Naz Reids long-shot Sixth Man of the Year award win a boon for NBA futures bettors

Naz Reid’s improbable Sixth Man of the Year Award win is providing some big-time payouts to some NBA futures bettors.One bettor at DraftKings Sportsbook won $160,000 off a $2,000 wager at 80/1 odds earlier this season on Reid to win the award, according to Ben Fawkes on X.Another bettor won $7,000 off a $50 bet on FanDuel Sportsbook placed in early December when Reid’s Sixth Man of the Year odds were at 140/1. Reid opened the season as an afterthought in the Sixth Man race, with BetMGM Sportsbook pegging him at +5500 to win the award, which was tied for the 23rd-best preseason odds in the league.As recently as late February, when Kings guard Malik Monk and Mavericks wing Tim Hardaway Jr.appeared to pull away from the pack, Reid was 80/1 at BetMGM before his slow climb into the conversation.But an injury to Monk and a quiet end of the season for Hardaway and other contenders got Reid back into the mix. The fifth-year big man came on strong in the final couple of months for the upstart Minnesota Timberwolves, who outplayed nearly all preseason expectations en route to a 56-win regular season, vaulting him into the award race.Reid averaged 16.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, 1.2 blocks and one steals per game over the final two months, although several of those games came with him in the starting lineup after Karl-Anthony Towns’ knee injury. Even after the regular season came to a close, Reid wasn’t seen by oddsmakers as the likely winner. Monk closed at -250 at DraftKings, well ahead of Reid at +225. The voting ended up about as tight as it can get – Reid edged out Monk with two more first-place votes (45-43), while both players received 39 second-place votes and 10 third-place votes....