ESPN votes OKC Thunder likely won't be repeat NBA champions

Considering where we're at in the NBA calendar, it's the perfect time to prepare for the 2025-26 regular season. The offseason is mostly over as teams are a little over a month away from the start of training camps.

The Oklahoma City Thunder continue to enjoy their NBA championship. As they run it back with mostly the same roster, they're the popular title favorite. Hard to blame folks, either. They had one of the greatest years ever with a 68-14 regular-season record and a Larry O'Brien trophy.

To get ready for the upcoming season, ESPN recently published its NBA Summer Forecast. A panel of NBA experts, including reporters, editors and analysts, voted on topical subjects. One is about the odds of the Thunder being the first back-to-back champions since Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant were teammates on the Golden State Warriors.

According to ESPN's NBA Summer Forecast, don't expect that to continue. Instead, expect the recent trend of parity to remain strong with a new champion crowned. 15 voters said they'll be a new NBA champion next June, while 11 voters said the Thunder will repeat.

That said, ESPN argued that the Thunder have the best shot in years to be a repeat winner. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just won the MVP award. Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren will continue to get better. The rest of the roster is young enough to also see leaps.

"However, the voting may be too reflexive, looking into the past, rather than examining the Thunder's case. Oklahoma City was the second-youngest team to win a title in the past 50 years, behind the 1977 Portland Trail Blazers," ESPN wrote. "This season, it has all of its players back and makes a strong case to believe it will be even stronger in 2025-26. Those around the league have said they'd pick the Thunder to repeat as champs, and don't see a credible argument against them."

If any team is best set up to break the parity trend, it's the Thunder. They spend the offseason signing Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Holmgren to long-term contract extensions. As long as those three stay healthy and improve, they'll be in the title conversation for the foreseeable future.

This article originally appeared on OKC Thunder Wire: ESPN votes OKC Thunder likely won't be repeat NBA champions