January 2026

There were 1,518 posts published in January 2026 (this is page 110 of 152).

Anthony Davis reportedly suffers ligament damage in hand, may need surgery, likely out past trade deadline

Anthony Davis is getting a second opinion but appears to have sustained ligament damage in his left hand that could require surgery and will likely keep him out past the Feb. 5 NBA Trade deadline, a story first reported by Shams Charania and Tim MacMahon of ESPN and since confirmed by other reports.

Those reports suggest Davis will miss “months,” which would effectively end the idea he might get traded at the deadline. Concerns about his injury history are part of why there was a limited market for Davis to begin with.

The injury occurred on what appeared to be an innocent play late in Thursday’s Utah win over Dallas. Lauri Markkanen drove baseline on Davis, and as Davis bodied him up, he got his hand caught up in Markkanen’s jersey, and it bent or twisted on him. AD was clearly in considerable pain and left the game to go back to the locker room.

Davis, who came to Dallas as the primary return in the Luka Dončić trade (an unfair burden for him), has played well when healthy this season, averaging 20.4 points on 50.6% shooting, grabbing 11.1 rebounds per game, and playing high-level defense in the paint. When healthy, Davis remains an All-Star, maybe an All-NBA level player. He has been the focus of trade rumors as the Mavericks look to pivot to building around No. 1 pick Cooper Flagg.

One thing to watch is how Davis’ injury affects a possible return by Kyrie Irving this season. If Davis is out for a significant period of time, do the Mavericks pull the plug on this season?

The Five Weirdest AI Inventions I Saw at CES 2026

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AI is still the big thing in the tech world, but it’s no longer the big new thing. It’s been around long enough that simply integrating it into your product isn’t enough to make it stand out anymore, especially at the biggest tech show in the world. While I attended this year’s CES, the trend I noticed over and over again on the show floor was that AI is getting weird now. From personal hologram sidekicks to a gaming monitor that basically cheats for you, here are the five weirdest AI inventions I saw at CES 2026.

Razer is giving you your own personal anime girl


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

At last year’s CES, gaming lifestyle company Razer introduced Project AVA, an AI esports coach concept that was just a disembodied voice that lives in your laptop. Yawn. This year, the company’s expanding on that by bringing AVA into the real world.

In Razer’s suite this year, I held a conversation with “Kira,” an anime girl “hologram” that lives in a little USB tube you can plug into your laptop. She noticed my orange sweater thanks to a camera installed in the tube, before asking me about the show and prompting me to start up a round of Battlefield 6, where she gave me some generic loadout advice. I spoke with her using microphones also built into her tube, and she responded using her own speaker rather than the laptop’s. Razer said this demo was more directed, hence why she brought up gaming right away, but that the end goal is to let the new AVA work as a convincing all-purpose AI companion, so you don’t have to use it for only play.

To that end, the company says it’s “AI agnostic,” so you can plug your own model into it. The demo I ran through was clearly using Grok, and generally felt a lot like talking to the AI companions built into that app, right down to the cringeworthy jokes. But Razer said you could theoretically use ChatGPT or Gemini instead.

While we were chatting, Kira played animations courtesy of Animation Inc., which powers similar but more app-driven AI companions. In other words, the chatbot and the animations aren’t really new here, so what you’d be buying would be the USB tube and the characters.


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Kira isn’t your only option for an AI companion here—she’s a typical anime gamer girl, but I also got to briefly look at Zane, a tattooed muscle man in the deepest V-neck I’ve ever seen. You can kind of see the target audience for both of these characters right away, but if you want something more tame, you can also have your tube display Razer’s logo surrounded by an audio waveform, which simply goes by AVA (even though the project as a whole is still called AVA). And the company’s also working on celebrity likenesses, with esports star Faker and influencer Sao having already given their approval.

Razer said it’s still working on figuring out how it’ll distribute these characters, and I was told you’d get a bundle of them with your purchase, but would probably be able to buy more down the line.

As for pricing and availability, no word on that. This is technically still a concept, so it might go back to the drawing board again. But Razer’s website does say it’s hoping for a release in the second half of 2026, and that you can put $20 down now to reserve your unit.

