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Disney Gave Most Of The Upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe Movies New Release Dates

Minutes after Universal announced that it was pushing Candyman from the summer to the fall, Disney blew up the release schedule.

Mulan and Black Widow, which were supposed to come out on March 27 and May 1, respectively, will now hit theaters (hopefully) on July 24 and November 6. As expected, that means The Eternals, which had the November 6 slot, will take Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings‘ February 12, 2021, pushing Shang-Chi to May 7, displacing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to… you know what? Just look at this.

Black Widow: November 6, 2020
The Eternals: February 12, 2021
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings: May 7, 2021
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: November 5, 2021
Thor: Love and Thunder: February 28, 2022
Black Panther 2: May 8, 2022
Captain Marvel 2: July 8, 2022

Other changes from Disney include the Ryan Reynolds-starring Free Guy (July 3 to December 11), Jungle Cruise (July 24, 2020, to July 30, 2021), Indiana Jones 5 (July 9, 2021 to July 29, 2022), and the Bob’s Burgers movie (July 17, 2020, to April 9, 2021). The French Dispatch, from director Wes Anderson, is also moving from July 14 to October 16, while Artemis Fowl (with a rumored budget of $125 million) is being sent straight to Disney+. Speaking of things that should come out on Disney+: the probably-cursed The New Mutants does not have a new release date; neither does The Personal History of David Copperfield, Antlers, and Woman in the Window.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

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Chvrches Get Creative And Make A ‘Separate But Together’ Performance Video For ‘Forever’

Chvrches released their latest album, Love Is Dead, in 2018, but lately, one of the album’s tracks has seen increased attention: “Forever” has gained new life thanks to a placement in the Spanish-language Netflix series Elite. In light of this, the band wanted to make a video for the song, but the coronavirus pandemic made that a challenging task. They got creative and made it happen, though: From their own separate spaces, Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook, and Martin Doherty performed their parts of the song individually and combined the footage for a “separate but together” version of the song.

Mayberry said of the clip, “[We] wanted to find something fun to do with the song when we couldn’t all be in the same place, so Iain and Martin came up with the idea to record a stripped back, reinterpreted version.”

She also said of the new attention the song has been getting lately, “‘Forever,’ in my mind, was always a sort of homage to the songs that were in John Hughes movies. Mostly I write lyrics from a more personal perspective but for this one I always imagined it soundtracking a Breakfast Club library dance type moment so it’s strange and cool that the song is now getting a second life because of a TV sync.”

Watch Chvrches perform “Forever” above, and revisit our review of Love Is Dead here.

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Total Bellas Total Recaps: Russian To Cohabitation

Previously on Total Bellas: The E! reality show Total Divas provided a new platform for the women of WWE and it was successful enough that it begat a spinoff for the Bella Twins. Said spinoff, Total Bellas, showcased Nikki and Brie’s signature ditziness and John Cena’s bizarre android lifestyle, led to a marriage proposal at WrestleMania, and documented the calling off of that marriage. It’s also told some heavier, more wrestling-related stories, depicting Daniel Bryan and Nikki Bella’s struggles with injury, recovery, and retirement.

Why is With Spandex bringing back Total Bellas recaps now that the Bellas have retired from the ring and the show is beginning its post-wrestling era? Because the Bellas and the fellas have returned to our screens while wrestling TV is mostly on hiatus or in no-audience limbo. Since my dudes over in New Japan have their events canceled through at least mid-April, I’ll be covering the Bellas’s misadventures through this full ten-episode season unless absolutely nobody reads about them.

Was There Anything About Wrestling In This Episode Of Total Bellas?

Since this column was born of the corona-wrestling void, I’ll kick off these recaps by investigating if any of these Total Bellas episodes will give you anything like a normal pro wrestling fix. The answer for season 5, episode 1, “Brave New Bellas,” is basically no. There are some non-specific references to people’s careers, the Bellas mention that they still make appearances for WWE, and at one point a talking head interview with Bryan is interspliced with clips from his September 2019 Smackdown match with Erick Rowan. Overall, there’s probably under two total minutes of direct wrestling-related content in this episode.

Dancing With Moving In Together

If the season premiere and trailer are anything to go by, S5 of Total Bellas is going to focus on the contrasting romances of married couple Brie and Bryan “Daniel Bryan” Danielson and former Dancing With The Stars team Nikki Bella and Artem Chigvintsev. Just like when Nikki was dating Cena, one of these relationships seems much more likely to have been orchestrated for publicity than the other!

