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.
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:
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)
Despite a promising start to his pro career with the Philadelphia Flyers, a formerly undrafted defenseman has changed hands and moved to the KHL in hopes of turning a rough few years around.
Although he made the NHL roster out of training camp and stuck for a few months, the Flyers cut ties with the once-promising Egor Zamula, trading him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for forward Phil Tomasino on Dec. 31.
Zamula, 26, never played for the Penguins organization, though, and subsequently signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets as a free agent on Jan. 6 after his contract was terminated, reuniting with former Flyers teammate Ivan Provorov.
Now, though, after having his KHL rights traded a few months back, the 6-foot-4 defenseman is looking to get his career back on track with Russian powerhouse CSKA Moskva, where he'll play alongside former Flyers teammate Denis Gurianov, former NHLers Klim Kostin, Nikita Okhotiuk, and Nikita Nesterov, and prospects like Prokhor Poltapov and Dmitri Gamzin.
"I've never played in the KHL, so both the guys and the coaching staff are giving me advice and going over all the details with me. I'm improving with every practice, feeling better both physically and mentally. There's a lot of new stuff; some things I haven't done in a while, and some I didn't even know about," Zamula was quoted as saying of his move to CSKA by Championat.
"I played with Nikita Okhotyuk at the Traktor academy, and I also know Nikita Nesterov and Denis Zernov. In America, I played with Denis Gurianov, and I also know Klim Kostin. When I transferred here, I already knew half the team, so it was easier for me to integrate."
In a difficult last NHL season split between the Flyers and Blue Jackets, Zamula appeared in 30 games, recording three assists.
Zamula played in 168 NHL games for the Flyers, scoring eight goals, 33 assists, and 41 points with a -12 rating overall, carving out a solid temporary niche for himself as a once-undrafted prospect starting his professional career.
Now, the Chelyabinsk native will return home and play in Russia for the first time since 2016-17.
Aug 12, 2026; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; Philadelphia Phillies left fielder Brandon Marsh (16) reacts as he is called out on strikes by umpire Dan Iassogna (58) during the fourth inning against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
This week has been brutal for the Phillies, but at least you’ll be able to watch them ground into double plays with the majestic backdrop of a cornfield in Iowa tonight at the Field of Dreams game. Well, if you have Netflix. And if it doesn’t rain.
The Detroit Tigers failed to secure the series win on Tuesday night, falling to the Cleveland Guardians at Comerica Park, 6-4. Framber Valdez was not sharp and the offense could not keep up with the visitors after the two teams opened things up with a pair of runs in the first inning.
Climbing the hill for the Motor City Kitties in the series finale is right-hander Keider Montero, who is looking to bounce back from one of his weaker starts last time out. The 26-year-old was tagged for five runs on five hits (two home runs) and three walks while striking out five San Francisco Giants over six innings of work to earn his seventh loss of the season in a 5-2 final.
Montero saw Cleveland once before this season back on May 19, when he threw five frames of three-run ball on two hits (one home run) and four walks while striking out one. He did not figure in the decision as Detroit fell, 4-3.
For the Guardians, left-hander Parker Messick gets the start on the heels of a superb six-game stretch. Since the start of July, the 25-year-old has put up a 1.77 ERA and 3.61 FIP over his last 35 2/3 innings, allowing 26 hits (four home runs) and nine walks while striking out 30 and tossing a pair of wild pitches. Up until his most recent outing, he had not allowed more than one earned run over that span.
When Messick last saw the Tigers, he also faced Montero, allowing three runs (two earned) on four hits (one home run) and three walks while striking out seven over five frames. Much like his Detroit counterpart, he did not figure in the decision that day.
Take a look below at how the two match up on paper for their second head-to-head meeting this season.
