Making futures bets before the NBA season can be a lot like shopping at a flea market. Sure, you may find some hidden gems buried beneath the clutter, but mostly it’s a whole lot of porcelain cats and paintings of Elvis on black velvet.
The sheer volume of offerings and range of prices can be dizzying, which is why we enlisted the help of ChatGPT. We turned to the generative AI platform and asked for its help identifying the best deals for many of the league’s most talked about awards and events.
It dutifully dove into reams of data and recent trends and cast aside the trinkets and baubles in favor of bankable bets whose value will increase as the season marches on.
Here are ChatGPT's six favorite NBA picks for the upcoming 2025-26 season.
Want to make sure Covers shows up often in your Google search results and Discover feed?
Simply click here and add Covers as one of your "source preferences".
NBA futures bets
| Category | Selection |  |
|---|---|---|
| NBA Champion |  Denver Nuggets |
+700 |
| NBA Cup Champion |  Cleveland Cavaliers |
+650 |
| MVP |  Giannis Antetokounmpo |
+1000 |
| Defensive Player of the Year |  Victor Wembanyama |
-180 |
| Rookie of the Year |  Ace Bailey |
+900 |
| Scoring Leader |  Jaylen Brown |
+2500 |
Odds courtesy of bet365.
NBA Champion
Pick: Denver Nuggets (+700 at bet365)
Oklahoma City rightly sits near the top of every book after a title run and an MVP season from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. But the number is short almost everywhere, which pushes me to a team with comparable ceiling and a friendlier payout: Denver.
Nikola Jokić remains the league’s most reliable playoff engine, and the Nuggets’ depth—shaky a year ago—looks steadier with internal development and role clarity around Jamal Murray, Aaron Gordon, Cam Johnson, and a healthy frontcourt rotation.
Denver has already solved the 16-win puzzle, and their half-court offense scales in May when whistles tighten and possessions slow. With OKC priced at or near the shortest number across major boards, you’re paying a premium for perfection; the Nuggets often sit a tier lower in the market, offering more forgiving exposure to a top-two Western outcome and home-court in at least two rounds.
I’ll fade the chalk and take the proven playoff floor with real Finals equity.
NBA Cup Champion
Pick: Cleveland Cavaliers (+650 at bet365)
The NBA Cup plays closer to a March-Madness-lite environment, producing mini-sample chaos that rewards shot creation, rim protection, and guard play under pressure.
Enter Cleveland.
Markets have the Cavs among the more serious contenders for the 2025 Cup, and their profile is ideal for a weekend sprint: Donovan Mitchell can win two games by himself, Evan Mobley gives you scheme-agnostic defense, and the rotation is switchable enough to survive unfamiliar opponents on short prep.
The Cup’s volatility is your edge. Books still shade toward full-season power ratings, but one hot shooting night lands you in Vegas with a coin-flip final. If you want an even spicier sprinkle, the Orlando Magic (+1400) are a fun live dog with defense, pace, and young legs that travel.
In a market designed for variance, we’re buying ceiling and clutch-guard equity, not eight months of regular-season robustness.
NBA MVP
Pick: Giannis Antetokounmpo (+1000 at bet365)
Books have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokić as clear favorites, and deservedly so, but Giannis Antetokounmpo at +1000 jumps off the screen.
The narrative runway is wide: voters love a bounce-back arc, and an all-NBA two-way monster leading a retooled Bucks attack checks every box (Top-3 seed, gaudy advanced metrics, nightly highlights). The 65-game rule actually helps him relative to older stars; he’s historically durable enough to clear it, and when he plays, the regular-season on/off impact is massive.
The pathway: Milwaukee pops to a Top-2 East record, Giannis posts something like 30/12/6 with elite efficiency, and voter fatigue shifts from Jokić/SGA to “best player on a 60-win team.”
At double-digit odds, you’re buying a plausible top-three finish with real win equity if the Bucks’ defense rebounds. I’m not fading SGA/Jokić talent; I’m fading price. Take the longer tag and enjoy weekly CLV as the Bucks rack up wins.
NBA Defensive Player of the Year
Pick: Victor Wembanyama (-180 at bet365)
Victor Wembanyama is the smartest DPOY bet because market, metrics, and eye test align. bet365 has him a clear favorite, signaling separation.
Voter perception is primed: preseason polls cast him as the league’s defensive boogeyman. The data matches the hype as he led the NBA in blocks as a rookie on a messy Spurs team, and film shows deterrence: late closes on shooters, verticality at the rim, and enough lateral range to erase mistakes.
The path is simple: clear the 65-game rule, lift San Antonio’s defense toward average, and maintain year-long havoc—blocks, contests, and shots never taken because he’s nearby.
Unlike wing stoppers tied to matchup narratives, Wemby offers box-score proof that travels well. With sportsbooks, media, and execs treating him as the standard, team improvement should unlock the trophy.
In a market that rewards rim protection, his timing, length, and switch agility make him the likely winner and the best pick.
NBA Rookie of the Year
Pick: Ace Bailey (+900 at bet365)
Cooper Flagg is a firm favorite in the ROY market, which is fair, given usage and hype. But favorites at minus money in October can be fragile.
My value dart is Ace Bailey (+900). Why? Role plus tape.
Bailey projects to step into immediate wing minutes with freedom to score in space, and he offers the kind of counting-stat mix (points + rebounds + stocks) that resonates with ROY voters even if the efficiency wobbles early.
Historically, ROY is less picky about team wins than MVP; opportunity and box-score pop matter more. Flagg will be awesome, but he’ll also share touches on a team navigating a new pecking order, and the physical grind of 82 games introduces variance for every 19-year-old.
At +900, you’re getting a pathway where Bailey averages roughly 18-7 with highlight defensive flashes and enough nightly volume to stay on the front page. That’s a live ticket at a friendly price.
NBA regular season scoring leader
Pick: Jaylen Brown (+2500 at bet365)
Jaylen Brown is a proven 25–27 PPG scorer who can spike into the 40s on any given night, and his shot diet—transition bursts, bully drives, and a steady stream of pull-up mid-range—translates to reliable volume rather than streaky, all-threes dependency.
The path to the crown is straightforward:
- He plays 72–76 games.
- His usage nudges up a couple of points as the Celtics manage minutes across the top of the roster.
- He leans into a few extra free throws per game by hunting contact early in clocks.
Boston’s spacing gives him single coverage more often than most No. 1 options, and the schedule math works in his favor with lots of second units and cross-matches where he’s the best athlete on the floor.
You don’t need him to lap Shai or Giannis on per-possession dominance; you just need volume, health, and a handful of heater weeks. At +2500, that’s a bet I’m happy to make.
Betting notes that save bankrolls
- Price sensitivity over pick pride. Being “right” on OKC at +200 can be less profitable than being “almost right” on Denver at a bigger price if those tickets run similarly deep into June. Futures are math problems disguised as fandom.
- Narrative is a market input. MVP isn’t purely an efficiency leaderboard. Giannis at +1000 has a clean story if Milwaukee storms the East. That’s embedded value, not wishcasting.
- Rookies are variance machines. Avoid laying heavy juice in October. If you love Flagg, consider pairing with a small Bailey hedge to smooth the season.
- Cup = chaos. Treat it like a mini-tournament. Shortening rotations plus neutral-site shooting luck widens outcomes. Teams with one elite guard and Top-10 defense (Cleveland, Orlando) punch above full-season power ratings.
Have fun, shop numbers, and remember: in futures betting, the goal isn’t to predict the future perfectly, it’s to buy the most plausible futures at the best possible prices.
