LeBron James had options this summer. Stephen Curry would have loved to play with him on a nostalgia tour in Golden State. Cleveland wanted him to come home. Again.
LeBron chose the Philadelphia 76ers because he saw it as his best chance to win — and he took a huge discount to do it, playing for the veteran minimum. He wanted to team up with Tyrese Maxey, Jaylen Brown and Joel Embiid to chase a ring.
"I'm not going for money. I'm not going for family. What am I really playing for at this point? I still want to sacrifice. I still want to work. I still want to grind. I still want to compete, to win, and to have a chance at the feeling of winning another championship," is how LeBron put it on X back in July when he made his announcement.
Now, finally, we get to see his debut for the 76ers. Here's everything you need to know to watch LeBron's first game with Philadelphia, as well as the 2026 NBA season on NBC and Peacock.
Is LeBron debuting on NBA Opening Night?
Yes, LeBron James will debut as a Philadelphia 76er at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 20, when his 76ers take on the defending champion New York Knicks on ring night, the marquee game of the NBA's opening-night triple-header, broadcast on NBC and Peacock.
It's a star-studded opening night that opens with Jayson Tatum and the Boston Celtics traveling to take on Cade Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons, a showdown between the top two seeds in the East last season. At 7:00 PM, Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks begin their NBA title defense as they take on LeBron, Brown, and the 76ers at Madison Square Garden. Capping off the night at 9:30 PM, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder face Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in a rematch of the 2026 Western Conference Finals.
How to watch LeBron James’ 76ers debut
Tip-off time: 7 PM ET Tuesday, October 20 Arena: Madison Square Garden, New York TV/Streaming Channel: NBC/Peacock Stream link:Watch live on Peacock
What is the 2026 NBA Opening Night Schedule?
There are 3 games: • Boston Celtics vs Detroit Pistons - 3:00 PM ET on NBC and Peacock • Philadelphia 76ers vs New York Knicks - 7:00 PM ET on NBC and Peacock (Ring ceremony is at 6:30 PM ET on NBC and Peacock) • Oklahoma City Thunder vs San Antonio Spurs - 9:30 PM ET on NBC and Peacock
How do I watch NBA Basketball games on Peacock?
NBA basketball games will be available on Peacock throughout the 2026-2027 season. Sign up here.
(Photo by Vaughn Ridley/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
It might be harder to predict the NBA right now than it has been at any point in league history. The last eight years have produced eight different champions, and no team has even made back-to-back NBA Finals appearances over that time. The second-apron is breaking up contenders early, and an added emphasis on pace-and-space is leading more injuries that make it so much harder to sustain success year-over-over.
The NBA season rarely plays out how we think it’s going to. The New York Knicks weren’t exactly a popular preseason pick to win it all last year, and absolutely no one saw the San Antonio Spurs morphing from a 44-win team to the Western Conference champions. The Indiana Pacers made a darkhorse NBA Finals run in 2025, the Dallas Mavericks did the same in 2024, and Miami Heat got all the way there as an 8-seed in 2023. You might think we can already fast-forward to a Thunder-Spurs rematch in the Western Conference Finals this year, but there tends to be a lot more chaos in this era of the league than ever before.
I think it’s fair to frame the East as the Knicks vs. the field. I respect the Knicks, but I’d still take the field in that equation, just because it’s so hard to put together consecutive Finals runs in this era. I was choosing between the Raptors and Celtics for my East pick, and I’m going with Toronto for a few reasons. You usually need a top-5 player to make a Finals run, and Kawhi Leonard looked like that type of player last year. I’m well aware of his constant injury issues late in the season, but hey, Toronto did a good job pacing his body last time he was there in 2019, and I think they can do it again. Scottie Barnes is going to have a monster year as Leonard’s sidekick, and when the two share the floor with sophomore Collin Murray-Boyles, it’s going to be impossible to score on Toronto. Ja’Kobe Walter and Jamal Shead are very good role players for this team, and I think Allen Graves can be a contributor off the bench as a rookie, too. Toronto games won’t be pretty, but Kawhi gives them the halfcourt scoring they lacked a year ago, and the rest of the squad should be ready to win a rock fight every night out.
The Spurs win the Western Conference
The Spurs won 62 games and were the only team in the league to place in the top-3 of both offensive and defensive efficiency last year. The scary thing is I think they will be even better this year. Obviously, it all starts with Victor Wembanyama, who is in the rare position of already being the best player in the world while still having so much room left to improve. Wemby’s defense is multiple levels above any other player on the planet, and I expect we’ll see a more well-rounded offensive game from him this year. Dylan Harper’s sophomore leap is coming, and he’s going to be one of the best guards in the Western Conference before you know it. I’m fascinated to see how San Antonio handles the dynamic between Harper and De’Aaron Fox, but Fox should be better than he was in last year’s playoffs on a bum ankle, and his bloated salary is a problem for another day. Even if I’m not the biggest Stephen Castle guy (cut down the turnovers, man!), San Antonio still has some other great role players, led by Julian Champagnie and Devin Vassell. I think Tobias Harris’ scoring can help out in the halfcourt in a pinch, and I liked their draft haul, too. If any team can sustain consecutive title runs in this era, it’s the Spurs.
NBA Finals 2027 prediction: Spurs over Raptors in 6
Kawhi vs. the Spurs for a championship would be absolute cinema. Get me an alternate feed with Uncle Dennis’ color commentary! Toronto’s defense will be nasty, but Wemby is a problem without a solution. I have Wemby getting his first chip at 23 years old.
NBA MVP 2027 pick: Victor Wembanyama
Boring answer, I know. Luka Doncic was my backup choice. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 2025 is the only NBA MVP to win the championship in the last decade, so it won’t be easy, but it feels like Wemby is destined to pull off a few of these double-dips in his career. Might as well start now.
NBA Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama
NBA Rookie of the Year 2027 pick: Cameron Boozer, F, Memphis Grizzlies
It’s a straight up crime that Boozer wasn’t the No. 1 overall pick, because he was very clearly the best prospect in the draft. Boozer is literally the youngest player in the NBA this season with a July 2007 birthday, but I fully expect him to be Memphis’ best player from the jump. Pick a play type, any play type, and Boozer is already excellent at it. He can body people in the pick-and-roll as the handler or screener, he can nail three-pointers off the dribble or the catch, he can drive, he can clean the offensive glass for putbacks, he can crush the offensive glass like a traditional big man, and he’s an expert decision-maker with the ball in his hands. No rookie has made All-NBA since Tim Duncan in 1998, but I think Boozer can challenge for a spot this year.
NBA Coach of the Year prediction: Joe Mazzulla, Boston Celtics
The Celtics are my pick to earn the No. 1 seed in the East this year, and if Mazzulla pulls that off after the Jaylen Brown trade, he’s going to get hailed as a genius. Mazzulla optimizes every possession for success in a way no other coach can match. His teams have a clear identity of launching threes, hitting the offensive glass with aggression (hello, Mitchell Robinson), and challenging every shot at the rim. It brings me no joy to predict greatness for the Celtics, but I really think it’s going to happen this season.
NBA Sixth Man of the Year pick: Ajay Mitchell, G, Oklahoma City Thunder
Mitchell was one of last season’s breakout players, but it felt like he never got the recognition he deserved because injuries limited him to 57 games (taking away award consideration) and put him on the sidelines for OKC’s most important playoff games. The former UC Santa Barbara product can provide everything teams want from a secondary ball handler with airtight driving ability, improved outside shooting, and a knack for finding teammates without turning the ball over. SGA can’t do everything for the Thunder, and Mitchell will be there to pick to the scraps as the Thunder put together another dominant season.
NBA Most Improved Player 2027 pick: Scoot Henderson, G, Portland Trail Blazers
Henderson looks fantastic in preseason for the Blazers team that is no longer counting on him to be a savior with Damian Lillard and Ja Morant entrenched in the starting backcourt. I think it’s only a matter of time before Scoot breaks up that pairing, because his feisty on-ball defense, improved three-point stroke, and extra gear going to the basket makes him the most well-rounded guard in Portland’s backcourt. He’s slated to be a restricted free agent after this season, and he should have plenty of suitors if he finally starts living up to his former draft hype in his fourth season.
NBA Clutch Player of the Year 2027 pick: Jalen Brunson, G, New York Knicks
The NBA will be bending over backwards to give him this award if he hits a few clutch shots this year as a make-up call from last season. Brunson is the most terrifying clutch demon in the league, the Knicks are going to be awesome again, and he should win this award going away.
