Month: July 2021

Nearly two years after sharing her last solo single, Camila Cabello returned with “Don’t Go Yet,” which will hopefully bring her fans closer to the arrival of her third album. Less than a day after releasing the song, she stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for her debut performance of the track, and while it went well, it didn’t go without controversy.

Shortly after the performance, Cabello received a lot of attention after many on social media accused her backup dancer of wearing blackface. As a result, she took to Twitter to address the accusations and clear things up.

“Hey! so this dude was just supposed to be a white man with a terrible spray tan,” in a note she posted on Twitter. “We purposefully tried to pull together a multicultural group of performers, the expectation was not that everyone in the performance needed to be Latin. There are white people, African American people, Latin people, etc. and so the point wasn’t to try to make everyone look Latin either. There are a lot of people in the performance who are not.” She concluded, “The point was to try to make each person look like an over-the-top 80’s character just like in the video, including a white dude with a terrible orange spray tan.”

You can watch her performance.

Ever since semi-rebooting in 2005, Doctor Who has resisted one TV trend: telling one story over an entire season. (Or over an entire series.) Instead, it’s stuck close to the long-running franchise’s original idea: telling individual stories, often over a number of episodes. That changes with the revival’s 13th season, which debuted its first trailer over the weekend at San Diego Comic-Con.

It’s a pretty typical trailer. We see Jodie Whittaker, the 13th incarnation of the good Doctor, getting into some typical Doctor Who misadventures, with typically excitable aplomb. We also see newbie Jacob Anderson, best known as Grey Worm on Games of Thrones, crossing over into another English-heavy institution. John Bishop, meanwhile, will play the new companion, replacing Tosin Cole (who played Ryan) and Bradley Walsh (who played Graham O’Brien).

During the SDCC panel, the team discussed why they moved into a single storyline structure. It wasn’t to be like every other show; it was because of the pandemic.

“Before we started making it, there were times when we thought we were going to be unable to do the show under Covid conditions this year… there were two ways you could go,” said executive producer Chris Chibnall. “You could go ‘let’s do lots of tiny little episodes in one room, with no monsters,’ or we could throw down the gauntlet and do the biggest story we’ve ever done. We’re going to go to all kinds of different places, we’re going to have all kinds of characters and monsters, and it’s all going to be part of a bigger whole. It’s definitely the most ambitious thing we’ve done since we’ve been on the series.”

Doctor Who does not yet have a season premiere date, but it will bow later this year.

The NBA Draft is less than a week away and shortly after the next crop of NBA players learn where they’ll be starting their careers, free agency will arrive as teams jockey for position to make a leap next season.

Every team has different needs and financial situations coming into the offseason, and as such free agency rankings from a wide view does little to provide insight into the players who will headline each team’s wishlist. Here, we’re going to try and take a more narrow view for each team, taking into account their roster needs, franchise situation (contender, hopeful contender, rebuild, etc.), and the money they have to offer to pick out the free agent we think will be atop their free agent board when August arrives.

To start, we’ll look at the West, going from worst to first based on last year’s standings to pick out a free agent for each team who is not one of their own.

Houston Rockets: Lauri Markkanen (RFA, Bulls)

Things are rather bleak in Houston at the moment, and one would expect them to be looking to move veterans like Eric Gordon and D.J. Augustin in trades to open up more opportunity for young players. They also don’t have much cap space, so they can’t go after any of the top free agents, but maybe they take a flier on someone like Bulls RFA Lauri Markkanen, who Chicago seems unlikely to want to match much on. The Rockets are a team that could offer Markannen a mid-level type deal and that might be the best he can find on the market this summer. There aren’t a ton of great options for Houston, who are in the unfortunate situation of being a bad team without cap space to even try to overpay for young guys in hopes they blossom, but Markkanen is theoretically a fit next to Christian Wood and could be happy just to be in a new place.

Oklahoma City Thunder: Talen Horton-Tucker (RFA, Lakers)

The Thunder are going to have lots of money they need to spend and don’t really have any specific need beyond playing for upside. This isn’t a free agent class that has a lot of players that fit the bill here, and they aren’t going to be a preferred destination for anyone, so we land with Talen Horton-Tucker, who if nothing else fits OKC’s timeframe better than any free agent on the market at just 20 years old. The Thunder could put up the type of contract for THT that would make the Lakers balk at matching, and can offer him a much more significant role in a place where, while he won’t be competing for anything close to a title, would also come without the stress of needing to develop while contributing to a top contender.

