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The Miami Heat are coming off of a rather stunning run from the Play-In to the Finals, running through the Bucks and Celtics to get there. This offseason, the expectation was for the Heat to make a massive upgrade with Damian Lillard requesting a trade and, specifically, asking to be sent to Miami.

He was instead sent to Milwaukee with Jrue Holiday eventually ending up in Boston, meaning the East’s top two teams on paper got better while the Heat seemingly took a step back with the departures of Max Strus and Gabe Vincent. Even so, Jimmy Butler has made clear that the expectations in Miami remain the same, to compete for a title, as he and Bam Adebayo still make up a formidable top duo. The concerns aren’t about the stars in Miami though, but instead about the depth on the Heat roster and whether they have enough around them. They’ll hope that Tyler Herro can take another stride forward after spending the summer in trade rumors, but they will also need some others to step up after seeing two of their recent development success stories in Vincent and Strus leave.

The good news is Miami is as good as any team in the league in getting the most out of previously unknown (to most) role players. However, there are some real questions for this roster to answer after missing out on Lillard if they’re going to get back in the mix after the upgrades in Boston and Milwaukee.

Biggest Question: Can They Get Enough At Point Guard?

Missing out on Lillard wasn’t just an issue of not adding a superstar talent, but because things dragged on all the way until camp, the Heat were unable to shift to a Plan B and bring in some much needed point guard help. Kyle Lowry is the only nominal point guard on the team after the departure of Vincent, and he’s coming off of a fairly pedestrian season, averaging 11.2 points, 5.1 assists, and 4.1 rebounds per game on 40.4 percent shooting fro the field. Erik Spoelstra is among the best in the league at adapting to his roster’s strengths and weaknesses, but not having a clear path to 48 minutes of quality ball-handling and initiating is a bit of a concern.

Adebayo and Butler are both good passers for their positions and they’ll surely be used as offensive hubs as always, while Herro will spend time on-ball as well but is not a particularly adept creator for others. Josh Richardson could spend time on the ball in a pinch, but there just aren’t a lot of great options on paper at the moment. The Heat figure to be among the teams active on the trade market (or eventually the buyout market) for a point guard, but until they make an addition they’ll have to get creative to manage a point guard deficit on this roster.

X-Factor: Nikola Jovic

Given the Heat are going to be looking for some new contributors to the main rotation, I’m fascinated to see what (if anything) Jovic can do with what should be a bigger opportunity this season after playing very sparingly in 15 appearances a year ago. The second-year forward has intriguing offensive upside and had a solid showing for Serbia in the World Cup, helping them to the silver medal by scoring 10.1 points per game. We’ll see if he can crack the regular rotation, but in terms of players with the potential to make a leap in Miami’s robust development program, the 6’10 forward certainly seems to be a top candidate.

The top five of the Heat rotation remains the same, with Butler, Lowry, Herro, Adebayo, and Caleb Martin, but their next three highest minutes eaters are gone and that should result in some experimentation, at least early in the year, from Spo. Jovic presents a skillset the Heat don’t currently have in abundance, but a lot of his utility for this team will come down to whether he can be a reliable shooter from deep. If he can, that’s a dynamic the Heat could certainly use and would ease some of the depth questions facing this Miami roster.

Ever since Tupac was murdered in 1996, conspiracy theories about his death have hovered over the unsolved case positing a plethora of potential suspects. Among the two names that have come up the most, though, are those of the two rap record moguls at the center of the so-called “East Coast vs. West Coast beef” that had hip-hop in a stranglehold at the time: Death Row’s Suge Knight and Bad Boy’s Sean “Diddy” Combs.

It looks like 50 Cent certainly subscribes to the latter as the prime suspect. He razzed his fellow rapper-turned-mogul (or is it the other way around?) on Twitter, asserting, “Damn so pac got lined by brother love. LOL Time to Lawyer up, shit might get sticky.” “Brother Love” is a nickname Diddy has used off and on recently, so there’s little doubt who he’s referring to, although just what prompted the tweet remains unknown. It’s also entirely possible that he’s trolling — it is, after all, his favorite pastime these days.

