Category: News

There was plenty of chatter this offseason about whether the Chicago Bulls would try to make a move to shake up what felt like a stagnant roster last season. They were fine (40-42) but ever since Lonzo Ball went down with a knee injury two years ago, they just have lacked that extra gear to be one of the East’s playoff squads.

Despite rumblings about Zach LaVine, they chose to mostly run it back, re-signing Nikola Vucevic, Coby White, and Ayo Dosunmu, with a couple solid veteran depth additions in Jevon Carter and Torrey Craig. The hope was for it to click in a different way this year, but in the season opener that was not the case as they lost 124-104 at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

After the game, Billy Donovan offered up some eye-raising information in his postgame presser when he said the players asked him if they could have some time to talk amongst themselves before he and the rest of the staff came in.

It usually takes a couple weeks before we get word of our first players only meeting of the NBA season, so seconds after the final buzzer of Game 1 might just be a record. Historically, those meetings don’t turn things around simply because the team is probably not that good, and we’ll have to wait and see if the Bulls truly just needed a quick wakeup call to start the season or if some changes will finally need to be made.

There’s an additional layer to all of this after Vucevic and Donovan had an animated exchange on the bench, which Donovan characterized as “healthy” after the game.

Maybe confrontation is good and the Bulls just needed to get laying this egg out of their system, but they are very quickly going to end up under the microscope if this turns into an early season swoon that lasts a couple of weeks.

A goal of mine this October was to finally finish every Halloween movie and every Friday the 13th movie. Why? I don’t know. But I do like both series of horror movies and found it a little weird that I hadn’t seen all of them. But that’s the thing: when people get together to watch either a Halloween movie or a Friday the 13th movie, not many people say, “Hey, let’s watch Halloween 6: The Curse of Michael Myers.” No, it’s going to be the classic first John Carpenter Halloween movie or, if I’m around, it’s going to be Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Anyway, as of October 24th, having just finished the 2009 reboot of Friday the 13th (not bad!) I have completed this goal.

So, what do I do with this new knowledge? At first the answer was, “I guess nothing.” But the more I thought about it, the more I did want to write something about the experience. Though I didn’t want to just rank the movies straight up, or whatever. Instead, I thought it would be fun to rank each individual chapter against the other. So it would be the first Halloween vs. the first Friday the 13th, then the second installments and so on and so on. The only problem is there are 13 Halloween movies now and 12 Friday the 13th movies. (It really should be the opposite, right?) So here’s what I came up with. I’m throwing out Freddy vs. Jason because that’s kind of its own thing and isn’t quite fair in a straight-up competition with poor Michael on his own. And I’m going to consolidate the David Gordon Green Halloween movies into one entity. Frankly, because they all seem so recent I really don’t feel like rehashing each one individually again. So that means David Gordon Green’s direct sequels to the first Halloween go against the 2009 Friday the 13th reboot and that gives us 11 entries on each side. So, alright, anyway, let’s do this.

Halloween (1978) vs. Friday the 13th (1980)

I mean, look, of course John Carpenter’s Halloween is going to win this. Not to mention Friday the 13th only exists because of Halloween. Though, I do love the shock people still have when they watch the first Friday the 13th for the first time and find out Jason Vorhees – you know, the famous character people watch these movies for – isn’t even in this movie. (I mean, technically he is for about three seconds, but whatever. Also, it’s remarkable how many of these movies Jason isn’t really even in.) It has to be much more shocking now than it was then because people didn’t even know who Jason was then and now it’s the only reason people are watching this movie. Anyway, yes, here’s your Pamela Vorhees movie. Also, Kevin Bacon is in this. I’m not going to do a deep breakdown of the first Halloween, but I will say when I was a little kid, Michael Myers just standing there with the ghost sheet on with P.J. Soles was the scariest thing I had ever seen in my life at the time.

