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The Chicago Bulls are coming off of a disappointing 2022-23 season that saw them finish 10th in the East before ultimately losing to the Heat in the final Play-In game. Despite rumblings that Zach LaVine could be available in trades, the Bulls are set to enter the 2023-24 season with the same core group intact, hoping to recapture the magic of the start of the season two years ago.

However, like last season, the Bulls aren’t expected to have Lonzo Ball for any of this upcoming season, leaving a continued hole at point guard. This summer, they mostly went to work keeping their roster as is with a few additions to bolster their rotation, as their hopes for improvement mostly rest on internal improvement. Here we’ll hand out grades for their offseason work so far in the Draft, free agency and contract extensions, and on the trade market.

Draft: B-

The Bulls traded into the top of the second round to take Julian Phillips out of Tennessee at No. 35 overall, adding a long, defensive-minded wing to their bench. The question for Phillips is whether he can refine his jump shot to make himself functional enough offensively to keep him on the court so his defensive abilities and athleticism can shine through, but for a Bulls team needing to try and add some young talent, they took an opportunity on a guy with terrific upside defensively provided he can figure things out on the offensive end.

Free Agency/Contract Extensions: B+

As noted at the top, much of what the Bulls did was taking care of their biggest free agents. They re-signed Nikola Vucevic to a 3-year, $60 million deal that might be a bit steep, but given the lack of other options for replacing him, the Bulls ensuring they brought him back on board made sense. Vucevic averaged 17.6 points and 11.0 rebounds per game a year ago, and while he’s not quite been as efficient a scorer as he was when he was an All-Star in Orlando, that’s still pretty strong production. His issues in Chicago have been two-fold, starting with the fact that he’s just not a particularly good defensive center or rim deterrent. That has been magnified by the absence of Ball, who, along with Alex Caruso, gave them constantly strong point of attack defense to mitigate some of Vucevic’s weaknesses on the back end. The other issue is his offensive fit with DeMar DeRozan, as Vucevic is more of a finesse post player (to the frustration of Bulls fans who want him to play with more force near the rim) and, as such, likes to operate in many of the same places as DeRozan when he posts up. That creates a bit of a spacing issue when he’s not outside the three-point line, where he is a good shooter for a center, but has not been able to top 35 percent in his two full seasons with the Bulls. Figuring out how to maximize his abilities alongside DeRozan (and to a lesser extent Zach LaVine) is a question they haven’t found quite the right answer to yet in Chicago. The Bulls also re-signed Coby White and Ayo Dosunmu, keeping their two young guards around for the next three years as well. White was their best bench shooter a year ago, knocking down 37.2 percent of his threes, while Dosunmu gives them a guard who likes to run and can get downhill.

Their biggest new roster addition is Jevon Carter, who I think is their best signing of the offseason. Calling Carter a Lonzo Ball replacement isn’t really fair to him, because he is far from the same player, but he will allow them to once again have 48 minutes of strong point of attack defense every night when he comes in to spell Caruso. That’s been missing in Chicago without Ball, and if Carter can continue to be a very good three-point shooter as he has been recently (he hit over 40 percent from three in Milwaukee last season), he should be a very helpful backup point guard even if he is not necessarily the kind of facilitator this offense could use. The Bulls also signed Torrey Craig, who gives them another 3-and-D wing option and is a nice addition to their rotation as well. Overall, while not exactly an exciting summer of signings, I think Chicago did well to address an area of need with the Carter signing, kept the players they needed to keep if they’re going to stay on this path (and it’s clear they want to), and made their roster a little better than it was last year.

Trades: INC

As mentioned earlier, there were the annual rumors about LaVine’s availability, but at this point it seems the Bulls are going to give it one more year (or at least the start of another year) to see if this group can figure it out before they consider making major changes. That’s understandable, but if this is a team in the Play-In range come January with little signs of life, you can bet we’ll hear more rumors about LaVine and DeRozan being part of trade talks. This offseason wasn’t a spot to really hit the reset button for Chicago, simply because they were without a first round draft pick and the league is still in a very weird place when it comes to star trade value after last summer’s bonanza of draft picks exchanging hands. As such, LaVine never came close to drawing the interest the Bulls hoped he would, and if they can’t get the kind of return to fully kickstart a rebuild, there’s no real use in just selling low on him. Still, the clock is ticking for this particularly group in Chicago and if they haven’t shown much improvement by the start of 2024, I would expect a more serious discussion of larger changes ahead of the deadline.

