Category: News

The 2020-21 NBA season is underway, and this season is fascinating if only because there are a whole bunch of teams that have a legitimate case for being championship contenders. For a number of reasons, teams’ floors and ceilings seem to be more all over the place than ever before. In recognition of this, we decided to look at the best and worst-case scenarios for every team in the league, starting with the Eastern Conference.

Atlanta Hawks

Best Case: Pushes for a top-4 seed with the league’s most fun offense
Worst Case: Lose in play-in tournament and have some sort of major overhaul

Atlanta’s offseason made clear that there are decision makers who really, really want to make the playoffs. The team had been in the midst of a youth movement, and a pretty fun one at that — Kevin Huerter, De’Andre Hunter, Onyeka Okongwu, Cam Reddish, and Trae Young were all drafted in the last three years, while John Collins just turned 23 and big trade deadline acquisition Clint Capela is 26. That is a really fun core, albeit one with question marks, and while adding Danilo Gallinari and Bogdan Bogdanovic should absolutely make Atlanta more fun, it does beg the question whether they make them better, because neither fix the team’s very real issues on the defensive end of the floor.

The nights where the Hawks are cooking are going to be insane — just take a look at the opener against Chicago. Young is quite possibly the league’s most 2K player, built in a lab to hit threes from two states over and pick passes few other players can match. Gallinari and Bogdanovic give them wonderful secondary playmakers and scorers who will thrive next to him, Collins is a pogo stick, and there are things to like about Huerter (shooting), Hunter (potential three-and-D menace), Reddish (when his shot is falling, he’s a tremendous two-way player), and especially Okongwu (he’s not Bam Adebayo, but he gets compared to him!). But the bad nights are going to involve a lot of matador defense and Capela fouling out early in a desperate attempt to keep them safe. And if there are too many of those, it feels like Atlanta is ripe for some sort of major overhaul on its bench and in its front office.

Boston Celtics
Best Case: Title contender
Worst Case: Make the playoffs and don’t do anything

The thing with Boston is they’ll always be good to some extent. Brad Stevens gets them ready to play every night, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum (a duo that could use a nickname!) are quite good, and the players around them always figure stuff out. The swing guy here is Kemba Walker, whose knee seems like a potentially big problem if it’s more “thing that impacts his ability to play basketball to the level he’s accustomed” than “just rest it and he’ll be ok,” especially now that Gordon Hayward is gone and the team has one less initiator on offense.

With how many good NBA players the Celtics have around those three — Marcus Smart, Daniel Theis, Tristan Thompson, some potentially fun youngsters led by Grant Williams — it’s really hard to see them falling below fifth or sixth in the East. They’re also a team that will play hard during the regular season, an underrated thing that every consistently good team shares. The big question is whether they’ll have the juice to make it back into the conference finals. The good news is the internal development that seems to be implied with the Celtics on a yearly basis isn’t going away, and their non-Kemba/Thompson/Theis players are all young enough that there are ways they can improve.

Charlotte Hornets
Best Case: League Pass darlings who make the play-in tournament
Worst Case: High lottery team

I have no idea how good the Hornets will be — well, they won’t be a championship contender or anything — but goodness gracious, this team might be a blessing. The ideal version of this Charlotte Hornets squad is one that plays at the speed of sound and lets LaMelo Ball make a million mistakes, because interspersed in between those will be moments of total brilliance.

The good news is that Ball is not Charlotte’s best player right away, because if he was, that would be a catastrophe. Terry Rozier and Devonte’ Graham are two solid guards, while Hayward is now here to hopefully be healthy enough to play at a near-All-Star level and the PJ Washington-Miles Bridges duo can continue to develop and give the team two more really promising youngsters. Like Atlanta, the nights where it all clicks — Ball is in the open court, Rozier and Graham keep the ball moving, Bridges and Washington are getting easy buckets, Hayward looks like the Gordon Hayward of old — are games we’ll all want to watch, and perhaps there will be enough that they can make a little noise at the bottom of the East. I do suspect those won’t be nearly frequent enough for a playoff push, though.

Chicago Bulls
Best Case: Makes playoff, even if it requires play-in tournament
Worst Case: Bad enough to miss play-in tournament, good enough to not get a high Draft pick

The Bulls seem like a team that is ripe to make some kind of move, particularly if they can stay healthy. There is a lot to like about their young core, especially if Wendell Carter Jr. can stay healthy and Patrick Williams can live up to the buzz that made him skyrocket up Draft boards earlier this year. They also made a big change when they swapped out Jim Boylen for Billy Donovan, giving them a coach with a little more of a track record of success and less of a track record of being the reason why his plays stage mutinies days into their tenure.

The good news is that Chicago is a team with a floor, but the issue is that’s not “clear-cut playoff team,” but rather, “continue to be stuck in that weird purgatory where they miss out on elite talent in the Draft.” There is enough here to make a run for their first postseason berth since 2016-17. It’s up to them to try and turn that into a reality, especially with there being room for someone to emerge out of the bottom of the conference.

