With a new-look roster headlined by perennial All-Star and future Hall of Famer Kevin Durant, the 2025-26 Houston Rockets are expected to be among the NBA’s championship contenders.
But how far up the list are the Rockets?
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ESPN’s “summer forecast” panel — voted on by its NBA reporters, editors, and analysts — currently has Houston with the third-best title odds in the Western Conference and the fourth-best, overall.
Two of the three teams ahead of the Rockets are Oklahoma City and Cleveland, and it’s easy to understand why. The Thunder went 68-14 last season and went on to win the 2025 NBA Finals, while the Cavaliers were 64-18 and No. 1 in the Eastern Conference.
Both were more than 10 games better than the 2024-25 Rockets (52-30), which represents a significant gap. Even with Durant, the thinking is understandable.
What’s interesting is that ESPN’s panel also has Denver slightly ahead of Houston. While the Nuggets (50-32) finished below the Rockets in the 2024-25 regular season, they did advance an additional round in the playoffs, and they pushed the eventual champions to the brink of elimination before falling in Game 7 of that second-round series.
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Between that experience, the presence of perennial Most Valuable Player (MVP) frontrunner Nikola Jokic, and pedigree from a team that won the NBA’s 2023 title, it seems ESPN’s panel is slightly more bullish on Denver in a playoff setting — even though they have Houston a game ahead in their regular-season projections.
The Rockets and Nuggets will meet for the first time this season on Friday, Nov. 21, in an Emirates NBA Cup 2025 group-stage game from Houston.
More: ESPN projects Rockets to finish 54-28 next season, No. 2 in Western Conference
This article originally appeared on Rockets Wire: ESPN summer forecast: Rockets fourth among 2026 NBA title predictions