The Oklahoma City Thunder are not just favorites to repeat as NBA champions. They are now virtually the only choice to win it all.
ESPN recently polled a mix of 20 coaches, executives, and scouts on some big-picture questions. When asked which team would raise the 2026 Larry O’Brien Trophy, a whopping 18 of those respondents rolled with OKC.
Shrug this off as an inevitable development if you are so inclined. The Thunder are built to exist at the tippy top of the championship discussion for years to come. But given the rise in parity around the league, receiving 90 percent of any sample size’s title equity is hardly assured.
The Thunder’s dominance is truly unique
Seven different champions have been crowned over the past seven years. That lends itself to gravitating toward the field.
We saw as much in action last summer. The then-reigning champion Boston Celtics received eight votes to win it all again in the 2024 iteration of this exercise. OKC itself bagged seven of the available 20 votes.
All of which is to say: This type of overwhelming response isn’t normal. Not since the Kevin Durant-era Golden State Warriors have we seen a team considered, basically, a formality to raise another banner.
To their credit, the Thunder have earned this brand of recognition. They are the perfect mix of star power, developmental upside, proven depth, and draft and trade assets. Running away with this poll fits the product. Especially after ESPN also just ranked OKC as having the Association's best future.
Oklahoma City owes small thank you to the East
At this very moment, even after being pushed to seven games twice this past postseason, it is tough to imagine any full-strength team beating the Thunder four times in a single series. Every championship poll was always destined to not just favor, but default to a repeat.
That inclination became truly inevitable thanks to the Eastern Conference. It says a lot that no coach, exec, or scout voted for a single East team to win the title. The Denver Nuggets cannibalized the remaining two votes, finishing an ultra-distant second to OKC’s 18 various stamps of approval.
The complete disregard for the East is well-warranted. Achilles injuries to Tyrese Haliburton and Jayson Tatum have ended title pursuits for the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics, respectively, before they even started. People also have questions about the Cleveland Cavaliers, and their trio of unimpressive playoff pushes during the Donovan Mitchell era. The Orlando
Magic are talented, and scrappy as anything on defense. They are also operating in territory the Thunder used to own, as the young team that ferries the burden of proof.
Legitimate threats in the West are even hard to come by. The well runs fairly dry after the Nuggets, and Houston Rockets. Yet, extolling their chances and potential improvement ignores that the Thunder aren’t done getting better themselves. Of their core players, only Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Alex Caruso, Lu Dort, and Isaiah Hartenstein have reached or are close to reaching their final form.
That is a terrifying notion, and it raises an interesting question: If we’re being honest, is holding 90 percent of the picks to win it all even enough?