Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s chemistry brought Seattle to a Super Bowl. A connection between a receiver and quarterback can change an offense, and with it, ignite your fantasy football lineup. Analyst Joel Smyth goes over six top QB-WR connections from the 2025 season.
Sam Darnold & Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Seahawks
The epitome of a QB-WR connection: Darnold & Smith-Njigba. JSN led the entire NFL in receiving yards on an offense that ranked 26th in passing attempts. A ridiculous 35.8% target share, which led the NFL, resulted from Smith-Njigba being the immediate focus of Darnold. Not only did Darnold target Smith-Njigba on his first read at the highest rate in the NFL, but his 44.6% mark is the best since Fantasy Points Data began tracking it in 2021. When Darnold dropped back, getting Smith-Njigba the ball was the first focus. And it worked. Seattle’s Offensive Player of the Year led the NFL in yards per target, as their connection equaled 11.0 yards on average.
Advertisement
Joe Burrow & Tee Higgins, Bengals
In a shortened sample due to injuries, the connection between Burrow & Higgins shows why Cincinnati chose to pay up for their receiver last offseason. Higgins lines up on the outside 87% of the time, is consistently facing press coverage and is not an easy target/screen WR. There is no way he should be near the top of the NFL in catchable target rate, and yet, with Burrow on the field, he’s exactly that. At a staggering 90.3%, it would be the highest in the NFL despite a 15(!) yard average depth of target. The next five WRs ranked behind him have an average depth of target of only 6.7 yards. Even Ja’Marr Chase’s rate was only 79.2%.
Burrow is the perfect quarterback for Higgins. The back-shoulder fade connection is unbeatable, and Higgins is able to get to his spot where Burrow can give him a chance no matter what the defense throws at them. It showed in 2025 with Rams’ Davante Adams being the only WR ranked higher in touchdowns per target.
Matthew Stafford & Puka Nacua, Rams
Adams has a great connection with Stafford, but Nacua’s is on a different level. Stafford had an impressive passer rating of 110.7 when targeting Adams, but it jumped to 127.3 when targeting Nacua, the highest in the NFL. It’s simple: when Nacua is on the field, Stafford and the Rams want to get him the ball. Although he runs fewer routes and isn’t on the field as consistently as some top WRs around the league, when he is running a route, Nacua is targeted 36% of the time, the highest rate in the league. That number was 38% in 2024, the highest of the last decade. In the Sean McVay offense, where Nacua runs the second-highest percentage of horizontally breaking routes, paired with Stafford being able to hit him in areas with plenty of YAC to be had, the next-level upside is found. In terms of fantasy, it led to 5.4 PPG over expected, a 54% increase over the second-best WR.
Advertisement
Caleb Williams & Luther Burden III, Bears
Burden was the talk of dynasty fantasy football in the last month of the 2025 season after a mini-breakout. He was limited throughout the season, but when on the field, he produced with Williams leading the way. Burden fits the Ben Johnson offense very well, as Johnson used him in a versatile role with easier targets for Williams to complete. The accuracy issues have been the downfall for the Bears quarterback early in his career; however, with Burden’s role, that issue is completely flipped. The difference between Williams’ catchable target rate to any player compared to only when targeting Burden is the largest gap of any WR in the NFL. Rome Odunze ranked dead last in 2024 in catchable target rate and third-to-last in 2025. With Burden at the same position but in a different role, his catchable target rate sits at 90.0%, the best rate of any receiver in the league.
Lamar Jackson & Zay Flowers, Ravens
A surprising name on the list given Jackson’s down year, but Flowers excelled with Jackson on the field. Simply in yards per route, Flowers’ 2.72 with Jackson would rank third best in the NFL, behind only the top two receivers of 2025: Smith-Njigba and Nacua. The connection is best shown by his catch rate. How often is a receiver catching his targets? Flowers ranks seventh among WRs at 70%, even though he saw fewer screens in 2025 and more downfield targets. With scrambling being a large part of Jackson’s game, it’s important to note that once he is outside of the pocket, Flowers was his go-to man, leading all WRs in scramble receiving yards.
Advertisement
Jordan Love & Christian Watson, Packers
The connection was short-lived, but a healthy Watson showed he can be a force in the Packers offense when available. With Love in at quarterback, Watson tied Smith-Njigba at 2.19 fantasy points per route in 2025, the highest mark in the NFL. Their downfield connection on vertical routes has always been apparent, but would you believe me if I said Watson led the NFL in targets per route on horizontally breaking routes? The only player above Smith-Njigba, as he continues to show his fantasy upside is legit in the Green Bay attack.
With an awfully busy 2026 NBA trade deadline now in the rear-view mirror, the NBA now trains its gaze on Los Angeles, site of the annual midseason basketball exhibition/convention/trade show/sugar rush that is All-Star Weekend.
Here are a few things to keep an eye on as the league’s best and brightest strut their stuff across three days of basketball-like activities, decidedly un-basketball-like activities prominently featuring The Rizzler and Joey Fatone, and — yet again — a revamped, rebooted game format:
Will the new All-Star format work?
75th NBA All-Star Game: 5 p.m. ET Sunday (NBC/Peacock)
After “final score: 211-186” didn’t work for anybody two years ago, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and his crew of problem-solvers at the league office decided to try to shake things up in pursuit of an answer to stem the tide of the years-long trend: the once-proud Sunday showcase devolving into, ostensibly, a “we’re just here so we won’t get fined” glorified shootaround. That led to a tournament-style structure featuring rosters drafted by the “Inside the NBA” crew, with four teams — “Young Stars,” “Global Stars,” “OGs” and the winners of the Rising Stars Challenge — competing in curtailed pickup-style games in a two-round competition to eventually crown a winner.
“It just makes me think if there was a game of the World vs. USA, that would be interesting,” San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama told reporters before last year’s game. “That would be even better.”
In the first game, Team USA Stars (Scottie Barnes, Devin Booker, Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Anthony Edwards, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Johnson and Tyrese Maxey) will take on Team World (Wembanyama, Giannis Antetokounmpo*, Deni Avdija, Luka Dončić**, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander*, Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, Norm Powell, Pascal Siakam, Alperen Şengün, Karl-Anthony Towns).
* Antetokounmpo (calf) and Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain) will miss the All-Star Game; De’Aaron Fox and Şengün were named as replacements.
Advertisement
** Dončić (hamstring) is currently sidelined due to injury; it’s unclear whether he’ll actually be suiting up Sunday.
In the second game, Team USA Stripes (Jaylen Brown, Jalen Brunson, Stephen Curry***, Kevin Durant, De’Aaron Fox, LeBron James, Kawhi Leonard, Donovan Mitchell) will take on the winner of the opener. In the third game, Stripes will take on the team that lost the opener.
After the third game, the two teams with the best record will advance to face each other in the championship game. (If all three teams are 1-1 after the third game, point differential will serve as the tiebreaker.)
Advertisement
Will these changes generate the intended ratcheting-up of intensity that Silver and Co. are seeking? Will the decision to go USA vs. The World at this moment in history perhaps bring about some unintended consequences, like so many other changes instituted by the league office over the years?
