Warriors Remain Interested In Signing Georges Niang
The Golden State Warriors remain interested in signing Georges Niang with their open roster spot.
Jiang appeared in 79 games last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers and Atlanta Hawks, averaging 9.9 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.4 assists in 21.5 minutes. Jiang shot 40.6 percent on three-pointers.
Niang will be playing in his age-33 season and briefly played for the Santa Cruz Warriors early in his career.
The Warriors also signed Brandon Williams to a contract this week as they round out their roster.
The Chicago Sky are a disaster of their own making
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – AUGUST 21: Courtney Vandersloot #22 and head coach Tyler Marsh of the Chicago Sky react against the Golden State Valkyries during the second half at Wintrust Arena on August 21, 2026 in Chicago, Illinois. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) | Getty Images
CHICAGO — Another Chicago Sky season was lowered into the grave on a Sunday night at Wintrust Arena. The official cause of death was a flurry of third quarter three-pointers by Indiana Fever stars Caitlin Clark and Kelsey Mitchell that turned a close game into a blowout and ripped the slim playoff hopes out of Chicago’s hands. In reality, the Sky’s mathematical elimination was a long time coming, with the feel of a slow-motion train wreck that anyone could have spotted but no one could have prevented. It was the type of inevitable disaster that has defined this franchise ever since its magical 2021 championship run, and at this point, it’s starting to feel like there’s no way out.
This is the third straight season the Sky have missed the playoffs. Injuries will be a convenient excuse, and there’s some truth to it. Chicago started the year 3-1 before star forward Rickea Jackson tore her ACL. That injury began a run of 11 losses in 12 games that effectively ended the Sky’s season on contact. It’s easy to fantasize about how this season might have turned out differently had Jackson stayed healthy, but there were always going to be too many leaks in this proverbial boat for smooth sailing. Under general manager Jeff Pagliocca, fantasy is the only thing Sky fans have to latch onto.
“I’m not settling for the same s— we did this year,” Reese told the Tribune at the end of last season. Her comments feel clairvoyant with a year of hindsight, especially when she put an even finer point on it by calling for an upgrade at lead guard.
“We can’t rely on Courtney to come back at the age that she’s at,” Reese said.
Reese may as well have booked her ticket out of town when she uttered Courtney Vandersloot’s name, even if she was obviously right. Vandersloot isn’t just a Sky legend, she’s also closely aligned with Pagliocca, the lead executive who got his start as her personal trainer. Reese was suspended a game for her comments, and in that moment Chicago seemingly had a power struggle on its hands between a 24-year-old rising star and a 37-year-old coming off a torn ACL.
Any sensible franchise would have aligned with Reese, but nothing the Sky do is sensible. In many ways, it feels like Chicago has been catering to Vandersloot since it brought her back following a short stint with the New York Liberty that ended with the loss in the 2023 WNBA Finals. Pagliocca has consistently traded away future draft picks to try to build a “competitive” team around Vandersloot in her golden years, but all he’s ended up doing was mortgaging the team’s future for disappointing seasons that never had any real chance to pay off in worthwhile fashion.
A few years from now, you might be able to build an All-WNBA team with the draft picks Pagliocca has traded away in an attempt to please his old client Vandersloot. The results are already horrifying, and there’s surely more pain coming.
Back in 2024, Pagliocca traded up one spot from No. 8 to No. 7 to draft Reese. The move cost him a 2026 first-round pick swap to Minnesota when it’s likely the Lynx wouldn’t have drafted Reese in the first place. The Sky missed the playoffs in both years that Angel was on the team, and that draft pick ended up being No. 2 overall. Minnesota drafted Olivia Miles, who might be the best rookie point guard professional basketball has seen since Magic Johnson.
Miles will probably finish second in MVP voting this year. It feels like she’s already a better player than Caitlin Clark, and she should have been the face for the Sky for the next decade. The trade up for Reese was reckless at the time, and will now go down as an all-time WNBA blunder.
That’s just the start of it. Go back a year earlier, and Pagliocca traded the No. 3 pick in the 2025 draft for veteran Ariel Atkins. This was a senseless trade at the time, because the Sky needed to be stockpiling young talent to build for the future, not searching for a shortcut to a low-end playoff spot. The Washington Mystics jumped at the trade, selected Notre Dame wing Sonia Citron, and watched her turn into a WNBA All-Star in her first two seasons.
