Month: June 2023

Winning an NBA championship — or a championship in any sport, really — allows athletes for an opportunity to reflect. While it seemed like Nikola Jokic’s number one priority in the aftermath of the Denver Nuggets’ win over the Miami Heat on Monday night to clinch the the first title in franchise history was to leave the country as soon as possible and return to Serbia, he did get the chance to reflect on things during a sit down with Malika Andrews of ESPN.

Andrews asked a pretty simple question: What does the guy who was drafted 41st overall in the 2014 NBA Draft and famously got selected while a Taco Bell commercial played think about the circumstances under which he entered the league now? Here’s what Jokic had to say about all that:

“They didn’t believe in the fat boy,” Jokic said. “It seems like it worked out. Don’t bet against the fat boy.”

Jokic, of course, came into the NBA with some optimism that he could be a good player based on his time in the Adriatic League, but there were major questions about whether he’d be able to keep up physically due to his frame and lack of foot speed. He, as it turns out, very much could.

After weeks of constant talks about Doja Cat’s forthcoming album, the project’s release just may be on the horizon. Last night, the Grammy Award-winning musician’s record label mistakenly spilled the beans about Doja’s lead single. Although the entertainer has walked back the title of the project’s title and its classified genre, based on the marketing error, fans learned the song’s name and release date.

So, what is Doja Cat’s new single’s official release date? After her record company deactivated the rapper’s pre-save link, Doja Cat took to Twitter to share the track’s cover art. The artwork was captioned, “6.16.23 [blood drop emoji],” essentially confirming the label’s initial campaign blast.

When she first shared that a new album was in the works during interviews, her sonic influences changed from rave-influenced, rap, R&B, punk, to simply not pop. At the time the only concrete thing about the album was its title, Hellmouth, but Doja Cat later walked that back, saying, “The whole album is no longer rap yall its rock/spoken word, and the album title is not Hellmouth anymore.” The musician later sarcastically announced it would be called Moist Holes.

Outside of Doja sharing the single’s cover art and pending release date, nothing further is known about the single at this time.

Is Better Call Saul better than Breaking Bad?

It’s a trick question: both shows are great, art is subjective, it’s not a competition, etc. But if, hypothetically speaking, you do prefer Better Call Saul to Breaking Bad, creator Vince Gilligan doesn’t blame you. “Half the people I run into — maybe more than half — are bigger fans of Saul than Breaking Bad,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “I thought I’d hate hearing that, but it turns out, I don’t. The life lesson is to not overthink things.”

Either way, everything’s coming up Mike Ehrmantraut.

In that same interview, Better Call Saul co-creator Peter Gould also discussed whether he and Gilligan would ever return to the “Gilliverse,” as he calls it.

“Vince and I both decided it would be good to give the Gilliverse a little bit of a rest,” he explained. “But we had a big board with ideas or scenes we were interested in or would be fun — and there were a lot of them still on that board when we finished up the show. Maybe that’s a good thing, though. You want to leave something you didn’t get to.”

Skinny Pete: The Untold Story, coming to AMC+ in 2025.

(Via the Los Angeles Times)

Julia Jacklin shared a brand new cover of Roland S. Howard’s “Shivers,” after being asked to join a compilation to honor the song’s original producer, the late Tony Cohen.

Jacklin adds a dreamy, heightened layer to the already-emotional song that was recorded by Howard and Nick Cave’s The Boys Next Door band.

“It’s been covered a lot, but it’s a special one for me,” Jacklin shared in a statement. “It was one of the first songs I ever learnt to play. Many Sydney bars, venues, and open mic nights have heard me sing this song. Howard wrote it at 16 and I’ve always loved how much the lyrics capture that type of unbridled, dramatic teenage infatuation. The kind that physically hurts but also makes you laugh at yourself.”

Other artists on the Cohen tribute compilation include fellow Australian acts like RVG, Leah Senior, Grace Cummings, and more. There is also a joint book called Half Deaf, Completely Mad that John Olson wrote about the producer as part of the honorary release.

Next month, Jacklin will be kicking off a new North American tour tied to her latest album, Pre Pleasure. More information along with a complete list of dates, can be found here.

Check out Jacklin’s “Shivers” cover above.

