ESPN’s Michael C wrote: “The West goes through either Oklahoma City or San Antonio, but don’t count out Houston. The Rockets expect to take another step in Year 2 with Kevin Durant, bolstered by the return of guard Fred VanVleet and continued improvements from Amen Thompson and Reed Sheppard,“
In the previous two regular seasons, the Rockets had a 52-30 record. Despite suffering major long-term injury losses in the form of Steven Adams and VanVleet, Houston finished 52-30 last season, spearheaded by the All-Star tandem of Kevin Durant and Alperen Sengun. VanVleet and Adams are both anticipated to be healthy from the beginning of training camp this season. The addition of experienced guard Marcus Smart and Bogdan Bogdanović could strengthen the team’s depth as well.
Therefore, it may seem unrealistic to expect fewer victories than the previous season. However, the league’s recent draft lottery reform may result in much greater parity in 2026–2027, which should lessen the incentives for non-playoff teams to lose games.
In light of this, it’s conceivable that the Rockets could be a “better team” even though their win-loss record does not reflect it, at least in comparison to prior campaigns.
In all honesty, I feel that the West will definitely be a bloodbath next season, with San Antonio and OKC likely coming out on top. However, I personally expect the Rockets’ win total to improve rather than regress, and I have them slated for 55 wins in my personal standings. With that being said, what do you think about ESPN’s power rankings? Are the Rockets too high? Too low? Let us know!
Boston was one of the finest players in the sport’s history
Wigan plan series of tributes in Thursday’s Hull KR clash
Andy Burnham says he is “heartbroken” by the death of Sir Billy Boston after the prime minister led tributes to the rugby league icon.
Boston died on Tuesday at the age of 92. He was one of the sport’s all‑time great players, scoring almost 500 tries during an illustrious career for Wigan Warriors and Great Britain, and last year became the first man in rugby league history to be knighted for his services to the game.
Luka Dončić averaged more than 33 points a game last season. Photograph: Lynne Sladky/AP
Luka Dončić must feel as though, these past few months, he’s been twirling in a washing machine. He announced a separation from his fiancee in March; reports followed of a prolonged custody battle over their two daughters. As Dončić plays in the NBA and his children live in Slovenia, he doesn’t see them much as is. But after the reports of the rift with his ex emerged, he started playing some of the best basketball of his life: he led the Los Angeles Lakers to a 15-2 record in March, a stretch that included a torrential 60-point display against the Miami Heat. Behind Dončić’s brightening star, the Lakers seemed to be sharpening into a real contender. Then Dončić tweaked his hamstring in April and the illusion shattered. He watched from the sidelines as the Lakers limped out of the playoffs with an inevitable second-round defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Actually, Dončić must feel as if he’s been in turmoil for the past few years. He made his first – and so far only – NBA finals in 2024, leading the Dallas Mavericks there with a barrage of awesome shotmaking. As the best offensive player on the court while playing through multiple injuries, Dončić and his Mavs lost to the far deeper Boston Celtics in five games. As thanks, the Mavericks traded Dončić to the Lakers, citing defensive concerns, when what had really doomed them against the Celtics was that no one aside from Luka – who led his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals in that series – could play at the requisite level to win.
And what to make of Dončić’s Lakers tenure? He and Austin Reaves seem to be platonic soulmates. He’s played with LeBron James, his idol. And yet the team remained built in the afterimage of the LeBron-Anthony Davis Lakers, a far worse fit for Dončić than the Mavs were during his stint in Dallas. With a hard ceiling imposed upon them – not enough shooting, less defense – they’ve yet to make an impactful playoff run during his time in LA.
Now Dončić may get his chance. James is gone, off to the clunky but alarmingly stacked Philadelphia 76ers. In his place the Lakers have, at long last, employed a center not named Deandre Ayton. Walker Kessler may transform the Lakers for the better; he may also need time to develop into what Dončić needs; he most definitely cost a lot of money. This is the first season in Los Angeles that Dončić will get to run the Lakers as truly his own team, which is a mixed blessing. Will the (hopefully) improved synergy be enough to take down, or even meaningfully threaten, the monstrous basketball ecosystems that are Thunder and Spurs? Probably not, in which case many will blame Dončić.
So, is Dončić cursed? Born to be an MVP, but thrust into the same era as Nikola Jokić and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Perfect on the Mavs, but helpless in the clumsy, unfeeling hands of owner Miriam Adelson and Nico “Defense wins championships” Harrison. Totally in control of any offense, but constantly furious at and distracted by those pesky outside factors, the referees. A shade too uninterested on defense for anybody to ignore the deficiency. Traded to the Lakers, who took too long to mold themselves around him. Brilliant in the regular season, capable of being a supernova in the playoffs, but too often injured. Early in his Lakers tenure, ready to return to the court after healing from a hamstring injury, the franchise gets new owners.
The clock’s ticking for the 27-year-old, and it’s not even his fault. How is it fair that one of the great pressure performers of his generation is primed for a James Harden-esque legacy? We should know by now to resist the immense gravitational pull of rings; they’re too elusive – and too reliant on the contributions of others – to be the main criteria by which to judge a player in a team sport. But if Dončić retires without an NBA title, it will be held against him. Likewise with his lack of an MVP award, despite the fact that Dončić’s lone crime is being a unicorn slightly smaller than Jokić, and being born too soon before Victor Wembanyama. By the time voter fatigue comes for Wemby, Dončić will be on the wrong side of 30.
Sports are made for narratives, all the more attractive when subjectivity enters the conversation. The prevailing attitude is that there are winners and there are losers, and excepting the most mythmakingly tragic bad luck everybody pretty much deserves what they get. Within that framework each player is buttonholed into a tidy little story, while various factors such as “timing”, “teammates”, and “De’Aaron Fox had a high ankle sprain during the most recent playoffs” are ignored or shunned. You wonder how much Dončić’s story will acknowledge that he didn’t always have agency in his fate, at least not to this point.
The more interesting question is how he feels right now. This is a player with something approaching absolute power on the basketball court who a) doesn’t seem very happy when exercising said power, b) is so bothered by any and all refereeing that his complaints are the pet peeve of half the fanbase, c) has repeatedly found himself in impossible situations through no fault of his own, and d) is dealing with a difficult situation in his life off the court. Lost in the inevitable handwringing about the pressure on Dončić and the potential of him underdelivering on what seemed to be a destined legacy is the feeling that one of the best basketball players alive doesn’t seem very happy. Think of his reaction after the famous game-winner over Rudy Gobert. That’s not self-satisfied or showy trash talk, he’s pissed off. Not to mention what his apparent discontentment says about the sport or the person. Perhaps this season Dončić will be able to conduct the team and the action the way he hopes, but I wonder if he’d trade that possibility for a measure of peace. To hijack a cliche, the best offense is a good defense.
NEW YORK, NY - AUGUST 23: Spencer Jones #78 of the New York Yankees looks on during the game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium on August 23, 2026 in New York, New York. (Photo by New York Yankees/Getty Images) | Getty Images
MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: Now in his third stint in the Major Leagues this season, Spencer Jones has begun to show some consistency at the plate, earning the praise of his teammates and coaches in the process. Cody Bellinger, who recently returned from the IL, called him “a freak athlete [and] a great defender” who has finally started “controlling his at-bats really well,” while manager Aaron Boone praised his ability to “to make adjustments to become a more well-rounded hitter.” That high praise — plus his strong performance of late — bodes well for the Yankees, who need to continue to rely on him while Aaron Judge remains on the injured list.
Yahoo! Sports | Bob Klapisch: The story of Jones as a prospect is well-known — a player with prodigious power potential and a prodigious ability to swing and miss — and indeed, his first two stints in The Show fit that description to such a degree that an anonymous scout called him “Joey Gallo 2.0” and believed that it would be wise for the Yankees to trade him before he lost any more value. Over the last few weeks, though, his ability to make adjustments has surprised even this anonymous scout, and while there is still a pretty big hole in his swing — high velocity up in the zone — there’s plenty of reason for optimism.
