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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.

Travis Scott‘s fourth studio album Utopia has the internet abuzz. As Scott is guaranteed to do with any project of his, he brought in a promising list of collaborators on this new album, notably SZA, 21 Savage, and the one and only Beyoncé. But also, fans have been eager for another Kid Cudi collab from Scott, and he delivered on this with the Utopia cut, “Looove.”

“Looove” has become an instant fan favorite, with fans asking if a Cudi and Scott joint album could be a possibility in the future.

Yesterday, Cudi took to Twitter to answer questions from a few fans, including one who said they “needed” the joint album.

“Its def happening at some point,” Cudi responded. “Dont even trip.”

But don’t expect it anytime soon. All good work takes time, and Cudi says he and Scott plan to take their time on this collaborative effort.

“I wanna create a ton of songs and pick the tastiest ones and really make it a moment for the culture,” Cudi said. “We only get 1 first album, its gotta be the illest. For now, UTOPIA.”

Still, fans are excited to learn that Scott and Cudi’s joint album, which they have nicknamed The Scotts, may actually see the light of day. Last December, Cudi ruled out the possibility of a joint album with Scott, saying “The moment has passed.”

During his brief bout on Twitter yesterday, Cudi clarified what he meant, saying, “Me and Trav hadn’t talked about it since the single [2020’s ‘The Scotts’] so years passed and I figured it wasnt happening. And im someone who likes to work when the moment is right and I felt like the moment passed. But then Trav said something publically so I was like well shit I guess we doin it ha…”

Utopia is out now via Epic Records and Cactus Jack. Find more information here.

Will Donald Trump have to run for or even be president from jail? It’s certainly a possibility. The big guy has a whole heaping pile of legal woes on his plate, some of which are serious enough to land him in the clink. None of this has stopped him from hitting the campaign trail, though an appearance Friday found him plagued by a chillingly grim omen.

As per Mediaite, Trump attended a Republican dinner in Iowa and when he took the stage he was accompanied by the Brooks & Dunn song “Only in America.” Sounds patriotic enough! Alas, at the moment he walked in front of a giant American flag, the lyrics took an ominous, foreboding tone: “One could end up going to prison, one just might be president.”

A chilling coincidence? Or was it the intern tasked with assembling the playlist trolling the possibly doomed candidate? Who’s to say, although perhaps it’s a better fit than him frugging to The Village People’s “YMCA.”

When Trump spoke it was the usual grievances. He promised to “obliterate the deep state.” He also floated a conspiracy theory, saying, “By the way, if I weren’t running, I would have nobody coming after me. Or if I was losing by a lot, I would have nobody coming after me.”

Then again, some have argued that Trump is only running a third time to keep himself out of jail.

(Via Mediaite)

As has become an annual tradition, the Toronto Raptors were considered a potential seller this summer, with OG Anunoby, Pascal Siakam, and pretty much anyone not named Scottie Barnes popping up in trade rumors. However, to this point the Raptors have done what the Raptors have done every time there’s talk of them tearing it down, which is double down on their current path.

The result is a team that is coming off of the 9-seed and a loss in the first Play-In game looking mostly the same, with one major exception, as Fred VanVleet (understandably) bolted for Houston’s max money. While there are still rumblings of a possible Siakam deal, it seems as though he will be there for the start of camp and the Raptors will give this group one more chance to try and recapture the magic of the past before finally, maybe shifting gears towards the future at the deadline or next summer.

Here we’ll grade out the Raptors offseason moves in the Draft, free agency and contract extensions, and the trade market.

Draft: A-

The Raptors started their offseason by landing Gradey Dick with the 13th overall pick in this year’s Draft, a strong value as there were many who expected him to be off the board by the time Toronto was on the clock. The sharpshooting wing out of Kansas not only fit the mold of being one of the best players available at 13, but he also fit a major need for Toronto, as they desperately needed to add more floor spacing options. Our Brad Rowland gave them an A- on Draft night, explaining that grade as follows:

This is a good value and a good fit. Dick is one of the best shooters in the class with good size for a wing and the ability to move off the ball and shoot on the move. Defensively, he probably won’t be a big plus, but Dick improved as the season went along, and Toronto’s roster could use the infusion of floor spacing.

Free Agency/Contract Extensions: C

Re-signing Jakob Poeltl on a 4-year, $80 million contract is a perfectly good deal, especially given how thin the center market was this summer. Poeltl is a terrific defender as well as providing value as a rebounder and roll man, and $20 million per year is certainly fair value for his skillset. Getting Gary Trent Jr. to pick up his player option likewise is a nice get for the Raptors, as he’s the best shooter on their roster and losing him in free agency would’ve made it very difficult to find a replacement. The bigger issue with the Raptors summer is that they worked very hard to try and run it back, hoping they can have a Miami-like surge at some point, but they lost their most important free agent in VanVleet.

