6 road games, 5 key Rockets players, 4 New NBA Deals, 3 AL Manager of The Year, 2 Shows Left & 1 upest Giannis

Wex and Cole discuss the Astros roadtrip, the newbies for the Rockets, AL standings, more news surrounding Giannis' future with the Bucks and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
My Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nolan Multipi. The magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports.
Chill lage down for the only home grown afternoon team
is talking your teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are

(00:33):
the A Team.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
A Tuesday Afternoon on the A Team, wex cool here
with you. A c v K continues plenty for us
to discuss on a nearly second full day, because I
feel like yesterday was a full day of NBA free

(00:56):
agent agreements because there was another bombshell coming today. Last night,
maybe people were looking around and saying, they're not a
whole lot of star power moves being made. Yeah, Jared
Jackson junior re upping, You had a few other players
re upping, much like what happened here in Houston with
Fred Van Vliet reupping. You already knew what was going

(01:17):
on with Kevin Durant certainly would rate out as a
top flight talent, the next guy in line and answering
the question about where he might be going, what he
might be thinking, and how that impacts the rest of
the league.

Speaker 4 (01:29):
I bet a lot of people thought.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
We had their answer to that question earlier today, and
I'll tell you why in a minute. Astros and Rockies
will begin their three game series tonight right here on
Sports Talk seven to ninety coverage beginning at seven thirty
for their just prior to nine pm first pitch tonight,
Colton Gordon would be back on the bump for the
Stros on a Brown will go tomorrow. Astros will send

(01:51):
Brandon Walter to the mound during the July third afternoon
getaway Day game on their way to Los Angeles over
the weekend for the July fourth holiday. In the Astros
sit at fifty and thirty four, Tigers have fifty plus,
Dodgers have fifty plus, and that is it in Major
League Baseball. Cubs, Yankees, Rays not too far behind, but

(02:13):
the Astros continue to set the pace in their division.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
What is new?

Speaker 3 (02:19):
No news for the Rockets today, but there was news
from the Rockets yesterday following our program. During the show,
we were able to tell you they'd reach an agreement
with Dorian Finney Smith to the two of four years,
fifty three million dollars. In that neighborhood of what the
mL is worth, a little bit less than that is
what it looks like it will be for DFS to

(02:40):
join the Houston Rockets and then he's coming back. Definitely
was unexpected and not sure what their exact plan is
at the moment, but Clint Capella on a three year,
twenty one million dollar deal to rejoin the Rockets, the
team he began his career with. I was there when
he began his Rockets career. Surprisingly in law Vegas didn't

(03:01):
even expect him to be drafted and he was late
in the first round. Didn't expect him to be coming
over to the NBA that season, but he did and
wanted to and told the team as much. So there
I was covering Vegas Summer League with my good friend
Kevin McHale and the rest of the Rockets. James Harden
was there, not playing in the games, but there it's Vegas.
Of course he was there, and incomes Clint Cappella sneakers

(03:26):
T shirt shorts, first meeting with some of the people
that run the Rockets, and then not long after he
began his six year career with the Houston Rockets, last
five years with the Atlanta Hawks, and now back to
Houston on a three year deal. Probably a little bit
more to this than just a straight up signing, and

(03:47):
that's where it looked like, at least the Rockets additions
would probably center around you've added three players, You've sent
out two players. There could be some other minor changes.
Obviously Jack Landell's it's been in the forefront of conversations
considered hearing is guaranteed eight million dollars is not yet
guaranteed for the upcoming season, but certainly could utilize that
in some form or fashion. And the continued thoughts and

(04:11):
reported thoughts of those inside the organization that they're looking
for a home for Cam Whitmore as in not with
the Rockets. We'll see if that ultimately develops. I can
understand the math of it all a numbers game. There's
only so many minutes. You traded two starters. You've added

(04:32):
two clearly high caliber players, one of whom will definitely
start Kevin Durant, and probably one of whom will come
off the bench slide Jabari Smith Junior into the starting
lineup presumably, so maybe the same number of minutes are
available to read Shepherd and Cam Whitmore consider everybody else's back.
Essentially that was trying to earn minutes or was at
the back end of the Rocket's rotation. Again, as we

(04:53):
sit here today, it's a fully healthy team. So things
can certainly change over the course of a season, and
things can certainly change as this infancy stages to free
agency begins. But this morning, when news broke that Damian Lillard,
who was not expected to play this season unless he
extremely rapidly recovered from his achilles injury suffered in the

(05:16):
opening round of the playoffs, he's not going to play
for the Milwaukee Bucks period, because they waived him. They
did have at their disposal the stretch provision. And in
the NBA we don't talk about it nearly as much
as we do in the NFL. We talk about it
NonStop in the NFL. Oh, if they trade him, What
if t J. Wackett's traded and then the new team

(05:36):
signs him, he was due this amount of money. Well,
how much dead cap space does that cost? What about
when we move Kirk Cousins, how much dead cap space
is that? Well, the Milwaukee Bucks said yes to dead
cap space in the NBA for next year and the
year after, and the year after and the year after
and the year after, to the tune of about twenty
two million dollars rather than the one hundred and thirteen

(05:59):
million he was due had he stayed on the roster.
Wasn't again expected to be healthy enough to play, and
if so, it still would have come very very late
in the year, with a rapid recovery and maybe pushing
it to the lengths that this particular player would not
want to do. And I could say that for anybody.
It's not to pointing it Dame, it's pointing to any
player at that stage. I'm sure he wants to win,

(06:19):
and I'm sure he wants to get out there and
help his team. I'm doubting that for a second, but
at his own health always a question. You just saw
what happened to Tyrese Haliburton as his calf strain turned
into an Achilles rupture. So Damian Lillard is interestingly enough,
moved away from the Bucks, and they did it so
they could come to an agreement with Miles Turner to

(06:41):
the two to four years, one hundred and seven million dollars.
So I would imagine most of you are like me
when that news broke and said, okay, here's our answer, Hey, Giannis,
this is what we're thinking about doing. We don't want
to cast aside one of your prime seasons. There aren't
that many remaining. Probably wouldn't tell it to him that way,

(07:01):
but we want to try and win this year, and
with Dame eating up all that money this year, he's
eating up more money on their cap this year if
they don't do anything, but he's not eating up any
money on their cap in the future when his contract
runs out. They chose this path, and then so you're
talking to Giannis, You're telling them we're making this decision,
we're gonna do this, and you know, we're gonna use
that opportunity to go get Miles Turner, and we're going

(07:22):
to resign Kevin Porter Junior, and we're gonna re sign
Gary Trent Junior, and we're gonna move on from Pat
Connton and we've already come to an agreement with Bobby Portis.
So you're in right, Well, yes, that's what I thought.
I thought this was something that would only only be
done because this is a way to keep Jannis on

(07:46):
a dakumpo. But two other reports of surface since one
is rather obvious. Damian Lillard is elated over this move
made by the Milwaukee Bucks He's not getting shortchanged any dollar.
He gets the same amount of money he's already getting.
He is now going to become a free agent when
he clears waivers, which means he'll get to decide along

(08:08):
with the other team offering him a contract where he
wants to play, and considering he's making all that money
off of the contract he was already under, absolutely could
sign for veterans minimum or whatever makes the most sense
for him and his new team. We've seen a few
players the last handful of years signed multi year deals
on the front side of I'm not available due to injury.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
Kevin Durant is such a player.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
His first year in Brooklyn he didn't score any points
because he was hurt and it was the beginning of
his long term contract there. And Damian Lillard now in
a position to do the very same thing. He was
obviously traded from Portland, where he did his best to
stay loyal and try to win there, and when ultimately
he knew it wasn't going to happen, still was capable,
he thought, and the Bucks thought of winning big. Off

(08:53):
to Milwaukee he went. Did not ever get out of
the first round. They went from a defensive minded championship
team to a gun slinging. We don't really care about
defense except for Gianni's team, and it didn't work out,
and now they're going in a different direction. But the
other report is from Chris Haynes Jansno de Coupo not
happy with the decision to waive Damian Lillard that I

(09:17):
did not expect.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Now.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
Lillard was not under a long term deal. He was
being paid handsomely for another season. But you certainly have
to question whether or not he was going to get
another long term extension with this team because I don't
know what he could prove in this upcoming season about
his health. Maybe nothing, maybe zero games played, maybe zero
minutes played, and maybe no postseason.

Speaker 4 (09:37):
Although the East.

Speaker 3 (09:38):
Is just unbelievably weak right now, anybody thinks they can win,
and that's why I thought Milwaukee did what they did.
Not only did they likely at least stay where they
were prior to this deal. I'm not gonna tell you
that Miles Turner makes them a lot better than brook Lopez.
Brook Lopez is going to LA to play for the Clippers,

(10:00):
but I do think he gives them a little bit
different look. Definitely a good defensive player, definitely a good rebounder,
definitely a stretch five, but he also makes Indiana worse
because he's not there anymore. Indiana's two of their best
three players, Miles Turner, Tyrese Haliburton along with Bascal Siakam,
Well two of them aren't playing there next year. They

(10:22):
just went to Game seven in the NBA Finals and
two of their top three players aren't going to be back,
one forever and one until he is healthy. Yeah, anybody
should think they can win the East. These achilles injuries, well,
they impact a lot more than the player whose achilles
ruptured Lillard in Milwaukee, Halliburton in Indiana, and Jason Tatum

(10:47):
and Boston. As the Celtics continue to decide how many
other pieces are we going to send out of here,
Al Horford certainly could be one that is not retained,
along with Chris Stapsporzingis and other players Drew Holliday that
they've sent out, So maybe not the biggest most obvious
franchise caliber changing names are changing addresses. But there was

(11:10):
a lot of activity since we last spoke last night
at six o'clock, so we'll kind of recap the other
moves that were made including what is next for the
Houston Rockets, which should be next? And if elation is
that same vibe shoot you should be holding for the Rockets,
or should you look at what they've done with at
least a little bit of pause? Well pause here for
our first break, because that's exactly what I think you

(11:31):
should do with your Houston Rockets. Take a step back,
pause and really think about what this team has done.
We'll hear from Joe Aspata in a little over an hour,
maybe's weekly visit to Sports Talk seven to ninety in
advance of their game against the Rockies and series against
the Rockies beginning tonight. We'll do that at three thirty.
Signature segment comes up at four thirty. That, of course

(11:51):
is say what five o'clock hour? As per usual here
on the A Team, we've got tickets to give away
for you go see some Big Three and the Psychedelic
First separately.

Speaker 4 (12:01):
All that on the way here on the A.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Team, the AE on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
Big doings all across the sports landscape, including the NBA
that really was no break. The NBA postseason span from
mid April all the way to June, mid to late June,
with a seven game NBA Finals series, immediately into the
NBA Drafts, which of course now is two days, and

(12:34):
then immediately after that into yesterday's opening up a free agency.
You obviously saw several deals or agreements be made even
advance of that internally, with teams locking up some of
their own players and settling in on deadline dates and
extension talks. Obviously, the Rockets have been among the busiest
teams in the league. Denver now not far behind with

(12:54):
some of the moves they've made, and again, it's pretty
interesting to see what everybody else is doing to try
to catch the Oklahoma City Thunder. There's a pretty big
gap there, certainly was record wise, and there was only
one Western Conference team that truly pushed them in the postseason.

Speaker 4 (13:10):
That was Denver.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Denver extended that series all the way out to seven games.
They manhandled the Memphis Grizzlies, and they handled the Minnesota
Timberwolves fairly easily.

Speaker 4 (13:21):
The Timberwolves have some decisions to make, and.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
I don't know if they were caught off guard by
it or they were okay, kind of like the Rockets
with the Durant situation. If you remember, I described the
Kevin Durant situation as it relates to Houston this way,
If they get him, great, they're definitely not desperate to
have him and certainly shouldn't pay King's ransom but rather
pay for it on their terms. Or they just move

(13:48):
forward and look at other options, much less costly options
in terms of assets and obviously salary, or move forward
simply with no other significant moves. Maybe you out a piece,
you move along with this piece. Take the team that
won fifty two games, that previously won forty one games,
that previously won twenty two games, and say, yeah, we're

(14:08):
making progress, and the individuals that helped get us to
this point, well, they're going to help get us to
the next point, whether that's a fifty five win team
and in one series victory, two series victories, whatever the
case may be. Essentially, Kevin Durant no lose situation for
Houston unless they gave up too much for him, which
I don't believe they did. I think Minnesota is in
a similar position. They've already been to the Eastern or

(14:29):
Western Conference finals in back to back seasons. How imperative
was it for them to quote unquote fix things by
going to get Kevin Durant, nothing wrong with investigating it,
nothing wrong with putting together the package for him, and
based on what it was reported to be, I don't
think it would have been overpay at all. I think
the Rockets package of younger, helpful assets and players made

(14:53):
more sense, but I don't think it was necessarily better
or worse. It's just what I would have chosen if
I were Phoenix. And quite honestly, I don't know if
you'd say they did, because I don't think the Minnesota
Timberwolves package ever, truly was fully pushed to the table.
They had all their chips on the table, they were
still looking at their cards. But then when they looked
across the table at the dealer, the person somewhat in

(15:14):
control of things, Kevin Durant, he said, don't put your
chips all the way in. It's to waste the time.
I'm not coming there. And so basically the question was
answered for them, and so they just decided to do
what it looks like the Rockets because they got Durant
didn't decide to do. They've re signed to about one
hundred million dollars over three years. Julius Randall. They've given
nas reed twenty five million over five years, just a

(15:37):
touch more than Jabari Smith Junior is set to get
over the five seasons, although they'll kicking at different times.
And essentially the group that came up just a little
bit short back to back years two not super competitive
appearances in the conference finals, but in the conference finals nonetheless, well,
they're essentially likely to run it back for the most part.

(16:00):
But take it back againto yesterday's show, and we began
with the discussion about which of these three players that
clearly reportedly the Rockets are targeting as free agent discussions
open up yesterday at five o'clock. We had Dorian Finney Smith,
we had Nikila and Alexander Walker, and we had Luke
Cannard on that list or none of the above, and

(16:22):
walking through it, there's some instances where I would have
preferred Nikhil Alexander Walker if the money was the same,
maybe if the years were less. A younger player capable
I think defensively from a perimeter standpoint, a little bit
less capable from a physical standpoints, just not quite as

(16:42):
big and strong as Dorian Finney Smith, but a younger,
more athletic player definitely much better on the break and
just on the wing in general, in my opinion, far
less consistent of a shooter and probably a slightly poorer
shooter than Dorian Finney Smith, but negligible. Couldn't help but
notice it over the course of the postseason because it

(17:02):
was so out there. You know, Walker would go out
and post a you know, three for five and a
five for nine from deep and then he'd bookend it
with zero for five and one for eight. And I
know that happens to plenty of players that aren't the elite.
That's why they aren't the elite, but it just struck
me as I wonder, which is preferential to the Rockets,
And they made it.

Speaker 4 (17:21):
Pretty easy to figure that one out.

Speaker 3 (17:23):
They targeted a player, they signed the player, and they
moved on to the next player. And that's why Dorian
Finney Smith is here, and it's why to kill Alexander
Walker is one piece that the Wolves will now be without.
He's agreed to terms on a slightly more lucrative deal
to join the Atlanta Hawks. Somehow, the Atlanta Hawks have
become the Wow, They're they're really cooking, like the Eastern

(17:45):
Conference version of the Rockets with the moves that they've
been able to make and how much better they certainly
could be. Well, the Rockets don't have very far to
climb the ladder. They're on one of the top rungs already,
probably one of the three most likely teams. If someone
knocks off OKC, they would be one of the three
at the top of the list. Atlanta has nothing to lose.
They weren't going anywhere. They have a long way to go,

(18:06):
but they have a lot more teams they can jump over.
They obviously are going to have Kristaps Porzingis when he's healthy.
He's on their team. They do have some young talent,
last year's number one overall pick who played a lot
better than people think because they're still remembering Summer League
when he was awful and the beginning of his career
when he also wasn't very good. But for some reason
forgetting the back half of his season where he was

(18:27):
actually a very, very very good player, and no reason
to think he doesn't also continue to move in the
right direction. That's for them to figure out. One thing
of great note with the Rockets, one reason why I
would give it some pause if you looked at the
roster last year's Rockets team, and if you looked at
the way they played, it was pretty easy to tell
one thing.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
They are young.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
They like to push the ball when given the opportunity
they want to play. They should want to play at
a pace befitting the youth that they have in the
athleticism that this young core of Rockets with some of
their veteran players want to play at.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
Now.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
They only made two changes, and Dylan Brooks is obviously
not part of that young cor so losing him might
not make you believe you've made a tremendous shift. But
they are a lot older in their rotation than they
were before the deals that were made. And I'm not
even including Clint Capel, who's obviously in his thirties. I'm
not sure what his role will be here. I don't

(19:24):
think he's going to take take minutes away from Alfred
and Shangun. And the only minutes he's taking away from
Steven Adams are the ones that he's been gifted because
Adams isn't going to play that night, or he's gotten
into foul trouble, or he's just simply resting, or somebody's hurt.
I'm not sure what else would be there for him.
But just looking at Durant and Dorian Finney Smith, you
added two thirty year olds, one just closer to thirty

(19:46):
than forty, the other closer to forty than thirty. That
does change things a little bit. And I can't help
but again point out while Oklahoma City is clearly talented
and clearly has made a lot of very good moves,
they got a little bit older when they added Isaiah
Hertenstein and Alex care So to their rotation. But they're
basically the youngest team in the NBA, and the Rockets
weren't too far behind, especially when you're only looking at

(20:07):
players that are involved in the rotation. That did change dramatically.
Does it equal more injuries, Does it equal playing more
carefully with these players over the course of the season
remains to be seen. I think it's pretty obvious it does.
With Kevin Durant, just in that you're going to do
everything you think is reasonably necessary to ensure that at
least when your first playoff game tips off, he's as

(20:28):
close to one hundred percent of as possible. You never
know what's going to happen beyond that, and you're not
going to sit him during the playoffs when he's healthy.
You could sit him during the regular season when healthy,
and Dorian Finney Smith is probably not needing days off
or doesn't play on back to backs or anything like that.
But clearly it's a little bit different with the makeup
of this team. You hope you don't have any issues
with Tarry Easton, You hope you don't have a month

(20:49):
and change missed with a broken finger from Jabari Smith Junior.
They had tremendous depth and as of this moment, two
thirty on Tuesday, they still have tremendous depth. Just something
to consider as they go up against teams with big time,
youthful star power. I mean, Jokich isn't like Anthony Edwards

(21:10):
from a youth standpoint, but he's a younger player still
and he's not going anywhere, and neither is Esga. Neither
is Anthony Edwards. There are a lot of teams in
that position, not the Clippers, but a lot of other
teams in the West that are in that position, And
just something that I think is noteworthy as the Rockets
put together the final pieces for what this upcoming season
will look like. And as I mentioned, I don't think

(21:31):
everybody that's currently on the roster necessarily is going to
remain on the roster. We'll run through some of the
other things that the NBA had to offer yesterday, some
of the updates on again how the Western Conference other
teams shape up, because I do think the Denver Nuggets
have made moves that make them better this offseason, and
they were probably the like I said earlier, the team
most likely to knock them off, whether it's last year

(21:53):
with what they did or what they could do moving forward.
But next as always, halfway through, our number one will
hit you. The best of social media, the best of X.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 5 (22:11):
Should be putting out between five and chi posts a.

