2026-2027 NBA Predictions

At the beginning of Major League Baseball seasons, Bud Selig used to say "hope and faith" so often that it became a meme among us nerdy baseball fans. In a league striving for parity, Selig wanted every team to have hope and faith that this could be their season to reach the playoffs. As we start this NBA season, I think more than ever, most teams can have that hope and faith. I think the only truly hopeless team is the Clippers. Yeah, you'd have to squint to make the playoff case for the Sacramento Kings, Chicago Bulls, Brooklyn Nets, and Milwaukee Bucks, but if you forced me to envision it, I could. Funny things happen when fewer/no teams are trying to lose their games.

As I've discussed, I think depth continues to be super important in the regular season, and if you missed it, I detailed why, and also my version of East and West depth charts. They're already a little stale, as plenty of injuries and a few signings have happened since, but they should give you the gist.

Let's set the mood for this newsletter and the season by watching what I still consider to be the greatest commercial in recorded history:

Did you watch it three times? I watched it three times. Bring back the glass bottles IMO.

Western Conference

15th - LA Clippers: They're doomed, and they deserve to be doomed. Brandon Ingram is not going to rush back to play for this team. Max Strus is not going to rush back to play for this team. And their best player is a small guard who can't stay healthy and can't play defense. They deserve every second of this hell, and they can truly fuck off forever.

14th - Sacramento: The big drama of the season for the Kings will be whether they can stay out of the poorly-named relegation zone. They will likely be right on the razor's edge. Also, poor Ben Simmons. I was mildly intrigued to see him again, but this Achilles injury is probably going to be a wrap for his career.

13th - Golden State: It couldn't be more over. Stephen Curry is already hurt. He's 38 with knee and ankle problems, he's definitely not "fine." I'd say I feel bad for Al Horford, but he made it pretty clear that he wanted this. The fact that Mike Dunleavy Jr. decided to hand Kristaps Porzingis a guaranteed $23 million after he only played 74 combined games the past two seasons was a cry for help.

12th - Memphis: People are super high on them, but I don't see it. For starters, I don't think they're interested in being good this season. When I see a team like this with too many guys who can play but obviously can't because there are a finite number of minutes in a game, I see a team that is a ripe for a trade. I sincerely doubt that this team finishes the way it starts. There's very little chance that the next great Memphis team – which is probably two-plus years off given the fact that the organization is so cheap – will have 29-year-old Ty Jerome or 32-year-old Jerami Grant on it, which makes them excellent trade candidates. If Isaiah Stewart is not extended soon, he may be as well, as without an extension, he's potentially a free agent after the season, as his 2027-2028 salary is a team option.

11th - Phoenix: They did a great job last season of beating up on teams who weren't trying. This season, more teams will be trying – perhaps all of them. I'm not as sold that the new lottery reforms will 100% work, but it's certainly going to blunt any edge the Suns had last season. They will also be blunted by their disastrous Miles Bridges acquisition, which thinned an already thin roster. Also, it added Miles Bridges to the roster, which is subtraction by addition. The Mark Williams injury didn't help either.

10th - New Orleans: This team still has so many issues. But the defense should improve under Jamahl Mosley, and having a full season of Dejounte Murray will raise their floor enough for them to sneak into the play-in and hopefully relegate Jordan Poole to towel-waving status. Hopefully, they will play well enough that we can avoid a whole season of Trey Murphy Jr. trade rumors.

9th - Portland: Need a little more context for how little Kristaps Porzingis has played in the past two seasons? Robert Williams III has played in 79 games across the past two seasons, five more than Porzingis. That's astounding. Sorry for the drive-by, Rob, I really do still love you.

A lot has been made of the choices that new coach Micah Nori has seemingly made with his starting backcourt, but the decision to start both Damian Lillard and Ja Morant obscures two very prevalent things – 1) both players are going to need plenty of rest days, which will make the starting lineup fluid, and 2) both Lillard and Jrue Holiday were washed up two seasons ago. Jayson Tatum's injury made it academic, but one of the biggest reasons the Knicks were beating the Celtics up to that point in the 2025 playoffs was that Holiday could no longer contain Jalen Brunson.

8th - Utah: Do you know how many playoff games Lauri Markkanen has played in his career? Zero. When I was first looking at the West, I had Utah as high as sixth, but the more that I thought about it the less I see it. The rebounding problems they're likely to have don't concern me as much as the fact that Markkanen hasn't played a full season of competitive NBA basketball since 2021-2022. I have a hard time just taking it on faith that he's just going to snap back into All-Star form and lead his team to a guaranteed playoff spot. Getting to the upper half of the play-in would be a great first step toward contention.

