Top-30 recruit MarJon Beauchamp plans to skip college and instead work out with a training program to prepare for the 2021 NBA draft.

Beauchamp will begin the yearlong program at Chameleon BX following his senior year of high school. He will attend Dream City Christian (Arizona) for his final high school season.

"It's 100 percent," Beauchamp said of his decision.

Chameleon BX is a San Francisco-based training program developed by Frank Matrisciano, who worked at Memphis from 2011-14 and has worked with the likes of Blake Griffin.

"It's a 12-month plan, strictly will be training and getting my body where it needs to be," Beauchamp said. "Just living like a pro these whole 12 months, learning responsibilities and working with NBA coaches who had experience, I think it's the best route for me."

Beauchamp, a 6-foot-6 small forward from Seattle, is ranked No. 29 in the ESPN 100 for the 2020 class. He's the No. 5 small forward in the country.

Arizona, Washington, Alabama and others had extended scholarship offers to Beauchamp.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat has been added to USA Basketball's national team roster for the FIBA World Cup, while Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons and Montrezl Harrell of the Los Angeles Clippers have withdrawn from the squad.

Adebayo's addition means the national team has 16 players in advance of training camp that starts Monday in Las Vegas. The U.S. will take 12 players to China later this month for the World Cup, which starts Aug. 31.

Also Thursday, USA Basketball announced the addition of Memphis' Jaren Jackson Jr. to the select team for training camp. The select team, which will work out against the national team next week in Las Vegas, now has 14 players.

Oklahoma City and forward Patrick Patterson have agreed to a buyout on the final season of his contract, allowing him to become a free agent, league sources tell ESPN.

Once his $5.7 million deal clear waivers this week, Patterson's intention is to sign with the LA Clippers, league sources tell ESPN.

The Clippers, with two available roster spots, are constructing a frontcourt bench to support its two new forwards - Kawhi Leonard and Paul George.

Patterson, 30, was never able to find consistent traction in a role with the Thunder in his two seasons there. He averaged less than 10 minutes a game - far different than the impactful the previous three seasons with the Toronto Raptors. In nine NBA seasons, Patterson has averaged nearly seven points and four rebounds. He's had stops with the Rockets, Kings, Raptors and Thunder.

New Orleans Pelicans executive vice president David Griffin detailed the challenges of his three seasons working with LeBron James as Cleveland Cavaliers general manager, saying the experience was "miserable" and questioning James' winning instinct in Los Angeles.

Griffin told Sports Illustrated for a story published Thursday that the annual challenge of building a title contender around James was too stressful, even if it did result in a championship in 2016.

"Everything we did was so inorganic and unsustainable and, frankly, not fun. I was miserable," Griffin said. "Literally the moment we won the championship I knew I was gonna leave. There was no way I was gonna stay for any amount of money."

Winning a title in his home state also has affected James' mindset on the court, said Griffin, who wonders if James, now with the Los Angeles Lakers, is more preoccupied with other priorities.

"There wasn't a lot else for him," Griffin said. "I don't think he's the same animal anymore about winning."

Griffin told SI that he privately wept the night the Cavaliers won the title, saying he was so obsessed with winning that he "didn't love the game anymore."

Griffin ultimately parted ways with the Cavaliers in June 2017, with his contract set to expire at the end of that month.

"LeBron is getting all the credit and none of the blame. And that's not fun for people," Griffin said of the challenge of working with and playing with James. "They don't like being part of that world."

The Pelicans hired Griffin in April, and he has quickly reworked the roster after losing Anthony Davis by building around No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson. Griffin said he will continue adding players if the postseason is within reach this season.

"People are gonna be like, 'What the f--- are they doing?'" he said. "We're trying to win basketball games!"

THE UNMISTAKABLE WAIL of electric guitar prompted Nick Nurse to bound to his feet. The grand finale he'd been waiting on was finally here, and the Toronto Raptors coach waved his arms to the heavens, gleefully swaying to the beat with the rest of the packed house at the Tropicana in Las Vegas.

What Prince fan doesn't love "Purple Rain"? Although the high priest of pop had died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2016, Nurse was sold on impersonator Jason Tenner, who, on this steamy July 5 evening, felt to him like the real deal. He turned and grinned at Raptors assistant coach Nate Bjorkgren, who had toiled alongside Nurse in the G League with the Iowa Energy before joining him in Toronto, where they had just delivered the first title in franchise history.

