The Outlet Pass

Baby Luka is hitting the portal and looking for a new home Will be interesting to see where the stud ends up HIGH level talent

The idea of the draft is to give the worst teams talent to get better. 1. That's not what's happening. the Jazz aren't low on talent. The Wizards have more than they've shown. 2. SO MANY teams get good draft slots and suck anyway because their *organizational structure* is a disaster. You cannot fix a rotten multi-billion-dollar function with an 18-year-old. That's a bandaid on a bullet wound. 3. I am personally very done with forgiving organizational incompetence behind the idea that they got the 4th best 18-year-old instead of the 2nd

The NBA presented three comprehensive anti-tanking concepts to its Board of Governors on Wednesday, with modifications expected to each before a formal vote in May, per ESPN sources. 1. 18 teams in draft lottery (seeds 7-15 in each conference) – flattened odds, with bottom 10 teams having an 8% chance, the remaining 20% odds distributed in decreasing order for 11 through 18, and and a lottery drawing for all 18 picks. 2) 22 teams in lottery using 2-year record (seeds 7-15, plus the four playoff first round exits in both conferences). Lottery teams would reach a minimum win total floor in each season, such as 25 wins. If a team falls short of the floor, it gets slotted to meet the floor. Top 4 drawn as part of lottery, as is currently. 3) 18 teams in a "5 by 5" lottery – bottom 5 teams have equal odds for the top pick, with lottery formed for picks 1-5. Bottom 5 teams have a floor at 10; those that fall out of top 5 get sorted in a separate drawing.

More good news out of College Park. Source says Andre Mills is returning in 2026-27. The top scoring freshman in America after Feb 1, Mills averaged 19.3 PPG the final 11 games, including 39 and 30 pt outbursts. A budding star and huge foundational piece for the Maryland program.

Adam Silver said it was "unanimous" among owners at the NBA board of governors meeting that the league needs to change tanking rules and do it before the draft this June. There will be a special BOG session in May to deal with that. Silver: "We are going to fix it. Full stop."

Hot take: Most sports journalists get worse at analysis when they stop writing and go full podcast/video mode. And it makes sense why. Writing forces you to slow down and organize your thoughts. Writing is where you pressure-test your ideas. Podcasts let you just… say stuff.

Bucks GM Jon Horst sold Thomas as a key part of the team's contention ability this season and the future after the team signed him post-trade deadline, while Doc Rivers compared Thomas to Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford after just two games. Now he's waived.