NBA odds: How Marcus Smart's Defensive Player of the Year odds moved this season

With the NBA playoffs underway, award season is here! The first award of the year was given out to Boston Celtics’ Marcus Smart, who won the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) award. 

Smart is the first point guard to win the award since Gary Payton in 1996, and the fifth guard to win overall. Given this historic win, and the fact that Smart was a long shot to win the award, we decided to look at his victory from a gambling perspective. 

This NBA season started just like the last one ended with the 2021 DPOY winner, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert, holding the shortest odds to become the repeat winner of the award. On the other hand, Smart was a forgotten dark horse. We spoke to FOX Bet Trader Dylan Brossman for his thoughts on the odds race during the preseason. 

"This year’s NBA DPOY market was filled with volatility, with multiple players taking turns leading the race throughout the season," he said before continuing, "Jazz Center Rudy Gobert entered the year as the favorite (+300) after winning the award in three of the previous four years. Marcus Smart (+20000) was a long shot to say the least — and for good reason: the last time a guard won the award was in 1996."

As the season began the Boston Celtics started out poorly, finding themselves at 18-21 by the first week of January, with their title odds behind more than half the teams in the Association. Smart’s odds were at their lowest point in the season at that point as well, lengthening even further than they were in the preseason. 

However, as we always say about the NBA, things change fast. The Celtics turned their season around going 33-10 the remainder of the way as their defense rose to the top of the league in defensive rating, opponent field goal percentage and opponent three-point percentage. This turnaround led to Boston’s title odds shortening from +6000 at the end of January to +750 currently.  

Normally guarding the opposing team's best perimeter scorers, Smart set the tone for a team heavy on grit and hustle. The biggest spark plug of the defense, he had 200 deflections, 75 loose balls recovered and 16 charges to go along with 3.2 defensive rebounds and 1.68 steals a game. His tenacious defense and great positional containment would make the Glove proud. 

Similar to Boston’s title chances, Smart saw his odds for DPOY shorten from +20000 in the preseason to +5000 on March 1, and then even further to +1500 on April 1. By April 12 with Boston the East’s second seed and the season turnaround completed, he was the overwhelming favorite to win the award at -250.

Smart won with 37 first-place votes while Mikal Bridges came in second with 22 first-place votes. Gobert came in third with 12 first-place votes.

While Gobert may have lost his chance for a second back-to-back DPOY win (he won in 2018 and 2019, in addition to 2021) because he doesn’t offer as interesting of a narrative, Brossman isn’t shedding any tears. 

"Ultimately, Smart winning DPOY was a great result for us. The few people bold enough to back Smart at such lofty prices did so with minimal effect on our sportsbook," Brossman exclaimed. 

Giannis Antetokounmpo (+600) and Bam Adebayo (+900) were the other preseason faves that got a lot of action and ultimately came up short.  

"We laid plenty of action on the preseason faves, and we did not see large amounts of money come in on Smart as we trimmed his odds late in the season," Brossman concluded.

If any of you gamblers out there had put $10 bucks down on those preseason odds you would have returned a hefty $2,010! Who said good defense wasn’t rewarded?  

So there you have it. Your 2022 DPOY Marcus Smart is now trying to shut down the highly-potent Kevin Durant, with spot-duty on the man many consider to be one of the shiftiest guards in history, Kyrie Irving. If you like the Celtics to continue their torrid pace, make sure to place your bets over at FOX Bet!

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