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Tanking in the NBA is getting out of hand. Jaren Jackson Jr. made his debut with the Utah Jazz and had 22 points through three quarters. Then he sat down and watched a 15-point lead disappear. So did Lauri Markkanen. And so did Jusuf Nurkić. Utah lost. That was the point.

Every year, tanking happens. But the scale of it this season is staggering, and it’s undermining the product. The Jazz are not alone in their mission to intentionally lose. The Grizzlies traded away Jackson and aren’t rushing back Zach Edey or Ja Morant. The Pacers rested six veterans in a loss against the Jazz last week. The Bucks are keeping Giannis Antetokounmpo away from the court for as long as possible. Trae Young and Anthony Davis haven’t played yet for the Wizards. The Bulls flipped half the team for a nonsensical roster with eight guards on it. The Nets and Kings aren’t trying to win. Neither are the Mavericks. Even the team that just hit the jackpot is back in the tank.

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That’s nine teams. We’re not even at the All-Star break. This is happening despite a 2019 lottery reform that flattened the odds so the three worst teams share a 14% chance at the top pick. That was supposed to fix things. It hasn’t. No team is tanking to the extremes of the Process Sixers. But more teams are tanking into the top 10, because odds in the middle of the lottery now have a real chance of jumping into the top four like the Mavericks did one year ago, leaping from 11th to first to take Cooper Flagg. Since the 2019 reform, 11 of the 28 top-four picks have gone to teams with seventh-or-worse odds. Under the new rules, the NBA has matched decades of lottery chaos in just seven years.

That’s one reason tanking has reached this scale. The other? An absolutely stacked 2026 draft class. There are at least three players worthy of the first pick: Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, BYU forward AJ Dybantsa and Duke big Cam Boozer. Even beyond them, the rest of the top 10 is stacked. Executives believe this draft has a chance to be historic.

“What’s happening is largely a byproduct of this draft class,” said one general manager of a playoff team. “But that doesn’t make it right. The league office needs to make an example out of someone. That’s how you send a message.”

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Adam Silver could punish a tanking team if he wanted with a massive fine or by stripping a pick. But tanking lives in gray areas. Is Utah resting stars in the fourth quarter more punishable than Washington keeping its new acquisitions in street clothes? The Jazz got fined $100,000 last year for resting Markkanen. In 2023, the Mavericks got hit for $750,000 for tanking out of the play-in and into the lottery. But teams treat those fines as a tax for better draft odds. The NBA’s draft system directly rewards losing, and as long as that incentive exists, front offices will exploit it. Enforcement becomes Whac-A-Mole.

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Plenty of half-measures have been floated over the years — wins-based odds, multi-year standings formulas, tournaments for lottery teams — but every one of them still ties record to draft position, which means every one of them can be gamed.

Is tanking inevitable? What if you could design a system that completely severs the link between losing and draft position? Here’s an idea: I call it the Lottery Wheel.

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The basics of the Lottery Wheel

The premise is simple: remove a team’s record from the draft equation entirely. Use predetermined lottery odds assigned years in advance to every team. Those odds rotate annually. This system retains randomness through a lottery draw, and those odds would remain tradable, which would create an entirely new market for teams to rebuild without needing to lose on purpose.

The Lottery Wheel works by dividing the NBA’s 30 teams into five tiers of six teams each. Every tier is assigned a percentage of the total lottery odds, and those odds are distributed equally among the six teams within that tier.

All 30 teams would be eligible for the lottery, not just the 14 teams that miss the playoffs. Why? Because if only non-playoff teams are eligible, you recreate a tanking incentive at the margins. Under any 14-team lottery in which all playoff teams are excluded, a team on the bubble has a genuine reason to lose its way out of the playoffs to retain lottery position.

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Before the system launches, the NBA would seed every team into its starting position on the wheel based on cumulative record, with the worst teams selecting first. Once every team has its spot, the wheel locks in and rotates automatically.

The tiers would rotate on a five-year cycle, meaning every team passes through every tier exactly once over five years. The rotation is staggered — Tier 1, then Tier 3, then Tier 5, then Tier 2, then Tier 4 — so that no team ever has back-to-back premium years. Everyone knows where they’ll be. Records are irrelevant. Odds are determined solely by which tier the wheel assigned to you that year. There is literally zero incentive to lose.

The Lottery Wheel’s odds

The NBA’s current lottery implementation talks about odds in the context of 1,000 combinations assigned to teams. For simplicity, the Lottery Wheel could use 600 combinations to evenly distribute odds within each tier:

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Tier 1: 40 combinations per team (240 total)

Tier 2: 25 combinations per team (150 total)

Tier 3: 18 combinations per team (108 total)

Tier 4: 11 combinations per team (66 total)

Tier 5: 6 combinations per team (36 total)

A Tier 1 team has roughly a 6.7% chance at the No. 1 pick. That’s the best seat at the table, but it’s less than half of the 14% the current system gives the worst team. Even Tier 5 teams carry a 1% chance, which is comparable to what the 13th-worst team gets under today’s rules. No tier is a dead year.

Every team would receive 40, 25, 18, 11, and six combinations over the five-year cycle. That’s exactly 100 per team. The system is perfectly equitable by design. No franchise is advantaged or disadvantaged over time. The only variable is which years your premium odds fall.

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How the order is determined

The top six picks are determined by a weighted lottery draw. All 30 teams are in the pool, and their odds are based on their tier assignment, plus whatever odds were acquired via trade. Each pick is drawn individually.

Here’s how those odds look:

Picks seven through 30 are slotted by tier. After the lottery draws the top six, the remaining teams fill in by tier order: all remaining Tier 1 teams go first, then Tier 2, then Tier 3, and so on. Those picks could be determined by randomizing their placement with a mini-lottery, similar to a reform idea presented by Boston Celtics executive Mike Zarren, which helped inspire my first Wheel concept published over a decade ago.

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The second round would follow the same tier-based structure for every pick in the round, with placement randomized within each tier.

You might be thinking: A 6.7% chance seems kinda low for Tier 1 teams. True. But because of how slotting works, a Tier 1 team’s floor is the 7-12 range. That’s a lottery pick in today’s system.

