The US Mint has revealed the design for a commemorative $1 coin honoring late Apple co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs.
The coin features a young Jobs sitting crosslegged in front of a California landscape of rolling hills, the Mint said. Of course, he’s wearing a turtleneck. There’s also an inscription: “Make something wonderful.” The 2007 quote has been used to frame Jobs’ worldview and legacy by his estate.
It will cost $13.25 from the Mint website but you’ll have to wait until 2026 to get one.
The coin is part of a yearslong project paying tribute to American innovation that started in 2018, and nothing to do with current CEO Tim Cook’s fawning overtures to Donald Trump. Each state can nominate its own icon to memorialize. Wisconsin, one of the other states featured in 2026, selected the Cray-1 supercomputer from the mid 1970s.
When nominating Jobs in February, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he “encapsulates the unique brand of innovation that California runs on.”
FIFA has acknowledged that the United States government has the final say on determining the safety of World Cup host cities.
The news comes after U.S. president Donald Trump said FIFA president Gianni Infantino would “very easily” move 2026 World Cup matches away from designated host cities if he asked him to.
Trump also indicated he would seek to move the 2028 Olympic Games away from Los Angeles if he felt the city was not safe.
The U.S. president has previously spoken about moving World Cup matches away from what he deemed “dangerous” cities, previously naming Seattle and San Francisco.
“Safety and security are the top priorities at all FIFA events worldwide,” a FIFA spokesperson said. “Safety and security are obviously the governments’ responsibility and they decide what is in the best interest for public safety.
“We hope every one of our 16 host cities will be ready to successfully host and fulfil all necessary requirements.”
On Thursday, Trump said there had been “street takeovers” in Boston and claimed FIFA would move matches for next summer’s finals if he asked.
“If somebody is doing a bad job, and if I feel there are unsafe conditions, I would call Gianni, the head of FIFA, who’s phenomenal, and I would say, ‘let’s move it to another location’,” he told reporters in the U.S. on Tuesday.
“And he would do that. He wouldn’t love to do it, but he’d do it very easily.
“He’d do it and this is the right time to do it.
“I could say the same thing for the Olympics. If I thought LA was not going to be prepared properly, I would move it to another location.
“If I had to on that one, I’d probably have to get a different kind of a permission, but we would do that.”
FIFA president Infantino has developed a close relationship with Trump and most recently attended a Middle East peace summit alongside him in Egypt earlier this week.
FIFA vice-president Victor Montagliani said “FIFA makes those decisions” when asked earlier this month about Trump’s original threat to move matches.
Montagliani told Leaders Week London: “With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and their government and their slogans.”
FIFA is understood to believe there are no issues with any of the 16 host cities across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
A spokesperson for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said in response to Trump’s comments: “The Olympic Games LA28 have the full support of the President of the United States, the Governor of California and the Mayor of Los Angeles.
“All of them are being extremely helpful in the preparations for these Games. This is mirrored on the operational level of the administration. There are three years to go and we are confident that LA28 will be great Olympic Games.”
In the last text Kate Cassidy sent to Liam Payne, she wrote that she couldn't wait for him to "get home and see the house," the influencer having put up Halloween decorations after returning early…
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ON THE SIDELINE at Notre Dame Stadium, USC coach Pete Carroll frantically waved for quarterback Matt Leinart to spike the ball. The Trojans trailed 31-28, inches from the goal line with seven seconds left.
“[Leinart] was to look back at [offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian] on the sidelines, and if we wanted to sneak it, we could sneak it,” Carroll said this week. “And he had to point at him. So, we tell him to sneak it. So, he points at the line, and he looks at the line of scrimmage, and he goes, ‘There’s no way, they’re all jammed up.’ And he looks back at us, and Reggie [Bush] yelled something at him, ‘Go for it. Go for it.'”
Moments earlier, Leinart had fumbled out of bounds inside the 1. The clock mistakenly ran out, and NBC’s Tom Hammond declared, “Notre Dame has won,” as Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis raised his arms and fans stormed the field.
When play resumed, the Trojans would have one last chance to extend their winning streak to 28 games.
Leinart sneaked left from under center, but he was bounced backward into a half spin and into the path of Bush, who famously shoved him across for the winning score.
“It was about as sweet a finish as you could have in a great situation to keep the streak alive and all that, too,” Carroll said.
Twenty years ago, the “Bush Push” would become one of the most unforgettable moments in college football history — and one of its most controversial. In the box score, it was the touchdown that preserved USC’s dynasty and allowed for the Rose Bowl matchup with Texas that became an all-time classic. In the rulebook, though, it was illegal.
Except, it was almost never called. In fact, the rule had become a running joke among officials.
“You were teased if you made the call,” said former NCAA official and current ESPN analyst Matt Austin. “It was such a rare occurrence.”
In the years that followed, an obscure rule became a flashpoint. It was debated, tweaked and, eventually, led to strategic evolution.
THE “HELPING THE Ball Carrier” rule had been part of the NCAA rulebook for decades. Its language was virtually identical in every edition dating back to at least 1950.
“No [teammate] shall grasp, pull, push, lift or charge into him to assist him in forward progress.”
