The conclusion of the Gold Cup brought about mixed emotions for the U.S. men's national team. There was disappointment at the 1-0 final defeat to archrival Mexico, especially given the fact that the tournament hosts squandered several wide-open scoring chances.

By the end of the game, El Tri's talent advantage carried the day, but in the context of the entire competition, there was a modicum of satisfaction that a foundation had been laid. Relationships have begun to be established and there is a greater understanding of the methods of manager Gregg Berhalter.

Look long enough at the foundation and one can dream of what is possible. But the potential pitfalls can be seen as well.

- Gold Cup final: Mexico offer U.S. a harsh lesson
- U.S. ratings: Bradley, Morris too slow
- Carlisle/Marshall: Do the U.S., Mexico still care about Gold Cup?
- Freddy Adu exclusive: "I'm not ready to give it up"

There is a tendency to think that the work Berhalter will do over the coming months should determine the relative success or failure of the U.S. men. That's true to a degree but it isn't just in Chicago that the U.S. team's fortunes will be decided; places like Bremen, London, Gelsenkirchen and Leipzig will be active too. The same is true in MLS cities like Dallas, New York, Washington, D.C., and San Jose.

In fact, the upcoming club season in Europe and the ongoing campaign in MLS are arguably the most important in U.S. national team history. If players like Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams, Josh Sargent and, yes, even Christian Pulisic can continue to take on bigger roles with their clubs, then Berhalter's task becomes easier. If not, he's basically being asked to build a house without the requisite tools.

Progress can't fall entirely on those players, either. The U.S. remains a team short of quality depth, and others will need to emerge.

As is often the case for the U.S., the defensive side of the ball is ahead of the attack in terms of progress. In fact, the goalkeeper and back four look to be progressing nicely. Zack Steffen has performed well enough to command the No. 1 jersey. The U.S. is also accumulating some depth along the back line, especially at center-back with the likes of Aaron Long, Walker Zimmerman and Matt Miazga. It's worth remembering too that John Brooks remains in the mix. There are also options at right-back with Reggie Cannon and Nick Lima to go along with DeAndre Yedlin, who like Brooks missed the Gold Cup through injury.

Left-back remains a problem area. Tim Ream has filled in admirably but there's no denying that he is a center-back by trade and is an imperfect fit for the role, especially given his limitations going forward. One can only hope that U20 left back Chris Gloster or Antonee Robinson can progress enough and give Berhalter confidence that they're part of the present and not perpetually a part of the future.

Further upfield, the questions surrounding this U.S. team become more complicated. The single biggest issue going forward is where Berhalter plans on playing Tyler Adams. The best part about the emergence of Lima and Cannon is that it may yet make Berhalter more willing to shelve the idea of playing Adams as a right-back.

There's a perception that Berhalter is wedded to the idea of playing Adams in that hybrid right-back/central midfield role. But during a pre-tournament interview with ESPN FC, Berhalter hinted at being flexible on the subject, saying he thought Adams' skill set was "more central than wide" and that his best position is "something we have to analyze."

Adams might not have the passing range of a Michael Bradley or a Wil Trapp, but he seems born to play the role of midfield destroyer given his range, work rate, tackling and ability on the ball. A central partnership involving Adams and McKennie looks potent down the line provided that the Schalke man can find a greater degree of consistency, especially in terms of how well he takes care of the ball. Paxton Pomykal's continued development with FC Dallas will bear watching, as will Derby County's Duane Holmes.

As for the continued involvement of Bradley, 31, his passing remains his strength even as it eroded in the second half against Mexico. Defensively he's become more of a question mark, as his legs aren't what they used to be. His positioning is savvy, but his tendency at times to go into "hero mode" highlighted the lack of cohesion he had at times with McKennie, hence the calls for Adams to assume his role in front of the back line.

The wing positions are in flux as well. Paul Arriola remains a tireless worker on the left flank and that has value, but the U.S. needs a more creativity from the opposite flank. Jordan Morris struggled mightily in the final, while Tyler Boyd was mysteriously absent. The competition for that position remains open, with Tim Weah in the mix as well.

