When most modern-day hockey fans think of Bill Guerin, they think of the General Manager of the Minnesota Wild, who also put together a USA Hockey team that brought home a Gold Medal in 2026 for the first time since 1980.
What some people might not know, is that Guerin was actually a great player in the National Hockey League before becoming an executive.
The New Jersey Devils made Guerin the 5th overall pick in the 1989 NHL Draft out of Boston College. It turned out to be a great selection for them, as he played in parts of seven seasons for New Jersey, including 1995, when they won the Stanley Cup.
Guerin, in 380 games with New Jersey, scored 108 goals, 106 assists, and 214 points. He played a role on a team that was elite defensively, knew how to find the back of the net as a collective, and won a lot of games as a result.
On January 4th, 1998, New Jersey traded Guerin to the Edmonton Oilers in a deal that brought in Jason Arnott and Bryan Muir. Of course, Arnott would go on to score an overtime Stanley Cup-winning goal in 2000.
After his four-year run in Edmonton ended in 2001, he spent time with the Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars, St. Louis Blues, New York Islanders, and Pittsburgh Penguins.
In 2009, the Penguins acquired Guerin ahead of the trade deadline and won the Stanley Cup later that spring. Guerin's career ended one year later with two Stanley Cup rings, 429 goals, 427 assists, and 856 points in 1,263 games.
Guerin's points-per-game totals increased after leaving New Jersey, which makes sense, given that they were the defense-minded "trap" team during his tenure. When he left, he went to a handful of systems that favored his offensive abilities a bit more.
Here in 2026, Guerin is in the minds of New Jersey Devils fans again because he has a decision to make about his star defenseman in Minnesota, Quinn Hughes. Of course, Quinn's two younger brothers are part of the modern-day Devils' core, and the speculation is that he'd like to join forces with them one day.
Earlier in the summer, it seemed like a lock that Quinn would stay with Guerin in Minnesota, but every day that passes makes that feel less and less likely. Will Quinn Hughes and Bill Guerin have been Devils players in common when it's all said and done? Only time will tell, but there is no denying the impact that Guerin has already made on New Jersey's hockey team.
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Montreal Gazette writer Stu Cowan sent shockwaves in Montreal Canadiens land earlier this week when he penned an article in which he mentioned that the fact that Arber Xhekaj and Zachary Bolduc weren’t signed led him to believe they could be part of sign-and-trade deals before September 16.
Cowan caught some flak on social media for writing that, because it’s not something fans want to hear, especially not about Xhekaj, whose gritty style and underdog story have elevated him to the level of fan favourite. Unfortunately for both Xhekaj and the fans, he may have more value to the Canadiens as a trade chip. Not because he couldn’t be useful to them on the ice- they need some toughness- but as things stand, they do not play him regularly, and he hardly played in the playoffs. The gritty blueliner is more useful to the team as a trade chip than he is as a seventh defenseman who doesn’t get to see the ice much.
Cowan writing that he could be part of a sign-and-trade deal makes perfect sense. Even though Xhekaj loves Montreal and everything about it and the team, at 25 years old, he needs to do what’s right for him as a player and not as a teammate. Brendan Gallagher didn’t say anything during the season about seeing his ice time melt like snow in the sun, and when he was a healthy scratch in the playoffs, but when the season ended, he said it was pretty obvious he would be moving on. Hockey players want to play, and it’s just normal. Xhekaj is a hockey player, and he wants to play too. Obviously, he’s not in Gallagher’s situation, but it’s a good parallel to understand why he hasn’t signed yet.
Of course, it’s easier to trade a player once he’s signed to a contract and the buyer knows they have the player under control for a set number of years. If the Canadiens do go out and get a right-shot defenseman to play with Lane Hutson, Xhekaj’s odds of having a spot in the lineup would get even slimmer and even if they don’t, as things stand, there isn’t much room for him. Especially not with Adam Engstrom and David Reinbacher looking to make the jump to the NHL. Ideally, though, if Montreal were to trade Xhekaj, it would be outside of the Eastern Conference; that’s not a player you’d want to face too often, especially if he becomes an NHL regular once given a proper opportunity.
As for Bolduc, it’s easy to see what Cowan means when he says he too could be a candidate for a sign-and-trade deal. As I wrote earlier this off-season, I don’t see Kent Hughes gambling on Bolduc and giving him an eight-year contract without having had a chance to thoroughly evaluate him. However, another team may have a different approach and be willing to do that. If Montreal wants to land a top-six player, the Habs will likely have to part with players who have proven they could be an asset in the NHL. I believed Oliver Kapanen could be a candidate to be sacrificed in that way, but if the Canadiens were to deal for a power-forward type of player, it could make sense for their trading partner to be looking for a forward who has some grit.
To maximize Bolduc’s value, it would only be logical to allow the trading partner to negotiate a deal with him, much like the New York islanders allowed the Canadiens to negotiate with Noah Dobson last season before the trade was made. Given the fact that they gave Logan Mailloux to acquire Bolduc, though, the Habs are unlikely to move on from him that soon unless they are getting someone really good in return.
Apparently, Josh Morrissey forgot how to play hockey over the last 12 months.
At least, that's how Jets fans (and most Central Division - and even Western Conference clubs) will interpret the NHL Network's latest ranking of the league's top defencemen.
The annual top-20 list was unveiled this week and somehow, some way, Winnipeg's No. 1 blueliner found himself all the way down at No. 16.
That's 10 spots lower than last summer.
You read that right - 10 spots.
Photo by Bob Frid/USA Today
Morrissey entered the 2025-26 season ranked sixth by NHL Network, firmly entrenched among the game's elite following three consecutive seasons of Norris Trophy-calibre hockey. One year later, he's apparently barely hanging onto a spot in the top 20.
The problem? His play hardly warrants such a dramatic fall.
Sure, Morrissey's offensive totals dipped from the heights of previous seasons. He didn't reach the 76 points he recorded during his breakout 2022-23 campaign, nor the 69 he produced the following year.
Instead, Morrissey had to settle for 14 goals and 55 points in 77 games.
Some decline.
And if you remember correctly, it wasn't exactly a banner year for his Jets. Offence was not happening. Backup goaltending took the lead. Injuries occurred and a veteran heavy lineup skated slowly through the 82 game slate.
The now 31-year-old has produced at least 10 goals and 55 points in four consecutive seasons. Among active NHL defencemen, only Cale Makar and Rasmus Dahlin can say the same.
And Morrissey wasn't exactly sheltered while doing it.
He averaged a career-high 24:43 of ice time per game, once again serving as Winnipeg's do-everything back-ender. Power play, penalty kill, late-game situations, difficult matchups - J-Mo's fingerprints remained all over virtually everything the Jets did from the blue line.
Yet NHL Network dropped him from sixth to 16th - make it make sense.
There were, admittedly, reasons why Morrissey's season didn't carry quite the same shine as years past.
Winnipeg took a significant step backwards after winning the Presidents' Trophy in 2024-25, while Morrissey's highly anticipated trip to the 2026 Winter Olympics ended almost as soon as it began. An upper-body injury suffered in Canada's opening game against Czechia knocked him out for the remainder of the tournament and followed him back to Winnipeg.
But none of that suddenly made Morrissey the NHL's 16th-best defenceman.
This is still a player who has established himself as one of hockey's premier offensive blueliners over the past four seasons. His 2022-23 breakout wasn't a one-off. He backed it up in 2023-24. Then again in 2024-25. Then, even in what could reasonably be described as a "down" year, he scored 14 times and put up 55 points.
That's a pretty comfortable floor.
There is certainly an argument to be made that other defencemen have passed him. The NHL is overflowing with high-end talent on the blue line and younger stars continue to emerge.
But 10 of them in one season? That's where NHL Network's ranking becomes difficult to swallow.
Perhaps Morrissey won't mind.
Before becoming a perennial Norris Trophy candidate, he spent years as one of the league's more overlooked defencemen. He knows what it's like to play without the national recognition his performance deserves. For the first time in a while, he gets to do it again.
Morrissey enters 2026-27 healthy, still firmly entrenched as the engine of Winnipeg's blue line and now armed with something he hasn't had much reason to carry over the past few seasons: A chip on his shoulder.
NHL Network believes there are 15 defencemen better than Josh Morrissey. Now Winnipeg's stud gets an entire season to prove them wrong.
On Sunday, Aug. 9, the NHL Network announced their list of “Top 20 Defensemen Right Now” and ranked Anaheim Ducks star blueliner Jackson LaCombe at 17th. One week after ranking teammate Cutter Gauthier as the NHL’s 19th best winger, LaCombe comes in at 17th among defensemen, sandwiched between Josh Morrissey of the Winnipeg Jets and Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning.
