Five teams with the best chance to dethrone the New York Knicks

For the first time since Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon” was still in theaters, the New York Knicks enter the NBA season as the defending champions — and the favorites to come out of the East and defend their crown.

As Adam Silver is all too happy to tell you, the NBA has had eight different champions in the past eight years. If Silver’s quest for parity persists, which teams are poised to take the crown? Here are the five teams with the best chances to dethrone the Knicks.

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San Antonio made it to the NBA Finals ahead of schedule last season, and it showed in the Finals — blowing a 20-point fourth-quarter lead in Game 4 is the prime example.

“I couldn’t imagine a better motivation,” Victor Wembanyama said this week of losing in the Finals.

This is still a young team: Wembanyama (22), Stephon Castle (21), and Dylan Harper (20) are still early in their careers and on a steep learning curve, they should improve this season. The “old guys” are not that old, for example Keldon Johnson is 26, and De’Anthony Fox is 28. As a team, this group is still growing together.

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The addition of Tobias Harris is underrated. He’s got an oversized group of online critics, largely because he was forced into situations in the past where he was asked to take on more responsibility — particularly in the postseason — than fits his skill set. However, with the Spurs he becomes a great third or fourth option, another guy who defenses have to respect and who can knock down 3s and create his own shot if the offense is stuck late in the clock.

If we get a rematch of the Knicks and Spurs in the Finals, New York is going to learn quickly this is a very different San Antonio team than the young pups they dispatched last June.

Oklahoma City Thunder

If Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell had been healthy last May for Oklahoma City’s seven-game series against San Antonio — or even if one of them had been — we likely would have had a very different Finals matchup last June. Heading into this season, both are back and healthy.

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On paper, Oklahoma City is still the best team in the NBA — they won 64 games and…

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Publish date : 2026-09-30 16:26:00

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