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The 2022-23 season is quickly approaching, and our betting experts have got you covered. Over the next two weeks, we look at how to approach some of the top teams in league and give out some futures best bets ahead of tipoff.

NBA senior writer Andre Snellings breaks down the Brooklyn Nets and their star players as options to bet this season.

Here is the best case, worst case and betting analysis for this year’s Nets team.

NBA betting preview schedule

Thursday: The case for the Boston Celtics and Golden State WarriorsToday: The case for the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee BucksMonday: The case for the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles LakersTuesday: Who to bet for MVPWednesday: Betting win totals and awardsOct. 17: Social media and bettingOct. 18: NBA title odds and favorites

Best case: The Nets have been among the betting favorites in each of the two seasons leading up to this one, and this season they still have the fifth-lowest odds to win the title at +800. Their best case scenario is that they actually win the chip. Kevin Durant is a former MVP, and both Kyrie Irving and Ben Simmons have been All-NBA performers in their careers. In the 2020-21 season, the last time that both Simmons and Irving played the majority of the season for their respective teams, Simmons helped anchor the 76ers to the No. 2 defensive rating in the NBA, while Irving and Durant led the Nets to the No. 1 offensive rating. If the team meshes and stays healthy, it’ll have the potential to repeat as the top offense with a much more competitive defense than it’s fielded during the Durant/Irving era.

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Worst case: This is unfortunately easy to imagine. After missing his entire first season with the Nets while recovering from a torn Achilles tendon, Kevin Durant went on to miss 64 games of the 154 Nets games over the next two seasons. During that same three-season span, Irving has missed 133 of the Nets’ 226 games for various reasons, including 53 games missed last season alone due to off-court decisions. And Simmons sat out all 82 games last season, first due to mental health concerns and an acrimonious relationship with the 76ers, and later due to a back injury with the Nets. The worst-case scenario, for the Nets, is for their star players to continue missing large chunks of time and for the team, that was in the play-in game last season, to miss the postseason entirely.

The bets: Kevin Durant over 27.5 PPG, Kyrie Irving over 26.5 PPG for season

Betting spin: Because of the high degree of uncertainty in team outcomes, the best bets for the Nets all revolve around individual per-game performances. Kevin Durant’s scoring average over/under is set at 27.5 PPG (-115), while Kyrie Irving’s is set at 26.5 PPG (+100 over, -130 under). Durant averaged 29.9 PPG last season, and has averaged 28.7 PPG during his entire Nets tenure. Similarly, Irving has averaged 27.1 PPG for the Nets and 27.4 PPG last season. Both achieved those averages while playing quite a bit of minutes next to another high-volume/high-usage scorer in James Harden. This season, with Simmons as the floor general who doesn’t need many shots, both Durant and Irving have a good chance to increase their previous averages and go over those lines.

The 2022-23 season is quickly approaching and our betting experts have got you covered. Over the next two weeks we are taking a look at how to approach some of the top teams in league and giving out some futures best bets before the season tips off.

Here is the best case, worst case and betting analysis for this year’s Milwaukee Bucks team.

All odds from Caesars Sportsbook

NBA betting preview schedule

A daily sports betting news and information show (6-7 p.m. ET, ESPN2) that aims to better serve the millions of sports fans who participate in sports wagering and help educate general sports fans with in-depth analysis. Watch >>

Thursday: The case for the Boston Celtics and Golden State WarriorsFriday: The case for the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee BucksMonday: The case for the Philadelphia 76ers and Los Angeles LakersTuesday: Who to bet for MVPWednesday: Betting win totals and awardsOct. 17: Social media and bettingOct. 18: NBA title odds and favorites

Best Case Scenario: The Buckswon the NBA title for the 2020-21 season, and entered the 2021-22 playoffs as a favorite to repeat. Even with All Star wing Khris Middleton out injured, the Bucks still led the eventual Eastern Conference champion Celtics three games to two and only lost in a close seven game series with Giannis Antetokounmpo almost dragging them back to the promised land. If the Bucks stay healthy this season, they have the achievable upside to win the championship this season. They currently have third-shortest odds to win the NBA Championship (+650), just behind the Celtics (+575) and Warriors (+600). According to NBA.com’s annual survey of all 30 of the league’s general managers, the Bucks should be the favorites to win.