Speaker 3 (22:14):
Day, four hundred people were arrested for things that they
said on social media.

Speaker 4 (22:18):
History repeats itself. Type and you'll succeed.

Speaker 5 (22:23):
Never doubt that you're the one who.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
Plus we go one, build the lead.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
You're the best of X. Nothing's gonna ever.

Speaker 5 (22:32):
Top you know you're the best of X posting every
single day. You know you're the best of X, breaking
the entire internet.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
As we roll into our social media friends, best of
X here, actually don't have to stray away from the
NBA mentioned earlier today that Chris Haynes had posted breaking
Milwaukee Bucks starr. Yannis Sonatakoopa not pleased with the team's
decision to waive Damian Lillard, league sources tell me, and

(23:06):
I went.

Speaker 4 (23:07):
Through all that earlier on the show and.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Wondered why not or why would he be completely out
of the loop on this.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
Both are very interesting questions.

Speaker 3 (23:19):
But how does this find its way into Best of
X well, because when you post something on the X platform,
in this case, you get comments. So somebody just wanted
to make sure that they understood this correctly, and I
explained it correctly. Yeah, he gets twenty two plus million
dollars for each of the next five years, and he's
a free agent. Lillard can sign wherever he wants once
he clears waivers and for whatever amount suits him and

(23:41):
the team that he's going to then play for, knowing
full well he's going to get his one hundred and
twenty two million dollars from the Milwaukee Bucks. Of course,
It's also followed by okay, so Jannis is unhappy. We
have three posts with photoshops. One says, wow, it's happening

(24:02):
Johannis in a Lakers' uniform. Come on, now, Lakers are
going to trade what to get?

Speaker 4 (24:07):
Yannis? I can give you one clue and it rhymes
with Brownie's dad.

Speaker 3 (24:14):
But they're not going to do that, So that's funny
and all Another one says, here we go. It's a
picture of the number one jersey and the number two
jersey worn by LA Clippers guard James Hard and LA
Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, and photoshopped in there with him
is number thirty four for the Clippers.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
Jannis on a nakoompo.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
And what are the Clippers going to give the Bucks
the whole franchise? Are they going to sell them the franchise?
And one owner can run two teams and he'll still
have Giannis on one of them because they'll also be
running the Clippers.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
I don't think so, I don't see that happening.

Speaker 3 (24:52):
And hoboken guy, he gets to the point I made earlier.
Why would he be unhappy they added someone Mile Turner
who's gonna be an All Star? I don't know about that.
Now can get rid of Lopez, which they've already done.
And Phil Mooreti eats, why would you rather have an
old short guy with a bust at achilles rotting on
the bench and street clothes. Now, there is a little

(25:14):
bit more to it than that. If you want to
spin it this way, it is accurate for this upcoming season.
They have chosen to pay Damian Lillard and Miles Turner
about fifty million dollars next year, knowing Damian Lillard isn't
playing at all, so they're basically paying fifty million dollars

(25:37):
ish to Miles Turner for that one player, even though
it's technically two. The other option was paying fifty million
to Damian Lillard to not play at all and having
Miles Turner not only not with you, but potentially still
with Indiana.

Speaker 4 (25:55):
This is a.

Speaker 3 (25:56):
Team in the East and another team in the East
that just played each other in the playoffs in the
four or five spot, and a center on team number
four that went to the NBA Finals. He's now the
new center for team number five and team number four.
The Pacers also lost. As I mentioned last segment, Tyrese Haliburton.
Someone asked Groc to explain why he's unhappy. There's no

(26:19):
answer here. Sorry about that. I'd love to share it
with you, but I don't know. Pinwill doesn't believe Yannis.
He's not fooling anyone with this. Not really sure that
Giannis is making sure a reporter has this information and
it's true, but rather somebody close to Yanna's sources indicate
to me a person close to this situation, but request
at anonymity.

Speaker 4 (26:39):
I don't like I said.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
I think this is something done to improve the likelihood
that Jannis stays. But I can't get past the fact
that did he really not know what they were going
to do?

Speaker 4 (26:50):
Did they really?

Speaker 3 (26:51):
I mean, they're so far along in their weird relationship
because it seems like we're at this point every year
and we're still so recently removed from them winning the
tie or less than five years, right, I can't believe
we're doing this every year. Yes, we're less than five years.
But when you got idiots yelling on their shows on
the days that they're on them, today was probably one
of the best days ever for the program that normally

(27:14):
has Chris Russo and Steven.

Speaker 6 (27:16):
A on it.

Speaker 4 (27:16):
You mean to take that first? Got it?

Speaker 3 (27:18):
Both of them were out and no offense to Mollie,
She's not the problem with the show. She was also
out so everybody that was there today was better. It
was actually compelling, pertinent, non yelling information. There was conversations
going on. None of them said, hey man, you got
to win two titles. One is nothing technically, one is

(27:39):
the opposite of nothing, or close to the opposite.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
It's something.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
But nonetheless, I'm not sure what angle Giannis would be
taking or any report would be making that he's unhappy
with this, unless they want to continue to make other
fan bases think, well, there's a chance that doesn't How
does that do anything for him? Doesn't do anything for
the Bucks either. The Bucks can make all the phone

(28:04):
calls they want. They can actually force Giannis out of town.
They could trade him. Let me ask you to carever
they wanted out of curiosity. Right now with the initial
Miles Turner, where does Milwaukee rank the Eastern Conference? So
Cleveland's won, Yeah, that's fair. Does it matter after that?
I'm being dead serious. If I told you Milwaukee was
the second best team, could you tell me I'm wrong? No?

Speaker 4 (28:24):
Could you tell me Atlanta's not the next best team?

Speaker 7 (28:26):
Could you tell me that Boston still what Jaylen Brown
is a top three team?

Speaker 4 (28:29):
Probably?

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Could I tell you that Detroit's going to the Eastern
Conference Finals. Yeah, the Knicks, Yeah, I can believe tomorrow.
It'd be kind of seemingly, kind of foolish not to
put the Knicks as the second best.

Speaker 4 (28:42):
Team, the team without a coach right now.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
Yes, the team without a coach, which is why they
everybody in the East is giving all of us a
little something to hang on to to be mad about,
like sitting here right now, both today and prior to
last Sunday's report of Kevin Durant joining the Rockets, if
the Rockets were an Eastern Conference team, I would be

(29:05):
picking them to go to the NBA Finals. Tina Way
definitely be doing it now, and I would have also
been doing it before any of these moves had been made.
And quite honestly, last year's team could have easily advanced
to the Eastern Conference Finals, just depending on who stayed healthy,
how matchups went, how they played. I don't think they
were up against a team would have been up against
a team they could not beat in any round any

(29:28):
of the seven other teams that made it, and obviously
in the Western Conference that's different. The Rockets weren't even
favored to beat Golden State in a two seven. I
don't think they would have been favored to beat the
Denver Nuggets if that was on their side of the
bracket and who they matched up with. I'm not sure
that they would have been favored to beat the LA Clippers.
I'm just talking about favor I would have picked them
to beat them all because I already picked them to

(29:48):
beat a team they weren't favored against. And Vegas doesn't
know everything. They like to see action and sometimes that
helps promote it. Yeah, they lie. You get my point though,
Stick them over in the Eastern Conference and tell me
they're playing cert team here, and they certainly have a
very good chance. But that is not for now, and
they're not the something NBA that's ready to expand over
the next five years.

Speaker 4 (30:09):
That's the other something NBA.

Speaker 3 (30:11):
But this is still a wild situation where this I
don't know if you view it as if we're.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
Deep into free agency.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
I do, because the seasons long since been over for
everybody but two teams. We've already gotten the draft picks
in house for all the teams that have made them
that matter, and we kind of know where everybody's gonna
be at this point, except for Giannis. There's a few
other trades that could be made, and there's obviously free
agents still available, but franchise changing talent. What's not sitting

(30:39):
out there in free agency this year and it never
was expected to be.

Speaker 7 (30:42):
Kevin Durant was the only move that was probably franchise changing,
and that's franchise changing.

Speaker 3 (30:46):
For a year, and he wasn't even a free agent exactly.
The class was zero. Who was the best free agent
that signed? Miles Turner? Probably, uh, I mean if you probably,
if you do it the right way and say it
the right way, that's probably true. I mean for a
few minutes, for a few minutes, you know, you could

(31:08):
talk if you wanted to about I mean, I guess
by the time we got to yesterday at five, was
James Harden still a free agent? As Kyrie Irving a
free agent? Was Julius rant I mean, all these extensions
and guys that had already decided to stay. Yeah, a
free agent leaving one team signing a new contract with
another team. It's Miles Turner and that was the big move.

(31:28):
And I don't think he's going to be passed. But
there are a few other options out there interesting on
two other fronts as it relates to the Western Conference,
because I think there's a good chance that both of
these bigs end up or one of these bigs now
ends up in the Western Conference. And one other major
contract that we know of has been handed out today,
so we'll tell you about that. We'll scratch our head

(31:49):
about that one, but understand the parameters under which it
was signed. And again it's in the East. It isn't
going to impact Houston in any way. The other player
that's going to come to the West technically stay in
the West. I'll tell you how much I think that's
going to impact your Houston Rockets.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Next the a on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (32:21):
The NBA is certainly taking center stage at least for
a handful of hours here this off season for them,
mid season for Major League Baseball, and we're about three
weeks out from the Houston Texans reaching the field for
the first time. July twenty, third practice day number one,
our annual visit field side with general manager Nick Cassario.

(32:43):
Probably talk about the talent on the roster and then
what about the offensive line, But that's for another day.
Astros and Rockies coming up later tonight. First of a
six game road trip mentioned two other centers out relates
to Houston. Rockets are all set there, and I don't
think any of the centers that are currently under contract
or end up playing anywhere else Click Capella. Three years

(33:05):
twenty one million, reportedly three years thirty nine million for
Steven Adams, each of those deals beginning now this season,
and a three year extension for alprin Shangoon which kicks
in this season. They're all set and what will they
be up against is more on what this is about.

Speaker 4 (33:21):
Three centers in particular to discuss here.

Speaker 3 (33:23):
There's a possibility that you'd see Yakub pertl elsewhere, and
quite honestly, even though he's buried in Toronto, he's pretty
much the same player as Miles Turner, except he can't
floor space and doesn't try to. He doesn't shoot threes,
he doesn't make threes. He essentially impacts the game in
the same way, though, and puts up very comparable numbers.

(33:46):
But he plays for Toronto, and Toronto knows one thing.
Nobody wants to come here, and the only way we
can play any kind of reasonably competitive basketball is two
pay guys to stay here, and that's what they're gonna
do with Peertl. He's basically getting the same contract Yakub Peertl,
who doesn't impact winning in Toronto at all, just the
same way Scottie Barnes doesn't impact winning at all. Both

(34:08):
of them have humongous, fat contracts to stay and play
in Toronto. And even if Brandon Ingram is as great
as he's been in other places.

Speaker 4 (34:17):
And even though it's the East.

Speaker 3 (34:19):
They're not gonna win anything there. It's nice to have
some talented players buried there. Who knows if Toronto ever
turns around or tries to move them for future assets,
But they're just a run of the miller. The Eastern
Conference is wild enough that they probably believe maybe this
is our year, but it probably isn't. That's center number one.
Center number two is a free agent unexpectedly, but the

(34:42):
Blazers worked out, would you like a bunch of money
from us to go away? And DeAndre Ayton said yes,
and so they bought him out. He's going to be
a Laker or a bunch of other centers. The Lakers
are rumored to be interested in this player, and the
Lakers could be a landing spot for Brook Lopez and
maybe Clint Capel is on his way there, and you know,
maybe if you know this.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
He was always going to be a Laker in my opinion.

Speaker 3 (35:02):
I don't know if I said it loudly enough here
or at all here or elsewhere, but that's been in
my mind since the moment he was bought out. Not
sure if it's a great idea or not not sure
if it's the center they've been searching for, but I
think it's the center they're going to be playing with
moving forward. Bron James last year there maybe the beginning
of a new era of Lakers basketball with Luca, maybe

(35:23):
no Dorian Finney Smith. They're going to, I believe, be
the landing spot for DeAndre Ayton, and I think Deandre's
DeAndre Ayton's impact there will match what he did after
Phoenix reached the NBA Championship, which is basically nothing. Didn't
do much for them after that. They could not have
been more excited to get rid of him. And obviously

(35:43):
there was no impact whatsoever in Portland, some hollow numbers,
which I think is going to end up what they
are in LA. I'm not saying he's an awful player,
and if he's your third best player.

Speaker 4 (35:55):
Which I guess he is.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
I don't know where you slot Austin Reeves in he
is added there. Maybe he's your fourth best player. Maybe
you're not counting on him tremendously. Maybe you're just saying, look,
you're just what we don't have, and come on a
board and we'll see what happens.

Speaker 4 (36:08):
You're a dude, nothing else. That's it.

Speaker 3 (36:10):
And the other center is impactful. Impactful I think to
the Houston Rockets, to the Oklahoma City Thunder, and to
the rest of the teams in the Western Conference that
believe they have a chance to win, especially the team
that got this center. And that's the trade that lands
Jonas Valanciunas in Denver. Not the greatest player, not the

(36:32):
heavy minutes player, but an impact player in the minutes
that he plays. It's always been the case with him
and every one of his stops. He's played on good teams,
he's played on poorer teams. And now he's gonna play
for a team that thinks they're gonna win the NBA
Championship this year. I don't know that anybody else does,
but I'm totally fine with the Nuggets thinking they're gonna
win the title this year. They probably thought it last year,

(36:53):
and they probably thought it the year before, and they
certainly won it the year before. And that's fine, and
they should again. But moving on from Dario Sarich and
moving in with Jonas Valanciunis, presumably he just takes fifteen
to twenty minutes a night, most of which are when
Nikola Jokic is on the bench, gives them the ability
to continue to rebound, gives them the ability to defend

(37:16):
close to the basket. He's not gonna be a very
good perimeter defender, but neither is Nikola Jokic. He's the
same player he's been for about ten years in this
league and has played the same role in Toronto, Memphis,
New Orleans, briefly in Washington, and then last year just
as briefly with the Sacramento Kings. He's not a game changer.
He fills a hole. He fills a hole that was

(37:38):
very much on display. And I know it seems like
Nikola Jokich should be playing all forty eight minutes of
every game of every postseason series they're ever in, and
he'll play a lot, but this definitely is something they
need over the course of the regular season and on
occasion at times in the postseason. It's nothing major. It
definitely didn't cost him much of anything. It cost him
a player that's useless to them, sorrige doesn't matter to them.

(38:00):
I said, it's a very good to me, low profile,
positive move for a team chasing the thunder. Would you
say that this is the kmart brand version of Jokic
for the second line? I mean, I just he doesn't
play that way. No, But what I'm saying is justice
right on top of the basket or nobody's defending his
seven foot non jump shot, he'll make it. Yeah, he's

(38:22):
going to shoot a high percentage because he's only going
to take shots right there. But he's a smart, savvy,
beastly NBA big physical, which is good. And he on occasion,
and I'd say maybe six and a half times out
of ten, maybe as many as seven times out of ten,
he's defended this center Alprin Shengoon quite well. It has

(38:46):
been a difficult matchup at times, not every time, but
more times than not. Sheng Goon can't quite get around him.
He certainly can't run through him, which I applot Alprin
for doing a lot more of this year. There's some
some pretty large height bigs in the Western Conference Chets one,
Wemby's another, and he just just ran through them.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
He just pushed them around.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
He should you're not pushing Nikola Jokic nor Yonas Valencunis around,
you might get around them, and that's what I think
you'll need to do.

Speaker 4 (39:18):
We'll see how much.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
It impacts their games in the regular season and if
in fact they meet in the postseason. But this is
a team trying to get better. And oh, by the way,
they actually made a much bigger deal than that the
Denver Nuggets Michael Porter Junior's shoulders headed out of town.
Tell you about what they landed on the other side
of that deal and why it was. Let's see if

(39:42):
Jonas Valenciunas was round first, look for second, but head
on back. This move is definitely a double, probably considering
stretching it to a triple and just barely beating the throw.
I do like what Denver did with this other deal
a smart move, so I'll mention that on.

Speaker 4 (39:58):
The other side.

Speaker 3 (39:58):
Get you caught up on a few other things the
NBA we haven't gotten into yet. A little thought about
what move it is coming for the Houston Astros.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
Obviously, Jeremy Pania has moved to.

Speaker 3 (40:07):
The il already made and what Joe Spotta will have
at his disposal over the next eight to ten games
without Jeremy Pania. We'll visit with Joe Spotta coming up
in a half an hour, and of course an hour
after that, we'll hit you with say what in our
signature segment. Lots of things for us to still discuss
that we've not had a chance to get into yet.
I do think there is other There are other teams

(40:31):
in Major League Baseball looking at the same exact players, talent,
left handed batter, pitcher that the Houston Astros are looking
at come trade deadline. It is July, by the way,
that's the time of year we've reached on the baseball calendar.
All that coming up in our number two here on
the A Team.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston
sports guys aimed at him talking your team, Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler or the A Team.

