Best Detroit Pistons bets for the 2022-23 season so far

October is here, which means Detroit Pistons’ basketball is right around the corner and it can’t get here soon enough.

The recent trade for Bojan Bogdanovic has fans thinking the team is not content to tank and will hopefully win more games this season and maybe even get near the play-in.

But would you be willing to put money on it? There are some great Pistons’ bets out there before the season starts, and also some you should stay away from for obvious reasons.

Let’s start with the clear stay-aways.

Detroit Pistons’ bets to avoid

According to WynnBET, here are odds on some of the futures that are not likely to happen:

• Odds for Pistons to win the NBA championship: +25000
• Odds for Pistons to win the Eastern Conference: +15000
• Odds for Cade Cunningham to win MVP: +20000

Unless you like throwing your money away, you should probably stay away from betting the Detroit Pistons to win the title this season or to win the East. Go buy a couple of Coney dogs instead. I do think Detroit can climb in the Eastern Conference, but winning it would take a miracle.

I was surprised that the odds were even this low, as Detroit has the 9th-worst odds, ahead of teams like the Wizards and substantially better than the obvious tankers who are all at +50000.

Same with a Cade Cunningham MVP season. Will he makes a major leap? Yes. Could he make the All-Star team this season? Absolutely. But he won’t be winning MVP, so that’s an obvious stay-away too.

But there are two bets that I do like, even though the books have caught on a bit to one of them.

Best bets on the Detroit Pistons’

Here are two bets that I do like:

• Over 29.5 wins: -110
• Jaden Ivey to win Rookie of the Year: +550

I wrote about how the addition of Bogdanovic made the over on the win total a no -brainer, but since then, the books have bumped that number up to 29.5 from 28.5 total wins. I still like it, as having Bogdanovic will give the Pistons more shooting, spacing and a clutch-time lineup that can hopefully win more of the close games they lost last season. The Pistons were actually pretty good down the stretch last year and had a streak of over 20 games where they covered the spread.

The offseason additions have shored up their two biggest weaknesses and Detroit should be able to turn a few of those close losses into wins. If they stay healthy, I think it’s a good bet that they’ll win at least 30 games.

My favorite Pistons’ bet is Jaden Ivey to win Rookie of the Year at +550. I think Ivey is in a good situation to thrive alongside Cade Cunningham, and that he has the style of game that will get him a lot of attention in highlight reels. I also think the Pistons are going to improve more than any other bad team, and if they do, Ivey will get some credit. At +550 it’s a good value bet.

The Detroit Pistons aren’t likely to raise any trophies or take home too many individual awards, but there are a couple of preseason bets that make sense.