In a survey polling all 30 NBA general managers, the select few responded to 47 different questions about the best teams, players, coaches, fans, and offseason moves. The GMs overwhelmingly favored the Golden State Warriors with 93 percent of them picking the reigning champions to repeat. In the 16-year history of NBA.com's GM Survey, no team has been picked as a heavier favorite to win the championship as this year's Warriors.
The Warriors were also overwhelming favorites as the most fun to watch team in the league, with a blistering 90 percent (Houston Rockets — 7 percent, Denver Nuggets — 3 percent) as well as boasting the best defense with 55 percent over the San Antonio Spurs (34 percent) and the Utah Jazz (7 percent).
These GMs were not allowed to vote for their own team or personnel. The percentages shown are purely based on the pool of respondents who answered that particular question, rather than a total from the 30 polled executives.
Golden State went on a torrid 16-1 postseason run on 2016-17, despite missing its head coach Steve Kerr with an illness for 11 of its 17 postseason games, and dealing with injuries to arguably its best player, Kevin Durant, who ended up winning Finals MVP thanks to a superb performances in a five-game stretch.
The Warriors not only brought back the vast majority of their impending free agents, but secured two additional signings in Nick Young and Omri Casspi, who only add to their three-and-D-constructed roster — also bringing a formidable Swiss army knife in the form of 38th overall pick Jordan Bell.
The runner-up Cleveland Cavaliers received a 7 percent chance from the rest of the GMs to win this year's title.
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