Every year, the NBA asks every general manager a series of questions and their predictions for the upcoming season. After the Celtics won the championship last season, there is a lot of people singing the Celtics’ praises.
The first question of the survey was simple: “Which team will win the 2025 NBA Finals?” Coming in at a staggering 83% of the vote, the Celtics are the favorites to repeat as NBA champions. An interesting note about this question is that only two other teams got votes. The Oklahoma City Thunder received 13% of the vote and the Dallas Mavericks received 3%. Last season the Celtics were tied with the Denver Nuggets at a 33% chance of winning, but this year the Celtics are the overwhelming favorites.
When it comes to the Eastern Conference rankings, the Celtics are favorited as the #1 seed for the 2nd year in row. Last season, 53% of GMs chose Boston as the best team in the East compared to this year where the Celtics received 97% of the vote. The Celtics being voted as the #1 seed isn’t very surprising but the other 3% of voters that didn’t choose Boston, chose the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Despite some of the discourse you may hear on X, NBA GMs think very highly of Jayson Tatum. When asked who the best small forward in the NBA was, Tatum finished in 1st place for the second season in a row receiving 47% of the vote as well as getting some votes as the best power forward. Tatum also had votes for the MVP this season as he finished tied for 3rd with Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid at 7%. Tatum was also tied for 4th place in the highest percentage of total votes on position questions at 10%.
Jaylen Brown also received votes, with 3% of GMs calling him the best small forward, getting some votes as the best shooting guard, and receiving votes for MVP this year. Derrick White also showed up in the position voting as he received votes in the best shooting guard category.
Moving into the defense category, Jrue Holiday makes an appearance as he was voted as the best perimeter defender in the NBA for the second season in a row with 43% of the vote. Holiday was also tied for 2nd with Rudy Gobert and Bam Adebayo as the best defender in the NBA at 10% and finished tied for 5th as the most versatile defender at 7%. Derrick White also received votes as he was mentioned in the best perimeter defender category.
When it comes to the best defensive team in the NBA, the Celtics were the favorites once again receiving 57% of the vote.
Moving on to maybe the most disrespectful part of the survey: the coaches segment. When asked who the best coach in the NBA was, Joe Mazzulla received zero votes. I don’t know how the coach that led the best team in the NBA to a championship got no consideration whatsoever — pure blasphemy if you ask me.
Mazzulla wasn’t disrespected in this entire section thankfully as he came in 2nd place when asked what coach runs the best offense, finished tied for 3rd as the best manager/motivator of people, and finished 4th in running the best defensive schemes.
Sam Cassell also got some love as he was tied for 1st in the voting of the best assistant coach in the NBA. Finally, when asked which active player could make the best head coach some day, Jrue Holiday and Al Horford received votes.
In the miscellaneous section, the Celtics finished 1st when asked which team will have the league’s most efficient offense this season at 53%. When asked which team the had the best home court advantage, Boston tied for 3rd at 13% and finished 5th at 7% as the most fun team to watch.
Other notable mentions here is that in the rookie section, Baylor Scheierman received some votes as the biggest steal in the draft, Jrue Holiday tied for 4th as the best leader at 7%, and when asked who the most versatile player in the NBA is, Jayson Tatum finished tied for 3rd at 10% and Jrue Holiday received votes in this category as well.
My biggest takeaway from this years NBA GM Survey is the Celtics are going to be dominant once again this season and the rest of the league already knows this.
