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Shot-making performances like what Jabari Smith Jr. has put together in Las Vegas can’t be ignored. With 71 points on 49 percent shooting and just five turnovers across two games, Smith has — despite his own good attitude about appearing in the exhibition games — looked way too good to be there. What the Houston Rockets’ brass will care more about during a summer in which the organization is clearly trying to jump-start being competitive again, though, is that Smith has made improvements that should help solidify his long-term standing on the team.

Coming off a post-All Star break stretch in which he put up 15 points and eight rebounds a night on 45 percent shooting, this season of the Jabari Show is starting the same way the last one ended: poised and exciting.

During his stint in Las Vegas that Kelly Iko of The Athletic reports has come to an end, Smith showed the beginnings of what it will look like when he blends the tough shot-making and confident footwork he showed at Auburn with a more physical on-ball role. Because of his steady, high release point and deep range, Smith was able to dominate games as a shooter at the college level fairly routinely. Auburn coach Bruce Pearl used pro-style sets to free up Smith in space off pindowns, pick and pops, and as the trailer in transition. From there, Smith could either let it fly or move into a comfortable one-dribble pull-up. When he did move inside, Smith often relied on quick moves like a jab step pull-up or a fadeaway jumper, again using his size and advanced skill game to win matchups.

In Las Vegas, Smith made a noticeable effort to get to the basket more consistently with some of the same basic tools. There is a patience to Smith’s game that is obvious, and though he will continue adding upper-body strength as his pro career continues, his lower body strides powerfully through dribble moves. He took an extra beat in the lane to let less assured defenders be thrown out of position by their own momentum.

In college and even during his rookie year, Smith would abort his drives to put his back to the basket for harder shots or fail to finish inside (he shot just 69 percent at the rim last season). In two games this summer, he absorbed contact with his big frame and used his length to finish easy drop-ins. A matchup against Detroit featured experienced NBA big men in James Wiseman and Jalen Duren as well, meaning Smith isn’t just feasting on G Leaguers or guys destined for Europe.

During a mid-game interview with new Houston head coach Ime Udoka in the Rockets’ Summer League opener last week, Udoka emphasized Smith squaring up and being ready to shoot at all times coming off a rookie year where just 31 percent of his threes fell. While the question and answer seemed to hint at a perceived hesitancy in Smith’s game, the more clear ripple effect of Smith hunting his own shot more consistently is that it opens up the rest of his scoring bag. Big shooters who make smart decisions and can put the ball on the ground are perhaps the hardest players in the NBA to defend. It’s why Smith was a top-three pick in the first place.

When Smith mixes in quick pull-ups or spot-up jumpers, he puts the defense on its heels and takes over.

While unlikely to be a major part of his game in the coming years, Smith also showed some open-court passing ability and quick decision-making as a ball-mover that Rockets coaches can tuck in their back pocket for later. That’s the stuff that Summer League allows players to try out in a less pressurized environment, and Smith benefited from it.

The defensive end is where Houston has the most questions and where Smith might be misunderstood, or at least currently miscast. Playing alongside a center like Alperen Sengun who is undersized, ground-bound, and a subpar rim protector, the easy idea is to hope that Smith, who is 6’10 with a 7’2 wingspan, can be the guy who protects the rim. That’s not likely.

Smith does have special tools defensively, just not in a traditional help role at the basket. His foot speed and fluidity translate when he’s guarding smaller players, allowing him to stay with guards on the perimeter. He has great awareness of how to get big while maintaining his balance as well, taking away passing and driving angles just with his length.

Against lesser shot creators like Duren, we also see Smith get stops in one-on-one situations.

However, there are clearly moments, even in a Summer League setting, in which Smith’s need to add strength also flare up on defense. His awareness and quick-twitch reaction speed are also not where it would need to be if the goal is for Smith to turn into a high-level help defender like Robert Williams.