Detroit Tigers (59-61) vs. Cleveland Guardians (59-62)
Time (ET): 1:10 p.m. Place: Comerica Park, Detroit, Michigan SB Nation Site:Covering the Corner Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Game 121: RHP Keider Montero (8-7, 3.38 ERA) vs. LHP Parker Messick (9-6, 2.57 ERA)
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 11: Jihwan Bae #0 of the Milwaukee Brewers reacts after being hit by a pitch during the third inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park on August 11, 2026 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Orlando Ramirez/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Milwaukee Brewers are dealing with a serious depth problem on the left side of their infield. Cooper Pratt is out for a few more weeks with a hamstring strain. Joey Ortiz has been dealing with a neck/back injury. Those are the two top shortstops on the Crew’s depth chart.
The Brewers have a large number of infield prospects in their minor league system, including several in the upper levels. However, they have not called on any of them to this point since Cooper Pratt came up in June. When Pratt needed to go on the IL, the Brewers opted not to dip back into that farm system for more help, but instead signed free agent Ji-hwan Bae.
It was understandable that on such short notice, Bae might have been the only one who could get to Milwaukee in time for Sunday’s game.
Bae struggled defensively in his lone start so far. He dropped a couple of successful bunts in his Brewers debut, but it’s been mostly downhill since. With Ortiz also battling an injury, that’s left the Brewers a man down on the bench.
Pat Murphy has had to turn to Andrew Vaughn starting at third base, moving Brice Turang over to shortstop, and other creative solutions just to put a healthy lineup out there. Ortiz was able to make it back for the series finale against the Padres, but it’s become quite obvious there is still a problem in the infield with Pratt on the IL.
One solution the Brewers should turn to is right in their farm system with one of their top prospects and it’s not Jett Williams.
It’s Luke Adams.
Adams has a great combination of power and on-base ability that he has proven at Triple-A Nashville this year and he has been solid at third base defensively. His glovework there should be passable enough that the Brewers can feel comfortable putting him at the hot corner and have a chance to fortify this lineup a little bit more.
This season, Adams is hitting .260/.407/.544 with 16 homers, 35 walks, and 40 strikeouts with a .944 OPS.
Adams is Rule 5 eligible this winter and will need to be added to the 40 man roster anyway in a few months, especially since it’s highly likely they would want to protect him. Why not take this opportunity to get to see him in the big leagues for a little bit?
Jett Williams would have been the choice, but he’s been dealing with a wrist injury and on the same night that Pratt and Ortiz got injured, Williams also re-aggravated his wrist injury in Triple-A and has since been placed back on the IL.
Brock Wilken has been healthy, but is hitting just .177 with 12 homers and 118 strikeouts in 100 games. Tyler Black is not an option on the left side of the infield at this point, and that leaves Luke Adams as really the only viable option that can handle a position on the left side.
Adams is an on-base machine, which is what this offense could use more of right now. He also has plenty of over-the-fence power, which this Brewers offense also could use more of.
While he’s not a shortstop solution with Pratt on the IL, Adams can shore up this infield, shore up this offense, and maybe provide another spark here, because after this series in San Diego, it sure looks like they could use one.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - AUGUST 08: Gerrit Cole #45 of the New York Yankees walks off the mound after throwing his 1000th strikeout pitch as a Yankee during the fifth inning against the Atlanta Braves at Yankee Stadium on August 08, 2026 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Photo by Ishika Samant/Getty Images) | Getty Images
What is a Hall of Fame starting pitcher in today’s MLB? We know of a few retiring legends who’ve transcended eras and will be in Cooperstown: namely Zack Greinke, Clayton Kershaw, Justin Verlander, and Max Scherzer. But the game and the position itself have evolved in such a way that the traditional stats that used to define a Hall of Fame starter are no longer achievable.
300 wins used to be the goal, but after Verlander’s quest to get it came up short, it seems nobody will come close for a long time, if ever. 3,000 strikeouts have also been used as a moniker to make you a lock, but with innings being managed and injuries plaguing even the most durable starters, how many people can realistically get to that?
Two older pitchers who are viewed as the best chances to get inducted from this era were on display this past weekend against Atlanta, as Chris Sale and Gerrit Cole went head-to-head on a Saturday afternoon in the Bronx. The two aging aces are two men on the same warpath as their careers wind down, having fought the same battles to get here.