Minnesota Timberwolves: Otto Porter Jr. (UFA, Magic)

I’ll be the first to admit that I have no idea what Otto Porter Jr.’s market is going to be, as he has barely played recently (42 games in two seasons). As such, it’s possible that he could be available for a bargain and is the type of upside player on the wing that the Timberwolves could use, and with Minnesota not having anything but the mid-level to offer, that’s maybe the best they can hope for. If Porter can stay healthy and regain the form he showed after being dealt to Chicago in 2018, this is a home run for the Timberwolves to add more wing depth and versatility as someone who can play some four. If it’s on a short-term deal, it mitigates the risk and Minnesota is in a position where it might be worth taking a swing.

New Orleans Pelicans: Devonte’ Graham (RFA, Hornets)

With the likelihood that they’re just going to let their own RFAs (Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart) walk, New Orleans’ focus this summer is on upgrading their point guard position. There’s been reported interest from the Pelicans in Kyle Lowry, but as great a fit as that would be for New Orleans, it’s just hard for me to see Lowry being seriously interested in the Pelicans given the other possible options. Graham, however, fits their timeline a little better and still would provide the upgrade in terms of offensive playmaking, creation, and shooting that they want to find. Whether their $16 million in space is enough to get Graham out of Charlotte remains to be seen, but I think that would be a terrific landing spot for Graham and a good, more realistic outcome for the Pelicans to upgrade their backcourt.

Sacramento Kings: Montrezl Harrell (Player Option, Lakers)

The real answer here is “keep Richaun Holmes,” but the Kings may not be able to do that, as they only have his early Bird rights, which means they can only offer him a deal in the $11-12 million a year range. That might not top what Holmes gets on the open market, particularly in a year that is very light on starting-caliber big men. Should Holmes walk, all the Kings really have at their disposal is the mid-level (just above $9 million), which isn’t a lot, but they can offer a significant role. That might be enough to persuade someone like Montrezl Harrell, who has clearly been frustrated by his role on the Lakers on the same deal, to opt out and try, once again, to build a more robust free agent market for himself on a team where he’d have ample opportunity to play a more leading role.

San Antonio Spurs: John Collins (RFA, Hawks)

The Spurs’ interest in Collins isn’t a secret and they are one of the few teams that has the type of money to possibly pry Collins away from Atlanta. The Spurs can offer Collins his max and that might be enough to make the Hawks walk away from the table. San Antonio has a terrific young backcourt, but is staring at a significant hole at the power forward position. Collins would fit that need snugly, as well as their timeline which is to continue competing for playoff spots now, but keeping an eye on the future to really build into being a contender again.

Golden State Warriors: Nic Batum (UFA, Clippers)

The Warriors will look to do most of their damage this offseason via trades, with plenty of draft capital to move around to try and upgrade their roster around Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and a returning Klay Thompson. Whatever they do on the trade market, they still will need shooting and more quality veteran help, and with just the taxpayer mid-level ($5.9 million) at their disposal, I’m not sure they can do much better than Batum. He and Green could make for an awesome small-ball defensive pair, with plenty of savvy and strength, and where Green is a creator offensively, Batum was a lights-out shooter for the Clippers, something desperately needed in the Bay. L.A. will also try to bring Batum back at the same price, but with Kawhi out after ACL surgery, it’s possible Batum sees Golden State as the preferred option for next season.

Memphis Grizzlies: Tim Hardaway Jr. (UFA, Mavericks)

The Grizzlies are a fascinating team because they already have depth and are already good, but they certainly have needs in terms of boosting their ceiling. The good news is they’ll have money to do that with, as they’ll be in the $22 million range in cap space. The biggest need for the Grizzlies is scoring, as Ja Morant and Dillon Brooks are often asked to do everything in the creation space for Memphis and that’s a tall order for two guys to make it happen night in and night out. The Mavs have plenty of incentive to try and keep Hardaway, but the Grizzlies can make a handsome offer to him and he would be a snug fit in terms of providing some secondary creation as well as being another quality spot-up shooter.

Portland Trail Blazers: PJ Tucker (UFA, Bucks)

The Bucks will have their hands full trying to retain everyone from this past year, and the Blazers could try to pry Tucker away with a significant chunk of the mid-level that might be more than Milwaukee might be willing to offer. Portland’s biggest moves this summer are going to have to come via trade, but with re-signing Norman Powell as their focus in terms of their own free agents, adding another versatile wing/frontcourt defender would be a welcome sight for Damian Lillard. Defense has to be Portland’s focus this offseason, and with a free agency class that doesn’t have a ton of great options for a team like the Blazers, Tucker might be their most attainable target to fill that need.