FanGraphs | Jay Jaffe: As part of his annual series in which he checks in on players’ Hall of Fame chances, Jay Jaffe dove into the list of players who, through either injury or underperformance, saw their Cooperstown chances take a hit this season. A pair of Yankees outfielders made this list: Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton. While Judge’s injury likely doesn’t derail his candidacy too much — after all, ZiPS still gives him a 28 percent chance of reaching 600 home runs, apparently — Stanton’s series of injuries may unfortunately end his time in the Bronx, and, thus, his best shot at hitting 500 home runs.
MLB Trade Rumors | Steve Adams: In case you missed it, the Yankees selected the contract of Justin Topa and recalled him from Triple-A Scranton yesterday, sending Brendan Beck back down. The veteran reliever has struggled this season, and really hasn’t been a truly reliable arm since 2023, but he can generate ground balls. With the Yankees in need of some bullpen depth, it’s worth knocking on every door, and by promoting him now, he will be eligible for the postseason roster.
The Warriors filled one of their remaining roster spots on Tuesday.
Golden State agreed to a one-year, $2.6 million free-agent contract with guard Brandon Williams, his agents, Derek Lafayette and Curtis Lawrence, told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Tuesday.
Free agent guard Brandon Williams has agreed to a one-year, $2.6 million deal to sign with the Golden State Warriors, agents Derek Lafayette and Curtis Lawrence tell ESPN. Williams averaged 13 points, 3.9 assists and 22.2 minutes per night across 66 games for Dallas last season. pic.twitter.com/VcDytjCDKe
The 26-year-old Williams, an undrafted free agent in 2021, signed with the Portland Trail Blazers for his rookie 2021-22 NBA season, where he averaged 12.0 points, 3.1 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game on 37.2-percent shooting from the field and 29.2 percent from 3-point range in 24 games (16 starts).
Williams then spent the entire 2022-23 season in the G League before signing an Exhibit 10 contract with the Orlando Magic before failing to make their 2023-24 roster. He then signed with the Dallas Mavericks in Dec. 2023 on a two-way deal before being converted to a standard NBA contract in April 2025.
Last season with the Mavericks, Williams averaged a career-high 13.0 points per game with 2.9 rebounds and 3.9 assists on 47.2-percent shooting from the field and 23.2 percent from 3-point range.
He now joins a Warriors team looking to round out the rest of its roster after a rather quiet NBA offseason and heading into next month’s training camp.
British No 2 looks back on ‘Fery-tale’ after dealing with injury and shares his ranking goals before US Open debut
“I was around 300 in the world and still really struggling with my arm,” Arthur Fery says as he explains how life has changed from this time last year when, after his shock appearance in the Wimbledon semi-finals, he rose to No 36 in the rankings. His run of five victories, which produced a stunning turnaround in his career, was celebrated as a glorious “Fery-tale”.
But it does not take long in the company of the measured and thoughtful 24-year-old for the grit to emerge from the deeper shadows in his story. There has been more pain than glory in the long hard slog to this point but, amid the doubt caused by his injury, Fery’s self-belief has remained intact. As he says in Cincinnati, his success at Wimbledon provides a dizzying contrast to the testing times he has endured.
SEATTLE — Before this past one, the last two trade deadlines followed a familiar pattern for the Phillies.
They needed a right-handed outfield bat. They went out and got one.
Last year, it was Harrison Bader. Two years ago, it was Austin Hays. In 2026, that need existed again, maybe even more clearly.
The Phillies’ right-handed bats had struggled badly. Their bench needed more punch. Their outfield mix still looked like it could use another right-handed piece.
Then Dave Dombrowski went a different route.
The Phillies’ biggest deadline addition was not a corner outfielder. It was Luis Arraez, a three-time batting champion and left-handed hitter whose arrival forced one of the more unusual defensive shuffles of the season.
Bryce Harper moved from first base to right field. Alec Bohm moved from third to first. Bryson Stott moved from second to third. Arraez took over at second.
The move gave the Phillies elite contact and a different offensive identity, but it also meant they were going to have to trust what they already had from the right side in the outfield.
So far, that has meant Derek Hill and Bryan De La Cruz.
One came in a June trade with the White Sox. The other signed a minor-league deal last November. Neither move brought the kind of deadline attention that a Taylor Ward-type acquisition would have.
But both have helped explain why the Phillies felt they could add Arraez and make the rest of the roster work.
Hill, 30, arrived from Chicago in a trade that sent two minor leaguers to the White Sox. He had played for six big-league teams across six seasons, still chasing the complete player profile that made him a first-round pick by Dombrowski in 2014.
The one thing the Phillies knew they were getting was a right-handed bat with a history of doing damage against lefties. Hill entered the trade with a career .491 slugging percentage against southpaws.
That mattered for a Phillies team whose right-handed hitters had produced a .622 OPS against lefties, a mark that would have ranked near the bottom of any season since those splits began being tracked in 1974.
Hill has not only helped there.
He has posted a .767 OPS with the Phillies, bringing defense, speed and energy to a roster that needed all three. He might already be one of the best defensive outfielders the Phillies have had in years.
And he has fit quickly.
“Everybody’s pulling from the same side,” Hill said. “Everybody’s been talking to each other in here. There’s not a lot of people just sitting doing their own thing. It’s very nice to be a part of a clubhouse.”
That has shown up in the way Hill talks about hitting here. It is not one voice or one adjustment. It is a lot of them.
“There’s just so much information here,” Hill said. “It’s easy to pull from and grab from. You can choose whatever applies to your process.”
That includes the hitting coaches. It includes the stars around him. It includes Arraez, whose bat has quickly become a resource in that room.
“If Schwarber’s in there, I’m picking his brain before the game starts,” Hill said. “Turner, Harper, if they’re in there, I’m picking their brains. It’s just a bunch of guys pulling from the same side.”
Hill said that part of his work with the Phillies has been getting into his legs more. He has also credited the group around him for helping him settle into a role that can be difficult. He does not play every day, but he plays with a clear purpose when he is in the lineup.
De La Cruz has done the same.
The sample is smaller, but the production has been loud. Through his first 45 plate appearances with the Phillies, De La Cruz is batting .359, the best start by a Phillie over that PA span since Wilson Ramos in late 2018.
De La Cruz was familiar to the Phillies before he ever got here. He spent parts of four seasons with the Marlins and played under Don Mattingly in Miami.
Before a rough 2025 season, De La Cruz had already shown he could be a productive major leaguer. Across his 162-game averages, he was a .253 hitter with nearly 50 extra-base hits and 71 RBIs. There was swing-and-miss in his game, but there was impact, too.
The Phillies signed him to a minor-league deal last November. He went on to win Dominican Winter League MVP, played well for Triple-A Lehigh Valley and earned a call-up before he could trigger free agency.
Now, even without steady playing time, he has stayed ready.
“I like the fact that he fits in with the group,” Mattingly said. “He has a role. It’s one of the things I like about where we’re at right now. The pieces kind of fit together. These guys know when they’re going to play, they know when they pinch-hit, when we defend and things like that.”
That role is not easy.
De La Cruz might sit for two or three days, then get one at-bat in a high-leverage spot. That was the case last Sunday in Minnesota, when he came off the bench and poked a two-run single down the first-base line to give the Phillies a 7-5 lead in their comeback win over the Twins.
Mattingly understands what that asks of a hitter.
“It’s definitely easier playing every day, getting regular at-bats, seeing pitching every day,” Mattingly said. “Guys like (De La Cruz), they have to work harder than the other guys. Always trying to stay up to speed. It’s tougher in that role.”
To no surprise De La Cruz has looked more settled than the young player Mattingly remembers from Miami.
“He’s a lot more experienced,” Mattingly said. “Experience, as a player, gives you a lot more comfort. A lot more situations out on the field, on the bases, at the plate. So he’s definitely a lot more experienced and probably calmer.”
Together, Hill and De La Cruz have given the Phillies a useful version of the right-handed outfield bat they did not acquire at the deadline.
Viewed as a pair, they are slashing .291/.333/.496 with an .829 OPS, five doubles and seven home runs in 139 plate appearances. With runners in scoring position, those numbers rise to a .317 average and .894 OPS.
