Ramirez hits 2-run homer as Miami Marlins top Minnesota Twins 4-1, win 4th straight series
Eury Pérez (1-2) struck out a season-high seven and walked one in six innings of one-hit ball for his first win since June 25, 2023, against Pittsburgh. Cade Gibson relieved Pérez in the seventh after 80 pitches.
The Marlins (39-46) have won 10 of their past 12 — including an eight-game winning streak — and have the same record as the Atlanta Braves for third in the NL East.
The Twins went 2-4 in their six-game road trip, also losing a series at Detroit.
Ramírez connected on a 1-2 fastball from Twins starter David Festa (2-3) and launched it 425 feet to left-center during a three-run first.
Festa allowed five hits and four runs with seven strikeouts in six innings.
Edwards hit leadoff singles in the first and third and stole his team-leading 15th base. Kyle Stowers went 0-for-3, ending his nine-game hitting streak. Ronny Henriquez earned his fifth save.
Matt Wallner ended the shutout with a solo shot off Gibson in the seventh.
Key moment from the game
Wallner's two-out homer against Gibson made it 4-1 in the seventh. Anthony Bender then gave up consecutive singles before getting pinch-hitter Ryan Jeffers to ground out to end the inning.
Ramirez leads rookies
Ramírez leads all rookies in the majors with 13 home runs, and the homer extended his lead among rookies in extra-base hits to 29 (15 doubles, one triple, and 13 home runs).
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Associated Press
14 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Raleigh hits Nos. 34 and 35 to match Griffey's Mariners record for HRs before All-Star break
SEATTLE (AP) — Cal Raleigh hit his 34th and 35th home runs to set a career high and match Ken Griffey Jr.'s Seattle record for homers before the All-Star break, helping the Mariners beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 6-0 on Friday The major league leader turned on a fastball from Bailey Falter (6-4) in the first inning and walloped it well past the wall in left. The exit velocity on the two-run shot was logged at 115.2 mph, per Statcast — the hardest-hit ball of his career. Raleigh topped his previous career high — set last season — in the sixth with a solo shot that chased Falter. The Mariners only mustered one other hit off the left-hander, but it was also a home run courtesy of Randy Arozarena in the fourth inning. Mariners starter Bryan Woo (8-4) went six innings. Key moment The Pirates came a few inches away from taking a 2–0 lead in the first inning when Oneil Cruz lofted a pop-up toward no man's land in left field. Arozarena made an improbable catch to end the inning and strand two Pittsburgh runners. Key stat Woo has worked at least six innings all 17 starts this season. Up next Seattle RHP Luis Castillo (4-5, 3.55) was set to start Saturday against RHP Mike Burrows (1-2, 4.15). ___ AP MLB:
New York Times
19 minutes ago
- New York Times
Mike Brown is this detail-oriented
The market for the Warriors' restricted free agent is beginning to take shape. Meanwhile, teams are discussing a potential seven-team trade. Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images Mike Brown's defining trait comes in his attention to detail. He is notoriously organized. After he picks up his mail at home, he stacks up the envelopes, dividing each into different categories before opening them. His office is always 'immaculate,' said Warriors assistant Bruce Fraser, who overlapped with Brown for six seasons in Golden State. He color codes his plays, often carrying various pens — a red one, a blue one, a black one, etc. — so that he can diagram them as clearly as possible. When he was with the Warriors, he would categorize pens in his locker by their colors. Just to mess with him, other coaches would switch them around, removing a red pen from its intuitive group and place it among the blues. Brown would notice quickly and restore order. Brown is a copious note taker. At any given moment around the team, he could be holding a massive folder that contains all his scribbles. 'It's like his basketball bible,' Fraser said. The coach will notice an interesting tidbit another team has added or think of a play and jot it down without hesitation. Later, just to make Marie Kondo jealous, he will go back and reillustrate his diagram, making sure to create a color-coded version. He expects the same attention to detail from those around him, from the players to the coaches to the rest of the franchise. Read the rest of my feature on the likely new Knicks head coach. GO FURTHER Who might the Knicks get in Mike Brown? Two-time Coach of the Year is still evolving Mike Lawrie / Getty Images We gave up another first-rounder pick to avoid the luxury tax! The fourth one of the Nikola Jokić era! Yay? I get some of the enthusiasm about Denver's secondary moves to fill out the bench. Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valančiūnas are all massive upgrades on the flotsam that passed for a second unit a year ago. But they traded an extremely valuable asset — a 2032 unprotected first-round pick — in a swap of forwards that turned Michael Porter Jr. into Cam Johnson. You can nitpick small differences in their games, but this was a deal whose sole driving inspiration was avoiding paying the luxury tax again. That's a sad way to operate while the best player who will ever wear a Nuggets uniform is still in his prime. If you don't think this is bad, just consider: What else could the Nuggets have done with that 2032 pick if they had actually been looking at deals to make the team better, rather than just ones that let them tread water while avoiding spending money? Here's the thing, though: Jokić is so good that this team is a legitimate contender; the Nuggets gave the Thunder all they could handle in the second round in May and have some reinforcements this time around. It's just sad to think of how much opportunity has been squandered by the Nuggets constantly using draft picks to dump money. The one time they used future picks to actually build their team, they landed Aaron Gordon. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days Caw-caw! Under new GM Onsi Saleh, the Hawks had a fantastic draft week, acquiring Kristaps Porziņģis in a deal to be finalized soon and then burning the New Orleans Pelicans by getting an unprotected first-round pick in 2026 that could land one of the top picks in a loaded draft. They followed it up with stellar work in the free-agent market. Atlanta used its $25 million trade exception from the Dejounte Murray trade to land Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Minnesota at a price just above the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, essentially squeezing out all their competition, and then added Luke Kennard on a one-year deal. Those two additions fortify what was an extremely shaky shooting and ballhandling situation in the non-Trae Young minutes, and in Alexander-Walker, the Hawks added a second lockdown backcourt defender to go with stopper Dyson Daniels. The Hawks also seem likely to get some small bit of compensation for letting Clint Capela go to Houston in a sign-and-trade. Now, for the fun part: Could Atlanta do more? Capela's outbound salary is enough to offset Alexander-Walker's, which means the Hawks could keep that $25 million trade exception alive for something else. They would have to work quickly since it expires on July 6, the first day deals can be ratified in the new cap year, and they would have to send out some salary to stay below the first-apron threshold (where they're hard-capped due to signing Kennard with the nontaxpayer MLE), but it's something to ponder. In the event things stay less spicy, the Hawks still have back-end work to do on the roster with their $5.1 million biannual exception and veteran's minimums; the Hawks are an estimated $7.4 million below the tax line with at least two open roster spots to fill and could use another small forward and a stretch four. Read on for more free agency winners and losers. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days Jerome Miron / Imagn Jared Dudley, a Dallas Mavericks assistant for the last four years, is headed to Denver to become the Nuggets' lead assistant coach, a league source confirmed. His departure means Jason Kidd's coaching staff in Dallas will look radically different next season. All three of Kidd's top assistants from last season have left in the past five months. In March, Alex Jensen accepted a job as the head men's coach at the University of Utah. In June, Sean Sweeney became the San Antonio Spurs' associated head coach. Now, Dudley leaves Dallas for a promotion. Additionally, God Shammgod is taking a job on Jamahl Mosley's staff with the Orlando Magic. Shammgod began working for the Mavericks in 2016 and has a close relationship with Kyrie Irving. So far, the Mavericks have hired two former head coaches as replacements in Jay Triano and Frank Vogel. Vogel was the head coach of the Lakers' championship-winning team in 2020; Kidd worked under him in L.A. as an assistant. Remember when NBA free agency was an event, something that dragged on for days as players took meetings, teams prepared dog-and-pony shows for prospective free agents and entire front-office staffs huddled up in cramped hotel rooms in The Hamptons? It was only nine years ago that Kevin Durant put the entire league on hold while he figured out his next destination. It was only eight years ago that Gordon Hayward did the same. (I swear to you this really happened.) And it wasn't just the stars who got this treatment; take it from somebody who flew cross-country to make a sales pitch to Solomon Hill. Welcome to the speed chess version of the same game. We're a few days into free agency, and aside from the annual drawn-out saga of restricted free agents, we're basically done. Read on to understand why and to see my early winners and losers. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days Brad Penner / Imagn After we finished digesting the news of the three terrible Achilles tears of the playoffs, another question emerged: Which teams would rise to fill the void in the battered, miserable Eastern Conference? Going chronologically, injuries to Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton put the immediate fates of the last two conference champions and the team with the conference's best player in doubt. Without those stars, it would be difficult for their teams to compete in 2025-26 and stay financially responsible at the same time. We've seen all three teams grapple with that in June and early July. The offseason is not over, and neither is free agency — the likes of Josh Giddey and Jonathan Kuminga are still out there as