Planting him inside in help position also leaves him susceptible to being bodied:

Instead, Smith’s specialty defensively is his versatility. He can block shots when guarding his man or reading a simple drive, but he excels more when he can lock in against his matchup. A better goal for Smith would be to aim to be like Jayson Tatum or Jaden McDaniels, big forwards who can fight through screens, contain the ball, and force turnovers.

After signing Fred VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, and Jock Landale in free agency, the Rockets should be able to execute basic defense more consistently after ranking 29th on that end last season. Teams ran a layup line against Houston and scored in transition at will. Veterans should help contain the ball and communicate to take away the easiest shots. That said, Smith probably still has a long way to go defensively considering the talent at the position he plays and how long it can take for someone who can do a little of everything to actually make an impact. Still, he will benefit from locking into a real role on a competitive defense and start learning how his physical gifts can affect games.

At the same time, Udoka is known for switching more on defense than most coaches. It’s what he deployed as an assistant in Brooklyn as well as the head coach in Boston during their Finals run in 2022. Lineups when Sengun and other young players are off the court could help raise Houston’s defensive intensity even more, with more switching and swarming.

A role is coming into focus for Smith, the greatest thing one can say about a young player after a strong Summer League. With a more balanced and assertive scoring game, even in a tertiary role, and more structure all-around, Smith should be able to improve dramatically from his .514 true shooting percentage as a rookie. The turnovers should start to come down as he gets more comfortable and patient with his dribble and body control. And with a defensive-minded coach and more veteran personnel, Smith is likely to make a stronger impact on that end of the floor.

Smith is all over social media highlight reels after a stellar opening weekend in Las Vegas, and while we have to sit back and appreciate the production, Smith has shown he is growing in the right ways, too.

Another Michael is dropping a lot of news today, as the band unveils that they have not one but two new albums on the horizon. The first, Wishes To Fulfill, will arrive this fall, and the second — Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down — can be expected early in 2024.

In celebration, the band shared the music video for “Angel” from this year’s album and the title track of the 2024 release. Details on the latter are still being set regarding the tracklist and cover art.

“Music is a medium of communication,” the band’s bassist/co-producer Nick Sebastiano shared. “It’s not a purposeful decision to talk about music in our songs but it just inherently means so much to us. If something makes your heart sing, the audience is going to hear it.”

Check out “Angel” and “Pick Me Up, Turn Me Upside Down” above. Below, find the complete Wishes To Fulfill tracklist and cover art, as well as the band’s upcoming tour dates opening for Ratboys and other shows.

1. “Guitars”
2. “Candle”
3. “Angel”
4. “Baseball Player”
5. “Research”
6. “Water Pressure”
7. “Common Ground”
8. “Wishes To Fulfill”
9. “Piano Lessons”

07/15 — Philadelphia, PA @ Love City Brewing
10/19 — Omaha, NE @ Reverb
10/21 — Denver, CO @ Globe Hall
10/22 — Salt Lake City, UT @ Kilby Court
10/24 — Seattle, WA @ Madame Lou’s
10/25 — Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
10/27 — San Francisco, CA @ Cafe Du Nord
10/28 — Los Angeles, CA @ Lodge Room
10/29 — San Diego, CA @ The Loft at UCSD
10/30 — Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
10/31 — Phoenix, AZ @ Valley Bar
11/02 — San Antonio. TX @ Paper Tiger Small Room
11/03 — Austin, TX @ Empire Control Room
11/04 — Dallas, TX @ Club Dada

Wishes To Fulfill is out 9/22 via Run For Cover. Find more information here.

Fans of Lil Tjay are eager for new music from the New York rapper. Over a year after he was shot seven times last year, Lil Tjay is ready to share his story. He first began teasing the album last month with the single “June 22nd,” which alludes to the day of the shooting.

His new album 222 arrives later this week, and before the highly-anticipated drop, we’ve put together a guide featuring everything we know about the album thus far.

Release date

Lil Tjay’s new album 222 arrives Friday, July 14 via Columbia Records. Find more information here.

