Best NBA Players Without a Championship Who Could Finally Win in 2025-26

The NBA regular season, and NBA betting on those games, is just a few weeks away.

So RotoWire.com used BasketballReference.com to look at the best current NBA players (must be on a roster for 2025-26) who have never won a championship. We used the site's win shares metric to determine the most deserving players to win the 2026 NBA Championship.

Best Active Players Without An NBA Championship

 *Damian Lillard was left off because he is unlikely to play in the 2025-26 season. Russell Westbrook was left off because he was a free agent as of this story's publication.

Check out the up-to-date NBA odds throughout the season at RotoWire.com.

Who Are The Best Ringless Players in The NBA?

Chris Paul (Los Angeles Clippers guard), 215.13 WS

When it comes to the top point guards of the modern era, it's hard to argue that Chris Paul isn't at or near the top. The 40-year-old North Carolina native has averaged 17 points and 9.2 assists per game in 1,354 contests as a pro, dating to 2005, when he was the fourth overall pick out of Wake Forest.

Paul has the most career point shares of any active player without a ring, at 215.13, with 12 All-Star appearances, 11 All-NBA Team spots and nine NBA All-Defensive Team mentions. Paul is the top active NBA player who never won a Larry O'Brien Trophy, according to the win shares metric at basketball-reference.com going into the 2025-26 season.

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Looking forward, Paul's first season of his second stint with the Los Angeles Clippers might give him a shot at finally winning that elusive title. The Clippers enter the 2025-26 NBA regular season with +1900 title odds on FanDuel Sportsbook, ranking sixth in the 30-team league.

James Harden (Los Angeles Clippers guard), 174.70

Basketball fans don't have to venture far to find the next man on our ring-free list because Paul's new backcourt mate is second overall among NBA players that have never won a championship. James Harden, a 17-year veteran, ranks second for career win shares among players with zero rings, at 174.70, as the 2017-18 NBA MVP looks to break that drought in L.A. this season.

Harden was the NBA Most Valuable Player in the 2017-18 season and has scored 24.1 points per game across his 1,151-game NBA career, earning him the second spot on our list.

Jimmy Butler (Golden State Warriors forward), 123.67

The former Marquette Golden Eagles star has come achingly close to winning a ring, with his Miami Heat team reaching the NBA Finals in 2020 and 2023. Still, Jimmy Butler can hang his hat on posting the third-best career win share total of any active NBA player who doesn't have a title, at 123.67. The five-time All-NBA forward looks to capture that elusive crown with Golden State this season.

This year, Butler and the Warriors enter the league year with the eighth best NBA Championship odds on DraftKings Sportsbook, at +1900. Golden State holds a win total over/under of 46.5 on the sports betting goliath's odds board this season.

Rudy Gobert (Minnesota Timberwolves center), 116.15

Rudy Gobert, a veteran of 829 NBA games, plays suffocating defense and averages 12.6 points, 11.7 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game. Since entering the league in 2013, he has been named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year four times, (2018, 2019, 2021 and 2024) while posting the fourth highest win share figure of any active NBA player yet to win a championship.

Looking ahead, 2026 might be the year for Gobert to win that elusive title. Minnesota enters the season with the seventh-best NBA title betting odds at bet365, at +1600, as the 33-year-old Frenchman looks to get himself off this list by the time the NBA season ends.

DeMar DeRozan (Sacramento Kings forward), 108.49

Since entering the league in 2010, DeMar DeRozan has gone about his on-court business like yeoman's work, making six All-Star Game and three All-NBA Team appearances while averaging 21.3 points per game and racking up 108.49 win shares. Sadly for DeRozan, he was moved to Sacramento in 2018, just before the team that drafted him (the Toronto Raptors) captured its lone championship in 2019. So DeRozan is still searching for that first Larry O'Brien Trophy.

It seems Sacramento, where he will spend his second season in 2025-26, has extremely long odds. The Kings are +5000 at Fanatics Sportsbook, tied with several other NBA teams for dead-last across the 30-team league.

Other Notable NBA Players To Never Win A Title

NBA stalwarts such as Mike Conley Jr. of the Wolves (105.72 career win shares), Paul George of the Philadelphia 76ers (89.46), Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks (85.10), Jonas Valanciunas of the Denver Nuggets (84.64) and Nikola Vucevic of the Chicago Bulls (79.92) round out our ring-free top 10 this NBA season.

These players are worth keeping an eye on for fantasy NBA purposes as well.

For those keeping score at home, the NBA teams with the best 2026 NBA Championship betting odds on Fanatics Sportsbook are the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder, at +220, followed by the Cleveland Cavaliers and Nuggets (+800 each), New York Knicks (+900) and the Houston Rockets (+1100), as the league readies itself for a new season, beginning Oct. 21.

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