“Well, he's on the map and becoming, vastly becoming one of the better, or best, two-way defensemen in the game because of his great skating ability,” NHL Network analyst Ken Daneyko said on the countdown show. “He’s agile; he's mobile. He can do so many things as far as poise and culture. And he's a big, strong kid."
Unsurprisingly, names like Cale Makar, Quinn Hughes, Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski, Rasmus Dahlin, and Miro Heiskanen ranked atop the list at No. 1-5, respectively.
LaCombe (25), a former second-round pick (39th overall in 2019), was selected by the Ducks from Prep School Shattuck St. Mary’s and was seen as a smart, toolsy long-term project. He proved Anaheim’s amateur scouting staff right after playing his next four seasons at the University of Minnesota, where he eclipsed his production year-after-year and totaled 99 points (19-80=99) in 140 games.
Following his senior year at Minnesota, where he was an alternate captain and led his team to a crushing National Championship defeat, he signed his two-year ELC with the Ducks and made his NHL debut toward the end of the 2022-23 season.
LaCombe had a difficult transition to the NHL in his first full season (2023-24), where he scored just 17 points (2-15=17) in 75 games. He was asked to play much of the season on his off-hand side, up and down the lineup, and with limited power play time, but also difficult minutes at 5v5 and on the penalty kill. His play recognition was slow, his game was simplified, and he struggled to defend the strongest and fastest players in the world.
He signed a two-year contract extension following his rookie season that carried an AAV of $925k.
In 2024-25, the Ducks and LaCombe enjoyed a true breakout season despite opening the season as a healthy scratch. He was confident when leading rushes and patrolling the offensive blueline with the puck on his stick. He began driving to the net without the puck, and breakouts became automatic exits with either a precise first pass or poised, confident, intelligent strides. He tallied 43 points (14-29=43) in 75 games and led the Ducks in ice time with 22:18 TOI/G, becoming an all-situations, true No. 1 defenseman.
Following his breakout, with one-year left on his contract, and days before the 2025-26 season, LaCombe signed an eight-year contract extension with the Ducks worth an AAV of $9 million per season.
In the 2025-26 season, LaCombe built on his breakout and established himself as an elite defenseman in the NHL. He again led the Ducks in ice time, with 24:15 TOI/G, including 3:13 on the power play and 1:39 per game on the penalty kill. He produced 58 points (10-48=58) in all 82 regular season games and was arguably the Ducks’ best player as they clinched the playoffs for the first time in eight seasons.
His season was highlighted by 10 points (1-9=10) in 12 playoff games and (relatively) shutting down (an injured) Connor McDavid, as they defeated the Edmonton Oilers in the first round and went on to lose in the second to the Vegas Golden Knights. Both series lasted six games.
LaCombe has played at the international level for the United States on three separate occasions, winning a Gold Medal at each stop. He notched an assist in six games at the 2021 World Junior Championship, five points (2-3=5) in ten games at the 2025 World Championships, and, though he didn’t suit up, he brought home a Gold Medal from the 2026 Olympic Games as a last-minute replacement for injured Florida Panthers defenseman Seth Jones.
If possible, LaCombe may be relied on even more by the Ducks moving forward. The 2026 offseason saw the departures of his partner Jacob Trouba, captain Radko Gudas, and Stanley Cup winner John Carlson. LaCombe will likely continue to play heavy, difficult minutes and will likely be called upon to impact both top units of the special teams. There may even be a captaincy on the table for him.
With a lack of overall depth on the roster and a stable of young blueliners behind him on the lineup sheet, LaCombe will have to drive offense to a higher degree at that end of the ice and continue to refine his defensive habits deep in his zone, specifically at the goal mouth.
LaCombe was a long-term project who wound up bearing fruit suddenly and unexpectedly, to the point where the surface of his potential seems only scratched. His big-money contract will only just kick in in 2026-27, and he’ll be this season’s 13th (tied) highest-paid defenseman in the NHL. Once an inconceivable thought, there’s a shot he breaks into the top ten on this NHL Network list in the summer of 2027.
HOUSTON, TX - FEBRUARY 08: Kevin Eschenfelder speaks during the Houston Sports Awards on February 8, 2018 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Gary Miller/Getty Images for Houston Sports Awards) | Getty Images for Houston Sports
He’s been part of our lives for decades and his passion for Houston sports runs deep. Originally logging stats at the age of 15 at the Astrodome during Oilers and Astros games, Kevin Eschenfelder’s love for the “home team” has never wavered.
On the majority of nights, he’s the welcoming voice that greets and navigates Pre & Post Game shows around contests on Space City Home Network. The native Houstonian joins us today exclusively at The Crawfish Boxes to talk Astros as we get ready for the home stretch.
Q: Would it surprise if only 83 or 84 victories won the A.L. West outright this year?
A: Honestly, I do think that would surprise me. I get where everyone is in the standings right now, but I have a feeling that somebody is going to take off. Between the Astros and Mariners and Rangers, somebody is going to get hot down the stretch and whoever does, is going to win this division. I don’t think everyone is going to stay as they are right now. One of those teams is going to have a really good September, we’ll just wait to see who it is.
Q: Speaking of September, who is going to be that third bat to generate offense consistently for the Astros behind Yordan & Pena?
A: Isaac Parades is so good. I don’t think anybody realized how good he was when they traded for him. He’s such a good hitter. In order to lengthen that lineup, there are four choices. You have to get Christian Walker and Jose Altuve going and then the X-factors are Taylor Trammell and Cam Smith. Walker had the 11-game hitting streak, we all know what Altuve can do with multi-hit games when the lights are the brightest. Those are the guys to watch.
Q: How special will this weekend be with Alan Ashby and the late Phil Garner going into the Astros Hall of Fame?
A: It’s wonderful that we had two guys who contributed in so many different ways, not just to the Astros organization but to our city. Ash did it as a very good player and switch-hitting catcher and then was a broadcaster and coach. He did a little bit of everything and has always been visible in the community.
With Phil Garner, everyone loved him. When he came over from the Pirates in the 80’s, he locked down that second base position and helped those teams learn how to win. Then of course in 2005 as Manager, he was so special. Phil was also one of the great storytellers. I was always so thankful to be in his presence, and I knew many of his stories like the back of my hand, but I enjoyed hearing them and having them told to the fans.
Q: When was the last time you were with Phil?
A: We did a symposium together at Fan Fest and he told his stories which everyone loved. I’m so happy that Carol and the kids on Saturday will be there to receive that honor and recognition. He was special.
Q: I’m a radio guy at heart and like so many, I marvel at your versatility. How different is the preparation when you’re calling a game from the booth, as opposed what you do in the Space City studios?
A: There’s not a lot of comparison. The Pre and Post Game is 22 minutes of content, and you know what you need to know for those particular programs. However, when you’re doing a live game, you never know what you’ll need to know (laughs). You have to know a little bit of everything, so I’d say that’s the biggest difference. I just put my nose into it, start studying, find a few storylines on players and then identify the right place to use it. That’s the real challenge. The preparation is much greater.
PISCATAWAY, NJ - DECEMBER 08: Marek Dolezaj #21 of the Syracuse Orange is guarded by Myles Johnson #15 of the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at the Rutgers Athletic Center on December 8, 2020 in Piscataway, New Jersey. (Photo by Benjamin Solomon/Getty Images) | Getty Images
For the first time in a long time, according to Donna Ditota of Syracuse.com, the Orarge are slated to play a non-conference game in the month of February. Syracuse will take on Rutgers at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on February 6, 2027.
The last time Syracuse played a team that was not in either the Big East or ACC during the month of February came on February 23, 2003, according to our very own Sam Federman, when the Orange defeated Michigan State, 76-75.
Rutgers is now officially two years removed from losing Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey to the NBA. The Scarlet Knights struggled last season, finishing 14-20 overall while winning a mere six conference games.
This will officially be the third game finalized for next season that will take place inside an NBA arena. Syracuse previously announced that it will face Indiana at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, home of the Indiana Pacers, on November 9, 2026, before taking on Providence at TD Garden, home of the Boston Celtics, on December 21, 2026.
The matchup with Rutgers will also mark Syracuse’s return to New York City after a one-year absence. The Orange last played in the city two years ago, when they fell to Maryland in the Gotham Classic at Barclays Center. Given Syracuse’s long history of playing high-level games in New York City, the return will be sure to generate some excitement
There have also been rumors that the Orange could make another trip to NYC next season to take on St. John’s at Madison Square Garden. However, that matchup has not been confirmed as of yet.
One thing, however, is becoming more and more clear. Coach McNamara wants to bring Syracuse basketball back to relevance and re-engage the fan base that supported him during his time with the program, including when he helped lead the school to a National Championship.
