Tim Bontemps
The annual NBA.com survey of the league’s 30 front offices has tapped the Oklahoma City Thunder to defend their title.
As in ESPN’s annual offseason survey last month, the Thunder were heavy favorites to win the title, with 80% of NBA general managers picking OKC to win for a second straight year — which, if the Thunder is able to do it, would mark the first time since the Golden State Warriors repeated in 2018 that a team would manage to repeat as champions.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets each received a few votes, while the Houston Rockets and New York Knicks each received just one selection.
The annual survey — which is for all 30 teams and does not allow teams to choose themselves or anyone from their own list, meaning no player or team can ever get more than 97 percent of the votes in any category — also had Oklahoma City and Cleveland as heavy favorites to win their respective conferences. Besides the Thunder, first on 87% of the votes and second on the remaining 10%, the Nuggets received 10% of the first-place votes and the Rockets received just one.
They were followed, in order, by the Minnesota Timberwolves, Warriors, LA Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs.
In the East, Cleveland and New York were both unanimous picks to finish in the East’s top three spots, with the Cavaliers receiving 63% of the vote for first place, 27% for second place, and 7% for third. The Knicks, meanwhile, received 30%, 53% and 13%, respectively.
The only other team to receive first-place votes was the Orlando Magic, who received 7%. The Magic were also picked to finish third overall, followed by the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics.
Nuggets star Nikola Jokic, who finished first or second in the last five MVP ballots, was the clear choice to win this year’s top individual honor, winning 67 percent of the vote, while Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama received 83 percent of the vote as the player general managers would choose if they had the chance to select someone to start a franchise, making him the winner in this category for the second consecutive season.
Rockets forward Amen Thompson, meanwhile, received 30% of the votes in the “most likely to have a breakout season” category, which goes along with the fact that he is currently the betting favorite to be this season’s most improved player.
There was little debate over who was the best player at any position, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jokic taking home the honor at each position. The only one of the five positions to receive less than 70% of the votes for the first pick was small forward, where Doncic received 40%, followed by Jayson Tatum (20), Kevin Durant (17), LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard (7 each), with Jaylen Brown, Jimmy Butler and Jalen Williams each getting just one vote.
In the offseason superlatives section, the Hawks (53%) were the top pick for having the best offseason, followed by the Rockets (27%) and Nuggets (10%). The Rockets trading for Kevin Durant, meanwhile, were picked as the offseason move that will have the biggest impact, while the Magic were picked as the most improved team this season (47%) and having made the most underrated move in trading for guard Desmond Bane and the Thunder (83%) were picked as the best defensive team in the league.
Mavericks rookie Cooper Flagg, the No. 1 pick in June’s NBA draft, was the heavy favorite to win both Rookie of the Year and the best rookie in this class in five years, while Miami Heat guard Kasparas Jakucionis was the pick to be the biggest steal of this year’s draft class.
In the individual superlatives section, Wembanyama (80%) was chosen as the best defensive player in the league; Erik Spoelstra (52%) was chosen as best coach for the sixth consecutive season; Jokic (80%) was chosen as the NBA’s best passer and player with the highest basketball IQ, while Antetokounmpo and Wembanyama were tied, with 30% of the vote each, for the honor of being the league’s most versatile player, and Stephen Curry was the winner, with 47% of the vote, for being the player you’d want to take a chance on with the game on the line.