Cleveland Cavaliers
Best Case: Internal development all over the place
Worst Case: Stuck in the mud

The Cavaliers are one of those teams for whom their win-loss record probably isn’t all that important. The team is in the midst of a youth movement, with guys like Darius Garland, Isaac Okoro, Cedi Osman, Kevin Porter Jr., Collin Sexton, and Dylan Windler needing to take steps forward (or, in Okoro and Windler’s cases, show a reliable enough floor that he can be a piece they build around). As long as they show promise and the veterans on this team — Andre Drummond, Kevin Love, JaVale McGee, Larry Nance Jr., etc. — shepherd those youngsters more than they get in the way, Cleveland’s in a good spot. The issues, however, would stem from those various older players taking it upon themselves to get numbers at the expense of those youngsters, and the good news is that none of those older players really are the type of guys to put themselves that far ahead of their teammates.

Detroit Pistons
Best Case: Playoff berth via the play-in tournament
Worst Case: Sacrifices developing young guys to push for a play-in tournament spot and falls flat

Detroit feels like a team that should embark on a race to the bottom of the league, but they’re one of the franchises that seems to really value playoff berths over everything else. As such, their best case scenario is that Blake Griffin looks like BLAKE GRIFFIN again, their offseason additions — Delon Wright, Jerami Grant, Mason Plumlee — all work out, Derrick Rose plays well again, and their rookies (namely Killian Hayes) are all able to contribute.

The worst-case scenario is much easier to see: All of those older guys eat into the minutes younger guys could play, particularly Rose with Hayes and anyone who would take time away from Sekou Doumbouya, in an attempt to make the play-in tournament that ends up being for naught. Detroit is used to being stuck in purgatory, which has been arguably the main reason why they’ve made the postseason twice in the last decade. Are they willing to go all-in on a rebuild, or is this going to be the latest Pistons team that tries to be ok, ends up being bad, and misses out on the kind of young player you can only get when you’re terrible?

Indiana Pacers

Best Case: They do the Pacers thing where they outperform expectations and earn a top-4 seed
Worst Case: They don’t do that and Victor Oladipo ends up leaving

Indiana is really, really good at seeing expectations and finding a way to outperform them. Unless they suffer a rash of major injuries, the Pacers will play hard every night, win a few more games than they need to, and the next thing you know, they’re hosting a Game 1 in the first round of the playoffs. Despite a new head coach, the pieces that usually get Indiana to that point are still here, and if Victor Oladipo is able to get back to his All-Star level, that makes life a whole lot easier for everyone in Nap Town.

The issue: What if this is finally the year they can’t do that? For all the gripes people could have about Nate McMillan, he did get his team ready to play every single night and they responded. Now, a first-time head coach is tasked with getting them to that level, all while trying to figure out if Oladipo (whose future in Indiana is in serious question) can be himself once again and trying to manage a tricky situation with Domantas Sabonis and Myles Turner in the frontcourt. Keep an eye on TJ Warren, because if he can be the offensive juggernaut he was in the Bubble then the team has insurance on the offensive end of the floor in the event Oladipo isn’t 100 percent.

Miami Heat
Best Case: Title contenders again
Worst Case: A playoff team, but last year looks like a fluke

Here’s a fun one! The floor for this team basically confirms what every detractor about their run to the NBA Finals said. This is a team that is good, of course, but they just found a way to mentally out-tough everyone else in a unique environment and they’re not that good. The irony, of course, is that is the exact kind of mindset that the Heat seem to relish. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, obviously, and I fully expect that Miami will carry that crown with pride.

Now, whether or not they can get out of the East again is another story. This is still a good team, and banking on a ton of internal development probably is not the worst idea in the world, because the Heat are a franchise that is as good at doing this as anyone. There is always going to be a concern with running it back, although Maurice Harkless is a nice addition to replace Jae Crowder, and I am keeping an eye on whether they go all-out during the regular season or try to take it slow with an eye on the playoffs.

Milwaukee Bucks
Best Case: Wins Finals
Worst Case: [gestures at last two years]

Here’s the easiest one of the bunch. Milwaukee’s best-case scenario is one thing: win a title. Milwaukee’s worst-case scenario is another: don’t do that. The good news is that they have Giannis Antetokounmpo around long-term, so they should be able to be title contenders for however long he’s in town. Some question marks exist with their rotation beyond their top three or four guys, whether head coach Mike Budenholzer can get them over the hump, and what they do if they cannot keep Jrue Holiday around, but on the whole, those are questions for when this year ends. All of them, save for Holiday’s future, can be answered by winning a title.

Brooklyn Nets
Best Case: Title contenders
Worst Case: Murphy’s Law

Brooklyn’s offense should be outstanding. The number of guys who can create their own shots and hit them is breathtaking — this does, admittedly, assume Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving stay healthy all season, and there are no bumps in the road for first-time head coach Steve Nash, but the path to the Nets being a championship contender is pretty easy to see. There is nothing this team cannot do on offense, and they are going to score every single night. It is very possible they end up being the best team on that end of the floor in the league — and they got off to a tremendous start in the opener.

The defense is a concern, though. They’re putting a lot of emphasis on DeAndre Jordan and Jarrett Allen cleaning up messes on the perimeter and a bunch of reserves — Bruce Brown, Taurean Prince, etc. — being able to give them enough on the perimeter. But man, it’s not hard to see how this all falls apart, especially if the injury issues are real and Nash struggles to get a grasp on being an NBA head coach. I’m less concerned about the locker room than most, because I expect Nash to be a very good manager of egos if nothing else, and having his “coordinators” in D’Antoni and Vaughn should lessen the potential for coaching mishaps in terms of X’s and O’s.

