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The NBA’s bubble is going swimmingly in Orlando thus far, and there is plenty of buzz on how the remainder of the 2019-20 season will unfold. Everything is up in the air with regard to the 2020-21 season, however, with ongoing discussions between the NBA and NBPA on the salary cap machinations and much more. To that end, reports have swirled on the start of the 2020-21 season, with the NBA initially announcing a target date of Dec. 1 and recent rumblings that a delay could be inevitable due to the state of affairs with COVID-19 and the financial realities of the league.

On Thursday evening, much of the focus was on the NBA Draft Lottery but, in advance of the drawing itself, NBA commissioner Adam Silver shed light on the situation for next season and he didn’t stand firm with the early December target date.

The NBA has shared that up to 40 percent of the league’s revenue comes from game-day operations, which would illuminate at least part of the league’s thinking with any delay. Beyond that, the 2019-20 season is scheduled to conclude in mid-October, meaning that an early Dec. target date was always optimistic on account of a (very) short offseason for teams making deep postseason runs.

At present, projecting a specific timeline for the start of the 2020-21 season seems like a fool’s errand, and even this statement from Silver was lacking in firm detail. Still, the fact that he was willing to say that Dec. 1 is “feeling a bit early” is likely a strong indication that a delay, of some length, is in the offing.

The 2020 NBA Draft Lottery took place on Thursday night, and after the ping pong balls did their thing, the Timberwolves found themselves sitting with the No. 1 pick in this October’s Draft. The Warriors will follow them with the No. 2 pick in the Draft, while the Hornets sit in third and Bulls sit in fourth having both jumped over the Knicks in the lottery, leaving New York picking eighth. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Draft Lottery occurred virtually as opposed to in a conference room in a Manhattan hotel, with Mark Tatum delivering the pick order from Secaucus, New Jersey.

Here’s how the entire Lottery will break down:

1. Minnesota Timberwolves
2. Golden State Warriors
3. Charlotte Hornets
4. Chicago Bulls
5. Cleveland Cavaliers
6. Atlanta Hawks
7. Detroit Pistons
8. New York Knicks
9. Washington Wizards
10. Phoenix Suns
11. San Antonio Spurs
12. Sacramento Kings
13. New Orleans Pelicans
14. Boston Celtics (via Grizzlies)

With tiebreakers being settled last week, we now know exactly what the first round order will look like in mid-October (at least until trades begin happening).

15. Magic
16. Trail Blazers
17. Timberwolves (via Nets via Hawks)
18. Mavericks
19. Nets (via 76ers via Clippers)
20. Miami
21. 76ers (via Thunder via 76ers via Magic)
22. Nuggets (via Rockets)
23. Jazz
24. Bucks (via Pacers)
25. Thunder (via Nuggets)
26. Celtics
27. Knicks (via Clippers)
28. Lakers
29. Raptors
30. Celtics (via Bucks via Suns)

Unlike the 2019 Draft, in which Zion Williamson and Ja Morant were viewed as no-brainer options to go with the top picks, this Draft lacks a clear-cut No. 1 pick. Names like Anthony Edwards of Georgia, James Wiseman of Memphis, and LaMelo Ball of the Illawarra Hawks have been mentioned as potential top options, while this Draft’s depth has been especially praised. For the Wolves, they now have a fascinating decision to make, as they already have Russell as their lead scoring guard and Karl-Anthony Towns as an offensive marvel. Given the makeup of the top of this draft, there’s not a clear perfect fit, but Edwards and Ball will likely be the widely projected two potential picks of Minnesota if they don’t shop it around — as Golden State almost assuredly will be doing with the No. 2 overall pick.

The 2020 NBA Draft is scheduled to take place on Friday, Oct. 16.

Last night, SZA took to Twitter to voice her frustrations with her label, Top Dawg Entertainment. In the now-deleted tweets, SZA directed fans to ask TDE president Punch to release her music as fans have been waiting for a new release since her 2017 album, Ctrl.