They have also delivered in the kind of spots that tend to stick.
Since joining the Phillies this season, Hill and De La Cruz have combined for seven go-ahead or game-tying hits in the fifth inning or later. De La Cruz has four. Hill has three.
Quietly, they have essentially matched the production Bader gave the Phillies after last year’s deadline, when he hit .305 with five homers and an .824 OPS.
That is not a small thing.
For more reference, the rest of the Phillies’ right-handed regulars — Trea Turner, Bohm, J.T. Realmuto, Edmundo Sosa and Adolis García — have combined for a .233/.292/.372 slash line and a .664 OPS in that same span. Some of them have surged lately, but none entered this stretch batting .250 on the season or carrying an OPS above .690.
That is why Hill and De La Cruz have become more than extra pieces.
A postseason roster needs stars, but it also needs the surrounding cast to hold up. The 2008 Phillies had Greg Dobbs, Matt Stairs and Chris Coste giving them real production around the edges. Different players, different roles, different team, but the same general idea.
When the bench is useful, the roster feels deeper.
When the bench is timely, it can change games.
Hill has brought speed, energy (a toothpick), and a right-handed option who can be moved around. De La Cruz has brought an experienced bat that can sit for a few days and still be trusted in a spot.
The clubhouse piece is important, as well. Hill pointed to the way this group has stayed connected through a season that started poorly, heated up, cooled off after the All-Star break and has since found another gear.
“Things go up, things go down,” Hill said. “It’s just if you guys are going to stick together and keep that camaraderie rolling. I think that’s the most important part.”
Playing the Mariners put the deadline part of this into perspective, too.
With his on-base abilities, Ward was one of the most obvious right-handed outfield fits on the market. Seattle acquired him from Baltimore for big-league reliever Alex Hoppe and two minor-league prospects.
Since arriving with the Mariners, Ward has the lowest batting average and OPS in the American League.
That is hindsight, and deadline decisions should not be judged only through three weeks of results. But the Phillies chose a different path. They acquired Arraez, trusted Harper’s move to right field and kept rolling with “D-Hill” and “De La” as their right-handed outfield support.
So far, that plan has held up.
The Phillies did not add the obvious right-handed outfield bat at the deadline.
In this week’s Injury Report, Roman Anthony’s return could be imminent. The Dodgers lost Andy Pages to a fractured left hand, while Will Smith has been cleared for a rehab assignment. And the Yankees’ rotation took a hit with Ryan Weathers sidelined. All that and more as we highlight all of the most relevant injury news around baseball.
⚾️ Baseball is back! MLB returns to NBC and Peacock in 2026! In addition to becoming the exclusive home of Sunday Night Baseball, NBC Sports will broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, “Opening Day” and Labor Day primetime games, the first round of the MLB Draft, the entire Wild Card round of the postseason, and much more.
Roman Anthony (finger)
Anthony could be nearing his return from the injured list. He started a rehab assignment last week with Double-A Portland and will be moving his assignment to Triple-A Worcester. He went 2-for-2 with a homer and two walks in his first rehab game and may only need a few more at-bats before returning to the Red Sox lineup, potentially later this week when the team travels to New York after their series in Miami. The 22-year-old outfielder has been out of action since May 4 with a partially torn tendon in his finger. Anthony’s return could be significant for both the Red Sox and fantasy managers down the stretch.
The Phillies are nipping on the Braves’ heels with their nine-game winning streak.
D.J. Short
,
Andy Pages (hand)
Will Smith (neck)
Pages underwent X-rays on Saturday after he was hit on the hand by a pitch against the Pirates on Friday. The imaging revealed a fractured left hand, with manager Dave Roberts reporting Pages would miss about 4-5 weeks. The team placed him on the 10-day injured list as he underwent a minor surgical procedure on his fractured left hand. The goal is to have him back for the start of the postseason. In the meantime, the Dodgers recalled Alek Thomas to fill Pages’ spot on the active roster. Meanwhile, the team could be getting some help by way of Will Smith, as the 31-year-old backstop was cleared to begin a rehab assignment on Tuesday with Triple-A Oklahoma City. Smith has been out since the middle of June with a neck injury and would hopefully just need a handful of games before he’s back in the Dodgers lineup.
Bryce Miller (lat)
Bryan Woo (shoulder)
After giving up seven runs against the Cubs on Sunday, Miller admitted on Monday that he has been pitching through a lat issue for about a month, stating the problem crept up on him in Texas about a month ago. He’s given up at least four runs in all but one of his six starts since, for a 7.92 ERA in that span. He’s unstartable in fantasy right now, even if he avoids the injured list. Meanwhile, Woo threw a bullpen session on Sunday after experiencing some shoulder soreness following his last start. He came out of it optimistic, but whether he’ll make his next scheduled start has not been confirmed.
Ryan Weathers (elbow)
Luis Gil (shoulder)
Weathers left Saturday’s game with a trainer in the fourth inning with left forearm discomfort. The 26-year-old left-hander had remarkably been healthy to this point, making a career-high 25 starts before departing Saturday’s contest. The Yankees placed him on the 15-day injured list with a left forearm flexor strain, but manager Aaron Boone stated on Sunday that he expects Weathers to be available in some capacity before the end of the season. He’ll be shut down for at least a couple of weeks. Gil could be an option to fill some innings for the Yankees. He was activated from the injured list at Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after recovering from shoulder inflammation. Gil was up to 30 pitches over 1 2/3 innings in his last start, so he’s still a ways away from providing real reinforcement as a starter, but could fill innings out of the bullpen.
Griffin Jax (elbow)
Jax could be back from the injured list much sooner than initially anticipated. Nine days after hitting the 15-day injured list, he already made a rehab start with Triple-A Durham, tossing three innings, giving up three runs on three hits on 42 pitches. The important thing was that his velocity seemed intact. Still, the Rays may want him to make another start in the minors to get him back to a higher pitch count before returning to the Tampa Bay rotation.
Willy Adames (elbow)
Adames departed Sunday’s game against the Red Sox after a slide into home plate in the fifth inning with an apparent elbow injury. He underwent an MRI on Monday and was placed on the 10-day injured list with a left elbow sprain. Adames had been hot at the plate after sitting out a few games with a back issue, going 7-for-19 with a pair of home runs in five games before the elbow issue. He’s set to miss at least a couple of weeks.
Jac Caglianone (ankle)
Caglianone’s status will be one to watch for on Tuesday before the team’s series opener against the Blue Jays. The 23-year-old slugger was removed from last Wednesday’s game against the Athletics and missed Thursday’s contest before returning on Friday. The lingering issue persisted on Sunday, as he was a late scratch from the lineup. An IL stint is possible if his renewed soreness doesn’t improve by Tuesday.
Ketel Marte (knee)
The Diamondbacks placed Marte on the restricted list last Monday after he failed to show up for the team’s opener against the Red Sox. It was reported that he was dealing with a personal issue before he eventually went back to Arizona to undergo an MRI on his knee. The 32-year-old second baseman was placed on the 10-day injured list with inflammation in his hamstring and knee, but is expected to return next Tuesday against the Phillies as he rehabs at the team’s spring training facility in Arizona.
Brendan Donovan (head)
Donovan just cannot catch a break this season. He was scratched from Saturday’s lineup against the Cubs after he was hit in the head by a ball while in the batting cages prior to the game. On Sunday, the Mariners placed the 29-year-old infielder on the 7-day concussion injured list. Donovan has been solid in his 39 games, hitting .277/.371/.409 with three homers and 15 RBI across 159 plate appearances.
PHOENIX — The Chicago Cubs might not be the best team in their own division.
They might not even be the best team in their hometown.
But, oh, as they proved Monday night with a 7-0 victory over the Arizona Diamondbacks in front of largely their own fans at Chase Field, they sure are armed and dangerous.
The Cubs, 76-56 and running away with the NL wild-card race, are dreaming big.
Yes, World Series big.
“I think one of the big things is having a real honest belief that you can win the whole thing,’’ Cubs veteran outfielder Michael Conforto said, “and I think there’s no doubt that we believe that. I don’t think that’s super common around the league to fully believe that you can win the whole thing.’’