CLEVELAND, OHIO - OCTOBER 18: Bryan Baker #47 and Junior Caminero #13 of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrate the 3-1 win over the Cleveland Guardians in game five of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field on October 18, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Nick Cammett/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Tampa Bay Rays won Game 5 against the Cleveland Guardians, putting them one win away from potentially winning their first World Series. The Guardians will look to spoil that tonight and force Game 7, which would put them in the World Series for the first time since 2016 and once again within striking distance of their first win since 1948.
It was a relatively slow weekend in Rockies land, but here’s what folks had to say about the team as well as others around the league:
While there are plenty of Major League roster questions, Thomas Harding offers three prospects for fans to keep an eye on in 2027 (especially if there is a lockout) — Mason Adams (No. 17 PuRP), Charlie Condon (No. 2 PuRP) and Jackson Cox (No. 11 PuRP).
We all know that the Rockies fired Alon Leichman after a rookie season that saw a lot of experimentation with the rotation. Nobody quite knows why the Rockies let Leichman go, but Thomas Harding provides more details as to potentially what went wrong between the two parties.
Banana Ball is returning to Coors Field in 2027, but it won’t feature the Savannah Bananas this time. It will feature the Party Animals and the Loco Beach Coconuts, which feature old friend Will Ethridge. Enter the lottery here if you haven’t already. Have you been to a Banana Ball game yet?
The Dodgers are out of the playoffs! Tyler Kepner makes his predictions for what will happen now that the three-peat (and maybe the lockout??) is out of the picture. He identifies all of the things that he thinks will happen:
MLB will try to stop them
They will keep winning … except in October
Other powers will emerge
They will take on other teams’ big contracts (Hey Dodgers, can we interest you in Kris Bryant??)
Speaking of the Dodgers, Brandon Day from our Tigers’ sister site does an excellent job of showing how the LA Team was built and now how MLB is trying to stop them after enabling them for years by putting the onus on the players during the CBA negotiations:
Between that exemption, and the Dodgers being allowed to defer a billion dollars in salary as of this writing, the league had a big hand in creating this monster. And the league’s bottom line loves the Dodgers dynasty. Now they say they want the players to agree to a salary cap, which the players union has always resisted, and bail the league out of its own mess.
KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI - JULY 17: Carter Jensen, center, is mobbed by his Kansas City Royals teammates after his two-RBI single gave them the win over the San Diego Padres at Kauffman Stadium on July 17, 2026 in Kansas City, Missouri. (Photo by Reed Hoffmann/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Brooks Sherman, president of real estate and development for the Royals, said on Thursday that master planning for the ballpark district is getting started now as the team looks to hire a master planner. “Right now our focus is on the stadium,” he said.
Sherman said there have been no decisions about any demolitions in Crown Center and that there are great tenants already on site whom officials look to keep and add to.
“That’s when we begin to look at the entirety of the rest of the district to understand what kind of buildings we would have, an entertainment venue, the retail, the food and beverage and so forth, so there have been no decisions about any destruction on any building.”
Sherman said there are a lot of great tenants at Crown Center, and they want to keep all of them. One of those, just north of 25th Street and the Hallmark-owned Kaleidoscope, is the Sea Life Aquarium. That entity told us to reach out to Hallmark about demolition.
“The development will reimagine Crown Center and revitalize the city’s original live-work-play neighborhood while strengthening our business community and creating new opportunities,” one of the spokespeople for Hallmark said. “We remain in the early phases of planning the district beyond the ballpark. We are committed to maintaining open communication with our tenants and business partners as plans progress.”
Dobnak excelled in limiting hitters to a 3.7% barrel rate and inducing ground balls at a 51.2% rate. While this is a good recipe for limiting home runs and extra-base hits, Dobnak struggled with striking out batters, and batters were too easily able to make contact off him. One of Dobnak’s biggest weaknesses was his inability to miss bats. Hitters made contact on 91% of their swings at pitches in the strike zone (league worst), leaving him heavily reliant on his defense to record outs. His 4.22 FIP, more than a run higher than his ERA, suggests his results could be difficult to sustain.
“I’m just continuing to get better,” said Tolbert, whose .246 batting average and .693 OPS while coming up through the Royals system didn’t exactly portend his recent level of success. “Each season you just try to find what works for you, and try to get into a groove. I’ve had good hitting years and I’ve had average hitting years. I don’t really chase numbers, though. I just trust my routine and my process. If you’re focusing on the process, the numbers are going to be the numbers.”
PORT CHARLOTTE, FL - MARCH 18: Nate George (11) of the Baltimore Orioles runs in from the field during a minor league spring training game against the Tampa Bay Rays on March 18, 2026 at Charlotte Sports Park in Port Charlotte, Florida. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) | Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
On the surface, it might feel like Nate George and Enddy Azocar are an unlikely pairing for our prospect review series. And it’s true, their 2026 seasons had very different trajectories. But they are both talented outfielders who weren’t heralded signings when they joined pro ball in 2024. They are both above-average defenders, which is always exciting after watching the Orioles’ current defense. And they both played for the High-A Frederick Keys, though not at the same time.
These two had almost opposite arcs over the course of the season. George’s year was highly anticipated after he shot up the prospect lists with his 2025 performance. Azocar, however, struggled in 2025 and was looking to get into the top prospect discussion (spoiler: he did). Now the two sit back-to-back on the Orioles prospect list at MLB Pipeline; Azocar is #6 and George is #7.
Nate George
At the end of 2025, Nate George was a star on the rise. The Orioles drafted him in the 16th round of the 2024 draft. By the end of the next season, everyone was taking notice. He was awarded the team’s Minor League Prospect of the Year in 2025, was named a top 100 prospect by Baseball America, and was at the top of Orioles’ prospect lists.
He did so by spending his 19th year laying waste to the Florida Coast League and Low-A, then finishing off the season with a .380 OBP in 21 games with the high-A Aberdeen IronBirds. His full 2025 numbers: .336/.413/.483 with 50 stolen bases. He is also an above-average fielder with a ton of speed, making him perhaps even more enticing than Enrique Bradfield, Jr., who has the defense but struggles offensively.
When the 2026 minor league rosters were announced, the High-A Frederick Keys had an enviable lineup. George joined fellow prospects Ike Irish and Wehiwa Aloy to make a formidable threesome. But it didn’t last long.
George was off to a pretty good start when, after 20 games, he was put on the injured list with a non-baseball-related medical condition. George was hitting .293/.372/.366 with 15 SB when he left the team. He did not play for the rest of the year.
There have been no real updates on George since he was removed from the active roster at the beginning of May. It hurts for a prospect to lose so much development time, but more than that, I think we can agree that we just hope he’s doing ok as a person. I expect we’ll get news of some sort as we approach spring training.
Enddy Azocar
The same year that Nate George was drafted #489 overall, the Boston Red Sox signed Enddy Azocar out of Venezuela for just $40,000. Azocar made his professional debut that year in the Dominican Summer League, then started strong in 2025 in the Florida Coast League. After just 14 games, the Red Sox promoted him to low-A Salem.
Unlike George, Azocar struggled in low-A. Over 71 games he failed to get on base (.273 OBP) and failed to hit for power (.315 SLG). He was young for the league, about 2.5 years younger than the average player. It was a struggle he apparently learned from, because 2026 was much different.
Azocar began 2026 with the same team he finished 2025 with, the low-A Salem Red Sox. Same team, but he appeared to be a different player. He started strong at the plate, OPS’ing .868 in May and .907 in April. His power jumped up, too. By the end of May, Azocar had seven home runs. He hit only six in all of 2025.
His improved numbers earned him a promotion to high-A, and he stumbled against the higher competition. June was his worst month of the season, but he adjusted. In July, he hit eight home runs and OPS’d 1.046 in 19 games.
On August 3rd, Azocar was traded to the Orioles in the package that sent Adley Rutschman to the Red Sox. He debuted with the Frederick Keys the next day and made a very good first impression. Azocar had three hits in his organizational debut and 10 hits over his first five games. He finished out the year with the Keys and hit .327/.372/.529 in 25 games.
At just 19, Azocar was still young for the league he played in. But this time around, he thrived. Between the two orgs, he played well at High-A for 71 games. I expect he’ll start 2027 with the Double-A Chesapeake Baysox.