When a fan shared a screenshot with her proving requests have been made to Punch, but to no avail, SZA responded with additional frustration saying, “This is all he says to me as well. Welcome to my f*cking life .” Despite describing her relationship with Punch as “hostile,” SZA has returned to Twitter with an update now that the dust has settled.

Responding to tweets calling for her freedom from the label, SZA denies being held “hostage” by TDE. “Don’t nobody need to free me Lmao I’m not held hostage n neither is my music!!,” she said in one tweet. “Me n punch be disagreeing ..hes never steered me wrong and I trust Gods timing.”

In a pair of tweets following the first post, SZA would explain the turnaround from her tweets the night before. “Lmao when u don’t get somewhere By urself u can’t always make ALL the decisions by urself. And das ok,” she said in the tweet. “Sometimes u gotta be patient .. sometimes no is a blessing… i trust the ppl around me… And by being patient I mean ME !! I gotta learn it. *paaatience paaaatience paaatience is a virtue*”

Contrary to the thinking at the start of 2020, it’s been a quiet year for TDE as many of the artists who had confirmed or were rumored for 2020 releases, like Reason, Schoolboy Q, and Kendrick Lamar, have yet to reveal much info about their albums. This may be a result of the pandemic that has affected all corners of the music industry, of course, but it remains to be seen if TDE will come through with some 2020 releases or continue to leave fans waiting.

The Milwaukee Bucks got surprised by the Orlando Magic on Tuesday, falling in Game 1 of their 1-8 series matchup. There wasn’t concern, necessarily, but there was some curiosity about what the Bucks would do in Game 2, as they looked a bit lethargic during the seeding games in the Bubble.

The answer: A 111-96 win in which Giannis Antetokounmpo went for 28 points, 20 rebounds, and five assists. The Magic put up a fight, but it was not quite enough after an abysmal first quarter. Before all eyes turn to Game 3 to see if the Bucks have found their way, we looked back on everything what happened on Thursday evening.

The Bucks Needed That

It wasn’t that Milwaukee lost a game in this series — which, to be clear, it should have swept — it’s that the team lose Game 1 after going 3-5 during its seeding games and looking vulnerable for the first time all season. The Bucks are a team that is reliant on its rhythm. The high-powered offense needs to be in a certain groove as it fires dozens of threes a game. The defense needs to be a collection of five players working in harmony. That wasn’t always happening during the seeding games, and during Game 1, that same thing happened against the Magic.

To try and make up for this, the Bucks came out and put the clamps on Orlando from the very start. The Magic had more turnovers (5) and personal fouls (4) than made field goals in the first quarter, going 3-for-24 in the frame. Milwaukee led by 12 at the end of the quarter, 21 at the end of the first half, and despite a few little flurries from Steve Clifford’s side in the third and fourth quarters, were able to come out on top.

Picking up a win was important for Milwaukee regardless, but picking up a relatively comfortable win in which they found the rhythm that they rode to the best regular season record in the league was quite important. Now, it’s on them to take care of business three more times in this series before moving onto the conference semis.

Khris Middleton Needs To Find His Shot

Middleton is an absolutely wonderful basketball player — he did not make back-to-back All-Star Games and get handed a monster contract last offseason on accident. He is crucial to what the Bucks try to do, especially on offense, where his ability to hit shots and act as a creator is crucial to making sure the entire machine is humming.

While Middleton is playing hard and doing some things well — he’s averaging 5.5 rebounds and 4.5 assists in two games this series — his shot has abandoned him through two games. In Game 1, he went for 14 points on 4-for-12 shooting from the field and 2-for-6 shooting from three. Game 2 was even worse: two points, 1-for-8 shooting from the field, 0-for-4 from deep.

This will maybe get it done against Orlando, but against Boston or Miami or Toronto, it’s a recipe for disaster. Watch him in Game 3. It might be in Milwaukee’s best interest to get him in a groove.