As for the forward position, Jozy Altidore showed his value during the Gold Cup, though Berhalter's faith in the forward seems tenuous, as he appeared to ration the Toronto striker's minutes. For now, he looks to be the de facto starter, but much will depend on the development of Sargent. The Werder Bremen man faded during the latter portion of the club season, unable to displace Claudio Pizarro, 40, as the first forward off the bench. He'll need to bulldoze his way into the Bremen side in order to achieve a similar breakthrough at the international level.

For now, establishing greater depth is a massive priority for Berhalter, and there are multiple avenues to further that process along. Next on the horizon is a CONCACAF Nations League group with Cuba and Canada, their games scheduled for October and November. It seems like the kind of competition that won't necessarily see Berhalter bring in all of his first-choice roster, though testing out the depths of the player pool isn't a bad thing.

Perhaps more critical to the USMNT's progress toward the 2022 World Cup is the development of the Olympic roster under manager Jason Kreis. It's a competition often met with disdain by European clubs, who are loath to release their players, but it still provides international experience for up-and-coming performers. The 2010 World Cup roster was graced with six players who appeared at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. (The injured Charlie Davies would have made seven.)

Maximizing each of these competitions should give Berhalter more material with which to work and help ensure that the work done over the past month remains valuable down the road.

Derbyshire 108 and 377 (Lace 132*, Palladino 58, Barnard 4-48) beat Worcestershire 113 and 290 (Ferguson 127, Cox 62, Rampaul 4-64) by 82 runs

Derbyshire secured their third Championship victory of the campaign to strengthen their promotion challenge despite a splendid century from Worcestershire batsman Callum Ferguson at Kidderminster.

The visitors bounced back in style after being bowled out for 108 on the opening day to claim 19 points and triumph by 82 runs.

Ferguson hit his maiden Championship hundred as Worcestershire showed plenty of resilience in recovering from the depths of 48 for 5 mid-way through the third day.

Ravi Rampaul finished with four wickets but Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Tony Palladino gave him staunch support with three victims apiece.

Worcestershire have now gone six games without a win since defeating Leicestershire and Durham in their opening two fixtures. They have paid the price for their batting frailties, with the exception of Ferguson, in the top order, where there has been a lack of consistency.

Worcestershire resumed on 156 for 5 with Ferguson unbeaten on 71 and Cox 44 not out with the second new ball due in 13 overs.

Runs flowed at a fast pace against the opening attack of Hudson-Prentice and Anuj Dal. Ferguson collected successive boundaries via a cut and a back-foot square drive at Hudson-Prentice's expense.

But, after playing so well, he had a slice of good fortune on his side as he raced towards three figures. Ferguson edged Fynn-Prentice and Dal for boundaries and a single off the former took him to his century off 205 balls with 17 fours.

Cox went to his half-century in the next over from Dal from 140 deliveries with eight boundaries.

The 150 partnership came up in 49 overs before the new ball was taken immediately at 206 for 5 off 80 overs.

Rampaul made the breakthrough for Derbyshire in his first over of the day. Cox, on 62, tried to get his bat out of the way of a sharpish Rampaul delivery but only succeeded in deflecting it onto his stumps.

Ferguson was joined by Brett D'Oliveira, a century maker in last week's game at Cardiff, and he cut Rampaul for four after the West Indies paceman changed ends.

Worcestershire reached 245 for 6 by lunch with Ferguson unbeaten on 126 but he added only one more after the resumption. Hudson-Prentice ended his fine knock by trapping him lbw. Ferguson's six-hour innings contained 20 boundaries and came off 267 balls.

D'Oliveira made an accomplished 30 before he was lbw to Palladino and the innings was quickly cleaned up thereafter. Dillon Pennington fell lbw to Rampaul for a duck and Joe Leach holed out to mid on off Palladino.

Mark Wood has signed a three-year deal with Durham that will keep him at the county until the end of the 2022 season.

Wood, 29, currently holds a white-ball central contract with England, and is more than likely to sign another after an impressive World Cup, meaning his appearances for the county could be limited.

