The way Anthony Davis put it, it almost sounded like Cooper Flagg was going to have it kind of easy.

“For him, he’s coming to a team that’s established,” Davis ]

Flagg will have some of those nights to forget as he ranks among the Mavs’ leaders in touches, time of possession and usage, but he’ll also have ones to remember — particularly when he gets the opportunity to hit the gas.

Like many young players, Flagg’s been at his best in the early going when he gets to run — when he can attack backpedaling and unsettled defenses, and use that 6-foot-9 frame and athleticism to explode to the rim. Factoring in assists, the Mavericks are scoring 1.68 points per play that Flagg finishes in transition, according to Synergy Sports — a rate of transition scoring efficiency that this season places the No. 1 pick just south of Stephen Curry, and just north of Devin Booker:

When the opposition gets back, though, and the Flagg-led offense is forced to navigate a set defense … well, things have been a bit rockier.

Overall, the Mavericks have scored just 104.5 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass — the second-worst offense in the NBA, ahead of only the downright destitute Pelicans. Control only for the minutes where Flagg is on the ball, and it gets even worse.

Dallas is scoring a dismal 92.7 points per 100 possessions with Flagg as the nominal point guard, and just 78 points-per-100 in half-court settings, a downright Process Sixers/2012 Bobcats-level of offensive inefficiency. It’s not a coincidence that Russell (plus-36 in 103 minutes) leads the Mavs in overall plus-minus thus far, or that Flagg (minus-57 in 162) brings up the rear. Put Flagg next to Russell or Brandon Williams, though, and the offense looks … well, still bad, but better, and more closely resembling a garden-variety NBA attack.

That’s not the vision, though. The experiment involves putting Flagg in the position to problem-solve in real time under adverse conditions.

Flagg’s learning what it’s like to have to deal with some of the toughest on-ball defenders in the NBA; the list of his primary defenders in his first weeks on the job include Luguentz Dort, Cason Wallace, Pascal Siakam and Stephon Castle. He’s learning how difficult it can be to create separation, initiate the offense and keep a possession running on time.

When he’s running the two-man game with Dallas’ centers, he’s trying to figure out how to handle and beat switches. When defenders just go under ball screens when he’s the handler, he’s learning that he’s going to have to prove he can make them pay for giving him that space. He hasn’t been able to do that just yet: Flagg’s just 7 for 25 on shot attempts outside the paint, struggling to find the range on his jumper against longer, faster, more athletic NBA defenders.

As is the case for so many young prospects that enter the league, the progress of that jumper will likely be one of Flagg’s major swing skills. So, too, will be the tightness of his handle — the ability to get from point A to point B against pressing defenders without jeopardizing possession, and to be able to penetrate through the thicket of arms and legs he’ll find inside the arc without losing control:

That last play underscores the state of offensive affairs in Dallas: Flagg going into the post, taking a low screen from Davis, turning the corner off the side pick-and-roll and, because Indiana feels comfortable packing the paint, finding himself staring at three defenders with two more a foot outside the lane. With nowhere to go, he loses his balance, tries to find an outlet, and just throws the ball away.

The good news: Flagg hasn’t done a ton of that. He’s committed 10 total turnovers, and just seven live-ball cough-ups, through his first 161 minutes, including just two in his last three games. The less-good news: He has only 14 assists, and is still learning to map the floor to make the kind of reads, plays and passes that Dallas fans had come to expect over the previous, oh, let’s call it seven years.

Flagg’s teammates, bless them, are trying to help point him in the right direction …

… but he’s not quite there yet.

Or, at least, not there consistently. Even amid a choppy start, with Dallas opening 2-3 and the gears of the offense grinding more often than not, Flagg has shown flashes of what he can do with the ball: the feel for the hit-ahead, the touch to properly weight a long-range bounce pass, the understanding of how to create an angle for the lob, the fluidity to be a short-roll playmaker in the middle of the floor. And when he shows his vision, you see the outlines of Kidd’s:

It’s not all there yet. What we’ve seen through five NBA games, though, up-and-down as they’ve been, suggests that it is all there — and that we might be seeing it all before too long.

“Before the season’s done, you’ll see everything out of him,” Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle told reporters. “His versatility, size, dynamic, the fact that he’s playing point guard is a strong enough statement. He shoots the ball, and he’s making kind of off-the-fly plays in real time, seeing things in a split second’s notice. That’s pretty amazing.”

The San Antonio Spurs had some fantastic seasons under Gregg Popovich. With Victor Wembanyama leading the way, they just did something they never did under the Hall of Fame coach.