Not a lot of people saw The Flash, the much-hyped solo superhero outing whose anticlimactic underperformance all but put the final nail in the DCEU coffin. (There is still a second Aquaman en route, though.) Those that did got to see a stunning sight: Nicolas Cage as Superman. Or maybe they didn’t. The cameo is very brief — so brief that the star himself joked that he almost missed it himself.

In an interview with USA Today (in a bit caught by The Hollywood Reporter), Cage was asked about his semi-surprise appearance in the first and almost certainly final big screen outing for Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen. The appearance is a nod to Superman Lives, the aborted attempt in the late ‘90s to bring Clark Kent back to the big screen, which got so far that Cage actually got to wear the suit. So what did he think of finally seeing himself as Supes.

“Well, I was glad I didn’t blink,” Cage joked. He elaborated, though. “For me, it was the feeling of being actualized. Even that look for that particular character, finally seeing it on screen, was satisfying. But as I said, it’s quick.”

Cage even hinted at what his take on Kal-El — the name he gave his son, incidentally — would have been like.

“If you really wanted to know what I was going do with that character, look at my performance in City of Angels,” he said, referring to the loose remake of Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire from 1998.

Cage has opened up about the failure of Superman Lives before, which was to be directed at one point by Tim Burton and would feature at one point a battle with a giant spider. Back in 2015 he said it’s a good thing it never got off the ground.

(Via USA Today and THR)

A.G. Cook has been a prominent figure in UK’s electronic dance music scene for over a decade. One of his earliest breakthroughs came in the form of a song called “Beautiful,” which first played in his label PC Music’s Tank Mix in 2013. Cook officially released the first version of “Beautiful” — a hyperpop dance track — in 2014. A year later, the song appeared on PC Music’s inaugural compilation, PC Music, Vol. 1, as the collection’s lead track.

Now, as the song is now a decade old, Cook has released an updated version of the song.

“Beautiful / Baby, when you look at me, you know that I’ll be here forever / Baby, when I look at you, I know that we’ll be here together,” sings a pitched-up voice throughout the course of the three-minute song.

2023 also marks the 10th anniversary of PC Music, which Cook founded. The label has housed several artists over the course of the past decade, including Hannah Diamond, GFOTY, Danny L Harle, EASYFUN, and Namasenda. Back in June, Cook took to Instagram to reveal that PC Music would cease to put out original releases by the end of the year.

“After a decade of @pcmus we’re announcing that 2023 will be our final year of new releases,” read the post’s caption, “and that from 2024 onwards the label will be fully dedicated to archival projects & special reissues. Can’t wait to share everything we have coming this year & beyond.”

You can listen to “Beautiful (2023 Edit)” above.

On the star-studded Barbie soundtrack, Lizzo opens the collection of songs with “Pink,” an ode to Barbie’s favorite color. While the song has become a fan-favorite on the soundtrack, garnering over 14.2 million loops on TikTok, according to a press release, a different version of the song plays during the movie, in a particularly notable moment.

Without spoiling the movie, a darker version of “Pink” plays in a scene where Margot Robbie’s Barbie character is experiencing an existential crisis. This particular version was not included on Barbie The Album, however it has since been released to streaming services today (July 29), in the form of “Pink (Bad Day).”

Though “Pink (Bad Day)” clocks in at just over a minute long, the song encapsulates a key moment in the movie. We’d share some lyrics, but even those might be spoilers for those who haven’t seen it.

Following the premiere of Barbie last weekend, a special edition of the soundtrack titled Barbie The Album: Best Weekend Ever Edition was released, featuring Ryan Gosling’s cover of Matchbox 20’s “Push” and Brandi Carlile and Caroline Carlile’s cover of Indigo Girls’ “Closer To Fine.”

You can listen to “Pink (Bad Day)” above.