In the slog of the fourth quarter of Game 5 of the NBA Finals, a game with energy but no direction, Nuggets forward Aaron Gordon got switched onto hot-shooting Heat guard Kyle Lowry with Denver up 3 and the shot clock waning. Lowry faked right, crossed to his left, and rose up for a pull-up jumper. Only the space he created with his hesitation wasn’t there anymore, and Gordon swallowed the shot whole.

In the chaos and pressure of that closeout game, Gordon and Denver showed again that they were just as big, strong, and physical as the biggest bullies of the NBA postseason.

The Nuggets always seemed to know the best version of their team was the biggest one. After cycling through many big bodies — and big names — as frontcourt partners for Nikola Jokic, the Denver Nuggets struck gold at the 2021 trade deadline when they swung for Gordon, a bruising forward in his athletic prime.

These NBA Finals have highlighted what makes Gordon special and why he was the right fit for the team. Gordon opened Game 1 relentlessly scoring over Heat guards on post seals, then in Games 3 and 4 piled up points as he cut to the basket for layups and dunks and mashed Miami on the offensive glass. Gordon was the final ingredient for this team because he overpowers everyone, but also skilled and smart enough to play alongside Jokic and Jamal Murray as a cleanup man on both ends of the floor. The 2014 No. 4 overall pick symbolizes the evolution of Denver from a deeper, more balanced team to one determined to bully its opponents.

Today’s Nuggets are the bigger team in nearly every matchup they face, including the Cinderella Heat. Every player in the starting lineup is big (at least 200 lbs.), tall (at least 6-5), and has long arms (at least a 6-6 wingspan). In these NBA Finals, they out-rebounded the Heat 232-178, and scored more points in the paint per 100 possessions than anyone in the NBA playoffs by a wide margin.

The Nuggets are not the expected prototype for modern NBA big ball. As the league transitioned out of the Warriors’ dynasty, teams realized that it was impossible to replicate Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, or Steph Curry — and they stopped trying to. Even the 2022 champion Warriors played much bigger than they did during the prime Death Lineup years. Toronto has tried to build a roster without a traditional point guard or center, in which everyone is tall and skilled. Milwaukee uses the versatility of Giannis Antetokounmpo on both ends to dominate the paint and swarm opponents. But while Denver has not finished as a top-10 defensive team in any of its past five seasons on their way to the playoffs (they were 11th twice), the Nuggets have shown how to use big ball to maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

Long vulnerable in pick-and-roll defense, the Nuggets solved their biggest problem by simply getting bigger around Jokic. In the 2021 playoffs with Murray out, Denver got carved up by Damian Lillard and Chris Paul in back-to-back rounds when they could not cover enough space to take away the paint and contest jump shots. That postseason, they allowed opponents to shoot the second-highest percentage from behind the arc and the seventh-highest percentage at the rim. This year, they are middle of the pack in both by deploying larger bodies at every position with more aggressive gameplans.

These Nuggets swipe, crowd, and bump opposing offenses to make up for their lack of explosive athleticism. They are lowest among NBA playoff teams in turnover creation, and forced hardly any against Miami in the Finals. But they succeed by sending scorers the wrong direction, forcing them off balance, and generally making every possession a chore for the opposing offense.

The Nuggets are happy to let certain shooters take threes, and young help defenders like Michael Porter Jr., Christian Braun, and even Jamal Murray are smarter about how to rotate within the gameplan. Porter in particular has gradually learned how to use his 7-foot wingspan to his advantage. Anyone he guards can count on a hand in their face at all times.

When opponents do slice into the lane, the Nuggets collapse aggressively, a jumble of hip checks and raised arms greeting any ball-handler who flies inside. Game 3 of the Finals may have been their finest defensive performance of the entire season, turning Miami’s intensity back onto them and forcing the Heat into 37 percent shooting and just 20 team assists. Like Jokic, Denver’s supporting cast has taken its cues from ball-hawk NFL linebackers, swiping downward on any driving scorer to disrupt their rhythm or jar the ball loose.