In short, if you strip away the functionality that’s already baked into apps you can download now, the new Project Ava is basically a talking hologram toy for your desk. That’s still not a bad pitch, but unfortunately, I’m not sure if hologram is the right word for this. Kira looked pretty flat to me, less like that one Princess Leia projection and more like she was displaying on a normal transparent screen that just happened to be stuck inside of a cylinder. I don’t think the novelty quite matches the pitch yet.

The gaming headset that uses AI to read your mind


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Whenever I play a competitive game, instead of hopping right into a match, I instead load up into a few practice sessions to warm up. It’s helpful, but time consuming. The new Neurable x HyperX concept headset is hoping to change that by helping you lock in within just a few minutes.

Essentially, it looks like a normal gaming headset, but built into the earcups are various sensors that can supposedly read your focus levels. These are similar to the brain-computer interfaces you might have seen in sci-fi shows, the ones with a bunch of wires and discs attached to them, but shrunken down for the consumer market, with no creepy wires in sight.

That’s where the AI comes in. Shrinking down the sensors so much does mean this headset gets fewer readings than the bigger ones in labs, but Neurable claims its models are still able to pick up on trends in those readings and translate them into useful data, while also throwing out junk data.

For gamers, that means it can run you through a quick focus exercise called “Prime,” where you concentrate while noticing a cloud of dots shrink into a solid orb. Once this is done, which took about 90 seconds for me, you’re supposedly focused up and ready to play.

Unfortunately, I actually did worse in a practice shooting game after focusing than beforehand, but that doesn’t mean the data was useless. I ran through the exercise with a colleague whose score improved by maybe about a third after focusing, and with such a small sample size, there could be any number of reasons I choked after focusing up. The company said that it could even be helpful to practice choking in this way.


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

And at any rate, numbers are fun. That’s why I’m most excited about the headset’s plug-in for streamers, which allows them to show their focus levels on screen for their chat to see. I could easily imagine a community looking at that data and teasing their favorite streamer to try to distract them.

That said, it’ll be a while until you can actually buy this. It’s still a concept for now, with no pricing or promise of release. However, Neurable does already have a similar, non-gaming headset made with Master & Dynamic that will be shipping out soon, just without this software. For more, read my full article here.

Lenovo’s laptop can nod when you ask it a question


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

This one is more of a hardware innovation, but it’s a clever touch. This CES, Lenovo introduced a laptop with a motorized hinge that can automatically close, open, and even rotate from side-to-side. It’ll be coming out later this summer, but while the company was demonstrating the unit to me, it also showed off a prototype chatbot app it’s making for it. This uses ChatGPT for now, and is still just a concept and will not ship with the laptop. But it was cute.

Essentially, while I talked with the app, the laptop displayed a big pair of animated eyes on screen, and used its hinge to nod or shake its head no when I asked it questions. It also displayed small animations in response to certain questions, like showing an umbrella when I asked about the rainy weather.

It’s still very early days, but I was impressed that the hardware was able to recognize what an affirmative answer was and trigger the laptop to respond accordingly. A lot of AI feels pretty disconnected from the real world, so anything that can give it a physical presence is probably a good idea if you want people to take it seriously.

The Lenovo AI gaming monitor that’s basically cheating


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Also shown off at CES this year, Lenovo’s AI Frame gaming monitor is probably the most practically useful item on this list, almost to the point where it feels like cheating. Essentially, this fills up most of the 21:9 screen with a regular 16:9 view of whatever’s on your computer, and uses AI to show a zoomed-in look at critical game information on the rest.

For instance, in a demo showing a MOBA game (think League of Legends), the monitor zoomed in on the map. In a demo showing Counter-Strike 2, it zoomed in on the reticle. Personally, I didn’t think getting a blown-up look at the map was all that helpful, but being able to constantly see what was essentially a sniper scope around my reticle was a game changer, since it worked with any gun and made targets much easier to see.