Winner: Halloween

***

Halloween II (1981) vs. Friday the 13th Part 2 (1981)

This is tough. Halloween II is still the better movie here even though Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode spends the whole movie in a hospital. Oh, and we find out Michael And Laurie are siblings, which frames a lot of future movies but also doesn’t really work. I do appreciate, at the time, it was meant to wrap up the series and kill Michael Myers once and for all. Obviously, that didn’t happen, but at least it was the intent. Though Friday the 13th Part 2 does have some great kills, even though it’s pretty much the same movie as the first one … well, except now Jason Vorhees is the killer, only in this movie he’s somewhat slender and has a bag over his head. And Jason has some pretty great kills in this one. A friend of mine, watching this movie for the first time a couple of weeks ago, texted me, “Hey so when does Jason get a hockey mask? I’m halfway through this movie.” To which I had to explain he is still a full movie away from that.

Winner: Halloween II

***

Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982) vs. Friday the 13th Part III (1982)

I am forlorn that this winds up being the matchup here because I love Friday the 13th Part III. It’s so ridiculous! And originally released in 3D, there are just so many dumb scenes of things poking out at the audience and I love all of it. Plus, one of the kids in this movie, Shelly Finkelstein, for some reason, carries around props with him for pranks. One of these props happens to be a hockey mask that Jason Vorhees takes an interest in keeping. I truly love that that’s it. No deeper lore there, just some kid had the mask. But Halloween III: Season of the Witch just happens to be one of my favorite movies ever. No one can out ridiculous this movie, not even Friday the 13th Part III, a movie in which Michael Myers does not appear other than in a commercial Dr. Dan Challis is watching (we’ll get to him). A novelty company called Silver Shamrock is going to murder millions of kids on Halloween night who happen to be wearing their masks while the Silver Shamrock commercial plays. Actually, the kids’ heads turn into killer bugs that also kill whoever happen to be around. I won’t get into the nitty gritty details but, somehow, Stonehenge is involved. Also, our hero is Dr. Dan Challis who loves beer, he loves the ladies, and he thinks something fishy is going on at the Silver Shamrock factory. (He is correct.) Often, when I’m watching this with someone who has never seen it, I have to remind them that Dr. Can Challis is not a cop investigating all this. No, he is a doctor.

Winner: Halloween III: Season of the Witch

***

Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers (1988) vs. Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)

Unfortunately, people in 1982 did not see the nuances of Season of the Witch like I, and many others, do now and demanded the return of Michael Myers and, as you see in the title, they got their wish. This kicks off a trilogy of lore about Michael Myers and his family and they get bogged down in this stuff instead of just having Micheal Myers stab people. Laurie is gone, so now we have Jamie Lloyd, Laurie’s daughter and Michael’s niece. Michael is after Jamie and … that’s pretty much the gist. The two can sense each other’s feelings, to the point it’s strongly suggested Jamie will one day become a killer but that’s all dropped by the fifth movie. On the other hand, Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter is terrific. The first full movie with Jason wearing his hockey mask, plus we get Corey Feldman and Crispin Glover in this. And Glover, as you might expect, is going for it. There’s one scene in particular in which Glover has to dance at a party and I would bet good money this is not at all what directer Joseph Zito expected or wanted, but this is what he got.

Winner: Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter

***

Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers (1989) vs. Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)

Yikes. Okay, so, for a while, Halloween 5 was my least favorite Halloween movie, that is until I got deeper into the franchise and, well, now it isn’t my least favorite. It’s just kind of dull and also feels like we are doing the fourth movie all over again. Even Donald Pleasence’s Dr. Loomis just feels like he’s spouting the same nonsense over and over that we heard in the fourth movie. As for A New Beginning, the franchise took a different direction in a couple of big ways. First, Jason, once again, isn’t in this movie. But there’s a new guy wearing the hockey mask, tormenting Corey Feldman’s character from the first movie, Tommy Jarvis. (We see Feldman briefly before we jump ahead a few years and Tommy is now played by John Shepherd). Another significant change is they hired a director with a background in pornography and … yeah it shows. This movie really blurs the line of “campy slasher movie” and “porn.” But, I’ll give it this: it is certainly not boring. Frankly, this might be the craziest of all the Friday the 13th movies and that’s including the one in which Jason goes to space. Also, we get to meet a character named Demon. RIP, Demon.

