The 5 Best Bets to Miss the 2018-19 NBA Playoffs

Brooklyn Nets

Projected playoff probability: 10.7%
Odds to miss the playoffs: -390

The Brooklyn Nets are a team that is far less surprising to see on a "miss the playoffs" list.

The Nets haven't made the playoffs since the 2014-15 season, and even then, they did it with only 38 wins. The last three playoff-less years have seen them win 21, 20 and 28 games.

They were the NBA's fifth-youngest team last season, though, with an average age of only 25.1 years old, and that leaves plenty of room for growth and improvement. D'Angelo Russell will be healthy to start this year, and young players like Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen have plenty of upside.

Of course, when you haven't won 30 games in any of the last three seasons, there's plenty of room to improve without having much of a shot at the playoffs. The potential for their young players improving seems to be over-accounted for in this betting line.

numberFire's models do project some improvement for Brooklyn. We have them winning 33.9 games, getting up within 5 wins of where they were when they last made the playoffs. But 38 wins is not going to cut it for a playoff spot most years, though, as the 8-seed in the East has had an average of 42.7 wins over the last three seasons.

The -390 odds imply the Nets for over a 20% chance of making the playoffs, which is almost twice as high as we project them for. The young squad may make some improvements this year, but we still expect it to be a while before they make enough strides to get back to the postseason.