I could see Counter-Strike 2 developer Valve go as far as banning this if it ever makes its way to market, since it’s taken similar actions before. But this is still just an idea for now. Still, it shows that companies are starting to figure out concrete ways AI can help you in your games, beyond just feeding you advice you probably already know.

XREAL’s new AR glasses can automatically convert any 2D content into 3D


Credit: Michelle Ehrhardt

Finally, probably my favorite AI invention at CES this year was XREAL’s new REAL 3D technology. Built into its newest AR glasses and already added to an existing pair via a firmware update, this uses AI to automatically find depth in any 2D video source and convert it into 3D. And trying it out for myself, it practically looked official.

When I used it to play Mario Kart World, I would have believed you if you told me Nintendo had added this mode itself. It also worked great with James Cameron’s Avatar, and there was no loading time to set it up or turn it off. There also wasn’t any fuzziness, like there might be with glasses-free 3D screens like the 3DS.

It’s a great option for people who like watching 3D games and movies, but might have trouble finding them now that 3D TVs and the Nintendo 3DS are mostly in the past. Now, you can just watch your existing 2D library, but in 3D.

The only issue you might come across is in content that doesn’t have depth. For instance, XREAL’s Ralph Jodice told me the software didn’t quite know what to do when he tried playing the original 8-bit Super Mario Bros. with it, and would randomly emphasize only certain game assets without any rhyme or reason. An illusion of depth does seem to work, though. Super Mario Bros. is entirely flat, but when I tried watching the pen-and-paper animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with this technology, it correctly separated characters in the foreground from scenery in the background, even though everything on screen was entirely hand-drawn.

Exile on Main Street: Manfred, MLB Will Go to Bat for 9 RSN Expats

A day after nine Major League Baseball clubs officially terminated their contracts with Main Street Sports, the parent company of the FanDuel-branded RSNs is attempting to bring the teams back into the fold.

Main Street’s course-changing efforts are said to include offering revised terms to its departing MLB partners, although given the endemic stressors on the regional distribution model, any new deals are likely to hinge on reduced fee structures.

As first reported by The Athletic’s Evan Drellich, the dissolution of the RSN contracts effectively serves as a safeguarding measure in the event Main Street files for bankruptcy. The company of late had been negotiating a sale of its assets to DAZN, but those talks are said to have sputtered out. Scuttlebutt about the emergence of a second potential buyer remains unconfirmed.

“We remain in dialogue with all of our team and league partners as we progress discussions with potential strategic partners to enhance our long-term capital position,” a Main Street Sports spokesperson wrote in a statement.

Three of the teams that have elected to walk away from their in-market media deals—the Cincinnati Reds, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers—had re-upped with Main Street in early November. Also choosing to exit were the Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Angels, Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals and Tampa Bay Rays.

The ongoing erosion of the pay-TV bundle has continued to plague the RSN business, and while Main Street predecessor Diamond Sports Group officially exited Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a year ago, court documents made it clear that a post-reorg cash crunch was all but inevitable. In one projection, Diamond’s number crunchers estimated that total linear TV revenue would decline 19% in 2025 from $2.17 billion to $1.75 billion, while this year’s take was expected to fall to $1.65 billion.

While advertising dollars were largely expected to hold up, far more significant losses were thought to be in store on the distribution front. Per an unaudited projected income statement filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Houston in April 2024, DSG anticipated that carriage fees would plummet 28% between 2024 and 2026, which would work out to a net loss of $498 million in distribution revenue. DSG had projected a more moderate 5% dip in advertising revenue over the same period, which translates to an anticipated loss of $20 million in sales.

The ongoing exodus from the legacy pay-TV bundle continued apace last year, as an estimated 5 million cable/satellite/telcoTV subscribers cut the cord. Per MoffettNathanson estimates, the bundled headcount fell another 10% to 43.2 million households in the third quarter, reducing penetration to just 34% of all U.S. TV homes. Even when virtual MVPDs are blended with the traditional TV platforms, the overall tally (64.8 million subs) represents just 50.6% of homes that use television.

At the industry’s peak in 2010, when some 105 million customers mailed out paper checks to cover their monthly TV bills, nine in 10 homes subscribed to a pay-TV package.