7th - Dallas: I really thought about putting them sixth and Denver seventh. I won't be surprised if it happens. I think this is a deep team led by two players who can get a shot off at any time and from any spot on the court, and that they are about to surprise a lot of people. But they're still probably a frontcourt player short, at least until Derrick Lively II proves he can be consistently, reliably, and qualitatively in the lineup.

6th - Denver: The team is perilously thin. Injuries didn't cost them in the standings last season because one-third of the league simply wasn't trying to win. They also got Jamal Murray's best season to date (and healthiest season since he was 20). Murray set career highs in points, assists, and rebounds per game, as well as career bests in FG%, 3P%, eFG%, and TS%. Unfortunately for him, the Nuggets really can't afford for him to drift back closer to his career norms this season, and as a long-time Jamal Murray skeptic, I think that's the most likely scenario.

5th - LA Lakers: Fifth place is probably the floor for a team that gets a full, engaged season from Luka Dončić, and it's his team now, so he has no reason to be checked out. I don't believe in this team's depth either, but I do think that JJ Redick is, if not a better coach than David Adelman, certainly more willing to be flexible and find creative solutions. I think one of the more interesting subplots of this season will be whether the Lakers can find an attractive trade at the trade deadline despite not having any draft picks to trade. They do have a plethora of tradeable contracts, so they've got that going for them. Which is nice.

4th - Houston: Ime Udoka must be so happy to have Marcus Smart back in his life. Marcus never started more games in a single season than he did in 2021-2022 when Udoka was his coach. Theoretically, the Rockets starting lineup shouldn't have room for Marcus, but I won't be surprised if Udoka benches Jabari Smith Jr. in favor of a three-guard starting lineup of Fred Van Vleet, Amen Thompson, and Marcus. And I will also presume Marcus will be the first one to pull starts when anyone besides Alperen Şengün needs a night off. But ultimately, this team will still rise and fall on the back of Kevin Durant's play, which is why I can't push them into the top three.

3rd - Minnesota: A lot of people are about to be very wrong about Minnesota. They are going to maintain their status as being an absolute bitch to play against on defense, while flying around and becoming a juggernaut offense. People who think their defense is about to take a hit because of LaMelo Ball are blithely ignoring that they spent much of the playoffs starting either Mike Conley or Ayo Dosunmu at point guard, and both of them are both short and bad at defense. LaMelo may be bad defensively, but he is at least not short. He isn't going to hurt their defense any more than they did, and he is going to supercharge their offense. You can't double Anthony Edwards any time LaMelo is on the court.

I'm bullish on Jonathan Kuminga's fit as well. The media is so biased toward loving Steve Kerr that they can't admit how badly he and the Golden State front office mismanaged Kuminga, whose eFG% immediately bounced back to 2023-2024 levels the second he left Golden State. In 2023-2024, Kuminga started 46 games, averaged 16.1 points per game, and looked to be an important future cog in Golden State's machine. And then Kerr lost his mind, and started pushing him out of the rotation, and things devolved from there. I think the only fair way to evaluate Kuminga is to wipe out his 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 tenure with the Warriors.

Finally, Jaden McDaniels and Rudy Gobert perpetually play with a chip on their shoulder, and McDaniels may be ready to level up this season. And I'm a believer in Terrence Shannon Jr. and Juan Beringer. Ayo Dosunmu has to be respected, and if Cody Williams, Jaylen Clark, and/or Bones Hyland can be productive players, this team will be super deep even before Donte DiVencenzo gets back. Most of all, I believe in Chris Finch and Tim Connelly.

2nd - San Antonio: While I am still a believer, I think working Dylan Harper into the starting lineup and adding Tobias Harris are two major things that the team is going to need to work through, and these are variables that Oklahoma City just doesn't have to worry about. I also think there will be a little variance in the play of their young players. Last season was a dream, but progress is rarely linear, and we shouldn't assume the Spurs are now perennially a 62-win juggernaut, or ticketed for the Conference/NBA Finals.

