Best Outsiders To Make The Playoffs – Odds, Tips & Predictions

Entering the All-Star weekend, there is about one-third of the regular season remaining, and competition for seeds is hot in both Conferences. Well, not so much right up the top – both the Cavaliers and in particular the Thunder have comprehensive leads atop the East and West respectively, but lower down there is still plenty of water to go under the bridge before we know who will qualify for the playoffs, who will be thrown into the Play-In Tournament, and who will be sent to a premature beginning to the offseason. This far into the season there are plenty of teams that are already as good as locked into the postseason and no value presents for them with any betting sites to make playoffs as a result, but with a lot of teams battling for similar spots, there is plenty of opportunity elsewhere. Take a look at our three best value bets to make the playoffs in both the Eastern and Western Conferences below.

Atlanta Hawks

It wasn’t all that long ago that it all seemed to be coming together for the Hawks. They’d got their record to 22-19 on the back of a strong run of form, and a really intriguing young core featuring the likes of Jalen Johnson, Deandre Hunter, Dyson Daniels, Onyeka Okongwu and Zaccharie Risacher was forming around Trae Young. Then they went and lost eight games in a row, traded Hunter to Sacramento, while Johnson suffered a season-ending injury to throw their postseason hopes into disarray. The absence of both Johnson and Hunter will be massive for this team – Johnson was having a brilliant year and was arguably their most important player, while Hunter was making a very strong case to be Sixth Man of the Year with an incredibly consistent scoring season off the bench.

But all is not lost just yet. Though they are no doubt a worse team without those two players on the floor, there is still a bit to like about the Hawks. For all his flaws, Young is an excellent floor general, Daniels is perhaps the premier perimeter defender in the league, Okongwu is a talented young centre while Caris Levert will go some way to filling the void left by Hunter off the bench. Heading into the All-Star break the Hawks had won four of their last six and remained in 8th spot, and the teams they are fighting against for those last couple of spots in the playoffs are not exactly world beaters. It would take a remarkable drop-off for Atlanta to miss the Play-In Tournament and they are still some hope of finishing in the top six, and at better than even money odds with most international betting sites they look like one of the better value outsiders to make the postseason.

What brings them here? The Hawks were not offering much value a few weeks ago in this market, but some poor form and a couple of key personnel losses have seen their odds blow out.

What could hold them back? The Hawks might struggle to finish top six in the East, and while they will likely be favoured to make it through the Play-In Tournament, it only takes a loss or two for seasons to be ended in that tournament. 

Injury report. As mentioned, Jalen Johnson is out for the season with a torn labrum in a massive blow, Vit Krejci will be out til around mid-March, Larry Nance Jr til a couple of weeks after that, while in better news Clint Capela should be ready to go post All-Star break after missing a few games.

Bet on the Hawks to make the playoffs @ $2.55 with PlayUp

Philadelphia 76ers

The 76ers are running out of time to make anything of a season which promised so much, but with Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey and Paul George running around they can’t be discounted just yet. Injuries have obviously wreaked havoc with their season, but Joel Embiid returned just prior to the All-Star break while the other two have now been healthy for a while. Embiid needs to get a few miles in his legs and doesn’t look athletically capable of playing at his previously MVP-worthy level, but he is still capable of being a dominant force if he can get a little continuity under his belt. George is a shadow of his former self, but with the dramatic improvement of Maxey he doesn’t need to play all that significant a role on offence for this team.

And it’s not as though they are all that far back. The Sixers entered the All-Star break with a really disappointing 20-34 record, but in the Eastern Conference that is still good enough to have them just two games back from a Play-In spot. They have way more talent than the teams above them – certainly more than the Bulls, and realistically more than each of the Heat, Hawks, even the Pistons and Magic. Of course, talent isn’t everything and the Sixers need a) to stay healthy and b) for the likes of Embiid and George to find some form and continuity. But they have the fourth easiest run home as far as their schedule is concerned, and still plenty of time to make up the games required to make the Play-In Tournament. If they get there and are healthy, they could easily be favourites against any potential opposition, which makes the $3.50 on offer for them to make the postseason on offer with sites like Bet365 look very appealing.

What brings them here? The Sixers created an unexpected Big Two last season when Maxey improved out of sight, and the addition of George this offseason gave them a really potent trio in their starting lineup. Injuries have limited their potential, but this team still has plenty of it.

