Trevor Ariza’s 1-year, $15 million deal to the Suns hurts the Rockets’ championship hopes

Trevor Ariza did not re-sign with the Houston Rockets, nor did he make a Kevin Durant-like move and leave the Rockets for the Warriors team that eliminated him from the Western Conference Finals. Instead, he chose the money and signed a one-year, $15 million deal with the Phoenix Suns.

Ariza was reportedly seeking a longer-term deal worth $50-60 million in free agency. But he got a bubble deal that pays him twice his previous salary for one season while giving the Suns a quality veteran for a budding, young team.

But it also hurts the Rockets’ championship hopes

Ariza was integral in Houston’s near championship run last season. He averaged 11.7 points per game as a three-and-D wing who shot 37 percent from three. He, P.J. Tucker and Luc Mbah a Moute split those minutes on the wing and transformed Houston’s defense into one that could switch over virtually any screen. It was a defense that nearly eliminated the Warriors from the playoffs in the Western Conference Finals.

But Houston fell short. Chris Paul suffered a hamstring injury in Game 5 and everything went downhill from there. The Warriors won the series in seven games before sweeping the Cavaliersfor their second straight NBA championship. And with Ariza now leaving Houston for Phoenix, one can only continue to wonder what could have been had CP3 never gotten hurt in the first place.

The Rockets may also find it difficult to replace Ariza. They could have re-signed him using his Bird Rights, which would have allowed them to exceed the salary cap to sign him to a raise. Now, they can only offer the taxpayer’s midlevel exception or a minimum contract to prospective free agents.

This is a good signing for Phoenix, though

The Suns had nearly $20 million in cap space to sign free agents, but they weren’t landing any star talent this summer. Instead, Phoenix knew it had budding stars to develop; they just needed the right pieces to fit around them.

After all, the Suns drafted Deandre Ayton No. 1 overall in this year’s draft, adding to a core of talented young players including standout guard Devin Booker and top-5 pick from last year’s draft, Josh Jackson. Phoenix needed a veteran who can still contribute on both ends of the floor while providing veteran leadership and mentorship in such a young locker room.

Ariza is just that kind of player. He won a championship back in 2009 with the Los Angeles Lakersand has played for six different teams in his career. He’s been a reliable corner three-point shooter virtually his entire career while doubling as a wing defender who can guard multiple position. And now, he’s leaving Houston to take his talents to Phoenix.

If there were $15 million waiting for you out in Arizona, you’d probably go get it, too.

Formula 1: Sauber's Charles Leclerc poised to join Ferrari

Sauber's Charles Leclerc is poised to move to Ferrari next season.

The 20-year-old has agreed, but not signed, a two-year deal to be Sebastian Vettel's team-mate until 2020, according to a source close to Ferrari.

The move comes after an impressive start to Leclerc's F1 career this year with Sauber, including points finishes in four of the last five races.

If the deal is confirmed, it would mean the end of 2007 champion Kimi Raikkonen's five-year stay at Ferrari.

The team said it declined to comment on what it described as "media speculation".

Leclerc, who comes from Monaco and is a member of the Ferrari driver academy, is the reigning Formula Two champion and was given his Sauber seat this year with the intention of blooding him for a future at Ferrari.

• Hamilton heads Mercedes one-two in practice

The plan was to promote Leclerc after one season as long as he delivered on his obvious potential, and he has done exactly that.

After a shaky start to the season with mistakes in the first three races, Leclerc took a step forward at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in April, where he took the unfancied Sauber to sixth place.

Since then, he has finished 10th at the Spanish, Canadian and French Grands Prix, and demonstrated impressive race-craft, including holding off two-time champion Fernando Alonso's McLaren for half the race in Barcelona.

Leclerc - the godson of former F1 driver Jules Bianchi, who died in 2015from injuries sustained in the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix - told BBC Sport at last month's Monaco Grand Prix: "It is a dream since [I was] a child to drive for the red cars so hopefully this will happen one day.

"I will give everything for it to happen next year but the decision is not in my hands and the only thing I can do is give the best of myself on track and then hopefully it will be enough to consider me for the seat next year."

Assuming the Leclerc deal is finalised, Raikkonen's career is in danger of being over.

There have been reports this week linking the 38-year-old Finn with a move to McLaren, but their priority is to keep Fernando Alonso as their lead driver.

The Spaniard won Le Mans this year and is two-thirds of the way towards completing his ambition of winning motorsport's unofficial 'triple crown' of the Monaco Grand Prix, which Alonso has won twice, Le Mans and the Indianapolis 500.

Alonso is weighing up between two main options: staying in F1 with McLaren but taking part in the Indy 500; or moving full time to Indycars in 2019.

On Thursday, the two-time champion said: "To win the Indy 500 you have only one chance each year. Even if you do the whole championship, you have only one race and 200 laps to do it."

If Alonso chooses to leave F1, McLaren's second option is Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo, although the Australian is tipped to stay where he is.

Cristiano Ronaldo should play on for Portugal, coach urges after exit

• Fernando Santos is ‘convinced that he has a lot to give’
• Ronaldo says after 2-1 loss: ‘We were better than Uruguay’

The Portugal manager, Fernando Santos, said he did not want Cristiano Ronaldo to walk away from international football after Portugal were knocked out of the World Cup by a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Uruguay. The Real Madrid forward would not be drawn on his future but offered up a message of optimism as he departed the Fisht Stadium in Sochi.