The Magic Can Win At Least One More In This Series

These guys play hard as hell, man. Orlando’s offense is very, very reliant on Nikola Vucevic being able to go to work against a stout Milwaukee interior defense, and he managed to do this on Thursday with 32 points and 10 rebounds. From there, they really need at least one of Terrence Ross or Evan Fournier to get hot, and for the backcourt duo of D.J. Augustin and Markelle Fultz to hit shots when they are available.

Their first half was absolutely wretched, and as such, they needed a whole lot to go right if they wanted to win on Thursday. That did not happen. But they did hold the Bucks to 36.6 percent shooting from three, force 20 turnovers, and get to the free throw line 31 times. With how hard they play, how they are able to defend, and the possibility that they add a very good player to their rotation in Aaron Gordon if he can return from injury, they can take at least another game off of Milwaukee.

Sarah Cooper may be best known online for her lip synch videos of Donald Trump, but her prior works are also getting the benefit of her newfound burst of fame. Cooper has parlayed her internet fame into a number of appearances on TV, including a guest spot hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live. But the latest news for the comedian is that her 2018 book will be adapted for television.

Variety reported on Thursday that Cooper’s book, “How To Be Successful Without Hurting Men’s Feelings,” would be turned into a sitcom on CBS, with Cooper co-writing and executive producing the series.

In a competitive situation with a penalty attached, Cooper is attached to co-write and executive produce the potential series, with Cindy Chupack onboard as co-writer, executive producer, and showrunner. Nina Tassler, Denise Di Novi, and Joan Boorstein will executive produce under their PatMa Productions banner. CBS Television Studios, where PatMa is under an overall deal, will produce.

The series would follow three women at different stages in their careers at a male-dominated company as they help each other navigate modern gender politics in their careers and in their personal lives.

Variety noted that Chupack has worked on a variety of hits, including Emmy-winning work on Sex and the City and Modern Family. It’s the latest bit of good news for Cooper that comes on the heels of her Netflix special, which is slated to arrive this fall. She’s also reportedly writing her third book, an autobiographical take on Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” for Audible.

[via Variety]

Despite just 24 hours of promotion prior to its release, Taylor Swift’s Folklore album has given her plenty of reasons to celebrate in the near-month following its release. Coming off its third week atop the Billboard album charts, Swift decided to gift indie record stores with a pretty awesome surprise: signed copies of the Folklore album.

A number of these indie record stores took to their social media pages to show off their unexpected packages of signed CDs to their followers.

The surprise to the indie record stores serves as Taylor’s latest interaction with her fans. She recently had a FaceTime call with “best friend” Selena Gomez during Gomez’ Selena + Chef cooking show. She also took a moment to reveal all the easter eggs hidden in her “Cardigan” video which she dropped when Folklore was released. This came after she confirmed who some of the characters throughout the album were based on, too.

It’s good to see Taylor reaching out to the indie community with such a nice gesture, especially after Folklore has been labeled as her first “indie” album. Folklore has helped Taylor reach a number of milestones including being the first female artist since 2018 to spend her first three weeks atop the Billboard album charts. Other accolades include having the most No. 1 debuts and the third-most No. 1 albums overall among female artists.

Fans of Jay-Z and Pharrell gave fans a surprising announcement on Thursday that the two legends would be releasing a new collaboration at midnight for their fans to enjoy. Entitled “Entrepreneur,” the song arrived in conjunction with Pharrell’s TIME magazine cover package “The New American Revolution.” But hours before the song’s official release, some fans are already criticizing Jay-Z thanks some lines from the song.

On “Entrepreneur,” Jay-Z used a line to criticize what he views as the black community’s lacking support on black entrepreneurs. “Why y’all on black twitter?” he questioned. “And buying Gucci instead of supporting Fubu?” Many fans took issue with Jay-Z’s comments and pointed to what they view as an inconsistent stance on such a topic, with some bringing up his controversial partnership with the NFL.

