BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - AUGUST 7: Payton Tolle #70 of the Boston Red Sox reacts after a strikeout during the sixth inning of a game against the Athletics on August 7, 2026 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Malhotra/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) | Getty Images
In Payton Tolle’s season debut against the New York Yankees, he threw a 2-2 changeup to Giancarlo Stanton with the bases loaded. It was the first changeup he threw all season, and Stanton, like everybody else, never saw it coming and whiffed for the first out of the inning.
Payton Tolle is a madman. With nobody out and the bases loaded, he throws his FIRST CHANGEUP OF THE DAY in a 2-2 count. Stanton knows he doesn't want to get to 3-2 and probably thinks he's getting a fastball in the zone, but Tolle has the confidence to pull the string. Insanity. pic.twitter.com/OH3DFf2PiR
In the moment, I was impressed by the pitch call and execution. What I didn’t realize was that it was a sign of things to come.
Through 20 starts, Tolle’s registered a 2.97 ERA and ranks 15th in K-BB% among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched. He’s allowed just three earned runs over his last 20 innings, giving the Red Sox length during a stretch in which their bullpen depth has been tested. Most recently, he went eight shutout innings against the Blue Jays to help the Red Sox snap an eight-game losing streak. If it looks like an ace, and it pitches like an ace, it’s probably an ace. Payton Tolle is becoming an ace.
Last season, Tolle’s emergence was due to his four-seam fastball. He dominated the Pittsburgh Pirates with it in his debut. After that start, his lack of a Plan B was exposed, seeing him demoted to the bullpen for the end of the season. This season, his four-seamer shape has shifted slightly, featuring less vertical and more horizontal movement, but it remains an elite pitch. The swinging strike rate (16.5%) is 4th among 93 pitchers with 500 thrown, while the ideal contact rate is low at 32.8%. It’s not due to just the raw stuff, either. He’s locating the pitch consistently at the top of the zone, where the approach angle helps it play up.
His four-seamer put him on the map, and it continues to anchor his arsenal. The massive strides he’s made in his second season aren’t due to his four-seamer, but his secondary pitches.
Tolle added a sinker this offseason, and it’s been a massive addition to his repertoire. He’s using it 32% of the time against left-handed hitters, and it’s been a huge source of strikes for him at a 70% strike rate. He spots it on the arm side decently enough, and the movement allows it to miss barrels. On top of the high strike rate, it’s returned a 71% groundball rate and a minuscule 22.9% ideal contact rate. Detractors might point to a 0.284 batting average against it, but that’s largely composed of jam-shot singles.
The sinker is a great weapon against lefties, and a solid supporting piece against righties. He’s using it about 18% of the time, which is enough to keep hitters from squaring up the four-seam. The ideal contact rate on his primary fastball has dropped from 50% all the way to 28%. Improved four-seam locations definitely help in that regard, but a second fastball shape is also probably contributing. Here it is in action:
Here's a fun sequence from last night. Tolle throws two four-seam fastballs to Vargas on the inside corner for a CS and a foul. After a curveball, he goes to his sinker. Vargas thinks it's a four-seam that's going to brush him back, but it backs up and freezes him. Dot. pic.twitter.com/k9qUtoee0p
Tolle loves this sequence to RHH. He'll throw the four-seam to the glove side with two strikes, and if he misses, he can go to the sinker that starts in the same spot but tracks back to freeze the hitter.
Last season, at 3-2, he’d likely be challenging the hitter with a four-seam fastball in the zone. Hitters knew it and were able to gear up for it. This sequence isn’t some sort of magic cheat code, but rather one example of how more quality pitches give hitters different looks to worry about. With a new sinker (and other improved pitches), he’s been able to mitigate that issue, avoid barrels, and continue to rack up strikeouts.
With a four-seam and sinker to get ahead of hitters, Tolle has been able to use his cutter more effectively as well. Among pitchers with at least 150 cutters thrown, Tolle’s ranks third in swinging strike rate (19.2%) behind only Brayan Bello (huh???) and Jose Alvarado. He uses it against both sides of the plate, but the performance against righties has been particularly strong.
You’ll notice two hot zones for Tolle’s cutters to righties: on the glove side and at the top of the zone. Those at the top of the zone are primarily early in counts as Tolle looks to steal called strikes. Deeper in counts, he’s done a solid job at getting the pitch to the glove side, where he’s been able to rack up whiffs. He’ll miss on the arm side with some regularity, but those misses have mostly been fouled off rather than being punished. In addition to the whiffs, there’s been plenty of weak contact as the cutter gets in on the hands of righties, jamming them regularly. For a third offering, it’s been a great one.
So that’s three fastballs, ranging from 88 to 99 mph, each covering a different part of the plate. We’re done, right? Wrong. There’s a curveball, and it’s a surprisingly good one. Tolle’s strength has always been power. In the offseason, I was banging the drum for him to add a sinker to play off that strength, because I thought it was an easy enough way to add strikes to his repertoire. Improving his feel for the curveball was a development I didn’t see happening, at least not so soon, but it has.
His curveball only accounts for about ten percent of his pitches, but it’s the perfect surprise pitch with everything else being hard. The zone rate is about 40%, due to him occasionally dropping the pitch in to steal called strikes. Deeper in counts, he’s shown the ability to spot it down and away, and he’s only getting better.
Apologies for the tiny text, but these are Tolle’s two-strike curveballs by month. From March through June, he didn’t quite have a feel for it. Since the start of July, however, he’s hit that spot regularly. Here it is again if we look by season half.
