Jeff Howe

The Wizards are picking in the No. 6 spot tonight.

Utah has the No. 5 overall pick tonight.

Or how high the heat gets turned up on Brent Venables' seat.

He did.

No, and that has a lot to do with the roster size dropping from 40 to 34 following the House settlement.

The Mavericks and the Spurs are making picks that could change the course of their franchises. The Rockets are making headlines by trading for Kevin Durant. Tre Johnson will go in the lottery. It should be a special night for professional basketball in the state of Texas. The draft starts at 7 p.m. on ABC and ESPN. FIRST ROUND PICKS TO FOLLOW 1. MAVERICKS — Cooper Flagg, F, Duke 2. SPURS — Dylan Harper, G, Rutgers 6. WIZARDS — TRE JOHNSON, G, TEXAS 10. ROCKETS (will be sent to the Suns in the Durant trade) 14. SPURS — Carter Bryant, W, Arizona

Honorable mentions today go to Brett Valdez and Sedrick Flowers.

If it’s not Blake this morning, it’ll be me on the livestream tonight.

Word is Texas wanted Chamberlain to stay.

Here's a link for those folks who want to bookmark the graphic on the Twitter machine:

Texas catcher/infielder Cole Chamberlain has entered the transfer portal, OTF has learned. Chamberlain's profile has already been removed from the program's online roster. Zachary Symm of Orangebloods first reported the departure of Chamberlain, who played in 22 games as a freshman for the Longhorns. Chamberlain went 5-for-37 with two doubles, nine RBI, 15 walks and 15 strikeouts. With Chamberlain's departure, here's the updated list of outgoing transfers from the 2025 squad: C Oliver Service C/INF Cole Chamberlain INF Carson Luna INF/OF Sam Richardson INF Jaquae Stewart OF Tommy Farmer IV OF Will Gasparino OF Donovan Jordan OF Matt Scott LHP Chance Covert II LHP Ace Whitehead RHP Easton Tumis The following is the updated list of incoming transfers Jim Schlossnagle and the Longhorns have added through the transfer portal: C Carson Tinney (Notre Dame) INF Temo Becarra (Stanford) INF Josh Livingston (Wichita State) UTIL Kaleb Freeman (Georgia State) OF Jack Moroknek (Butler) OF Aidan Robbins (Seton Hall) LHP Luke Dotson (Mississippi State) LHP Cal Higgins (Western Kentucky)

No offense taken, and I enjoy the dirty water in Galveston, FWIW.

I'm an Astros fan and I don't live in DFW, so I've got no dog in the Dallas-versus-Houston fight.

It's an impressive list of young assets they've gathered. I wish the Mavericks would take note and follow suit.

They've recruited two from the portal. Max Weiner likes what he's got with the young arms from last year's recruiting class. There are high hopes for Flores and Rerick, specifically.

If I were a Rockets fan, I'd be satisfied that they got the deal done without giving up Sengun or Thompson.

Like I said, I could be wrong. I'll admit the Ray Allen comment was just a bad take. But I'm tempering expectations on what Houston can get out of KD at his age and with his injury history.

Steve Sarkisian’s Texas organization is prioritizing three areas when recruiting high school prospects and devoting resources for talent acquisition: quarterbacks, top-notch linemen who can protect the quarterback and blue-chip defenders who can disrupt opposing quarterbacks. The approach was driven home on a weekend when Dia Bell (Plantation, Fla./American Heritage) was named MVP of the 2025 Elite 11 competition. The Longhorns added another body to what could evolve into a historic defensive line haul, reeling in Vodney Cleveland (Birmingham, Ala./Parker) while maintaining the lead in the race for Kendall Guervil (Fort Myers, Fla.). Richard Wesley’s (Chatsworth, Calif./Sierra Canyon) surprise commitment was arguably a bigger recruiting boon than if Texas had landed Dre Quinn (Atlanta, Ga./Buford) last Thursday. The Longhorns are one of three teams left standing for Trenton Henderson (Pensacola, Fla./Catholic) and remain in the running for Temple’s Jamarion Carlton. Texas also got the last in-person word with North Crowley offensive tackle John Turntine III ahead of his July 4 decision. Melissa’s Max Wright and Klein’s Nicholas Robertson were on campus with Turntine, who, along with Mansfield Lake Ridge’s Felix Ojo and Malakai Lee (Honolulu, Hawaii/Kamehameha), is one of three elite offensive tackles Kyle Flood is aggressively pursuing. It’s fun to listen to Sarkisian, Flood and other coaches on the staff tout the program’s desire to recruit “big humans.” The trope, however, is a way of life. Sarkisian, general manager Brandon Harris, director of player personnel JM Jones and the rest of the organization’s approach to roster building in college football has the staying power needed to keep Texas in the national championship hunt for the foreseeable future. While the Longhorns won’t win every battle for coveted players who line up closest to the football, they’re winning enough of them to keep accelerating the program’s growth from Sarkisian’s forgettable 5-7 debut to producing an FBS-leading 23 NFL draft picks from clubs that won a combined 25 games and reached the College Football Playoff semifinals over the last two seasons. Of those 23 draft choices, 10 of them manned one of the Sarkisian regime’s foundational positions: one quarterback (Quinn Ewers); one EDGE (Barryn Sorrell); four offensive linemen (Kelvin Banks Jr., Hayden Conner, Christian Jones and Cameron Williams); and four interior defensive linemen (Vernon Broughton, Alfred Collins, Byron Murphy II and T’Vondre Sweat). Bell is next in line behind Trey Owens and KJ Lacey to succeed Arch Manning. The offensive line has avoided heavy attrition under Flood and has benefited from evaluation wins with undervalued recruits, particularly what can be gleaned from Trevor Goosby's snaps last season and the early returns on guys like Nick Brooks and Nate Kibble. Now, it's time for Kenny Baker and LaAllen Clark to set up their respective rooms for bright futures. Texas is rightfully taking advantage of a 2026 cycle chock-full of difference-making defensive linemen, building the kind of roster that won't need five tackles from the portal to avoid massive gaps in the talent pipeline. Missing out on Carthage's KJ Edwards was a significant loss, especially considering how much Sarkisian values well-rounded running backs in his offense. The battles for Jalen Lott and Kaydon Finley could end with Texas losing to out-of-state competition (Oregon or USC for Lott and Notre Dame for Finley), which wouldn't be ideal scenarios for recruits with strong family ties to the Forty Acres. Still, since NIL resources aren’t limitless, the Longhorns would rather do what it takes to win line-of-scrimmage recruitments and, if necessary, snag as-needed skill talent from the transfer portal. It's more feasible to go into the portal and come out with Matthew Golden or Adonai Mitchell as opposed to using the significant capital it would take to secure a player capable of immediately impacting the trenches, assuming those types of players are available. There’s no wrong way to build a winning program. Nevertheless, it’s hard to argue against Sarkisian’s plan to keep Texas in the top tier of annual contenders to win the SEC and the CFP. View full news story

I think it’s Sengun, followed by Thompson. I just don’t think asking 37-year-old Kevin Durant to play more than 35 minutes per game is good for him or the Rockets. I could be wrong, but managing Durant’s minutes so that he’s got gas in the tank for high-leverage possessions in the playoffs is far more important than letting him continue to be what he’s been (36.5 MPG and 26.6 PPG last season in 62 games) and hoping he holds up.

That's fair. I'm far more concerned with Texas having a competent glove at shortstop than I am with recruiting a bat to play there.