Owners of bad teams will ask: “Why would I vote for a system that stops rewarding me for being terrible?” But the Lottery Wheel shifts the rebuilding engine from losing games to winning trades.

The trade market would change

Under the current system, teams trade future draft picks. With the Lottery Wheel, odds would also be tradable. And that changes everything. Draft capital would also have a known, quantifiable value attached to it. It turns draft capital into a liquid currency. That’s a fundamentally different rebuilding engine for teams trading away or acquiring odds.

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Here’s an example: It’s the 2036 trade deadline. Toronto is at the top of the standings and in its Tier 2 year for the draft. That means Toronto has 25 combinations, a 4.2% shot at the first pick and a 25.2% chance at a top-six pick. In today’s NBA, a contender’s first is usually a pick in the 20s and rarely the centerpiece of a rebuild trade. But under the Lottery Wheel, suddenly a contender’s pick has value. And New Orleans, a non-contender in its Tier 5 year, has a player that Toronto desires. So the Pelicans acquire that pick from the Raptors to increase their odds, and the Raptors get a player to compete for a title.

That’s an approach that doesn’t exist in the current system, and it’s the kind of transaction that would replace tanking as the primary engine of rebuilding.

The honest problems

I’m not going to pretend this system is flawless. It isn’t. Let me address the biggest concerns head-on.

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1. Chronically bad teams lose their safety net

This is the most legitimate objection. Under the current system, if you’re terrible for seven straight years, you get seven straight years of great odds. There at least appears to be a path out for terrible teams. Whereas, with the Lottery Wheel, you get one Tier 1 year, and in my proposal those odds are only 6.7%.

“You’re asking bad teams to give up the one thing that makes being bad tolerable,” said an executive who heard my proposal.

Fair point. But the current system doesn’t necessarily help chronically bad teams either. Only one team with under 20 wins (Minnesota in 2020) has actually secured the top overall pick since the rules were changed in 2019. The most common outcome for the teams with the best odds? The fifth pick. This has happened seven times for the 21 teams that have had 14% odds. In other words, the NBA has already effectively removed the safety net. And unlike today, a bad team doesn’t have to stay bad to improve its position. It can acquire better odds through trades at any point in the cycle, or simply get lucky in any given year. Even Tier 5 teams have a shot at the top six.

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2. A contender could win the first pick

Yup. It’s possible. But that’s already possible under the current system, with the Thunder holding the rights to an unprotected first courtesy of the Clippers. In 2017, we saw the Celtics land the first pick with a pick they acquired from the Nets.

The lottery is inherently unpredictable. And so is the draft. Great players can be found anywhere. The Lottery Wheel makes it more of a regular thing for good teams to get high picks, but the question is whether it’s better for randomness to exist within a system that incentivizes winning or one that incentivizes losing. If the price of eliminating tanking is that sometimes a great team lucks into a great player, that’s a price worth paying.

The modern day draft is no longer “compensation for being bad.” It’s simply how new talent enters the league. But losing is still rewarded because of the probability of moving up. That needs to change. And if a contender landing in Tier 1 feels like too much of an advantage — between the lottery odds and the guaranteed slotting floor of picks seven through 12 — the league could simply expand the weighted draw beyond six picks to soften that edge.

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3. The known draft class problem

Everyone in the basketball world has a rough sense of which draft classes are loaded three to four years out. It’s not an exact science, of course. But a team whose Tier 1 year falls in a weak class gets unlucky through no fault of its own.

This was one of the classic criticisms of the Zarren “wheel” idea: If teams know in advance when they’ll be positioned well, elite prospects can time their draft entry to land in preferred situations. With modern NIL and two-year college stays on the horizon, that dynamic becomes even more plausible.

4. Expansion breaks the math

The NBA is almost certainly expanding to 32 teams at some point in the 2030s. Thirty divides cleanly into five tiers of six, but 32 doesn’t. The league would need to adjust to either four tiers of eight, or vice versa, or have tiers with uneven group sizes.

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5. Some teams are still going to stink

Even if draft incentive disappears, teams will still protect assets with load management and minutes limits, and still prioritize development over short-term wins, and still make financially motivated choices by ducking the tax and dumping salaries. So yes, the Lottery Wheel removes draft-driven tanking, but it does not magically create 30 teams playing like it’s Game 7 every night.

Every one of those problems is an edge case, an optics concern, or something patchable with rules tweaks. But the numbers and percentages are adjustable. The structure is the point. The core mechanic is simple: Your record has nothing to do with your draft position.

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Realistically, a system like this couldn’t take effect until the 2030s. Teams have already traded picks over the next seven years under the existing rules. This is around the time when expansion is expected. Restructuring the draft alongside expansion would give the league a natural window to start from scratch with enormous benefits.

The benefits of the Lottery Wheel

With all 30 teams in the pool, you’d see teams on the playoff bubble like the Bucks, Bulls, Grizzlies and Mavericks all still competing for a spot this year if their odds weren’t tied to being in the lottery.

More games would have meaning, making the regular season matter more. You would not see teams throwing out idiotic lineups or coaches installing bad game plans meant to increase their chances of losing. Instead, the focus shifts to winning games and developing players.

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The Lottery Wheel also changes the conversation around resting players. The league’s player participation policy would still exist since stars should play in marquee games. But the league would no longer have to guess whether a team is resting a player or tanking. That suspicion disappears. This is important not just for optics but for the genuine integrity of the league. The NBA has fully embraced sports betting and is making money off fans betting on games. Games that some teams are intentionally losing. The league can’t partner with sportsbooks and profit off fan engagement while allowing teams to deliberately lose.

The on-court product improves, and so does the off-court spectacle. This is a bigger, better TV product than the current four-pick drawing involving only non-playoff teams. With the Lottery Wheel system, every fan base in the league is watching because their team has skin in the game. Drawing only the top six picks keeps the truly franchise-altering picks subject to chance, while letting the tier structure do its work from pick seven onward.