Conforto, cast off by the Los Angeles Dodgers this winter when they replaced him with Kyle Tucker, has been an integral part of the Cubs’ success in a part-time role. He signed a minor-league contract in February for just $2 million, and after going 3-for-3 with a double, homer and two RBI, now has 12 homers for the season.
That’s only one more homer in 270 fewer plate appearances than Tucker, and also $238 million cheaper.
Yes, Cubs manager Craig Counsell says, he definitely has exceeded expectations.
“I think when you can sign a player of his stature and they come in and accept a role that’s not something they’ve done before,’’ Counsell said, “I think it build things around the room. I think Mike’s been a real connector for this group. So that his production and his leadership from that perspective has been really important.’’
This is the first time Conforto, who has played for 11 years, has been a part-time player. He has made nearly $80 million in his career. But now, at this stage of his career, it’s all about winning.
“I felt more like I’ve come in here and just joined the party,’’ Conforto said. “The big thing is coming in here and being honest at this point in my career. I just want to win games. You can get to a place in your career where maybe it’s not so much about the money and the playing time, it’s about being part of something special.
“I was lucky enough to be somewhat a part of that last year, and I just want to do my part to help us get there. That’s really the biggest thing for me.’’
Veteran starter Kevin Gausman, who the Dodgers faced in the World Series a year ago with the Toronto Blue Jays, certainly pitched like a guy who plans a return trip to the big dance. He was acquired at the trade deadline, and showed just why he could be invaluable for the Cubs’ rotation, giving up just three hits in seven shutout innings.
Maybe it wasn’t his best start of the season, saying he still will take that seven-inning, one-hitter over the New York Yankees in June ("Hey, anytime you can beat the Yankees"), but he showed off why he could a force in their playoff rotation.
The Diamondbacks were looking for his split-fingered fastball all night, and he instead pounded them with four-seam fastballs, and cruised all evening, giving everyone a glimpse of what to expect in October.
When MVP candidate Pete Crow-Amstrong can go hitless in five at-bats, red-hot Alex Bregman can manage just one hit, and the bottom three hitters of Pedro Ramirez, Conforto and Carson Kelly can go 6-for-10 with a double, triple, two homers, four runs and four RBI, you’ve got a complete team.
“The sky’s the limit,’’ Gausman said. “This defense, this offense, the pitchers that we have here, it’s a really great team. Not many weaknesses. When you play good, clean baseball, you’re going to put your team in a good spot to win every night.
“I mean, they’re just relentless, from one through nine. There’s no gaps in this lineup.’’
The Cubs could have more reinforcements coming, too, with pitcher Ben Brown (neck stress reaction) expected to fly back to Chicago with the team and perhaps start a rehab assignment and Justin Steele, who has been out since April 2025, hoping he can return in relief in September.
“It’s been a long road and feels really good to get towards the end of that tunnel,” said Steele, who is scheduled to throw two bullpen sessions this week with hopes of beginning a rehab assignment in early September. “You see how the team’s playing. You just want to get back and help.’’
Still, as much as Counsell loves the enthusiasm, he tapped the brakes on a potential return for Steele. He didn’t completely rule it out, but reminded everyone that Steele hasn’t pitched in 16 months after undergoing elbow surgery, has yet to go on a rehab assignment, and has pitched to live batters only once.
For Steele to return and pitch effectively for a team fighting for the NL Central title with hopes of playing deep into October, it might be as realistic as the Cubs inviting the Green Bay Packers to sing the seventh-inning stretch at Wrigley.
“We have a lot of steps to go before we get there,’’ Counsell said. “I mean, he hasn’t pitched in an affiliated game in almost two years, so let’s get him pitching in an affiliated game. I think we can understand that he’s going to have to pitch in multiple games before he’s ready.”
No matter, the Cubs, who will show off their other big trade addition Tuesday with starter Clay Holmes, believe they’re ready to make this a memorable October, perhaps even resurrecting memories of 2016.
This team, Conforto will tell you, exudes that same confidence the Dodgers had a year ago, believing there’s no reason they can’t be the last ones standing.
“There’s just people who really, really want to win,’’ Conforto said. “There’s one goal. And it’s just winning.’’
SEATTLE, WA - AUGUST 24: Digital marquee indicates that there will be no fireworks due to the celebrations for each of three home runs by Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh (29) (not pictured) during the MLB game between the Philadelphia Phillies and Seattle Mariners on August 24, 2026 at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Leslie Plaza Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
With the Mariners showing no consistent signs in the second half that they’d put their first-half struggles behind them, many fans have put to bed their hopes for the playoffs, especially as the team entered into this particularly grueling stretch of a long road trip combined with playing three very tough NL teams: the Brewers, Cubs, and now the Phillies. Both the Brewers and Cubs series featured brutal, humiliating losses, the Brewers a historic 22-0 drubbing and the Cubs – despite a series win thanks to scraping out wins in the first two games – a game that saw multiple position players have to take the mound in a 19-2 loss. But just as the Mariners bounced back to snatch a game from the Brewers after making team history (derogatory), they again bounced back tonight to surprise the Phillies with a dominant 9-2 win that also made history (complimentary).
It certainly didn’t look like things were going to go this way. The game got off to a rough start for Logan Gilbert, who walked Kyle Schwarber on five pitches to lead off the game. He struck out Trea Turner on a spicy 98 mph heater, but then surrendered back-to-back singles to Bryce Harper and Luis Arraez to load the bases with just one out. To Gilbert’s credit, though, he didn’t wilt under pressure, continuing to execute pitch after pitch. Alex Boehm hit into an RBI groundout on a slow roller that could have been an inning-ending double play, and then Gilbert bullied Bryson Stott on four pitches, striking him out on another spicy heater. In the end, the Phillies only got one run out of all that traffic, and the only real damage was done to Logan’s pitch count, at 29.
But Zack Wheeler had his own struggles in the bottom of the first, and would finish the inning with a similarly inflated pitch count (33) but significantly more damage on the scoreboard thanks to two Mariners home runs. MULTI-run home runs, even, which is delightful. Randy Arozarena led off the game with a walk, followed by a sharply-hit single from Dominic Canzone (110 EV), and then Julio Rodríguez – who scuffled in the Cubs series, going 1-for-13 with seven strikeouts – tattooed a splitter that caught too much plate for a home run into the visitor’s bullpen.
And then, and this is the part you’ll really like, the Mariners didn’t stop there. So often we’ve seen this team score a few early and then take their foot off the gas. Instead, they kept the pressure on Wheeler in the first, with Josh Naylor singling into right field (but then getting thrown out and also bonked on the head trying to stretch it into a double, no Josh!), and then Taylor Ward refusing to chase off the plate for a walk to extend Wheeler’s inning. That brought up Cal Raleigh, and Wheeler tried to dispense of him with a fastball up, a pitch Cal has been consistently missing this season. He did not miss this one:
Asked if that’s a pitch he would have missed a few weeks ago, Cal was brutally honest. “I mean, I’d like to say no, but I don’t know. I know when I wasn’t getting that pitch in the middle up a little, I was just missing it. Even though I was seeing it well, I wasn’t taking advantage of it. And today I was able to take advantage of it, so I feel good.”
So the question is which starter would absorb the punch in the mouth better, and which offense would continue to stress the starter’s workloads. It was Gilbert who blinked first, getting two strikes on J.T. Realmuto but then leaving a four-seamer right in his kitchen for him to pull over the left-field fence to make the game a closer 5-2. Wheeler then did his job to shut the Mariners down in the bottom of the inning, bookending a 1-2-3 inning with strikeouts of Brock Rodden and Canzone.
That sent Gilbert right back out facing the teeth of the Phillies lineup, but aside from a line-drive base hit to Harper, Gilbert emerged unscathed. The offense then had an opportunity to really open this game up, once again getting to Wheeler – Julio beat out an infield hit on a bobbled ball from Tuner at short, then Naylor hit the exact same single he did in the first inning but this time didn’t get thrown out, hooray. Ward worked his second walk of the game to load the bases and then with Cal up, Julio scored on a wild pitch, extending the lead to 6-2. Cal then walked to re-load the bases and it felt like the Mariners really had something cooking – except Cole Young grounded out on the first pitch he saw, followed by a Weston Wilson strikeout and a Brock Rodden groundout. So this time it was the Mariners who only got one run, but did drive up Wheeler’s pitch count to 77 through three innings.
