The league recently conducted their yearly preseason polling among General Managers and the results were released last Friday, PH time. GMs cannot vote for their own teams nor their players in this survey.
In response to which team will win the championship this season, GMs picked the OKC Thunder to repeat with 80% of the votes. The last team to win back-to-back NBA titles was the Golden State Warriors in 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 seasons. This is a big challenge for OKC as other title contenders will try to contradict the poll results.
The Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic (67%) is the overwhelming pick to reclaim the MVP crown. If ever, he will be the 8th foreign born player to win the award consecutively. The previous seven awardees were international players. This could be Jokic’s fourth MVP in six seasons.
A far second in the MVP poll was LAL’s Luka Doncic, with 10%, OKC’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with 8% and San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama with 7%.
As per GMs, the top four playoff seeds in each conference according to order will be Cleveland, New York, Orlando and Atlanta for the East and Oklahoma City, followed by Denver, Houston and Minnesota for the West.
A young Orlando Magic team is expected by GMs to be the most improved team. Atlanta, boasting an improved frontline with the arrival of Kristaps Porzingis, follows. San Antonio comes in third in the survey.
If they are to be believed, Miami’s Erik Spoelstra, recently named head coach of the US men’s national basketball team, was picked as the best coach, getting 52% of the votes. OKC’s Mark Diagneault comes in second with 34% votes.
No surprise here. 29 of the 30 GMs voted Cooper Flagg (DAL), this year’s top pick, to win Rookie of the Year honors. Philadelphia’s VG Edgecomb was the only other player that had a vote.
Wembanyama was the favorite pick last season to win the defensive player award before he was put on sick bay after a deep vein thrombosis diagnosis. It’s still Wemby this time, with Rudy Gobert (MIN) and Evan Mobley (CLE) tied for a far second.
GMs voted players by position. SGA was voted as the best point guard, Anthony Edwards (MIN) for the best shooting guard, Luka as the best small forward, Giannis Antetokounmpo (MIL) as the best power forward and Jokic as the top center.