What could hold them back? Injuries. These have been a major problem all season and Embiid not playing or being particularly healthy when he does sets them back a long way, and his continued absence has not helped. Any injuries to he or Maxey in the run home could spell disaster.

Injury report. Impressive rookie Jared McCain has long been out for the season, while Maxey and Embiid have missed games here and there in the lead-in to the All-Star break – though not with anything major. Eric Gordon and Kyle Lowry have also been missing games but are close to being ready entering the break.

Bet on the 76ers to make the playoffs @ $3.50 with PlayUp

Chicago Bulls

The Bulls have been a pretty average team all season – for many seasons, in fact – and they probably got even worse when they traded away Zach LaVine without getting all that much in return. Not that it was a bad trade – they weren’t going anywhere with LaVine and his contract running the show, but in terms of their playoff hopes this season it probably did some damage. But still – the Bulls are in a Play-In Tournament spot entering the All-Star break, so the massive odds that you can find on the betting apps are certainly worth considering.

That said, the Bulls are in free-fall. Their last four games prior to the break yielded four losses by a massive average of 27 points, with each of them coming by at least 18 points. That’s not particularly good and doesn’t exactly instil a lot of confidence in their ability to stay inside the top ten over the remainder of the season. Realistically, there is a good chance that they won’t, and even if they do it’s hard to imagine them winning the probably two games that they need to in order to make it through to the playoffs. But betting isn’t about what’s most likely to happen – it’s about value, and $23 is a massive number for a team that is currently sitting right on the edge of a playoff spot two-thirds of the way into the season. More likely than not the Bulls won’t make it, but for a massive outsider they are at least in with a shot.

What brings them here? The Bulls have hovered around the middle of the Eastern Conference for years now, which invariably makes them worthy of consideration in this market.

What could hold them back? The fact that they simply aren’t very good. Already that was the case with LaVine there, and now their lack of top-end talent is amplified even further.

Injury report. The Bulls have a few injuries floating around, with Lonzo Ball and Patrick Williams the major names on their injury list, though nothing likely to be too long-term.

Bet on the Bulls to make the playoffs @ $23.00 with PlayUp

Golden State Warriors

The Warriors have had a topsy-turvy season so far. They started it really impressively with 11 wins from their first 14 games, and that probably set expectations a little too high for a team which realistically is in an awkward in-between state – half trying to extend their glory days, half trying to rebuild. They were unsurprisingly unable to maintain anything like that rate of winning and have tumbled down the Western Conference standings over the past few months, but a trade on the eve of the All-Star break might just prove to be just what they needed to breathe a little bit of life into their season.

The acquisition of Jimmy Butler at the expense of, among other pieces, a key member of their 2022 championship team in Andrew Wiggins, makes the Warriors incredibly old. Their core trio is now 36 (Steph Curry), 35 (Butler) and 34 (Draymond Green). But it also signals an intent to win now, which means you can be sure the Warriors will be doing everything in their power to make the playoffs this season. And the early returns with Butler have been good – he was a shadow of his former self in Miami this season but is playing like the Butler of old since heading to San Francisco, while Curry is playing with a renewed vigour with a heightened prospect of achieving something this season. Old they may be, but the Warriors clearly think they have what it takes to make the playoffs and potentially even do some damage while there, and the early returns with Butler on their team suggests that the nearly even money odds for them to make the postseason are pretty tantalising.

What brings them here? The Warriors have been losing more than they have been winning for months now, but the acquisition of Butler may just help to turn things around for them.

What could hold them back? Any team as old as the Warriors invariably has to worry about injuries, while there is also no guarantee the Curry/Butler/Green/and a bunch of youngsters experiment will work, even if the early signs are promising.

Injury report. Jonathan Kuminga will be re-evaluated during the All-Star break following an ankle injury.

Bet on the Warriors to make the playoffs @ $1.86 with PlayUp

Sacramento Kings

Speaking of topsy-turvy seasons, the Kings have had one of the more tumultuous 2024-25 ones to date. They’ve hovered around mid-table in the West for most of it, but they’ve gone through an eight-game losing streak which culminated in the sacking of former Coach of the Year Mike Brown, a subsequent major uptick in form, then the trading of their star point guard De’Aaron Fox – with Zach LaVine coming across from Chicago as a not-quite-like-for-like replacement. The result entering All-Star break is a 28-27 record, enough to see them sitting precariously in 9th spot, just three games back from a coveted top six spot but only two games clear of the dreaded 11th. So what are their prospects over the remainder of the season? 