Since the start of the second half, his curveball has a 30% swinging strike rate with two strikes. With the high-octane fastballs in his back pocket, the curveball can make hitters look ridiculous, like this:
And that changeup that I showed at the beginning? Well, he hasn’t figured that one out yet. Everything else has been so good, though, that a changeup at this point is just gravy.
Tolle’s next start is today against the Arizona Diamondbacks. If you remember last season, the Diamondbacks are the lineup that brought Tolle back down to earth after his electric debut, tagging him for five earned runs over just three innings. They pounced on his fastball as he couldn’t land anything else for strikes, citing the Trajekt machine as key in their preparations for the lefty. This time around, the D’Backs won’t have the Trajekt machine at Fenway, and Tolle has a host of new weapons to navigate the lineup with. Workload remains a concern for the second-year pro, but the Red Sox will need to lean on him down the stretch to remain in the playoff race. He hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down at this point and appears to only be getting better.
CLEVELAND, OH - OCTOBER 17: Gordon Hayward #20 of the Boston Celtics is sits on the floor after being injured while playing the Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena on October 17, 2017 in Cleveland, Ohio. 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. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Normally, entertaining a ‘What if?’ scenario is a fun exercise. You change one thing, start pulling on the thread and see how ridiculous you can make everything on the other end. Maybe Kevin Durant actually says yes to Tom Brady’s recruiting pitch. Maybe Danny Ainge finally cashes in the war chest on Anthony Davis without sacrificing either Jay.
Considering what if Gordon Hayward never got hurt is not a fun exercise.
If you give me the power to go back to October 17, 2017, there is no debate: I’m grabbing Hayward out of midair like an overprotective parent catching a toddler jumping off the couch. I’m moving Jae Crowder six feet to his left. I’m running onto the court and blocking Kyrie’s lob pass. I’ll pull the fire alarm at Quicken Loans Arena if I have to.
Anything to keep Hayward from landing the way he did.
The problem comes after that.
Less than three weeks after the injury, Hayward spoke to reporters at the Celtics’ practice facility about what those first few weeks had been like.
“I still have negative thoughts; it’s hard not to, especially when you watch the games,” Hayward said during that November 2017 press conference. “I think I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t have those thoughts.”
There’s no version where I’m rooting for the injury because of what it may have accidentally set in motion. But for a franchise that eventually got Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown and Banner 18 out of the real timeline, I’m increasingly nervous about what else I’m undoing by preventing it.
So…how good was that team supposed to be?
In short? Really, really good.
I think time has flattened the 2017-2018 Celtics into “that team Gordon Hayward got hurt on,” which undersells how absurd the setup looked before Opening Night.
Hayward was 27 years old and coming off the best season of his career in Utah. He had averaged 21.9 points, had just made his first All-Star team and looked like the exact kind of big, versatile wing Brad Stevens could build an offense around.
On top of that, Boston had just traded Isaiah Thomas for Kyrie Irving.
All of a sudden, Stevens had Irving, Hayward and prime Al Horford, plus a 21-year-old Jaylen Brown and this 19-year-old rookie named Jayson Tatum who seemed mildly promising.
Golden State was still the championship favorite, but Boston entered the season looking like Cleveland’s biggest threat in the East, if not the favorite.
We technically saw that team for about five minutes, which is roughly enough time to decide whether I want leftovers for lunch, not enough to evaluate an NBA contender.
Boston responded to losing Hayward by winning 55 games anyway.
That’s the part that makes this thought experiment immediately dangerous. The Celtics lost the player who was supposed to be their second-best offensive option. They eventually lost Irving for the playoffs, too.
And yet, they still came within one home Game 7 of reaching the Finals. Boston lost that game by eight while Terry Rozier shot 2-of-14 from three and Tatum, who was technically still supposed to be figuring out where the team cafeteria was, became its best offensive player.
With a healthy Hayward, I think Boston reaches the Finals. Boston already had an elite defense, and he would have given them another half-court creator when possessions slowed down and Tatum was being asked to carry far too much offense for a 20-year-old. Beating the Durant-Curry Warriors is another matter. I’m not turning this into fan fiction.
Still, even getting to the Finals changes everything that comes next.
Brad Stevens said at the time that his focus was on Hayward and “trying to make sure that we maximize this group that we have right now.”
Maximizing that group meant finding out much sooner than expected what Tatum and Brown could handle.
The Jays were asked to grow up, then showed up
Hayward’s injury didn’t create Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown. Suggesting two future All-NBA players needed somebody else to suffer a catastrophic injury to become great feels both ridiculous and kind of gross. What the injury changed was the timeline.
Tatum went from talented rookie joining a contender to starting 80 games. Brown jumped from 17.2 minutes per game as a rookie to more than 30 in Year 2. Suddenly, Boston wasn’t developing its future somewhere behind Irving and Hayward. The future was suddenly playing 30+ minutes a night because Boston no longer had the luxury of bringing it along slowly.
If the regular season was an audition, the playoffs proved the Jays were ready for much bigger parts.
#otd in 2018 Al Horford and Terry Rozier combined for 52 points on 23-33 shooting and rookie Jayson Tatum added 20 on his own as the Celtics won Game 7 in their first-round playoff series and sent the Bucks home ☘️ pic.twitter.com/bnBinOLOSo
Tatum averaged 18.5 points over 19 postseason games. Brown averaged 18.0. By May, neither looked particularly interested in waiting for permission to become important.