A backcourt with Miles and Citron would have been box office, and complemented each other perfectly. The Sky gave that away to go 38-84 over the last three seasons.
Pagliocca simply has to be fired when this season is over. If he retains his job, it’s more proof that the Sky are not a serious franchise. Unfortunately for Chicago, a new lead executive will be handcuffed from the moment they accept the job, because Pagliocca has already traded away the team’s future 2027 and 2028 draft picks, too.
The 2027 first-round pick was sent to Washington as part of the Atkins trade. Right now, that pick would have the third-best chance to win the lottery, with USC superstar JuJu Watkins as the likely top pick. The 2028 first-round pick was traded for Jacy Sheldon before the start of this season. That deal has a chance to be the most painful of all with generational UConn big Sarah Strong set to headline the class.
Trading an unprotected first rounder in Strong’s draft class for a player of Sheldon’s caliber shows just how far Pagliocca is in over his head. It’s not that Sheldon is terrible — she’s a solid 3-and-D guard — but she’s exactly the type of low-upside swing that no franchise should be selling out its future for. Sheldon is averaging 6.4 points per game this season. She is an agonizingly low-usage guard who has never had a usage rate greater than 14.1% in the WNBA.
The Sky need a star. A player with a 14% usage rate has zero chance of ever becoming a star. It’s a premium example of the Sky going all-out to chase middling success that they couldn’t even accomplish.
There are more blunders from there. Hailey Van Lith was always a poor use of a first round pick, and she only lasted one season before the team released her. The team’s other 2025 first-round pick Ajša Sivka still hasn’t come to the WNBA, and seemingly regressed last year overseas. Now she’s slated to play college ball this season at Kentucky.
How will history remember Pagliocca’s selection of Gabriela Jaquez at No. 5 overall this year? Jaquez felt like a reach at the time, especially when her UCLA teammate Kiki Rice was sitting there for the taking. Jaquez has had her moments, but she’s another low-usage connective wing who is unlikely to turn into a star. As the Fever ended the Sky’s playoff chances on Sunday night, Jaquez was a healthy scratch. I asked Sky head coach Tyler Marsh why Jaquez wasn’t part of his 10-person rotation, and if the team would start to prioritize development more now that they’re eliminated from playoff contention. He mostly stumbled his way through a non-answer.
I asked Tyler Marsh about why Jaquez wasn’t in the Sky rotation last night, and followed by asking if they would prioritize development more now that they’re eliminated from the playoffs (but didn’t have a mic for the follow up). Meanwhile Kiki Rice is crushing lately for Toronto https://t.co/mCBXQCXDF3pic.twitter.com/acqiO5js4K
Rice has been killing it lately in Toronto after getting healthy from an early season injury. She looks like she could be the engine of a team one day. If they drafted Rice, the Sky could have locked down their point guard of the future. Maybe Pagliocca still thinks that’s Vandersloot’s role.
Regardless of how you project Jaquez, she should have been given a longer leash this year to develop. The Sky sat her to give heavy minutes to the likes of Natasha Cloud and Rachel Banham, who are in their mid-30s. This team was never going to be good once Jackson got hurt, and that should have shifted their priorities to developing younger players on the roster. Maybe Jaquez has more upside than her rookie numbers show, but she never really got a chance to play through her mistakes this year, which is another ultimate failure in a lost season.
The Sky aren’t just a bad franchise because they’ve empowered a hopeless GM who was always unqualified for the job. All the issues start with ownership, and it’s the biggest reason the Sky are a laughingstock within WNBA circles.
The Sky lost a superstar in part because they didn’t have their own training facility back in 2014 when Sylvia Fowles pushed her way to Minnesota. Chicago still doesn’t have its own training facility after its new Bedford Park complex — located nearly 14 miles away from its home gym at Wintrust Arena — was delayed again this year.
The training facility fiasco has been a black eye in every way. This past offseason, Bec Allen, who spent one season with the Sky last year, went on a podcast and spoke about Chicago using a rec center for practices.
