NBA General Managers See Golden State Warriors As Favorites to Win 2017 Finals

Although many believed the same thing last year, most NBA general managers believe the Golden State Warriors will win the 2017 NBA Finals.

In NBA.com’s annual poll, 69 percent of general managers believed Golden State will win it all. For what it’s worth, the remaining 31 percent chose the Cleveland Cavaliers.

I’m not a math expert, but that means zero general managers believe any team other than Cleveland or Golden State are likely to win the NBA Finals.

In last year’s poll 53.6 percent chose Cleveland before the season started.

Perhaps the most interesting takeaway from this year’s NBA Finals predictions was that 3.3 percent (one general manager out of 29) chose the Boston Celtics to win the East.

One general manager chose the San Antonio Spurs to win the West.

GM’s are not allowed to vote for their own team in the poll.

It’d be interesting to know which GM’s chose Boston and San Antonio.

Some other notes from the poll include:

LeBron James is favored to win MVP (47.6 percent of first place votes). Russell Westbrook  finished second (23.3 percent).

Kyrie Irving was voted fourth-best point guard (6.7 percent of first place votes) behind Steph Curry (63.3), Chris Paul (20), and Westbrook (10).

Klay Thompson was voted the second-best shooting guard in the NBA (40) behind James Harden (56.7).

76.8 percent believe LeBron is the best small forward, 23.2 percent chose Kevin Durant.

None of it means a thing when it comes down to what happens in the games this season, but it is interesting to get a read on general managers, who submitted their votes anonymously.