Another season of NBA action tips off across the country on Oct. 21, when the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder will look to start the season on the right foot against the Houston Rockets.
The team at RotoWire.com, as part of our NBA betting analysis, wanted to see which NBA teams have the best shot at winning an NBA title in 2026. We used ChatGPT to simulate the entire 2025-26 NBA season 100 times to see how often each team would go to the playoffs and who would win the Larry O'Brien Trophy most frequently. Here's what came out:
NBA 2025-26 Season Projections
Team | Playoff Appearances | NBA Championships |
| 100 | 21 |
| 100 | 20 |
| 98 | 12 |
| 99 | 9 |
| 97 | 6 |
| 96 | 6 |
| 90 | 5 |
| 88 | 4 |
| 83 | 4 |
| 92 | 3 |
| 76 | 3 |
| 47 | 3 |
| 82 | 2 |
| 68 | 1 |
| 63 | 1 |
| 78 | 0 |
| 71 | 0 |
| 47 | 0 |
| 42 | 0 |
| 37 | 0 |
| 36 | 0 |
| 22 | 0 |
| 19 | 0 |
| 16 | 0 |
| 14 | 0 |
| 13 | 0 |
| 10 | 0 |
| 3 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 |
Denver Nuggets
Houston Rockets
Orlando Magic
Minnesota Timberwolves
Los Angeles Lakers
Detroit Pistons
Atlanta Hawks
Boston Celtics
Dallas Mavericks
Los Angeles Clippers
Milwaukee Bucks
San Antonio Spurs
Philadelphia 76ers
Golden State Warriors
Toronto Raptors
Indiana Pacers
Miami Heat
Memphis Grizzlies
Sacramento Kings
New Orleans Pelicans
Portland Trail Blazers
Phoenix Suns
Chicago Bulls
Charlotte Hornets
Washington Wizards
Brooklyn Nets
Utah JazzTeams are sorted by number of NBA titles won after 100 simulated seasons, followed by the number of times that the team secured a playoff berth. These simulations might not match preseason NBA odds or real results that are to come. Anyone trying the same experiment likely would get different results, depending on how the query you feed into the system is worded.
NBA Championship 2025-26 Favorites Based on Computer Modeling
When it comes to NBA futures, only one team enters the year with a brighter outlook than the defending champs from the Sooner State.
The 
Thunder were one of two teams (along with Cleveland ) to make the postseason in each of our 100 AI projections.
OKC won the second-most titles in those projections (20), one behind the Cavaliers and eight ahead of the next closest team (the Denver Nuggets, with 12).
Our AI projections line up with what oddsmakers from FanDuel Sportsbook are dialing up in 2025. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and company have the best odds across the league of winning 70-plus games this season, at +800, to go with +178 odds of 65-plus wins and -245 odds of finishing the season with 60 or more victories. The Thunder have the best NBA title odds as the season begins, at +230 as of Oct. 9.
The other teams that made the postseason the most out of our 100 AI simulations were the New York Knicks, who made it 99 times in total, followed by the Denver Nuggets (98 postseason appearances), the Rockets (97) and Orlando Magic (96).
Only the Cavaliers, Thunder and Nuggets won double-digit titles out of our 100 projections, with Denver coming out on top 12 times. The Knicks (nine titles), Rockets and Magic (six each), Minnesota Timberwolves (five), Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons (four apiece) were next in line.
The Nuggets and Cavs are both are either second or third in NBA Championship Odds, with prices varying depending on the sportsbook operator.
Rounding things out a bit further, the other NBA teams that won at least one championship in our projections were the Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics (three each), while the Los Angeles Clippers (two), Milwaukee Bucks and San Antonio Spurs (one each) also made the list.
The best price on the 
Knicks to win their first NBA title since 1973 is +1000 at ESPN BET, as of Oct. 9.
Which NBA Teams Are Projected To Suffer The Most?
Of the 30 teams in the NBA, only the Utah Jazz failed to reach the playoffs once in our series of regular season projections. The Washington Wizards (three playoff berths) and Brooklyn Nets (one) also struggled in pretty much every permutation over 100 AI simulations of the 2025-26 NBA season.
One thing we know for sure is that a new season of NBA basketball tips off this month, with the league's 82-game marathon of a regular season marching on well into the spring before the next champion is anointed. Thunder fans have good reason to have hope that the team could become the first since the Warriors in 2018 to bring home the hardware in successive seasons.
Donovan Mitchell and the 
Cavs are the Eastern Conference favorites, with +230 odds at Caesars Sportsbook to reach the NBA Finals.
