What Are the Season Awards About?
In an NBA season, there are multiple incredible individual performances by players. While most of the season is focused on team success and winning a championship, players have their own set of awards to be acknowledged. That is what the NBA Season Awards are for – to validate the players who had incredible seasons.
While the NBA Most Valuable Player is the most recognizable award, it is far from the only one. There is an award for the top coach, best bench player, best defender and most improved player. Each award has a different set of criteria that needs to be met, and players compete for them based on regular season stats as well as individual and team success.
On top of that, the winners of these awards can also be bet on. There are NBA lines created for every award and feature odds on players to win. It adds more options to build the best parlays around players and teams.
How do Season Awards Work?
NBA odds awards are very similar to other future bets. When selecting a future prop on a team to win the 2023-24 NBA championship, the format is very similar to that used when determining picks for awards.
There is a list of players, with odds built based on their stats within the season and how the team is doing. While team success can often be a factor for some awards, it might not matter as much with others, which is crucial to understand for NBA betting.
The favorites for the award will have lower odds, leading to smaller payouts due to their better chance of winning. On the other hand, the underdogs will have higher odds and a lower chance of winning but a much bigger payout if the bet is won.
During the season, the NBA selects 100 media members to be the voters for all awards. After the season finishes, those voters submit their ballots, ranking players for each award based on what they did in the regular season.
Betting Strategy
With MVP being the popular option for NBA betting, it also has the highest chance of a favorite winning the award. More often than not, the award goes to the best player on one of the best teams. Those can often be predictable, and only a handful of players in the league are good enough to be in the conversion to win the award.
However, with other awards, it is very different. Underdogs have a much bigger chance of winning Coach of the Year or Most Improved Players. Those NBA lines have the potential to have the biggest payout because there is a bigger chance of a lesser-known player or coach winning the award.
Something crucial to also keep in mind is that these awards are voted upon. Sometimes, the media can play a significant role in the players that win the award. More often than not, some voters will have biases affecting how they vote, so knowing the past winners of awards can help a bettor figure out the next potential winner.