Sale was younger than Cole when he went under the knife for Tommy John surgery, but it was part of a stretch of ailments that cost him a large portion of his prime. He missed eight starts in 2019 before making a grand total of 11 starts from 2020 to 2022, throwing his entire $150 million contract extension into the shredder. He’s enjoyed a career renaissance in Atlanta, but has still battled injuries, being held to just 20 starts in both 2023 (his last year in Boston) and 2025.
As Cole enters his mid-to-late 30s, he’s entering the same part of his career that Sale struggled to stay on the field with Boston. The normally durable ace, who had not been on the injured list since 2016, missed several months in 2024 with an elbow flare-up before going under the knife for Tommy John in March 2025. The internal brace procedure allowed him to return relatively quickly, making his 2026 debut on May 22, but questions existed about whether he’d be able to recapture his old form quickly or face the lagging effects that others have in the past.
Those lagging effects can come in a bunch of different forms. It can hit your velocity, as it did with Spencer Strider. It can hurt your command, as it did with Sandy Alcantara. It can leave you more susceptible to future injuries. At age 35, Cole isn’t in a position to have a multi-year ramp-up if he wants to stay on a Cooperstown path. Fortunately for him and the Yankees, he seems to be right where he wants to be.
There have been some hairy patches, but Cole’s first few months back after a long absence have seen more life on his fastball than he had when healthy in 2023 and 2024, good control of the strike zone, and an ability to work deep into games. He’s been bitten by shoddy command at times, which is often considered the last thing to come back from an injury, but the results have been excellent. A 3.35 ERA across 80.1 innings with 87 strikeouts to a mere 17 walks. In a 2026-centric view of it, the Yankees might be getting a fresher version of the ace they signed back in 2020.
But this article is thinking long-term. When MLB.com analysts ranked Hall of Fame likelihood in 2023 and 2024, Cole was pretty high up due to his body of work and durability, but the elbow injuries knocked him down a few tiers in recent editions. With how Tommy John has impacted dozens of veterans in recent years, it was impossible to know if he would be able to get the train back on track.
Entering his 15th start of the season against Toronto this weekend, Cole has 159 career wins and 2,338 strikeouts. In the two traditional categories that Hall of Fame voters care about most, he likely won’t get the opportunity to hit any incredible milestone, but there are two numbers that, should he hit them, should make him a lock to eventually be enshrined in this era of baseball.
200 wins used to not be a big deal. There are 122 200-game winners in MLB history, with many of them never getting to Cooperstown. The mark that has been used as more of a moniker since guys stopped pitching 40+ games a year in the 1980s is 250, and predictably, only seven of the 49 pitchers who have achieved it have been left out (with multiple being shunned due to PED use).
But in the ever-changing game, 200 might need to be the new standard. Only six pitchers who’ve thrown a pitch in the last 10 years have more than 200, and all of those guys started their careers in the 2000s, a time when pitchers were given a lot more rope. In that case, does Cole only need to get 200, assuming the voters will adjust with the times? 41 wins might be difficult for a 35-year-old to attain, but if he can stay on teams with good offenses and continue to be good for at least five innings, it’s not out of the question.
The fun one is the number that he’s banking on more: strikeouts. The magic number is 3,000, a mark that has virtually ensured induction, with every single one of the 17 eligible pitchers who’ve reached it being inducted except Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens, who aren’t in for reasons you probably already know. While big, round numbers are what we all love, the number that has virtually guaranteed induction is actually closer to 2,564. The only non-controversial players who were left out were David Cone, Mickey Lolich, Frank Tanana, and Chuck Finley.
That lower number is a lock for Cole as long as he stays healthy and has already been exceeded by Sale. As someone who’s still averaging more than five strikeouts per start, he might only need another 40-45 starts to do so, which he might achieve as early as April-May 2028 (barring a lengthy lockout). From there, it’s all gravy, with the more strikeouts he can accrue, the better.
