The NBA enters the 2026/27 season with a familiar kind of uncertainty: several contenders, a few major roster swings, and no obvious team to put ahead of the rest. That alone makes the opening weeks interesting. But the sharper story is that the league’s preseason managers have already pointed to Victor Wembanyama as the most likely MVP winner, a sign that San Antonio is expected to sit at the center of the conversation from the start.
That is the clearest takeaway from a preseason landscape that does not really offer one clean favorite. Before the season, managers ranked San Antonio first in the title survey and New York first in the Eastern Conference survey, which tells you how split the field still is. In the previous season, San Antonio reached the final while New York won the championship, so both teams arrive with real credibility rather than speculative hype.
Why Wembanyama stands above the rest
The MVP vote was not especially close. Wembanyama received 77 percent of the vote, which is a major margin for a player who is still only 19 years old. The number matters because it suggests the league is not just projecting future superstardom; it is already treating him as the player most likely to define the season. That is a different level of expectation, and it explains why San Antonio’s title case starts with him.
There is also a practical reason his profile is so strong. In a league that often rewards clarity, he gives San Antonio a clear axis around which everything can organize. The preseason managers clearly see that. If a team is first in the title survey and its star is the overwhelming MVP favorite, it is usually because the league believes both the ceiling and the floor are elite.
The field is crowded, and that may matter
The problem for San Antonio is that the title race rarely rewards one-team certainty before the season begins. The NBA is entering the year with several major storylines, and the number of plausible contenders is part of the point. New York is coming off a championship. Cleveland and Boston remain part of the broader Eastern Conference picture. In the West, San Antonio and Oklahoma City are both being discussed as serious forces.
Roster movement only sharpened that sense of unpredictability. During the summer before the season, Miami acquired Giannise Antetokounmpa from Milwaukee, a move that changes the balance of power and adds another contender into the mix. Even if the preseason surveys point in different directions, the league is still built around a handful of stars who can tilt a race quickly. Stephen Curry, LeBron James, Nikola Jokić, Shaie Gilgeous-Alexandera and others ensure that the margin for error will be small.
That is why the opening of the season feels less like a coronation and more like a test. The managers have named their favorites, but the actual schedule will decide how secure those labels really are. San Antonio has the headline player, New York has the reigning championship pedigree, and the rest of the league has enough talent to keep both honest.
For Vít Krejčí, the significance is more indirect, but the broader meaning is clear: the NBA begins the season with a crowded title board, a dominant MVP frontrunner and no single team standing above the rest. If the preseason survey is right, Wembanyama will be the player shaping the conversation. If it is wrong, it will probably be because this league once again proved that nothing stays settled for long.
