New York Basketball: Q: "You were one of the main players in the rebuild of the Knicks. Do you consider yourself a champion too? (In my opinion you should)" Julius Randle: "Ah no I appreciate that. What the organization accomplished is great. Been a long time coming. Took a lot of hard years, a lot of different players, to build it up to what it was. It's amazing. Definitely look forward to creating that in Brooklyn"
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Julius Randle: "Ah no I appreciate that. What the …

#randle

Randle takes on Westfield tonight as the 2026 high school football schedule ramps up across the country.
Searching for how to watch the game live?
Fans can stream the Texas high school football game live on the NFHS Network from a laptop, mobile device or even Smart TV apps like Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Google TV and Roku.
Don't miss a moment of the game with on-demand replays, too.
Ahead of the kickoff, here's what to know about the Randle vs. Westfield clash.

#westfield #high #live

The Brooklyn Nets came into the 2026 NBA offseason with the goal of improving the team as much as possible following a 2025-26 campaign in which they finished with a 20-62 record. Brooklyn made some interesting moves this summer, headlined by trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, and the Nets fanbase is wondering what the outlook for the 2026-27 season looks like.
"A year ago, the Nets kept and used all five of their first-round draft picks. This summer, Brooklyn chose to give overworked forward Michael Porter Jr. some immediate help instead," Shaun Powell wrote on the Nets for NBA.com. Powell's outlook seems to center on the fact that Randle and forward Michael Porter Jr. will be tasked with being the leaders of the team while also developing the youngest players on the team.
"It resulted in a trade for Randle, a former All-NBA player who is no stranger to New York; some of his best years were spent with the Knicks," Powell continued. "[Mikel] Brown Jr. was taken at No. 6 and brings solid combo guard skills from his college days at Louisville. He has a decent chance to earn front-end rotational minutes right away; such is the benefit of joining a team in transition."
As Powell mentioned, the Nets invested heavily in the 2025 NBA Draft as they acquired five first-round picks and used each of them on players they hoped would form the core of the roster. Guard Egor Demin appears to be the standout member of the five-person class at this point, but next season will be time for the other four players to show their potential given the stakes of the rebuild.
Randle and Porter will be able to provide enough scoring and shooting to make the team formidable on some nights, but the goal of the season would be to see how quickly players like Demin and Brown develop. Every member of the Nets organization is hoping for the kind of season that everyone can be proud of and the preparation for the season will begin towards the end of September.

#powell #forward

PRAIRIE VIEW - State championships aren't won in the heat and humidity of late August.
Brian Randle and his players have a more lucid understanding of that reality than most. The Randle High School football program has ended each of its past two seasons with a high-stakes game right before Christmas.
With 16 more weeks remaining before the UIL hands out its gold-plated plaques in Arlington, the Lions are embracing the journey. They're calling this season "The Reckoning," and it's started with a momentous victory.
This campaign was never going to be about one opponent. Randle is simply 1-0 after Friday night's 20-14 triumph against Dallas powerhouse South Oak Cliff. But in a rubber match between the programs that have faced off for the past two Class 5A Division II state **** les, taking care of the Golden Bears was the first order of business.
"I mean, we had to break the tie," said Randle, whose team avenged a 35-19 loss from last December's championship game and is now in Class 5A Division I. "We had to break the tie. It's funny because I love what Dallas does. I love what SOC does. But their fans, they talk a lot. So it feels good to have bragging rights for another 12 months until we meet again."

#past

The Brooklyn Nets are about one month away from their training camp that will prepare them for a 2026-27 season that they hope will be better to watch than the previous campaign. Heading into the 2026 NBA offseason, Brooklyn made various moves to improve the roster, including trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle to bolster the starting lineup.
Now that the Nets are done with the 2026 NBA Draft, summer league circuit, and free-agency, the focus now is making sure everyone is ready to put their best foot forward next season. Randle will be joining sharpshooting forward Michael Porter Jr. as the main offensive engines while being flanked by young guards Mikel Brown Jr. and Egor Demin along with center Day'Ron Sharpe.
Head coach Jordi Fernandez and general manager Sean Marks are heading into the third year of their partnership and both are likely hoping for more wins and more development for the youngest players on the team. This article will be a crossover between Nets Wire and Ky Carlin of Sixers Wire to discuss the Nets and how they stack up against the Philadelphia 76ers:
Sharif Phillips-Keaton, Nets Wire: That should be the goal for next season given that the Nets won't have their pick for next year, but the Eastern Conference has gotten better as a whole this summer. It's entirely possible that Brooklyn wins more games next season than they did this past season and still finish the year as one of the worst teams in the league. There is too much talent and experience in the Eastern Conference.
Ky Carlin, Sixers Wire: I think it's fair to see the Nets be a bit more competitive in the coming season. They've won 20 and 26 games in the previous two seasons, respectively, and it's time for this franchise to take another step forward. The front office has gathered some nice, young pieces, and it will be on coach Jordi Fernandez and the veterans to help them grow, but Brooklyn has to take a step forward at some point, and this year feels like that year.

