The Suns didn’t come close to living up to the hype last season, but we’ll see if the Big Three of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal can stay healthy and improve in their second season together. However, the Clippers had a pretty rough offseason. That has me fading them on their win total, and also fading them early in the season.
Phoenix Suns -4.5 (-110) — 1.5-units
The Clippers bowed out in the first-round of the playoffs last season, ending the run of their current core. Paul George is off to Philadelphia and Russell Westbrook is in Denver, which forced the Clippers to make some tweaks. While they did fine in shuffling around role players, the top end talent just isn’t enough to be considered a good team in the NBA at this point.
In the least surprising news you’ll hear to start the NBA season, Kawhi Leonard’s knee still is not game-ready. Kawhi will be sidelined indefinitely to start the season. That leaves James Harden as the go-to-guy to start the season, just a year after averaging 16.6 points per game. Harden is a shell of himself, and doesn’t have the talent he needs around him to carry the load.
While the Suns struggled last season, the talent is clearly there. A coaching change to Mike Budenholzer might help give the team the fresh start it needed, along with a floor general in Tyus Jones to keep things organized. Whatever the game plan on offense was last season, it didn’t work for Phoenix. I’m expecting much better spacing and a lot more open looks from downtown.
This feels like one of the more “obvious” or “public” sides of the night, along with the Bucks — and the betting splits on DK Network confirm it. But I think this one has blowout potential written all over it unless the Clippers get some huge contributions out of role players.
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All views expressed are my own. I am an employee of DraftKings and am ineligible to play in public DFS or DKSB contests.
The contents contained in this article do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skill and judgment.