The idea is believed to have originated as a way to differentiate football from rugby. Teammates could block defenders, but once the ball carrier was engaged, the play was meant to be his alone. Anything more — a shove, a tug, a lift — was considered an unfair advantage.
It was almost impossible to enforce in short-yardage piles, where pushes and blocks blur together, especially near the goal line.
Steve Shaw remembers that problem well. Now the NCAA’s national coordinator of officials, Shaw spent more than two decades on the field, and he has seen just about everything. But in the 2000 season, his crew made a rare, yet memorable call.
It happened during a Middle Tennessee–UConn game. Late in the contest, a Middle Tennessee lineman reached out and grabbed his running back, helping drag him toward the end zone. Shaw’s line judge, Mike Taylor, threw the flag.
“At the end of the year, there’s a report listing every penalty called nationally,” Shaw said. “Under aiding the runner, there was one — and it was ours. We gave him a hard time for calling it, but it was the right call.”
The rule technically existed, but almost nobody enforced it. And when it was flagged, it was usually because a player was being pulled, not pushed.
So when Bush shoved Leinart across the goal line in 2005, the officials did what most would have done: They kept the flag in their pockets. In fact, after Leinart’s touchdown, the Pac-10 officiating crew huddled up to discuss the play only to emerge with an unsportsmanlike contact penalty against the Trojans for their celebration after. There was no mention of the legality of the push on the broadcast, either.
It wasn’t until the next day when the conversation shifted from the game’s remarkable ending into a nationwide rules debate that is still built into the game’s lore.
Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen admitted to the Los Angeles Times that his conference’s officiating crew could have called a penalty, but made essentially the same point Shaw did two decades later.
“I just don’t think they ever call it,” Hansen said, adding it would have been different if it was a pull, not a push.
This is where the consensus seemed to land. The play looked like part of the normal chaos that happens at the goal line. By the letter of the law, Bush committed a foul. But by the spirit of the game, he just did what any teammate would do.
RULE CHANGES IN college football often move slowly. Proposals wind through the NCAA Rules Committee, a rotating group of coaches, officials and administrators who meet each offseason.
Most suggestions come after issues are identified over the course of a season. If the committee deems something urgent, it can move quickly. If not, it can linger in discussion until a consensus forms.
Sometimes, a single play can trigger an immediate rewrite. When Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett faked a slide in the 2021 ACC championship game — beginning to give himself up before resuming his run for a long touchdown — the reaction was instant. Within days, the NCAA issued a memo closing the loophole. The same thing happened last year when Oregon‘s Dan Lanning found a way to shave off game time by using a 12th man on defense.
The Bush Push didn’t work that way.
Despite the fierce public debate — and the way it was officiated — the rule remained unchanged in the years that followed.
It wasn’t until 2013, when the rules committee formally decided to adjust the official wording.
“The rules committee had a good debate about this and they watched much video, including the Bush Push play,” Shaw said. “Overall, they came to the conclusion that it was very difficult to determine when a push was truly a foul.
“There were few guidelines that could be given to make this a consistent call. Examples were pushing a rugby scrum pile vs. pushing the runner specifically, and they felt it was nearly impossible to distinguish between pushing a runner, leaning on a runner, pushing the pile or leaning on the pile. They felt removing the ‘push’ component would be the best course of action.”
When the NCAA released its updated rulebook for the 2013 season, the word “push” was simply deleted, bringing it in line with a similar rule change the NFL made in 2005.
Without realizing it, the committee paved the way for innovation in the sport.
Right away, coaches tried to use the subtle change to their advantage, including former Kansas State coach Bill Snyder, whose Wildcats started running what is now commonly referred to as the tush push later that year.
“It was just a natural thing to do,” Snyder told ESPN’s Kalyn Kahler earlier this year. “We needed to create a way in which we could take the shortest distance to get the short distance we needed to go and not get held up, because everybody put all the people over there, so we wanted to compete against no matter how many people you put there.
“We wanted to be strong enough not to get held up at the line of scrimmage. And we would bring one or two, or on occasion, three backs up right off of the hip of the center, and on the snap of the ball, we would push the center or push the back of the quarterback.”
That small tactical adjustment eventually made its way to the pros. Nearly a decade later, the Philadelphia Eagles adopted a version of the play built around quarterback Jalen Hurts, perfecting it into an almost unstoppable short-yardage weapon. Which, once again, led to a nationwide debate about whether pushing — once outlawed, then ignored and finally embraced — belonged in football at all.
In May, a proposal from the Green Bay Packers to ban the tush push came up two votes shy of the 24 it needed to pass.
At the NCAA level, the play drew some discussion over the offseason, too, but those conversations were more centered on potential injury concerns.
“The NCAA rules committee has looked at it and really up to now have not seen it become an injury, a player safety issue,” Shaw said. “So it really becomes a strategic part. Is that something strategically we want in the game? And so far there’s not been a big driver to try to put together a reason to eliminate it from our game.”
Over the past four seasons, the current rule has been enforced only six times, according to Shaw. Three times in 2022, and just once in 2021, 2023 and 2024.
AS USC RETURNS to Notre Dame this weekend for a top-20 matchup, the Bush Push helps define one of the sport’s most storied rivalries.