He is England's second-highest wicket-taker in the tournament, with 16 wickets at 23.06, and despite entering the tournament with question marks over his fitness, was picked in 8 out of a possible 9 group games.

After playing age-group cricket for Northumberland, Wood joined the Durham academy as an 18-year-old, and has been at the county ever since.

He first broke into the first team during the 2011 summer, and played an important, if unheralded role in the 2013 Championship win, taking 27 wickets in his 8 games.

Wood's Durham appearances have been limited in recent years due to injury and international selection - he made his Test debut in 2015 and has been a regular in England's white-ball squads - but was the star of T20 Finals Day in 2016, returning 5-50 in eight hostile overs across the day as Durham were pipped by Northamptonshire in the final.

Wood said he was "buzzing" to sign on for a further three years.

"It is an exciting time for Durham at the moment, with the change in coaches and the new identity, so to be able to bowl more overs and take wickets for this team is something I am excited to carry on doing," he said.

"Whenever I step foot out onto the pitch at the Riverside, I just get a great feeling. It was extra special playing for England against New Zealand last week on home soil, so to know I have at least another three more years of playing here definitely makes me smile."

Eoin Morgan has called comments from Kevin Pietersen "not good for a team environment".

Pietersen suggested that Morgan "looked scared" of Mitchell Starc's bowling during England's group match defeat against Australia. Writing on Twitter at the time, Pietersen said he had "not seen a captain show such weakness for a while" and that it was "a horror sign" for England.

But, on the eve of England's first World Cup semi-final in 27 years, Morgan compared his former team-mate's words to those of Geoffrey Boycott in saying that they "don't take the best interest of the team or the player" into account and suggested the current England dressing room did not pay much attention to comments of the sort.

"When Kevin Pietersen comes out with a comment, it's very similar to comments I address from Geoffrey Boycott," Morgan told the BBC. "They are not ones that are considered good for a team environment and don't take the best interests of the team or the player at heart. Guys are trying their heart out to do well for their country, trying to learn, trying to get better."

Morgan did acknowledge, however, that he had struggled to deal with the short ball in the past. He was memorably forced to retire hurt having been struck by a Starc bouncer in an ODI in Manchester in 2015 - he later said his helmet "probably saved my life" - while he also accepted that it wasn't necessarily Pietersen's role to be constructive. In making such comments, Morgan said, the former players were merely doing "their job".

"Possibly four years ago I was challenged in that area," Morgan said. "Since then I've been challenged in different areas and, over the past two years, I've managed to counter that.

"And you have critics being critics. But they need to do that; that's their job. So let them be."

Heavy favourites coming into their World Cup 2019 semi-final after topping the league stage, India's campaign came to an end in a thriller at Old Trafford and captain Virat Kohli admitted New Zealand got through to the final because "they were far sharper when it came to the crunch moments."

"It always feels disappointing when you've played such good cricket and then 45 minutes of bad cricket puts you out of the tournament," Kohli told the host broadcaster at the presentation. "It's difficult to accept, it's difficult to come to terms with, but look, New Zealand deserve it because they put enough pressure on us and they were far sharper when it came to the crunch moments."

New Zealand finished fourth in the league stage, and had entered the semi-finals on the back of losses against Pakistan, Australia and England - but their bowling stepped up to dismiss India for 221 while defending 239.

WATCH on Hotstar - Jadeja's fighting 77 (India only)

"I think the first half, we were very, very good with the ball. In the field I think we were spot on," Kohli said. "Absolutely what we needed to get, we got in the field and we thought we had restricted New Zealand to a total which was quite chaseable on any surface. But, the way they came out and bowled in that first half an hour really was the difference in the game.

"We knew that we had a good day yesterday and we were very proud of that effort. And then a very professional effort again with the ball this morning. So we felt like we had the momentum and we had the right mindset to go in, but the credit has to go to the New Zealand bowlers because with the new ball I think they were outstanding with the areas that they hit, and the kind of swing that they got on the surface, the help that they got from the surface. I think it's the skill level that was on display for everyone and it made life very difficult for the batsmen."