Winner: Friday the 13th: A New Beginning

***

Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers (1995) vs. Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives (1986)

The Curse of Michael Myers is my favorite Halloween of these last three, mostly because it stars Paul Rudd who is trying to be deathly serious, but now, in retrospect, it’s hilarious. This would be the last Halloween movie in this particular timeline before the series sort of reboots in the next one. What’s kind of wild is, the last ever fight for this particular Michael Myers is against Paul Rudd, and Paul Rudd wins the fight using a pipe. I don’t know why Paul Rudd doesn’t talk about this more, “Hey, I beat Michael Myers in his last fight.” However, the last two movies made us get invested in Jamie Lloyd and she’s dropped very early in this movie to focus on her kid. Anyway, unfortunately for The Curse of Michael Myers, it’s going up against a movie in which Jason opens the movie like James Bond, walking across the screen, then stopping and throwing a machete at us. This very much sets a fun tone as Jason is very much back in this one – his body gets hit by lightning, so, yes, of course he’s alive again – fighting Tommy Jarvis one last time and killing Tony Goldwyn. After an early Halloween 3-0 lead, Friday the 13th has tied this up at 3-3.

Winner: Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives

***

Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998) vs. Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)

It’s surprising how many people don’t really like Halloween H20 because I found it … pretty good! Especially right after watching the previous three Halloween movies. What’s not to like? Jamie Lee Curtis is back. LL Cool J is in this. Michelle Williams is in this. Josh Hartnett is in this. Good fun! Though, it does begin a trend of Halloween movies telling us to forget prior movies, something Friday the 13th doesn’t really do until the very end. Halloween is the DC of continuity and Friday the 13th is Marvel. In this case, we are told this takes place after the events of Halloween II and to ignore the whole Jamie Lloyd stuff. Alright, easy enough. The New Blood is fine. Someone decided, “What would happen if Jason Vorhees met Carrie?” And this is the result.

Winner: Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

***

Halloween: Resurrection (2002) vs. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

People complain Jason Takes Manhattan mostly takes place on a boat, which is true, but that’s also interesting. Maybe the title should have been Jason Stabs People on a Boat, what’s wrong with that? I do think I enjoy this one more than most people. I mean, he does wind up in New York City (which looks a lot like Vancouver). And, look, Jason literally punches a guy’s head off. Right there is worth the price of admission. Then Jason is killed in New York City’s famous toxic sewer sludge. I know every time I step outside I need to avoid that stuff. But all of this is moot because Resurrection is abysmal. Everything fun about H20 is retconned in the first 15 minutes, including killing off Laurie Strode, before becoming a movie about reality TV. It’s The Rise of Skywalker of Halloween movies and, once again, killed a timeline.

Winner: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

***

Halloween (2007) vs. Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)

Yikes again. I truly found Rob Zombie’s Halloween to be very unpleasant. Plus I do not at all need to know what Michael Myers was like as a kid, and this movie spends almost 40 minutes showing us that. But I do have to admit it’s better made than Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday. Mostly because the misleading title here is much more egregious than Jason Takes Manhattan. Again, Jason goes to Manhattan. He punches a guy’s head off in Manhattan. We never once see Jason in Hell during the events of Jason Goes to Hell. Sure, once he’s killed by bounty hunter Creighton Duke at the beginning of this movie, I’m sure that’s where he is, but we don’t see it. Instead, we see Jason possessing a handful pf different people over the course of this movie which means, yes, once again, Jason himself is barely in this movie. (Not counting the original movie, I truly don’t get why people think this is a good idea.) So, begrudgingly…

Winner: Halloween

***

Halloween II (2009) vs. Jason X (2002)