The thing that seems most legitimate about the Nikki/Artem pairing is that Nikki wants to bang this dude all the time, so much so that many of her lapses in judgment could be chalked up to her brain being in what the experts call a Sex Fog. (This could also explain a lot of her lapses in judgment with Cena. This is just what Nikki is like in relationships, I guess!)

Nikki and Artem’s “constant fireworks, 24/7” honeymoon phase suddenly ends when Artem is cut from his job at Dancing With The Stars, where he was a dancer, choreographer, and teacher of various celebrities for about ten years. Artem looks completely devastated and like he does not want to be dealing with this on a reality show! But Nikki, being in a Sex Fog, is blind to this. She invites Artem on her and Brie’s podcast and asks him to move in with her, to which Artem replies with the most uncomfortable-looking “sure” I’ve ever heard. But less-than-ideal cohabitation is what Total Bellas is all about (in season one), so maybe this was fate?

If it is, Nikki’s friends and family don’t see it that way, and they outright tell her multiple times that she’s making a bad decision. She manages to push through Brie questioning the wisdom of doing this out of financial convenience rather than love, but finally looks shaken when a friend says she could imagine Nikki yelling at Artem to get out of her house during a fight.

Nikki ultimately decides to have a reasonable conversation with Artem – after stacking the deck in her favor by bringing up the issue right after modeling lingerie for him in a lingerie store. Despite the very reality show setup for this scene, it’s where Artem comes off the most like he’s in a normal relationship that’s just going a little too fast. He says “with Nicole, I have to take things with a sugar spoon” (a grain of salt) because she says things without thinking them through sometimes, but he isn’t condescending about it.

The episode ends with Nikki and Artem looking like they’ve saved their relationship by agreeing not to rush it – but we know that’s not going to last because of real life, where they are now engaged with a baby on the way. Still, the romance of these people drawn together by mutual hotness and training for Dancing With The Stars together for like ten hours a day actually emerges from this episode looking more stable than that of the married couple.

Daniel’s Son

While the Artem/Nikki drama is standard reality show fare, some of the issues between Brie and Bryan seem almost too real and consequential to be on TV. The main story is that they’ve been trying to conceive a second child for eight months, but Brie is uncomfortable with it. It’s a similar to the Nikki/Artem issue in that one partner wants the other to make a major life decision without considering why they might not want to do it and poor communication exacerbating the problem. But the Brie/Bryan situation is way heavier because even if Artem ended up moving in with Nikki and regretting it he could move out, but Brie having a baby she doesn’t really want and sacrificing her career for it can’t be solved with a U-Haul.

Even during the earlier, cuter scenes where Bryan and Brie talk about getting pregnant, Brie’s language sets off alarm bells, with her saying “I promised Bryan I would give him a second child” and both of them acknowledging the reason for having kid number two is because Bryan wants a boy to carry on the Danielson name. The way Bryan talks about this desire reads as almost archaically old school, but if they were both on board with it, it wouldn’t be an issue. But since one of them is not on board and that one is the one who has to carry and give birth to the child and raise it on her own most of the time, this is now a potentially marriage-destroying conflict.

Brie uses pretty stereotypical trying-to-have-it-all language to describe her conflict at times (“I’m a hands-on mom, but I’m also a career woman”), but she’s coming from a reasonable place. Though Brie’s career could be written off as not a real job, the Bellas have obviously worked hard to build their brand over the years. And even if she was completely fine giving her work or scaling it back more to become a stay at home mom, she’d be doing it mostly on her own since wrestling for WWE means Bryan is out of town five days a week. When Brie finally talks about this with Bryan he angrily responds with “Why the f*ck do we have a 3,000 square foot house if we’re just going to have one kid?”, but he’s almost never in the house.

What makes this drama really meaty is that it isn’t just presented as Bryan Bad, Brie Good. The setting of the climactic scene, with Brie telling Bryan she doesn’t want another kid just as Bryan’s about to leave for work shortly after their dog Josie has died, feels contrived and its editing feels the clunkiest of the episode, but it still depicts what looks like raw emotion from Bryan.

In our main event (Bryan is back home and ready to respond to Brie’s revelation), he apologizes for reacting so aggressively and agrees that it’s “more practical” not to have a second child right now, but his underlying issues clearly can’t be wrapped up at the end of the hour. He talks about how Josie used to make him feel less lonely when he was retired and depressed, how he still feels lonely sometimes and wants more love.

