NBA 2024-25 Championship Winner Betting Preview – Odds, Tips & Predictions

The Celtics entered the 2024-25 season as the red-hot favourites to make it consecutive championships, and around one-third of the way into the season they have retained that status. But they have been gradually joined at the top of the championship betting by the hugely impressive Thunder, who have continued to shorten as the season has worn on. Those two are clearly the two teams to beat in their respective Conferences, and the odds suggest as much, with a big drop down to the next tier. Teams like the Knicks, Mavericks, Cavaliers and Nuggets, however, cannot be discounted, though there is no denying they will have their work cut out getting past the unequivocal top wo teams. Below, we take a look at how all of the favourites are tracking in the race for this season’s championship.

Boston Celtics 

The Celtics entered this season as the team to beat after a dominant run to the 2024 NBA championship, and so far their season has played out basically just how everybody expected. They have been challenged atop the Eastern Conference by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who started the season with an incredible 16 wins, but the Celts have gradually been reeling in arguably their main competition in the East and over the course of 82 games, will be hard to keep out of the top seed. Already they have a massive gap over third in their Conference, a gap they have been opening up despite the absence of Kristaps Porzingis for much of the season to date. And therein lies the reason they will be so hard to beat. This is the most well-rounded team in the league and probably the most well-rounded for many years, and with so much talent the absence of one or even two of their key players doesn’t mean nearly as much as it would to some of their more top-heavy competitors for the championship.

As we near the Festive Season, the Celtics find themselves sitting second in the league in net rating, behind only the Oklahoma City Thunder, with a rating of 10.2 – meaning they average 10.2 points more than their opposition per 100 possessions. Their offence has been the best in the league behind the Cavaliers, while their defence has also been top ten. Jayson Tatum is continuing on his merry way as a top ten player in the league, Jaylen Brown remains a very trusty sidekick, Derrick White and Jrue Holiday continue to form a formidable defensive pairing with plenty of offensive capability, while Payton Pritchard is the almost unbackable favourite for the Sixth Man of the Year Award. Basically, everyone on this team is doing exactly what they did last season, and we all know how that worked out. The Thunder are doing a pretty good job of challenging them, but this is clearly the best team in the Eastern Conference and probably the best in the league, and remains the team to beat.

What brings them here? Ever since acquiring Porzingis and Holiday a couple of off-seasons ago the Celtics have been primed to be at the top of the table for a while, and after their dominant performance last season they will be tough to beat again in 2024-25.

What could hold them off? Not much. The Celtics have an extremely well-rounded team, are well-coached and now have championship experience. The fact that they won’t have the best player in numerous playoff series could be the one black mark against them.

Injury report. Kristaps Porzingis missed a large chunk of the start of the season and has been in and out of the team since returning, his latest setback a heel injury, though it should not keep him out for too long.

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Oklahoma City Thunder

The Thunder’s inevitable rise came a little quicker than many expected when they jumped from 24, to 40 and then to 57 wins over the past three seasons, and they unsurprisingly appear to have improved even further this season. That was pretty inevitable considering that the oldest player in their ideal starting five is the 26-year-old Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, with significant development from the likes of Jalen Williams, Chet Holmgren and to a lesser extent Cason Wallace always set to put them right in the mix as a championship contender. As it turns out, they have had to deal with much of the season to date without Holmgren and will be without him for a while longer after he suffered a hip injury but it’s testament to the quality and depth of this team that it hasn’t really slowed them down in the slightest. The addition of Isaiah Hartenstein has certainly helped enormously in that regard, with the former Knick playing a pivotal role at the centre position since he entered the lineup, while Gilgeous-Alexander is again right in the mix for this season’s MVP, Williams is the favourite to win the Most Improved Player Award, and Lu Dort is now a 40% three-point shooter as well as one of the league’s premier defenders.

In fact, everyone on this team is a quality defender and plenty of them are elite, so it’s no great surprise that they have the best defensive rating in the league by some margin. Add to that a top-ten offence, and you’ve got the team with the best net rating in the league at a huge 12.1. Already they have established a pretty comfortable lead at the top of the Western Conference standings, and made their way into the NBA Cup Finals as well. Notwithstanding Holmgren’s injury, the season could hardly be going better for the Thunder, and even that injury has only served to highlight just how good this team is. When Holmgren returns, likely in January or February, they will only get better. That’s a frightening thought for the rest of the league, and despite the plethora of high-quality teams in the Western Conference, all of them are chasing the Thunder. They deserve to be comfortable favourites to win the West, and if they come up against the Celtics in the NBA Finals as so many expect it could easily be one for the ages.

