As the new NBA season approaches, the race for the league’s assist leader is shaping up to be one of the most compelling storylines. It also presents intriguing options on DraftKings Sportsbook to consider.
Last season, Tyrese Haliburton led the league with 10.9 assists per game, which resulted in a comfortable edge on the league leaderboard. Trae Young would have been a close second at 10.8 assists per game, but he appeared in only 54 games — coming four short of the minimum to qualify. Luka Doncic and Nikola Jokic were also in the mix, posting impressive averages of 9.8 and 9.0 assists per game, respectively.
Let’s look at the players with the best odds on DraftKings Sportsbook to lead the NBA in assists per game during the 2024-25 season.
Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks (+135)
After trading Dejounte Murray to the New Orleans Pelicans, the Hawks are configured well for Trae Young to put up a ton of points and assists this season, as opposed to being a legitimate threat in the Eastern Conference. After averaging 10.8 assists per game last season, Young is +135 on DraftKings Sportsbook to be the NBA’s assists leader in 2024-25. As long as he avoids a significant injury, he’s a strong candidate to lead the league in this category.
The sample size is very limited, but Young averaged 26.2 points and 11.3 assists in 10 games played without Murray over the last two seasons. Without a replacement co-star on the perimeter and many complementary talents who will rely on Young to make plays, the outlook is there for him to rack up many assists.
Teams will surely blitz Young to get the ball out of his hands, which could impact his assists to an extent since it’s up to the short-roller to make a play in the gap. That’s one of the negative effects of not having a perimeter co-star to command respect of the defense. Regardless, Young will have the ball in his hands more than enough to transcend that.
Tyrese Haliburton, Indiana Pacers (+165)
Unlike Trae Young, Tyrese Haliburton has a co-star in Pascal Siakam after the Pacers made a midseason trade to acquire him last season. However, there is more context to consider when evaluating how this translates to Haliburton’s assist count. Regardless, he’s +165 on DraftKings Sportsbook to be the NBA’s assists leader.
Haliburton put together a hot start to last season but tapered off significantly. Keep that in mind as it relates to timing of the Siakam trade. There were some clear midseason struggles Haliburton experienced last season that had some questioning his trajectory to an extent. The numbers do not do him any favors.
In 33 games without Siakam, Haliburton averaged an impressive 23.6 points and 12.5 assists. Add in Siakam — Haliburton’s production declined to averaging 16.9 points and 9.5 assists in 36 appearances. Keep in mind, Haliburton’s production dipped to averaging just 18.7 points and 8.2 assists in the playoffs despite playing 34.8 minutes per game.
After a full training camp with Siakam, is Haliburton going to find his prior form as far as assists are concerned?
Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks (+1000)
Given Luka Doncic is coming off a season as the NBA’s leading scorer — the youngest since Kevin Durant in 2013-14 — it’s remarkable he’s in the conversation to be an assist leader entering his 2024-25 campaign. After averaging 9.8 assists last season, Doncic is +1000 to be the NBA’s assists leader on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Doncic has another weapon on the perimeter at his disposal in Klay Thompson, who joined the Mavericks on a three-year, $50 million contract in a historic six-team sign-and-trade deal. With another high volume perimeter shooter who doesn’t hesitate to let it fly on the catch, the Slovenian superstar could see his assist total climb. Factor in having Kyrie Irving in the backcourt and a pair of lob threats like Dereck Lively II and Daniel Gafford, and an elite passer like Doncic has a lot to work with in this offense.
After adding another lob threat into the fold before the midseason trade deadline, Doncic averaged 33.2 points, 10.3 assists and 10.1 rebounds in 23 games after the All-Star break. Yes, you read that right. He averaged a 33-point triple-double over a period of time that equates to 28.0% of the NBA season. On DraftKings Sportsbook, the Mavericks are +1000 to win the Finals next season, while Doncic is +370 to win MVP.
Another element to consider is the benefit Doncic could receive of gaining more low-hanging fruit assists with Thompson in the lineup. There will likely be some chances Doncic gets to make a basic pass as the initiator of the offense while Thompson comes off a pindown screen and shoots it on the catch — without requiring Doncic to break down a defender and draw a help defender before a pass. Since he often initiates a lot of the Mavericks’ possessions even with Irving on the court, these sequences can add up.
James Harden, LA Clippers (+1000)
After being a one-man offense with the Houston Rockets, James Harden has leaned into being more of a facilitator during his stints with the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Clippers. With Paul George now a Sixer, Harden will be needed to be a more dominant scorer and facilitator. Harden is +1000 on DraftKings Sportsbook to be the NBA’s assists leader this season.
Without George in the lineup, Harden averaged 21.0 points and 9.8 assists in six games. Regardless, at this stage of his career, it doesn’t appear as though he will have enough of a workload to be an assist leader, but it remains to be seen what Clippers head coach Tyronn Lue intends to do with the team’s half-court offense.
Harden developed a strong pick-and-roll connection with Ivica Zubac, which should be utilized more heavily. It just remains to be seen if his usage will increase enough to go from averaging 8.5 assists per game, as he did overall last season, to being in the conversation for leading the NBA in this category.
Nikola Jokic, Denver Nuggets (+1500)
Coming off his third MVP season, Nikola Jokic is the leader on DraftKings Sportsbook to do it again at +350 odds. Additionally, he’s one of the top candidates to be the NBA’s assist leader at +1500 after averaging 9.0 assists per game last season. There are a few factors to consider about Jokic’s outlook.
The Nuggets lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Reggie Jackson this offseason, two players that ranked in the top five for players Jokic assisted last season. Caldwell-Pope managed to record three more shots assisted by Jokic than Jamal Murray. Christian Braun and Julian Strawther will need to fill this void.
Jokic doesn’t necessarily have as high of a usage rate as some of the NBA’s most prolific offensive players to keep up in the assists leaders race. At 28.8% usage, he fares substantially lower than other superstars in the mix, especially Doncic.
Longshot Contenders
After the top five candidates, there is a massive decline in outlook for the rest of the field. Next up, LaMelo Ball is +4000 on DraftKings Sportsbook to be the NBA’s assists leader despite playing 22 games last season and totaling 58 games played since 2022-23. It requires that combined total for Ball to even reach the minimum games played threshold for one season.
The only players with odds better than +10000 include LeBron James, Chris Paul and Cade Cunningham all being at +5000 — making them real long shot options. Paul has somewhat intriguing odds since he’s going to be throwing the ball to Victor Wembanyama, but he likely won’t play enough to lead everyone in assists. He did average 10.8 assists in 2021-22, but played 32.9 minutes per game. That’s a difference of 6.5 minutes per game compared to his workload in 2023-24.
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All odds provided by DraftKings Sportsbook and all odds subject to change.
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