He wants Syracuse playing in NBA arenas. He wants the Orange competing against Power Four programs in New York City. And, perhaps most importantly, he wants this team to turn the page on last season and completely flip the script.
But for now, another big game on the slate for the Orange. What are your takeaways on Syracuse taking on Rutgers in Brooklyn next season? Will you be attending?
Welcome to Inside the Suns, your weekly deep-down analysis of the current Phoenix Suns team. Each week, the Fantable — a round table of Bright Siders — give their takes on the Suns’ latest issues and news.
Fantable Questions of the Week
Q1: Mat Ishbia’s hiring of Brian Gregory as GM was initially considered questionable and attributed mostly to Gregory’s MSU ties. What are your thoughts on Gregory’s performance so far?
zenzino: I didn’t know much about Brian Gregory, but I had a good feeling about him, mostly because of the reports that he was a big part of drafting Dunn and Igodaro. I never paid much attention to the MSU ties. Mine was always a wait-and-see attitude. Mat’s a smart guy; he knew there would be Michigan talk, so he needed to make doubly sure BG was the right hire. BG got hired because of the year he spent with the Suns before that, not ‘mostly due to Gregory’s MSU ties’. I’m sure the fact that Ishbia knew him previously got his foot in the door, but performance opens that door.
I’ve said it in the past, BG’s ability to unfuck the Suns in record time is nothing short of miraculous. Not only was he a huge part of the culture and mindset shift in the FO, but he also was big in bringing in Ott as head coach.
Even if you ignore how well the KD trade worked out when the Suns’ hands were basically tied by KD only wanting to go to Houston and the super-exciting draft we had last year. Just look at this offseason alone. We thought we were essentially sitting this draft out with a late 2nd-rounder, and BG gets the Suns a first-round pick (someone who was projected as a mid-first-rounder and the guy they wanted) for next to nothing.
I was against the Suns waiving and stretching Beal’s contract. I thought they should just eat it for two years and be done. I was wrong. Because of the college-type family atmosphere and culture this team established, BG was able to extend 4 key players on team-friendly contracts that come close to covering the $20M in dead cap hit. That is hella impressive.
I’m all-in on BG. He should have been executive of the year last season, and he damn-sure should be this season.
Ashton: While I was writing this up, CBS Sports dropped an article of the Fifteen Worst Contracts and ranked them. Eagle-eyed Suns fans jumped on this, but essentially the Suns have two worst contracts ranked. Jalen Green (13) and Booker (6). Granted, there is no official metric for these rankings and is really only an opinion piece, but that is not good. Add in Beal’s dead money on the Suns balance sheet, then one really has to ask themselves if the Suns are doing a good job in the FO?
Yes, there will always be hits and misses, and that comes with the business. I think BG has drafted well and was able to extend existing talent at cheaper costs.
But as far as a Key Performance Indicator? I think it is trending down for Brian Gregory. The front office deserves to be questioned.
Rod: I was skeptical at first, but Gregory has already far surpassed my initial expectations. Like many, I cringed a bit when he kept repeating “aligned” over and over when he first took over the job, but now I can see what he was trying to get across back then.
He’s played a big role in forming not only a solid team under trying circumstances, but he’s put together a group of players that truly like playing together and want to be here. Getting three players back on very friendly deals as well as signing another to a very favorable extension is largely a result of this. Don’t for a second believe that they all would have signed those deals if they didn’t really want to stay in Phoenix.
He’s drafted well and manipulated the few picks he’s had to move up in the draft to get players he wanted. I wish we’d had him as GM earlier before the Suns had traded away control of all their own first-rounders to acquire Durant and Beal. I think we would likely be in a much better place right now if he’d been the one whispering in Ishbia’s ear instead of James Jones back then.
Q2: It has been said that the Suns are in a “half-hearted rebuild” since moving on from the failed “Big 3” (Booker, Beal & Durant) experiment, mostly because of their refusal to also trade Devin Booker. What are your thoughts on trading Book and its possible effect on the Suns’ rebuild?
zenzino: This one makes my head hurt. I’m sooooo tired of the ‘trade Book for picks’ trope. After the Nash era, it took the Suns 12+ years just to make it back to the playoffs. And they had lottery picks. The Jazz started a full rebuild when they had their own picks as well as a haul from the Timberwolves. Finally, 5-years later, they might not be tanking this season. It took the Thunder 7 years for their full rebuild. Same for the Spurs. Full rebuilds take time… and luck. And that’s if you have your own lottery picks.
Let’s look at the two big trades this summer:
Jaylen Brown – Celtics get Paul George, 2028 1st & 2nd, 2030 2nd, 2031 1st. Basically an expiring contract for a player who barely plays, a 1st round in two years and another in 4 years. All going to be late rounds because of Jaylen Brown, Tyrese Maxey, and VJ Edgecomb. An utterly useless haul if a team was rebuilding now. If the Suns got this kind of return, they’d be on the 10-12 year plan for getting back to the playoffs (and be more of a laughing stock than the Celtics currently are).
Giannis – The Bucks did a little better. Tyler Herro, Kel’el Ware, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kasparas Jakučionis, 2026 13th pick (Nate Ament), 2030 1st swap (useless), 2031 1st, 2033 1st, 2033 2nd. They got some young talent, but none of them come close to filling Booker’s shoes. They had their own #5 pick this draft so that helped. Still, except the 13th pick, all the others are 5-7 years down the road. Not much help to the Bucks now.
So, if two Finals MVPs are mostly garnering picks far into the future, trading Book wouldn’t help the Suns much in the next 4-6 years.
Also, the Suns would only trade Book to someplace he wants to go. Which would limit their return. I think he’s earned that. Whether you agree or not says more about you than anything else.
As much as it was refreshing to watch the never-quit, gritty Suns team play last season, the losing record in the second half made it less fun. I don’t want to watch them play hard and lose for at least the next 5-7 seasons.
So, no. I don’t agree that this is a ‘half-hearted rebuild’. It is a smart rebuild given the lack of draft picks and the dead cap hit. The Suns are going to put out a competitive team that’s fun to watch for the next 4 years and in 2030 we might see some bigger changes.
It’s not a coincidence that Brooks was eligible for a 4-year extension and the Suns opted for a 3-year. If Bridges is extended, I expect the same. I don’t think the Suns will sign any veterans past 2030.
And, for all the Book trade proponents out there, please stop. Not. Gonna. Happen. Ishbia and BG have made it crystal clear that they are ride or die with Devin Booker. Deal with it. Let it go. The only way Book gets traded is if he wants out. And I don’t see that happening.
Ashton: And that is the big question. Do you want to do a full-on rebuild or a soft rebuild with little assets? This question ties nicely with Q1 on Booker’s contract and if BG can handle a full-on rebuild.
The first obvious question is what do the Suns get in return for Booker? Very few teams want to take on a max contract or unable unless they really think it will push them over the edge into the Finals. The formula is usually “we will trade you a bad contract for your bad contract for salary matching purposes”. The second formula is “we will take Booker’s contract off your hands for a few bits and pieces that another third-party team will help us with, mainly because we get picks”. No, keep in mind that it is probably not picks going to the Suns but to another team that wants to hoard them.
Quite honestly, I do not think the Suns would get anything of appropriate value for Booker. Add that Suns fans would probably be enraged that they are now buying tickets to the Suns vs. Kings game to witness the race to the bottom in the West, you know, where the Suns can’t tank.
I have to remind myself sometimes that the Suns did make the playoffs last season. I find that much more palatable this season than watching the inverse. I have no desire to watch a team without Booker, and neither should you. I was not a fan of the Steve Nash trade to the Lakers, though it worked out well for the Suns, because I found it disrespectful for a player that gave legions of Suns fans so many good memories. I would say the same about trading Book, a true Valley Son.
Rod: First off, trading Book would only bottom out the Suns, make the draft picks they’ve already traded away more valuable, and likely turn Phoenix into a franchise that many – if not most – NBA players would dread being traded to or sign with rather than one whose players re-sign at a discount to stay.
Yes, the Suns would get some draft picks back for Book, but any of them would likely turn out to be lottery picks, and using only late first-rounders to do a full rebuild would be more of a strategy based on hope/luck than anything else.
Right now, the Suns have managed to put together a tough, competitive roster that was a very entertaining team to watch last season. Entertaining was not a word that could be honestly used to describe the Suns in the two seasons previous to the last one…and they weren’t very good either despite all of the top-end talent they had.
Is this team a championship contender? No. They are an extreme long shot for that and aren’t likely to much more than that for a while, but I don’t see any way that trading Book would accelerate their ascension to that level any faster than the course they’re currently on.
Q3: What do you believe is the key (or keys) for the 2026-27 Suns to surpass their 45 win total from last season?
zenzino: Health. Numero uno. Had Brooks and MW not gotten injured, the Suns had a legit shot at the 5th or 6th seed.