Speaker 3 (41:36):
It is the three o'clock hour here on Sports Talk
seven ninety hour, number two of four, getting you ready
for Astros Baseball a little bit later here on the show.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
It's okay.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
You can walk right over here and turn the audio off.
That way, everybody won't hear coming back at them. I
just can't do it while I'm on the radio here.
Got a little while before Astros Baseball obviously, first pitch
coming your way around eight forty, so an hour's worth
of pregame covers rossill have for you coming up at
a little bit before then around seven thirty. Got a
night cap coming your way in between, and obviously, as

(42:06):
mentioned on the Astros front, we'll hear from Joe Aspota
coming your way at three point thirty. Made a visit
to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross earlier this afternoon,
so so of his thoughts obviously on the biggest story
surrounding the Houston Astros, the loss of Jeremy Paanya hit
on Friday. Stayed in the game, briefly, ended up getting
pitch hit four, did not think it was serious enough

(42:26):
at the time, and then when the MRI or the
X rays did not show a fracture, basically described him
as day to day. The Astros then finished up their series.
He did not play again, and then they flew out
of town with Jeremy Pania. You can even see him
featured in one of their series of photos on their Instagram,

(42:47):
and they were making their way out of town. He
and three teammates, all smiling and happy, making their way
to Colorado, only to learn later that to the additional
necessary scans that were done, the CT scan the mr
I did show a small rib fracture, and so to
the ale he goes retro to Saturday and the games

(43:08):
with that timeframe at the very very least are now
having to be missed. I don't think it's a long
term injury myself. I think a lot of people are speculating.
Some are indicating the Astros feeling on it, and Dana
Brown told us what the astros feelings are on it
and that he doesn't believe it's a long term injury either.
Keep this in mind, Major League Baseball position players, you

(43:29):
have two options when a player is hurt from an
injured list standpoint. We have a third option, don't put
him on the injured list at all and just wait
for him to get healthy enough to play, presuming it's
less than six games or so. That's what they did
with Eesac Perettis and his hamstring injury. I sat here
and said, how can he not go to the aisle?
Just send him to the aisle, give him his ten days,
his ten games as eleven days, whatever it takes. I

(43:50):
don't want him playing on a bum hamstring because it's
just going to linger. They felt like a couple of
games missed was all that was needed. He returned to
the lineup as the designated hitter not long after, was
playing third base and has been in there every day since.
Played as their d H on Sunday. So couple that
with Monday's day off, and they're still doing more to
make sure he maintains the current health status and hopefully better.

(44:13):
But most players, again, if you're going to the IL,
you got two options.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
You can go to the sixty day aisle. You can
go to the ten DAYIL.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
There's no twenty one day IL, there's no thirty six
day IL, and you can spend as long as you
want on the ten day IL. Jordan Alvarez is on
the ten DAYIL. He has missed a lot more than
ten days. He's gonna miss sixty days worth, if not more.
And that's okay. That's how it's done. If you put
a guy on a sixty day on the sixty DAIL

(44:40):
that has roster implications. It pulls that player off of
the forty man roster. You see teams manipulating that all
season long, and most notably right at the beginning of
the season. You know, the Astros had all these players
on the sixty day IIL to end the season last
year pitching standpoint, and you got to reorganize all that
as the season begins and then manipulate it the rest
of the way. Saraghetti won on the ten day IL,

(45:02):
and then when they needed his forty man roster spot,
they put him on the sixty day aisle. It's not
relative to how long he's going to be out. When
it's when you're counting the days. Players that are going
to be out for an extended period of time because
they've had Tommy John surgery or shoulder surgery, they don't
even automatically necessarily go to the sixty day IL. That
happened with a couple of their pitchers that were hurt

(45:24):
this year. When you need a forty man roster spot,
then you make that move. Jeremy Payne is not going
to spend any time on the Astro sixty day IL.
I hope he's going to spend time on the ten
day IL and he's gonna be back somewhere between ten
and twenty ten and thirty ten and forty days, and
I'll come back. And all you have to do is
take somebody off the roster that's on. It doesn't have

(45:45):
anything to do with the forty man roster. Likelihood is
they were gonna grab an infielder and move him in place.
They have an opening at second base. It's been there
since they played their first game. They do not have
a regular second baseman. The Astros are the third best
team in Major League Baseball. They're fifty and thirty four.
They've won more games at home than anybody in baseball,
the second best winning percentage at home. Just wrapped up

(46:07):
slaughtering two National League first place teams to the tune
of not outscoring them by any runs, but beating them
five out of six times. And they don't have an
everyday second basement. The Jeremy Penney injury has nothing to
do with that. Jose al Tuve's got a few starts
over there. Brendan Rodgers got a bunch of starts over there.
Mauricio Dubon over there, Luis Guillorme, Shay Whitcomb, and it's

(46:30):
likely has not been officially noted by the Astros what
the corresponding move is for this series, though that players
obviously and has already been with the team as they
made their way out of town. Shay Whitcomb Ari Alexander
reported that that is the player they're going to move,
which obviously set everybody into well.

Speaker 4 (46:49):
What about what about? What about Bryce Matthews.

Speaker 3 (46:53):
We talked about some of the reasons why getting it
started on is you know, the options, all things like that.
I don't know that that has any impact on the
Astros decision quite honestly. Options, I mean, it's a nice
safety net for any minor leaguer, But I wouldn't be
worried about any options being wasted on Bryce Matthews, because

(47:15):
if you have to use options on Bryce Matthews, then
he's not it. You can send him up and down
a couple times, which you can do with every player
and happens to a lot of very very good players,
but that many times over over that many seasons probably
not something they should be super concerned with. I don't
think not if this former top pick and current number

(47:37):
one overall prospect has to be thought of a lot
better than that. Whether the or not they want to
consider that. From the standpoint of this, he's going to
get every day playing time, whoever it is if they
want until Jeremy Payne your returns, because when paying your returns,
presumably whoever's playing the best then gets those at bets.
If Dubon has shown an ability to be an everyday player,

(47:57):
at least on the short term, then he probably goes
over to second on a fairly regular basis, which had
already been the case. You're still gonna get a handful
of starts for al Tuve, But while paying is out,
it's so wide open. If you wanted to bring up
anybody from the minor leagues and say, hey, you want
fifteen straight starts, you got them. You want to go
for four oh, for eight oh, for twelve over fifteen,

(48:19):
that's fine too. You're playing. This is what you're here
to do. This is why you play every day at
the minor league level. It's why they hesitate to have
young players on the team. If they're not going to
be in the lineup every day, well that does not
need to be a concern. Even though they're trying to win,
and that's where the balance is. It's the same thing
that's happened in just about every player in the Astros system.

(48:41):
This is not clearly and obviously a superstar in waiting.
There's nowhere to play them permanently because the team is
too good. Never looked like this year's team was going
to have a roster like that or a one loss
record like that, But it wouldn't have changed things because
they also weren't going to be awful. They could have
been in the thick of things. They could be a

(49:02):
forty two win team right now. They'd be in a
dead heat basically for this division in the wild card race. Well,
they could be sure, you would have an opening. Nonetheless,
you're still trying to win. You're still in the thick
of things. They would have to be a thirty and
fifty team to just send guys out there and just
play them, to play them like the A's do. The
A's have done that for years. They're just lucky now

(49:23):
that these players they're playing every day are actually very
good young prospects and very talented, hopeful future stars in
Major League Baseball. The Astros they don't have that option.
They really haven't. Most of the players that have gotten
regular playing time are elite level. Everybody in America wants
to trade for them, and the Astros are telling him no.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
For good reason.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
It's not really the case with the players that they have,
and it certainly isn't the case with the roster.

Speaker 4 (49:48):
That they have.

Speaker 3 (49:48):
I personally would hope they would actually treat Shay Wickham
the same way. I don't think he's the future of
this team at any position. It doesn't bother me if
they used him in trade, but I also don't think
he should not be playing when he's here the other options.
Luis ki Yorme is as good a fielders they're gonna
get at any of the three positions. He can play

(50:09):
a second, shorter third if you want to only put
a guy out there for his defense. By all means,
Joe knows better than I do. They've won a bunch
of games with him pulling the strings and calling the shots.
You're also get a guy who can't hit at all.
He's gonna hit one fifty for this team, and it's
only one spot in the lineup, and they've been able
to get away with it. Sometimes it's two spots in

(50:32):
the lineup when Hummel or Trammel are also in the
lineup and they keep winning, And for all I know,
Shay Wigam's gonna hit one twenty five or zero. But
I'd also probably prefer to see him out there and
give him a little bit of run. Who knows what
happens if you never see what happens. And they, for
all I know, they've already made up their mind on

(50:53):
him the way that they've used him this year, they
have made up their mind on him. He's hitting bombs
for the third straight year at the Triple A level
at an incredible rate, and just doesn't seem to matter
that this club, they just believe in other options, and
who am I to doubt them when all they do
is win.

Speaker 4 (51:11):
That's for them to figure out.

Speaker 3 (51:13):
Not a huge deal either way, but it is something
they obviously have to consider because Jeremy Payne is not
available for this series, the next series, and quite possibly
when they return home. One thing we did not get
into yesterday that certainly is worthy of additional discussion. We
had a brief conversation about it on Friday as the
news broke regarding Jeremy pania Off the field, he's got

(51:35):
a new agent, He's having his best season to that
point in time. The Astros and Paynia had been in
negotiations about potentially finding common ground on an extension to
keep in here beyond the arbitration controlled years that are
still in his future, and there's a couple of those.
But he's changed agents and Scott Morris is now his
agent and those talks have been tabled. Dana Brown will

(51:58):
be visiting with the station as he does each every
week on the Sean Salisbury Show. He also makes a
weekly visit with Astros Radio does that on Sundays, and
made note of that change in agency for Jeremy Payania.
So I wanted to share with you what he had
to say about that. How it how kind of paints
a picture of the Astros side of things and maybe

(52:18):
Paynia and Boris's side of things moving forward again. Currently, Faut,
Jeremy Paynia is on the IL that's next.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (52:34):
Keep dangling things out there that we need to address.
The move made by the Denver Nuggets that I think
was a triple free pointer, if you.

Speaker 4 (52:43):
Will, haven't gotten to that yet.

Speaker 3 (52:45):
A couple of other major deals in the NBA, though
it's not with players changing places, including the NBA champion.
But left you with Dana Brown versus Scott Boris or
Dana Brown plus Scott Bores and Talking on Sunday on
Astros Radio, Dana Brown addressed the fact that Jeremy Pana

(53:08):
had switched agents and where things were and where things
might be going with he and Scott and Jeremy.

Speaker 8 (53:15):
What it will not change is it will not change
us making an effort to get Jeremy signed long term.

Speaker 9 (53:22):
Here.

Speaker 8 (53:24):
We know that sometimes it could be difficult to sign guys,
you know, because you know when they use Boris as
a representation, you know oftentimes they go to free agency,
right and so, but it will will not stop us
from trying to get something done. So I you know,
called Boris like right away when he let us know

(53:45):
that he's representing them, and just you know, had an
initial conversation and told him, look, we're still interested in
signing Jeremy long term. And so you know, we'll be
in touch and we'll see how that works out.

Speaker 4 (53:58):
Be in touch.

Speaker 3 (53:59):
Will there be any actual negotiations is another story. You
do hear a different tone from Dana Brown over the
years when talking about extensions, this has been brought up
many many times. Obviously have been able to get something
done with some and not been able to get something
done with others Christian Javier, Kyle Tucker, Jeremy Paania, now

(54:21):
obviously Alex Bregman for a long period of time, and
in all but one of those cases he was dealing
with Scott Boris. And as things continued with Alex Bregman
for nearly the entire offseason, things appeared like at least
they're having good productive conversations and an offers on the
table that is being considered. Two months of inactivity, also

(54:44):
months of Alex Bregman not agreeing to a deal with
any other team, to the Astros are again re engaging
and considering what might make more sense, maybe some more
a little bit more creativity with their offer, or just
flat out a little bit more money in their offer.
Ultimately to no avail. He said he was set to

(55:05):
sign with Detroit and then Boston came in and said,
what about forty million for this year and the year
after and the year after with you owning the option
to opt out of the deal after year one and
year two. But if you want three years, one hundred
and twenty million, it's all years. If you want one year,
forty million, all years. That swayed him. That's what Scott Morris,

(55:26):
the agent for Alex Bregman, was able to get for
him in their first off season together. And I think
that is exactly what the player was after multiple offers
that he would have been, I believe, happy to accept.
As he said himself after the fact, Pregnant said, I
thought I was signing with the Detroit Tigers, and many

(55:46):
people here thought he would have been happy to continue
playing here at the amount and for the number of
years that the Astros reportedly had on the table. Now
Jeremy Pangey's case, this is much more on the side
of what they have done with players long before they've
reached free agency. So it's quite a bit different than
any kind of Bregman negotiations, but rather closer to negotiations

(56:09):
that never went anywhere with Kyle Tucker, and that's the
player who I'm really referencing when we're talking about the tone,
because prior to the twenty twenty three, excuse me, twenty
twenty four season, there was a lot of our chatter
with Dana Brown during the off season, would you like
to get something done with Kyle Tucker? Is this somebody
that you'd like to have a long term This is
a player we want to play here for the rest

(56:29):
of his career. This is a player we want to
have here long term, and we're going to get that done.

Speaker 6 (56:34):
Well.

Speaker 3 (56:35):
As he said this time talking about Jeremy Pana, the
wee part of it can't be applied there. We can
do everything we think we need to do to get
it done. Heck, you can offer even more than you're
willing to, more than you think is reasonable, and the
player could still say no because free agency would still
be looming. And in Jeremy's case, we're not quite there yet,

(56:55):
and in Kyle's case, we're in a very similar spot.
Kyle Tucker is not a free agent. When he was moved,
when he didn't get a long term deal, he played
through his not long term deal for an entire season,
and was all set to play through not having a
long term deal this season, which he is now doing
just not with you, He's doing it with Chicago, and
that's kind of where things are with Jeremy. I don't
doubt Dana's efforts. I don't think he's going to be

(57:19):
constantly reaching out to Scott Boris and Boris Corp with
new offers. I think they're going to say, here's where
things were, if you weren't already aware, this is where
we'd like things to go, and Scott will say, awesome,
how much more are you willing to spend so we
can actually have a serious conversation. I don't know what
the Astros' answer will be to that, but he's not
gonna sign a deal anywhere near the figures years or

(57:40):
amount of money that was reportedly in the neighborhood of
what was on the table. It was never a clear report,
but somewhere better than one hundred and five million over
five years, somewhere better than twenty one million a season.
And Jeremy Panning' is gonna make a lot less than
twenty one million dollars over the next two seasons when
he rolls through the remainder of his arbitration, but soon

(58:01):
after that, immediately after that, he probably can command a
contract much better than twenty one million. If this season
remains as is. Let's say he plays one hundred and
twenty games. He played every game before this injury, and
he produces the same way he has and puts another
one hundred and fifty some odd game season together in
twenty twenty five. All Star caliber player, leader of this offense,

(58:25):
caliber player, someone who can potentially be a twenty twenty player,
because I'm not sure that he's a thirty home run guy,
but he's definitely a twenty twenty player elite defense.

Speaker 4 (58:35):
He absolutely could win.

Speaker 3 (58:36):
The Gold Glove again this year as the American League shortstop.
He's a factor. He was on the team that was
winning the last three years. He is one of the
big reasons why this team is winning. And I'm not
discounting his postseason contributions. Obviously they were massive in year one. Well,
this year's regular season is what he did for that

(58:57):
month long stretch in the postseason. He's helping win, He's
making sure they win, he's winning games for them. He
hasn't done that in his regular season career for the
Astros before. Obviously, he's had some walkoffs, he's made some
great plays, and he has won a Gold Glove. But
what he's doing this year, I think everybody can recognize,
is dramatically different than before.

Speaker 4 (59:16):
And so where.

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Would the Astros have been on this six months ago,
during the offseason or at any time during last season.
With all those arbitration years left, he's been a slightly
over a one hundred ops plus player. He's been a
low seven hundred zops player. Maybe he's a long term guy.
Maybe you want him here beyond the six to seven
years of control that any given young player might have.

(59:37):
But you're also now buying in immediately three months of excellence.
And they had begun negotiations on a long term deal
during that period of time, to the point where maybe
they had even made headway on a long term deal.

Speaker 4 (59:50):
That's over.

Speaker 3 (59:51):
I'm not saying he's definitely gone, but he's not on
the verge of signing a long term extension with the Astros.
A lot more discussions and explanations are probably coming from
the Scott Boris Corp. Side of the table, and without
Dana Brown, with only Jeremy Paanya and the people that
matter to him. Here's what I think the market's going
to look like. Here's what I think it will look

(01:00:12):
like when you arrive there, and here are some of
the other players that will be there when you get there.
Here's what the team you're on is willing to offer.
Here's what I think they should willing to offer. Here's
the number of years I think you should be willing
to even entertain. Because in his case, much like what
could have been with some of the other players here
in the Houston, had they signed extensions before they were

(01:00:33):
in the last year of their deal with multiple years
of control left. I mean, you can sign a short
term extension. In Jeremy's case, a five year extension. Maybe
he's five years of excellence. Well five years go by
and guess what, He's going to still be one of
the prime free agents in the prime of his career
when he needs another contract. Not everybody's in that position.
Not everybody is at that age. Correa was at that age.

(01:00:55):
Now he had different injury history, and I don't know
what's going to be the future Jeremy Paine's injury history,
but this is it. This is the first one. This
is the only one of any significance, and clearly this
is not one that you would cite as any concern
moving forward. He doesn't have a bum hamstring, he doesn't
have bad wheels, doesn't have bad digits, doesn't have a

(01:01:17):
bad wrist, his ankles, his knees, his shoulders.

Speaker 4 (01:01:20):
All good.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
He got hit by a pitch and he has a
small fracture in a your rib, and it will heal.
And the next time he gets hit by a pitch
in the exact same location, it probably won't even matter,
and he won't even miss time. Not a condition, not
a concern. An injury and time will be missed, but
nothing that would be a part of any concern about
his future. And that was definitely different with Korea, so

(01:01:45):
different that the Giants wanted to give him hundreds and
hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, and so did
the Mets, and ultimately so did the Twins. Twins gave
him a deal very much like the Alex Bregman deal
when he got with the Red Sox a couple of
years thirty five million each. You got options after each
of those. He opted out after year one, and he
and the Twins came together on a long term deal.