Azocar has played multiple outfield positions, but on all three teams in 2026 he spent the majority of his time in center field. Per MLB Pipeline, he has good instincts and average range in center, but is much better suited to a corner outfield position. Luckily for him, the Orioles need defensive help at all positions.
George and Azocar are both young, talented outfielders in the Orioles’ system. They had different paths in 2026, but we hope to see them both continue to succeed in 2027.
Oct 15, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Sal Frelick (10) celebrates in the clubhouse after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in game four of the NLCS for the 2026 MLB Playoffs at Uniqlo Field at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
Good morning.
The Rays beat the Guardians yesterday to take a three-games-to-two lead in the American League Championship Series. Here are some takeaways from Game 5.
Assuming Díaz is correct, the Rays will take on the National League Champions Milwaukee Brewers. Eric Longenhagen has a review of the NL Championship Series.
Jayson Stark writes that with the Brewers win, the “gamers” beat the Hall of Famers. (The Athletic sub. req.) Stark also tries to put the Brewers win in historic context and has the kinds of obscure facts that we’ve come to expect out of Stark.
PHILADELPHIA, PA - SEPTEMBER 22: Luis Arraez #4 of the Philadelphia Phillies warms up during batting practice prior to the game between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday, September 22, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Denis Kennedy/MLB Photos via Getty Images) | MLB Photos via Getty Images
If the Cardinals want to compete next season, it would be wise to shore up their positions of weakness. The bullpen is a clear weakness, but it’s also the part of the team I would probably focus on last personally. An argument for the best closer in baseball is Bryan Baker of the Tampa Bay Rays, a 31-year-old with 3 career saves entering this season. Baker was drafted by the Rockies, traded as the player to be named later in a package for a year and a month of Seung Hwan Oh, selected off waivers by the Orioles a few years later, and finally traded for a draft pick last deadline. Meanwhile, Edwin Diaz got paid $17 million to allow nearly a run per inning in his 21 appearances for the Dodgers. Neither of these are unusual stories for relievers.
So most of my offseason talk will be focused on finding someone for either third base, center field, or starting pitcher. There is a very big, unfortunate issue with this however: the free agent market at those positions kind of suck. It’s why my very first free agent profile was focused on someone who has barely played 3B (JP Crawford). Any true 3B upgrade will either have to come via trade or someone at a different position. Which brings me to today’s post.
In theory, anybody who plays second base can play third base. And while that is literally true, the two positions require different strengths so they are likely not going provide the same quality of defense. But the truth of the matter is that the 2B market is significantly stronger than the 3B market. At the very least entertaining the better second basemen on the market is worth exploring to improve 3B. You could also move JJ Wetherholt to 3B, but I am opposed to that, so I would make it clear to these free agents that they would have to play 3B. It’d be an easier argument because Wetherholt is indeed better defensively than every other 2B. So if for no other reason than to eliminate them as real targets, let’s look at the 2B who might make sense at 3B.
The Tampa Bay Rays are one win away from the World Series. They also, at least as of now, made an extremely bad trade involving Brandon Lowe. They traded one season of Lowe, getting paid $11.5 million, 5 seasons of Mason Montgomery (2.2 fWAR out of the bullpen), and Jake Magnum (who isn’t very good) for 25-year-old Jacob Melton (who missed most of 2026 to injury and never saw the majors) and Anderson Brito, a mediocre prospect who only pitched in 8 games in 2026 at a level he had already pitched before (and he was worse at that level in 2026).
With all that said, Brandon Lowe has more warning signs than a radiation plant. He will most likely receive a qualified offer, and that is not a good start. In his previous four seasons prior to 2026, he averaged under 2 WAR per season. He was randomly great at defense after a career of not being very good defensively. The first year of his deal will be at 32-years-old. And he has never played an inning of 3B at pro ball. Also his arm is 11th percentile according to Statcast, though 2B hold back more than 3B as we will soon see.
The arm is the big one because frankly, a career of being not great defensively is actually a very good argument for someone to move to 3B. But I wanted to take a one-year game on Crawford defensively, and you would likely be taking a 3-4 year gamble on Lowe (his QO could very much hurt his market to an extreme degree though). On the positive side, his power wouldn’t be that terribly affected by Busch. He hit 35 homers for the Pirates. It would have been 32 at Busch.
But unfortunately, I have even more warning signs. For as good of a season as he had, there are so many reasons to not sign this guy. My last warning sign is that his offense looked to be on the luckier side. He had his highest K% since 2019 and he had his highest BABIP also since 2019. That’s not a great combo. His xwOBA was .331, which was his lowest since 2022 in his injury-shortened season. His actual wOBA was .354.
I’m going to be completely honest. I think I would avoid Lowe even if the Cardinals had a hole at 2B. A 32-year-old who probably didn’t actually get better last season but saw a career year saddled with a QO? And we have to move him to 3B, a position he hasn’t played professionally, and he has a weak arm?
Expected Contract: I don’t think I can even guess, I have no idea
The great big mystery of Arraez is how does the league value Arraez? Coming off a 0.9 fWAR season, Arraez signed for $1 year, $12 million. That is honestly more than most 0.9 WAR players will get, maybe all of them, so I’m not necessarily taking it as a given that the league doesn’t value Arraez like anti-stats people like to say. He will be 30-years-old and will likely get a multi-year deal.
With that said, his offense did not really get that much better, he was a significantly better player because he was suddenly great at defense. I have not looked into why, but unlike Lowe who was generally below average before 2026, Arraez was straight up awful defensively. Even with genuine improvements, it’s very hard to buy into his 2026 level of defense. You just don’t really see that kind of jump defensively, ever, and if it was hitting that did it, everyone would be similarly skeptical. When a sudden jump happens, you don’t assume the same level, you go somewhere in between where he used to be and his career year.
Arraez has played 3B, although very little, and like 2B and like 1B, he was awful defensively. I don’t think his arm is an issue. It’s 25th percentile, but I think he has more in the tank. When he last played significant innings at 3B, he threw it four miles per hour harder at 3B than when he played at 2B. And his arm at 2B this past season was very similar to how hard he threw at 2B in the year he also played 3B. He was actually dead average the year he played 400 innings at 3B, for some reason he was -7 OAA in 40 innings the very next season and nobody’s tried him at 3B since.
His bat is more reliable, although not near as good as the batting average people think. He doesn’t walk and he has no power, so he’s an above average hitter, but definitely not elite. He also hits into a lot of double plays. He hit into 15 double plays last season and has averaged just about that in the last four seasons. He somehow hit into 18 double plays when he batted .354.
As I said in the beginning, I don’t really know how the league values him. My interest in him is entirely dependent on his next contract. Is he valued like an All-Star, because I’d definitely avoid that contract. Like the 1 WAR player he was in 2024 and 2025? That means short-term and that’s more interesting.
Chisholm is kind of the opposite of our first two choices. His 2026 season stats are him coming off a down season and he’s very likely good on defense, despite his blunders. His numbers at 3B are a bit of a mixed bag – he was very good in 2024 and not good in 2025, and then the Yankees stopped playing him at 3B. He’s similar to Arraez in that he threw it harder at 3B than he does at 2B and most of his 9th percentile arm is related to that fact. He threw it 85.6 mph at 3B last year, 78.5 mph at 2B. So he must be really having his fair share of lobbing it over at 2B. It’s not really possible to lob it over at 3B (despite it looking like that’s what Matt Carpenter did).
We also saw in the 2026 playoffs that he likes to play hero ball and will likely continue to do so given his postgame comments, and I can see how that could potentially affect you more at 3B than 2B when you simply have more opportunities to make errors from trying to land on a top ten list. Couple that with the high standard he sets at 2B and the 3B version of Chisholm is probably a worse player than the 2B version.
On top of that, he had a down year with the bat. His xwOBA was a career low .294 and his 98 wRC+ was only a little bit better than his career low his rookie season. His power took a huge dip despite the bandbox he got to play in. Like his offensive stats are concerning.
Of course he’ll be 29 and the reporting is indicating he will not receive a qualified offer. They didn’t actually want Trent Grisham and he accepted, and I don’t think they want to repeat that risk. And Chisholm is firmly in his prime years so a bounceback offensively wouldn’t be the craziest thing. Chisholm would be a bit of a swing and it doesn’t seem like he’d be a fan favorite, but at least by value…. I mean he makes sense.