After some more navigating around a leadoff base hit on the changeup in the fourth, Gilbert hung another zero. The Mariners looked like they might be back to pressing Wheeler again, with Randy working a leadoff walk – already Wheeler’s fifth of the game – but Canzone chose that time to hit into the game’s first double play, neatly trimming a few pitches off Wheeler’s pitch count. Julio kept the line moving by torturing Turner again, smacking a sweeper at him that he couldn’t handle, and Naylor kept things going after that with a sharp single up the middle that pushed Julio to third. Ward couldn’t come up with yet another walk, grounding out to end the inning, but with Wheeler at 94 pitches, it looked like the Mariners would be able to get into the Phillies bullpen early, always a plus in the first game of a series.
But plot twist! Don Mattingly – who is the Phillies manager, did you know that? – opted to send Wheeler back out in the bottom of the fifth, maybe hoping to scrape another inning out of his starter against the bottom of the Mariners lineup. Instead he was greeted very rudely, first by Cal, who in a full count got a cutter right in the middle of the plate and…did not miss it.
“I feel like I’ve been seeing the ball pretty well,” said Cal. “I’ve been trying to get my hands back sooner, and I feel like I’ve been doing a better job of that…Being in a good position as early as possible is something that Edgar always talks about and has always been a pillar of mine throughout my career, even down all the way to Little League. It’s a very simple thing, but it’s sometimes harder to go out there and execute that.”
Mattingly then left Wheeler in to pitch to Young, who admittedly has been frigid at the plate in August, his .197 average for the month a hundred points lower than his average in June. We miss you, Good Cole. Apparently, he misses him too:
That made the score a comfortable 8-2, and gave Seranthony Dominguez a nice cushion to work with over two innings against his former team. He went three up and three down each time, the second inning aided by a Cal Raleigh ABS challenge on a pitch that was so clearly strike three that Schwarber started walking towards the dugout before the ump had even announced that the pitch was being challenged. Fun fact: if you take out his blowout first appearance as a Mariner, Seranthony has a 3.86 ERA with an xERA of 1.81 and a 2.51 FIP, with a K/9 of over 10.
Because Cal is at his heart a competitive monster, he had to one-up Randy in his big game, knocking his third homer of the night against new reliever Chase Shugart. Behind in the count 3-1, Shugart tried to shneak a cutter past Cal, who wasn’t having any of that:
Gabe Speier, in need of some work after the Mariners got blown out baby diaper style yesterday, worked the eighth against the top of the Phillies lineup and hung a zero of his own, and then Carlos Vargas finished things off in style, posting his own 1-2-3 inning and topping it off with a pair of sharp defensive plays (even if the first one had me cringing). So that’s four shutout innings from the bullpen, allowing zero hits, walking none, and three strikeouts. Pretty nifty.
Something I’ve been complaining about with these Mariners all season is that they lack consistency. It turns out, lacking consistency isn’t always a bad thing when the day before is a blowout loss.
“Listen. A loss is a loss,” said Coach Cal postgame. “You hate to get blown out, obviously you don’t feel good at the time, and maybe it hurts a little more in the moment. But at the end of the day, we won the series [with Chicago]…regardless of how bad it was, it would have stung just as bad to lose 5-4. It is what it is. Move on. Baseball players are kind of wired that way anyway. You have to have a short memory. If you don’t, typically things tend to linger. But this team doesn’t have that problem.”
The 2026 Mariners: many problems, but not this particular problem. And maybe not the problem of last year’s MVP-adjacent franchise leader in home runs continuing to struggle at the plate. For the bad history the Mariners made recently, Cal made some good history tonight, becoming the first Mariner at home to have a three-home run game since Edgar Martinez did it in 1999 (May 18 vs. Minnesota). It’s also the first time a Mariner has had a three-homer game at T-Mobile Park. And Julio, after his struggles in the Chicago series, made some history of his own with his fifth-straight 20+ home run season, the first player in Mariners history to start his career with five-straight such seasons, and just the 20th player to do that all-time. Whatever happens going forward, at least the 2026 Mariners will have made some history (complimentary).
The quick-fire series in the Northern Territory did little to answer batting line-up questions and the top of the order remains an almighty jumble
Cricket Australia didn’t host a Bangladesh Test for 23 years for a simple reason: it would have cost money to stage and earned less money back. That wouldn’t have been a concern for whichever generation of players would have taken the field, but for the suits, the equation was lose-lose. Now that the mandate of the World Test Championship has forced administrators to end that long wait, the result for Australia’s current batting outfit was also been lose-lose, even if the series scoreline ended up lose-win.
Defeat in the Darwin Test will remain a punchline at Australia’s expense, especially if the upcoming cavalcade of cricket against South Africa, New Zealand, India and England goes poorly. The follow-up win in Mackay, no matter the ruthlessness of concluding it in five sessions, won’t provide corresponding solace, given the manner in which it was built.
SACRAMENTO, CA - AUGUST 24: Kaelen Culpepper #12 of the Minnesota Twins bats during the game between the Minnesota Twins and the Athletics at Sutter Health Park on Monday, August 24, 2026 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Don Collier/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
In the past 10 days, the Twins have been swept by the Phillies, swept the Braves, and then were swept by the Padres. It’s all or nothing in the dog days of summer and hopefully the win today puts them back in the “all” category.
The Twins got off to a great start and, unlike some other games in recent weeks, kept on adding throughout the middle innings to put this one out of reach for the opponent. Byron Buxton walked and Ryan Jeffers singled to put two men on for RBI machine Josh Bell. Bell crushed the first pitch he saw to left-center for what he thought was a three-run dong, but instead bounced off the very top of the wall for a double. Buxton scored but the A’s got the ball back in quickly to keep Jeffers at third. Either way, the Twins took yet another early lead.
Bell also drove in Minnesota’s second run, though this one came in a very different matter. After hitting his first one about 379.9 feet, this one went all of six feet. But with Buxton on third base, that was all the Twins needed to score.
The homeless A’s rallied in the third to bring the game within one. Twins starter Zebby Matthews gave up back to back singles to rookie Henry Bolte and veteran Jeff McNeil to start the inning, but the damage was limited thanks to a Zack Gelof GIDP. Lawrence Butler still drove in Bolte with a two out single, but Matthews did a good job keeping things in check.
Things finally broke open for the Twins the next inning. Local Sacramento kid Ryan Kreidler led off with a solo homer, his first in nearly two months. Buxton and Jeffers reached again ahead of Bell who wasn’t able to drive in a run in three straight ABs, but Kody Clemens delivered a clutch two-out hit off a lefty to put the Twins up 4-1.
The Twins added on again in the sixth, with the first four batters of the inning reaching, highlighted by Luke Keaschall’s two run double with the bases loaded. Josh Bell got one more RBI in the inning, because of course he did, a sac fly to give the Twins a 7-1 lead.
They weren’t quite done their though. The Twins kept making contact and the the A’s kept on not getting outs. Buxton, Clemens, and Culpepper all singled in the eighth to plate two more for Minnesota. Culpepper’s hit was his fourth of the night and put Minnesota up 9-1.
On the pitching front, it was a delightfully uneventful night from Zebby Matthews. This A’s lineup isn’t that strong anymore with All-Stars Nick Kurtz, Jacob Wilson, Brent Rooker, and Shea Langeliers all on the IL along with regulars like Tyler Soderstrom and Denzel Clarke, but Zebby did exactly what he needed to do. He pounded the zone, kept the ball down to induce a couple of key double plays, and delivered seven strong innings to a bullpen that’s been a bit overtaxed this past week.