New York Knicks
Best Case: Get Cade Cunningham and R.J. Barrett takes a gigantic step forward
Worst Case: Bad enough to miss play-in tournament, good enough to not get a high Draft pick

Oh, the Knicks. There are some guys to like here, and optimism probably isn’t too unwarranted because Tom Thibodeau will get the whole “play defense” thing drilled into them, but they do still lack the kind of headline-grabbing star that they covet. Perhaps one will pop up in free agency or via a trade at some point, but the best move for now is to bank on what they have — particularly R.J. Barrett — being part of a really, really good core. What that means in terms of winning games is up in the air, but if they can position themselves so they’re optimistic about what they have and they can land someone like Cunningham, who is almost certainly going to be the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, then this year is a home run. But like other teams here, being just good enough to not make the playoffs while simultaneously hurting their odds of adding a home run talent in the Draft would be a tough pill for the New York faithful to swallow.

Orlando Magic
Best Case: 6-seed
Worst Case: Miss play-in tournament

The lack of Jonathan Isaac is going to hurt them. Orlando is one of those teams that always finds a way to just make something happen — another one of those franchises that consistently plays hard and commits to grinding during the doldrums of the NBA season — so them doing just enough to avoid the play-in tournament is on the table. It’s not like they’re totally devoid of talent, either. Nikola Vucevic is an All-Star, Aaron Gordon will do Aaron Gordon stuff until time ends, and I still have a bunch of Markelle Fultz stock filed away somewhere that I hope I will be able to cash in. They also have a pair of youngsters in Cole Anthony and Chuma Okeke who are extremely interesting.

Still, no Isaac has the potential to be a major issue. Orlando is not a team filled with offensive creators, and while Isaac isn’t that, his defending is so much fun that losing him makes them a little worse on that end of the floor. For a team that can’t afford a major slip on defense, not having Isaac could cause a chain reaction that, compounded with their lack of really dangerous shot creators outside of Terrence Ross, would lead to them missing the playoffs. An under the radar issue: D.J. Augustin is no longer here, and his steady hand running the offense was huge at times over the years.

Philadelphia 76ers

Best Case: Title contenders
Worst Case: Oh god, not again

Trying to suss out what the Philadelphia 76ers are will, once again, be the most difficult thing in all of the NBA this season. They finally realized that putting shooting around Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons is smart, and it is not hard to foresee them unlocking the skills that make the two of them so good — basically that both are gigantic and smart and can do a ton of good stuff on both ends of the floor — and becoming a juggernaut. Maybe Tobias Harris also benefits from this and can be a really solid secondary/tertiary option! Maybe Tyrese Maxey is the rare good rookie guard! Maybe guys like Shake Milton and Seth Curry and Danny Green let it fly from deep and need to make teams choose between stoping them or stopping Embiid/Simmons! Again, Philly competing for a title is not an outrageous scenario by any stretch.

Of course, I did this last year, too. So did a whole lot of folks, and the Sixers could not get out of their own way. It’s possible the Embiid and Simmons pairing just does not work, and that gets hammered home this season. They’re a bit light on the perimeter on defense, and that’s putting a ton of pressure on those two to be All-Defense players. The whole “James Harden is going to be linked with them until someone, regardless of whether it’s the Sixers, trades for him” thing is going to loom large. Philly should be as weird as ever. I can’t wait.

Toronto Raptors
Best Case: Pascal takes another leap and they’re title contenders again
Worst Case: 5/6-seed and an early playoff exit

The elephant in the room with the Raptors is the fact that they are not in Toronto and got put in Tampa for an unknown period of time. This is a group of veterans and people who carry themselves with the upmost sense of professionals, so if any team can handle that, it’s Toronto. But man, that is such a tough hand to be dealt, and hopefully it doesn’t impact their day-to-day abilities to play basketball at a high level too much.

There are some roster questions here, namely losing Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka. Replacing them with Aron Baynes is nice, but he alone cannot shoulder the load both of those dudes carried. If there is any team that can reliably bank on internal development, it is Toronto, and guys like Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby have room where they can grow. Siakam, in particular, is intriguing, because he has gotten better every year of his career and has room to grow as a shooter and a one-on-one player. Another leap for him and he’s a potential MVP candidate, while Toronto would compete for an Eastern Conference crown again.

Washington Wizards
Best Case: They make the playoffs and do enough to convince Bradley Beal to never want to leave
Worst Case: Not that

Beal is the franchise in Washington, and despite acquiring Russell Westbrook this offseason, the goal is to make sure the stuff around Beal specifically works. Making the playoffs, having their various young dudes contribute positively, and showing that the Wizards are on the right track after being stuck in the mud for a few years is going to be huge. The Beal-Westbrook pairing could potentially by quite fun, too: Westbrook will attack and attack and attack, freeing up room for Beal to operate as an on or off-ball threat, both of which he can do quite well.

The same question from last year also exists. Washington is going to score and could be among the league’s best on that end of the floor, but the defense has the potential to be quite leaky. If they figure things out on that end of the floor, they very well could make the postseason, even if it involves going through the play-in tournament. If not, this has the potential to be quite the offseason in the nation’s capital.