Conclusion: If you can get him for a good deal, frankly, I might take that swing
Torres is an interesting case, because he has not played 3B since 2018 and he has a grand total of less than 200 innings there in his entire pro career. But he’s also a former SS who has spent his fair share of time on the left side of the infield. Of course, he was bad defensively there and had to move to 2B. He has also been bad there. It’s clear range is not his thing which means there’s some theoretical upside to him defensively at 3B. Like he sets a low enough standard at 2B that I’m not real sure his defense would actually be worse at 3B. And like the others, once he moved from SS to 2B, his arm strength magically got weak. So I feel like his arm wouldn’t be an issue.
He also will 100 percent not have the qualified offer saddled on him. He already accepted it for the 2026 season and can’t get it again. He’ll be 30. He is fairly consistent as an above average hitter. And his batting profile is walk-heavy, not a ton of strikeouts, not reliant on power at all, so a move to Busch shouldn’t really hurt him. I’d actually be very curious on what kind of deal he would get, coming off a down year.
Conclusion: I’d be very tempted if less than my proposed contract
I could talk myself into Jazz Chisholm or Gleybar Torres. I assume the Cardinals have a much better way of figuring out how each player’s defense would translate at 3B. It’s entirely possible them at 3B is just a nonstarter. Kind of an important part of this whole process. So the estimates would have to work out, the contract would have to work out, they’d have to be willing to play 3B, I wouldn’t say any of these are likely.
CLEVELAND, OHIO - OCTOBER 18: PitcherDrew Rasmussen #57 of the Tampa Bay Rays celebrates at the end of the first inning against the Cleveland Guardians in game five of the American League Championship Series at Progressive Field on October 18, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Happy Monday, everyone! We could know as soon as tonight who will be heading to the World Series against the Brewers, or whether we’ll get a nail-biter Game 7 in the ALCS. Today we’ll check in on how the Rays have managed to turn things around when they needed it the most, and how pitcher Drew Rasmussen came in clutch precisely when his team needed him. We round things up with some postseason chatter as well as some offseason and free agency overview. Plus, the Tigers have added a new member to their coaching staff, and it’s a reunion of sorts for A.J. Hinch from his Astros days.
Let’s get right into it.
Detroit Tigers News
Happy Willie Horton Day!
One of the greatest to ever wear the Olde English D and #RepDetroit
Join us in celebrating Willie Horton’s 84th birthday and Willie Horton Day in the state of Michigan! 👏 pic.twitter.com/JWyh5IXClE
Longtime MLB catcher Martín Maldonado is in agreement to join the Detroit Tigers coaching staff, sources tell @CodyStavenhagen and me – https://t.co/QLAEbAkoCv
LAS VEGAS, NV - JULY 15: Blake Wesley #14, Jeremy Sochan #10 and Malaki Branham #22 of the San Antonio Spurs pose for a portrait during 2022 NBA Rookie Photo Shoot on July 15, 2022 at UNLV Campus in Las Vegas, Nevada. 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 2022 NBAE (Photo by Michael J. LeBrecht II/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Back in 2022, the San Antonio Spurs drafted three players in the first round — Jeremy Sochan (9th), Malaki Branham (20th), and Blake Wesley (25th). The pick that brought Branham was acquired from the Toronto Raptors and the Wesley pick from the Boston Celtics.
All three joined the Silver & Black and began developing. Sochan in particular was shuffled through various roles as the team developed, but never locked into a position. As the Spurs continued to grow, Branham and Wesley found themselves with diminishing roles as the team built around Victor Wembanyama. The emergence of Stephon Castle and a monster trade for De’Aaron Fox left the 2022 drafted duo in the dark.
On July 9, 2025, Branham and Blake Wesley were traded to the Washington Wizards in exchange for Kelly Olynyk. Last February, the Spurs waived Sochan. He went to the Knicks and picked up an NBA championship.
The NBA season starts Tuesday. On October 17, all three of the Spurs 2022 draft picks were waived by their respective teams.
Jeremy Sochan, Malaki Branham oraz Blake Wesley.
Panów łączą dwie kwestie. Każdy został wydraftowany przez Spurs w 2022 oraz zwolniony z NBA w przeciągu ostatnich 24H.
After picking up his championship ring, Sochan signed with the Portland Trail Blazers but was waived after four preseason games. Branham, who’d been with the Washington Wizards since being traded in 2025, he signed with the Orlando Magic in September. Wesley, who landed in Portland after initially being traded to the Wizards, signed with the Los Angeles Clippers on a one-year contract.
All three were waived within 24-hours of one another on Saturday.
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The Boston Celtics’ 2026-27 season officially begins Tuesday afternoon as they’ll take on the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena.
These C’s will take some getting used to. That’s because Jaylen Brown, a franchise cornerstone since 2016, was shipped to the rival Philadelphia 76ers in a shocking offseason trade. Boston acquired Paul George in the deal, hoping the veteran will fit seamlessly in the starting lineup alongside superstar Jayson Tatum.
The Celtics also upgraded their frontcourt by signing ex-New York Knicks big man Mitchell Robinson. In addition, they inked widely respected veteran guard Mike Conley to a one-year contract.
Will that be enough for them to maintain their reputation as a threat to win the Eastern Conference? Better yet, should they still be considered NBA championship contenders?
Here’s how the Celtics stack up against their competition heading into the new campaign, according to NBA experts’ power rankings:
“The Celtics made a carefully considered decision to trade All-Star forward (Jaylen) Brown to the 76ers, but the potential for that to backfire is still enormous. Just imagine the anger and outrage in Boston if the 2024 Finals MVP helps the 76ers win their first championship since 1983.
“While that worst-case scenario became more plausible when LeBron James joined Philadelphia on a veterans minimum contract, Boston should remain one of the East’s top contenders after adding Paul George and Mitchell Robinson this summer. Jayson Tatum should be back to his All-NBA level form now that he’s 18 months removed from his Achilles tear, and coach Joe Mazzulla has established a winning, high-effort culture that has delivered at least 56 wins in each of his four seasons.”
“This ranking feels a little low for a Boston team that is going to win a lot of regular season games, but this first ranking is focused on title contention, and I don’t believe these Celtics, as constructed, are as serious a postseason threat (I am higher on the potential of the Pacers and Rockets).
“That said, just having Jayson Tatum back on the court will be welcome, he is a joy to watch. Plus, this team will defend, has depth and athleticism, and will be disciplined under reigning Coach of the Year Joe Mazzulla.”
“This offseason was about the shocking Jaylen Brown trade. But now that real games are about to be underway, the focus needs to be on who is here, and that’s Jayson Tatum, who Boston decided was the star worth keeping. Joe Mazzulla showed that he is going to get his team to win in the regular season. Everyone focuses on the high volume of 3s, but the focus should be on how Boston dominates the possession battle and makes things hard on opposing offenses consistently. This can be a special season for Tatum individually, and Boston should assume its customary spot near the top of the East standings even if Paul George takes another step further from his prime.
“The question for Boston is what it will do when the jump shots go cold in the playoffs. But even in a tough conference, the Celtics shouldn’t be doubted when it comes to hosting a game on the opening weekend of the playoffs.”
“The Celtics shocked the world by trading Jaylen Brown during the offseason. They shouldn’t experience much of a decline. Jayson Tatum’s return should fill the void left by Brown. Paul George is a perfect fit in Joe Mazzulla’s system, where he can capably switch on defense and shoot a high percentage from 3 on offense. Mitchell Robinson might be the most underrated addition of the offseason, both weakening the Knicks and adding to an already-elite offensive rebounding team.”
“Microscopic sample size be damned, Jayson Tatum and new pick-and-roll partner Mitchell Robinson formed a lethal pairing in the preseason that opposition defenses can’t decipher. Robinson’s rim-rolling repertoire will create countless corner threes for the trigger-happy Celtics.”
“Could this be the best version of Jayson Tatum we’ve ever seen? There’s no ambiguity that it’s his team now, so it’ll be fascinating to see how he handles that responsibility. But it’s also possible that Tatum’s usage stays close to the same and it’s a committee of players that fill what’s lost from Brown.
“Will Derrick White have a bounceback year? He forgot how to shoot last year, but he could have refound it this summer. Could Payton Pritchard take a leap? Last season, Pritchard averaged 26.7 points and 7.6 assists per 75 possessions without Brown on the floor. What will Baylor Scheierman or Hugo González look like with more chances? And could George end up having a healthy season that builds on his strong finish in Philadelphia? There are a lot of paths for the Celtics to end up even better.”
