Stacking which teams can keep the NBA's parity run going
The NBA has seen eight different champions in eight years. Which of the other 22 teams can make it 9-for-9, and which ones are a long way off?
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The NBA's parity era continued last season when the New York Knicks became the eighth different team to win the championship in the past eight years, and the joyous scenes across the Big Apple in June should spark hope for long-suffering fanbases across the league.
If New York can win its first championship since 1973 after spending most of the past 25 years in the wilderness, everyone can dare to dream of holding the Larry O'Brien Trophy. Who's next?
The past eight champions shared some roster similarities: Each had a Hall of Fame-level leader, supporting star power and a meaningful degree of postseason experience. As they built toward the playoffs, six of the eight teams had a top-five offense and seven of the eight had a top-10 defense.
But the past eight seasons also proved there are many ways to reach the summit: The Toronto Raptors won in 2019 immediately after trading for Kawhi Leonard, the Denver Nuggets won in 2022 despite a middling defense, and the Oklahoma City Thunder won in 2025 despite a remarkably young roster.
Let's apply the lessons from the past eight seasons while examining the 22 teams who haven't won a championship since 2019 -- the beginning of this parity. As the 2027 title chase comes into focus, which teams are best positioned to become the ninth different champion in the past nine years? Which teams are looming as under-the-radar contenders? And which rebuilding franchises will be ready to join the party by 2030?
Jump to a tier: Championship-ready | Serious contenders The chase pack | Miracles can happen Maybe by 2030 | Maybe by 2032 Never say never | Maybe never
Tier 1: Championship-ready
San Antonio Spurs
Last championship: 2014
The Spurs occupy the top tier by themselves because they check every box for a title hopeful: They have an A-list superstar in Victor Wembanyama, multiple co-stars and a deep bench, plus they ranked in the top three in both offense and defense last season. While the Spurs' youth came back to bite them during a series of collapses in the Finals against the Knicks, the 2025 Thunder proved that exceptional young teams are capable of quickly learning from their postseason shortcomings.
The old saying goes that "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," but it matters in the NBA playoffs, too. Seven of the past eight champions had reached at least the conference semifinals shortly before winning it all, and six built off trips to the conference finals.
The Spurs' fourth-quarter collapses against the Knicks were excruciating to watch, but the fact that they were in position to win Finals games should be viewed as evidence of their ability to compete at the highest level in the future. Remember how Giannis Antetokounmpo's Milwaukee Bucks blew the 2019 Eastern Conference finals before taking care of business in 2021? Remember how many times Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown came up just short before the Boston Celtics' 2024 title? Close counts.
San Antonio has suffered no major defections this offseason, and it added veteran forward Tobias Harris to an improved frontcourt rotation. The pieces are in place for another 60-win campaign, which could see Wembanyama win his first MVP.
Perhaps the biggest question facing the Spurs is Mitch Johnson, who couldn't stop the bleeding in the Finals during his first full season as coach. Johnson's inexperience shouldn't be viewed as a dealbreaker: Seven of the past eight title teams were led by coaches who hadn't previously won a championship.
Tier 2: Serious contenders
Philadelphia 76ers
Last championship: 1983
LeBron James signs with Philadelphia 76ers
• News | FAQ: Making sense of the move • Grading the deal, plus winners and losers • Windhorst: What I know about decision • Shelburne: NBA coaches, execs react • Andscape: PHI challenges | Brown's running mate • Social reax | When Embiid's LeBron bid started • Fantasy reaction for LeBron, 76ers players
The new-look 76ers now boast championship experience at every level thanks to newcomers LeBron James and Jaylen Brown, coach Nick Nurse and front office executives Bob Myers and Mike Gansey. That's a crucial development, because Joel Embiid's time in Philadelphia has been defined by his inability to hold up physically in the playoffs. Without a reliable superstar leader, there was no good reason to take Philadelphia seriously.
While the NBA has undergone a youth movement in the past few years, the 76ers cut against the grain by adding the 41-year-old James and the 29-year-old Brown rather than fully resetting their clock around the younger backcourt duo of Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe. With their new stars in place, the average age of the 76ers' eight highest earners is up to 27.9. That puts them in the same ballpark as several past champions: The 2026 Knicks (28.1), Brown's 2024 Celtics (28.2), and James' 2020 Lakers (29.5). Nurse's 2019 Raptors were also older than league average (27.3).
Philadelphia's title hopes hinge on its ability to build instant chemistry: James, Embiid, Brown and Maxey are ball-dominant stars, and all four will be asked to sacrifice for the good of the offense. On the other end, the 76ers must show significant improvement after ranking 17th in defensive efficiency during the regular season and 14th out of the 16 teams in the 2026 playoffs. No team has won a title over the past eight years with such a shaky defense.
The 76ers have the highest ceiling among the teams in this second tier, but the questions about their fit, age, health and defensive baseline give them the lowest floor as well. By next June, James' decision to pick Philadelphia could look brilliant or disastrous.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Last championship: Never
The Timberwolves deserve their kudos in the "close counts" conversation mentioned above: They have averaged 51.3 wins over the past three seasons, and they reached the Western Conference finals in 2024 and 2025. Even though Anthony Edwards is still only 24 years old, he has helped lead playoff series wins over the Lakers, Warriors, Nuggets and Phoenix Suns. Meanwhile, the Timberwolves' defense has ranked in the top 10 in each of the past four seasons.
Even so, Edwards and the Timberwolves have a nasty habit of letting go of the rope and getting run off the court at the end of difficult playoff series. Minnesota's latest such loss -- in the second round against the Spurs -- prompted a busy offseason in which LaMelo Ball arrived, and Julius Randle and Naz Reid departed. The Timberwolves are gaining playmaking and losing size in the exchange, but it's a gambit that could help address their playoff stumbles. Ball is easily the most dynamic guard to line up alongside Edwards, and Minnesota's defense should remain elite with Rudy Gobert and Jaden McDaniels returning.
The onus is on Edwards, who battled a knee injury during the postseason, to continue elevating after head-to-head playoff losses against Luka Doncic, Gilgeous-Alexander and Wembanyama. He possesses the explosive scoring ability and physical tools to be the best player on a championship team, but he must display better focus and consistency when the pressure is cranked all the way up.
Minnesota's game plan is comparable to Boston's approach with Tatum and Brown before 2024: Keep shuffling the deck so that Edwards is always in position to make deep runs throughout his mid-20s, then hope he eventually translates his vast postseason experience into a championship.
Fresh off a 60-win campaign and a trip to the conference semifinals, the Pistons share similarities with the 2025 Thunder as a young and forceful group with a top-flight defense and an All-NBA offensive engine. Much like Oklahoma City, Detroit's swift transformation from lottery team to contender has been driven by a focus on draft and development. As it turns out, the Thunder were the only team to have a better defense than the Pistons last season.
Cade Cunningham isn't quite on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's level yet, but Detroit's biggest issue on offense is that it lacks someone in the Jalen Williams co-star role. After the Pistons' offense ranked ninth during the regular season, it dropped nearly seven points in the playoffs. Unfortunately, replacing Tobias Harris with John Collins could actually make things worse.
Assuming the Pistons resolve Jalen Duren's restricted free agency and add some level of playmaking firepower before the trade deadline, there's a path for the 24-year-old Cunningham to carry the gritty Pistons to a deep postseason run. However, Detroit enjoyed exceptional health last season, and its extreme upward momentum could be stunted if the injury bug hits.