Denver’s point of attack defense may have benefited most of all from adding size to the roster. Gordon was added specifically to be the Nuggets’ explosive wing stopper after a conference finals loss to LeBron James, but he is the rare athlete who can move his feet well enough to stop a Jimmy Butler drive and also have the strength to fight back against a Karl-Anthony Towns post-up. He is a perfect complement to Jokic at 6-8 and 235 pounds, providing Denver with a much-needed switchable, versatile frontcourt defender. The league may have forgotten about Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, but Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth did not, trading for the 3-and-D wing last summer to complete Denver’s starting lineup. BBall-Index graded KCP in the top 3 percent of all NBA players as an off-ball chaser and a ball screen navigator this season. He was a steal for a team that needed more from its help defense and perimeter stoppage. Bruce Brown, also added last offseason, essentially turned Denver’s fortunes against Phoenix’s stars all by himself. He is technically a point guard, but he’s 6-4 and over 200 pounds. Even Murray has had great moments battling against Butler and others in the Finals.

The higher volume of threes gets the attention in the modern NBA, but the most important thing an NBA defense can do is not contest threes, but to take up the space created by volume shooting. The Nuggets identified that Jokic had a weakness against dynamic guards who could score in the pick-and-roll. They understood that because of his low center of gravity and lack of leaping ability — as well as his huge workload on offense — that wasn’t going to change. So Booth and Co. subtly, offseason by offseason, found and developed players who could combine strength and length in a way that instead bumped opponents off their spots, contested shots more consistently, and could execute gameplans built around Jokic’s limitations. It paid off.

Of course, the Nuggets also couldn’t ignore their true identity as an offensive juggernaut. They couldn’t afford to simply acquire defensive difference-makers. Their size and intelligence helps on offense, too. Murray has adapted his game considerably in the Finals, getting downhill early and often, averaging double-digit assists and living in the paint. A traditional scoring guard would only be so effective playing off Jokic. Murray has added muscle over time, and is on his way back to the 70-plus percent at-rim shooting he boasted before he tore his ACL. He can post up smaller guards, too. The two-man game works because Denver can invert it, and not just because Jokic is comfortable on the outside. Murray can get into the teeth of the defense and take advantage of that space.

This series has also been the apotheosis of Gordon’s adaptation into a paint killer, overpowering guards and wings, owning the glass, and flying in for dunks and layups from every angle. It certainly helped Porter weather his cold streak that he could use his size to shoot 72% at the rim in the playoffs. And the power of Jokic is that smart players like Brown and KCP also learn quickly that they also need to start cutting and moving if they want to win and get minutes. Every addition the Nuggets have made has been with complementing their star duo in mind, players to both cover up weaknesses and amplify the strengths of Jokic and Murray.

“You have to have positionless guys, guys who can contain the ball and make shots,” Booth told Yahoo Sports of his roster-building approach. “Everybody wants two-way players, but [Jokić] likes to play with guys who know how to play basketball the right way.”

The past five MVPs have gone to Jokic, Antetokounmpo, and Joel Embiid. To win in the NBA today, you have to match those 7-foot unicorns who can handle the ball and bully you inside. Unless you acquire one of your own such players (hello, San Antonio), your answer for them will probably have to utilize all five players. This is where Denver’s approach is even more brilliant. They are already one step ahead of how teams might respond to them. By building big, the Nuggets not only shored up their team to make it a champion, they also beat out opponents in the big ball arms race that they have accelerated.

Denver manipulates space on offense better than most any team in the league, and has assembled a unit that clogs it on defense. With their core most all under contract (aside from Bruce Brown, who could be a hot commodity in free agency this summer) and still fairly young (not to mention Braun and Peyton Watson waiting in the wings like a lab-created next generation for Denver to mold), the rest of the NBA has to operate as if the Nuggets will continue to be the defining team of this moment.

The question of how you stop the Nuggets has been raised throughout the playoffs as they churned out double-digit wins and lost just four times. The recipe includes a heavy dose of paint pressure, transition scoring, and threes. It also means matching Denver’s physicality and IQ. But as the NBA heads into its first offseason attempting to thwart the Nuggets, that recipe also has to include players who are big, tall, and strong enough to go toe-to-toe with Denver’s core.

This year’s Pride Month seems more volatile than usual, and the venom sure isn’t coming from the LGBTQ+ community. Then again, the right-wing warmed up by cheering on Kid Rock after he shot up some defenseless Bud Light cans. This was followed by conservative tantrums over Target Pride displays, many of which were removed by the retailer. The grousing reached a fevered pitch with meltdowns over Chick-fil-a hiring a diversity and inclusion VP and Cracker Barrel showcasing a rainbow-themed rocking chair, which prompted the Texas Family Project to seriously tweet, “@CrackerBarrel has fallen. A once family friendly establishment has caved to the mob.”