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No system is perfect. The Lottery Wheel has edge cases and implementation questions that would need to be worked through. But the question facing the NBA isn’t whether a new system would be flawless. It’s whether it would be better than what we have.

Fans are paying the price. Buying tickets days in advance is a gamble when you don’t know if the stars you’re paying to see will actually play. The league knows this is an issue, which is one reason why it created the NBA Cup (to give the early part of the season more meaning) and the play-in tournament (to make the playoffs more attainable for more teams). The NBA is an entertainment product, and it’s not just competing with other sports leagues anymore. It’s competing with everything: Netflix, YouTube, every other piece of content fighting for attention. The games need to matter.

The league’s open-mindedness for experimentation to improve that product is admirable. But the flattened odds have failed at influencing teams to care more about putting the best team on the floor every night of the long season. Nine teams are tanking before the All-Star break. Others will join them in the weeks ahead. The problem isn’t going away. The league needs to stop tinkering and start reimagining.

“You won’t see that this year,” Jazz general manager Austin Ainge said in June when asked about Utah’s tanking approach. He lied. And until the NBA stops rewarding teams for losing, they all will.

Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder Corbin Carroll will reportedly miss the World Baseball Classic and is in danger of missing Opening Day due to a broken hamate bone in his right hand, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan.

The 25-year-old Carroll reportedly sustained the injury during batting practice Tuesday.

Carroll wasn’t the only player to sustain a hamate bone injury Tuesday. Baltimore Orioles infielder Jackson Holliday will also miss time this season due to the same injury.

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Carroll’s injury comes as a massive blow to both Team USA and the Diamondbacks. He was likely to be one of Team USA’s starting outfielders in the World Baseball Classic. With Carroll sidelined, Minnesota Twins star Byron Buxton could be in line for more playing time in the tournament, and Team USA will likely add another outfielder to its roster as Carroll’s replacement.

It’s an even bigger loss for the Diamondbacks, who have gotten two fantastic seasons from Carroll since he made his major-league debut in 2022. After a bit of a down year in 2024, Carroll bounced back with a .259/.343/.541 slash line in 2025. That performance was good enough to send him to his second All-Star Game, win him a Silver Slugger and help him finish sixth in the MVP voting.

While Carroll has battled ailments throughout his career, he has never been at risk of missing significant time due to an injury. He might not miss much time in 2026, either, as the recovery time from hamate bone surgery is roughly four-to-six weeks.

But even if Carroll is able to return by — or shortly after — Opening Day, he could battle lingering effects from the surgery. Players who sustain hamate bone injuries typically take some time to fully recover their power. That could be a significant limitation for Carroll, who hit a career-high 31 home runs last season.

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That will also be a concern for Holliday, whom the Orioles have already ruled out for Opening Day. Holliday, 22, doesn’t rely on his power as much, but he could still experience aftereffects from the surgery. Holliday is coming off a season in which he slashed .242/.314/.375 over 649 plate appearances. He was expected to open camp as the team’s starter at second base and likely would’ve been a popular breakout candidate due to his status as the former No. 1 overall prospect.

In addition to those two, New York Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor will also be sidelined in spring training due to a hamate bone injury. Lindor’s injury was reported Tuesday, and he reportedly had surgery on Wednesday. He is still expected to be ready for Opening Day.

If you’ve seen Netflix‘s newly-released docu-series Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing, you’ve got a good handle on the competitive and often dramatic world of ice dancing (and if you haven’t, what are you waiting for?!). And now you’ll get to see three of the ice dancing pairs who were profiled in that series competing for gold at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics. Team USA’s Madison Chock and Evan Bates, France’s Laurence Fournier Beaudry and Guillaume Cizeron and Canada’s Piper Gilles and Paul Poirier are among those competing in the free dance final on Wednesday, and you can catch it live on Peacock and USA starting at 1:30 p.m. ET

For a complete schedule of every figure skating event at this year’s games, a rundown of who is on Team USA, and how to watch, keep scrolling. And if you want to learn even more about every event at this year’s Winter Games, here’s a guide to everything you need to know about the Milano Cortina Games.

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How to watch the free dance figure skating final at the 2026 Winter Olympics

Date: Wednesday, Feb. 11

Time: 1:30 p.m. ET on USA, 2:15 p.m. on NBC

Location: Milano Ice Skating Arena

TV channels: NBC, USA

Streaming: Peacock, DirecTV, and more

Where can I stream the free dance figure skating final at the 2026 Winter Olympics?

Two years after she was a controversial snub by Team USA ahead of the 2024 Olympics, Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark will finally make her senior national team debut. Clark was named to the 2026 USA women’s World Cup qualifying team Wednesday, along with Angel Reese, Kelsey Plum and other WNBA stars.

Clark, 24, is coming off an injury-riddled second season in the WNBA. She was limited to just 13 games with the Fever, averaging 16.5 points and 8.8 assists per contest.

Following that injury-riddled year, Clark proved healthy enough to take part in Team USA’s camp a few months after the WNBA season ended. She made her camp debut in December, when she announced herself as fully recovered after quad, groin and ankle injuries during the WNBA season.

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Making the World Cup qualifying roster doesn’t guarantee Clark will make Team USA for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, but it is her first step toward that goal. While Team USA has already qualified for the 2026 FIBA World Cup, the team will use the qualifying tournament as a way to prepare for the World Cup.

Being named to the qualifying roster doesn’t guarantee Clark will make the final World Cup roster either, though, again, it puts her in a pretty strong spot.

Team USA should be pretty stacked heading into the qualifier, which will take place between March 11-17 in Puerto Rico. In addition to Clark, other WNBA stars like Reese, Plum, Paige Bueckers, Dearica Hamby, Sonia Citron and Jackie Young will play in the qualifying tournament.

From there, Team USA general manager Sue Bird will determine the team’s roster for the 2026 World Cup, which will take place in September.

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For the World Cup qualifier, Team USA will be coached by Duke women’s basketball coach Kara Lawson. Natalie Nakase of the Golden State Valkyries, Nate Tibbetts of the Phoenix Mercury and Stephanie White of the Indiana Fever will serve as assistant coaches during the qualifiers.

