J. Kyle Mann

They just have enough signature wins on their resume.

They have the roster for it.

They're just like, especially by Eastern Conference standards, one of the most complete teams out there.

So it's not shocking to me that they're this high, but I would say it is a little surprising to me as we dig into this next group.

The Cavs at 9%, the Nuggets at 8%, the Knicks at 6%.

The Cavs are one of those teams that, for whatever reason, I feel like are always favored quite strongly by these sorts of odds mechanics.

I don't know what it is about the way that their season is going.

It's not like it was last year where they were just rattling off wins and the net rating was blowing the doors off and all these things.

They've had a good season.

They have a very impressive roster.

They have a strong core in particular that we've talked about and we talked about earlier this week.

Does it shock you at all, though, to see Cleveland at 9% of the Vegas title pie?

I think so, too.

And I think closer together, frankly, across this sort of tier in the Eastern Conference, including some teams that are a little further down, it's just one of those things where OKC is going to have 35-40% of the share to win the title.

That's going to depress what the Spurs are capable of.

That's keeping the Nuggets in this range.

And so...

So naturally, a lot of these other contenders like the Cavs, like the Celtics, like the Knicks are going to be, I think, clustered around each other just because there is so much more parity overall and sort of like whatever you consider the top tier of the East to be.

That brings us to our next kind of sub tier, which is the Pistons at 4%.

oof, like this is, I mean, that's tough considering how the highs, like the highs of their season to date.