#next

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Timberwolves agreed to terms with power forward Jonathan **** inga on a two-year, $12.4 million contract on Wednesday, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.
The person spoke to The **** ociated Press on condition of anonymity because the team had not confirmed the agreement. ESPN reported that **** inga's contract includes a player option for the second season, which would give the seventh overall pick from the 2021 draft an opportunity to hit the free agent market in a year.
Kuminga will fill an obvious need in the frontcourt for the Timberwolves, who traded Julius Randle and Naz Reid as part of their offseason acquisition of point guard LaMelo Ball.
Kuminga, who will turn 24 on Oct. 6, averaged a career-best 16.1 points during the 2023-24 season for the Golden State Warriors, who drafted the Congo native but never found the right fit for him before ultimately trading him to the Atlanta Hawks in February. **** inga fell out of favor with Warriors coach Steve Kerr and out of the rotation last season, making his departure an inevitability. He played in only seven of his last 38 games with the Warriors.
He'll have a fresh start with the hungry Timberwolves, who'll have the challenge of finding enough shots for **** inga and fellow forward Jaden McDaniels in a lineup that will revolve around Ball and superstar Anthony Edwards. In 278 NBA games, **** inga has averaged 12.5 points and 22.1 minutes. He's a 50.2% shooter from the floor.

#season #year #contract #person

The Wolves have been looking for a prototypical power forward ever since trading Julius Randle and Naz Reid during a busy offseason that also brought LaMelo Ball to Minnesota. Multiple team sources, speaking under condition of anonymity to discuss the team's private recruiting efforts, outlined the work done over the summer that helped the Timberwolves beat out other suitors for ****** inga's services. Tim Connelly, Timberwolves president of basketball operations, had extended conversations with ****** inga and agent Aaron Turner throughout the summer, including flying to Miami for a face-to-face meeting with ****** inga, sources said.
This article originally appeared on Hoops Hype: Multiple team sources, speaking under condition of …

#sources #kuminga #summer

The Brooklyn Nets came into the 2026 NBA offseason with the goal of improving the team as much as possible following a 2025-26 season in which they finished with a 20-62 record. Brooklyn's biggest move of the summer was trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, but there are some who still believe that the Nets will be at the bottom of the Eastern Conference next season.
"The Nets ... are also here, but Brooklyn did add former All-NBA forward Julius Randle to help provide legitimacy to its rebuild," Jamal Collier wrote for ESPN when discussing where the Nets will finish next season. ESPN's NBA insiders made prediction for all 30 NBA teams and next year, Brooklyn is projected to finish with a 18-64 record, giving them the worst record in the league in this scenario.
"With the league's newest draft lottery rules and the relegation zone in effect, the five teams in this category won't have as much incentive to lose. How that will affect the bottom of the standings will be a storyline all season long," Collier continued. As Collier noted, the new version of the NBA Draft Lottery with the relegation zone will take effect next season, but the Nets have a unique circumstance that may affect their thinking.
The Nets owe their 2027 first-round pick to the Houston Rockets and if they are not trying to get the pick back, they may choose to be as good as possible next season since they will be getting the Rockets' pick. After adding Randle, Brooklyn now has a 1-2 punch with him and sharpshooting forward Michael Porter Jr. that should make them more competitive than they were last season.
However, there are other pundits, sportsbooks like BetMGM, and Brooklyn's fanbase that believe that the Nets are going to win more than 18 games, so next season will be interesting to watch for multiple reasons. If Brooklyn is going to be as bad as ESPN predicts, then the hope is that they aren't blown out as much and that Egor Demin and Mikel Brown Jr. continue to get better.

#Nets

For every high school football player in the Houston area and around the state of Texas, the goal is the same.
"State championship, come on," Spring Branch Memorial senior linebacker Jackson Van Wie said. "District championship, we got to get that first, you know, we've got to get to state. "
"Goal for the team: 16-0 easy, " Fulshear junior running back Jayelen Collins said. "After the weight room, we got 16 push-ups to represent us going 16-0 and going to state this year."
Fulshear and Memorial held their first scrimmage of fall camp, and the two head coaches were back together on the same field for the first time since they were co-offensive coordinators for Randle's state championship in 2024.
"I think at any level in Texas football, I mean, you might as well have a better shot at winning the lottery in some sense, because, I mean, so much has to go right," Memorial Head Coach Brooks Haack said. "So many of the pieces have to fall in the right place."

