New Jersey 5s, Miami Pickleball Club make big trade as league moves back deadline
Last Edited
Jul 16 2025
Category
News
The New Jersey 5s and Miami Pickleball Club made a significant trade Wednesday that could change the trajectory of both teams as the Major League Pickleball regular season heads into the home stretch.
The terms of the deal, according to the league:
-Miami acquires Craig Johnson and cash
-New Jersey acquires Noe Khlif
Updated rosters
New Jersey 5s
Men: Noe Khlif, Zane Navratil, Will Howells
Women: Anna Leigh Waters, Meghan Dizon, Mari Humberg
Miami Pickleball Club
Men: Craig Johnson, Jay Devilliers, Yuta Funemizu
Women: Milan Rane, Mya Bui, Ava Ignatowich
The other big news of the day was the league pushing back the trade deadline from Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET to Monday, July 21, at noon ET. In a statement, MLP said this was an effort to allow teams to strategize around recently shared league operations updates -- we believe this to be the announcement earlier this week that the Challenger Level champion this year will be promoted to the Premier Level for 2026.
It was previously communicated that all Challenger Level teams would move to the Premier Level in either 2026 or 2027. This week's announcement means that MLP will be waiting to move to a one-level structure until the 2027 season.
New Jersey gets serious about title chase with this move
New Jersey has been solid all season and is currently third in the league standings in points per match (I also have them third in my latest power rankings). But the 5s are a combined 0-3 against the top two teams (Dallas and St. Louis), and just lost to St. Louis in regulation in the MLP Mid-Season Tournament semifinals last weekend.
New Jersey ended up settling for third at the Mid-Season Tournament, but this is a team that made it to the league finals last season -- and with Waters on the roster, it's clear that they have a "win now" mentality.
I think this trade was made with the intention of being able to take down Dallas or St. Louis (or both) in the playoffs, and it potentially addresses a weakness they have had in their matches against those teams. Here's how each line has performed in those matchups:
Women's doubles: 0-3
Men's doubles: 1-2
Mixed No. 1 (Waters/Howells): 3-0
Mixed No. 2 (Navratil + Dizon/Humberg): 0-3
The losses in women's doubles are obviously concerning, but in their two matches against St. Louis, Waters/Dizon lost 11-8 and Waters/Humberg lost 12-10 (and had multiple game points up 10-8). So they probably feel like they are close to getting over the hump in that regard.
The other big weakness in those matches -- mixed No. 2 -- appears to be what New Jersey is looking to address with this move. So far this season Navratil is 7-10 with Dizon and 0-1 with Humberg.
Khlif, while playing for Miami, is 14-12 with Milan Rane and 0-1 with Mya Bui.
Khlif also ranks slightly ahead of Navratil in all three divisions on the PPA Tour this season.
Men's doubles
Khlif: No. 18
Navratil: No. 28
Mixed doubles
Khlif: No. 18
Navratil: No. 21
Singles
Khlif: No. 15
Navratil: No. 48 (although he plays an irregular singles schedule these days)
Navratil said in a statement Wednesday that he told New Jersey GM Ryan Harwood that he wants to stay on the team, and also confirmed that Khlif will move into the starting lineup in his spot.
Navratil staying on the roster makes New Jersey arguably the only team in MLP that could reasonably start each of its six players in a given match. It gives them a ton of flexibility depending on the matchup, and they also have 10 regular season matches left to experiment with different lineups. The next event for the 5s is MLP Dallas on July 25-27.
Miami has some unknowns after this trade
The Miami Pickleball Club is currently 11th in the standings in points per match -- the top 10 make the playoffs.
It's unclear whether they intend to start Craig Johnson or Yuta Funemizu going forward, but Miami doesn't play again until MLP Salt Lake City on July 31-Aug. 3, so they have some time to figure it out.
Funemizu has shown flashes the past two events while filling in for Devilliers, who was out because his wife had a baby recently.
Funemizu has gone 1-8 with Mya Bui, but was 5-4 with Khlif in men's doubles. Johnson hasn't played in a match yet this season.