Both he and Brie say they want more honest, emotional communication, but it looks like there’s a block between them and it’s honestly really sad to see. It raises questions about if the barrier between them comes from Brie not being emotionally supportive enough, from Bryan being unable to open up to someone who might oppose some of his opinions rather than giving him the same type of love as a dog or a baby, or some combination of the two. The root issue could be Bryan’s depression that doesn’t look like it evaporated when he could wrestle again. And on a meta-level, not playing out all their lives’ major events on a reality show might help too!

As goofy as the Total franchise is and parts of this episode are, it makes it seem like the plot point of Nikki and Brie getting pregnant at the same time could actually ruin people’s real lives and relationships rather than just be a gimmicky coincidence. I think I’m excited for next week’s episode?

Bella Lines Of The Week

  • Nikki describes the dynamic of her relationship with Artem as “He’s an introvert. I’m an outro-vert.”
  • Nikki claims to have never farted in front of Artem, but Brie says she knows that’s a lie because “you called me about it.” Nikki protests, “I tooted, and I did it one time!”
  • “I just need to be the coyote, not the roadrunner,” Nikki tells Artem about their romance. She wants to be the one running into the walls with tunnels painted on them; she doesn’t want to do the painting!

John Cena Dig Of The Week

I don’t know if this will be a weekly staple of the season five, but amid her delirious happiness about her new relationship, Nikki does sneak in a put-down of Big Match John. When the Bellas go out for Russian tea with friends, Nikki and her friend Danielle, who is also dating a Russian man, agree that “Russians are better in bed than Americans.” “Very manly in the bedroom.” “They’ve got the moves.” Are we meant to infer John Cena does not have the moves? Is this a workrate vs. Five Moves of Doom situation? Brie quickly defends her husband and the men of America by interjecting that “Bryan is very manly in the bedroom.” So that’s out there now. This is important knowledge that we all have together.

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Erykah Badu Is Hosting Another Interactive Quarantine Livestream With Her Full Band

Crowned the Queen Of Neo-Soul, this year marks the 20th anniversary of Erykah Badu’s second studio release, Mama’s Gun, the 10th anniversary of her hit record New Amerykah Part Two: Return Of The Ankh, and the fifth year since she released her mixtape But You Caint Use My Phone with Andre 3000. Due to the coronavirus, a stint of European shows with Badu was canceled. So, the singer decided to bring the concert to her fans with an interactive livestream.

Badu’s inaugural livestream took place last week. Live from her bedroom using cutting-edge technology, the virtual concert used polls to allow viewers to decide which songs she would perform, the outfit she wore, and even which instruments she would play. Because her first livestream was so successful, Badu is returning with another version of the event.

Badu’s Quarantine Concert Series, Apocalypse Two: The Rooms will feature even more interactivity. According to a statement, the upcoming livestream will give “guests a chance to move from room to room inside her home, exploring and experimenting with different genres of music interpreted through her catalog of hits.” While there is an admission price to the livestream, only $2, all proceeds generated will cover the cost of production as well as financially support her backing musicians and tech crew.

Watch a clip of Badu’s quarantine concert above.

Badu’s Quarantine Concert Series, Apocalypse Two: The Rooms goes live 4/5 at 8 p.m. EST. Watch it here.

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‘Candyman’ Has Gone From A Summer Movie To An Early-Halloween Movie

As of yesterday, only four wide-release movies were scheduled to come out between the beginning of April and end of June, due to the coronavirus pandemic: Artemis Fowl, Candyman, Soul, and The King of Staten Island. As of today, that number is down to three. Universal Pictures has pushed the release date of Candyman, the Nia DaCosta-directed, Jordan Peele-produced “spiritual sequel” to the 1992 horror movie of the same name, from June 12 to September 25. At least it’ll still be in theaters for Halloween?

Other Universal titles to be shuffled around the schedule include Minions: The Rise of Gru (July 2, 2021), Sing 2 (December 22, 2021), Wicked (TBD), and Praise This, about youth choir competitions, which had the September 25 slot. It’s now undated.

Assuming Candyman — which stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Colman Domingo, Vanessa Williams, and Tony Todd — does actually come out on September 25, it will face competition from the likes of fellow horror movies A Quiet Place Part II (September 4) and The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It (September 11), as well as Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, the Sopranos prequel movie The Many Saints of Newark, and Edgar Wright’s “well-directed acid trip” Last Night in Soho, all of which also come out September 25. Stacked day.

Let’s hope it stays that way.