The two young coaches, still immersed in their championship stupor, bumped fists, then crooned in unison, "I never want to cause you any sorrow ... I never want to cause you any pain ... I only wanted to see you laughing ... in the purple rain."

It was too loud to hear their phones as the song hit its crescendo, but both Nurse and Bjorkgren had their cells on vibrate. Instinctively, they reached for their pockets, as manufactured purple haze from the Vegas extravaganza swallowed them.

Nurse looked down. The text message simply read, "I'm going home."

Kawhi Leonard was gone.

Meanwhile, just outside of Los Angeles proper, Clippers coach Doc Rivers picked at his meticulously prepared Dover sole, his favorite meal at his regular Malibu haunt, Nobu, where the wine was flowing as he shared dinner with friends. But Rivers was distracted. It was July 5, and the call should have come by now.

It hadn't, and Rivers' companions, who had no connection to the NBA, understood why he stole repeated glances at his phone, fretting about the spotty service, about the time ticking away, about the magnitude this potential transaction would have on his franchise and his career.

Just 15 months ago, Rivers' future was murky. His team had blown up its core, seemingly headed for the kind of reboot Rivers had bolted Boston to avoid. He had to wait before finally securing an extension from a supportive but demanding owner, Steve Ballmer, who wanted to win -- now.

The quest for Kawhi Leonard had been thorny, complicated. A flurry of text messages from Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank updated Rivers regularly as the lateral pursuit of Paul George, the bait that would entice the big fish to bite, began in earnest. Oklahoma City's price was steep -- an insistence on young point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, a player Doc adored, and multiple first-round picks. Ballmer drew the line at four. Rivers trusted Frank, his longtime friend and colleague, to manage the negotiations, but it didn't stop him from sheepishly excusing himself from his Nobu table, stepping outside the oceanfront eatery and calling Ballmer himself to implore him to throw in that fifth first-round selection.

"It wasn't just for Paul George," Rivers would explain afterward, "it was for Paul George and Kawhi. We weren't getting one without the other."

Rivers returned, attempting to engage in the lively conversation at his table. It was pointless. His fish was cold and his phone had gone silent.

Deathly silent.

"I can't do this," he thought, but his screen suddenly lit up. And before Doc could get by the Bonsai tree outside Nobu's exit, he was on the phone.

"We got 'em!" Frank declared.

PLAYER EMPOWERMENT MAY have NBA athletes buzzing with excitement, but it has sent the stress level of coaches soaring to new, unparalleled heights, afflicting everyone from young upstarts to the most established tacticians in the game. In an instant, it can fortify or decimate a roster, make or break a coach's resume and obliterate a carefully crafted long-term blueprint for franchise success.

"The truth is our business is quite fatal," says Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle, who is the president of the NBA Coaches Association. "But contracts are historically strong. I believe ownership more than ever understands the need for coaching and continuity."

Not all of his brethren agree. The average term for an NBA coach is 3.8 years, but that number is a bit inflated by the long tenures of San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich (23 seasons), Miami Heat coach Eric Spoelstra (11) and Carlisle (11). Subtract those and the mean of the remaining 27 coaches drops to 2.6 years. Teams traditionally map out a five-year plan (or longer) for growth, factoring in future drafts, trades and free-agency signings.

"But you can throw that out the window now," says New Orleans Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry. "There's too much movement -- too much unexpected movement. You can't plan beyond next year."

So, while NBA fans celebrate the whims of the supernovas, coaches brood over how it affects their future.

"If a team spends all this money and resources to get the best players, you know they will cater to them," says one Western Conference coach. "And if that player says, 'I want that coach gone,' what recourse do we have?"

Star players wielding their muscle is not a new concept. Earvin "Magic" Johnson famously pressured the Lakers to relieve Paul Westhead of his duties in 1981. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar demanded a trade from Milwaukee to Los Angeles while still under contract in 1975, and Charles Barkley bullied his way out of Philadelphia in 1992.

"You have Paul George, one of our premier players in the league, who was paid very well by the team, suddenly announce, 'Hey, I want to be traded.' You have no recourse but to get the best deal you can."

Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry

But those Hall of Famers were the exception to the rule. Players from earlier generations, who valued security over movement, mostly stayed put. They also did not engage in camaraderie with their opponents. As Magic opined at a recent event, "I wanted to beat Larry Bird, not play with him."

"The league has always revolved around the top 15 guys," explains Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr. "But how many of them left? Larry [Bird] stayed, Magic [Johnson] stayed, Tim Duncan stayed, Kobe [Bryant] stayed, even Michael [Jordan] mostly stayed.

"What's shocking is the caliber of the players -- LeBron, KD, Kawhi -- that are leaving. And they kind of run the league."

Kerr says he has no issue with players departing in free agency, but he does take umbrage with those who force their way out of town before their contracts are up, citing both Anthony Davis and Paul George as examples.

"That's the real danger," says Kerr. "That's where you start to get concerned. At least I do. As for our league, it's bad for business."

Gentry says there's a right way and a wrong way to request a trade. If a star agrees to work privately with the franchise, and agrees to wait until the offseason, he says, it avoids high-profile disruptions that hurt both the player and the team.

"I'm a realist," Gentry says. "When Anthony signed with Klutch Sports, I knew what was going to happen. They told me, 'No, we're not trying to get him traded,' but we all realized it was just a matter of time.

"I understand that some players feel the need to move on. With Anthony, it could have and should have been handled differently. If it was, I would have been OK with the situation."

After George requested his trade from the Thunder -- and pushed to have it consummated within 48 hours -- Oklahoma City Thunder general manager Sam Presti lamented the ability of players under contract to talk with and recruit one another without penalty. It is one of many factors the league office is considering.

"You have Paul George, one of our premier players in the league, who was paid very well by the team, suddenly announce, 'Hey, I want to be traded,'" Gentry says. "You have no recourse but to get the best deal you can.

"I hear players say, 'Why is it different from a team trading us?' Because this isn't football, where they can say, 'If you're not playing well, we're gonna cut you and you won't get paid.' We pay our players and it's guaranteed."

Gentry feels the league is to the point that contracts "don't really mean anything anymore, so make them all two-year deals. It will save us a lot of headaches."

Nurse knew all along that Leonard was potentially a one-year rental. When he saw Kawhi's text, he cursed, then exhaled, then resumed waving his arms to "Purple Rain." No one, he reasoned, tried to wrest the Larry O'Brien trophy away from him upon hearing the news.

It wasn't as though Kawhi's decision to leave a championship culture lacked precedent. Just one summer previously, Leonard, upset over the treatment he received for tendinopathy in his right thigh, rejected Popovich, the most respected coach in the game, by demanding a trade and leaving carnage that haunts that organization to this day.

Not even the most vaunted franchises in NBA history are immune to the movement.

STEVE KERR DROPPED his bag alongside a lounge chair on the beach, purposely choosing a quiet spot away from other sunbathers who were enjoying Hawaii's spectacular surf. He craved the solitude, attempting to decompress from the most taxing and emotionally wrenching finish to his coaching career, climaxing with catastrophic injuries to both Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson that left the Warriors under intense scrutiny.

"I was fried," Kerr admits now.

He settled into his chair and opened his book, "Billion Dollar Whale," the true story of a social climber who pulled off one of the most incredible heists in the history of the financial industry. Kerr purposely left his cell phone in his resort hotel room, even though it was July 1, the start of the free-agent frenzy. He became momentarily lost in the text of his book, until a 30-something man not 30 feet away from the Golden State coach, who had not recognized Kerr, suddenly screeched.

"Oh my god!" he exclaimed to his buddy. "KD is going to the Nets!"

Approximately 5,000 miles away from the sandy beaches, Brooklyn Nets coach Kenny Atkinson paced in general manager Sean Marks' office, watching the seconds tick off to the official start of free agency. Atkinson couldn't fathom why everyone had forecast them as the favorites to land Durant. Neither he nor Marks had spoken to KD. He had never been to visit the team's facility. None of it made sense to him.

"I [was] naturally skeptical," Atkinson confesses now.

Brooklyn dutifully had its white board carefully organized with Plan A, B, C and D. The Nets felt confident that Kyrie Irving, who had soured on the Boston Celtics, was coming. Durant was the unknown kingpin that would topple all the free-agent dominoes once he made his decision.

