Las Vegas weighs in on 2018-19 Atlanta Hawks

The NBA off-season is in the dog days but, on Sunday, an infusion of energy arrived in the form of an annual tradition. Each year, the Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook weighs in with season win total projections for all 30 teams and the release occurred on Aug. 5 with the Atlanta Hawks landing with an over/under of 23.5 victories.

As you can see above, the Hawks have the lowest projection in the league by two full games, trailing the Sacramento Kings (25.5), Chicago Bulls (27.5), Phoenix Suns (28.5) and New York Knicks (29.5) among teams with fewer than 30 projected wins.

Of course, these numbers are “for entertainment purposes only” in a few locations (like Georgia) but there is particular intrigue for handicappers that want to put their hard-earned money (or jelly beans) behind basketball analysis. Beyond that, there is sure to be plenty of discussion surrounding the 23.5-win number for Atlanta, particularly among Hawks fans that just might be more optimistic than that.

In addition, there is another way to evaluate NBA teams at WestGate and that is ability to wager on whether each team makes the postseason. For the Hawks, a playoff appearance would return 15-1 odds for investors, whereas a person would have to pay a heavy price to bet on Atlanta to miss the postseason.

In all honesty, the 23.5-win number seems a little low, especially with projection systems consistently pegging Atlanta for more victories. With that said, there could be some disaster potential if the Hawks elect to “sell” on veterans like Kent Bazemore and Dewayne Dedmon within the confines of the season and this is a (very) young basketball team that could be prone to struggles.

The comments below can, as always, be used for cordial discussion but this particular off-season event always seems to produce all kinds of viewpoints.

Stay tuned.