WATCH on Hotstar - India's Powerplay collapse (India only)

Matt Henry and Trent Boult had reduced India to 24 for 4 in ten overs, and they were later 92 for 6 when Ravindra Jadeja joined MS Dhoni to revive the chase. Jadeja smashed a 59-ball 77, and while he was there, India looked like they would pull off a heist as he and Dhoni put on 116 runs for the seventh wicket. But Jadeja was caught off Boult while a crucial direct hit by Martin Guptill from backward square leg caught Dhoni just short to end India's hopes.

"I think Jaddu had an outstanding game, outstanding couple of games," Kohli said. "The way he played today was a great sign for his skillsets and what he can do for the team, and just going out with so much clarity and turning the whole game around in no time was outstanding to see. MS had a good partnership with him again and, you know, again it's a game of margins, he got run out in the end, it could have been anyone's game."

Kohli lauded India's show overall in the World Cup, only pointing to stray instances of poor shot selection as areas for improvement. "At times I think our shot selection could have been better, that's probably the only thing I can think of," he said. "Otherwise, we played really good brand of cricket and we're really proud of the way we competed in this tournament. You know, we played a good standard of cricket throughout. But as I said, come the knockouts, it's anyone's game and New Zealand showed more composure than us, and they were braver in those crunch situations so they deserve to go through to the finals."

Winning the heart-stopping semi-final against South Africa in the World Cup four years ago was vastly different from the latest one at Old Trafford, but the hard scrap to beat India was extremely satisfying, Kane Williamson said after leading New Zealand into the 2019 World Cup final at Lord's.

"Yeah, it's a different feeling, to be fair," he said after New Zealand beat India by 18 runs. "The surfaces and the way we've had to try and skin it over the round robin and coming into the semi-finals, it's been quite different to the last World Cup we experienced. But the guys have showed a lot of heart throughout this whole campaign."

WATCH on Hotstar (India only): How the India wickets fell

Thought of as pushovers after losing their last three league matches and talked off as the "easier semi-finalists" for India, New Zealand rallied to come up with an inspired effort against the table-toppers.

Williamson and Ross Taylor set up the game with battling half-centuries, but their go-slow left many wondering if New Zealand had finished with a below-par 239. Having spent 137 minutes to make a 95-ball 67, Williamson felt understanding the nature of the surface quickly was key to finishing well and applying pressure on India's top order.

"It was really tough work," Williamson said of New Zealand's batting innings. "I suppose we had to assess the conditions quickly. Certainly looking at the surface, I suppose both teams thought it would be a lot more high-scoring.

"The ball spun quite sharply and we thought if we got 240-250, we'd be right there in the game to put India under pressure. That is how it rather ended up. The guys were clinical at the back-end to get us to a competitive total, perhaps without going too hard and finishing up with 210-220."

Resuming on the reserve day on 211 for 5, New Zealand added 28 off the remaining 23 deliveries, hitting just one more boundary.

"A lot of it was on the conditions," he said. "With rain around, we wanted to see if it changed conditions [as compared to Tuesday]. Then with the ball, we wanted to move the ball off the seam, in the air and try and put some pressure on the Indian side. Obviously they're a world-class side, and the guys were able to do that."

Key to their start with the ball was Matt Henry's telling burst that accounted for Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Dinesh Karthik. He eventually finished with 3 for 37, overcoming a serious challenge from MS Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja as the chase got dramatic.

"It was nice to get some early wickets of guys who've been playing some brilliant cricket," Williamson said. "We knew as it slowed up, it would be a tough squeeze. We needed to stay in the game for long periods. Being under so much pressure, to take the game to a stage where they could potentially win it the way they were hitting it with Jadeja and Dhoni, the effort from our bowlers was outstanding."

Two days before the semi-final, Williamson had sat his team down in the middle of the ground at Old Trafford. He was seen having an animated chat with the entire group, which he later revealed was about actually infusing self-belief despite an 18-day period where they were winless.