1st - Oklahoma City: One of the more important variables of this season is how Jalen Williams looks. The Thunder won 64 games last season with Williams only suiting up for 33 games because again, one-third of the league was losing on purpose. That won't be the case this season, but if Williams comes back strong, the Thunder will be fine. They remain deep, and will plug newbies into the roles vacated by Luguentz Dort, Isaiah Joe, and Aaron Wiggins without missing a beat. They basically already had in the playoffs, as all three averaged far fewer minutes in the playoffs than they did the regular season:

Jalen Williams played less in the playoffs because he was hurt. Kenrich Williams played less in the playoffs because he generally only plays low-leverage minutes at this point, and there are simply more of those in the regular season. The other three? Looking at this table, it's hard to dispute the notion that the Thunder had been planning to trade the other three for some time, and de-emphasized them in the playoffs on purpose.

The Thunder are going to be just fine without them.

Eastern Conference

15th - Chicago: One member of their starting five – Norm Powell – should absolutely be moved by the trade deadline. Another – Nic Claxton – is also a potential trade candidate. And outside of their starting five, I'm not sure they have another quality NBA player on their roster (maybe Tre Jones). Leave it to the Bulls to start their tank after the tanking rules changed.

14th - Brooklyn: This team willingly traded for Julius Randle, aka the real-life Cooler. I used to stick up for Randle, but he's now been kicked to the curb by four different teams, and each team has been very, very happy to get rid of him. The T'Wolves were giddy. I honestly can't think of a single player who would be a worse fit for a group of young players trying to get acclimated to NBA life than Randle. There is talent here, but I don't see it meshing well.

13th - Milwaukee: I just think Taylor Jenkins is going to figure this out, and that Tyler Herro playing for a new contract is going to be lights out. People are dismissively handwaiving this team away, which I get – everyone was mad at how they handled the Giannis Antetokounmpo situation. And I'm obviously not slotting them in as a playoff team. I just don't think it's going to be the disaster everyone seems to think it will be.

12th - Charlotte: There's going to be a major step back. Coby White has been a starter in four NBA seasons, and in none of those four seasons did his team achieve a winning record. This team had a solidified rotation and winning strategy, and traded it away because they didn't want to pay LaMelo Ball.

Whether that was the correct strategy, only time will tell, but the result is that they have less talent and more questions, and success this season hinges on a leap from Brandon Miller. I'll believe it when I see it. Last season, there were only two players with a Usage percentage over 28 and a PER under 19 – Miller and Pascal Siakam, who was playing on the tanking Pacers. Another fun fact about Brandon Miller – over the past two seasons he played 630 fewer minutes than the supposedly more injury-prone LaMelo Ball. One more fun fact about Brandon Miller – in college, Miller brought his gun to his friend, and then that gun was used that night to murder someone. The media also handwaives this, and paints LaMelo as the irresponsible person simply because the media doesn't like LaMelo's dad, LaVar Ball, and because LaMelo got into a car accident. Because no one else ever gets in car accidents, apparently.

11th - Atlanta: I just think the decision tree that this team has presented itself of playing offense-first players or defense-first players is going to too frequently lead to poor outcomes. I also think that with five of the team's players either unrestricted free agents or controlled by a team option next season, and another five having only an additional guaranteed season beyond that – more than half the team in total – that this is finally the season the Hawks make their big trade. CJ McCollum, Luguentz Dort, and Jock Landale combine to make $52.8 million, and all are on expiring contracts. Could they be packaged for a disgruntled star, like Anthony Davis ($58.5M)? Or for a player whose team wants to give up young talent and/or a boatload of draft picks for the pleasure of these expiring contracts, like, say, Paul George ($54.1M)? Or perhaps to a team who could completely reset by trading their one superstar if Atlanta was to fork over a cornucopia of draft picks, like, say, Devin Booker ($57M)? I don't know, but I think this is the year the Hawks pounce, and it leaves them just on the outside looking in, but also with a bright, bright future.

10th - Washington: I just like this team more than the consensus. I don't even think Anthony Davis needs to be here long-term, because if he is traded, Washington will get something good for him. No, this is a bet on Trae Young, and the fact that the one thing this team didn't have last season is a point guard. That fact put everyone in roles in which they didn't belong (CJ McCollum really isn't a point guard either), and now that Young is here, there is more clarity. And there is just too much talent here to be perpetually bad. Every NBA season produces its fair share of surprises, and I believe this is one of this season's!

9th - Orlando: I'll never be a believer in this team, and if they are forced to trade Anthony Black because of the awful-the-second-it-was-signed contract they gave to Jalen Suggs, things could get bleak in a hurry, since Black is the only player on the team who is good at passing (and he's not even that good at it).

