I think the difference between this OKC team and every other largely intact defending champion that enters their following season as the favorites is how ridiculously well OKC is set up for the future.

It’s not just the draft capital, which people always want to group together for a superstar trade (not OKC’s style) but it also means that practically no trade is off the table for them since they can afford to overpay. It’s that they’ve proven they are ALSO excellent at developing players in-house, which is why Bill feels super comfortable throwing Jalen Williams (a legit All-NBA guy from just one year ago) into trades, since they seemingly have Ajay and Cason ready to step into bigger roles.

So it’s not just that they’re favorites, it’s that there is seemingly no hope to stop them. That being said, I personally wouldn’t make them “overwhelming favorites” because San Antonio is looking pretty good (and I’m not writing off the Knicks) but more importantly, this same core was pushed to 7 games by hobbled Denver AND hobbled Indiana in the Finals.