The team defeated the Miami Heat 107-101 on Thursday, clinching the first 5-0 start in franchise history. The Spurs are one of four undefeated teams left in the NBA, alongside the Oklahoma City Thunder, Philadelphia 76ers and Chicago Bulls.

Wembanyama once again led the way against Miami. The Frenchman posted 27 points on 10-of-23 shooting with 18 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 blocks. Here are two of the points and one of the blocks:

The Heat actually didn’t do that bad a job against him, as Yahoo Sports’ Dan Devine notes they played him more physically than any other team this season. They led for the majority of the first half and erased a 15-point deficit in the fourth quarter, before one last Spurs run put them away.

The trouble is when a player is listed at 7-foot-4 (and likely even taller) and has the touch of a guard, there are some things he can do that just can’t be stopped. In the process, Wembanyama also became the first player in NBA history to post at least 150 points and 20 blocks in the first five games of the season.

At 21 years old and in his third NBA season, the former first overall draft pick appears to be making another leap, while taking the Spurs with him. This isn’t even San Antonio at its peak, as point guard De’Aaron Fox remains out with a hamstring injury.

Other Spurs continued to contribute in his place, with Stephon Castle posting 21 points on 7-of-12 shooting, 8 assists, 6 rebounds and 4 steals, while Devin Vassell had 17 points and nine rebounds. Rookie Dylan Harper also had 13 points and four assists off the bench.

Next up will be a road game against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, then a nationally televised clash with the currently short-handed Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Dave Roberts is trying to keep things loose. Even if it comes with the risk of personal injury.

The Dodgers arrived at the Toronto Blue Jays’ Rogers Centre for a workout Thursday, ahead of a must-win Game 6 of the 2025 World Series. The club is currently down 3-2 in the series after a pair of offensive duds caused them to lose back-to-back games at home, and pretty much everyone on the team has said something needs to change since the end of Game 5.

Roberts apparently decided the best way to lift the mood in the Dodgers clubhouse was to face utilityman Hyeseong Kim, one of the fastest players on the team, to a foot race on the bases.

[Get more Dodgers news: Los Angeles team feed]

At 53 years old, Roberts took a significant head start … which didn’t help him stay upright after he rounded second base. The manager completely wiped out, ending the race face down as his players laughed at him.

Roberts got up limping, announcing “I f***ing blew out!”

Roberts was famously a speedster during his playing days, with his stolen base in Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS — “The Steal” — remaining a pivotal moment in Boston Red Sox history. Of course, 2004 was a long time ago.

The Dodgers’ own video of the race conveniently doesn’t include Roberts’ profane injury report (he appears fine while explaining what happened), but it does include first baseman Freddie Freeman telling him, “This is what we needed.”

The photos from Getty Images do a beautiful job of telling the story as well.

Vaughn Ridley via Getty Images

Vaughn Ridley via Getty Images

Vaughn Ridley via Getty Images

Moments like that are why Roberts has remained popular among his players as he finishes his 10th season, though you can probably expect that video to get quite a bit of play on social media if the next couple of days don’t go as the Dodgers hope.

Game 6 of the 2025 World Series is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET on Friday in Toronto, as the Blue Jays try to clinch their first World Series title since 1993.

Last year, only three MLB teams made managerial changes: the Cincinnati Reds, Miami Marlins and Chicago White Sox.

This offseason, there is a flurry of movement at the skipper position.

There are currently several teams searching for their next manager, with the Rangers, Angels, Giants, Orioles, Nationals and Twins having already filled roles this offseason. A couple teams can consider interim managers who finished the 2025 campaign. The rest will undoubtedly have someone new calling the shots in the clubhouse next spring.

Yahoo Sports is keeping tabs on who will be turning in lineup cards next season. We’re tracking the latest news about managerial openings and candidates below:

San Diego Padres

Mike Shildt is out as the manager of the San Diego Padres, Kevin Acee of the San Diego Tribune reported, after Shildt informed the team that he would be retiring in an effort to “take care of myself and exit on my terms,” he shared in a letter to the Union-Tribune. The news comes following a 90-72 season in which the Padres finished second in the NL West and lost to the Chicago Cubs in the NL wild-card round. Shildt spent two years with the team, reaching the playoffs both seasons and accumulating a 183-141 record.

On Oct. 20, former MLB star Albert Pujols was reported as a possible candidate to take over for Shildt. He is scheduled to interview with the franchise this week, according to ESPN.

Philadelphia Phillies

There will be no opening in Philadelphia, as Rob Thomson will reportedly return next season, according to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman.