BTS turned out to be the gift that kept on giving this year. As the Korean boy band released not one but two full-length albums this year with Map Of The Soul: 7 back in February, and Be coming out just a few weeks ago in November. As is the case with most groups, the idea of solo projects from each member has been heavy on the minds of fans, and today at least, they got an update on those ventures from Jimin.

He released his own solo track, an original holiday song called “Christmas Love” in what might be a bid to test the waters as a solo star. Then again, it might just be a holiday song for fans to help celebrate the season. Jimin posted the song on the BTS blog, complete with lyrics and the personal info for the song, which was produced by Slow Rabbit.

He also wrote a note to fans in Korean, talking about how much childhood memories impact our ideas about holidays and more. Listen to the song above, and definitely keep an eye out for more new music from BTS in the near future — these beloved K-pop stars always have something up their sleeve.

It’s weird to look back at March 2020, isn’t it? We seemed so young then, so naïve, so totally and completely unprepared for what was to come — and cue the ominous music folks, because it was a doozy of a year.

The last night things were “normal” — March 13th — I had drinks scheduled at a friend’s house. I was recently looking back at that email chain, and I cringed. We seemed so glib, embarrassingly so. “I guess we’ll toast to the end of the world,” we joked. That night, my girlfriends and I sat around tallying whose work had told them to work from home on Monday. “How would we even do that?” we wondered.

“I heard we might be working from home for two to four weeks,” one of my friends said. We all laughed. There was no way we would all be working from home for an entire month…right?

Two days later, California effectively shut down, and it wasn’t for just a few weeks. Or even a few months. Basically, if you had come with a time machine to tell my friends and I that night that we’d be working from home for the entire rest of the calendar year (and beyond), we probably would have lost our minds (and finished several more bottles of wine).

Now, in December 2020, the fear around that particular part of the pandemic is gone. We’ve realized… it kind of works. I mean, sure, we miss our coworkers. But we’ve also seen that working remotely can be a positive thing — from freeing us up location-wise to streamlining production so that we have more leisure hours (assuming our employers don’t use it as a way to make us work more, a claim already being leveled at some businesses).

Here are a few of the benefits to working from home that we discovered in 2020. And while none of them are “and you don’t have to change out of pajamas!” — you can assume that’s #1 on the power ranking.

Cutting commutes to work gave us back our time.

Working at a CW show this spring, my commute to the writers’ office in the valley was over an hour. And I did it — without complaint — I loved my job and that’s just…what you have to do in LA. Spend hours a day in a car. But suddenly, with no commute, I had hours more in my day. Those extra two hours could be spent exercising, sleeping in, writing my own stuff — even cooking, because I wasn’t so exhausted from a drive that I just wanted to order pizza.

I missed my co-workers a ton, of course. But I began to dig how much more open my day felt. How little gas I had to buy. Working from home can cut your workday from 11-12 hours to a more reasonable 8-9 and that’s a pretty exciting prospect.

Not having to go in to a physical office meant we could live where we wanted.

If you’ve been struggling to pay rent on a studio or one-bedroom in the city you “have to” live in for your job, you’re not alone. According to a 2019 report from the Harvard Center For Housing Studies, in the nation’s 25 highest-rent markets, 46 percent of renters with incomes of $45,000–74,999 were cost burdened — meaning they paid over 30 percent of their income on housing costs. But if you didn’t have to stay in New York or San Francisco or Seattle, imagine the possibilities that open up.

Ashley B. — a private practice lawyer at a firm in LA, who is wary of using her real name — the chance to work from home prompted a full reexamination of priorities.

“In LA, I live alone — except for my dog! — in a pretty small apartment in Santa Monica without any outdoor space,” she tells me. “When everything shut down, including my gym and a lot of cafes and other places where I’d connect with my friends, it was pretty solitary and a bit draining.”

Ashley had been to Tulum in Mexico a couple of times before. She had friends who lived there and her powerlifting coach had a gym there — so, with no restriction on the place she lived, her tiny apartment suddenly paled in comparison to days spent in the jungle and on the beach. The move was supposed to be temporary.

“I decided to try it out for a couple of months. A couple of months has now turned into 5 or 6 months,” she says. She’s still busy at work, and sometimes the time difference can be rough, but overall – she loves it. “It’s been great to meet new people, be in a town where just about everything is set outdoors, and have some semblance of normal life amid the chaos that is 2020.”

Ashley doesn’t know if it will be a permanent change, but she also thinks this time has shown us that, with technology, being present all the time in the same physical space isn’t as necessary as we used to think.

“It can be tough not to have an opportunity to speak to a judge or prosecutor in person,” she says. “But given that we’ve worked successfully for the last nine months, the earlier assumptions about productivity at home and inability to fully service our clients will be harder to hang onto.”

Fewer cars on the road helped the environment.

It’s pretty crazy how quickly our congested roads went empty in just a couple of weeks. Ron Cohen, a professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at Berkeley, was specifically working on a project to map and track cities’ air pollution and greenhouse gases when COVID hit — so with lockdowns starting he had the very interesting opportunity to study what would happen if we all drove less and worked at home more.

“At the beginning of shelter-in-place, we saw a 25% decrease in total CO2 emissions in the East bay,” he says. “That was almost entirely from a reduction in vehicle emissions on the region’s highways. It has given us insight into how the atmosphere responds to emissions from gasoline-fueled passenger cars.”

