{"id":910,"section":"sports","section_label":"Sports","url":"https://www.brokenews.co/sports/910","headline":"Spurs and Thunder lead early 2026-27 NBA title odds","dek":"The defending champion Knicks and a retooled 76ers sit just behind the two co-favorites as the new season tips off.","body":"The oddsmakers have spoken, sort of. Heading into the 2026-27 season, the Spurs and Thunder are set as co-favorites to win it all, with the Knicks and 76ers close behind in the East.\n\nThat the Spurs are anywhere near the top says plenty about how fast things move in this league. San Antonio went from a 44-win team to Western Conference champions, a leap nobody projected. The Thunder, meanwhile, remain the steady power out West that everyone else is chasing.\n\nIn the East, the Knicks come in as defending champions, and several experts still like them to go back-to-back, pointing to a roster with no real weak spot and a coaching staff that knows how to use it. There is some hesitation about off-court distractions in New York, but most of the questions raised about other contenders, including the Raptors, Pacers, 76ers, Celtics, Pistons and Cavaliers, are about their own personnel rather than anything dragging the Knicks down.\n\nThe broader theme is unpredictability. The last eight seasons have produced eight different champions, and no team has managed to reach back-to-back Finals in that stretch, a trend this season's favorites will try to break.","published_at":"2026-10-21T00:20:15.583659+00:00","source_count":4,"written_from":[{"outlet":"The Athletic","publisher":"The Athletic","title":"2027 NBA championship odds: Spurs, Thunder co-favorites, 76ers, Knicks close in Eastern Conference","url":"https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7696984/2026/10/20/nba-championship-odds-spurs-thunder-76ers-knicks/"},{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"NBA Predictions 2026-27: Who will be champs? Our experts make their picks","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/article/nba-predictions-2026-27-who-will-be-champs-our-experts-make-their-picks-031742250.html"},{"outlet":"SB Nation","publisher":"SB Nation","title":"NBA predictions: Picks for 2027 champion, MVP, Rookie of the Year, and more","url":"https://www.sbnation.com/nba/1132571/nba-predictions-for-2027-champ-and-every-major-award-with-mvp-rookie-of-the-year-and-more"},{"outlet":"ESPN","publisher":"ESPN","title":"The NBA returns! Expert picks for the East, West and NBA champs","url":"https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/50182600/nba-expert-picks-east-west-champs-mvp"}],"more_coverage":[{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"NBA predictions: Picks for 2027 champion, MVP, Rookie of the Year, and more","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-predictions-picks-2027-champion-120000363.html"},{"outlet":"Yahoo Sports","publisher":"Yahoo Sports","title":"NBA fans react to ESPN experts not picking New York Knicks to repeat as champions","url":"https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-fans-react-espn-experts-104000190.html"},{"outlet":"ESPN","publisher":"ESPN","title":"NBA futures: Spurs, Thunder enter season as championship favorites","url":"https://www.espn.com/espn/betting/story/_/id/50230164/nba-championship-mvp-betting-odds-2026-2027"}],"image":{"url":"https://static01.nyt.com/athletic/uploads/wp/2026/10/16165112/GettyImages-2297085392-scaled-e1792183899315.jpg","credit":"The Athletic","width":2560},"embed":null,"license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","attribution":"Analysis data is licensed CC BY 4.0. Credit brokenews and link to the story page you took it from. Source headlines, story titles taken from a source headline, and quoted passages remain the property of their publishers and are quoted for comparison, not licensed onward.","terms":"https://www.brokenews.co/about#reuse"}