NBA Top 100 players; UEFA Champions League begins with goals galore; Saints soar in NFL Power Rankings

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⚽ Good morning to all, but especially to …

THE UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AND SOCCER FANS EVERYWHERE

Well that was fun, wasn’t it? With six games and 28 goals on the first day, the UEFA Champions League is off to a flying start, and no one is flying higher than Bayern Munich. The Bavarians netted a Champions League-record nine goals in a 9-2 dismantling of Dinamo Zagreb, with Harry Kane scoring four goals to become the highest-scoring Englishman in the competition’s history.

Chuck Booth has the five best moments from the day, including the Goal of the Tournament … already! Take a bow for this one, Zeno Debast.

Elsewhere, Christian Pulisic scored again for AC Milan, but that was as good as it got for the Italian giants in a 3-1 loss to Liverpool. Pulisic continues to be a lone bright spot for Milan, Francesco Porzio writes.

Here’s more:

Looking to today’s action, which you can stream, per usual, on Paramount+, the top game is Manchester City vs. Inter, a rematch of the 2023 final.

As always, we have expert picks for every match.

👍 Honorable mentions

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🏀 NBA Top 100 players: Risers, fallers, and LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant still in top 10

It’s here, and it’s beautiful: our Top 100 NBA Players ahead of the 2024-25 season, as voted on by our NBA writers. Here’s the top five:

1. Nikola Jokic (last year: 1) — “The only player on earth who can virtually guarantee his team a quality shot every possession, Jokic’s dominance occurs both in plain sight and on less visible margins.” — Brad Botkin
2. Giannis Antetokounmpo (last year: 2) — “Things may not have gone to plan for Antetokounmpo and the Bucks in the last few years, but he remains one of the most dominant forces in the league on both sides of the ball.” — Jack Maloney
3. Luka Doncic (last year: 4) — “He plays at the pace of paint drying on a wall, and yet we saw in the Mavericks’ run to the NBA Finals that even the most elite defenders couldn’t stop him.” — Jasmyn Wimbish
4. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (last year: 11) — “Last year’s MVP runner-up, Gilgeous-Alexander, keeps ascending these rankings as his Thunder ascend the standings.” — James Herbert
5. Joel Embiid (last year: 6) — “Arguably the most dominant individual scorer in the league, Embiid has made great strides as a hub in Nick Nurse‘s more motion-oriented offense.” — Brad Botkin

Of course, it was the old guys — Stephen Curry, LeBron James and Kevin Durant — who carried the load at the Olympics, and they rank sixth, eight and ninth, respectively. Bill Reiter reminds us to enjoy it while it lasts.

That’s in part because there’s a wave of young players coming for the top spots. Victor Wembanyama, just 20 years old, was the biggest riser in this year’s rankings, going from 58th to 12th. Here’s Sam Quinn:

• Quinn: “After the All-Star break, Wembanyama averaged 23.5 points, 12 rebounds, 5.3 assists, 4.5 blocks and 1.5 steals per game. I can’t imagine you’ll be surprised to hear no one has ever done that for a full season. … He is the ultimate marriage of size and skill, the culmination of everything this sport has been building towards for the past decade. What’s scariest about that absurd post-break stat line isn’t how great it is, but how underwhelming it’s going to look in comparison. In all likelihood, that’s the worst he’s going to be for a long, long time.”

Fellow young big men Chet Holmgren (68th to 30th) and Alperen Sengun (85th to 47th) tied for the second-largest leap. Big men are back!

I cannot commend our NBA team enough. This is a massive undertaking, and any NBA fan should be thankful for it. So, one more time:

Oh yeah, and Sam ranked all 30 coaches ahead of the season as well. Not to spoil things, but Lakers fans, look away.

🏈 NFL Power Rankings: Saints surging

As I said last week, Week 1 was for overreacting, and Week 2 is for seeing if it was worth it.

But let’s make no overreactions here: The Saints look legit. Excellent, even. New Orleans jumped 19 spots from 25th to sixth in Pete Prisco’s NFL Power Rankings. That’s the biggest jump I’ve seen since I started writing this newsletter. Yes, it’s a very small sample size, but new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak has taken Derek Carr to a new level:

• Carr is under center on 68% of his snaps (last year: 42%) and using play action on 52% of his dropbacks (last year: 15%).
• Carr is throwing 18% of his passes at least 20 yards downfield, on track to be the highest mark in his career by far.
• Carr is taking 3+ seconds to throw on 41% of his passes, on pace to be the highest rate of his career.
• Carr has been pressured on an NFL-low 19% of his dropbacks.

Carr for so long has been a shotgun, quick-game quarterback. Now, with a more nuanced offense, Chris Olave (excellent everywhere), Rashid Shaheed (deep threat) and Alvin Kamara (short game) are being maximized, and a potentially worrisome offensive line has some pressure taken off of it. I’m a big, big fan.

Here are the five teams ahead of New Orleans:

1. Chiefs (previous: 1)
2. Bills (3)
3. Texans (5)
4. Buccaneers (9)
5. Vikings (18)

The Dolphins (10th to 23rd) were the largest faller, and with Tua Tagovailoa (concussion) out until Week 8 and Skylar Thompson taking over, things might get worse before they get better.

Finally, here’s one thing we learned about every team in Week 2.

🏈 Projected College Football Playoff bracket

Brad Crawford’s latest College Football Playoff projection is here, and — what’s that? Georgia down at No. 5? Here’s why:

• Crawford: “This is not an overreaction. There’s potential worry offensively that this team may not have the firepower around quarterback Carson Beck that most assumed they would and the Bulldogs’ offensive line was pushed around by a team that was coming off a 25-point home loss to South Carolina. Georgia is elite, superb on defense and ranked No. 2 in the polls, but there’s work to do.”

And that was before news broke that lineman Tate Ratledge (ankle) will miss multiple weeks. I have all the trust in the world in Kirby Smart and the Bulldogs to get back on track, but there’s a big test in No. 4 Alabama looming Sept. 28.

No. 6 Tennessee is also in Brad’s projected CFP, and the Volunteers are also facing a huge game: this weekend against No. 15 Oklahoma. It might be even bigger for Brent Venables and the Sooners, who are 3-0 but haven’t exactly impressed in wins over Houston and Tulane. Shehan Jeyarajah and Will Backus debated how much of a “must-win” it is for Oklahoma.

• Backus: “If the Volunteers were to walk into The Palace on the Prairie and come out with a comfortable win, that would set off a blaring klaxon on Oklahoma’s direction under Venables, especially since he’s had the better part of two years to prepare his team for a move to the SEC. Tennessee is capable of controlling this game with a stifling defense and a run game that few teams have been able to consistently stop.”

Here’s more:

📺 What we’re watching Wednesday

⚽ We’re watching the UEFA Champions League on Paramount+ and CBS. Here’s how.
⚾ Yankees at Mariners, 9:40 p.m. on Prime Video