If Rob Zombie’s Halloween was Zombie’s attempt to make a John Carpenter movie in his own image, Halloween II is just a Rob Zombie movie. I realize people do enjoy his aesthetics, but, again, I find them unpleasant and this one goes all in. Michael Myers eats a dog and there’s an extended scene of paramedics discussing having sex with corpses. These movies are supposed to still be fun and there’s just nothing fun about this movie except Malcolm McDowell as Dr. Loomis, at least before he gets his face hacked up. Oh, and Weird Al is in this, which is kind of fun but I wish he’d have been in a different Halloween movie. Hey look, Jason goes to space and kills a bunch of people on a spaceship. It’s truly insane this movie exists and I kind of love it for that. All I want out of these movies is some October scary fun and this one delivers fun. Again, it’s Jason Vorhees in space and there’s a scene where they trick him with a hologram of naked ladies at a lake.

Winner: Jason X

***

Halloween (2018), Halloween Kills (2021), Halloween Ends (2022) vs. Friday the 13th 2009

You know, I kind of liked the Friday the 13th reboot more than I thought I would. Jason is very sinister in this movie. And instead of polite stabs, he really winds up before he delivers a blow. But there’s nothing inherently interesting about it either. It just kind of exists all alone by itself. And due to complicated rights issues, this truly was the end for Jason Vorhees for, still, the foreseeable future. And this reboot made a lot of money! There should be five more of these by now. I have a soft spot for the David Gordon Green Halloween movies. I think people try to attach too much to them and pretend they are trying to make some grand statement that fails. Halloween Kills is the most cited, pointing to its mob violence approach. But they also did the angry mob thing in The Return of Michael Myers. I take these all as just throwbacks to ’80s slasher movies and people aren’t really used to seeing that right now, which I find interesting. I was asked on social media if I’d rather watch the Rob Zombie Halloween movies for all eternity or these three movies? Oh, that’s easy, I’ll take hanging out with Corey Cunningham for all eternity any day of the week.

Winner: Halloween, Halloween Kills, Halloween Ends

***

Okay, so the final tally is … Halloween wins this five to four. (By the way, that should be the name of the next Halloween movie, Halloween Wins. You’re welcome.) Here’s what I find interesting about all this: Looking at both series as a whole, I for sure enjoy the Friday the 13th movies more consistently than I do the Halloween movies. There are less duds. But I’d rank the original 1978 Halloween and Halloween III: Season of the Witch over any Friday the 13th movie. I’ll be honest, I hadn’t really looked at which movie would coincide with each on this list other than the first couple before I wrote this and I kind of assumed Friday the 13th would win. But, it didn’t, because life is full of mysteries. And apparently full of supernatural, mostly immortal masked serial killers with family issues who don’t even appear in all their own movies.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

Like any good nerd, Marvel fans pay close attention to the details in the MCU films, and there’s been one mistake that’s been bothering them for over six years now.

During an early scene in Spider-Man: Homecoming, a timecard that reads “8 Years Later” shows up after a scene introducing Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes and setting him on his path to becoming the Vulture. However, the scene took place in the direct aftermath of the Battle of New York featured in The Avengers movie, which only happened four years prior. Well, Marvel is finally fixing the problem with a Loki twist.

In the newly released book, Marvel Studios’ The Marvel Cinematic Universe – An Official Timeline, Miss Minutes is cleverly deployed to explain away the mixup in the Keaton scene.

Via Comic Book:

“Redline alert! Hi again! Adrien Toomes says the Battle of New York was eight years ago, but that event was only four years prior,” Miss Minutes smiles on the page. “This one’s a real head scratcher for us — I reckon an analyst misplaced the case file.”

Miss Minutes is obviously referring to an analyst in the Time Variance Authority (or TVA), the organization tasked with protecting the Sacred Timeline where the events of the MCU take place. However, as Marvel fans know, that timeline isn’t exactly in the best of shape thanks to the Loki Season 1 finale, so it fully tracks that there might be some weird “fluctuations” here and there.