I think it would be foolish not to assume that MW is going to miss 15-20 games. Maybe with Man Man improving, it will lighten his load. Hopefully, the Suns choose which games he misses rather than injuries deciding. Then he’d be available at the end of the season.
Between Green, MW, Brooks, and GA (Book can always be counted on to miss 10-15, nbd), there were a lot of missed games. However, I am counting on Jalen Green to play almost (if not all) 82, and Brooks’ injury was an accident that is highly unlikely to happen again.
Defense is two on my list. I don’t see them letting up. It’s a core part of Ott’s philosophy. After a year together, I expect them to be even better. Especially with the development of Sheer and Man Man.
Third, is Green and Bridges working out how they fit within this offense. How to use Book’s gravity and also how to take pressure off of Book. While I expect the defense to be good from the start, I think the offense might take a little time to gel.
The teams behind the Suns (except the Kings) got better and the teams ahead of them didn’t fall off to the point where they would be easy pickings.
Aside from the top 4 teams, there is definitely parity among the rest. Even if the Suns were able to improve by a few games and get the 5th or 6th seed, I’d consider that a success.
Ashton: Do not trade Book!
For one, I am in the camp that the Suns will not surpass their season record from last season. But, if they did, it starts with the obvious: injuries. Stay healthy and beat the teams that you are supposed to beat. For that, the bench minutes have to climb significantly for starting players’ rest. If it doesn’t, then the starters are going to try and be heroes with more minutes in close games and increased risk of injury.
That is really my big two. No injuries and player development. Sure, we can walk down the road of increased 3pt and FT shooting percentages or even better to elite defense to keep games close. But that would be my two areas of focus. Oh, maybe three, just keep the game entertaining!
Rod: There are a lot of things worth mentioning here, but I’m going to start off by pointing to Jordan Ott. I didn’t criticize him much last season for essentially playing small-ball most of the time because I saw it as him sticking with the players he trusted the most rather than him just wanting to play small. After Maluach and Fleming spent time getting their feet wet in the G League and showing good progress and the additions of Bridges and Peat, he needs to start playing bigger, more physical lineups this year. They need to work at getting to the basket more and not rely so much on threes because – as we all saw last season – those threes just aren’t going to fall every night, and the Suns’ offense needs to be more multi-dimensional.
Without an overpowering offense (which the Suns won’t have), defense is going to be extremely important this year. Everyone has to play D and play hard all game long. With the depth they have, they should be able to utilize that to limit minutes in such a way to keep players fairly fresh during games, and they shouldn’t be afraid to play more than 9-10 player rotations at times to do so.
Injuries will also be a key, but those are largely due to bad luck and something that can’t really be controlled. But, keeping everyone’s minutes down through utilizing the team’s depth could also help avoid some of those.
And one key, specifically aimed at Book but a good thing for all, is to play efficiently. The Suns need to be efficient on offense and play using the old sniper’s motto, “One Shot, one kill.” It was great to see the Suns rank 5th in offensive rebounding last season, but this year I would rather them just simply not have as many offensive rebounds to go after. Get down the court, put the ball in the hole, and get back on defense. I want the Suns to be one of the leaders in defensive rebounds this year.
As always, many thanks to our Fantable members for all their extra effort this week!
Suns Trivia/History
On August 13, 2020, the Suns defeated the Dallas Mavericks 128-102 to finish their perfect 8-0 run in the Orlando Bubble. No other team did this. This was the first time NBA regular season games were played during August and will likely be the last, as the 2019-20 season was delayed for several months during mid-season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Unless such an event happens again, the Suns will go down in NBA history as the only team to ever go undefeated during the month of August.
On August 14, 2008, the Suns signed Lou Amundson as a free agent. While Amundson rarely made a big impact on the scoreboard, his enthusiasm and high-energy style of play quickly made him a fan favorite off the bench. In the 2009/10 season, he was part of the near-legendary “Bench Mob” made up of Lou, Goran Dragic, Jared Dudley, Channing Frye and Leandro Barbosa, who weren’t just good enough to hold a lead but at times could blow games open. Then coach Alvin Gentry utilized the bench mob like a hockey coach, structuring the minutes so that the entire second unit would be on the floor together to start the second and fourth quarters in every game. Lou is also remembered as the prankster who once filled Shaquille O’Neal’s ride up to the brim with popcorn.
On August 16, 1987, former Sun Nick Vanos and his fiancée, Carolyn Cohen, tragically died when their plane crashed after takeoff from the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in Romulus, Michigan en route to Phoenix. Vanos and Cohen were among the 154 passengers and crew that died in the crash. Vanos was 24 and had just finished his second season in the NBA after being selected by Phoenix in the second round of the draft with the 32nd pick. Vanos played college ball at Santa Clara University, the same college where Steve Nash would play almost ten years later.
On August 18, 2005, the Suns signed Pat Burke as a free agent. Burke is still the only Irish-born player to make an NBA roster. He rarely made an impact on the court but became a fan favorite during his two years with Phoenix… and not just because of his play.
Pat Burke’s Hair Restoration Tonic
On August 19, 2005, seven weeks after the trade had been agreed upon, the Phoenix Suns completed a sign-and-trade with Joe Johnson, sending him to the Atlanta Hawks. Phoenix acquired Boris Diaw and two lottery-protected first-round picks in 2006 and 2008.
The 2006 draft pick acquired from Atlanta in this trade was originally owned by the Lakers, traded to Boston, and then traded to Atlanta. The Suns then traded this pick – which eventually was used to select Rajon Rondo — back to Boston for a 2007 1st round draft pick (which originally belonged to Cleveland) and cash considerations. That 2007 draft pick was used to select Rudy Fernandez, whose draft rights were then traded along with former Suns GM James Jones to Portland for… cash considerations. The 2008 1st round pick (15th) was eventually used by Phoenix to select Robin Lopez.
Important Future Dates
Sept. 28 – Media Day Sept. 29 – Training Camp opens Oct. 5 – Suns @ Pistons (preseason) 4:00 PM Oct. 7 – Suns @ Bulls (preseason) 5:00 PM Oct. 10 – Suns vs. Spurs (preseason) 7:00 PM Oct. 14 – Suns @ Spurs (preseason) 5:00 PM Oct. 16 – Suns vs. Jazz (preseason) 7:00 PM Oct. 20 – 2026-27 NBA Season Begins Dec. 15 – Most players signed to new contracts can be traded Jan. 5 – 10-day contracts may now be signed Jan. 10 – All NBA contracts are guaranteed for the remainder of the season Jan. 15 – All players signed to new contracts can be traded Feb. 11 – Trade Deadline Feb. 19-21 – NBA All-Star weekend 2027
The Columbus Blue Jackets have 49 days until opening night at Nationwide Arena. Today we look at the history of jersey #49. There weren`t many who used the number, but at least one had a pretty good career.
Let's take a look.
Dan Fritsche - 2004-08 - The Ohio-born native was picked in the 2003 NHL Draft in the 2nd round.
Fritsche turned pro and became a full-time NHLer in 2005. He played 206 games for the CBJ over four years. He scored 29 goals and totaled 63 points.
In July of 2008, the young speedster was traded to the New York Rangers along with Nikolai Zherdev for Fedor Tyutin and Christian Bäckman. It's safe to say the CBJ won this trade, as Tyutin would go on to become one of the best defensemen to ever play for the Blue Jackets.
On January 29, 2009, Fritsche was traded by the Rangers to the Minnesota Wild. The following season, Fritsche returned to the CBJ organization and would play for the Syracuse Crunch.
In 2010, he left for Europe, where he would play until his retirement in 2016.
TJ Tynan - 2017 - The Blue Jackets drafted Tynan in the 3rd round of the 2011 NHL Draft.
Tynan would only end up playing 3 games for the Jackets during his time with Columbus. Instead, he would spend most of his time playing for the Springfield Falcons and Cleveland Monsters. He played in 76 games for the Monsters during their Calder Cup-winning season of 2015-16 and had 46 points. Tynan has 642 points in 693 career AHL games, including a 98-point season with the Ontario Reign in 2021-22.
He has only played in 25 NHL games and signed with the Colorado Eagles of the AHL for the 25-26 season. Tynan is currently 37th on the all-time AHL list for career points.
He will play for the Springfield Falcons of the AHL in 26-27.
Ryan MacInnis - 2020-21 - MacInnis was drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2nd round of the 2014 NHL Draft.
The son of Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Al MacInnis had big shoes to fill, which is nearly impossible to do. He was traded to Columbus by Arizona for Jacob Graves and a conditional pick in the 2019 NHL Draft on July 18, 2018.
MacInnis played in 26 games as a Blue Jacket and had a single point. The majority of his time was spent playing for the Cleveland Monsters, where he had two productive years.