Team USA is seeking its fifth straight win in the World Cup. The women’s team has been a dominant force in the tournament, winning the World Cup eight of the past 10 times the tournament was held.

You have questions about the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, which for the first time pits the USA vs. World in a round-robin tournament of three teams across four 12-minute games.

It is confusing, and the story of how we got here is a long and winding one, featuring a ton of wrinkles to the format, each of which has failed to inspire competition from the players.

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Let us summarize that story for you, as we answer your questions.

When is the 2026 NBA All-Star Game?

The 2026 NBA All-Star Game is on Sunday at 5 p.m. ET on NBC.

Prior to that: The celebrity game, Rising Stars competition and HBCU Classic will be held in succession on Friday, beginning at 7 p.m. ET; and the slam dunk and 3-point contests, as well as the return of the Shooting Stars competition, will highlight All-Star Saturday, which begins at 5 p.m. ET.

NBC will air all events for the first time since 2002.

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Where is the 2026 NBA All-Star Game?

The Los Angeles Clippers will host the 2026 NBA All-Star Game at the Intuit Dome, which opened its doors to fans in 2024. The arena features a unique wall of stands on one end.

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An interesting wrinkle: Steve Ballmer’s Clippers are currently under investigation by the NBA for allegedly circumventing the salary cap. Kawhi Leonard, whose alleged no-show job at Ballmer-funded Aspiration is central to the investigation, is an All-Star this season.

Who is in the 2026 NBA All-Star Game?

The rosters, as selected by conference, in alphabetical order:

* Alperen Şengün was named as an injury replacement for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain). Brandon Ingram was named as an injury replacement for Stephen Curry (knee). NBA commissioner Adam Silver also selected Kawhi Leonard to the game in order to balance the rosters under the new USA vs. World format.

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What is the new All-Star Game format?

The new format will feature a round-robin tournament between three teams — two made up of players from the United States (USA Stars and USA Stripes) and a third consisting of international competitors (Team World). Each roster must include at least eight players.

Because the original 24 All-Star selections resulted in nine international players and 15 from the U.S., the commissioner added Leonard to the U.S. player pool.

Here’s how the teams have been divided for the 2026 All-Star Game:

Each team will face each other once in the elimination stage:

• Game 2: Stripes vs. Game 1 Winner

• Game 3: Stripes vs. Game 1 Loser

The two teams with the best records will advance to the championship game. If all teams finish the round robin with a 1-1 record, the two teams with the highest point differential will play each other for the title.

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Each game will be 12 minutes.

In last year’s All-Star Game round-robin tournament, each member of the winning team received $125,000 and each member of the runner-up team received $50,000.

So why is there a new format, and why is it so confusing?

The All-Star Game was once held between teams from the Eastern and Western conferences, facing each other in what looked a lot like an NBA game — four 12-minute quarters and intense competition among the greatest basketball players in the world.

Somewhere along the way, most likely as parties and corporate sponsorships took greater priority throughout the weekend, the players stopped caring as much about competition.

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As players took the game less seriously, scores for the first time soared into the 190s in 2016 and 2017, and in 2018 the NBA changed its All-Star Game format for the first time.

For six years, the NBA named two captains who selected their 12-man teams from the 24-player field. That stretch featured a number of wrinkles, including an Elam Ending and a playground-style draft, each meant to inspire more competition among the players, and each failing most every year.

• 2018: Team LeBron 148, Team Stephen 145

• 2019: Team LeBron 178, Team Giannis 164

• 2020: Team LeBron 157, Team Giannis 155

• 2021: Team LeBron 170, Team Durant 150

• 2022: Team LeBron 163, Team Durant 160

• 2023: Team Giannis 184, Team LeBron 175

The January 2020 death of four-time All-Star Game MVP Kobe Bryant, who epitomized effort across 18 appearances in the exhibition, did inspire an uptick in intensity that year, when a team captained by LeBron defeated one captained by Antetokounmpo 157-155.

The resurrection of the All-Star Game was short-lived, however, and in 2024 Silver reverted to the East vs. West format. It did not go well, as the East beat the West 211-186.

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So, Silver instituted a just-as-confusing round-robin tournament last year, featuring three teams of All-Stars and a fourth of Rising Stars, and that, obviously, did not go well, either (Shaq’s OG’s beat Chuck’s Global Stars 41-25).

Rather than scrap the game entirely, ending what was once one of its signature events, Silver made another effort to inspire the same from the players in this confounding USA vs. World round-robin format.

The only thing that will truly change the level of competition is care from the players, who are more incentivized to remain healthy for the teams that pay them millions. If — and that’s a big if — the new format inspires increased competition from players who want to represent their countries, much like the Olympics elicits effort, bring it on.

LIVIGNO, Italy — When she was a young girl, Elizabeth Lemley’s father Wayne would take her and her brother down to Eagle Airport near Vail, Colorado, and put them in the back seat of a single-engine plane while he trained to be a pilot.

Up in the air she’d go, little Liz, feeling the rush of the takeoff, gliding through the clouds, building up to top speed. Eventually, she’d fly planes herself, a hobby that perhaps isn’t too far removed from the career that just won her a gold medal.

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“My favorite type of flying is acrobatics,” Lemley said. “I’ve only done it a few times, but I love the adrenaline. It’s similar to skiing. I love the risk.”

Understand that this qualifies as a pretty bold statement for Lemley, a soft-spoken 20-year old who keeps her cards close to the vest and her emotions in check. On Wednesday, moments after stunning the world with a gold-medal winning run in women’s moguls, it was hard to tell whether Lemley had just fulfilled a lifelong dream or was getting ready for an early dinner.

“She knew she was gonna win,” said Ava Keenan, who’s been skiing with Lemley since they were little and has remained one of her best friends. “She said she had a second gear yesterday. We knew it. We knew this was gonna happen. She just had to ski the way she just skied.”

And how did she ski?

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Almost perfectly.