KD said he'd reveal his destination on his Instagram page. Within seconds of 6 p.m. ET, Nets staffers were shouting, hugging, whooping and cheering. Atkinson glanced at the screen, as music from Brooklyn rapper Notorious B.I.G. played in the background.

There it was: Durant declaring his love for the Brooklyn Nets.

A report of the former MVP's move had broken barely an hour earlier, but the Nets coach wanted confirmation directly from the source before suspending his disbelief.

"Even when I saw it," Atkinson says, "I didn't believe it. Durant is going to leave Golden State? I just couldn't wrap my head around it."

Marks answered his cell phone. He engaged in a brief conversation with Rich Kleiman, Durant's agent.

He turned to his coach, beaming.

"It's true," Marks said.

KERR DOESN'T EXPECT anyone to feel sorry for him. He points out that he and the Warriors were the beneficiary of player movement just three summers ago, when Durant spurned the Thunder for the Warriors as a free agent. Ironically, Kerr says, he was sitting on the same beach when he learned of that fortuitous windfall, which led to two championships and two NBA Finals MVP trophies for Durant.

"Hawaii giveth," says Kerr wryly, "and taketh away."

Because of Durant's departure, and Thompson's torn ACL, Golden State is suddenly no longer an NBA favorite. Nor is Toronto. Or Boston, which lost Irving and Al Horford to division rivals. In an instant, the NBA's power structure has shifted.

"It feels unfair, in a way," Atkinson admits. "Can you do a better job than Steve Kerr has? And what about Nick Nurse? He had this storybook year, winning in his first year as head coach. You wonder why the players wouldn't say, 'Can't we keep this going?'

"But I do like the players having the right to choose. We live in this free-market society yet we have a socialistic athletic structure."

Warren LeGarie represents dozens of NBA coaches, Nurse and the Houston Rockets' Mike D'Antoni among them. He says that what his clients require more than ever is support from above so they can maintain their authoritative voice with the players.

"The only way coaches have a chance is for management to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them so there's no space between them to try to divide them," LeGarie says. "Once they're divided, things start to fall apart."

D'Antoni understands that concept all too well. He still has his job, but he is in the final year of his deal after the Rockets offered him only a partially guaranteed extension. In addition, Daryl Morey would not allow him to bring back a number of his assistant coaches, including defensive wizard Jeff Bzdelik, whom the team begged to come out of retirement last winter as it faltered.

"Jeff is not only a great coach, he's a great friend and I would have loved to have him back," says D'Antoni. "When [front offices] want to make changes, they're going to make changes, whether I like it or not. You get upset for a while. It's hard personally, because you think to yourself, 'Did I contribute to this? Was there something I could have done?'"

D'Antoni has been indirectly impacted by the flurry of free agents. Once George forced his way off the Thunder, OKC decided to trade Russell Westbrook, who landed in Houston in exchange for Chris Paul, one of many Rockets players who endured summer trade rumors.

"I keep in contact with the players all the time," D'Antoni says. "We're in the same boat. They could be gone, I could be gone, they could get traded, I could get fired.

"Being upset over what happened in the summer? I'll make sure we handle it. We'll build back up that team trust and go out and try again."

IT BECAME REAL for Atkinson when Durant showed up to the Nets' practice facility about an hour after his free-agency announcement. Atkinson embarked on his speech about the team's excellent culture, their work ethic and then stopped himself. Why was he pitching somebody who had already committed?

"I'm talking to KD and he's looking around at our facility and saying, 'Wow, this is fantastic. What a view of the city!'" Atkinson says.

Atkinson knows his days of operating in relative obscurity are over. There is suddenly pressure to win -- soon -- and it will be up to him to manage the egos of Durant and Irving, which proved to be a tall order for their previous teams.

"We know our path will be different," Atkinson says. "It's part of the evolution of our franchise and my own personal evolution.

"It would be great to think the 'little engine that could' can win it all, but the consensus is 'No, you have to have top talent to win.'

"So, now our job is, 'How do we keep [Durant and Irving] here without compromising our culture?' It's a great challenge for us to figure out. Who wouldn't want this opportunity?"

Nurse, who is suddenly devoid of pressure, has his own decisions to make. He needs to reintegrate OG Anunoby, who missed parts of last season with injuries. He is thinking of moving Pascal Siakam, who should be poised for a breakout season, from power forward to small forward.