He left North America to play in Germany following the 2022 season. He signed with Kölner Haie in 2025, where he remains playing today.
Who was your favorite player to wear #49.
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MIAMI, FL - OCTOBER 08: Kel'el Ware #7, Kasparas Jakucionis #25 and Jaime Jaquez Jr. #11 of the Miami Heat after the game against the San Antonio Spurs on October 8, 2025 at Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
The four players the Bucks acquired from the Miami Heat in the Giannis trade—Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, and Kasparas Jakucionis—may already be a step ahead in knowing Taylor Jenkins’ offence when training camp hits.
Allow me to explain.
Noah’s mark
Before the 2024-25 season, a relatively unknown assistant named Noah LaRoche was hired by Jenkins as the Memphis Grizzlies’ Head of Player Development. The Grizzlies had finished dead last in offensive efficiency the season prior (granted, there were also a heap of injuries to key players that impacted that). Injuries aside, though, Memphis clearly wanted to try something new. LaRoche—even though he was not some high-ranking assistant at the time—was entrusted with installing an offence that would deliver that change.
And boy, did he think outside the box.
You see, the offence that LaRoche installed wasn’t just some run-of-the-mill playbook that he nicked from another system. No, this offence not only stood out from the rest of the NBA but also from the greater basketball world because, well, it wasn’t even really an “offence” in the traditional sense; it was more of a system that championed speed, spacing, driving, and basketball IQ. There were no play-calls. To use a classic Budenholzer-ism, it was basically “structured randomness” that also happened to deprioritise screens—both on and off-ball.
To see what I mean, watch this video:
Fascinating, right? So why the zag? It’s a combination of things. Firstly, there’s the most basic idea of just catching teams off guard by doing something different than what they’ve seen for years and years. But mostly, this is a personnel-based thing: if majority of a team’s key players have below-average shooting ability but above-average IQ, driving ability, craft, and ball skills, then an offence that prioritises the latter will probably be better suited to that team.
The 2024 Grizzlies fitted this mould. Sure, they had Desmond Bane, who is a great shooter, but overall, this was not some team of snipers. What they had in spades was players with these aforementioned traits, such as Ja Morant, Brandon Clarke, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jake LaRavia, Jaylen Wells, and Marcus Smart. Well, it worked a treat. Memphis finished the next season with the sixth-best offence in the NBA.
Basketball groupthink
It’s fascinating to take a step back and think more conceptually about basketball every once in a while. Why bring four bodies into an action if you can get to the rim one-on-one? Is a pick-and-roll really the only way to draw two to the ball and generate an open shot, or could you achieve the same thing from a drive and kick? As basketball consumers, we sometimes get so used to viewing and understanding basketball through a certain lens that we forget to think outside the box.
From a mental standpoint, this is a system that caters to heady, instinctual players who can recognise patterns and cues. Someone driving baseline means another must cut from the 45; someone cutting one pass away means the ballhandler might have an opportunity to drive right behind them; someone attacking to the middle means the big must empty and get to the opposite short corner. When you really boil it down, it’s a system with a few basic principles:
Play fast
Always keep the court spread
Don’t hold onto the ball; make quick decisions and commit to them
Don’t fall asleep off the ball; you will get caught out
Cut with the view that you may not get the ball, but it could create an opportunity for a teammate
Aim for layups and three pointers on most possessions
Cool, but what’s this got to do with Miami?
With that out of the way, let’s talk about how the Miami Heat came to implement this offence. Obviously, Taylor Jenkins was dismissed by the Grizzlies with nine games remaining in the 2024-25 season (even though the team made the playoffs!)—Noah LaRoche was a casualty alongside him. This also happened coincide with the Heat getting utterly destroyed by the Cavaliers in the 2024-25 playoffs, losing in a sweep by a combined margin of 122 points.
“I hope that players became better from it, but damn, it was humbling,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the worst loss in his 17 seasons. “This series was humbling.”
“Really no excuses for it,” Tyler Herro said. “It’s embarrassing.”
Miami came out of that series knowing their offence had gone completely stale and that something had to change, so they hired—you guessed it—Noah LaRoche and had him implement that same read-and-react offence. Once again, it got results. BasketNews’ Vukasin Nedeljkovic did a great breakdown of how the their offence shifted last season:
Miami ran approximately 12 to 15 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions, accounting for only 5% of its total play types.
Historically, no team has relied less on the pick-and-roll as a primary action.
Even when factoring in both ball handlers and roll men, the action accounts for only seven percent of their offense–a stark contrast to a league where it remains the dominant half-court engine.
Instead, Miami’s offensive profile is built around entirely different sources of production.
Spot-up situations account for roughly 34% of their offense, transition nearly 25%, and isolation around 9%, while cuts, offensive rebounds, and putbacks fill in the margins.
Traditional structured elements like post-ups, off-screen actions, and the pick-and-roll serve only as complementary tools rather than foundational actions.
The Heat started the season 14-7. They went from 27th to first in pace, from 24th to first in field goal attempts, and from 21st to 12th in offensive rating. Now, their defence declined as a result—ninth to 14th—but on balance, you take those results any day of the week.
Ironically, Miami last season just happened to have players very similar to what the Grizzlies had in 2024. Bam Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Davion Mitchell, Pelle Larsson, Dru Smith, Andrew Wiggins… these guys all fit that style of play.
I should note that opponents did start to “figure the Heat out” in the second half of the season. They lost 10 of their final 15 games and then fell to the Hornets in the Play-In Tournament (though we should note that Miami sustained some injuries in that game too). It remains to be seen if this type of offence would consistently survive in a playoff setting, when the game becomes inherently slower—the Thunder swept the Grizzlies in the 2024 playoffs, but firstly, it’s the Thunder; secondly, Ja Morant got injured halfway through the series; and lastly, Games 3 and 4 were very close—but it’s an interesting way to attack the regular season.
Anyway, Milwaukee traded for four guys who played last season under the same system that Taylor Jenkins led in Memphis during his final year there. Moreover, the Bucks happen to have a fair few holdovers who can play this sort of basketball as well. Maybe we see a LaRoche-inspired offence in Milwaukee this season?
Speaking of the Heat recruits, vote on this week’s Reacts poll:
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 11: Ville Koivunen #41 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates with the puck as Jakob Chychrun #6 of the Washington Capitals defends in the first period during the game at PPG PAINTS Arena on April 11, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Top 25 countdown continues with the most newsworthy young player in the organization of the moment, the man with an eight year contract Ville Koivunen.
Ville Koivunen’s career has contained some contradictory moments so far.
He was a fairly high draft pick of Carolina indicating they liked him…Only to be traded out of the organization before getting going to show they didn’t find him that big in their future.
End up a first full season in North America looking good with seven points in eight games in the NHL…Only to regress back to the AHL after not playing well enough in the NHL the next year.
Getting an eight year contract with a massive cap hit following such an uneven year for an unestablished player might be the biggest contradiction of all. Nothing in Koivunen’s past performance justified a $32 million dollar commitment, but the Penguins gave him one anyways in hopes that his future would be worth it.
Whether or not he lives up to the hype and expectation placed upon him will be one of the more fascinating areas for the Penguins in the upcoming training camp and beyond. Officially, Koivunen will still have to earn his spot on the NHL roster, per Kyle Dubas. Koivunen got a big time NHL contract, yet he still isn’t assured an NHL spot. Another contradiction.
After all these stops and starts, the future for Koivunen appears wide open. Which is an odd thing to say for a player with an eight year contract, though it applies since the Pens have an off ramp built into that contract that might not really make it a long commitment. As almost always with Koivunen’s career, how things appear right now isn’t always how it will remain.
Which, by that logic, could be time for another reversal in a positive direction. There’s some evidence to support an increase in performance for Koivunen, despite the lack of production in 2025-26.
It is worth noting that despite uninspiring production, Koivunen’s xG and shot metrics were stellar last season. PIT just could not score when he was out there.
With his talent there’s reason to believe the production will come. And then you have a solid player locked up cheap. https://t.co/pE8HhNMbuw
The big x-factor is what is happening right now for Koivunen’s off-season training. It’s another crucial summer for him to make gains physically in order to level him up to where he can be more effective in the NHL, an area that was lacking last year. It goes without saying based on the contract that the Pens have been impressed enough by the willingness to put in the work and show improvement to literally buy into his future.
“Over the course of the [2025-26] season, Ville showed excellent commitment in Wilkes-Barre to doing extra work, and he has doubled down on that this summer,” Dubas said last week. “He did not return to his home in Oulu, instead working to set up a new training program in Helsinki. He then informed us that he would be returning to Pittsburgh in mid-August to join the growing number of players we have training here in the summer. His actions gave us assurance, and our staff will continue to push him on and off the ice.”