Toronto, by all accounts, was willing to go to 4 years, $120 million on VanVleet, which allowed him to push Houston into offering the 3-year max. That’s just good business by VanVleet and his agent, but it left Toronto with a sizable hole that they quickly tried patching over with the signing of Dennis Schröder on a 2-year, $26 million deal. Schröder’s ability to replicate VanVleet as a point of attack pest on defense is helpful for keeping up the defensive pressure they’re accustomed to on opponents, but it’s a fairly significant step down on the offensive end where Toronto already had its issues. Schröder is an even worse three-point shooter and far less of a threat to let them fly (last year he took 4.1 threes per 36 minutes compared to VanVleet’s 8.6 attempts per 36). For a Raptors team already short on spacing options, VanVleet’s willingness to bomb away from deep provided value on its own, even in a down year (that, again, was better than Schröder’s career three-point percentage).

On top of that, Schröder is not as good of a facilitator as VanVleet, which presents real concerns for an offense that already was prone to getting bogged down and was 23rd in the NBA in assists. Schröder isn’t a bad pivot considering the options available, but he’s just not as good as VanVleet in a number of areas the Raptors don’t have clear alternatives to help fill those holes.

Their other offseason acquisition was Jalen McDaniels, who is a nice player and a perfectly fine signing, but it did make me chuckle that the Raptors added another 6’9 wing with defensive versatility and questionable shooting ability. That’s as on-brand a signing as the Raptors could have, but I can’t see how that’s really going to help them take a stride forward. All told, that’s the issue with this summer. In a vacuum, they haven’t made any bad signings, but they also seemingly have gotten worse as a team. When you were already the 9-seed hoping for internal improvement under a new coach to vault you into playoff contention, taking a step back as a roster is a bad start to achieving your goals.

Trades: INC

My colleague Katie Heindl suggested I give the Raptors a grade of WTF, which could also stand in for the INC here. That is because, again, it’s not clear what the plan is in Toronto beyond “don’t ever do a trade that doesn’t win you the press conference.” Masai Ujiri built his reputation on shrewd signings and trades, but it seems from the outside like he has gotten to a point where he’s so aware of that reputation that he’s determined to only build on it or do nothing out of fear of ever being the one to “lose” the trade in the immediate reaction — we call this “the Danny Ainge.”

The league seems determined to temper the cost of stars on the trade market after last summer saw 10 first round picks get traded for three players (7 of those going to Ainge himself), which means the Raptors are having a hard time finding suitors to meet their demands for Pascal Siakam and OG Anunoby. The other problem is, they’ve built a roster with so many redundancies that there’s not a clear path to winning at a high level, and teams seem willing to wait them out until they’re the ones desperate enough to make changes. As a result, the Raptors find themselves in something of basketball purgatory. They are a team that clearly has high end talent, but it’s not complementary talent, which seemingly puts a ceiling on how high they can go. They have a front office that doesn’t want to pivot towards a rebuild, but results keep telling them they should at least reassess their roster building strategy. Now we wait to see if this is finally the year they relent, or if they will keep hammering away in hopes that, through some miracle, that ceiling is removed.

We’re a little over two weeks into the SAG-AFTRA strike, which saw over 160,000 members join the 20,000-strong WGA on the picket lines. Since then one actor after another has shared the comically low residual checks they’ve received during the streaming era. In the good old linear TV days, residuals used to be meaty enough to keep some actors afloat. Not anymore. But some of the checks at least boasted a couple cents. Check out this one.

Robert Carradine, of the Revenge of the Nerds and Lizzie McGuire series, shared a check he got from Disney. How much did he get? Zero dollars. Someone cut and mailed him a check that’s utterly worthless.

“Why we’re striking,” Carradine wrote in the caption.

In the early days of the strike, Mandy Moore revealed that she’d received residual checks for under a dollar. Abbott Elementary’s William Stanford Davis, meanwhile, received one for three whole cents. But Carradine’s the real winner here, getting nada — a waste of paper and postage.

The two-pronged strike is the first time the two guilds have struck together since 1960. This has caused productions to shut down and movie release dates to be bumped. It could very well cause the collapse of movie theater chains. At least the wealthy studio heads who won’t meet their demands can mill about in public without being booed.

(Via Entertainment Weekly)

It’s been a busy summer for Kelly Clarkson. On top of moving her talk show from Los Angeles to New York City, and releasing her critically acclaimed 10th studio album, Chemistry, Clarkson also launched her Chemistry Las Vegas residency show last night (July 28).

During her first Vegas show, Clarkson performed many songs from Chemistry, as well as her classics, like “Stronger,” “Behind These Hazel Eyes,” and “Since U Been Gone.” But as Clarkson is known to do, the inaugural American Idol winner also delivered some Kellyoke.

Viewers of The Kelly Clarkson Show know that Clarkson often opens the show with her Kellyoke segment, in which she covers a hit song and adds her own spin on it. For the first Vegas performance, she covered Harry Styles‘ hit song, “As It Was.”

During the performance, Clarkson breathes new life into the songs, adding a wider range of notes to the catchy bop.

At the time of writing, it is unknown is Clarkson plans to make the “As It Was” cover a permanent fixture in the Chemistry residency’s setlist, or if she plans to switch up the cover every night.

You can see a clip of the performance above.

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