*** -- PROCESSING Your Philadelphia 76ers -- ***

What about NBA Finals and — especially! — title odds?

But enough about fringe teams that are battling for the right to be overmatched in the first round. Let’s talk about the contenders.

In terms of Finals odds, the biggest beneficiaries of the new format are the aforementioned Sixers, who gained 7 percentage points compared with their standing in March. That is essentially owed to an easy schedule and Simmons’s return to health. The third-year former No. 1 overall pick is one of the league’s most polarizing players, but RAPTOR still considers him extremely valuable (with the 30th-best per-possession rating of anyone logging at least 1,500 minutes). In turn, that change helped drop the Bucks’ chances of winning the East by 8 percentage points — though they remain conference favorites in our revised model, with a 36 percent Finals probability.4 When we re-ran the model, the Celtics‘ probability of making the Finals increased by a percentage point with a healthy Kemba Walker and Jaylen Brown.

[Related: The Best NBA Players This Season, According To RAPTOR]

Out West, improved Finals odds belong to the Lakers (up 3 percentage points) and Mavericks (+1). L.A. will be without Avery Bradley for the restart — it signed J.R. Smith to pick up the slack, which should be fun — but the model has some Lakers rated higher than either Bradley or Smith actually gaining the missing minutes. Meanwhile, Dallas is a highly interesting team for its own reasons, led by Luka Dončić’s off-the-charts offensive stats. Both of those gains came at the expense of the Rockets (down 2 percentage points), Clippers (-1) and Nuggets (-1), though L.A.’s other top contender remains the second-most likely team to win the West, with a 38 percent chance to make the Finals.

Finally, we get to the championship probabilities. They changed in similar fashion to the Finals odds — the Sixers (up 4 percentage points) and Lakers (+3) gained, while the Bucks (-5) and Clippers (-1) lost ground.

But overall, the NBA championship picture looks pretty similar to how it did back in March: The Lakers are still favorites, with the Clippers and Bucks sitting behind them. The Sixers have gained ground; the small-ball Rockets, Celtics, defending-champion Raptors (remember them?) and Nuggets are hanging around the periphery of the title race. We lost a few interesting storylines, though, and there is less certainty that we’ll end up with the true best team as champion.

There’s also no way to predict how the league’s bubble plan will fare when real people get placed into it and are expected to live their lives and play high-level basketball at the same time. But if the logistics work, the finish to this strange NBA campaign should be just as intriguing as promised at the start of the season, long before we knew what 2020 had in store for the world.

Poncier said:

RAPTOR probably hasn't seen Joel Embiid's post shut down 4 months of eating nothing but pie and cake body though.

cutz said:

show previous quotes

The Juggler said:

Sixers odds increased the most--

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-winners-and-losers-in-our-updated-nba-forecast/

What about NBA Finals and — especially! — title odds?

But enough about fringe teams that are battling for the right to be overmatched in the first round. Let’s talk about the contenders.

In terms of Finals odds, the biggest beneficiaries of the new format are the aforementioned Sixers, who gained 7 percentage points compared with their standing in March. That is essentially owed to an easy schedule and Simmons’s return to health. The third-year former No. 1 overall pick is one of the league’s most polarizing players, but RAPTOR still considers him extremely valuable (with the 30th-best per-possession rating of anyone logging at least 1,500 minutes). In turn, that change helped drop the Bucks’ chances of winning the East by 8 percentage points — though they remain conference favorites in our revised model, with a 36 percent Finals probability.4 When we re-ran the model, the Celtics‘ probability of making the Finals increased by a percentage point with a healthy Kemba Walker and Jaylen Brown.

[Related: The Best NBA Players This Season, According To RAPTOR]

Out West, improved Finals odds belong to the Lakers (up 3 percentage points) and Mavericks (+1). L.A. will be without Avery Bradley for the restart — it signed J.R. Smith to pick up the slack, which should be fun — but the model has some Lakers rated higher than either Bradley or Smith actually gaining the missing minutes. Meanwhile, Dallas is a highly interesting team for its own reasons, led by Luka Dončić’s off-the-charts offensive stats. Both of those gains came at the expense of the Rockets (down 2 percentage points), Clippers (-1) and Nuggets (-1), though L.A.’s other top contender remains the second-most likely team to win the West, with a 38 percent chance to make the Finals.

Finally, we get to the championship probabilities. They changed in similar fashion to the Finals odds — the Sixers (up 4 percentage points) and Lakers (+3) gained, while the Bucks (-5) and Clippers (-1) lost ground.

Which NBA teams’ odds changed?

Largest change in championship odds since the league paused play in march, according to the FiveThirtyEight model, for NBA teams that had at least a 1 percent chance to make the Finals (either before or after the pause)

		FINALS ODDS			TITLE ODDS
TEAM	CONF.	PRE-PAUSE	CURRENT	CHANGE	PRE-PAUSE	CURRENT	CHANGE
76ers	East	26%	33%	+7	10%	14%	+4
Lakers	West	41	44	+3	27	30	+3
Mavericks	West	<1	1	+1	<1	<1	0
Celtics	East	20	21	+1	6	6	0
Raptors	East	9	9	0	2	2	0
Nuggets	West	4	3	-1	1	1	0
Rockets	West	14	12	-2	7	7	0
Clippers	West	39	38	-1	26	25	-1
Bucks	East	44	36	-8	20	15	-5

But overall, the NBA championship picture looks pretty similar to how it did back in March: The Lakers are still favorites, with the Clippers and Bucks sitting behind them. The Sixers have gained ground; the small-ball Rockets, Celtics, defending-champion Raptors (remember them?) and Nuggets are hanging around the periphery of the title race. We lost a few interesting storylines, though, and there is less certainty that we’ll end up with the true best team as champion.

There’s also no way to predict how the league’s bubble plan will fare when real people get placed into it and are expected to live their lives and play high-level basketball at the same time. But if the logistics work, the finish to this strange NBA campaign should be just as intriguing as promised at the start of the season, long before we knew what 2020 had in store for the world.

For me it's not even the 2019-2020 Season anymore. 4 1/2 Months off is almost what  teams have off during a Normal season. (before the next season starts)

This setup is more like a glorified AAU Tournament except they will play Best of 7.  

I agree there's almost  no way to predict how this will play out. 

cutz said:

https://twitter.com/NBCSPhilly/status/1281301054974496769?s=09

https://twitter.com/bluewirepods/status/1281308935669141504