(01:02:07):
I tend to think that's exactly what's gonna happen with Bregmant.
I don't think he is dismayed by the decisions made
by the Red Sox this year. I don't think he's
dismayed by the progress of some of their young players,
Campbell and Anthony and Meyer.

Speaker 4 (01:02:20):
He also plays well there.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
I think he's extremely excited about the other major money
they spent this off season and prospects they gave up
to do it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:32):
Garrett Coach Crochet.

Speaker 3 (01:02:33):
If it wasn't for Hunter Brown and Max Fried and
Tark schoobl He's having a cy young caliber season, exactly
what they hoped for with him, and he's been out
there every day. He's the one that came with serious
injury concerns and how much can we use him?

Speaker 4 (01:02:48):
Not Alex Bregman.

Speaker 3 (01:02:49):
Alex Bregman has been great, whether it's been at Fenway
or he's been on the road. He actually has better
road numbers this year, surprisingly than he does at very offensive,
happy Fenway Park.

Speaker 4 (01:02:59):
But that's what I would see for him.

Speaker 3 (01:03:01):
And obviously there's no clarity with Jeremy PAINEA Scott Boris
and Dana Brown. The Astruls will make efforts and they
will presently be thwarted by Dana Brown, his manager, Jeremy's manager,
Joe Espada, we'll hear from him next.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
That's right home of Rockets Basketball. By the way, Houston
Rockets and many other NBA teams announced their pre season
schedule earlier today. I've got four games three teams that
they'll be battling this preseason. Two games in Houston, a
game in Atlanta, and of course, as always, a game

(01:03:46):
in Birmingham, Alabama. Two home games against the Hawks and
Jazz on the sixth and eighth of October. Then they
will knock out their two road games. They'll go to
Birmingham to take on the Pelicans on the fourteenth of October,
and two days later they'll be in Atlanta taking on
the Hawks. So the Hawks, the Jazz, and the Pelicans

(01:04:06):
the three teams over their four games that the Rockets
will match up with in the preseason, and not long
from now, a couple weeks at least, it looks like
away from the NBA announcing their actual regular season schedule,
so probably, let's see, Thursday, October sixteenth is their last
preseason game. That should make Tuesday the twenty first opening

(01:04:32):
night in the NBA when the Rockets and Oklahoma City
Thunder will get together. Maybe nothing's been announced, but I
do believe the Oklahoma City Thunder will be on television
opening night as part of their opening night doubleheader. Why
not put the team that finished right behind them that
now has Kevin Durant on it that you're going to
be featuring on national TV all throughout the season for

(01:04:55):
the first time in a long time. That will also
be true. But we'll get there when we get there.
Just at the infancy stage is a free agency and
remember July sixth, still another five days away. That's when
trades can be finalized, they become official, you can officially
sign free agents, contracts officially be extended. If there are

(01:05:15):
offer sheets with restricted free agents involved, the clock would
then begin. If those deals get signed immediately upon that date,
that's when those clocks begin. And as I mentioned earlier
this week, there's two summer leagues before Vegas. Vegas doesn't
start till the tenth. The Summer League at Chase Center
in California starts on the sixth that day. I'm mentioning

(01:05:36):
Utah's Summer League actually begins a day before that, and
there are players on those summer league teams that are
involved in some of these trades that aren't going to
even be official yet. Probably a better way to do
things and I'm sure they'll get there one day. Astros
in Colorado tonight three games with the Rockies. They'll take
their wins, hopefully to Los Angeles after that battle. One

(01:06:00):
of the only teams that has more wins than they do,
the Los Angeles Dodgers for three over the weekend. They'll
give the ball to Colton Gordon tonight, Hunter Brown tomorrow,
Brandon Walter on Thursday, and then off to LA And
they'll do all that without Jeremy Pania. Earlier today on
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross Weekly visit time for
manager Joe Espotta. You can catch that interview in its

(01:06:20):
entirety if you missed it earlier right there on Sports
Talk seven ninety dot com. You should be a subscriber
or a downloader of the iHeartRadio app. Thus with Sports
Talk seven ninety number one on your presets, you can
also catch it there. And yes, you should be a
subscriber to the Sean Salisbury Show, to the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross, and of course to.

Speaker 4 (01:06:40):
The A Team.

Speaker 3 (01:06:41):
That way, you don't miss anything right there in the
palm of your hand, but a brief snippet of that
interview for you here with Joe Espotta initially discussing the
impact of losing his shortstop.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
Man.

Speaker 6 (01:06:52):
Yeah, it's unfortunate, right, you don't want your guys to,
you know, any of your guys to get hurt. But
you know, the Jeremy Kenya, Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
It's tough news.

Speaker 6 (01:07:02):
I you know, I immediately look, you know, honestly tell us
I look to this guy, and I, you know, pray
God for strength and and and continue to to you know,
to help us through this tough road, these injuries. I
see it as another test and and you know, you
can't you can't. You can't tell testimony without tests. And

(01:07:24):
we are we're being tested, you know, there's no doubt
about it. But I think at the end of the day,
we are we're a strong team. We continue to bring
guys up that can help us continue to move forward.
This is a united club that we find ways to
win games, you know, and we'll do that. We'll put uh,
I'll continue to put players in a position for where

(01:07:45):
I think they could have some success. And and while
these players are on the sideline, and once we get
them back, you know, hopefully we continue to be in
a good spot to continue to make it push and
trying to win the division.

Speaker 9 (01:07:56):
Joe, You've had a couple of days on him in there,
any thought of what you want to do in terms
of the leadoff guy on a consistent basis, or do
you think that could be changing over the next handful
to days.

Speaker 6 (01:08:06):
You know, right now I'm gonna I'm gonna keep Credis
in that spot. Obviously, his ability to get on base
is tremendous. You know, he's got the power, He's just
a really good Polish hitter. So I'm going to continue
to do that for for the time being. I like
Jake Myers about in that two spot of two right
in the three spot has been he has found a
place where he feels comfortable and he's producing. And Cam

(01:08:29):
Smith right now he's giving us, you know, unbelievable especially
with people in scoring positions. So I'm going to roll
with that for for the time being. And if we
need to do some changes to make sure that these
players get getting spots where they're comfortable and they can produce,
you know, we'll do that.

Speaker 10 (01:08:46):
You mentioned Cam Smith and you've really been seeing some
growth from him, but played he's been great in the
field the whole time. What is what is just like
on a personal, personal level, what have you seen from
him as far as maybe getting more comfortable as being
a major leaguer. Is he kind of moreges the same
mature guy or are you seeing growth as well?

Speaker 6 (01:09:02):
No, you do, you do see the growth. You do
see a more mature confident which you know he wasn't
lacking when we when we make the decision to put
on the major league loster. But now you see someone
who kind of understand what it takes to being the
big league stay in the big league, adjustments that need
to be made to be a productive player at the
major league level. Conversations with him, he's got a pretty

(01:09:25):
good idea of what he wants to do, what pitchers
are trying to do. You know, you're watching defensively making
better choices, better decisions defensively. You know, he's been he's
been incredible in the first three three and a half months.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
In the big leagues.

Speaker 6 (01:09:39):
How he is learning at the highest level there is
I'm not surprised, but I'm really incredible just watching him
how quickly he had developed into this really good player.

Speaker 10 (01:09:51):
Astro's manager, Joe Spotted was was here on Sports Talk seven.
I mean we talked about a lot about the players.
Y'all want to ask about you because last year, obviously
it was a tough test as far as the way
that season started, you were turning it around. In this year,
things are going great, but all these injuries keep piling up.
What has that been like for you? Like you've mentioned,
you keep kind of getting tested in these couple of years.

(01:10:12):
It's never a dull moment. But the team is still
well positioned.

Speaker 6 (01:10:14):
Yes, And you know, I always say that, you know,
as a Christian, I do fellas, I do a lot
of praying.

Speaker 2 (01:10:23):
I put this.

Speaker 6 (01:10:25):
Season, any season, averaating every game and the hand so
I God and just whatever he wants for this team,
he will, he will delivered. And I lean on him.
I'll lean on my players, I'll lean on my coaches.
On the organization, we have done a tremendous shop here
for a very long time. We have people that that
know the process and we continue to develop major league

(01:10:49):
players and.

Speaker 2 (01:10:50):
I trust that.

Speaker 6 (01:10:52):
I trust that process. And but honestly, guys, it's it's
it's it's a test after a test every single day.
And for me, as the leader of the club, continue
to stay calm, continue to lead continue to be you know,
positive mindset, talking to my players, continue to you know,
allow my coaches to do their job, put these players
in a position to have success and and ultimately I

(01:11:16):
think that's what made the difference. But you know, no doubt,
you know, will be easier if we some of these
players injuries don't happen. But we all know that this
is just part of the game.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
Eight American league managers were voted first, second, or third
last year for Manager of the Year by the Baseball
Writers Association of America. Joe Spotta was among those eight.
He finished fourth of the other seven. Only one of
them is having a good season this year and likely
to draw consideration alongside Joe A.

Speaker 4 (01:11:48):
Spota for the second consecutive.

Speaker 2 (01:11:50):
Year the ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:11:57):
We wrap up this hour with continue to discuss and
kind of left you out there, left you hang a
little bit. What was I referencing and give me some
data on that just heard from Joe Aspota. Astro's manager's
put together a second consecutive remarkable season last year, pretty
remarkable and that his first go round as a major
league manager. Have been in interviews many times over, including

(01:12:17):
with this team and not landed a managerial job after
spending a long time on the bench with several teams,
including this one, got the job and the team said, hey,
watch us win seven times in your first twenty six games,
and then we'll split our next ten and you'll be
sitting twelve and twenty four, thirty six games in your
managerial career with a team that was thought to be very,

(01:12:39):
very capable of heading right back to the same place
they've always been the American League Championship Series or more.
And then they looked exactly like that and totally took off,
went from twelve to twenty four to an eighty eight
win team that won the Division One. It's again finished
seventy six and forty nine, and this year they've started
fifty and thirty four. We know about the play, the

(01:13:00):
great players that either aren't here anymore or weren't here
for parts of this season, your don or parts of
last season, Kyle Tucker, and the winning just keeps happening.

Speaker 4 (01:13:10):
I referenced last year's.

Speaker 3 (01:13:12):
Manager of the Year award, and I thought it was
rightfully given to or earned by Stephen vote of the Guardians,
and he got nearly every first place vote there's thirty
of them.

Speaker 4 (01:13:21):
He got twenty seven of them.

Speaker 3 (01:13:23):
Matt Kotwaro of the Royals got a couple, and aj
Hinch got one. And last segment, I said, there were
eight managers that were listed first, second, or third on
the ballots turned in by those thirty voters, and only
one of them besides Joe, is putting himself in consideration. Again,
of course, that's aj Hinch, Alex Cora, No Rock Obaldelli

(01:13:46):
of the Twins.

Speaker 4 (01:13:46):
No, uh huh.

Speaker 3 (01:13:48):
Mark Kotze is a great manager. You're never gonna win
Manager of the Year until you win games anywhere. There
would be quite an accomplishment. Aaron Boone, Nope, Aaron Boone's
team can't even hold a two to nothing lead on
the Turronto Blue Jays with Max Fried on the mound.
He gave up a home run to George Springer and
then a three run homer Andre Simenez, and that two

(01:14:08):
nothing Yankees lead is now for two Blue Jays lead.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider, Yeah, he probably deserves some consideration.
They did make some moves this offseason that are unlike
teams of their past, though one of them was the
lucrative one.

Speaker 4 (01:14:24):
To sign Anthony santan Dare.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
He has not helped them win at all, but other
players have, and I do think Schneider deserves some credit.
I think the only manager in the American League East
aside from him that could draw consideration is the same
person who could draw consideration every year, because if you're
a good manager, you should always draw consideration.

Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
That's Kevin Cash.

Speaker 3 (01:14:43):
Tampa has a comparably talented roster every year when they
start the year, and they have all these pitchers that
nobody knows about except for them, and they have all
these hitters that really don't do much of anything except
keep getting hits, and then in this ballpark this year,
keep hitting homers and they actually keep winning. They could
be in first place on any given day where they
sit with the Yankees right now, within a game or

(01:15:04):
two of them for the last month.

Speaker 7 (01:15:06):
Almost Keep in mind that also they trade away all
of their good talent and they still find better talent
in the minors.

Speaker 3 (01:15:12):
Or they signed them to long term deals and watch
them go on trial. That's a singular case scenario. Yes,
that is absolutely true, and it's remarkable that they have
the assets to operate this way. Imagine if they operated
like a team that wanted to keep their players because
they don't. That's just the cold, hard truth. They don't
keep their players. They don't want to keep their players.

(01:15:33):
That's how they want to operate. It's also why they've
been in a stadium heck forever, partially for where they
are and the support that they have, and partially because
they don't like to spend a whole lot of money.
They love to spend money on who they're paying to
scout players and to develop players because they're as good
as it gets. So yeah, I think Kevin Cash would
deserve some consideration, And when you look around the rest

(01:15:54):
of the league, I believe that is it. There are
fifteen teams in the American League, and at present time,
with a little less than half a season of baseball left.
If you're one, two, and three, the only spots that
are available on the manager of the Year ballot are
not those three names Cash, Hinch or Espata. You're doing
it wrong. Those are the only three guys that at
this point in time should be among those you're considering.

Speaker 4 (01:16:17):
So I do think there's a real shot.

Speaker 3 (01:16:19):
Not that any of these awards are the biggest deal
in the World the same thing for cy Young Rookie
of the Year. In the cy Young and Rookie of
the Year case, I think it'd be better than Oh,
it's nice award for Hunter Brown to win, and it's
great for Cam Smith to be recognized, because it actually
is more the team, the future of this team. You
will benefit from that in the implementation of that additional

(01:16:44):
compensation pick you get in the draft for a rookie
landing there that Cam Smith would qualify for or Hunter
Brown with where he is in his career, the age
and stage, he could also qualify for that by finishing
in the top three for the CY Young which at
this point in time and mac fed I just mentioned
that that matters. Max Freed is one of the four

(01:17:04):
best pitchers in the American League this year, and it'd
be nice if he had a couple of blow up
outings on his way to finishing fourth behind Tarrek Schooble
and Garrett Crochet and of course the winner, Hunter Brown.
So yeah, it's a little bit more than an award
for them. And yet it's great negotiations for Joe to
turn around to gym and say, hey, man, me and Dana,
we are cooking. How about a little bump in the

(01:17:25):
old salary there? I just want to manager of the year. Well,
he'll probably give you a bump if you win more
in the playoffs. And I don't mean that to come
off that way because that's not what I intended. But
Joe Spot unfortunately is looking for playoff win number one.
Last year they played two games, they didn't win either
one of them, and that's because they were relegated to
the wildcard round. You only had two opportunities to win

(01:17:47):
at least once to extend your season to a winner
take all game in Game three, which they couldn't quite
do against aj Hinches Detroit Tigers. But job well done.
Undoubt I think everybody would agree for Espata. There is
hope that this month will be the first real bright
spot all season long for the Astros in getting players back.

(01:18:11):
Jord On Alvarez is going to be in the lineup
for the Astros in July, and there's a really strong
shot that Jordon Alvarez will be in the lineup in
July before the team takes their break for the All
Star Break. He is in Florida. Live VP's taking place.
May have an update from Joe Aspota later this afternoon
on what or if is taking place there, but no
update on what he's definitely expected to join the team.

(01:18:34):
Maybe outside shot it's for this trip to LA but
much more likely if everything goes well, he would be
ready to go for the Astros homestand that follows their
Sunday game with the Dodger Spencer Aghedtti, depending on how
much ramp up time is needed and obviously same thing
no setbacks. You might see him pitching before August. Getting

(01:18:54):
on the mound is the next step. Getting into a
rehab situation would follow shortly there after, and that's where
all the other pitchers are too. They're throwing live vps
Louis Scarcia, Christian Javier JP France.

Speaker 4 (01:19:07):
They would also.

Speaker 3 (01:19:08):
Need minor league rehab game action before they returned to
this team in whatever capacity it fits for them. Right now,
all the Astros options for the other spots in the
rotation after Hunter Brown and from ber Valdez. Everybody's healthy.
Ryan Gusto is healthy, Lance mccullors is healthy, Brandon Walter
is healthy. Obviously, Colton Gordon is healthy. He pitches tonight

(01:19:30):
and even at the minor league level, aj Bluebaugh, who
came off a sparkling strikeout performance and a loss this week,
and even Jason Alexander. They're available already at this point
in time, and luckily all of them have remained available
almost throughout the last two months. All but Lance Peculors,
who had the brief eighteen day stint on the IL,
never came to light here on the show, but had

(01:19:50):
to go back and forth with a few people on
social media that the Astros were somehow to blame for
Lance's poor start because they didn't send him on a
rehab assignment.

Speaker 4 (01:20:00):
Hear his foot.

Speaker 3 (01:20:01):
He was off the mound for eighteen days. He did
not need a rehab start. He was perfectly capable of
pitching better. It just didn't work out that day. Just
one of those days. An NBA reset and finally a
follow through on more moves made by the second best
team in the Western Conference.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Next the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety two
lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team, Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight Team.