Despite the steady subscriber losses, the FanDuel RSNs saw their MLB ratings improve by 18% in 2025, as in-game coverage averaged 1.5 million viewers across all platforms. Per internal Main Street estimates, MLB games last season accounted for more than 2.8 billion minutes of consumption, a figure which marked a doubling on the year-ago results.

The incredible shrinking bundle has posed an existential threat to the RSNs long before Diamond filed for bankruptcy in March 2023. In an early filing with the Houston court, the company stated that it had lost 22 million subscribers, or 35% of its customer base, since 2019. While the vMVPDs have in some measure helped claw back a chunk of pay-TV apostates, most of those slimmed-down platforms don’t have carriage deals in place with any RSNs. In other words, Main Street doesn’t necessarily benefit from the recapturing of consumers via alternative video services.

MLB commissioner Rob Manfred on Thursday addressed the RSN situation during an appearance on WFAN’s The Carton Show. “No matter what happens, Major League Baseball is in a position to put all of the games on locally and to make a digital streaming product available in-market for those fans,” Manfred said. They will never miss a game.”

Baseball first began bailing out some of its RSN-affiliated clubs in 2023, when it assumed control of the San Diego Padres’ local broadcasts after Diamond missed a payment. Other teams that have since found shelter under the MLB Media umbrella include the Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies and Minnesota Twins. Meanwhile, in the wake of the shuttering of ROOT Sports, the Seattle Mariners last fall announced their intention to cede local distribution to MLB before the start of the 2026 season.   

And the defections continue to pile up. Upon the dissolution of their longstanding, often turbulent arrangement with the Baltimore Orioles’ Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, the Washington Nationals are also in the hunt for a new local TV home.

Manfred said MLB is ready to provide a similar service to the nine clubs that voided their Main Street contracts. “Remember, two years ago, there was a bankruptcy filing, [and] San Diego, they pulled the plug on them,” Manfred said. “We put them up in one day. There was never a game missed. So, we are prepared, even if all nine end up without an alternative, MLB will have them, they will be available on cable in the markets and there will be a digital alternative.

Unfortunately for the newly stateless nine, MLB’s backstopping won’t include any cash considerations. While reserves of as much as $15 million were allocated to teams that walked away from their RSN deals in 2024, Manfred during a separate Thursday media hit said the league would not be providing financial assistance to any clubs that align with MLB Media in the coming year. The discretionary-spending policy appears to have been a one-shot deal, as similar payments were not extended in 2025.

In addition to the option of signing on with MLB Media, the exiting teams may also seek to forge in-market deals with over-the-air providers like Scripps Sports and Gray Television. The current crisis was precipitated last month when Main Street missed a scheduled rights payment to the Cardinals.

(Updated with a statement from Main Street Sports.)

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The Biggest Fitness Trends at CES 2026 (and What I Think About Them)

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I just got back from CES 2026, and you can see my real-time reports on some of the best and weirdest things I saw in our CES 2026 live blog. I tried on six(!) different exoskeletons, perked up my ears whenever I heard about a new smart strap, and looked in vain for new models of familiar fitness tech like watches. Here are the biggest trends I noticed and some notes on what was conspicuously missing. I’ve included prices where possible; anything without a price is likely too far from market to have one yet.

The number of non-Whoop smart bands just doubled

Luna band (underside)
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

This is a continuation of a trend that really got going in 2025. Whoop is no longer the only player in the screenless fitness strap space. Last year we saw straps from Amazfit ($99) and Polar ($199), plus a sleep band from Garmin ($169). At CES I learned about two more. 

The Luna Band is likely to be the next one to market—the company’s reps said to expect it to ship sometime in the next month or two. (I plan to review it once units are available.) It will be $149, won’t require a subscription, and it will use the same app as the Luna Ring, which I’m currently reviewing. Its maker, Noise, is new to the U.S. wearables market but is one of the leading smartwatch makers in India. 