#same

Brooklyn Nets rookie guard Mikel Brown Jr. had some hype around his name after being selected by the Nets with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft. Brooklyn was able to see Brown in action during the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League and while he had some nice moments, he doesn't appear to be in the running for the Rookie of the Year award.
In the most recent odds posted by BetMGM, Chicago Bulls forward Caleb Wilson and Memphis Grizzlies forward Cameron Boozer are tied for the lead to win the Rookie of the Year award. As this relates to the Nets, Brown has the sixth-best odds of winning the award which could put him in a position to be a darkhorse for the award, but he has some tough competition to beat out.
In addition to the aforementioned Wilson and Boozer, Brown also has to compete with Washington Wizards forward AJ Dybantsa and Utah Jazz guard Darryn Peterson, all players that were drafted ahead of the former Louisville Cardinal. Brown, like most of the rookies in contention for the award, is in a position to get plenty of reps as the starting point guard if he's able to win the job coming out of training camp.
Brown, 20, is coming off a solid summer circuit in which he averaged 15.0 points, 4.0 ****** ists, and 1.2 steals per game while shooting 38.8% from the field and 34.6% from behind the three-point line. Brown has had some interesting moments over the course of the summer, but next season will show how ready he is to be an NBA-level point guard for head coach Jordi Fernandez.
Brown will be playing alongside forwards Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle so he will be at least third in the offensive pecking order, depending on where guard Egor Demin fits into that equation. If Brown is able to play better than expected, then he could find himself in the running for Rookie of the Year and that's something that Nets fans could be excited about moving forward.

#rookie #award #summer #able

Karl-Anthony Towns now has two rings in the last two months. The NBA superstar helped lead the New York Knicks to their first championship in 53 years in June and married his longtime girlfriend, Jordyn Woods, on Saturday.
The ceremony was held in Malibu, California. Several A-list celebrities attended the event, which had the Pacific Ocean as the backdrop.
MORE: Karl-Anthony Towns, Jordyn Woods share major life news on Christmas
Timothée Chalamet, Kylie Jenner, Justin Bieber, Hailey Bieber and Jada Pinkett-Smith were among the celebrities in attendance. Michael B. Jordan, Gayle King Ben Stiller Teyana Taylor and Christine Taylor, among many others, were also present.
All the guests wore black, with Woods the only one in white. She has been supporting Towns since they started dating, often watching games live. The 7-foot center played for the Minnesota Timberwolves from 2015 to 2024. The team traded him on Oct. 2, 2024 in exchange for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Keita Bates-Diop and a future first-round pick.

#karl #anthony

The Brooklyn Nets are in the slow part of the offseason now that the 2026 NBA Draft, summer circuit play, and free-agency are in the rearview mirror at this point. Brooklyn is still in the early stages of the rebuild and they have already added forward Julius Randle to the mix, but there is still one area of the team that has to be addressed at some point next year.
"Egor Demin is the likeliest of Brooklyn's 2025 selections to make good on his potential. He proved he could stripe it from deep and make the right connective passes last season, and his Summer League performance showed he'd added new dimensions as an attacker and inside-the-arc finisher," Grant Hughes wrote for Bleacher Report on the Nets. It seems that Demin is looked at favorably by most around the league, but the same can't be said about the rest of the class.
"To put it charitably, the jury is still out on the rest of Brooklyn's first-rounders. Nolan Traore, Drake Powell, Ben Saraf and Danny Wolf are all in line for pivotal second seasons," Hughes continued. "You don't make final determinations on sophomores, especially when their developmental paths are complicated by so much positional overlap."
Over the course of this summer, the Nets have been able to see what Powell, Saraf, and Wolf look like against NBA competition heading into their second year in the ****** ociation. Traore was unable to play in the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League due to a scope on his right knee, but Powell, Saraf, and Wolf were able to see plenty of reps. However, the trend continues that most around the league are not fond of what they've seen thus far.
"But Brooklyn needs to see something promising from at least one of these guys to validate its controversial approach of making (and keeping) five first-round selections in the 2025 draft," Hughes wrote. The Nets have drafted eight players over the past two seasons and with Tyler Bilodeau on a Two-Way deal, Brooklyn has to find playing time for seven of their youngest players. Next season will be interesting to watch given the massive investment the franchise made in the 2025 class.

#hughes #saraf

The Bears scored 24 points and put up 235 yards in the second half of their 34-10 preseason win over the Browns on Saturday. Head coach Ben Johnson revealed after the game that wide receivers coach/assistant head coach Antwaan Randle El called the plays in the second half.
"Has anybody ever had a better first outing than Antwaan Randle El?" quarterback Tyson Bagent said, via Dan Wiederer of TheAthletic.com. "That's just who he is. He's always prepared. He knows the ins and outs of the playbook. So really, it was not surprising — at least for us on the sideline."
Randle El, who turns 47 next week, impressed Johnson and the quarterbacks with the way he handled the call sheet.
"He did a phenomenal job," Johnson said. "He was part of the quarterbacks' meeting [Friday] night, and we were talking about what was on the call sheet and their favorites and all that. I think it was a phenomenal experience for him. I know our guys really rallied around that."
Declan Doyle was the Bears' offensive coordinator last year, but Johnson called the plays. Thus, Johnson allowed Doyle to leave for Baltimore to become the Ravens' offensive coordinator and play-caller this season.