“[T]he mob” is an interesting way to frame things, considering that far-right cries for boycotts seem to happen on a daily basis these days. For its part, Cracker Barrel stood firm last week throughout criticism while responding, “Thanks for sharing! Our teams take pride in creating a welcoming, safe atmosphere where people can enjoy time with family and friends the moment they walk through our doors.”

And what of Starbucks and Pride Month? That answer is a complicated one, although Starbucks has issued a statement, which we’ll get to in a moment. First up, though, a Tuesday tweet from Starbucks Workers United read, “In the middle of Pride Month, Starbucks BANS Pride decorations in stores across the United States.”

This led to a quick celebration (and a Lauren Boebert retweet) from Talking Points USA founder Charlie Kirk, who wrote, “BREAKING: Starbucks has banned Pride decorations in its stores halfway through Pride Month, the company’s workers union has revealed…. Keep the pressure on, folks.”

And from there, The Daily Beast followed up with statements from both the union and the company. A Starbucks Workers United spokesperson claimed that an Oklahoma cafe’s baristas were told that “it was a safety issue related to the recent attacks on Target,” whereas Massachusetts workers claimed that they were told, “[T]hey didn’t have any labor hours to decorate for Pride.”

However, a Starbucks spokesperson denied these allegations as “false information.” The company added, “There has been no change to any policy on this matter and we continue to encourage our store leaders to celebrate with their communities including for U.S. Pride month in June.”

(Via The Daily Beast)

As Donald Trump prepares to be arraigned on federal charges in Miami, MAGA Republicans have rushed to his defense as the former president stares down a damning indictment loaded with evidence that he not only mishandled classified documents, but plotted to keep them from the government.

One piece of said evidence is a now-viral photo of a Mar-a-Lago bathroom stuffed to the brim with boxes of documents. They’re even in the shower. However, Florida Congressman Byron Donalds, who’s rumored to be a potential running mate for Trump’s 2024 run, has offered a ridiculous defense of the former president storing classified intel in the can.

Here’s what Donalds told CNN This Morning via The Daily Beast:

“You guys are throwing up the pictures about they were in a bathroom or on a stage,” the pro-Trump congressman declared. “As somebody who has been to Mar-a-Lago, you can’t walk through Mar-a-Lago of your own accord because Secret Service is all over the place. So if the documents are in a place, they are in a room, depending on the time of year, you can’t even get into said room.”

It just got better from there.

“There are 33 bathrooms at Mar-a-Lago!” Donalds exclaimed. “So don’t act like it’s in some random bathroom that the guests can go into. That’s not true!”

To be clear, Donalds is arguing that storing classified documents in a bathroom is fine because Mar-a-Lago has a lot of them. While that doesn’t change the laws on storing top secret intel, at least Donalds didn’t go the Kevin McCarthy route and argue that bathroom doors have locks on them. Which is true, but only from the inside.

These guys might want to workshop a few of these defenses before taking them live. Just a thought.

(Via The Daily Beast)

Michael Porter Jr. did not have the NBA Finals he envisioned, as the Nuggets sharpshooting wing went ice cold against the Miami Heat. Porter Jr. went 4-of-28 from three in the Finals, but in Game 5 he proved a pivotal piece in Denver’s series clinching win despite another rough night from distance (1-of-6).

Porter Jr. made his way inside in Game 5, scoring 16 points, pulling down 13 rebounds, and dishing out three assists, as he punished the smaller Heat on the boards and attacked downhill when he got the ball.

He was also engaged defensively, using his length to bother Miami’s shooters and doing his best to stay in front on drives and navigate screening action. It wasn’t the typical Porter Jr. performance, but it was indicative of how he’s bought in to his role in Denver and finding ways to do things beyond knocking down shots to help the Nuggets win. After the game, head coach Michael Malone made it a point to tell Porter Jr. how proud he was of him for doing just that, ensuring Porter Jr. knew how vital he was to this team winning the championship even if he had a rough shooting series.

“You helped us win a championship,” Malone says. “Think about that, and it’s not just that — people will focus on the Finals but the season you had this year…Offensively, defensively, caring, trying, all of that stuff Michael. So don’t like, ‘Ah, I didn’t make shots,’ we won the championship and you were a huge part of that and we’re gonna win another one. … And you sacrificed a ton, man, and I appreciate that.”