Carroll, now the Las Vegas Raiders coach, has very specific memories of that game in South Bend: the high grass, the green Notre Dame jerseys, the legends in the crowd.
“The stories I heard are that they sold out the night before the game at their rally that they had,” Carroll said. “And they brought Joe Montana back, and Rudy [Ruettiger] came back to speak to the crowd and a guy dressed up as Jesus showed up trying to bring home the power. … It was just an incredible setting for college football.”
The push that once went uncalled now defines the rule. Twenty years later, it’s still moving the game forward.
ESPN NFL reporter Ryan McFadden contributed to this story.
Microsoft is busy rolling out new curvy and colorful new Office icons, and now it’s revealing a set of design concepts it experimented with before finalizing these new icons. Some of the concepts are radically different from what Microsoft is shipping, with design explorations for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that more closely resemble the Office for Mac icons of the past.
The Word concept icons (above) include a notepad-like experiment and different ways to visualize stacks of paper, or documents. Microsoft experimented with making the Word lettering the key part of the icon, and also versions where the lettering blends in or is totally absent. Microsoft eventually settled on a design that has three horizontal bars instead of four, and it’s using versions of the icon with and without lettering.
Microsoft focuses heavily on the use of cells in its existing and new Excel icons, and the concept ones rarely diverge from this. I really like the X icon though, but the rest look similar to what Microsoft landed on for the final icon.
PowerPoint has always been about slides, and Microsoft experimented with a variety of ways of visualizing that for its latest PowerPoint icon. A couple of concepts focus on the lettering, turning into a ribbon-like P or a P letter with a pie chart hanging off of it. The final icon design is a lot more tame though, with a slightly more rounded and colorful take on the current PowerPoint icon.
All of Microsoft’s new Office icons — including new Teams, OneDrive, Outlook, and OneNote designs — are starting to roll out across Windows and iOS at the moment. Microsoft appears to be using the versions with letters in Windows, but for iOS it’s opting for icons without the distinctive letters.
What do you think? Are there any concept versions you prefer over the final designs Microsoft picked?
Miranda Kerr graced the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show stage for the first time in 2006 and became the first Australian to sign as an Angel the following year.
Six years later, she stepped back from the VS runway to focus on her son Flynn with ex-husband Orlando Bloom and pursue other career opportunities.
“This is a natural evolution,” she told The Sunday Morning Herald at the time. “‘The thing is, I’ve been modeling since I was 13. I’m now entering a new phase in my life. I have felt this coming since my son was born and, after I became a mother, I realized I needed to prioritize my time.”
As Miranda grew both her businesses (including her skincare brand Kora Organics) and her family—welcoming sons Hart, Myles and Pierre with her second husband, Snapchat founder EvanSpiegel—she noted she didn’t have the desire to return to the VS stage.
“They were some of the best modeling moments that I had, and I had so many great memories working with the VS team and the other models and we had a lot of fun,” she said on the Not Alone podcast in 2024. “But I just felt like, personally, I wasn’t wanting to go back there because I feel like I’m a mom of four boys now. My life is just in a completely different direction.”
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The sixth Sunday of the NFL season featured another fantastic performance from Carolina Panthers RB Rico Dowdle, another touchdown from Dallas Cowboys WR George Pickens, and continued development from precocious New England Patriots QB Drake Maye as a top-10 fantasy option. Oh, there were injuries, too, with excellent wide receivers Puka Nacua (ankle), Emeka Egbuka (hamstring) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (concussion) leaving games prematurely. Fantasy managers must monitor their status for the upcoming week.
Each Monday, before the current NFL week ends, we will identify players available in at least 50% of ESPN standard leagues worthy of your attention, from standard formats to deeper options. The NFL is a weekly league, and player valuation and roles seldom remain stagnant. It does not matter how you acquire players for your fantasy rosters, just that you get them.
Quarterback
Jaxson Dart, New York Giants (34.4% rostered): This is not the first time we have discussed Dart in this space, though fantasy managers remained rather tepid with interest. Dart was active in fewer than 10% of ESPN standard leagues in Week 6. That must change after Dart scored 23.6 points in a stunning win over the beleaguered Philadelphia Eagles. Although Dart remains an unfinished product as a passer, he has notably rushed for more than 50 yards in each of his three starts, scoring touchdowns in two of them. That is enough to make him relevant in fantasy. A road game in Denver this week might not be as much fun as facing Philly, but Dart boasts undeniable QB1 potential in fantasy this season and should be rostered in many more leagues.
Sam Darnold, Seattle Seahawks (23.1%): Some fantasy managers just refuse to believe in Darnold despite his solid numbers. Darnold scored 20.0 points on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, and after a rough Week 1 outing, he is averaging nearly 20 PPG over his past five games. He and the Seahawks face the Houston Texans in Week 7. Given his numbers, it is hard to suggest anything but Darnold being underrated in fantasy. He showed us his ability last season with the Minnesota Vikings, and he is performing similarly this season.
Deep-league options/streamers/random thoughts
Although there is no shortage of veteran quarterbacks available for streaming in Week 7, the Jaguars’ Trevor Lawrence (vs. LAR) and the Panthers’ Bryce Young (at NYJ) do not have great matchups. So it is that we must recommend Pittsburgh Steelers starter Aaron Rodgers (13.7%) for a road game against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Bengals have not played great defense this season. Rodgers scored 17.5 points in Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns, his best game since Week 1.
