In an annual survey conducted by Alofoke Deportes to the offices of the 30 NBA teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder is seen as the favorite to defend their title.
Similar to a previous survey, the Thunder is the clear favorite to win the championship for the second consecutive year, with 80% of NBA general managers predicting their victory. If they achieve it, it would be the first time since the Golden State Warriors repeated in 2018 that a team achieves this milestone.
The Cleveland Cavaliers and the Denver Nuggets also received some votes, while the Houston Rockets and the New York Knicks each got a selection.
The survey, which is sent to the 30 teams and prohibits teams from voting for themselves or players from their own rosters, also revealed Oklahoma City and Cleveland as the favorites to win their respective conferences. In addition to the Thunder, which received the first place vote in 87% of the votes, the Nuggets received 10% of the first place votes and the Rockets, one.
In the Western Conference, the teams with the most votes after the Thunder were the Minnesota Timberwolves, Warriors, LA Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs.
In the East, Cleveland and New York were unanimously selected to finish in the top three, with the Cavaliers obtaining 63% of the votes for first place, 27% for second, and 7% for third. The Knicks, for their part, received 30%, 53%, and 13%, respectively.
The only other team to receive votes for first place was the Orlando Magic, with 7%. The Magic was also chosen to finish third overall, followed by the Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, and Boston Celtics.
Nikola Jokic of the Nuggets was the standout choice to win this year’s Most Valuable Player award, obtaining 67% of the votes. Victor Wembanyama of the Spurs received 83% of the votes as the player general managers would choose to start a franchise, winning in that category for the second consecutive season.
Amen Thompson of the Rockets received 30% of the votes in the “most likely to have a breakout season” category.
Regarding the best players by position, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jokic were chosen. The only position that did not exceed 70% of the votes was the forward position, where Doncic obtained 40%, followed by Jayson Tatum (20), Kevin Durant (17), LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard (7 each).
In the offseason superlatives section, the Hawks (53%) were the best choice, followed by the Rockets (27%) and the Nuggets (10%). The trade of Kevin Durant to the Rockets was selected as the offseason move with the greatest impact, while the Magic was chosen as the most improved team this season (47%) and for making the most underrated move by signing guard Desmond Bane.
Also, the Thunder (83%) was chosen as the best defensive team in the league.
Cooper Flagg, Mavericks rookie, was the heavy favorite to win both the Rookie of the Year award and to be the best rookie of this class in five years, while Kasparas Jakucionis, Miami Heat guard, was chosen as the biggest steal of this year’s draft.
In the individual superlatives section, Wembanyama (80%) was chosen as the best defensive player in the league; Erik Spoelstra (52%) was chosen as the best coach for the sixth consecutive season; Jokic (80%) was chosen as the best passer and player with the most intelligence on the court, while Antetokounmpo and Wembanyama tied, with 30% of the votes each, for the honor of being the most versatile player in the league, and Stephen Curry was the winner, with 47% of the votes, to be the player you would give the ball to for the final shot.