#called

The Brooklyn Nets have made most of the moves they're going to make over the course of the 2026 NBA offseason as they're hoping to have a better campaign in the 2026-27 season. Brooklyn has added some veterans to the roster, headlined by trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, but some are wondering what the rest of the rebuild looks like at this point.
"After going 20-62 last season (with a preseason over/under win total of 19.5), the Nets are tabbed to be one of the league's worst teams again. They're listed with the second-lowest wins over/under by FanDuel and BetMGM at 24.5," Brian Lewis of the New York Post wrote (h/t to NetsDaily) on the Nets on Tuesday. As Lewis alluded to, Brooklyn is once again expected to be one of the worst teams in the league despite adding Randle to the team.
"With eight rookies on the Nets' roster last season — including a record five first-round picks — they played those first-year pros a league-high 6,716 minutes," Lewis wrote when describing how much playing time the Nets' rookies saw last season. Lewis was essentially comparing Brooklyn's rebuild to those of the Sacramento Kings, Oklahoma City Thunder, Portland Trail Blazers, and Washington Wizards.
As of this writing, the Nets have 10 players that are 24 years old or younger with players like Egor Demin and Mikel Brown Jr. being the youngest players on the roster. For the Brooklyn fans wondering when the franchise is going to turn around and start competing for the playoffs, that will depend on which one of the young players is going to realize their potential along with when general manager Sean Marks decides to cash in the current draft stash to go after a star-level player.
The Nets didn't appear to be in the running for players like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jaylen Brown this summer so it seems like the team will have to wait for the next star-level player to change teams to see if they're successful in luring them to Brooklyn. In the meantime, Lewis pointing out the amount of playing time the young players have seen thus far could be a precursor to at least one of them taking the next step sooner rather than later.

#Nets #brooklyn #lewis #they 're

WATERLOO — The Ottumwa High School girls tennis team opened the season on Saturday on the same courts where many of the Bulldog players hope to end the season.
The Bulldogs battled their way through a long day of tennis at the Chuck Schupbach Memorial Invitational, finishing third as a team with 17 points. Six different players brought home medals in six different divisions, winning 10 matches at the Byrnes Park, the home of the Class 2A state singles and doubles tournament.
"All the girls played well. Many of them were playing their first varsity singles match and, for some, their first doubles matches," Ottumwa head girls tennis coach Leanna White said. "This is a new squad with some great potential for the season."
Ana Toloza posted the highest singles finish for the Bulldogs, going 2-1 to finish second among players in the No. 5 singles portion of the tournament. Toloza bounced back from a 10-3 loss to Clinton senior Kirstin Bengtson, winning 11-2 over Decorah freshman Niva Anderson and 9-4 over Columbus Catholic senior Kathryn Brandle to secure the silver medal.
Madalynn Sertterh and Abigail Ellison, both coming off playing in the Dan Staggs Tennis Tournament last week, brought home bronze medals in singles play on Saturday for Ottumwa. Sertterh, the inaugural women's champion of the Staggs Tournament, opened the season with a 10-3 win over Columbus senior Macey O'Brien in her debut as the top singles player for the Bulldogs while Ellison shook off a 10-3 loss to Decorah senior Isis Timm earning a 9-4 victory over Columbus sophomore Scarlett Reiter for her third varsity singles win after taking two victories last fall as a freshman.

#bulldogs

LAS VEGAS -- Brooklyn Nets forward Julius Randle unexpectedly came to the Nets via a trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves as one of the bigger moves in free-agency this summer. Brooklyn wasn't rumored to be interested in Randle as most people around the NBA considered the team to be sellers, but he was aware of what the team had prior to acquiring him.
"Just young. When they kind of asked me about the team, I was really excited, just watching Egor [Demin] and the young guys and then talking to Mikel," Randle said to the media earlier this summer while at the Las Vegas Summer League when asked about his knowledge of the team. Randle has spent the past few seasons competing for championships with the Timberwolves and New York Knicks, but he seems to embrace the youth on the roster.
"It's gonna be fun. Obviously, in the West, it's a little bit different, you know? I really didn't watch much of the East, being in the West, but I just knew it was a lot of young talent," Randle continued. "I know a lot about Michael Porter [Jr.] and Terance [Mann] and those guys and stuff like that, so it's gonna be a fun challenge. It's exciting."
When looking at the Nets roster at this point in the offseason, Randle will be relying on someone like forward Michael Porter Jr. to help provide the offensive punch this team needs. Brooklyn has added more veterans in guard Keon Ellis and center Mo Wagner, but the majority of the rotation next season will consist of the players taken in the 2025 and 2026 NBA Drafts.
Randle and Porter will likely be starting alongside Mikel Brown Jr., Egor Demin, and Day'Ron Sharpe will players like Danny Wolf and Noah Clowney to be coming off the bench for head coach Jordi Fernandez. Randle did not keep up with the Eastern Conference much last season as he was trying to help Minnesota win a ****** le, but he now understands the kind of youth and talent that resides in Brooklyn at the moment.