"Some of those games were tough, conditions have been tricky at times and have varied throughout the game," he explained. "While we didn't play our best cricket in some of those games, there were other parts to consider and bear in mind, so [we] shouldn't get too disheartened and know that we'll still go out and play as long as we give ourselves the best chance of having success.

"Being underdogs coming into the semis didn't mean too much as long as we've played best cricket, all these sides have beaten each other, we knew on our day anything can happen. It was a game of small margins, and it was nice of the guys to fight the way they did."

LONDON -- After thrilling fans with news of their much-speculated pairing, followed by two impressive victories in front of capacity crowds, Serena Williams and Andy Murray are out of the mixed doubles tournament at Wimbledon.

The fan favorites fell to Bruno Soares and Nicole Melichar, the top-seeded pair, in three sets, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, on Wednesday in the third round.

The pair -- known affectionately by fans as "Serandy" or "Murena" -- was broken twice in the third set and trailed 4-0. They were unable to recover.

However, despite the early exit, both Williams and Murray said following the loss that they were happy with the experience of playing with one another.

"We had so much fun," said Williams, who plays in the semifinals of the singles draw on Thursday. "We aren't ready for it to be over. But we both are obviously focused on our health, both of us actually, taking it literally one day at a time, seeing what happens from there.

"We did have a good tournament. I think overall we played really well for our first time playing together."

Murray made his return to competition last month following hip surgery, and played in the doubles and mixed doubles events at his home Slam. He spoke glowingly of Williams and her competitive drive.

"I guess it was more a confirmation of something that you would have expected from someone that's won as much as she's done," said Murray. "It was just the fact that she was so into it, so competitive, which is cool. I like that. Some people might just see it as being maybe mixed doubles. We're playing it to have fun and get matches.

"But a genuine kind of desire and will to win, which I would have expected that to have been the case, but I didn't know that about her. Never spent any time on the court with her. That was the thing that was nice whilst we were on the court. She was really into wanting to win and pumped. I like that."

Their pairing and participation brought more attention than usual for the mixed doubles draw, and their first match drew a delighted crowd on Centre Court. Williams' sister Venus was also in the draw, with Frances Tiafoe, as well as Murray's brother Jamie, with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, among other notable players.

Williams and Murray had a friendly banter -- on and off the court -- during the tournament, and Williams teased Murray for all of the questions he continued to receive about his health and future plans with the sport. She said it was a "relief" for all of the attention to be on him.

She was, however, hopeful the support from the British fans would continue for her in the singles draw. She faces Barbora Strycova with a final berth on the line in the second match on Centre Court on Thursday.

NEW YORK -- Adoring fans lined New York City's Canyon of Heroes on Wednesday to praise the World Cup-winning U.S. women's national soccer team as athletic leaders on the field -- and as advocates for pay equity off it.

Construction workers sounded air horns above crowds chanting "USA! USA!" as the hourlong ticker-tape parade moved up a stretch of lower Broadway that has long hosted such celebrations for world leaders, veterans and hometown sports stars.

Co-captain Megan Rapinoe and her teammates shared a float with Mayor Bill de Blasio and U.S. Soccer Federation president Carlos Cordeiro. Rapinoe struck her now-famous victory pose, took a swig of champagne and handed the bottle to a fan. Goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher held the World Cup trophy aloft.

Aly Hoover, 12, of Glen Ridge, New Jersey, stood along the route with a poster of the face of Alex Morgan, another team star. "I just want to be like them," she said.

Garret Prather brought his newborn son "to celebrate how the American women made us proud on and off the field."

The team sealed its second consecutive tournament win by beating the Netherlands 2-0 on Sunday. It will get $4 million for winning the World Cup from FIFA, the international soccer governing body. The men's French team got $38 million for winning last year.

The U.S. women's team has sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for gender and pay discrimination. The women will get bonuses from the USSF about five times less than the men would have earned for winning the World Cup. The case is currently in mediation.

Kate Lane, who watched the parade, called the pay gap "massive" for the soccer players and "across the board" for most women.

"Especially in male-dominated professions," said Lane, of Limerick, Ireland. "Women put just as much commitment into their work as their male counterparts."

