NBA GMs pick Thunder to repeat as champions, Jokic for MVP

NEW YORK (AP):

NBA general managers overwhelmingly expect the Oklahoma City Thunder to be the league’s first repeat champions in nearly a decade, while Denver’s Nikola Jokic is their pick to reclaim the MVP award and Miami’s Erik Spoelstra was once again the pick as best coach.

Those were among the findings of the league’s annual preseason polling of general managers, the results of which were released last Thursday.

The Thunder got 80 per cent of the vote — teams could not vote for themselves or their own personnel in the survey — in response to the question of which team would win this season’s title. No team has gone back-to-back since Golden State in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Cleveland and Denver each got seven per cent of the vote, while Houston and New York each three per cent.

The GMs were clear: They expect another international player to be MVP — players born outside the US have won each of the last seven MVP trophies — and Jokic is the overwhelming pick to win what would be his fourth in a span of six seasons.

He got 67 per cent of the vote, followed by Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers (10), reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City (eight), and Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs (seven).

If the GMs are to be believed, the top four play-off seeds in the Eastern Conference will be, in order, Cleveland, New York, Orlando and Atlanta.

In the West, Oklahoma City were followed by Denver, Houston and Minnesota.

BEST AT THEIR POSITION

Gilgeous-Alexander (73 per cent) was the runaway pick as best point guard, with Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards (70) the top pick at shooting guard, Doncic (40) the best small forward, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (93) the top vote getter at power forward, and Jokic (97) was the pick of almost everyone at centre.

The Nuggets couldn’t vote for Jokic; by process of elimination, that means Denver’s vote for best centre likely went to Wembanyama, since he was the only other player to receive a vote as the best centre.

And the best pure shooter was nearly unanimous: Golden State’s Stephen Curry (93 per cent) got almost all votes, with his former Warriors teammate Klay Thompson — now with Dallas — getting the other seven.

MOST IMPROVED TEAM

The GMs expect to see big jumps from Orlando (47 per cent) and Atlanta (20), making those clubs two of the top three vote getters when asked which team will be improved the most this season.

San Antonio tied with Atlanta, getting 20 per cent of the voting.

ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

To no surprise, No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg of Dallas was the pick to win rookie of the year. Flagg got 97 per cent of the vote, likely meaning 29 of the 30 if all teams submitted an answer.

The only other player to get a vote was Philadelphia’s VJ Edgecombe (three per cent).