What are the odds the Utah Jazz land their “third star” this offseason?

Betting odds in sports is a fascinating subject. Vegas carefully places weighted odds on certain events, and people like you and me can bet money on whether not these things will happen. If you guess it right, you win a certain multiple of your original money, depending on how big of a favorite/underdog your bet was. Even if you’re not the gambling type, it’s a very interesting part of the sports world, and is fun to pay attention to. The reason this is being brought up in today’s downbeat, is just recently this week, Betonline.AG released their updated odds of landing spots for the biggest 2019 Free Agents/Trade targets. They placed odds on where these players will be playing their first game of the 2019-2020 season this coming fall. Several of these players have been linked to the Utah Jazz as potential destinations, and based on these opening odds, it’s looking like a long shot to get any of them.

Tobias Harris (+1000)

Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports

Tobias Harris was actually the only player that currently has odds assigned to coming to the Utah Jazz. At +1000, this is a pretty long shot. The Jazz’s odds at winning the championship this season were set at +6000 last summer, just for a little perspective. Now, obviously, these are just numbers. And they can literally change over night. Just throwing out what Vegas currently has odds on, so let’s take a step off the ledge and don’t cancel your preordered Tobias Harris custom Jazz jersey just yet. If you want to make a quick $1,000, just go throw down $100 on him signing with the Jazz. There’s plenty of other things that you could spend $100 that wouldn’t be near as fun, right? Here are the rest of the odds for Tobias Harris’ future team:

76ers -150

Nets +300

Lakers +600

Mavericks +600

Kings +800

Jazz +1000

Pacers +1200

Grizzlies +1400

Hawks +1600

As you can see, the 76ers are pretty heavily favored to retain Harris this summer.

Kemba Walker (no odds assigned to Jazz)

Chris Nicoll-USA TODAY Sports

The Jazz didn’t even make the list for Kemba Walker, who has been one the names circulating twitter discussions among Jazz Nation. Walker and Mitchell combined together in one backcourt would be super fun, but just how likely is it?

Hornets +100

Lakers +150

Knicks +400

Mavericks +400

Clippers +1000

Bulls +1400

D’Angelo Russell (no odds assigned to Jazz)

Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports

Even after D’Angelo Russell re-posted a picture Donovan Mitchell had put on Instagram with their two bobblehead figures together, it might be a long shot to see them actually hit the floor together. This upcoming free agency period is going to be a mad game of dominoes, with big names dictating the entire market and flow of signings. Brooklyn is a key piece in the middle of all of these dominoes, so we will see what happens. But as for now, Russell does not have any odds assigned to playing in Utah.

Nets -400

Mavericks +300

Knicks +400

Bulls +1000

Clippers +1200

Khris Middleton (No odds assigned to Jazz)

Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

After a disappointing end to the season, some speculated that Middleton could leave Milwaukee. The Bucks face some pretty tough decisions financially this offseason, and paying Khris Middleton max dollars is going to be one of those decisions. As of right now, there are only two betting options for Middleton’s destination:

Bucks -500

Mavericks +400

As mentioned early on, don’t get too caught up in odds. These oddsmakers play a huge game, sometimes trying to bait certain large betting markets (LA, NY, etc) into putting money on players signing there. On the opposite side of the spectrum, the Utah Jazz betting network has got to be one of the smallest, so they figure they aren’t going to have a lot of money come in for those bets. For now, it’s just another layer of speculation that gets added to the pie. We’ll see how things actually go down this summer, which we have every indication that things are about to get wild.