The Arizona Cardinals ruled out Kyler Murray (foot) and started longtime backup Jacoby Brissett versus the Colts. Brissett (0.5%) scored 20.7 points, more than Murray has in any of his five games this season. We’ve seen Brissett fill in before with occasional success, but if Murray is out this week, there are surely better options since the Cardinals face the Green Bay Packers this week. If one is that desperate, note that new Bengals starter Joe Flacco scored 18.76 points in his debut. He faces the Steelers this week.
Running back
Kimani Vidal, Los Angeles Chargers (27.1%): Someone had to pick up the running back duties with starter Omarion Hampton (ankle) shelved, and we had a good idea it would be some combination of Vidal and Hassan Haskins. Most sided with Haskins (49.7%), since he played at Michigan for Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh. Wrong choice! These coaches just keep everyone guessing! Vidal enjoyed a far greater performance, turning 21 touches into 138 yards and 22.8 points. Haskins had seven touches. Add Vidal for Week 7 against the Indianapolis Colts, while noting Hampton might miss more time than originally expected.
Tyjae Spears, Tennessee Titans (23.6%): Spears (ankle) made his season debut in Week 5 with little statistical consequence. In Week 6, he turned nine touches into 50 yards and 9.0 points, outpacing starter Tony Pollard, who scored 6.7 points on 12 touches. The elusive Spears does his best work catching passes, and perhaps the Titans will use him even more in Week 7 against the Patriots. For now, Pollard investors have little to worry about.
Bam Knight, Cardinals (5.6%): We featured Michael Carter in this space last week, as he appeared to be the Arizona running back of choice with James Conner and Trey Benson sidelined. On Saturday, a day before facing the Colts, rather surprising word came that the Cardinals intended to give Knight, with his third NFL organization before his 25th birthday, a chance at first-team volume. Knight scored a touchdown and notched 12.4 points on his 12 touches Sunday, but he didn’t differentiate himself much from Carter, who scored 8.4 points on 11 touches. Knight is likely to be a bit overrated this week for the game against a tough Packers team.
Deep-league options/streamers/random thoughts
Steelers starter Jaylen Warren (knee) returned from a few weeks off and scored 8.3 points against the Browns. Meanwhile, Kenneth Gainwell (56.8%) caught six passes (though for only 14 yards), but his overall output was 9.6 points. This remains a timeshare, with Warren clearly the preferred choice. Although Gainwell has reached double-digit points in only one game, he continues to matter at a weak position in fantasy.
The Vikings and Texans enjoyed the bye in Week 6, and all four of the running backs for these teams relevant to fantasy remain rostered in more than 50% of leagues. Still, check your league for Texans Nick Chubb (68.2%) and Woody Marks (59.7%), as they face the Seahawks this week. They still come preferred to Browns backups Jerome Ford (24.9%) and Dylan Sampson (14.3%), who combined for 12.4 points in Sunday’s loss.
Wide receiver
play
1:26
What to make of the Patriots WR performance in Week 6 of fantasy
Field Yates breaks down the surprising performance from Kayshon Boutte and DeMario Douglas in the Patriots’ win over the Saints.
Kayshon Boutte, Patriots (7.0%): Boutte was featured in this space after his solid Week 1 outing, in which he caught six passes for 103 yards against the Las Vegas Raiders. Then Boutte caught a measly seven passes for 105 yards over the next four games, making his opening-week output look mighty aberrant. Well, the rather inconsistent Boutte returned to relevance Sunday against the New Orleans Saints, catching all five of his targets for 93 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Does any of this mean Boutte will have a big Week 7 game against the Titans? Nope, but QB Drake Maye is terrific, and the Titans, well, are not. Pats teammate DeMario Douglas (6.7%) scored 16.1 points Sunday, and he also gets to face the Titans!
Josh Downs, Colts (41.5%): Downs has reached double-digit points in three of six games so far. Those are the ones in which he has seven or more targets from resurgent QB Daniel Jones. In the other three games, Downs has not been targeted much, so he has not done much. We can’t be sure Jones will target Downs this week against the Chargers, but at this point, fantasy managers need to trust Jones, and Downs feels a bit too available. In addition, the Colts face the Titans in Week 8.
Deep-league options/streamers/random thoughts
Harrison might not play in Week 7 against the Packers, which means more attention for Michael Wilson (3.9%), Zay Jones (0.1%) and Greg Dortch (0.2%). Yeah, it’s not exactly a Hall of Fame crew for a Cardinals QB (to be named later) to throw to without Harrison (though TE Trey McBride might see 20 targets in Week 7). Jones scored 12.9 points in Sunday’s loss, but Wilson has been involved in the offense all season, and he feels more likely to matter.
Similarly, we do not know if Buccaneers rookie star Egbuka will be available to play on “Monday Night Football” against the Lions. Tez Johnson (0.0%), a rookie selected in the seventh round from Oregon, made the highlight reels with his 45-yard, fingertip touchdown, but it was his only catch Sunday. Kameron Johnson (0.0%) played more snaps and saw four targets, converting one into a touchdown. We recommend veteran Sterling Shepard (14.8%) first, then Kameron Johnson, but while Bucs head coach Todd Bowles already ruled outChris Godwin Jr. and RB Bucky Irving out for Week 7, for all we know Egbuka, and Mike Evans (hamstring) could still play. It is early in the week, but make plans in case neither can go.