Second in qualifying and fourth in the first portion of the moguls final, when it all came down to one final run, Lemley put down perhaps the best 25.81 seconds of her skiing life. After the second and final jump, a trick she calls “Slime” that she cribbed from Great Britain’s Matéo Jeannesson — a corked takeoff, a safety grab then a pullback for the final flourish — Lemley crossed the finish line, drove her fist through the air and waited for a score that turned this event on its head. It was 82.30, undoubtedly good enough to medal and perhaps high enough to claim gold.

“I didn’t expect anything from my score,” she said. “I was just thinking about my run. I was super stoked that I put one down.”

Suddenly vaulted into first place, Lemley waited at the bottom along with American teammate Jaelin Kauf, who had skied her way into second. All that remained was the run of Australia’s Jakara Anthony, one of the most accomplished moguls skiers of all time and the favorite to win gold for the second straight Olympics.

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Everyone expected Anthony to do something special. But a failure to control her speed coming through the middle of the course caused her to spin out as she turned her skis. Just like that, Anthony’s run was over and Lemley was the third American to win this event, joining Hannah Kearney in 2010 and Donna Weinbrecht in 1992. The large American contingent holding signs for Lemley and Kauf were delirious, breaking out into hugs before the winners eventually made their way from the podium, both of them hoisted onto shoulders as they showed off their medals.

“I’m so proud of Liz,” said Kauf, who also won silver four years ago and was thrilled to do it this time after a pretty shaky qualifying run Tuesday that almost caused her to miss the finals. “It speaks volumes to our team and what our team is capable of to have us go 1-2 on the Olympic stage.”

To those in the freeski world, it’s not a surprise that Lemley became a gold medalist. She’s always been a bit of a prodigy, winning her first World Cup event at age 16 and the Youth Olympic Games gold in 2024. The stunning part is that she did it this soon, against this field, in her first crack at the Winter Games.

“She’s a silent assassin,” said Jim Keenan, Ava’s father and a close family friend. “She doesn’t say much, but in her head, she knows what she’s doing.”

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Lemley’s own father, the one who put her on skis and in airplanes practically before she could walk, is supposed to arrive in Italy this weekend to watch the dual moguls event. According to one Team USA official, he was too nervous to watch Wednesday’s competition in person.

He missed a heck of a show, but Lemley’s large crew of coaches and friends engulfed her in hugs. As usual, for someone who’s been flying high their whole life, she was the calm in the center of the storm.

“I guess my coach would definitely describe me as pretty stoic,” she said. “I like to stay calm and just feel the moment around me. I think everybody’s different. Some people have a lot of success being super emotional but for me it just works to be super calm.”

The 2025-26 season is complete, but the NFL is a year-round betting (and content) sport, which means it’s never too early to look at odds for next season’s MVP.

Los Angeles Rams QB Matthew Stafford won the MVP award this past season, in a very narrow vote over New England Patriots QB Drake Maye. Stafford threw for 4,707 yards and 47 touchdowns (with eight interceptions) en route to leading the Rams to a 12-5 regular season record and a playoff berth.

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Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen — the 2024-25 MVP winner — opened as the favorite to win the award next season at BetMGM at +600 odds, followed by Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson (+700) and Maye (+900).

Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes — currently rehabbing a torn ACL suffered in Week 16 last season — opened with 11-1 odds and has already been bet down to 10-1. BetMGM’s John Ewing noted that Mahomes has the most money wagered in the first few days of this market being open at 46%.

Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott (12-1) had a terrific individual season last year, but the Cowboys didn’t experience as much team success due to a porous defense.

In the very early going, Chicago Bears QB Caleb Williams (16-1) has the most bets to win the award, followed by Denver Broncos QB Bo Nix (35-1). Nix fractured his ankle in a AFC divisional round, but is expected to have a full recovery well before next season kicks off.

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Stafford opened tied for the eighth-best odds with Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence at 14-1.

Super Bowl champion QB Sam Darnold opened with 25-1 odds, just behind Commanders QB Jayden Daniels (20-1) and 49ers QB Brock Purdy.

Rams WR Puka Nakua and Seahawks WR Jaxson Smith-Njigba opened with the best odds for any non-QB at 100-1.

There were 24 relief pitchers who saw an increase by five or more save opportunities while converting five or more saves in 2025 compared to 2024. When we filter down to which relievers had 15 or more saves in 2025 than in 2024, the list shrinks to eight players. Relievers that met those thresholds include Andrés Muñoz, Aroldis Chapman, Cade Smith, Carlos Estévez, Daniel Palencia, Emilio Pagán, Jeff Hoffman and Will Vest. We have a mixture of relievers with closer experience seeing a higher workload and pitchers who consistently earned save chances with success in 2025.

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The visual below shows the relievers who met the previous threshold of five or more save opportunities and five or more saves in 2025 than in 2024:

On the flip side, the list of relievers who saw their save opportunities and conversions drop by five or more includes Camilo Doval, Emmanuel Clase, José Alvarado, Josh Hader, Kyle Finnegan, Mason Miller and Ryan Helsley. Alvarado was the only reliever with single-digit saves. Doval was leading the Giants in saves (15), though Ryan Walker ate into his save chances, with 10 in the first half of the season before Doval was traded to the Yankees.

Meanwhile, Clase missed the final two months after being investigated for alleged gambling charges, so Cade Smith took on a heftier load. Similar to Doval, Helsley was traded to another team (Mets), and he didn’t convert a save in the second half out of four chances. Helsley signed with the Orioles and should slide into the primary closer for the new team (more on him below). Similarly, Finnegan was traded from the Nationals to the Tigers. Finnegan logged four saves out of five chances in the second half of the season with the Tigers.

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This data reminds us that the closer market can have consistent players to target while understanding there can be volatility with trades, injuries and player struggles. We have several potential reliever targets, fades and sleepers to consider during draft season.

More positional previews

Proactive Picks

Ryan Helsley, Orioles (Yahoo ADP 140.5)

Ryan Helsley signed with the Orioles, filling a void with Félix Bautista undergoing shoulder surgery in August 2025. After a career season of 49 saves in 2024, the Cardinals traded Helsley to the Mets, leading to a significant role change. The 2025 ratios were awful for Helsley, though his 4.03 xERA and 15% swinging-strike suggested the skills still existed, with poor luck. Regression was expected for Helsley, though, after a 2.04 ERA, 3.52 xERA and an 18% swinging-strike rate in 2024.

