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The Cleveland Cavaliers entered February with the best record in the NBA but the third-best odds to win the 2025 NBA Finals. However, after trading for De'Andre Hunter at the Feb. 6 trade deadline, their title odds noticeably increased.
Most sportsbooks priced the Cavs near 9-1 to win the 2025 NBA Finals, but following the Hunter trade, their odds increased to 8-1. They moved from +900 to +850 on Fanduel Sportsbook. The odds bump did not change their place in the market as the team with the third-best odds to win the 2025 championship.
Cleveland trails just the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder in the market. The Celtics are the favorites at +195, with the Thunder right behind them at +230 on Fanduel Sportsbook. Despite leading the NBA with 41 wins through the trade deadline, the Cavs remain a distant third in the eyes of oddsmakers.
Hunter has always been a solid sharpshooter but elevated his game to a new level in 2024-2025. In his sixth season, the 27-year-old is currently averaging a career-high 19 points per game and 2.6 three-pointers per outing.
Hunter figures to slot into the Cavs' starting lineup next as a shooting threat alongside Cleveland's dynamic backcourt duo of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland. Head coach Kenny Atkinson previously used Dean Wade and Max Strus in that role, neither of whom was reliable enough on the year to provide consistency.
De'Andre Hunter looks to help bring Cavs to first NBA Finals since 2018
If the Cavaliers advance to the 2025 NBA Finals, it would be their first time doing so since LeBron James famously carried them to the championship series in 2018. Cleveland has been up and down as an organization since then but established a new foundation in 2022 when the front office traded for Mitchell.
During Mitchell's tenure, the Cavs have never entered the playoffs lower than the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference. However, they have won just one postseason series in the past three years and have yet to make it back to the Eastern Conference Finals. They are coming off a decisive 4-1 loss to the Celtics in 2024, who went on to win the Finals.
The De'Andre Hunter trade gives Cleveland more size and consistent shooting than it previously had, but it does not solve its defensive issues. Without Isaac Okoro on the court, the Cavs routinely struggle to contain perimeter threats. Hunter entered the league in 2019 with defensive potential but currently has a subpar 117.8 defensive rating in 2024-2025.