She is hopeful the younger generation is soaking up the message from the women's team, noting a girl about 7 years old wearing an "Equal Pay" T-shirt.

Earlier Wednesday, team members joined New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, as he signed a law expanding gender pay equality in the state. He said women's soccer players should be paid the same as male players.

#BREAKING: I just signed new pay equity legislation at the #USWNTParade.

The women's soccer team plays the same game that the men's soccer players play - only better. If anything, the men should get paid less.

Thank you @USWNT for helping lead this movement for change! pic.twitter.com/qHy2aYs2Tl

— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) July 10, 2019

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, introduced a bill Tuesday that would bar federal funding for the men's 2026 World Cup until the U.S. Soccer Federation provides equal pay to the women's and men's teams.

At a City Hall rally after the parade, de Blasio, also a Democrat, honored the team with symbolic keys to the city, saying it "brought us together" and "showed us so much to make us hopeful."

At the rally, Rapinoe noted the diversity of the team: "We have pink hair and purple hair, we have tattoos and dreadlocks, we have white girls and black girls and everything in between. Straight girls and gay girls."

The parade is named for the strands of ticker tape that used to be showered down from nearby office buildings. The tape has since been replaced with paper confetti, already drifting down from office buildings before Wednesday's parade started.

The Department of Sanitation said it will have 350 workers assigned to parade cleanup with trucks, backpack blowers and brooms at their disposal.

- Senator: No equal pay, no public '26 WC funds

The team had already started celebrating its record fourth Women's World Cup title. After touching down at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday, players shared a toast and sang "We Are the Champions."

Team members appeared on ABC's "Good Morning America" in Times Square on Tuesday to show off their trophy and answer questions from cheering kids.

Rapinoe, the outspoken star who won the awards for the tournament's best player and top scorer, also appeared on CNN and MSNBC later Tuesday.

Rapinoe told CNN's Anderson Cooper that President Donald Trump's slogan "Make America Great Again" is "harking back to an era that wasn't great for everyone. It might've been great for a few people."

Rapinoe told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that Trump had yet to invite the women's soccer team to the White House.

Trump had tweeted that he would invite the team, win or lose. Rapinoe has said she wouldn't be going to the White House. The team has accepted an invitation to visit Congress.

LAS VEGAS -- NBA commissioner Adam Silver wants the hat game fixed.

Mindful that it was awkward for draft picks this year who were selected by one team and had already been traded to another -- but because of league rules, were unable to be introduced by their actual franchise for more than two weeks -- Silver said there was discussion Tuesday at the league's board of governors meeting about how to change that going forward.

Several ideas are under discussion, including changing the rules about how and when draft-night trades can be announced. It could be earlier next season and not necessarily attached to the early July end to the moratorium on trades and certain signings.

"We've got to fix that," Silver said.

First-round picks were issued hats to wear on stage at the draft, corresponding with the team that chose them. De'Andre Hunter went No. 4 overall, taken by the Los Angeles Lakers. His rights had been traded twice -- first to New Orleans as part of the Anthony Davis deal, then to Atlanta. But since neither of those trades could be finalized before July 6, Hunter wore a Lakers cap on stage.

"We talk about being fan friendly, and that isn't fan friendly," Silver said.

There are plenty of changes that will be under consideration in the next few months, including one about the rules regarding the start to the negotiating period for free agents. Silver said that was also a topic among the board of governors on Tuesday.

For the draft night-traded players, it's about more than the hats. Because some draftees couldn't be part of their franchises before July 6, they were assured of missing the start of NBA summer league. It cost a few players the chance to play in summer league at all, which disappointed many of them.

That won't be an issue next year, with summer league in Las Vegas scheduled to begin on July 10, 2020, long after the NBA's new league year is likely to begin. So any draft pick that gets traded on draft night should, in theory, be with his actual team in plenty of time to take part in summer contests.

But this year, it was an issue.

"I was really disappointed," Phoenix rookie Ty Jerome said.

