The 2026-27 NBA season tips off with three fantastic games on Tuesday, October 20. If you haven’t already downloaded it, make sure you check out the 2026-27 VSiN NBA Betting Guide. That’s where you’ll find in-depth breakdowns on all 30 teams, best bets from our VSiN hosts and analysts, and power ratings for every single team. That’s where I posted most of my futures for the 2026-27 season. However, since publishing that guide, I have gotten to the window with a few others. I’ll run through all of them below.
Yaxel Lendeborg To Make All-Rookie First Team (+150 – 1.5 units)
Aday Mara To Make All-Rookie First Team (10-1 – 0.25 units)
Many believe AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, and Caleb Wilson will end up being All-Rookie First Team selections. However, that leaves one spot open to the rest of the rookie class, and there’s always a chance one of those top-four players underperforms or suffers an injury. With that in mind, this is a market I’m interested in.
Lendeborg seems to have a great shot at delivering this year. After leading the Summer Warriors to a title in Vegas, he averaged 15.6 points, 7.4 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.8 blocks in 23.1 minutes per game in the preseason. He’s going to be a starter for a Golden State team that begins the year without Jimmy Butler and Kristaps Porzingis, meaning he’ll be asked to contribute immediately. Lendeborg should respond in a big way, as he has very few holes in his game and proved himself to be a winner at Michigan. There could be some sneaky Rookie of the Year potential here, but I’ll take the +150 for him to be a top-five rookie performer.
I’m also going to take a small flier on Mara. It’s going to be hard for the Spaniard to carve out a consistent role in the Thunder rotation, but it could also be hard for Mark Daigneault to keep him out of it. In the preseason, Mara averaged 13.4 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 2.4 blocks in 23.3 minutes per game. He also shot 78.8% from the floor. Mara’s job is just incredibly easy within the flow of this Oklahoma City offense. As a scorer, he’ll never be asked to do anything but dunk or lay the ball in. So, as long as he’s rebounding and defending at a high level, he’ll be doing his job. Something tells me we’ll see more of Mara than people think, and if he can post solid numbers with elite efficiency, he could sneak onto the All-Rookie First Team.
Houston Rockets Playoff Seed: Under 5.5 (-120 – 3 units)
Kelley Bydlon, co-host of A Numbers Game, put me on this one. On our Hardwood Handicappers season preview episode, we were all heaping praise on the Rockets roster. Well, Kelley threw out this play, and I immediately wanted to jump on it. I already had the Rockets to win the NBA title at 60-1, but I hadn’t yet played the Over on their win total, and I actually like this route better.
Why do I love Houston? It’s pretty simple. I was extremely high on the Rockets roster last year, but we never got to see Fred VanVleet. That loss at the point guard spot was brutal for Houston. The Rockets missed his willingness to launch from deep, his ability to organize the offense late in games, and his overall two-way feistiness. Now, VanVleet is back from his torn ACL, and the Houston front office added Marcus Smart behind him. The Rockets will be much better equipped to deal with a loss in the backcourt, but let’s hope they don’t have to. If Houston has some solid luck in the health department this year, this should be the third-best team in the West.
Dallas Mavericks Over 33.5 Wins (+100 – 2 units)
If Dereck Lively II weren’t seriously injured, I’d be getting quite aggressive with my Dallas futures. The reason for that is the health of Kyrie Irving. We didn’t quite know what to expect before seeing Irving in the preseason. He missed all of last year with a torn ACL, and he’ll be 35 in March. But Irving looked like Irving in his two preseason games, and his 18 points and five assists against the Hawks in the final tune-up got me extremely excited.
With Irving looking like an All-NBA guard, 34 wins seems like a very reasonable ask considering he’ll be paired with Cooper Flagg. Last year’s Rookie of the Year should take a considerable leap this year, and it’s not like Dallas is lacking talent in the supporting cast. The Mavericks have a bunch of competent role players, and Zaccharie Risacher is one to watch. They acquired the former No. 1 overall pick on the cheap, and he’s now free of the expectations he faced in Atlanta. In Dallas, he’ll simply be asked to be the best version of himself. He’ll also have the right guy guiding him in Dusty May, who is great at developing — and empowering — talent.
All in all, this roster has what it takes to fight for a Play-In spot in the West. We’ll just need to hope the Mavericks don’t unload Irving, but a hot start could deter them from doing that. Putting Flagg in a winning environment — and having someone like Irving to take pressure off him — should be the team’s priority.
Giannis Antetokounmpo To Win MVP (14-1 – 0.25 units)
I’m not going crazy with an Antetokounmpo MVP bet, but I’m taking a tiny stab at it. I understand the preseason means very little, but Antetokounmpo shot 73.1% from the floor and looked absolutely dominant in his 18.6 minutes per game. It’s pretty clear that Erik Spoelstra wants Antetokounmpo to be the center of Miami’s universe, meaning the Greek Freak should have a sky-high usage rate this year. That could result in some MVP-worthy numbers considering the Heat played at the league’s fastest pace (104.3) last year.
If Antetokounmpo can just play 70 or more games this season, I think there’s a real chance Miami finishes in the top four in the Eastern Conference, and the two-time league MVP will get his flowers for that. So, while the MVP race does seem to be between Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Nikola Jokic, I still believe Antetokounmpo can crash the party. The only thing keeping him from flirting with Gilgeous-Alexander’s Estimated Wins numbers (Dunks & Threes) is poor health. Maybe “Heat Culture” gets him right.
Scottie Barnes To Make All-Defense First Team (+180 – 1.5 units)
Barnes made the All-Defensive Second Team last year, so he was knocking on the door of achieving this in 2025-26. Well, I like the 25-year-old to finish this year as a top-five defender in the eyes of the voters. I’m not 100% sure I’d consider Barnes the best defensive player on the Raptors, as Collin Murray-Boyles is already one of the league’s most disruptive players. However, Barnes is viewed as the head of the snake for a Toronto team that finished sixth in the NBA in adjusted defensive rating (112.4) last year. With Kawhi Leonard back in town, I’d imagine the Raptors will be a top-five defensive team. That should make Barnes, who was in the 97th percentile in Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus last season, look even better to the people who matter here.