Things got interesting in the late innings. With a 9-1 lead, the Twins turned to Tommy Nance, who had trouble locating his signature slider and allowed a run across. Derek Shelton then turned to closer Yoendrys Gomez in the ninth inning since he hadn’t pitched in nearly a week and the rust showed. Gomez quickly got two outs, albeit on two line drives hit directly at Kody Clemens, and then came trouble. The next five A’s batters reached with one out to go in the game, bring the Athletics within three and putting the tying run in the on-deck circle. Rookie Andrew Morris came in to clean up the mess and finished the game on one pitch.
This game went about as well as the Twins could have hoped right up until the ninth, but we’ll chalk that up to Gomez being a bit rusty. A win is a win and one that emphasizes the need to add on in the middle innings isn’t necessarily a bad thing for this lineup.
STUDS
Zebby Matthews: 7 IP, 6 H, R, BB, 7 K
Kaelen Culpepper: 4-5, R, RBI
Byron Buxton: 3-5, 4 R, BB, 2B
Josh Bell: 3 RBI
Luke Keaschall: two doubles
Andrew Morris: one pitch, one save
DUDS
NO DUDS TWINS WIN!!
PLAYOFFS STANDINGS UPDATE
AL Central:
White Sox (68-63)
Guardians (66-66) — 2.5 GB
Twins (64-68) — 4.5 GB
AL Wild Card
Guardians (66-66)
Astros (65-66) — 0.5 GB
Twins (64-68) — 2 GB
Blue Jays (64-68) — 2 GB
Orioles (63-68) — 2.5 GB
Mariners (63-69) — 3 GB
The White Sox lost to the Rangers, who moved into the AL West lead and bumped Houston back into the Wild Card mix. The Guardians handled their business with the Angels while the Mariners continued their rollercoaster week, beating the Phillies 9-2. The Tigers are 1-9 in their past 10 and are getting dropped off the updates for the time being. The Twins have an incredibly easy schedule in September, with only the Guardians having an easier path to October among teams they are jockeying with.
It’s going to be a fun final stretch! We’ll see you again tomorrow for some more late night summer baseball.
UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 1935: An Animal Tamer with his bear, Photograph, Around 1935 (Photo by Imagno/Getty Images) [Dompteur mit einem B?ren, Photographie, Um 1935] | Getty Images
Record 69-63. Pace: 85-77. Change on 2025: +5.
Well, in the broader scheme of things, that probably went about as well as could be expected. It was a Merrill Kelly start, after all. He hasn’t picked up a W in more than a month, his last win coming back on July 22. As mentioned in the GDT tonight, August has been a cruel month for Kelly. Tonight, to be fair, wasn’t so bad. He came within one out of a quality start, something we haven’t seen from Merrill in eight attempts now, since before the All-Star break. While the Arizona bullpen certainly didn’t help matters, this one was more on the offense. Here’s some insightful baseball analysis for you. You won’t win many games when you fail to score any runs. You’re welcome!
After a quick first inning on both sides, it look like Merrill Kelly’s night was set up to be a short one. A one-out walk was followed by a two-out triple, as Corbin Carroll couldn’t corral the ball in the right field corner. Kelly then lost control of his change-up entirely, walking the Cubs #8 and #9 hitters, to load the bases in front of presumptive 2026 NL MVP, Pete Crow-Armstrong. Cue thoughts of, “It’s a bold strategy, Cotton. Let’s see if it pays off for ’em”. Fortunately, it did, though only just, as PCA sent it 388 feet to die in the center field glove of Ryan Waldschmidt. An elevated pitch count for Merrill and a 1-0 deficit were by no means a disaster.
Indeed, Kelly settled down surprisingly well after that, rediscovering the feel for his off-speed pitches. He set down the Cubs in order in the third with a pair of strikeouts, then had another 1-2-3 frame in the 4th, including another K. He did allow another run in the 5th on a pair of doubles, as the Cubs took a 2-0 lead, but it was a solid enough outing. The most interesting thing though, was likely a spat between Kelly and the third-base coach for the Cubs, Quintin Berry. At one point, he stepped off the mound, stared pointedly at Berry, and then the occupants of the D-backs and Cubs dugouts started jawing at each other. The exact specifics of the discussion will have to await the Jomboy breakdown.
However, the broadcast team speculated that Berry’s positioning might have allowed him to look into Merrill’s glove and relay information to the batter, if there was a runner on second. It was notable that, after Kelly was lifted from the game, he remained in the dugout, unusual behavior for a starting pitcher. In particular, he remained right on the top step of the dugout, at the end nearest Berry, and Kelly appeared to be trying to trigger a Scanners-like explosion of Berry’s head, through the sheer force of his stare. Kelly’s final line? 5.2 innings, three runs allowed on five hits and three walks, with four strikeouts. It’s his fifth consecutive outing with at least three walks. Nobody has gone longer for Arizona since Robbie Ray went seven straight in 2018-19.
The Cubs did get the last laugh, however. After Merrill’s exit with two outs in the sixth, Taylor Clarke came in and allowed back-to-back home-runs, the first a two-run shot due to the runner he inherited. In five pitches, the deficit had gone from a still potentially surmountable two runs, to five. We did get to see Drey Jameson’s first outing since he came back off the injured list. But it didn’t go so well, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk over two innings. Juan Burgos pitched a scoreless ninth. He was called up today with Mitch Bratt being optioned down. Though I suspect Bratt may well end up being the 27th man for the double-header vs the Giants on Saturday.
About the sole fragment of good news is that Pete Crow-Armstrong went 0-for-5 today. It’s only the third game this year, where he has had 5+ at-bats and not reached base. However, following on from Sunday’s mauling of the Mariners, the Cubs have now scored twenty-six runs since their opponents last crossed home-plate. If I heard the booth right, that’s the most unanswered runs in a row since 1969. Though, let’s be honest, my attention may not have been a hundred percent focused on the game by that point. Those apple turnovers weren’t going to eat themselves, after all.
The Arizona offense barely showed up, which is why it has not merited a single word of description. There were only five hits, all singles, and one walk. The latter saw Tim Tawa eventually get picked off-base with spectacular ease, after wandering further and further off-base. The D-backs mustered only two at-bats with a runner in scoring position, and one of those was with two outs in the ninth. The other came courtesy of Corbin Carroll, who stole bases #19 and #20 on the season in the fourth. It’s the 31st 20-SB season in franchise history, and Carroll’s fourth such. That ties him with Tony Womack for the franchise record. I’ve a feeling Corbin will have sole possession by the end of 2027. Or whenever the next full season might be.
Click for details at Fangraphs The Bear Necessities: Corbin Carroll, +16% Un-bear-able: Geraldo Perdomo, -21% Bare-ly adequate: Taylor Clarke, -18%
Understandably, not exactly an enthusiastic Gameday Thread. Just one comment turned Sedona Red, an acknowledgement of an athletic play with the glove by Drey Jameson from AzDesertLovr:
The good news is, the Phillies’ nine-game winning streak came to an abrupt end, the Big Dumper homering three times as the Mariners beat them 9-2. The Pirates and Padres are still playing in San Diego, and at least Pittsburgh are putting up a fight, this one being tied at two in the ninth inning. Let’s go, Bucs! Here in Arizona, we’ll hope for better tomorrow, in the second game of the series against the Cubs. We’ll be sending up Brandon Pfaadt, and hoping that last time’s blow-up in Boston was just an aberration. First pitch is 6:40 pm, Arizona time.
BROOKLYN, NY - JUNE 29 : Fans outside Brooklyn Basketball Training Center during an introductory Press Conference for the 2026 Brooklyn Nets Draftees on June 29, 2026 in Brooklyn, New York. 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 2026 NBAE (Photo by David L. Nemec/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
WARNING: This Off-Season Report contains barely warrantedenthusiasm and optimism. Proceed at your own risk.
There’s always anniversaries to speak of. And this month marks an important one for Nets fans trying to figure out where the organization stands and more importantly, where it’s headed. Twenty-five years ago, in August 2001, annual previews for the upcoming 2001-02 season hit the stands. You know those glossy magazines published by companies like Athlon Sports and Street & Smith’s. All but one of the four big publications that year projected the then-New Jersey Nets wouldn’t even make the playoffs … even with new addition Jason Kidd. The lone holdout had them barely making the post-season as the East’s eighth seed.