Tracklist

Here is the official tracklist for 222

01. “Nightshift”
02. “June 22nd”
03. “Nobody”
04. “Scared 2 Be Lonely”
05. “Stressed” Feat. Summer Walker
06. “2 Grown” Feat. The Kid Laroi
07. “Heart Felt Soul”
08. “Bla Bla” Feat. Fivio Foreign
09. “Someone Who Cares”
10. “Forgot I Was the 1”
11. “Hole in My Heart” Feat. Jadakiss
12. “Project Walls” Feat. Youngboy Never Broke Again
13. “Beat the Odds Part 2” Feat. Polo G
14. “Foster Baby”
15. “Grateful” Feat. Coco Jones

Singles

So far, Tjay has only released the single “June 22,” along with its accompanying visual.

Artwork

You can see the official 222 album artwork below.

Tour

As of now, Lil Tjay has not yet announced a tour to support 222.

tour: could be announced after the project’s release, no word yet

We’re in the era of movie studio executives who don’t know how to make movies and shows. Maybe they can synergize tie-in deals. Maybe they can sniff out a hefty tax write-off. But they fundamentally don’t seem to understand the business they’re in.

Our latest proof comes in the revelation of their absolutely despicable tactic to bust the WGA strike: bleed the writers dry instead of negotiating a deal.

“The endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses,” a studio executive told Deadline. Another with inside information about the tactic called it “a cruel but necessary evil.”

You heard that, right. It’s cruel and necessary because paying writers a fair wage simply apparently isn’t possible. No other option! Meanwhile, studio heads like new cartoon villain David Zaslav (pictured above) was reportedly paid $246 million in 2021 alone.

Not only is this tactic marked by Big Weakling Energy and profound malice, but it’s also potentially unworkable for two reasons. The first is that the writers aren’t the only ones missing out on paychecks and health insurance. According to estimates, the studios are losing $30 million a day, and California’s economy lost $2 billion over the 100 days of the 2008 WGA strike. Not to mention all of the crew members on movie and TV sets who are now missing paychecks. The second is that, if it succeeds, the studios will have slit their own throats by removing the people who make the movies from the equation. This is like Ford wanting to fire all the people who design cars and then wondering why they don’t have any new cars to sell.

One possibility is that this maximum pain gambit is merely a scare tactic, publicly leaked on the eve of a possible Screen Actors Guild strike following an extension for good faith negotiations. Writers and actors have similar requests — job security and assurances they won’t be replaced by AI — and the actors joining the strike would be overwhelming for studios.

Still, if the only way you know how to make money from a movie is by deleting it from a streaming app, maybe you should find a new line of work.

(via Deadline)

This summer marked 22 years since the release of Alicia Keys’ debut album Songs In A Minor and the official start of what became a massive music career. Since then, numerous Grammy Awards and multiple No. 1 songs, both as a lead and featured artist, are just some of what stands out on Keys’ resume. While Keys is a more low-key superstar than she was in the 2000s, her legend hasn’t diminished and remained captivating during her Keys To The Summer Tour stop in Boston’s TD Garden.

Unsurprisingly, the arena was packed with fans who grew up on Keys’ music. The crowd was mostly millennials who watched the young singer blossom into what she is today rather than a younger generation who may not be fully aware of her previous status. With that in mind, Keys’ setlist for the night reflected the audience at hand. A show that lasted nearly two hours contained just a few songs from Keys’ recent albums ALICIA and KEYS released in 2020 and 2021, respectively. The rest of the setlist bounced around beloved albums like Songs In A Minor, The Diary Of Alicia Keys, As I Am, and The Element Of Freedom.

Keys kicked off the night with “Fallin’” which captured the attention of the arena through the introduction of Keys’ trademark voice and the equally notoriously dance of the piano keys that is easily recognized more than 20 years after its release. The nostalgia only increased as Keys navigated through other records that are undeniable standouts in her discography like “You Don’t Know My Name,” “Unthinkable,” and “My Boo” as well as other strong outputs that include “New Day” and “Karma.” Keys also made room for her newer records throughout the night. “Love Looks Better” and “Underdog” fit well into the setlist from a sonic perspective, as did “Come For Me” and “City Of Gods (Part II), proving that though the music industry has changed over the years, Keys has stayed true to her vast pocket over the last two decades.

