RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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LeBron James was never going to make everyone happy with his free agency decision. While the 76ers are the fortunate team to secure his talents, a host of other suitors must now pivot to try and compete with them in the championship race. Not everyone is fully convinced Philadelphia was the perfect landing spot for the King, but none of our NBA experts are particularly puzzled by the move. John Gonzalez is the biggest fan of James' decision, and he explained why he graded it as an "A+."
The 76ers still have one major hurdle to jump, however. The reigning NBA champions reside in their conference and are not going anywhere. Plus, there are a few very real contenders behind them who could make them pay if the injury bug bites or if things take some time to mesh.
These three teams in our new Eastern Conference Power Rankings will be hot on the 76ers' heels:
All of the teams that whiffed on landing James are obvious losers from this whole saga . The Warriors might be the most unfortunate of the bunch, though. Any hope of contending at the top of the Western Conference probably just went out the window. Where do they go from here? While our Sam Quinn says that teams like the Timberwolves and Heat still have paths to championships in the next couple of years , the window is now closed on Golden State.
If you're a middle-of-the-road baseball team, chances are you are torn between buying and selling. The Wild Card races in both leagues are so unbelievably wide open this year that more clubs than usual face tough decisions about whether to mortgage their futures to win now or sell off their veterans and move on to next year.
An ill-timed losing streak or an opportune winning binge could turn a "buy" decision into a "sell" over the next week. The biggest movers in our MLB Power Rankings this week happen to reside on that bubble:
And then there's the question of the Tigers . After splitting a four-game series with the Royals , they are up one spot to No. 18 in our rankings and face the greatest uncertainty of them all. Here's our Matt Snyder on the situation in Detroit:
⚾ Mariners at Rangers, 2:35 p.m. on ESPN Unlimited ⚾ Guardians at Reds, 7 p.m. on ESPN 🤼 WWE Raw, 8 p.m. on Netflix ⚾ Red Sox at Athletics, 9:40 p.m. on MLB Network
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