(Via Comic Book)

One of the more memorable scenes in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the fight between Brad Pitt’s stuntman Cliff Booth and Bruce Lee, as played by Mike Moh. It led to a back and forth between writer and director Quentin Tarantino and Lee’s daughter, Shannon, who had problems with the “arrogant” represenation. “I understand they want to make the Brad Pitt character this super bad-ass who could beat up Bruce Lee. But they didn’t need to treat him in the way that white Hollywood did when he was alive,” she said.

Tarantino understood her objections — everyone else can “go suck a d*ck,” he told Joe Rogan — but Lee is still confused about the way her father was depicted. “I don’t know what his issues are with my father,” she told the Telegraph. “Clearly, he thinks my father is cool, because he has borrowed from him quite a bit. But at the same time, I think he has been told a lot of stories by people who have encountered my father and had a negative reaction.”

Lee continued:

“They found him to be overly confident or arrogant. I have to say, in my experience, the stories are mostly from white men. I think Quentin may have been told a lot of those stories and believes them. I think a lot of people looked at my father as uppity, you know?”

Lee spoke to the press to promote In My Own Process, a new book containing photographs, film stills, journals, drawings, teachings and writings from her dad. You can order it here.

(Via the Telegraph)

Update: In a post on Twitter/X, Brent Faiyaz confirmed the Larger Than Life project and revealed its release date to be October 27. You can view his post below:

Original Article: It’s been just a little over a year since Brent Faiyaz released his sophomore album Wasteland. The project was well received and reckoned as one of the best R&B albums in 2022. Currently, Faiyaz is overseas for the European leg of his F*ck The World It’s A Wasteland Tour, a string of dates in support of his most recent projects: Wasteland and 2020’s F*ck The World. Now, it appears that Faiyaz might be able to treat fans to new music on his upcoming shows thanks to rumors of a new album dropping very soon.

Rumblings on social media began on Thursday (October 26) alluding to a new album from Faiyaz set to arrive on October 27. The alleged project is titled Larger Than Life and it’s said to have 14 songs and features from A$AP Rocky, Missy Elliott, Babyface Ray, Coco Jones, A$AP Ant, TTM Dawg, N3WYRKLA, CruddyMurda, Tommy Richman and FLEE. Larger Than Life reportedly also includes the previously-released singles “Moment Of Your Life” and “WY@.”

Faiyaz has yet to confirm or announce the album on any of his social media pages or through a press release, so news of the new album should be taken with a grain of salt for now. The album is said to be available in international markets, like this Spotify link for example, but those versions have yet to be confirmed as authentic and not illegitimate or retrieved through a hack.

If the project is confirmed, Larger Than Life will be Faiyaz’s first release since he signed an “unprecedented partnership” with Steve Stoute’s UnitedMasters.

Missy Elliott is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

So many (too many?) celebrity memoirs are making headlines, and it might seem like Britney Spears’ The Woman In Me is the juiciest (and most heartbreaking) selection making the rounds. Do not, however, sleep on Julia Fox’s Down The Drain. In her book, the Uncut Gems actress detailed her past as a dominatrix (and she does have some unsolicited advice in that department for Pete Davidson). Additionally, she discussed her experiences with drug addiction and her unconventional time while dating Kanye West.

Related to that subject, of course, would be Kanye’s ex-wife, Kim Kardashian. Fox previously claimed that she agreed to date Kanye in order to give Kim a break, but does she really feel that much goodwill for the reality star and SKIMS maven? Well, Fox sat down with Vanity Fair to take a lie detector test, and that subject came up. As it turns out, the detector believed that Fox was telling the truth when she said this:

“I actually really love her. I grew up watching Keeping Up With the Kardashians and I actually liked it before they were even cool, and when people would bash her I would always go to bat for her. And I thought she f*cking killed it in American Horror Story, so she is a multi-talented queen.”

These days, both Kim and Julia can rest easier knowing that Kanye won’t ask them to wear ridiculous (and sometimes matching) outfits in public. That, among other demonstrated Kanye qualities, must be exhausting to deal with on a one-time basis, let alone chronically. Whew.