Speaker 3 (01:20:43):
It is four o'clock here on a Tuesday edition of
the eighteen half hour from signature segment time. That is
say what Football at five of course comes your way
five o'clock. Got tickets to give away in the five
o'clock hour, will tell you about those opportunities to go
see the Big Three coming to Houston over at Toyota
Center early August and also the Psychedelic First. Interestingly, when

(01:21:07):
Clint Cappella was reportedly agreeing to terms with the Rockets
last night, it made me wonder, well, what exactly do
I have in my camera role that relates to Clint
Cappella spending time with the Houston Rockets when his career began.
Mentioned earlier on the show that I was there in
Vegas when he literally began his Rockets career, not on

(01:21:27):
the court, but joining the team and visiting with people,
and that it was just a few weeks after the
draft and there was no indication that he would be
a part of this team until he told them and
they came to an agreement that he would be a
part of this team. Bunch of players that were on
the team but not participating in summer league. Some of
the veterans were there. The summer leaguers clearly were there
and on the court. Didn't find any photos in my

(01:21:48):
phone or videos from that point in time, but did
have some one item from twenty fourteen when the Rockets
had an early season game, posted that on ig and
and tagged a bunch of his teammates that were there
that day because it was me getting ready for some
sideline TV work. So I was there at my makeshift

(01:22:11):
desk with my CSN Houston Mike Flag and the Rockets
roster for that day, and when I took the picture
of a couple of Rockets walking by Tark Black and
Nick Johnson for those that remember, and I tagged them
and a couple of other teammates Isaiah Cannon, James Harden,
Dwight Howard, coastesst Papa Niccolo, Pat Beverley among the players

(01:22:37):
that were part of the Rockets organization at that time.
Twenty fourteen to twenty twenty, Clint Capella was a Houston
Rocket with Kevin McHale for some of that time, with
James Harden throughout that time, with Dwight Howard for some
of that time, and then shifted to Atlanta, got an
extension here, played out some of it there, got an

(01:22:58):
additional extension with the Atlanta Hawks, and then became a
free agent and the Houston Rockets reportedly agreed to a
three year, twenty one million dollar deal with Clint Capella.
I had been looking at Steven Adams offensive rebounding numbers
pretty much all season last year, because he's basically the
best offensive rebounder on the planet and arguably the best

(01:23:19):
offensive rebound of the last several decades in the NBA.
He led the NBA last year in offensive rebounds per
thirty six minutes. I remembered looking at that list throughout
the year, and when it was reported that Clint Capella
was about to become a Rocket, I figured, didn't I
see his name on that very same list throughout the year?

Speaker 4 (01:23:39):
And I did so.

Speaker 3 (01:23:40):
I posted that little information earlier today, not only that information,
but a note on the other edition for the Houston
Rockets reportedly coming to an agreement four years fifty three
million dollars for Dorian Finney Smith. Those two items of
notes on the notes earlier today, if you follow me
on the socials for Clint Capella, trailing Steven Adams and

(01:24:04):
only five others in the NBA, Steven Adams seven and
a half offensive rebounds per thirty six minutes last year,
far and away the best in the league and seventh
in that same category.

Speaker 4 (01:24:15):
With the Hawks last year.

Speaker 3 (01:24:17):
Was Clint Capella better than five rebounds offensive rebounds per
thirty six minutes played a season ago. They can put
a bunch of different lineups together with a bunch of
different bigs and tall wings that are going to once
again crush it on the boards. We talk a lot
about the Rockets being one of the better defensive teams,

(01:24:39):
being one of the fast best fast break teams, a
lot of different areas where they're excelled, and probably didn't
mention enough. They're one of the best rebounding teams, and
they were the best offensive rebounding team.

Speaker 4 (01:24:51):
And when they're not.

Speaker 3 (01:24:52):
Elite and effective and efficient offensively and they weren't well
arriving offensive rebounds and getting a second and third opportunity
on a possession, well it matters. And it's one of
the reasons why the Rockets won a lot of games
last year, and everything about what they've put together this
year suggests at least the same. I don't know how
much Capella is going to play. Clearly, he's their third center,

(01:25:14):
and there are not many lineups that include all three,
probably none. There is no triple big lineup coming. How
any jokes were made about it, like mine yesterday. But
they're not worse on the perimeter either, they're almost assuredly better.
With Kevin Durant's minutes and Dorian Finney Smith's minutes comparable
to Dylan and Jalen's minutes. They're gonna be nasty on

(01:25:36):
the boards. The note I included on Dorian Finney Smith
we actually talked about yesterday right here on the show.
Among the players who attempted at least four and a
half three pointers per game, hundreds of them in this league.
Second in the NBA last year just joined the Rockets
Kevin Durant at forty three percent, sixteenth last year at

(01:25:56):
forty one point one percent. As you can see, the
spread is not very far in terms of forty three
to forty one and change. That means this league has
got some pretty good shooters. But Durant was second and
sixteenth was Dorian Finney Smith. Very specific to at least
one skill for the players that they've added. What were

(01:26:17):
the Rockets needing to be better at this year? Now?
They were better in the postseason series somehow as a
team shooting threes, but over the course of the season,
bad three point shooting team. They got lower and lower
volume thankfully throughout the year. I think kind of in
recognition of that. There's no reason for them to continue
firing them up at the rate they were firing them

(01:26:38):
up at earlier in the year because they weren't going in.
But they weren't a good three point shooting team last year,
just straight up percentage. They shot it at thirty five
point three percent, that's bottom ten. They were twenty first
in the league. They just added two players that clearly
shot the ball better than both of the players they
moved out. Dylan Brooks was very good at thirty nine
point seven percent, but that's not forty one or better.

(01:27:01):
Doesn't automatically mean they're going to shoot better, but whatever
they do similarly offensively to create wide open three point shots,
and guess what, they're going to create those again, probably
even more easily than they did a year ago. I
believe there might be more double teams for Kevin Durant
than anybody they lost. And now at least one player
is out on the wing that should be shooting it

(01:27:22):
a little bit better, and that could be either Dorian
Finney Smith or Jabari Smith Junior, or they could both
be out there, and obviously the other one is Kevin Durant,
also a great corner three shooter, a great catch and
shoot player, one of the best all time in the
mid range and certainly currently in the NBA, and continues
to shoot a shot that many teams, some teams started

(01:27:44):
out laws how or to look past. Well, if it's
an open shot and the player is going to hit
it at a fifty seven to eight sixty percent clip,
then it's still a good shot. Layups, free throws and
three pointers. Yes, there's a point in time where most
of the player on the team should be striving to
only take those shots. But it's okay to have outliers.

(01:28:06):
Chris Paul major league outlier and playing in Houston during
the Daryl Morey era where there virtually were none allowed.
They didn't tell him to stop shooting it. Why should they?
He's very very good at it. Your run of the
mill NBA player, You run of the mill NBA team
with eleven players in their rotation not likely to have
players that are very good at that. The rocketson are
now adding the second player in this last ten year

(01:28:29):
period that is exceptional at it, so you will see
it more often. I would also bet the Jalen Green
shoots it a little bit more often in Phoenix. I
think that's maybe, you know, not trade related and not
kind of wake up call related, because sometimes you might
work out or do things a little differently in a
year where you feel like a team you know gave
up on you and you want to show them. But

(01:28:49):
I think he was already planning on doing this, and
I don't think it would have changed if he was
here or there. It's an area of his game I
think can be improved and will be improved and will
be a big part of why Ayalen Green will be
a better player this year than he was last year.
I'm not gonna sit here and say I told you so.
When he scores twenty two points a game next year
and say I told you better in Phoenix than he
was here, Well, he's definitely gonna score more points in Phoenix.

(01:29:13):
That's pretty much a given. There's almost no way he can't.
He's not gonna watch them play. He's gonna be out
there playing. And they stink and they need people to score,
and they lost one of the best scorers in the league,
and it's not gonna be going to Bradley Beal as
much as it is going to be going to Jalen Green.
We don't even know if Bradley Beal is gonna stay there.
And don't get any ideas fans of basketball just because

(01:29:34):
Damian Lillard was waved and waved via this stretch provision,
so Milwaukee can get away with paying him out that
one hundred and thirteen plus million over five years, so
dead money for twenty two million dollars a pop each
year for the next five years. The Phoenix Suns do
not have that option because they already used it, and

(01:29:55):
they used it in a time period that doesn't allow
for it to be used again here. And you'd be
shocked at the low level of talent it was used on.
And that happens from time to time in the NBA,
but just noteworthy there, clearly with this team, even through
the draft. Quite obviously in free agency the last time
they really sunk their teeth into free agency, which was

(01:30:16):
the same year they hired Ema Udoka, they didn't necessarily
say we need to get the best couple of players
out there because we want to start winning now. We
need to get the best players that fit what we
want to do. And one of the things they wanted
to do in addition to win, was create a culture.
And you signed Jeff Green, and you sign Aaron Holliday,
and you sign Dylan Brooks, and you signed Fred van Vliek.

(01:30:38):
Two of those four are starters. Two of those four
helped to set the culture. Two of those four were
in the starting lineup in the playoff series you made
just two years after signing them in that second season,
very specific to things that those two players could do.
And quite honestly, Dylan Brooks basketball just the basketball, not
the meanness, not the toughness, not the defense, but rather

(01:31:01):
the offense. The offense that was minimized in his time
in Phoenix. The longer he played there, he was able
to turn that around here, especially last year. Not one
of their top options by any means, probably a third
or fourth option at best, sometimes even lower. But what
he did with his opportunities found a way to get

(01:31:21):
a lot of shots and a lot of made shots
in the paint, taking his man to the basket. The
little followay he had in the mid range, obviously is
three point shooting. He's not a career forty percent shooter,
but he shot thirty nine point seven percent last season.
That mattered for a team that could not make a lot.
He certainly helped that cause a great deal. So I
think that's something you'll also see in Phoenix with him there.

Speaker 4 (01:31:43):
But to the.

Speaker 3 (01:31:44):
Western Conference, the Rockets have clearly done things that put
them in the conversation to who's done the best job
to put themselves in the best position to challenge Golden State.
They're in the conversation one of the other teams that
was right there with him, that finished couple spots behind him,
that pushed Oklahoma City to the brink. They're in a
very comparable positive position after the first couple of days

(01:32:07):
of free agency. We'll talk about that team and their
place in the Western Conference.

Speaker 4 (01:32:11):
Next.

Speaker 2 (01:32:13):
The ad on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 3 (01:32:20):
Wanted to continue with the NBA discussion We'll hitch you
with say what next segment, but also wanted to pass
along the Astros acknowledging and via their release announcing that
Shay Whitcomb is in fact the player that's the corresponding
move for Jeremy Pania going to the ten day IL. Obviously,
Shay is with the team and available should Joe Spot.
I want to play him today. I hope he does

(01:32:44):
find the lineup shortly tell you if he does. With
Colton Gordon on the mound for the Astros and one
of the awful pitchers for the Colorado Rockies who boasts
awful numbers will be on the mound for them, mister Dollander,
and they'll throw mister Gomber, and then they should throw
mister Freeland, all of whom carry exactly the same disgusting

(01:33:05):
statistics with them to the mound. Colorado is their record,
their statistics absolutely back it up. Even when they've played
a little bit better recently, it still don't win a lot,
and the Astros would like to have that continue. But
finally a little payoff here called in the second best
team in the Western Conference, and as the year ended,

(01:33:28):
I still believe that to be true. As it begins
next year, we'll see. I definitely think the Rockets, who
are not that team I'm talking about, despite having the
second best record in the West, I think they absolutely
can give them a run for their money, and all
of them are trailing the champs who got super duper
max contract agreement done with Shay Gilgess Alexander players like this.

Speaker 4 (01:33:50):
You heard this offseason.

Speaker 3 (01:33:52):
If Kevin Durant waited a little bit, he could have
made a couple extra million. You usually hear this with
some of the older players. If they decide to wait
to sign this mega extent supermax, there's a little bit
more money for them. And Shay Gillis, Alexander certainly could
have waited and made a little bit more on that
particular contract, or he could just end up making a
bunch more on a future contract. He's signing a super

(01:34:14):
max with the Oklahoma City Thunder and extension there as expected.
Very very very very very very very unlikely he ever
puts on any other team's uniform, even though this isn't
the only one he's put on.

Speaker 4 (01:34:25):
He played a year with the Clippers.

Speaker 3 (01:34:27):
I don't think he'll be putting on anybody else's and
I also think he's going to be playing in the
NBA Finals again in his career, at least once. The
Denver Nuggets are the second best team in the West
when the season ended, in my opinion, two teams hot
on their heels and absolutely in the discussion. The Minnesota Timberwolves,
who are in pursuit of Kevin Durant and the Houston

(01:34:49):
Rockets who won the pursuit of Kevin Durant. But here's
what the Nuggets have done so far this offseason if
you hadn't heard, and I've referenced it a couple of times,
but I haven't followed through on exactly what it is
that they've put together. And they made another move earlier
today during our show, So we'll start there. Free agent

(01:35:10):
sharpshooter Tim Hardaway Junior.

Speaker 4 (01:35:13):
Yes, I said that.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
Intentionally like that, has agreed to a one year deal
with the Denver Nuggets. This is word for word from
Shams and we still have well over an hour and
a half on the show. I might just do it
as say what the Sham Sharania say what I think
I might do that coming up at four point thirty,
because there's something of minor consequence but great importance coming

(01:35:39):
from Shams over the last twenty four to forty eight hours.
So Tim Hardaway Junior the fourth most important acquisition made
by the Denver Nuggets in my opinion. Bruce Brown is
the third most important. He's coming back to the team.
He won a championship with a couple of years ago.
We mentioned the Jonas Valenschunis trade, Dario sarich out and

(01:36:02):
Jonas valentiunas in that's the second most important change. But
they leaned heavily on their starters this past year, and
they were one of the teams that fell by the wayside,
partially due to injuries. Michael Porter Junior injured throughout most
of their series and then Aaron Gordon hurt for the
remaining portion of the series. At the end of the
series and they fell in seven games to Oklahoma City.

(01:36:25):
Cam Johnson for Michael Porter Junior. The Nets can have
Michael Porter Junior and the Nuggets get Cam Johnson. Cam
Johnson probably makes all first team. I had no idea
who this was and what he's been doing in the NBA.
From the casual fan I said, I. I didn't mean me,

(01:36:46):
of course I know Cam Johnson. I mean everybody else
out there in NBA Land. This will be his third stop.
He was in Phoenix and played very well there for
some good Phoenix teams from twenty nineteen through twenty twenty three.
Was part of a deal that sent him to Brooklyn.
Over the last two and a half seasons, and he's

(01:37:07):
played very well there in a bunch of games that
don't matter and a bunch of for a bunch of
teams that can't win each of those years. There, So
all that can be weaved into what you think about
Cam Johnson the player, well, Cam Johnson the offensive player
in the right place with the right teammates. I'm not
saying he's going to score more than eighteen point eight

(01:37:29):
points per game, which he did last year, but he
is going to be awfully helpful. If he's shooting thirty
nine percent from three point land, he's going to be
awfully helpful. If he's shooting ninety percent at the free
throw line, he shoots forty eight percent from the floor.
This is a really I think smart move. Now he's
I don't know if you'd call him and his career

(01:37:50):
full of injuries, had a tough time being on the
court though is yet to have a seventy games played
season and next year is going to be his seventh
year in the NBA. And Michael Porter Junior obviously at
different points in his career and then as this season ended,
injuries were definitely a part of his story in Denver.
Super talented player can produce I think pretty much all

(01:38:13):
the way around, very similar to Cam Johnson, just in
a slightly different frame. And the impressive numbers I gave
you for Cam Johnson, they're shared. The strict rudimentary basic
numbers for these two players are almost identical from this
past year. Both a little bit more than eighteen points
per game, but not nineteen, both of them right around

(01:38:35):
forty percent but not quite forty percent, and both of
them forty eight and fifty percent overall from the field.
And Porter Junior's last two seasons have essentially been healthy seasons. Again,
this year ended in injury, but he played through it
and each of the five seasons before that. Remember, this
is another player thought of very highly coming out of
school fourteenth overall pick, but with injury concerns and he

(01:38:58):
did not play his first seas. His next three seasons
also were with some injury concerns. But I like this
move a lot, even though the production might not change
a whole lot. I think what Denver has done this
offseason should keep everybody that was there, Murray and Nikolai
Jokich very happy. I think Christian Braun Brown plays a

(01:39:18):
bigger role this upcoming season, and I gotta say this
now again, probably for about the thirtieth time since they
made the deal. When they traded for Aaron Gordon bunch
of years ago, I thought, why, I thought he was
putting up hollow, unlikely to be repeatable numbers in Oklahoma City.
I did or not in Oklahoma City. In Orlando, I

(01:39:40):
did think he was going to help them defensively, had
no idea he was going to help them this much defensively.
And he just gives them what they need. He's not
going to be out at the three point line shooting
a bunch of shots unless he's successful, and this past
year he was remarkably successful. Actually shot a slightly better
percentage than Kevin Durant in far fewer at ten.

Speaker 4 (01:40:00):
Obviously, he's good around the basket. He's a physical player.

Speaker 3 (01:40:03):
He plays above the rim, not quite where he once
did when he was displaying his aerial attack at dunk contests.
But a healthy Aaron Gordon, with Jokic, with Murray, with
now Johnson, with val Chunis coming off the bench, with
I think an improved Brown and some of the other
young players. They showed a small amount of trust in

(01:40:24):
can all help this team.

Speaker 4 (01:40:25):
And you know, I don't know if it's just me.

Speaker 3 (01:40:28):
I just I don't know that I would call Tim
Hardaway Junior a sharp shooter. I don't want to call
a shooter that doesn't shoot a respectable enough percentage a
sharp shooter. He's a shooter. He's a shooter, Okay, using
that word because that's what he does. That's why he's
had a job with the Knicks and the Hawks, and

(01:40:48):
the Mavericks and the Pistons and now the Nuggets. Because
he shoots the ball from behind the three point line
a lot. And I want him shooting that shot because
if he's inside the three point line, he's thinks, but
thirty seven percents not terrible, thirty eight percent a couple
of years ago, thirty nine percent a couple of years
before that. It's not like you can't make those shots.

(01:41:10):
But I'll save the real meaning of that for like
I said, say what sham Sharania addition coming up, this
is a team in the West so far, the only
other team in the West that I think is serious
about challenging Oklahoma City and looking at what their serious
because they have a series played against the team, and
Oklahoma City is going to look exactly the same next year.

(01:41:33):
You might see a little bit more for this player
or that player. You might see a different role for
somebody here and there. Maybe there's a little bit more chet,
maybe he's improved a little bit. But they had two
All NBA guys. That's not going to change. They play
a certain way. They're way better defensively, and I think
anybody understands, especially with their ability to defend with multiple
different players on the perimeter.

Speaker 4 (01:41:54):
But they're not changing.

Speaker 3 (01:41:55):
It's everybody else's option to change to try to keep
up with them.

Speaker 4 (01:42:00):
Necessarily down on some.

Speaker 3 (01:42:01):
Of the other teams in the West, but I can't
put them in the same category as Denver and Houston,
at least in my opinion, in terms of what they've
done to enhance their chances to compete with Oklahoma City.

