is scoring 24.5 PPG, while dishing out 8 assists per game and grabbing 4.5 rebounds as well. This kid will win an MVP award at some point, if not this year, within the next 2-3 years for sure.
Bet on Derrick Rose to Win the NBA MVP Award
The Rest
Chris Paul: +500
Dirk Nowitzki: +500
LeBron James: +500
Dwight Howard: +600
Kobe Bryant: +700
Rajon Rondo: +800
Dwayne Wade: +900
I don’t see anyone outside of the top three taking the 2011 NBA MVP award. Personally, I like Durant or Rose to take it, and Stoudemire is a close third in my opinion. I placed my MVP futures bets a while back, but if I was betting today I’d take Rose at +300. The Bulls keep getting better, are only 3.5 games out of first place in the East, and Rose is garnering more attention every day.
He’s get a better than one in three chance of winning the award, but you’re getting +300 odds. Looking for value? Here it is.
Bet on the 2011 NBA MVP Award at Sportsbook.com
****The content below this line was written months ago, before the 2010 – 2011 NBA season got started. We’re leaving it up, unedited for reference. For current basketball odds, visit our NBA betting lines page. For all sports, go to the Sports Betting Lines homepage.
Kobe Bryant MVP Line: +450
Kobe Bryant fell off the MVP radar a bit last season and didn’t receive any 1st place votes. Apparently bookmakers think he’s going to have a better season this year, with a betting line of +450. If the LA Lakers want to keep up with the Miami Heat then Bryant is going to need to have a great season.
Kobe ended last season with an average of 27 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5 assists per game. Kobe is going to have a hard time trying to beat Durant in votes this year unless he can manage to outscore him. With a better supporting staff than Durant, that’s unlikely to happen.
With all of that said, everyone knows that Kobe has more desire to win than anyone in the NBA. On top of that natural desire to win, he has a couple new reasons to want it especially bad this season. First, Bryant wants to 3-peat. Not only would it be a feather in his cap, but doing it now when most are picking the Heat to win would be especially sweet.
This is the exact challenge Kobe Bryant needs in order to put his name up there with the best of all time, Michael Jordan. We may or may not agree with that comparison, which is part of the reason Kobe will be inspired – to convince naysayers that it is.
We expect Kobe to do great things this year, including utilizing his big men Pao Gasol and Andrew Bynum even more. While his scoring may dip slightly, he’ll likely pad his assist numbers, and possibly his rebounds as well. If he’s given credit for everything he does on the court besides scoring, he could win the MVP award this season.
Bet on Kobe Bryant to Win the NBA MVP Award
LeBron James MVP Line: +550
LeBron James is going to try and go for the MVP award three-peat this season, but I don’t think he’ll be able to garner enough votes. James won the MVP last season because he managed to take the Cavaliers to a 61-21 overall record during the regular season. James averaged 29.7 points, 7.3 rebounds and 8.6 assists per game and didn’t receive much help from his weak supporting cast.
Now that LeBron is in Miami he’ll be teamed up with Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade (in case you’ve been living under a rock). No matter what type of stats James puts up this season a lot of it will have to do with how well Bosh and Wade perform. Since the MVP award is an individual award it’ll be hard to give a player the hardware with such a strong supporting cast. At +550, I’m not a fan of this bet.
Bet on Lebron James to Win the NBA MVP Award
Dwight Howard MVP Line: +750
If Dwight Howard can help the Magic to win the Eastern Conference this season then he may have a long shot chance at winning the MVP award. In fact, Howard may be the most interesting pick in this discussion. I didn’t say ‘best pick’, I said ‘most interesting pick in this discussion’. Here’s why.
To this point, Howard hasn’t shown us a desire to win that compares to the level of Bryant, James and Wade. However, you never know what inspires a man, or when that inspiration will come. For some men, inspiration comes from a desire to prove something to his father, his family, or to fans. For guys like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James, the desire is to go down in history as one of the greatest.
If Howard is sick of hearing about the Miami Heat, he may find that inspiration. If he’s tired of getting close and losing, he may find that inspiration. If Orlando and the Heat face off during the playoffs, a first game win (or loss) could help him find that inspiration. If he’s tired of hearing that he lacks inspiration, that in itself could help him find the inspiration.
If Howard can somehow find that extra bit of inspiration, the improved supporting casts that Kobe and LeBron have could be the difference Howard needs to capture enough votes. Of course he’ll still have to beat out Durant and everyone else in the NBA, but an inspired Howard could do it. At +750, this is a bet I like – for a limited amount of cash. I won’t be placing a huge bet on Howard, but a small bet for sure.
Howard only averaged 18.3 points per game last season, but had an impressive 13.2 rebounds per game. If an inspired Howard can average 25+ points per game and 15+ rebounds per game on the way to leading his team to an Eastern Conference Title, he’ll definitely have a shot at winning the MVP award. Last season Howard received a few 1st place votes and only averaged 18.3 points per game, I can only imagine how many votes he’d get with 25+ PPG.
