Category: Viral

Team Needs: Roster Clarity, Perimeter Defense, Shooting, Center Depth

The Atlanta Hawks once again found themselves in the Eastern Conference Play-In this past season, but after playing their way to the 8-seed in 2022 and 2023, the Hawks got bounced in the 9-10 game by the Bulls and entered an offseason of uncertainty. All year there were rumors the Hawks were looking to trade Dejounte Murray, but as the season wore on and they held onto him at the deadline, some rumblings emerged that Trae Young could end up being the star guard on the move soon.

In any case, Atlanta is expected to break up the Murray-Young backcourt this summer, with others like Clint Capela and De’Andre Hunter also still very much available for other teams. Adding intrigue to the Hawks summer was the stunning results of the Draft Lottery that saw them jump up to the No. 1 pick. Without a consensus top prospect, the Hawks would have to identify who they felt was the best player available, while also considering fit with whatever core they view they have. That mostly means whichever of Young or Murray they plan to keep and Jalen Johnson, with Onyeka Okongwu also likely part of their long-term plans.

With Alex Sarr making clear his desire to end up in Washington and not Atlanta, the Hawks seemed to have three options with the top pick: Zaccharie Risacher, Donovan Clingan, or trading the pick. Ultimately, they chose the French wing and now all eyes are on how they proceed with their summer.

Zaccharie Risacher (No. 1 Overall), B: In a draft that doesn’t feature a traditional No. 1 overall talent, someone had to go at No. 1, and it is Risacher. He has clear appeal as a 6’9 wing who can both shoot and defend, with a clear step forward this season as a perimeter threat. Risacher doesn’t bring tremendous star equity typically associated with this draft slot, but he provides Atlanta with a two-way wing in a league that can’t find enough two-way wings.

The first round of the 2024 NBA Draft takes place on Wednesday night. While this is the first year the league decided to break things up into two rounds, the very top prospects in this year’s class made their way to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to see who will hear Adam Silver read their names to the basketball watching world.

While we will have to wait and see when guys are going to go in the draft, we got a glimpse at what the players in attendance are wearing to the biggest day of their lives. And for some of the players, the NBA gave them a chance to break down their fits on the official NBA Draft Twitter account. Alex Sarr, the French big man who is expected to hear his name called early, appeared on ESPN’s red carpet special and walked the crew through what he had on.

Duke big man Kyle Filipowski talked up the “gold accents” on his suit, while G League Ignite wing loved some of the jewelry he wore, saying “I don’t wanna be basic for the draft.”

Stephon Castle also loved the chain he had on, but hinted that he has something special inside the suit.

Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham, who has a keen eye for fashion, pulled up to the Draft in a suit he helped design himself.

Filipowski’s college teammate, sharpshooting guard Jared McCain, loved how “colorful” his jewelry is, particularly against a “plain, simple black fit.”

And for Tristan da Silva, a forward from Colorado, getting to pay homage to his heritage on the inside of his suit was his favorite part.

The first round of the draft beginds at 8 p.m. EST, where all of these young men will learn where they’ll continue their NBA careers — and look sharp doing it.

The wheeling and dealing that the Brooklyn Nets have done in the last day has sure made it look like they’re prioritizing a rebuild. That means everyone on the roster’s future is in question to one extent or another, whether they are already under contract or are slated to hit free agency this summer.

Nic Claxton fell into the latter camp, as the athletic big man was slated to become an unrestricted free agent. Instead, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN and Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that Claxton and the Nets agreed to a new deal that will keep him from hitting the open market, as he’s slated to return to Brooklyn on a 4-year deal worth $100 million.

The 31st overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, Claxton has turned into a rock solid big man during his time in Brooklyn. Last season was his best as a pro, as he averaged 11.8 points, 9.9 rebounds, and 2.1 blocks in 29.8 minutes per game while shooting 62.9 percent from the field.

With Mikal Bridges in Manhattan now and a few of the older players on the team’s roster being appealing to teams throughout the league, it would make sense if the Nets start making moves and prioritizing young players. And if they end up doing that, it’s safe to say that Claxton will be part of whatever they’re building.

This spring, Diany Dior delivered an “On The Radar” freestyle — featuring a cameo from Cash Cobain — and stayed to chat with On The Radar Radio. She teased “a surprise” with Cobain, a fellow Bronx-bred rapper, and she was presumably talking about her and Nav’s “Favorite Lady” remix featuring Cobain.

With On The Radar Radio, Dior shared that she had signed “a major label deal” with GoodTalk in January. CEO Slo contacted her through Instagram after her “Drewski Freestyle” from May 2023. She also teased collaborations with Skilla Baby and Fivio Foreign, and she returned to On The Radar to perform “Sexy Drill” with Fivio in late April.