It’s a very cool moment and shows what so much of coaching is (and the part we often don’t see). Coaching is about building trust with your players and finding that balance between pushing them to be their best (or the version of their best that helps the team the most) and making sure you also give them praise. Malone knows Porter Jr. has the ability to be a much bigger figure on a team with a different makeup, but on this Nuggets team that has the best two-man offensive combo in the league in Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, Porter Jr. has to be a tertiary player. When he isn’t knocking down shots, it’s hard for him to feel like he’s doing his part, but Malone correctly points out that he stepped up in Game 5 to do the little things and complements him on his sacrifice all season for the good of the team.

When you win the title, it’s easier to look back and see it all as worth it, and Malone recognizes the importance of having Porter Jr. do that in the moment as they are celebrating their first championship. He also knows if they want to do it again, he’ll need Porter just as engaged on both ends (and hopefully finding his shooting rhythm), and is making sure his third star knows his importance to the team.

Fleet Foxes’ summer tour starts in Cleveland tonight (June 13), so to bring some attention to the cause, the group has shared a pair of live recordings from the past year, both available as name-your-price downloads on Bandcamp.

One is a cover of The Strokes’ “Under Control” alongside The Westerlies and tour openers Uwade, at Forest Hills Stadium last August. The other is a rendition of Joni Mitchell’s Hejira” with Daniel Rossen, Greg Pecknold, and The Westerlies at Los Angeles’ The Belasco this past March.

Robin Pecknold shared some thoughts on both performances, saying of “Under Control” in a press release:

“Last summer we were honored to have the incredible vocalist and songwriter Uwade Akhere open for us on tour. One thing we all bonded over backstage was a shared love of The Strokes — hearing Uwa’s voice echoing down the halls as she sang ‘The End Has No End’ or ‘Reptilia’ was always a highlight of the day. Considering this, I thought she might get a kick out of singing ‘Under Control’ with us and the Westerlies at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in Queens, so we pulled it together at soundcheck and asked her — it was amazing! She ruled it. Thank you Uwade!”

He also noted of “Hejira”:

“My father built bass guitars and played in bands in his twenties and thirties in the Northwest; his dream was to be Joni Mitchell’s bassist, like the great Jaco Pastorius. Right before our surprise show with Joanna Newsom in March, I bought back for him one of the fretless basses he had made in the 80’s, and I thought it would be sweet for us to play ‘Hejira’ together, on the same bill as Joanna, the Joni of our time. It was also an honor to be joined by Daniel Rossen for this, one of the greatest musicians of the last 20 years. Thank you, Dan and Dad!”

Listen to both tracks below.

https://fleetfoxes.bandcamp.com/album/under-control-live-at-forest-hills-stadium-feat-uwade-the-westerlies

https://fleetfoxes.bandcamp.com/album/hejira-live-at-the-spring-recital-feat-daniel-rossen-greg-pecknold-the-westerlies

In No Hard Feelings, Jennifer Lawrence plays a broke 30-something who answers a Craigslist ad from two parents asking someone to “date” their teenage son. It’s a wacky concept straight out of an 1980s sex comedy, or something you might read in Penthouse (“I never thought this would happen to me…”), but it’s also based on a real incident.

“The director’s a good friend of mine, and we’ve been friends for a long time. And, we were getting dinner, and he showed me the Craiglist ad,” Lawrence told GMA about where the idea for No Hard Feelings came from. “And I just thought it was hilarious. I, in no way, thought I was going to be in the movie… There was no movie. It was just the ad, and we laughed about it. And, four years later, he sent me the script.” The ad was sent to director Gene Stupnitsky by Marc Provissiero and Naomi Odenkirk, who produced the film.

Just to recap: Bob Odenkirk’s wife found a Craigslist ad; forwarded it to Stupnitsky; and he convinced four-time Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence to star in a movie based on the post where she gets to ask teenagers why they don’t f*ck anymore. Cinema is back.

Now I’m wondering what other comedies are based on real stories.

I don’t know what to believe in anymore.

No Hard Feelings, which also stars Andrew Barth Feldman, Matthew Broderick, Laura Benanti, Natalie Morales, Scott MacArthur, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, opens in theaters on June 23rd.

(Via Thought Catalog)