Sacramento Kings standout center Domantas Sabonis underwent season-ending surgery on Wednesday to repair the torn meniscus in his left knee, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania.

Sabonis, 29, tried to play through the injury, notably returning to the court before the trade deadline, but he missed the team’s final four games before the All-Star break.

The three-time All-Star big man appeared to be on the trade block this season, and so did fellow veterans Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, but all three of them are still in Sacramento.

LaVine reportedly underwent season-ending surgery himself last week.

His procedure addressed a tendon injury in his right hand that caused the two-time All-Star guard to miss the Kings’ last three games prior to the break. Earlier this season — his second with Sacramento after he was traded midseason from the Chicago Bulls last year in the three-team deal that sent now-two-time All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs — LaVine missed nine games in a row because of a left ankle injury.

Injuries have been a thorn in the Kings’ side throughout a forgettable season that’s seen the franchise toil in the basement of the league’s standings.

Sacramento’s 12 wins are the fewest in the NBA at the moment. The Kings limped into the break with 14 straight losses. 

Their imbalanced and veteran-laden roster featured LaVine and Sabonis as two of its top-three scorers. LaVine had been leading the team with 19.2 points per game, and Sabonis was third with 15.8 points per game, although Sabonis was on the floor for just 19 games this season.

Sabonis, the 11th pick in the 2016 NBA Draft who made his first two All-Star teams with the Indiana Pacers, went down with a partially torn meniscus in his left knee in November. Even before that, though, he missed time early in the season with a hamstring strain that he picked up in the preseason and then a rib injury. 

At the time of his meniscus diagnosis, Sabonis was reportedly expected to be re-evaluated in 3-4 weeks. When late December rolled around, his recovery timeline was extended, as the Kings announced that Sabonis would miss 4-5 additional weeks. 

When he was on the court this season, he struggled mightily from beyond the arc, making just five of his 27 3-point attempts. But he remained an effective rebounder, collecting a double-double in all but seven of his appearances.

Along with Fox, Sabonis helped Sacramento end its 16-season playoff drought during the 2022-23 campaign. Since, however, the Kings haven’t returned to the postseason. They’re nowhere close this time around, and Sabonis’ future with the organization is murky.

So is LaVine’s, even though he might opt into his $48.9 million player option for next season and Sabonis has two years and $94 million left on his contract.

It’s possible Kings general manager Scott Perry resumes trade talks this summer, after all.

Yahoo Sports’ 26-and-under power rankings are a remix on the traditional farm system rankings that assess the strength of MLB organizations’ talent base among rookie-eligible and MiLB players. By evaluating all players in an organization entering their age-26 seasons or younger, this project aims to paint a more complete picture of each team’s young core. Our rankings value productive young major leaguers more heavily than prospects who have yet to prove it at the highest level, and most prospects included in teams’ evaluations have already reached the upper levels of the minors. 

To compile these rankings, each MLB organization was given a score in four categories:

• Young MLB hitters: scored 0-10; 26-and-under position players and rookie-eligible hitters projected to be on Opening Day rosters

• Young MLB pitchers: scored 0-10; 26-and-under pitchers and rookie-eligible pitchers projected to be on Opening Day rosters

• Prospect hitters: scored 0-5; prospect-eligible position players projected to reach MLB in the next 1-2 years

• Prospect pitchers: scored 0-5; prospect-eligible pitchers projected to reach MLB in the next 1-2 years

We’re counting down all 30 organizations’ 26-and-under talent bases from weakest to strongest, diving into five teams at a time. In addition to the scores for each team in each category, we’ll highlight the key players who fall into each bucket and contributed most to their organization’s place in the rankings. Below, we dig into Nos. 25-21.

Read more: 26-and-under rankings Nos. 30-26

25. Los Angeles Angels (total score: 12/30) | 2025 rank: 23

Young MLB hitters (5/10): SS Zach Neto, 1B Nolan Schanuel, C Logan O’Hoppe, INF Vaughn Grissom, OF Wade Meckler, INF Christian Moore, INF Oswald Peraza, INF Matthew Lugo, INF/OF Kyren Paris
Young MLB pitchers (3/10): LHP Reid Detmers, RHP Grayson Rodriguez, RHP José Fermin, RHP Chase Silseth, RHP Ben Joyce, RHP Jack Kochanowicz, RHP Caden Dana
Prospect hitters (1/5): OF Nelson Rada, SS Denzer Guzman, INF David Mershon
Prospect pitchers (3/5): RHP Tyler Bremner, LHP Sam Aldegheri, RHP George Klassen, RHP Ryan Johnson, RHP Chris Cortez, RHP Chase Shores, RHP Walbert Urena

With the Colorado Rockies clearing house over the winter, Anaheim is now squarely the most outdated and archaic organization in the sport. This undesirable status falls on the shoulders of owner Arte Moreno, whose complete misunderstanding of modern baseball has led to the decaying of his franchise from the inside out. Dramatic underfunding in research and development, scouting and player development have left the Angels relatively devoid of talent and with the bleakest future in MLB.