One Twitter user went to highlight this inconsistent stance in a tweet, posing that in a few months Jay-Z would partner with Gucci despite his criticisms of the company on the song. “Jay Z four months from now: I’m very pleased to announce I’m collaborating with Gucci on their black twitter line,” the tweet said.

Other criticisms of the line were focused on Jay-Z’s choice to use Fubu, a once-popular brand in the black community that is no longer a go-to brand for its preferred audience. Once again, fans challenge his stance as he’s celebrated luxurious brands, like Gucci, multiple times in his career. While Fubu may have just been a metaphor for all black-owned businesses, one Twitter user pointed out that the line in “Entrepreneur” is still inaccurate.

“Black twitter is absolutely a community where black consumers support black entrepreneurs,” the wrote. “He’s off base on all of this. Whether you think he’s speaking metaphorically or not.”

Daniel Tosh is suddenly looking for a new network for Tosh.0 after Comedy Central abruptly canceled it despite a long-term extension of the long-running variety show. The Hollywood Reporter noted on Thursday that Comedy Central is ending Tosh.0 after twelve seasons despite giving the comedian another four seasons earlier this year.

Instead, Tosh.0 will end its run on the network in September.

In a shocking move, the ViacomCBS-owned cable network has reversed course on its January decision to renew the series for four more seasons. Instead, Tosh.0 will wrap its run with its 12th and now final season. The last 10 episodes return Sept. 15.

THR noted that the network is going through a bit of an overhaul of its schedule, including a pivot to more adult animation and news-driven shows like The Daily Show. But it’s rare that a network orders a long-term extension of a show and then reverses it just months later. Which perhaps is why Tosh.0 could reportedly get shopped to other networks to continue it past its now-dozen seasons. That note might provide some solace for fans of the show, but it’s nothing compared to the considerable extension the comedian got in January, which also included work on another show.

The January deal for Tosh.0 was for a whopping 80 new episodes that would have taken the show through its 16th season in 2024. The pact included an overall deal for comedian Tosh. The status of that pact is unclear. At the time, talks were underway for an unscripted series that Tosh would host and exec produce as well as a script deal for which he would serve as an exec producer.

Comedy Central also reversed course on Drunk History this week, as we learned yesterday. That decision ended its run on the network without a final season, though. At lest Tosh’s surprisingly long-running show gets a swan song on Comedy Central before potentially moving on.

[via THR]

The best new hip-hop albums coming out this week include projects from Bodega Bamz, Dee Watkins, Duckwrth, Lecrae, Mulatto, and Nas.

Obviously, the big news this week is that Nas is finally working with a contemporary producer (who isn’t a ranch-owning Jesus freak), which has many folks excited about the possibilities of a Nas album that isn’t hamstrung by his terrible taste in beats (I’m not so confident — whenever the dude steps outside his mid-90s boom-bap lane, the results have been… shall we say… mixed). But don’t sleep on the major label debut projects from Duckwrth and Mulatto, who’ve both been grinding independently for the past few years and have track records for producing quality material. Mulatto’s also an XXL Freshman, which means checking her out gets you an early boarding pass on her fan bandwagon (fan-wagon?) before she blows up.

Here are all the best new hip-hop albums coming out this week.

Bodega Bamz — Yams Heard This

The East Coast (but really, New York City) sound has never died. People just stopped paying attention. Rappers like Bodega Bamz prove how much of a mistake it is to sleep on the Big Apple, though. Proudly repping his Latin American heritage and his geographic loyalties, Bamz is one of a few artists not only maintaining the traditional sound of the city, but also updating it for a new era. His upcoming third studio album is ASAP Yams approved (according to Bamz, he actually played these songs for the beloved manager before his untimely demise) so you can safely bet it’s going to be worth checking out.