Will even further shortening the games — 12 minutes tops, with the event schedule allotting 50 minutes between Games 1 and 2, 30 minutes between Games 2 and 3, and 45 minutes between Game 3 and the championship — put some pep in everybody’s step? I’d guess that the longer gaps between the first two and final two games will make space for some kind of brand activation; I haven’t seen Kevin Hart’s name on a press release, but let’s keep our heads on a swivel out there.
We’ll find out the answers to those questions, and plenty more, soon enough. This much, though, we know is true: With the opening game scheduled for 5 p.m. and a 7:10 p.m. ET tip in the championship game, it’ll all end a lot earlier. That’s something, you know?
How many names from the rosters for the Ruffles Celebrity Game do I, a 43-year-old father of two, recognize?
Ruffles NBA All-Star Celebrity Game: 7 p.m. ET Friday (ESPN)
I know we all remember every single possession of last year’s Celebrity Game like LeBron holding court after a playoff game, but just in case you need a refresher, it ended with Barry Bonds’ team beating Jerry Rice’s team, and with Rome Flynn taking home MVP honors:
Flynn is back to try to become just the third player in Celebrity Game history to win consecutive MVP awards, joining Jaleel White and Frankie Muniz. (NOTE: This may not be true, but I’m not looking it up, and you can’t make me.) He’ll be playing for a team coached by three Antetokounmpo brothers — sorry, Kostas; maybe next year — and Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Mookie Betts. Among those joining him on Team Antetokounmbros: All-Pro Detroit Lions receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, Brazilian soccer legend Cafu, ex-NBA players Jeremy Lin and Tacko Fall, comedian/actor Keegan-Michael Key, Charlotte Hornets owner Rick Schnall, and rapper GloRilla, who’ll get to spend All-Star Weekend with beau Ingram, which is nice.
Also on Team Antetokounmbros: NBA newsbreaker Shams Charania, who will have to put his phone(s) down for at least a little while to run up and down the court … which gives Sam Amick, Jake Fischer, Chris Haynes, Chris Mannix and Marc Stein a chance to do the funniest thing ever.
Advertisement
They’ll be squaring off against a team coached by actor/comedian Anthony Anderson and basketball trainers/content creators Chris Brickley and Lethal Shooter. Their roster includes Pro Bowl L.A. Chargers receiver Keenan Allen, Canadian Olympic sprinting champion Andre De Grasse, ex-NBA player Jason “White Chocolate” Williams, actor Simu Liu, music producer/name to yell Mustard, and Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia. One can only hope that Nikola Jokić decides to make time to sit courtside and renew some unpleasantries.
Which Rising Stars will shine brightest?
Castrol Rising Stars: 9 p.m. ET Friday (Peacock)
For the fifth straight year, the rebooted rookie-sophomore challenge will feature four seven-player teams competing in a three-game Friday night mini-tournament. With the event shifting to Peacock this year, the three teams of first- and second-year NBA players will be coached by Hall of Famers-turned-NBC/Peacock commentators Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady. A fourth composed of G Leaguers (and rookie Yang Hansen, who has played three G League games and made 32 NBA appearances in Portland, and rookie Yanic Konan Niederhäuser, who has played all of one game for the G League’s San Diego Clippers this season, compared to 32 for the big club) will be coached by fellow NBC/Peacock commentator Austin Rivers.
Advertisement
Team Melo plays Team Austin. Team Vince plays Team T-Mac. The winners square off for the crown. In each of the first two games, the first team to 40 points wins. In the championship game, though, it’s first to 25, because, y’know, let’s keep this thing moving.
Melo got the first pick in the Rising Stars draft, and selected Dallas Mavericks phenom Cooper Flagg. As someone who recently wrote a big takeout on how Flagg’s real-time growth has put him into some rarefied air among first-year prospects …
Melo’s squad could still wind up just fine, considering he also landed Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper from San Antonio. I’m not entirely sure how much having a pair of defensive demons will help in this particular context, but it ought to be cool seeing Donovan Clingan try to block everything and Collin Murray-Boyles generally Draymond his way around out there. They might be the team to beat …
… unless, of course, Kon Knueppel — Flagg’s old roommate and his chief rival for Rookie of the Year honors — just decides he will not be denied. Intrigue!
The full Rising Stars rosters:
Team Melo
Cooper Flagg (Dallas Mavericks) — injured, will not play
Reed Sheppard (Houston Rockets)
Stephon Castle (San Antonio Spurs)
Dylan Harper (San Antonio Spurs)
Jeremiah Fears (New Orleans Pelicans)
Donovan Clingan (Portland Trail Blazers)
Collin Murray-Boyles (Toronto Raptors)
Ace Bailey (Utah Jazz) — named as Flagg’s replacement
Team T-Mac
Kon Knueppel (Charlotte Hornets)
Kel’el Ware (Miami Heat)
Tre Johnson (Washington Wizards)
Alex Sarr (Washington Wizards) — injured, will not play
Ajay Mitchell (Oklahoma City Thunder)
Jaylon Tyson (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Cam Spencer (Memphis Grizzlies)
Bub Carrington (Washington Wizards) — named as Sarr’s replacement
Advertisement
Team Vince
VJ Edgecombe (Philadelphia 76ers)
Derik Queen (New Orleans Pelicans)
Kyshawn George (Washington Wizards)
Matas Buzelis (Chicago Bulls)
Egor Dёmin (Brooklyn Nets)
Cedric Coward (Memphis Grizzlies)
Jaylen Wells (Memphis Grizzlies)
Team Austin
Sean East II (Salt Lake City Stars)
Ron Harper Jr. (Maine Celtics)
David Jones Garcia (Austin Spurs) — injured, will not play
Yanic Konan Niederhäuser (San Diego Clippers)
Alijah Martin (Raptors 905)
Tristen Newton (Rio Grande Valley Vipers)
Yang Hansen (Rip City Remix)
Mac McClung (Chicago Bulls) — injured, will not play (previously named as Jones Garcia’s replacement
Jahmir Young (Miami Heat) — named as McClung’s replacement
[checks list of events] Hey, what happened to the Skills Challenge?
I think CP3 and Wemby broke it?
After last year’s competition included one team getting disqualified in the first round for not taking shots, a flagrant flouting of the spirit of the contest aimed at gaining whatever edge there was to gain — a.k.a. The Most Chris Paul S*** Imaginable (Complimentary) — the NBA, it seems, elected to pivot. So long, Skills Challenge; welcome back, Shooting Stars!
Wait, what was the deal with Shooting Stars again?
Kia Shooting Stars: second event of All-Star Saturday, starting at 5 p.m. ET (NBC/Peacock)
Instead of a timed competition in which you have to throw chest passes and bounce passes through moving targets, Shooting Stars is a timed competition in which four different three-person teams — two current players, one former NBA player — have to make a bunch of shots from seven different spots on the court.