What brings them here? Trading Paul George for Gilgeous-Alexander and a huge number of draft picks has set the Thunder up for a long time, with Gilgeous-Alexander and some of those high draft picks beginning to turn into superstars.
 
What could hold them off? A lack of experience would probably be the main concern for the Thunder. They have plenty of talent and ability at both ends of the floor, but they are very, very young and really have just one season of playoff experience behind them.
 
Injury report. As mentioned, Chet Holmgren is out for a significant period with a hip injury, with a re-evaluation scheduled for mid-late January.

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New York Knicks

There is a significant drop off to the third favourite team in the championship race, and at the time of writing that team is the New York Knicks. This team is something of a Celtics Lite; in an age in which teams with two or three superstars and a bunch of able role players have ruled the roost, the Celtics have rewritten the narrative with a more balanced championship team, and the Knicks followed their lead with a couple of savvy off-season additions that have given them a starting five with no obvious weak link. Clearly, Jalen Brunson is the star of the show, but as good as he is, he is not at the level of the very elite select few capable of leading an otherwise average team to the Promised Land – looking at you, Nikola Jokic. But fortunately for the Knicks, he does not have to. With the addition of Karl-Anthony Towns as well as Mikal Bridges (who has admittedly been a little disappointing), who joined Josh Hart and OG Anunoby in the starting lineup, the Knicks now have five legitimately good players on the floor and plenty of talent at both ends.

Offensively they have been excellent this season, with their offensive rating right up there with the Celtics and Cavaliers. That has helped them to a solid record a third of the way into the season, though they are still locked in a big group of teams with a similar record in the East. To separate themselves from that group and get a little closer to the Celtics and Cavaliers at the top, improvement needs to come at the defensive end of the floor – an unusual issue for a Tom Thibodeau-coached team. They have plenty of good defenders running around, though Towns has always been something of a liability as a defensive anchor and Brunson’s size means he will always be a potential target for opposition offences. But still; so far this team has been around the league average on defence, and the potential for them to be a lot better is certainly better. If they can work their way into the top ten in this metric, combined with their offence they will be winning plenty of games. There is no doubt that they are good enough to beat anyone in the East, with the obvious exception of the Celtics. At this point it’s hard to see them winning a seven-game series against the Celts, but they have still only had 25 games or so as a collective and have the potential to get better. Personally, they look to me like a team that will almost certainly win a playoff series or two but will struggle to go all the way, but there is no denying that they are a very good team.

What brings them here? The Knicks have benefited enormously from bringing in Jalen Brunson a couple of seasons ago, while they have gradually acquired plenty of solid players to surround him with.

What could hold them off? The Knicks get the most out of themselves and have a very deep roster, but they don’t boast the star power of many other contenders. Brunson is a bonafide superstar, but not at the level of guys like Jokic and Doncic, and their next best player is not as good as the second fiddles on many other teams.

Injury report. Mitchell Robinson hasn’t played a game all season and will not be available until at least late January.

Bet on the New York Knicks to win the 2024-25 NBA Championship at $11.00 with PlayUp

Dallas Mavericks

There have not been many teams in recent times capable of going particularly deep into the postseason with a team centred around an elite backcourt, but with Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving leading the way that is exactly what the Mavericks managed last season. They surprised plenty of people by winning the Western Conference, though their shortcomings were exposed by an elite Celtics team in a dominant NBA Finals display. The Mavs added Klay Thompson over the off-season to a squad which has increasingly added a few decent albeit unspectacular pieces over the past year or so, but their start to the season left plenty to be desired with a 9-8 record over their first 17 games. Doncic playing below par by his very lofty standards was a major reason for that, and lo and behold with him returning to something nearing his best they returned to their winning games.

They would go on to win eight of their next nine games, a period during which their offence found its groove and they led the league in offensive rating at 121.5. Their defence remained only around league average during that time, where it will likely remain for the season, so it will be up to their offence if they’re going to repeat their efforts from 2023-24. At their best this team is offensively incredibly difficult to stop, as they demonstrated in an historic 143-133 win over the Warriors in December which saw a record number of threes, and a 45-11-13 stat line from Doncic, though that kind of performance cannot be relied upon on a nightly basis. There is no doubt that this is not nearly as well-rounded a team as each of the three above, but at their best they can beat anyone. The issue for the Mavs is that they need to do that four times in seven games against some very good teams to win a championship, and it’s hard to see them doing that against teams like the Thunder and Celtics.

What brings them here? Any team with Luka Doncic at the helm is going to at least be competitive, and with Kyrie Irving joining him in the backcourt a couple of seasons ago this team has plenty of top-end talent.