There are a lot of reasons hip-hop heads have attributed the murder to the two execs, but at the heart of their arguments is the belief that one or the other stood to benefit. After all, Tupac’s murder came at the height of a feud between the two labels’ prime cash cows, Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G. The value of Tupac’s catalog skyrocketed in the wake of his death, as well.

However, Las Vegas Police are sure they’ve got at least one of the men responsible after arresting Duane “Keefe D” Davis late last month. Davis had been claiming involvement for years, going so far as writing a book about it and specifically naming his late nephew Orlando Anderson as the shooter.

Bad Bunny’s relationship status with Kendall Jenner was recently all but confirmed via Gucci’s Valigeria campaign, and now people are questioning his professional ties to Drake. Bad Bunny is a featured artist on “Gently,” one of the 23 tracks comprising Drake’s freshly released For All The Dogs album, but their alignment might run much deeper than that.

According to Birdman on the Clubhouse app (as relayed by HotNewHipHop), Bad Bunny has secretly been signed to Drake’s OVO imprint since “day one.” The clip is being circulated online by the likes DJ Akademiks and No Jumper. In it, Birdman said, “Bad Bunny already signed to Drake. Y’all just [didn’t] know it.” It should be noted that the only source on this possibility to this point is Birdman’s word, and no offense whatsoever to Birdman, but it should probably be treated as a rumor until there is official confirmation either way — if ever.

Before For All The Dogs, Bad Bunny and Drake collaborated to make 2018’s “Mia,” performing it together during the Miami stop of Drake’s Aubrey And The Three Migos Tour. Drake and PartyNextDoor also welcomed Benito on a remix of “Loyal” in 2020. Drake name-checked Bad Bunny on his Her Loss track “Major Distribution” last November, which Bad Bunny appreciated.

Most recently, this August, Bad Bunny attended one of Drake’s It’s All A Blur Tour shows at Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, where Drake teased what we now know to be “Gently” (as captured by Billboard at the time). And while Drake is in a post-album glow, Bad Bunny might be gearing up to release an album seemingly titled Nadie Sabe.

Some stories leave you scratching your head. Palash Pandey found himself in the middle of one of those moments that has you questioning if you’re currently experiencing real life and the story is wild.

Pandey was doing what any good pet owner does, taking his cat to the vet. That’s right around when the story gets so weird that you’d think it was an elaborate prank.

It wasn’t. The cat dad used Lyft, a ride share app to get his cat, Tux to the vet appointment. He put the cat’s carrier on the floor of the back passenger seat and he slid in behind the driver but when they arrived to the veterinarian’s office, the driver took off. With Tux still in the car. Pandey immediately started banging on the car window and shouting to let the driver know Tux was still in the backseat.

To the man’s dismay, the car sped off ignoring his pleas, texts and calls. That’s when the desperate man took to the internet looking for advice.

Reddit users were instantly invested in this strange cat theft. In the post Pandey explained that he called and texted the driver but Lyft limits customers to three calls and texts to the driver. The driver never responded so he called 911 hoping the police could help but they transferred him to 311, where a report was made. He even tried offering the driver money to bring the cat back but the driver didn’t bite.

Commenters put on their detective hats and were officially on the case. One person writing out step by step what likely happened and what Pandey should do next, including checking animal shelters, bushes, under cars and contacting the local news.

In one of his updates he says the driver called him after being contacted by the Austin Police Department. After explaining he was allergic to cats and would’ve cancelled the ride had he known there was a cat in the carrier…but he still never said what happened to the cat according to Pandey’s post.

Eventually investigators from Lyft got involved and things moved quickly. Pandey shared what the Lyft investigator allegedly said:

“Cat ran up a set of stairs on the back of the building next to it. The team was able to get her caught up at the top of the stairs and she was too scared to jump from up there. I was able to give my over shirt to the team member at top of the stairs to wrap her up in and had an extra cat carrier that I brought with me just in case of.”

“She looks very tired, is covered in fleas and dehydrated. She started eating wet food again which is a good sign but I’ll monitor her and take her to the vet as soon as she calms down and stabilizes a bit. I would update again once I hear from the vet,” Pandey included in his last update.