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

For months, Ron DeSantis avoided the mainstream media. He exclusively spoke with far right organizations, living in a bubble where he could look and talk tough without anyone asking him any hard questions. Could it work? Nope. Six weeks into his campaign he had to do a reboot, which included gutting staff. It also means talking to reporters who won’t throw him softball questions — or ignore that he’s still trailing way behind his state’s most famous resident.

As per Mediaite, Friday night’s edition of NBC Nightly News featured reporter Gabe Gutierrez sat down with the Florida governor for what the latter surely knew wasn’t going to be an easy chat. He tried to sound like the more reasonable choice for the Republican ticket.

“If we make it about the vision for the future, we’re going to win,” DeSantis declared. “Obviously, with me as the nominee, you know, we’re going to focus on Biden’s failures and our vision for the future. That’s what the election will be about. If Donald Trump is the nominee, it’s going to be about all those other issues.”

Gutierrez took umbrage with his confidence, telling him, “With all due respect, Governor, you’re down by 30 points, though.”

DeSantis then paused for three whole seconds — not a long stretch of time, but a small eternity when it comes to a news interview. He stared ahead, as though in disbelief that anyone would dare point out the cold, hard facts about his dumpster fire of a campaign. It was a moment reminiscent of the massive brain fart he had during a debate last year when challenger Charlie Crist dared him to admit to voters that he was going to ditch his governor duties to run for president.

When DeSantis finally spoke, it was clear some nerves had been twisted in his brain. “Well, no, I mean, that… Says you!” he said, adding, “I mean, I can tell you, we’ve been in Iowa. I’m the one showing up at all these places. We’re signing up people day after day here in Iowa.”

Gutierrez was likely referring to a new poll from Fox Business Network, which showed Trump ruling the state with 46%. DeSantis was in a distant second, at a mere 16%. In most polls DeSantis tends to lag behind in the 20s, and considering how much time he’s been spending in Iowa, this is far from encouraging.

But if DeSantis wants to go with anecdotal evidence of what he’s seeing on the ground versus actually polling, he’s free to delude himself as much as he wants. After all, it’s a free country.

(Via Mediaite)

After a failed attempt at building a superteam, the Brooklyn Nets entered this offseason looking to return to a more traditional team-building format. Gone are Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden, and in their place Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson, and Nic Claxton take center stage moving forward.

Last year the Nets were able to limp to the 6-seed in the East before getting routed in four games by the Sixers in the first round, sending them into an offseason with far less drama than years past, but also lower expectations coming into the 2023-24 season. After recouping assets in their various trades, the Nets have ample ammunition to make trades if they want to, but it seems they want to give it at least a year with this group before making too many long-term decisions about the roster. Among the biggest questions is whether Ben Simmons can provide anything, as he is the highest paid player on the roster by far and is expected to be healthy and on the court to start next season. His teammates have confidence in him getting back on the court and playing at a high level again, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone outside the Nets locker room willing to have any level of expectations for Simmons until we see it again.

Still, this offseason has brought at least a bit of normalcy back to Brooklyn after the past few years, albeit the tradeoff for that is no longer being in the contender class in the East. Here we’ll grade out the Nets offseason and their work in the Draft, free agency and contract extensions, and the trade market.

Draft: B+

The Nets made back-to-back picks in the first round of the draft, taking Noah Clowney out of Alabama and Dariq Whitehead out of Duke. Clowney gives them another young big at 6’10 with solid defensive chops and athleticism, while Whitehead is a similarly high-upside swing on a former elite high school prospect who dealt with injuries while at Duke. Our Brad Rowland gave the Nets a B for Clowney and A- for Whitehead, noting the upside for each was the right move for a Nets team in position to take some swings.

This is a solid value for Clowney, especially from an upside perspective. His defensive potential is clear with his length, athleticism, and feel, and Clowney has the potential to shoot and space the floor on offense. If the shooting doesn’t pop, he may be a center with some overlap next to Nic Claxton, but this is the point of the draft where you can simply take the best player available. Clowney is a reasonable bet on that.

While the medical talking point of the draft was Cam Whitmore’s fall, Whitehead’s pre-draft process was marked by medical questions. He was limited during the season and then had another surgical procedure when the season ended. If the medical is clear, though, Whitehead is a former top-five high school prospect in this class, and he is a worthy risk for Brooklyn.