We all remember the defining image from that postseason run. Tatum gets downhill in Game 7 against Cleveland, rises over LeBron James and absolutely detonates one on his head, then has the audacity to chest-bump him on the way back down the floor.
He was 20. At 20, I was leading my co-ed intramural basketball team to a hard-earned second-place finish and cramming for a Greek mythology exam I was woefully unprepared for.
That playoff run was massively important. Not because it magically turned Tatum and Brown into stars, but because Boston learned something about their two young wings much earlier than expected.
So did they.
Years later, Hayward essentially said as much himself. During a 2024 appearance on Podcast P with Paul George (ha), he described what Tatum, Brown and Rozier brought back with them after that unexpected run.
“They’re all trying to prove, like, ‘We’ve arrived,’” Hayward said.
Of course they were. They had just spent two months proving it.
Now put Hayward back into the mix.
Tatum is still playing, obviously. Brown is still playing. But Hayward needs the ball. Kyrie needs the ball. Horford is central to everything Boston does. Marcus Morris exists and, as Celtics fans may recall, Marcus Morris did not consider shot attempts a finite natural resource.
Maybe the Jays develop exactly the same way with fewer touches, or maybe Boston delays discovering exactly how ready they already were.
Boston found out earlier than expected that they were more than ready.
Okay, but what about 2019?
This is actually the season I keep coming back to.
It might feel like ancient history at this point, or people may be choosing to forget as quickly as possible, but the 2018-19 Celtics were…weird. Bad weird.
Boston entered the year with a roster that looked awesome on paper. Irving was back. Hayward was ready to make his grand return. Tatum and Brown had just taken LeBron to Game 7. Terry Rozier had evolved into Scary Terry. Horford, the ageless wonder that he is, was still Horford.
There were approximately nine players who could make a reasonable argument that they deserved more touches going into the season.
Hayward eventually gave that season a wonderfully blunt autopsy. Speaking on that same Podcast P episode, he said, “We all had too many agendas, and the agenda to win the whole thing was not the main one.”
"We all had too many agendas, and the agenda to win the whole thing wasn't the main one."
— Podcast P with Paul George (@PodcastPShow) January 1, 2024
Oof. Again, bad weird.
Hayward also pointed to the roster construction. Boston had, in his words, “too many of us in the exact same position.” A whole lot of very talented people needed the basketball, and the NBA had stubbornly refused to introduce a second one.
What was supposed to be a successful year turned into the Celtics winning 49 games and spending most of the season looking like a group project where everybody had completed their portion separately.
Hayward was part of that traffic jam through no real fault of his own. He was trying to become an NBA player again while reclaiming a role on a team that had learned how to win without him. Across three seasons in Boston, he appeared in only 125 regular-season games and started 71.
A healthy Hayward changes the hierarchy entirely. Instead of fighting to rediscover Utah Gordon, he enters 2018-19 with an established role beside Irving as a scorer, creator and connective piece. Tatum and Brown are still ascending, but Boston isn’t simultaneously reintegrating an All-Star and asking its young guys to surrender responsibilities they had just earned in May.
Even when Hayward finally began looking like himself again in 2019-20, he fractured his hand eight games into the season and needed surgery.
Maybe, if Hayward stays healthy, he stabilizes the whole thing. Maybe Kyrie even enjoys himself.
Okay, perhaps too far. But this is my ‘What if?’ article, let me dream!
If that 2019 season goes differently, everything afterward becomes impossible to predict. Kyrie’s departure suddenly feels less inevitable. Maybe Horford stays, too. Hayward may actually finish his contract in Boston.
And Tatum and Brown are sitting there waiting.
The Trader Danny dilemma
Any interest in playing a stress-inducing little game? No? Well, we’re going to play anyway.
It’s 2020. Hayward is healthy, Tatum looks like a star, and Brown remains a tantalizing young wing but hasn’t gotten quite the same runway.
Then, in November, James Harden asks out of Houston.
Now we’re having a real conversation.
A Woj bomb hits your brand-new iPhone SE while you’re washing bananas in the sink because it’s 2020. Woj says that Boston is monitoring the situation. Danny Ainge begins lurking, as Danny Ainge is prone to do.
Houston wants a young star and draft capital. In our altered timeline, Brown may not yet have become the no-doubt untouchable player he eventually became in Boston. A package built around Brown, Marcus Smart and first-round picks is suddenly sitting there on Ainge’s desk.
With Hayward healthy, Tatum already looking like a star and Kemba still running point, does Ainge decide Harden is the scorer who puts Boston over the top and cash Brown in for the superstar he spent years hoarding assets to chase?
We know what happened in reality. Boston kept Brown. He developed into an All-NBA player, won Finals MVP and eventually helped hang Banner 18. Does Ainge make the same decision if Brown’s early career looks different because prime Hayward has occupied one of those wing spots?
Like I said, stress-inducing.
We tend to imagine alternate history while keeping all the things we liked from the original version. Hayward stays healthy, Boston gets better, Tatum still becomes Tatum, Brown still becomes Brown, everybody remains happy, and eventually several championship banners descend from the Garden rafters while Al Horford is elected mayor of Boston.
Sorry, but that’s cheating. If Hayward doesn’t get hurt, you don’t get to keep everything else.
There’s absolutely a timeline where a healthy Hayward helps Boston win Banner 18 years earlier. Maybe Banner 19 comes after it.
There’s also one where changing 2017 costs Boston pieces of the future we now know worked.
Nine years later, we know where the road led
Eventually, Boston got back to the mountaintop.
