In third we have the Raptors at 18.5 to 1. Instead adding Tyson Chandler (and Pedja Stojakovic in January) and running it back saw a dominant playoff run to glory. Second highest preseason odds belongs to the 2011 Mavericks at 20-1 - coming off a 55 win season but disappointing first round loss to the Spurs with home court advantage, the media chatter was "you can't win with Dirk" and they should trade Nowitzki and *yawn* blow it up. A coaching change to Kerr, with further seasoning for the young team (only Draymond's 3rd year!) did the trick. Leading the way is the Warriors in their 2015 playoff run at a lavish 28-1 coming off a 51-31 season but first round defeat in a tight seven game series against a 57 win Clippers team. So in the last forty years we've had seven NBA champions with 10-1 or better odds at the start of the season. There's a chance one of the '79-80 to '83-84 teams could have cracked the top ten, but unlikely and no chance they could have been high on this chart Highest preseason odds for eventual NBA champion What this means is actually a 7-1 odds bet (technically, bet $100 and if you win you get $700 profit, plus your original $100 back). The data for this comes in classic betting terminology, for example +700 for the Bulls' first title with Jordan. One obvious standard then for determining which teams truly pulled a surprise in winning it all is the expectations at the beginning of the season. On the other hand none of the ultimate champions from 1979-80 through 1986-87 could be considered anything close to a shocking upset since they were all the #1 seed in their respective conferences.so the search remains the original plan: the NBA's biggest upset champion from 1980 forward (40 years!) Often you hear the "modern era" referenced as beginning in 1979-80, conveniently the rookie season for both Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, with dramatic improvements for both their respective teams to begin the famed Celtics-Lakers rivalry that would see one of them winning the title in eight of the next nine seasons! Sadly the B-R new data doesn't go quite that far back. Subjectively this is a tough one to answer, but fortunately our friends over at Basketball-Reference recently partnered with to provide some useful data for this purpose: With the NBA providing an exciting recent playoffs culminating with the Toronto Raptors' first ever championship as a sizeable underdog to the mighty Warriors, it raises the question, where do the Raptors rank in the pantheon of least likely NBA champions in the modern NBA era? The NBA's biggest underdog Champion! by Roland Beech The NBA's biggest underdog champion - NBA 2019 research from Home |
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