What they observed was a preview of what life could be like with less cars on the road (or what could happen if half of the cars on the road were electric), and what the data showed was that CO2 (the main greenhouse gas) emissions were dramatically lower. If we all worked from home more, we could continue to enjoy that positive effect on the environment.

Long-term though, Cohen warns, it’s hard to say whether this particular event will have a net positive or negative effect environmentally. Especially, if most workplaces start requiring workers to come in again. Some people may be nervous to use public transit and will opt for cars — adding more to the road, and those who have moved, may make things worse with longer commutes from the suburbs. That said, while Cohen personally can’t wait to travel again, he’s hopeful that this unexpected air data from his project, BEACO2N, will help cities plan for a greener future.

“We hope to support cities in their ambitions for clean air and reduced climate impact,” he says, “Providing them with crystal clear scientific summaries of their current emissions and options for the future only helps that goal.”

Less time at a desk allows us to incorporate more outdoor time.

Spending time in nature, even for short periods of time daily, has been shown to reduce stress, boost your mood, and make you more creative/better at problem-solving. Yet, for many of us, we were still spending long days indoors at work and having a hard time fitting in outdoor adventure on the weekend, let alone on workdays. But a hike at lunchtime, a quick surf (now that you can live near the beach!) in the morning before calls, even just bringing your computer outside — all became tantalizingly possible in 2020.

At my job, zoom fatigue had our showrunner set hours that involved larger breaks and more independent study. Everyone worked just as hard producing their best work — just… a little more on their own time. It worked. Quality over quantity, as the saying goes.

And, against all odds, we still managed to create a sense of community.

Zoom happy hours, work text chains, laughter at/ compassion for the coworker whose cat/baby/partner walked into frame during a meeting — all led to us finding ways to connect even without our physical workspaces. Working from home can be fatiguing, but, over the past year, we learned that we’re more adaptable than we could have imagined.

Who knows what the future will bring. If nothing else, this year has been a master class in letting go of the notion that we have all that much control over the future. But I have to think that there are going to be some permanent shifts in work culture. And if we continue to have some flexibility in where we work, there are certainly positives to be found.

So…who wants to go in on rent in a beach house?

Lil Pump woke up today with Eminem on his mind.

Though it’s almost become a rite of passage for young rappers (or Mariah Carey) to pick a fight with Eminem anymore, Pump’s assessment of Em’s work is pretty harsh, even for detractors. “I woke up on bullsh*t today, I’m back on my f*ck sh*t,” Pump said in an Instagram video, captured and posted to the grid by DJ Akademiks. “You lame as hell. Ain’t nobody listening to your old ass. You lame as f*ck, b*tch.”

While Pump has been catching a lot of flack in recent months for supporting Donald Trump’s campaign for re-election — and because Trump mistakenly refered to him as “Lil Pimp” — Eminem has actually been having a very productive year. He led the charge among rappers against Trump and openly supported Biden, kicked off the year by releasing the surprise album Music To Be Murdered By, and released a companion surprise album to that record, Music To Be Murdered By Side B just a few days ago.

No real word on what prompted Pump’s dismissal of Em, but it seems unlikely the legendary Detroit rapper will even bother with responding to this one-off Instagram diss.

Traveling for the holidays (or even leaving your house) isn’t the greatest idea this year, but fortunately, the streaming services planned way ahead. A lot of content will be dropping on Christmas Day, but in the meantime, what can you stream while feeling festive? You can check out our list of Best Holiday TV episodes, and we selected a handful of wonderful streaming originals for you here.

Dolly Parton’s Christmas on the Square (Netflix film) — Everyone loves Dolly, so at least there’s one thing that you won’t be arguing about with your relatives this season. Featuring an album full of original Dolly music, this film (which co-stars Christine Baranski) revolves around how the coldest of hearts can melt in the face of family, love, and the enduring Christmas spirit of a small town.

The Happiest Season (Hulu film) — Kristen Stewart and MacKenzie Davis star in this rom-com, in which a conservative-family party atmosphere doesn’t exactly go well for proposal plans. Kristen portrays Abby, who plans to pop the question in front of Harper’s loved ones, but there’s one problem: Harper hasn’t come out to the fam yet, so cue a lot of awkwardness. And hilariousness. Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza, Dan Levy, Victor Garber, and Mary Steenburgen all co-star.

The Christmas Chronicles: Part Two (Netflix film) — Kurt Russell’s hot Santa returns two years after Kate and Teddy saved Christmas. Kate’s now a cynical teenager with family drama, and for some reason, she’s not thrilled to spend Christmas in Cancun. The trouble truly begins when a mysterious toublemaker, Belsnickel, plots to destroy Christmas and make a ground zero out of the North Pole. Russell’s here to help save the day, and yes, Goldie Hawn’s along for the ride.

Noelle (Disney+ film) — Alright, so this movie came out in 2019, but it’s a good one to rewatch while we wait for the Disney+ Christmas Day releases. Anna Kendrick plays Santa’s daughter, who must take over the family business after her dad’s retirement, and she’s also dealing with her brother (Bill Hader) dragging his feet on helping out like he damn well should.