Ilya Solovyov is back in Pittsburgh, hoping his latest call-up leads to something more than a short stay in the NHL.
The Penguins recalled the 26-year-old defenseman from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Sunday, Oct. 18, after sending Ryan Johnson to the AHL earlier in the day. Solovyov started the season on Pittsburgh's roster but didn't play in any of its first five games. He cleared waivers and was sent down on Oct. 10, picking up one assist in three games with the AHL club.
Now he's back, although it's still unclear when he'll get his next chance to play.
Solovyov speaks with The Hockey News shortly after being claimed off waivers by Colorado last season.
Solovyov should be a familiar name to Colorado Avalanche fans. The team claimed him off waivers from Calgary on Oct. 3, 2025, and he made a brief stop in Denver before being traded to Pittsburgh in January.
One of his highlights with Colorado came on Jan. 10, when he scored his first NHL goal in a 4-0 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets. It was a memorable moment for a defenseman still trying to establish himself in the league.
The Avalanche traded Solovyov to Pittsburgh just 10 days later, receiving forward Valtteri Puustinen and a seventh-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. Colorado eventually used that pick to select Shawn Carrier.
Solovyov found some opportunities with the Penguins after the trade, recording five assists in 14 regular-season games. He also appeared in three playoff games before Pittsburgh was eliminated by the Philadelphia Flyers.
He finished last season with one goal and seven assists in 30 NHL games between Calgary, Colorado and Pittsburgh.
The production isn't eye-catching, but Solovyov has shown he can contribute when given the chance. Getting that chance consistently has been the bigger problem.
For now, he's back with Pittsburgh. Whether he can earn a regular spot remains to be seen, but he'll have another opportunity to make his case when the Penguins need him on the blue line.
DYERSVILLE, IOWA - AUGUST 13: A detailed view of a Netflix camera prior to a game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Minnesota Twins at Field of Dreams on August 13, 2026 in Dyersville, Iowa. (Photo by Tyler Clouse/Getty Images) | Getty Images
I didn’t watch a single game of MLB’s Wild Card Series. I listened to it on the radio.
Is that weird? I think so.
I’m not part of the analog movement; I’m not out to prioritize tactile experiences over digital ones. You could even argue that I was lucky to be spared the images of our Sox falling at the hands of the Yankees. That’s a valid argument as far as it goes but I would have far preferred to watch the games anyway.
I listened to the ALWCS on the radio as though it’s 1955 because I didn’t have access to NBC.
What’s a Cable Cutter Supposed to Do?
I am a longtime streamer; I cut the cable on my TV subscription almost ten years ago. It was supposed to be a savvy move, saving money and riding the wave of the streaming technologies that are now completely baked into our daily lives.
So how did I fall so far behind that in the 2026 postseason, I followed my team the same way my grandfather did?
Being an out-of-market baseball fan like me is supposed to be easy in the digital era. There are a number of apps and plentiful clips all over the internet to watch live games, condensed games, recaps, highlights, and more. However, my location in Seattle makes me ineligible for the Red Sox own NESN 360, even though I’m part of Red Sox Nation, because I don’t live in New England. (And those New Englanders who are Sox fans but happen to live in Fairfield County, CT are out of luck too, the poor bastards.) But I have my MLB.TV subscription, and you would think that would be enough to watch baseball all season long. Isn’t that kind of promised in the name?
Not really, because today’s baseball fan actually finds it tough to catch all their games without:
Attending in person (clearly, this amounts to a small fortune and is impractical on many levels)
Obtaining multiple subscriptions (still a small fortune)
Navigating an elaborate calendar based on which outlet is offering the broadcast
Listening on the radio
Watching Gameday’s slightly time-delayed simulation of each at-bat
Resorting to illegal means
Missing out entirely
None of that sounds appealing, or makes any sense, or fits with MLB’s stated intentions of growing the fanbase, does it?
In 2025, When announcing MLB’s new broadcast deal with ESPN, NBC, and Netflix, Rob Manfred said it was “a great opportunity to expand our reach to fans.” MLB executive vice president and chief marketing officer Karin Timpone has also said, “The number one thing we’re trying to do is invite everybody to be a fan.”
And yet, when I’ve fired up the MLB app on a Friday night, I’ve been told the Red Sox (or other interesting games) are locked behind an exclusive Apple TV+ paywall. On other days of the week, at different times in the season, I find that a different national media deal has shut me out. I’m not paying less for my MLB.TV subscription, either, even though it now offers fewer games. I’m being asked by MLB to pay more, for an ever-growing list of streaming options: Apple TV+, Netflix, FOX, NBC, TBS, ESPN. And if I don’t pay up, I have to tune out.
Some of these broadcasters are very familiar, from the olden days of watching sports on cable. Could I watch more baseball if I simply gave in and rekindled my relationship with a cable TV provider? My MLB app locks me out of some games because I don’t have one of those. How does this make sense?
I’ve tried subscriptions to Fubo, YouTube TV, and Peacock. They offer introductory rates but those expire, and none of them provide complete coverage anyway.
And that’s just the regular season! When October arrives, MLB dials up the frustration to an entirely new level.
Once the postseason begins, the MLB.TV app goes dark (unless you already have a cable provider, and reside in the US). To watch a single pitch of the most meaningful games of the year, fans are forced into a multi-tiered corporate gauntlet. Want the Wild Card? Open Peacock. Want the ALDS? That’s HBO Max (I got lucky, since I happen to have that one already!). Need the World Series? You’ll have to get a live TV bundle like YouTube TV, Fubo, or Sling. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, though. For just one example, Fubo doesn’t carry the ALCS. By the time you string together the necessary subscriptions, you’ve essentially recreated that pricy monthly cable bill, just to watch four weeks of sports.
And the headache! How long have I spent mapping all this out? First to find out what I can squeeze into my budget, and then the day-to-day planning of which provider is broadcasting which game. It’s exhausting, and frankly, ridiculous.
I’m not the first person to log this complaint. Outlets as varied as NJ.com, Consumer Reports, Awful Announcing, and many more have all covered this before me. And I feel like when Consumer Reports is weighing in on baseball, a line has clearly been crossed, right? At the beginning of the 2026 season, Kiplinger (known for their personal finance and related advice) looked into the costs a modern baseball fan could expect to incur by watching a season’s worth of games on TV. In their analysis, this model of decentralized streaming has pushed the annual cost of following baseball to roughly $500–$600. For a league trying to grow, this is an incredibly steep barrier to entry. That doesn’t even include a trip to the ballpark, or buying a jersey, or any of the “extras” that following a team might inspire.
Even Congress has gotten involved. Rep. Tammy Baldwin introduced legislation this year called the For The Fans Act. The bill seeks to improve the fan experience by ending regional blackouts within league-owned subscription services like MLB.TV, and requiring pro sports leagues to offer free access to broadcasts of local games.
The Baseball Toll (not Tolle)
I’m a longtime, dedicated fan. I write about baseball. I’m a nerd. For all these reasons, I pay the toll. That is, I navigate the apps, I hunt down clips, I use Gameday, and I do what my grandfather did: I tune into the radio. But as I listen to an audio feed or watch a Gameday at-bat in this era of high-definition broadcasting, a glaring question emerges: How on earth does MLB expect to win over new fans like this?
The league is currently trapped in a massive paradox. They talk extensively about “growing the sport” by expanding globally and capturing new demographics (among them: women, international fans, and potential fans who are Gen Z aged or younger). Yet, their distribution model does the exact opposite.
I lived with a Gen Z teen until just three weeks ago when he became a college freshman, and the truth is, if he can’t watch something, it may as well not have happened. He’ll watch a highlight on TikTok (he doesn’t watch baseball as far as I know; I’m speaking more generally) but I don’t believe that’s how baseball will find its way into more hearts, or grow from a highlight into an abiding interest, even a passion. By making it difficult to get invested—to even find the games—MLB is preventing casual fans from becoming more than casual.
In the last two years alone, MLB has made serious attempts to expand into Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and the UK. Even now, Red Sox Nation is full of global citizens; it’s not just a New England thing. You could argue that about any team. But if a potential fan in Tokyo, Mexico City, Seoul, or London can’t click a single app on their phone to watch a game, they simply won’t watch it. As an out-of-market fan myself, I understand what it takes to get that game, and MLB isn’t making it easy.