Thomson has been in charge since 2022 and led the Phillies to the playoffs in each of his four seasons. After reaching the World Series in 2022, Philadelphia lost in the NLCS the following season. The past two years, they’ve not advanced out of the NLDS, losing to the New York Mets and Dodgers, both times in four games.

Atlanta Braves

The Atlanta Braves’ seven-year playoff streak ended this year, and after 10 seasons in charge, Brian Snitker told the organization that he won’t return as manager in 2026. That said, Snitker is staying on with the club as a senior advisor. Snitker led the Braves to a World Series title in 2021 and 100-plus-win seasons in 2022 and 2023. 

The latest:

Whoever takes over will be the club’s fourth manager since the end of the 1990 season. One possible candidate is former Chicago Cubs catcher and manager David Ross, who was a part-time starter for the Braves from 2009 to ’12. Ross expressed interest in the position in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday, though he reportedly didn’t speak extensively about the vacancy, as he’s not sure if he’ll be on the Braves’ list.

Colorado Rockies (still have to decide on interim manager)

The Colorado Rockies started the season 7-33 and fired Bud Black in May. After that, Warren Schaeffer got the bump from third-base coach to interim manager. With Schaeffer leading the way, the Rockies went 36-86. 

Of Colorado’s seven pitchers with at least 10 starts this season, only one had an ERA below 6.33. But perhaps even more alarming were the 3.69 runs per game the team scored, the second-fewest of any major-league team despite their famously hitter-friendly ballpark.

The latest:

First things first: The Rockies need a new executive. General manager Bill Schmidt stepped down after Colorado’s worst season in franchise history. The Rockies occupied the cellar of the NL West in each of the four seasons since Schmidt took over as GM. Colorado is searching for its next head of baseball operations. Then it will have to decide if it wants to keep Schaeffer or pick someone else to be the full-time manager.

Orlando Ramirez via Getty Images

Filled: Washington Nationals reportedly hiring Blake Butera

The Washington Nationals won the World Series in 2019. They’ve had six consecutive losing seasons since. They’ve won 66 or fewer games in three of the past five years. Washington split with manager Dave Martinez and general manager Mike Rizzo in early July. Bench coach Miguel Cairo was promoted to interim manager, and he led the team to a 29-43 record.

The latest:

Blake Butera, a 33-year-old who has worked in the Rays’ organization for the past decade, will reportedly be the choice. Butera served in numerous roles with the Rays, from player to coach to manager to minor-league field coordinator, before becoming senior director of player development in October 2023.

As far as managing experience goes, Butera led the New York-Penn League’s Hudson Valley Renegades for two seasons before guiding Low-A Charleston to a league title in two seasons with the Riverdogs. He compiled a 258-144 record, and his teams finished in first place four times.

Filled: Minnesota Twins hire Derek Shelton

Rocco Baldelli’s seven-season stretch with the Minnesota Twins ended with a 70-win campaign, which featured a sell-off at the trade deadline. Minnesota won three AL Central titles under Baldelli, who was a first-time manager when he got the job in 2019. But back-to-back seasons without a playoff appearance did him in as the organization searches for new leadership while its ownership group, led by brothers Jim, Bill and Bob Pohlad, retains controlling ownership of the franchise.

Latest news: 

Before Derek Shelton spent five-plus seasons as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ manager, he was the Twins’ bench coach in 2018 and 2019. Now Shelton’s managerial career will continue in the Twin Cities, where he’s being hired as Minnesota’s next skipper, the team announced. Shelton went 306-440 with the Pirates. He was fired after Pittsburgh slipped into a seven-game skid and a 12-26 start early this season. That said, Shelton’s first few seasons at the helm were part of a franchise-wide reset that including swapping known big-league talent for new prospects. Shelton will get another shot at managing a rebuild with the Twins, who traded away one-third of their active roster at the deadline. 

Filled: Baltimore Orioles hire Craig Albernaz

Following a 15-28 start to the season, the Orioles let go of Brandon Hyde, who was in his seventh season as manager after piloting the club to back-to-back postseason appearances in 2023 and ’24. Third-base coach Tony Mansolino took over as interim manager and posted a winning record in that role, going 60-59 as the Orioles finished 75-87 and last in an AL East that sent three teams to the playoffs.

Latest news:

The Orioles opted to hire Guardians associate manager Craig Albernaz to replace Brandon Hyde. Albernaz has spent the past two seasons on staff in Cleveland, and he also spent time with the San Francisco Giants. While this will be his first head manager job in baseball, Albernaz was undoubtedly one of the top names available this cycle.