"I saw Fred [VanVleet] and Pascal the day after [Kawhi left]," Nurse says. "I told them, 'There are 20-plus shots up for grabs.' They both grabbed their right shoulders and said, 'We're ready.'"

Rivers knows it is championship or bust for the new Clippers. He also knows how difficult it is to land the Big One. In 2000, he nearly wooed Tim Duncan away from San Antonio to Orlando. It has long been reported that Duncan declined because Rivers told him families were not allowed on the team plane ("a myth that's been repeated forever -- not true," Rivers insists).

"We made a strong case for Duncan, but I never truly believed he'd actually come," Rivers admits. "It was better that way, because if I thought he was coming and he didn't, I would have been heartbroken."

Will Davis leave the Lakers, who traded away a bushel of young assets, heartbroken? In response to a question about his future, Davis told ESPN's Rachel Nichols recently, "I don't know what's gonna happen. I have one year here."

"And can you imagine," muses Kerr, "if Kawhi opts out in his second year after all the Clippers gave up?"

This is the new NBA. Players control their destiny, teams are mortgaging their future to appease them and coaches have to learn to adapt on the fly.

"You say players are empowered," Carlisle says. "It's our job now to empower them more.

"And if you don't figure out how to do that, you won't be employed very long."

The San Francisco Giants have placed outfielder Alex Dickerson on the 10-day injured list with a right oblique strain.

The Giants announced the move before Thursday afternoon's game against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Dickerson, 29, missed two straight seasons in 2017 and 2018 because of back and elbow injuries. The Giants have not disclosed how long he will be out because of the oblique strain.

Dickerson has been outstanding since being acquired by the Giants in a June trade with the San Diego Padres, batting .386 with six home runs, 23 RBIs and a 1.222 OPS in 30 games.

The Giants made a pair of other roster moves Thursday, promoting left-hander Sam Selman from Triple-A Sacramento and designating right-hander Dan Winkler for assignment.

San Francisco acquired Winkler on Wednesday in the trade that sent Mark Melancon to the Atlanta Braves.

LOS ANGELES -- If the Los Angeles Dodgers, owners of baseball's best record, don't win this year's World Series, the focus -- fair or not -- will probably shift back to July 31, 2019, the day the team's front office failed to secure the high-end reliever it so desperately needed and coveted.

Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers' president of baseball operations, sounded like a man at peace with that possibility.

"Everybody knows how hard we worked at it," Friedman said, "how much we wanted for it to happen."

The Dodgers pursued the likes of Felipe Vazquez and Brad Hand and Will Smith and Edwin Diaz, but came away with none of them. Instead, they made the type of depth-conscious additions previously relegated to the August waiver period, before Major League Baseball imposed a hard deadline for the 2019 season.

They added Jedd Gyorko, a right-handed-hitting infielder who can provide insurance for David Freese, Chris Taylor and Enrique Hernandez, all of whom, like Gyorko, currently reside on the injured list. And they added Adam Kolarek, a sidearm left-handed reliever who has allowed only five runs over his past 17 innings, but in no way represents the dominant late-inning bullpen arm many expected.

The Dodgers had a very specific need heading into the deadline, which limited their chances of securing it. And the asking price for that need was high, as evidenced by the fact that none of the aforementioned relievers switched teams. Friedman stressed that he was aggressive in his pursuit, maintaining negotiations with multiple clubs leading up to Wednesday's 4 p.m. ET deadline. He also countered what has become a stereotype for young, analytically driven front offices -- that they are too obsessed with winning trades to make them.

"I don't think this is something where we were looking to win a deal from a value standpoint," Friedman said on a conference call. "You kind of expect in July not to do that. We made plenty of offers that were definitely under water from a value standpoint but felt good about making because of the pieces that we have.

"But things have a funny way of playing out. A year or two from now, that could end up having been a really good thing. We're not sure. But as far as process and the conversations and how aggressive we were, we felt really good about what we could control."

In four prior seasons, Friedman has acquired Manny Machado, Yu Darvish, Rich Hill, Josh Reddick, Alex Wood and Tony Watson for late-season pushes. This year, however, he was unwilling to meet the high demands for the high-end relievers he sought, ultimately keeping top prospects such as Gavin Lux, Dustin May and Keibert Ruiz.