According to Dubas, neither the team nor player were satisfied with the missed opportunity from last year that saw Koivunen break camp on the first line with Sidney Crosby, only to slide back down to the AHL for a good chunk of the season (“I think he would be the first to say he didn’t make the most of (his opportunity)” is how Dubas put it.)
Despite that disappointment, Dubas made what he called a “bet” on Koivunen with the eight-year contract. That’s usually not how it goes in the NHL, max term contracts are reserved for sure things, not an experiment. Yet here we are.
To pull back the curtain, Pensburgh had Koivunen ranked for 12th in this year’s Top 25 Under 25 before the contract. After consideration, we elected not to change or improve his placement on our list just because he was given a contract that indicates he will be an important player in the future – or at least be given every opportunity to live up to turning the bet into a winner. It’s difficult to place a player whose semi-realistic potential range of options for less than two months from now swing from being in a fairly significant spot in the Pens NHL lineup down to getting waived and being out of the organization completely. A scenario in the middle (being mostly an NHL scratch for Pittsburgh, going unclaimed on waivers and assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre) are perhaps even more likely than the extreme options to best/worst case outcomes.
For now and until proven otherwise, Koivunen is what he is as a limited player that can look soft, slow and ineffective at the NHL level, despite starting to get paid like something different. The Penguins have more than plenty of candidates as wingers for their roster and Koivunen may or may not even figure into the NHL team at the start of the season. The good news is he offers some versatility, playing 12 games as a left wing last season and 61 total games at right wing, split between his NHL and AHL time. Like most everything else, this is a player looking to find a fit and where he can make an impact.
His young career has already been fraught with ups, downs mixed with with starts, stops and more reversals than a game of Uno. The near future might not be any less tumultuous, as unpredictable as an unestablished player getting a max length contract out of the blue.
Such is the career of Ville Koivunen. Who can say whether the next twist will be a step forward, in place or backwards, but he certainly is a player the team has put a spotlight on due to the bet they decided to make and seeing whether or not the player will live up to his end of it.
Don Nelson of the Boston Celtics pictured in 1974. (Photo by UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) | Getty Images
In the mid 1980s, farmers throughout the U.S. were being squeezed between high interest rates on operating loans and low prices for commodities; lacking a sufficient government safety net, over 300,000 farmers defaulted on loans during this decade and even more farmers found themselves struggling to break even.
Clarence Willcome was one such farmer. He owned a dairy farm near Birnhamwood, a small town between Wausau and Green Bay in northern Wisconsin. The 59-year-old father of thirteen was a two-time heart attack survivor with a pacemaker and a pile of debt.
In April 1986, he wrote a letter to a guy who grew up on a farm asking him for advice.
By the time Don Nelson got around to replying to the letter, his Bucks had been swept by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. The team, widely acknowledged as one of the best in NBA history, was on its way to a championship. Nelson would spend his summer doing something that was, perhaps, more significant than winning a title.
After losing game four against the Celtics, Nelson told reporters, “I am not feeling very good right now, yet I’m not losing my home or going bankrupt and having to start over with my life.”
He pledged his share of the Milwaukee Bucks’ playoff bonus to Clarence Willcome, and convinced Herb Kohl, then the owner of the Bucks, as well as Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing, to kick in and help as well.
But this was just the beginning.
Having put on a few pounds since his playing days, Nelson went on a diet and invited donations for each pound he lost.
He also took off on a 250-mile jaunt through Wisconsin in August of that year, driving a tractor as part of a campaign to raise funds and awareness to assist farmers.
It was a colossal give-back from a guy who definitely knew hardship growing up.
Don Nelson was born on May 15, 1940, in Muskegon, Michigan. When he was two years old, his parents moved to Grant, Michigan, where his father tried his hand operating a maple syrup farm. Two years later, the family packed up and relocated again, this time to his grandparents’ farm outside Sherrard, Illinois.
His first experience playing basketball came there. As happened on farm after farm in the Midwest in that era, Nelson learned to play on dirt, shooting at a makeshift hoop nailed to an outbuilding. In his case, it was a spokeless bicycle rim attached to a chicken coop.
Nelson started school in a one-room schoolhouse with seven other students, three of them being his sisters, and all taught by an 18-year-old girl fresh out of high school. It was a school that Nelson occasionally attended barefoot.
Don had a rocky relationship with his father, who constantly lectured him, but his mother doted on him; in her eyes, according to Sharon, “the sun rose and set on Don.” “He’s got his mother’s heart,” his oldest daughter would later remark, “very tender and affectionate.”
Just before Don started seventh grade, his grandparents lost their farm.
The family relocated to Rock Island, Illinois, and Nelson began playing competitive basketball, “I went out for my seventh-grade team and got hooked on basketball.”
The Nelsons lived in town, and Don used to stop at various locations on the walk to school in the morning and shoot hoops. His afternoons were spent at the YMCA doing the same.
He grew to a suitable height for the game, topping out at 6’-6” and playing center for the Rock Island Islanders.
Nelson jumped to the varsity squad as a sophomore, and was a starter by the time his junior year rolled around. He made First Team All-State as a senior. During Nelson’s two years as a starter, the Islanders racked up a 47-7 record, while Nelson put up incredibly gaudy numbers given that he was playing a 32-minute game without a shot clock. As a senior he averaged better than 21 points per game and set a school scoring record. There were opponents and occasions in his senior year where he was triple-teamed in an effort to slow him down.
Despite those numbers, Nelson was not a hot recruit. The only real interest in his services came from the University of Iowa, and his father thought that he would be better served working as a watch repairman, a thought that amused Don’s first wife, Sharon: “Can’t you see Big Don sitting there with those little glasses, fixing watches?”
Bucky O’Connor was the coach at the University of Iowa, and he’d been recruiting Don. Bucky had an eye for talent, and was fresh off coaching the Hawkeyes to a pair of Final Four appearances (1955, 1956). Nelson signed a letter of intent to play for the team. Then, O’Connor was killed tragically in a car accident in April of 1958.
Bucky’s replacement was Milton “Scharm” Schuerman, who had graduated from Rock Island in 1952, and who had just traded his basketball jersey for the clipboard of an assistant coach the previous fall. The death of O’Connor made him head coach of a Big Ten squad when he was just 24 years old.
As a sophomore (freshmen were ineligible to play college basketball in those days), Nelson averaged a double-double, toting up 15.8 points and an even ten rebounds per game. In his junior and senior years, he averaged 23.8 points per game. His rebounds per game jumped every year, going from ten as a sophomore to 10.6 as a junior and then 11.9 as a senior. He left the program as the school’s all-time scoring leader.
Once again, Nelson’s numbers didn’t attract that much interest from the next level of basketball. He had planned on becoming an assistant coach with Iowa, but the Chicago Zephyrs had expressed an interest in him, and as Nelson later recalled, “I figured I could always fall back on coaching if a playing career didn’t work out.”
He was picked in the third round of the 1962 draft by the Chicago Zephyrs. He spent a year in Chicago, where he averaged a respectable 17 minutes as a rookie, but the team didn’t see much of a future in either him or Chicago.
They decamped for Baltimore and became the Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) and Nelson was picked up by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Nelson spent a year and a half playing for Fred Schaus’ squad, but again, the team didn’t see a lot of value in what Nelson brought to the table either, and he found himself unemployed once more when 1965 rolled around.
Don was 25, hadn’t finished his degree requirements at the University of Iowa, and his future seemed to be particularly dim. The only work he’d done apart from basketball up to that point was manual labor.
By then, Nelson was a family man—he and wife Sharon had welcomed their first daughter, Julie, into the world in 1961, followed, in rapid succession, by a son, Donnie in 1962, and another daughter, Chris in 1963. A fourth child, Katie, joined the family in 1967.
In 1965, the Lakers had just lost to the Celtics in the Finals, and a player who was apparently not good enough to suit up for the losing team had caught the eye of the winning team’s coach.
While Red had a well-deserved reputation for being astute at both drafting and trading, his ability to recognize talent wherever he found it included picking up guys off waivers, and none of these castoffs turned out better than Nelson.
With Havlicek working his way towards a starting role, the team would soon be in need of a good sixth man, and Nelson was Red’s target to slot into the role that he had pioneered with Frank Ramsey and expanded with Hondo.
Red offered Don a one-year, $11,000 contract, which was $4,000 less than his rookie deal; Don swallowed his pride, took the deal, and spent the next eleven seasons wearing green and white. It wasn’t a bad career for a guy who retained a modest view of his on-court abilities: “I had to work all the time, do everything extra I could,” Nelson would recall, adding, “I was just average.”