Besides the new hardware, Noise also announced that the Luna app will soon have a system to take voice notes to give context to your health data. (This is coming to the app in the next few weeks.) For example, if you tell the app that you had a few glasses of wine, it will remember this when it sees your poor sleep the next morning, and it will adjust its recommendations accordingly—say, reminding you to hydrate, rather than telling you to take a nap.

Speediance Strap prototypes
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Speediance also announced the Speediance Strap, although it doesn’t seem to be as close to market. No price has been announced, and the units at the show were clearly prototypes. The Strap will collect sleep and recovery data, without requiring a subscription to view it, although some more advanced metrics will require a premium subscription. 

Rings are everywhere

RingConn gen 3
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Oura has had competitors for years (and has taken up suing them to stop sales), but it seems like the number of smart rings out there is just exploding—though not all of them are fitness or health oriented. Besides Pebble’s Index 01 ($75), which is charmingly simple, there are plenty of rings that pack in more functions—NFC payments, AI voice processing, haptic alerts, and more. There are so many I can’t give a full list, but to name a few: there’s the Muse Ring One ($323), the Dreame Ring, and the Vocci AI ring. 

RingConn announced its third-generation ring, with blood pressure insights (I’m skeptical) and haptic alerts, including the ability to buzz for a smart alarm (I’m intrigued). This one isn’t on the market yet, and a rep at the booth asked me what price I thought it should go for. In the meantime, RingConn gave me a gen 2 ring to compare to Oura and others—watch for my review soon.  

Watches (mostly) aren’t exciting anymore


Credit: Beth Skwarecki

The companies that make smartwatches and fitness watches tend to be on their own release cycles, not necessarily tied to CES. Apple certainly wasn’t going to announce a new Apple Watch; Google and Fitbit didn’t show up, either. Amazfit had a new watch, the Active Max ($169) in its lineup, but it was more of a refinement to the product line than a new exciting announcement.

The only real exception I can think of is Pebble, but you’ve heard from me already on why it bucks the trend. I got to go hands-on with the Time 2 (announced last year) and the Round 2 (announced last week), which was so thin and sleek it made the Coros on my wrist feel like a big ol’ hunk of plastic. As a reminder, the Round 2 doesn’t have a heart rate monitor and Pebble is trying not to be a fitness watch brand. (I’m still looking forward to reviewing its watches anyway.) 

Pebble Time 2
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

I think the main reason for the stagnation here is that watches already have everything they need to have for fitness and health tracking. There’s not a lot of room left to innovate; either you give a device slightly better battery life (nice, but yawn) or you stick something else into it just to say you did—like a flashlight or a microphone. That’s nothing against flashlights or microphones, which are both great in context, but we’re hardly in game-changing territory anymore. Companies like Oura and Whoop are pivoting to services like blood tests that take the focus off their hardware. My colleague Stephen Johnson said it best: tech launches don’t feel magical anymore, partly because we don’t have many problems left that consumer tech can easily solve, and partly because every new advice adds a hassle to your life.

And so Garmin’s main announcement this weekend was a nutrition tracking feature in its Connect+ subscription. I thought at least there was a good chance of a new watch from Garmin—nope. Garmin announced the Instinct 3 at last year’s CES, but no new hardware this year besides a camera system for truckers (I’m happy for them). 

A few other companies used the buzz around CES to announce non-hardware developments as well: Oura is finally shipping the charging case it promised last fall, and Ultrahuman announced a limited-time free tier of its blood testing service with 20+ markers. Its other tiers give you 50+ markers for $99, or a 100+ marker test followed by a 60+ marker follow-up test for $365. (Ultrahuman told me that the exact blood tests it’s able to offer vary slightly by state, hence the vague numbers.)

AI was present, but not center stage

A prototype of Amazfit’s V1TAL camera, which analyzes the food on your plate
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

There were, of course, plenty of mentions that “AI” is baked into this or that fitness app. But the companies mostly seemed to understand that while AI might help to create features their users want, users don’t buy devices for the AI. (See also: Dell executives commenting that its customers don’t seem to want AI, and that it has adjusted the marketing for its computers to de-emphasize it.)