(Via Vanity Fair)

Ultra Music Festival staged head-turning headliners such as Martin Garrix, Marshmello, and Swedish House Mafia for its 2023 edition in March. This morning, October 26, the Miami-based EDM festival unveiled its Phase 1 lineup for the 2024 event, and it features Calvin Harris for the first time since 2013.

“Peggy Gou will make her debut on the festival’s massive Resistance Stage, along with some of the world’s most popular genre stars, including Eric Prydz, Amelie Lens, Zeds Dead, David Guetta, Martin Garrix (who, minus 2018, has headlined every edition of the festival since 2014), Zeds Dead, Sasha & Digweed, Vintage Culture and many more,” Billboard relayed.

Among the “many more” are Tiesto, Afrojack, and Gryffin. For reference, the 2023 Ultra Music Festival featured seven stages.

The 2024 Ultra Music Festival will return to Bayfront Park in Miami, Florida from March 22-24, 2024. Tickets are available now on the festival’s official website, ranging from a Tier 1 general admission three-day ticket for $299.95 and a Tier 2 general admission three-day ticket for $349.95 to a Tier 1 VIP three-day ticket for $1,249.95 and a Tier 2 VIP three-day ticket for $1,499.95.

Billboard additionally noted, “The festival reports bringing in 165,000 attendees from more than 100 countries to its 2023 edition, with 42 million people watching the festival’s livestream. 2024 will mark the 24th edition of Ultra Music Festival Miami.”

It has been over five years since Jay-Z last dropped an album — six, if you only include solo projects — so it wouldn’t be a surprise if the main way younger fans recognize him is through the various image memes that have popped up about him on social media in that time. A good deal of those involve poking fun at his perceived awkwardness in doing physical activities like diving into a pool, riding a jet ski, or perhaps most notoriously of all, bobbing his head to an awkward, seemingly off-beat rhythm.

Well, Jay knows you think he looks awkward dancing and he actually has a decent reason for it. During the first part of his interview with Gayle King about the ongoing Book Of Hov exhibit at the Brooklyn Public Library, King asked Jay about his “very unique way of moving” (diplomatic!), prompting him to explain:

“I’m feeling every little hi-hat, snare, et cetera, and the space in between. So, sometimes I’ll jerk like that because there’s a space in between that I’m trying to feel.”

Fair enough, but these memes still gon’ fly. Jay’s pretty aware of the way he’s perceived online; while he’ll quickly shut down fans surreptitiously filming him in public, he also seems game to address the “$500,000 or dinner with Jay-Z” question that’s been floating around, too.

Chris Stapleton announced that he’s bringing his All-American Road Show on tour for 2024 with a new list of dates. Plus, there will be a stacked lineup of special guests, including Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, and many more.

Tickets for these new shows go on sale next Friday, November 3 at 10 a.m. local time. More information can be found here.

Stapleton’s new album arrives the following week, so fans can expect to hear his new music soon — as his shows are going across the globe too.

Continue scrolling for a list of Chris Stapleton’s upcoming tour dates.