It’s wonderful that Tux was able to make it home. The cat carrier was never located but according to CBS Austin, the now viral tuxedo cat has a clean bill of health.

Watch the update below:

The Charlotte Hornets had a dreadful 2022-23 season, but there’s some optimism that could be just a brief dip into the league’s basement. Two years ago this was a 43 win squad and most of those pieces are now back, as LaMelo Ball should be fully healthy after numerous ankle injuries limited him to 36 appearances a season ago and Miles Bridges signed the qualifying offer after sitting out all of last year following a disturbing domestic violence incident, for which he will miss the first 10 games of this season as well. Joining the mix is Brandon Miller, who they took at No. 2 in this June’s Draft, but for the most part this roster looks a lot like it did two years ago (and was supposed to look last year).

While health is a question for every team — and is certainly a big deal for this Charlotte team given how last year went for their young star guard — we want to explore what non-health question and X-Factor player looms large for each team in reaching their goals this season. In Charlotte, that’s getting back in the Play-In in the East, which would require a big leap from last year but at full strength this is an improved group from a year ago even with few real outside additions.

Biggest Question: What Can Brandon Miller Provide As A Rookie?

The second overall pick figures to be under plenty of scrutiny, particularly given he was taken over Scoot Henderson who figures to get a starring role in Portland. Miller won’t be getting the keys to the franchise handed to him in the same way, and how he slots into whatever role he’s given will be important to the Hornets making a leap back into Play-In contention. The Hornets wing rotation could get a bit cluttered, particularly once Miles Bridges finishes his 10-game suspension. Dealing with potentially inconsistent minutes as well as adjusting to playing a secondary role will be a hurdle for Miller as he makes the move to the NBA, but his skillset is tantalizing on the offensive end and there’s a reason Charlotte wanted him at No. 2 overall. There’s some fun actions they can run with he and LaMelo Ball to take advantage of Ball’s creativity and Miller’s shooting stroke, and if it all clicks, this Hornets team should look a considerably better than last year’s squad. However, rookie seasons are rarely just smooth sailing, particularly when there’s a new role a player has to adapt to, and if Miller struggles to find his groove then it will be very interesting to see how Steve Clifford handles it. This is a team that wants to be competitive, and sometimes that can run counter to letting a young player play through his mistakes.

X-Factor: Mark Williams

The Hornets have been searching for a center for years, drafting big man after big man in the first round but never quite finding the right fit. That might have finally changed with Mark Williams, who came on strong late last season and became the Hornets starter for 17 games in the second half of the year after they traded Mason Plumlee thanks to his defensive impact on the interior. Williams’ defensive presence endeared him to Clifford, whose teams are known for being particularly solid on that end of the floor. The Hornets don’t have a lot of great defenders on the roster, which makes Williams’ ability to clean things up at the rim and protect the paint an especially useful skillset for this Charlotte team. Williams is not a tremendous offensive threat, but if he can develop as a pick-and-roll partner for Ball and Terry Rozier, there’s enough creators and perimeter firepower on this Charlotte roster to not need him to be anything but a play finisher at the rim.

His continued development is important for this Hornets team to reach the goals they have this season, as they desperately need to have a functional center rotation to execute what Clifford wants defensively. Williams and Nick Richards figure to be the center rotation this year, as P.J. Washington has split time between the four and five in the past, but last year was almost a non-factor in the center rotation under Clifford, which isn’t a surprise since he’s undersized as a center and not a great rim protector. That presents an opportunity for both of those young centers to take a stride forward and prove themselves, but it also means this Charlotte team will be leaning on them to provide quality minutes at the five.

Yeah, I’m thinking Keanu is (quarter)back.

During a recent stop in Houston, Keanu Reeves tossed a pigskin around with nine-year-old fan, Elijah. Elijah’s grandmother, Annette Cruz, enjoys meeting famous people, so she and her grandsons headed down to the House of Blues, where Keanu — the only celebrity I feel comfortable calling by their first name — was playing with Dogstar. “When I got his signature and my brother got his signature, I asked him if he could play catch with me,” Elijah told KHOU. “I asked him the first time and he kind of mumbled something. But I didn’t hear him so I asked him again and he said, ‘Yeah come on, let’s go.’”