The last half of the night was more focused on Keys’ biggest records and songs that became cult classics over the years. A soaring performance of “A Woman’s Worth” was followed by a captivating rendition of “Superwoman.” A tender moment was shared through “Butterflyz” and “That’s How Strong My Love Is” and again with “Diary” and “Like You’ll Never See Me Again.” The energy returned with lively performances of “I Need You” and “The Gospel.” Through it all, Keys seemed to have the time of her life, utilizing the entire stage, which stretched from end to end of the arena. It allowed her the opportunity to interact with the crowd in all areas of the room, and in return, she received the excitement and energy that they had within throughout the night.

Keys’ show at TD Garden concluded with a collection of her biggest hits, all of which the crowd in attendance was more than happy to join. “Girl On Fire” was met with roars from the audience as TD Garden quite literally heated up to sing the record in one accord. Keys then jumped into her classic hook on Jay-Z’s “Empire State Of Mind” before checking into the 2016 record “In Common,” which is a personal favorite of mine from her catalog. At long last, to close the night, Keys ended with an empowering performance of “No One” before delivering a grand finale encore with “If I Ain’t Got You.”

Keys’ night at TD Garden was driven by love for her fans and hits that unified everyone in the building. For two hours, the arena came together to indulge in love songs and uplifting records. The experience was made better by the 360-degree stage design that allowed Alicia Keys to interact with all corners of the arena. It was also proof of how this can and should become the standard for artists that perform in arenas as opposed to the traditional setup that leaves some in the space at a disadvantage. Keys’ Keys To The Summer Tour leaned on love and unity for a nostalgic night that certainly left fans to reflect and appreciate all that she’s done over her two-decade career.

“Pics” is one of the most popular subreddits on Reddit with over 30 million subscribers. So why is every post a photo of John Oliver?

As part of the Reddit community’s protest against a controversial policy change, the “Pics” moderators are only allowing “any and all media” of the Last Week Tonight host in the subreddit. “Users can now post AI-generated images, videos, erotic fan-fiction, songs, memes, incredibly erotic fan-fiction, GIFs, photographs, and fan-fiction that’s erotic enough to make nuns literally explode,” a post announcing the change read. To thank Oliver for his support, the moderators extended him a job offer this week.

The moderators of /r/PICS hereby invite John Oliver (or his duly appointed representative) to join our team. Yes, we’re serious. Yes, it’s a real invitation. To be clear, moderation is a thankless, unpleasant endeavor, and we wouldn’t wish it on anyone: You’re a constant target for bad actors, you receive no end of ill-informed abuse, you’re frequently exposed to horrifying media, and you’re thanked by way of being called “a power-hungry basement-dweller” or “landed gentry.” It used to be that moderators could count on support from administrators, but said support has been dwindling for years (even as volunteering on Reddit has gotten more and more difficult). Still, since John Oliver has become the literal face of /r/PICS, we figured that it was only fair to offer him a look behind the scenes!

If Oliver takes over, /r/PICS will be nothing but photos of Adam Driver.

(Via Reddit)

After a few years of award show hiccups due to the pandemic, a new threat lurks ahead for the 75th Primetime Emmys. An open-ended WGA strike has been ongoing for over a month, and not only that, but a possible SAG strike sits on the near horizon. In other words, a live broadcast might not be in the cards for quite some time for TV’s most vaunted awards show. Still, nominations shall be released, and the TV Academy plans upon holding the ceremony at some point. When? Any guess would likely be wrong, so hold on tight.