“I had a random lady getting changed next to me,” Allen said. “Hey, Wendy!” When asked to describe her experience in Chicago in one word, Allen said “Miserable.”
A training facility isn’t the only thing the Sky are lacking. The organization doesn’t have a dedicated analytics team in the front office, and Pagliocca has stated the team has no plans to hire one.
The one thing the Sky have done right this year is identify Sydney Taylor as an undrafted free agent. Taylor has been spectacular, giving Chicago a mix of pull-up shooting and rim pressure that only the league’s best scorers possess. She feels like this year’s second-best rookie behind Miles, and she should be the team’s long-term shooting guard. The Sky also found a solid two-way contributor with Aicha Coulibaly, who Pagliocca selected in the second round of 2025 and signed to a developmental deal this season. Coulibaly is a versatile defensive forward with some scoring juice. Taylor is a walking bucket. Add in Jaquez, and there’s a little hope for the future.
It’s telling that Kamilla Cardoso hasn’t been mentioned until this point. Pagliocca took her with the No. 3 overall pick in 2024, and it’s still hard to tell if she can be the franchise’s long-term starting center. Cardoso’s motor runs hot and cold, she lacks mobility and a jump shot, and she’s always in foul trouble. The Sky will have a big decision on her as she enters the final year of her rookie deal next season.
Even the optimist’s case for the Sky isn’t very convincing, mostly because this franchise has been mismanaged at every opportunity since former head coach/GM James Wade left for the Toronto Raptors. The way forward is firing Pagliocca and letting Vandersloot gracefully retire or leave as a free agent in the offseason, but it’s going to be nearly impossible to build back up in the short term without control of their next two first-round picks.
Chicago is too good of a basketball town for the Sky to be so mismanaged. The city has multiple bars dedicated to women’s sports, and it threw a fantastic All-Star Weekend this year that brought 20K fans to the United Center this July. Of course, the Sky didn’t have a single player at the All-Star Game while Reese was there representing the Dream as she enjoys the best year of her career. Those two first-round picks the Sky got back for Reese are going to be very late ones.
The WNBA is zooming into the future, but the Sky are getting left behind. It’s a catastrophe solely of their own making. At this point, the hole is so deep that it’s going to continue to engulf them for years to come.
Wyndham Clark adds to stellar 2026 with BMW Championship win
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI – AUGUST 23: Wyndham Clark of the United States poses with the trophy on the 18th green after winning the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club on August 23, 2026 in St. Louis, Missouri. (Photo by James Gilbert/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)
The FedExCup Playoffs sure are showcasing who can really win a golf tournament.
Wyndham Clark took home the BMW Championship on Sunday out in Missouri, and things were really more of a formality than anything else across the final round.
The win marks Clark’s third of the season following his victories at the Byron Nelson and more notably the U.S. Open. He has a serious argument for player of the year across the PGA Tour at large.
What’s more is that these three wins mark half of Wyndham’s total from his entire career. It goes without saying that this is the best year he has ever had on Tour. It is, obviously was already, the only one in which he has carded multiple wins.
Part of what was particularly impressive was how Wyndham started and ended the overall tournament. He had birdies on the final three holes on both Monday and Friday. He held at least a share of the lead following every round, and most notably held a 5-stroke lead following Saturday specifically.
Here are the top 6 automatic berths for the U.S. President’s Cup team
MONTREAL, QUEBEC – SEPTEMBER 28: Scottie Scheffler of the U.S. Team celebrates on the 17th green during Saturday Morning Four-Ball on day three of the 2024 Presidents Cup at The Royal Montreal Golf Club on September 28, 2024 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The United States President’s Cup team officially has six players who have clinched automatic berths.
Players who have automatically made the team were revealed as the BMW Championship, which Wyndham Clark won, came to a close on Sunday:
Scottie Scheffler
Cameron Young
Wyndham Clark
Sam Burns
Russell Henley
Collin Morikawa
Each player on this list has had an incredible run across 2026, obviously in different sort of senses. Cameron Young started things off by winning the Players Championship, and Wyndham Clark took home the U.S. Open.
Scottie Scheffler on the other hand, besides being the top-ranked player in the world, won last year’s PGA Championship and Open Championship before having a year that was a bit down for those lofty standard, but Scottie did notch two wins to date at the American Express and most recently the FedEx St. Jude.