San Francisco 49ers reserve Kendrick Bourne caught 10 passes for 142 yards while filling in for Ricky Pearsall and Jauan Jennings in Week 5, scoring a cool 24.2 points. He followed that up on Sunday with five catches for another 142 yards and a still-cool 19.2 points. Bourne, 29, has been around for a while and never surpassed 800 receiving yards in a season. At this rate of 142 yards per game, he would get there well before Thanksgiving. It is possible the 49ers QB (to be named later) will ignore Bourne when everyone else becomes healthy (including TE George Kittle), but take a chance for Week 7 against the Falcons.
Texans rookie Jayden Higgins (22.9%) caught five passes on six targets over the first four games of the season prior to the bye week, and then in Week 5 against the Ravens he caught four passes on as many targets. Perhaps star Nico Collins is the lone Texans WR worth relying on, but Higgins was a fantastic college player at Iowa State and a second-round draft pick. He should matter soon.
Tight end
Harold Fannin Jr., Browns (29.1%): This isn’t really an emerging passing game to invest in (yet), but Fannin caught 7 of 10 targets from fellow rookie Dillon Gabriel against the Steelers, and some of them came after starting TE David Njoku (knee) left early. Perhaps Njoku will miss some time. Fannin has scored double-digit points in three of six games, and the Browns face the Miami Dolphins in Week 7.
Deep-league options/streamers/random thoughts
Raiders star Brock Bowers (knee) has missed consecutive games, much to the chagrin of fantasy managers who expected another monster season. Backup Michael Mayer (3.1%) caught 5 of 7 targets for 50 yards and a touchdown on Sunday, his 16.0 points eclipsing any performance from Bowers this season. There will not be controversy for the Raiders, for Bowers is the starter when healthy, but Mayer is the only healthy one for this week.
Seahawks starter AJ Barner (10.1%) continues to produce fantasy-relevant numbers, but managers continue to rely on underachievers such as Njoku and the Ravens’ Mark Andrews. Barner scored 10.1 points against the Jaguars, the fourth time in five weeks he reached double digits. His is not major volume, and his touchdown rate is a bit high, but you can trust him in Week 7 and drop him for his bye in Week 8.
Bye weeks: Keep these players rostered
Bye weeks continue in Week 7 with the Buffalo Bills and Baltimore Ravens taking off. For the Bills, fantasy managers might wish to part with WRs Keon Coleman (75.5%) and Khalil Shakir (76.8%), along with TE Dalton Kincaid (78.7%). In each case, it would be more prudent to keep these players on your bench rather than dumping them for one-week fixes, if you can help it. This remains one of the top offenses in the league. Move on from the Bills D/ST (62.1%), though.
The bye week comes at a good time for the struggling Ravens, who might get QB Lamar Jackson (hamstring) back for Week 8 against the Bears. Fantasy managers must keep RB Derrick Henry and WR Zay Flowers through the bye as well. That is not the case with veteran TE Mark Andrews (84.3%), who scored 6.6 points on Sunday and boasts more than half of his season total from one Week 3 game. Meanwhile, why is the Ravens D/ST (41.0%) still so popular? Only the Cowboys D/ST has been worse for fantasy!
Defense/special teams
Deep-league options/streamers/random thoughts
The Browns continue to struggle to score points, so although the Dolphins don’t exactly play awesome defense, the Miami D/ST (2.5%) unit appears to be a useful streamer for Week 7.
The Giants D/ST (18.3%) scored 8.0 points in the victory over the Eagles, and it will face a Denver Broncos offense that scored only one touchdown in Week 6. The Giants have registered three or more sacks in half their games, and they create turnovers. Go with the Giants over the scuffling New York Jets (9.1%), who face the seemingly easier opponent in the Panthers. The Panthers have scored 57 points over the past two games and feature Dowdle and star rookie WR Tetairoa McMillan.
Tim Bontemps is a senior NBA writer for ESPN.com who covers the league and what’s impacting it on and off the court, including trade deadline intel, expansion and his MVP Straw Polls. You can find Tim alongside Brian Windhorst and Tim MacMahon on The Hoop Collective podcast.
The NBA might be in its depth era, but star power still wins the day.
In a sport in which only five players take the floor for each team at a time, a concentration of stars has been a clear way to build a championship-level team.
But even when a team doesn’t have a trio of ready-made stars, looking at the top three players on each roster is a good way to measure both the short- and long-term health of an organization and where a franchise is headed over the next few months and next few years.
With that rubric in mind, we not only have laid out the cores of all 30 NBA teams, but also ranked them in comparison to one another. And we’ve done so by taking into account both the group’s present and future value — along with the likelihood that these players will be with their respective teams for the medium to long term.
Who else could be atop this list? Not only did the Thunder win 68 games and their first championship last season, but they also did so with one of the youngest title-winning rosters in NBA history. Then, to cap things off, general manager Sam Presti went out this summer and proceeded to lock all three of his young cornerstones into long-term contract extensions — officially cementing the Thunder as the perennial favorites to lift the Larry O’Brien Trophy for the foreseeable future.