Speaker 4 (01:42:11):
Other teams are absolutely in the mix.

Speaker 3 (01:42:12):
Minnesota hasn't enhanced their chances of beating in Oklahoma City.
They have a comparable chance, just like they did last year.
They're capable, they have a decent enough roster, but they
haven't done anything that moves them in that path.

Speaker 4 (01:42:25):
Memphis clearly hasn't done that. Golden State.

Speaker 3 (01:42:27):
Maybe it's worth mentioning Kevon Looney finally went and signed
and played somewhere else for more money. He's been there
forever for less money for some reason. Now he's gonna
go somewhere else, finally again a player. I will be
happy to not have defending any of the Rockets post
players moving forward, if they should meet again in the postseason.
I'm not afraid of it. I don't know if anybody

(01:42:48):
else is. But we'll stick with the NBA little bone
to pick. Say what It's next?

Speaker 1 (01:42:55):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety. This is
Adam and adamsweekly, charged through mind buckling moments that make you.

Speaker 4 (01:43:05):
Go, hey, what what?

Speaker 1 (01:43:10):
Say what?

Speaker 6 (01:43:10):
One?

Speaker 4 (01:43:12):
Tay?

Speaker 6 (01:43:12):
What?

Speaker 7 (01:43:13):
Dear?

Speaker 3 (01:43:14):
What are you talking about?

Speaker 4 (01:43:15):
On a Tuesday pay what again?

Speaker 2 (01:43:18):
I'm dare now say what?

Speaker 3 (01:43:22):
That's right signature segment time. It is Tuesday. So we
asked that very question, say what and I already told
you what the subject matter would be today.

Speaker 4 (01:43:33):
NBA news breaking call.

Speaker 3 (01:43:35):
Over your years covering sports, probably have made some connections,
have some sources, probably play the little little bit of
the scratch your back, scratch my back game.

Speaker 4 (01:43:47):
Amen'll you got this?

Speaker 3 (01:43:49):
If you can do this and can't help but think
that it's gotten a little out of hand.

Speaker 4 (01:43:54):
Oh, it's one hundred p second in.

Speaker 3 (01:43:55):
Football season, when one nanosecond separates Tom Pella, Sero, mark Irofolo,
Adam Schefter in rap reports exactly word for word, identical
tweet sent directly from the agent, copy and pasted directly
into a post on X, thanking the agents for the

(01:44:16):
work they've done on this remarkably creative deal for their
client group chat. And in this case, there's not twelve
NBA reporters taking a group text and firing it off
on the X platform. It's just one. So he's going
to catch the heat on this one. I kind of
told you why I had to mention it earlier, but

(01:44:38):
it wasn't even the reason. I thought this was a
nice little fit today's edition of Say What. Earlier today,
I was scrolling my phone a little bit, falling along
with the news. Was in my car waiting for the
oil change, expecting it to take a certain very specific
number of minutes as indicated by the brand name. It

(01:44:58):
took several more minutes than that, like times twenty, so
I had plenty of time to look things over. And
when I got the news that the Sacramento Kings were inking,
Dennis Shrewder to a three year, forty five million dollar deal.
I thought, oh, that's interesting. It's a really dumb team
doing a really dumb thing. And I didn't think much
of it beyond that, because if you've listened to me

(01:45:19):
over the years, I've been here both before young Dennis
joined the Houston Rockets briefly and for all the time
after he's played for nineteen other teams since I pretty
much have the same viewpoint of this player. So I
would have said something surely negative about this on the
show regardless. But in this instance, it really doesn't have
much to do with the player to say. What is

(01:45:39):
the quote post that Chums and the agents agreed upon
for him to add to this noteworthy piece of information. Obviously,
he mentioned the agent at Priority Sports who finalized this
deal for Dennis to join the Kings three years, forty
five million. Then the quote post, which clearly is Hey man,
this is what you should add to it.

Speaker 4 (01:46:00):
Now listen closely, get this down. Or do you need
me to text the two?

Speaker 3 (01:46:04):
Yeah, I'll just text the two that way, you could
just post it and it'll definitely be exactly the words
that I want you to say to everybody out there
on your massive national platform as we continue to work together,
and it reads Schroeder used the momentum of his strong
second half and playoff finish with the Pistons after being
involved in the complicated Golden State Miami Jimmy Butler trade
to land this forty five million deal in Sacramento. So

(01:46:27):
the second part of that applauds the agents and everybody involved,
super complicated trade, involve the Golden State in Miami, Way
to go, everybody involved, GMS awesome assisted, GMS, great job teams,
many of them, lots of phone calls. I'm sure you
guys are awesome at your jobs. Keep it up. And
the first part of it is obviously to compliment the
player unnecessarily use the momentum of his strong second half.

Speaker 4 (01:46:51):
Let's start there.

Speaker 3 (01:46:52):
If you guys are familiar with Dennis Schroeder's game, you
know that he plays guard.

Speaker 4 (01:46:58):
Guards usually play.

Speaker 3 (01:47:00):
With maybe an attack to basket style and they shoot
a bunch of shots from the perimeter and behind the
three point line. He fits that mold. He's not a
super high volume three point shooter. Guess why, because he's
not very good at it. He's not a super high
volume shooter to begin with, unless the dumb teams he's
been on like Atlanta in Oklahoma City, in La twice,

(01:47:23):
in Boston and Houston, in Toronto and Brooklyn and Golden
State and Detroit ask him to I didn't even have
this little bit of information on awful offensive player Dennis Schroeder.
Building off his strong second half, he shot thirty seven
point eight percent overall from the field from the field

(01:47:47):
with Detroit. His strong second half one of the reasons
he was available to Detroit because it's because Golden State
would absolutely in dire desperate straits. We have to get
a player on the We have so many guys missing.
We don't have it. We can't play basketball without somebody.
Let's go get Dennis Schroeder, who is even worse with

(01:48:07):
them slightly thirty seven and a half percent his career
forty three percent shooter overall when he was here in Houston.
Maybe I was a little bit spoiled in the worst way.
Worst shooting season of his career came with Houston briefly.
Fifteen whole games with Houston he shot thirty nine percent,

(01:48:27):
and then in their playoff run he's also shot He
also shot thirty percent on threes with Detroit in the
twenty eight games he played at the end of the season.

Speaker 4 (01:48:35):
That is dismal.

Speaker 3 (01:48:36):
That is please, don't turn the ball over, because a
shot from you behind the three point line is a turnover.

Speaker 4 (01:48:42):
Don't do it. But he did.

Speaker 3 (01:48:45):
Now, this is the reason why Sacramento is really, really,
really dumb and they gave him three years forty five million,
unless they're trying to lose, because then they're really really
really smart because he will help.

Speaker 7 (01:48:56):
This is the reason, not everything else that they've done.
This is the reason.

Speaker 3 (01:49:00):
This is the reason they fell for it. Oh my god,
did you see Dennis in the playoffs? Did you see
that series against the Knicks?

Speaker 5 (01:49:08):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:49:09):
I mean that's the player we're getting, right, the guy
who made half of his shots from the field, the
guy who made forty percent of his shots from deep. Yeah,
that one we're getting him. That's the player we're signing, right.
And then somebody said his agent, Yeah, that's the player
you're getting. And then somebody else not in their organization said, yeah,

(01:49:29):
the guy you'll never ever ever ever see again, first
sixty eight games of his playoff career. Not quite that
kind of player. Thirty two on threes, forty two percent
on the floor, as in exactly the same regular season
player he's been his entire career, but in six games

(01:49:49):
over two weeks, he looked like an NBA caliber offensive player.
So let's give him three years, forty five million. But
this is say what Sham's edition. That's just one example.
Free agent Jericho Simms greased to a two year deal
with the Bucks, including a player option in the second season.
Milwaukee retains a lob threat big man in Sims, who

(01:50:11):
played in a career high fifty three games last season
and all five playoff games. Cole Trivia time, this is
going to be year five for Jericho Simms. That means
he's played four NBA seasons. He played with Milwaukee and
excuse me, he's played with the Knicks and he's played
with Milwaukee.

Speaker 4 (01:50:31):
This is a guy out of Texas, right.

Speaker 3 (01:50:32):
This is the big out of Texas that spent a
whole lot of almost no time at Texas before he
declared for the draft, went with the fifty eighth pick
in the second round in twenty twenty one, played all
four years with the Knicks. This last part of this
past year he played with Milwaukee, and thus was a
part of Milwaukee's playoff team. So four NBA seasons, I'll
tell you played one hundred and ninety one games, all right,

(01:50:55):
I will tell you. In those one hundred and ninety
one games, he has dunked the ball one hundred and
five fifty five times. How many other baskets two point
baskets has he made in his entire career? He has
one hundred and fifty five dunks.

Speaker 7 (01:51:08):
I'm gonna go with thirty one, yes, fifty, Okay, he
has made fifty shots in four seasons that aren't dunks.
Last year, great big, he averaged two point four points
per game with Milwaukee one point eight overall career two
point four points per game. I'm not telling you to
say something bad about the player that the agent told

(01:51:28):
you just signed.

Speaker 3 (01:51:29):
But come on, man, don't lie, Come on man a
lob threat and practice. Come on chams the eighteen on
Sports Talk seven ninety. We like when players drop in
on social media. I believe here on the A team,

(01:51:50):
we'll get to football at five coming up at the
top of the hour, and few other things there. They're
definitely interesting going on today on social media on the
football front.

Speaker 4 (01:51:58):
Like I said, we'll get to that at five o'clock.

Speaker 3 (01:52:00):
But we do like when players drop in, and the
Rockets just added a player who drops in on social media,
specifically the X platform pretty much NonStop.

Speaker 4 (01:52:09):
Also a nice little addition today.

Speaker 3 (01:52:12):
Listen to a little bit of it before the show,
but in the timing of it, nothing really in there
from a literal you're a Houston Rocket now perspective. He
sat down with his former head coach and his former
Team USA teammate for a little podcast. Part one released today.
That's Steve Nation Lebron James talking about Kevin Durant might

(01:52:34):
be a snipper or two from there moving forward. It's
really just about the game of basketball and their respective
careers rather than a lot of stuff about his next
move either one of them. Lebron to play in what
will now be the final year of his contract with
the Lakers, not likely to be traded, but will be
a season long or to the trade deadline discussion topic.

(01:52:55):
And Kevin Durant, who probably also finally has reached his
last I don't think there's any more NBA basketball for
Kevin Durant in a uniform other than the Houston Rockets.
No word on an exact amount and length for his extension,
but it's likely the full two years, and we'll see
if he wants all.

Speaker 4 (01:53:15):
Of it or if he wants something a little bit
more team friendly. His choice, I'm sure.

Speaker 3 (01:53:19):
But that's going to happen, and he's going to play
out the last couple of years of his career with
a really good opportunity on a really good team, surrounded
right really good players, an outstanding head coach, great assistant coach,
and an organization that clearly is intent on winning it
all over the final three years of his career. But
that's not the player I'm talking about, because today, a
different player who has been pretty active here recently, not

(01:53:40):
always that active, but has been recently done a couple
of Q and a's. Hey, I have nothing better to do.
I'll ask answer your questions right now. But today three
posts in particular for the only other franchise changing caliber
player that may still end up finding a new home
this offseason, talking about Yannis Janisnotakumpo was very happy to

(01:54:07):
reach social media to thank the work done by Brook Lopez,
a Milwaukee Bucks legend in his mind, a post about
the work that he did there by the way. Brook
Lopez agreed to a two year, sixteen million dollar deal
with the Clippers, so he's coming to the Western Conference.
More talent to the West. The Bucks have since waived

(01:54:28):
Damian Lillard unofficially do it via the Stress provision and
will be replacing brook Lopez with Indiana Pacers center Miles Turner.
But back to Yannis, he posts just a little congratulations,
it says my emoji emoji. It's a t rex emoji
and the prayer hands emoji folded hands. A big fan

(01:54:49):
of his friend, his teammate, brook Lopez. A couple hours later,
he added the one thousand percent quote tweet of a
tweet that said brook Lopez should have his jersey retired
in Milwaukee. Hey, now, wait a minute, I know he
won a championship there, but come on, man, he's your friend,

(01:55:14):
he's a nice player. He's not gonna have his new
jersey he's retired anywhere but maybe his high school. Nonetheless,
even that is not the post of note. He posted
a picture of himself or eccually of brook Lopez celebrating
their championship with that two Rex, with a quote on
the picture. I don't know what's going on now, man,

(01:55:36):
I don't know what's going on right now, man, and
he quotes tweeted that saying mood one hundred. I don't
know if the Chris Haynes report that he's unhappy of
the move made by the Bucks. That's the report that
Giannis is not happy with the direction that they chose
with waving. I shouldn't say it that way. He was

(01:55:56):
not happy with the decision to wave Damian Lowe, that
was the report. Still not sure why, Still not sure
what he has in mind for his Milwaukee Bucks future.
Still not sure if he's maybe more upset about Robin
Lopez going first and now Damian Lillward in basically everybody
but Bobby Portis that mattered at all to their championship

(01:56:17):
is gone, which was gonna happen anyway. When they and
he were on board with going after Damian Lillard and
getting rid of Drew Holliday in the process, they chose
to do that. Chris Middleton's now gone. Obviously injury issues
for him for the most reason, biggest reason why he
was gone. He's also older player. I don't think they're
really really good and they're gonna get slaughtered in the

(01:56:39):
NBA Finals. If they somehow win the East, but the
East is pretty wide open. Cleveland's probably still pretty good,
even though they appear to be looking to get rid
of Darius Garland, even though the Knicks are probably pretty good.
Rudderless ship that they are still no coach and still
not necessarily Mike Brown is their front runner, and then
kind of everybody else has. Atlanta made it enough of

(01:57:00):
an improvement with a couple of editions they've made. They
signed each of the two players we mentioned, along with
Dorian Finney Smith that might be interesting to the Rockets,
signing both Ny Kieland, Alexander Walker and Luke Canard and
traded for Kristap Sporzingis and have several young talented players
to go along with last year's number one pick and let.

Speaker 4 (01:57:20):
Trey Young basically have a say in half of the stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:57:22):
Trey Young somehow despite his playing style which is a
little bit misunderstood but certainly not a lot of winning.
He had the one year where he and the team
made it to the conference finals, but otherwise he's been
out there on the court pretty much exclusively healthy and
tons and tons of hollow numbers. But he's advanced about
as far as any superstar can not quite to James

(01:57:43):
Harden level and not quite to Lebron level, where there
are one hundred percent have an office at the facility
as the GM of the team.

Speaker 4 (01:57:53):
But he's gotten awfully close.

Speaker 3 (01:57:55):
And in the paper version of it, what does it
look like on paper? I don't I don't think he's
done a bad job. Big risk with Christaps. It's a
risk that the Celtics took. It's the risk that the
Mavericks took. If he's healthy, he helps you. If he's not,
you're sunk with all the money you're paying him. But
they've also made some other moves that are reasonably good.
Some of the trades they're still trying to get over,

(01:58:16):
and the picks that they gave up in those trades
are a little bit much to overcome, but talent for
talent after you get throws through those first three teams
I mentioned, Indiana's down for what they've lost. Milwaukee is
somewhere in the middle. Everybody else in the East other
than Detroit is kind of just sitting there. Detroit, I
think as an opportunity to move forward again. I'm not

(01:58:36):
sure that they're going to do anything this offseason that
makes me think hot more highly of them.

Speaker 7 (01:58:40):
Not number one, but I think they can jump into
the top two, me be top three commerce And.

Speaker 3 (01:58:44):
Honestly, I know they lost in six to the Knicks easily,
that could have easily been a seven game series, especially
for how one particular game involving Tim Hardaway Junior was
officiated at the very end of that game, very important
to how that went down. But I just Giannis every
year has been like this, and I'm I think I'm
in a majority of people who aren't sure what exactly

(01:59:06):
it is he wants. And I think we kind of
reach this point where with Lillard, is it really about
the loyalty or do you and do you really believe
in management? Do you really believe they can get back there?
And I really do truly wonder if their head coach
plays a role in this somehow. I don't mean verbally
in conversations, I mean in who he is. Has he

(01:59:26):
soured on Doc Rivers? Has he talked to other NBA
players that know they're probably not gonna win anything they
reach their peak, Well, they definitely aren't better.

Speaker 4 (01:59:35):
I get that.

Speaker 3 (01:59:36):
The only reason they have to compete, have a chance
to compete at all, is because the Eastern Conference is crumbling.
The tenth best team in the West could think about
competing in the East. And now Milwaukee is the fourth
or fifth or sixth best team in the in the East,
even without Lillard, even without Brook Lopez, while essentially just
bringing back the rest of their team and adding Miles Turner.
NFL football and college football at the forefront of football

(02:00:00):
at five on the NFL side, we stay in Texas.
On the college football side, it just means more.

Speaker 2 (02:00:06):
Next the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:00:13):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the A team.

Speaker 4 (02:00:18):
All right, let's.

Speaker 3 (02:00:24):
Talk football here. Final hour of the program always begins
with football at five, unless Chandler Rome joins us. He
will do that tomorrow at five o'clock. Saw a little
Astros baseball with him. Do have the Astros lineup out there?
No surprises in it. We'll give that to you. Momentarily
put in his football at five here, and wanted to
get into something on both college and pro front. Cole

(02:00:46):
you get to side which goes first, college or pro.
I'm always gonna go on my favorite. Let's go to
the Saturday game. Okay, So that means we're going to
talk NFL first cars. I knew that earlier today. I
saw it was just a few minutes ago. As a
matter of fact, for some reason, the off season, nothing
much going on. I was Dak Prescott trending on the
X platform, so that got a click from me, and

(02:01:08):
first thing that popped up was this. Earlier today, Sean
Seranier reported four year super max extension for Shay gilges
Alexander seventy one million and change average annual value on
that contract. So that had somebody who I follow at
between the numbers. Like those guys crank out the stats,

(02:01:29):
he's one of them. He came up with the highest
AAV on a single contract in major pro sports history
here in the States and Canada Major League Baseball, the NBA,
the NFL, and the NHL. SGA's new deal is number one.
None of the other five that follow are hockey players.

Speaker 4 (02:01:49):
Duh.

