Gilas Pilipinas’ Kai Sotto during a Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers 2025 game against Hong Kong at Mall of Asia Arena. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines–Kai Sotto is raring to help Gilas Pilipinas get back on track in the Fiba World Cup Asian Qualifiers in his return to national team duties after almost two years.

Gilas got a big boost after Sotto showed up in the early phase of preparation for the crucial home games this weekend against Jordan and Iran at Mall of Asia Arena.

The 7-foot-3 is expected to play a prominent role in Gilas’ bid to improve its 2-4 record, currently sitting out of the top four spots in Group E, and there’s an urgency to win most, if not all games of the second round.

READ: Tim Cone admits much to work on even as Gilas welcomes Kai Sotto back

“It’s a huge pressure for us,” Sotto said during Monday’s press conference arranged by the Samahang Basketball ng Pilipinas at Mall of Asia Arena.

“But that’s the pressure that we need. Since the start of practice, we’ve been improving. And as long as we help each other and we trust each other, we’ll get what we want.”

Sotto last played for Gilas in November 2024 at the Asia Cup Qualifiers, and his presence was sorely missed since.

Coach Tim Cone was initially lukewarm with the prospect of Sotto joining, given that he has spent most of the offseason playing pickup games in his hometown of Las Piñas, getting married to actress Rere Madrid, and awaiting the birth of his first child.

READ: Kai Sotto sees action in Gilas Pilipinas’ tune-up win over Ulsan

There were also reports that Sotto continues to pursue his NBA dream, this time by way of playing in the US NCAA.

“It wasn’t until two or three days before we started [practicing] that we got confirmation that Kai was going to join us,” Cone said. “We’ve always been in conversations with him and his group. So we were surprised as everybody else.

“But it was like, we were jumping for joy that he decided to join us,” he added.

A day after Mike Vrabel lamented about the state of his roster, the Patriots did something about it. New England traded receiver Kayshon Boutte to the Texans in exchange for safety Jaylen Reed and a draft pick, according to The Ringer. It will be a seventh-round pick, ESPN reports.

Boutte, 24, spent his first three NFL seasons with the Patriots, who selected him in the sixth round of the 2023 draft. After catching just two passes during his rookie season, Boutte developed a bigger role in the Patriots’ offense each of the past two seasons. He set career-highs with 43 receptions and 589 yards in 2024 and caught a career-high six touchdowns in 2025. 

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Like Boutte, Reed was also the 187th overall pick in his respective draft. As a rookie last season, Reed made one regular-season start while appearing in seven games. He finished the regular season with 14 tackles and a fumble recovery. Reed started in each of Houston’s two playoff games and had two tackles during Houston’s season-ending loss to New England in the divisional round of the playoffs. 

Who won the trade? Let’s find out. 

Patriots: D-

Rumblings already existed that Boutte would ultimately be traded. With Boutte entering his final year under contract, the Patriots deserve a little credit for getting something in return for him in the form of draft capital and a player who can help them in 2026. 

That being said, it’s surprising that the Patriots couldn’t get more for Boutte, an emerging receiver who is still playing on his rookie contract. This just gives off a vibe that the Patriots simply wanted to get this done and move on. 

As noted above, it was less than 48 hours ago when Vrabel expressed concern for his team’s lack of depth. And while the Patriots strengthened their secondary by getting Reed (who, like Boutte, is a player who should be on the rise), they weakened their depth at receiver by parting ways with Boutte. 

Making this trade even worse is that the Patriots traded Boutte to an AFC competitor (the only worse move would have been trading him to division rival Buffalo). Instead of sending him to the NFC, the Patriots dealt Boutte to a team they may very well face in the 2026 playoffs. 

Texans: A

Houston deserves a ton of credit for quickly and emphatically addressing their need at receiver after Jayden Higgins went down with a season-ending ACL injury. 

After Higgins went down, the Texans reportedly placed a call to New England about Boutte and another to Baltimore regarding Rashod Bateman. They reportedly weren’t interested in a reunion with DeAndre Hopkins, who recently became the assistant receivers coach at Georgia Tech. 

Given Bateman’s legal issues, Boutte became the clear-cut option for Houston, who ultimately pulled off a very favorable deal with the Patriots. Boutte will now fill Higgins’ spot while joining a receiving corps that also includes Nick Collins and Jaylin Noel. His arrival should also aid C.J. Stroud, the Texans’ former Pro Bowl quarterback, who is hoping to return to form that saw him win Offensive Rookie of the Year back in 2023. 

Higgins’ injury could have been a big blow for Houston, which is trying to get beyond the divisional round of the AFC playoffs this year after losing in that round in each of the past three seasons. The trade for Boutte has put them back on track. 

Deshaun Watson’s stalled recovery from his early peak isn’t just about health or age, according to NFL analyst Courtney Cronin of ESPN. It’s about what happens in his head once the crowd turns on him.

Cronin’s comments came two days after Watson delivered one of the shakiest performances of his four-plus seasons in Cleveland. Entering the Browns’ Saturday preseason game against Buffalo in relief of Shedeur Sanders, Watson completed just 5 of 12 passes for 36 yards and threw an interception in a 31-7 loss. Fans at Huntington Bank Field booed him from the moment his name was announced, and the jeers only grew louder as the offense stalled.

Watson never found his footing after that, and Cronin said the moment exposed something deeper.

“Because there’s been this conversation around: Can he ever get back to that 2019-2020 version of himself that we saw in Houston, one of the most exciting young quarterbacks in the NFL?” Cronin said on the “Unsportsmanlike” podcast on Monday.

“And the answer isn’t just injuries have prevented that. Age has prevented that. It’s the mental … that is preventing him from going back to his full self, the self that made you trade all of those first-round picks for Cleveland to bring him there in the first place.

“I think it’s, like, the psychological warfare finally caught up with him to where how other people view him, which in the form of the fans booing him, is affecting his confidence out there. He’s rattled. There’s no way you can possibly put him out there for 17 games because you’re not playing 17 games away from Cleveland’s home stadium.”

Cronin noted the quarterback said after the game he wasn’t sure he could get past the boos through the rest of the regular season, an admission she said should alarm a franchise built around him.

Also Read: “Just trade/cut Shedeur Sanders,” “Absolutely disgusting”: NFL fans rip Browns for naming Deshaun Watson starter for Week 1

Also Read: “You don’t want to get booed, play good at quarterback”: Browns HC Todd Monken doesn’t mince words about Deshaun Watson getting disrespected by fans

Todd Monken names Deshaun Watson starter anyway

Todd Monken tapped Deshaun Watson over Shedeur Sanders as the Week 1 starter. Monken said the reaction to that news conference wouldn’t factor into his call, instead crediting Watson’s work ethic since returning from injury.

Watson has appeared in just 19 games since Cleveland traded a haul of first-round picks to acquire him from Houston. This will mark only his third Week 1 start with the Browns, who open the regular season at the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sept. 13.