BOSTON, MA – 1966: Don Nelson #19 of the Boston Celtics goes to the basket against the Los Angeles Lakers circa 1966 at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1966 NBAE (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
The Celtics faced off against Nellie’s former team in the Finals three times in the next four years.
Boston prevailed all three times.
Down three games to two in the 1969 Finals, Nelson scored 41 points across two must-win games, nearly double his season average. His final two points came with a minute and a half to go in the fourth quarter of Game 7. The Celtics were clinging to a 103-102 lead when Nelson’s shot bounced up off the back of the rim passing high above the backboard before dropping cleanly through the net, narrowly beating the shot clock and stopping an 8-0 Los Angeles run. “I shot it so poorly that it hit the back of the rim and it went way up in the air, and it came down and went straight through the basket,” Nelson would later recall. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
In the early years of the 1970s, the Celtics had to rebuild their squad—among the major contributors to the 1960s dynasty, only Nelson and Havlicek carried the torch on into the 1970s.
However, Auerbach’s shrewd drafting and trading brought the Celtics back into contention by 1973, when they lost a closely contested Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual champion Knicks. The following year, the Celtics would win it all. Coached by Tommy Heinsohn, the Celtics faced the Milwaukee Bucks in the Finals, and Nelson played a key role in defending Kareem, despite about an eight inch height differential between the two players. Heinsohn’s strategy of double- and triple-teaming Kareem in the decisive game didn’t do much to slow down the Bucks’ center, but it did lighten the load on Dave Cowens enough that he was able to outscore Kareem 28-26, as the Celtics secured their twelfth championship overall and their first of the post-Russell era.
Don played two more seasons with Boston, going out a champion with the 1976 squad that defeated the Phoenix Suns in six games.
After retiring, Nelson had a family meeting in Moline, Illinois at a Maid-Rite restaurant—a small Midwestern chain specializing in loose meat sandwiches and fried chicken. His son Donnie recalled that his father presented the family with three options. He could sell cars, become a referee, or take a job as Larry Costello’s assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks.
According to Donnie, the vote came down 5-0 in favor of the assistant coaching gig.
Although he had spent just a year playing for Auerbach, he called that year “a master class.”
“I learned everything that I knew about coaching from Red,” Don would say years later. “I basically adopted what he imparted.”
In addition to his year as a player under Red, Nelson cultivated a close friendship with the coach, taking advantage of every opportunity he had to soak up Auerbach’s knowledge of the game—and his ability to handle players.
BOSTON – 1981: Head coach Don Nelson of the Milwaukee Bucks reacts during a game against the Boston Celtics played in 1981 at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1981 NBAE (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Eighteen games into his first season as an assistant coach, Larry Costello was fired and he was promoted to the head coach assignment.
Don would coach the Bucks from 1976 to 1988, becoming the franchise’s winningest coach, securing eight consecutive playoff appearances, seven straight Central Division titles, and six consecutive 50 game winning seasons. Despite these regular season accomplishments, Nelson’s teams failed to achieve the highest level of success in the playoffs, although a fair bit of that can be attributed to the overall strength of the Eastern Conference. On four occasions the Bucks were eliminated by the eventual league champs. Only once was Nelson able to defeat his mentor’s team, and that was when the Celtics were in nearly open revolt against their own coach, Bill Fitch.
Nonetheless, Nelson cut a unique and memorable figure as a head coach.
At a time when the informal dress code for coaches was a bit more strict than it is these days, Nelson waged a small campaign of protest by wearing tennis shoes—sometimes held together with tape—and ties that looked like fish.
When the Bucks felt it was time to move on from Nelson, he quickly found a spot in California, coaching the Golden State Warriors.
Nelson brought a run-and-gun style of offense to the Bay Area, with his “Run TMC” squad of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin bringing a measure of success to a franchise that had been mired in the Western Conference doldrums for the past decade. Before Nellie arrived, the Warriors had finished above .500 exactly once in ten years; Don bested .500 in year one, and recorded a pair of 50-win seasons while dealing with an injury-prone team. More than that, though, he brought excitement back to the fans. “The fast-paced play was so fun to watch, and there were so many entertaining headlines between games, that I don’t have memories of a single defeat,” wrote San Francisco Chronicle columnist Peter Hartlaub in a tribute to the coach.
In 1991, the San Antonio Spurs lost to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. Just over halfway through the following season, the Spurs fired head coach Larry Brown, and at the end of the season, his coaching staff was also dismissed.
But, in the same way that Auerbach had seen something in Nelson that the Lakers overlooked, Don saw something in one of Brown’s assistants that Spurs GM Bob Bass had missed.
Oakland, CA October 20 – Assistant coach Gregg Popovich, Paul Pressey, and Don Nelson. (Nick Lammers / Daily Review Staff Archives) (Photo by MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images) | MediaNews Group via Getty Images
He leaped at the chance to bring Gregg Popovich onto his staff.
The two would become lifelong friends, even if Nelson did, on one memorable occasion, prank the seemingly unprankable Popovich.
Popovich had a great deal of admiration for Hank Egan, his coach at the Air Force Academy, and when Nelson discovered that Egan was an amateur painter, he contacted him and offered to buy one of his paintings.
On finding out that the painting was an intended gift for Pop, his former coach pointedly refused to accept any money for it and sent it to Nelson.
When Nellie got the painting and had it framed, he took it to a Bay Area art gallery and had them put it on display with an inflated price tag.
Nelson proceeded to take his staff to the gallery, and lured Pop over to the painting.
“He says, ‘That’s my Coach! That’s him!’” Don recalled, “So I said, ‘Is that really, Pop? I’d like to buy it for you.’ We take it up to the cashier and he says, ‘It’s $25,000.’ I said, ‘Wrap it up and give it to Pop.’”
“We get the picture wrapped up and we’re walking out. He starts crying. He’s literally bawling like a baby.”
Don takes everyone out to dinner afterwards and reveals the prank; Pop’s only response was, “God damn it, Nellie; you got me!”
Later on, when Nelson was spending a year out of coaching and the Spurs had landed the number one pick in the draft, Don found out that Popovich was considering an offer to trade the pick that would become Tim Duncan. His response to this rumor was an overt threat. “If Pop trades him, I’ll go down there and take a shotgun to his house!”
Nelson was later hired to coach the Mavs in 1997, spending eight years on the bench there, including three 50-win seasons and a single 60-win season. While there, he picked Dirk Nowitzki and acquired Steve Nash in the 1998 draft; both would go on to win MVP awards, and Dirk would be instrumental in securing a championship for Dallas in 2011.
DALLAS – JUNE 29: Dirk Nowitzki #41, head coach Don Nelson and Steve Nash #13 pose for a photo as they are introduced to the Dallas Mavericks during a press conference on June 29, 1998 at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1998 NBAE (Photo by Carolyn Herter/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
A final stint with the Warriors didn’t go particularly well on the bench; for the first time Nelson’s team failed to crack 50 wins during his tenure, but he did prove influential on the Warriors’ future when he went to a 2009 NIT matchup between Davidson and St. Mary’s on Monday, March 23, in Moraga, California, in the hills east of San Francisco Bay. Davidson lost 68-80, but Nelson was struck by the play of their point guard, “I just thought he was a star,” he remarked of Steph Curry. “I never dreamed we were going to be able to get him.”
On draft night, he made himself heard, urging rookie GM Larry Riley to take a risk and select Curry with the 7th overall pick in the draft.
During his final year as a head coach, in 2010, Nelson secured the NBA record for most wins, hitting 1,333 and bumping Lenny Wilkens out of the top spot in the 78th game of the season, a contest at Minnesota. Don went on to retire with 1,335 wins—a record that would eventually be broken by his friend and protégé, Gregg Popovich, in March of 2022.
As a coach in an era dominated by centers, Nelson frequently built winning teams by going small and exploiting mismatches by running the court, something he learned from Auerbach, “Red used to play the smalls against the bigs in practice to get everyone fired up. When we played full court games, the bigs never won. They were ineffective because they couldn’t handle the basketball, and that gave the smalls an advantage.”
“All I did was use a small lineup with a team that didn’t have very good big men, and I was very successful with it.”
Nellie downplayed his own contributions to the game, “Over time I added a few of my own wrinkles.”
One of those wrinkles, and one which has been incredibly influential, is the ‘point forward.’
By inverting the typical ballhandling duties, Nelson’s teams created the mismatches he loved by pulling defenders into parts of the court and assignments that they were decidedly uncomfortable with. Today, when Jayson Tatum brings the ball up court after a basket, he’s filling a role that Don Nelson practically invented.
Naturally, in a 31-year coaching career, there were a couple what-ifs. After the Celtics lost to the Bucks in the 1983 playoffs, with the team in need of a new coach, Red approached Nellie and offered him the top spot in Boston. Don turned down his friend, “I felt a loyalty to the Milwaukee Bucks because they had been so good to me,” Nelson said. In reflection, he added, “maybe I should have been more willing to make that break and pursue the Celtics job.”