restricted free agents, and trades could still develop. In the wake of most of the major action, it seems wise to reassess the status of the conference. Let's get to this before a trade goes down and shakes all of this up. Read on to see how I classified the current state of the East. GO FURTHER Knicks, Magic or Cavs: Which teams are prepared to jump up in the Eastern Conference? There's nothing near the finish line on the Jonathan Kuminga front as the third night of free agency wrapped up, per league sources. There are conversations ongoing with Warriors and several teams on periphery. The Warriors are also waiting on Al Horford's decision. Former No. 1 overall picks from the lottery era to play for the Los Angeles Lakers: Shaquille O'Neal Joe Smith Kwame Brown LeBron James Dwight Howard Andrew Bogut Anthony Davis Deandre Ayton None of them were drafted by the Lakers. Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Deandre Ayton was a surprise addition to this year's free agency class, negotiating a contract buyout with the Trail Blazers on Sunday night and surrendering a reported $10 million of a $34 million deal. Ayton and Luka Dončić are both represented Bill Duffy, the longtime agent who heads WME Basketball. Dončić, according to league sources, is excited about the opportunity to play with Ayton. The Lakers, according to team and league sources, showed serious interest in veteran center Brook Lopez, who agreed to a two-year deal with the LA Clippers on Monday. He was pegged by many around the NBA as the logical player for the Lakers this free agency cycle. Lopez, 37, is still one of the NBA's best inside-outside centers but doesn't play the kind of pick-and-roll, lob-threat style that Dončić has had the most success with in his career. GO FURTHER Deandre Ayton, Lakers agree to two-year deal: Sources To add more detail to Kelly Iko's report below about an "expansive sign-and-trade" involving Houston: League sources tell The Athletic that the Rockets and Suns are working on expanding the Kevin Durant trade into a deal that would involve a league-record seven teams. Other teams involved in negotiations at the moment include the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, league sources say. No trade is imminent, and details are being ironed out as of Wednesday night. In a would-be seven-team trade, there is an unprecedented amount of detail. Unfortunately, while a seven-team trade would make for a thrilling topic at a cocktail party, there haven't been many unexpected developments in these negotiations. At least in the iterations of the deal discussed so far, most of the recognizable names are from trades that have already been agreed to and reported but not yet finalized. The Hawks would be sending Clint Capela to the Rockets in what would become a sign-and-trade, league sources say. Durant would go to Houston. The previously reported return for him, including Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green, would go to Phoenix. Only five players who were in the NBA last season are being discussed in the current iteration of the trade, as of now: Durant, Brooks, Green, Clint Capela and Daeqwon Plowden, league sources say. The rest of the players being discussed are all from already-agreed-upon draft-night trades that are yet to be finalized and can't be until July 6. For now, the largest trade in NBA history is the six-teamer that sent Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks last summer. Before that, it was the five-teamer in 2021, when the Lakers sent Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards. GO FURTHER Why the Rockets changed course, fast-tracked their timeline to land Kevin Durant Dennis Schröder will be joining the Kings as part of a sign-and-trade with the Pistons, a team source tells our Sam Amick, and that improves the flexibility for both teams. The Kings willl take Schröder into their existing $16.8 million trade exception for Kevin Huerter and thus maintain their entire $14.1 million nontaxpayer midlevel exception for other moves; Sacramento is currently $14.7 million below the first apron, where the Kings would be hard-capped as a result of the sign-and-trade. The Pistons, meanwhile, will either generate a $14.1 million trade exception for Schröder or can take back up to $23 million in a simultaneous trade that would almost certainly involve a third team (or more). As a result of this trade, the Pistons would operate as an over-the-cap team, with Paul Reed taking the team's biannual exception and Caris LeVert taking Detroit's nontaxpayer midlevel exception. Detroit still has $25 million in room below the tax line with three open roster spots, although one may be designated for rookie second-round pick Chaz Lanier. The Pistons are already taking on a bunch of salary in another trade, sending Simone Fontecchio out in a sign-and-trade for Duncan Robinson; it appears that Detroit will start Robinson's salary at the maximum allowable $16,865,384 (twice Fontecchio's salary plus $250,000), and then decline his salary by 5 percent each of the following two years on his three-year, $48 million deal. It also remains possible that Detroit unites these two sign-and-trades into one big, ugly sign-and-trade, although right now it doesn't seem to generate any additional advantages versus keeping the two separate. To further what Eric Nehm and I discussed