2022-23 NBA Midseason Awards Media Poll: NBA Finals Prediction
With just over six weeks left in the 2022-23 NBA regular season, not only will the race for who will and who will not make the playoffs heat up, but so will the race for this season’s awards.
Will Nikola Jokic be dethroned as the back-to-back recipient of the Most Valuable Player award? Is the race for the Most Improved Player award a two-man race between Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lauri Markanen? With all the great teams this season, who will ultimately be named the league’s Coach of the Year?
Fastbreak on FanNation polled 25 different NBA media members, some who cover the league as a whole and some who cover an individual team, asking them these specific questions and gathering their results.
Below are the results from the voting that took place for who the media believes will win the 2023 NBA Finals:
Media Members Pick To Win 2023 NBA Finals:
Milwaukee Bucks & Boston Celtics (9 votes)
Heading into the final month of the 2022-23 NBA regular season, the question that everyone is asking is “Who will win the 2023 NBA Finals?”
Well, a lot of basketball is going to be played between now and June 1, the date set for Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals, but some teams have already separated themselves and are being labeled as the “teams to beat.”
Those two teams are the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks. Coincidentally enough, they received the same amount of votes at the top of the media poll at the All-Star break.
Very little separates these two teams and let’s talk about the Celtics first since they currently own the best record in the league.
At the All-Star break, the Celtics were 43-17 and while they went to overtime with the Indiana Pacers in their first game back on Thursday, they did ultimately win to improve to 44-17 with 21 games remaining.
Boston has a one game lead for first-place on the Bucks right now and when they have their full core available, the Celtics have been virtually unbeatable at times. Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are the best two-way duo in the entire league, Robert Williams III is beginning to look more and more like himself as he continues to ease himself back onto the floor from offseason knee surgery and the depth Boston has displayed this season has been incredible.
Derrick White and Malcolm Brogdon, who could very well end up winning this season’s Sixth Man of the Year award, have played their roles to perfection and the Celtics may not be done with their roster just yet, as they still have an open roster spot.
The job Joe Mazzulla has done taking over the reins on the sideline and keeping Boston at the top of the Eastern Conference is why the Celtics have a very strong chance to not only get back to the NBA Finals, but claim their first title since 2008.
On the other side of things, the Milwaukee Bucks recently won a championship in 2021 and they have an even better roster this season. Injuries hit them hard in the playoffs a year ago, as not having Khris Middleton available really hurt their chances of defeating the Celtics and advancing to the Eastern Conference Finals.
Middleton is still working his way back from injuries, but the Bucks have a ton of depth on the wing and perimeter with Grayson Allen, Pat Connaughton, Jae Crowder, Joe Ingles and Jevon Carter.
Like the Celtics, they also may still add talent to their roster, as the Bucks currently have 13 players under contract and will need to add at least one more player to their active roster in the coming week.
Ranking third in the league defensively, the Bucks are an extremely tough team to attack on the inside and when Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jrue Holiday and Khris Middleton are all on the floor together, their offense can be very hard to stop.
Giannis is still the best player in the world and while they saw an earlier exit than they would have liked a season ago from the playoffs, they have everything they need to go on another Finals run this year.
Both the Phoenix Suns and Golden State Warriors received love in the All-Star break media poll as well.
Trading for Kevin Durant at the trade deadline, the Suns are certainly the favorites in the Western Conference and they could be impossible to stop on the offensive-end of the floor having Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton and Chris Paul as well.
As for the Warriors, well, everything for them depends on availability and health. Stephen Curry is still out due to a lower left leg injury and Andrew Wiggins remains away from the team due to a family matter and personal reasons. Not to mention, their trade deadline acquisition of Gary Payton II may not be ready to play until the playoffs.
Seeing the Warriors with a 29-30 record is certainly concerning, but if they have their core of Curry, Thompson, Green, Wiggins, Looney and Poole healthy and ready to go for the playoffs, I am still convinced that they can beat any team in the Western Conference in a seven-game series. Until beaten, they are the defending champions.
The only other team to receive a vote in the media poll to win the NBA Finals was the Los Angeles Clippers. Led by Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the Clippers made a ton of moves at the trade deadline this season, adding the likes of Bones Hyland, Eric Gordon and Mason Plumlee.
They also added Russell Westbrook in the buyout market, which could wind up being a massive pickup for them if Westbrook can play his role alongside Kawhi and George.
Unlike previous seasons, this year’s race to get to the NBA Finals is wide open and there are at least three to four teams in both conferences who have a real shot at winning a championship this year.