The Kings do have plenty of offensive talent – Sabonis is a perennial borderline All-Star, while Malik Monk, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine round out a really offensively talented quartet. The early signs with LaVine in the fray and Fox out of it have been mixed – in the lead-up to the break after the former Bull joined them they went 3-3, losing their first couple, winning three in a row, then going down in overtime to the Pelicans. With a lot of ball-dominant players it will inevitably take a little while to work out, but the talent is there and the Kings are right in the hunt for a playoff spot. In a competitive Western Conference they have a lot of good teams to beat in order to get there and with the talented Suns sitting in 11th, falling out of the Play-In Tournament remains a threat. But the Kings will most likely make at worst that tournament, with a slim hope of making it straight through to the playoffs. They should be able to keep themselves in what will be a very tight tussle for spots in the postseason in the West, and their odds of over $3 look too long given where they are at.

What brings them here? The Kings have been right around mid-table all season long, and even with Fox now gone, the acquisition of LaVine means they have more than enough offensive talent to stay right in the mix.

What could hold them back? There are a lot of ball-dominant players on this team, which doesn’t always result in great success. With limited time to work things out, the Kings might not have the cohesion required to win as much as they need in the run to the playoffs.

Injury report. The Kings are looking good on the injury front, with nothing to report as of mid-February.

Bet on the Kings to make the playoffs @ $3.25 with PlayUp

Phoenix Suns

For all of their talent, the Suns are one of the more disappointing teams in the NBA. And this far into the Devin Booker/Kevin Durant/Bradley Beal experiment, it’s increasingly looking like they are just not all that good. Call me stubborn, but I continue to find that hard to believe. Maybe they aren’t championship contenders, but a team with two of the best offensive players in the game and another very good one should be better than the 11th ranked offensive team in the league, and really shouldn’t be sitting in the bottom five in the Western Conference. Granted it’s a very deep Conference and they are terrible defensively, but the Suns still sit less than two games out of a Play-In spot with just under 30 to go.

Unfortunately, things have not exactly been trending in the right direction for Phoenix, who lost six of their last seven games prior to the All-Star break. But perhaps that break is just what they need. Kevin Durant, after apparently being dangled to just about every team in the league over the trade period, made it clear he wanted to stay put, so there must still be some level of belief among this group even if the results are not justifying it. Also going against the Suns is the fact that they have the hardest remaining schedule in the league, but for all of those concerns, I can’t help but think that they look like really good value at close to $5. Particularly with the Mavericks likely to struggle after the Luka Doncic trade and subsequent Anthony Davis injury, the Suns are every chance of jumping into a Play-In spot, and those games in the West look likely to be tight ones. The Suns are as good a chance as anyone as winning them, and at longer odds look like one of the better value bets in this market.

What brings them here? Well, the Suns have two elite offensive players in Durant and Booker, and Beal is not half bad either. There is clearly a lack of balance on the team and defence is an issue, but talent-wise the Suns are easily good enough to play in the postseason.

What could hold them back? As mentioned, defence is a major Achilles heel, while a lack of cohesion, depth and balance means they are lower rated offensively than they probably should be.

Injury report. Beal missed a few games prior to the break with a toe injury while Booker and Grayson Allen missed one too, but none of those concerns will keep those players sidelined long.

Bet on the Suns to make the playoffs @ $4.75 with PlayUp

There are options aplenty in this market. Virtually all betting sites in Australia have eight teams in the Eastern Conference and seven teams in the Western Conference as virtually unbackably short to appear in the postseason, but there is plenty of time and opportunity for the teams mentioned above to make moves of their own. All of the six teams mentioned have the capacity to play in the postseason, but to me the 76ers are the standout value bet in the Eastern Conference, and the Suns the standout overall. Both of those are based on the fact that the talent of those two teams belies their results so far this season, and the Suns in particular look like great value at nearly $5. With Durant and Booker capable of taking things up a notch with their season on the line and a couple of teams above them looking vulnerable, Phoenix is every chance of climbing their way into a Play-In Tournament position, and they will not be an easy team to beat if they do.