in our story earlier today: The Bucks, after waiving Chris Livingston, can accommodate a four-year, $107 million contract for Myles Turner, provided Vasilije Micić gives back at least $5.4 million of his $8.1 million salary in a buyout with Milwaukee. If Turner's deal ends up being a sign-and-trade, however, Micić would only need to give back $5.15 million. After an active offseason, the Atlanta Hawks' championship odds have jumped from +25000 to +2500 on BetMGM. Trae Young remains the cornerstone, but the supporting cast looks deeper and much more talented with those three additions. Atlanta's regular starting five figures to be Trae Young, Kristaps Porziņģis, Most Improved Player Dyson Daniels, last year's No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher and Jalen Johnson, who was averaging 18.9 points, 10 rebounds and five assists before missing the second half of last season due to injury. Add Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard to a bench unit in a depleted Eastern Conference, and it's easy to see why Atlanta surged up the odds. GO FURTHER 2026 NBA title odds: How the contenders rank after free agency and trade frenzy The Milwaukee Bucks have waived Chris Livingston. The Bucks selected Livingston, 21, with the final pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, but he never found his footing in the NBA. Livingston appeared in 42 games across the last two seasons with the Bucks and played just 196 minutes. He was on a non-guaranteed contract for the 2025-26 season with a guarantee date of July 15. I'm hearing that the Rockets, who are acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela in free agency, will be expanding one of those into an expansive sign-and-trade that involves multiple teams. Houston can officially finalize those moves beginning July 6. Purely from a standpoint of matching salaries, the Knicks could construct various types of potential trade offers for LeBron James. The most chaotic deal would be flipping All-NBA big man Karl-Anthony Towns for James, straight up — two teams betting on the other's star. Of course, this could leave the Knicks center-less, given Mitchell Robinson's injury struggles. They could pair a couple of wings, OG Anunoby and either Josh Hart or Mikal Bridges, in a trade for James. They could piece together a trio to offer for James: Anunoby, Robinson and point guard Miles 'Deuce' McBride. But Anunoby will make $45 million in 2027-28 and has a player option for the following season, which would eat into the Lakers' possible cap space two summers from now. Meanwhile, the Knicks — or any other team — may not want to part with three key rotation pieces (and three of their four best defenders) for a 40-year-old. James could double as a basketball fit, as well as a giant expiring contract to avoid the second apron in 2026-27 and maybe beyond. In Los Angeles, Towns and Luka Dončić could destroy any defense they face. But the Knicks are also made up of prime-aged contributors. This would make them older. Like in the other hypotheticals, a James trade to the Knicks, even in a world where both he and the Lakers agree it's best for the two to part ways after seven years, isn't likely. The Knicks didn't get in on the hunt for Kevin Durant. Like so many others, they could be saving up salary and assets for a guy in Milwaukee. They may not handle this hypothetical much differently. Read on for more LeBron James trade hypotheticals. GO FURTHER LeBron James trade fits: Cavs, Warriors, Mavericks and more possibilities Mike Ehrmann / USA Today Sports The Mavericks are hiring Frank Vogel to be Jason Kidd's top assistant coach, a league source confirmed to The Athletic . Vogel spent time around the Mavericks last season as a coaching adviser. He'll replace Sean Sweeney, who left Dallas this offseason for San Antonio, as Kidd's primary lieutenant. Vogel was the Lakers' head coach in 2020 when they won the championship in the NBA bubble. Kidd was an assistant on that staff. Their roles are reversed now. Dallas bringing back Dante Exum does not augur well for the future of guard Brandon Williams. His non-guaranteed contract is Dallas' 16th, and his continued presence on the roster would push Dallas into the second apron, where they are hard-capped by virtue of using the taxpayer midlevel exception on D'Angelo Russell. Page 2
New York Times
19 minutes ago
- New York Times
State of the East after all those injuries
The market for the Warriors' restricted free agent is beginning to take shape. Meanwhile, teams are discussing a potential seven-team trade. Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images Brad Penner / Imagn After we finished digesting the news of the three terrible Achilles tears of the playoffs, another question emerged: Which teams would rise to fill the void in the battered, miserable Eastern Conference? Going chronologically, injuries to Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton put the immediate fates of the last two conference champions and the team with the conference's best player in doubt. Without those stars, it would be difficult for their teams to compete in 2025-26 and stay financially responsible at the same time. We've seen all three teams grapple with that in June and early July. The offseason is not over, and neither is free agency — the likes of Josh Giddey and Jonathan Kuminga are still out there as restricted free agents, and trades could still develop. In the wake of most of the major action, it seems wise to reassess the status of the conference. Let's get to this before a trade goes down and shakes all of this up. Read on to see how I classified the current state of the East. GO FURTHER Knicks, Magic or Cavs: Which teams are prepared to jump up in the Eastern Conference? There's nothing near the finish line on the Jonathan Kuminga front as the third night of free agency wrapped up, per league sources. There are conversations ongoing with Warriors and several teams on periphery. The Warriors are also waiting on Al Horford's decision. Former No. 1 overall picks from the lottery era to play for the Los Angeles Lakers: Shaquille O'Neal Joe Smith Kwame Brown LeBron James Dwight Howard Andrew Bogut Anthony Davis Deandre Ayton None of them were drafted by the Lakers. Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Deandre Ayton was a surprise addition to this year's free agency class, negotiating a contract buyout with the Trail Blazers on Sunday night and surrendering a reported $10 million of a $34 million deal. Ayton and Luka Dončić are both represented Bill Duffy, the longtime agent who heads WME Basketball. Dončić, according to league sources, is excited about the opportunity to play with Ayton. The Lakers, according to team and league sources, showed serious interest in veteran center Brook Lopez, who agreed to a two-year deal with the LA Clippers on Monday. He was pegged by many around the NBA as the logical player for the Lakers this free agency cycle. Lopez, 37, is still one of the NBA's best inside-outside centers but doesn't play the kind of pick-and-roll, lob-threat style that Dončić has had the most success with in his career. GO FURTHER Deandre Ayton, Lakers agree to two-year deal: Sources To add more detail to Kelly Iko's report below about an "expansive sign-and-trade" involving Houston: League sources tell The Athletic that the Rockets and Suns are working on expanding the Kevin Durant trade into a deal that would involve a league-record seven teams. Other teams involved in negotiations at the moment include the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, league sources say. No trade is imminent, and details are being ironed out as of Wednesday night. In a would-be seven-team trade, there is an unprecedented amount of detail. Unfortunately, while a seven-team trade would make for a thrilling topic at a cocktail party, there haven't been many unexpected developments in these negotiations. At least in the iterations of the deal discussed so far, most of the recognizable names are from trades that have already been agreed to and reported but not yet finalized. The Hawks would be sending Clint Capela to the Rockets in what would become a sign-and-trade, league sources say. Durant would go to Houston. The previously reported return for him, including Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green, would go to Phoenix. Only five players who were in the NBA last season are being discussed in the current iteration of the trade, as of now: Durant, Brooks, Green, Clint Capela and Daeqwon Plowden, league sources say. The rest of the players being discussed are all from already-agreed-upon draft-night trades that are yet to be finalized and can't be until July 6. For now, the largest trade in NBA history is the six-teamer that sent Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks last summer. Before that, it was the five-teamer in 2021, when the Lakers sent Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards. GO FURTHER Why the Rockets changed course, fast-tracked their timeline to land Kevin Durant Dennis Schröder will be joining the Kings as part of a sign-and-trade with the Pistons, a team source tells our Sam Amick, and that improves the flexibility for both teams. The Kings willl take Schröder into their existing $16.8 million trade exception for Kevin Huerter and thus maintain their entire $14.1 million nontaxpayer midlevel exception for other moves; Sacramento is currently $14.7 million below the first apron, where the Kings would be hard-capped as a result of the sign-and-trade. The Pistons, meanwhile, will either generate a $14.1 million trade exception for Schröder or can take back up to $23 million in a simultaneous trade that would almost certainly involve a third team (or more). As a result of this trade, the Pistons would operate as an over-the-cap team, with Paul Reed taking the team's biannual exception and Caris LeVert taking Detroit's nontaxpayer midlevel exception. Detroit still has $25 million in room below the tax line with three open roster spots, although one may be designated for rookie second-round pick Chaz Lanier. The Pistons are already taking on a bunch of salary in another trade, sending Simone Fontecchio out in a sign-and-trade for Duncan Robinson; it appears that Detroit will start Robinson's salary at the maximum allowable $16,865,384 (twice Fontecchio's salary plus $250,000), and then decline his salary by 5 percent each of the following two years on his three-year, $48 million deal. It also remains possible that Detroit unites these two sign-and-trades into one big, ugly sign-and-trade, although right now it doesn't seem to generate any additional advantages versus keeping the two separate. To further what