Not cleanly. Good lord, not cleanly.
Irving left. Hayward left. Horford left, eventually came back, and then left again. Coaches changed. Kemba’s knee stopped cooperating. Somehow Joe Mazzulla inherited the whole thing under circumstances that would have plunged plenty of franchises into the deepest depths of the standings.
Through all of that churn, Tatum and Brown were the part Boston never had to replace. They kept getting better until eventually they led a dominant team to Banner 18. Now they’ve finally been separated, and both still seem capable of adding another chapter to careers that started accelerating the night Hayward went down.
That’s what makes this particular ‘What if?’ so uncomfortable for me. Hayward is the rare one where I desperately want to change the event while being terrified of changing the outcome.
A couple weeks after the injury, Hayward was shooting from a chair while he began a recovery that would consume most of the next year. At the time, I remember being ecstatic to hear even that much progress.
“Just to be out on the court and holding the basketball, that was an incredible feeling,” Hayward said during his first post-injury press conference.
That quote hits differently now. At the time, it sounded hopeful. Gordon was back in the gym. The rehab had started. Eventually he’d return, and maybe everything the Celtics envisioned in July 2017 was still sitting there waiting for him.
Knowing how his Boston career actually unfolded, it reads much sadder. The Hayward story here never really became a comeback story. He had good stretches and moments where Utah Gordon seemed ready to reappear, but another injury always seemed to arrive before the story could fully materialize.
His Celtics tenure is remembered far more for what disappeared on that first night than for anything he ultimately got to build afterward.
Despite it all, given the choice, I’m still saving Gordon Hayward. Every single time.
Beyond all the basketball calculus, Hayward always seemed like someone worth rooting for. I care about that stuff. It’s easier to invest in the people wearing Celtics jerseys when you like who they appear to be outside of them, too. If I have the power to erase something that took that kind of physical and mental toll on him, I’m doing it.
Could that delay the development of Tatum and Brown? Sure. It also might have given Boston a much better team while they developed and became superstars all the same.
So if someone hands me the keys to Doc Brown’s DeLorean, I know where I’m going first: October 17, 2017. After that, maybe I’ll punch 2046 into the dashboard and see whether Deuce Tatum and Hendrix White have finally delivered Banner 27.
The rising cost of attending Major League Baseball games will always be a topic of conversation, with the prices of concessions and parking making a day at the ballpark cost a small fortune for many families.
Teams have begun presenting family-friendly ticket packages that include food and beverages, but things really add up beyond the staples including in such deals. It's hard to believe that parking cost less than $10 even in markets like New York less than 30 years ago.
Here's a look at the most expensive ballparks to visit for a family of four, according to Bookies.com's fan cost study, which includes four tickets, a parking pass, two beers, two sodas and four hot dogs.
After re-signing Hunter McDonald to a two-year contract on Tuesday, the Philadelphia Flyers have all of their free agents under contract and accounted for, but for the freshly inked defenseman, time is already ticking.
McDonald, 24, re-upped with the Flyers on a two-year, $1.83 million contract that carries a cap hit of $912.5k, with 2026-27 being a two-way year and 2027-28 being a one-way year.
As an aside to address a common misconception, the only difference between the two-way and one-way years is the amount McDonald gets paid, and not whether or not he'll go to the AHL. This season, McDonald's salary will be $250k in the AHL and $900k in the NHL.
Regardless of that, though, the burly 6-foot-4 defenseman has earned himself another contract with the Flyers, but he'll be under pressure to quickly make an impact.
At the left defense position, McDonald will need to wrest a roster spot away from a veteran like Simon Benoit and Nick Seeler, who have one and two years remaining on their contracts, respectively.
He'll also face some competition from fellow prospect Ty Murchison, who made his NHL debut before McDonald did and is a year younger. Murchison, too, has a lot to play for this year, as he's coming back from a season-ending injury and heading into a contract year.
But, even if McDonald manages to fend off Murchison and pip one of the vets for playing time, 2026 first-round pick Maksim Sokolovskii will be on the way in a few years.
That's all to say that, the sooner McDonald can establish himself and carve out a role, the better it will be for him and the Flyers.
Outside of Sokolovskii, the crop of young players on the left is bare and unremarkable, especially after the departure of Emil Andrae, but a step forward from McDonald can help change that perception.
After all, the former fifth-rounder will be 25 by the end of the new season, but he's managed to appear in just one NHL game thus far, recording an assist in his debut in an insubstantial Game 82 matchup with the Montreal Canadiens back in April, after the Flyers had already secured their place in the Stanley Cup playoffs.
After 147 regular season games with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms across parts of four seasons, the time is now for McDonald to take the next step forward for the Flyers, and the short-term, varying-income contract is the organization's way of telling him to go get it.
It's worth noting, too, that if McDonald shows well in training camp and impresses Rick Tocchet and the Flyers, the front office has options.
Seeler, 33, has two years remaining on his contract at a $2.7 million cap hit with his trade protection expiring on July 1, while Benoit, the newcomer, carries a modest $1.35 million cap hit.
Both players are easily tradeable, if necessary, with their reasonable cap hits, and if Benoit hypothetically had no takers on the trade market or waivers, his cap hit is almost fully buriable in the AHL.
The Flyers have generally done well to leave themselves a back-door escape or backup option if someone falters.
A declining veteran always has a fledgling replacement waiting in the wings, and failsafe options are stocked in the cupboard if a young prospect isn't ready for a prominent NHL role with the Flyers.