This year, one can expect a few shows to dominate. Naturally, this includes Succession and The Bear, the latter of which is oddly competing in comedy categories (due to runtime), but that also means that both of these shows will likely win more awards. They’d surely cannibalize each other in the same realm, but there will be strong contenders across the board because, damn, it was a great year in TV. Better Call Saul, Yellowjackets, The White Lotus, The Last Of Us, The Crown, and House of the Dragon could all score several nods, but will there be any for the Yellowstone franchise?

Here’s the complete list of nominees with broadcast date TBA.

Best Drama Series
Andor
Better Call Saul
The Crown
House of the Dragon
The Last of Us
Succession
The White Lotus
Yellowjackets

Best Comedy Series
Abbott Elementary
Barry
The Bear
Jury Duty
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Only Murders in the Building
Ted Lasso
Wednesday

Best Limited Or Anthology Series
Beef
Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Daisy Jones & the Six
Fleishman Is in Trouble
Obi-Wan Kenobi

Best Actor In A Drama Series
Jeff Bridges, The Old Man
Brian Cox, Succession
Kieran Culkin, Succession
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us
Jeremy Strong, Succession

Best Actress In A Drama Series
Sharon Horgan, Bad Sisters
Melanie Lynskey, Yellowjackets
Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale
Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us
Keri Russell, The Diplomat
Sarah Snook, Succession

Best Actor In A Comedy Series
Bill Hader, Barry
Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building
Jason Segel, Shrinking
Jason Sudeikis, Ted Lasso
Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

Best Actress In A Comedy Series
Christina Applegate, Dead to Me
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
Natasha Lyonne, Poker Face
Jenna Ortega, Wednesday

Best Actor In A Limited Anthology Series Or Movie
Taron Egerton, Black Bird
Kumail Nanjiani, Welcome to Chippendales
Evan Peters, Dahmer — Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story
Daniel Radcliffe, Weird: The Al Yankovic Story
Michael Shannon, George & Tammy
Steven Yeun, Beef

Best Actress In A Limited Anthology Series Or Movie
Lizzy Kaplan, Fleishmann is in Trouble
Jessica Chastain, George & Tammy
Dominique Fishback, Swarm
Kathryn Hahn, Tiny Beautiful Things
Riley Keough, Daisy Jones & The Six
Ali Wong, Beef

Best Supporting Actress In A Drama Series

Best Supporting Actor In A Drama Series

Best Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series

Best Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series

Best Actress In A Limited Series, Movie Or Anthology

Best Actor In A Limited Series, Movie Or Anthology

Best Reality Competition Program
The Amazing Race
RuPaul’s Drag Race
Survivor
Top Chef
The Voice

Best Variety Talk Series
The Daily Show With Trevor Noah
Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Late Night With Seth Meyers
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
The Problem With Jon Stewart

Best Scripted Variety Series
A Black Lady Sketch Show
Last Week Tonight With John Oliver
Saturday Night Live

Best Animated Program
Bob’s Burgers
Entergalactic
Genndy Tartakovsky’s Primal
Rick And Morty
The Simpsons

The New York Jets have been one of the busiest teams in the NFL this offseason, and now, football fans are going to get an all-access look at how they plan on turning that hype into success. According to Adam Schefter of ESPN, the league and NFL Films have selected the Jets as the team that will appear on Hard Knocks this season, marking the first time since 2010 that the team will be featured on the HBO show.

As Schefter noted, the league’s rules about who could appear on Hard Knocks meant that only the Jets, Chicago Bears, New Orleans Saints, and Washington Commanders are eligible to be on the show. It’s unsurprisingly that the Jets would pique the interest in all the various decision-makers here on the heels of an offseason in which the team made a high-profile trade to acquire Aaron Rodgers from the Green Bay Packers. Beyond that, New York has put together an extremely Rodgers-friendly team, as it decided to make former Packers offensive coordinator and recently-fired Denver Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett its OC, while it went out and acquired a trio of former Packers in Adrian Amos, Randall Cobb, and Allen Lazard.

