Best NBA prop bets tonight: Victor Wembanyama, Jayson Tatum highlight top picks for Wednesday night

The 2023-24 NBA regular season tipped off Tuesday, and a whopping 24 teams make their season debuts tonight. Among the highlights of the Wednesday evening slate, we have dynamic Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama's inaugural regular-season game and the new-look Celtics relaunching an old rivalry with the Knicks at Madison Square Garden. For NBA DFS players searching for profitable betting opportunities within this momentous hoops occasion, we've pinpointed several SuperDraft player props worth your money.

There's never been a better time to join SuperDraft. In a few easy clicks, you can join, deposit, and create a player prop parlay. Users can win three times the amount wagered if their two-legged parlay hits. The more legs you add, the larger your potential payout becomes. If you put down a $20 entry fee and all four of our props below hit, you would win a $200 payout. That's enough money to buy NBA League Pass for you and a friend!

Below, we'll break down four of our favorite player props on SuperDraft for Wednesday night's 12-game NBA slate. Users don't necessarily have to parlay all four picks together, though. Instead, you could make separate two-legged parlays to increase your win probability or attempt to hit it big if all four picks come through.

Best NBA prop bets today: SuperDraft player prop picks for Wednesday night

1. Victor Wembanyama, Spurs vs. Mavericks — UNDER 18 points

If this was OVER 2.5 blocks, we would be all over it, but we expect Wemby to get off to a rough start offensively with Dallas likely trying to get physical with him from the jump. We're going UNDER on the points while the rest of the country likely pounds his OVER. 

Let's take this opportunity to remind everyone that Gregg Popovich doesn't give a flying hoot about ratings, Rookie of the Year races, or his organization's most prized player since Tim Duncan racking up points. The Spurs are playing the long game here, and the last thing Pop will do in San Antonio's season-opener is overwhelm his new franchise player with a historic usage rate. 

Jog your memory banks to the summer when Wemby made his debut in a Spurs uniform. In 27 minutes, he finished with nine points, eight rebounds, three assists, and five blocks while going 2-for-13 from the field. Don't be surprised if he finishes with around the same stat line tonight, only with fewer shots attempted.

Remember that he's playing with Devin Vassell, Tre Jones, Keldon Johnson, and Jeremy Sochan this time around — not one of whom played in that Summer League game nearly four months ago. Wemby may be the most coveted and widely discussed rookie since LeBron, but he's still a rookie and he's still playing within a Popovich system that has proven scorers around him. Don't take the cheese on the OVER here — the UNDER is the play!

2. Jayson Tatum, Celtics at Knicks — UNDER 26.5 points

The Celtics might have the best six-man rotation in basketball this season, with Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday joining an already-elite duo of Tatum and Jaylen Brown. JT remains the main man in this offense and perhaps a top-five scorer in the Association. That's why I locked him in as my preseason best bet to win MVP (so did my colleagues Carlan Gay and Sergio Rabinal in our official Sporting News predictions!). However, I'm fading his OVER tonight.

On paper, 27 points looks like an easy target for the All-NBA forward. He averaged 28.8 points per game against the Knicks last season, and he contributed six of the Celtics' franchise-record 27 three-pointers when these teams first met at Madison Square Garden last season. However, JT failed to hit 27 points in either MSG game, finishing with 26 in the November tilt and just 14 in a frustrating blowout loss in February in which he got ejected.

We're not saying Manhattan has been Tatum's Kryptonite because he has still been very effective in other ways, but we've come to realize that 30-point explosions at the "other" Garden are few and far between. Throughout his career, he's averaging just 22.5 points on 40.6 percent shooting at MSG. Now he has ample help from a strong supporting cast, and analysts around the nation are picking him to win MVP? Yeah, we'll go with the UNDER today and bet his OVER on Friday in the C's home opener, a revenge game vs. their arch-nemesis Heat. 

3. Trae Young, PG, Hawks at Hornets — OVER 9.5 assists

This number may seem inflated, but Trigger Trae can hit 10 assists against a poor defensive team like the Hornets in his sleep. Over the past three games Young has gone toe-to-toe with LaMelo, the Hawks star has averaged a whopping 12.6 dimes. 

Since Snyder took over as Atlanta's head coach late in the 2022-23 campaign, he has made it a point to develop the offensive talent around Trae. With Dejounte Murray's star continuing to rise, Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu holding down the interior as capable lop threats, and multiple promising wings, Young no longer needs to do all the scoring.

However, he will likely still garner plenty of attention from the Hornets, which will free up open shooters and stack him in the assist column. This should be a close game, so expect Young out there for at least his usual average of about 35 minutes. His per-36 average last season: 10.5 assists. Sounds like a stone-cold, Ice Trae lock!

4. LaMelo Ball, PG, Hornets vs. Hawks — OVER 23.5 points 

After injuries reduced Ball's 2022 campaign to 36 games, he seems poised for a big year in Charlotte. With Miles Bridges' ongoing legal issues precluding him from a return date, there should be plentyof shots available for the 2020-21 Rookie of the Year and one-time All-Star. 

The Hawks are a lot of good things, but a solid defensive team, they are not. The ATL ranked as the fifth-most generous scoring defense in the NBA last season, allowing 118.2 points per game, and it only got worse when Quin Snyder took the reigns (121.6 ppg). Melo should Ball out in the Hornets' home opener.