#Nets

The Brooklyn Nets are pretty much done with their business for the 2026 NBA offseason as they sought to improve the roster following another disappointing season for the franchise. Brooklyn is still in the early stages of its rebuild as it still has many of first-round picks to use over the next few years and that is primarily the reason why they are highly-regarded in relation to trade ***** ets.
"Given where the Brooklyn Nets have been (and figure to be for the next few years), their first-round picks are valuable. Of course, Adam Silver's new rules aimed at reducing tanking could reduce that value a bit, but a lot of those years will be in the lottery," Andy Bailey wrote for Bleacher Report when discussing the Nets' trade ***** ets. Brooklyn is ranked as the third-best teams in the league when it comes to that precious trade chest.
"And that 2032 first from Denver, when Nikola Jokić is 37 and the aforementioned rules may be retired, could be one of the better individual ***** ets in the league," Bailey continued on the Nets. "On top of that, Brooklyn has a valuable expiring contract attached to one of the best shooters in the NBA in Michael Porter Jr."
As Bailey points out in his piece, the Nets have 12 first-round picks between now (2027) and 2033, not to mention potentially getting a 13th first-round pick from the Philadelphia 76ers. In addition to that, Brooklyn has 19 second-round picks in the same timespan and those picks are becoming more valuable as teams are looking to more cost-control to offset the current financial reality of the CBA.
The Nets have a couple of veteran players in forwards Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle that could be attractive to teams either next season or beyond that could potentially add even more ***** ets to Brooklyn's collection. Time will tell if Porter and/or Randle will be used for that purpose, but as of now, the Nets are regarded as one of the teams with a significant amount of ***** ets to use in future trades.

#first #assets

Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. is coming off the best season of his career after being thrust into the position of being the primary for a Nets team in need of scoring. Even though Brooklyn got Porter more help in the form of former Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, the former Denver Nuggets sharpshooter is making sure to put the work in this summer.
The National Basketball Player's ****** ociation (NBPA) recently unveiled a 24/7 performance center in Los Angeles, California that NBA players can use during the regular season and offseason, according to James H. Williams of USA Today. Williams revealed that Porter is one of the approximately 200 players that spend part of their offseason in the City of Angels so the NBPA wanted to make sure that those players had somewhere to go to work on their game.
"Michael Porter Jr. and Mo Bamba also were seen in the facility going through their offseason process," Williams wrote in his piece. The facility, known as the PLYRS UNTD Performance Center, will be added to the group of facilities that the NBPA has "like the one located at its New York headquarters and The Sanctuary, which serves as an offseason performance retreat for NBA players in Spain."
Porter, 28, is coming off a 2025-26 season in which he did not make the first All-Star team of his career as many expected for him to do so, but that doesn't mean that his numbers weren't spectacular. Porter played 52 games for the Nets last season, posting averages of 24.2 points, 7.1 rebounds, and 3.0 ****** ists per game while shooting 46.3% from the field and 36.3% from behind the three-point line.
Williams noted in his article that the NBPA will attempt to organize open runs during the offseason so that players can get used to playing with each other, which might be the case for Porter and Randle. Either way, the NBA players now have a new facility to visit during their travels and someone like Porter can now work on his game while visiting Los Angeles at an NBPA-ran facility.

#players #facility

The Brooklyn Nets came into the 2026 NBA offseason with the goal of improving the roster as much as possible following a 2025-26 season in which they finished with a 20-62 record. Brooklyn's biggest move of the summer was trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle and most of the fanbase believes that the team has improved.
As of this writing, most Nets fans feel that the roster has gotten better since the beginning of the offseason, according to a poll posted on NetsDaily. Out of 41 votes, 56% of the respondents believe that the team has improved somewhat while 37% feel that the roster has improved significantly when considering all of the moves made thus far.
In addition to trading for Randle, the Nets were somewhat active in free-agency as they signed former Cleveland Cavaliers guard Keon Ellis and former Orlando Magic center Mo Wagner. More to that point, Brooklyn also managed to re-sign forward Josh Minott and center Day'Ron Sharpe, who is looking to be a starter for the first time in his career.
As far as who the Nets lost over the course of the summer, the biggest subtraction was starting center Nic Claxton, who was traded to the Chicago Bulls as part of the Randle deal. Forward Ziaire Williams, who had arguably the best season of his career this past year, left Brooklyn in free-agency to sign with the Los Angeles Lakers after being with the Nets over the past two seasons.
After a disappointing 2025-26 campaign, the Nets ultimately ended up with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, which they used to select promising point guard Mikel Brown Jr. out of Louisville. With Randle joining Sharpe and forward Michael Porter Jr., Brown will likely be in the starting backcourt with Egor Demin, who impressed during his time in the summer circuit. There are plenty of reasons for Nets fans to feel better about the team at this point in the offseason.