Cole has just two years left on the nine-year megadeal that he inked in the winter of 2019, but his efficacy immediately after a lengthy absence makes you believe that he’ll still be pitching beyond the 2028 season. A guy like him who eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball feels like someone who will go as long as possible, so it wouldn’t surprise me if he was still pitching past his 40th birthday in the early 2030s, which at that point, these round numbers become more attainable.
Let’s say Cole wants to plays into his 40’s, and pitches five more years and retires at age 41 in 2031. If he managed to be fully healthy, which is unlikely, that’s 160 more starts. Let’s be more conservative and say he has 100-120 left in his career. In those 100-120 starts, is it possible he can get those 41 wins and 662 strikeouts? It might be hard, but this is a guy who’s consistently picked up a win in 40 percent of his starts since 2021 with new life on his fastball that can will him up the strikeout leaderboards.
Would 190 wins and 2,800 strikeouts be enough? It should be, because if it isn’t, you’d be shutting the door on the rest of baseball history.
Aug 12, 2026; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Baltimore Orioles outfielder Christian Franklin (27) can’t get to a fly ball against the Minnesota Twins during the third inning at Target Field. Mandatory Credit: Nick Wosika-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Good morning, Camden Chatters.
This past week was the Orioles’ chance to decide whether they want to be serious contenders in the postseason race. Unfortunately, it appears they have made their decision quite clear.
Presented with a golden opportunity to make up ground against two wild card opponents, the Orioles lost their series to both the Rangers and Twins, all but burying themselves in the race. The O’s controlled their own destiny, and they steered it right into a ditch. Their latest failure came in yesterday’s rubber game in Minnesota, with Shane Baz imploding in a 7-5 loss. Mark Brown recapped the action.
Even in a mediocre American League, a 2-4 stretch just isn’t going to cut it. As of this writing, the Orioles sit 2.5 games out of the third wild card spot, pending the results of the Rangers’ late game last night. The O’s also trail the Twins, the Tigers, the Guardians, and now the Blue Jays, who pulled a half game ahead of the Birds by winning three straight against the Red Sox. That means the Orioles now sit alone in last place in the AL East.
The fact that the Orioles squandered their chances against mediocre teams like the Rangers and Twins is all the more painful considering what’s coming next. Starting tomorrow, the Birds will spend the next 10 days playing exclusively against the two best teams in the American League. Seven of those are against the Rays (74-46), who are riding a nine-game winning streak after completing a perfect 9-0 road trip. A three-game set versus the Yankees (68-52) is sandwiched in between.
If you’re looking for a sliver of hope, I’ll point out that the Orioles have won a series each against the Rays and the Yankees this season, including a sweep of Tampa Bay in May. Of course, the O’s have also gotten swept by both teams, too. On paper, these are the worst possible opponents for the Orioles at the worst possible time. It’s two teams that are clicking on all cylinders against a Baltimore squad that is again struggling to even win two games in a row.
Call me pessimistic if you like. But it’s hard to imagine any scenario where the Orioles remain even on the fringes of the postseason race after this punishing 10-game stretch is over. Not unless they find another gear and bring their all-too-rarely-seen A game to these upcoming series.
For all intents and purposes, this could be the 2026 Orioles’ last stand. Will they show up?
The Orioles added yet another top-30 prospect as the player to be named in the Rutschman trade. That still doesn’t make it any easier for me to stomach.
I’m not bullish on Kjerstad’s chances of ever contributing in the majors again, but we’re getting to the point that there’s no harm in giving him one more try. What’s he going to do, cost them a playoff spot?
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! And happy 22nd to Samuel Basallo. The Orioles’ catcher is having a solid rookie season at the plate, with 16 homers and a .756 OPS, but has been sidelined since July 19 with right shoulder inflammation. There’s no word yet on his potential return. Once he comes back, the primary catcher position is Basallo’s for good, which the O’s made clear by trading Adley Rutschman earlier this month.
Former Orioles born on Aug. 13 include right-handers Cory Doyne (45) and Tom Niedenfuer (67), lefties Will Ohman (49) and Jeff Ballard (63), and outfielder Corey Patterson (47).