8th - Miami: After the Giannis trade, I had this team pegged outside of the play in, but they have done enough to crawl back into the playoff picture. Just don't expect Klay Thompson to be that guy. Over the past four seasons, his minutes per game have declined from 33.0, to 29.7, to 27.3, to 21.7 last season. Maybe that ticks back up to the 24-25 range, but the days of him playing 30 minutes per game are long over – he's a part-time player now.

I will also be paying a lot of attention to Tim Hardaway Jr's shooting. A lot of players have made good money the year after leaving Nikola Jokić's orbit. It's a lot easier to have a career-best shooting season when Jokić (or LeBron James) is throwing you passes. The year after, there tends to be a come down. In the five seasons before last season, Tim Hardaway Jr. shot .369 from deep. Then last season he joined the Nuggets and shot .407. Whether that .407 was because he truly unlocked something inside himself, or he was getting a lot of really amazing passes from Jokić that he just isn't going to get from the far inferior passers on this Miami team will be a big part of whether this is a successful season for the Heat.

7th - Detroit: I just think this team has more questions than answers. Was Jalen Duren's playoff performance an aberration, or did the league figure him out? Can John Collins create his own shot? Is Ausur Thompson ready to average 30 minutes per game for the first time in his career? Is Paul Reed ready to average 20 minutes per game for the first time in his career? Does Isaiah Joe fit on this team at all, or was his acquisition and incredibly poor use of resources given that the team already has two shoot-only players in Duncan Robinson and Kevin Huerter, both of whom are much taller and stouter than Joe? Will Ebuka Okorie play?

Looming over all of these questions is the big one – how will this team compete in the 12-18 games that star Cade Cunningham habitually misses? Cunningham has never played more than 70 games in a single season, and given his importance to the team and the serious injuries he's endured in his brief career, it seems reasonable to suggest he'll get his fair share of rest nights. Last season, it wasn't an issue because by the time Cunningham got hurt, one-third of the league had stopped trying. That's not going to be the case this season.

Finally, I think J.B. Bickerstaff is just not a very creative coach, and is too slow to adapt and dial up winning strategies for his teams with the game on the line. It was true in Cleveland, and it's been true in Detroit. It usually doesn't bite his teams until the playoffs, but the East is just too deep for it to not matter in the regular season this season.

6th - Toronto: Last season, the Raptors had trouble beating good teams. The salve for this, apparently, was acquiring Kawhi Leonard – who played on a team that also had trouble beating good teams last season. Of the 20 teams that made the playoffs or play-in last season, only two had fewer wins against above-.500 teams than did the Clippers. Leonard, a me-first player who wanted a new contract, amped his usage to a career-high 33.5%, which coincidentally led him to a career-best 27.9 points per game. Hanging onto the vestiges of hope of their disastrous 2019 acquisition of him, the Clippers exiled Chris Paul and James Harden in a last-ditch fealty to Leonard so he could put himself center stage. It worked as well as all their other decisions have, which is to say not at all. The Clippers finally found a backbone over the summer, and shipped Leonard to Toronto, who compounded their bad decision to acquire the biggest scumbag of the NBA's 21st century by signing him to a big, fat extension. And now that he's been paid, you can bet Leonard will miss half the season.

When that happens, it'll be a shame, because I really came around on Scottie Barnes last season. He nearly willed Toronto to a first-round upset of Cleveland even without Brandon Ingram and Immanuel Quickley. I still love Canada's son RJ Barrett, Jamal Shead's defense gives me nightmares, and Jamison Battle's random heat check quarters are a delight. I'd say I love Collin Murray-Boyles, but I feel loving him is a little played out, everyone loves him! But in order to succeed in today's NBA, you have to get the big contracts right, and Jakob Poeltl and Kawhi Leonard are two more albatrosses than one team can afford. The good news for the Raptors is that Barnes will still only be 29 by the time Leonard and Poeltl both get wiped from the books, so their goal just has to be keep him happy until then.

5th - Indiana: They're so back. A lot of people are hedging their bets on the Pacers, but I think Tyrese Haliburton is going to be back and conducting his merry marching band of a team. Even if it's a little rocky in the beginning, it'll be good enough to keep them hanging around for a second-half run. Don't forget, the 2024-2025 Pacers started 16-18 before they ripped off six wins in a row to get into the mix, and that season they only finished fourth. The Pacers are fully capable of having a similar season now. If they had a better backup center, I'd be tempted to have them even higher. I think they're no worse than fourth in terms of who I think can win in the playoffs.