None of that, however, is Zach Neto’s fault. Like many Angels prospects, the 25-year-old shortstop raced to the bigs less than a year after being drafted. And though Neto struggled in his 2023 debut season, he has been downright fabulous the past two years. His 10.2 bWAR since Opening Day 2024 is 17th in baseball over that span and sixth among players eligible for these rankings (after Bobby Witt Jr., Gunnar Henderson, Julio Rodriguez, Geraldo Perdomo and Brice Turang). There’s still ample room for improvement — Neto’s defense is lackluster, his strikeout rate is too high, his walk rate is too low — but this is a real cornerstone talent and one the Angels, given their track record, will surely fail to build around.

While Anaheim actually has a large group of young hitters, few of them project as impact types. Nolan Schanuel is a solid big leaguer but probablywon’t develop enough power to become an All-Star. Logan O’Hoppe is coming off a brutally disappointing 2025 that saw declines in both his offensive and defensive outputs. If he can rebound to be a decent second-division starter, that would be a win. And while we loved ChristianMoore’s physicality coming out of the draft, his swing has real issues that might preclude him from hitting for average in the bigs.

Things aren’t much rosier on the pitching front. Grayson Rodriguez, whom Anaheim acquired straight-up for Taylor Ward,was a savvy addition this past winter. The former top prospect struggled through injuries in Baltimore and never got settled as a big-league starter. Can a clear runway with the Angels get him purring again? We’ll see. ReidDetmers has had quite a tumultuous tenure in Anaheim, but the lefty found some stability last season once relegated to the bullpen full-time. Can he continue that success as the Angels push him back into the rotation? We’ll see. The rest of these names look like either back-end depth pieces or relief options.

Thankfully, both TylerBremner and George Klassen appear primed to contribute in the near future. Bremner, the second pick in last year’s draft, boasts a plus-plus changeup that should allow him to move through the minors quickly. He’s a consensus top-100 prospect. Klassen is closer to the show (he finished 2024 in Triple-A) and has massive stuff (high-90s heat), but questions remain about his command and pitchability. At worst, he’ll be an impact reliever.

Offensively, the Angels don’t have much to write home about in the upper minors. Nelson Rada can really, really play center field, but he has the power of a geographically isolated Amish community. Shortstop Denzer Guzman can also pick it but hasn’t ever hit for impact. And because the Angels rush their top position-player picks to the majors so quickly (Neto, Schanuel, Moore), this system is devoid of the high-end talent you’d see in most.

As harsh as it sounds, it’s incredibly difficult to envision a path to contention for the Angels in the relatively near future. These are dire straits. — J.M.

24. Toronto Blue Jays (total score: 12/30) | 2025 rank: 25

Young MLB hitters (3/10): 3B/OF Addison Barger, OF Jonatan Clase
Young MLB pitchers (5/10): RHP Trey Yesavage, RHP Braydon Fisher, LHP Mason Fluharty, RHP Spencer Miles
Prospect hitters (2/5): OF Yohendrick Pinango, OF RJ Schreck, SS Josh Kasevich, OF Victor Arias, INF Charles McAdoo, 3B Sean Keys
Prospect pitchers (2/5): LHP Ricky Tiedemann, RHP Jake Bloss, RHP Gage Stanifer, LHP Johnny King, RHP Angel Bastardo

Toronto’s place in our rankings barely changed since last year, but what an eventful year it was. Consider two of the main characters involved in Toronto’s remarkable run to an AL pennant and nearly a championship: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Trey Yesavage. Guerrero was one of several key position players, including Alejandro Kirk, Andres Gimenez and Davis Schneider, who played their age-26 seasons in 2025, which gave Toronto a strong young MLB hitting grade a year ago. On the mound, however, there were zero 26-and-under pitchers on the major-league roster to open last season, earning Toronto a nil in that category, which severely hampered its overall spot in the rankings.

Entering 2026, Toronto’s young hitting grade has dropped considerably with the graduations of Guerrero, Kirk, Gimenez and Schneider. But the unfathomable fast track traveled by Yesavage, plus the arrivals of reliable relievers Braydon Fisher and Mason Fisher, has transformed Toronto’s outlook on the mound. On a staff loaded with older veterans, the importance of a younger wave of pitchers headlined by Yesavage cannot be overstated. There’s more promising arm talent looming in the minors, though it’s concerning how many of them have dealt with major injuries recently (Jake Bloss, Ricky Tiedemann, Brandon Barriera). Gage Stanifer is the 2025 breakout arm to keep an eye on this summer, though he might not throw enough strikes to be a starter. 

Addison Barger’s big step forward last season helps make up for the hitters who aged out of his category. His physical tools are stupendous and enable jaw-dropping highlights on both sides of the ball; if he can refine his game further, he could play his way into an even more significant role than we’re currently giving him credit for. There’s also considerable pressure on Barger to do so, as the next wave of position players at the upper levels of the minors almost all project as role players rather than stars. That limited collective ceiling on the farm and the lack of depth in the majors keep Toronto in the bottom-third of our rankings. — J.S.

