GoneTrending

As the NBA season approaches and the preseason winds down, we’ll be taking a look at the player on each team that holds the key to unlocking their potential, and for the Indiana Pacers, that means a prolific scoring wing in Caris LeVert.

The 2020-21 season was an odd one for the Pacers, with the team scuffling to a 34-38 record that prompted another head coaching change. During the campaign, it was not a well-kept secret that Indiana’s locker room had turned on Nate Bjorkgren, which could explain some of the uneven performance, but injuries also tormented the Pacers, particularly on the wing. T.J. Warren enjoyed a breakout in the NBA’s Orlando Bubble, but he appeared in only four games, and the Pacers made a move in January to add to their wing depth with LeVert.

During the trade process, a physical flagged a mass on LeVert’s kidney and, while he was able to make a full recovery, the former Michigan and Brooklyn Nets standout did not return to action until March. By the time he returned, LeVert was able to play in 35 games, but the circumstances were suboptimal for evaluation purposes, and questions loom about how Indiana might approach the upcoming 2021-22 season.

For one, Warren remains a giant question mark for health reasons. That puts additional pressure on LeVert, Justin Holiday, lottery pick Chris Duarte, and others to fill the gap on the wing. Beyond that, the Pacers have a proven head coach in Rick Carlisle, and he will likely want to put his own fingerprints on what transpires in Indianapolis.

LeVert is a notable scorer, including a mark of 20.2 points per game last season and 20.7 points per game with the Pacers. That type of scoring prowess from a wing is clearly desirable in the modern NBA, but LeVert has never been a dominant defender, and his career true shooting mark of 52.5 percent leaves plenty to be desired.

Indiana does have talent, with Malcolm Brogdon, Myles Turner, and Domantas Sabonis standing alongside LeVert in the starting group. There are questions about how the Turner-Sabonis pairing might progress but, at the very least, it is easy to project what Brogdon, Turner, and Sabonis might bring individually. The same could be said for LeVert from a volume scoring perspective, but the 27-year-old could also take the next step with a full season in a new environment and an avenue to develop into the team’s clear No. 1 option if things break right.

There are other potential X-factors for the Pacers as a period of potential transition approaches. LeVert tops the list, however, and the 2021-22 season could also be a significant one for LeVert individually, as he attempts to make the jump from a strong supporting piece to a potential centerpiece.

The Cleveland Cavaliers wrapped up their preseason on Friday night against the Indiana Pacers. In a game where both coaches found it paramount to get as many dudes playing time as possible in the lead-up to the regular season, the Cavs came out on top against their division rivals, 110-94. Now, Cleveland can kick its collective feet up ahead of the start of the season.

A fun happened in the aftermath of the win, though. The Cavs’ social media team thought it’d be fun to use a random picture of Kyle Guy in its postgame graphic on Twitter, which, why not, ya know? Here is that:

Again, this is Kyle Guy, a professional basketball player who won a national championship at the University of Virginia and spent the first few years of his NBA career with the Sacramento Kings. It is not Jack Harlow, although plenty of folks wondered if it was.

Among those who thought this was a picture of Jack Harlow playing for the Cavaliers was the man himself.

In fairness to, well, everyone, Guy and Harlow look extremely similar — the former also had some fun with this by retweeting the latter’s post. Guy had five points in 10 minutes of work off the bench for the Cavaliers on Friday night, while Harlow, I presume, did something else.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Tyga was arrested on felony domestic violence charges after the rapper’s now ex-girlfriend, fashion designer, and influencer Camaryn Swanson posted a video to her Instagram Story that showed injuries that she allegedly attained from him. TMZ reported that, on October 11, police officers were called to Tyga’s house around 3 a.m. Swanson accused Tyga of putting his hands on her. Authorities at the scene said they were able to see visible marks on her. But Tyga has denied the claims.

In a post to his Instagram Story on Friday, Tyga wrote, “I want everyone to know that the allegations against me are false. I was not arrested. I took myself into the police station and cooperated. I have not been charged with any crime.” However, a search of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department website shows he was indeed arrested on October 12 and posted a $50,000 bond. His next court date is set for February 8, 2022.

Tyga and Swanson began dating in early 2021 and they went official with their relationship in March. Swanson also shared details of the incident in additional posts to Instagram Story, writing that she was “emotionally, mentally, and physically abused.”

As the NBA season approaches and training camps get underway, we’ll be taking a look at the player on each team that holds the key to unlocking their full potential.

In Houston, the goal this season isn’t to win a lot or compete for a playoff spot, but simply to lay a foundation with their young guys. John Wall is, effectively, done playing for the team, while Eric Gordon seems primed for a trade. Christian Wood also could be a hot commodity at the trade deadline if the Rockets shift their focus completely to the future. Jalen Green is the expected centerpiece of it all and will have ample opportunity to learn on the job, but more interesting to me are the rest of their first round picks.

