The 2026-27 NBA season officially tips off on Tuesday, Oct. 20 with the New York Knicks raising their first championship banner since 1973. They'll be taking on the remade Philadelphia 76ers, who added Jaylen Brown and LeBron James this summer and figure to be one of New York's biggest obstacles to a repeat. But the Knicks and 76ers are just two of a surprisingly large number of contenders.

The Pacers who represented the East in the 2025 NBA Finals, have Tyrese Haliburton back. The Raptors brought back Kawhi Leonard. The Miami Heat added Giannis. The Cavs and Celtics are still talented and still lurking. And the East is still probably the lesser conference! The Thunder and Spurs are fully loaded out West and it's not hard to imagine teams like the Timberwolves, Lakers or Nuggets putting themselves in the mix if they can catch a few breaks.

Who do you think will win the NBA championship this season?

Who the experts think will win it all:

Most sportsbooks have the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are the favorites with roughly equal championship odds. Our own Chris Kline picked them to finish with the two best regular season records, ahead of anyone in the Eastern Conference by a decent margin. Of course, finishing with the best record doesn't guarantee a title — five teams had a better regular season record than the Knicks last year.

Sportsbooks line up pretty will with most publicly available statistical models, which also favor the Spurs and Thunder. ESPN's BPI gives the Thunder the best title odds, at 28.4 percent, with the Spurs right behind at 22.3 percent. Opta Analyst has the Thunder at 18.7 percent, the Spurs at 12.0 percent and the Knicks at 10.4 percent.

The experts are of the same mind.. Five of our NBA experts here at FanSided picked the Thunder, one picked the Spurs and one picked the Pacers [waves hand like a buffoon]. ESPN polled 15 of their NBA experts — 10 picked the Thunder, 5 picked the Spurs. Ricky O'Donnell at SBNation picked the Spurs, so did Michael Pina at The Ringer. For experts who cover the league with a national focus, the overwhelming consensus seems to be Oklahoma City or San Antonio with everyone else battling for third.

But, hey, that's why we play the games right?