#roster #improved

Brooklyn Nets guards Egor Demin and Mikel Brown Jr. are in the midst of an important summer as both players will have to work on their flaws in their game. Brooklyn saw Demin and Brown share the floor together over the course of the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League, but there are those around the NBA wondering how effective the duo can be next season.
"But how good the Nets are in 2026-27 is not as important as how good they can be a few seasons from now, so it's important that they hit on their Lottery picks from the last two drafts," John Schuhmann wrote for NBA.com when discussing the Nets and where they rank in the Eastern Conference at the moment. NBA.com ranks Brooklyn as the 14th-best team in the East, but that number could shift depending on how Demin and Brown play next year.
"Demin and Mikel Brown Jr. combined to take 51 (60%) of their 85 Summer League shots from 3-point range, probably too high a rate given the former's size and the latter's explosiveness," Schuhmann continued. "Brown will need some time to find his way, but the time is now for Demin to take a big step forward and show that there's a brighter future for this franchise."
Heading into next season, Demin and Brown are likely to be the starting backcourt for the Nets with the rest of the lineup being filled by forward Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle along with center Day'Ron Sharpe. Demin entrenched himself as a starter last season for Fernandez, but Brown still has to compete with Nolan Traore and Ben Saraf in training camp for the starting point guard spot.
As Schuhmann alluded to, the Nets know what they will be getting from Porter, Randle, and Sharpe so it will be on Demin and Brown to step up if Brooklyn is going surpass expectations. The Nets are already projected to be one of the worst teams in the league next season, but if Demin and Brown are better than expected, Brooklyn could surprise some people around the NBA.

#schuhmann #summer

Keeping elite in-state talent home has been one of Steve Sarkisian's biggest priorities since he was hired as Texas' head coach in January 2021.
Sarkisian hasn't had much problem doing just that and those successes continued on Saturday, Aug. 1 as Randle (TX) Richmond five-star running back Landen Williams-Callis announced his commitment to the Longhorns. He chose Texas over Missouri, SMU and Texas A&M.
According to 247Sports, the 5-foot-7.5, 190-pounder is ranked as the No. 37 overall prospect, the No. 3 running back and No. 3 prospect out of Texas for the 2027 cycle.
However, the USA TODAY Sports composite ranks him as the No. 27 overall prospect in the country and the No. 3 running back, trailing only Georgia commit Kemon Spell and Tennessee commit David Gabriel Georges.
There weren't many running backs in the country who had a better year statistically than Williams-Callis in 2025. In 16 games, he led the Lions to a 15-1 record, averaging 218.9 rushing yards per game and rushing for 3,502 yards and 59 touchdowns on 324 carries.

#back #sports #country

The Brooklyn Nets are at the point in their offseason where not much will be happening between now and when training camp begins in the fall. Brooklyn does not know its entire schedule for the 2026-27 NBA season, but it does know who they will be playing in the preseason and as part of the 2026 NBA Cup where they may have gotten lucky with their scheduled slate.
The NBA announced in the beginning of July what the groups will be within the NBA Cup and the Nets will have a tough slate ahead of them given where they are in their rebuild. As part of being in East Group A, Brooklyn will be facing the Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors, Orlando Magic, and Milwaukee Bucks, but there is a chance that the Nets could be competitive within the group.
The Nets (20-62) had the worst record of the five teams in the group with the Pistons (60-22), Raptors (46-36), Magic (45-37) were playoff teams with the Bucks (32-50) potentially making it to the postseason if Giannis Antetokounmpo was healthy for the majority of the season. To that point, Milwaukee traded Antetokounmpo to the Miami Heat this summer for a package of players and picks so it seems like they're entering a rebuild of some sort.
Detroit should be the best team in this group once again with Cade Cunningham leading the way, but plenty could be unsettled by the fact that center Jalen Duren is yet another player experiencing the downside of restricted free-agency. Toronto could be better than they were last season if their trade for forward Kawhi Leonard goes through, but the investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers potentially circumventing the salary cap to sign him may not be solved until the season begins.
Orlando appears to be running it back with Paolo Banchero and Franz Wagner leading the way for their squad, but Brooklyn has made key moves of its own by trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle along with signing guard Keon Ellis and center Mo Wagner in free-agency. Ultimately, it wouldn't be surprising to see the Nets finish the NBA Cup with a 1-3 record with the potential of pulling off upsets over the Magic and Raptors.