I heard at CES that apps are using AI to identify foods from photos (Garmin and Amazfit) or that AI is helping to find patterns in data (basically everybody). Merach did say it would let me try an AI-powered treadmill, but a rep apologetically told me the device wasn’t available in time to ship the prototype to CES. 

They’re trying to make exoskeletons happen

The Sumbu hip-based exoskeleton
Credit: Beth Skwarecki

Exoskeletons were the biggest new-to-me trend at CES. These are devices that you strap on to your body, and their motors give an added boost to what your muscles are doing. Several of the companies described them as being like an e-bike for walking. 

I gave myself a side quest of trying every exoskeleton that was available to demo. That ended up being a total of six: four that assisted you at the hip, one at the knee, and one at the ankle. One device made by Ascentiz ($1,299-$1,848) can be configured with combined hip and knee action, but the knee module wasn’t available for me to test.

All six devices really did give me a boost while walking (or climbing stairs—several of the companies wisely included a mini staircase in their booths to try out). But I have to wonder who the exoskeletons are really for. If you’re not a serious hiker, an exoskeleton might help you hike up a mountain and keep up with your friends. But I’d think that only a serious hiker would have $1,000+ to spend on hiking gear like an exoskeleton—and that they would probably prefer to train harder and spend the money on something else. 

If I had to predict where this tech is going, I think the rental market makes the most sense. Imagine if you could borrow the Ascentiz for a scenic hike on vacation without having to train for months ahead of time, or strap on Dephy’s “powered footwear” ($4,500) to get you through a day at Disneyworld.

Pelicans reportedly telling teams they’re keeping Zion Williamson, handful of others beyond trade deadline

Trae Young was traded from the Atlanta Hawks to the Washington Wizards Wednesday night. News of the transaction broke while the four-time All-Star point guard was on the end of the bench in street clothes, still recovering from a quad contusion.

The Hawks dealt their biggest star in exchange for guards CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert. And, so, the first domino ahead of the league’s Feb. 5 trade deadline fell during a Hawks home game, perhaps ironically against the New Orleans Pelicans, who, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes, aren’t trending toward any trade of that kind.

In fact, per Haynes, the Pelicans are telling teams that Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones as well as 2025 first-rounders Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears will remain in New Orleans beyond the deadline.

The 8-31 Pelicans have the second-worst record in the NBA. They fired head coach Willie Green in November, 12 games into his fifth season at the helm. James Borrego, former head coach of the Charlotte Hornets and associate head coach on Green’s staff, took Green’s place in an interim role.

Currently, the team is suffering through a nine-game skid, crashing back to Earth after a five-game win streak provided a glimpse of holiday hope last month.

New Orleans clinging to Queen and Fears wouldn’t be surprising. For one, they’re promising rookies. 

Queen is averaging 12.9 points per game, and the 21-year-old center has gone for 20 or more on eight occasions. Along the way, the Maryland product has tallied seven double-doubles and a 33-10-10 triple-double versus the San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 8. Fears, a 19-year-old guard from Oklahoma, is averaging 14.2 points per game on 43.3% shooting. He’s got eight 20-point games of his own.

Not only are they young and entertaining, but they’re also players picked by first-year Pelicans president of basketball operations Joe Dumars.

Dumars inherited the other three players on the list Haynes reported.

Williamson headlines that group.

The two-time All-Star forward is still only 25 years old. If there’s a time to sell high on him, it’s probably now. The often-injured Williamson has played in 13 straight games. He’s started the past six, averaging 24.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1 steal per game while shooting 61.6% from the field in that span.

He’s healthy at the moment, and his contract is non-guaranteed for the next two seasons. 

The thought was that the Pelicans could be aggressive at the deadline, moving veteran starters, such as Williamson, to regain assets. 

New Orleans owes its 2026 first-round pick to the Hawks after going up to get Queen in last year’s draft. The franchise doesn’t have a second-round pick until the 2030 draft.

And yet, per Haynes’ report, it appears the Pelicans could be sticking with their core past the deadline.