The four teams vying to walk in the dynastic footsteps of Bosh, Cash and Wilkins:
Team All-Star
Scottie Barnes (Toronto Raptors)
Chet Holmgren (Oklahoma City Thunder)
Team Cameron (as in, Cameron Indoor Stadium; as in, Dukies)
Jalen Johnson (Atlanta Hawks)
Kon Knueppel (Charlotte Hornets)
Team Harper
Dylan Harper (San Antonio Spurs)
Ron Harper Jr. (Boston Celtics)
Ron Harper Sr. (five-time NBA champion, proud papa, Doberman)
Team Knicks
Jalen Brunson (New York Knicks)
Karl-Anthony Towns (… um, New York Knicks)
Allan Houston (… I mean, two-time All-Star as a Knick, and now the Knicks’ VP of player leadership and development)
Teams get 70 seconds to score points while rotating through the seven different shooting locations, with all three players proceeding in a set order. The first three shots — a layup/dunk from the right side of the lane, an 18-foot shot from the right baseline, a jumper from the right elbow — are all worth two points. The fourth, a 3-pointer from the right wing, is worth, well, three.
Advertisement
Next: a top-of-the-key jumper worth two points. Rounding things out: a left-corner 3 worth, again, three, and finally, a shot from the logo that’s worth … four. All four teams compete in the first round, with the two highest-scoring teams advancing to compete for the title.
Things might get tricky! Every player has to shoot from every location, and you can’t advance from one location to another until everybody has taken a shot from the first spot. Players have to shoot in a predetermined order, and points scored on out-of-order shots won’t count; if you shoot out of order on the 4-pointer, you don’t get to shoot again. There is legitimately a PDF with tiebreaker policies and examples of shooting orders that would violate the rules. It’s all very serious.
A referee will be on hand “to enforce rules and make judgments on any potential rules violation” — including, if need be, the call to invoke instant replay review. Let’s all say a prayer to our respective gods that that won’t be necessary.
Wait a sec — is Damian Lillard really in the 3-Point Contest again?
State Farm 3-Point Contest: first event of All-Star Saturday, starting at 5 p.m. ET (NBC/Peacock)
Yep! Despite missing the entirety of the 2025-26 NBA season to date as he rehabilitates his surgically repaired Achilles tendon, Dame’s back to take a second crack at winning a third 3-point shootout crown, joining Larry Bird and Craig Hodges as only the third player in the competition’s 40-year history to three-peat. (That one is real. I looked it up.)
Advertisement
It’s kind of weird, though you’d assume that none of the stakeholders involved — Lillard and his reps, the Portland Trail Blazers (to whom, in case you forgot, he returned after the Milwaukee Bucks waived him this summer), the league office … hell, State Farm — would’ve greenlit this if it wasn’t deemed 1000% safe for Dame to do some light jogging and stationary shooting. Here’s hoping any extant concerns about it all melt away after the first couple of jumpers go up, replaced by the warm, fuzzy feeling of watching one of the greatest shooters of all time get ‘em up again.
Lillard will face some stiff competition from a field featuring five All-Stars (Tyrese Maxey, Devin Booker, Donovan Mitchell, Jamal Murray, Norman Powell); rookie sharpshooter Knueppel, who ranks second in the NBA in total made 3-pointers, behind only Mitchell, and who’s drilling his triples at a 43% clip for the Hornets; and former teammate Bobby Portis Jr., who feels like an odd inclusion … until you realize he’s shooting a blistering 45.6% from deep this season.
The rules remain broadly the same: five racks; five balls each; shoot and make as many as you can in 70 seconds. Four racks feature a money ball worth two points; one rack consists entirely of money balls. The competition also now features two “From the Logo” balls, placed on pedestals six feet behind the 3-point arc on either side of the half-court logo, that are worth three points apiece. (To get credit for those, players have to begin their shooting motion with at least one foot on the “From the Logo” floor decal, a la Caitlin Clark in the ads.)
Eight shooters enter the contest; the three highest scorers advance to the final; one leaves with the bragging rights. And, presumably, the undying loyalty and respect of Jake.
What excitement can be ginned up about the Dunk Contest?
AT&T Slam Dunk Contest: third event of All-Star Saturday, starting at 5 p.m. ET (NBC/Peacock)
Let’s check in with one of the people you’d presume would be most jazzed about the contest — one of the four people actually competing in it. Take it away, rookie Orlando Magic guard Jase Richardson:
… OK!
Advertisement
While Richardson — son of Dunk Contest legend Jason Richardson — later clarified that he will, in fact, try hard to win the contest, his reaction is A) not exactly the greatest advertisement for the festivities and B) … kind of the way it seems like most folks react to the Dunk Contest nowadays?
I will reiterate my long-held stance that dunk contests can really only ever be kind of bad, because dunking, like pizza, is at worst always at least pretty good. I suspect that this year’s contest — featuring Richardson, Lakers center Jaxson Hayes (provided he can avoid fighting any mascots on the way out to the court), Heat swingman Keshad Johnson and Spurs rookie wing Carter Bryant — will not immediately stir the hearts and minds of observers desperate for a return to the days of bona fide, marquee, household-name superstars performing feats of aerial acrobatics and derring-do the likes of which we’ve never seen.
Maybe that’s on us, though. I watched last year’s competition with my daughters, and it was pretty hard to convince them not to get amped up about what Stephon Castle did …
… or Mac McClung doing what he does best …
… because of what Vince Carter did in 2000, or Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon did a decade ago.
Advertisement
They saw dudes flying through the air, jumping over stuff, twisting and detonating. They thought it was pretty cool, all things considered.
Like I said last year: In dunk contests, as in difficult times, hope dies last. As long as they keep having them, we’ll keep showing up, hoping that the next takeoff is the one that returns us to the joys of competitions past. And if not … well, “pretty cool” might not seem like much in the context of both what we’ve watched in years past and what we’ve imagined might be possible if the moment’s most explosive vertical athletes — LeBron in his day, Zion and Ja a few years ago, Ant and VJ Edgecombe now — decided to show up. But when the other alternative is just being preemptively mad and disappointed about whatever dunks the competitors we actually do have are about to try, then “pretty cool” ain’t half-bad.
What’s most likely to breathe new life into the All-Star Game?
I think the goal is, “Find some way to replicate the fourth quarters of U.S. vs. Serbia and U.S. vs. France from the 2024 Summer Olympics.”
Advertisement
Given the Grand Canyon-sized chasm in stakes between “we’re playing for a chance at Olympic gold” and “we’re playing for a bunch of marketing managers from Salesforce,” though … I kind of think the answer might be, “Team World just absolutely dusts both U.S. teams.”
It’s not exactly hot-take artistry to say that, while the U.S. still produces more great basketball players than other countries throughout the world, the very best players of this age — the ones routinely topping MVP ballots and stocking the All-NBA First Team — were born elsewhere. Most of those guys, with the exception of the injured SGA, are about to suit up against two teams full of Americans; it wouldn’t necessarily be shocking if they just mopped up the Stars and Stripes. If that happened, the resultant reaction might not be altogether pretty; it might be forceful enough, though, to reignite the competitive fires in an event where the embers have long since grown cold.