Filled: San Francisco Giants hire Tony Vitello

Although the Giants picked up Bob Melvin’s option for the 2026 season in July, they ended up firing him anyway. The Giants went a combined 161-163 in Melvin’s two seasons at the helm. Team president of baseball operations Buster Posey said the Giants didn’t perform up to their standard while finishing third in the NL West this year.

Latest news:

The Giants reportedly hired Tennessee head baseball coach Tony Vitello to become the club’s new manager on Oct. 22. Vitello, a 47-year-old coach who led the Volunteers to the 2024 College World Series, has no major-league coaching experience, but he is a splashy signing for an exceedingly average team. He will be the first college coach to make the jump to MLB manager without any professional coaching experience.

Filled: Los Angeles Angels hire Kurt Suzuki

The Los Angeles Angels parted ways with not only manager Ron Washington but also interim manager Ray Montgomery. On June 27, the 73-year-old Washington went on medical leave. He later explained that he had undergone quadruple bypass surgery on his heart. The Angels haven’t made the playoffs since 2014 and have finished fourth or fifth in the AL West in eight of the past 10 seasons.

Latest news:

After flirting with Albert Pujols and Torii Hunter, the Angels tabbed another former player. Former catcher Kurt Suzuki will replace Washington as the team’s manager next season.

Suzuki was a bit of a dark-horse candidate for the role, with Pujols receiving the most publicity of anyone who interviewed for the job. While early reports suggested Pujols was Angels owner Arte Moreno’s top choice, talks with the slugger fell through, and Pujols was reportedly out of the running by late October. A day later, Hunter was no longer a candidate. Hours after that report, Suzuki was reported as the team’s next skipper.

Suzuki joins the Angels after a 16-year MLB career. He spent time with five teams during his MLB tenure, playing his final two seasons with the Angels. Suzuki was a member of the 2019 Washington Nationals, who defeated the Houston Astros to win the World Series. He’s also a one-time All-Star.

Filled: Texas Rangers hire Skip Schumaker

The Texas Rangers moved on from Bruce Bochy, who led the organization to its first World Series title in 2023 after earning three rings with the San Francisco Giants earlier in his career. In the two seasons since its championship run, however, Texas missed the playoffs. Bochy and the Rangers mutually parted ways, according to the team’s statement.

Latest news:

Texas focused its search on former Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker from the start, and that became official Oct. 3. Schumaker earned NL Manager of the Year honors in 2023 when the Marlins returned to the postseason for just the fourth time in franchise history. Schumaker’s two-season stint with the Marlins came to an end when he resigned after an injury-riddled 2024 campaign. He spent the 2025 season with the Rangers as a special advisor.

In the wake of the sweeping FBI investigation into gambling in the NBA, the league is reportedly looking into what bets are most vulnerable. ESPN’s David Purdum reported Thursday that the NBA has met with its sportsbook partners, FanDuel and DraftKings, to discuss wagers that it deems susceptible to manipulation.

Per Purdum, the NBA identified missed free throws, fouls and turnovers as those kinds of bets prior to the season, and asked its partner sportsbooks not to offer those bets. Both FanDuel and DraftKings told ESPN that they agreed to follow the request, though DraftKings was the only one of the two that had previously offered those kinds of bets.

The league has also discussed potentially altering the limits on wagers. Player prop bets usually have a lower limit than other wide-range bets, such as point spread.

An NBA spokesperson told Purdum that discussions on how to approach these kinds of bets is ongoing, noting that individual prop bets “can raise heightened integrity concerns and warrant additional scrutiny.”

The Sports Betting Alliance, a lobbying group that represents the major sportsbooks in the U.S., told ESPN that overall bans on prop bets would put bettors towards illegal platforms and create “a dangerous blind spot” for regulators.

The federal probe into gambling in the NBA, which led to the arrests of Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups among more than 30 others, left the sports world reeling last week. Rozier has been accused of colluding with a friend to sell the information that he would be leaving a game early, leading the bettors to bet heavily on the under for Rozier’s stats. The friend reportedly sold that information for $100,000.

Billups was arrested in relationship to a separate investigation into rigged poker games organized by three Mafia families, though Billups does match the description of an unnamed co-conspirator in the betting investigation.

Both Rozier and Billups were placed on immediate leave by the NBA. They will reportedly not be paid while on leave.

Rozier’s gambling activity was investigated by the NBA earlier this year, but the league couldn’t find enough evidence of illegal behavior. In an interview last Friday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that the league wasn’t able to collect as much information as the federal investigators could.

