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Tim BontempsESPN
The Los Angeles Lakers repeat as NBA champions, according to a study of NBA general managers.
That forecast was one of many takeaways from NBA.com’s annual survey of the top 30 headquarters before the start of the new season. There were 33 questions in the survey, from which player would they choose to start a franchise with the best player at each position to who will win this year’s most valuable player award.
But one of the most lopsided answers of the entire study was the first question: Who will win the title this season?
Eighty-one percent of respondents said the Lakers would do it again in 2021, with the only other team to get multiple votes than rival LA Clippers, which received 11% of the vote. The only other teams selected were Brooklyn Nets and Miami Heat.
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who just signed a five – year supermax extension to stay with the Bucks, has been selected to win the third straight league MVP award – something that has not been done since Larry Bird ‘s withdrawal from 1984 to 1986.
League executives are predicting it to be a wide-open race, however, with Antetokounmpo receiving only 32% of the vote, and five other players – Dallas Mavericks guarding Luka Doncic ( 21%), Lakers forward Anthony Davis and LeBron James (18%), Nets forward Kevin Durant (7%), and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (4%) – they also received votes.
Antetokounmpo and Doncic, meanwhile, were also popular among GMs when asked which player they would choose for a franchise to start with. Both players got 43% of the vote, and Davis got 7%. To show how much respect Doncic has earned over the past year, Antetokounmpo was a runaway winner last year with 86%.
League GMs voted the best player of all positions to be Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry (30%), Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden (68%), James (57%) at a slight forward, Antetokounmpo (46%) at power forward and Jokic (50%) at center.
They also decided the Lakers (37%) were the best offseason and considered guard Chris Paul going to the Phoenix Suns (44%) as the only best move and forward Gordon Hayward going to the Charlotte Hornets (54%) as the biggest surprise. .
In addition, GMan Hornets preferred to guard LaMelo Ball (39%) to win Rookie of the Year and name Heat coach Erik Spoelstra (46%) as the best coach in the league. The promising young heart of player nodes went to the New Orleans Pelicans (41%).