It’s been a long while since a team repeated as NBA Western Conference champions. Over the past six years, six different teams have represented the West in the NBA Final. The last team to win back-to-back Western Conference titles was the Golden State Warriors, who won four straight between 2015 and 2019. Since then, the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Warriors, Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, and Oklahoma City Thunder have reigned in the West. The early betting odds for the 2025-26 NBA season favor the Thunder to repeat as NBA Western Conference champs.
The Thunder are also the reigning NBA champs, winning their second title with their seven-game triumph over the Indiana Pacers in the 2025 NBA Final. The first NBA championship for the Thunder franchise came in 1979, when they were known as the Seattle Supersonics. The franchise became the Thunder for the 2008-09 season after former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz sold the club.
While the Thunder are the clear front-runners in the early Western Conference betting odds, the Nuggets and the Houston Rockets are also pre-season considerations ahead of the 2025-26 NBA campaign.
| To Win 2025-26 NBA Western Conference |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oklahoma City Thunder | +150 | +140 | +160 |
| Denver Nuggets | +500 | +450 | +450 |
| Houston Rockets | +700 | +700 | +650 |
| Los Angeles Lakers | +800 | +800 | +900 |
| L.A. Clippers | +1000 | +1000 | +1100 |
| Minnesota Timberwolves | +1200 | +1100 | +1000 |
| Golden State Warriors | +1400 | +1400 | +1400 |
| Dallas Mavericks | +1800 | +1800 | +2000 |
| San Antonio Spurs | +3500 | +3300 | +3500 |
| Memphis Grizzlies | +8000 | +6000 | +7000 |
| New Orleans Pelicans | +15000 | +15000 | +20000 |
| Sacramento Kings | +15000 | +12500 | +25000 |
| Phoenix Suns | +20000 | +20000 | +25000 |
| Portland Trail Blazers | +30000 | +25000 | +25000 |
| Utah Jazz | +35000 | +50000 | +50000 |
The Oklahoma City Thunder had the best record in the NBA during the 2024-25 season, finishing the regular season with a mark of 68-14. The team’s winning percentage of .829 was one of the best in NBA history, and the highest since the Golden State Warriors set the all-time mark of .890 in 2015-16 when they went 73-9. The difference between the Thunder and the Warriors was that Oklahoma won the NBA Final after their fantastic regular season, going 16-7 in the playoffs.
The Thunder enter the 2025-26 campaign with a target on their backs, but the team should be ready for whatever comes its way, as almost all of the players from last year will be on the court for this season’s title defense. The team’s 13 top players in minutes per game are all signed for the coming year. That includes the team’s best players, reigning NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, and Chet Holmgren.
The team should also have Nikola Topić, the 12th pick in the 2024 Draft, on the court for the 2025-26 season. He missed last season with an ACL injury. The club’s 2025 top pick (No. 18), Thomas Sorber, is out for the year with an ACL injury.
Despite being the youngest team in the NBA last year, the Thunder had the highest point differential in NBA history (12.9) and the most double-digit wins in a single NBA season (54).
Expectations are incredibly high in OKC this year.
The 2022-23 NBA champs, the Denver Nuggets, finished the 2024-25 season with the fourth-best record in the West (50-32). The Nuggets then took the Thunder to seven games in the conference semifinals. That playoff run came after the team fired coach Michael Malone and general manager Calvin Booth with three games remaining in the regular season. New head coach David Adelman now has a full season to try to get the Nuggets back to the top in the West.
The Nuggets are based around the play of Nikola Jokić, who became the third NBA player to average a triple-double over a season. The three-time NBA MVP finished the 2024-25 season with averages of 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds, and 10.2 assists per game. Jokic might not have won the MVP for the year, but he finished in the top two in voting for the fifth-straight year.
The one significant change the Nuggets made to their roster was trading Michael Porter Jr. to the Brooklyn Nets for Cameron Johnson. The 29-year-old Johnson had a career high in points (18.8), assists (3.4), field goal percentage (47.5), and minutes (31.6) last year in Brooklyn.
Christian Braun made a jump last year for Denver, improving from 7.3 to 15.4 points per game. The team will look for him to make some incremental advances in 2025-26.
The Houston Rockets finished the 2024-25 NBA season with the second-best record in the West (52-30). However, the team bowed out in the first round of the playoffs, losing to the Golden State Warriors in seven games. The second-place finish represented an enormous improvement over the two previous years, in which the Rockets had placed 14th and 11th. While the team had to be happy with the regular season, the loss in the first round of the playoffs did not seem to sit well, and the team made some changes.
The big addition was Kevin Durant, the centerpiece of a seven-team trade that also saw the team picking up Clint Capela from Atlanta while trading Dillon Books, Jalen Green, and future draft picks to Phoenix. The addition of Durant did not cost the team too much in young talent, as the Rockets kept Alperen Sengun, Amen Thompson, Jabari Smith Jr., and Reed Sheppard.
While there is no question about Durant’s talent, there are questions about how he’ll fit on the Rockets’ roster. This will be his 18th NBA season, and Houston is counting on him to be the final piece of a puzzle for a deep run in the playoffs. The jury remains out on whether the soon-to-be 37-year-old can deliver.
When it comes time to make your NBA picks, you will find that everything you need to know about NBA betting is right here at Vegas Betting, including our look at the 2025-26 NBA Eastern Conference betting futures. For those looking to make a play with futures bets on the outcome of the NBA finals, Vegas Betting is an all-inclusive site ready to provide you with every tidbit of information that will make you an informed NBA bettor.