Helsley’s slider was nasty, eliciting a 23.1% swinging-strike rate, as a pitch he throws often to right-handed hitters (52.7%) and lefties (41.8%). He throws a high-velocity, gyro-like slider that makes hitters chase it outside the zone, with a career 40.3% chase rate. We want at least one dominant pitch for a closer, which Helsley possesses.

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Meanwhile, Helsley’s four-seamer has been crushed against right-handed hitters (.526 wOBA, .455 xwOBA) and left-handed hitters (.471 wOBA, .375 xwOBA). That’s concerning because Helsley’s four-seam generates above-average induced vertical break while paired with above-average extension that comes from a high arm slot (62 degrees). He might be trying to pound the heater in the zone, expecting to find success, though he may benefit from lowering the zone rates. For context, Helsley threw the four-seamer in the zone 60 to 61% of the time over the past two seasons.

If Helsley makes a small tweak to the four-seam locations, we will have more confidence in his dominance. Regardless, Helsley should be the leading closer option for the Orioles after they relied on Keegan Akin (8 saves), Dietrich Enns (2 saves), and Corbin Martin (2) with Bautista sidelined.

Ryan Walker, Giants (Yahoo ADP 192.3)

Once Doval was traded, Ryan Walker had seven saves with Spencer Bivens (3) and Tristan Beck (2) being the other relievers with save conversions in the second half of the season. Walker comes at hitters from a low arm and cross-body approach, which likely involves volatility in his command. Interestingly, Walker’s swinging-strike rate fell to 9% in 2025 after being around 12-13% in the previous two seasons. That’s slightly concerning to have a reliever earning save chances with below-average stuff from a whiff standpoint.

Walker’s slider typically had been filthy, inducing an 18% swinging-strike rate throughout his career. Unfortunately, Walker’s slider swinging-strike rate fell to 12.8% in 2025. The slider’s pitch movement profiles hadn’t changed much, with 14-15 inches of glove-side sweep. There’s a good chance that the slider’s whiffs and results regressed based on the pitch locations.

When Walker left the slider in the zone, right-handed hitters were crushing it in 2025. That’s evident by Walker’s slider allowing a .294 wOBA (.307 xwOBA) in 2025 and a .256 wOBA (.271 xwOBA) in 2024 against right-handed hitters when thrown in the zone.

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Nonetheless, with Doval gone, Walker should eat up the majority of the Giants’ save chances.

The one wild card involves the Giants having a new manager in Tony Vitello, who comes from the college ranks formerly as the coach at the University of Tennessee. Will Vitello rely on Walker or make it somewhat of a closer committee in San Francisco? Walker’s draft price is somewhat discounted, making him an interesting mid-round second closer to target.

Fades

Daniel Palencia, Cubs (Yahoo ADP 171.1)

The Cubs tried to lean on veteran Ryan Pressly as their closer in 2025, but he struggled and they turned to Daniel Palencia, who was one of the waiver-wire gems at the closer position in 2025. He dealt with a shoulder strain in early September, then returned later that month. There’s a chance Palencia could take another step forward in 2026, given the above-average 13.6% swinging-strike rate. Like other relievers, Palencia struggled with control, though his ball rate improved to 34% after being around 39-40% in the previous two seasons.

Palencia’s slider continues to headline his arsenal, with a 19.6% swinging-strike rate in 2025, compared to a career average of 21.5%. The slider added nearly three inches of downward movement in 2025, as a breaking ball that he throws low and away to right-handed hitters. Palencia’s slider generates whiffs and weak contact (.231 wOBA, .175 xwOBA) against right-handed hitters in 2025.

Unfortunately, left-handed hitters crushed Palencia’s slider (.383 wOBA, .313 xwOBA) and four-seamer (.352 wOBA, .366 xwOBA). That suggests Palencia needs an offering to suppress left-handed hitters or they’ll continue to do damage. He sprinkled in a splitter 38 times (8.6%) that allowed a .147 wOBA (.225 xwOBA) against lefties in 2025. It’s easier said than done, but it would benefit Palencia to work on developing a splitter to attack lefties.

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That said, if Palencia struggles to find another pitch to address the issues against left-handed hitters, we could see the Cubs turn toward Phil Maton or Hunter Harvey.

Trevor Megill, Brewers (Yahoo ADP 158.1)

Trevor Megill (6) and Abner Uribe (5) shared save chances in the second half of the 2025 season. Megill dealt with an elbow strain in late August, causing him to miss over one month before returning in late September. It’s concerning when a pitcher ends the season injured; hard to have injury optimism heading into the following season. That’s especially true with Megill, who averaged over one month on the injured list in four of the past five seasons.

Megill has been successful, compiling 51 saves over the past two seasons. The skills support Megill’s save chances, evidenced by a 32% ball rate and a nearly 15% swinging-strike rate over the past two seasons. Megill saw the ratios improve late in the 2025 season, with a slight uptick in his swinging-strike rate. We’re not denying Megill’s skills and recent track record, but there’s a good chance Megill misses time again in 2026, opening the door for Uribe.

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Uribe’s stuff finally led to save chances in 2025, though there should be some ratio regression, since he had a 2.80 xERA, over one run higher than his actual ERA (1.67). With Uribe’s sinker and slider mix, he provides that optimal groundball and strikeout approach. That’s evident in Uribe’s sinker generating a 64% groundball rate and the slider inducing a 19% swinging-strike rate.

The draft market has been torn on Megill and Uribe, but we prefer to take a chance on Uribe since he possesses the stuff to generate whiffs and weak contact, without the injury history of Megill.

Sleepers

Dennis Santana, Pirates (Yahoo ADP 181.9)

In the second half of the season, Dennis Santana had 10 of the 12 saves for the Pirates. They traded David Bednar to the Yankees, aligning with Santana earning save chances. Bednar struggled in 2024, and Aroldis Chapman stole save opportunities. Santana has been waiting for his chance, and he performed relatively well in 2025.

