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Kahn prepares for 2nd draft with TimberwolvesBasketball Betting Lines06/24/2010 - MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -A year ago, David Kahn didn't have a place to live in Minnesota, let alone a head coach, as he plunged into his first draft as Timberwolves president. Owner Glen Taylor hired Kahn to reshape the franchise less than a month before the 2009 draft. With no time to go through a search process for house or head coach, Kahn lived out of a hotel while preparing for the draft with a group of scouts and assistants he was just getting to know. This time around, Kahn has his coach in Kurt Rambis, a trusted assistant GM in Tony Ronzone and a house in a quiet town an hour outside of Minneapolis. Beleaguered Timberwolves fans are hoping the increased stability will lead to a fruitful draft on Thursday night. The Wolves hold pick Nos. 4, 16 and 23 in the first round and desperately need a successful performance to expedite the rebuilding process. Kahn's first draft class remains a work in progress. Ricky Rubio is in Spain for at least another year, point guard Jonny Flynn had some difficulties getting accustomed to Rambis' systems on both ends of the floor and Wayne Ellington had ups and downs as a shooter off the bench. Yet Kahn and Rambis are on the same page heading into the biggest night of the offseason for a team that won just 15 games last year. ``I really like Kurt as a human being,'' Kahn said. ``I think when it comes to watching players, he has a very keen eye. Especially when it comes to development, he's especailly astute at picking out the areas a player needs to work and how difficult it would be to develop those aspects.'' Rambis and Kahn did not know each other before they joined up with the Timberwolves, but the coach said it didn't take long to develop a plan for the future of a franchise that has not made the playoffs since 2004. ``We see this as a tremendous challenge and a tremendous opportunity,'' Rambis said. ``It's challenging, yet it would be fun to be able to get this franchise up to an elite level. We just like that competitive environment. We were on the same page since day one because we had a good understanding of what we wanted and what our vision was.'' The vision is simple - get bigger, faster and more athletic. The easiest way to do that is to draft well. With so many holes to fill, anything is on the table. Kahn said the team will keep its first pick, and the opportunity to take Georgia Tech forward Derrick Favors, Syracuse forward Wesley Johnson or Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins. The 16th and 23rd picks are up for grabs, as are most players on the roster for teams looking to make deals. Al Jefferson, Kevin Love and others not named Rubio appear to be available for the right offer. The Timberwolves also have plenty of cap room to be a player either in free agency or through sign-and-trades, so everything does not hinge on Thursday night. Getting a start on upgrading talent, however, is imperative. ``We have needs everywhere, especially at the wing position,'' Kahn said. ``We desperately need wings. We have a lot of holes. We have a lot of work to do. But I think we'll have some opportunities throughout the summer, not just in (the draft), to begin to address those.'' Where many fans look at the Timberwolves as a franchise in the doldrums with not even the dimmest of lights visible at the end of the tunnel, Ronzone sees nothing but promise. ``It's exciting time in Minnesota,'' said Ronzone, whose Timberwolves also have two second-round picks. ``We've got five picks. We've got some money to spend. And we've got some good, young assets. It's an exciting future here.''Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Sportsbook Betting LinesWho Makes the Sportsbook Betting Lines?Las Vegas Sports Consultants (LVSC) is the world’s premier oddsmaking company and the most respected authority on making the lines. Mike Seba is a Senior Oddsmaker at LVSC and has been making lines for the last six years. In our extended interview, Seba explained that there are 4-5 oddsmakers assigned to make lines for each of the major sports (pro & college football and basketball; MLB, NHL, boxing, golf). Each of these oddsmakers bring unique opinions, strengths and weaknesses to the process. Oddsmakers at LVSC are professional sports junkies who love what they do and would probably do it for nothing if you asked them, but they do get paid for it. By necessity their approach is very research-oriented and concise, since with millions of dollars at risk there is little margin for error. “You either have a passion for it or you don’t,” Seba said. “The #1 thing for us is to make a line for each game that creates good two-way action. We do this by drawing from past experiences and applying them to current situations. People think it’s much more complicated, but it’s not. “What are the Football Betting Lines Trying to Accomplish?There is a common misconception that point spreads represent the oddsmakers’ prediction of how many points the favorite will win by. That is not the case at all – their intent is NOT to evenly split the ATS result between the teams; rather, their goal is to attract equal betting action on both sides. Stated another way, they want to create a line that half the people find appealing to bet one way while the other half find it appealing to bet the other way (known as ‘dividing the action’).Divided action means the sportsbook is guaranteed a profit on the game because of the fee charged to the bettor (called juice or vig – typically $11 bet to win $10). How the Opening Line Is MadeThe opening line is the first line created by the oddsmakers, which is then sent out to sportsbooks. Of course there is an entire method to the madness on how the opening line is created. Seba explained that it all starts with each oddsmaker creating a line on each game based upon their own personal approach. This usually includes having up-to-date power ratings on each team.Power ratings are the oddsmaker’s value of each team and are used as a guide to calculate a "preliminary" pointspread on an upcoming game. The power ratings are adjusted after each game a team plays. Examples of non-game factors that would require an adjustment to a team's power rating are key player injuries and player trades. Once a game’s power rating based pointspread is determined, the oddsmaker will make adjustments to that line after considering each team's most recent games played and previous games played against that opponent. Also, adjustments are made after reading each team’s local newspapers to get a sense of what the coaches & players are thinking going into the game.Since the oddsmaker’s ultimate goal is equally dividing the sports betting action, public perception and sportsbook betting patterns must be taken into account. For example, the public might have heavy betting interest week after week on a popular college football betting team such as USC. If an oddsmaker comes up with a preliminary line of USC -7, then an adjustment up to -7.5 or -8 would be made in response to the public’s expected USC bias. The last step in the line-making process for each oddsmaker is taking one final look to determine whether or not the line "feels right." This is where common sense and past experience with how games are bet enters into the picture.A round-table discussion among the 4-5 oddsmakers involved in making the line for each sport is then conducted and a consensus line is decided upon by the Odds Director before it is released to the sportsbooks. Of the 4-5 oddsmakers, generally the 2 most respected opinions are weighed more heavily by the Odds Director before he decides on the final line. Why Sports Betting Lines ChangeOnce the opening line is released by LVSC, the individual sportsbooks decide if they want to make any adjustments before offering it to the public. Reasons for such adjustments include:Experts working for the individual books having a strong opinion on the game Individual books having players who consistently bet with certain tendencies (such as an extreme bias toward favorites or toward a certain popular team like USC)The purpose of these adjustments, like all line adjustments, is to more equally divide the betting action. Once betting begins, sportsbooks can adjust the line at any time. In doing so they attempt to make more attractive the team that is getting less action. By moving the line, sportsbooks can influence how the public bets on a particular game.For example, if the pointspread on a game is 7 and most of the money is coming in on the underdog (taking the +7), sportsbooks will then move the number down to 6 ½ to try and attract money on the favorite. Moving the line is the oddsmaker's effort to balance betting action, and often times such moves can have a major impact on a bettor’s decision. Oddsmakers can also change the line depending on various event-related factors such as player injuries or weather. Obviously, if the line comes out a week ahead of the event (which is the case in football), there is much that could happen during the week leading up to the event that could affect the line. Oddsmakers have to determine if any changes are necessary and send out an "adjusted line."“The main objective is that our clients get equal action on both sides,” Seba said. “We’re not trying to pick the team that covers the spread, we’re trying to make it a coin flip, a tough decision (for the bettor). If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job.” To visit this internet sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your sports betting needs and World Series odds. |
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