#toronto #orlando

A big recruiting domino is now set to fall in the shape of Richmond Randle running back Landen Williams-Callis, who has announced that he will be making his college commitment on August 1st, and the finalists are the Houston Cougars, Missouri Tigers, SMU Mustangs, Texas Longhorns, and Texas A&M Aggies, all schools that received official visits from the big-time running back.
Williams-Callis will announce his decision on Dave Campbell's Texas Football at 6:45 p.m. Central.
The Longhorns got the final official visit with the dynamic running back during the official visit window in June, and they have since been trending positively in this recruitment, including numerous commits tweeting at the 5'7.5, 190-pounder in recent days.
Williams-Callis is the nation's leading returning ball carrier heading into the 2026 season and would certainly add juice to the backfield he elects to join on Saturday.
Texas already has one running back commitment for the 2027 class in Noah Roberts, but they are pushing to add Williams-Callis before shutting things down at the position for the cycle. Williams-Callis has been a high-priority target for Texas running backs coach Jabbar Juluke since he was hired, and despite initially not getting traction early on, things have been trending towards the Longhorns down the home stretch.

#williams #callis #back #since

When NBA free agency opened in early June, no one expected the Minnesota Timberwolves to be major players. Surprisingly, they were in the chase to sign LeBron James right up until the moment he decided to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers instead.
While James would have been a bargain-bin signing, now that the Wolves missed out on their top target, president of basketball operations Tim Connelly has moved on to his next obsession.
The Timberwolves weren't able to reel James into the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but head coach Chris Finch still needs a new starting power forward.
All-Star Julius Randle was traded, which opened the door for former Sixth Man of the Year Naz Reid. But the Timberwolves promptly traded the fan favorite to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for LaMelo Ball instead.
So, who's next?

#timberwolves #james #traded #minnesota

The Brooklyn Nets are now moving on with the rest of their offseason with the 2026 Las Vegas Summer League in the rearview mirror following a successful summer circuit. Brooklyn has made various moves over the course of the summer, including trading for Minnesota Timberwolves forward Julius Randle, and one of the ****** istant coaches approves of where the roster is at right now.
"What we’re excited about is the depth of legitimate NBA rotation players and potential rotation players we have now," a Nets ****** istant coach said of the team, according to Keith Smith of Spotrac. As the roster stands as of this writing, the starting lineup could be Mikel Brown Jr., Egor Demin, Michael Porter Jr., Julius Randle, and Day'Ron Sharpe.
"Not to speak ill of last year’s team, but we were down to rookies and non-NBA-level players by the end of the year. This year, we’ve got depth and the kids are improving too," the ****** istant coach continued, per Smith. Brooklyn finished the 2025-26 season with a lowly 20-62 record, rewarding them with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft, allowing them to take Brown.
To the ****** istant coach's point, the Nets have re-signed Sharpe and forward Josh Minott while adding Randle, guard Keon Ellis, and center Mo Wagner (while his deal hasn't been officially announced yet). More to the point, Brooklyn has moved on from center Nic Claxton (who they traded to the Chicago Bulls as part of the four-team deal with the Timberwolves and Charlotte Hornets) while forward Ziaire Williams signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in free-agency.
The Nets also added forwards Joshua Jefferson and Tyler Bilodeau in the 2026 draft to go along with the five first-rounders they took in the 2025 class that the team is hoping breaks through at some point. Time will tell how good this current roster will be next season but as it stands now, one of Brooklyn's ****** istant coaches believes that this roster is better than the one from last season.

#assistant #team #forward #year

Hello! I'm Jon. When Alex and I were piecing together the script for "The History of the Seattle Mariners" way back in 2019, our short Lenny Randle segment went through a couple of revisions. Although he only spent a small fraction of his career in Seattle, Lenny established himself as a Mariners legend, and we had to rein ourselves in from writing an extensive tangent covering his entire story.
It took us long enough, but six-plus years later, Lenny finally gets his own Secret Base video. Time and again, he found himself standing center stage during baseball's oddest, most chaotic scenes. Sometimes he just happened to be there and passively observed the ruckus. Other times, he conjured it himself. Since "The History of Charging the Mound" is, above all else, a story about baseball chaos, it was inevitable that he'd find himself here.
Hope you enjoy his story as much as I did. As always, if you want more from this series, or more special projects like this, and get them as soon as they're ready – check out Secret Base on Patreon. If you're a member over there, then you would've gotten to see an uncensored ******* in this video. Best sales pitch we've got.

