Save for the fates of Ben Simmons and maybe Damian Lillard, off-season moves are all but done and the 2021-22 NBA season going to kick off in a little over a month. With rosters slowly finalizing, the championship contenders for next season have come more into focus.

Not much has changed in terms of the title favorites, but it’s worth going over which handful of teams you should be betting on for the upcoming season. There’s a lot of very good teams with good odds at the title next season, but really, there’s only three teams that are most-likely going to be showcasing the Larry O’Brien trophy next summer.

The true contenders

As often is the case every season, most experts believe that there are really only two teams that have a legitimate chance to make the NBA Finals and compete for an NBA title.

This coming season is no different, there are a lot of improved franchises that will make noise during the regular season (Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns), pretenders (Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers) and intriguing teams (Golden State Warriors, Atlanta Hawks), but at the end of the day, it’s these three squads that have the played experience, the backing of best $10 deposit casinos, and the requisite components that make them the odds-on favorites.

Brooklyn Nets If Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden are on the floor, the Nets are always going to be among the favorites to win the NBA championship season.

They’re bringing back key components in Joe Harris, Blake Griffin, and Nicholas Claxton too, but why they’re the favorites this season isn’t the strength of the players coming back, it’s the significant additions to their roster that should yield immediate results.

By bringing in Patty Mills and Paul Millsap, they have key veteran role players that add another threat from the outside (Mills) and strong interior play on both sides of the court (Millsap). Not to mention both players are capable defensive players that will continue to shore up an improving Nets defense; which is nearly a requirement to bring home championship trophy.

Milwaukee Bucks Typically when a team wins the NBA championship then returns the next season with all of their key players, they would easily be the favorites for the championship title, but with a reloaded Brooklyn Nets and Lakers squad, Zodiac Casino and other sportsbooks have Milwaukee third in terms of odds of them repeating.

It didn’t help that Milwaukee was a Durant shoe size away from being eliminated at the hands of the Brooklyn Nets last season, who also improved their roster. All that said, the Bucks are still a favorite, just not THE favorite. With Giannis Antetokounmpo having figured out how to dominate in different ways, we can see the Bucks having a really strong regular season going into the postseason.

Los Angeles Lakers Even though we included the Lakers in the “contender” tier, there’s a lot of things that have to go right for the purple and gold for them to not only reach the NBA Finals, but to win the whole thing.

The team they’re running it back this season with some intriguing new names on the roster. The rotation includes some bigger names in Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony as well as Rajon Rondo and Dwight Howards third stint as a Laker. Combined with LeBron James and Anthoyn Davis, this team can easily be an arcade casino game if Westbrook and Carmelo can ease into complimentary roles and Rondo and Howard can continue to contribute.

The problem? Well the narrative is the Lakers are, well, there’s no other way of saying it… old. We know they don’t want to hear all that, but it’s true. And we don’t know how all the pieces will ultimately come together after a couple months of playing together. That said, the team has LeBron leading the way and though he’s not as spritely as he once was, we’ve all learned not to doubt The King.

At the end of the regular season, the Lakers might not have the best record in the West, but no matter where they’re seeded, no team will want to face a focused and motivared LeBron, AD, Melo and Westbrook. In the other conference, look for the Nets and Bucks to be fighting for the top record in the East with NBA fans licking their lips at another matchup between the two powerhouses in 2022 playoffs.