Aug. 13 has been a big day for Hall of Fame Orioles, none bigger than in 1969, when Jim Palmer threw a no-hitter against the Athletics. Palmer was effectively wild, scattering six walks throughout the game — three of them to fellow Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson — but blanked the A’s lineup with a masterful 0-for-29, eight-strikeout performance. Palmer improved to 11-2 after missing the entire previous season with back and shoulder problems.
In 1977, Hall of Famer Brooks Robinson played the final game of his legendary 23-year MLB career. Well, he didn’t technically play in it. Brooks was announced as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the ninth against left-hander Bob Lacey, but when the Athletics brought in righty Doug Bair, Robinson was replaced by Tony Muser without ever batting.
In 1978, Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver stole a win for the Orioles through some crafty gamesmanship. The Orioles were leading the Yankees 3-0 after six innings before New York rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh. But when heavy rains arrived, Weaver stalled the game long enough (with help from the groundskeepers) that the field was deemed unplayable. According to the rules at the time, the score reverted to the last completed inning, giving the O’s a 3-0 win. The rule was changed two years later.
And on this date in 1998, Hall of Famer Harold Baines became MLB’s all-time leading RBI leader as a designated hitter, driving in his 824th run with an RBI single in the sixth off Cleveland’s Dwight Gooden. That record has since been demolished, like a dugout phone, by David Ortiz of the Red Sox (1,343).
PHILADELPHIA, PA - JULY 18: Eric Wagaman #39 of the New York Mets fields the ball prior to the game between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday, July 18, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Trevor Hayes/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
Jacksonville lead and controlled this game in the early portion of the proceedings, as the Jumbo Shrimp were up 3-0 after five innings. The Syracuse offense finally arrived in the sixth, with MJ Melendez starting the scoring with a two run home run. Zack Short followed it up with a three run home run, putting a five spot on the board for the Mets. Eric Wagaman continued the scoring in the seventh with a double, and Melendez singled him home, as the Mets ran out to a 7-3 lead.
The Jumbo Shrimp did not take this lightly, and scored five in the bottom of the eighth to take a 8-7 lead. The Mets, who simply would not be denied on the day, took the lead back in the top of the ninth with a Christopher Morel two run home run. Wagaman went back to back with Morel, making it 10-8. Jacksonville would hit a solo home run to get a run back in the ninth, but Zach Franklin closed the door for the save.
CF Nick Morabito: 0-4, BB, SB (36)
SS Ronny Mauricio: 1-5, R, 2B
RF Christopher Morel: 2-4, 2 R, HR (11), 2 RBI, BB, 2 E (3, 4)
Binghamton, who have been doing their best 1927 Yankees impression since the trade deadline, are at it yet again, winning their ninth in a row in dominating fashion.
Jefferson Rojas started the scoring in the first, notching an RBI single, and they were off from there. They scored five in the second, one in the third and fourth, and five in the sixth. Everyone except John Bay got a hit in the game, and only Rojas, Chris Suero, and Billy Amick had one hit (though Amick’s was a three run home run, so he made it count). Mitch Voit notched two hits (and dropped his batting average to .533 in the process), and Émilien Pitre had three. It was a dominating performance.
On the pitching side, Gary Gill Hill got the start and was up and down, going six innings but surrendering all five of the runs (with four being earned). He only surrendered five hits and one walk, but was done in by two home runs. He struck out five. The bullpen coasted through the final three frames.
