NBA Betting Lines: Sixers tied for ninth-best odds to win 2018 NBA Finals

Philadelphia fans are riding high lately, but expectations have mostly remained in check for diehard Sixers fans. No one sounds ready to commit to any expectations beyond an outside shot at the playoffs, and that’s okay, because the young core has a lot of growing pains and development to go through together.

The people in Las Vegas aren’t as scared to raise the bar, however. In a set of newly released odds from Bovada, the Sixers are tied for the ninth-best odds to win the 2018 NBA Finals, which is a completely insane concept that sounds like pure fiction on first glance. Once you start to look at the teams tied with them or above them, however, it starts to make a little sense.

With the Warriors dominating the NBA and expected to run through the league again, betting services need to find ways to entice people to bet on wild card teams. The “true” odds here are astronomical—the Sixers have no real shot of getting out of the East, let alone toppling Golden State—but the odds are flattened precisely because there is a juggernaut at the top. Vegas probably feels it can afford to spread the odds around a little more liberally.

Considering they’re tied with the Lakers in the odds order, I would caution against putting a pretty penny down on the Sixers to win the title. As good as we all believe their core can be, save your money to purchase a Markelle Fultz shirsey, tickets to the suddenly crowded games, or feel free to Venmo your boy so I can keep the lights on this month. All better uses of your money than betting on a 2018 Sixers title.

But hey, if Joel Embiid stays healthy, the Sixers pick up an impactful veteran free agent, Fultz and Ben Simmons are as good as advertised...

...no seriously though, just send the cash my way.