Ronaldo was unable to trouble Uruguay as they made it through to the quarter-final against France and, at 33, with a 154 caps to his name, this could represent a natural watershed. But the forward departs the World Cupwith four goals and with his manager insisting that there is still a place for him in the Portugal side.

“I am convinced that he has a lot to give in football,” said Santos, whose own future is in doubt after elimination here. “There is a tournament in September, the Uefa League of Nations, and we hope that he is with us so that he can help the young players who will need their captain’s example. We have a team with many young players in it and of course we all want him there with us.”

Ronaldo, though, was not forthcoming on what lies ahead. “It’s not the time to talk about the future of the coach, the players, the squad,” he said, “but rest assured that this national team will continue to be one of the best in the world. There is a fantastic group with enormous ambition that wants to succeed and I am very confident that the national team will continue to be at the highest level.”

He added: “Portugal competed well. In my opinion we were better than Uruguay. We had chances but goals make the difference. In general terms, we leave here with our heads held high. The team has fought well. As captain, I am very proud of this group. I leave here happy. Not the way I wanted, but the sensations are good. We hold our heads up high; Portugal will continue winning things.”

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Synchronised brilliance from Edinson Cavani and Suárez gives Uruguay hope

Against Portugal the sons of Salto showed what can be achieved when hard work and organisation are combined with a little stardust and patriotic fervour

On a night of twists and turns in Sochi, Uruguay advanced to the quarter-finals of the World Cup and, in this most unpredictable of tournaments, with the holders and two best players on the planet no longer on show, nobody can say with certainty and conviction that Óscar Tabárez’s side cannot go all the way.

Nowhere will they believe that more than in Salto, Uruguay’s second largest city, located a little over 300 miles north west of the capital Montevideo and where, on 24 January 1987, Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz came into this world. A mere three weeks later, on Valentine’s Day, he was joined by Edinson Roberto Cavani Gómez and three decades on they are once again doing their hometown proud. More than that, they are doing their country proud.

Along with the wily and wonderful Diego Godín, Suárez and Cavani are the standout players of a team who, more than any other at this World Cup, show what can be achieved when hard work and organisation are combined with a little stardust and patriotic fervour. Uruguay ultimately may not win the tournament but they are going to die trying and, as Portugal discovered to their cost, no one in Tabárez’s ranks fights harder for the cause then the two men up top.

By the end Cavani was sitting on the bench nursing a hamstring strain having scored twice while Suárez was still out there, running the ball into the channel and doing everything he could to maintain Uruguay’s 2-1 lead. Both players had done their bit, their bodies aching and covered in sweat, and, on the basis Cavani can recover in time, they will undoubtedly cause France problems in Nizhny Novgorod on Friday.

There may not be two other strikers in the world like Suárez and Cavani; utterly dedicated, utterly selfless and, in their own ways, really talented. Suárez is the star, all manic energy and touches of jaw‑dropping genius, but Cavani deserves his dues, with 45 goals in 105 international appearances suggesting the 31-year-old is not the misfiring misfit as he is often portrayed. The Paris Saint-Germain man has an incredible knack for finding space and a little over an hour into Uruguay’s biggest game in eight years he showed he can combine that with finishing of the most sublime standard.

Having drifted towards the right‑hand edge of Portugal’s area, Cavani collected Rodrigo Bentancur’s pass, opened up his body and sent a side-footed shot past the reach of Rui Patrício into the far corner of the net. It was instinctive and unstoppable and saw Uruguay wrestle back control of proceedings following Pepe’s equaliser on 55 minutes.

It was a poor goal for Uruguay to concede given the defender was able to send a header past Fernando Muslera from an unmarked position in the centre of the area. It also cancelled out the moment that, in almost a blink of an eye, showcased Suárez’s and Cavani’s ability to combine in devastating harmony.

Barely seven minutes had been played when Cavani, in a deep-right position, swept a pass out to the left flank where Suárez, having cut inside Ricardo Pereira, sent a perfectly weighted cross towards his strike partner as he moved towards the back post. Cavani’s finish was clumsy, with the ball bouncing off his face before going in, but the move was a pleasure to behold: two world-class players in synch, their understanding telepathic. Saltopathic.

And so a game many predicted would be defined by “shithouse” behaviour was decided by two moments of beauty, and for Uruguay now comes the chance to, at the very least, match their feat of the 2010 World Cup, when they reached the semi-finals. Suárez’s participation in South Africa is best remembered for that handball against Ghana and, given his ruthless, win-at-all costs mentality, a similar incident cannot be ruled out in Russia.

Equally, however, that would be doing Suárez a disservice. He has yet to be booked at these finals and, as had been the case by this stage of the last World Cup, yet to bite anyone, and while there were some questionable moments from the Barcelona man against Portugal, there was nothing that crossed a line or could take away from his smart, selfless and productive contribution.

Uruguay got that out of Cavani too and, before the game against France, it is now a case of waiting to see if he is fit enough to yet again line up alongside Suárez.

Not for the first time, the hopes of a nation rest on the shoulders of the brilliant boys from Salto.

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