The Flyers have long been bullish on the physical McDonald's upside as a third-pair bully, and it's up to the player now to gain his wings and take off before time runs out.
Next on this list of the top 10 Toronto Maple Leafs prospects is Noah Chadwick, ranked at No. 7.
The players in this ranking do not have extensive NHL experience and are all under 23. Therefore, players such as William Villeneuve, Artur Akhtyamov and Easton Cowan, among others, won't feature in this ranking for either or both of those particular reasons.
In terms of where these players fall in the rankings, it is a mix of their ceiling and potential, as well as how they've performed in the past year with their respective clubs.
Chadwick was a late pick by the Maple Leafs in the 2023 NHL draft, selected 185th overall in the sixth round. Though he was selected late in his draft class, the left-handed defenseman has developed like a player who was taken in the first three rounds.
The season before Toronto drafted Chadwick in 2022-23, his first full WHL campaign with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, the blueliner recorded five goals and 20 points in 67 appearances.
But in 2023-24, the season after the Maple Leafs drafted him, Chadwick developed soundly and produced efficiently from the back end. By the end of that campaign, he finished in the top 10 among WHL defensemen in scoring with 12 goals and 56 points in 66 games. His numbers were also good enough to finish fifth on the team in scoring and lead all D-men on the Hurricanes.
The 6-foot-4 Chadwick wasn't only evolving as a hockey player, but also as a leader. He was an alternate captain during 2023-24 and was named captain of Lethbridge the following season.
Chadwick was just as impressive for the Hurricanes with the 'C' on his chest. He registered 13 goals and 53 points in 66 regular-season outings, but really stepped into the light with his post-season performance.
Lethbridge advanced to the third round of the 2025 WHL playoffs, and plenty of that had to do with how Chadwick stepped up. The Saskatoon native recorded seven goals and 14 points in those 16 playoff games. He tied for third in team playoff scoring and was among the league's top scorers in his position. The Hurricanes wound up getting eliminated by Gavin McKenna and the Medicine Hat Tigers.
After his standout performance in his final season of junior hockey, Chadwick joined the Toronto Marlies in the AHL this past year.
Chadwick mostly looked the part in his rookie season in the American League. He ended the year with five goals and 23 points in the regular season, notching a minus-two rating.
He doesn't have the same responsibility as he did with the Hurricanes, of course, meaning he doesn't see the ice as much as defensemen such as Villeneuve, Dakota Mermis or a healthy Marshall Rifai. However, just like in Jr., his role will continue to expand, especially with Henry Thrun now a member of the Winnipeg Jets.
In the midst of all this growth that Chadwick has endured, he is still 21 years old with plenty of room to improve this coming season. A Calder Cup championship could only make this player more confident in his abilities as a defenseman and more comfortable as the leader he's proven to be at previous levels in hockey.
See more of The Hockey News on Google — Save us as Preferred Source
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.
Bruno Fernandes and Youri Tielemans will be key to Michael Carrick’s chances of success over a full season and of healing the rift between club and fans
Guardian writers’ predicted position: 5th (NB: this is not necessarily Jamie Jackson’s prediction but the average of our writers’ tips)
Just last week, former Illinois defensive back Devon Witherspoon inked a four-year, $132 million extension, making him the highest-paid cornerback in NFL history.
Witherspoon has come a long way from representing the Orange and Blue at Memorial Stadium, and is obviously cashing in the big bucks at the next level.
But he’s not the only former Illini who has gotten paid in the pros.
With that being said, let’s switch lanes to the hardwood.
Here are the three highest-earning former Illinois players in the NBA:
MEYERS LEONARD – $60,150,630
One of the best big men in recent memory for Illinois, Meyers Leonard went on to build a pretty solid NBA career and make some good money.
After getting drafted 11th overall in the 2012 NBA Draft, Leonard spent 11 seasons in the league with the Portland Trailblazers, Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks.
His career earnings from NBA contracts came in at just over $60 million, the bulk of which came from a four-year, $41 million deal he signed after his rookie contract was up with the Blazers.
AYO DOSUNMU – $135,488,776
The man who gets a lot of the credit for helping turn Illinois basketball around comes in at No. 2 on this list, the one and only Ayo Dosunmu.
During his time as an Illini, Dosunmu averaged 16.7 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game and was a First-Team All-American.
Yet, he slipped to the second round of the NBA Draft and landed with the Chicago Bulls, where he spent the first four and a half seasons of his career before getting dealt to the Minnesota Timberwolves at last year’s trade deadline.
Just this past offseason, Dosunmu signed a monster deal to stay in Minnesota, good for five years and a fully guaranteed $112 million. By the end of that deal in 2031, he’ll have made over $135 million in the NBA and still be just 31 years old.
DERON WILLIAMS – $159,486,361
One of the faces of the Illini’s national runner-up team in 2005 — and one of the best players in program history — Deron Williams comes in with the most career earnings of all former Illinois hoopers.
After a historic college career, Williams was selected 3rd overall in the 2005 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz. During his 14-year career, he also played for the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Mavericks and Cleveland Cavaliers.
D-Will was a three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA guard, received MVP votes in several seasons and was consistently one of the premier bucket-getters in the NBA.
He made just under $160 million in his professional career, a worthy reflection of what an impressive player he was.