The Dodgers reportedly had conversations with the Detroit Tigers about breakout closer Shane Greene; but Greene instead went to the Atlanta Braves, who were able to acquire three late-inning relievers to bolster a team that ended July with a 6½-game lead in the National League East. The Houston Astros, who defeated the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series, made the biggest move of all, acquiring Zack Greinke for a rotation that already includes Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole; the deal gave the Astros a clear advantage over the New York Yankees, who, like the Dodgers, did nothing of relative substance at the deadline.

"Our focus in each deadline I've been here has been to be aggressive, and more often than not, that has resulted in an aggressive move," Friedman said. "Today, it did not. But we had various conversations going up 'til 1 o'clock and feel like we've got a team, and depth in place, to win a championship."

The Dodgers, cruising toward their seventh consecutive division title, have won 71 of their first 110 games this season. Their offense leads the National League in OPS, their starting rotation leads the NL in ERA and their defense leads the majors in defensive runs saved. But their bullpen -- 4.06 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, 2.86 strikeout-to-walk ratio -- lags behind. It hasn't necessarily been bad, but it has clearly lacked a dominant late-inning reliever who could bridge the gap to closer Kenley Jansen.

Maybe it'll be Joe Kelly, who holds a 5.20 ERA in the first season of a three-year, $25 million contract.

Maybe it'll be Kolarek, who has held opposing left-handed hitters to a .302 slugging percentage throughout his career.

Maybe it'll be Kenta Maeda, who has pitched in high-leverage situations over the past two postseasons. Or Julio Urias, the young left-hander who has excelled in a multi-inning role. Or May, who will be called up for his major league debut on Friday.

The Dodgers must now make that determination internally.

"We've got two months and a lot of really talented arms -- some in the big leagues, some in the minor leagues -- and we're gonna spend these two months doing everything we can to figure out that right combination," Friedman said. "It certainly won't be from a lack of talent. We're going to throw some high-quality arms at it. We feel good about our collective ability to do that."

NEW YORK -- They might have been forced to put their pencils down, but the New York Yankees' real test is about to begin.

It's going to be a tough one.

Thanks in large part to the gargantuan, buzzer-beating undertaking pulled off by the Houston Astros in the closing seconds of Wednesday's trade deadline, the Yankees will have to prove on the field what they've been saying off of it.

"You fall back and look at the roster you have and feel like, 'This is a damn good roster,' and we can compete with anybody in the game," said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman two hours after the trade deadline passed, echoing comments he and manager Aaron Boone had been making in recent days.

For nearly a week, the pair had been setting the stage for deadline inactivity. Confronted with stubborn sellers who wanted to raid their prospect-rich stable with deals their entire organization ultimately didn't think were fair, both Yankees leaders were using language that indicated a quiet day was on the horizon. In their statements, Cashman and Boone firmly backed up their belief in the current construction of New York's active roster and the injured list pieces that will perhaps be added to it in the coming weeks.

Often in the lead-up to the deadline, Cashman equated the talks he was having with other teams to taking a school test. He regularly said that once the bell rang to close the deadline at 4 p.m. ET Wednesday, all 30 teams' test pencils would be put down as their chatter ceased.

To Cashman and his staff, the conversations they had weren't very worthwhile. The Bronx Bombers, in need of starting pitching on their pre-deadline exam, didn't fill in any answers.

"The best play was we did nothing. And we did nothing for a very good reason, because we felt everything that was in front of me was really not obtainable because of the associated costs," Cashman said. "And that's with understanding that as a buyer, you have to step up and pay.

"But these were prices that were making things way out of reach; way out of reach and way out of line."

Somehow, Houston received what it felt was a fair price in exchange for landing one of the biggest trade chips, who, as fate would have it, was close enough to the Yankees on deadline day they could touch him.

It is somewhat jarring to see a team that -- since November -- has continually proclaimed its desire to upgrade its pitching rotation stand pat when it had a chance to do so.

It also was jarring to see the crosstown rival Mets add a potential Yankees pitching target in Marcus Stroman this past Sunday.