Dee Watkins — Problem Child 2

Despite the fervor for it 2016 SoundCloud faves cooling off in recent years, Florida remains a hotbed for young talent with a gift for pulling on heartstrings by tapping into soulful melodies and combining them with HD street life narratives. While Jackboy may be some folks’ pick for heir apparent to Kodak Black’s vacated throne, I would give that spot to Dee Watkins, who delivers the goods without the excess baggage. “Savage On The Loose” shows off his gift for direct but subtly clever rhymes and his distinctive flow, both of which will land him on a lot of radars once Problem Child 2 drops.

Duckwrth — Supergood

Initially popping up around the end of the “blog rap” era just as the industry was finally adjusting to the wave of self-made internet stars, LA’s Duckwrth has taken a roundabout path to the limelight. However, taking the scenic route has provided him plenty of space to stretch his artistic reach and it shows on Supergood, which combines soulful grooves to upbeat dance production and savvy, sexy rhymes that set him apart from just about everyone else in the game today. For a prime example, check out “Coming Closer” and “Quick.”

Lecrae — Restoration

Look, I know how y’all feel about Christian rap. You’ve damn near thrown Chance The Rapper under the bus and he’s only like ankle-deep in the subgenre. But give Lecrae a chance and he might surprise you. While he’s certainly about chest height in (by way of comparison, Kanye is in up to his ears, which is why he can’t hear us calling him to come back from the riptide infested waters he’s waded into), he’s proven — with a long discography of quality projects, including 2018’s Let the Trap Say Amen with Zaytoven — that even the squeaky-clean message music he provides can offer enough grit to satisfy even the grimiest of gangsters.

Mulatto — Queen Of Da Souf

Not many reality competition stars ever really become, well, stars after the shows air, but Mulatto turned down the deal offered by The Rap Game‘s Jermaine Dupri at just 17 years old, knowing that she could use the platform to launch a career that would justify the spotlight. Four years later, I’d say she accomplished that goal, dropping a single with Gucci Mane, appearing in Cardi B’s record-smashing “WAP” video, landing in XXL‘s 2020 Freshman Class, and releasing her major label debut — all in the same week. It won’t take much more pushing for her to secure the titular crown to which she’s already laid claim.

Nas — King’s Disease

The most anticipated project of the week comes just two years after Nas’ last “full-length” effort — a hiatus less than half as long as his last one (not counting the super mediocre odds-and-ends collection The Lost Tapes 2). Hopefully, he can keep the anti-vaxx conspiracy theories to a minimum and focus on the parts of his game that remain intact after 25 years — his superior gift for narration, his silver-tongued flow, and his smartly satirical eye for social commentary. If he can stick to the facts, Hit-Boy’s production should be enough to lift this one into the better half of his up-and-down discography — even if he’ll likely once again fall well short of the nostalgic perfection of Illmatic. “Ultra Black” wasn’t a great start, though.

Candy Land is a board game still making an impact on children more than seven decades after its debut, and now it will get its own reality cooking competition.

Variety reported on Thursday that Kristin Chenoweth has signed on for a food competition show based on the Candy Land board game, complete with a royal castle and some unique game-themed twists to the traditional cooking competition.

According to the report, the competition show will feature pastry chefs making wild creations that use the Hasbro game’s candy path setup to go through various places to find ingredients. That means viewers are in for a very elaborate set design.

The six-episode series features five groups of cake and sugar artists, who create showpieces in order to get a chance to win a grand prize of $25,000. The players must make their way through “Candy Land,” seeking out different flavors and unique ingredients as they try to reach their ultimate destination: King Kandy’s Castle.

It sounds a bit like the gimmick from the Netflix cooking competition Crazy Delicious, in which contestants get their ingredients from a Willy Wonka-style set where items grow on trees and everything (that they show you, at least) is edible.

And Chenoweth, who has appeared on Food Network for Trisha Yearwood’s Trisha’s Southern Kitchen,” mostly just seems excited about getting out of life in quarantine.

“I’m so excited for the world to see these talented confectionery artists and the incredible set,” Chenoweth said in a statement. “And I can’t wait to wear a dress again.”