Dance Dreams: Hot Chocolate Nutcracker (Netflix film) — Shondaland brings us this career spotlight for Debbie Allen, who’s steadfastly guiding a group of stellar young dancers as they gear up to launch Allen’s yearly “Hot Chocolate Nutcracker” production. This film looks like a blast.

Holidate (Netflix film) — As unexpected as it sounds, McG produces this romcom. Emma Roberts and Luke Bracey star as two strangers who hate the holidays, so they pledge to be each other’s date for every blasted family-and-friends occasion for the next year. They have absolutely no romantic interest in each other, so you know how this will turn out, right? Well, Kristin Chenoweth co-stars, and she’s sure to spice things up.

Jeremih had a near-death experience with the Coronavirus this fall and the R&B star’s family even came forward to let fans know just how serious the condition can be. Jeremih has since left the hospital and seems to be doing well, thanking fans and peers for their outpouring of support while he battled a serious side effect of COVID, multi-system inflammatory syndrome that resulted in his organs becoming inflamed.

But now that he’s out and feeling better, the singer said he has concerns about getting a vaccine, as it basically puts an altered form of the virus back into his system. Right around the 13:53 mark, the interviewer brings up the vaccine and Jeremih responds. “Right now? Uhhh, I’m not sure yet,” he said in an interview with Kendra G of WGCI, his first sit down interview since getting out of the hospital. “Right now, I’m good and I’m still taking shots from the hospital. So I’m good for my shots right now.”

The R&B star said he’s also going to keep his hospital bracelet on as a reminder of what he went through. “I just wanted to remind myself of what I’ve been through and sometimes to just remind myself of my purpose on this earth,” he said. “Because while I was in there, I was unsure if I was still going to be able to walk on this earth. So until I get my talk and my walk back I’m going to keep this on.”

Watch the full interview above.

The Houston Rockets became the first team to have to postpone a game this season after they were unable to field a roster of eight players for their opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night. Seven players were out due to a gathering for haircuts in which three players had positive or inconclusive tests and four others had to be isolated due to contact tracing.

Houston also had a player out with injury, and when adding in James Harden being ruled ineligible for the game for having violated the league’s health and safety party by going to what he described on Instagram as an “event [not a strip club].” Harden was fined $50,000 and will not face a suspension, and will be available to play on Saturday if he continues to test negative through Friday as it was determined he needed four negatives consecutively from Tuesday on.

If that felt like a light punishment for putting his team at risk for spread, you weren’t alone in having questions. Given the severity of the situation, a $50,000 fine for someone who recently turned down $50 million a year doesn’t exactly seem like the thing that will dissuade this from happening again. Adam Silver was asked about that on The Jump on Thursday and his response was not what most anticipated hearing.

For one, the first offense part is technically correct but also this is far from the first video of Harden at a club that’s come out in recent weeks — he rather famously missed the start of camp while training and partying in Atlanta and Las Vegas. However, saying “it’s Christmas” is just bad optics. This isn’t a situation where the time of year should be any factor in adjudicating punishment of violating a health and safety policy in the midst of a pandemic.

If Silver had just said it was a first offense and it’s escalating punishments that are all agreed upon through bargaining with the union, that would’ve sufficed — even if some wouldn’t have been satisfied. Everything else he said makes sense. The game being postponed helped Harden because he would’ve lost a game check (which for him is nearly a quarter million) had it been played. The $50,000 fine is the most he can fine him as commissioner without Harden being able to appeal it. The Christmas note, however, was a misstep from Silver, making it seem as though the league is being lenient because of the holiday season.

If you still haven’t seen all of The Mandalorian and its most recent episode, this is where you stop reading this post and maybe head to Disney+ because, well, spoilers ahead. Because even though Jon Favreau is surprised that the show managed to keep its biggest Season 2 secret under wraps until the final episode started streaming last Friday, the text that follows will ruin said secret.

The rescue effort from Luke Skywalker in the season finale was a huge moment in Star Wars history, officially taking The Mandalorian from a show set in the Star Wars galaxy to one that involves some of its biggest heroes. And while Grogu now embarks on a path where he may or may not get mowed down by a fallen Jedi in the future, in the present Favreau is allowed to marvel that the show kept Skywalker showing up a surprise to fans.

Much like Mark Hamill did on Twitter, Favreau celebrated the improbable fact that the show managed to keep a CGI-ified Skywalker appearing on the show would cap the show’s final episode of the season. The Mandalorian showrunner appeared remotely on Good Morning America to talk about the show’s season finale, some Grogu holiday gear and, most importantly, what it was like to keep that whole Skywalker thing a secret for so long.

“It’s very hard to keep a secret nowadays, especially with Star Wars,” Favreau said. “Every piece of casting leaked, we were so scared right up until it aired that our surprise cameo was going to leak too.”

He’s right, roles like Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano and others managed to get out there this season, but Hamill returning to the Star Wars universe wasn’t anything that was reported with any real certainty despite all the people involved in de-aging the star and making that appearance a reality. It’s a testament to how big a reveal the moment was for the show that everyone decided to do their best to keep it quiet. And much like the debut of Baby Yoda in the first place, keeping the moment safe until the show started streaming is certainly a worth accomplishment in the modern entertainment era.