And it was especially jarring when Zack Greinke -- the man the Astros acquired in the stunning, last-minute deal that sent four of their top prospects to the Arizona Diamondbacks -- struck out seven in five innings at Yankee Stadium on Wednesday before a rain delay ended his afternoon.

No offer is the same, of course. What was on the table for any potential Arizona-New York deal might not have been apples to apples what the Astros and Diamondbacks agreed to. And there remains the unknown of how Greinke will fare in Houston, let alone how he might have handled being in the Bronx on a team reportedly on his no-trade list.

"The best play was we did nothing."

Yankees GM Brian Cashman

Still, the odds are the Yankees handed their best chance at a 28th championship to the very team that pulled off a deadline deal for a resurrected Justin Verlander two seasons ago, en route to beating New York in the American League Championship Series and winning the World Series.

No joke: The odds actually are high that that might have happened at Wednesday's deadline. According to the Caesars Sportsbook, the Yankees, who were favorites to win the AL prior to the deadline, have fallen to No. 2 -- leapfrogged by Houston.

Are these Astros the AL's best team now?

"Let's find out," Cashman said. "We've got to take care of our own business to see if we're one of those teams to go to October."

The Yankees are now fully hitching their World Series expectations to the roster they had Wednesday morning. With the deadline passed, and no more August waivers, there is no outside help coming.

Time will prove if this gamble on themselves really will pay off.

"The talent to win the World Series is here," Yankees reliever Zack Britton said. "When guys are playing to their potential in this room, we're good. We're really, really good."

But is "really, really good" good enough?

The Astros were already tough to beat, and now they've bolstered arguably baseball's most dangerous pitching rotation. Paired with a potent offense, Houston now boasts the likes of three-time All-Star Gerrit Cole and Cy Young Award winners Greinke and Verlander.

It's also a group that, paced largely by Verlander, has had success against the Yankees over the years.

In 42 regular-season and postseason starts combined, Cole, Greinke and Verlander are a combined 17-11 with a 4.16 ERA and an 8.5 K/9 rate against New York. Verlander is the only one of the group with playoff experience against the Yankees. He is 5-0 in those starts.

With the possibility of having to face those three aces, the Yankees' World Series hopes do feel strangely further away than they were about two weeks ago.

Fail to reach the Fall Classic yet again, and the Yankees' postseason losses won't be the only ones that haunt them come November.

Wednesday's loss will be right there too.

To be clear, the Bronx Bombers won the game they played Wednesday, outlasting Greinke's Diamondbacks 7-5. But it was in that behind-the-scenes war of player/prospect/cash-flipping attrition, conducted in boardrooms and on cellphones, where the Yankees posted a massive "L."

Then again, this is a Yankees team that -- recent pitching woes aside -- has rallied through an injury-ravaged roster this season. It is a group that has been discounted often this year and yet still holds a commanding lead in the AL East. It's a team that still has other elite arms, in particular an ace in Luis Severino, expected to be added off the IL before the end of the season.

Those factors help explain why the Yankees believe in themselves. But they'd better hope that belief is justified.

"[I] was just in there celebrating a win with those guys, and looking around the room, we know that we've got everything we need to be a championship club," Boone said. "That doesn't change. I have total faith in Brian and their staff in that they're going to always do what's best for this organization as far as whether that's short term, long term, all those things.

"We're ready to roll and move forward now that this day is officially behind us."

A trio of British 800m boys swept the medals at the European U20 Champs but can they go on to match the exploits of their famous predecessors?

One of the great mysteries of British athletics is why the middle-distance successes of the 1980s eventually dried up despite so many young runners being inspired by the exploits of Seb Coe, Steve Cram, Steve Ovett, Peter Elliott and others.

There have been glimmers of hope. Curtis Robb reached world and Olympic finals and Matt Yates won the European indoor 1500m title in the early 1990s. Mike East won Commonwealth 1500m gold in 2002. Mark Sesay, Mike Rimmer and Ross Murray showed flashes of brilliance. This summer, of course, Charlie Grice ran 3:30.62 to go No.4 on the UK all-time 1500m rankings. Yet none have quite displayed the world-beating ability of their famous predecessors.

Teenage record-breakers are often dubbed ‘the new Coe or Ovett’, but the pressure of history and expectation weighs heavily on their young shoulders and when it comes to winning a global senior men’s 800m or 1500m title there have been 35 years of hurt.