23. Minnesota Twins (total score: 13/30) | 2025 rank: 20

Young MLB hitters (3/10): 2B Luke Keaschall, SS Brooks Lee, OF Alan Roden
Young MLB pitchers (3/10): RHP Taj Bradley, RHP Mick Abel, RHP David Festa, RHP Zebby Matthews, RHP Simeon Woods-Richardson, RHP Travis Adams 
Prospect hitters (4/5): OF Walker Jenkins, OF Emmanuel Rodriguez, SS Kaelen Culpepper, OF Gabriel Gonzalez, OF Hendry Mendez, C Eduardo Tait
Prospect pitchers (3/5): LHP Connor Prielipp, LHP Kendry Rojas, RHP CJ Culpepper, RHP Marco Raya, RHP Andrew Morris, RHP John Klein, LHP Dasan Hill, RHP Charlee Soto

Injuries limited him to 49 games as a rookie, but Luke Keaschall’s introduction to the majors was impressive: His .382 OBP ranked 11th among big-league bats with at least 200 plate appearances in 2025. If he can stay healthy, Minnesota should have its top-of-the-lineup tablesetter for the foreseeable future, though Keaschall’s ultimate ceiling will be determined by how much power he can access in games and how much he can improve as a defender. Conversely, Brooks Lee — the eighth pick in 2022 —has a lot to prove entering his third big-league season. The shocking trade of Carlos Correa last summer cleared the way for him to take over as the starting shortstop, but the 25-year-old switch-hitter is coming off a poor season with both the bat and the glove, which has left his outlook as a no-doubt lineup fixture in doubt.

Speaking of trades, last year’s epic deadline sell-off netted Minnesota several relevant players in these rankings, particularly on the mound. Taj Bradley (acquired from Tampa Bay for Griffin Jax)has already logged 346 more major-league innings than Mick Abel (acquired from Philadelphia for Jhoan Duran), but both right-handers turn 25 this year, and their ability to translate their premium stuff into reliable results will be paramount to Minnesota as it looks ahead to life without Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez and Bailey Ober in the rotation. There’s also substantial starting pitching depth beyond those two additions, giving the Twins a deep pool of candidates who could emerge as rotation candidates; the draft has yielded Minnesota several interesting arms who could break out further in 2026. 

Unfortunately, a franchise familiar with navigating repeated injuries to its best players has encountered similar issues with Keaschall, Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez. But when these guys have been on the field, evaluators have raved about their potential impact, with Jenkins lauded as one of the most advanced hitters in the minors and Rodriguez flashing a potent power-and-patience combination that could fit in center field. Kaelen Culpepper is an athletic shortstop with electrifying bat speed who has hit his way to the upper minors and could factor in on the left side of the infield if Lee and Royce Lewis fail to entrench themselves over the next 18 months. Add the other half of the Duran return in catcher Eduardo Tait, who should play in Double-A this season at age 19, and Minnesota boasts one of the stronger crops of prospect bats league-wide. — J.S.

22. Texas Rangers (total score: 14/30) | 2025 rank: 22

Young MLB hitters (6/10): OF Wyatt Langford, OF Evan Carter, OF Alejandro Osuna, 2B/OF Cody Freeman
Young MLB pitchers (3/10): RHP Jack Leiter, RHP Kumar Rocker, RHP Cole Winn, RHP Carter Baumler
Prospect hitters (2/5): SS Sebastian Walcott, SS Cameron Cauley, C Malcolm Moore
Prospect pitchers (3/5): RHP Jose Corniell, RHP Caden Scarborough, RHP David Davalillo, RHP Emiliano Teodo, RHP Winston Santos

Evan Carter seized the spotlight first with his performance during Texas’ run to the 2023 World Series, but it has become clear since then that Wyatt Langford is the outfielder who will define this next era of Rangers baseball. The hulking slugger took another step forward as a sophomore, consistently crushing the ball with his powerful, right-handed swing while rating shockingly well as a defender in the outfield. He’s the total package and continues to trend toward stardom, though the Rangers might need to get back in the postseason for Langford to garner the proper amount of recognition. Carter, meanwhile, is still only 23 years old and looks like a capable center fielder who can hit right-handed pitching, but his durability issues and struggles against southpaws might restrict him from rediscovering the star power he initially wielded.

Texas’ score was impacted late in the process by the disappointing news that Sebastian Walcott needs elbow surgery, which could jeopardize the entirety of his 2026 season. Because Walcott is considered such an impactful talent — and because there’s limited depth of near-ready minor-league bats behind him in Texas’ system — this setback was enough to dock the Rangers from 3 to 2 in the prospect hitting category. While Walcott is still worth getting excited about long-term, the possibility of him arriving in 2026 is now drastically reduced, if not entirely eliminated. That lessens the value of his proximity to the majors and adds an element of uncertainty to his developmental timeline.

There is notably more depth in the minors on the mound. Caden Scarborough was one of the biggest breakout arms in 2025, pitching his way into a crowded group of right-handers who could see major-league time in 2026. How much Texas will rely on that depth will depend on the ever-fascinating duo of Jack Leiter and Kumar Rocker, the long-linked teammates who delivered disparate rookie seasons in 2025. Leiter trended favorably, amassing a considerable workload and improving as the season went on; he’s a rotation lock at this stage. Rocker is still in the process of figuring things out, and it would not be surprising if his terrific slider ultimately plays best in a relief role, particularly if Texas gets impatient with his slow progress as a starter. — J.S.