Green is the guy Houston is building around, but after taking four players in the first round, they are hoping that at least one of them shows that they belong in that foundational core. Alperen Sengun, Usman Garuba, and Josh Christopher all got picked up in the first 24 picks of the 2021 NBA Draft and each showed different flashes in Summer League action, where Green was the unquestionable star.

For Sengun, the question is how he’ll fare on the defensive side of the ball, where he has rim protection ability but has a lot of work to do on being able to function in space when asked to defend the pick-and-roll. The pick-and-roll crazed NBA will be trial by fire for him in that regard, but his offensive skillset is robust for a 19-year-old and the Rockets will get a chance to see how he improves across a full season with what should be considerable minutes.

On the other end of the big man spectrum is Garuba. The Spanish national will immediately be a force on the defensive end, as he showed during Spain’s Olympics run, but it’ll be his offensive development that will be critical. Garuba is an outrageously good defender with size, quickness, and a basketball IQ that allows him to make the right reads and rotations seemingly every time. However, he’s incredibly raw on offense and isn’t going to give Houston any real scoring punch early on, but if he can make strides in simply being a better finisher off the catch, he can play a much larger role.

Then there’s Christopher, who’s value is as a scorer but needs to improve on shot selection and, just generally, being a better jump shooter. Playing on a team with other bucket-getters like Green and Kevin Porter Jr. might require him to be a bit more discerning with what shots he’s taking by sheer force, and the Rockets are hoping he can be a high-upside steal — a bit of balance for the high-floor pick of Garuba one spot ahead of him.

Ideally, all four look the part of quality NBA players, but history tells us that’s unlikely. It would be a win for Houston to have one of these three pop alongside Green, and the good news for all of them is that they should get ample opportunity to work through the highs and lows in their rookie season.

A Division III college football game ended in one of the most crushing ways you can imagine. A pair of schools in Wisconsin — 11th ranked UW-La Crosse and UW-Platteville — went toe-to-toe in Platteville on Saturday afternoon. The Pioneers had a chance to pull an upset, all they needed to do was get themselves in position for a score as time expired despite having no timeouts.

They managed to do just that, getting the ball down to the Eagles’ 15 with less than 10 seconds remaining and the team trailing, 24-23. The playbook from there is easy enough: kill some clock, spike the ball with a few seconds left, send out the field goal team, and hope the 32-yard boot goes through the uprights.

But a problem popped up. Platteville’s quarterback mixed up what he was supposed to do in this situation, and instead of spiking the ball with five seconds left, he took a knee.

The quarterback even started walking off, thinking he did the right thing. It was so surprising that even the clock operator in the stadium stopped it from counting down for a moment, because they, too, assumed a spike was coming. The Pioneers had a few seconds to line back up and spike it, but they did not do it in time and their attempt at an upset came up short.

For the second consecutive year (due to you-know-what), The Batman panel capped off the DC FanDome event, and this time, we’re seeing a full-on trailer. (Whew, it’s intense.) DC Comics fans are getting plenty of peeks at director Matt Reeves’ vision of what led Bruce Wayne to become a masked vigilante. And boy, is Robert Pattinson’s take a brutal one, although one would be forgiven for being distracted by Zoe Kravitz’s Catwoman wondering aloud about what’s underneath Batman’s cowl while uttering the most glorious movie cliché of all time: “Maybe we’re not so different.”

One thing is certain about this trailer: Bruce Wayne is dealing with many adversaries, and they just won’t stop coming at Batman. As well, the gloom and the grime and all of the tangibly pulpy glory is so vivid and punchy in its presentation, that it’s no wonder that DC decided to release a new collection of Batman comics that include a Frank Miller origin story. However, this is surely not a straight-up adaptation of Year One or any other singular comic. In addition, The Riddler (Paul Dano, enjoying a cuppa and leaving puzzles for fans to solve) and The Penguin (Colin Farrell, who’s sounding like the toughest cabbie in all of Gotham) should figure prominently in this movie.

This trailer re-highlights the “I am vengeance” snarl from Pattinson (from the previous teaser), and he’s not here for anyone describing his Batman as “sweetheart.” It’s a joyous experience to see him pummeling all of those goons. Bye bye, Edward Cullen, you’re gone for good, and this film might also vanquish the sneakily-inserted Batman origin story that Todd Phillips inserted into Joker. Neither film, it must be noted, is part of the DCEU, although The Batman takes place in the same universe as an upcoming HBO Max series about the Gotham PD. So many universes.

The Batman arrives on March 4, 2022.

Some fathers don’t take too well to meeting their daughter’s boyfriends. One person is Jamie Foxx, who during a recent episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon told a story about how, when meeting his spawn’s paramour, sought a little help from no less than Snoop Dogg.