Dallas Mavericks: Mike Conley (UFA, Jazz)

Utah has a lot of money allocated to next year’s team without re-signing Conley, and if a team like the Mavs were to come at him with a robust offer, it might be more than the Jazz would be willing to pay him to run things back. From Dallas’ perspective, Conley is an ideal point guard to pair alongside Luka Doncic, someone who has recent experience balancing creative duties with a young star in Donovan Mitchell, and his three-point shooting provides additional spacing next to Doncic. Dallas also has frontcourt needs to address as well, but there’s no doubt that they could use a steady hand and another creator next to Doncic, and if Conley is willing to look beyond Utah, there are few places that are a better fit for him than the Mavs.

Los Angeles Clippers: Jeff Green (UFA, Nets)

Look, the Clippers focus in free agency is figuring out how to keep as much of the 2020-21 squad on board, not adding players from other teams. Kawhi is the biggest piece of that, but Nic Batum and Reggie Jackson were huge for them on minimum deals and will require much more next year. The good news is they have Early Bird rights on Jackson, meaning they can bring him back for just north of $10 million, and given his post-playoffs presser, that seems like a fair bet. Batum, on the other hand, will have plenty of suitors at the same number they can offer at the tax-payer MLE and possibly above. If he walks, frontcourt help will be among the top priorities for the Clippers and they could do worse than adding Green, who would provide similar versatility although not the three-point shooting punch. Brooklyn probably can’t offer him much more than the minimum and if the Clippers were to bring their tax MLE to the table, they might draw him to L.A.

Denver Nuggets: Bobby Portis (Player Option, Bucks)

The Nuggets have a few really interesting decisions to make with their own free agents, and that’s going to determine where they look to spend with their mid-level. I feel it’s more likely they bring Will Barton back and try to work out a deal for Austin Rivers to return, shifting the focus to the frontcourt help. While Paul Millsap has been terrific for them over his tenure in Denver, they might look to splurge the full mid-level to pry Bobby Portis out of Milwaukee to see if he can bring the same magic with him to Denver. They could use that kind of energy in the frontcourt and scoring punch off the bench in the moments Jokic is on the bench.

Phoenix Suns: Nerlens Noel (UFA, Knicks)

Dario Saric was great as a small-ball five for Phoenix, but he’ll be out most of next season (if not all of it) after suffering his ACL injury. Bringing Chris Paul back is the first point of order for James Jones and the Suns, but after that attention has to shift to finding a capable backup for Deandre Ayton. Of the center options on the market, I’m not sure they can do a whole lot better than Noel, who would bring their bench unit some much-needed rim protection, even if you sacrifice some offense to have that defensive presence. Phoenix could be in on the Nic Batum sweepstakes as well, but I just can’t help but think that Noel would fit snugly into what Monty Williams wants for the identity of this team on the defensive end of the floor.

Utah Jazz: Torrey Craig (UFA, Phoenix)

Everything about this offseason in Utah hinges on whether they’re able to bring back Mike Conley or not, but the need, for now, is having another defender on the wing. If they re-sign Conley, it’s going to be very much an “add on the periphery” summer for the Jazz and Craig might be their best bet in terms of bang for their buck. A throwaway in the PJ Tucker trade, Craig ended up in Phoenix where he played an important role for the Suns as a bench defender (and solid three-point shooter), much as he did in Denver prior to falling out of the rotation. Utah could use that type of presence to mix into their wing/power forward rotation, and with potentially not a lot to spend, he would be a quality addition that wouldn’t run their tax bill too much higher.

The Los Angeles Lakers need to fill a lot of roster spots while not having a lot of money to do so this offseason, which makes their upcoming offseason incredibly interesting. The biggest free agent decision for the Lakers will be Dennis Schröder, as the point guard is set to be one of the top free agent guards on the market after turning down a 4-year, $84 million extension during the season.

Schröder is looking for a nine-figure payday, and whether the Lakers want to pay him that much, they may not have much of a choice if the market dictates that he’s worth that. Given their financial situation, L.A. has no way to replace Schröder without finding a sign-and-trade deal involving him — and that gets very difficult to do when it’s swapping a point guard for a point guard — or making a different trade. The problem is, they don’t have any players that are particularly enticing to other teams in a trade.