Free Agency/Contract Extensions: B+

Brooklyn’s biggest signing was bringing back Cam Johnson on a 4-year, $108 million deal that locked him in alongside Bridges long-term on the wing. Those two complement each other nicely and Johnson fills the shooting role left behind by Joe Harris, while bringing a more upside in terms of athleticism and defense. While $27 million per year is a lot of money, that’s the going rate for a starting caliber wing that can shoot 40 percent from three. Elsewhere, the Nets added Lonnie Walker IV, Dennis Smith Jr., and Darius Bazley on minimum deals, adding some backcourt depth and taking a swing on upside with two young guards that showed promise last year. Walker played well in Los Angeles prior to his injury before struggling to find a consistent role again after they made their various trades, while Smith Jr. enjoyed a bounce back year in Charlotte that proved he still belongs in the league as a backup point guard. Bazley was a roster casualty of the Suns and represents another former lottery pick reclamation project for Brooklyn on the wing. There was a clear goal to get younger this summer in Brooklyn, and they effectively replaced the departing Seth Curry and Patty Mills with Walker and Smith Jr. to take on bench roles and, hopefully, provide a bit of upside. Overall, it was a nice summer of signings for the Nets, even if they still are without much center depth as they have two undersized options in Claxton and Day’Ron Sharpe. They otherwise checked every box and figure to be in the Play-In hunt in the East while still having plenty of opportunities to pounce on a roster upgrade should one come available on the trade market.

Trades: C

The Nets dumped a bunch of salary this offseason by trading Joe Harris to Detroit and Patty Mills to Houston (who has since been rerouted to Atlanta through Oklahoma City like he’s on the worst connecting flight in history). The deals are fine, but they aren’t trades made with any on-court improvement in mind. They cleared just over $26 million off the Nets books for this season, but I’m not Joe Tsai so it doesn’t fire me up to get out of the tax. Harris and Mills were redundancies on the roster, so there’s not a ton of harm in just getting rid of them, but nothing the Nets did on the trade market this summer made them better (even if it didn’t necessarily make them any worse). The most impactful part of either trade was by moving Harris to Detroit, they took away the biggest competition for an offer sheet on Johnson.

While many of the rap girlies of the summer on lock, the queen is gearing up to remind everyone who’s running the game. This November, Nicki Minaj will release her long-awaited fifth studio album, Pink Friday 2.

Minaj revealed the title and release date for Pink Friday 2 about a month ago, and is continuing to tease it. Today (July 29), she took to Twitter to check in with the Barbz and offer an update.

“Y’all, I’m not even kidding. In 111 days, Pink Friday 2 is coming to save & restore hope in mankind,” she said, “omg barbz I love you I dooooo! Like when y’all have this masterpiece y’all gon be on [cloud emoji] [9 emoji]. Omg I love it so much y’all.”

She also shared a special story about how the title of her upcoming album came to her.

“I tweeted PF2 pregnant I believe right y’all?,” she said. “That means papa gave mama the name. And so shall it be…blessed.”

“Papa” refers “Papa Bear,” the nickname Minaj gave her son, whose actual name, she has not revealed.

Minaj did, in fact, post a tweet reading “PF2” back in June of 2020.

However, she shared today that she was initially hesitant to title the album Pink Friday 2, which suggests it’s a follow-up to her 2010 debut album, Pink Friday.

“I was apprehensive calling it PF2 b/c the barbz were yelling @ me & saying they hope I knew those r big shoes to fill,” she said, “but now I know that I’ve done her proud. She will forEVERRRR be THAT GIRLLL!!!!”

Pink Friday 2 is out 11/17 via Republic Records and Heavy On It.

Ron DeSantis was once the GOP’s great, very white hope. He would finally rid the party of Donald Trump, even if it was by just being his younger, more disciplined doppelganger. Not anymore. The Florida governor’s presidential campaign has been such a disaster that he had to reboot it only six months in — partially by gutting his staff. He’s already alienated voters in New Hampshire. Now this actions are pissing off another group of possible voters.