21. Tampa Bay Rays (total score: 14/30) | 2025 rank: 11

Young MLB hitters (6/10): 3B Junior Caminero, OF Chandler Simpson, INF Ben Williamson, OF Justyn-Henry Malloy
Young MLB pitchers (1/10): RHP Mason Englert, RHP Yoendrys Gomez, RHP Joe Boyle
Prospect hitters (3/5): SS Carson Williams, OF Jacob Melton, 1B Xavier Isaac, 1B Tre Morgan, C Dominic Keegan, 2B Jadher Areinamo
Prospect pitchers (4/5): RHP Brody Hopkins, RHP TJ Nichols, RHP Anderson Brito, RHP Santiago Suarez, RHP Ty Johnson, RHP Michael Forret

Few teams tumbled further in this year’s rankings than the Rays, despite Junior Caminero’s breakout 2025. Let’s start there because Caminero’s ascension from hyped prospect to franchise cornerstone is a big deal. Even though the 21-year-old benefited from playing at George Steinbrenner Park, his 45-homer campaign was far from a fluke. He boasts 100th-percentile bat speed and 92nd-percentile average exit velocity; few players on Earth have this type of offensive ceiling. If Caminero can improve at the hot corner and start producing more optimal launch angles, he’s a future MVP candidate whenever Aaron Judge’s reign comes to an end.

Tampa’s total dearth of young impact MLB arms was one of the most startling realizations during this ranking process. For an organization with such a fabulous pitching development track record, the Rays haven’t matriculated a game-changing starter to the bigs in a while. BrodyHopkins, despite some reliever risk, projects as the next best candidate to fill that void. He’s a freak athlete with a devastating cutter who is still learning how to pitch; he was a primary outfielder until his draft season in 2023. MichaelForret, acquired as part of the Shane Baz haul, lacks elite raw stuff but has fantastic command. A velo jump from Forret would solidify him as a future mid-rotation piece.

The stagnation from a number of Tampa Bay’s hitting prospects was another reason for the team’s slide down our rankings. CarsonWilliams reached the big leagues but didn’t quell the massive swing-and-miss concerns that continue to dog his profile. He’s a potential Gold Glover at shortstop and has legit juice, but the 41.5% strikeout rate he ran over five weeks in the show is no aberration.

XavierIsaac is a big first-base bopper type who snuck into the back of a few top-100 lists last year, but he had a subpar and injury-marred 2025. As with any bat-first corner type, the offensive bar is high for him. DominicKeegan had a similarly truncated season, but his ability to catch, even at a below-average level, should carry him to a big-league role of some sort. JacobMelton, acquired from Houston in the three-way deal that sent Brandon Lowe to Pittsburgh, is also looking for a bounce-back after a difficult debut stretch in the bigs with the Astros. — J.M.

Kevin Durant has found himself at the center of more “burner” account accusations, the latest of which swirled on social media while the Houston Rockets standout played in his 16th NBA All-Star Game on Sunday.

The 37-year-old is alleged to be behind direct messages from an anonymous account that criticized players and coaches he’s accompanied during a career that’s seen him win two titles and one league MVP award.

“I know you gotta ask these questions, but I’m not here to get into Twitter nonsense,” Durant told reporters after Houston’s practice on Wednesday. “I’m just here to focus on the season, keep it pushing. But I get you have to ask those questions.”

Durant added: 

“My teammates know what it is. We’ve been locked in the whole season. … We had a great practice today, looking forward to this road trip.”

At the moment, there’s no evidence actually linking these critical comments to Durant. Still, social media ran rampant with the theory, circulating screenshots of an anonymous user who, among other things, blamed Rockets All-Star center Alperen Şengün for his defense, said that they couldn’t trust forward Jabari Smith Jr. to make a shot or get a stop and took a dig at former Phoenix Suns star teammate Devin Booker.

Durant is quick to quip, confront and discuss with everyday social media users from his own verified X account, which has more than 19 million followers. He isn’t afraid to stir the pot online or engage with casual fans. Many love him for that kind of engagement, which he willingly offers and most NBA stars avoid.

Durant was asked at this year’s All-Star Weekend media availability on Saturday if he’d rather give up video games or Twitter, now known as X, for the rest of his life.

“I’m gonna go Twitter,” Durant said before continuing jokingly, “because they don’t deserve to hear this God-level-like talk I’m giving to them. They take it for granted.”

But Durant has used burner accounts before.

In 2017, Durant posted in the third-person from his personal account, throwing shade on the Oklahoma City Thunder and then-head coach Billy Donovan while explaining his decision from the previous year to leave the franchise that drafted him for the Golden State Warriors, a Western Conference foe and the league’s crown jewel at the time.

Durant owned his mistake and apologized for it in the aftermath of the social media storm he caused.

In 2019, according to The Athletic, Durant said in an interview on ESPN’s “The Boardroom” that he used anonymous accounts as a way to speak out and dodge the notoriety that’s often impossible to hide from as an NBA player.

Durant is playing in his 18th NBA season. He’s spent 19 total years in the league, representing five franchises.

Now with the Rockets, he’s still among the best in the sport. He’s shooting above 50% from the field and north of 40% from 3. His 25.8 points per game are tops on the team.