San Antonio Spurs' French basket ball player Victor Wembanyama arrives for the Louis Vuitton Menswear Spring/Summer 2027 collection fashion show as part of the Paris Fashion Week, in Paris on June 23, 2026. (Photo by SIMON WOHLFAHRT / AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images
Victor Wembanyama is all about basketball…during the season. From the tip off of preseason until the fateful end of the NBA Finals, Wemby is locked in and focused on the Spurs winning as many games as possible. When he is not in the heat of competition, he seeks out ways to better himself. During off seasons, he works out with a variety of NBA legends as he broadens his understanding of the game and adds to already incredible talent.
He also shifts away from basketball in the summer in hopes of bettering himself as a human being. He has previously traveled, read, visited museums, and spent time learning new skills including a stint with Shaolin monks in China.
This summer, Victor has been working out with the French Rugby Team. He attended a fashion show. He’s hosted another Hoops Gambit, helped unveil an updated basketball court, and spent time in Paris with his fellow Spurs teammates visiting the Louvre. Wemby admits that he seeks out these respite activities as he continues to find balance both on and off the court.
Victor Wembanyama on his busy summer schedule (mini-training camp with teammates, Hoop Gambit, and training with Province Rugby):
“I tried to disconnect as much as I could this summer. It will help me – just like all my past experiences – learning from various people. Having my… pic.twitter.com/gENaMKQAWz
“I tried to disconnect as much as I could this summer. It will help me – just like all my past experiences – learning from various people. Having my Spurs teammates come to Paris was great for long-term team chemistry. I can’t give a specific example, but everything I learn in life serves me well.”
Wembanyama is now poised to play two exhibition matches against Serbia with his French national team. The games are on August 20th and 23rd, before the official 2027 FIBA World Cup European Qualifiers begin.
Welcome to The Thread. Join in the conversation, start your own discussion, and share your thoughts. This is the Spurs community, your Spurs community. Thanks for being here.
Our community guidelines apply which should remind everyone to be cool, avoid personal attacks, do not troll and watch the language.
Happy birthday to Rocky Cherry, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1951 – Wearing uniform number 1/8, forty-three-inch-tall Eddie Gaedelwalks on four pitches from Bob Cain in his only major league appearance. Bill Veeck‘s idea of playing the midget was legal at the time but is later outlawed, and other stories as well.
1931 – At Chicago, Lefty Grove (25-2) wins his 16th consecutive game, 4-2, tying the American League record set by Walter Johnson and Joe Wood in 1912. Grove holds the Sox scoreless till the 9th, while the A’s score in the second, third and eighth off Red Faber. Grove has completed all but one of the wins.
1965 – At San Francisco, Don Drysdale faces Warren Spahn in the start of a critical four-game series. Drysdale lasts longer than Spahn, allowing five runs through eleven innings and leaves with the game tied. The Dodgers win it in 15 innings, 6-5.
1968 – Bob Gibson pitches the Cardinals to a 2-0 win over the Phillies. Gibson strikes out Dick Allen four times, the seventh time this season the Phils’ slugger has K’ed four times. He will strike out a career-high 161 times this season.
1974 – Reds 2B Joe Morgan drives in seven runs as Cincinnati rolls over Philadelphia, 15-2. Morgan has a grand slam and a three-run homer, then leaves after three innings when the Reds build a 14-0 lead.
1980 – Jon Matlack holds George Brett hitless, snapping his hitting streak at 30 consecutive games. Brett batted .467 during the streak and knocked in 42 runs.
2007 – Greg Maddux moves up the historical charts, as he ties Tim Keefe for ninth all-time with 349 wins. Maddux aids his cause with two hits in two at-bats.
1969 – John Hollison dies in Chicago at age 99. He was the last surviving major league pitcher to throw from a mound 50 feet from home plate. He pitched in one game in 1892.
1665 – World’s “most mysterious book,” a codex known as the Voynich manuscript, written in an unknown script, is sent by a rector of Prague University to a Jesuit scholar (now in Yale University Library and still undeciphered) in 1666.
1839 – Louis Daguerre‘s daguerreotype photographic process with complete working instructions is published “free to the world” in Paris as a gift from the French government.
1909 – “Wild” Bob Burman wins his first major auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, earning the Prest-O-Lite Trophy; the 100-lap, 250-mile race is completed by only three of the nine cars, and one racer and a mechanic are killed in a crash.
1934 – The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio
1958 – NAACP Youth Council begins a sit-in at a “whites-only” lunch counter at Katz Drug Store in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
1960 – American CIA pilot Francis Gary Powers is convicted of spying by the USSR (U-2 incident) and sentenced to 3 years in prison plus 7 in a labor camp; he serves 17 months before being exchanged for a captured Soviet KGB spy.
1993 – Dow Jones Industrial Average hits record high of 3612.13.
2004 – US gymnast Carly Patterson becomes the second American woman to win the all-around gold medal and the first to win at a non-boycotted Olympic Games when she takes gold in Athens.
Today in music history:
1955 – WINS radio in New York City announces it will not play white cover versions of R&B records, opting instead to play Fats Domino‘s “Ain’t That A Shame” rather than Pat Boone’s.
1966 – The Beatles are pelted with rotten fruit and firecrackers during a concert at the Mid-South Coliseum in Memphis, Tennessee; the Ku Klux Klan demonstrates outside the show and burns records.
1979 – “My Sharona” by The Knack hits No. 1 and stays at the top for six weeks.
2008 – Interscope Records releases “The Fame,” the debut album by Lady Gaga.
Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Derek Hill takes batting practice before a baseball game against the Minnesota Twins Aug. 13, 2026 at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. | USA TODAY Network via Reuters Co
I think I have it figured out.
