Free Agency Betting Odds Released, Tell us Very Little We Don’t Know

There was some more “news” today about free agency, when betting odds on where NBA superstars will go in free agency were updated. Per BetOnline.ag (I have no knowledge about gambling, so I don’t know how reliable this site is, but it was taken pretty seriously), the Clippers are going to be competitive for several superstars this summer! Shocking, right?

The Clippers are listed as the second favorites to get Kawhi Leonard (3/2, behind Toronto) and Kevin Durant (17/10, behind the Knicks), the two biggest free agents on the market, and the ones the Clippers have been linked to the most. They were also third most-likely to land Klay Thompson, fourth for Jimmy Butler, and fifth for D’Angelo Russell and Kemba Walker (neither of whom have been linked to the Clippers at all to my knowledge). The full odds with all the teams can be found here. Also, per Caesars Palace, the Clippers are -200 to get Kawhi Leonard. So who knows.

Ultimately, like so much in free agency, all this probably means nothing. People in Vegas are betting on the Clippers to land Durant and Kawhi because there’s been a ton of coverage about them going after those guys, and on the newfound brilliance of the Clippers’ front office. Klay and Jimmy are two other notable free agents who have been tied to Los Angeles, so odds are decent there as well. None of this is new or exciting.

Why the update, then? Well, Vegas has been proven correct about news before, and the fact that the Clippers have good odds to land big fish is a positive one. Really, though, this is more just a continuation of other posts I’ve done in the past on free agency rumors — they’re all not very reliable or useful, especially a month before free agency begins.

NBA fans in 2019 are given a deluge of news and rumors about superstars and their whims and desires. Almost none of it comes from the players themselves, and only slightly more seems truly verifiable or newsworthy. Vegas odds might be insightful. Most likely, they’re not. Consider this more of an update on the overall free agent situation than anything else. The Clippers still have a pretty good shot at getting one of Kawhi Leonard or Kevin Durant, and possibly even both. They are at least in the market for another of the big names available this summer. Until the draft hits, at earliest, nothing will probably change in this regard.