The only reason the Los Angeles Lakers are on the shortlist of championship contenders is the presence of LeBron James - one of the two greatest players in history - and Luka Dončić, one of the three best players in the league today, now entering his first full season with the team following last year’s blockbuster trade from Dallas.

We already analyzed in detail the leaner, EuroBasket 2025 version of Dončić with the Slovenian national team. The slimmer frame won’t change his style or suddenly turn him into a great defender, but it may help him stay healthier - and that matters.Assuming LeBron doesn’t suffer a significant decline, and paired with Austin Reaves, the Lakers’ backcourt is top-tier by NBA standards, despite the overlapping tendencies among the trio. The issues begin in the frontcourt and in the depth chart.

DeAndre Ayton is an upgrade over last season’s center options. Still, his lackadaisical temperament and shaky hands in lob situations make him a less-than-ideal ball screen partner for Dončić. After losing Dorian Finney-Smith in free agency, it’s unclear whether Jake LaRavia and the declining Marcus Smart can fill that void. Without depth and a reliable front line, all the talent and experience of both superstars, plus the basketball IQ that head coach JJ Redick brings to the table, won’t be enough to push the Lakers to a Western Conference win, let alone an NBA championship. The fact that LeBron will miss the start of the season due to injury - the first such absence from an opening game of his career - certainly won’t help.

Barring catastrophic injuries, Cleveland should once again be an excellent regular-season team after last year’s 64:18 campaign and a league-leading offensive rating of 121.7. But that’s not what truly concerns the Cavaliers anymore. After back-to-back exits in the Eastern Conference semifinals - last year’s 1:4 loss to the Pacers being excruciating - this season feels like a referendum on their roster construction. Yes, injuries played a role, but the questions surrounding the oversized frontcourt duo of Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen (without a natural stretch four) and the undersized backcourt of Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland still hang over the franchise. Until the Cavs finally shed the label of a team that folds in the playoffs’ first meaningful round, it’s hard to treat them as genuine contenders.

Last season, Denver came within one game - and one Aaron Gordon injury - of returning to the Western Conference Finals, and possibly more. Since then, the front office has made all the right moves. After cleaning house and parting ways with the feuding duo of Mike Malone and Calvin Booth, the Nuggets extended new head coach David Adelman. They executed a brilliant basketball-and-cap move: trading Michael Porter Jr. for Cam Johnson. Johnson not only spaces the floor as effectively as Porter, but his reduced salary also helped Denver rebuild the depth it had been missing since its championship run - reuniting with Bruce Brown and adding Jonas Valančiūnas (to ease Nikola Jokić’s workload) and Tim Hardaway Jr.

If everything clicks, Denver will no longer be so reliant on unproven role players like Julian Strawther. Still, even with the best player in the world on their roster, the Nuggets’ ceiling ultimately depends on Jamal Murray. If he can approach his championship-season form and stay healthy, Denver once again has a legitimate path to the title.

No coach in the league enters the season under more pressure than Mike Brown. He replaces Tom Thibodeau, who led the Knicks to their first conference finals in 25 years. Thibodeau was fired only because New York lost to what many perceived as a lesser Indiana team (which turned out to be false) and due to internal friction over his lack of workload management.

Brown has said all the right things: emphasizing more ball movement and pace, reducing the overreliance on Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns’ isolation play, and reintegrating Mitchell Robinson into the starting lineup to cover for the defensive shortcomings of the team’s two stars.

The improved depth - with Jordan Clarkson, Guerschon Yabusele, and Malcolm Brogdon - should allow Brown to manage minutes more effectively and keep his stars fresh. Still, playoff basketball tends to revert to isolation, and it’s hard to believe the Knicks’ core identity will shift dramatically when the lights get bright. Even so, in an Eastern Conference thinned by injuries and inconsistency, it might be enough to reach the NBA Finals.

Life isn’t fair when you’re competing against someone like Sam Presti. While the rest of the league scrambles to dodge the second apron, the reigning-champion GM continues to pull off shrewd moves - signing Jalen Williams (deservedly) and Chet Holmgren (on potential) to max extensions, re-upping Jaylin Williams, and hoping Nikola Topić will grow to his rotation role once he returns from injury. This is the deepest team in the NBA, and the Thunder already proved they can withstand injuries while posting the league’s best record.

The team’s youth and ceiling are frightening, yet their championship run also exposed specific vulnerabilities - seen most clearly in the Denver and Indiana series. Make no mistake: despite all the depth and system balance, this is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s team. As long as he’s healthy, the Thunder are the favorites - and the championship is theirs to lose.