(Via Hollywood Reporter)

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Andrew Lloyd Webber just announced that he is airing Broadway shows for free online

If you’re a fan of the stage and lamenting the lack of theater performances for the foreseeable future, here’s some good news.

Famed Broadway musical writer Andrew Lloyd Webber shared a video announcing that Universal is launching a new YouTube channel dedicated to stage-to-screen musicals. The channel is called “The Shows Must Go On,” and it will air a different show every Friday—but just for 48 hours.


The first musical, airing April 3, will be Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, starring Donny Osmond and Joan Collins. Next week, for Good Friday April 10, the channel will air Jesus Christ Superstar. The rest of the schedule will be announced at a later time.

With theater ticket prices out of the reach of many—even when we’re not in the midst of a global pandemic—this is a great opportunity to see a stage production for free. You can find the YouTube channel here.

Thanks, Universal!

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The bus driver who called out a woman coughing on his bus two weeks ago has died of COVID-19

On March 21, Detroit bus driver Jason Hargrove shared a video on social media describing how a woman on his bus had been coughing without covering her mouth. On March 25, he fell ill. On April 2—just under two weeks after he shared his video—it was announced that Hargrove has died from COVID-19.

Yes, it is horrible and heartbreaking. It’s also vitally important for us to acknowledge stories like this.


First and foremost, this tragedy reminds us that essential workers like Hargrove are heroes in the battle against this pandemic. Many of our front line workers in the medical field rely on public transportation, as do other essential workers such as grocery store clerks and custodians. Right now, we are all relying on these folks to keep doing their jobs, even though they are quite literally risking their own health to do so. They should be commended. They should be compensated. And they should be protected as much as is humanly possible.

Hargrove’s story also reminds us how crucial it is that we all adhere to the safety guidelines for slowing the spread of this disease. Only go out to the store if it’s absolutely necessary. Behave as if you and everyone you see is already infected. We know this virus is highly contagious and far more deadly than the seasonal flu. We have to take it seriously.

“This coronavirus shit is for real,” Hargrove said in his video, “and we are here as public workers doing our job, trying to make an honest living to take care of our families. But for you to get on the bus and stand on the bus and cough several times without covering up your mouth, and you know that we in the middle of a pandemic, that lets me know that some folks don’t care…”

The video contains profanity, so view at your own discretion. But it’s worth watching and listening to what this man had to say. We do not know for sure how or when he was infected, but the timeline is on par with what we know about transmission. His job as a bus driver may literally have cost him his life because someone was thoughtless and cavelier about coughing.

“I try to be the professional that they want me to be,” said Hargrove, “and I kept my mouth closed, but at some point in time we got to draw the line and say enough is enough. That shit was uncalled for. I feel violated. I feel violated for the folks that was on the bus when this happened. It was about a good 8 or 9 people on the bus and she stood there and coughed. Never covered up her mouth.”

Unreal. It should be crystal clear to everyone by now that this virus is nothing to mess around with, and that there is a very good reason that the world has come to a screeching halt in order to stop it. Whether you feel ill or not, whether your area has had a surge in cases or not, whether you are part of the most at-risk populations or not, you need to get on board with what we’re all being asked to do.

We owe that much to Mr. Hargrove, and to all of the other essential workers who are putting their own lives on the line to keep life running for the rest of us.

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Dolphins got to meet a sloth named Chico and they were super excited about it. Who can blame them?

Like nearly every other place on the planet, the Texas State Aquarium has been closed to visitors due to the COVID-19 virus. Located in Corpus Christi, the aquarium features a wide variety of animal life including flamingos, sloths, sharks, Atlantic bottle-nosed dolphins, jellyfish, and falcons.

While the closure is unfortunate for the people who love to visit the aquarium, it’s been a lot of fun for some of the animals, namely Chico the sloth.

Chico got to take a break from being in his enclosure recently when the aquarium staff took him for a tour of the aquarium. It’s a little tough for the sloth to move about with its huge claws, so staff let him travel by branch.


“We frequently give the animals a chance to “meet” each other as a form of enrichment, which helps keep them active in body and mind,” an aquarium staffer said according to Bored Panda.

On his trip, Chico got to see seahorses, jellyfish, and a massive replica of a great white shark. But the highlight of his adventure had to be meeting four lovely dolphins, Shadow, Kai, Liko, and Schooner.

The meeting between the dolphins and the sloth is interesting because there’s probably no way this would have happened in nature.