Welcome to silly season. That’s what fantasy basketball heads call this absurd stretch of the NBA calendar, where it appears nine-ish teams have decided — with TWO months left in the regular season — that it’s in their best interests to bench and load-manage their best players and to lose as many games as possible.
That’s right: real NBA organizations colluding not to compete.
Advertisement
Much of the “strategy” stems from the chance to land a superstar in a highly-anticipated 2026 draft class. It’s definitely stacked — Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, A.J. Dybantsa, Caleb Wilson, Mikal Brown Jr., Kingston Flemings and more have franchises waving the white flag in February instead of waiting until late March, as they used to.
But here’s the thing: silly season isn’t nearly as bad as everyone thinks. Yeah, some veterans will get shut down and some minutes will be unpredictable. But early tanking also creates a massive opportunity for waiver wire hunting — if you know where to look.
How silly season actually works
When teams enter silly season mode, you start seeing the random DNPs, late scratches for “illness,” managed workloads and late-season role reductions for vets in favor of giving younger players more playing time. Lauri Markkanen, for example, is a known silly-season commodity. He was on the wrong side of a Jazz tank job last season. A solid early-to-mid round pick who most thought would be unscathed by the All-Star break is already experiencing ridiculous, silly season theatrics. Not only has he been load-managed since January, but now he’s catching DNPs, plus getting benched in the fourth quarter of games. Mind-blowing stuff.
Advertisement
There’s no penalty for teams at the league level to stop this non-competitive nonsense, and unfortunately for fantasy managers and fans, we’re left to deal with it. Plenty of others will face a similar fate as Markkanen’s after the All-Star break, so let me tell you how I’d handle it.
Getting ahead of the curve
The obvious move is to sell high on assets in tanking situations that you think are at risk for being load-managed from Week 18 through the fantasy playoffs. But here’s the problem: most managers already know the deal. Trade markets for the Siakams, the Lauris and the MPJs will dry up fast once the rest of the tanking teams join the silly season party. It’s wack, but you might be stuck with ’em. The flip side is, it’s never too late to pivot by getting ahead of the curve on waivers — identifying which young players are about to go off as a result of the vets going missing in action.
Advertisement
Watch the minutes and rotation trends
You’re not finding a consistent 20-7-4 guy on waivers in competitive 12-team leagues during silly season. But what you can find are players whose minutes increase because their team stopped trying to win. Whether it be by injury or whatever excuse a bottom-feeding team reports, a player going from 20 to 28 minutes is a 40% increase in opportunity. Even if the per-minute production stays flat, you’re looking at more counting stats just from volume. You’re hunting for guys who are going to be on the floor long enough to stumble into 14 points, 6 boards and 3 assists just by being there. Someone like Nets G Nolan Traore (available in 94% of leagues) is one of those types of players.
Silly season targets: The worst teams with some fantasy appeal
Brooklyn Nets (15-38)
Shallow leagues: Day’Ron Sharpe
Advertisement
Deep leagues: Nolan Traore, Egor Dëmin and Danny Wolf are all getting extended looks in evaluation mode.
Indiana Pacers (15-40)
Shallow leagues: Jay Huff has been productive when given minutes and could be the fail-safe if Ivica Zubac’s injury persists.
Deep leagues: Jarace Walker, Micah Potter and Ethan Thompson are all candidates for increased run as Indy evaluates its young core.
Sacramento Kings (12-43)
Shallow leagues: Maxime Raynaud is a player I’d add now with Domantas Sabonis still not ready to play.
Deep leagues: Devin Carter should see his minutes stabilize as Sacramento opts to bench Zach LaVine and Russell Westbrook down the stretch. Dylan Cardwell and Nique Clifford are also in play.
Advertisement
Utah Jazz (18-37)
Shallow leagues: Isaiah Collier is a must-roster as Keyonte George is dealing with an ankle injury. He has real staying power.
Deep leagues: With Jaren Jackson Jr. (knee) now likely ruled out for the season, Kyle Filipowski will likely move up the depth chart before veteran Jusuf Nurkić. Flamethrower Brice Sensabaugh is a useful asset when he’s playing over 20 minutes, while Ace Bailey could shine late for points leagues.
Memphis Grizzlies (20-33)
Shallow leagues: Ty Jerome and maybe Santi Aldama if he can get healthy after the All-Star break.
Deep leagues: GG Jackson and Scotty Pippen Jr. once his minutes restriction is lifted.
Advertisement
New Orleans Pelicans (15-41)
Shallow/Deep leagues: Jeremiah Fears is the name to watch. The Pelicans can’t afford to tank but are doing it anyway. I can’t speak for the usual suspects of Zion Williamson, Herbert Jones and Trey Murphy III, but Jordan Poole is out of the rotation and who knows when Dejounte Murray will return.
Washington Wizards (14-39)
Shallow leagues: None
Deep leagues: Tre Johnson, Bub Carrington, Will Riley, Bilal Coulibaly and Justin Champagnie are all in the mix for increased opportunities as the Wizards evaluate their post-deadline roster.
Dallas Mavericks (19-34)
Shallow leagues: Naji Marshall
Advertisement
Deep leagues: Max Christie, Daniel Gafford and Marvin Bagley III
Chicago Bulls (24-31)
Shallow leagues: Jalen Smith
Deep leagues: Nick Richards and Collin Sexton, with Rob Dillingham as the flier here — if Chicago fully embraces silly season, Dillingham could get a chance to earn a meaningful role in their end-of-season rotation.
The Bottom Line
Silly season is here earlier than ever. While everyone panics, stay up to date on the minutes, rotation, coach speak and game logs. Who just played 31 minutes in three straight games? Who’s suddenly getting 25% usage? That’s where fantasy value lives when teams stop caring about wins.
Be on the lookout for my playoff primer after the break!
The 2026 NBA All-Star Weekend’s slam dunk contest will feature a field of first-time participants, the opposite of a who’s who of the world’s greatest basketball players.
Let us get to know them.
First, though, we would be remiss if we did not mention Mac McClung, who won the last three dunk contests and opted not to participate this year. He has played a total of 123 minutes in 10 appearances for five different franchises on a series of 10-day and two-way contracts over the past five seasons.
The 6-foot-2, 185-pound McClung is the world’s most creative and impressive dunker who qualifies as an NBA player. Barely. Which is more than most of us can say. But still. The field of dunk contestants, for the most part since 2017, save for Jaylen Brown in 2024, has not featured an active All-Star. This was once, as far back as the 1980s, a face-off between Michael Jordan and Dominique Wilkins, two of the sport’s greatest-ever in-game dunkers.
This was an event owned by All-Star guard/forward Vince Carter in 2000.
Now? Now back to what has become our regularly scheduled programming: this year’s dunk contestants, who actually need an introduction.
Bryant is a rookie wing for the Spurs, averaging three points per game.
Carter’s explosive athleticism led him to be the No. 14 overall selection in the 2025 NBA Draft, despite his average of 6.5 points per game as a University of Arizona freshman.