SS Mitch Voit: 2-5, 2 R, 2B, BB
3B Émilien Pitre: 3-4, R, 2 RBI
LF JT Benson: 1-2, K
2B-3B Jefferson Rojas: 1-3, 2 R, 3 RBI
DH Jacob Reimer: 2-4, R, 2B, RBI, K
C Chris Suero: 1-5, R, HR (15), RBI, 3 K
1B Billy Amick: 1-3, 3 R, HR (6), 3 RBI, BB, K
CF John Bay: 0-4, R, BB, 2 K
LF-2B D’Andre Smith: 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI
RF Yohairo Cuevas: 2-5, 2 R, 2B, RBI, K, SB (1)
RHP Gary Gill Hill: 6.0 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 5 K, 1 WP. W (2-0)
RHP Carlos Guzman: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
RHP Brendan Girton: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K
RHP Justin Armbruester: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
After four scoreless frames for both teams, the Cyclones finally got on the board in the fifth, when Daiverson Gutierrez singled home Ronald Hernandez. That 1-0 score held until the eighth, until Jersey score tied it at one and took a 2-1 lead in the ninth (on a Chase Meggers error). Yonatan Henriquez tied it in the bottom of the ninth with a sacrifice fly, pushing us to extras.
The teams traded runs in the tenth, with the Cyclones scoring on a Gutierrez double. Jersey Shore scored on a fielder’s choice in the tenth, and held off the Cyclones in the bottom of the frame.
SS Sammy Stafura: 0-5, 2 K
CF Aidan Smith: 1-4, R, BB, 2 K
RF John Spikerman: 1-4, BB, K
DH Ronald Hernandez: 1-5, R, 2B, 2 K
LF Yonatan Henriquez: 0-4, RBI, K
3B Colin Houck: 1-3, R, 2B, BB, E (16)
C Daiverson Gutierrez: 3-4, 2B, 2 RBI
2B Eddinson Paulino: 1-4, 3B, K, E (1)
1B Chase Meggers: 0-4, K, E (3)
RHP Emilio Obispo: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 3 K
RHP Elwis Mijares: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K, H (1)
RHP Ryan Dollar: 1.0 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K, H (2)
For a game that ended in a such lopsided way, it was actually an interesting game for a while. Jupiter ran out to a 6-0 lead after two, and a 7-3 lead after five, before St. Lucie came roaring back in the sixth. A Bohan Adderley bases loaded walk made it 7-4, and singles by Dylan Carey and Aiden Robbins flipped the game on its head, giving the Cyclones a 8-7 lead.
The good times woukd end there, though.
Jupiter scored two in the bottom of the sixth and seven in the eighth, putting the game to bed.
Dodgers owner Mark Walter in 2019 (Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
In 2012, on the day after Mark Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers, I sat next to Walter in a conference room. To the sports fan, Walter was virtually anonymous: a super rich guy who had made his money running investment and insurance companies.
Walter’s purchase valued the Dodgers and its related assets at a then-record $2.15 billion. That value stunned the sports world. Mark Cuban had bowed out of the bidding, believing the Dodgers were not worth even $1 billion.
I asked Walter why he believed it made business sense to pay three times as much as any major league team had sold for.
“I think you have a few moments in life where you have the opportunity to own an asset and really be a custodian of something that should be multigenerational and iconic,” he said then. “I understand it’s a lot of money. But it’s not as if you can go buy another one tomorrow. … We hope we never, ever are going to sell it.”
That was essentially the point someone who travels within the inner circles of pro sports made to me Wednesday morning, as news broke that Walter had sold the Lakers to Bob Iger, the former Disney chief, and Joshua Kushner.
The Steinbrenner family has owned the New York Yankees for 53 years. Jerry Jones has owned the Dallas Cowboys for 37 years. The Buss family owned the Lakers for 46 years.
These trophy assets are few and far between. Walter had sold the Lakers after less than one year of ownership ratified by the NBA board of governors — and not through a comprehensive bidding process, but to an inquiring caller during the weekend?
“This has more red flags than a May Day parade,” an industry insider said, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize his professional relationships.
The deal, which valued the Lakers at $12.5 billion, was motivated by the spiraling price for an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. After all, if Iger and Kushner might have to pay $10 billion for a startup team, why not call and see if Walter might accept a bit more for one of the marquee franchises in American sports?
Was this a blind call or was Walter looking to sell?
“It was suggested to us that maybe Mark Walter would be interested in selling his stake in the Lakers,” Iger told the California Post.
What did Dodgers president Stan Kasten have to say about that?
