The parity era in the NBA seems like it could continue. At least, that's what oddsmakers and bettors appear to believe after LeBron James' latest decision to join the Philadelphia 76ers.
New York's championship run last month capped a season that extended an unprecedented run of NBA parity, with eight different franchises winning titles in the last eight seasons — Toronto in 2019, James and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020, Milwaukee in 2021, Golden
State in 2022, Denver in 2023, Boston in 2024, Oklahoma City in 2025 and now the Knicks.
There's at least a reasonable chance now that the run of new champions will continue in 2027, with reigning Western Conference champion San Antonio, Minnesota, Detroit, Cleveland, Miami — and, of course, Philadelphia now among the teams with the best odds right now of hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy next June.
A look at the teams and their odds, broken down by tiers:
James' decision moved Philadelphia into the upper tier of favorites — but not the highest tier.
Most major sportsbooks and prediction markets are clear: Teams are going to have to get through Oklahoma City and San Antonio to get out of the West. The Thunder, as of Saturday — and a lot will likely change in the next 10 months or so — would still be considered a slight favorite to win the NBA title in 2027, barely ahead of the Spurs.
That shouldn't be a surprise: The Thunder are led by two-time Most Valuable Player Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and have a proven championship core, while the Spurs have unanimous Defensive Player of the Year Victor Wembanyama as the centerpiece of a young team that took huge strides in 2025-26 and should only get better.
This is the James impact: He's got Philadelphia right there with defending champion New York.
The Knicks and 76ers have the third- and fourth-best championship odds — in some order, depending on the site — according to most books and prediction markets.
The good news for the Knicks: They're right where they were entering last season, not quite the favorites but ahead of just about everybody in the league when it comes to title odds.
The good news for the 76ers: They're going to have their best entering-the-season odds since probably 2019-20.
Some of the Celtics' decisions this summer — particularly the trading of Jaylen Brown to Philadelphia — have faced serious criticism. Bettors don't seem to mind, perhaps mindful of how the Celtics exceeded many expectations last season.
Boston is firmly the No. 5 choice right now according to most books and markets, not quite there with the Thunder, Spurs, Knicks and 76ers, but leading the rest of the pack.
This is where things start to get muddled, and where books and markets tend to vary on that next tier — the teams with the sixth-best through 11th-best odds.
Denver, Toronto, Minnesota, Detroit and Cleveland are all jammed fairly close together. The only real rising team in that mix is Toronto, clearly based on the expectation that the Raptors will eventually close the trade for Kawhi Leonard and bring back the key to their 2019 title run.
The next team in the race for a top-10 preseason odds spot is Miami. Betting opinions seem to vary widely, though the one thing that is consistent is an expectation that the acquisition of Giannis Antetokounmpo to play alongside Bam Adebayo will get the Heat back into the playoffs.
Even though the Lakers lost James, the odds still say that Luka Doncic's team will be playoff-bound next season. And bettors seem to think that 2025 NBA finalist Indiana, which played without Tyrese Haliburton this past season because of injury and plummeted to the bottom of the league, will return to the playoffs this season.
Houston and Golden State round out the top 15 in current odds, suggesting that the belief is those clubs are postseason-bound as well.
Not too far back from there: Atlanta, Orlando and Portland.
Washington will have Trae Young, Anthony Davis and Khris Middleton. Bettors expect the Wizards to be better — but aren't ready to put money on them being a playoff team yet.
The Wizards, with No. 1 pick AJ Dybantsa, are in a cluster of teams that odds point to as possible play-in candidates, along with Phoenix, Charlotte, Dallas and Utah.
Value bettors can find some very good odds right now on the clubs that books and markets aren't loving right now.
That group: the Los Angeles Clippers, New Orleans, Chicago, Memphis, Milwaukee, Brooklyn and Sacramento.
A reminder — there's always a surprise. Charlotte was toward the bottom of most preseason odds lists this past season and won 44 games. The season before that, Detroit had some of the longest preseason odds in the league and also won 44 games.
Based solely on the average of where the books and markets were on Saturday — and again, none of this will matter when the games start counting in October — the playoff picture in the NBA next spring would look like this:
East playoff teams — New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Toronto, Detroit, Cleveland, Miami, Indiana.
East play-in teams (but not in playoffs) — Atlanta, Indiana.
West playoff teams — Oklahoma City, San Antonio, Denver, Minnesota, Los Angeles Lakers, Houston, Golden State, Portland.
West play-in teams (but not in playoffs) — Phoenix, Dallas.
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