A Hydra With Many Heads
To understand why it is so difficult to follow baseball, you have to look at the sheer number of corporate entities slicing up the broadcast rights. There is no longer anything like a “baseball package;” instead there is a completely decentralized, sprawling entity that is not only difficult to navigate, but it seems to keep growing. Every time another deal is signed, there’s another head on this monster that needs to be fed—by fans’ subscriptions, of course.
Consider what it takes just to follow the regular season:
Apple TV+ regularly streams Friday Night Baseball.
Netflix has moved into the space and owns exclusive rights to high-profile events like Opening Night, the Home Run Derby, and the iconic Field of Dreams game.
Traditional broadcasters like Warner Bros. Discovery (via TBS and truTV) and Fox Corporation still command massive chunks of the schedule.
NBCUniversal expanded its MLB footprint by buying rights to Sunday Night Baseball, as well as the entire MLB Wild Card round. I’ve heard quite a bit of lip service as to how NBC’s “storied” legacy with baseball (one that seemingly ended when Bob Costas signed off in 2000) will continue and grow. Honestly, as a fan, it felt like bad news because it put up another hurdle to navigate.
Fragmentation Fatigue
The result is a sports media landscape where the fan can never keep up. According to recent data from the Sports Business Journal, “fragmentation fatigue” (which is not limited to sports) is widespread: nearly 28% of active sports streamers juggle three or more separate, paid apps just to follow their teams.
When the postseason arrives, the financial absurdity truly sets in. The league’s flagship app, MLB.TV, explicitly requires “Pay TV provider authentication” to stream postseason games live in the United States. If you cut the cable to save money, October forces you to buy your way back in. And that’s only in the US! When I was in France three years ago, my MLB.TV app didn’t work (without a VPN) so what will happen to all the international fans that MLB is trying to cultivate?
If a fan wants to watch every single playoff game, legally, without cable, they essentially have two choices:
Subscribe to an all-in-one provider like YouTube TV, Hulu+Live TV, or DirecTV Stream to get FOX, FS1, and TBS, plus a separate subscription to Peacock (or Fubo) for the Wild Card series. It’s especially wild to me that fans can’t watch either the Division Series or Championship Series on a single provider; the National League was covered this year by FOX, with TBS handling the American League. This is also why there are so many “How to Watch” articles because it’s that damn complicated! The cost for this nonsense? Upwards of $100 for one month.
Create a patchwork quilt of apps. There are a number of ways to do this, depending on what streamers you already have. This gentleman on Instagram who researched the options promised that it could be done for just under $52. But note the fine print: “Heads up: Peacock Select and the HBO Max plan with ads do NOT include live sports. Pick the wrong tier and the game stays locked at first pitch.”
I have a friend—let’s call her “Laura”—who is a baseball fan and sportswriter. She watches games but wants to watch more, as in, all the Red Sox and postseason MLB games. Friends and colleagues have suggested other ways to stream these games, ways that may exist somewhere on the spectrum from “certainly shady” to “for sure illegal.”
VPNs that might fool an app into unlocking blackouts also require a paid subscription. Laura says she might have tried even less legal means; however, even though she’s pretty tech-savvy, she couldn’t get them to work due to never-ending popups that didn’t allow her to reach the actual game. Besides, I hear that there was too much porn to wade through, which added yet another layer of unpleasantness to this whole dilemma.
In the spring, she learned about a “Media Hub” box, which has since been pulled from legit American retailers due to legal rulings regarding copyright. Depending on where you look, it costs somewhere between $300-$600 and can only be purchased from overseas retailers. Laura is a pretty law-abiding citizen and certainly supportive of the right of copyright holders to protect their creative work (MLB broadcasts are copyrighted). That she has even considered this probably says a lot, right?
So even if fans wanted to go another route, it’s costly and difficult, and steeped in moral quagmires.
Follow the Money
The owners and league executives aren’t blind to this frustration, but they are following the money. Contracts provide exclusive broadcast rights. That allows media companies to use baseball as leverage to gain streaming subscribers. Platforms are willing to pay astronomical fees because having two million people download an app and enter a credit card number is a huge business victory—even if it means drawing fewer total eyeballs for baseball overall. Those same contracts slice up the postseason (separating American and National Leagues within the same series, for example, or allowing only one series to be broadcast per streamer before moving on to the next streamer). If the media company gets their subscriber, they don’t care what happens with the other league, or the rest of the postseason; their work is done.
That’s a win for the streamers, but not for MLB.
The windfall of all that money, earned by allowing those streamers to bid against each other for the joy of broadcasting fragmented parts of the MLB season, creates an existential threat for MLB and baseball itself. When games are partitioned off behind a maze of different paywalls, casual channel-surfers (along with the rest who can’t or won’t pay) are completely shut out. No one can be accidentally drawn into an exciting game. We’ve seen how much work has to generally be done to catch a postseason game at all; this time of year should theoretically offer the most intense and exciting games of the whole season. If that theory holds up, it’s also when new fans might become most invested. Awful Announcing has written about the number of viewers in 2026 and compared those numbers to past postseasons, and while there’s a lot of slicing and dicing to this analysis, non-Dodgers games drew fewer viewers and overall, there was a drop of 3% in total viewership for the 2026 Division Series. How much of this might be because fans simply can’t get the game in front of them?
MLB is betting that short-term television revenue is worth ignoring the next generation of fans—and right now, the fans are the ones losing.
Radio Days
The financial reality is clear: Major League Baseball is making billions by letting corporate giants use our fandom as a customer acquisition tool for their own companies, not for the greater good of baseball or fans. And the cultural cost is crazy. When MLB makes it this expensive and this exhausting to watch a pennant race, it isn’t just squeezing the wallets of diehard baseball nerds like me. It is actively turning away the next wave of fans who will never experience the magic of October baseball—and not even realize what they’re missing—because they can’t find the game.
So, as this postseason rolls on, I will likely find myself continuing to do what I’ve been doing. Maybe others are forced to do it too. More and more, I will turn off the TV entirely and somewhat reluctantly listen to the game on the radio.
There is a beautiful, poetic nostalgia to listening to baseball but relying on a technology developed in the late 19th to early 20th century in order to bypass 2026 corporate paywalls isn’t a romantic tradition. It’s a systemic failure. MLB might be winning the battle for short-term broadcast revenue, and it seems fine with that. But if it keeps allowing the most exciting part of the season to be locked away behind those paywalls, it is going to be broadcasting to an increasingly quiet, and shrinking, fanbase.
The rebuilt Lakers will feature (from left) Austin Reaves, Luka Doncic and Walker Kessler as starters for coach JJ Redick. The other two starters are still to be determined. (Photo illustration by Tate Rudisill / Los Angeles Times; photos by Chris Carlson / AP Photo, Lynne Sladky / AP Photo, Mark J. Terrill / AP Photo, Nick Wass / AP Photo)
He is unwavering in his belief that the newly constructed Lakers can compete for an NBA championship this season and that is the conviction coach JJ Redick has instilled into his group.
It is why the Lakers play the game, Redick mused, and it is the standard this organization has set.
The Lakers have won 17 NBA championships — the second most in the league — with the last coming in 2020.
So, as the Lakers prepared to open the regular season Wednesday night against the Golden State Warriors at Crypto.com Arena, Redick explained why he believes these Lakers are championship contenders.
“Well, I think that every season,” he said. “Unless somebody blatantly tells me that we’re not trying to win, I think that every year. That’s why I say I’m confident. I said the same thing last year and for all of January and February that we were going to figure it out at some point and we did. And then we had some injuries. So, being a championship-level team or being a — I don’t like the word ‘contender’ — but being a team that can make a run and can play in the playoffs and can play different ways in the playoffs, those things take time and it doesn’t mean you’re going to be in the NBA Finals.
“It’s just not the way this works, particularly with the way the playoffs work in terms of just matchups and what you can exploit and what you can’t exploit versus certain teams. But I think because of our talent, because of our fit, because of our depth, I really like our team.”
Luka Doncic said his first glimpse of what the Lakers could become was when he invited his teammates to his home country of Slovenia for a bonding experience.
As the unquestioned leader of the Lakers now that LeBron James has departed to Philadelphia, Doncic organized the trip. It was basketball, golfing and rowing. It was dinners and get-to-know-you conversations.
It was over these four or five days in August that Doncic also saw a Lakers team with championship potential.