10/26/2023 — Tulsa, OK @ BOK Center*
10/27/2023 — Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion*
10/28/2023 — Dallas, TX @ Dos Equis Pavilion*
11/11/2023 — Tampa, FL @ Walmart Presents: Heroes & Headliners at MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre
11/16/2023 — Lafayette, LA @ Cajundome†
11/17/2023 — Houston, TX @ Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion†
11/18/2023 — Corpus Christi, TX @ American Bank Center Arena†
03/02/2024 — San Diego, CA @ Petco Park‡
04/03/2024 — Winnipeg, MB @ Canada Life Centre+
04/04/2024 — Grand Forks, ND @ Alerus Center+
04/06/2024 — Minneapolis, MN @ U.S. Bank Stadium^
05/04/2024 — Indianapolis, IN @ Lucas Oil Stadium#
05/09/2024 — West Palm Beach, FL @ iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre~
05/11/2024 — Jacksonville, FL @ Everbank Stadium#
05/22/2024 — Rapid City, SD @ The Monument**
05/25/2024 — Ames, IA @ Jack Trice Stadium#
05/31/2024 — Cleveland, OH @ Blossom Music Center**
06/01/2024 — Charlotte, NC @ Bank of America Stadium#
06/06/2024 — Philadelphia, PA @ Freedom Mortgage Pavilion††
06/07/2024 — Bristow, VA @ Jiffy Lube Live††
06/08/2024 — East Rutherford, NJ @ MetLife Stadium#
06/12/2024 — Kansas City, MO @ T-Mobile Center‡‡
06/26/2024 — Los Angeles, CA @ Hollywood Bowl++
06/29/2024 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Rice-Eccles Stadium#
07/11/2024 — Darien Center, NY @ Darien Lake Amphitheater††
07/12/2024 — Pittsburgh, PA @ The Pavilion at Star Lake††
07/13/2024 — Detroit, MI @ Ford Field#
07/18/2024 — Toledo, OH @ Huntington Center††
07/19/2024 — Columbus, OH @ Schottenstein Center††
07/20/2024 — Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field#
07/25/2024 — Nampa, ID @ Ford Idaho Center Arena^^
07/26/2024 — Portland, OR @ RV Inn Styles Resort Amphitheater^^
07/27/2024 — Seattle, WA @ T-Mobile Park##
08/01/2024 — Gilford, NH @ BankNH Pavilion++
08/02/2024 — Gilford, NH @ BankNH Pavilion++
08/09/2024 — Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena~~
08/21/2024 — Birmingham, AL @ The Legacy Arena at the BJCC++
08/22/2024 — Little Rock, AR @ Simmons Bank Arena++
10/16/2024 — Manchester, England @ AO Arena++
10/17/2024 — Glasgow, Scotland @ OVO Hydro Arena++
10/20/2024 — Dublin, Ireland @ 3Arena++
10/22/2024 — Birmingham, England @ Utilita Arena++
10/23/2024 — London, England @ The O2++
12/07/2024 — Las Vegas, NV @ Allegiant Stadium#

* with special guests Charley Crockett and Nikki Lane
† with special guest Nikki Lane
‡ with special guests Turnpike Troubadours and Elle King
+ with special guests The War and Treaty and Allen Stone
^ with special guests Lainey Wilson and Marcus King
# George Strait and special guest Little Big Town
~ with special guests Grace Potter and Nikki Lane
** with special guests Marcus King and The War and Treaty
†† with special guests Marcus King and Nikki Lane
‡‡ with special guests Marcus King and Allen Stone
++ with special guests Grace Potter and Allen Stone
^^ with special guests Nikki Lane and Allen Stone
## with special guests Willie Nelson and Family and Sheryl Crow
~~ with special guests Marty Stuart and Nikki Lane

All eyes were on San Antonio on Wednesday night in the late window of the first full NBA slate of the season, as ESPN was on hand for the debut of Victor Wembanyama with the Spurs. While foul trouble limited him some, Wemby showed the flashes of brilliance that make him a once-in-a-generation prospect, but his Spurs fell to the Mavs 126-119.

The Mavs also had a rookie big man making his NBA debut, as the 12th overall pick in this year’s draft, Dereck Lively II, came off the bench and showed why Dallas had him circled on their big board. Lively’s performance was, in the words of Luka Doncic on live TV after the game, “f**king great,” as he put up 16 points and 10 rebounds in 31 minutes, going 7-of-8 from the floor and was a +20 off of the bench.

When the Mavs drafted Lively, the hope was that he could finally fill the rim protection void in Dallas, but no one was quite sure how impactful he would be immediately and how much Jason Kidd would trust the young center to anchor the Mavs defense. We got a quick answer on Wednesday night as his 31 minutes were fourth on the team, behind only Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and Grant Williams, and it was immediately obvious how important Lively is going to be to the Mavs achieving their goals this season.