What could hold them off? The Mavericks’ best couple of players are bonafide superstars, but the drop off to their third best player is really large.

Injury report. Dante Exum has been out all season with a wrist injury, while Maxi Kleber suffered a fractured rib in December.

Bet on the Dallas Mavericks to win the 2024-25 NBA Championship at $13.00 with PlayUp

Cleveland Cavaliers

If the Cavaliers are not the surprise packet of the season to date, they must be pretty close. Their 2023-24 season was at times tumultuous, with star guard Donovan Mitchell seemingly keen to leave in the middle of it, but ultimately he stuck around and they won 48 games to finish as the fourth seed in the East. With much the same team, they look set to win plenty more games than that this season. They came out of the gates like a team possessed, winning their first 16 games to establish a big lead atop the Eastern Conference standings. Unsurprisingly that lead has gradually dwindled courtesy of the Celtics, but those two still find themselves significantly ahead of the chasing pack. Losses have still been very rare for the Cavs, particularly on their home court, and a top two seed and deep run into the playoffs looks very attainable.

Offence has been the hallmark of this team. After last season scoring 114.7 points per 100 possession – right around league average – they have been the best in the business on offence so far in 2024-25, upping that offensive rating significantly to 120.2. And their defence, led very capably by a couple of excellent defensive front court players in Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley, has been strong too; at the time of writing they find themselves in ninth in the league in defensive rating. Like most of the top teams in the East, this is a team not reliant on any one superstar; instead they have a great balance on offence, with Mitchell clearly the most dangerous but the likes of Darius Garland and Evan Mobley very capable in their own ways, and Caris Levert the best of numerous sparkplugs off the bench. The Cavs are a really good team, but like with the Knicks the main question will be whether they can beat the Celtics – and the winner of the Western Conference – in a seven-game series like they will need to in order to go all the way. They should be winning at least a playoff series or two, but as good as they have been, they would still be a surprise winner of this year’s championship.

What brings them here? The Cavaliers have been slowly building for a few years, though last season it seemed like Mitchell had had enough and was set to go elsewhere. He didn’t, and he would probably be pretty happy that he didn’t at the moment, because alongside Allen, Mobley and Garland, he’s now on a championship contender.

What could hold them off? Like a couple of other teams in this conversation, the Cavaliers will not have the best player in a lot of series if they are to go deep into the playoffs. They also don’t have much experience individually or as a collective deep in the playoffs.

Injury report. Max Strus missed the first couple of months or so of the season, but is set to return just before Christmas.

Bet on the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the 2024-25 NBA Championship at $15.00 with PlayUp

Denver Nuggets

The winners of the 2022-23 championship, the Nuggets’ team this season is not all that different to the one which went all the way just a couple of years ago and wasn’t far off last season, and were unsurprisingly one of the favourites entering this one. But they had a slow start to the season and were overtaken by a couple of teams performing better than they were, and remain a little way down the list as we near Christmas. But while it’s true that they do appear to have been caught up to by the plethora of quality teams particularly in the Western Conference, the Nuggets will always have one weapon that no one else can match in the form of a very large man from Serbia.

Nikola Jokic remains the best player in the league and is rapidly writing his name in the history books as one of the best players of all time, and is currently the odds on favourite to win what would be his fourth MVP in five seasons. Somehow he is having probably the best season of his illustrious career, averaging at the time of writing around 31.4 points on 56.2% from the floor and a ridiculous 51.8% from long-range, 13.2 boards and 9.8 assists. Admittedly he has not had much help – his typically trusty sidekick in Jamal Murray is having a down year so far, and with Kentavious Caldwell-Pope having left for Orlando, the absence of Aaron Gordon for significant portions of the season has been even more strongly felt. They don’t have nearly the depth of many other contenders, but the reality remains that with Jokic leading the charge they are capable of beating anyone, particularly factoring in that Murray tends to grow another leg in the playoffs. Unlike a couple of other teams on this list who have a high floor but perhaps lowish ceiling, the best case scenario for the Nuggets is still a championship, and at long odds they are far from the worst bet on the board.

What brings them here? The Sixers have had an interesting few years, but Embiid has been one constant, and last year Maxey took a big step towards being a dangerous second fiddle to him. Now with George in the mix, this is a really talented, capable team. 

What could hold them off? Injury will be the main concern, as it was last year and as it has been in the early stages of this season. How this new trio gels together will also be interesting to watch, with the group having obviously never played together before. 