“My daughter, who didn’t know I had already run a background check on her boyfriend, he comes to the crib and Snoop happens to be there,” he told the crowd. “And I said, ‘Snoop, there he is right there. Shake him up.’ Snoop just walked over to my daughter’s boyfriend and just said ‘Hey, what’s up? What’s up cuz? You know. Hey, look here. You know. We her uncles, you know what I’m saying? So act accordingly, homie.’”

Foxx has two daughters, Corinne and Anelise, but he did not specify which one was subject to this episode. But since the latter is only 12 years old, it’s safe to say it’s Corrine.

For more with Snoop Dogg and Jamie Foxx, you can stay tuned for their upcoming film Day Shift. The movie is a vampire action thriller with a cast that includes Dave Franco, Eric Lange, Karla Souza, Meagan Good, and Zion Broadnax. A release date for the movie has not been revealed yet, but it is confirmed to arrive at some point in 2022.

You can watch the clip from The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon above.

As the NBA season approaches and training camps get underway, we’ll be taking a look at the player on each team that holds the key to unlocking their full potential.

In Golden State, there are a number of questions facing the Warriors, most notably the health and availability of Klay Thompson coming off of two serious injuries back-to-back. Even beyond Thompson, the Warriors had to get more spacing and secondary creation onto the roster around Stephen Curry, and, without much money to do so, they ended up taking a flier on Otto Porter Jr. in free agency.

It’s been a long time since we saw a fully healthy season from Porter, playing just 42 games in the last two seasons, but he’s been able to play he’s a career 40 percent three-point shooter and, when healthy, can create for himself off the dribble. Porter provides them with some much needed depth behind Andrew Wiggins who can serve as something as a Wiggins-lite offensively (a better shooter, a worse creator) to ensure they always have someone on the wing that presents at least something of an offensive threat.

His defensive impact comes down to how much mobility he’s lost after foot and back issues have derailed his past two seasons. Early in his career in Washington, his combination of size, length, and athleticism made him a versatile wing defender. Since injuries have piled up, he’s not had the same impact on that end in Chicago and a brief stint in Orlando, but on a team with a defensive identity and system in place, it figures to be easier for him to find his role in Golden State.

Porter has a chance to be one of the steals of free agency. That requires him to be on the floor, but he fills a lot of needs for this Warriors team and a return to form could simultaneously elevate his value for next offseason and the Warriors’ chances of competing in the West.

Comic books movies are in a multiverse phase. Spider-Man’s has been doing it, and over at the DCEU so is The Flash, the long-gestating solo film for Ezra Miller’s speed racer. The movie’s till a ways away from release. Heck, it’s even still shooting. There’s not yet enough footage for a full-blown teaser, let alone a trailer, but at this year’s DC FanDome, they were able to show something. And that something included one of the movie’s most anticipated elements.

That’s to say that you hear and just barely see Michael Keaton’s Batman. Back in 1989, the acclaimed actor was the second person to play the Caped Crusader on the big screen, after Adam West. He left the gig after only two movies, but he was roped back in for the first time in almost 30 years, playing Bruce Wayne in a timeline where he doesn’t look like Ben Affleck…or Christian Bale…or Robert Pattinson…or Val Kilmer…or George Clooney.

Keaton can be heard speaking on the soundtrack, asking Miller’s Barry Allen why on earth he chose his timeline, out of all the infinite others. At the end you can see pointy ears in silhouette, presumably belonging to Keaton (or a double). Eagle-eyed viewers may also catch something else: two Ezra Millers. That’s because the actor will be playing multiple Barry Allens, including one with longer hair.

There’s one other surprise at the end, but we’ll let you discover that one on your own. You can watch the teaser in the video above. The Flash is currently scheduled for release on November 4, 2022.

At the end of August, Detroit native 42 Dugg shared the deluxe version of Free Dem Boyz, which he released earlier this year. Seven more songs were added to the record, with new features from Nardo Wick, Moneybagg Yo, and more. Lil Durk can also be found on the deluxe thanks to his appearance on “Free Ric.” Now, less than two months after the song’s release, Dugg calls on Durk to appear in a flashy video for the track, which finds the rappers showing off their large sums of money and expensive jewelry while delivering boastful raps as their respective crews stand behind them.

Free Dem Boyz, which also features Fivio Foreign, Roddy Ricch, EST Gee, Rylo Rodriguez, and Future, became Dugg’s high-charting album after it debuted at No. 8. The new video comes after Dugg shared ones for “Bestfriends,” Rose Gold,” “Turnest N**** In The City,” “Maybach,” and more.

As for Lil Durk, he just released his single “Pissed Me Off,” which comes as a response to unfortunate incidents that recently occurred in his life. He’s also going back to school to get his high school diploma.

You can watch the video above.

Freem Dem Boyz (Deluxe) is out now via CMG/4PF. Get it here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.