A fan-posted ranking of 2027 NBA championship favorites — Oklahoma City first, San Antonio second, New York third, Philadelphia fourth — circulated on r/nba this week, drawing pushback from readers who questioned both the order and one notable inclusion.
The ranking isn’t from a sportsbook. No Vegas board or media outlet has published official 2027 title odds. It’s one person’s projection, and the 2026 regular-season data explains why the top two slots hold up while the bottom two invite scrutiny.
Oklahoma City finished 64-18, the best record in the league, with a Simple Rating System score of 11.04 — nearly three full points ahead of the next-closest team. The Thunder allowed 107.9 points per game, the stingiest defense in the NBA. That’s not a hot take at the top of a favorites list. That’s a team that won 78% of its games and outscored opponents by roughly 11 points per 100 possessions.
San Antonio at No. 2 is defensible. The Spurs went 62-20 with an SRS of 8.28, second in the Western Conference and third in the league. The poster’s own question — “How is OKC still favorites after what the Spurs did to them last year?” — suggests San Antonio got the better of the head-to-head, though two games separated them in the standings. The gap in SRS (2.76 points) is wider than the record implies, which matters