Former North Carolina forward Cam Johnson wound up with Phoenix after being drafted No. 11 by Minnesota. By the time the draft could be executed, the Suns felt it was too late to put Johnson and Jerome -- the No. 24 pick whose rights were traded twice on his way to Phoenix -- on the floor for summer league.

So they remained in a cautious state of limbo for a couple of weeks, because an injury could have potentially derailed any trades.

"The one thing I was told was just to lay low," Johnson said. "As much as I wanted to go out there, I wanted to play pickup, I was back at Carolina for a week and there were alumni games and all that that I didn't really take part in because I was told to lay low -- which I did. A lot of court workouts, a little one-on-one every now and then, a lot of lifting, staying under the radar but continuing to work."

Atlanta general manager Travis Schlenk said he thought this year was an outlier on the picks-being-traded front, simply because of how many teams found themselves in situations where moves were possible.

The Hawks introduced their draft picks, Hunter and Bruno Fernando, in Las Vegas this past weekend instead of in Atlanta, because both were draft picks whose rights were held up in trades until the moratorium was lifted and swaps could be finalized.

"It's a hard situation, because you don't have their rights even though everyone kind of knows it," Schlenk said. "I'm sure the league will look into it to see what they can do. They take, obviously, tampering and salary-cap circumvention and trying to get around it very seriously, so I'm sure they will take a look at it."

The Brooklyn Nets included about $1 million in yearly performance-based incentives in maximum contracts for both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, a tweak that allowed them to maneuver to fit contracts for DeAndre Jordan and second-round pick Nicolas Claxton into cap space, according to contract data obtained by ESPN.

Both deals have player options in their fourth seasons, meaning Durant and Irving can hit free agency again in the summer of 2022.

Irving's contract is especially interesting: eight separate incentives -- $125,000 each, all deemed "unlikely" -- and thus not included in Irving's current cap hit. Irving's initial salary for 2019-20 is $31,720,000 -- exactly $1 million short of his maximum. Hitting all eight bonuses would make up the difference.

Irving would earn $125,000 apiece if:

• He appears in at least 70 regular-season games.

• He appears in at least 60 regular-season games and averages fewer than 2.4 turnovers per game. Irving has averaged 2.6 turnovers per game over his career, and between 2.3 and 2.7 in each of his past six seasons.

• He appears in at least 60 regular-season games and attempts at least 4.6 free throws per game. Irving has averaged 4.4 free throws per game for his career, and has fallen below the 4.6 mark in each of his past two seasons.

• He shoots 88.5 percent or better from the free throw line in the regular season. Irving is a career 87.5 percent free throw shooter. He has cracked the 88.5 percent mark in three of his eight career seasons.

• Makes at least 2.8 3-pointers per game in the regular season. Irving has accomplished that just once in eight seasons. He has averaged 2.1 made 3s per game over his career.

• He commits fewer than 2.1 fouls per game in the regular season. His career average: 2.2.

• The Nets score at least 114 points per 100 possessions in the regular season with Irving on the floor.

Only two teams -- Golden State and Houston -- topped that mark last season, per NBA.com, though teams generally score more efficiently with their best offensive players on the floor.

The Nets allow 106 or fewer points per 100 possessions in the regular season with Irving on the floor. Only three teams averaged 106 or fewer points allowed per 100 possessions in the regular season, per NBA.com.

The same eight incentives repeat, at slightly higher dollar increments, in every season of Irving's deal, per contract data.

Durant unlocks a $1 million bonus -- raising his salary to the maximum -- if any one of the following occur:

• The Nets make the playoffs.

• The Nets win 43 or more games.

• Durant plays in at least 50 regular-season games.

• Durant makes the All-Star team.

These bonuses are deemed "likely" to be reached and thus factor into Durant's cap hit already.

Through a complex series of transactions and incentives, the Nets opened up enough flexibility to sign both Irving and Jordan with cap room, and sign-and-trade three players -- D'Angelo Russell, Treveon Graham, and Shabazz Napier -- for Durant. Jordan's contract rises and falls over its four-year term: $9.881 million in 2019-20, $10.375 million in 2020-21, $9.881 million again 2021-22, and then down slightly to $9.821 million in the final season.