While fourth in the West, the 33-20 Rockets will need a strong push to grab the No. 2 seed like they did ahead of last year’s playoffs.

Durant is trying to tune out the noise, even if it’s once again loud and scrutinizing his social-media presence.

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While the Thunder are no longer on pace to break the all-time wins record, they are still, like, really, really good: owners of the NBA’s No. 4 offense and No. 1 defense, outscoring opponents by a league-leading 12.2 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions. That would be tied with the 2007-08 Celtics for the third-best single-season efficiency differential in Cleaning the Glass’ database, which goes back to 2003, behind only the 2016-17 Warriors and … last year’s Thunder.

Several other metrics — average margin of victory, Simple Rating System score (which accounts for a team’s point differential and strength of schedule), era-adjusted net rating — suggest that we’re still looking at one of the five to 10 best teams of the last several decades here, even with all the injuries … and when they’ve actually had Gilgeous-Alexander, first-time All-Star big man Chet Holmgren and 2024-25 All-NBA selection Jalen Williams on the floor, they’ve blown opponents’ doors off. Provided Mark Daigneault can get his main dudes intact and ambulatory by April and May, they’re still looking like the team to beat.

Who’s got the best shot of making sure that doesn’t happen?

Well, how about the Detroit Pistons, who have spent the last three and a half months hearing from everybody about how the Eastern Conference is wiiiiiiiiiiiide open, in spite of the fact that they’re friggin’ 40-13 — actually a few thousandths of a percentage point ahead of OKC in the race for the NBA’s best record and, with it, home-court advantage throughout the 2026 NBA playoffs — with the NBA’s second-best defense supported by a top-10 offense, led by surefire All-NBA selection Cade Cunningham?

Or maybe the Spurs team that announced itself with authority in December by overwhelming the Thunder three times in a two-week span; that ranks seventh in offensive efficiency and third on the defensive end; that boasts perhaps the league’s best three-headed backcourt monster in De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle and rookie Dylan Harper; and that features arguably the sport’s most singular force in 7-foot-forever game-changer Victor Wembanyama?

Detroit and San Antonio have some company in the race to unseat Oklahoma City. The Nuggets, who took the Thunder the distance in the second round of last year’s postseason, still have three-time MVP Nikola Jokić, newly minted All-Star Jamal Murray, the NBA’s best offense and a core that, when healthy, can go toe-to-toe with anybody. (It’s just that the “when healthy” part is proving tough tocome by right now.) The Rockets and Timberwolves have had their ups and downs of late, but we discount teams that took OKC to double-OT on opening night and have made the last two Western Conference finals at our own peril.

(I feel pretty OK discounting the Lakers, though. I mean, if LeBron doesn’t think they’re championship-level, then why should we?)

The three East teams jockeying for position below the Pistons can all talk themselves into their chances, too. The New York Knicks (who knocked off Detroit in last spring’s opening round) have shaken off their post-NBA Cup hangover, winning 10 of their last 12 heading into the All-Star break and sitting tied with San Antonio (whom they beat in the NBA Cup final) for the league’s fourth-best net rating. Just ahead of them: The Boston Celtics, who’ve brilliantly navigated an injury-and-finance-motivated offseason overhaul to generate the NBA’s No. 2 offense and No. 8 defense, with Jaylen Brown getting All-NBA buzz, Derrick White and Payton Pritchard performing brilliantly in larger roles, Joe Mazzulla getting the most out of a shuffled-up rotation … and Jayson Tatum, potentially, getting closer to a return.

And hot on Boston and New York’s tails: The Cleveland Cavaliers, who won 11 of 12 heading into the break, are tied for the NBA’s best record since Jan. 1, and who made the biggest win-now addition of any Eastern team at the trade deadline when they brought in James Harden to pair with Donovan Mitchell in what’s looking in the early going like an awfully potent backcourt:

Whether any of those teams have the goods to outclass Oklahoma City four times in seven games remains to be seen. That more than a handful of teams can harbor realistic hopes of doing so, though, ought to set up a pretty compelling home stretch.

Health obviously matters for everybody … but for whom might it matter most?

It’s not exactly revelatory to say that teams don’t function as well without their best talent, and typically need all hands on deck to win the title. But something doesn’t need to be surprising to be true; which team survives the next seven weeks unscathed will likely go a long way toward determining which of them can survive the postseason gauntlet, too.

Denver jumps out to me. The Nuggets are 17-6 with Aaron Gordon in the lineup, and 18-14 without him. They’ve hammered opponents by a whopping 22.2 points per 100 possessions with Jokić, Murray and Gordon all on the floor — a mark that drops to a still-very-good-but-not-nearly-as-overwhelming 7.4 points-per-100 when Jokić and Murray play without Gordon. Hamstrings are notoriously fickle beasts; Denver’s chances of being able to mount a credible challenge to OKC out West likely rest on whether Gordon’s can hold up come springtime.

I’m keeping an eye on Cleveland in this context, too. Swapping Darius Garland for Harden was a move aimed at limiting injury liability — while Garland’s a decade younger than the Beard, he’s been less durable overall and missed a ton of time this season dealing with multiple toe sprains — but the Cavs also come out of the break with Evan Mobley sidelined by a calf strain.

