NBA News NBA News, Match Reports and Updates 
The NBA’s parity era lived to see another year in 2026 when the New York Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs for the championship. The Knicks’ triumph marked the ninth straight year the NBA has had a different champion, and it’s not just a no repeat streak. It’s true that no team has won back-to-back championships since Kevin Durant’s Golden State Warriors in 2017 and 2018, but it’s even more remarkable that no franchise has multiple titles over the current nine-year stretch of unique champions. Will both runs continue as the league enters the 2026-2027 season?
It’s easy to feel resigned that one of the top teams is destined to win the 2027 championship, but that simply isn’t the way it’s worked out in recent years. I only had the Knicks at No. 5 when I wrote up the list of teams that could win the championship last year, and the Spurs were nowhere to be found. There could be more surprises in store this season as salary cap casualties and the risk of injury from a physicality demanding style of play continue to hang over the league.
Advertisement
I see nine teams that can actually win the championship entering this new season. Let’s rank them by their chances of winning it all.
9. Boston Celtics
I’m higher on Boston as a regular season team than a playoff team. The Celtics have an ingrained identity under Joe Mazzulla that has produced an average of 59.5 wins per season during his four years as head coach, an astounding number. Boston is widely expected to take a step back after the Jaylen Brown trade this year, but I’m not so sure. They will be getting a full year of Jayson Tatum this season, and they’re also adding Paul George and Mitchell Robinson to the roster. I think Payton Pritchard and Derrick White could be better without Brown hogging the ball, and I wouldn’t be surprised if young players like Hugo Gonzalez and Baylor Scheierman can show improvement from last year. It’s possible Boston will miss Brown during the playoffs, but they also lost in the first round last season with him as their best player. The biggest concern for the Celtics to me is if Tatum can still be a First-Team All-NBA caliber player…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/9-nba-teams-actually-win-120000993.html
Author :
Publish date : 2026-09-07 12:00:00
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.
