Celtics voted massive favorites to repeat as NBA champions, Luka Dončić dominates player categories in GM survey

The NBA released its annual general manager survey on Tuesday, and executives have a very clear favorite when it comes to who will be lifting the Larry O’Brien trophy this summer.

An overwhelming 83% of respondents think that the Boston Celtics will repeat and win the NBA Finals this season. The Celtics beat the Dallas Mavericks 4-1 in the Finals earlier this year, which marked the franchise’s 18th championship in history. The Oklahoma City Thunder earned 13% of the vote in the survey, and the Mavericks earned 3%. By comparison, the Celtics and the Denver Nuggets split the vote last season at 33% each to lead the survey.

Naturally, the Celtics are the favorite to win the Eastern Conference, too. They earned 97% of the votes there, compared to just 53% last season. The New York Knicks finished in second in the voting, slightly ahead of the Philadelphia 76ers. In the West, the Oklahoma City Thunder were voted to finish first. The Minnesota Timberwolves, Denver Nuggets and Mavericks were close behind in that order.

The Celtics will officially open their regular season against the Knicks on Oct. 22. The league hasn’t seen a repeat champion since the Golden State Warriors won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018.

Luka Dončić dominates individual voting

Though he wasn’t the pick to win the MVP award this season, Mavericks star Luka Dončić dominated the individual voting categories in the survey.

Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the pick to earn MVP honors this season with 40% of the voting. Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.1 points, 6.2 assists and 5.5 rebounds per game last season while finishing in second in the MVP race behind Nikola Jokić.

Dončić finished in second with 30% of the vote, and was the only other player to earn double-digit support. Joel Embiid, Jokić and Jayson Tatum finished in a tie for third at 7%.

Dončić then earned votes in the best point guard, best shooting guard and best small forward categories. He was selected as the top point guard in the league with 37% of the vote, fifth in the shooting guard race and in a tie for second in the small forward voting. Anthony Edwards was…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-10-08 20:58:25

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