The Ringer - This Is the 2020-21 NBA in Tiers

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In the December 8 newsletter:
A look at the NBA preseason, a visit from Bachelorette Tayshia Adams, and a musing on Steve Kornacki.

The NBA in Tiers: 2020-21 Preseason Edition

Getty Images/Ringer illustration

A lot has happened since the Lakers won the title nearly two months ago. So just like last year, we asked our NBA staff to sort all 30 franchises into one of seven tiers based on the outlook heading into preseason: Favorites, Contenders, Playoff Locks, On the Playoff Bubble, Wish They Were on the Playoff Bubble, Bad but Not Hopeless, and This Is Bleak. Without further ado, here is the NBA in Tiers.

[Our staff sorted all 30 into seven tiers to map out the league hierarchy heading into training camps.]

Steve Kornacki, National Treasure, Is Game for the NFL Playoffs

NBC/Getty Images/Ringer illustration

It’s been a weird few weeks in the midst of a weird year, and that was before Raiders-Jets kicked off. But if you tuned in at 7 p.m. ET to the Football Night in America pregame show on Sunday, NBC offered an oasis of sanity in the form of elections analyst/expert map-pointer-ater Steve Kornacki, who brought his Big Board and his Kornkhakis to the program to break down the NFL playoff picture.

If you are not familiar with Kornacki, the first thing you need to know is that he is spectacular and must be protected at all costs. Kornacki is a national political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC who guided many a frazzled viewer through sleepless nights in early November by playing a touch-screen display of election results like a Stradivarius while chugging Diet Coke and becoming a viral sensation.

[Join Nora Princiotti as she takes a look at election breakout star Steve Kornacki's analysis of the NFL Playoffs.]

Bolt Line Break

Peacock’s Saved by the Bell Paves a New Path for Reboots

NBC/Ringer illustration

A pop culture landscape oversaturated by adaptations of old IP can start to feel depressing. Enter Zack Morris.

[Read Alison Herman on the Saved by the Bell reboot and the state of the genre.]

Bolt Line Break

Tayshia Adams on Her Racial Identity and Her Bachelorette Experience | Higher Learning

Van Lathan and Rachel Lindsay are joined by current Bachelorette Tayshia Adams to discuss her racial identity and her experience on The Bachelorette.
Bolt Line Break

The Young Celtics Are About to Spread Their Long Wings

Getty Images/Ringer illustration

With Gordon Hayward gone and Kemba Walker injured, Boston’s youth movement no longer has to wait. That’s a good thing, because Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and Marcus Smart might be the best perimeter trio in the league.

[Jonathan Tjarks takes stock of Boston's roster shakeup that now relies heavily on younger players.]

Bolt Line Break

43 Pressing Questions About A Recipe for Seduction, Lifetime’s KFC Movie

Lifetime/Getty Images/Ringer illustration

Every once in a while, a movie trailer is released that alters Hollywood’s status quo; that leaves you both wanting more and questioning everything. How will art continue after this? Did art even really exist before this? Was I ever truly alive? The Social Network’s trailer; the Uncut Gems trailer; the first trailer for The Force Awakens; the trailer for A Recipe for Seduction, the Lifetime “mini-movie” presented by Kentucky Fried Chicken.

What’s that? Oh, you haven’t heard?

Well, allow me the great honor of introducing you to A Recipe for Seduction, the Lifetime “mini-movie” presented by Kentucky Fried Chicken.

[Join Andrew Gruttadaro as he does God's work by asking 43 questions about the upcoming KFC-Lifetime movie, A Recipe for Seduction.]
“Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double-beatloaf. I hate meatloaf.”
—Randy, A Christmas Story
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