For the next 30 seconds, Elijah threw a football with The Replacements quarterback. “I was really nervous because I was playing catch with a famous superstar,” he said.

For Elijah, it was the best 30 seconds of his life. “The top moment,” he said.

The Denver Broncos should sign Elijah ASAP.

Keanu played a quarterback in The Replacements, and now he’s throwing a football again. If he’s looking to recreate another movie moment, please, Keanu, I’m begging you to join the FBI and sign up for a surfing competition. If you want to change your name to Johnny Utah, even better. But no pressure.

(Via KHOU)

Last month, screenwriter David Goyer casually revealed that he wrote an “wrote an unproduced Star Wars movie that Guillermo del Toro was going to direct.” Naturally, people freaked out over the news that they missed out the visionary director getting a chance to put his stamp on the galaxy far, far away. It also didn’t help that del Toro leaned into the hype by confirming Goyer’s tale on Twitter.

“True. Can’t say much,” del Toro tweeted along with a clip of Goyer from the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “Maybe two letters ‘J’ and ‘BB’ is that three letters?”

The Pan’s Labyrinth director also clarified that the Lucasfilm talks happened “about 6 years ago.” Goyer had said it was about four years, so he was in the ballpark.

Well, apparently, something has changed because del Toro has opened up about the Star Wars project that never came to be. To the surprise of no one, the film would’ve centered around one of the greatest film creature creations of all time: Jabba the Hutt. del Toro loves creature work, and Jabba is the crown jewel of practical effects.

“We had the rise and fall of Jabba the Hutt, so I was super happy,” del Toro told Collider. “We were doing a lot of stuff, and then it’s not my property, it’s not my money, and then it’s one of those 30 screenplays that goes away.

From the sound of things, del Toro and his team got pretty far with design elements for the potential Jabba film. While it’s disappointing that the project never came to fruition, he looks at the missed opportunity as a chance for them to hone their craft.

“Sometimes I’m bitter, sometimes I’m not,” del Toro said. “I always turn to my team and say, ‘Good practice, guys. Good practice. We designed a great world. We designed great stuff. We learned.’”

(Via Collider, The Hollywood Reporter)

Procrastinators everywhere should look away, as Taylor Swift’s bottomless proliferation is bound to make anyone feel lazy. Since 2020, Swift has been mixing in new album releases with re-recorded album releases, the latter being an effort to reclaim ownership of her first six LPs after they were sold to Scooter Braun in 2019. All told, she has delivered the Grammy-winning Folklore and its folksy, fictional sister album Evermore in 2020, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and Red (Taylor’s Version) in 2021, the history-making Midnights last October, and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) this July. Each album hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200, fueling her equally dominant ongoing The Eras Tour.

There are only two albums left for Swift to re-record: her self-titled debut from 2006 and 2017’s shape-shifting Reputation. Swifties theorize that Reputation (Taylor’s Version) is next on deck. The rebellious record celebrated its fifth anniversary last November, which might matter more than you’d think. In November 2021, The Wall Street Journal reported on Swift’s re-record strategy in the context of Universal Music Group’s semi-recently amended policies — predating Swift beginning to re-record — an excerpt of which can be read below:

“Prior to Universal’s change, the industry’s standard rerecording restriction said an artist can’t rerecord until five years after the delivery of their last recording under the agreement, or two years from the end of the recording contract’s term, whichever is later. Universal’s new proposals increase those periods to seven and five years, respectively, and tack on another ‘seven year post period’ to the end of the rerecording restriction during which the artist is barred from rerecording more than two songs.’”

More generally, commonly cited potential Easter eggs so far include debuting a snippet of “Delicate (Taylor’s Version)” during the second season of Amazon Prime’s The Summer I Turned Pretty as well as teasing “Look What You Made Me Do (Taylor’s Version)” for the Wilderness teaser trailer.

For whatever it’s worth, Ed Sheeran shared in August that he hadn’t yet re-recorded his “End Game” (also featuring Future) track on Swift’s Reputation album. But as we’ve seen with Swift and Travis Kelce, a lot can change in two months.

