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Since we last experienced NBA basketball games that count, we have seen:
34 trades involving more than 90 players, including 11 All-Stars, plus a frankly ludicrous number of future draft picks;
The leading scorer in NBA history choosing to go to — and commute to — Philadelphia.
That’s a ton of business to sift through as we get set for the start of the 2026-27 NBA season, and try to do some back-of-the-envelope math on which teams we expect to find — and expect to find themselves — in championship contention come June. So, as I’ve done at the start of each of the last five seasons, with all of our hopes still high for the potential outcomes of all those just-signed deals and newly consummated trades, unsullied by high-velocity contact with the brick wall of reality: Let’s get to siftin’.
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According to BetMGM, nine teams enter this season with championship odds of 25-to-1 (+2500) or better. Those nine teams feature 10 of the 15 members of last season’s All-NBA teams … and they also feature major questions that must be answered between now and the postseason.
Let’s get reacclimated with the NBA’s expected upper echelon by considering the cases for and against those top nine teams, beginning with a team looking to bounce back after falling short of a bid for a championship repeat:
Thunder • Spurs • 76ers • Knicks • Celtics • Cavs • Raptors • Nuggets • Wolves
(Mallory Bielecki/Yahoo Sports Illustration)
Oklahoma City Thunder (+260)
The case for: They have the league’s two-time reigning Most Valuable Player in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, which is a pretty good place to start. Also, they went the distance with Wemby and Co. in the Western Conference finals — a two-possession game in the final two minutes — despite their second- and third-best offensive creators, All-NBA wing Jalen Williams and breakout guard Ajay Mitchell, missing time with injuries over the course of the series.
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Those guys are back and healthy, which should help Oklahoma City maintain the effectiveness of a group that has finished…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/nba-preview-2026-27-reintroduction-to-the-top-9-title-contenders-172151877.html
Author : Dan Devine
Publish date : 2026-10-14 17:21:00
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