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He might be due for regression since he outperformed his expected ERA (3.96), with an actual ERA of 2.18. Santana showed better control, with a 30% ball rate in 2025 compared to a career ball rate at 34%. Meanwhile, Santana’s swinging-strike rate was above 13% again in 2025, suggesting there’s above-average stuff, but not near-elite. However, Santana does have one near-elite pitch for whiffs via the slider, given a 20.1% swinging-strike rate.

As Santana should, he increased his slider usage to 46.4% in 2025, up from 32.3% in 2024. Santana made a 10 percentage point increase in usage to right-handed hitters (49.3%) with a 20-point jump to lefties (42.5%). Interestingly, Santana’s slider doesn’t have an above-average movement profile, yet it generates weak contact against righties (.207 wOBA, .222 xwOBA) and lefties (.225 wOBA, .270 xwOBA).

That could suggest Santana commands his slider well since it doesn’t have a filthy movement profile. Or Santana’s slider keeps hitters guessing with another pitch having a similar profile, which can be seen via the induced movement profiles above. It’s probably a mixture of both factors, with the cutter being a harder-thrown version of the slider. Santana’s cutter elicits weak contact (.265 wOBA, .322 xwOBA) to right-handed hitters. However, Santana’s cutters tend to be less effective against lefties (.313 wOBA, .317 xwOBA) in 2025.

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Besides Bednar, Santana had the highest game leverage index on the Pirates, showing the team trusts him in high-leverage situations. Santana fits nicely as an RP2 for around 25 saves at a cheaper draft cost.

Pete Fairbanks, Marlins (Yahoo ADP 163.7)

Pete Fairbanks logged 20 or more saves for three consecutive seasons, though he earned 77% of the team’s saves in 2025, which was unusual. For context, Fairbanks had 45% of the team’s saves in 2024 and 60% of the team’s saves in 2023. It’s worth noting that Fairbanks has dealt with his fair share of injuries in 2023 and 2024, causing him to miss over one month in both seasons. Meanwhile, Fairbanks was healthy in 2025.

He signed with the Marlins in December on a one-year deal worth $13 million, so it’s a low-risk investment for the Marlins that they could move at the trade deadline. When healthy, Fairbanks typically performed well with the strikeout skills to support the outcomes. Fairbanks had a 12.8% swinging-strike rate in 2025, with a career low in 2024 (9.5%). However, Fairbanks boasted a swinging-strike rate north of 13% throughout his career.

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Interestingly, Fairbanks’s slider took a slight step back from a whiff standpoint, with a 13% swinging-strike rate in 2025 and 10.3% in 2024. That aligns with the overall dip in swinging-strike rate during the past two seasons. The slider’s movement profile suggests more whiffs on breaking pitch that generates 6.5 inches more downward movement than the average slider. Typically, we find pitches that possess more vertical movement tend to elicit more whiffs.

My guess would be slider locations might be an issue, though a reliever’s pitches can be volatile in smaller samples. Based on the slider heatmaps, it looks like he might be throwing it too often in the heart of the zone, which leads opposing hitters to wait on the slider. We’ve heard rumors that the Rays’ pitchers have been instructed to throw their best pitches in the heart of the zone, to see whether opposing hitters can hit them. Fairbanks may want to focus on a location adjustment for the slider if the high-end downward movement isn’t generating the expected whiffs.

The other concern involves Fairbanks having potential left-handed hitter problems. Left-handed hitters have been doing damage and making loud contact against the four-seamer over the past two seasons, with the slider being decent, but not dominant. That’s especially true since left-handed hitters have been crushing the heater, evidenced by a .341 wOBA (.376 xwOBA) in 2025 and a .379 wOBA (.369 xwOBA) in 2024. Fairbanks may want to develop the changeup that he hardly uses, with a career 18% swinging-strike rate. Furthermore, Fairbanks’s changeup allowed a .204 wOBA (.232 xwOBA) against left-handed hitters in a small sample of 40 pitches in 2025.

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The Marlins have been rotating relievers as their primary closer. A.J. Puk (15), Tanner Scott (12) and Dylan Floro (7) led the Marlins in saves in 2023. Scott (18) and Calvin Faucher (6) were the only two Marlins’ relievers with five or more saves in 2024. Then Faucher (15) led the team in saves with Ronny Henriquez (7) sneaking into the mix in 2025. Faucher still remains on the Marlins, but Fairbanks showed he can handle the majority of the team’s save opportunities with the Rays across multiple seasons.

Griffin Jax/Edwin Uceta, Rays (Yahoo ADPs: 204, 203.3)

The Rays value stuff, as they rank second in Stuff+ behind the Phillies. Griffin Jax possesses near-elite stuff, evidenced by two primary pitches eliciting a swinging-strike rate above 21% via the slider (21.1%) and changeup (27%). Jax’s sweeper is nasty against right-handed hitters, allowing a .149 wOBA (.168 xwOBA). On the flip side, Jax’s changeup serves as a deadly option to lefties, with a .146 wOBA (.150 xwOBA).

Edwin Uceta could be in the mix for saves with Jax, making this a muddy reliever room to figure out. Uceta’s arsenal doesn’t grade well in Stuff models, likely because he throws from a lower arm angle (14 degrees), giving him a Luis Castillo-type arm slot. He throws two pitches with an above-average swinging-strike rate, including the four-seam (17.6%) and changeup (19.1%).

With the lower armslot, Uceta’s changeup and four-seam seem to have reverse splits, where the changeup performs better against right-handed hitters (.191 wOBA, .258 xwOBA) and four-seam is better against lefties (.221 wOBA, .227 xwOBA).

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Uceta’s draft price has been slightly lower than Jax’s. We’ll want to take shots at the Rays’ closer options, but don’t over-invest in either one.

Top-12 RP rankings

We’re back hoops fans with another Yahoo Fantasy x Arena Club drop for Week 17. Yahoo Fantasy Basketball Slab Packs are a brand-new weekly drop featuring real, graded trading cards of the hottest fantasy performers in the NBA.

