NBA betting: One bet to make on every team - ESPN

The 2025-26 NBA season tips off Tuesday, and the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder are co-favorites to win the NBA championship (+270). Right behind them are the defending champion New York Knicks and upgraded Philadelphia 76ers, both at +900.

While not every team is a contender, every team still offers a chance to make a bet. We tasked NBA betting experts Andre Snellings and Eric Moody to sort through the possibilities and suggest a future bet on every team this season.

Odds by DraftKings and subject to change.

Bet: To make playoffs (-145), to win Southeast Division (+320)

The Hawks traded Trae Young on Jan. 7, and after that trade finished with a 29-15 regular-season record that was the seventh best in the NBA in that span. The Hawks then went up two games to one on the eventual champion New York Knicks in the playoffs, the only team to win two games against the Knicks this past postseason. The Hawks return their core that finished the season, led by budding star Jalen Johnson, and supplemented that with two contributors from the Oklahoma City Thunder championship team (Luguentz Dort and Aaron Wiggins) as well as a lottery pick in Kingston Flemings. They seem poised to continue to improve upon their strong finish.

Bet: OVER 51.5 wins (-105)

The Celtics are in a new regime after the Jaylen Brown trade, but in many ways this team is analogous to the one last season when Jayson Tatum was out. In both situations, they built a team around one of the two stars who have led them for the past near-decade. Last season, Brown led the Celtics to 56 wins. This season's team has better balance than last, with Mitchell Robinson brought in at center and Paul George, when healthy, as new additions to the rest of the core.