As per The Hill, DeSantis is facing criticism from Black conservatives over his state’s new educational guidelines. Among them is the way teachers are now supposed to whitewash the way slavery worked in America, claiming that enslaved Black people gained some benefits by becoming property.

DeSantis has defended the changes, which prompted Senator Tim Scott, who’s running against him, to point out that ““there is no silver lining in slavery.” He added, “Slavery was really about separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives. It was just devastating.”

Defending those guidelines puts DeSantis at risk, Whitely Yates, director of diversity and engagement for the Indiana Republican State Committee, told The Hill.

“If the only way Gov. DeSantis is able to garner attention from the masses is when he enrages the Black community, I don’t see that as a winning strategy for his presidential campaign,” Yates said. “There are prominent Republicans, both Black and white, that see and take issue with the wording of this section and I think that they are well within their rights.”

She added. “No one looks at other marginalized groups and genocides and attempts to pick out the silver lining in the genocide, the silver lining of the atrocity.”

Representative Byron Donalds said Florida’s new guidelines are mostly “good, robust, & accurate.” However, he took issue with its presentation of slavery, saying its “attempt to feature the personal benefits of slavery is wrong & needs to be adjusted.” Still, he has faith that they will be changed.

DeSantis’ team have been predictably pugilistic, telling their GOP critics to pick a team.

“At the end of the day, you got to choose: Are you going to side with Kamala Harris and liberal media outlets or are you going to side with the state of Florida?” DeSantis said to reporters. “I think it’s very clear that these guys did a good job on those standards. It wasn’t anything that was politically motivated.”

Republicans rarely back down when they’re torn apart for controversial positions, so don’t expect DeSantis to order any changes. If he continues on that path, his reward may be losing even more to Donald Trump.

(Via The Hill)

Everyone’s got Beyoncé fever — including Governor Phil Murphy. Yesterday (July 28), ahead of the one-year anniversary of Bey’s seventh studio album, Renaissance, and her upcoming two performances at MetLife Stadium this weekend, the New Jersey governor revealed himself to be a member of the Beyhive, and gave Beyoncé a special title — the Queen Honey-Bey of the Garden State.

In a video shared to Twitter, Murphy honored Beyoncé with the title, and gave a special shoutout to many of her songs — hits and deep cuts alike.

“Hey New Jersey, did you know Beyoncé is performing at MetLife Stadium?” said Murphy in the video. “No it’s not deja vu, the Queen Bey herself will actually be coming to New Jersey. In honor of her two performances this weekend, I have officially proclaimed Beyoncé the Queen Bey of the Garden State.”

He continued, saying “Queen Bey — New Jersey would have a problem if you didn’t perform at MetLife for for your Renaissance tour. Your New Jersey BeyHive will always be crazy in love with you. We are all heated to know we will be living cozy in your presence this weekend.”

He then signed off, saying, “XO, Governor Murphy.”

You can see Governor Murphy’s video above.

Training camps opening around the NFL this week has meant the return of people getting very excited about guys in shorts making plays, the unfortunate reality of camp injuries, and also everyone’s favorite: training camp fights.

No one is immune to tempers flaring in camp as the competitive juices get flowing for the first time in over six months, including the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs. During Saturday morning’s open practice session, the Chiefs were doing some red zone work in full pad 11-on-11s when Patrick Mahomes found Travis Kelce for a touchdown, which is far from newsworthy as that happens all the time. However, after Kelce came down with the catch, linebacker Jack Cochrane ran over and tried to strip him late, which the star tight end took exception to, wheeling around and hitting him with a left hook to the helmet, sparking some pushing and shoving — as captured by Nick Roesch of Chiefs Wire.

Cochrane’s trying to show effort here, but you’ve gotta recognize when it’s the time or place for that and when it’s not. Running into the team’s superstar tight end late, even if not with a big hit, is not the moment for that and Kelce made clear he shouldn’t do it again. You also can tell everyone else on the Chiefs gets it as none of Cochrane’s fellow defenders do anything to Kelce but instead usher Cochrane away from the tight end and diffuse the situation. Showing maximum effort is good in camp, until it isn’t, and coming in late on the team’s second best offensive player is across that line as he learned.