On Sunday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski offered a rather hilarious anecdote on the Woj & Lowe special about the Lakers’ desperation this offseason to make moves, saying “almost every team I’ve talked to in the league has been offered Kuz and KCP” in some form. It creates a very funny visual of Rob Pelinka just cold calling every GM from Atlanta to Washington and seeing what Kuzma or KCP could get them, and then asking what both together could get them, only to find out the answer is generally “not a lot.”

Woj seemed to think the Lakers would have to bite the bullet and just sign Schröder, hoping the market for the German guard doesn’t form in the way Schröder thinks it will to keep the cost down at least a bit. Still, over the next week-plus, you can seemingly expect the Lakers to be trying anything they can to make roster upgrades, but when push comes to shove, they might just have to run it back and try to make additions on the margins.

As for what the best possible outcome might be for a Kuz-KCP trade is, Shams Charania reported Buddy Hield has been involved in talks between the Lakers and Kings, which would certainly upgrade the Lakers’ shooting and give them a legitimate perimeter scorer, while the Kings move off some long-term salary. It remains to be seen if the Kings would bite on the Lakers offer, but it’s maybe the splashiest addition L.A. could hope for.

On Friday, Grimes brought her talents to Splendour XR, a music festival hailed as one of the most technologically advanced virtual showcases. She joined The Killers, Khalid, Charli XCX, Denzel Curry, and more. Grimes herself used her set to debut a new musical project called Grimes Metaverse, according to Billboard. She played her tentatively titled track “100% Tragedy,” which is currently still unreleased. In a chat with the Splendour XR music festival, the singer shared new details about the upcoming song.

In the chat, Grimes wrote that the song “is about having to defeat Azealia Banks when she tried to destroy my life.” This is in reference to a 2018 incident where Banks claimed she was at “Elon Musk’s house alone for days waiting for Grimes,” which fueled a lawsuit involving Tesla. A subpoena for Banks was proposed in order to have her testify against him involving claims of Musk fraudulently misleading investors.

Banks caught wind of Grimes’ comments shortly afterwards and responded on her Instagram page. “So you go make a bootleg @inna song about it. Yikes,” she wrote. “Grimes def has some psychosexual obsession with me. i think it’s bitterness cuz she doesn’t have the musical capacity i have. everything she does is out of pretentiousness and it comes out like that … while everything i do is out of natural swag & geniusness lmaoo.” She added, “Starting to notice all the weird undercover millennial racists hide out on discord.”

The last week has seen a major shift in Republicans’ battle with the COVID-19 pandemic: Some of them are actually recommending their supporters get one of the three life-saving vaccines. Even Sean Hannity advised they get it…before mostly recanting. It’s an awkward threading of the needle: They know vaccines are unpopular among the base, but if they don’t get vaccinated they could die. Even Donald Trump, who has claimed responsibility for the vaccines’ existence, couldn’t help but fumble around as he tried to sing its praises.

On Saturday night, Trump held a rally in Phoenix, Arizona — one of the states he’s claimed, without evidence, had massive voter fraud. His was an even longer speech than usual — some two hours in length, mostly yet another Greatest Hits package. But there was one thing he said that could have made the world a better, not worse, place — had he not immediately undercut it.

It began as another of the Trump’s whiny grievances, which his supporters evidently never tire of hearing. He was complaining about how he, in his words, “came up with the vaccine,” that “they said it would take 3 to 5 years,” and lo and behold there were three available around the end of his one-term presidency. He blamed massive Republican hesitancy to get dosed on Joe Biden, saying that “because they don’t trust the president, people aren’t doing it.”

If it seemed odd that he would take credit for something that very few of his supporters want to touch seemed odd, then this seemed an even stranger thing to tell them. “I recommend you take it,” Trump told the crowd, only to quickly add, “but I also believe in your freedoms, 100%.”

Since the vaccines started rolling out late last year, some have begged Trump to be a bigger cheerleader for their efficacy. After all, that would mean more of his supporters wouldn’t die unnecessarily. But he hasn’t, and now the vast majority of COVID-related cases and deaths are among the unvaccinated, most of whom are Trump die-hards. So maybe an awkward, hesitant plea to get vaxxed will make a dent in that, however small that may be.

The USA men’s basketball team fell apart on Sunday in Tokyo, blowing a fourth quarter lead to France thanks to an offense that was unable to score a basket in the final 3:40 seconds — a problem Team USA has had in exhibition games as well. The loss led to plenty of jokes at the Americans and even saw Evan Fournier get to the root of USA hoops’ issues with one sentence, pointing out that they’re a lot of great individuals but not yet a great team.