Perhaps the latest generation will be different, though. They certainly appear to have their heads screwed on and with an eye-catching sweep of the 800m medals at the European Under-20 Championships in Borås, Sweden, last month they have got off to a flying start.

Oliver Dustin surged to victory ahead of long-time leader Ben Pattison with Finley Mclear earning a battling bronze as the rest of Europe finished more than a second adrift. As they swept off the bend it was reminiscent to the 1986 European 800m final when Coe, Cram and Tom McKean (pictured below) were memorably described as like ‘Spitfires out of the sun’. But can these baby Spitfires develop into senior champions?

“It’s overwhelming to be compared to people who dominated the world in the 1980s,” says 18-year-old Dustin. “I’m just doing my own thing rather than being caught up being compared to Steve Cram and Seb Coe, who were world record-holders. I need to continue to work hard and dedicate my life to getting what I want to achieve.”

Despite only being born in December 2001, Pattison says he is very aware of the British runners from the 1980s and says: “I knew what they’d done and I knew we could do similar – albeit at a younger level. It shows how strong 800m running is at the moment in Britain. The fact our fastest runner, Max Burgin, wasn’t even there and we still managed to come top three, quite a way clear of the rest of the field, is pretty special.”

Mclear adds: To be compared to them is an honour really. They achieved so much and did so much for British athletics and the sport on a whole. I hope we can emulate them and bring back the golden days and that this is the start of something and not just a one-off.”

Very much like the 1980s icons, the class of 2019 come from different parts of the UK too. Coe and Elliott were raised in Yorkshire, with Cram in the north-east of England and Ovett on the south coast city of Brighton – and they all had their own coaches, training plans and personalities. Similarly, Dustin, Pattison, Mclear and Burgin have different backgrounds.

Dustin is from the fell running county of Cumbria but describes himself as a “400/800m type who trains like an 800/1500m runner with plenty of cross country”. He’s been coached for several years by Graeme Mason and is advised by Cram – and that arrangement will continue when he starts a chemistry degree in Birmingham this autumn.

Pattison is from Basingstoke & Mid Hants AC in the south of England and has focused on 400m in recent seasons before moving up to 800m with great effect. A tall, long-striding runner he was also the youngest in the entire event in Borås.

Mclear, meanwhile, studies in Ohio in the United States but the 18-year-old’s parents own a pub in Devon and he has a background as a footballer, basketball player and, in 2016, he won the English Schools 1500m steeplechase title.

As for Burgin, the Halifax Harrier is guided by his father and grandfather, who were both good runners. He employed his trademark front-running tactics to win the European under-18 title last year and despite missing Borås this year with a minor injury he clocked a spectacular 1:45.36 aged 17 in June.

Burgin’s time is faster than any British junior in history has achieved. He has a long way to go to match Coe’s British record of 1:41.73 but could hardly have enjoyed a more promising start.

Former world number one Naomi Osaka says she "hasn't had fun playing tennis" since winning the Australian Open.

Osaka, 21, beat Czech Petra Kvitova in a thrilling final in January to seal back-to-back Grand Slams, topping the world rankings.

But she has been hampered by injuries and struggled with poor form since.

"The last few months have been really rough for me tennis-wise," Osaka wrote on Instagram.

"Thankfully I am surrounded by people I love and who love me back.

"Whenever things go wrong I blame myself 100%. I have a tendency to shut down because I don't want to burden anyone with my thoughts or problems, but they taught me to trust them and not take everything on by myself.

"Unexpectedly though the worst months of my life have also had some of the best moments because I've met new people and been able to do things that I have never even considered doing before.

"That being said I can honestly reflect and say I probably haven't had fun playing tennis since Australia and I'm finally coming to terms with that while relearning that fun feeling."

Osaka parted ways with coach Sascha Bajin after the Australian Open, withdrew from the Stuttgart Open and Italian Open through injury, then suffered defeats at the French Open and Wimbledon.

"I have put so much weight on the results of my matches instead of learning from them, which is what I 'normally' do," she wrote.

"I've learned a lot about myself and feel I grew so much as a person these past years so I'm really excited what the future looks like.

"See you in the US swing."

Osaka, who lost her world number one ranking in June, aims to defend her US Open title at Flushing Meadows, starting 26 August.