Pelicans reportedly telling teams they’re keeping Zion Williamson, handful of others beyond trade deadline

Trae Young was traded from the Atlanta Hawks to the Washington Wizards Wednesday night. News of the transaction broke while the four-time All-Star point guard was on the end of the bench in street clothes, still recovering from a quad contusion.

The Hawks dealt their biggest star in exchange for guards CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert. And, so, the first domino ahead of the league’s Feb. 5 trade deadline fell during a Hawks home game, perhaps ironically against the New Orleans Pelicans, who, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes, aren’t trending toward any trade of that kind.

In fact, per Haynes, the Pelicans are telling teams that Zion Williamson, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones as well as 2025 first-rounders Derik Queen and Jeremiah Fears will remain in New Orleans beyond the deadline.

The 8-31 Pelicans have the second-worst record in the NBA. They fired head coach Willie Green in November, 12 games into his fifth season at the helm. James Borrego, former head coach of the Charlotte Hornets and associate head coach on Green’s staff, took Green’s place in an interim role.

Currently, the team is suffering through a nine-game skid, crashing back to Earth after a five-game win streak provided a glimpse of holiday hope last month.

New Orleans clinging to Queen and Fears wouldn’t be surprising. For one, they’re promising rookies. 

Queen is averaging 12.9 points per game, and the 21-year-old center has gone for 20 or more on eight occasions. Along the way, the Maryland product has tallied seven double-doubles and a 33-10-10 triple-double versus the San Antonio Spurs on Dec. 8. Fears, a 19-year-old guard from Oklahoma, is averaging 14.2 points per game on 43.3% shooting. He’s got eight 20-point games of his own.

Not only are they young and entertaining, but they’re also players picked by first-year Pelicans president of basketball operations Joe Dumars.

Dumars inherited the other three players on the list Haynes reported.

Williamson headlines that group.

The two-time All-Star forward is still only 25 years old. If there’s a time to sell high on him, it’s probably now. The often-injured Williamson has played in 13 straight games. He’s started the past six, averaging 24.5 points, 6.2 rebounds and 1 steal per game while shooting 61.6% from the field in that span.

He’s healthy at the moment, and his contract is non-guaranteed for the next two seasons. 

The thought was that the Pelicans could be aggressive at the deadline, moving veteran starters, such as Williamson, to regain assets. 

New Orleans owes its 2026 first-round pick to the Hawks after going up to get Queen in last year’s draft. The franchise doesn’t have a second-round pick until the 2030 draft.

And yet, per Haynes’ report, it appears the Pelicans could be sticking with their core past the deadline.

Mavericks’ Anthony Davis suffers ligament damage in left hand, could reportedly miss ‘a number of months’

Anthony Davis, considered a top trade target ahead of the NBA trade deadline, is reportedly set to miss time with a hand injury. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
Chris Gardner via Getty Images

Anthony Davis will miss more time, possibly even “a number of months,” according to ESPN’s Shams Charania and Tim MacMahon, who reported Friday that the Dallas Mavericks standout center sustained ligament damage in his left hand during a Thursday night loss to the Utah Jazz.

The length of Davis’ recovery will depend on the second opinion he receives. There’s a real chance the 10-time All-Star will be sidelined through the NBA’s Feb. 5 trade deadline and potentially beyond that day if surgery is required, per Charania.

Even if the 32-year-old Davis doesn’t have a procedure done, he’s expected to miss at least six weeks, according to ESPN’s report. The Mavs later confirmed there was ligament damage in Davis’ hand and said they were evaluating their medical options.

Davis has been considered a top trade target for a while now, although his latest setback could affect his value. Last season, he was part of one of the league’s most shocking deals ever when the Los Angeles Lakers shipped him to Dallas as part of a three-team trade that delivered five-time All-NBA first-team guard Luka Dončić to L.A.

While Dončić has become the face of the franchise Davis won a championship with during the 2020 season, Davis has had a turbulent experience with the Mavericks.

The big man has appeared in just 29 regular-season games, as well as two play-in games, since infamous Dallas general manager Nico Harrison acquired him last February.