According to a profile of Bryant on Arizona’s alumni website, the 20-year-old’s grandfather is in the USA Deaf Basketball Hall of Fame. His grandmother, who is also deaf, worked at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, where his father coached girls’ basketball. Bryant’s mother is a sign language interpreter, and Carter Bryant is fluent in American Sign Language.
Hayes is a reserve center for the Lakers, which on its own makes him a poor selection. Nobody wants to see a 7-footer dunk on a 10-foot rim, even if he is among the NBA’s most frequent dunkers. Only Jericho Sims makes dunks a greater percentage of his field goals.
Sims, as it so happens, is also the last center to appear in the contest, finishing third in 2023. The last and only true center to ever win the event was Dwight Howard in 2008.
In June 2022, Hayes pleaded no contest to charges of false imprisonment and resisting an officer and was sentenced to 450 hours of community service, a year of weekly domestic violence classes and three years of probation. The NBA did not levy an official suspension.
Advertisement
In November 2024, TMZ published almost six minutes of surveillance video from the alleged dispute. In the footage, Hayes can be seen engaging in a physical confrontation with a woman and spitting at her, as she says, “I’m not going to let you hit me anymore.”
Johnson, another wing, has made 37 appearances across two seasons for the Heat, averaging 3.1 points per game this season. Undrafted out of San Diego State and Arizona, his two-way contract was converted to a standard NBA deal in December of this season.
Johnson declared for the Aztecs out of high school on Nov. 6, 2018, seven years to the day after his brother, Kenny Jr., was paralyzed from the waist down by a series of three gun shots, according to a 2018 profile of the Oakland native in The San Diego Union-Tribune.
“It was just wrong place, wrong time, living in Oakland, rival neighborhoods coming through,” Johnson told the publication upon his declaration for SDSU eight years ago. “He got shot right outside my fifth-grade classroom. If I looked out the window, on the sidewalk I could see the blood. It was still there the next couple days when I went to school.”
Advertisement
Johnson’s brother wore No. 16. He will wear the same number for the Heat on Saturday.
Richardson is a rookie guard for the Magic, averaging 5.1 points per game. Known for his shooting ability as a freshman at Michigan State, Richardson was the No. 25 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft.
He also happens to be the 20-year-old son of Jason Richardson, who won the NBA’s dunk contest in both 2002 and 2003 as a member of the Golden State Warriors. Jason Richardson is one of seven multiple-time winners in the event’s history, joining McClung, Jordan, Wilkins, Nate Robinson, Zach LaVine and Harold Miner. Only McClung and Robinson won three times.
MILAN — Eighteen months ago, the skipper of one of America’s top men’s curling teams was fighting back from a debilitating autoimmune condition.
Danny Casper and his teammates began auditioning potential substitutes who could step in for him on days when he felt too weak to slide a 44-pound granite stone down a narrow sheet of ice.
Advertisement
They needed a shrewd tactician, a driven competitor, someone who had experience competing at the national and international level yet hadn’t already made plans to join another team for the 2024-25 season. They found all those qualities and more in a 54-year-old personal injury lawyer from Brooklyn Park, Minnesota.
Rich Ruohonen had stepped away from elite curling in 2022 after his sixth attempt to qualify for the Winter Olympics resulted in yet another agonizing near miss. He planned to play a few tournaments with friends and focus on the senior circuit before Team Casper’s plea for help coaxed him out of semi-retirement.
What was supposed to be a short-term partnership instead turned into something more after Ruohonen thrived as a fill-in skipper last season and developed instant chemistry with a quartet of teammates no older than half his age. Casper invited Ruohonen to stick around this season as the team’s alternate — or fifth player — even though the 24-year-old had regained his strength and no longer needed a regular substitute.
USA’s Rich Ruohonen during the Men’s Curling match against Switzerland at the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium, on day six of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, Italy. Picture date: Thursday February 12, 2026. (Photo by Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)
(Andrew Milligan – PA Images via Getty Images)
Earlier this winter, Team Casper helped Ruohonen cast aside more than two decades of Olympic Trials frustration by securing a spot in the 2026 Winter Games. Team Casper won a tense best-of-three final at the U.S. Olympic Trials against a team skipped by five-time Olympian John Shuster, then backed that up three weeks later with a dominant showing at a last-chance global qualification tournament.
Advertisement
“I’m so happy to finally go to the Olympics,” Ruohonen told Yahoo Sports. “I’ve been so close so many times. I’ve been the favorite, the underdog. To be able to do it now when I thought it was over for me, it’s a phenomenal experience.”
Thursday, Ruohonen got his Olympic opportunity in Cortina, subbed in late in Team USA’s loss to Switzerland. It came in the eighth end, with Casper saying “we want to get Rich in.” He grabbed his broom, then the stone, and released the shot he’d been waiting for for more than 30 years.
With that, he’s now the oldest American ever to compete at a Winter Olympics. Only two other Americans have competed at 50-plus years of age, according to Bill Mallon, co-founder of the International Society of Olympic Historians and author of more than a dozen Olympics-related books.
Advertisement
At age 52, Joseph Savage was part of the duo that finished seventh in the pairs figure skating competition at the 1932 Lake Placid Olympics. Sixteen years later, Mac MacCarthy, then 51, competed in skeleton at the 1948 Games in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Another U.S. men’s curling alternate could have etched his name into the history books two decades ago, but Scott Baird, at a younger 54 than Ruohonen, did not see game action at the 2006 Torino Games.
Ruohonen started curling more than a decade before his other four Team Casper teammates were born. When he was in fifth grade, Ruohonen picked up the sport from his dad after moving to the Twin Cities area to live with him. By his late teens, Ruohonen had blossomed into an elite curler at the junior level.
Though Ruohonen briefly took a break from curling during law school, he couldn’t stay away for long. He juggled his law career and his curling ambitions, waking up at 5:30 a.m. for pre-dawn training sessions on weekday mornings and saving his vacation time to travel to prestigious domestic or international tournaments.
Advertisement
“When I started in the ‘90s, you were expected to be there before your boss got there and leave after he left,” Ruohonen said. “I would work my butt off in the summer and hardly take any time off. I’d save it for the winter and the fall when I’d be curling.”
Whereas many elite curlers retire in their late 30s, the late-blooming Ruohonen began to hit his peak around that age. He was part of a team that won the 2008 U.S. championship and skipped another team to the 2018 national title. A half dozen other times, Ruohonen’s teams settled for second place.
Coming up empty at the 2022 U.S. Olympic Trials was among the most painful near misses of Ruohonen’s career. The men’s team skipped by Ruohonen finished in third place behind teams led by Shuster and Korey Dropkin. In mixed doubles, Ruohonen and Jamie Sinclair lost in the finals on the very last shot of the match.
To Ruohonen, those setbacks signaled the end of his hopes of making it to his sport’s biggest stage. His men’s team disbanded with his blessing. He didn’t bother to try to form a new one.