Don’t let this umpiring crew call anything down the right field line. There seems to be some kind of allergy to getting the call right the first time, even if it’s on the easier side.
Jun 7, 2025; West Sacramento, California, USA; Baltimore Orioles pitcher Felix Bautista (74) throws a pitch against the Athletics during the ninth inning at Sutter Health Park. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Lee-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Good morning Birdland,
Those two days where the Orioles held a playoff spot were pretty cool, huh? We will remember them fondly.
The team has dropped back to one game out of the final wild card spot after their 3-1 loss to the Yankees on Tuesday night. The Rangers, Twins, Blue Jays, and Guardians all won, so it was not a good night for the O’s and their playoff hopes.
The loss falls at the feet of the offense. Coby Mayo’s solo homer in the third inning was all they could muster. Throughout the rest of the game they had just three hits and went 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position. Tough to win games with only one run.
Side note: Mayo now has a 101 wRC+ on the season. Not just against lefties, or since June 1 or whatever, no crazy splits. None of that. The guy has now been a (slightly) above average hitter on the season. That’s pretty cool. Maybe the Orioles have something on their hands after all.
Shane Baz was quite good yet again. The guy just cannot get any run support. He struck out a season high 10 over his 6.1 innings, and the three runs he allowed was slightly elevated because Josh Walker came on and allowed both inherited runners to score. It doesn’t feel like the Orioles have any pitcher in their bullpen right now that you can trust all that much. They are all prone to implosions.
The O’s will give it another try on Wednesday night with Chris Bassitt (4-4, 5.11 ERA) on the mound to face Will Warren (8-6, 4.42 ERA). It’s another 6:35 first pitch.
Links
Orioles updates on Basallo, Alexander, Bautista and more | Roch Kubatko There was some positive news yesterday. We know that Samuel Basallo is getting close to a return. He has played a couple of rehab games, and Craig Albernaz said he could be back later this week. Then the team relayed that Blaze Alexander and Félix Bautista (!!!) are expected to begin rehab assignments within a week. The Alexander news is expected, but Bautista!?! The team has been optimistic there, and it’s likely that they will take things slow. But boy would it be a boost to get his arm in the bullpen sometime in September for the final couple of weeks.
Former Oriole Trey Mancini retiring after making comeback in 2026 | Roch Kubatko What a career and what a story for Trey Mancini. He came back from cancer to play baseball at a high level and win a World Series, then he came back a second time when it seemed like the league had totally moved on. The 34-year-old achieved his goal of getting back to the majors this season and should be darn proud of himself for doing so. I’m sure even bigger things await him beyond his playing career.
Brandon Young turns 28 today. The second-year pitcher has been a savior for the Orioles rotation this season, compiling a 3.52 ERA over 117.2 innings.
J.J. Hardy is 44 years old. He brought a rare combination of power and slick fielding to the shortstop position during the Orioles return to relevance from 2011 through 2017. Hardy won three Gold Gloves, went to one All-Star Game, and took home a Silver Slugger during his time in Baltimore. The O’s added him to their team Hall of Fame in 2021.
Lance Cormier turns 46. He worked out of the Orioles bullpen throughout the 2008 season.
Rocky Cherry is 47 years old. His time with the Orioles spanned two seasons from 2007 through ‘08, when he was an up-and-down reliever for the club.
Luis DeLeón is 68. The righty pitched in 11 games as a reliever for the 1987 Orioles.
Paul Mitchell turns 77. His six-year MLB career began in Baltimore, where he played in 11 games for the 1975 Birds.
The late Jim Lehew (b. 1937, d. 2016) was born on this day. A Baltimore native, Lehew played in parts of two seasons with his hometown Orioles from 1961 to ‘62.
This day in O’s history
1980 – Steve Stone becomes MLB’s first pitcher to get to 20 wins this season as the O’s beat the Angels 5-2.
2001 – The Orioles storm back from a 6-1 deficit to beat the Red Sox 13-7. Jeff Conine has five hits, three different Orioles have three RBI each, and the team steals five bases off of Hideo Nomo.
2016 – The Orioles set a modern record by hitting four home runs before making their first out in their first turn at-bat. Adam Jones, Manny Machado, Chris Davis, and Mark Trumbo all go deep in the first inning to take a 5-1 lead, but it wouldn’t be enough. The Astros score five of their own runs in the second inning and go on to win 15-8.
The Detroit Tigers were unable to seal the deal on Tuesday night, falling to the Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-1, to even the weekday series at PNC Park. Brett Callahan hit his first major league home run, but that was all the offense the good guy got while Keider Montero was extremely mid on the mound for the Olde English D.
Toeing the rubber in the series finale for the Motor City Kitties is right-hander Jackson Jobe, who will be making his third start of the season after returning from Tommy John surgery. The 24-year-old looked good in his debut but got roughed up by the Chicago White Sox the last time out, coughing up six runs on nine hits (two homers) and a walk while striking out four over 3 2/3 innings to take the loss in a 9-5 defeat at Comerica Park.
Up against Jobe for the Bucs is fellow righty Paul Skenes, who has been great this season but a tick below the astronomic he set for himself during his first two years in the league. In the 24-year-old’s last four outings since his last quality start, Skenes has posted a bloated 6.52 ERA along with a very mediocre 4.22 FIP over 19 1/3 innings, allowing 20 hits (three homers) and 11 walks while striking out 18, hitting a batter and throwing a wild pitch, resulting in three personal losses and four for his team.
Here is a look at how the two 24-year-olds match up on paper for the rubber match of the three-game series on Wednesday afternoon.
Detroit Tigers (61-65) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (62-66)
Time (ET): 12:35 p.m. Place: PNC Park, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania SB Nation Site:Bucs Dugout Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Game 127: RHP Jackson Jobe (1-1, 6.23 ERA) vs. RHP Paul Skenes (9-11, 3.88 ERA)
Syracuse won their opening game against the Woosox, powered by good hitting and good pitching. On the hitting side, Ronny Mauricio was perfect at the plate and drove in three, and on the pitching side, Xzavion Curry and Tobias Myers combined to allow a single run on two combined hits.
Jefferson Rojas put the Rumble Ponies on the board in the bottom of the first with a two-run homer, but Gary Gill Hill gave both of those runs back in the top of the second. The right-hander settled down after that, not allowing another run and tossing six innings in total. In the seventh, the newly reactivated Felipe De La Cruz allowed a run and it looked like that was going to be that, but in the bottom of the ninth, Binghamton rallied. Rojas was in the middle of things once again, driving in a run on a double and then Chris Suero ended things with a game winning sac fly.
The top of the Brooklyn order struggled, with Sammy Stafura going 0-6 and Elian Pena going 0-4, but the bottom half of the line-up had their back, going a collective 8-22 with 7 runs driven in. The Cyclones offense really broke this one open in the later innings, scoring four runs in the seventh, two in the eighth, and one more for good measure in the ninth.
Toeing the rubber for the first time since Spring Training, when he was placed on the 60-Day Injured List due to a fractured rib, Justin Hagenman threw 2.1 innings and allowed a run on three hits and a walk, striking out three. The right-hander threw 43 pitches, 25 for strikes, and got 9 swings and misses. Things quickly went downhill for St. Lucie as the bullpen was extremely leaky, with Owen Woodward, Jose Lopez, and Tyler McLoughlin combining to allow nine runs.
The Athletic has published its NHL pipeline rankings, and journalist Corey Pronman ranks the Montreal Canadiens’ pipeline third, behind the league-leading San Jose Sharks and the Anaheim Ducks. For these rankings, Pronman focused on players 22 or younger as of September 15, 2026.
In his analysis of the Canadiens’ pipeline, he takes a closer look at 19 of the Canadiens’ prospects, including four netminders. The article includes a few surprising takes, but none more than his assessment of Jacob Fowler. Pronman wraps up his write-up on the Florida native with this statement: He projects as a quality backup goalie.
Granted, right now, the 21-year-old is not first on the Canadiens’ depth chart in goal, even though he has long been seen as the Habs’ goaltender of the future. While that may still be true, Jakub Dobes’ playoff performance has reminded everyone that there is a present before that future and that he’s very much in it.
He had such a solid rookie season that the team signed him to a three-year contract extension, which is a testament to the trust the organization has in him. The deal carries a $5,357,575 cap hit and a modified no-trade clause for the last two seasons, in which he can give a list of seven teams he cannot be traded to. Clearly, he has impressed with his performance, but Kent Hughes didn’t sign him to a long-term contract, and that’s in part because the Canadiens also have Fowler.
The 6-foot-1 and 223-pound goaltender was drafted in the third round by the Canadiens with the 69th overall pick at the 2023 draft. Since Montreal selected him, Fowler has impressed at every level. In his first year in the NCAA, he posted a 2.14 goals-against average, a .926 save percentage, and a 32-6-1 record, including seven shutouts. In his second year at Boston College, he went 25-7-2 with a 1.63 GAA, a .940 SV, and seven shutouts. Last season, with the Laval Rocket, he went 19-7-1 with a 2.23 GAA, a .916 SV, and three shutouts. Because of Samuel Montembeault’s struggle, he was given an extended look at the NHL level and went 9-6-2, with a 2.43 GAA, a .908 SV and one shutout.
While Pronman has a point when he says that Fowler is average-sized at best and that he doesn’t have true premier athleticism for the NHL, he may not need it. What Fowler lacks in size and athleticism, he makes up for with strong positioning and nerves of steel. He was more of a " thrown to the lions this past season when the Canadiens found themselves with two goalies who were struggling, and he rose to the challenge beautifully. Despite less-than-ideal circumstances, Fowler looked in full control and not at all out of his depth between the pipes of an NHL net.
Goaltending is a very volatile position, and it’s certainly not easy to predict how a prospect will turn out, but from what Fowler has shown so far, he looks like a future starting goaltender to me. In fact, right now, the Canadiens are in a position of strength in net with two very good young goaltenders in Fowler and Dobes, and I dare say that if Kent Hughes were to dangle Fowler as part of a package to acquire that elusive top-six forward, he could drum up a lot of business. Time will tell how fair Pronman’s assessment was, but right now, I struggle to see how he could turn into anything other than a number one goaltender.
CLEVELAND, OHIO - AUGUST 18: Jo Adell #7 of the Cleveland Guardians hits an RBI single during the fourth inning against the San Francisco Giants at Progressive Field on August 18, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Guardians hosted the Giants last night.
The Giants have had a terrible season, and they played like it last night. Their defense screwed up countless times, including an outfielder who Raburned a throw.
But the Guardians would have beaten most opponents last night—because Jo Adell had a career night.
• Sounds like someone is a bit skeptical of “let’s have a bunch of slap hitters watch tape of Jose Ramirez and then they will all hit like Jose Ramirez”