#story #history #alex

LaMelo Ball reveals excitement to play with Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Minnesota Timberwolves weren't content running back with their same core in 2026-27.
After another playoff run that ended sooner than they had hoped, the team made some bold moves in a bid to get over the hump. Of course, as we now know, the biggest move the team was made was trading for star guard LaMelo Ball from the Charlotte Hornets.
To do so, the Wolves had to ship out Julius Randle, Naz Reid, and several other **** ets. The team felt like the current core had peaked, though, and big changes seemed necessary. On Tuesday, the team formally introduced Ball, as well as Josh Green, who should also play a nice role for the team this season.
Immediately after the news of the trade, people were excited imagining a backcourt featuring Ball and Anthony Edwards. Edwards has cemented himself as one of the best players in the league, so having a competent backcourt mate could help him reach a new level.

LAS VEGAS -- Brooklyn Nets forward Julius Randle came to the Nets this offseason after being with the Minnesota Timberwolves and competing for championships over the past two seasons. While Brooklyn likely has hopes of taking another step forward next season, that step may not be anything close to getting to the NBA Finals. Randle is understanding of that, but also sees the upside.
"I really think it’s just mindset and approach. The league is more balanced than it has ever been. Every game is a different game, every game matters," Randle said to the media in Las Vegas over the weekend. Randle, 31, joins a Brooklyn team that is coming off a 20-62 record in the 2025-26 season and despite adding the three-time All-Star, the Nets are likely winning around 30 games, barring any unforeseen moves.
"So, it's different obviously than the team I was on, than I was at in Minnesota; but I believe in our team. I believe in the talent that we have," Randle continued. "And I think it's really just how we approach every single game. It's really about what we believe as a group and not the outside noise or the expectation. It’s our expectation amongst ourselves, and what we believe as a group."
Randle is coming off another solid season as he averaged 21.1 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.0 ******* ists, and 1.1 steals per game while shooting 48.1% from the field and 31.5% from behind the three-point line in 79 games played for the Timberwolves. As Minnesota was looking to return this summer, they traded Randle and the No. 28 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft (forward Joshua Jefferson) to the Nets in exchange for the No. 33 pick.
Randle goes from playing alongside Anthony Edwards and Rudy Gobert to sharing the floor with forward Michael Porter Jr. and guard Egor Demin, among others. Despite the fact that the Nets are leaning into the development of the younger players on the roster in Demin and guard Mikel Brown Jr., Randle is confident in what the team currently has and it seems like it will come down to how the team prepares for the upcoming season in training camp.

LAS VEGAS -- Brooklyn Nets rookie forward Joshua Jefferson had to wait a long time before he could officially step onto an NBA floor as a member of the Nets. The trade that brought Minnesota forward Julius Randle to Brooklyn was officially completed on Friday, paving the way for Jefferson to make his Las Vegas Summer League debut and he gave his thoughts on how he played.
"Definitely. I think today was my first game in like four months since March when I got hurt. So, it's really been a long time since I've been in a playing setting because I wasn't able to get any practice reps either," Jefferson said to the media following Saturday's 83-76 loss to the Atlanta Hawks. Jefferson finished the game with nine points and two steals, but he also shot just 1-of-8 from the field.
"So, I definitely think I'm gonna be fine. I showed some glimpses today of what I can do with the ball in my hand so I just got to keep playing," Jefferson continued before explaining how his skillset fits with Brooklyn's roster. "I think just the way my passing can affect the game, making everybody feel involved, get the ball flying around. It's easy to guard people when the ball's sticking in one person's hand."
Coming into the 2026 NBA Draft, Jefferson, whom the Nets selected with the No. 28 pick, was heralded as a forward with the versatility to be a playmaker within an offense along with bringing some intriguing long-range shooting if he improves in that area. Jefferson wasn't able to practice with Brooklyn in an official capacity until the trade was finalized, but he made up for lost time with how aggressive he was on the offensive end.
Heading into the 2026-27 NBA season, Jefferson is likely to be coming off the bench at the forward spot given that Michael Porter Jr. and Julius Randle will be in the starting lineup come opening night. However, if Jefferson's debut is any indication, he is looking to earn playing time from now through training camp, especially now that he is officially able to play during summer league as a member of the roster.

Timberwolves officially ties with declining $100 million ex-Lakers, Knicks forward via four-team trade originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are moving on from a declining former Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks forward after two seasons with the franchise.
On Friday, Minnesota completed a monster four-team LaMelo Ball-centered deal to send the 31-year-old veteran to the Brooklyn Nets.
“The Minnesota Timberwolves today announced the team has acquired guards LaMelo Ball and Josh Green from the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for forward Naz Reid, a 2033 first-round pick, three second-round picks, and three future first-round pick swaps,” the franchise’s press release stated.
“As part of the four-team deal, which includes the Brooklyn Nets and Chicago Bulls, the Timberwolves will receive the draft rights to guard Isaiah Evans from the Nets in exchange for forward Julius Randle and the draft rights to forward Joshua Jefferson.”