Advertisement
“I assumed nobody wanted a 50-something-year-old to be on their team,” Ruohonen said. “I was going to be 54 by the next Olympic Trials. I pretty much thought it was over.”
At that time, Ruohonen couldn’t have predicted that Casper would battle Guillain-Barré Syndrome, a rare condition in which the body’s immune system attacks its nerves. He had no way of knowing that even while receiving treatment Casper would still have days where he’d struggle to tie his own shoes or open a bag of chips.
“Rich has been amazing,” Casper told Yahoo Sports. “We were looking for someone that could call the game. We were like, this guy has been around as long as anybody, he’s super smart and we really like listening to what he has to say. We were kind of pumped about the idea of learning a thing or two from him.”
Rich Ruohonen, Aidan Oldenburg, Luc Violette, Daniel Casper and Benjamin Richardson attend the Team USA Welcome Experience at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics on February 04, 2026 in Milan, Italy. (Joe Scarnici/Getty Images)
(Joe Scarnici via Getty Images)
For Ruohonen, the most challenging yet rewarding part of joining Team Casper has been having teammates who want this as much as him. Casper, Ruohonen, Luc Violette, 26, Aidan Oldenburg, 24, and Ben Richardson, 27, prepared for the season by putting themselves through regular pre-dawn workouts, going to work and then meeting to throw rocks afterward.
Advertisement
“They wear me out,” Ruohonen said. “There are some days I’ll be sore or limping around a little bit, but it’s worth every second. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
The humor of a 54-year-old trying to keep pace is not lost on Ruohonen. He jokingly refers to his teammates as “his kids” and describes himself as a “scoutmaster with a bunch of cub scouts.” They constantly rib him about his outdated taste in music or about growing up in an era before smartphones and Wifi.
“They’ll say, ‘Oh, did they even have color TV back then?’” Ruohonen said with a laugh. “They always give me a hard time for being old and forgetting things, but I love it. When they’re giving me crap, I know they love me.”
Added Casper: “We joke that he’s the least mature person on the team. Rich is really good at bringing everybody together and making everyone laugh.”
Advertisement
While Ruohonen likely won’t see a ton of time on the ice, his biggest contribution will be as a tactician scouting opponents and offering advice on game plans and in-game strategies.
Will Ruohonen return to semi-retirement after the Olympics? Not necessarily, he says.
“I told my teammates, if we win, you might get four more years,” he said. “They’re like, ‘Please, no! We’re going to put you in the nursing home and tuck you away.’”
LIVIGNO, Italy — No sport at the Winter Olympics is more chaotic and arguably more exhilarating than snowboard cross, which whittles down a 32-person field with a series of four-man heats that resemble a human version of the Daytona 500 combined with a touch of Kentucky Derby — on a snowboard, of course.
But on Thursday, at least from an American perspective, it was equal parts inspiring and maddening.
Advertisement
On one end of the spectrum, you had Nick Baumgartner, five-time Olympian coming just a photo finish short of making the final and having a chance to become the oldest medal winner in Winter Games history at age 44.
On the other, you had 21-year old Nathan Pare making his Olympic debut, crossing the finish line first in his quarterfinal heat before learning a few minutes later that he’d been disqualified for — as the jury saw it — deviating from his line going into a turn and unintentionally taking out Spanish rider Lucas Eguibar.
“To go from winning the heat to [being] ranked last,” Pare said, “it’s impossible to explain how that feels.”
You do not need to be particularly well-versed in the particulars of snowboard cross to understand both how absurd it is for someone like Baumgartner to be racing against men less than half his age at the biggest sporting event in the world and how common it is to see accidents like the one that ruined Pare’s Olympics.
Advertisement
This is what their sport is. In NASCAR, they say “rubbin’s racin’.” In snowboard cross, there is simply no way to have four riders contest a race that lasts about 65 seconds in tight quarters on a course with curves and ramps and have everyone come away clean.
Most of the time, someone’s going to get in someone else’s way. Every now and then, one of those parties is going to get wiped out.
“It’s part of the sport,” Pare said. “It’s why the sport’s so exciting to watch for the fans. As a rider, you try to do everything you can to avoid the contact, but sometimes it’s uncontrollable and has to be okay.”
Pare’s Spanish colleague, as you might expect, saw it differently — and criticized Pare for saying he did nothing wrong.
Advertisement
“The rule is really clear,” Eguibar said. “If another rider is outside, you can take the line of the other guy if you are in front. If you don’t touch the other rider, it’s alright. I respect the lines. In turn four, Nathan got really aggressive to the inside and really aggressive to the outside and I was there. If you do this and you crash with the other rider, you are out.
“I don’t understand why he was complaining after the decision. He can say that it was not on purpose, but it was really clear.”
But that bit of drama was only an appetizer for what would come a few minutes later when Baumgartner went into the starting gate, needing to finish in the top-two of his semifinal heat to advance.
Laying in third most of the race, he made his last, desperate push in the final 20 seconds with Canadian Eliot Grondin and Austrian Alessandro Haemmerle in his sights. As the finish line approached, Baumgartner leaned back and lifted the front of his board, hoping to get a nose on the wire first.
Advertisement
But the photo was clear: Baumgartner was .08 seconds behind Haemmerle, who went on to win gold in the final.
Nick Baumgartner (yellow) narrowly lost to Eliot Grondin in a photo finish. (NBC screengrab)
“Man, it was super fun racing those guys,” he said. “Those are two of the fastest guys in our sport right now, and to go out there at 44 years old and almost nip him at the line — and the only reason I didn’t is because I made a mistake — and he went on to win the Olympics.”
In the final 17 minutes later, Grondin crossed the finish line first to win gold.
“So if I had beaten him, I would have won the Olympics,” Baumgartner continued. “[That’s] old-man math, and I’m going to stick with that and take this confidence and I’m going to go to the next race and I’m going to kick some butt and then I’m going to get back to work and I’m going to come back for the next Olympics because I’ve yet to get that individual gold medal and I’m not giving up on it.”
Advertisement
Wait a second. Did we hear that right? Baumgartner, already a legend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, is going to try to make an Olympic team four years from now when he’s 48?
Indeed, Baumgartner has even mused about the possibility of trying to hang on until 2034 when the Winter Games goes back to Salt Lake City, giving him a chance to say goodbye to the sport in front of his home fans.
Who knows what lies that far down the road for any of us, but in a sport this crazy? Who knows.
“We’re gonna keep going,” he said. “You give me a course that’s set up for me, I’m dangerous.”
Baumgartner’s Olympics aren’t over. He’s still going to contest the mixed relay event, which he won with Lindsey Jacobellis four years ago to finally take home a gold medal after years of trying.
Advertisement
But he also knows, despite his competitiveness this time, that the window is closing because of competitors like Pare.
“I feel bad for the kid,” Baumgartner said. “But guess what? He’s young. He’s got something you can’t coach. He’s got that competitor inside of him, and there’s a lot of victories in his future and I’m excited to be along for his ride. And if I can ever beat him again — I don’t know that I will. He’s so good. I know he’s down right now, but good things are coming. He’s a dog.”
