In an annual survey conducted by Alofoke Deportes to the offices of the 30 NBA teams, the Oklahoma City Thunder emerges as the main favorite to defend their title.
An impressive 80% of NBA general managers selected OKC to win for the second consecutive year. If the Thunder achieves this feat, it would be the first time since the Golden State Warriors did it in 2018 that a team repeats as champion.
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 teams, also positioned Oklahoma City and Cleveland as the main favorites to win their respective conferences. The Thunder obtained 87% of the votes for first place, and the remaining 10% for second.
The Nuggets received 10% of the first-place votes and the Rockets got one vote.
In the Western Conference, the teams that followed in the voting 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. The Cavaliers obtained 63% of the votes for first place, 27% for second, and 7% for third. The Knicks received 30%, 53%, and 13%, respectively.
The Orlando Magic was the only other team to receive votes for first place, 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, Nuggets star, was the top pick to win this year’s Most Valuable Player award, receiving 67% of the votes. On the other hand, Victor Wembanyama, of the Spurs, received 83% of the votes as the player general managers would choose to start a franchise, making him the winner 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 in each position, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Jokic were chosen. The only position that received less than 70% of the votes was the forward position, where Doncic obtained 40%.
In the offseason superlatives section, the Hawks (53%) were the best choice for having the best offseason, followed by the Rockets (27%) and the Nuggets (10%).
The Rockets’ trade for Kevin Durant was chosen as the offseason move with the biggest impact, while the Magic was chosen as the most improved team this season (47%) and the one that made the most underrated move by signing guard Desmond Bane.
The Thunder (83%) were chosen as the league’s best defensive team.
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 bargain in 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 the best coach for the sixth consecutive season; Jokic (80%) was chosen as the best passer and player with the highest basketball IQ, 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, for being the player you would want to take a shot with the game on the line.