Eric Nehm and I discussed in our story earlier today: The Bucks, after waiving Chris Livingston, can accommodate a four-year, $107 million contract for Myles Turner, provided Vasilije Micić gives back at least $5.4 million of his $8.1 million salary in a buyout with Milwaukee. If Turner's deal ends up being a sign-and-trade, however, Micić would only need to give back $5.15 million. After an active offseason, the Atlanta Hawks' championship odds have jumped from +25000 to +2500 on BetMGM. Trae Young remains the cornerstone, but the supporting cast looks deeper and much more talented with those three additions. Atlanta's regular starting five figures to be Trae Young, Kristaps Porziņģis, Most Improved Player Dyson Daniels, last year's No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher and Jalen Johnson, who was averaging 18.9 points, 10 rebounds and five assists before missing the second half of last season due to injury. Add Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard to a bench unit in a depleted Eastern Conference, and it's easy to see why Atlanta surged up the odds. GO FURTHER 2026 NBA title odds: How the contenders rank after free agency and trade frenzy The Milwaukee Bucks have waived Chris Livingston. The Bucks selected Livingston, 21, with the final pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, but he never found his footing in the NBA. Livingston appeared in 42 games across the last two seasons with the Bucks and played just 196 minutes. He was on a non-guaranteed contract for the 2025-26 season with a guarantee date of July 15. I'm hearing that the Rockets, who are acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela in free agency, will be expanding one of those into an expansive sign-and-trade that involves multiple teams. Houston can officially finalize those moves beginning July 6. Purely from a standpoint of matching salaries, the Knicks could construct various types of potential trade offers for LeBron James. The most chaotic deal would be flipping All-NBA big man Karl-Anthony Towns for James, straight up — two teams betting on the other's star. Of course, this could leave the Knicks center-less, given Mitchell Robinson's injury struggles. They could pair a couple of wings, OG Anunoby and either Josh Hart or Mikal Bridges, in a trade for James. They could piece together a trio to offer for James: Anunoby, Robinson and point guard Miles 'Deuce' McBride. But Anunoby will make $45 million in 2027-28 and has a player option for the following season, which would eat into the Lakers' possible cap space two summers from now. Meanwhile, the Knicks — or any other team — may not want to part with three key rotation pieces (and three of their four best defenders) for a 40-year-old. James could double as a basketball fit, as well as a giant expiring contract to avoid the second apron in 2026-27 and maybe beyond. In Los Angeles, Towns and Luka Dončić could destroy any defense they face. But the Knicks are also made up of prime-aged contributors. This would make them older. Like in the other hypotheticals, a James trade to the Knicks, even in a world where both he and the Lakers agree it's best for the two to part ways after seven years, isn't likely. The Knicks didn't get in on the hunt for Kevin Durant. Like so many others, they could be saving up salary and assets for a guy in Milwaukee. They may not handle this hypothetical much differently. Read on for more LeBron James trade hypotheticals. GO FURTHER LeBron James trade fits: Cavs, Warriors, Mavericks and more possibilities Mike Ehrmann / USA Today Sports The Mavericks are hiring Frank Vogel to be Jason Kidd's top assistant coach, a league source confirmed to The Athletic . Vogel spent time around the Mavericks last season as a coaching adviser. He'll replace Sean Sweeney, who left Dallas this offseason for San Antonio, as Kidd's primary lieutenant. Vogel was the Lakers' head coach in 2020 when they won the championship in the NBA bubble. Kidd was an assistant on that staff. Their roles are reversed now. Dallas bringing back Dante Exum does not augur well for the future of guard Brandon Williams. His non-guaranteed contract is Dallas' 16th, and his continued presence on the roster would push Dallas into the second apron, where they are hard-capped by virtue of using the taxpayer midlevel exception on D'Angelo Russell. If Jake LaRavia gets a flat $6 million over two years from the Lakers, as it seems he might, there is $8,104,000 left over for Ayton with their nontaxpayer midlevel exception. If that is the case, Ayton's 2026-27 salary would be $8,509,200 if he doesn't choose to hit free agency. Portland is likely to end up with a $25.55 million cap charge on its books after buying out Ayton. If so, the Blazers are $17 million below the tax line, and Ayton would make a total of $33.7 million in 2025-26 between the two contracts. Lakers second-round draft pick Adou Thiero won't play this summer for the Lakers as he continues with the recovery process from the left knee injury he suffered this past season at Arkansas. He's expected to be fully cleared for training camp. Jalen Bridges has been added to the Celtics summer league roster, I've been told, and will be going to camp with the team in the fall with a chance to make the roster. The 24-year-old wing played for Phoenix on a two-way contract as a rookie. Page 2