The annuals were not alone. Only one prominent pundit thought much of the combination of Kidd, KMart, KVH and Kerry. His name was Charles Barkley. Sir Charles thought Kidd would get them to the playoffs. No real surprise.
After all, New Jersey had won only 26 games the year before behind Stephon Marbury, a 24-year-old wunderkind from just across New York Harbor in Coney Island. Kidd was Kidd, a four-time All-Star, a three-time All-NBA selection, former Rookie of the Year but he had baggage … a lot of it. He had been arrested in January of that year for assaulting his wife in front his children. He was dispatched to East Rutherford for Marbury in July.
Of course, the Nets stunned the NBA that season behind the MVP runner-up, winning a franchise record 52 games, a mark that unfortunately still stands, getting to the NBA Finals the first of two straight times and sending beleaguered Nets fans into the basketball equivalent of Nirvana. They got swept by the Lakers but who cared? Been down so long looked like up to us.
No, we are not saying history will repeat itself in 2026-27. Nor are we comparing anyone on the current roster to JKidd. Few players to ever don an NBA uniform had his charisma, his toughness or his skillset. But to invoke Nets history again, we want to echo Joe Johnson’s famous preseason quote after the departure of Deron Williams a decade ago: “It ain’t that bad here.”
The point is simple: all the projections, predictions and even an insult from one of Hollywood’s biggest stars mean nothing before the games are played. Nada, zip, naught. The team that the Nets will put on the court this season will be decidedly different than last year. The roster has improved. The rookies have a year under their belts. They have two bigs capable of averaging 20/7/3 and two 20-year-old guards who were top 10 Draft picks. The Nets have never had either in their history.
They will present a more physical presence and more than enough assets to improve during the season if that’s what the brass wants to do. But most of all, they want to win this year after two years of desperately tanking to get a top lottery pick and before that a season when they didn’t seem to know what they wanted to do. It should be interesting, even fun.
Maybe it’s pollyannish to think this way. Probably is, when you consider what’s happened in the East this Summer with two All-NBA stars including LeBron James joining the 76ers, new faces in Miami, Toronto, Boston and an old one returning to Indiana. The Knicks are NBA champions and darlings of the city where they play. At the moment, the Nets are irrelevant, but that’s not a surprise. Nor should it be considered a permanent condition.
You have to trust the process and the hunger of a young roster with something to prove and a young head coach who’s intolerant of anything less than a full effort.
Another Nets great, Buck Williams said his week that maybe Joe Tsai’s comment about being embarrassed, first published in these very pages a week ago, will be the “fire” a young team needs to excel. We actually disagree. A team with nine players 22 or younger shouldn’t really need to be set alight. They should be hungry enough to prove themselves. Indeed, there’s every indication they want it. The kiddie corps leaders — Egor Demin and Mikel Brown Jr. — are saying all the right things and did all the right things as well in Summer League. SL head coach and Nets assistant Dutch Gaitley wasn’t exaggerating when he called MBJ’s performance “electric” … and not just on the court. He and Demin have charisma.
As Chaney Johnson, who was also a rook last year, told our Connor Long this week, the youngsters know what’s what.
“I just feel like we’re hungry,” said Johnson who at 24 is the team’s sixth oldest player. “They know — we realize how terrible of a team we were last year, or how terrible we did. I know ‘terrible’ is a strong word, so I don’t want to — but we weren’t the best team last year. So I feel like we’ve got that chip on our shoulder now, and we’re ready to prove some people wrong.”
This week, we also began to see a bit of a counter-narrative emerging about the team, at least in a couple of assessments of NBA front offices if not in power rankings. Although Sam Quinn of CBS Sports ranked Sean Marks & co. 16th out of 30, we found his opening line encouraging:
Brooklyn’s front office probably faces the biggest disparity between perception and reality of any in basketball. The prevailing narrative surrounding the Nets is that they’ve been poorly run and their outlook is bleak. True, they haven’t yet found any truly foundational players, but they have a clean cap sheet and a six-pick first-round draft surplus (not including swaps, though in fairness they owe their 2027 swap to the Houston Rockets). The reality is that this is a pretty promising blank slate if you’re willing to take the long view.
Similarly, Stephen Noh of the Sporting News gave the Nets an A+ for their assets although he ranked the Nets 21st in his assessment of where he thinks teams will be in 2029. He did say they could rank higher if they decided to be aggressive, as they almost certainly will be The other lesson we can take from 25 years ago is that one player can make a difference with a young team.
In the meantime, better to focus not on what an anonymous writer for FanDuel, ESPN’s projection of 18 wins (!!) or even what Marty Supreme thinks but on possibilities with the league’s youngest roster. There will be enough time during the season to make adjustments to your thinking.
Youth movement still a thing
It was our Connor Long who pressed Chaney Johnson late last week on what’s going on behind the doors of HSS Training Center. He gave a generalized and positive review of the Flatbush 5 and the Nets two bigs, the returning Michael Porter Jr. and the new guy, Julius Randle, but saved his highest compliments for Nolan Traore, the 6’4” French guard who was the NBA’s sixth youngest player in 2025-26.
“Honestly, I’m going to have to say Nolan,” Johnson told Connor when asked about what he’s seen . “All the guys have improved, but I feel like Nolan … he’s a different guy now. He done put on some mass. He’s walking around with a sleeveless hoodie on, looking at the biceps, you know what I’m saying? He done put on some strength.”
Troare of course didn’t play in either Summer League, not Sacramento nor Las Vegas. He was still recovering from a post-season scope — arthroscopic surgery — on his right knee. But C.J. also said nice things about how Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf were playing in scrimmages at HSS.
That might have been a surprise to those fans who watched the Nets Summer League games. None of the three were lighting up the arenas in either league. While Egor Demin and Mikel Brown Jr. drew raves, particularly when playing together, there were a LOT of missed shots being thrown up by the picks taken at Nos. 22, 26 and 27. Indeed, it seemed that Powell and Wolf had regressed from the end of last season.
One Nets insider excused their failings by saying they just “need more time” in development, that the worries many fans shared among themselves were not shared by the team’s development types. Of course, development is critical to the Nets plans for what Joe Tsai and Sean Marks have called “sustainable success.” So they’d better succeed. The organization is counting on a steady stream of rookies making their way through cheap four-year contracts, permitting it to push in all their chips when the opportunity to acquire stars arises.
Indeed, the Nets will have eight players on rookie deals this season, from Mikel Brown Jr, at age 20 ,the team’s youngest player by seven weeks, to Noah Clowney, who just turned 22 last month. In fact, it seems likely that the Nets will once again have the youngest roster in the NBA. Last year’s was the youngest in two decades!
Here in order are Brooklyn’s 17 players by age, including two-ways. Those with asterisks are on rookie deals.
— Mikel Brown Jr., 20*
— Nolan Traore, 20*
— Ben Saraf, 20*
— Egor Demin, 20*
— Drake Powell, 20*
— Noah Clowney, 22*
— Danny Wolf, 22*
— Tyler Bilodeau, 22
— Joshua Jefferson, 22*
— Josh Minott, 23
(All 10 players above this line are younger than Yaxel Lindeborg, the Warriors pick at No. 11 in the June Draft.)
— Chaney Johnson, 24
— Day’Ron Sharpe, 24
(All 12 players above this line are younger than the NBA average.)
— Keon Ellis, 26
— Michael Porter Jr., 28
— Moe Wagner, 29
— Terance Mann, 29
— Julius Randle, 31.
There are a few aspects of the list that jump out beyond just the obvious one how young they are. Five of them can’t legally buy a beer! One is that, as the Nets insider noted, there’s time, lot of it, for lots of players on the roster to get a lot better. No guarantees but suggesting that they only need time seems less of an excuse than a rationale for patience. You know, hope.
