So you are interested in betting some WNBA future odds for the championship. Now, disregard whether you should ever bet future odds, as the book does get to hold your bet for about 4 months in the hopes that it wins. One thing to highly consider is there will be injuries that heavily effect some of these teams. Last year, if Sancho Lytle doesn’t get hurt there is a large chance Phoenix would have won the title. Angel McCourney’s injury greatly hurt Atlanta’s chances of winning the title just when they were rounding into form. While I don’t think they would have beaten Seattle with Angel, my guess is they would have beaten Washington. One thing to keep in mind when discussing the odds is the Cambage situation in Dallas. Nobody knows what is going to happen with her. Will she play? Will she stay? If they trade her who will it be to??? Just to give you an idea, if any of the top 5-6 teams were to acquire Cambage they would become the favorite.
So lets break down the teams and the odds I am using the odds from this site:
http://www.vegasinsider.com/wnba/odds/futures/
100:1 Indiana, New York- The answer to either of these teams is: NO. Poor coaching, poor management, poor talent. Tina Charles is a stud for New York but that is all they have. Indiana is the worst team in the league still. It’s not close.
60:1 Dallas, Chicago: Who knows with Dallas? Diggins is coming back from giving birth and will miss the first couple weeks of the season. Cambage says she will never play for them again. Cambage is not in training camp. If Cambage doesn’t play they have no chance. If Dallas were to somehow smooth it over and she were to play with Diggins they would be interesting. But they were the same team last year and barely made the playoffs. This bet is hard No for me. Chicago is going to be feisty this year and could sneak into the playoffs if DeShields take the next step. The buzz on Katie Lou Samuelson is hot. She is a shooter. They will be able to play Quigley and Samuelson. They have the most shooting in the league right now. The weakness for Chicago is interior defense, but Dolson was hurt last year and played poorly. If she could bounce back that would help. This could be a frisky bet as they do have some young players that might interest Dallas and they could acquire Cambage. I don’t hate a speculative bet on Chicago, but they would need Cambage to pull it together.
25:1 Minnesota Lynx: This makes no sense to me. Honestly they should be 100:1. Minnesota lost Maya Moore, Brunson isn’t playing this year, Whalen retired, Augustus is washed. Their guards are Lexi Brown, Danielle Robinson and Xmas Kelly. This is a bad team outside of Fowles.
15:1 Seattle Storm: Some people may see this line and think they can get the defending champs at 15:1. Well, Breanna Stewart is out for the year, so this is not a good deal. Stewart is a massive loss. I know some people are saying that still have Lloyd and Howard. I have a feeling a lot of Howard’s success was due to playing next to Stewart. Sue Bird is old, maybe if Canada takes a step forward. But I don’t buy it. This bet is a hard pass for me.
6:1 Atlanta Dream: Now we are talking about teams that could actually win the title. Angel McCourtney should return halfway through the year. Between her, Williams and Breeland they have the size in the front court to give any team trouble. I expect them to be the best defensive team in the league. I worry about their offense if Angel doesn’t make a full recovery. The only elite scorer they have is Hayes. They need Brittney Sykes to rebound from her off year. With the questions surrounding Angel and my worries about their offense I think I would pass on this bet.
6:1 Las Vegas Aces: This team has the last 3 first picks of the WNBA draft; they better be good. Aja Wilson is a star and will probably be a top 3 player in the league this year. Kelsey Plum took a huge step last year. Kayla McBride is an established star. Now they add Jackie Young. So what could possibly be wrong????? Simple answer: Bill Lambeer is the worst coach in the league. He runs an antiquated offensive system based on mid range jump shots. He has two players now that he loves to play: Sugar Rodgers and Tamara Young, who are checkers that Lambeer will no doubt give too many minutes too. If you believe talent can overcome awful coaching make the bet. They might be the most talented team in the league.
5:1 Phoenix Mercury: Taurasi is going to miss about 8 weeks to begin the year, Griner and Bonner will have to carry the load but Sancho Lytle is back. If not for Seattle they would have won the title last year. If they avoid the injury bug they are my pick to win the title this year, so I like this bet. But Taurasi and Bonner are not young and Griner has had injury problems in the past. The depth worries me as well, and I am not big on Briann January.
5:1 LA Sparks: This might be the team the public is on. Chelsea Gray, Candace Parker, Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike. However I am concerned Nneka was not great last year and age seems to be catching up on her. Chiney is on ESPN but I think the Sun are better without her. Chiney is a selfish player who refuses to acknowledge her weaknesses. I think it will be bad for chemistry. Gray could get annoyed having to defer. They have a lot of forecourt depth. I would imagine they make a trade for guard because they really don’t have a shooting guard right now, with Riqua Williams in jail.
5:1 Connecticut Sun: This team has a lot of young talent. I think trading away Chiney is addition by subtraction. I love their back court. I think Courtney Williams could become a star. They need Jonquel Jones to report in shape and ready to play this year as she struggled a ton last year. I am not a huge fan of the coach here either. He never shortens his bench when he needs too. But I like this team better than the Sparks.
5:2 Washington Mystics: Washington is the favorite. They went to the finals last year and now add Emma Messerman back from Europe. Natasha Cloud could become a star this year. EDD could be the best player in the league. Stewart was the best player in the league last year and her team won the title (sense a pattern?). Betting favorites can be lame but they are probably stronger favorites to win the league than the odds reflect.
Odds I like: Washington, Phoenix, Vegas, Connecticut
Odds I hate: Minnesota Seattle, LA
***Addendum*** With Cambage now traded to Vegas for basically nothing, that would eliminate any need to bet Chicago if they got her. Dallas might be the worst team in the league. Also Vegas is now heavy favorites to win the WNBA title. I would bet them heavily. Not even Lambeer can screw this up.