4th - Philadelphia: The thing where people have worried about how the Philly stars will share one ball seemed overblown to me. They're all adults. Jaylen Brown and LeBron James have spent plenty of time sharing the ball. Only three NBA players have amassed more assists than LeBron. But when I was handwaiving this concern, I forgot one thing – what an absolute fucking clown Joel Embiid is. He did several selfish, headscratching things in the final preseason game on Friday, but this one has stayed with me for a couple of days, so much that I went back to my DVR and fastforwarded through an hour and a half of footage to get to it, since NBA.com doesn't clip preseason games. Have a look:

Embiid gets the rebound, and you could say he made the right play pushing it up the court, as there were defenders all around him and no clear outlet. But once he gets it to the frontcourt, Tyrese Maxey is set up for a clean three pointer, and has his hands out for a pass. Embiid doesn't see/ignores him, and dribbles back out. But instead of kicking it to either Maxey or Jaylen Brown, he decides to go one-on-one from 25 feet out. He draws a foul because this game was being reffed by all-time worst NBA ref Tyler Ford, and his opponent was jumpy rookie Chris Cenac Jr., who already had four fouls. But Embiid had no plan, and didn't really shoot the ball, and in crunch time of a close game, he's probably not getting bailed out on that bullshit.

It's plays like this why Joel Embiid has never escaped the second round. And until this behavior changes, it really doesn't matter how many superstars Mike Gansey, Jameer Nelson, and Co. import onto the roster. Perhaps LeBron and JB can beat some sense into him about the tenets of team basketball, but I'm going to need to see proof. And if the team is constantly resting guys, it might just not change this season.

I guess what I'm saying is that I don't see a 2007-2008 Celtics style 29-3 start to the season for Philly, because Embiid clearly has not yet embraced the concept of sacrificing for his teammates. I'd say I hope he gets there eventually for JB's sake, but it's Philly, so I'm good.

3rd - Cleveland: Initially, I had the Cavs fourth behind the Knicks, Sixers, and Celtics, but after watching Philly twice in this preseason, I pushed Cleveland and Boston ahead of them. Perhaps that is over reactionary, but it's not an overreaction to suggest Cleveland will win a bunch of regular-season games. In the four seasons since Donovan Mitchell arrived in Cleveland, they have won at least 48 games and been no worse than the four seed. And for once, I believe in Cleveland's wing depth. Peyton Watson, Jaylon Tyson, and Mario Hezonja are a very solid trio, and Sam Merrill and Maleek Thomas are a solid/promising pair of backup guards. Ironically, their weakness may be the third big, but they may just play more single-big lineups this season, which I think will work out just fine for them.

2nd - Boston: I know, I know, I've been a huge critic of the JB trade. And it hurts, viscerally, to see him in a Philly uniform. But if they keep the ball moving like they did in the preseason, hot damn.

I'm not banking on that new tempo, because we've seen the team do this in the preseason only to slow down once the season starts, but it did feel a little more sustainable this preseason. We'll see.

One of my big takeaways is that Paul George seems as irrelevant on the team as I hoped he would be. My hope is that the C's do everything possible to get him into 39 of the first 47 games through the end of January (they have eight back-to-backs, so this would be perfect attendance minus those), make him look as good as humanly possible, and then trade him to the first team stupid enough to buy the hype. Then they can slot in Hugo González or Baylor Scheierman, and not miss a beat.

My other big takeaway is that Jayson Tatum seems fully back and ready to mount a campaign to get his first-team All-NBA spot back. Let's go.

1st - New York: The vibes do not seem immaculate right now. But things change with the first three-game winning streak. And until they're dethroned, they're the champs. And while I understand that they enjoyed excellent health from their starting five last season, and they may be tempted to take their foot off the gas pedal and cruise through the regular season, I don't see it. One, that just doesn't seem like Jalen Brunson's, Josh Hart's, or Mikal Bridges' style. Bridges hasn't missed a game in six seasons, and has played all 82 (and in one case, 83) games in seven of his eight NBA seasons.

Adding to that are the fact that several Knicks – Karl-Anthony Towns, Josh Hart, and Miles McBride in particular – are playing for new contracts. McBride missed half of last season, and still has plenty to prove. Even though he should be commended for playing hurt in the postseason, he is unlikely to receive those kudos from the Knicks brass once contract negotiations start. He needs a good season. Landry Shamet missed 30 games last season, and Jose Alvarado didn't arrive until the trade deadline. The three of them will likely be eager to pick up any regular season slack that presents itself. So I don't worry too much about there being a drop off from this group.