“I never knew that. He never said that to me,” Kasten said. “I think he was surprised by it. That’s what he has expressed to me. Mark had no plan to do this. This just came up, and he thought about it and said yes.”
Why might Walter have been interested in selling?
Mark Walter acknowledges a fan before a game against the Cubs in Chicago this month. (Melissa Tamez / Associated Press)
Only he can say for sure, but his companies are under federal investigation for failing to disclose and properly account for billions of dollars of loans among related entities. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Walter’s holding company is trying to raise money that could help pay off or at least pay down those loans, and the Financial Times reported that company assets could be sold or restructured.
No charges have been filed, and investigations can conclude without charges. No allegations of wrongdoing have been made against Walter.
Is there a baseball angle to this?
Among the investment firms Walter’s holding company approached about “deals to raise cash,” according to Bloomberg: the asset management firm owned by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.
Cohen’s firm passed, according to the Financial Times.
When Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers, the runners-up: the bid team of Cohen and Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.
Does Kasten believe the Lakers sale is related to the federal investigation?
“No, that never came up. And Mark and I discussed it,” Kasten said. “So, no, we don’t have any reason to think that. I certainly have no reason to think that.”
What does Walter’s sale of the Lakers mean for the Dodgers?
“It means nothing for the Dodgers,” someone who speaks regularly with Walter said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He owned them long before the Lakers and will own them long after.”
If Walter should later sell the Dodgers, what might have the greatest impact on the team?
Shohei Ohtani has an out clause in his contract if Mark Walter sells the team. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700-million contract with the Dodgers includes an unusual escape clause: If Walter is no longer the controlling owner, or if Andrew Friedman is no longer running the Dodgers’ baseball operations department, Ohtani can opt out of the contract.
Would he?
Way too soon to tell. If major league owners get their way in collective bargaining, the proposed salary cap would mean Ohtani at $70 million could eat up just about one-third of any team’s payroll. And, in his third year with the Dodgers, he has yet to complete a full season as a pitcher, and a left knee in which manager Dave Roberts says Ohtani suffers from “wear and tear” could make him less of a two-way player as the contract winds down.
On the other hand, playing salary might be less of an issue for him than for any other player in baseball. Ohtani is making more than his annual salary — an estimated $125 million this year — from sponsorships and endorsements, and he famously deferred $68 million of each year’s salary so the Dodgers could spend more freely on players that could help him and the team win. After six losing years with the Angels and two World Series championships in two years with the Dodgers, a losing team might not entice Ohtani, no matter how much room it might have under a proposed cap.
Iger used to run Disney. How did Disney’s experience owning the Angels and Mighty Ducks go?
Disney chairman Michael Eisner, left, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, NHL chairman Bruce McNall and Mighty Ducks chairman Jack Lindquist blow duck calls announcing the name of the team in 1993. (Doug Pizac / Associated Press)
Disney dressed the Angels in uniforms derided by one player as “pinstripe pajamas,” put cheerleaders on the dugout roof, and installed a loud “countdown to first pitch.” This all seemed awful at the time but, given the plagues of in-game hosts and teams sporting jerseys in colors far beyond home white and road gray, perhaps Disney was just ahead of its time. And, for the first few years of the franchise, Mighty Ducks gear was some of the hottest merchandise in American sports.
Ultimately, Disney wanted the Angels and Mighty Ducks to launch an “ESPN West” regional sports channel. When that channel collapsed, Disney no longer needed the teams and eventually sold them. The Angels were such a minimal part of Disney’s portfolio that then-chief executive Michael Eisner showed up in the clubhouse and the players had no idea who he was.
Who owned the Angels when they won their one and only World Series championship?
Angels players waive to fans during the World Series title parade in Anaheim in 2002. (Jean-Marc Bouju / Associated Press)
One more try: Why did Walter really sell the Lakers?
“I think it was opportunistic and he found something that made sense to him,” Kasten said. “Mark’s a very sensible guy. But that’s really the only way I can explain it.
“You’ll have to talk to Mark about a more in-depth explanation and good luck.”
Times staff writer Maddie Lee contributed to this report.
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