Denver is a pair of rough Western Conference semifinal Game 7s — blowing a 20-point lead at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves two years ago before playing with an injured Gordon against the Thunder last season — from having a potential chance at ripping off three straight titles. Denver still has the best player in the sport in Nikola Jokic, though, and a pair of co-stars who fit extremely well alongside him in Murray and Gordon. They both have delivered repeatedly in huge playoff moments.
Last year: Gordon, Jokic, Murray
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1:20
Is Nikola Jokic the best player in the NBA?
The “NBA Today” crew discusses a preseason poll naming Nikola Jokic the best player in the NBA.
The Cavaliers, like the Thunder, have a trio of prime-age or younger stars locked into long-term contracts and a team that won 64 games last season. Unlike the Thunder, however, Cleveland was unable to follow it with playoff success, losing in five games to the Indiana Pacers in the second round. That is why the Cavaliers are placed here and not even higher up this list. A strong playoff run next spring, and that will quickly change.
New York enters the season having moved on from coach Tom Thibodeau after reaching the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years — a clear indication that the Knicks believe this group is good enough to finally snap a half-century championship drought. Brunson and Towns are two of the best offensive point guards and centers, respectively, in the league, while Anunoby is as good as any defender on the wing on top of becoming an excellent 3-point shooter, too.
For the second straight season, the Hawks have the same trio leading the way, all while the franchise has undergone a rapid and fascinating reimagining of the roster by newly installed general manager Onsi Saleh. Trae Young remains this team’s best player. Kristaps Porzingis could be its second. And yet, both players are able to be unrestricted free agents next summer. Meanwhile Daniels was last season’s Most Improved Player, Johnson — if he can stay healthy — is a popular breakout candidate and Risacher, although no Cooper Flagg or Victor Wembanyama, had a fine rookie season after Atlanta selected him No. 1 in the 2024 draft.
A year ago, there were massive questions about the Pistons’ roster. They began with Cunningham, and whether he was capable of being the kind of star leader a franchise needs to become a factor in the playoffs. Cunningham responded with a brilliant campaign, earning All-Star and All-NBA honors for the first time while leading Detroit back to the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Questions remain about the rest of the roster, but there are several intriguing young players such as Holland, Thompson, Jaden Ivey and Jalen Duren, who could all fill the remaining core spots around Cunningham.
A lot has changed in Houston over the past year. Thompson was a very near miss from inclusion in this group a year ago, and in hindsight that was an obvious mistake. The No. 4 pick in the 2023 NBA draft continues to blossom into a star and has a chance to take another massive leap forward this season due to the unfortunate torn ACL for Fred VanVleet last month during preseason workouts. Although I’m sure you’re thinking, “No Kevin Durant? Really?” remember the purpose of this list. Durant remains — at least for now — without a contract extension, and Sheppard could be the team’s starting point guard this season and remains a key player for Houston long term.
Last year: Sengun, Sheppard, VanVleet
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1:26
Perk: The Rockets are going to be the NBA’s best offensive team
Kendrick Perkins breaks down his optimism for the Rockets’ offense after an impressive performance vs. the Jazz.
After advancing out of the first round of the playoffs once in its first 34 years of existence, Minnesota has now done so in back-to-back seasons, reaching the Western Conference finals before losing to the Dallas Mavericks and Oklahoma City Thunder, respectively. The question now is how Minnesota will find a way to advance further — especially with the Thunder looming over the West moving forward. The answer will begin with continued improvement from Edwards and McDaniels. Randle moves into the core after inking a long-term extension with the franchise this offseason.
Orlando’s season going sideways last year when Jalen Suggs suffered a knee injury is a sign of just how important he is — despite the fact that he, unlike Banchero and Wagner, is not on a max contract. But Orlando paid a king’s ransom to land Bane — a perfect complement to its three young homegrown players — this summer, and Suggs is still sidelined with the knee injury, so Bane moves into the core for this group. The Magic’s season will likely hinge on whether Banchero and Wagner can make improvements in their efficiency this season — which, if they can, could lead to huge success in a wide-open East.
How do you get picked fourth and win Rookie of the Year, as Stephon Castle did last season, and fall out of a team’s core? By that same team trading for an All-Star point guard (Fox) and drafting another (Harper) with the second pick after jumping up in the lottery, as the Spurs did over the past few months. How all of these different players fit around the one certain core player in San Antonio for the foreseeable future, Wembanyama, will be one of the big stories of the upcoming NBA season.
A year ago, Boston was coming off raising banner No. 18 to the TD Garden rafters and looked poised to have a real chance at claiming a 19th title. Then came Tatum’s unfortunate torn Achilles in May against the Knicks in the conference semifinals. Now, Boston is likely to spend this season spinning its wheels waiting for Tatum to get back and give this group a chance to potentially be back in the title fight again in 2026-27. Until then, though, Brown and White will still remain two of the better wing players in the NBA, and the envy of most of the opponents they’ll come up against this season.
Last year: Brown, Tatum, White
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2:22
Jayson Tatum: ‘I haven’t said I’m not playing this season’
Jayson Tatum tells Stephen A. Smith he hasn’t ruled out playing this season and has spoken to Tyrese Haliburton about them both suffering with an Achilles injury.
