Prop Holliday - Bobby Stanley
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The 2023-24 NBA season has arrived! Every Wednesday and Friday, you will have player props articles from me with my favorite 2-5 props on the slate. Wednesdays are the biggest volume of games for the week and it will give us plenty of opportunities to pick our spots. For the beginning of the season, I like to keep the unit size light as many players are not in game shape and the tertiary pieces are still being sorted out minutes-wise. Let’s dive into the first Wednesday slate of the season and my favorite NBA player prop bets! Make sure you also check out our NBA picks for every game today as well.
Bennedict Mathurin (IND) over 14.5 points ( -125)
Line available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing.
This line is below Mathurin’s rookie average of 16.7 ppg and he slides into a starting role in year 2. The Pacers’ new-look starting 5 is Tyrese Haliburton, Bennedict Mathurin, Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin and Myles Turner. Hield and Andrew Nembhard will trot out the second unit but I like Mathurin to be a real scoring threat with the starters. The Wizards are specifically front-court heavy, but Jordan Poole and Tyus Jones should be a great matchup for Mathurin out of the gate. Mathurin will likely have to play just under 26 minutes to hit this line, which he did in 56 of 77 contests (75%) and 12 of 17 as a starter (70%). 0.75U
Jabari Smith Jr. (HOU) over 13.5 points ( -115)
Line available at DraftKings Sportsbook at time of publishing.
This may be my favorite play of the entire slate. Smith Jr. has made incredible strides this offseason for the Rockets and it started in the Summer League, where he had multiple 30+ point performances. In the preseason, I saw him look much more comfortable in breaking defenders down off the dribble and improving his shot creation over his rookie year. The confidence we’ve seen in a few preseason games is noticeable. As far as this line goes, this is just 1 point above his rookie average of 12.8 ppg. Following last season’s all-star break, Smith averaged 16.6 ppg and 15.1 ppg in March, along with 15.8 ppg in April. I’m expecting a jump from Smith this season and he gets closer to 17 ppg as a Sophomore. 1U.
Anthony Edwards (MIN) over 3.5 assists (-125)
Line available at Bet365 at time of publishing.
Edwards is now the clear face of the Timberwolves franchise after a summer spent being the top player for Team USA in the FIBA World Cup and coming off 31.6 ppg in the last postseason. I’m expecting the ball to be in his hands more often this season and really facilitating the offense in spurts that Conley sits. He hit this line in 46/78 (58%) games in the last regular season and hit this in every playoff game. I can see his assists line jumping to 5 this season and a healthy Karl Anthony-Towns will greatly help his figures. 1U