On one hand, “calf strain” has become perhaps the two scariest words in the NBA, as our Tom Haberstroh covered earlier this season, so nobody wants to rush Mobley’s return. On the other, Kenny Atkinson and his coaching staff would surely love to see the reigning Defensive Player of the Year back on the floor as soon as possible, to increase the number of opportunities he has to get reps with Harden and give Cleveland’s revamped core time to jell. (Also: Max Strus, the starting small forward on last season’s 64-win Cavs team, hasn’t played a second as he recovers from offseason surgery to repair a Jones fracture. Do we see him before the playoffs? If so, how long does it take him to get up to speed, and what does that mean for Cleveland’s wing rotation?)

Over in New York, the Knicks will be waiting with bated breath to find out if reserve guard Miles “Deuce” McBride can return in time for the postseason after undergoing surgery to repair a core muscle injury earlier this month. While the trade-deadline addition of Jose Alvarado has helped steady New York’s rotation in his stead, the health of McBride — the Knicks’ best shooter and point-of-attack defender off the bench, and a player who opens up multiple lineup options for head coach Mike Brown — could go a long way toward determining if the Knicks have enough firepower to advance beyond the Eastern finals this time around. Ditto for oft-injured center Mitchell Robinson, who has been on a load-management plan all season, and whose offensive rebounding and paint protection make him an incredibly important swing piece for New York — despite averaging fewer than 20 minutes per game.

It’s also worth monitoring a pair of potential returns. If Tatum’s able to get back on the court from his Achilles rupture before the postseason, it could dramatically shift the title chances of a Celtics team that could certainly use his shot creation, shooting, rebounding and size on the perimeter. And while there’s only “small hope” that Fred VanVleet can return to the floor before season’s end after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee back in September, that’s not no hope. Adding an experienced, decorated veteran point guard could do wonders for a Rockets offense that ranks 24th in half-court scoring efficiency and 24th in points scored per possession overallsince Jan. 18 — the last game that offensive rebounding machine Steven Adams played before suffering a season-ending ankle injury.

We haven’t mentioned them yet, so we’ll take a moment here to consider the Philadelphia 76ers — 30-24, in sixth place in the East, equidistant from the Nos. 2 and 10 seeds — and note the eternal quandary that is The Health of Joel Embiid.

Since a rocky and rickety start to the season as he worked his way into form and rhythm after being limited to 19 games last season by recurring knee issues, the big fella has looked … well, kinda-sorta like the big fella! Embiid has averaged 30 points, 8.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists in 33.8 minutes per game over the last two months, shooting 55.5% inside the arc, 37.5% beyond it and 86% at the free-throw line while taking nearly 10 freebies a night. The Sixers are 19-12 with Embiid in the lineup, and 11-12 without him; they have outscored opponents by 5.5 points-per-100 with him on the floor, and beenoutscored by 3.4 points-per-100 with him off it.

Philly has undergone a sea change this season, becoming oriented primarily around the backcourt of All-NBA point guard Tyrese Maxey and rookie thunderbolt VJ Edgecombe. Even so: The best version of the Sixers is the one with the 7-foot, 280-pound behemoth out there dominating from the block and the nail, and making opponents think twice about venturing into the paint … which is why it arched an eyebrow that Embiid missed the Sixers’ last two games before the All-Star break with right knee soreness, and that the team plans to re-evaluate that knee after the break.

One last quick note on the champs: While I think Daigneault’s pretty comfortable with just about whatever configuration he needs to throw out there, you’d imagine he’d like the starting five from last year’s title team — Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams, Holmgren, center Isaiah Hartenstein and guard Luguentz Dort — to log significantly more than 41 shared minutes over the final couple of months. And if SGA’s abdominal strain and J-Dub’s ongoing right hamstring issue persist … well, things could get awfully interesting in the title picture.

Did the trade deadline meaningfully impact the playoff race?

Maybe — if the Garland-for-Harden swap elevates the Cavs as much as Vegas and several projection models seem to think it might, and if Ayo Dosunmu can give the Timberwolves the extra snarl and bite they’d been missing in their backcourt.

For the most part, though, the biggest swings at the 2026 NBA trade deadline — Anthony Davis joining Trae Young in Washington, Jaren Jackson Jr. joining Lauri Markkanen in Utah, Ivica Zubac landing in Indiana — were more about impacting the playoff picture next season than this one.

(And if you’re interested in reading an awful lot about this year’s trade deadline, by all means, please dig into my Winners and Losers column. It’s not gross old food. It’s tasty leftovers!)

How’s the MVP race shaping up?

Um … kind of weird, thanks to the collision of multiple first-half injuries and the 65-game threshold for postseason award eligibility. 

Gilgeous-Alexander’s case to go back-to-back is already strong on the merits. He’s been even better this season than he was last year, carrying the Thunder through the aforementioned raft of injuries back to the top of the West. Best player on the NBA’s best team, first or second in damn near every advanced stat, on pace for the most efficient 30-point season in NBA history, a positive contributor to the NBA’s best defense, the league’s top clutch performer — SGA’s earned his spot in pole position in the race. The gap’s widened, though, because so many of his peers missed time early.