Texas State Aquarium / Facebook

Texas State Aquarium / Facebook

Texas State Aquarium / Facebook

Texas State Aquarium / Facebook

Texas State Aquarium / Facebook

“As some of our most popular animals, it seemed an obvious choice for our sloths and dolphins to get a chance to see each other while we were temporarily closed,” a staffer said. “We have another sloth, Xena, but on that day, she was more interested in sleeping than meeting the dolphins!”

While it’s tough to tell whether Chico was excited to see the dolphins, the porpoises were sure excited to meet him. One even turned itself upside down to be like the sloth.

Texas State Aquarium / Facebook

This isn’t the first time the dolphins have had a chance to meet the other species at the aquarium.

“Our dolphins have had the opportunity to meet several other animals over the years, including baby gators, an African serval, a red-tailed boa and others. They’re almost always very curious about the other Aquarium residents,” explained the Aquarium staff.

The last place that a dolphin belongs on this planet is a tank. But the enrichment program shows that the caretakers are making the most out of a questionable situation by keeping the animals entertained and engaged — especially at a time when there aren’t many visitors to keep them busy.

“Besides making for some fin-tastic photo ops, these animal inter-species meetups are just one of the many ways we are closed but still caring during the COVID-19 situation.” Aquarium staff said.

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There’s A Virtual Festival Coming To Your Living Room This Weekend – Here’s What You Need To Know


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2020 NBA Lottery Hopeful Devin Vassell Is A Supercharged Three-And-D Prospect

Take a broad look at Devin Vassell’s game and you’re staring at a traditional 3-and-D wing, one who fits the the high-floor, low-ceiling mold. Take a more in-depth look at the Florida State forward and you have someone who can have a significantly positive impact on both ends of the court, making him a top-10 prospect on my board.

As a sophomore, Vassell was one of the country’s best wings, ranking 16th nationwide in BPM (9.7) and helping lead the Seminoles to a 26-5 record and ACC regular-season crown. He averaged 12.7 points on 58.5 percent true shooting (.490/.415/.738 split), 5.1 rebounds, 1.6 assists, 1.4 steals, and a block per game. His most alluring broad skill is his team defense, which consistently popped on film and is underscored by his stock production.

Vassell constantly coordinates switches, quarterbacks defensive movements and identifies offensive actions. Operating with his head on a swivel, he can deny his man the ball while still readying himself for help responsibilities. By denying off the ball, he extends the offense farther from the basket and slows possessions from opponents, eliminating their margin for error and ability to soundly run their primary action.

Playing around the nail (elbow extend from the free-throw line), Vassell relies on high-level instincts, his ability to diagnose plays, and strong, swift hands to excel at stunting against drives, sparking steals, deflections, or loose balls. Deterrence is a valuable skill for defenders — the act of preventing the offense from reaching its preferred spots — and he is particularly adept at that. He’ll shut down penetration, envelop primary initiators off the ball, and generally forces teams to resort to plan B.

There has been no official ruling on his wingspan (roughly 6’10) but Vassell’s length is impressively functional. He cuts off passing outlets, frequents the passing lanes, provides secondary rim protection thanks to his springy two-foot leaping, and wreaks havoc in a way most draft prospects do not. His penchant for creating distinct plays gives him NBA-ready skills as an impactful disruptor on both the perimeter and interior.

While his 6’7, 195-pound frame means he’s hardly the strongest prospect in this draft, Vassell leverages a low center of gravity to dislodge big men from the post. His feisty hands and length often prohibit entry passes from being executed on switches. This is a skill with nuanced utility, but it’s another example of him maximizing his IQ and physical tools to stamp his mark on the game.

As an on-ball defender, his lack of strength and lateral burst breed for inconsistent results. Instead of sliding in a stance, he tends to cross his feet and remain upright when moving laterally, leaving him susceptible to being burned by shifty guards and drivers. Other times, his length flusters ball-handlers or enables him to alter shots from an array of zones on the floor.

But off-ball defense is more valuable than on-ball defense because it allows you to affect collective plays rather than individual players. This is where Vassell shines. So, while I don’t project him to be anything more than an average on-ball stopper, I deem his other defensive strengths far more important. He’ll regularly influence plays at the rim, throwing a wrench into offensive sets and inducing turnovers on the exterior.

Assuming a more diverse offensive role in his second year, Vassell’s three-point rate declined from .521 to .361. I’m confident he can return to the former clip in the NBA with less creation responsibilities, but it’s necessary to note he only attempted 119 field goals as a freshman, so emerging as a high-volume shooter will require some growth and adjustment. Working against Vassell is his career 72 percent mark at the free throw line, suggesting he may not be a legitimate 42 percent long-range as he was at Florida State. If he hovers closer to 37 or 38 percent and is unable to rediscover a three-point rate above .500 — opting for lower-value propositions instead — some of his offensive upside is diminished, because defenses won’t concern themselves as prominently with his outside shooting threat.

