Betting on the Winner of the 2021 NBA Finals MVP Award

The 2021 NBA season will conclude with the NBA Finals this summer, and when the dust settles, we will have a new NBA Finals MVP. Or will we?

Should the Los Angeles Lakers power their way through the playoffs as the 7-seed and repeat as NBA champions, it could easily be LeBron James, who won last year’s trophy.

Not according to the sportsbooks, of course. The oddsmakers presently give King James the second-best odds to win the 2021 NBA Finals MVP award.

Who is first, and who will win the 2021 NBA Finals MVP? I tackle that and more in this 2021 NBA Finals MVP odds and prediction breakdown.

I will cut the most recent 2021 NBA Finals MVP odds off at the top-10. You can get the full list at BetOnline, but I’ll note some other odds as I go through the best bets to win the award this season.

So much can change on a daily and weekly basis in the NBA playoffs, though, so it’s not about what players are priced right now necessarily. It’s more about who stands out as a good bet, who is worth targeting right now, and which longshots are actually viable.

Looking at the 2021 NBA Finals MVP odds, KD is a mild surprise as the tentative favorite. I picked the Brooklyn Nets to win it all back in the preseason, but still.

It’s not that I don’t like him to win it, either (I do). It’s that I’m a little surprised the sportsbooks are pricing him here.

The Utah Jazz having zero players crack the top-10 is also a bit strange (they had the best record in the league), while just one Phoenix Suns option is in that group.

The Greek Freak also has the fifth best odds, and the 7th seeded Lakers have two guys in the top-10.

Do the latest 2021 NBA Finals MVP odds reflect how you should be betting? Do they indicate how the actual 2021 NBA Finals themselves may play out?

That is up to you to decide, but I’ll offer my insight by breaking down my favorite bets for this award.

Odds aside, I have my personal favorites to win the 2021 NBA Finals MVP. That’s attached to who I think actually can get there (and win), among other things.

To keep this list short and sweet to assist you in betting on the 2021 NBA Finals MVP, here are my three favorite bets for this wager.

KD has been my favorite for this award all year. The Nets were my pick to win the 2021 NBA Finals, they are the most loaded team in the east, and I don’t see anyone in the west stopping them.

Ipso facto, the Brooklyn Nets are winning the 2021 NBA Finals, barring something crazy like a freak injury. The only decision here is to figure out if Durant can hold off his two superstar teammates.

I think he can. Durant won two NBA Finals MVPs while with the stacked Golden State Warriors, and he was always the alpha in OKC with Russell Westbrook.

Durant is the best player the Nets have to offer, and Brooklyn is a great bet to win the title. I’m not super excited about him being the favorite in terms of odds, but I still agree with it.

If the Nets don’t win (and Durant isn’t the right call), the next guy to turn to is King James. The Lakers remain my favorite out of the west, as there just isn’t anything that tells me there is another team for sure better than them.

The only thing negative you can say about the Lake Show is that they are the 7-seed. That is a fraudulent seed, however, as Los Angeles was banged up all season.

LeBron James and Anthony Davis missed a combined 63 games, and the Lakers were one of the best teams in the Western Conference prior to them getting hurt.

Bettors also need to factor in fatigue going into the year. James is 36, and this entire Lakers team got a short break after making a title run.

With the Lakers rounding into form in the next week or so, I think we will see in a hurry that they’re still the team to beat. Once there, I can’t envision a reality where the most iconic active player in the NBA doesn’t get this award, provided the Lakers win the Finals.

You can absolutely argue that guys like Anthony Davis or another Nets star factor into the equation when betting on the 2021 NBA Finals MVP. I just don’t see it that way.

It’s KD or James, but if things go sideways and all of the talking heads are right, then perhaps you can get a little more bang for your buck with someone like The Greek Freak.

After all, a bunch of big names in the media have backed the Milwaukee Bucks to win it all this year; while Charles Barkley has guaranteed The Deer will at least get out of the east.

Charles Barkley calls the Brooklyn Nets "championship or bust." That being said …

"The Milwaukee Bucks are coming out of the East GUARANTEED!"

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— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) May 20, 2021

Chuck is notoriously bad at golf, gambling, and NBA Finals predictions, so I’d take his words with a massive grain of salt. That said, he has not been alone in his infatuation with the Bucks.

I get the interest, too. Brooklyn has struggled to stay healthy all year, the 76ers don’t really feel like the best team in the east, and Milwaukee made it to the Eastern Conference Finals the last time the playoffs weren’t in a bubble.

Giannis Antetokounmpo remains as freakish as advertised, and the Bucks got him a solid #2 option in Jrue Holiday. And if Milwaukee does run through the east, it’s pretty tough to imagine them winning a title without Antetokounmpo going off in the Finals.

The price is fantastic, and if the Bucks win it this year, The Greek Freak could prove to be an amazing bet for 2021 NBA Finals MVP. You just must believe they can, is all.

If you want to bet on who will win the 2021 NBA Finals MVP, you first have to decide who will win the NBA Finals.

The MVP always comes from the champion at the end of the year, so if you don’t think the Nets win it all, then don’t bet on KD. Even if you do, you do have to consider that massive stars like Kyrie Irving and James Harden are still sharing the court with him.

For me, I am just going to stick to my guns.

I predicted the Brooklyn Nets would win before the season began, and nothing they have done this year tells me that can’t happen. I will also take my chances with the best player the Nets have to offer – KD.

We literally don’t even know how good the Nets can be yet. Their three superstars have played a grand total of eight games together (5.8% of Brooklyn’s regular season games), and they’ve flashed the ability to tighten things up defensively.

I think he’s going to get trophy #3 this year.

King James and The Greek Freak are fun options as his top challengers, but Brooklyn is going to be too much to handle. Once in the big show, I think KD carries this team to the title.

Whether you like where my head is at or not, you can place bets on who will win the 2021 NBA Finals MVP. Just be sure to use the best NBA betting apps when doing so.