Non-OKC Western Conference Contender Predicted to Win NBA Championship

The Oklahoma City Thunder started this season off dominating everyone. Their blazing hot start made everyone believe that it was almost inevitable for them to repeat as NBA champions. Since then, they’ve cooled off but are still positioned as the best team in the league. 

Still, the Thunder have shown some chinks in their armor. Sam Quinn of CBS Sports recently wrote “Five Bold NBA Predictions for 2026,” and he predicted that a team besides OKC will win it all this season. 

"The Denver Nuggets win the 2026 NBA Finals…With Indiana out of the mix this year, Denver is the only team in the field with any sort of track record for challenging Oklahoma City in a playoff setting. If the Thunder have weaknesses, the Nuggets are equipped to exploit them. Oklahoma City blows games open with its turnovers. The Nuggets never give the ball away. The Thunder still struggles against zone defenses. Denver uses the sixth-most zone defense in the NBA, according to Synergy Sports, and the Nuggets obviously played zone very successfully in last year's series.

Denver's bench minutes have been a nightmare throughout its postseason history. The Nuggets are at least surviving Nikola Jokić's brief rests this season (and we'll see how it goes with Jokić set to miss significant time at the start of the calendar year), and that was with several starters out. You'd have to assume the Nuggets will be healthier and deeper than they were in last year's series, when Aaron Gordon got hurt midway through the festivities, and Michael Porter Jr. played with one arm."

If the Nuggets were fully healthy in the playoffs last year, OKC might not be standing as the current NBA champions. This season, the Nuggets have looked incredible, despite dealing with multiple injuries. 

This prediction probably hinges on the ability of the Nuggets to remain healthy throughout this season and the playoffs. We know the Nuggets will be focused on getting right for a late-season run. If they can enter the playoffs healthy and battle against an OKC team with a full roster, we could easily see another 7-game series, but this time it could go the Nuggets' way.