“Since the first day. That simple,” Doncic said. “Since the first day everybody came together in Slovenia, I believed that we can win a championship.”
Yet this is a team with nine new players and Redick is trying to incorporate them on a Lakers team that is playing in the uber-tough Western Conference that most experts believe the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder are the creme de la creme of the NBA.
The Lakers acquired Walker Kessler, a 7-foot-2 center they received from Utah in a sign-and-trade deal in which he was paid $130 million over four years and in which L.A. sent two unprotected first-round picks and two first-round swaps to the Jazz.
Lakers center Walker Kessler tries to block a shot by Warriors center Yaxel Lendeborg during a preseason game last week. (Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
The Lakers added depth in Quentin Grimes, Collin Sexton, Matisse Thybulle, Ziaire Williams, Sandro Mamukelashvili and Kevon Looney.
They join Doncic, Austin Reaves, Jake LaRavia, Adou Thiero and others to form the 2026-27 Lakers.
“I think in terms of integrating all the new guys that have been available, which I think is everybody except for Collin in live play, it’s been pretty seamless,” Redick said. “It’s a smart group. … We’ve been able to probably install more, particularly on the defensive end, than we have in the last couple years.
“Last year we had six total practices in the preseason because of the amount of games and the back-to-backs and the travel and all that. And we played opening night, so that’s another day that we didn’t get to practice. So I think we end up with 12 [practices] this year. We get double the amount of practice time, so I think that’s a blessing when you have new guys.”
The starting five is still unclear.
Doncic, Reaves and Kessler are the sure things, but the other two spots are not certain. Those three started alongside Williams and Thybulle in the final preseason game against the Denver Nuggets on Friday night. Grimes started the first four preseason games.
Lakers guard Luka Doncic, left, bring the ball upcourt under pressure from Nuggets guard Christian Braun their final preseason game on Friday. (Ben Liebenberg / Associated Press)
“I think we have a lot of guys that could start,” Reaves said. “Unfortunately there’s five guys that are gonna start. Like JJ said a while back, he’s pretty sure of three of them. The other two, regardless of who we roll out there, we have high confidence in.”
Reaves is the longest-tenured Laker entering his sixth season and he knows the high expectations that come with playing for the iconic franchise.
Last season, he had James to lean on, Marcus Smart was steady and Rui Hachimura was part of the fabric.
But they are all gone and now Reaves, who signed a four-year, $180-million contract extension, is one of the leaders.
“Yeah, I don’t know anything else,” Reaves said. “This is what I came to, but obviously it’s the Lakers, and it’s one of the most covered sports organizations in the world. So they’re gonna praise you when you’re doing good and not when you’re not.
“So you just gotta [know] whatever that goes on outside these walls doesn’t really matter. It’s just what goes on inside these walls. And if anybody has any questions, I’ll give them the best knowledge I have. But like I said, they’re high character guys that care about the right things. So, I think that’ll take care of itself.”
Lakers guard Austin Reaves gets past the Warriors defense for a left-handed layup during a preseason game last week. (David Becker / Associated Press)
The Lakers were 53-29 last season, finishing fourth in the West and getting knocked out in the second round by the Thunder.
They have two more days of practice before the journey begins.
“I think you’re always trying to get better,” Redick said. “And even later in the season, you tweak plays, you tweak the offense and you tweak coverages. It’s just constantly evolving. There’s no like, ‘Oh, we’re done. Now we’re going to go play.’
England take on Pakistan and Sri Lanka in ODI series
Harry Brook is embracing leadership and responsibility as he nears the one-year anniversary of his Wellington altercation, insisting he wants to be “the man England fans and the team rely on”.
Brook has in the past admitted he could have been sacked as white-ball captain after being punched by a nightclub bouncer, hours before leading England in an ODI against New Zealand on Halloween last year.
Boston, MA - September 28: Boston Celtics forward Paul George speaks at a press conference during media day on September 28, 2026. (Photo by Meleck Eldahshoury/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) | Boston Globe via Getty Images
We’re 24 hours out. A day away from tangible, real, meaningful Boston Celtics basketball gracing the court and our screens for the first time in 170 days. With that, there’s only one thing to do.
I invited Feed followers to exorcise all of their excitement and angst by sharing their “Hot Takes” about the upcoming Celtics season. Let’s analyze the spiciest of those takes, judge how likely they are to come true, and get ourselves riled up one last time before we embark on that long journey to Banner 19.
The Team Takes
“The Celtics finish top five offensively and top three defensively.” Celtics_fan_in_va
Starting us off, we need to address the elephant in the room. It can be difficult to come up with a truly spicy take when your subject is Joe Mazzulla’s Boston Celtics. Read through 90% of team sites, forums and local media, and a top-five finish on both ends would be suitably hot. UV protection required.
Dig into the data from Joe’s previous iterations of the Celtics and the take starts to feel a little frosty. Check out Boston’s finishes in offensive and defensive rating from 2022–23 through 2025–26, Joe’s full tenure as head coach.
Season
Offensive Rating
NBA Rank
Defensive Rating
NBA Rank
2022–23
117.3
2nd
110.6
2nd
2023–24
122.2
1st
110.6
2nd
2024–25
119.5
2nd
110.1
4th
2025–26
120.0
2nd
111.7
4th
In each of Mazzulla’s four seasons at the helm, Boston has finished comfortably inside the top five offensively, while ranking no lower than fourth defensively. In fact, according to NBA.com, Boston became the first team since turnovers were tracked in 1977 to finish in the top five on both ends in four consecutive seasons.
Nothing is a certainty in the modern NBA, particularly with injuries, but with no true emerging giant joining the ranks of Oklahoma City and San Antonio, I think it’s completely reasonable to expect Boston to rank in the top three defensively and top five offensively in 2026–27.
“Boston go 40-1 at home.” Eaglemike
Now that’s a take! Across four seasons, Boston is 127–37 (.774) at home. During the championship season in 2023–24, the C’s went 37–4 at TD Garden, one of the best home records in NBA history and the best of any team in the 2020s.
Eaglemike predicts that Boston not only surpasses that mark, but that a Jayson Tatum-led Celtics team joins perhaps the greatest team in franchise history, the ’86 Celtics, atop the mountain of all-time regular-season home records at 40–1.
The argument for it would be the degree to which this Celtics roster is optimised to maul teams night after night. There are options on the bench, depth throughout the roster, the added three-point volume of Paul George and Mitchell Robinson attacking the glass on both ends. If you view Tatum as essentially a swap for Brown from last year, I think it’s clear that the team Joe has access to for the majority of this season is far superior to last year’s roster.
This group is also far better equipped to survive cold shooting nights, thanks to its ability to rebound and generate turnovers. That speaks to Boston being a juggernaut both home and away, but I struggle to buy a Celtics team with ammunition still left in the chamber, and a number-one option returning from a serious injury, equalling one of the NBA’s most sacred records.
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 14: Neemias Queta #88 of the Boston Celtics reacts after scoring a basket against the Charlotte Hornets during the second half of the preseason game at the TD Garden on October 14, 2026 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. (Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Big Fella University Takes
“Queta wins 6th man of the year.” PDCeltics
Here’s a cleaned-up version that keeps your tone and structure while smoothing the flow and fixing spelling:
This is the season where Neemias Queta seeks to earn tenure at Big Fella University. Questions around Queta’s quality and consistency from last offseason feel as though they were voiced a long time ago. According to DataBallr, Boston was 6.3 points per 100 possessions better defensively last year when Queta took the court, and he played his part offensively too, scoring an efficient 10 points a night while doing all the big-man basics that helped facilitate higher-usage offensive players. Neemy was pivotal to Boston on both sides of the floor last year.
Rewarded with a $56 million extension, Queta is here to stay, but preseason outings against Charlotte and Philadelphia have suggested that he will take up a new role on this year’s C’s. No coach has employed the “Hack-a-Mitch” ploy more frequently than Mazzulla over the past couple of seasons. To avoid endless trips to the charity stripe in the final two minutes of quarters, it seems Robinson will be the nominal starter for the Celtics this year, opening up an opportunity for Queta to compete for a major accolade.
As it stands, the Portuguese big man can’t be found on either the short or long lists of Sixth Man of the Year candidates. Payton Pritchard has short odds at +400, so in fairness to PDCeltics, this is a hot take.