The question for the 7’1 big man out of Duke was how quickly he could get up to speed on the offensive end in order to allow the Mavs to enjoy his rim protection skills on the other end. While he probably won’t go 7-for-8 every night, it was quickly apparent that he is a damn near perfect big for what the Mavs need out of that position offensively with this current roster. Luka Doncic was desperate for a good pick-and-roll partner and just someone who provides vertical spacing as a lob threat. It was something last year’s Mavs team did not have and you could tell very quickly how much Doncic was enjoying playing with a guy in Lively who is happy just setting screens and running to the rim.

Lively, of course, benefits greatly from playing with a passer like Doncic, and I would expect Jason Kidd to look very closely at pairing the two as often has he can when deploying the rookie big man. Lively might not have a lot of diversity in his offensive skillset, but the thing he does have (finishing dunks) is the exact thing Doncic really needed next to him. There is no reason on a Mavs team with Doncic, Irving, and even guys like Tim Hardaway Jr. and Josh Green that Lively should ever need to do any self-creation offensively in the post. As such, I have a feeling a lot of his shot charts will look like the one from last night.

That is what it looks like when a young man knows his role and does his best in it. If anything, Lively’s understanding of his shortcomings as an offensive weapon might be beneficial for this Mavs team. Their best offense is “let Luka/Kyrie make decisions on the ball” and anything else, especially post touches for an inefficient shooting big man, is letting the defense off the hook. He knows his job is to set a screen or hand the ball off to those guys and then get to the paint where his job is to finish a lob/pocket pass or be ready for a putback on an offensive rebound. On Wednesday night, he did that wonderfully.

Doncic gushing about Lively in his postgame interview isn’t just important in the context of getting a win on opening night, but it also was a major step in building the trust between the two of them. Part of the challenge of building around Doncic is it can be hard to find players willing to embrace a role in orbit of Luka, who are also talented enough to earn his trust. On Wednesday, Lively’s performance went a long way in doing that with the Mavs superstar.

Lively’s screening was impressive, as he does a good job of getting wide and making for an actual obstacle for guards, but it’s what he does after that that will make him a Doncic favorite. Watch this play again from the wide angle, as he sets a quick screen and then recognizes that both defenders have their attention on Doncic, with Lively’s man in deep drop. The reason for that is Lively isn’t a threat to pop and shoot, but Lively demonstrated the risk in sinking that far back to the rim on him.

Lively’s timing on his rolls was impressive in his first game in the NBA, as he showed patience when needed but also the right sense of urgency when given a runway to the rim. On this play, he eats into the space given quickly and before Zach Collins can get a body on him in the lane, he’s on his way up for a vicious and-1 finish.

The defensive impact of Lively speaks for itself. Fully understanding the small sample size of a 31 minute game, the Mavs were vastly better on the defensive end with him in the game (98.5 DRtg with him on the floor, 133.3 DRtg with him off of it). He is both a terrific rim deterrent when in the paint and mobile enough to shut off driving lanes and bother pick-and-rolls before they even get to the rim when he has to step out on the perimeter. That is an element they simply haven’t had in the frontcourt, and his presence mitigates some of their issues at the point of attack. That said, I was most impressed with his offensive impact (126.1 ORtg with him on the floor, 100.0 ORtg with him off of it) because that was the biggest question for him.

No he is not a dynamic threat, but that is arguably a good thing given his situation. If he can continue being the vertical threat at the rim opposite Doncic and Irving, set good screens, and be bothersome on the offensive glass, that will give Dallas a dynamic they simply haven’t had with Doncic. Dallas has long valued floor-spacing bigs around Doncic, which is understandable, but a pick-and-roll partner who puts opposing bigs in a bind with how long they stay in front of Doncic before falling back to protect the lob is just as important to have. Lively gives them that, and as the game wore on there were times where you could see the Spurs bigs leaving a little earlier to recover back, with Doncic having the patience to drag out the action so long that the defender has to show his hand.

It won’t be this smooth every night, and we’ll have to see how Lively manages in a game with bigger, stronger, higher level center opposition. That said, the trust Doncic has in him that’s already apparent is huge for a rookie in his situation and given what he provides on defense that no one else on the roster can, it’s hard not to be excited about his future in Dallas after this outing.