The New Orleans Pelicans are hoping to get a full season out of Zion Williamson, as he has only played 85 games in his career after missing all of last season with a foot injury.
The early indications are good, as Zion showed up to media day looking slim and talked about “moving faster” and “jumping higher” than he ever has.
Early footage backs this up, as Zion is looking a lot faster in practice and happy to be doing what he does best instead of having to watch from the sidelines.
If Zion Williamson can stay healthy, he’s one of the best scorers in the NBA and is a guy who could put together the type of season that gets MVP votes.
Of course, an MVP season for Zion is still a long shot, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth a small bet, especially with odds this high.
New Orleans Pelicans: Zion Williamson’s MVP odds make for a nice value bet
According to WynnBET, Zion Williamson’s MVP odds are +4000, tied for 12th with Kawhi Leonard. That means that a $25.00 bet would earn the better $1,000, which is not a bad pay day.
Zion’s odds were slightly better than Anthony Davis, another Uber-talented player who has a hard time staying on the court.
The Zion MVP bet is a value bet for a couple of reasons. The first is that if Zion blows up in the first few weeks of the season and immediately starts scoring 30+ points per game (which is entirely possible), those odds are going to drop fast. A lot of the players ahead of him in the odds have been injury prone themselves, so there is nothing certain and these might be the best odds you see all season.
The other reason is that the New Orleans Pelicans’ odds of winning the title are +3000, and for that to happen, Zion would almost certainly have to play the whole season and put up huge numbers. If you think the Pels have an outside chance at an NBA title, then you may as well make the Zion MVP bet and get the better odds because the two go hand-in-hand.
It’s still a long shot bet for a reason. Zion has a long way to go to prove he can stay on the floor for a whole season. The Pelicans would also need to improve drastically as a team and for Zion to be the primary reason for him to have a shot.
But if you’ve got an extra 10 bucks laying around and live in a place where such things are legal, it might be worth putting a wager on Zion.