The case for Queta competing for the award would be an analytically driven one. I’d have to expect him to post magnificent on/off or EPM numbers, while also coming up with huge plays in pivotal moments, to truly vie for honors. Queta’s game doesn’t resemble those of the other bench big men who have walked away with the Sixth Man trophy. Naz Reid and Montrezl Harrell were spark plugs of sorts, with a unique proclivity for juicing an offense. Queta didn’t drag Boston’s offensive rating down when he was on the floor last year, but he didn’t accentuate it either.
The last true-blue big man to win the award for doing big-man things was Roy Tarpley in 1987–88. Queta winning would represent a landmark shift in how the award is judged. For that reason, while I think Queta could be one of the very best bench players in the league this year, his chances of winning 6MOY are rightly astronomical.
“The platoon of Queta and Robinson gives the Celtics the best 48-minute center combination outside of Denver and San Antonio.” Geno-Time
Geno-Time would make a great analyst. This is a brilliant level of hot take. It’s sufficiently spicy but I believe it bares real scrutiny. The Celtics are looking to imitate the success of their former Finals opponents, the 2024 Dallas Mavericks, with their big-man tandem of Robinson and Queta. Neither Robinson nor Queta possesses the skill set to vie for an All-Star berth, but together they provide an insanely high floor at the five for Boston. I’ll list a few other tandems and rotations below that I think are worthy of consideration once you take Denver and San Antonio out of the equation:
Alperen Sengun and Steven Adams
Donovan Clingan and Rob Williams III
Naz Reid, Moussa Diabate and Ryan Kalkbrenner
Rudy Gobert and Joan Beringer
Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren and Aday Mara
In my view, all of the above rotations possess more raw talent than Boston’s frontcourt. Injury concerns surrounding Steven Adams and Rob Williams, however, raise real questions about their ability to outplay Neemy and Mitch over the course of a season. The likes of Beringer and Aday Mara are also unproven at the NBA level, so there’s certainly an argument that Boston will have a true top-tier rotation at center this season.
The key to Robinson and Queta providing more value than the bigs above lies with Boston’s stars. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving unlocked Daniel Gafford and Dereck Lively II, two non-All-Star bigs, to great effect, helping them outperform their individual talent level and making the Dallas frontcourt imperious throughout the 2024 season.
I don’t think Queta and Robinson will be the third-best big-man rotation in the league this year, but if they are, expect either the best season of Jayson Tatum’s career or a major leap from the subject of our next take to be the key to their success.
CLEVELAND, OHIO – OCTOBER 08: Jayson Tatum #0 and Payton Pritchard #11 of the Boston Celtics sit on the bench during the first quarter of a preseason game against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena on October 08, 2026 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 Jason Miller/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Payton Pritchard Takes
“Payton Pritchard is named to the All-Star team as a coach selection or injury replacement.” Larksnado
PPayton winning Sixth Man of the Year isn’t a hot enough take to qualify for this list, so we have to skip a few steps and get into real Sean Evans, make-your-head-explode territory. Larksnado’s claim that Pritch makes his first All-Star team this year is one I’ve considered and investigated in seasons prior.
Fans and analysts alike have suggested for years that Pritchard, a game-breaking college guard who has improved in each of his six NBA seasons, could possess the requisite skills to make the jump from high-impact player to perimeter star in the same way Jalen Brunson has since taking up residence in NYC.
To figure out Pritchard’s chances of making an All-Star team, we can look at a few different things. Firstly, let’s consider his competition for places in the East ahead of the upcoming season. Here’s a list of Payton’s stiffest competition:
Jalen Brunson
Tyrese Haliburton
Cade Cunningham
James Harden
Donovan Mitchell
Tyrese Maxey
Desmond Bane
Derrick White
Tyler Herro
Coby White
Nickeil Alexander-Walker
If healthy, Brunson, Cunningham, Mitchell and Maxey are close to guarantees for places on the All-Star roster. I haven’t included Haliburton in that group because we can’t be 100% certain that he returns to his pre-injury level, but his name can at least be pencilled in.
That leaves Harden and Herro, both former All-Stars who will be in contention, followed by Derrick White, Coby White, Bane and Alexander-Walker, all of whom occupy a similar position to Pritchard, on the outside looking in. Typically, there are a maximum of six guards selected per conference, but with injury replacements we could argue that number might rise to seven next season. Crucially, I believe every player listed above is more likely to start for their respective team. Starting leads to usage, usage leads to points, and points lead to All-Star recognition.
The scenario in which Pritchard makes the All-Star team looks something like this: it becomes clear within the opening ten games that Boston needs Pritch as Tatum’s legitimate second option when the two share the floor, as well as the primary option for bench units. That leads to a spike in usage into genuine All-Star territory.
Of the last 14 guards to make their first All-Star appearance, only Fred VanVleet (23.7%) and Tyrese Haliburton (23.8%) posted a usage rate below 27.1%. Pritchard’s career-high usage came last year, when he posted a rate of 21.6%, so we would need to see Payton empowered to a degree that he hasn’t yet come close to before.
Whilst that makes Pritchard’s All-Star case seem a little far fetched his lineup data with JB on the court last year is proof that he can play at an All-Star level:
Stat (per 75 possessions)
With Jaylen 1,665 mins
Without Jaylen 861 mins
USG%
18.5%
27.2%
PTS
16.8
26.7
AST
5.3
7.6
REB
4.4
5.3
TOV
1.3
2.4
TS%
56.6%
60.6%
3P%
36.1%
39.9%
+/-
4.2
9.6
Payton Pritchard’s 2025–26 numbers with and without Jaylen Brown on the floor. Source: DataBallr.
If Pritchard keeps up that form in non-Jayson lineups this year and assumes an Austin Reaves like role alongside Tatum there’s a chance that Larksnado is looking awfully smart come February this season.
The Paul George Takes
“Paul George will play more games than LeBron James” Jeff Clark (That’s right, the Jeff Clark!)
Jeff was too kind commenting this on the Feed. This could be an article unto itself, and I’m sure it’s something we’re all rooting for heading into the season.
The numbers don’t look good. Over the last five years, LeBron has played 73 more regular-season games than George, with PG13 missing half the season or more in each of his last two seasons.
I believe Jeff’s take is rooted in the idea of role difficulty and need. George is entering his seventeenth season, and I believe the last time he had this little on-ball responsibility was his sophomore NBA season, fifteen years ago. George has already done some interesting stuff as a point forward for Boston in the preseason, but first and foremost I expect him to be a plus role player this year.
Hit the role-player shots, switch on defence, occasionally create off the bounce. Games played aren’t all the same. George shouldn’t be required to take on the most physical assignment on any given night this year. He’ll have the widest driving lanes to the rim that he’s experienced since the bubble, minimising the contact that can lead to awkward landings or contact injuries. George can be nursed through the season with a view to contributing each night and building towards playoff impact.
LeBron James, on the other hand, is still, even at 42 years old, LeBron James. Contact at the rim is inevitable. On-ball responsibility, touches and physicality are all givens when your talents, even in year twenty-four, still command the ball. I believe Jeff has read James’ sciatica quotes, empathised, factored in his usage and come to the conclusion that an injury could be on the horizon for James this year, whereas George might simply avoid that same level of wear and tear.
The theory that James will sit more often because of Philadelphia’s star power is also worth considering. With stars in their prime around him, LeBron can afford to skip back-to-backs and manage his schedule, just as his co-star Joel Embiid will. We know Boston will seek to strangle the regular season, and we know Philadelphia will seek to survive it.
“Paul George will be NBA Finals MVP” C’s the day (Great username)
Paul George calling “Ball Game” in the biggest game of his career would perhaps be the highlight of my NBA watching life and a worth while ending to my favoutite Basketball GIF of all time. Lets pray for this one.
The man has an eight year old son. Streaming with Speed feels like a before kids activity.
“Jaylen Brown gets married this year.” Celtics_fan_in_va
Could this be the end of the stream as we know it?
“KP and Horford retire at the end of the season” Celtics_fan_in_va
I thought KP retired in 2024?
“Hugo Gonzales marries Steve Jobs’ widow and buys the Celtics.” Saint Stephen
Lauren Powell Jobs has three kids and hasn’t remarried since Jobs’ death in 2011. Powell would also have to sell her 20% stake in the Washington Wizards to make this happen but let’s be honest… Who wouldn’t for Hugo?
See all the takes in the feed above. Apologies if you didn’t make the cut!
