3 NBA teams who raised their title odds the most this offseason

The NBA has not seen a repeat champion since 2017 and 2018 when the Warriors were running rough shod over the league. Now, after an impressive run to a title in 2024, the Boston Celtics will attempt to buck that recent trend. With the league as competitive as it is at the top, this will prove to be as tough a task as ever.

The NBA offseason is a fast-paced flurry of transactions with complicated salary cap machinations and drama around player movement. Most of the league is operating with a renewed sense of optimism after they've executed their plans and more teams than ever are convincing themselves they can compete for a title. But which teams are truly putting themselves in position to contend with the best of the best?

Let's take a look at three contenders who improved their chances at taking down the champs during this offseason.

3. New York Knicks

The Knicks, limping through the regular season and playoffs, finally ran out of steam (and bodies) as they fell to the Indiana Pacers in the second round of the playoffs. There are many who believe, however, that if they had some semblance of health during the postseason, they would have given the Celtics all they could handle in the Eastern Conference Finals. This isn’t without reason, the team’s gritty run while missing Julius Randle, Mitchell Robinson, OG Anunoby, Bojan Bogdanovic, and even Jalen Brunson by the end was something to behold.

Not content with moral victories, the team added to its stable of Villanova Knicks by moving a boatload of draft capital for Mikal Bridges this summer, completing a quartet with Brunson, Donte DiVincenzo, and Josh Hart. Bridges has long been one of the most versatile plug-and-play wing players in the league, who both led the Suns’ defense to a Finals appearance in 2021 and torched defenses himself after being moved to Brooklyn in 2023, scoring over 26 points per game in that stretch.

The things he could do paired with OG Anunoby on defense are going to be the stuff of nightmares. Bridges has long been a menace getting over screens and bothering ball handlers, while Anunoby may arguably be the best one-on-one defender in the league. With Brunson and Randle handling most of the playmaking, these guys will be able to focus on defending while also functioning as deadly shooters from the perimeter. Having so many two-way threats on the wing when including DiVincenzo and Hart is an embarrassment of riches few teams can match.

The Knicks do have some question marks in the frontcourt. Losing Isaiah Hartenstein in free agency and going into the season with Robinson as the only proven center carries risk. With Randle returning to the lineup and Bridges joining the fray after his experience as a primary option, New York will have every opportunity to find ways to make up for Hartenstein's absence on offense. And who knows, with the excess wing depth there may be lineups they can get to with Anunoby manning the middle on defense that allows them to keep opponents from scoring efficiently when Robinson is not on the floor. The Knickerbockers have an exciting season ahead of them.

2. Oklahoma City Thunder

The young Thunder came out like gangbusters last season, jumping out to the No.1 seed in the Western Conference after a 17-win improvement over the previous year. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander proved the previous year was not a fluke, finishing second in MVP voting, and Chet Holmgren was a revelation in his long-anticipated rookie year. In their first real playoff run together, they were dispatched in the second round by the Dallas Mavericks.

Young Australian wing Josh Giddey had been looking like the odd man out to many projecting the future of the team and this came to fruition shortly after the season. After seeing his minutes significantly reduced in the playoffs and making plans to bring him off the bench next season, OKC shipped him to the Bulls in exchange for Alex Caruso. This move has been met with consistent praise, due to what looks like a fantastic fit improvement within the team’s most crucial lineups.

This team thrived on wreaking havoc on the defensive end, finishing as the No. 1 team in the league in forcing turnovers, per Cleaning the Glass. Caruso helps them double down on this to make the pressure on and off the ball absolutely terrifying. While on the court, he increased the opponents’ turnover percentage by 3.3 percentage points, which was 97th percentile in the league for his position. He sticks to guards and forwards alike, making their lives miserable and importantly made over 40 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s last season per Synergy, making him much harder for defenses to ignore than Giddey.

One of the Thunder’s well-documented weaknesses last year was rebounding. They did a great job of winning the turnover battle and limiting opponents’ shooting but struggled to grab the defensive rebound at the end of a position, finishing 29th in the league in opponent offensive rebound percentage, according to Cleaning the Glass.

To help address this, the other splash the Thunder made was signing center Isaiah Hartenstein to a big enough contract to lure him away from the Knicks. He helped hold opponents to a minus-1.7 opponent offensive rebound percentage while on the floor last season (74th percentile). This, along with his superior passing skills and quality rim protection, should be a boon to an already-loaded team this season.

After taking some lumps in last year’s playoffs, many are comfortable calling the Thunder the favorites to come out of the West this season. With these moves, while also retaining their draft equity and depth pieces in Aaron Wiggins and Isaiah Joe on value contracts, it’s tough to argue that point, even in a loaded Western Conference.

1. Philadelphia 76ers

The Sixers were on fire to start the year in 2023-24, but their entire season was upended by an injury suffered by former MVP Joel Embiid, forcing him to miss over two months of time leading up to the playoffs. All told, the team went 16-27 without Embiid during the year, landing them in the Play-In Tournament and ultimately falling in a dramatic loss to the New York Knicks in the first round.

Throughout the season and during Embiid’s missed time, Sixers GM Daryl Morey held firm to his offseason plan and resisted making a big trade to try to salvage the season to preserve their cap space dreams. They put all their eggs into the free agency basket, and it paid off in a big way, starting with nine-time All-Star Paul George. At its most basic level, star power on the wing was easily the most sensible fit and the Sixers were able to nab him without trading away any assets.

While Embiid lives in the mid-range, the Sixers ranked just 25th in the league in 3-point attempt frequency last year, per Cleaning the Glass. George comes in as an absolute flamethrower from that range, having made 41 percent of his 3s on over eight attempts per game last season. He also ranked in the 79th percentile in the league in points per shot (PPS) on all jump shots last season, including 91st percentile in catch-and-shoot situations, per Synergy Sports. With the amount of attention garnered by Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, George will provide a critical element of dynamism in this area.

With the way the team leveraged cap holds, structured the order of their transactions, and creatively incorporated bonuses into their contract negotiations, the Sixers were also able to add depth to a level that most teams wielding cap space aren’t usually able to do. They re-signed Maxey, popular wing Kelly Oubre Jr, and Philly native Kyle Lowry while bringing in Caleb Martin on a value contract and veteran bench depth in Andre Drummond, Eric Gordon, Reggie Jackson, and even Olympic standout Guerschon Yabusele.

Health permitting (huge question mark), the 76ers have positioned themselves to potentially be the biggest threat to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference this season. Between the added scoring of George and size of Drummond, the team looks to hopefully have more capacity to withstand giving Embiid some extra rest throughout the year for him to be fresh for the playoffs. Once there, having the star power they do will give them a fighting chance in just about any series.