Injury report. George and Embiid both missed the first few games of the season with their respective ailments, but the former returns in early November while Embiid should theoretically not be too far behind.

Bet on the Denver Nuggets to win the 2024-25 NBA Championship at $17.00 with PlayUp

Golden State Warriors

It’s hard to believe the Warriors have somehow put themselves back in this conversation, but the sustained high-level performance of Steph Curry and to a lesser extent Draymond Green as well as the arrival of plenty of talented youngsters has made them a much more dangerous team than many expected this season. But while they started like a house on fire, they have come back to the pack relatively quickly. At the time of writing there is just a game and a half separating 5th from 12th in the Western Conference, and they are right in the midst of that logjam – and seemingly likely to stay there.

Known for so long for their unbelievable offence, the Warriors returned to the championship circle a couple of years ago courtesy of their elite defence, and that has again been the cornerstone of their resurgence – if you can call it that – this season. They’ve been a top five defensive team in the league thus far, while their offence has been just average – they currently rank 14th in the league in that metric. Curry is still playing at an unbelievable level for a man of his age, but the 23 points he is averaging is the lowest number in a decade. They are now reliant on an interesting combination of plucky young players like Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski, and the experienced old guard. That has so far worked pretty well, but they certainly don’t profile like a team capable of matching it with the elite teams in the league throughout the postseason. That they are still this high on the list is more just reflective of their hot start to the season, with the odds taking a little while to adjust to the reality that they are not a realistic championship contender. Compared to, for example, the Nuggets, who are only a little shorter in the betting markets, the Warriors are not worth wasting your money on.

What brings them here? The Warriors had a really good start to the season which put them vaguely in this conversation, but they have come back to the pack since.

What has changed? The Warriors have gradually begun to bring the new guard more into the fold, with Steve Kerr giving them plenty of minutes and putting a couple into the starting lineup at various points.

Injury report. The Warriors have a relatively clean bill of health at the time of writing.

Bet on the Golden State Warriors to win the 2024-25 NBA Championship at $26.00 with Unibet

Milwaukee Bucks

The Bucks are a bit of a sorry tale at the moment. The move to bring in Damian Lillard to join Giannis Antetokounmpo has not gone quite to plan, nor has the hire of Doc Rivers as coach. Giannis is having arguably the best season of his career while Lillard has not exactly been bad, but with Khris Middleton absent and Brook Lopez not the player he once was, those two stars do not appear to be enough to get this team in the mix for a championship. The theory sounds great – Lillard is an elite shooter with as much range as anyone in the league, a capable scorer in many other ways as a solid playmaker, while Giannis is a dominant scorer and one of the best defenders in the league. But for all of the ability of those two, the team has just been pretty, well, meh.

They are just outside the top ten for both offence and defence, and with Giannis and Lillard having hardly missed a game the scope for them to get better doesn’t appear all that high. The return of Middleton, who is going to be managed very, very carefully all season, should help, though as the third fiddle on the team he can’t exactly be expected to be a needle-turner. If he does manage to work his way back to a level of fitness from which he can play decent minutes, it could at least provide this team with an added dimension, and with the talent they have they do at least have a pretty high ceiling – at least in theory. But at the moment, it’s very hard to imagine this team doing all that much damage. Considering their odds they are not the worst bet in this market, but at the moment they look very much like a decent to good team in the Eastern Conference that will maybe win a playoff series before being knocked out by one of the much more well-rounded top tier teams in the East.

What brings them here? Giannis Antetokounmpo has kept the Bucks somewhat relevant for years and any team with both he and Lillard has plenty of potential, though they are not performing at nearly a championship level so far this season.

What could hold them back? The Bucks just don’t seem all that good so far this season. They don’t have that much depth, and are not elite at either end of the floor, and against the best teams that will likely hurt them.

Injury report. Khris Middleton has been riddled by injury all season but is slowly working his way back up to full fitness on limited minutes.

Bet on the Milwaukee Bucks to win the 2024-25 NBA Championship at $26.00 with Unibet

The NBA 2025 championship market is a tough one at the minute, with the Celtics and Thunder both runaway favourites to win it and as a result not offering great value this early in the season. But they are runaway favourites for a reason. There are a couple of teams further down the list that look as though they could be a decent value option, with the Nuggets standing out as one given the presence of the best player in the world on their team, but it really is difficult to go past either the Thunder or the Celtics. The Thunder are more than capable of going all the way, but with them gradually getting closer to the Celtics in odds, Boston have begun to look like the better value. They won it last year, they are more experienced, and they deserve to be favourites to win the championship. Even at only a little over $3, as clearly the team to beat they are not a bad bet.

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