With more than 20 games missed due to calf, knee, adductor and ankle injuries, Giannis Antetokounmpo is already eliminated from consideration. A hyperextended left knee put Jokić on the shelf for 16 games, putting him a whisper away from ineligibility himself. A calf strain and a knee injury have cost Wembanyama 14; a handful of leg injuries have knocked Luka Dončić out for 12 (and counting). Add it all up, and Gilgeous-Alexander has played several hundred more minutes than all of those would-be contenders; even if they remain eligible, it feels like it’s going to be tough for them to catch him (though his own abdominal-strain-induced absence could help them close the chasm).

Those heavy hitters missing the ballot would aid the candidacies of players like:

• Cade Cunningham, who’s averaging 25.3 points, 9.6 assists (second in the NBA, behind Jokić), 5.6 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game, as the straw that stirs the drink for the East-leading Pistons;

• Jaylen Brown, efficiently shouldering a Luka-level workload as the No. 1 option for the surprising Celtics;

• Anthony Edwards, averaging 29 points per game on 49/40/80 shooting splits while learning how to serve as the Wolves’ ostensible point guard;

• Donovan Mitchell, for much of the season the lone constant keeping the Cavs afloat in the race for home-court advantage in the East;

• Jalen Brunson, the leading scorer, playmaker and crunch-time orchestrator for the third-seeded Knicks; and

• Tyrese Maxey, leading the league in minutes, scoring and assisting at career-high levels, and elevating the Sixers amid the absences of Embiid early in the season and Paul George now.

All this MVP talk has me wondering about the races for the other awards. Who’s in the running for those?

Well, here’s Kevin O’Connor’s take on the state of the awards races as of All-Star, plus our staff awards roundtable at the midway point of the season a couple of weeks back.

The most fun race to monitor is probably Rookie of the Year, where the 2025 NBA Draft’s No. 1 pick, Cooper Flagg of the Dallas Mavericks …

… and his old college roommate, No. 4 overall pick Kon Knueppel of the Charlotte Hornets …

… and No. 3 pick VJ Edgecombe of the Philadelphia 76ers …

… have all been instant-impact, immediate tone-changing starters for their respective teams. It’ll be awesome to watch them try to break through the rookie wall, run through the tape, and try to top each other over the final couple of months.

Speaking of transformational rookies: What’s the State of Our Tanking Union in 2026?

Um … strong, I guess?

By which I mean, there’s definitelya lot of tanking going on, with a number of teams engaging in all manner of roster-management chicanery: “exercising extreme caution” in not getting the stars they just traded for on the floor, sitting starters for entire fourth quarters, selectively resting large chunks of your rotation on the same night, etc. — in pursuit of a plum position at the bottom of the standings. And the NBA has definitely resumed its efforts to try to fine and shame teams out of doing it, with reports circulating that the league’s Board of Governors and competition committee have been talking over prospective fixes. And it was definitely the main topic of conversation heading into All-Star Weekend, which was definitely not what Silver and Co. wanted.

I guess strength isn’t necessarily always positive.

This is what happens when what the NBA says it wants — every team making its best possible effort to compete to win every night — collides with the reality that the NBA continues to conduct its annual player entry draft through a lottery system in which losing more increases your chance of getting a better pick.

NBA teams need talent to win, and the people who run NBA teams — especially those in smaller, non-glamour markets without much history of winning bidding wars for top free agents — understand that their best shot at securing that talent is by finding it in the draft. As long as that’s true, and as long as there are draft classes capable of delivering those franchise-shifting talents — like Wembanyama, like Flagg or, potentially, like AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer or Caleb Wilson in the 2026 class — front offices will use whatever tools and tactics they can to improve their chances of landing one. Unseemly though it may seem.

If the league office wants to levy a six-figure fine for conduct detrimental to the league or flouting the player participation policy … well, that’s the cost of doing business, and, if the odds wind up in your favor on lottery night, a speeding ticket gladly paid, in the grand scheme of things.

The new changes floated back in December all feel like half-measures likely to bring their own unintended consequences; more revolutionary proposals like abolishing the draft, The Wheel, tombstone wins or punishing tanking by taking away teams’ ping-pong balls feel too radical for this league office to seriously consider. Which leaves us exactly where we’ve been for more than a decade now: with everybody just kind of yelling at, past and around each other, while executives call the plays they think will give them the best chance of success, coaches grit their teeth and run them, and players get caught in the crossfire.

In any event: The three teams currently in position to have the best odds of landing the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft are the 12-44 Kings, 14-39 Wizards and the 26-30 Hawks, thanks to the much-discussed deal on the night of the 2025 draft that sent Derik Queen from Atlanta to New Orleans in exchange for control of the 15-41 Pels’ unprotected 2026 first.

Just behind that top three: the 15-40 Pacers and the 15-38 Nets. Fall into the bottom five, and you’ve got at least a 10.5% chance of winning the draft lottery, and at least a 42% chance of a top-four pick.