“[In] 2021, it started,” Dior said. “I got myself into this little independent label, and I was in the studio working every day. I was outside doing shows by myself, getting my name out there. Being outside just led me to knowing mad people. By the time I did ‘Drewski,’ I knew the whole New York, but they just ain’t really respect me that much until I did that. Then, I got my respect.”

Since “Drewski,” Dior has released singles “Too P,” “Pack Came In,” “Not My Fault,” and “Favorite Lady.” She initially released “Favorite Lady” in April before Nav and Cobain hopped on the remix.

Most recently, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie brought Dior out during his Better Off Alone Tour stop at New York City’s Madison Square Garden on June 24.

“MADISON SQUARE GARDEN?!!!!!” Dior captioned an Instagram carousel about the show. “IM CRYING WHILE TYPING THIS WOW SMH THANK YOU NYC FOR SHOWING ME LOVE LAST NIGHT WOW!!! THANK YOU @aboogievsartist FOR BRINGING ME OUT!!! I COULD TAKE THIS TIME TO TELL EVERYONE WHO SLEPT ON ME SOMETHING BUT I RATHER JUST TELL EVERYONE WHO STOOD 10 W ME THAT I LOVE YA SO MUCHHHH MAMA LOOK OH YEA EVERYONE I GREW UP LISTENING TO, NOW LISTENING TO ME & I CANT THANK GOD ENOUGH!!! BX STAND UPPP.”

The 2024 NBA Draft lacked a consensus top prospect and whenever that happens, there’s the potential for a lot of movement up and down the board by prospects, as well as possible trades.

While we usually have to wait until teams are on the clock for trades to start happening, we got our first move of Draft night with an hour still to go before the Hawks got on the clock, as the Blazers and Wizards agreed to a rather fascinating deal. Washington will send forward Deni Avdija to Portland for the No. 14 pick on the night as well as a 2029 pick.

The note on the 2029 pick is important because Portland owns three (their own, Milwaukee’s, and Boston’s) in that year, so Washington will get whichever of those three falls in the middle. Wherever that ends up, the Wizards land some more draft assets in this deal while the Blazers bring in a big wing coming off the best season of his career. Avdija was one of the bright spots for the Wizards last season, averaging 14.7 points, 7.2 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game on 50.6/37.4/74.0 shooting splits, making a big leap in terms of his shooting efficiency. Portland will be banking on that becoming the new norm as they are rather desperate for floor spacing around their young guards.

The Blazers will still hold the No. 7 pick on the night, but get a more sure thing out of their other lottery selection, while the Wizards pick up a future pick and move off Avdija as he gets set to start his 4-year, $55 million extension he signed a year ago.

In March, Kid Cudi announced his Insano World Tour. The tour poster clearly featured Pusha T, Jaden, and Earthgang as Cudi’s openers, but Chelsea Pastel was listed as the opener for Cudi’s Cleveland, Ohio and Cincinnati, Ohio dates. A brutal foot injury forced Cudi to postpone the tour, but in May, he assured fans, “We have rescheduled about 80 percent of the tour.”

While you await an update on Cudi’s new Insano World Tour dates, learn more about Chelsea Pastel below.

Who Is Chelsea Pastel? Get To Know The Rising Cleveland Rapper Who Caught The Attention Of Kid Cudi

Cudi shouted out Pastel as an artist to watch in a couple of X (formerly Twitter) posts. Last June, he wrote, “Chelsea Pastel and Siena Bella are 2 really f*ckin’ dope Cleveland artists I’m f*ckin’ w[ith] right now and I know you will too.” Come December, he singled Pastel as a local talent up next — “watch my girl.”

According to Pastel’s official website, she is a rapper, producer, and singer from Cleveland. She attended the Cleveland School Of Arts and is “a self-taught instrumentalist and handles her own music production, writing, and engineering.” Her sound is described as “a fusion of rap, pop, and a touch of rock.”

“Greener,” which she released last November, showcases Pastel’s confident flow and genre-melding sonic palette. Her honesty about difficult circumstances (“Thе babies ain’t got no food / The kids ain’t safe at school / Thе rent too high can’t move”) and unshakable optimism (“All I can do is try / Live my life like I made it already”) are reminiscent of the lyricism fans have long turned to Cudi for. Earlier this month, Pastel returned with “2 Much,” a confident, no-nonsense banger.

(WARNING: Spoilers for The Chi season 6 will be found below.)

This is it! In just a couple of days, The Chi will wrap up its sixth season with a sixteenth and final episode in what was an expanded season for the series. Throughout these episodes, we’ve said goodbye to characters like Pastor Jackson and Kevin while watching a war brew between Douda and Alicia. Emmett has struggled to break free from Douda, and to make matters more complicated for him, he’s also learned some shocking truths about his family. What all these events amount to remains to be seen, but we know when it will all go down.

Here’s what to expect on the next episode in The Chi season six:

When Will The Chi Season 6, Episode 16 Come Out?