Roughly four weeks into the 2020-21 college basketball season, lots of film has been digested and many prospects have been analyzed. I’ve yet to construct a full board for this class, though I have a general idea of where I’d rank many guys, but certain prospects whom I consider to be underrated have popped on tape.

ESPN recently updated its top 100 prospects for this class and absent were a few players who should certainly be included. While I can’t advocate for where I’d specifically rank these three guys, I know they are among my top 100, if my board confidently ran that deep at this point. Even then, I’ll provide a general range of where I might slot each player included as to clarify how I feel about them.

Brandon Newman, Purdue redshirt freshman
– 6’5″, 190 pounds
– DOB: Jan. 15, 2001
– Raw stats: 9.3 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists (1.1 turnovers), 1.0 steals
– Shooting stats: 43.1% on 2s (15 of 35), 43.2% on 3s (16 of 37), 85.7% at the line (6 of 7)
– Advanced stats: 55.8% true shooting, .514 3-point rate, 2.3% steal rate, 5.6 BPM

Newman first entered my radar because Max Carlin of the Prep2Pro NBA Draft podcast had mentioned him a few times. I trust Max’s eye for scouting, and figured Newman was worth a look.

From my first game watching him a few weeks back, I’ve been a fan. He’s someone I’d strongly consider a top-50ish prospect, with the chance for moving higher if he can discern passing reads quicker and show more on-ball ability.

His 3-point numbers, both in efficiency and volume, are sparkling, yet neither convey the versatility of his jumper. Newman is a good relocation shooter and has flashed the ability to hoist off of movement, quickly setting his feet and squaring his body toward the rim to launch. At 6-foot-5 and just 19 years old, it’s a highly impressive skill to display:

Part of what makes Newman a useful prospect offensively is he’s hinted at attacking off the catch, owning some vigor to scoot past defenders if run off the line and has shown ambidextrous finishing craft. Headlined by burst and strength, Newman might have the athletic profile to be an effective closeout attacker, though I’d like to see a larger sample to comfortably project him excelling in these scenarios.

Versatile shooting and potential attacking off the catch in a complementary collegiate role would not suffice for Newman to be a legitimately draftable prospect. And they do not, because he is a very good perimeter defender, both on and off the ball.

On the ball, he moves quite well laterally and is strong enough to curb drives or induce challenging shots short of the rim.

Newman hasn’t been afforded a ton of chances to showcase his on-ball aptitude. But he’s thrived off the ball as someone who executes necessary decisions (such as tagging rollers or rotating to deter 3s from poppers), is consistently well-positioned to tackle his responsibilities and is also a capable playmaker.

Right now, with Newman’s decision-making and passing vision less developed than you’d like, and his lack of on-ball creation, he’s pretty strictly a 3-and-D prospect. The defense, while good, is not elite by my estimation, so unless he takes step forwards in at least one or two of those areas, he’ll remain a top-50 guy rather than a high-end 3-and-D wing deserving of significant first-round buzz.

To an extent, I worry I could be overvaluing the archetype rather than analyzing the actual player, but Newman is good and brings valuable skills on both ends. He can space the floor, guard multiple positions and soundly fulfill team defense duties. That’s good enough for the mid-second round.

Dre Davis, Louisville freshman
– 6’5″, 220 pounds
– DOB: Aug. 23, 2001
– Raw stats: 9.5 points, 3.5 rebounds, 1.0 assists (1.8 turnovers)
– Shooting stats: 63.6% on 2s (14 of 22), 27.8% on 3s (5 of 18), 73.7% at the line (14 of 19)
– Advanced stats: 58.1% true shooting, .450 3-point rate, 2.4 BPM

Aside from Saturday’s implosion at Wisconsin (sans star guard Carlik Jones), Louisville has been one of my favorite teams to watch this season. I maintain the Cardinal are a top-25 squad and Davis’ two-way play is a prominent contributor to that status.

Upon my first watch last month, his defense, both on and off the ball, but initially on the ball, resonated. Given his frame, Davis is an exceptional lateral mover, can swiftly flip his hips to change directions and is strong-chested. He repeatedly gave opponents problems on the ball and that’s what first captured my attention. The dude is a menace at the point of attack, mirroring ball-handlers and covering ground with ease.

The intersection of strength and lateral mobility Davis possesses should, in most cases, enable him to defender both wing spots, as well as hold his own against other positions occasionally, at the next level. He’s going to give a lot of assignments issues with his quickness and physicality.

And yet, on-ball defense is only half of the allure for him in this realm. He has incredibly strong hands, which manifests in stunt-and-recover situations, Navigating screens, despite his bulky frame, is rarely an issue. He is well-positioned off the ball and has already drawn a few (at least two) charges this year.

For fun, watch him erase this potentially deep post catch with strength, physicality and technique:

That is 6-foot-11, 235-pound Nate Reuvers, a Wisconsin senior and 2019-20 All-Big Ten honoree. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Davis dominated the possession. He plays larger than he is, which will serve him quite well moving forward, allowing him to guard up and fluster bigger guys in a pinch.

Davis is a heady off-ball and opportunistic scorer — shout out Ross Homan of The Stepien for that term. He relocates around the arc as a willing shooter and times cuts well to score inside, where he’s strong, patient and savvy.