However, before the jokes arrived at the USA’s expense, the basketball world’s focus was on something that happened at halftime of the USA-France game, where a basketball shooting robot was brought out for the mostly empty arena to shoot from all over, cashing everything.

There were a number of camps that you could be in for reactions. My personal favorite was everyone pointing out that this robot’s release was outrageously slow and as such, you could just block this robot every time.

There were also a lot of tweets about the robot being better than Ben Simmons or the Sixers needing to trade Simmons for the shooting robot.

The next most popular joke was that the USA squad needed this robot against France.

Another was to call the robot Kawhi Leonard (you know, because he’s a basketball playing robot without emotions) or Stephen Curry (cause it can’t miss).

Plenty also pointed out that the robot takes about as long to shoot as Giannis does to shoot free throws.

The rest of the tweets were some form of “[insert team/owner/gm] sign or trade for this robot” or “we are all going to die.”

The music world is less than a week away from the arrival of Billie Eilish’s second album, Happier Than Ever, which she’s been working on since the beginning of 2020. Now that the album’s just around the corner, Eilish sat down for an interview with the LA Times, in which she detailed a struggle she had while writing a song for the album.

She was speaking about “Getting Older,” which is about her own personal struggles. “I’ve had some trauma / Did things I didn’t wanna,” she sings on the unreleased song. “Was too afraid to tell ya / But now I think it’s time.” Eilish then revealed that she was reluctant to go so personal, worried that fans would “know everything about my life somehow.”

She also said she keeps some things close to the vest. “I have experienced some stuff that I have never spoken about, and I don’t want to at all…I don’t want to f*cking talk about it,” she said. “I don’t want to tell anyone, let alone the entire internet. It’s embarrassing to go through stuff like that. It’s why a lot of women and men — but especially women — don’t tell anyone when they’re going through it.” She added, “But at the same time…even though I haven’t really done anything for [the #MeToo movement], it’s really important that young women know that it can happen to anyone. Just being taken advantage of.”

Happier Than Ever is out 7/30 via Interscope. Pre-order it here.

Kanye West was supposed to release his tenth album Donda this past Friday. The rapper announced a huge listening event at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium stadium to premiere the project, then release it shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, the album was not officially released as promised, and Kanye later revealed that he’s still tinkering with it — which, it appears, he’s doing from the same stadium where it made its semi-premiere.

According to TMZ, Kanye essentially moved into the Atlanta stadium to put the finishing touches on Donda. The publication says that “sources with direct knowledge” tell them that he and his teamed have created a makeshift studio space and living quarters in the stadium. He’s even hired a chef to prepare meals for him and his team.

The news comes after Kanye took a brief break from working on the record to check out Atlanta United’s soccer game against Columbus Crew. He was spotted hanging with fans during the match as well as walking around the stadium with his team. It also seemed like he was wearing the same thing he wore during the listening event for Donda on Friday.

As for when Donda will arrive, social media personality Justin Laboy announced the project was reportedly delayed until August 6.

The men’s USA Basketball squad lost its first game of the Olympics to France on Sunday morning, with the Americans going ice cold offensively down the stretch, failing to do much of anything that resembled a coherent offense while France never wavered, led by Evan Fournier who finished with 28 points and hit the go-ahead three for France down the stretch.

It wasn’t a shocking loss given what we had seen out of the Americans in their exhibition games in Las Vegas, but to see a team filled with offensive stars failing to score a bucket over the last 3:40 of the game is still rather stunning and frustrating to watch. After the game, Fournier summed up the issues Team USA has going forward in these Olympics with a succinct answer about them being more a collection of great individuals rather than a team with a cohesive identity.

This was, similarly, the talking point in 2004 when Team USA stumbled to a bronze medal. USA Basketball will always be that to an extent, but when they don’t put their best possible team on the floor, the gap just isn’t as wide as it once was and the flaws of the system are laid bare. The Americans who make the Olympic team don’t play qualifiers together and don’t even play in the World Cup together, which leads to a two-week stretch prior to the Olympics for them to figure it all out. They typically have the talent to make that work, but this year, with a team that seemed to be constructed more with taking whatever big names would accept an offer more than with a coherent structure in mind, the margin for error was more narrow and things just have not come together.

The results thus far have shown us what this team is which is a good collection of players, but one with real flaws particularly late in games. Whether they figure it out in short order will determine if we look back on this loss to France as the thing that woke them up or as the harbinger of things to come.