Following the trade, the former No. 1 overall pick was healing up from an abdominal injury. He hurried back and instantly starred with a dominant first half on Feb. 8 against the Houston Rockets, but an adductor strain related to the injury he was recovering from spoiled his night.

He missed the next six weeks of action.

Then, during an April 2 game versus the Atlanta Hawks, Mavericks teammate Daniel Gafford accidentally elbowed Davis in his right eye. The injury ultimately required offseason surgery to repair a detached retina, and now Davis wears protective eyewear on the floor.

Five games into this season, on Oct. 29 versus the Indiana Pacers, Davis suffered a left calf strain that kept him out 14 games after Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont reportedly delayed green-lighting the Kentucky product’s return until the team had medical data indicating Davis wasn’t at risk of aggravating the injury. Along the way, Harrison was fired. 

Davis came back in late November, only to then exit the Mavs’ Christmas Day game against the Golden State Warriors with right groin spasms.

Davis was back in the lineup on New Year’s Day, however, but he picked up his hand injury a week later while defending Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen on a baseline drive Thursday.

Injuries have been a thorn in Davis’ side throughout his career, which started with New Orleans in 2012, continued in Los Angeles and has practically gone dormant in Dallas.

Davis is due $58.5 million next season, per ESPN, which reported that he has a player option for $62.8 million in 2027-28.

Mavericks’ Anthony Davis suffers ligament damage in left hand, could reportedly miss ‘a number of months’

Anthony Davis, considered a top trade target ahead of the NBA trade deadline, is reportedly set to miss time with a hand injury. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)
Chris Gardner via Getty Images

Anthony Davis will miss more time, possibly even “a number of months,” according to ESPN’s Shams Charania and Tim MacMahon, who reported Friday that the Dallas Mavericks standout center sustained ligament damage in his left hand during a Thursday night loss to the Utah Jazz.

The length of Davis’ recovery will depend on the second opinion he receives. There’s a real chance the 10-time All-Star will be sidelined through the NBA’s Feb. 5 trade deadline and potentially beyond that day if surgery is required, per Charania.

Even if the 32-year-old Davis doesn’t have a procedure done, he’s expected to miss at least six weeks, according to ESPN’s report. The Mavs later confirmed there was ligament damage in Davis’ hand and said they were evaluating their medical options.

Davis has been considered a top trade target for a while now, although his latest setback could affect his value. Last season, he was part of one of the league’s most shocking deals ever when the Los Angeles Lakers shipped him to Dallas as part of a three-team trade that delivered five-time All-NBA first-team guard Luka Dončić to L.A.

While Dončić has become the face of the franchise Davis won a championship with during the 2020 season, Davis has had a turbulent experience with the Mavericks.

The big man has appeared in just 29 regular-season games, as well as two play-in games, since infamous Dallas general manager Nico Harrison acquired him last February.

Following the trade, the former No. 1 overall pick was healing up from an abdominal injury. He hurried back and instantly starred with a dominant first half on Feb. 8 against the Houston Rockets, but an adductor strain related to the injury he was recovering from spoiled his night.

He missed the next six weeks of action.

Then, during an April 2 game versus the Atlanta Hawks, Mavericks teammate Daniel Gafford accidentally elbowed Davis in his right eye. The injury ultimately required offseason surgery to repair a detached retina, and now Davis wears protective eyewear on the floor.

Five games into this season, on Oct. 29 versus the Indiana Pacers, Davis suffered a left calf strain that kept him out 14 games after Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont reportedly delayed green-lighting the Kentucky product’s return until the team had medical data indicating Davis wasn’t at risk of aggravating the injury. Along the way, Harrison was fired. 

Davis came back in late November, only to then exit the Mavs’ Christmas Day game against the Golden State Warriors with right groin spasms.

Davis was back in the lineup on New Year’s Day, however, but he picked up his hand injury a week later while defending Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen on a baseline drive Thursday.

Injuries have been a thorn in Davis’ side throughout his career, which started with New Orleans in 2012, continued in Los Angeles and has practically gone dormant in Dallas.

Davis is due $58.5 million next season, per ESPN, which reported that he has a player option for $62.8 million in 2027-28.