Regardless, Vassell projects as a versatile shooter after converting 41.7 percent of his triples in two collegiate seasons. As an ancillary player, his intelligence proves resourceful. He’s sharp to relocate off the ball, both as a cutter and as someone who properly fills the lanes on the break, which opens passing windows. While it didn’t occur in spades, he flashed off-movement shooting, further expanding his scoring potential. As a floor-spacer who’s comfortable shooting against closeouts or tight contests, Vassell recognizes when to move into open spots to make passes easier and can fire away on the move or potentially off screens.

But what really drives Vassell’s allure as a scorer is his off-the-dribble shooting (68th percentile, 81 attempts this season). He’s able to fire away over the top of defenders and flashes tough shot-making prowess with thanks to his high release point. He shot 42.6 percent (49-for-115) on two-point jumpers this year — a relatively strong mark — and only 22.4 percent of those were assisted.

Whether it’s running a pick-and-roll and drilling a jumper in space, attacking closeouts and converting off the bounce, or generating separation for open looks, Vassell sports aptitude as a pull-up shooter, which appears translatable to the next level.

The important observation to recognize here is Vassell’s release point, helping alleviate some of the creation roadblocks stemming from his subpar burst. Defenders struggle to alter or deter his jumper because of the release point and it gives him on-ball equity. Jayson Tatum also boasts a similarly high release point off the bounce and it’s why he was one of the NBA’s best pull-up three-point bombers this season. That distinction, compared to other players with similar handle, strength and burst problems to Vassell, is necessary and helps set him apart. Even more, Vassell enjoys adept balance and body control as a shooter. He can knock down shots from funky angles or release points because he’s generally aligned from head to toe, punctuated by precise footwork.

As a result of these various components, Vassell owns some malleable shot diversity. You can deploy him off pindowns, floppy actions, flare screens, the occasional pick-and-roll, or merely station him on the wing, giving him the chance to drill catch-and-shoot threes or capitalize upon irresponsible closeouts. His balance, footwork, and release point ensure he’ll deliver a healthy return on investment.

Vassell’s lack of burst is troubling as it pertains to his dribble-drive forays and ability to get to the free throw line. Only 16.5 percent of his shots in the half-court occurred at the rim and he finished in the 48th percentile in efficiency (21-for-38, 55.2 percent). He yielded a free-throw rate of .221 this year and registered 65 total foul shots. There’s certainly some ball-handling potential, but an inefficacy to apply pressure at the basket or populate the charity stripe caps his self-creation ceiling.

Another reason for optimism regarding Vassell’s on-ball faculty is the playmaking he’s flashed at times this season. He must improve his ability to hit the roll man consistently and isn’t a particularly dynamic facilitator, but he’s not necessarily plagued by tunnel vision.

Draw up pick-and-rolls for him and his blend of passing foundation and live-dribble shooting will manifest; his pull-up gravity also simplifies reads at times, particularly in pick-and-pops, and he’s has shown he can feed the big in those situations. A 19-year-old prospect whose primary attractions reside as a shooter and defender executing passes like these is merely an added bonus and emphasizes his offensive possibilities.

There were few prospects more enjoyable to watch this season than Vassell. His wide-ranging talents as a team defender who understands how to pester opponents in various off-ball duties and ignite turnovers are a bankable skill in the Association. He’s going to prompt people to hesitate when driving toward whichever wing he’s inhabiting. He’s going to alter shots around the basket as a helper. He’s going to instruct teammates how to make necessary rotations, identify certain sets the offense is running and sniff them out. He’ll deny his man the ball and remain prepared to fulfill help tasks. All of these traits fall under one overarching umbrella: limiting the number of opportunities players have to score at the rim, the most efficient shots in basketball.

Offensively, he looks poised to assume both an on- and off-ball scoring role, founded upon his high release point, balance, and wherewithal to fill open spaces on the court. He can handle pick-and-rolls from time to time, run off screens, and blend in as a natural floor-spacer who knows how to ease the burden on his primary initiators. Simply put, a player who can be molded to meet the needs of whichever team selects him, blossoms in highly resourceful areas, and does not infringe upon the core pieces already in place while also presenting some on-ball upside is someone who should be drafted in the top-10.