“We were very transparent about it, and while there was that aberrational betting, we frankly couldn’t find anything,” Silver said. “We’ve been working with the government, and they have extraordinary powers that a league office doesn’t have.”

Still, it’s been a tough period for the NBA’s optics, as widespread sports gambling threatens the perceived integrity of the NBA, and other leagues as well. League discussions with its partner sportsbooks appears to be the first step in what may be a long process to gain that trust back.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Major League Baseball Players Association has reportedly banned a prominent agent for essentially going behind its back during the 2020 labor negotiations over the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, Jim Murray of WME Sports will be forbidden from negotiating player contracts for four years, fined $100,000 and required to pay another $150,000 if he wants to apply for recertification at the end of his ban. As part of a settlement, he reportedly has carve-outs to advise his existing clients in other ways.

Among Murray’s former clients are reportedly Chicago Cubs outfielder Ian Happ, New York Yankees shortstop Anthony Volpe, veteran reliever Adam Ottavino and New York Yankees great Andy Pettitte. 

The MLBPA, which certifies agents, reportedly alleged that Murray revealed confidential union information to the league office and helped MLB craft its proposals amid one of the more contentious times in recent history for MLB labor. At the time, the COVID-19 pandemic had delayed the start of the season, and the dispute over when to begin games played out quite publicly.

The union’s case against Murray reportedly included communications he had with MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and some of his lieutenants. Also apparently not helping his case was a line in the bio he submitted not long after, in which he credited himself for helping bring baseball back:

“Jim also played a significant role in unprecedented labor negotiations in 2020, helping bring baseball back on the field during the pandemic,” Murray wrote.

In case it wasn’t clear, the union is the entity that’s supposed to negotiate with MLB. Agents can often get involved, but the case of Murray was apparently egregious enough that the union brought action against him.

Murray and WME Sports have had a turbulent few years, to say the least. The mega-agency, whose business goes well beyond athlete representation, hired Murray and Michael Stival from Excel Sports Management in 2021 to leads its baseball arm, at the reported price of $25 million.

That exit prompted a legal fight with Excel, which led to an arbitrator siding with Excel and ordering WME to pay more than $10 million in damages. It was during that case that the above bio line came to light.

There’s also no shortage of politics between WME and the union. Happ, Murray’s client, was apparently one of the players who led the charge in an attempted ouster of MLBPA executive director Tony Clark and lead negotiator Bruce Meyer, and the union has pressured WME to sell off its baseball business over conflict-of-interest concerns. WME is also the parent company of Diamond Baseball Holdings, which owns more than a quarter of MLB’s minor-league teams. 

The agency was reported this April to be looking to sell its baseball representation business. Murray being persona non grata for the union probably isn’t helping that effort.

The Toronto Blue Jays have a chance to make history on Friday, returning home for Game 6 of the World Series with a 3-2 lead. And they’ll likely have one more major offensive weapon back in their lineup, with the return of designated hitter George Springer.

Blue Jays manager John Schneider told reporters Thursday that Springer is expected to return to the lineup for Game 6. Schneider added that Springer was close to starting in Toronto’s dominant Game 5 win in L.A. and that “he’s checked every box physically so far,” per Sportnet’s Arden Zwelling.

[Get more Toronto news: Blue Jays team feed]

Springer sat out Games 4 and 5 of the series while recovering from an injury to his side, which he sustained during Game 3. The veteran slugger left the game at the top of the seventh, clutching his side after taking a swing. Schneider told reporters Wednesday that Springer was “feeling better,” setting the stage for his Game 6 return.

Ty France stepped in for Springer as a pinch hitter in Game 3, which lasted a record-tying 18 innings before the Dodgers finally won.

Since then, though, Toronto has roared back, picking up a big Game 4 win before Wednesday’s 6-1 victory in Game 5 put the Blue Jays one win away from the team’s first World Series title in 32 years. With Springer, Toronto’s leadoff hitter, out, Davis Schneider stepped into the first spot Wednesday and made some history with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. when the two hit back-to-back leadoff homers.

Even with that success, having Springer back will help Toronto on its quest for a championship. Springer has been a key presence in the Blue Jays’ World Series run, picking up 14 hits and four home runs in the postseason.

“He’s had an unbelievable year,” Schneider said Wednesday. “I think that he has done a phenomenal job of kind of setting the tone for us, not just at the plate, but kind of in the clubhouse and keeping tabs on guys. It’s been fun to watch him. It’s been really fun after a tough year last year for him and us. The production is the production, but I think kind of how he goes about his day to day with everyone in there is just as important.”