The Jets are coming off of a 7-10 campaign, and are in the midst of a lengthy postseason drought — the team has not made it to the playoffs since 2010. Despite their acquisition of Rodgers, New York still faces a stiff test to break that drought this year, as the AFC East features a pair of other teams in the Buffalo Bills and the Miami Dolphins with legitimate aspirations of making the playoffs this year.

Sky Ferreira is an enigma. The indie pop singer first rose to fame with the help of Tumblr’s heyday in 2012. Her moody, synth-forward ballads struck a chord with a generation of people who relied on the online blogging outlet to direct their teenage angst. But following her debut 2013 album Night Time, My Time, Ferreira was rarely heard from again, save for a handful of one-off singles over the years. Rumors of a new album circulate on a near-yearly basis to no avail, the most recent being sparked by her 2022 track “Don’t Forget.” So when the singer announced a handful of shows in July, it reignited the possibility of a new album in 2023. And while Ferreira continues to be elusive, her fans are anything but. They show out in droves to support the singer whether there’s a promise of new music or not.

The crowd who came out to see Ferreira perform at The Vermont in Los Angeles on Sunday, July 9 was hopeful for any hint at new music, myself included. Fans excitedly trickled into the 1,200-capacity venue, large enough to draw a big crowd but small enough to still feel intimate, ready to see an artist many had been listening to for over a decade.

True to her reputation, Ferreira made fans wait nearly 30 minutes after she was supposed to take the stage. In the meantime, the crowd was buzzing with anticipation. Maybe a little too much anticipation at times, since I was able to get a great view of a fight that broke out in the middle of the crowd as we waited. But finally, the dark stage was illuminated by dim lights as her band funneled in. Ferreira made her dramatic entrance by slowly descending a staircase onto the stage, outfitted in a black floor-length duster jacket and opaque black sunglasses. She appeared as an apparition among the dim lights and rising smoke, a fitting image to accompany her haunting music.

Quelling the screaming audience, Ferreira immediately launched into a rendition of her grungy pop hit “Boys.” She followed it with “24 Hours,” which she ended with an a-capella delivery to allow the crowd to harmonize with her. Her newest track “Don’t Forget” was next, which someone in the front was ironically filming with their Nintendo DS. Because of her relatively small discography, Ferreira was able to perform nearly every one of her songs — two covers included — and had the crowd exalted with tracks like “Heavy Metal Heart,” “Lost In My Bedroom,” and “You’re Not The One.”

Ferreira didn’t address the crowd until four songs in, when she quietly thanked everyone for coming. The one time she did interact with the crowd was also the only hint she gave about the possibility of new music. Someone in the front row yelled a question about when her album will drop. She responded with, “What? Oh, sorry,” and slightly shook her head with a laugh. I interpreted the non-answer as Ferreira’s way of saying “not any time soon.” She did end up performing the unreleased song “All My Lovers Die,” which has become a staple in her live set, but didn’t give any indication as to when (or if) it will have an official release date.

It was rare for Ferreira to speak to the crowd at all throughout the show. She never introduced her band and didn’t have an encore, instead opting to play the entire way through her set list and mumble a quiet “sorry” into the microphone when she had to restart a few songs. Ferreira did give an introduction to her 2012 EP opener “Sad Dream,” which she said she hadn’t performed live in eight years. The rendition of “Sad Dream” had her appearing visibly distressed; She walked off stage and finished the song facing the back wall. She appeared to wipe away tears from her face as fans screamed words of encouragement.

Ferreira ended the concert with her oldest (and most popular) hit “Everything Is Embarrassing,” sending the crowd home satisfied, even without the promise of new music. Walking back to my car, I overheard a group of longtime fans hypothesizing why performing “Sad Dream” made Ferreira upset. “She puts so much pressure on herself,” one of them said. The other agreed with: “She needs to know we don’t need her to be perfect!” It showed how her understanding and undemanding Ferreira’s audience is. But more than anything it was a reminder that, no matter how long it takes Ferreira to release her next album, her fans will be waiting with open arms.