All six players have played on President’s Cup teams before so they are no strangers to the world. Time will tell who ultimately rounds out the squad for the United States, but they are certainly off to a good start.
HOUSTON, TEXAS – AUGUST 02: Elias Diaz #35 of the Texas Rangers throws to third base in the third inning against the Houston Astros at Daikin Park on August 02, 2026 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Ahead of the 2022 season MLB expanded the playoffs to include an additional Wild Card slot, now including three Wild Card teams in both leagues. The move came a decade after MLB introduced the Wild Card Game, pitting two Wild Card teams against each other in a one-game event with the winner moving on to the LDS.
The thought process behind the third bid, at least the one presented to the public, was simple enough. Having another team completing to make the playoffs would make the final stretch of the regular season more exciting and inclusive to a deeper group of teams. It would also allow another team the chance at a World Series run.
To be fair, the expanded playoff has delivered on those two promises. Every year since the decision has seen tight races in the final days before the end of the season, often with the spot not locked in until the last day or two. Additionally, a third Wild Card team has twice reached the World Series, both in 2022 with the Phillies and 2023 with the Diamondbacks. In both those cases, the team held onto the final playoff bid by only one game in the final standings. It’s hard to say that it had been anything other than a success.
But this season is showing the other side of the coin. For the most part, the National League has had a typical year with good but seemingly not great teams fighting down the stretch. The Cubs currently hold the top Wild Card spot and have had it for most of the year. The Phillies are red hot and right on their heels in the second Wild Card slot. The Padres have used a strong second-half of the season to climb into the third seed, with the Diamondbacks, Marlins, and Cardinals still in contention. In theory those teams are all good enough to make a run. But the top teams in the N.L. have sat almost head-and-shoulders above the rest of the league with both the Brewers and Dodgers expected to win around 100 games. The season has felt like a race for next best.
Who will be the third N.L. Wild Card team?
The American League is a much bigger mess. A lot of that is due to relative mediocrity at the top, resulting in what could be a sub-.500 team making the postseason. The three best team sin the A.L. all come from the East, the White Sox lead the central and would normally be considered the weakest of division winners. But the West really screws everything up. The Astros and Rangers are tied for first place despite being a game under .500, resulting in the final Wild Card spot being held by a team that has lost more games than its won. The Guardians have the same record, tied for the final playoff spot, with the Blue Jays, Twins, and last place Orioles still within a couple of games. Even the Detroit Tigers, who tried desperately to sell at the deadline, are one hot week away from being in the playoffs.
Who will be the third A.L. Wild Card team?
With the general feeling of “meh” at best competing for the final spot in both leagues, it’s easy to feel down on the expansion. Add to that the growing feeling that teams are trying to be just good enough to be in contention down the stretch and keep fans interested without having to do the expensive work of building a real winner.
The tradeoff is basically more high-intensity baseball in September vs. a better quality of team in the playoffs.
Maybe this is a one-off blip, or maybe it’s a sign of things to come. So did baseball do the right thing with playoff expansion, or is this watered-down version of the playoffs not worth it in the end?
Has MLB playoff expansion been good for the game?
Be on the lookout later this week for results to these questions and the rest of SB Nation’s Reacts surveys.
Max Verstappen’s final Dutch Grand Prix ends on the opening lap
This weekend marked the “Final Lap” for the Dutch Grand Prix, as the race will drop off the Formula 1 schedule after this season. That also makes it the final home race for living legend Max Verstappen, in front of the Sea of Orange that would welcome him at every Dutch Grand Prix.
Unfortunately for the Red Bull driver, his personal final lap at the Dutch Grand Prix came on the opening lap of Sunday’s main event.
With wet conditions facing the grid Sunday at Zandvoort, as the rain eased in the hours leading up to the start, the Formation Lap took place behind the Safety Car, but race officials did call for a standing start. But on the opening lap Verstappen was squeezed to the inside, found the kerb on the final corner, and suffered a massive shunt as he then slide up the banked track and into the outside wall:
Verstappen immediately radioed in that he was okay, with several drivers including his teammate for the weekend Liam Lawson reporting that it was a “huge” crash from their vantage point:
Liam Lawson on the radio: “Is he ok? That was f*** huge. Is he alright?”
Boston Celtics controlling governor Bill Chisholm was a recent guest on WEEI radio in Boston. Chisholm touched on a number of topics, including his feeling that the Celtics need their own arena.
“No, but I do think we need to have an arena that is consistent with the quality and the excellence of the Celtics. We need to create the best fan and player experience we can,” Chisholm said when asked if his team needs a new arena.
The Celtics share TD Garden with the Boston Bruins, whose parent company, Delaware North, owns the arena. Chisholm hinted that doesn’t always allow the Celtics to build the experience they’d like for fans.
“Do we need to own the building to do that?” Chisholm said. “No, but we certainly need to have the ability to influence that agenda.
“If we need to own the building, we’ll do that, but I think the other thing is when you do that you’ve got to make sure you’re not losing focus of what matters. You’re in the business of running a world-class basketball team that is putting up banners. That’s the true north. That’s what we need to work towards.”
Dejounte Murray ‘Attacked Rehab’ To Get Back To Help Pelicans
New Orleans Pelicans guard Dejounte Murray understands that many thought he shouldn’t have returned last season. Murray said despite the draw of getting ready for the 2026-27 season, he wanted to help the Pelicans chase a spot in the Play-In Tournament last season.
“Even coming back last year to play 14 games, it was really just like, now, we were 14th in the West, so we really didn’t have anything to play for, but it’s like we could reach 10 to get in the play-in, so it gave me something to play for. So that’s my reason for coming back,” Murray said. “Or I would have just sat out and got ready for this year. But it was like, nah, I wanted to go. I felt ready, obviously.
“Preparation is key; preparation is everything. And I worked my tail off to even be in a position to play. So I was just excited to go out to not only show my team and the people that support me, my family, but just anybody that you can fall and get back up … as long as you got the mental part down pat. It’s not easy, but you can do it. Anything’s possible.”
Murray went on to describe how hard the rehab process was, but how he attacked it and will continue to work to get himself back to his previous form.
“And again, it’s all mental, right? That’s just the process. Once you read up on the Achilles and you learn about the injury and why the injury happens and all these different things, it’s like the only thing is to learn and enjoy your process and go through your process,” Murray said. “My process was different from a bunch of guys, just like theirs was different from mine. And it’s just like, that’s for sure the hardest one, because I was hopping everywhere; I’m on a scooter, you can’t walk. But at the end of the day, I attacked everything like no other. And I’ll continue to do that.”
Dunc’d On: Nuggets and Cavs Offseason Grades, Wolves Sold
Nate and Danny can finally sum up the offseasons for the Nuggets and Cavs, improbably through a trade with each other! We put the Peyton Watson deal into context for both teams and give them offseason grades, while also discussing DeMar DeRozan to the Nuggets. We also break down Klay Thompson’s fit in Miami and whether they should have prioritized him over DeRozan or Bradley Beal.
Sylvain Francisco Missed Opportunity To Sign With Bulls
Veteran EuroLeague guard Sylvain Francisco thought he would be making the jump the NBA this season. However, transaction holdups around the NBA, while teams waited on LeBron James to make a decision, led to Francisco missing his window.
In particular, the 6-foot-2 guard said he missed out on signing with the Chicago Bulls. Unfortunately for Francisco and the Bulls, his deadline to exercised his NBA out with ASVEL came before James decided to sign with the Philadelphia 76ers.
“Yes, in the NBA, there were openings, at least five or six teams, many on guaranteed two-year contracts,” Francisco said. “I had the opportunity with the Chicago Bulls, but the trade they wanted to make before stalled because in the NBA, everyone was waiting for LeBron’s decision. However, my deadline (to active his NBA out clause from ASVEL) was until July 20, and LeBron signed… four days later.
“So, that’s where all the teams really started to transfer players, make more trades. It’s a shame,” Francisco continued. “I was a little angry, let’s say. But it’s something I don’t have control over. In the end, it can be a blessing in disguise. I stay in Europe.”
Francisco has since moved to Panathinaikos in Greece. He’s happy to be with the EuroLeague power now.