Entering Game 7 of the NBA Finals, Indiana was likely going to be right near the top of this list after a remarkable playoff run that featured a series of historic comebacks fueled by the style of play coach Rick Carlisle and Haliburton have employed in Indianapolis. But after Haliburton suffered an Achilles tear in that final game of the 2024-25 campaign, the Pacers are also staring at a long 12 months until his likely return at the start of next season. One silver lining? Although Bennedict Mathurin fell out of the team’s core thanks to the emergence of Nembhard, who had another brilliant playoff run, Haliburton’s absence could give the former lottery pick a chance to reestablish himself with the Pacers.
Last year: Haliburton, Siakam, Mathurin
Tier 6: Old stars with big questions
Dallas Mavericks: Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg, Kyrie Irving
Things are drastically different in Dallas compared to a year ago, when the Mavericks had Luka Doncic and Irving together in a backcourt that was coming off an NBA Finals appearance. Now, Irving has a torn ACL, Doncic is in Los Angeles and — after a stunning bit of lottery luck — Flagg is the star of the show, playing alongside Davis in the Mavericks’ frontcourt. It’s all pretty hard to believe, even months after it all took place. Still, Dallas could have a chance to be a factor this season — but that will require Flagg to instantly contribute, Davis to remain healthy and Irving to come back from his knee injury ready to go by playoff time.
Last season, the Warriors went 22-5 with Butler and Curry both available after acquiring Butler at the trade deadline from the Miami Heat, and they feel they’d have advanced to the Western Conference finals if they hadn’t lost Curry for the rest of the series against the Minnesota Timberwolves with a hamstring injury. There’s little doubt this team has a very high ceiling — if healthy. But given their core is all 35 or older, the “if healthy” question is going to follow this group around all season long.
The Clippers had a very productive offseason, going out and landing John Collins, Brook Lopez, Bradley Beal and Chris Paul, and should get strong seasons from both Harden and Zubac. Questions about Leonard — both on and off the court — hang over this team like a lead balloon, however. Can Leonard, who has missed just over 40% of the possible games he could’ve played for the Clippers over the past six seasons, and played just 37 last season, stay healthy? And, with the investigation into potential cap circumvention ongoing, will that cause any issues for him and the Clippers? Only time will tell on both fronts.
The Lakers — fairly — believe a team led by Doncic and James can contend with anyone. However, that requires both players to be healthy. And with James already dealing with a sciatica problem that threatens the start of his season for the first time in his remarkable career — plus his status as the league’s oldest player, who is approaching his 41st birthday — health is going to be a constant question. And that’s before the potential shooting issues, as well as the perimeter and interior defensive concerns for this team.
As ESPN’s Shams Charania reported last week, Antetokounmpo’s future in Milwaukee is a much-discussed — and planned-for — topic around the NBA. But as the season approaches, he remains a Buck, and he should be an MVP candidate this season if he remains healthy given how much he’s going to have the ball in his hands. Although Turner slots in for Brook Lopez as the floor-spacing center in the core, the drop-off from Damian Lillard — now back in Portland — to Portis (or Kyle Kuzma or AJ Green or whomever you choose for the third person to be) is massive and shows why it could be a challenging year in Milwaukee, even with a healthy Antetokounmpo terrorizing opponents.
Here’s all you need to know about the state of things in Memphis: Jackson is recovering from offseason surgery; Morant is now likely to miss the start of the season with an ankle sprain; Zach Edey is also recovering from offseason surgery; and both Jaylen Wells, No. 3 in last season’s Rookie of the Year balloting, and Coward, whom Memphis leapt up in the draft to take at No. 11 this past June, ended last season hurt. The Desmond Bane trade reconstituted the Grizzlies’ roster — Memphis subsequently placed a big bet on Coward — but this team can still go only as far as Morant and Jackson can take it. This is also another reminder of how fast things can change in the NBA, as it wasn’t long ago that Morant-Jackson-Bane was seen as one of the elite, young cornerstone foundations in the league.
Questions? In Philadelphia? Never! Jokes aside, obviously the elephant in the room is the health of Embiid, let alone that of Paul George. If the two of them can stay on the court this season, Philadelphia could be a factor in the East. But there’s no certainty of when, or how often, we will see the two 76ers stars out there. George, meanwhile, is in the second year of a max extension that he signed as a free agent last summer, but he falls out of the core this season in favor of Edgecombe, the third pick in June’s draft.
Last year: Embiid, Maxey, George
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1:35
Shams Charania expects Erik Spoelstra to coach Team USA for multiple cycles
Shams Charania joins “The Pat McAfee Show” to discuss Erik Spoelstra being named the head coach for Team USA men’s basketball.
This is a franchise perpetually stuck in the mud. One could argue the Bulls should be in a lower tier than this — but that would be saying the Bulls are definitely going to be committed to bottoming out and rebuilding. History suggests they will win 38 or 39 games and be in the play-in — which, in this season’s East, is very possible. After signing a long-term deal this offseason, Giddey is a core player. Coby White, although the team’s best player, is not as he enters the season on an expiring deal. Instead, the No. 12 pick in this year’s draft, Essengue, is one alongside Buzelis, last year’s No. 11 pick.