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Worst Case Scenario: The Bucks have a high reasonable floor, barring catastrophic injury to Giannis or a large number of important Bucks players. Each of Giannis (15), Middleton (16) and Jrue Holiday (15) missed at least 15 games last season, and the Bucks still finished third in the Eastern Conference. For all three, last season marked the high-water mark for most games missed in the last four seasons. Again, barring an unusually bad injury situation this season, the Bucks are likely to be a playoffs team with home court advantage in the first round. If those types of injuries hit then, like any other team, the ultimate worst case scenario is for them to miss the playoffs entirely.

The bet: Giannis Antetokounmpo Defensive Player of the Year +1000

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Betting Spin: While I have the Bucks as the favorites to win the title (+650) and Giannis as a leading candidate for MVP (+650), the odds of those events happening are close enough to appropriate that there isn’t a huge amount of value there. One angle with legitimate value is Giannis for Defensive Player of the Year (+1000). Giannis was the DPOY in 2019-20, when the Bucks had the top Defensive Rating in the NBA. That season, Giannis and Brook Lopez locked off the middle and forced teams to struggle in the paint. Lopez missed 69 games last season with a back injury, but is healthy now. If Giannis and Lopez recreate that defensive front line, with Holiday as one of the best perimeter defenders in the league (two time All-Defensive First Team) as well, the Bucks could be an elite defense again this season with Giannis as the acknowledged anchor. Of the other DPOY favorites, Robert Williams III is currently injured, Draymond Green has played 46 or fewer games in two of the past three seasons, and Rudy Gobert is on a new team with unknown levels of support. I’d consider Giannis a favorite for the award, at relatively long odds.

HENDERSON, Nev. — Joel Embiid has two choices: the red, white and blue of the U.S., or the blue, white and red of France.

An Olympic medal might hinge on his decision.

France is still hopeful that Embiid — the reigning NBA scoring champion — will choose to wear its colors for the 2024 Paris Olympics even though he recently became an American citizen, national team coach Vincent Collet said Thursday.

Embiid, the Philadelphia 76ers star, may choose to play internationally for the U.S. or France, but not both. It was widely presumed that he would play for France at the Paris Games and possibly even next year’s Basketball World Cup in the Philippines, until Embiid revealed last week that he now has American citizenship as well.

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“Now he has both nationalities, and he has to choose one basketball nationality, which is not the same,” Collet told The Associated Press. “So, that is a choice. Nobody can do anything to change it.”

Embiid told AP last week that it’s too early to think about a decision. By rule, he will eventually have to declare a choice to FIBA, the sport’s international governing body, if he decides that he wants to play at the Olympics or World Cup.

France is the reigning Olympic silver medalist and is planning to have a team featuring Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum — and, quite likely, top NBA draft prospect Victor Wembanyama — at the Paris Games. France’s plan is to essentially take what will be its Olympic roster to the World Cup next year.

Without Embiid, that French core has been extremely formidable. On top of the 2021 silver in Tokyo, France won bronze at the 2019 World Cup and silver again at this year’s European championships.

With Embiid, that group would figure to be even better. Collet said Boris Diaw, the general manager of the French national team, has been in contact with Embiid to discuss options.

“I know he met some of our players to discuss,” Collet said. “I think he should play with us. But we will see. We will respect his decision whatever it is.”

Embiid was born in Cameroon and has held French citizenship. He has a Brazilian girlfriend – their son is American – went to high school in Florida and played college basketball at Kansas.

The five-time NBA All-Star and four-time All-NBA selection has spent his entire pro career with Philadelphia, averaging 26.0 points in his first six seasons and a career-best 30.6 points on his way to the scoring crown last season.