West Playoffs

• 7 Dallas over 8 Utah: Cooper Flagg gets to the postseason in his second season.
• 10 New Orleans over 9 Portland: Zion Williamson summons the will to dominate for precisely one game.
• 8 Utah over 10 New Orleans: Lauri Markkanen gets to the postseason in his 10th season.
• 1 Oklahoma City over 8 Utah: But not for long.
• 2 San Antonio over 7 Dallas: Flagg vs. Wemby could be another fun rivalry. Fingers crossed.
• 3 Minnesota over 6 Denver: After Denver loses to Minnesota for the third time in four seasons and for the second straight time in the first round, will Nikola Jokić really sign that long-term extension? Or will he decline his player option and have the entire league scrambling to court him in free agency?
• 4 Houston over 5 LA Lakers: Ime Udoka finally gets a playoff series win in Houston because Marcus Smart hounds Luka Dončić into a flagrant two foul that gets him suspended for an additional game, which dooms the Lakers.

Second Round:

• 1 Oklahoma City over 4 Houston: Will getting smoked by OKC be the final indignity for Kevin Durant?
• 3 Minnesota over 2 San Antonio: Playoff Ant is just too much, and Rudy Gobert gets a measure of triumph against his younger countryman. Donte DiVincenzo's triumphant return will also help.

Conference Finals:

• 1 Oklahoma City over 3 Minnesota: Gobert will not enjoy chasing Chet Holmgren around as much in this series though, and unfortunately, they no longer have Nickeil Alexander-Walker around to cover his cousin. And I just think OKC is going to be on a mission this season. I think this will be a relatively short series, which will be sad, because out of this series there will be an "Anthony Edwards, always the bridesmaid" narrative building. And it won't be fair, necessarily, but will also be hard to deny.

East Playoffs

• 8 Miami over 7 Detroit: You know who Jalen Duren isn't tougher than? Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo. And with Duren neutralized, it's Cade vs. the world. Sorry, Cade.
• 10 Washington over 9 Orlando: You probably don't remember the Magic punking Trae Young in the play-in a couple of years ago. But I bet Trae Young remembers!
• 7 Detroit over 10 Washington: Washington, truly just happy to be there, will not be able to sustain the physicality against the other most physical team in the East.
• 1 New York vs. 8 Detroit: Not much of a reward for the Knicks, but they'll still dispatch the offensively-challenged Pistons.
• 2 Boston over 7 Miami: It's written in the stars. Boston's triumph will tilt it to Boston three, Miami two, for the decade, and will ensure that Giannis still won't have won a playoff series since 2021.
• 3 Cleveland over 6 Toronto: Cleveland wins by default when Kawhi Leonard misses the entire series.
• 5 Indiana over 4 Philadelphia: The "cohesive teams beat collections of superstars" memes will be both exhausting and exhilarating, but the truth is that this iteration of the Sixers is going to need a season to gel. Next season is when they'll really be tough.

Second Round:

• 1 New York over 5 Indiana: New York finally gets their revenge. I'm giddy just thinking about another opportunity to watch Knicks-Pacers.
• 2 Boston over 3 Cleveland: I don't want to say this series will be a sweep, because there will be one Donovan Mitchell game, but there won't be a second, and Cleveland won't have enough to win without multiple Donovan Mitchell games.

Conference Finals

• 2 Boston over 1 New York: None of the last seven NBA champions have made it back to the NBA Finals in the subsequent season, and the Knicks will not be the team to break that streak, especially not after the C's cruise through their second-round series and the Knicks have to battle Indiana tooth and nail. Jayson Tatum buries all of the demons from 2025, and reminds everyone that he is the greatest active American player.

NBA Finals

This series, if it happens, has a decent chance of killing me. This season's C's will actually match up really well with OKC, as the C's have two bigs in Neemias Queta and Mitchell Robinson who can match up with Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein. Not many people have an edge in a matchup with Jalen Williams, but Jayson Tatum will. If anyone can stay home and not fall for SGA's foul baiting, it's Derrick White. Cason Wallace vs. Jordan Walsh would be a great matchup of overactive defensive pests. Hugo González was born to out-annoy Alex Caruso.

On paper, these could be two very evenly matched teams. And the C's certainly would make a series of it. But as much as it pains me, I don't think Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is going to be denied this season. As much as I can't stand his foul baiting, I respect the hell out of his resolve, drive, and character. After OKC wins, I'll be left making consolation-prize arguments about how the C's being the only team to make the NBA Finals three times in this decade exhibits Jayson Tatum's greatness. Thunder in 7. MVP: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, after he puts the foul grifting to bed and puts up 43 points and 12 assists in Game 7.