Sixers

Decent Value on Claude Giroux and Joel Embiid

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Aug 15th, 2018 · 5:27 PM EDT

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Bovada came out today with odds on the NBA MVP and the NHL’s Hart Trophy winner.

Claude Giroux and Joel Embiid at both listed, Giroux at 25/1 and Embiid given 16/1 odds.

The lists:

Odds to win the 2018-19 Hart Trophy (Bovada):

McDavid +333
Crosby +650
Tavares/Ovechkin +1000
Matthews +1000
Scheifele/Kucherov +1500
MacKinnon/Hall +1500
Malkin/Kopitar +1800
Kane +2000
Giroux/Stamkos +2500
Marchand/Tarasenko +2500
Eichel +3300
Benn/Laine +4000
Kuznetsov +5000

— Odds Shark (@OddsShark) August 15, 2018

15/1 for last year’s winner, Taylor Hall. McDavid, the favorite, won it the year before as an NHL sophomore.

Giroux wound up 4th last season despite finishing second in the league with 102 points. McDavid finished 5th.

This was the rest of the top ten:

15/1 on MacKinnon/Hall might be worth a look at. Betting on G is good value, but if he didn’t even make the top-three after the season he just put together, I imagine he’ll probably be similarly disrespected and/or iced out next year.

For NBA MVP, Joel lands just inside the top ten and Ben Simmons is +3500:

Odds to win NBA MVP (@BovadaOfficial):

LeBron +333
Davis +400
Antetokounmpo +450
Harden +550
KD +900
Kawhi +1100
Westbrook +1400
Curry +1500
Embiid/Irving +1600
Simmons +3500
Lillard +4500
Towns +5000
Wall/DeRozan +8000
Mitchell +8500
Jokic/Oladipo/Paul +10000
Ball +45000

— Odds Shark (@OddsShark) August 15, 2018

I can’t see LeBron winning MVP on that Lakers team, not unless he performs a minor miracle out there. Harden will probably have another monster year unless Carmelo Anthony spoils the Rockets’ chemistry. Anthony Davis is a strong contender coming off a 3rd place finish in this year’s voting. Kawhi feels like a total question mark in Toronto and I’m not sold on Giannis being that high, not unless Mike Budenholzer is the second coming of John Wooden.

The Eastern Conference could either help or hurt Joel’s chances if he has a big year. He’ll get a chance to beat up on the likes of Atlanta and Brooklyn while the western teams devour each other, but maybe the voters use that against him, the fact that the east just doesn’t stack up against the west. Ben I don’t think has a shot, not unless he comes back this fall with a jump shot. He’s gonna be bogged down by that until he proves he can knock down outside shots consistently.

Still, 16/1 for Embiid to win the MVP isn’t bad value at all if you wanna put some money down.