The Heat are not a team accustomed to being stuck anywhere, but that’s where they seem to be after yet another play-in finish last season. With Butler now having decamped to Golden State, the Heat are officially on the hunt for their next long-term star to pair with Adebayo. Perhaps that player is Herro, if he can make another big leap after a great season earned him his first All-Star berth. Ware, too, has a lot of promise as a super-active, long defensive big. But this team needs more if it’s going to leap out of the doldrums — even in the East.
The seven-game series against the Warriors in the first round of the 2023 playoffs feels like a decade ago now. De’Aaron Fox is now in San Antonio, Mike Brown is now in New York, and the Kings have morphed into a bizarro version of the Chicago Bulls with LaVine and DeMar DeRozan back together again. Murray is likely to get an extension done with Sacramento in the coming days, but he’s the one long-term bright spot on this roster despite missing the first several weeks of the upcoming season with a thumb injury. The rest? Either in their prime or aging out of it, and it’s unclear what path this team will take from here.
Barnes was guaranteed to be a part of this core after agreeing to a massive max contract extension, but who would be alongside him? It turns out, it’s last season’s big trade deadline acquisition, Ingram, and Toronto’s big offseason acquisition, Murray-Boyles, the No. 9 pick in June’s NBA draft. Still, it’s hard to see the long-term upside of this group to be anything more than what the tail end of the previous Raptors playoff team was: one good enough to make it and lose in a competitive first-round series.
The Hornets, now in their second full season under general manager Jeff Peterson and coach Charles Lee, will hope to see their collection of interesting young talent on the court far more often this season, after a number of injuries — including to Ball and Miller — precluded it last season. What the injury woes did do, however, was give the Hornets the chance to land Knueppel with the fourth pick in June’s draft. He should be a perfect complement alongside Ball and Miller on the wings. The questions, though, are inside, where Charlotte is back to square one after sending Mark Williams, a core member last season, to Phoenix in June after the failed trade to the Lakers back in February.
Williamson showed up for training camp in great shape for New Orleans, and the Pelicans hope that finally translates into sustained health and high-level play from him this season. But although Dejounte Murray and Trey Murphy remain in New Orleans, the man who traded for Murray and drafted and extended Murphy — David Griffin — is not. So, instead, the two lottery picks from the new front office, Fears and Queen, become core members for the Pelicans going forward. Queen will be fascinating to watch given all the attention around the trade the Pelicans made to acquire him, which included giving up an unprotected pick in next year’s loaded draft to Atlanta.
What a difference a year makes. Last year at this time, the Suns had a wildly expensive roster built around three big stars — Booker, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. Now, Durant and Beal are gone, Booker remains, and the Suns — who have dead money on their books for the rest of the decade and none of their own draft picks under their control for the same time period — are starting a rebuild. There are some interesting young players, led by Dunn and Maluach, but it’s going to take time for Phoenix to turn this around — and the Suns are going to need to show more patience than they have at any point since Mat Ishbia bought the team two-plus years ago.
If you need any hint to the direction of the Nets, look no further than June’s NBA draft, when Brooklyn had five first-round picks — and kept all of them, drafting Demin, Traore, guards Drake Powell and Ben Saraf, and big man Danny Wolf. They, along with Noah Clowney, a first-round pick two years ago, are the future in Brooklyn — along with whomever the Nets land in the 2026 draft. Claxton remains a core member because he’s on a long-term deal and, given he’s in his mid-20s, should still be able to rediscover his prior form. Cam Thomas, on the other hand, is not, after he signed the one-year qualifying offer this offseason.
There are few teams harder to parse in terms of their direction than Portland. The Blazers have a roster full of interesting young talents, such as Clingan, Sharpe, Scoot Henderson and Yang Hansen. But then they went out this offseason and traded for Jrue Holiday and re-signed Lillard, who won’t play all season. Will Jerami Grant start? Will Henderson when he comes back from a hamstring injury? Where does Deni Advija, who was arguably the team’s best player last year, fit in the starting five – or does he? There’s just so much noise here that it’s hard to know exactly what Portland’s goals are — which will make for a very fascinating season.
The Jazz, once again, kept the dubious distinction of having never moved up once in the NBA’s draft lottery, causing them to land the fifth pick after having the league’s worst record. Still, they wound up drafting Bailey, who spent all season as a consensus top-three selection, as the first move of Austin Ainge’s tenure as the team’s president of basketball operations. He quickly followed it up by landing Clayton, the national championship-winning point guard, with the No. 18 pick to make him a core player, as well. Walker Kessler, without a contract extension, isn’t one, and Markkanen will look to get back to the form he showed two years ago.
Another team that had its high lottery hopes dashed in the lottery, the Wizards are once again committed to playing and developing their young talent. That’s why Coulibaly, Sarr and Johnson — their top picks in each of the past three drafts, respectively — remain the top three players in Washington’s core. This season, though, will be about continuing to see who can emerge from the many young players the Wizards have assembled, as they’re now up to 10 players on first-round rookie contracts on their roster.
Minnesota Timberwolves: 
Dallas Mavericks: Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg, 
Miami Heat: 