Speaker 3 (02:01:50):
The list has almost everything in common, which is the
gist of this. But I'll ask you you have any
idea who else is on the list, all making at
least fifty eight point four five six four nine zero
million per year on an average annual value on their contract.
There are five players listed because two players make exactly

(02:02:12):
the same amount, so this includes six.

Speaker 4 (02:02:15):
Is this what just from Canada?

Speaker 3 (02:02:17):
This is from the United States of America. Huh, well,
you said, SGA, so I immediately went to Canada.

Speaker 9 (02:02:23):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:02:23):
Major League Baseball, NBA, NFL. Nobody from the NHL cracked
this list. Major League Baseball. Who makes the most money?

Speaker 4 (02:02:32):
Aaron Judge, No, show Hey, show Hey makes most money?

Speaker 3 (02:02:34):
Show Hey makes the most money even though he's not
getting at all, especially something we should bring up on
the day that everybody likes to celebrate, which obviously you
know me, I think it's the dumbest thing ever. They
act like he's the only player that gets deferred money,
even though I even saw a list today of nine
other players. Heck, Max Schurzer got fifteen million dollars today
from the Nationals. A lot of people who've retired, a

(02:02:57):
lot of people who set their deals up like this
probably could have made more money if he got it
all up front and just reasonably invested it. Hardly had
to do anything crazy. But yeah, I know, it's Bobby
Bennia day. It's also Chris Davis day. It's also a
Brett Saberhagen day. I could go on and on, but
show hey day will come sometime after he retires. Sure,
with all that deferred money, he makes seventy million per

(02:03:19):
year on his contract. High aav in Major League Baseball.
There's three NBA guys on the list and one nfler.

Speaker 4 (02:03:26):
Well, she's on the list now, isn't he?

Speaker 3 (02:03:27):
He's number one. There's three other NBA players on the
list and one nfler. The highest paid AAV player in
the NFL.

Speaker 7 (02:03:35):
Highest AAVV player in the NFL. Is it Dak Prescott?
It's Dak Pressley, Yeah, that's my thought.

Speaker 3 (02:03:40):
He's at sixty Jason Tatums at sixty two seven AD
and Gianni Sanotacunpo at fifty eight four. This list includes
an NBA champion, a World Series champion, another NBA champion,
another NBA champion, another NBA champion, and Dak Prescott. If

(02:04:02):
you win it all, if you do what you're supposed
to do, if you're paid all that money to get
it done, then by all means, I'd love to see
you at the top of the list.

Speaker 4 (02:04:11):
Dak Prescott.

Speaker 3 (02:04:13):
Also in this group of NBA champion, NBA Champion, NBA champion,
NBA champion, World Series Champion.

Speaker 7 (02:04:18):
And then Dak Press and Dak Prescott. I think the
Dak kade is getting out of him.

Speaker 3 (02:04:22):
I'm sorry, that is actually why I brought it up,
because I am a nice person.

Speaker 4 (02:04:28):
Are we still?

Speaker 3 (02:04:30):
I don't I don't want to say underrating Dak Prescott
because I definitely don't think that's true. But is there
more Dak hate than his warrant?

Speaker 7 (02:04:39):
Yes, there's been more Dak hate since twenty twenty when
he initially got franchise tag, the Dak hate was at
all time high. When he signed the second franchise tag,
the Dak hate was at all time high.

Speaker 4 (02:04:50):
And the problem is, it's just I get it.

Speaker 7 (02:04:54):
You going after a quarterback who plays for America's team
that hasn't been to a Conference CHAMPI and ship in
thirty years.

Speaker 4 (02:05:02):
I get it.

Speaker 7 (02:05:03):
But the market is dictated based off of literally the
ownership signing him. On the dotted line. You paid for
Ezekiel Elliott, you paid for Jalen Smith, you paid for
DeMarcus Lawrence, you paid for a wide receiver, you made trades,
you paid for Lyle Collins, and you said, well, you
know what, let's just throw the deal down the river.

Speaker 4 (02:05:24):
Just a little bit longer, and we're gonna play.

Speaker 7 (02:05:26):
Him on the franchise tag because he was a Day
three pick.

Speaker 4 (02:05:29):
He's gonna be loyal to us.

Speaker 7 (02:05:30):
He has a great year in twenty twenty two, he
has a great year in twenty twenty three.

Speaker 4 (02:05:35):
What wasn't twenty twenty three?

Speaker 7 (02:05:36):
He had an MVP caliber season, And we're talking about
him getting paid because the market said, hey, this is
what your value is.

Speaker 4 (02:05:46):
Like it's annoying that. And I say this because it's
not even a Dak truever.

Speaker 7 (02:05:49):
It's more just the fact that we're at a level
of there's not much more you can ask for. You're
either going to have the hit reason on the quarterback
and he may suck and he may be tear out
in Dallas, or you have to pay him what the
market is telling you his value is.

Speaker 3 (02:06:06):
I'll take it from there for a minute. I believe
in everything you said, except for the figures and the market.
He wasn't the most recently signed quarterback, not even close. Sure,
So the question would be immediately, well, how come he's
on top of the list, But that's not even the
real question. The real question is how come he's on
top of the list by so much.

Speaker 4 (02:06:26):
Still, four other.

Speaker 3 (02:06:28):
Quarterbacks much more recently signed Joe Burrow, Jordan Love, Josh Allen,
Trevor Lawrence.

Speaker 4 (02:06:33):
They make the same money.

Speaker 3 (02:06:34):
They make what the market dictated, other than Jacksonville's stupid decision,
but what the market dictated they should be paid. They
get fifty five million on their average annual value. The
other quarterbacks from a timeliness standpoint, brock Perdy just got paid.
He gets fifty three. Justin Herbert recently got the extension.

(02:06:55):
Tua recently got the extension. They're making fifty two plus.
How come nobody's being fifty six or fifty seven and
a half or fifty eight or fifty nine and Dak
is at sixty. This is a mistake made by Jerry Jones.
It's a few million dollars on your cap, everybody if

(02:07:15):
now I know he's the GM, so he's the one
that has to figure out how to maneuver around it.

Speaker 4 (02:07:19):
Aha, he has people. Uh, it's not that big of
a deal.

Speaker 3 (02:07:22):
It's like paying overpaying your kicker by a couple of
million dollars he'd be making. So I'm mad that he's
making sixty instead of fifty four. I mean you'd probably
want the best deal possible. But the reality of it
is he shouldn't be making that much money. He should
have been extended, because when you don't extend your quarterback,
It's why Trevor Lawrence got extended. I hate to say

(02:07:43):
it that way about Dak because I kind of think
he's more accomplished. In reality, he is barely more accomplished.
What he has two postseason victories and Trevor has one.

Speaker 7 (02:07:54):
And I think if you gotta go throw in regular
season accolades with the four thousand Trevert Lawrence acts are
awful compared to Dak's regular seasons. And obviously, three straight
years of winning twelve regular season games, I think that's important.

Speaker 4 (02:08:08):
I think it's hard to do.

Speaker 3 (02:08:09):
I think getting the home games of the playoffs is
something you should be taking advantage of. The Cowboys obviously
haven't always been able to do that ever, ever, ever,
literally in this lifetime, at least for me. Netflix released
the trailer for their Cowboys documentary.

Speaker 4 (02:08:25):
Yeah, I'm gonna watch it.

Speaker 3 (02:08:26):
I'll watch it too, and I think, if I'm not mistaken,
it has a lot more to do with Jerry Jones'
tenure as owner than anything much more recent really, the
storytelling of how the Cowboys once were and what they've
now become under the decades of Jerry Jones ownership. So
I had posted that and said, oh, you know, America's Team.
I had some snide, wet blanket type comments to make

(02:08:47):
about it, all that kind of stuff, and I took
all those out and just said, America's team. And one
of our listeners here, someone who follows most of us
here on these social media platforms, he said, pass and
then I responded to him.

Speaker 4 (02:08:59):
And it's intercept by the Packers.

Speaker 3 (02:09:01):
They would turn it for a touchdown and they take
a twenty seven to nothing lead here in Arlington, which
is what happened. But yes, people will watch that on Netflix.
They're going to watch the Kevin Durant Extravaganza that also
features SGA, a recount five players starting five coming up,

(02:09:21):
probably launching in October. You can launch Quarterback and then Quarterback,
which yeah, of course, I still think it's amazing that
we're spending eight minutes on should or is Dak getting
too much hate when Quarterbacks features Kirk Cousins, who's been
overpaid essentially every year after his rookie contract, But nonetheless, Again,

(02:09:42):
don't blame dak, don't blame Kirk, don't blame Derek Carr.
If a team wants to talk to your agent and
your agent, here's that figure, and you say, yes, you're smart,
take it. If they want to give it to you,
take it from them absolutely and positively be out at ownership.

Speaker 7 (02:09:57):
I never understand that, but I thought they were colluded.
Oh yeah, of course there were.

Speaker 3 (02:10:02):
Like some of the collusion is common sense, like Deshaun
Watson got guaranteed money. Like do the owners really have
to get caught up and sending text messages to each
other and at the owner's meetings getting together and blurting
it out and saying, hey, can you write this down
so we can document what we're saying to each other?

(02:10:23):
Or is it common sense that this contract makes no sense,
this contract should not have been given. We're super mad
at you forgiving it, but we're not trying to say
to everybody because we're not saying any of this out loud,
that we're not going to do it. Can be an
individual owner decision to say, when my guy Kyler Murray,

(02:10:45):
or when my guy Lamar Jackson, or when my guy
Josh Allen is due for an extension. I'm gonna pay
him handsomely without guaranteeing all of it, and it'll be
just fine.

Speaker 7 (02:10:55):
And they will agree to that deal because they'll realize
how much money they're gonna get paid up front, they'll
understand how much annual salary. And here's the other great part.
They're probably better than Deshaun Watson, so they don't need
to worry about the guaranteed money.

Speaker 3 (02:11:07):
Definitely part of the equation leaves us with the college
football to come back. On the other side, I'll give
you a little heads up on what's going on with
some of the Astros' injuries, as the Astros now do
on a weekly basis, an update of where everybody stands
and what the latest is on their progress.

Speaker 4 (02:11:24):
And also mentioned that Joe Spot has put together his lineup.

Speaker 3 (02:11:27):
If you were listening to us earlier with the replay
of his comments from earlier, he wasn't lying about what
he intended to put down for his batting order in
light of Jeremy Pania being unavailable.

Speaker 4 (02:11:39):
We'll share all that with you.

Speaker 2 (02:11:40):
Next The Age on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 3 (02:11:44):
Ninety continue on the A Team, Wexton Cole here with
you swinging on over to Major League Baseball. Remember earlier
today when I said George Springer had his twelfth home
run of the year, Well he had in another one,
this time with the juice. The Bags juiced Toronto looking

(02:12:05):
to play add on, they leave the Yankees nine to
four in the eighth innings, So the Yankees are going
to fall to forty eight and thirty seven. I think
the Blue Jays are going to rise to forty seven
and thirty eight, and the Rays will take the field
in an hour at forty seven and thirty eight. So
by the end of the night, these three American League
East teams will be separated by one win, Yankees falling

(02:12:29):
back a little bit to the pack, Raisin Blue Jays
becoming part of the chase for the American League East title.
Last night, if you missed it, the Mariners handled the Royals.
Thus the Astros lost a half game off of their lead.
Heading to play tonight at a six game lead in
the division, and for the fourth consecutive game, the Texas
Rangers said nine innings is not enough tid a franchise

(02:12:51):
record by going into extras for the fourth consecutive game.
One of the most hilarious things you're going to see
all year. Happened in the extra innings Porsche and of
the Rangers pretend that they were going to win evening
down three runs, a doula scarcia at the plate, three
run Homer absolutely clobbered it and stood there at home

(02:13:12):
plate like he'd won something more than tying a regular
season game and extra innings.

Speaker 4 (02:13:16):
It was awesome. Great to see people have fun. It's
a game.

Speaker 3 (02:13:20):
Celebrate, enjoy yourself, exalt your strength, beat your chest.

Speaker 4 (02:13:25):
It's fine.

Speaker 3 (02:13:25):
You've heard me long, long, many times ago. Hey, guys
want to celebrate big shots, big homers, big moments.

Speaker 4 (02:13:32):
It's fine. It's okay to be happy. It's okay to celebrate.

Speaker 3 (02:13:35):
Doesn't mean the next time you come up you're getting
thrown at, or you should be thrown at, or somebody
at home plate to catcher needs to get in your face.
Just go about it. It's fine. It was pretty elaborate,
heavy duty, intense celebration. And then they lost, of course
later on when they got outscored by four.

Speaker 4 (02:13:54):
Runs by a lot.

Speaker 3 (02:13:55):
Yeah, I struggling a little bit to win games. They're
three games under five hundred and as has been the
case for months now. For me not gonna talk about
them in the American League West race. And you want
to tell me they're not too far out of the
wild card race, that's fine, but they're not in the
race for the division. Three other games today in Major
League Baseball, the weather said, uh huh, you're not playing today.

(02:14:19):
One of those is not the Astros. Perfectly nice weather
outside in Colorado. And as Joe Spott had told us
earlier today, he's gonna keep Parretis at the time of
the lineup for the time being, not very much speed,
but he's gonna get on base. He bats first. Jake
Myers is gonna stay where he's been. Camp Smith's gonna
stay where he's been. So one, two, three, four remain
unchained for what we saw over the weekend after Paynya exited, Paradis, Myers, Altuve,

(02:14:44):
Cam Smith, they're in Colorado. By the way, pretty likely
that we're gonna see Jose Altuve in the infield this series.
We're seeing that tonight he's playing second base, very very
very large ground to cover. That will be Cooper Hummel's
responsibilit Myers and center obviously in camp Smith and right
Caroteene's the DHD as we'll catch Christian Walker once again.

(02:15:07):
Familiar spot, Get used to it until things change. Bottom
of the order hitter, he bats seventh, and you're new,
not permanent, temporary everyday shortstop bats ninth. Mauricio Dubon humblebat's eighth.
He's in left field, they're facing or they're throwing. Colton
Gordon Tonight, he's got the area under four. Last handful

(02:15:27):
of starts have been outstanding. He continues to not walk batters,
and I think that's a very good idea of something
not to do when you get to Colorado. If you've
heard of Chase Dollander, then you'll know that's the twenty
three year old starting pitcher tonight who carries any ara
over six.

Speaker 4 (02:15:43):
I do know him to the game this evening. What
wagering against him?

Speaker 7 (02:15:46):
No? I have him on my fantasy team, so never
using him. Nope, he is in my minor league system.
I have yet to pull him. Is this some sort
of foolish dynasty league. Yeah, it's a foolish dynasty league
that I have with a bunch of journalist friends that
have no nothing about baseball, don't cover baseball, that we
have joined five years ago, and we draft him every
single year. I picked Chase Dolander, thinking, all right, I

(02:16:08):
gotta believe in him, great stuff coming out of the
University of Tennessee. And yeah, I can't even play him
right now when he's not at Corsefield. I mean, you
can't really do anything with him. But knowing that he's
a Rocky and made a rapid rise to the major leagues,
drafted in twenty three year of minor league seasoning and
here he is a member of the Rockies. He's going

(02:16:31):
to be fine, But like you said, he just can't
pitch there in Colorado and.

Speaker 4 (02:16:36):
Really don't have much of an option.

Speaker 3 (02:16:37):
Mentioned the Astros also, we're ready to post injury updates
on those that are not with the team. Stinks that
there's eleven players that they need to update you on
and none of them are Jeremy Pana that's player number
twelve on the Astros injured list. Ten fifteen or sixty
day pitchers. Sean Dubin not throwing and I'm wondering when

(02:17:03):
we'll get a different diagnosis, if we will, from his
right forearm strain. But that is a dangerous, dangerous injury.
Spencerraghetti two side sessions his most recent one came three
days ago. He's there in Florida, JP France. Similar twenty
six pitch side same day back on the twenty seventh
last Friday, was supposed to be a live VP, but

(02:17:26):
weather inclement weather changed the two just a side session
Luis Scarci and Christian Xavier. They're throwing livevps. Yesterday was
the second one for Luis through twenty five pitches, two
innings for Christian Javier in his live BP session today
in Florida, and it had thrown about five days ago,
six days ago a live BP as well, so there

(02:17:49):
may just be one or two of those left for
him before maybe a change in his rehab is warranted,
meaning maybe it's time to go ahead and play baseball
on a rehab assignment. The offensive side of things, nothing
to report from activity in West Palm Beach, but that's
where Jordon Alvarez is and has been since Sunday, So

(02:18:10):
today or tomorrow, I imagine from Joe Spot and we may
catch an update on what he has done there. He's
expected to take part in live BP. Nothing for hitting
for Zach Decenzo yet with a hand injury. Chas McCormick
is taking live BP in Florida like Jordon Alvarez, so
hopefully the left oblique strain has nothing further and he

(02:18:31):
takes BPS, probably a rehab assignment for Chaz and then
a decision about when he wants to return. Pedro Leon,
Jacob Melton, Brendan Rodgers, they have hitting and throwing progressions
but have not advanced to taking.

Speaker 4 (02:18:45):
Live BP twelve players.

Speaker 3 (02:18:48):
Again, nothing from Jeremy Panna because there's not anything for
him to do. Jeremy Payne is going to get imaging
again and when they determine the small fracture scene in
his left rib has subsided, when they determine, he can
play through the pain potentially, because that's what Dana Brown
has said.

Speaker 4 (02:19:06):
Now maybe if there's an opportunity for him to do that.