Eleven years later, Gregg Popovich was hired as the Spurs’ general manager. He wasn’t particularly pleased with the team’s current head coach, Bob Hill, so he reached out to Don and offered him the coaching assignment. Nelson was more than willing to accept the job, as he was having difficulties coaching Chris Webber, and he was well aware that in the NBA coaches are often far more expendable than talented players are. However, the Warriors refused to negotiate a deal with Nelson and the Spurs that would’ve gotten him the San Antonio gig.
There were perks as well.
Nelson’s son Donnie grew to be 6’-4” and was a pretty good basketball player himself. After attending Wheaton College, near the family home in Milwaukee, Donnie was hired by the San Francisco Warriors as an assistant coach. The following year, the Warriors hired his dad as their head coach, and the two would work together throughout Nellie’s tenures at Golden State and later in Dallas. Their years together on the bench helped make up for time lost during Don’s playing career when he was frequently gone on road trips, and when the demands of coaching left him little time for his family. These years also helped repair a relationship that was damaged when Don left the family and divorced his first wife, Sharon in 1982. “It gave me an opportunity to get to know him at a different level and really gain a ton of respect for him away from the household,” Donnie told the Dallas Morning News, reflecting on his father’s “passion, integrity, and honesty.”
After retiring from the game, Don moved to Maui, “I know how far I’ve come from being a hog farmer. I’ve come a long, long way from being some country kid. I got in the fast lane, and I’ve stayed there a long time,” he once said.
And yet, as it turned out, in some ways, Nelson didn’t come that far after all.
As a child, Nelson had a pet pig, Butchie, that the family butchered while he was at school one day—a lesson, no doubt, in the sometimes harsh nature of life on a farm.
But Nelson retained an affection for pigs that carried over into adulthood. While he was on his first stint at Golden State he ran afoul of Alameda city regulations when it was found that he was keeping a potbellied pig as a pet.
He also returned to farming as a retiree—although he ended up raising a crop that might not have been approved of by his parents or grandparents.
Nelson’s second career, after basketball, was growing medicinal marijuana in Hawaii.
Actually, Don’s hobby farm of 22 acres grows flowers and coffee as well as pot, but pot is undoubtedly what grabs the headlines—especially since Nellie admitted to smoking the stuff. He also hybridized two strains of cannabis, producing a variant dubbed “Nellie Kush.” He even went so far as to build a guesthouse on his property out of ‘hempcrete,’ a concrete which uses embedded hemp fibers for reinforcement.
Nellie claimed that he didn’t smoke pot as a coach or player, but at least one account out there suggests that he was not unwilling to engage in a celebratory puff or two.
Nelson had his number retired by the Celtics in 1978, and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012. He was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year three times (1982/83, 1984/85, and 1991/92). In fact, no one has won the award more than Nellie, although Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich have also won the award three times.
“I spent 50 years in the NBA,” Don once remarked, “Can you imagine doing something that you love the most in the entire world and doing it for your entire life?”
Nelson moved from Maui back to Dallas earlier this year. He passed away on August 9, 2026.
Reflecting on his career as a coach, Nellie once told Michael D. McClellan, “I have no complaints with the way things worked out,” adding, “If you write my epitaph, I would be very happy if you just said that Don Nelson was a good guy and a pretty good coach.”
The New York Yankees are -138 favorites to break out the brooms when they host the Seattle Mariners in Game 3 of their three-game series at Yankee Stadium.
Max Fried has dominated this current collection of Seattle bats, and my Mariners vs. Yankees predictions and MLB picks expect the southpaw's strong play to lead to a comfortable New York victory on Thursday, Aug 13.
Who will win Mariners vs Yankees today: Yankees -1.5 (+152)
I’m laying the run line with the New York Yankees because this is a better pitching matchup than the numbers suggest.
Max Fried has been outstanding, and the Seattle Mariners offense has been awful outside of Tuesday’s outburst.
Logan Gilbert can miss bats, but he’s allowed at least three earned runs in each of his last three road starts, and that puts pressure on a Seattle bullpen that owns a 6.94 ERA over the last two weeks. He's also been homer-prone, allowing 19 long balls in 139 1/3 innings, which won't help him at Yankee Stadium.
I’m not chasing yesterday’s 10-5 score, either. I trust Fried to control this game and New York to create separation late.
I’d play -1.5 to +135.
COVERS INTEL:Seattle has a .566 OPS against Fried in 77 at-bats. Tuesday’s five runs don’t change how badly this lineup matches up against the Yankees lefty.
Mariners vs Yankees Over/Under pick: Under 7.5 (-102)
I’m playing the Under because I don’t think Tuesday’s 10-5 game changes what this matchup is about.
Seattle has posted a 75 wRC+ over the last two weeks, and the Yankees have been almost as bad at 79.
Fried gives me the strongest starting-pitching edge in the game, and Seattle’s .566 OPS against him tells me this lineup has struggled to square him up.
Gilbert has been better overall than his recent road results suggest, and I’m willing to trust his 3.42 ERA and 0.99 WHIP to keep a struggling Yankees offense from doing big damage.
I’d play Under 7.5 to -120.
Mariners vs Yankees home run prediction: Ben Rice (+310)
Ben Rice is my favorite home-run look today. He’s up to 32 home runs and has been one of the better power bats in baseball, averaging 92 mph off the bat with a 15.6% barrel rate.
Gilbert throws his four-seam fastball nearly 40% of the time, and Rice is hitting .290 with a .662 slugging percentage against fastballs this season.
That’s the matchup I want. I’d play Rice to +300.
Phil Naessens' 2026 Transparency Record
ML/RL bets: 11-13, +0.20 units
Over/Under bets: 11-11, -1.55 units
Mariners vs Yankees weather
It will be a humid day in the Bronx, with 10 mph winds blowing out to right-center field today.
Mariners vs Yankees odds
Moneyline: Mariners +133 | Yankees -138
Run line: Mariners +1.5 (-163) | Yankees -1.5 (+156)
Over/Under: Over 7.5 (-100) | Under 7.5 (-104)
Mariners vs Yankees trend
The Under is 8-0 in the Yankees' last eight games when their opponent allowed five runs or more in their previous game. Find more MLB betting trends for Mariners vs. Yankees.
How to watch Mariners vs Yankees and game info
Location
Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY
Date
Thursday, August 13, 2026
First pitch
1:35 p.m. ET
TV
Mariners.TV, YES
Mariners starting pitcher
Logan Gilbert (8-7, 3.42 ERA)
Yankees starting pitcher
Max Fried (4-3, 2.88 ERA)
Mariners vs Yankees latest injuries
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Not intended for use in MA. Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
The former England full-back is back in the Championship after 12 years away, hoping to lead Wolves out of it
When the question inevitably comes, Kieran Trippier is happy to set the record straight. Fresh from training, head to toe in Wolves kit – vest, shorts and club-branded sliders – he walks into a suite at their Compton Park base, conversation soon shifting to an episode that rocked supporters and stopped outsiders in their tracks: three days after signing, the manager Trippier cited as a significant driver behind his decision to drop into the second tier, Rob Edwards, had been sacked. All the while, a deal for his replacement, César Peixoto, was being accelerated.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie, I wasn’t expecting it,” Trippier says. “But it’s the club’s decision. I had good chats with Rob, of course, but I’m here to play for Wolves. There are many surprises in football and that certainly was a surprise, I’m not going to deny that. But I just cracked on, I was with my kids on holiday, training in Mallorca and just looking forward to day one in pre-season.”
With the first Field of Dreams game in five years, what better time to debate the best baseball movies of all time? Here's just one seamhead's list (let the angry comments begin):
Best baseball movies of all time
Bull Durham (1988) - "We need a live rooster ... was it a live rooster? We need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose's glove."
Field of Dreams (1989) - I love it because it's sappy. Sorry ... not sorry.
A League of Their Own (1992) - Tom Hanks deserved best actor consideration.
The Sandlot (1993) - "You're killing me, Smalls!", Wendy Peffercorn, Squints. What's not to love?
Major League (1989) - Bob Uecker deserved best supporting actor consideration.
Moneyball (2011) - Every time I run across it on TV, I'm stopping to watch it.
Long Gone (1987) - The best baseball movie you've never heard of. Came out on HBO. Must watch if you can find it.
Pride of the Yankees (1942) - A classic that still holds up well.
Eight Men Out (1988) - I get it, yes, there are inaccuracies but still a good watch.
The Natural (1984) - A lot of people hate it. I'm not one of them.
Honorable mention in no particular order:
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)
The Bad News Bears (1976)
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)
COVERS INTEL: