NBA 101

3 WNBA teams that could get shaken up if they miss the playoffs

Every team wants to make the WNBA playoffs, but the implications for these teams are little more serious.

Winning is what it’s all about, and to win, you need to make the WNBA playoffs. And with further league expansion on the horizon and a potential CBA dispute on the line, everything feels higher stakes this season.

Bearing that in mind, let’s take a close look at three teams that could face serious consequences if they fall short of making the postseason.

Las Vegas Aces

After winning back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023, the Las Vegas Aces were favorites to win three in a row in 2024. A combination of fatigue and increased competition from other teams saw the Aces eliminated in the semifinals last season, but things did not seem too bad. Going into the 2025 season, the Aces were still projected to be a top team, a lock for the playoffs, and in contention to win their third title in four seasons. Yet, nothing has gone to plan for Vegas so far this year.

They are lingering at the bottom of the playoff race, struggling to maintain an even record and battling for every win they do get. 3x MVP A’ja Wilson is playing phenomenally, of course, but their other offensive options can’t get into scoring rhythm, and their defense lacks effort most nights.

Their off year isn’t just an off year, though. Due to trades already made, Las Vegas does not own its first-round draft picks for 2026 or 2027. So, if they fail to make the playoffs, they will not even be rewarded with a lottery pick in 2026. If they end up blowing up their team and still not doing well next season, they wouldn’t have their pick the following year, either. Safe to say this scenario was not expected, and could lead to more seismic changes than previously expected in the desert.

Chicago Sky

Chicago has been in a rough patch after winning their championship in 2021. It seemed like things were heading back in the right direction after they drafted both Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese in 2024, and many thought they were on the path to a full rebuild. They were awarded the No. 3 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft this year and then… traded it away to Washington. In return, they got Ariel Atkins, a great player, yet the move was not the type of win-now push a “rebuilding” team would usually make. It burned a little more when that No. 3 pick turned into Sonia Citron, who has played so well for the Mystics that she took a trip to the All-Star Game as a Rookie.

The Sky have not been stacking wins this season either. At the time of the trade for Atkins, Sky front office members were confident in this team’s ability to be in the playoffs. A few weeks into the season, Courtney Vandersloot tore her ACL, and they now sit in the lottery. Yet, they don’t even own their first-round pick for next season, either. That was traded away to Minnesota, meaning that the Sky look like they are headed for the lottery this season, but will not even have the chance to decide if they want to keep or trade the pick.

Indiana Fever

The Indiana Fever’s situation isn’t dire in the sense that the future of their team depends on them making the playoffs. Yet, it would be a little disappointing to have them miss the playoffs entirely, given how much they have rebuilt in the past few years. Yet, as Caitlin Clark continues to be out indefinitely with her third injury in the regular season alone, the hopes for the Fever’s success this season are not as solid as they once were.

Clark is a player who thrives in high-pressure games, and her runs in the NCAA March Madness tournaments are such a huge part of her history. Seeing her make a deep playoff run is inevitable, and it’s going to be fun. Sure, there will be disappointment if it doesn’t happen this season, but the hope surely is that she can heal up in time AND her Fever team can stay afloat while she is out to stay in a playoff position. While the repercussions of the Fever missing the playoffs would be more emotional than transactional (like the Aces and Sky), it’s still worth noting that it would qualify as a sad ending to an initially promising season.

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As July leads into August, it’s go time for all three of these teams as we head into the final third of the 2025 regular season.

Raptors Waive Colin Castleton

The Toronto Raptors have waived center Colin Castleton. In 26 games (four starts) with Memphis, Philadelphia and Toronto last season, Castleton averaged 4.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 16.6 minutes.

Castleton signed consecutive 10-day contracts with the Raptors in March before signing a standard NBA contract Apr. 13, the final day of the regular season.

LIV Golf to increase event purses from $25M to $30M in 2026

LIV Golf is growing its purses next season and focusing on the team aspect of its format.

LIV Golf does not appear to be going anywhere.

This has felt like the case for a while now, but continues to be an idea (seemingly) picking up momentum. Consider that on Monday it was reported by the Sports Business Journal that LIV intends to grow the purses for its events by $5M next season.

LIV Golf’s eye-popping purse sizes will get even bigger in 2026 as the league pumps more investment into its team operations. LIV’s current weekly purse of $25M will go to $30M in 2026, according to four sources familiar with the process, and the extra capital will go toward the league’s weekly team competition.

Currently, $5M of the weekly tournament purses are split among the teams; $3M to the winning team, $1.5M to second place and $500,000 to third. The remaining $20M covers the individual stroke play portion. Starting in 2026, the extra $5M will be spread out among all 13 teams based on finishing position.

LIV’s teams are set up to operate independently, signing their own commercial deals and players. The league owns a majority (75%) of the teams, while franchise captains own the remaining 25%.

LIV is expected to bring on more players this offseason, but the large signing bonuses of 2022 and 2023 are thought to be a thing of the past. Now, the financial onus is expected to be more on the teams to bring players aboard.

This is certainly a twist as far as LIV team competition is concerned. By establishing funds for the team element specifically it appears that LIV really wants to lean into that (that has been made rather obvious in the last couple of years).

Whether or not any merger happens with the PGA Tour continues to be a murky subject. For now LIV is moving forward and (according to the report) also looking to expand even more.

As you were.

Will Lewis Hamilton win a Grand Prix this season with Ferrari?

With one of his most successful races on tap it is a perfect time to ask: Will Lewis Hamilton win a Grand Prix this season?

Friday and Saturday were as difficult as it gets for Lewis Hamilton at the Belgian Grand Prix.

After being eliminated in SQ1 on Friday and then in Q1 on Saturday, due to a pair of “unacceptable” mistakes, Hamilton was left at a loss for words and apologized to his new team at Ferrari. “Then from my side, another mistake, so I’ve really got to look internally. I’ve got to apologize to my team, because that’s just unacceptable to be out in both Q1s. It’s a very, very poor performance from myself,” the seven-time Drivers’ Champion told Sky Sports F1 after qualifying on Saturday.

Sunday, however, was a different story.

Starting from pit lane after Ferrari made additional changes to his SF-25 — and lining up 18th on the grid — Hamilton charged through the back half of the field and finished seventh, despite tricky conditions that saw the race delayed for over an hour. Ferrari fitted a higher-downforce rear wing to his SF-25 in anticipation of the forecasted rain, which led to the pit lane start.

While Hamilton was frustrated that he could only complete 11 laps in wet conditions, perhaps minimizing the impact of the bigger rear wing, there were promising signs in his performance.

“I definitely feel confident going forward and learned more about the car today. I’ll set that up better for next week [in Hungary],” said Hamilton. “I don’t see why we can’t have better results moving forward.”

Hamilton has yet to secure a podium in a Grand Prix this season but has been knocking on the door in recent weeks, finishing fourth in both the Austrian Grand Prix and the British Grand Prix.

Now he heads to the Hungaroring, a track he has dominated over his career. Hamilton has won the Hungarian Grand Prix eight times — more than F1 driver — and been on pole position nine times at the Hungaroring.

This might be one of his best chances yet to score his first Ferrari Grand Prix win.

But whether it comes this weekend or at some point this season, will Lewis Hamilton win a Grand Prix this year with Ferrari?