This time, that “dog” may have been what got him in trouble. When these things happen in snowboard cross, there’s not much you can do. Spain did lodge an objection with the jury, and Pare was pleading with the technical delegate not to disqualify him, but ultimately they saw it how they saw it.
“To have a call like that at the Olympics, pretty much stripping it away from me, it’s hard to deal with,” he said. “I did everything I felt was correct. I would probably go retake the line again if I was given the option.”
Advertisement
Eguibar wasn’t exactly thrilled to have his Olympics end that way, either, being wiped out by a competitor he felt broke the rules.
“This is our sport,” he said. “I’ve been racing professionally for 13 years and it happens to me another time and also happens to me in the opposite side. I feel really sad this time, it was different, because I think he ride — I don’t know — really illegally. That’s it. I tried.”
The Utah Jazz traded for Jaren Jackson Jr. on Feb. 3. Fewer than 10 days later, reports emerged suggesting Jackson would miss the rest of the season after undergoing knee surgery. Jackson, 26, played in just three games with the Jazz before being shut down for the rest of the season.
The team reportedly discovered a PVNS growth on Jackson’s left knee after the trade, per NBA insider Chris Haynes.
A PVNS growth is a benign, but aggressive, tumor. It isn’t capable of spreading, but can cause more damage the longer it remains in the body.
Advertisement
Jackson was in the midst of yet another strong season with the Memphis Grizzlies before being traded to the Jazz prior to the deadline. Jackson is averaging 19.4 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. He’s even more valuable than those numbers, as Jackson is also considered a strong defender as a former Defensive Player of the Year winner.
The Jazz’s decision to trade for Jackson came as a surprise, considering the team’s record. At 18-37, the Jazz are among the worst teams in the NBA. Utah had one major incentive for trying to get worse at the deadline, as it would keep its 2026 first-round pick if the Jazz land in the top eight of the draft. The decision to trade for Jackson, who would help the team win more games, seemed at odds with Utah’s strategy of trying to keep its 2026 pick. That’s less of an issue now that Jackson will miss the rest of the season.
The convenient timing of Jackson’s surgery could lead to some scrutiny from the NBA, which fined the team $100,000 last March for holding Lauri Markkanen out of a game. However, the fact that Jackson is reportedly dealing with a growth on his knee should clear the Jazz in this instance. That’s not an issue Jackson should try to play through the rest of the way.
Advertisement
With Jackson down, the Jazz will now focus on how the team can improve ahead of next season. The Jackson trade potentially gives Utah plenty of size. Jackson, Markkanen and Walker Kessler — if he re-signs — would give the team a formidable trio in the frontcourt.
While that’s a solid trio, expecting the Jazz to suddenly springboard back into contention could be a lot to ask. The Jazz have finished no higher than 12th in the Western Conference over the last three seasons. Following Jackson’s injury, the team is once again in line to finish near the bottom in the West for the fourth straight year.
A disastrous season for the Washington Wizards just got worse. With the team sitting at 14-39, one of its most promising youngsters is set to miss time with an injury.
Center Alex Sarr will be sidelined approximately two weeks due to a hamstring strain, the team announced.
Advertisement
It’s unclear when the 20-year-old Sarr first sustained the injury. He first popped up on the team’s injury report Wednesday, and eventually was ruled out for the contest with a hamstring issue. Prior to that, Sarr missed two other games in February, though with calf and ankle injuries.
Sarr took part in three games in between those injuries, and did not see his playing time decrease much in those contests.
After being selected by the Wizards with the No. 2 pick in the 2024 NBA Draft, Sarr has shown plenty of potential. He turned in a solid rookie year, leading to a sixth-place finish in the Rookie of the Year voting.
In his second season, Sarr has taken a step forward. The center is averaging 17.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 2.0 blocks per game. Despite that, the Wizards haven’t won many games, and have one of the worst records in the NBA.
Advertisement
If there’s a reason for optimism about Sarr’s injury, it’s that he shouldn’t miss too many games for the Wizards. With All-Star Weekend on the horizon, the Wizards’ next game will take place Feb. 19. If he were to return in exactly two weeks, he would miss only four regular-season games. That’s an aggressive timeline, though possible based on Shams Charania’s report.
Sarr will, however, miss the Rising Stars event Friday. He was supposed to play on team T-Mac in the event. Despite missing the festivities, Sarr plans to attend All-Star weekend. The NBA announced Wizards guard Bub Carrington as Sarr’s replacement in the Rising Stars tournament.
MILAN — Fifty-eight years ago, during their medal ceremony for the 200-meter race at the Mexico City Olympics, Americans Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in a silent protest, an expression of Black Power support. Incensed, IOC president Avery Brundage kicked the American track medalists out of the Olympic Games and threatened to expel the entire United States delegation.
Fifty-eight hours ago, give or take, Ukrainian skeleton pilot Vladyslav Heraskevych displayed a helmet bearing the images of more than a dozen athletes and coaches who have died in Ukraine’s ongoing war with Russia. IOC president Kirsty Coventry met with Heraskevych, sympathizing with his message and pleading for him not to wear the helmet during the moments of his actual competition.
Advertisement
By the IOC’s rules, Heraskevych could wear the helmet during practice, he could display it during press conferences, he could even — hypothetically — show it during a medal ceremony. He just couldn’t wear the helmet during competition. When Heraskevych refused to concede that condition, the IOC removed him from his lone event.
Two protests. Two demonstrations of belief in something bigger than the Olympics. Two removals from the Olympics, yes, but under very different circumstances — one with vengeful anger, one with regret. The International Olympic Committee, one of the world’s most tradition-bound organizations, is changing — glacially, but changing nonetheless — with the times.
Freedom of expression, in every sense, is coming one day for the Olympics. So why not now? Why not today?
Ukraine’s Vladyslav Heraskevych, with his helmet, which features pictures of people killed in the war with Russia. (Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty Images)
(Andrew Milligan – PA Images via Getty Images)
In 1968, the International Olympic Committee spokesman called Smith and Carlos’ silent protest “a deliberate and violent breach of the fundamental principles of the Olympic spirit.” Brundage demanded that Smith and Carlos be removed from the Olympic Village. When the United States Olympic Committee, as it was then known, pushed back against Brundage, he threatened to boot the entire United States delegation — every single American athlete — from the 1968 Olympics.
Advertisement
At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, the IOC would not allow American men’s hockey goalie Ryan Miller to wear a mask with a tribute to his late cousin who had died of leukemia. Fellow goalie Jonathan Quick also couldn’t wear a mask with a “support our troops” slogan. In NHL games, goalies are allowed some degree of expression with their masks as long they are approved by the league — but the decision-making is more arbitrary than the IOC’s regulations.
On Thursday morning, IOC spokesman Mark Allen told assembled media that “we dearly wanted [Heraskevych] to compete. It would have sent a powerful message. We were happy to provide him with a number of occasions to express his grief.” What a difference six decades makes — by the IOC’s current standards, Smith and Carlos’ protest would have been perfectly acceptable.
