With the NBA season getting set to tip off for the start of a new season, a survey of general managers around the league seems to be on the same page when asked which team is the favorite to win it all this season. The Golden State Warriors, now with 100% more Kevin Durant, have been chosen as the preseason favorite by 69% of the GMs in the NBA. Defending champion Cleveland received the other 31% of the votes. So I guess everyone else is just playing for third?
Last year in a similar survey, LeBron James and his Cavs were picked by the GMs to win the NBA title, but only by 53.6% of the votes. Given the Warriors and Cavs were the only two picks to win the title this year, it should come as little surprise the Warriors and Cavs were the runaway favorites in their respective conference.
Yes, it seems the world is already setting the stage for a third straight clash between the Warriors and Cavs in the NBA Finals, which is unheard of in this day and age of professional sports. The Cavs were named the best team in the East by an astounding 96.7% of the points in the GM poll (four points for first place, three for a second-place vote etc.). Only Boston received any first-place vote consideration not going to Cleveland this season. Toronto was the popular pick to finish in second place in the conference.
A similar story unfolded in the West, with Golden State also receiving 96.7% of the points. San Antonio was a clear favorite to finish in second place (76.7%), and was the only team receiving first-place points in the poll.
Who is the favorite to win the MVP? The GMs have spoken and it is LeBron James. James received 46.7% of the preseason MVP votes, followed by Russell Westbrook (23.3%), and the duo of Stephen Curry and James Harden (10% each). Interestingly enough, James finished third in a survey question about which player a GM would start a franchise with. Karl-Anthony Towns of Minnesota was the popular pick (48.3%), followed by Kevin Durant (20.7%). This is clearly focused more on age for this hypothetical question.
Asked who will win the rookie of the year, the GMs labeled Kris Dunn of the Minnesota Timberwolves the favorite with 46.7% of the votes. No.1 pick Ben Simmons of Philadelphia only received 13.3% of the votes. His Sixers teammate Joel Embiid, received 10% of the votes. However, Simmons had 70% of the GMs saying he will be the best rookie five years from now. Trust the process!
GMs also got to critique the offseason moves. By far, the team that was deemed to have made the best offseason moves was Golden State, who added Durant to their already stacked roster (83.3% of the GMs agreed). Durant is believed to be the biggest one-player acquisition this season (80%).
You can check out the entire survey here, as it goes on to cover a lot of ground.
[NBA]
