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Tim BontempsESPN
The Los Angeles Lakers will repeat themselves as NBA champions, according to a survey of the NBA’s general managers.
That prediction was one of several takeaways from NBA.com’s annual survey of all 30 front offices ahead of the start of the new season. The survey included 33 questions, ranging from which player they would choose to start a franchise to the best player in each position to who will win the prize for this year’s most valuable player.
But one of the most skewed answers of the entire survey was the first question: who will win the title this season?
Eighty-one percent of respondents said the Lakers would repeat in 2021, with the only other team to receive multiple votes was the rival LA Clippers, who got 11% of the vote. The only other teams selected were the Brooklyn Nets and Miami Heat.
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, fresh off signing a five-year supermax extension to stay with the Bucks, was picked to win a third consecutive MVP award – something that hasn’t been done since Larry Bird left it. 1984 to 1986.
League executives predict it will be a wide open race as Antetokounmpo got just 32% of the vote, while five other players – Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (21%), Lakers sends Anthony Davis and LeBron James (18%)) , Nets forward Kevin Durant (7%), and Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (4%) – also received votes.
Antetokounmpo and Doncic, meanwhile, were also favorites among GMs when asked which player to start a franchise with. Both players got 43% of the vote, while Davis got 7%. To show how much respect Doncic has earned over the past year, Antetokounmpo was the runaway winner last year with 86%.
The league’s GMs voted best player in every position: Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry (30%), Houston Rockets shooting guard James Harden (68%), James (57%) at short striker, Antetokounmpo (46%) on power forward and Jokic (50%) in the middle.
They also found the Lakers (37%) had the best off-season and rated Guard Chris Paul who went to the Phoenix Suns (44%) as the single best move and Gordon Hayward who went to the Charlotte Hornets (54%) as the most surprising.
Additionally, GMs preferred Hornets guard LaMelo Ball (39%) to win Rookie of the Year and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra (46%) to become the league’s best coach. The most promising young core of players nod went to the New Orleans Pelicans (41%).