Morning Coffee: Lillard trade shakes up NBA futures market at FanDuel

The long wait is over. After months of speculation, the Portland Trail Blazers finally traded Damian Lillard.

The biggest surprise isn’t the fact that Lillard was dealt on Wednesday. Instead, it’s the fact that he was traded to a team that few believed was even a legitimate contender to land the star point guard.

The Milwaukee Bucks were 49-to-1 to land Lillard at FanDuel.

To put that number in perspective, the Detroit Lions and Green Bay Packers both have shorter odds to win the Super Bowl at FanDuel right now.

The Lions and Packers are set to meet in a highly anticipated NFC North showdown at Lambeau Field on Thursday Night Football.

I’ve already locked in a FanDuel Best Bet for tonight’s NFL game.

More on that in just a minute.

First, let’s take a look at how the Lillard trade impacted the NBA futures market at FanDuel.

This is the Morning Coffee for Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023.

Lillard trade shakes up NBA futures market at FanDuel

After months of conflicting reports on where Lillard would eventually end up, the Trail Blazers ultimately traded one of the NBA’s top scorers to the Bucks as part of a three-team deal on Wednesday.

Portland acquired Jrue Holiday, DeAndre Ayton, and Milwaukee’s 2029 first-round pick in the deal.

The Phoenix Suns acquired Jusuf Nurkic, Grayson Allen, Nassir Little and Keon Johnson as the third team in the trade.

Six teams had shorter odds to acquire Lillard than the Bucks at FanDuel, including the Toronto Raptors.

The Heat were the betting favourite to land Lillard at -210 odds.

The Raptors were the second choice at +360 – the same odds that FanDuel gave Lillard to remain in Portland. Toronto’s odds to win the title jumped from 100-to-1 to 130-to-1 after they failed to land the star point guard.

The Philadelphia 76ers were +1600 to land Lillard. The Los Angeles Clippers were +2600. Even the Boston Celtics had shorter odds to acquire Lillard than Milwaukee at +3400.

None of that matters now.

The Bucks have emerged as the favourite to win the NBA championship at FanDuel following the acquisition of Lillard. Milwaukee’s odds to win it all were cut from +600 to +360 after the trade.

The Suns went from +650 to +600 as the third choice to win it all behind the Bucks and Celtics.

The defending NBA champion Denver Nuggets (+650) are the only other team with shorter than 10-to-1 odds to win the NBA Championship at FanDuel this morning.

A FanDuel Best Bet for Thursday Night Football

The Lions and Packers will compete for NFC North supremacy this season.

The Minnesota Vikings are 0-3. The Chicago Bears are 0-3. Detroit and Green Bay are tied for first place at 2-1.

The winner of tonight’s game will take a major step towards finishing in first place in the division.

The Lions have won three straight games in this series, including a Week 18 victory last season that eliminated Aaron Rodgers and the Packers from playoff contention.

Despite the fact that Detroit had already been eliminated from playoff contention, Dan Campbell was able to get his team up for that game.

In fact, Campbell has done a masterful job making sure his team is ready for division games, as the Lions have covered 10 straight games against NFC North opponents.

That’s tied for the longest divisional cover streak in the Super Bowl era.

On the other side, Matt LaFleur has done an excellent job leading Green Bay to a 2-1 start with Jordan Love at quarterback.

However, the Packers are really banged up right now.

David Bakhtiari, Elgton Jenkins and Jaire Alexander are all injured. Christian Watson is dealing with a hamstring injury but is expected to suit up tonight. Aaron Jones is also expected to play through an injury.

Green Bay opened as a 1.5-point favourite for tonight’s game, but with the majority of bets and stakes on the other side, the point spread has moved to Detroit -1.5.

I lean towards the Lions tonight, but for my FanDuel Best Bet, I’m going to lock in the following Same Game Parlay.

I’ll take Detroit +3.5 on the alt spread with Amon-Ra St. Brown to register 40-plus receiving yards at -130. St. Brown has averaged 7.0 catches for 91.7 yards on 9.3 targets this season.

He’s registered 70-plus receiving yards in each of the first three games.

Alexander is questionable with a back injury.

While both teams will want to run the football, Jared Goff has been excellent using play-action early on this season, and we might only need one big catch to put St. Brown over 40 receiving yards.

I give the Lions the slight edge on the road tonight. At the very least, they should keep this game close.

I’ll lock in a Same Game Parlay with the Lions +3.5 and St. Brown to record 40-plus receiving yards at -130 as my FanDuel Best Bet for Thursday Night Football.