NBA Betting: Three Team Total Unders You Need To Take For The 2022-23 Season

The 2022-23 NBA season is pretty much here and that means it's time to get your regular season win total bets in. With the season-opening doubleheader that features the Philadelphia 76ers taking on the Boston Celtics and the Golden State Warriors hosting the Los Angeles Lakers being on Tuesday, October 18, you're running out of time to get these picks in. With that said, check out the teams we think will underperform this year. 

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NBA Betting: Three Team Total Unders You Need To Take For The 2022-23 Season

Portland Trail Blazers - Under 40.5 Wins (-125) 

Our DimersBOT has Portland winning an average of 37.3 wins per year in 10,000 simulations of the upcoming NBA season. That makes this a really good betting value for anybody that has the stomach to bet against a Damian Lillard-led team. The reality when looking at the Blazers is that this team just isn't built to defend at a high level, and that is ultimately going to lead to a lot of losses — especially with the Western Conference being absolutely loaded this year. 

Jusuf Nurkic is a rock-solid center on the offensive end, but he's not a guy you want anchoring a defense that has Lillard and Anfernee Simons defending on the perimeter. Opposing guards won't have much trouble getting in the paint, and Nurkic isn't a good enough rim protector to deter them once they get there. 

Portland should be a fun group to watch, as Lillard and Simons are a deadly combo offensively. The team also has some interesting young talent to keep an eye on, with Shaedon Sharpe being the main one. But we see things getting a bit out of hand for this group, making the Under the right play on this win total. And all in all, it's probably our favorite of all of these. 

Charlotte Hornets - Under 33.5 Wins (-125) 

The Hornets are a team that really looked promising as recently as last year, but they have the potential to really bottom out this season. LaMelo Ball is one of the most exciting players in the NBA at the moment, but he has his flaws — with his inability to finish at the rim or play passable defense being two of them — and he's also banged up to start the season. And overall, Charlotte just doesn't have the right type of talent around him right now.

This franchise also moved on from a very good offensive coach in James Borrego during the offseason, opting to bring Steve Clifford back as head coach instead. Charlotte fired Clifford back in 2018, which is why this move is absolutely baffling. He doesn't seem like the right type of guy to be leading a team that is full of young players, which is another reason this Hornets team seems primed to explode at some point this year — and not in a good way. 

Too much would have to happen for this Hornets team to outperform this win total, even if it is a bit low for a squad that made the Play-In last year. The Eastern Conference only got better this summer and teams will be going into meetings with Charlotte expecting to win. The fact that Miles Bridges was one of their best players last year and isn't with the team definitely doesn't help.

Cleveland Cavaliers - Under 47.5 Wins (-110) 

The Cavaliers have every right to be excited about acquiring Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz, but we would pump the brakes on anybody expecting them to win at least 48 games this season. Our DimersBOT only has Cleveland projected for 45.4 wins and it just wouldn't be all that shocking if the team were to be outside the top-four spots in the Eastern Conference. 

While Mitchell is undoubtedly an All-Star in this league, he is a volume scorer and it will take some time for his teammates to get used to playing with him. The guard is also a very weak defender, which means that he and Darius Garland could make life pretty rough on interior defenders like Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen — Garland is also a very bad point-of-attack defender. Those two bigs will spend a lot of time covering for the mistakes Mitchell and Garland make defensively. 

Cleveland has a lot more upside with Mitchell in the fold, as the talent is definitely there for the Cavaliers now. When they finally click, they could pose a threat to the top teams in the Eastern Conference. But we expect this team to go through some growing pains, so we'd take the Under here.