Every season in every sport people do something called predicting. Predicting is where you make a guess on something that will happen in the future. In sports, there are all sorts of things that you can predict; who will be at the top of the league, who will win an award, and so on. Similarly to other fans, basketball fans make predictions all the time. One thing that I love to do is make predictions on who will emerge victorious in the NBA finals. Sometimes I am right, sometimes I am super close, and sometimes I completely swing and miss. I usually make 3 guesses. The three guesses are who will most likely win, the team that is second most likely to win, and an underdog team. Sometimes I make my guesses when playoff brackets are decided–right before the playoffs begin–. Sometimes I make my guesses super early in the season. This year I am deciding to make my guess now. Right now we’re almost done with the season, I would say ~85% of the way through. This is a fun time to guess because we can tell what most teams will look like in the playoffs, but we aren’t 100% sure who will make the playoffs. This leaves room for some interesting takes on what will happen.
Guess 1: Who are the favorites overall?
1 was between 2 teams. One from the West and one from the East. The OKC Thunder (from the West) and the Cleveland Cavaliers (from the East). Their records are almost identical, with OKC’s record being 55-12 and Clevland’s being 56-11. Therefore, the difference between the 2 is 1 game. That’s pretty darn close. Looking at the teams, OKC has Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is most likely going to win MVP this season. Although I don’t believe he deserves the MVP (article coming soon on this as of 3/16/25), he’s still (in my opinion) the second-best player in the NBA. He’s also backed up by many amazing roleplayers who could go off for 20-30 points on any given night. Looking at the Cavs, they have a bunch of amazing players. First off, they have Donovan Mitchell, who was an all-star starter this season. As of recently, has been playing amazingly. Next, they have an amazing player in Evan Mobley. In the last few seasons, Mobley has improved a ton and is helping on both the offensive and defensive sides. They also have Jarrett Allan who has been blocking shots all over the place and has helped fill gaps that previous Cavs teams have had. These teams are very evenly matched. I could definitely see a finals between these 2 teams. But, only 1 team can win. I’m going to give it to the Cavs. I believe that they having too many players would be problems for the Thunder. They also have a ton of great defenders that they can throw at Shai. If the Cavs can contain Shai and keep him out of the paint, then it’s over.
Guess 2: Who are the second-most likely teams to win?
Similarly to guess 1, I decided to choose 1 team from the West and 1 from the East. The teams I chose are the Nuggets (from the West) and the Celtics (from the East). These are 2 teams that have been dominant in the last few seasons. Both teams have countless weapons. The Nuggets have Nikola Jokić, who I believe deserves the MVP. He’s averaging almost a 30-point triple-double. That means that he is putting up numbers that haven’t been seen since Wilt was playing. On the Celtics side, you have the most winningest franchise ever, who have weapons in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. It is rare that one of these two doesn’t have a good night. Choosing which one of these teams is better was more tough than the last guess. I feel like a serious between these teams could go either way. It depends on who gets the momentum. If I had to choose, I would choose the Denver Nuggets. When Nikola Jokiy wants to win, then any team playing him is done for.
Guess 3: Who’s the “Sleeper” team?
This is a kind of biased pick. Now that saying that is out of the way, I can start talking about my favorite team in the NBA right now, the Golden State Warriors. Just recently, the Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler from the Miami Heat (read my article on it!). With the addition of Jimmy, the team has changed entirely. Previously, if the Warriors wanted to beat any decent team, they would need Steph to work some miracle and score 50 points. Now, they have 2 stars. Steph now has the weight of the entire Warriors team off his back. Those who know what an unleashed Steph Curry is know that all the other teams in the NBA better keep looking over their shoulders. Also, Jonathan Kuminga has returned from injury. He provides a consistent 15+ ppg that boosts the Dubs offense even higher. Jimmy has also brought life back into Draymond Green, who has turned back into the defensive menace that makes Warriors fans love him and everyone else hate him. Regardless of that, Draymond has been playing significantly better with Jimmy on the team. Although it probably won’t happen, I could see a world where Playoff Jimmy Buckets and The Chef go crazy in the playoffs and bring home yet another ring.
Overall picks:
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