Let’s rank every NBA team by their championship chances entering the 2026-27 season.
It might seem like football season just started, but the NBA is already back. Every team in the league will have opened training camp for the 2026-27 season by Monday, with media days servicing as the unofficial start of the new year. It feels like only yesterday when the New York Knicks outlasted the San Antonio Spurs in one of the wildest NBA Finals series in recent memory, but so much around the league has happened since then.
LeBron James is on the Philadelphia 76ers, LaMelo Ball is on the Minnesota Timberwolves, Kawhi Leonard back is on the Toronto Raptors after the Los Angeles Clippers got nuked for cap circumvention, Ja Morant is a Portland Trail Blazer, Peyton Watson is a Cleveland Cavalier, Walker Kessler is a Los Angeles Laker, and oh yeah, the Celtics and 76ers agreed to swap Jaylen Brown and Paul George. Tyrese Haliburton and Kyrie Irving are back from injury, and Jimmy Butler is expected to return mid-season. There’s also a loaded rookie class debuting that plants elite young talent all over the country.
The 2026-27 NBA season has begun, and that means we need to rank every team by their championship chances. Read my Eastern Conference rankings for the regular season, and Western Conference regular season predictions for extended thoughts on every team in the league. This is how the race of the 2027 Larry O’Brien trophy feels on the first day of training camp.
Rank | Team |
|---|---|
| 1 | San Antonio Spurs |
| 2 | Oklahoma City Thunder |
| 3 | New York Knicks |
| 4 | Minnesota Timberwolves |
| 5 | Philadelphia 76ers |
| 6 | Toronto Raptors |
| 7 | Los Angeles Lakers |
| 8 | Boston Celtics |
| 9 | Houston Rockets |
| 10 | Denver Nuggets |
| 11 | Cleveland Cavaliers |
| 12 | Detroit Pistons |
| 13 | Indiana Pacers |
| 14 | Miami Heat |
| 15 | Orlando Magic |
| 16 | Golden State Warriors |
| 17 | Utah Jazz |
| 18 | Portland Trail Blazers |
| 19 | Atlanta Hawks |
| 20 | Phoenix Suns |
| 21 | Charlotte Hornets |
| 22 | Memphis Grizzlies |
| 23 | Dallas Mavericks |
| 24 | Washington Wizards |
| 25 | New Orleans Pelicans |
| 26 | Brooklyn Nets |
| 27 | Los Angeles Clippers |
| 28 | Chicago Bulls |
| 29 | Milwaukee Bucks |
| 30 | Sacramento Kings |
Let’s dive into some of the biggest themes in the league entering the 2026-27 season.
The NBA has 3 clear championship front-runners. Will one of them win it all?
The San Antonio Spurs, Oklahoma City Thunder, and New York Knicks are going to be the top-3 teams in any preseason edition of NBA power rankings in some order entering the season. It feels likely that one of these teams will eventually be crowned the 2027 champion, but the league has been incredibly tough to predict in recent years. The NBA has seen eight straight unique champions dating back to the 2019 Toronto Raptors, and no team has won multiple championships or even made back-to-back NBA Finals trips over that time.
NBA history is defined by dynasties. That isn’t the case in the present era for several reasons, starting with the second-apron, which makes it incredibly difficult to keep together a great team for longer than a few seasons by functioning as a hard cap. The increased pace and space of today’s game also leads to added injury risk, with several recent champions losing their repeat bids to untimely injuries in the playoffs. The NBA wanted parity with the current Collective Bargaining Agreement rules, and they got it.
I’m starting to favor the Spurs as my championship pick. Their young core should all continue to improve after winning 62 games and reaching the NBA Finals last year, which is terrifying. Victor Wembanyama is already one of the most dominant defenders of all-time, and he could be the consensus best player in the world by the end of the season. I also think adding Tobias Harris in free agency will help them a bit this year. San Antonio is my team to beat entering the season, but if recent NBA history has taught us anything, it’s that the championship race will eventually prove to be wide open.
4 teams I’m higher on for the playoffs than the regular season
- Minnesota Timberwolves: I had the Wolves at the No. 4 seed in my West predictions, and even that felt a bit generous, but I like their playoff upside. The core trio of Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, and Jaden McDaniels has been highly successful the last three years, and LaMelo Ball injects playmaking and pull-up shooting into the mix that adds high variance in a good way come playoff time. I’m not sure how any team beats the Spurs or Thunder in a seven game series, but having two super talented guards bomb threes off the dribble seems like a decent punch to throw.
- Philadelphia 76ers: I had the Sixers at the No. 6 seed in my East predictions for the regular season, but I’m talking myself into their playoff upside. Philly won a series last year and got noticeably better by adding LeBron James, Jaylen Brown, Dean Wade, and more over the offseason. James proved he can still turn it up in the playoffs last year, and Brown’s determined one-on-one scoring feels more functional during the playoffs than the regular season to me. Philly’s regular season defensive projection is the biggest reason I’m lower on them — along with injuries and unavailability for their core players — but Nick Nurse is smart, this team could still be really good come spring time.
- Miami Heat: Erik Spoelstra is the best coach in the NBA. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the best player in the East. I’m worried Miami’s poor depth could hurt their regular season chances, but I’ll never be surprised when this franchise makes a Cinderella run to the NBA Finals.
- Golden State Warriors: I had Golden State at No. 11 in West regular season projection, but I have them seventh among West teams in my championship chances rankings here. I don’t think Golden State is going to be any good this season, but if they do make the play-in, they should have Jimmy Butler back from injury and have the assets to add another key piece if they want to. I’m fading the Warriors in general, but Steph is always scary in the playoffs.
Who’s your 2027 NBA championship pick?
Let me know in the comments. NBA basketball is back, and it feels great.