If you’re new to Arena Club, here’s the lowdown. Arena Club is the premier online marketplace for sports cards, giving collectors a way to rip packs virtually, buy and sell graded cards and track their entire collection — all in one place. Whether you’re in it for the hobby, the thrill or the chase, Arena Club brings the excitement directly to your screen.

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Each week, Arena Club curates real, graded NBA cards and builds two types of Yahoo Fantasy Slab Packs:

Every pack contains a graded card of an active NBA player — but the real treasure is the weekly Chase Cards, featuring some of the top fantasy names in fantasy basketball. These limited-edition hits can reach values up to 20x the cost of the pack.

Weekly NBA Slab Packs go live every Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET and remain available through Friday at 1 p.m. ET (or until they’re gone). It’s the ultimate mid-week boost for fantasy hoopers and collectors alike.

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To top it off, use promo code YAHOO at checkout for 20% off your first slab pack or card purchase on ArenaClub.com or the Arena Club app.

This Week’s Featured Players

Rip a slab pack today for a chance to pull one of the week’s biggest fantasy basketball stars:

Kawhi Leonard, Clippers

Kawhi went for 60+ fantasy points in High Score in back-to-back games, dropping 31 points against the Kings and 41 points against the Timberwolves last week.

LeBron James, Lakers

King James has posted at least 41 fantasy points in six straight games, plus a double-double in three straight before sitting on Tuesday night.

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Nikola Jokić, Nuggets

Joker was back to his old tricks last week with an 85-point fantasy performance thanks to 22 points, 17 assists and 14 rebounds against the Bulls.

Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves

Edwards has at least 50 fantasy points in six of his past eight games and has scored at least 30 real-life points in five of his past six as the T-Wolves make a push toward the playoffs.

Bennedict Mathurin, Clippers

Mathurin was traded to the Clippers in the Ivica Zubac deal from the Pacers prior to the deadline. He tallied 33 fantasy points in his L.A. debut on Tuesday with 9 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals in 26 minutes.

Weekly Drops. Real Cards. Real Value. Real Thrill.

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With the fresh fantasy baseball season approaching, it’s time to get you some tiered rankings from my Shuffle Up series. Use these for salary cap drafts, straight drafts, keeper decisions or merely a view of how the position ebbs and flows. Monday, we opened with the catcher position. Today’s assignment is first base.

The numbers are unscientific in nature and meant to reflect where talent clusters and drops off. Assume a 5×5 scoring system, as usual.

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Additional positions will follow regularly for the next two weeks. I have removed all catcher-eligible players from the first base shuffle, since those players will be used at catcher for 99% of fantasy teams.

More Tiered Rankings

The Big Tickets

• $33 Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

Guerrero’s production has bounced all over the place through his quirky career, but I have no problem paying up for a three-year average of .293/.374/.485. And this is a guy who comes to play every night, missing just 18 games in the past six seasons. Maybe Guerrero will never become the superstar he was tabbed as a prospect — or the superstar he’s paid to be — but there’s something to be said for a bankable floor.

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Kurtz has something to learn about left-handed pitching (.197/.261/.423), but the Athletics will let him play every day and figure it out. His pop was better at the cushy home park, but his average and OBP played on the road, too. Kurtz can probably trim the heavy strikeout rate, given his discerning eye (he rarely swings out of the zone) and lofty walk rate. Sophomore bets generally make you a little nervous, but Kurtz belongs in the second round.

Harper is going to be a plus offensive player until he retires, but staying on the field has become an issue — he’s averaged 129 games over the past five seasons. He’s picked up double-digit steals in four of the last five years, more proof that the SB column is usually about will over skill. Harper is worth considering in the third round but probably fits better in the fourth.

Legitimate Building Blocks

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Occam’s Razor applies to the Devers case — he traded Fenway Park’s cozy dimensions for the roominess of Oracle Park, and the slash tells the story. Devers had a .296/.420/.556 line in his 39 games at Fenway, and a .234/.351/.474 downer in the 48 San Francisco games. To be fair, that OBP and slugging with the Giants still make Devers a plus hitter, but it turns him from a second-round fantasy asset to a fourth-round consideration. I’ll probably sit this one out.

It’s no fun to play fantasy baseball like an actuary, but it’s generally a wise idea. Freeman’s bags are gone, his bat speed is in a scary decline and he’s 36. Be realistic. I’d like to trend younger with my roster construction.

The will-over-skill steals theme especially apples to Naylor, who somehow swiped 30 bags in 32 attempts despite a sprint score in the bottom 3%. A ridiculous 19 of those steals came after the move to Seattle, in just 54 games. The Mariners play in a big ballpark and want to run aggressively, so I can sign off on Naylor keeping maybe half of those 30 overall bags. Focus the bid price more on his bat, with a three-year slash of .280/.341/.468.

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Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down

Burleson figured out lefties in 2025 and no longer has any worry about being platooned. His contact skills are excellent and he still might grow into a 25-30 homer guy. He’s one of the quiet values I want you to focus on at the table.

The Brewers have become what the Rays used to be, the small-market club that seems to be smarter than everyone else. Thus, when Vaughn joined the Crew last year and immediately stepped up his play, it felt like another Milwaukee steal. I like that betting on Vaughn is betting on pedigree — he was the third overall pick in the 2019 draft. He’ll probably start the year slotted fifth in this lineup, behind a host of OBP machines. Circle this value, too.

Some Plausible Upside

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Caglianone made plenty of contact as a rookie; it just wasn’t emphatic contact — his hard-hit profile is depressing to look at. But don’t take his slash line at face value, as the secondary data suggests his batting average was 80 points unlucky and his slugging should have been 136 points higher. The development curve is different for everyone. While we have to accept that Caglianone might not even make the Royals out of camp, there’s still plenty of profit potential here, too.

You need to be in a deeper league to value Clement, whose main value is the safety of his job and the consistent batting average. You’re looking at 8-12 homers and 8-12 steals here, and the Toronto lineup is deep enough to keep Clement in the bottom third. I’ll admit a soft spot for Clement because he’s a throwback, a contact-heavy approach at the plate and a versatile profile in the field. Yahoo managers can use Clement at all four infield spots.

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