The sixteenth episode of The Chi season six, titled “Thanksgiving,” will arrive on June 28. The episode will be available on Friday, 6/28 on the Paramount+ with SHOWTIME app starting at midnight EST/PST. The episode will later air on the SHOWTIME TV channel on June 30 at 9 pm ET/PT.

‘The Chi’ season 6, part 2 is now streaming on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME. Seasons 1-5 as well as season 6, part 1 are available now to stream on Paramount+ with SHOWTIME

The New York Knicks have stolen the spotlight of the early NBA offseason, making the first blockbuster trade of the summer on Tuesday night when they flipped five first round picks and Bojan Bogdanovic across the river to the Nets for Mikal Bridges to complete their Villanova collection.

There was some question what the Bridges addition would mean for the non-Nova Knicks, but it didn’t take long to learn the Knicks meant it when reports came out that they were still planning on re-signing OG Anunoby. On Wednesday night, a couple hours before the start of the 2024 NBA Draft, word broke from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Anunoby was in agreement on a 5-year, $212.5 million contract to stay in New York long-term.

That is obviously a lot of money, but the Knicks were unbelievably good when Anunoby was on the floor and healthy last year after acquiring him at the trade deadline. Anunoby’s raw stats don’t necessarily scream “near-max player,” but his impact on the team was unquestionable and his versatility on the wing allows the Knicks to do so much on both ends of the floor. Now attention shifts to the frontcourt of the Knicks roster, where Isaiah Hartenstein is a free agent and now figures to get his best offer outside of New York, and the Knicks will have to decide if Julius Randle is part of their long-term vision.

The Phoenix Suns got pulled into the madness around the Mikal Bridges trade to the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. After the initial shock of the deal that saw the Knicks send Bojan Bogdanovic and a ton of draft capital to the Brooklyn Nets, another trade between the Nets and the Houston Rockets led to a report from Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN that the Rockets had their eyes on acquiring Kevin Durant from the Suns.

That talk cooled off not long after, but the following morning, Stephen A. Smith went onto First Take and reported that the Suns want to get out of the Durant business entirely, going as far as to say that the team wants to do a deal “right now.” It was a pretty wild report, but a little later in the day on Wednesday, Suns owner Mat Ishbia took to Twitter and responded to Smith’s report by saying that Phoenix wants to keep Durant around, while Durant wants to stay in Phoenix.

Durant’s longtime agent and business partner Rich Kleiman hopped into the replies and had a simple, one-word response to Ishbia.

Obviously, no one closely connected to the Suns or Durant are going to go onto Twitter and go “hey everyone, we hope the Suns trade Kevin Durant ASAP, thanks!” Having said that, it sure would be something if Ishbia and Kleiman went this public and Durant got moved soon after, so we assume off of this that he’s going to stick around.

People have been complaining about the increase in basic necessities for a while now. It seems that things are simply costing astronomically more now than they were jus a few short years ago Some people have been wondering if they’re nostalgically imagining things costing less or if there was a time where you didn’t need to take out a personal loan to buy groceries.

One TikTok creator that goes by the name Sewerlidd found himself in need of more groceries so he opened up his Walmart account to order some food. While in the account he saw the “reorder all” option (which is handy in a pinch) and decided to check out how much his groceries were a couple of years ago. Turns out, his groceries were a pretty reasonable price for 45 items.

It was when he clicked the “reorder all” button that the price of those exact same items seems to have sent him into a cold sweat.

“I feel like I’m going to be sick. I just looked through my Walmart history and I found my order from two years ago for the whole month worth of groceries. 45 items costs $126,” the man says before revealing the price jump. “Now, this order of 45 items for one month would’ve cost $414. That is four times more.”

The price difference is outrageous and commenters agree with the man, including a few of the sentence enhancers he uses to express his frustration.

@sewerlidd

#greenscreen #groceries #economy #inflation

“And this is why I went from buying healthy food back to only buying sandwich materials,” someone writes.

“I used to spend $180 for 2 weeks for my family of four and the dog. I am now spending upwards of $430 and trying to figure out what else I can cut. sorry kids you don’t get barbecue sauce,” a mom shares.

“I knew it was going to be bad. I didn’t know it was gonna be this bad,” another says.

“Yep. Have had to adjust what I wanted to buy at the grocery store based on how expensive everything is. Definitely stretching meals with rice and beans already,” someone else writes.

Other commenters don’t believe that his groceries increased that much, believing he’s exaggerating for shock value. Pricing does vary depending on what state you live in and what items you order, so it may be difficult to recreate the same exact situation. Companies like Walmart have also recently lowered the prices of several items which may be causing the discrepancy for others as well. Either way, people are feeling the effects of inflation while grocery shopping so here’s to hoping the price cuts stick.

Paper bags with groceries including fruits and vegetables and bread