From the San Antonio Express News...
The NBA’s general managers have picked the Spurs to repeat as league champions.
According to results of a survey of the league’s top decision makers, 37 percent of GMs who responded to an NBA.com poll believe the Spurs will win the 2008 title.
It was the fourth consecutive year in which the Spurs were picked by the GMs to win the championship. The Spurs won the 2005 title, as well as the 2007 championship, so the GMs were correct twice.
Curiously, the GMs picked the Dallas Mavericks to win the regular season Southwest Division title, rather than the Spurs.
The survey did not reveal how many of the league’s 30 GMs responded to their annual survey.
The GMs predicted Cleveland’s LeBron James would win the 2008 MVP Trophy. Spurs star Tim Duncan was the second choice of the GMs to be MVP.
Duncan was selected both as the best center in the league (48 percent of the vote) and the best power forward (also 48 percent). Phoenix’s Steve Nash was selected as the best point guard, the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant the best shooting guard and James the best small forward.
The general managers named Spurs small forward Bruce Bowen the best defender in the league and Gregg Popovich the best head coach.
Former University of Texas star Kevin Durant, now with the Seattle SuperSonics, was picked as most likely to win the Rookie of the Year award.
From the AP...
The San Antonio Spurs were picked as the favorites to win another championship in a poll of NBA general managers, who gave Dirk Nowitzki no chance of repeating as league MVP.
Instead, LeBron James was chosen as the likely MVP by GMs who voted in the sixth annual NBA.com GM survey. Nowitzki, who won the award last season, did not receive a single vote.
The Spurs received 37 percent of the votes for likely NBA champion, beating out Phoenix (26 percent) and Dallas (15 percent). Detroit (7 percent) got the most votes among Eastern Conference teams.
However, the GMs slightly preferred the Mavericks (44 percent) over the Spurs (41) to win the Southwest Division.
James (30 percent) also received the most votes last season in the MVP category. He beat out Tim Duncan (22 percent) and Kobe Bryant (19 percent) this time. The Cleveland star was also an overwhelming favorite as the player the GMs would want if they were starting a franchise, getting 59 percent.
The Pistons and Celtics both received 26 percent of the votes as the likely East champion. The GMs tabbed Boston, Chicago, Miami, Utah and Phoenix as the other division champions. The Suns were an unanimous pick in the Pacific.
Kevin Durant (Rookie of the Year) and Gregg Popovich (best coach) were among the other top choices. Full results will be released Wednesday.