Winners Club: Nash Out as Brooklyn’s Coach, Nets' Title Odds Dip After Slow Start
Good afternoon, it’s NFL trade deadline day and it’s already been a newsy day in the NFL and beyond. Let’s get you caught up to speed.
In today’s Winners Club you’ll find:
- Where the Nets' odds stand with Steve Nash out
- Waiver wire players to add ahead of Week 9
- Midseason fantasy awards and second-half predictions
- Astros-Phillies World Series Game 3 bets
- College Football Playoff rankings predictions
Nets and Nash Part Ways Amid 2-5 Start
It was announced Tuesday afternoon that Brooklyn and Nash parted ways just seven games into the season. Nash had a 94-67 record across three seasons as the Nets’ coach.
Brooklyn entered the season with +700 odds to win the NBA Finals, tied for the fourth-best odds at SI Sportsbook. After this rocky start, despite the phenomenal play of Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving (who is at the heart of yet another controversy), those odds have fallen to +1000, which is sixth-best behind the Celtics (+550), Warriors (+600), Bucks (+600), Clippers (+700) and Suns (+850).
Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports
The Nets are +400 to miss the playoffs and -654 to make the postseason. In the most recent SI NBA power rankings, they checked in at No. 23 following an 0-4 week.
The news out of Brooklyn comes the day after the team won just its second game of the season and hours ahead of a nationally televised game against the Bulls. Get the odds for that game, as well as the rest of Tuesday night NBA slate here.
Fields, Likely Among Top Adds with Six Teams on Bye
There's still time remaining before the NFL’s 4 p.m ET trade deadline, so keep an eye on the transaction log to keep up with the latest happening around the league.
Already, the Vikings dealt for Lions tight end T.J. Hockenson with Irv Smith Jr. (ankle) headed to injured reserve and the Bears traded for Steelers receiver Chase Claypool.
Thankfully, the fantasy football trade deadline isn’t for a couple more weeks, so there’s still plenty of time to reshape your team if need be. Plenty of managers will be in need of spot starts at virtually every position this week with a whopping six teams on bye: Cowboys, 49ers, Broncos, Steelers, Saints, Browns.
The sheer scarcity brought on by the bye will send everyone scrambling to the waiver wire for running back fill-ins, quarterback streamers, wide receiver options and tight end dart throws. So which players should you put in claims for?
Jen Piacenti has recommendations from Justin Fields to Rondale Moore to Ravens rookie Isaiah Likely. See which other free agents she likes and how much FAAB you should spend to get them. And Matt De Lima has an in-depth IDP waiver wire breakdown as well.
Michael Ainsworth/AP
The end of Week 8 marks the (almost) halfway point of the season, so the SI Fantasy crew has takeaways from last week, a midseason report card and bold predictions for the second half of the season.
Read Craig Ellenport on D.J. Moore and Alvin Kamara’s big games, Michael Fabiano on what we learned last week, yours truly on midseason MVP, biggest bust and more and one bold prediction from each of our writers for the final nine games of the year.
See what the league’s hierarchy looks like with another installment of NFL power rankings and look ahead to the Week 9 betting slate.
World Series Resumes Tonight After Rain Postponed Game 3
The elements pushed back Game 3 of the World Series, which was originally supposed to take place Monday night in Philadelphia. Instead, the Astros and Phillies pick back up Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park with a clearer forecast for the evening and the series tied at one game apiece.
Emma Baccellieri explained what the delay means for the rest of the series, Matt Martell asked three questions for the three games set to be played in Philly and Jen Piacenti has the betting breakdown for Game 3, in which Houston is favored on the road.
The Astros are -175 to win the series at SI Sportsbook and the Phillies are +150. The favorite to win World Series MVP is currently J.T. Realmuto (+400), followed by Kyle Tucker (+600), Alex Bregman (+700) and Framber Valdez (+700).
Matt Rourke/AP
Tuesday
8:03 p.m. ET (Fox): Astros (-125) vs. Phillies | Series tied, 1-1
Wednesday
8:03 p.m. ET (Fox): Astros vs. Phillies | World Series Game 4
Thursday
8:03 p.m. ET (Fox): Astros vs. Phillies | World Series Game 5
In Other News
SI’s Preseason Women’s CBB Top 25: To no surprise, South Carolina, the reigning champ, occupies the No. 1 spot. Texas, Stanford, UConn and Louisville all find themselves in the top 10 with hopes of unseating Dawn Staley’s squad.
Projecting the Initial CFP Ranking: The first round of College Football Playoff rankings will be announced Tuesday night ahead of perhaps the game of the year: No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 1 Georgia. Where will the SEC schools stand? And how much room is there for the Big Ten and ACC?
Top Men’s CBB Games to Watch this Year: The start of the season is just days away and we’re already looking ahead to the marquee matchups, like Duke-UNC and Kansas-Kentucky. See which other games there are to look forward to and when they’re taking place.
Thanks for reading Winners Club! I won’t be back in your inbox until Sunday morning, so be sure to set your lineups for Eagles-Texans on Thursday night and keep up with @SI_Betting and @SI_Fantasy on Twitter so you don’t miss a thing. Talk to you soon.