Another is where Clowney sits on the list: the sixth youngest player on the youngest team in the NBA despite having played nearly 3,200 minutes in the NBA. However, Clowney has the least amount of time to prove himself. He will be a restricted free agent next July. He didn’t play that badly last season, averaging 12.3 points on 40/33/80 splits while grabbing 4.3 boards in 66 games, 60 starts. But he has been disappointing in large part because of what he’s shown on occasion, those seven three’s vs. the Knicks in November of last year and those seven blocks vs. the Raptors in 2024.
Said one NBA scout who followed him since his days at Alabama. “I loved him in college. Loved him when he was drafted,” he said. “Wish he was further along.”
The scout added that aside from Clowney’s occasional shot blocking, he’s “soft on defense.” Where does he fit this season? Back-up to MPJ? back-up to Randle? a 6’10” wing? A rim-runner and protector? If he advances and justifies that scout’s love, it could be a big help to Brooklyn this season and beyond.
One other aspect we found interesting: Minott’s youth. Like Clowney, the 23-year-old could provide the Nets with some depth up front and on the wing. Also, like Clowney, he started young in the NBA and has a wealth of NBA experience despite his youth. In four seasons, he’s played nearly 1,300 minutes, more than half last of them — 834 — last season with Boston and Brooklyn.
After the Nets got him for the bargain basement price of $110,000 from the Celtics in a classic salary dump, he played with enough skill and energy to warrant a two-year. $9 million deal with the second year a team option. He averaged 10.8 points on 49/40/80 shooting splits in 16 games with the Nets who chose him over Ziaire Williams, opting out of Z’s $6.3 million second year.
The question is whether there will be minutes for the two forwards aged 22 and 23? Like a lot of questions with such a young roster, that’s a good thing. Same with the backcourt if Demin, Brown Jr. and Traore develop.
Rising tide of money engulfing Brooklyn?
The changes in ownership at the Los Angeles Lakers, the defining NBA franchise (sorry again, Knick fans), is once again altering the NBA financial landscape. A valuation of $12.5 billion for the Lake Show will cause other franchises values to jump as well. A rising tide, you know, lifts all boats. It already has. Marc Lore, Alex Rodriguez’s partner in owning the Timberwolves, sold his stake in the Minnesota club to San Francisco investment banker Marc Stad at a valuation of $4.5 billion, three times what he paid a mere five years back.
If the Nets were worth $6.2 billion — per Sportico — prior to the Lakers’ sale, then they are more than likely worth closer to $8 billion now. That’s a huge profit for the Tsais who closed on the Nets and Barclays Center in 2019 for $3.3 billion. Indeed, that estimate might be low considering there’s been recent speculation at the two new franchises in Seattle and Las Vegas will likely require prospective owners to put up as much as $8 billion to join the club as the 31st and 32nd franchises. (And we’re not even talking about the Liberty.)
Is that a good thing for the Nets and their fans? At least for now, it would seem so. The Nets, through Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment, are among the more stable franchises in terms of finances, despite word that Joe and Clara Wu Tsai are divorcing. The Tsais’ investments in pro sports, in everything from the Nets and Liberty to minor stakes in the NFL’s Miami Dolphins and an international catamaran racing team, were featured in a story we wrote a little more that a year ago and updated since in these pages. One of the more telling indicators of just how committed he’s been was this line from that July 2o25 story:
Bloomberg News breakdown of Joe Tsai’s net worth, which the news site estimated at $9.1 billion, puts the value of his sports assets, primarily the holdings of Brooklyn Sports and Entertainment, at a conservative $4.85 billion, amounting to 52% of his overall holdings. Bloomberg valued his holdings in Alibaba — 1.4% of the Chinese e-commerce giant’s stock — at nearly a billion dollars less: $3.95 billion.
His single biggest asset, said Bloomberg, is not his Alibaba stock but the Nets.
He’s said both publicly and privately that he sees sports and particularly the Nets as the “family business,” a legacy. He and Clara recently stated that despite the dissolution of their marriage they expect their three adult children will be involved in BSE over the long term. All three have sports backgrounds. Thiers isn’t so much a corporate investment like the one Mark Walter and his Guggenheim partners made in the Lakers 14 months ago then sold under duress to Bob Iger and Josh Kushner this month. (No doubt the Tsais are also taking lessons from what’s happening with the Buss family following the sale.)
For the want of a better term, the Tsai family appear to fall, at least for now, into the “sportsman” category of owners rather than the “investor” category. They have continued putting money in their teams and their infrastructure while selling small pieces to others among the mega-rich whether the Koch family in the case of BSE or Jack Ma and a group of prominent business women in the case of the Liberty.
That certainly doesn’t mean the Tsais are likely to be conservative. They remain ambitious in Brooklyn as recent events have shown.
There hasn’t been much made of the plan since Sam Zussman spoke to Bloomberg News about it in October 2024, but 10 days ago, Peter Stern, BSE’s chief financial officer, mentioned it again in CFO Magazine when discussing differences between what an NBA team CFO’s job entailed a quarter century ago versus now:
First is adjacent opportunities. So in the timeframe you mention, whatever basketball team it was, whatever arena it played in, the focus was on that team and that arena. How much food and beverage are we selling when people come into the arena? What are the per caps?
Now, teams are thinking about how they can make their customers’ experience better before the game and after the game. Should I have a restaurant down the block? Should I have an entertainment opportunity after the game? You’ve seen that done in Chicago with the Cubs, for instance, where the organization literally bought up the land all around, or what the Buffalo Bills are doing with new mixed-use facilities that they’re building.
And indeed, BSE just announced a “restaurant down the block.“ It’s partnering with Casa Tua, a well-known hospitality brand out of Miami to create Cucina by Casa Tua at One Hanson Place in the lobby of the Williamsburgh Savings Bank building, a property acquired at a foreclosure sale in 2024. It’s described as ”located just steps from Barclays Center.“ Beyond the restaurant scheduled to open next year, there are plans for it to anchor ”a broader mix of hospitality, dining, and experiential offerings to be announced at a later date,“ said the press release. They also invested in the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre.
And yes, as Marks has said of his boss, he is ready to invest when needed in the team, having already proven it during the glory days of the Big Three, shelling out hundreds of millions of dollars in luxury taxes.
So now, whether you’re a fan of the Tsais’ ownership or not, there’s no indication that the rising tide of money will engulf the Brooklyn Nets (or New York Liberty.) Indeed, it’s the opposite.
Final Note
The WNBA will be taking their bi-annual FIBA break permitting international players to take a couple of weeks off to play for their national teams in the women’s World Cup which this year takes place in Berlin…
As part of the Cup celebrations, FIBA has released a 55-minute documentary on the history of women’s basketball. And one of the key elements in the video is the budding friendship between two Liberty players, both stars of their respective national teams, Marine Johannes of France and Han Xu of China…
"In New York, she told me: You have so many fans in China! So many!" 🇫🇷🇨🇳
Aug 24, 2026; Seattle, Washington, USA; Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler (45) reacts after giving up a home run during the fifth inning against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Zack Wheeler’s struggles continued as the Philadelphia Phillies’ (73-59) MLB-best nine-game winning streak came to screeching halt with a 9-2 humbling at the hands of the Seattle Mariners (63-69).
Wheeler surrendered eight runs on nine hits, five walks and four home runs, raising his ERA from 2.92 to 3.40. It was the second time in his career he allowed five first inning runs and first as a member of the Phillies. He has an 8.51 ERA in his last six starts.
The Phillies loaded the bases in the first frame of the game and put up the first run on an Alec Bohm sacrifice fly.
The first six batters Wheeler faced reached base and accounted for five runs on a pair of multi-RBI homers by Julio Rodriguez and Cal Raleigh.
Struggling most of the year after a historic campaign last year, Raleigh had his best game of 2026 with his first career three-home run game, two of which came against Wheeler and another by Chase Shugart in his mop up duty.
Singles by Bryce Harper in the third and Bryson Stott in the fourth were all the offense the Phillies had left in the tank after their momentous comeback yesterday afternoon.
Alex McFarlane and Jose Alvarado each pitched a scoreless inning in relief of Wheeler.
Harper tied his career long on base streak at 27 games.
Aaron Nola is scheduled to face George Kirby in the middle game of the series tomorrow night.
D.J. Short
