Stacking which teams can keep the NBA's parity run going

The NBA's parity era continued last season when the New York Knicks became the eighth different team to win the championship in the past eight years, and the joyous scenes across the Big Apple in June should spark hope for long-suffering fanbases across the league. If New York can win its first championship since 1973 after spending most of the past 25 years in the wilderness, everyone can dare to dream of holding the Larry O'Brien Trophy. The past eight champions shared some roster similarities: Each had a Hall of Fame-level leader, supporting star power and a meaningful degree of postseason experience. As they built toward the playoffs, six of the eight teams had a top-five offense and seven of the eight had a top-10 defense. But the past eight seasons also proved there are many ways to reach the summit: The Toronto Raptors won in 2019 immediately after trading for Kawhi Leonard , the Denver Nuggets won in 2022 despite a middling defense, and the Oklahoma City Thunder won in 2025 despite a remarkably young roster.

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