Coventry noted the IOC did not have a problem with Heraskevych speaking his mind … outside the boundaries of the games themselves. “It’s not about the messaging,” she said Thursday, “it’s literally about the rules and the regulations. In this case, the field of play, we have to be able to keep a safe environment for everyone, and sadly that means no messaging is allowed.”
Thing is, with Russia, the IOC has already done some indisputable messaging of its own. Russia, as a collective nation, has been banned from the Olympics since 2022 because of its invasion of Ukraine. Not to get too simplistic here, but banning an entire nation from the Olympic Games is a political message written in the skies, not just on a helmet.
Advertisement
The key question, of course, is this: Once you open this door to in-competition messaging, where do you stop? It’s not difficult to imagine how one athlete’s noble protest of a crushing war becomes another athlete’s partisan protest of a political candidate, and before long you have athletes protesting for a whole range of less-than-genocide-level causes.
The IOC doesn’t often inspire sympathy, but you can at least see the immensity of the problem they’re facing here. Does the IOC restrict protests to certain areas of the body, or certain sizes, like brand logos? How would the IOC determine what causes are “protest-worthy”? If protest is permitted on a helmet, why not a full uniform? And what about the rights of athletes from other countries who might be on the other side of the issue under protest? Shouldn’t they get a say in this, too?
Allen, the IOC spokesman, noted the Olympics already offers athletes a method of expressing grief, which is a black armband. But given the fact that, by the IOC’s estimation, there are 130 conflicts ongoing in the world at this moment, where does one draw the line? “If everyone is allowed to express themselves in that way beyond a black armband,” Allen said, “it will create a field of play which becomes a field of expression. And even where one may or may not agree with the sentiments, you can see where that would lead to a chaotic situation.”
It’s easy to dismiss this entire controversy with a wave of the hand: This is the Olympics! Can’t they put their protests aside for two minutes? But for many athletes, consumed by challenges and fears and trauma most Americans can’t imagine, the protest is the point. The remembrance of those lost, the desire to hold the guilty to account, the dream of a better life … for them, those goals are their true calling, and the Olympics are just their vehicle for making the world hear their cries.
Advertisement
If there’s a bright side to Heraskevych’s Olympic expulsion, it’s this: His protest now reaches much farther than it ever would have if he’d simply been permitted to compete without incident. It’s a classic case of the Streisand Effect, where the IOC’s attempt to shut down and smother a protest has the effect of magnifying it. His voice and his cause reach much further now than they would have in any other circumstance, even winning a medal.
The time will come, soon, when athletes will be able to make the statements they wish to make, when they wish to make them. But that time won’t be soon enough for Vladyslav Heraskevych and his Olympic dreams.
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. Tuesday, we opened with the catcher position. Today’s assignment is second 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.
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
$32 Jazz Chisholm Jr., Yankees
$30 Ketel Marte, Diamondbacks
$22 Maikel Garcia, Royals
$22 Brice Turang, Brewers
The re-signing of Cody Bellinger means the Yankees will have a lefty-heavy lineup again, and MLB managers tend to separate lefty swingers to avoid platoon disadvantages. Thus, Chisholm could be batting as low as sixth on Opening Day. But 30-30 commodities don’t fall from trees, and Chisholm still might have a career year percolating as he steps into his age-28 season. He’s worth second-round consideration and a snap-call pick in the third.
Advertisement
Turang will probably be one of my preseason targets, a versatile player who doesn’t have one jaw-dropping skill. Bill James told us moons ago that versatile players tend to be underrated and specialists tend to be overrated; these rules also correlate to fantasy baseball. The Brewers have turned into what the Rays once were, the smaller-market team that gets more value for its dollar. Turang is an eat-your-veggies type of pick.
Altuve’s 26 homers last year obscured some leakage elsewhere — he lost 30 points in his batting average and his steals dropped from 22 to 10. And his bat speed has been well under league average ever since Baseball Savant started tracking it. Altuve is a guess hitter at this point in his career, and he’s readying for his age-36 season. I’d rather be a year early than a year late with a player holding this career arc.
Legitimate Building Blocks
$16 Luke Keaschall, Twins
$15 Jordan Westburg, Orioles
$15 Xavier Edwards, Marlins
$13 Ceddanne Rafaela, Red Sox
$13 Brandon Lowe, Pirates
$12 Brendan Donovan, Mariners
Advertisement
It was curious to see Polanco hit a career year at age 31, and in Seattle, no less. Most of his Baseball Savant sliders are supportive, decent plate discipline and good contact numbers. He might open the year as the cleanup man for the Mets. I’m interested.
Westburg has already proven he belongs in the majors; his 162-game averages include 88 runs, 24 homers and 79 RBI per season. It’s unrealistic to expect anyone to play every game and Westburg missed half of last year with injuries, but give him credit for being a plus offensive player the last two years and get excited about the speculative No. 2 slot in a good Baltimore batting order. Westburg is currently a 10th-round pick in Yahoo drafts, a ticket I’ll happily sign.
I can’t rank Albies any lower because he’s still bringing category juice, but he swings at too many pitches out of the strike zone and he’ll probably open the year in the bottom third of the Atlanta lineup. He’s a distant cry from the player who made All-Star teams and collected down-ballot MVP votes. Shorthand, he’s more name than game entering his age-29 season.
Advertisement
Talk Them Up, Talk Them Down
$11 Gleyber Torres, Tigers
$11 Bryson Stott, Phillies
$11 JJ Wetherholt, Cardinals
$10 Luis García Jr., Nationals
It’s encouraging that García had 16 homers and 14 steals in what could fairly be termed an off year — that’s probably his floor. He’s still just 26 and a year removed from a .282 average and .444 slugging percentage. It’s possible García will shift to first base this year, and he could fall into a platoon as well — at least it would be the heavier side of the platoon. There’s no reason to jump the line with García’s ADP. But he’s affordably priced for a player who’s already shown the ability to be a top-100 fantasy asset.
Wetherholt probably has a starting job in his back pocket now that the Cardinals have moved Nolan Arenado and Brendan Donovan. Wetherholt was the No. 7 pick in the 2024 draft and had a robust .306/.421/.510 line between two stops in the minors last year, with 17 homers and 23 steals in just 109 games. He’s one of the prime Rookie of the Year contenders.
Some Plausible Upside
$7 Jackson Holliday, Orioles
$7 José Caballero, Yankees
$7 Jake Cronenworth, Padres
$6 Ernie Clement, Blue Jays
$4 Marcelo Mayer, Red Sox
Advertisement
Holliday tumbled down this list when the hamate bone injury came public. I am never going to be the injury optimist in my league. If a big discount doesn’t apply on draft day, count me out.
Mayer is going to do whatever the Red Sox ask, but perhaps his offensive growth would be cleaner if the team would let him settle in at one defensive position.
Baty has a capped upside as spring training opens, holding the heavy side of a DH platoon with Mark Vientos. His play to this point has mandated the caddy; his career slash against lefties is a punchless .200/.247/.300.