Some other bottom-of-the-standings things to keep an eye on:

• The Wizards owe their 2026 first to the Knicks if it lands outside the top eight picks. If they finish with a bottom-four record, they’ll be guaranteed to keep it; finish with the fifth-worst record or better, and there’s a chance it’ll convey to New York. This is why I wouldn’t anticipate us seeing very much of new additions Trae Young and Anthony Davis over the final two months of the season. (If the pick doesn’t convey, the Knicks will instead get two future second-round picks.)

• Similarly, the Jazz owe their 2026 first to the Thunder if it falls outside the top eight, thanks to the Great Derrick Favors Salary Dump of 2021. If the pick lands eighth or lower, though, the Jazz keep it, and their pick debt is extinguished, meaning OKC gets nothing moving forward. In a related story, the Jazz were just fined half a million dollars for not playing stars Jaren Jackson Jr. and Lauri Markkanen in the fourth quarter of a pair of games. (The Jazz announced Thursday that Jackson will miss the remainder of the regular season after undergoing knee surgery.)

• As part of the deal at last Thursday’s trade deadline that brought them bruising center Ivica Zubac, the Pacers owe the Clippers their 2026 first-round pick — but only if it winds up being fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth. As it stands, Indiana — which entered the All-Star break with consecutive wins over the Knicks and Nets — has about a 48% shot at landing a top-four pick and a 52% chance of giving the pick to L.A., according to Tankathon. There are going to be some folks white-knuckling it in Indianapolis on lottery night. (Oh, and we’re probably not going to be seeing Zubac for a while, either.)

• Two other picks currently slated to be in the lottery will be on the move, too. The Spurs have the rights to the Hawks’ 2026 first-round pick from 2022’s Dejounte Murray trade, and the Thunder have the Clippers’ 2026 first from the 2019 blockbuster that sent Paul George to L.A. and SGA to OKC.

Which other parts of the standings should we be keeping a close eye on?

Let’s go with:

• The tops of each conference, with just one game separating OKC and Detroit for the league’s best record and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs;

• Nos. 2 through 4 in the East, with the Celtics, Knicks and Cavaliers separated by a game and a half; and

• The Western fights for both home-court advantage in Round 1 and the right to avoid the play-in, with just three games separating the third-place Nuggets and seventh-place Suns, with the Rockets, Wolves and Lakers all nestled in-between.

Anything else?

Well, for one thing, Kevin Durant needs 431 more points to pass Michael Jordan for fifth place on the all-time scoring list. Considering he’s averaging just under 26 a game, he’s got a good chance of getting there in late March, provided he stays healthy. That’s kind of wild.

It’s also worth keeping an eye on how the final couple of months set the table for some major offseason stories.

Now that Giannis stayed in Milwaukee past the trade deadline, when does he return to the lineup, and what does the state of play look like for the Bucks heading into yet another high-stakes offseason? Will the red-hot Hornets sprint past the largely moribund Magic and Heat in the Eastern play-in picture? If so, might significant changes need to be in the offing in Orlando and Miami?

Can Stephen Curry get healthy enough to rip off a post-ASB heater and make Golden State dangerous in the play-in? What can Ja Morant and the Grizzlies do to rehabilitate his value ahead of a potential offseason trade? Will the Clippers find themselves seriously considering starting life after Kawhi Leonard? (Will the NBA’s findings in the ongoing Aspiration investigation force them to?)

Are we watching the final weeks of LeBron James as a Los Angeles Laker? Hell, are we watching the final weeks of LeBron in the NBA, period?

… maybe not.

I know, I know: that’s a lot of questions. But the sprint to the end of the season tends toward revelation — toward showing us exactly who players and teams are, what they want to be, and how they plan to get there. We might not get all the answers over the next two months. Watching to see how many we do get, though, seems like a pretty decent way to pass the time.

Orlando Magic forward Franz Wagner will be sidelined indefinitely due to needing more time to rehabilitate his high left ankle sprain, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania. 

Wagner has been dealing with the injury since Dec. 7, which has caused him to miss all but four of the Magic’s games since it occurred. He sat out the rest of December and played just two games in January. He returned earlier this month just before the All-Star break, and appeared in two games. 

In his fifth year, Wagner has become one of the Magic’s young stars. Wagner had a breakout year last season, averaging career highs of 24.2 points and 4.7 assists per game. Orlando made the playoffs last season for the second consecutive year, although it was eliminated in the first round. 

The Magic ended the season 41-41 and had to go through the play-in tournament to make the playoffs. Through 53 games this season, the Magic are 28-25 and currently in seventh place in the East. They’re sitting 1.5 games behind the Philadelphia 76ers, who are 30-24. 

While Wagner has been hampered by this ankle injury and his numbers have dipped, he’s still tied for the team lead in points per game with Paolo Banchero at 21.3. Wagner is also shooting a career-high 36.5% from 3-point range this season. 

The timelines on high ankle sprains can vary depending on the severity. Wagner returned too early from the injury and will need to stay off the ankle for a while. However, missing Wagner in the lineup will hurt and could determine how much of a playoff push the Magic can make down the stretch. With 29 games remaining in the regular season, Orlando is just 3.5 games ahead of the 10th-place Atlanta Hawks in the East. 

The Magic travel west on Thursday to begin a four-game trip in Sacramento against the Kings.