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

BIA is really her, and she wants to prove it on the Really Her Tour. The Massachusetts rapper, best known for her viral hits “Best On Earth” and “Whole Lotta Money,” is promoting her most recent EP Really Her ahead of the release of her debut album, and hitting the road for her first headlining tour beginning tonight in Los Angeles. The three-week tour will include a hometown show in Boston next Tuesday and conclude the day before Halloween back in California at the Observatory in Santa Ana.

BIA is bringing along two fellow rappers on the rise in Lakeyah and Lebra Jolie; you can find out more about them below.

Who Is Opening BIA’s ‘The Really Her Tour?’

Lakeyah

Milwaukee rapper Lakeyah got her big break when she left her hometown and moved to Atlanta for school but dropped out after two months. Shortly after that she was signed to Quality Control Music, which has supported a string of releases including the mixtapes Time’s Up and In Due Time, as well as two No Pressure EPs. In that time, Lakeyah was featured on the XXL Freshman cover for 2021, and has collaborated with Gucci Mane, Flo Milli, Latto, DJ Drama, and more.

Lebra Jolie

Signed to Interscope, Lebra Jolie hails from Houston, and just like other H-Town natives KenTheMan, Erica Banks, and Megan Thee Stallion, she’s got a razor sharp, punchy flow and the defiant, devil-may-care attitude to match. She’s dropped two EPs, 2018’s Briana and 2022’s Lebra Jolie, and recent collaborations with hood favorites Babyface Ray and Rob49 have seen her hype train slowly but surely picking up steam.

(Spoilers from The Walking Dead shows, including Fear The Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, will be found below.)

Daryl Dixon devotees have been hoping that Carol/Melissa McBride would make an appearance on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, and this has been a long and winding road, y’all. This spinoff was actually conceived as a Daryl-and-Carol road trip of sorts, and then McBride dropped out of the project, possibly due to the pandemic, although the reason really isn’t too relevant.

What is more important is that Norman Reedus later began suggesting that Carol could surface after all, although no one could possibly conceive of how she could mysteriously wash ashore in France, too. Then a paparazzo caught the two actors on (a) set together, which seemed to solidify the deal (that these two would ride together again). Well, some Carol did in fact happen on this week’s Daryl Dixon episode. However, we did not see Melissa McBride; we only heard her voice when Daryl called her on the radio.

Comic Book posted the transcript of their conversation, which includes Daryl’s promise to return home in around a week, and of course, he never showed up because he ended up taking a salty ocean bath. However, the end of the conversation included Carol cutting to static while telling Daryl that someone or something “came back.” The conversation cuts out completely, and we never find out who Carol is discussing.

My initial gut feeling was that this person can’t be too important because Carol didn’t mention this person right away while talking to Daryl, although I could be wrong. And the possibilities would seem to include Rick and/or Michonne along with either Dwight or Morgan returning from Fear The Walking Dead. Actually, Dwight does not seem like a possibility because Daryl threatened to kill him if he ever showed his face again. It seems as though the franchise would want to wait on official Rick Grimes return news until his spinoff with Michonne, and I doubt that she would return without him.

So that leaves Morgan, perhaps? Or Dog. I hope it’s Dog. Yet Morgan did leave all that PADRE sh*t behind midseason in FTWD to head back home, after which the timelines should intersect. Could we get a clue or some confirmation? Showrunner David Zabel told Entertainment Weekly that this was an “important” tidbit, although perhaps not in the way that people suspect:

“Well, it is important to what her ongoing story may be, and it is important in terms of what we were thinking is going on in Carol’s world at that moment. It’s also not what the audience expects or anticipates, if they’re anticipating something. So it will ultimately prove to be surprising. But that’s all based on the idea that we’re going to play out that story.”

Hmm. This person would be important to Carol, which doesn’t seem to point toward Morgan, although it could be him since Carol isn’t a fan of the guy, and she could have pushed that news out of the forefront at her mind, hence the offhanded mention. Obviously, Sophia is not back in super-walker form or anything like that. Could Ezekiel’s cancer “be back”? Actually, they’re not together anymore. Or perhaps they got back together. Who knows! Yet Zabel promises that this answer will be revealed. Perhaps for next week’s season finale? Only time will tell.

AMC’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon airs on Sunday nights.