While I don’t anticipate him developing into some elite off-ball bomber, I’m a firm believer in the jumper becoming good enough for him to both space the floor and allow him to attack closeouts, where he can leverage his athletic package to do stuff like this:

Davis will never be some heavy on-ball creator in the NBA, but his strength, flexibility, relatively functional burst and knack for using his frame to shield the ball. compensating for a mundane handle, will give him equity in these sorts of scenarios.

The key is Davis reaching volume and success thresholds from deep to warrant closeouts or pressure. Based on his long-standing willingness (shot 81 triples in 19 EYBL games, .279 3-point rate), free-throw numbers (73.7% this year, 84.4% in EYBL on 90 attempts) and workable form, I believe he will. If he does, that’s a valuable rotation wing, especially given his wide-ranging defensive prowess, and someone I’d consider in the 25-40 range.

Mike Miles, TCU freshman
– 6’1″, 195 pounds
– DOB: Aug. 24, 2002
– Raw stats: 14.9 points, 3.2 assists (2.8 turnovers), 2.4 rebounds
– Shooting stats: 54.1% on 2s (33 of 61), 48.6% on 3s (17 of 35), 77.3% at the line (17 of 22)
– Advanced stats: 62.9% true shooting, .365 3-point rate, 22.0% assist rate, 1.9 BPM

Last week, I was catching up on Cade Cunningham’s most recent game, one against TCU. Midway through, Miles caught my eye. He made a skip pass out of a trap, then drilled a deep spot-up 3. I kept watching, perused his stats and fired up a few more TCU games. Miles rocks. It’s official.

He’s 6-foot-1 — at best — but the guy can absolutely play. The size is undoubtedly a limiting factor for him and even so, he deserves buzz as a top-100 prospect. I’d consider him in the early to mid-second round. He boasts deep range, seamless shooting mechanics, is comfortable shooting with a hand in his face and knows when to relocate.

What I discovered upon watching more film is his ancillary skills are quite good, too. The worry is he’s not athletic enough to compensate for the size hindrances, but Miles can pass, has some tantalizing off-the-bounce juice and is a highly impressive finisher, fueled by ambidexterity and guile.

I wouldn’t consider him a dynamite athlete, especially relative to the requisite threshold at his height, but he has some burst, is a zippy change-of-direction guard and gains leverage as a driver by getting low while maintaining forward momentum. His handle helps forge advantages (in and outs, crossovers, spin moves, between the legs) and Miles is adept at funky-footed, off-beat finishes.

He ranks in the 73rd percentile at the rim in the half-court (12-of-19 shooting) and while it’s early, the film reinforces his effectiveness.

Miles is yet to knock down any pull-up 3s, though he’s shown some off-the-dribble game from mid-range, weaponizing his handle and tough shot-making for scores. Unless he becomes some crazy dynamic space creator, most of his pull-up looks will be contested, something he’d bust out as a complementary initiator in pick-and-rolls rather than on a frequent basis if he projected as a lead creator.

It would be foolish to expect voluminous pull-up reps in the NBA for Miles, but having that skill is always beneficial, even if to varying degrees for prospects. So far, he’s 11 of 26 off the dribble in the half-court, slotting him in the 57th percentile. And those 11 makes include some impressive baskets:

Miles’ passing domain seems suited for spread pick-and-rolls. He’s capable spraying kick-outs on the move to shooters or skip passes to the corner, though his processing can be a bit delayed and creative, impromptu reads haven’t surfaced much yet. But ask him to create in ball-screen actions and he will fulfill your request more often than not.

Standing 6-foot-1 is always going to restrict Miles’ defensive prowess and assuredly relegates him to a one-position defender. Working in his favor is awareness to make necessary rotations as a team defender and the strength + lateral quickness blend to quell drives. Of course, most guys will still be able to shoot over the top without much interference, even if he’s in the proper spots.

I want to see more off-movement shooting attempts from Miles and where his 3-point clip lands by year’s end will be worthwhile to track. From the early film I’ve seen, he’s a legitimate prospect who can shoot, drive/finish, pass and knows how to play defense. The size cannot be overlooked, but the skill and athletic profile make him a worthwhile bet somewhere in 35-50 range.

This piece was originally posted on Patreon, and has been republished with permission of the author. Subscribe for more NBA Draft content like this.

Jenny Lewis has long been heralded as one of the greatest songwriters of our era, but her musicianship when it comes to covers shouldn’t be overlooked, either. Teaming up with her sometimes-collaborator Bill Murray, who she last worked with back in 2015 for A Very Murray Christmas special, Lewis has just released an eerie cover of Drake’s massive 2020 song “Laugh Now, Cry Later.”

Captioning the rare cover: “It’s almost christmas! laugh now cry later,” Jenny delivers a whispery, almost jazzy take on the song while Bill holds down the drums. The rendition was part of a longer Instagram Live concert the pair did, but she posted a clip of them covering the song on her grid, too. Check that out below:

Since her last album On The Line from last year officially crossed Lewis over into the realm of classic rock, it’s great to know a legend of her caliber is still keeping up with what’s popular in rap and hip-hop. In fact, earlier this month she did a different kind of collab when she teamed up with Chicago Rapper Serengeti for their track “Unblu.” Taylor Swift is doing folk now, Jenny Lewis is covering and collaborating with rappers, 2020 will never cease to amaze me.