McLaren boss Ron Dennis says his team deserve no higher than a five out of ten grade for their performances in 2016. Although vastly improved from their humiliating nadir of 2015, when the fallen superpowers only finished above a points-less Manor in the Constructors Championship, McLaren have still failed to reach the podium this year, the second of their renewed partnership with Honda.Despite the best efforts of their all-champion driver line-up, Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, McLaren look set to end the year just sixth out of eleven in the standings - an improvement of sorts but hardly a satisfactory return for a team of McLarens title-winning calibre. About a five, admitted Dennis upon being asked to grade his teams year out of ten. Were just not good enough. We are here to win races and were not winning races - but we are going in the right direction.But it is McLarens starting position at the start of 2017 following the sports regulations reset which is now concentrating minds at both Woking, where McLaren are based, and at Hondas factory headquarters in Sakura.Our new engine is running on the dyno now and thats several months earlier than our engine last year, revealed Dennis. We are well advanced on the car and making really good steps. As everyone will have been telling you, the cars will be four, maybe five to six seconds faster, and I think thats when the great drivers will start to excel. McLarens anticipated 2017 competitiveness is just one of the questions hanging over the team. Another is their 2018 driver line-up after McLaren appointed Stoffel Vandoorne to partner Alonso next year while simultaneously agreeing a new two-year deal with Button.The Englishman has been at pains to insist that he is not retiring from F1 but many in the paddock suspect Button is entering the final months of his F1 career.Dennis, however, is not one of them.We all get a little mentally weary, and for a driver it is physical and mental, and Id like to see how he is in about four months time.I think he will be pretty bored, l think he will be hungry again, and l think the opportunity for him to come back exists.We want him to be fully involved in all things we are developing and so we needed to close off the opportunity of that data going to another team. So wanting him to be involved meant having him under contract for 2018 - and thats what we have done. Its difficult to predict what is going to happen in 2018. But I dont think having three great drivers is a bad problem to have. I will worry about the decision as and when it has to be taken.You can watch Englands tour of Bangladesh, plus Premier League football and the British Masters on Sky Sports. Upgrade now and enjoy three months at half price! Also See: McLarens 2016 results The Formula 1 Gossip column Best Price Mens Nike React Hyperdunk 2017 Flyknit Red/White . Today, he looks at the offensive line. 1. Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (OT, McGill) You Should Know: Over the course of his university career, Duvernay-Tardifs commitments to medical school and the family business frequently limited him to one practice per week, yet he was still the Metras Trophy winner as the Top Lineman in CIS football in 2013. Nike Air Presto Br Qs For Sale . Al Horford said all he had to do was make the catch near the basket and then shoot a soft jumper. http://www.windrew.com/nike-sb-shoes-che...-hyperfeel.html. In Englands first game since its worst-ever World Cup showing, Roy Hodgsons side rarely looked like scoring against unambitious opposition and the breakthrough in the friendly only came when Raheem Sterling was tripped in the penalty area. Nike React Hyperdunk 2017 Flyknit . In the days leading up to the draft, TSN.ca and TSN Radio basketball analyst Duane Watson looks at some of the names that will be headlining the event. Tonight, Michigans Nik Stauskas of Mississauga, Ontario. Nike Air Max 2017 KPU .com) - Will Conant booted a 39-yard field goal as time expired and Air Force played spoiler with a 27-24 win over 21st- ranked Colorado State on Friday.A cadre of attorneys and a flurry of lawsuits could certainly slow down the NBAs plan to force Donald Sterling to sell the Los Angeles Clippers over his recent racist comments, but legal experts say the league would likely prevail in the end. And that goes for Sterlings wife, Shelly, who has said shed like to keep her stake in the team even if her husband is ousted. The NBAs constitution, which Donald Sterling signed as controlling owner of the Clippers, gives its board of governors broad latitude in league decisions including who owns the teams. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is pushing for a swift vote against Sterling, which requires a minimum of three-fourths of the other 29 controlling owners to agree. Silver also has imposed a lifetime ban on Sterling and a $2.5 million fine. The ban does not apply to Shelly Sterling. SI.com and ESPN.com, citing unidentified sources, reported Thursday that Sterlings lawyer, antitrust litigator Maxwell Blecher, wrote a letter to Rick Buchanan, the NBAs executive vice-president and general counsel, threatening to sue the league and saying Sterling will not pay the $2.5 million fine. "Sterlings own signature will come back to haunt him," said Michael McCann, founding director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire. "You agree to certain basic understandings. Thats what makes a sports league different from other businesses." The key to the NBAs authority, attorneys say, is Article 13(d) of the leagues constitution. That section says that, whether Sterling intended to or not, an owner cannot "fail or refuse to fulfil" contractual obligations to the NBA "in such a way to affect the Association or its members adversely." Theres plenty of evidence Sterlings comments, revealed in a recorded conversation with a female companion, affected the league adversely. They provoked threats of a player boycott, led sponsors to withdraw support and created a racially charged image problem in the midst of the NBA playoffs that even President Barack Obama remarked upon. If Article 13(d) was violated, the legal experts say the board of governors has solid grounds to force Sterling to sell the team along with any other owners, in this case his wife. As long as the NBA meticulously follows its own constitution and rules regarding the Clippers sale, it will be difficult for Sterling to find a legal theory that would stand up in court, said Daniel Lazaroff, director of the Sports Law Institute at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.dddddddddddd "This is not an antitrust issue. This is not a First Amendment issue," Lazaroff said. "Its a question limited to the interpretation of the NBA constitution and bylaws, and whether those terms are met." Another question involves California family law. Its a community property state, meaning spouses jointly own property they acquired while married. The Sterlings were already married when he bought the Clippers in 1981. Although a potential divorce could complicate the Clippers sale, McCann said the couples joint ownership actually works to the NBAs favour because — legally speaking — they are a single entity. So if the NBA forced Donald Sterling to sell, even under a divorce scenario, Shelly Sterling would have to sell, too. They have been married since 1955. "The NBA is well positioned to ultimately prevail," McCann said. For his part, Donald Sterling has repeatedly said he does not want to sell the Clippers. In his recent interview with CNNs Anderson Cooper, he cast doubt on going to court if the NBA governors ultimately do vote to force him out. "People want me to hire a wall of lawyers and them to have to hire a wall of lawyers and go to war," Sterling said on CNN. "I dont think thats the answer." Sterlings longtime attorney, Robert Platt, declined to comment when contacted Wednesday. Shelly Sterlings attorney, Pierce ODonnell, did not respond to email requests for comment from The Associated Press. But he has previously said she wants to remain a passive owner of the Clippers even if her husband is no longer involved. For now, the NBA has installed former Time Warner and Citigroup chairman Dick Parsons to oversee the teams business operations. Parsons said this week that a prolonged legal battle "is in no ones interest." "I would hope we could avoid that," he said. If he is forced out, Sterling still stands to reap a huge financial windfall in a Clippers sale. He bought the team for $12.5 million in 1981, and Forbes magazine recently placed its 2014 value at $575 million, or No. 13 in the NBA. Of course, there would also be a sizable capital gains tax bill for that. _____ Follow Curt Anderson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Miamicurt ' ' '