Speaker 3 (02:19:10):
Their discussions about it publicly Sunday and then again tomorrow
morning with Sean Salisbury show, they seem to sound and
we'll find out tomorrow more pretty positive about this being
shorter term than say your typical rib fracture injury. But
we shall see nothing for them today from Jeremy Pania.
And yes, the stint on the il conveniently allows for

(02:19:34):
him to be available to come off prior to the
All Star Break, but I certainly hope he does not
participate in the All Star Game under any circumstances, get selected,
make the trip, enjoy the festivities, and get replaced too
close to this injury, no matter how he's progressed, even
if he's playing, even if he's playing every day, even

(02:19:56):
if he's playing every inning of every game, for the
few that remain before they take a break for the
All Star Break, no thanks, not necessary, quite all right.
If he gets the recognition he earned but doesn't participate
in the game, ke given somebody else a shot. Jack
Wilson and Bobby wit Junior can have all the All
Star Game activity that they want. There's only one more

(02:20:18):
home stand after this road trip, and then it's the
All Star Break. The six games against Colorado and LA
no days off before they start their series with Cleveland
at home, their second meeting with the Guardians, and last
they do have an off day before they begin their
series with the Rangers, and then it's All Star Break
time July thirteenth, their last game before the break. I

(02:20:39):
already know that Bryce Matthews and Santa at sugar Land
and Corpus respectively, will participate in the Futures Game there
in Atlanta, and presumably from Bervaldez, Hunter, Brown, and Josh
Hater are all going to be selected as All Star
representatives on the mound for the astros esak Peretti still
stands it out chance of being selected as an All Star,

(02:21:02):
and certainly could bump up his seventeen and forty six
seventeen homers, forty six RBI and make it even a
more difficult choice for them to leave him off. But
I don't think he's out a season that says he
absolutely positively has to be an All Start this year
doesn't really matter. He's performed well enough to say this
team's got fifty wins, he's batting lead off. They did

(02:21:25):
just fine in that trade, especially if cam Smith continues
to progress, Hopefully he will take advantage of corrs Field
type air as they now play in Colorado. Been to
coors Field whatever it is they're playing in there now,
whatever it's called, it's still course, but it's not called
corse Field like I. I mean, people who haven't been

(02:21:45):
to Houston for a baseball game, they don't say they've
been to dyk In Park, do they?

Speaker 7 (02:21:50):
I think it's still Corsefield. Oh okay, Then I said,
I'm pretty sure it's still Corsefield. I don't think it's
changed just yet. Well I thought it was. No, you're right,
it isn't. Boom Over under Campsmith home runs at three
this weekend. Come on, man, god and a half, two
and a half, next guy, two and a half. They're
not it's not West Sacramento. It's pretty close to em

(02:22:10):
Steinbrenner Field. It's the closest thing that you're going to
get to it for a young player.

Speaker 3 (02:22:14):
You should have set it two and a half, and
I would have had to consider it two and a half.

Speaker 4 (02:22:18):
But if you set it at three, I'm taking the
under two and a half. We'll set it two and
a half, a much.

Speaker 3 (02:22:22):
Better number for the listeners if they want to participate.
In case you missed it, it's.

Speaker 1 (02:22:27):
Next the Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:22:37):
Halfway through the final hour of the show, we will
hit you with in case you missed it mentioned earlier,
got some tickets to give away four pack of tickets
to see The Psychedelic First live on July twelfth, So
coming up later this month. They're over at the House
of Blues find tickets for that ticketmaster dot com. We
also have a pair of tickets to see the Big

(02:22:57):
Three at Toyota Center August second at Toyota Center and
that includes four games, the three on three games. It
includes Houston's team, that's the Houston rig Hands. You know,
Calvin Murphy is the head coach. Play season obviously is
already underway, Gerald Green, Corey Brewer among those that are

(02:23:18):
rig hands here in Houston, and all sorts of other
performances and other things going on throughout the games. Top
musical artists all over at Toyota Center. That is August second.
We'll give those tickets away in the final segments. Continue listening.
Those who are listening will the answer to the question
that is asked in the final segment. I mean, that's
the way you win your tickets. In case you missed it.

(02:23:41):
What do we have today?

Speaker 7 (02:23:42):
Well, I didn't think that the Miami Dolphins could out
do themselves. They made a smart move by bringing back
me If Fitzpatrick in fact, for my money of the deal.
With John new Smith and Jalen Ramsey going to the
Pittsburgh Steelers and Mika Fitzpatrick going to Miami, they ended
up walking away a winner, and then they realized, hey,
we're we're in Miami. We gotta do something really stupid.

(02:24:02):
So they decided to call up the New York Giants
that still had the rights to Darren Waller, who retired
after realizing I don't want to play football anymore, and
they traded a twenty twenty six sixth round pick to
land him. They also will get a conditional twenty twenty
seven seventh round pick. Now, remember Waller, who at one
point was viewed as one of the league's better tight

(02:24:25):
ends from a receiving standpoint.

Speaker 4 (02:24:26):
In twenty nineteen and twenty was harold for.

Speaker 7 (02:24:30):
His catch radius and his ability to make plays in
the open field.

Speaker 4 (02:24:34):
And then he's signed a.

Speaker 7 (02:24:35):
Three year, fifty four million dollars deal in twenty twenty two,
and he ended up proceeding to have one of the
worst statistical seasons in the NFL and eventually retired to
go have a rap career. He's tied to sound to
South Beach, where he's gonna be another weapon for Teo
Tegavailea and Tyree Hill. And in a year where Mike
mcdangel maybe wants to prove to everybody, hey, I'm.

Speaker 4 (02:24:57):
Still a really good coach.

Speaker 3 (02:24:59):
So sixth round pick, six round pick, so they're gonna
miss out on Come on, Evidall Jordan Whittington, maybe Joe
Milton among the elite offensive talents drafted in twenty twenty
four in the sixth round of the NFL Draft, or
maybe even at Jamal Hill, who's still at Texan heading

(02:25:20):
into year two linebacker from Oregon. I think it's a
pretty light price to take a chance that, now that
he apparently cares about football again. Yeah, and may or
may not continue rapping, that he can give your football
team something that they now lack. Okay, let me just
ask you this from a standpoint of the player itself,

(02:25:42):
Johnny Smith or Darren Waller, and I don't think Miami
is gonna roll out to any podium and say I
think we improved our position. I think we are much
better at tight end today than we were yesterday.

Speaker 4 (02:25:54):
They're not that foolish.

Speaker 3 (02:25:55):
They know people are not that dumb, but considering they
have a need, they're taking a chance.

Speaker 4 (02:26:04):
I'm a fire.

Speaker 7 (02:26:04):
Okay, if you could go back and redo it, if
you would have flipped Pat Friarmuth in that deal, would
you do that instead, because Arthur Smith with Johnny Smith,
we know what that deal looks like, because they're tying
together in that lane up one of the better tight
ends in the NFL when they were together, one of
the better tight ends when they were together in Tennessee.

Speaker 3 (02:26:21):
Would you do that or take Darren Waller? Let me
flip it that way. I mean, that's kind of an
old brainer. Obviously I would take Friarmuth, although he definitely
strikes me as the type of tight end that every
team has if you choose to utilize them in your office.

Speaker 7 (02:26:41):
Stereotypical white guy that can block. Yes, he is a
very very much They want Hi to make sixty catches
in a year, then he can. Do you want to
making sixty catches in a year? Well, when you're Pittsburgh,
you do because you don't.

Speaker 4 (02:26:54):
Have anybody else to throw to. Now you do, Yeah,
you do, Now you do.

Speaker 7 (02:26:59):
And Arch Manning is going to have a lot of
people to throw to this year, including Ryan Wingo and
Andre Moore and Mosley and Jack Injuries. And I believe
in I've told you this off air and on air,
I think that Arch is a very special player. He
has looked poised and calm and collective, and our own
Chris Gordy went and saw him down in Tibodel, Louisiana

(02:27:20):
last week at the Mean at the Manning Past Academy
did a really good job, and I just want people
to realize he is not the only answer to Texas
success in year two in the SEC. But don't don't
listen to me, listen to Paul Feinbab because of apparently
the only thing that can happen is Arch is either

(02:27:41):
going to be the biggest bust or he's the next
this guy.

Speaker 9 (02:27:44):
I think there's a reasonably good chance at Arch Manning
will be sitting on the front row in New York
at the Heisman ceremony. That's assuming that his team does
what it's supposed to do and compete for not only
the SEC, but for the National Championship, and I really
believe they will. I think there's a reasonably good chance
that Texas were have beaten Ohio State and won the

(02:28:05):
national Championship. They're very capable of doing it again this year.
I believe also that Arch Manny is the best college
football quarterback we have seen since Tim Tebow entered the
scene in two thousand and six.

Speaker 4 (02:28:16):
Come on, wow, come on, come on, cod, are we okay?
I get it.

Speaker 7 (02:28:23):
I understand it's talking season. And again this was on ESPN,
so naturally he has to be one of the very
get up, loud vocal voices. We're just gonna throw out
Cam Newton's season in twenty ten. We're gonna throw out
Baker Mayfield season in twenty sixteen. We're gonna throw out
Jalen Hurts this season. Teh, can we just throw out
to Borrow's season.

Speaker 4 (02:28:44):
Two portion of this? That's all I want out of this.

Speaker 3 (02:28:48):
So was Arch's season last year like Tim Tebow's first
season at Florida, even though it was Chris Leak in
his way. Like Tim Tebow barely played as a freshman,
Arch Manning barely played this past season.

Speaker 4 (02:29:05):
He was out there when.

Speaker 3 (02:29:08):
Quinn got hurt, and he smartly would utilize the way
he was in the Aggie game running the football, and
then he will finish in the top five for the
Heisman three straight years. I don't think there's any way
that Arch does that because he's definitely not playing three
more years, even though everyone's telling me he's playing at
least two more. And Cooper keeps telling us, and he's
he's a he loves a happy college kid on campus

(02:29:31):
at the forty Acres.

Speaker 4 (02:29:32):
And that's all you need to know. But cant him
play one full game?

Speaker 3 (02:29:37):
Clearly we can't like it's not this is These are
your levels of what he's going to do next year.
None of them include playing mediocre or bad. He's going
to be very good, or he's going to be awesome,
or he's going to be the best we've ever seen.

Speaker 4 (02:29:55):
That's it.

Speaker 3 (02:29:56):
Those are your only options. He's going to be very
very good. He's gonna unbelievable, he's going to be musty TV.
He's the greatest quarterback that's ever stepped foot on the
forty Acres, including Vince Young.

Speaker 4 (02:30:06):
That's it. Those are your only options.

Speaker 3 (02:30:08):
Okay, just as a matter of exactly how awesome he's
going to be?

Speaker 7 (02:30:12):
All right, now, would you take arch banding over these players?
Kay Klubnick Garon, A. Smeyer, Drew Aller, Sam Levin, Lenor Sellers,
John Mattier, Carson Beck, Blake Krvath, and Dj Lagway. Here's
the reason I bring those names up. There's a reason why.
But would you take arch banding over them?

Speaker 3 (02:30:29):
Your list was in order, and I think when you
got to Drew Aller, the answer was clear, Yes, I'd
take him over Drew Aller and every name you said
after that, and each of the others has played and
played well, So I mean, Arch might be better than them,
but I already know these guys are good.

Speaker 4 (02:30:47):
Enough to win with.

Speaker 7 (02:30:47):
Yeah, they're also good enough to win with in the
College Football EA twenty six video game, because those are
your top ten quarterbacks that you can build a dynasty
around going into this fall when the game releases later.

Speaker 4 (02:30:58):
On this month. And that's what you have for In
case you missed.

Speaker 1 (02:31:03):
It the A teen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 3 (02:31:08):
Ninety final segment of this program, We've got several more
hours of local programming coming your ways to get you
ready for Astros Baseball with the Night Cap and of
course the Astros on Deck show called Gordon on the
Mountain tonight for the Strows against the Colorado Rockies. They're

(02:31:29):
in Colorado at Coors Field. Have tickets to give away
to our loyal listeners here. If you've been listening to
the show, you certainly won't know the answer to this question.
An opportunity to want a pair of tickets to see
the Psychedelic Firs on the twelfth this month over at
the House of Blues. You can also find tickets at
ticketmaster dot com or a pair of tickets to go
see the Big Three at Toyota Center that includes all

(02:31:51):
four games to be played that day and night over
at Toyota Center August second, including Houston Squad, Houston Rig
Hands by Hall of Famer Calvin Murphy. My TV Pal
tickets also on sale now at at toyacenter dot com.
If you're listening last segment, you know the very, very
very easy answer to this question. After throwing ninety five

(02:32:15):
college passes so far in his career, arch Manning is
going to be awesome. Everybody knows it exactly how awesome.
One sec Hank Paul Finebaum just said arch Manning is
going to be the greatest quarterback we have seen since.
Who just played the audio for you last segment, just

(02:32:35):
discussed it. Last segment. Who did he say, arch Manning
after sixty one completions last year, two completions the year
before that, there's a chance to be the greatest college
quarterback we.

Speaker 4 (02:32:48):
Have seen since. Who did he say? Who is that quarterback? Seven?

Speaker 3 (02:32:52):
One three two one two five seven ninety seven one
three two one two five seven ninety What a great comparison,
what a super star. We all love them. That's the
answer to your question. Seven one three two one two
five seven nine. Even want to go see the first
or you want to go see some hoops over to
at a center compliments of the Big Three. The third

(02:33:12):
of the I don't know how many number of games
the Astros will have to play without Jeremy Pana begins
tonight when they start their series with Colorado, Colorado, three
with Colorado, three with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Six games
remain until the All Star break. After that, Cleveland here
at dyke In Park, and then the Rangers here at

(02:33:33):
Dykin Park. Astros would love to see wins on the
road a little bit better their last two series still
slightly under five hundred. I don't know that they can
keep winning at home at the ridiculous pace they're on
right now, their second only to the Mets and winning
percentage at home. They have the most wins in the majors,
with thirty two of them in fourteen losses. Remember they

(02:33:55):
started the year two and four. That means they're thirty
and ten since then, and they haven't lost a series
at home since the opening series of the season. I
don't expect that to change in the final two series
before they hit the All Star break. They've already passed
the halfway point, but the All Star break a nice
break in the action, separating the two parts of the season,
not the two halves, but two parts of the season.

(02:34:18):
And again, coming out of the All Star Break for
the Astros, they will have already played half of their
division games. They start right back inside the division. They
traveled to Seattle and Arizona the A's Nationals at home.
Those are the four series that begin their time after
the All Star breaks, So we'll see if they make

(02:34:41):
them hey in the league. They've already done that in
the division. Now it's time to pass and stay passed,
which they've done. The Yankees maybe catch the Detroit Tigers
at aj Hinch's squad mentioned earlier today there was a
decent chance we would catch an update from Joe Aspata
or from those covering the team in Colorado in advance

(02:35:02):
of their game, and do have that information. Dry swings
on Monday and West Palm Beach felt some soreness in
the same area was set to ramp up his progression today,
but that's not going to happen. He's set to see
a specialist after his hand became sore again on Monday, so,
as Brian McTaggart notes, his rehab in Florida has been

(02:35:27):
shut down. Jord On Alvarez, what was it an hour ago?
Less than an hour ago?

Speaker 4 (02:35:32):
Yeah, I bet you.

Speaker 3 (02:35:32):
We see him before the All Star break. Now I
am two for two. They had him swinging at Minute
Made Park before they did the imaging again and realized, oh,
he's been swinging with a broken hand, and now he's
gone out there and felt soreness in his hand again,
presumably after they felt like his hand was healed based

(02:35:53):
on what they saw, not based on what he said,
not based on how he felt, but hopefully based on
what they saw, which is to say, nothing healing, no
evidence of a fracture anymore. If they could tell us
it was sixty percent healed and maybe eighty percent healed, well,
hopefully they could tell us or him that it was

(02:36:14):
eighty percent healed. Again, I don't see there's any scenario
where he's picking up a bat and they didn't feel
it was one hundred percent healed they would be absolutely
no reason to. But taking dry swings, not live BP
and feeling soreness in the same area and feeling soreness
in the hand again on Monday, that's not good news.

(02:36:39):
That is actually exceptionally bad news. Now the Astros have
won a lot of baseball games without him, which is
absolutely remarkable and definitely not what I would have expected.
Now we're playing well enough that I guess the opportunity
to keep winning certainly should have been in our minds,
because it's not just the time that he's missed that
they took off, even though they have tonight when he

(02:37:02):
is not in the lineup. They have pushed past fifty
games missed already, and that number just keeps growing, and
based on that information, it's going to get even bigger.
But the time missed during just this injury for him,
the Astros are a remarkable thirty four and nineteen. They're
sixteen games over five hundred overall. Fifteen of those sixteen

(02:37:23):
have come in the games that he's missed since the
injury or since he went on the injured list, one
game over five hundred while he played through it, while
he played nearly every day before then, and now fifteen
games over since he stepped aside, going for sixteen tonight.
It's not supposed to be like that, but now they're
two years into doing exactly that. It's the same thing

(02:37:45):
they did with Kyle Tucker had already started to come
out of what was their awful start to the season
when they were seven to nineteen and twelve and twenty four,
and then they proceeded to continue that for seventy plus
games while he missed time. We're looking at it least
a similar amount of games missed for yard On Alvarez.
If he's at fifty three right now, fifty four tonight

(02:38:07):
and he is being shut down, he's not about to
pick up a bat again. I don't think they're gonna
look and say, oh no, no, it's fully helled. You
shouldn't be feeling soreness, go pick up a bat again.
They're gonna have to figure out why is there something
else wrong? Is there something else procedurally surgically that needs
to be done to fix what is now what would

(02:38:28):
have to be characterized as a long term injury. Two months,
that's long term. That's what happens when you break a
bone and it isn't over. Jose Altuve missed a chuck
of time when he was hit by a pitch and
broke a hand, and that was a long term injury,
less time than this one has taken. But this is
your best bat when right, and it had already fallen

(02:38:52):
on the shoulders of everybody else. And as a team,
their offense had actually been better than while they had
yard on Alvarez, but.

Speaker 4 (02:38:58):
A long long way to go on. Alvarez.

Speaker 3 (02:39:02):
Christian Walker quite clearly are the easiest players to name
that need to do more than they have because they're
capable of it, and they've done it over the course
of their short and long careers, respectively, and they simply
haven't put it all together this year and now they're
trying to do it without Jeremy Pania. So far one
in one with Jeremy Pania out after the hit by pitch,

(02:39:23):
you could say they're two to one if you want
to give me. They won the game that he half
participated in. This pretty significant news that jord On Alvarez
shut down. More on that, I'm sure coming up as
we get you into the broadcast with the Astros on
Deck show, and of course inside the broadcast tonight from Colorado.
Colton Gordon making the start for the Astros and hopefully.

Speaker 4 (02:39:44):
Continues to pitch the way he has.

Speaker 3 (02:39:46):
The Astros have faredwell when he's been on the mound,
six wins in the eight starts that he's made thus far.
We'll do it all again tomorrow, starting at two o'clock

Speaker 2 (02:39:56):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety