Dubon, Dealing Framber & Dumb HC Rankings to get Over the Hump!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised my.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Girl Nolan voulted by the magnificent roller.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Coaster ride that is Houston Sports. Chill lage down for
the only home grown afternoon team is Talking your Teams.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eight team.

Speaker 4 (00:34):
Eighty What's Up, Houston, Texas. It is a Wednesday edition
of the A Team. It's a Draft Day edition of
the A Team as well. Sports Talks seven to ninety
We will be simulcast shortly like the top of next
hour on Space City Home Network. In the meantime, you

(00:54):
can listen to the first hour right here like you
always do. Hopefully you are using the free Heart Radio
app to do so, where you can put Sports Talk
seven ninety is the number one preset and we will
all be happier and you'll be a better person for it, frankly,
but yeah, we've got a lot to get to as
we hit the mid point of the week. I should
say kind of an awkward situation in the best way

(01:20):
possible at Toyota Center tonight, not because the event itself
is gonna be awkward, but it's just this is going
back to yesterday. I hate that the NBA makes teams
like the Rockets have to just tiptoe around the It's
not even an elephant in the room. It's the whole arena.
You got Kevin Durant, but you can't talk about it.
It's so dumb. It's like having a Ferrari but all
you can just keep it in your garage. You can't
drive it yet. F until July seventh. Well, who's there

(01:42):
to talk period? Well that's the thing nobody I wish.
You know, it would be the coolest thing ever. Everybody
gets in there, you know it's going well, the vibe
is great. You know, we all know has we can't
really talk about it, but we all know it's gonna
be an awesome season. And they're not making draft picks
tonight for them, They're making them for the Signs. Blah
blah blah. Oh there's Kevin Durant. He just shows up
and that would be I mean, they would bring the

(02:04):
house down, but they can't do it because they're not allowed.
That's what I hate. But it's still gonna be a
fantastic time. We're gonna be there tonight, all of the
all of the principles that you know, and love from
the broadcast team as a matter of fact, will be there.
And I think it's gonna be kind of a jubulant,
celebratory type of vibe in the building.

Speaker 5 (02:25):
On a night where you're not really.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
Excited about anything draft wise, because those picks are out
the door with what happened on Sunday. And I think
any Rockets fan would take that trade in a heartbeat. Hey,
you're not gonna have anything to do with the draft, really,
but you're gonna get Kevin Durant and you're really not
gonna give up all that much. Rockets fans would take
that just like they would take what is I think
shaping up to be perhaps one of the most perfect

(02:50):
off seasons in the history of the franchise. They're just
one by one checking off everything they wanted to get done,
and it's kind of happening. It's happening a little too
sea aamlessly for me. I'm like, Okay, what when does
the bad news get here? Because this is going too well.
The latest Fred van Vliet is back. He never really left.
We knew he would probably tear up his deal and

(03:13):
ink something that is a little bit more quote team
friendly and boy is it that you got him to
take basically half half the money?

Speaker 6 (03:24):
Is that?

Speaker 7 (03:24):
I mean, it's not quite accurate. But he was gonna
get forty five million next year. Yeah, so they gave
him an extra five million dollars.

Speaker 5 (03:30):
Yeah, but it's spread out over two seasons. If he
wants all ye, they're not getting forty five.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
Just the one. Yeah, he has a player option.

Speaker 5 (03:37):
And what did they give him with the first contract.
I can't remember the total figure in the forties per season, right.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
Forty five coming into this upcoming year, if he hadn't
torn it up.

Speaker 7 (03:47):
They put together a deal for Fred van Vliet several
years ago that continues to get reworked, and it's all essentially,
in my opinion, the same deal. The Rockets had space,
The Rockets wanted a long term future with Fred van Vliet,
and the best way to make everybody happy, including the
player who we're all going to sit here today and say,

(04:09):
what a team friendly deal. Yeah, the Rockets just got
with Fred van vlie. This is unbelievable stuff. Great for
Fred to say yes, Great for the team to be
able to do. This drives them beneath the aprons, allows
the benefits that go along with it from what they
can do now in spending and in free agency and exceptions,
all those things are great, and then you turn the

(04:32):
clock back two years, say, man, that is an awful
lot of money to pay Fred van Vliet. I know
it took a lot to get a player to say
they want to come to a team that you know,
they won twenty two games and they got a brand
new head coach, but man, this is a well, quite frankly,
this is an unbelievable overpay for Fred van for Fred
van Vliet, Okay, now add the money he made the

(04:55):
first two years. Now add the money he's so scheduled
to make for the next two years, and divide it
by four, and it'll be much more I think individually acceptable.
But the best part is it's how teams operate like this.
We can do all we can spend all the money
we want, knowing that later on we can't. So we're

(05:16):
gonna need some concessions. We're gonna need to work together.
We're gonna need to do this. And it's worked out brilliantly,
mainly because the plan worked. Fred van Vliet signing and
then reaching in terms of an agreement on extension. Now
is almost solely based on they won. He came here
hoping that this is what would happen. They would win,

(05:38):
their talent would develop, they would be a playoff caliber team,
and they've probably done even more than could have been expected.
So those things falling into place, those things happening allow
for the Rockets, Spread and Clutch Sports his agency to
get together and make this all happen.

Speaker 5 (05:53):
Two years fifty million.

Speaker 7 (05:54):
The second of those two years, the twenty six to
twenty seven season a player option. It's possible he could
opt out and do this again yeah next off season,
or opt out and decide he wants to play somewhere else,
but that's either a remote possibility, or he can simply
just op right back in and be somewhere near the
top of the Rockets pay ladder. Right now, as it stands,

(06:17):
he's the third highest paid Rocket, but far less than
what some people forecast, and three years ninety was somewhere
in the neighborhood of what we were thinking a possibility
would be. So thirty million a season, again, that's on average,
that's the simple math. Look at Steven Adams deal. Steven
Adams reportedly is getting thirty nine million over three years,
but the last year is not thirteen million.

Speaker 5 (06:37):
It starts high and it ends lower.

Speaker 7 (06:40):
And I do think these teams have figured out there
are ways to best put our team together if we
do it sequentially, if we make these things happen in
advance of those things we want to happen. If we
signed Steven Adams and Emy Udoka before we finalize the
trade for Kevin Durant. Obviously, they had a deadline of
the twenty nine with Fred van Vliet, with the option

(07:01):
needing to be either exercise or decline.

Speaker 5 (07:04):
That's the other part of this.

Speaker 7 (07:05):
The the Rocket said, hey, Fred, we are declining your
contract option. Get out of here and come into the
next room, because we're going to sign you to a
two year extension. But instead of paying him forty four
point nine million on that third season of the original deal,
they'll now pay him a much different figure. Don't know
specifically what those numbers will end up being actually for

(07:25):
year one and year two, but does look like it's
a two year, fifty million dollar deal. Pick ten, Pick
fifty nine, one of which will be executed tonight.

Speaker 5 (07:33):
The other is tomorrow night. Remember it is a two
night NBA draft extravaganza.

Speaker 7 (07:37):
Now both are expected to be included in the Phoenix
Suns deal to land Kevin Durant. So when the tenth
player comes off the board, the announcement will be for Houston,
but the player will be going to Phoenix. Give you
a little bit of an idea of what would have
been potentially on the board. But also keep in mind
they executed this trade several days ago unofficially, not knowing

(07:59):
what might have happened one through nine. I mean, Phoenix
certainly could do something to change who.

Speaker 5 (08:06):
Ends up at ten or ends up in their hands.

Speaker 7 (08:08):
I do think some of the chatter about activity after
the top two picks is real. I'll say right here,
I doubt very seriously we go one through ten without
a trade. I would be surprised if there was only
one trade one through ten.

Speaker 5 (08:21):
So we'll see. That's some of the excitement of what happens.

Speaker 7 (08:23):
And it was just a couple of years ago where
this one night out of three hundred and sixty five
for the Houston Rockets was super exciting and I can't
wait to see what happens. One year you knew you
were drafting Jalen Green. One year you thought you were
drafting Paolo Bancaro one year you just thought, maybe we're
drafting Scoot Henderson. I don't know, but those were for

(08:47):
teams that weren't winning. Those were the most exciting days
of those respective years for Houston Rockets basketball.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
Not the case this.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Year, and the first one of those big picks, the
Jalen Green pick that you mentioned, is out the door
already because of the deal years later. Well, yeah, but
I mean this rebuild, I just talked about it yesterday.
How fast, relatively speaking, this rebuild has been.

Speaker 5 (09:11):
I know, keep this in mind. Let's say they drafted
somebody else. Yeah, you mean in Jalen's draft.

Speaker 7 (09:16):
Yeah, if they drafted Evan Mobley, they're probably I mean,
I don't know where they would be. I know Evan
Mobley would not have been included in a Kevin Durant trade.
But what if they drafted somebody else instead of either
one of them? Yeah, well, I don't know that that player.
It's very unlikely that that player has played well enough
to get you to fifty two wins, to get you
into the postseason, to be your leading score, to be

(09:37):
the player, you have to include someone you've already extended
and now can include in a trade for Kevin Durant
like for ast much negativity there, unfortunately is for Jalen Green.
There's a lot of things that he did to put
this team in this position to execute a trade like this.
And we've barely talked about the basketball with Jalen and
I'm sure we will in the months to come when

(09:58):
a little of all this die down, because we still
have several months to go before they're actually playing games
or in camp or planning trips to McNee State to
get ready for the season. But Jalen Green on the
court for this team, I mean, run through AC myself
MT's favorite radio calls of the last several years and
certainly this year, give us the top twenty five, He's

(10:21):
gonna be on nearly half of them.

Speaker 5 (10:22):
Probably so.

Speaker 4 (10:23):
And I hadn't really thought about it, or at least
verbalized it this way, But think about Jalen Green's tenure
as a rocket like this wasn't quite good enough to
help get you out of the first round, but he
was definitely good enough to make a Kevin Durant trade
happen once you waited long enough, and that's gonna end
up being his Rocket's legacy.

Speaker 7 (10:43):
Yeah, I mean Albron gets to change his legacy because
he's still here. But everything you set up until legacy
was the same. He wasn't quite good enough if you
want to pin it on one player to get them
out of the first round, and he was given by
the team by the other team, also the best opportunity
to danced the Rockets out of the first round alprint.
He was the one they gave the ball to one

(11:04):
on one for a potential game winning shot. He's the
player they ran the offense through. He was the one
most involved in everything they were doing offensively.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
He was the one missing twelve free throws in that
same game.

Speaker 5 (11:14):
And field goals.

Speaker 7 (11:15):
By the way, his regular season field goal percentage dropped
from fifty percent to forty five percent. In the postseason,
took more shots, he missed more of his shots from
a percentage basis as a seven.

Speaker 5 (11:28):
Foot big man.

Speaker 4 (11:29):
Nobody Fred van Vliet included, as he increased his scoring
by nearly five points per contest, was efficient in that
first round.

Speaker 7 (11:37):
Nobody Fred at the end of the day, because he
was so unbelievable. At the end of it was well,
that's yeah, and Fred shot forty four percent from three
point land in the postseason as a whole, all seven
games combined.

Speaker 4 (11:48):
But that's again that it's just like Jalen green Well,
his numbers actually look better than they would have because
he had the thirty eight point outburst. It was the
other six games that got him shipped out to Frankly,
I really think at the end of the day, the
Rockets were like, all right, that was for better or
for worse. That might have been your audition as to

(12:10):
whether or not you can.

Speaker 5 (12:11):
Be the guy.

Speaker 4 (12:12):
And maybe maybe we look back and say the Rockets
pulled the uh, pulled the ripcord a little bit too
soon or whatever you want to call it. But I
don't tend to think so, and I don't think they
do either, And I think that's why he's gone.

Speaker 7 (12:26):
Always a topic to discuss, and because it just came
out of your mouth. That's what we're gonna talk about.

Speaker 5 (12:31):
Next. We'll have Mauricio Dubon in with us. At two thirty.

Speaker 7 (12:34):
We'll hear from Dana Brown and Brian boga Sevic three
thirty and five point fifteen, respectively, or three o'clock for
Dana three point thirty. Chris Gordy joins us for his
weekly visit in here, but postseason Jalen Green basketball, that's
the reason he got shipped out of here.

Speaker 5 (12:49):
That's what one of us just said. We'll discuss on
the other side.

Speaker 2 (12:55):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety. You know, all right, go.

Speaker 5 (13:08):
Beer on Freddy.

Speaker 4 (13:09):
With the signing of Fred van Vliet today or I
guess technically, isn't it a restructuring.

Speaker 5 (13:16):
He didn't.

Speaker 7 (13:17):
He tore up his deal, declined, the option doesn't become
a free agent un till the new league year begins.
The Rockets can negotiate with him, and they did.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
Signing to me, feels like you came from somewhere else
for the first time. That seems like it's signing. Whereas
this is what restructure, it's an extension. Yeah, exactly, so
with the restructuring, with the extension today that Fred van
Vliet is or will inc whenever he does it, with
you know, extending em Udoka and massively paying him. With

(13:48):
the deal for Kevin Durant and everything else. I mean,
Rockets are having like the most perfect offseason.

Speaker 7 (13:55):
Yeah, I think it's been pretty ideal. If if you're
in favor of not totally going with continuity, because Obviously,
they're making two changes to their starting lineup. They're sending
out a young player, and they're sending out a key
player to what this team is built. Both of them
would certainly fit that last statement, so it's not quite
everybody's exact scenario. And that takes me back to what

(14:16):
we finished the opening segment with Jalen Green essentially at
a seven game audition, to show them that the extension
he's about to start playing under was warranted, that he's
ready to take the next step, that he is someone
that you believe can be the leader in every way
for this team offensively, leadership wise, put the team on
my back type of situation. But since it didn't happen,

(14:38):
that's why I was shipped out. I don't even remotely
think that was the case for the Rockets. I think
if Kevin Durant retires or goes Devin Booker on the
Suns and says I love it here, then Jalen Green's
playing next year in the starting lineup for the Rockets,
and maybe for the next three years, maybe for the
next ten years. He's only not here because because the

(15:00):
opportunity to make the team better came along and he
had to be used as a preference by the Rockets,
had to be used to go get him at their preference.
They chose other players on the team to stick with. Clearly,
we know that Jabari Smith Junior was involved in a
potential deal earlier and certainly was asked for again. There
might have been a framework where Jalen Green could have

(15:21):
stayed if the Rockets were willing to give up an
additional part of their young core, or they could just
give up one player in their young core. And I
think they chose that route. But it's because Kevin Durant
was available. That's list of reasons why Jalen Green is elsewhere.
That's number one one, A, one B, one C one
D to me is only because this scenario is sitting
in front of you, and only because the player you're adding,

(15:44):
and you would expect if the Rockets were going to
make some significant move this offseason is going to be
for a player deep enough into his career that he
was an extremely highly paid player. And the two names
we talked about the most one of them is still
not even technically available, is be honest, and the other
is clearly Kevin Guys, that's you know, salary wise, a
lot has to go out in order for them to
get in. And you know, you only have two players

(16:08):
that are part of the young core making really significant
dollars this upcoming season Alprin Shangoon and Jalen Green. Everybody
else that they've recently drafted makes a third of that
this upcoming season or less than that this upcoming season.
Then you're left with your higher dollar veteran players like
Fred at an unknown figure, like Dylan at a twenty

(16:28):
plus figure, and then other assorted vets that might have
helped you amount to a certain number of dollars, like
Jack Landell, et cetera. It's not even that it was
just the easiest way. At some point, you did have
to do one other thing. Even though the other deals
we've heard a lot about Minnesota's deal, We've heard a
lot about Miami's deal. The Minnesota deal likely would have
included a very very intriguing young player and Rob Dillingham,

(16:52):
Dante DiVincenzo, Rudy Gobert, and a far less desirable draft
pick than the tenth pick that the Rocket's over offered,
a much better current player, and a little bit of
clarity on where Jalen Green will be versus any of
the young players they might have added. Plus they were
adding Rudy Gobert now that instead they've added Dylan Brooks.

(17:12):
And then the Heat deal we talked about it earlier
this week. Every component of the Heat deal was significantly worse,
worse veterans, worst pick in the draft, definitely not helpful
to the cause in Phoenix in any way. So you
had the best deal, and you had to have the
best deal in order to make the trade happen, and

(17:32):
Jalen Green makes that happen. It's not just about the
money that he's going to be owed. It's about the
player that he is, and it's about the player that
he can be. I mean, I feel confident saying Jalen
Green's worst year was his rookie year, followed by his
second year, followed by his third year, followed by his
best year last year until he plays next year, because

(17:53):
that's going to be his new best year. Not forecasting superstardom.
I don't think there's all NBA in his future. I
don't believe he's the best player on any really good team,
but I do believe he's one of the players that
you can win with provided the fit works. Like even
just with Devin Booker, if they had another player who
was as good as Devin Booker, like Kevin Durant, and

(18:14):
they cared about defense, and the fit was better. I mean,
it's a bad example because they to those two happen
to play the same position.

Speaker 5 (18:20):
But Jalen, in my.

Speaker 7 (18:21):
Opinion, wasn't moved because they think they said, well, uh,
seven and a half months ago, we gave him one
hundred and five million, but now that we've seen seven
games against Golden State in the playoffs, nah ship him out.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
I do think that, you know, with his age twenty three.
It's not that I don't think he won't get better,
but I don't. I have never once in the whole
offseason of thinking, Okay, he might be included in a
deal for something Kevin Durant or otherwise. I have never
once thought, yeah, we're you know, the Rockets are gonna

(18:58):
wind up doing something where they were trading Jalen Green
because he's gonna get so much better when he goes elsewhere.
I've never felt that way. Still don't feel that way.
It's not that I don't think he won't have a
better season especially if he gets the green light. I mean,
numbers tend to make a player look better than they
are sometimes. And look, you could argue this for Kevin
Durant right now. It's just that the efficiency portion of

(19:21):
his numbers. You can't ignore that. I don't care what
team you're on. If you're putting up those numbers, with
those efficiency numbers to back them, that's why you make
a deal like this, because he's, like we've said all season,
and we were talking about this in the regular season,
his game has aged like a fine wine, at least offensively.
But I don't think that Jalen Green being somewhere else,

(19:42):
whether it's Phoenix or they re route him somewhere else.
I don't think it's going to come back and quote
unquote bite the rockets in the backside.

Speaker 7 (19:49):
Yeah, and there are definitely people that do or not
on this show or any show, but there are people
out there. But a thirty five percent three point shooter
becomes a thirty eight percent three point shooter. That's a
pretty significant change. You know, A forty two percent field
goal shooter becomes a forty five percent field goal shooter.
The first thing I mentioned much more likely to happen
than the last thing I mentioned, because I do think

(20:11):
he is definitely trending in the right direction shooting the
basketball from behind the line. I think there are signs
that there could be a significant increase there in the
very near future. I even definitely think there was last year,
especially the second half of the season. Unless he starts
getting those missed layups off of his ledger when he's
fouled and they don't call it, I don't know that

(20:31):
he's ever not going to be a forty two percent
shooter from the floor.

Speaker 5 (20:35):
That's about it.

Speaker 7 (20:35):
He's been about as consistently subpar overall from the floor
forty two point six, forty one point six, forty two
point three in back to back seasons. And where he's
taking those shots from is not changed a whole lot,
little bit of a mid range game changed slightly, But
there's better Jalen Green to be played. But he's also

(20:56):
not on the cusp. He's top fifty, top sixty to seventy,
top eighty. What if he's top forty, not top twenty five,
not top fifteen. Not regrettable to move him. Your only
regrettable to move him is well, we got Kevin Durant
and he got hurt and it didn't work, and we
could have moved Jayalen Gray for somebody else. That's pretty

(21:16):
much the only regret I would have mentioned. Mauricio Duban's
gonna join us here momentarily. We look forward to that
conversation with one of the Astros everyday players, Mauricio Dubon
and the Astros continuing their series with the Phillies.

Speaker 5 (21:29):
We'll talk with Dubon.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (21:43):
It is the eight team Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Adam Wexler over there, Adam Clanton right here as we
take you up until six o'clock tonight, and as promised,
joined by mister everyday Astro, that would be Mauricio Dubon.
First chance for us to catch up with him this
season and looking for this conversation, especially coming after that

(22:03):
off of that game last night. Sometimes, Mauricio, those are
some of the most satisfying victories, even though one whole
run was scored between the two teams.

Speaker 8 (22:13):
Yeah, it was a rangersar is a you know, he
was on on this.

Speaker 9 (22:17):
You know it's a great picture, and you know Cooper
Hummel coming through I mean it was.

Speaker 8 (22:21):
It was a pitching dual.

Speaker 9 (22:21):
He got Franburg and he got Ranger Suarez. I mean
it was it was who made the first mistake?

Speaker 8 (22:27):
That was it?

Speaker 7 (22:28):
Well, luckily it was the other guy. You just said it,
and the way you phrased it, I'll ask it back
to you. You said, yeah, Cooper Hummel coming through. How about
when Cooper Hummel went coming through the dugout? That's about
as fired up as we've seen this dugout all season.

Speaker 8 (22:39):
It was nice.

Speaker 9 (22:41):
Yeah, I was, I was up to bad next, so
I was like, but I knew I heard him, so
I was.

Speaker 8 (22:46):
I was, you know, I was happy and everything I knew.

Speaker 9 (22:48):
I knew that we only need one run to win
the game, and no Hater and then no a Brew.
Pretty much Hater came in and closed the door.

Speaker 8 (22:55):
But that's all we needed.

Speaker 4 (22:57):
Since you can't get Jordan Alvarez as his home runs
to ever impress you, were you impressed with Cooper's Sorry,
I said, since Jordan Alvarez his home runs never do
impress you in the dugout? Were you at least impressed
with Cooper Hammels?

Speaker 9 (23:13):
I did, Actually, I was actually impressed when he hit
the ball, I'm like, oh, I have a chance. When
he hit it, I was like at the medium, like Okay,
I'm gonna win this thing because I was going to
hit the one. They just kept going and all of
a sudden went out and I mean everybody exploited. I
mean the whole You can see the whole dog out reaction.
It was pretty crazy. You know, I'm happy for a
for home.

Speaker 7 (23:30):
We're talking to Mauricio dubond here on the A team
wex and ac here with you brought up jord On
and obviously he's been out of action for quite some time,
but he's been there in the dug out.

Speaker 5 (23:38):
He's been a part of this team.

Speaker 7 (23:39):
He's obviously been there since you've been here, back when
you joined the team via trade a few years back.
How did you, guys cultivate the working and personal relationship
that you have here, because clearly he means a lot
to you, and I definitely feel like the reverse is
true as well.

Speaker 9 (23:54):
You know, it's crazy, you know, watching him, it's it's
killing him. People don't realize that. People realize that, people like,
oh he got the money, he doesn't want to play,
And I think this out of every out of everybody
is the one that wants to be in the field
the most. I mean, this is a guy that he
comes out of here every day, works and everything he's
working with asof just to get on the field. I mean,
it sucks not be able to have him, but he's

(24:15):
he's one of the you know, one of the three
hard working guys out here. Man sucks that, you know,
the hand and everything and the whole everything what happen,
you know, sucks, but you know.

Speaker 8 (24:23):
This is a guy that loves to compete.

Speaker 9 (24:25):
I think that that was one of the first things
that for me was, you know, this guy's a competitor.
I mean just going out there and and you know,
you feed of that, and you know, and we're exciting
we're gonna have him soon, and you know, just just
watching him go about his businesses is pretty pretty unreal.

Speaker 7 (24:39):
It does seem like every day you'd see a hitter
like him, lefty, power hitter, great hitter overall, with yourself
a righty a totally different kind of game that you play.
But it does feel like to us, and you've talked
about it, and he's talked about it a little bit.
Just from a baseball standpoint, certainly a hitting standpoint. It
feels like he's helped you with your game house.

Speaker 9 (24:58):
So oh yeah, I mean people don't realize. People realize
think jordanne is a home run hitter. You're done.

Speaker 5 (25:04):
It's a hitter.

Speaker 9 (25:05):
And he's strong enough to back spins balls out of
the field and hit balls one hundred and ten out
of the park.

Speaker 8 (25:11):
People don't realize that.

Speaker 5 (25:12):
But he's a hitter.

Speaker 8 (25:12):
He goes out there and you know, he knows how
to hit.

Speaker 9 (25:14):
And I think, you know, that's helped me a lot
of just going there asking him questions and I think,
you know, it helps me because I can become a
bread hitter. I mean I don't have to hit home
runs like I say, I'm a hitter. So that's why
you know it's working for me, Like, you know, I
can't go out and act different. Guys I know hit
home runs and don't know how to hit. They're just
strong enough. But no, it's a hitter. It's a hitter.

Speaker 8 (25:36):
Person that he's a power hitter.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
How much fun is it to, you know, be in
the Astros organization see everything that happened this offseason and
there you guys are with the second best record in
the American League, having lost Alex Brugman, having lost Kyle Tucker,
Ryan Presley is also gone, and just the injuries that
you've dealt with, and yet you know, it makes everybody
in the American League absolute sick to their stomach that

(26:01):
you guys just will not die, will not go away.

Speaker 5 (26:04):
You're still right there contending.

Speaker 9 (26:06):
You know, it's I think it's just that's the culture
we have in the clubhouse. I mean, everybody's stepping out.
I mean, everybody wants to you know, possibly ton a
little bit. I mean, if one guy doesn't do it,
like you said, like Copper Cooper that I yesterday, you know,
home run and everything, and somebody else.

Speaker 8 (26:21):
Will do it.

Speaker 9 (26:22):
You know, it's just just you no passing, passing the
stick to the next guy. And now one guy doesn't
do it, you know, somebody else will. You know, There's
there's gonna be times, I mean, there's gonna be times
that know the big dogs are gonna do it. There's
gonna be times that you know, the table serf is.

Speaker 8 (26:36):
Gonna do it.

Speaker 9 (26:36):
It just matter of going out there and competing, I
mean either his defense or or hitting and everything. But
you know, it's it's it's a combination and everything. And
I think that's that's that's that's been shown.

Speaker 7 (26:49):
When Christian Walker was signed in the off season, did
you think that, hey man, how am I supposed to
play every position on the diamond if we got an
everyday guy like that over there? That's the one position
in the field this year other than catch pitcher you
have not yet started gaming.

Speaker 9 (27:04):
No, it's great, it's great having question. I mean, it's
a three time gold Glove, you know. It's It's funny
because I take around Boston him and I ask him
a lot of questions, so I know how you feel this,
how you feel that.

Speaker 8 (27:13):
And it helps me too, learning and everything. You never know. No,
a lot of stuff.

Speaker 9 (27:18):
I mean, it's good that when that I'm not playing first,
that means you know, he's he's helping his he's coming along.
I mean, that's that's the that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 7 (27:26):
What do you think about the astros? I guess newest
three months worth of a utility player.

Speaker 5 (27:31):
It's not easy. You've told us all the years you've
been here.

Speaker 7 (27:33):
It's not easy to play different positions, certainly outfield to infield.
How about the outfielder to infielder and back and forth
that Jose Altuve has been doing this year.

Speaker 8 (27:43):
It's it's unreal. People don't realize that. It took me.

Speaker 9 (27:45):
You know, it took me a while to get used
to it at a young age. Host he's doing it,
you know, being pretty much a Hall of Famer doing it,
you know, going in and out. I mean, people don't
people think it's just oh, grabbing it and throwing. I
mean we talked with hosts a couple of times that
try to, you know, go out there and help him
out a little bit of going from there and here
and everything. You know, it's funny because he tells me,
I don't know how you do it.

Speaker 8 (28:04):
It's hard. Like I'm telling you, bro, it took it
took me. It took me a while to get used
to it.

Speaker 9 (28:09):
But you know, once you get used to it, it's
it's it's no you can you can do it. But
out of all people, you know, he's one of the
guys that can do it now going from the outfield
and infield.

Speaker 8 (28:18):
People don't realize that.

Speaker 9 (28:19):
People don't realize he's a guy that's going to have
a statue, you know, outside of of the the ball
field and you know he's doing it. He's doing that
because it's the best for the team. You know, it's crazy.
You know, that's the type of teammate he is, and
that's a type of culture we have in the cuphost.

Speaker 7 (28:33):
We've actually had that conversation here, Mauricio about the statue,
what what what should it be?

Speaker 5 (28:37):
What depiction of Jose should it be? And where does
it go? Where do you put the statue of Jose?
It's him biting his nails, right.

Speaker 8 (28:44):
Probably taking his sock off, pointing at his foot.

Speaker 4 (28:48):
Yeah, I'll put you on the spot a little bit
about Jose. We're talking to Mauricio Dubond here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. You're home for Astros Baseball, all right,
So this discussion came up earlier this week, and I'm
not trying to get you to ruffle feathers or anything.
And you're probably biased. Is Jose Altuve the greatest Astro
of all time?

Speaker 5 (29:08):
Already?

Speaker 8 (29:10):
Ooh?

Speaker 9 (29:13):
Honestly, you know no, it's it's a different error. That's
pffical and realize it's a different era. But Hosi Hojosey,
He's one is one up there, Hosi's up there, Josey
is unreal. No, no, no, moment is big for him.
He he like comes out and and he's even keeled
every time. You know, he's a guy that wants to compete.
This guy has you know, two thousand plus hits and

(29:33):
every day. No, he's not satisfied. He wants to get
get up there and win. I mean, it's it's crazy.
He was watching him and how humble he is about
everything he accomplished.

Speaker 8 (29:42):
You know, it's it's crazy.

Speaker 9 (29:43):
I think my favorite saying post is saying out of
my fifteen years in the big leagues, he always comes
out with something. So I think that's the biggest one
for me. You know, he's he's up there.

Speaker 7 (29:53):
Mauricio, we talked to you about a bunch of different
teammates Altuve, Alvarez and others that you know, baseball wise,
or even just saw a personal level. That is, it's
been a big part of you being a the what
you've been able to do here in Houston. I'm wondering
if recently maybe you and Brian Abray who have had
more discussions about having a little one at home, a
new little one at home.

Speaker 6 (30:11):
Yeah, we talk.

Speaker 8 (30:11):
We talk. It's funny we talk, you know, my wife
gave him.

Speaker 9 (30:14):
My wife gave his wife some some some some gay famython.

Speaker 10 (30:17):
Oh.

Speaker 9 (30:17):
We always talk being me and Bran and are you know,
are pretty close in that sense.

Speaker 8 (30:20):
We always talk.

Speaker 9 (30:21):
You know, we always support each other, so we always
shying or not no no, pick each other's back and everything,
especially when he's pitching. You know, it's it's it's crazy,
Like I say, you'd be surprised like the type of
chemistry we have in the clubhouse. It's it's pretty pretty unreal.

Speaker 7 (30:35):
You spent time in Sacramento, which we heard a lot
about when you played in West Sacramento and launched baseball's
over the fence in that minor league ballpark, and spent
some time with the San Francisco Giants.

Speaker 5 (30:45):
You've been an Astro since twenty twenty two. Now.

Speaker 7 (30:48):
I don't know if that's a long time or not
a long time. It seems like a long time to me.
How do you kind of view your time here in
Houston thus far?

Speaker 8 (30:58):
It's not enough? Not enough?

Speaker 9 (31:00):
Uh, you know it's it's it's a good place. I
love Houston. I love the crowd. The crowd makes it
even better, you know. I think it's just no matter
where you go. I think the people makes it better.
I think just the people I'm surrounded by here, you know,
in the clubhouse and the and the fans and everything
makes it so much better. You know, helps over winning,
helps that I'm contributing to the win. So I think
it's just you know, the people you're surrounded by. It's

(31:22):
pretty pretty unreal. I mean, Houston, from the food to
the place you live, everything, I mean, it's it's a
pretty neat place.

Speaker 4 (31:28):
You got a favorite type of food that you didn't
really have before he came to Houston.

Speaker 9 (31:34):
Oh, yeah, I hate a lot of I hat a
lot of crawfish, A lot of crawfish. Yeah, I say
a lot of crawfish. Now, my wife went to Loyola
and Luciana, so I had a little bit of taste
over there. So when I got here, I think every
every day after after.

Speaker 8 (31:51):
A day game, I think that's what I have.

Speaker 5 (31:53):
So is it more of a boil or you're a
fried guy or both?

Speaker 8 (31:57):
No, I'm a boil boiled guy.

Speaker 6 (31:59):
Right.

Speaker 8 (32:00):
Cajun spicy?

Speaker 4 (32:03):
Love it, love it much like you on the baseball field,
Mauricio Dubon.

Speaker 5 (32:07):
We were looking forward to this visit.

Speaker 4 (32:08):
You did not disappoint Good luck the rest of the
way this season, and let's catch up again.

Speaker 8 (32:12):
Man, Thank you guys, thank you for having me absolutely.

Speaker 4 (32:15):
Mauricio Dubon here on your home for Astros Baseball Sports
Talk at seven ninety. Well react to that, wrap things
up here in the two o'clock hour, next.

Speaker 2 (32:25):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
Ninety, come back to you.

Speaker 4 (32:47):
It is the eight team Sports Talk seven ninety. You
wish they bring that back?

Speaker 5 (32:52):
The No.

Speaker 7 (32:53):
I just think I should do what ESPN's done with basketball,
act like its just another game. You don't need a
big intro for any big games. The Rockets in advance
of regular season games. Every year that I've been with
the Rockets and before, they put more effort into than
what we saw during the NBA Finals.

Speaker 5 (33:09):
I'd be fine with they brought If they brought that back.

Speaker 7 (33:12):
When they did, people in the arena would notice, they
would kind of watch exactly, so it'd be cool. But
what they do in advance of their games during intros, lineups,
et ceteras, it's pretty fun.

Speaker 5 (33:25):
It's the best in the league.

Speaker 4 (33:26):
I mean, I don't go around the league the way
Matt Thomas does because I'm not fancy but I would
put the Rockets video production, game day ops staff up
against anybody top to bottom. They're absolutely just unbelievable. They
hit a home run every single time. WEX all right,
So thanks again to Mauricio Dubon who joined his last segment.

(33:49):
Knew it would be fantastic. I've never seen him give
a bad interview, not saying it was anything we did.
He's just a good SoundBite no matter what you're talking about.
And that ranged anywhere from the all time best astro
to the type of food to all sorts of things
astros related. They've got the Phillies in town for the
remainder of this series. Got the win last night, and
then of course the Chicago Cubs come to town, which

(34:12):
means Kyle Tucker and Ryan Presley will get their recognition
via the video board in the crowd.

Speaker 7 (34:20):
Yeah, if Ryan Presley checks into the game sometime out
of their bullpen, different bullpen and no fanfare or John Cash,
but nonetheless maybe an appearance here, they'll both get recognized.
Before Friday's game. We obviously got into it quite a
bit with Mauricio, with Cooper Hummel, it was a monster swing.
At some point it kind of felt like this is
going to be a one swing game, whether it's a one, two,

(34:40):
three run home or whatever that swing is. It was
a one nothing game, and Suarez was as advertised. He's
been one of the best pitchers in baseball for the
last couple of months. You could argue the Astros are
getting a less talented pitcher tonight, even though it's Zach Wheeler.
He's been awesome this year, He's been awesome for the
last several years. He was awesome when they met in

(35:01):
the postseason at times. But it's a very good pitching matchup.
That turned into a very good pitching matchup because Fromber,
while had some issues getting pitches where he wanted or
maybe getting calls where he wanted because of where his
pitches were put four batters on base. Via Walk only
gave up four hits, but he did what he usually does,
which is keep the ball down even if they're getting

(35:22):
to it or reaching bass, or he's missing his spots
and putting guys on base. He doesn't really seem too concerned,
even if maybe outwardly it seems that way, because he
knows he's going to keep the ball down and it's
going to be hit to somebody on the infield and
they're going to turn two or they're gonna get the
outs necessary to just head on to the next inning
with another zero posted on the board. Seven shutout innings
from Frombert out Valdez, only four hits allowed, did get

(35:45):
two double play balls, did get work done from his infield. Heck,
he got a play that wasn't made by his infield
on the ball hit to Christian Walker that not once
but twice could have been corraled for a little flip
to first to get an out, and he just worked
right through it. This is a very very long stretch
again where Fromber continues to post huge this staff needs

(36:06):
it kind of starts you needed three arms last night.
He got you twenty one outs, bra got his three,
hater got his three, and you move on to the
next day. That's is ideal in this era of Major
League Baseball. I'm not asking for these starters to do
something that nobody gets asked to do. Hey man, could
you maybe throw a couple pitches in the eighth inning.
I know, I know, I know you don't like to.

(36:26):
I know we don't ask you to very often. But
if it goes well enough, we might even send you
back out for the night thing. No, you won't. That
never happens complete games eight any complete games. Yeah, maybe
Astros have a couple of those. Ye, But when starters,
I mean, that's all they're being asked to do. And
those starts that he and Hunter regularly are putting out

(36:48):
there last night, it's a great example. That's a winning start.
He's not gonna get the win necessarily. He didn't get
the final outs, he didn't throw a complete game. That
is not a quality start. That's two a bar, right.
He won the game for the Astros. You win starts.
If you get that from your starter, seven innings, no runs,
you win. Everybody wins those games, unless you're the Pirates.

(37:11):
That's mean and accurate. And the Phillies could have said
that they got seven shot out innings from their starter
and then they sent him back out for the eighth
inning and he gave up a run.

Speaker 4 (37:22):
I did like the fact that it was I mean,
obviously I like the fact they hit the home run,
let's stop right there, but I like the fact that
it was off of him, because it would have been
too easy to say, well, yeah, I mean they got
to the bullpen but this time they got to the starter,
who was fantastic and that's got to be a gut
punch if you're him, as he exited the game with
one hundred and one pitches and that was the only

(37:44):
mistake he made of the night, essentially because he was
no hitting them through five innings. But yeah, I just
and by the way, serious game six clincher vibes last night,
same uniforms won by both teams from are on the bump.

Speaker 5 (37:58):
That was cool.

Speaker 4 (37:59):
Of course, the only thing was jord On hitting a
moonshot to dead center. But as you heard Mauricio Dubon
and others talk about hitting the ball off at he'll
be back sooner rather than later. I think we can finally,
maybe realistically see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker 7 (38:14):
Yeah, we're a few minutes away from hearing from Dana Brown.
He'll join us or join you joined the Sean Salisbury
Show earlier this morning, so I wanted to give you
a little bit of what he had to say. And
the Astros, as expected a couple weeks ago now began
issuing injury updates, usually once a week via the game
notes or otherwise. They did that yesterday and Jordon Alvarez

(38:36):
progress was noted. Dana Brown noted more progress hopeful for
Yordon Alvarez, contributing to the Astros cause before some of
his teammates go to the All Star Game. We don't
know how many and which ones we do know. Phase
one voting concludes tomorrow at eleven am. Jose al Twove
is probably the only one that could squeeze into Phase two, Essentially,

(38:58):
the top two at each position advance, or the top
six among outfielders. Jeremy Pania and Altuve were the only
Astros that were in the top three, both being third,
But the distance between third and second for Paynya at
shortstop was pretty seismic, and the difference between Altuve and
second at second base, where he's on the ballot, is tiny.

(39:18):
Jackson Holliday just barely eleven thousand votes at last count
ahead of him, So certainly, if you like clzl Twove
there and among second basemen offensively, he fits the profile
of an All Star this year. There is not a
lot to offer at that position, so the offense that
he's produced would certainly put him in that mix. But
j will hear from Astros General manager Dana Brown next.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named at him talking your team.

Speaker 3 (39:56):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are da team.

Speaker 4 (40:04):
Welcome into our number two here on Sports Talk seven
ninety and welcome in on the simulcast over on Space
City Home Network. If you'd like to look at our
happy shiny faces, you can now wax and a c
with you on a Wednesday edition of the program. We've
already had a conversation with Astro's All Everything Mauricio dubon

(40:24):
good Stuff. You can check that out on the podcast
asapp when it gets posted. And again a reminder, the
iHeartRadio app is free. The iHeartMedia app is free. You
can download it. You can put in Sports Talk seven
ninety as your number one preset, and we would really
appreciate that. We would also appreciate any and all conversation

(40:48):
today about some of the things we have covered and
some of the things we have not gotten to, including
a voice of Reason later this hour concerning CJ.

Speaker 5 (40:56):
Stroud. I cannot wait for that segment. CJ.

Speaker 7 (40:59):
Stroud in the text, officially announced their training camp schedule
earlier today at advance notice of what now everybody knows.
Another trip to the Greenbrier for the Houston Texans. Four
days of practices in advance of visiting one of their foes.
They've got joint practices one session each with a couple
of teams. July twenty third, I mentioned that yesterday it's

(41:21):
officially their first day of practice. They have seven open practices,
all of which are morning practices, and as expected, the
last of those is the joint practice against the Carolina
Panthers and Bryce Young and CJ. Stroud on opposing sides.
Probably they'll actually be on opposing fields playing against opposing sides.

(41:42):
But those to me, if those are and have been
in the past, open to fans.

Speaker 5 (41:47):
Hard to beat that now.

Speaker 7 (41:48):
I know you've seen some altercations and open practices when
it wasn't against another team, like last year when Derrek
Stingley Junior and Dalton show ELTs and other teammates got
tangled up. Previous years, we've seen DeAndre Hopkins and Jimmy
Ward get tangled up. That's Jimmy Ward with the Niners

(42:10):
and DeAndre Hopkins with the Texans. Every once in a
while it happens when opposing teams are in town. It
actually happened quite a bit when the Falcons visited, and
was a season where it happened to also get captured
by the hard knocks cameras. But you know, the Rams
were in town last year, the Lions have been here.
There have been very, very few incidents of any kind.
It's much better than the preseason game, according to everybody involved.

(42:34):
You get the work you actually want, you get to
dictate the work you actually want, and then you go
ahead and play the game two days later. That's clearly
the result of matters not and a lot of reserves
end up getting most of the playing time.

Speaker 5 (42:44):
Anyway, wanted to give you a few minutes with Dana Brown.

Speaker 7 (42:46):
He made his weekly visit to the Sean Salisbury Show
earlier today. Nine to thirty on Wednesday is his normal spot.
A few things from Dana here. You can catch the
interview in full if you missed it right there at
Sports Talk seven ninety dot com or for those that
subscribe all ready our podcasts, The Shawn Salisbury Show, About
Thomas Show with Ross or this program The A Team,
It's also to be found there. Begin the conversation partial

(43:08):
conversation with Dana with the general manager's thoughts as a
pair of first place team are set to visit into
the series. Now, one game with the Phillies, the Cubs
come after that. Using that win and maybe more to
come as a as a measuring stick for the Astros.

Speaker 6 (43:23):
Yeah, I mean we love to play the good ball clubs.
I mean we actually play very well. I think we're
leading in winning series against all the better teams, and
so you know, that's a nice feather in your cap.
And so I mean, these guys really step it up,
play these tough teams. They know it's going to be
a tough battle, and are they getting a few aces
in the series. It does a lot for you confidence wise,

(43:44):
when you play a good club and you could pull
out some victories, haven't. Doesn't make no mistake about it
does a lot for the club. These guys are locked
in right now and they've been fun to watch.

Speaker 11 (43:56):
Let me go to one of the injuries real quick,
because you mentioned the bullpen. We'll get back to last
night a team in the season dubin the strain in
the in the forearm, Dana. Is there any reason that
we should believe that surgery is possible? Or when will
we know we're out of the woods on that.

Speaker 6 (44:09):
Yeah, I don't think surgery is possible. Look, I think
that at the end of the day, Dubin's going to
be fine. It's just going to take some time. He's
probably need for a little bit of rest. You know,
you've heard me say this often on this program that
the one sixty two, you know you're going to run
into some hiccups when you play all these games, and
so I think this is, you know, one of those
injuries where you'll go through the fifteen day il and

(44:33):
then we'll circle back and see how he feels. But
we don't think this is going to be that long.
He's been a really good piece for us in the
middle of our our bullpen, pitching those middle winnings. We're
looking forward to getting them back.

Speaker 11 (44:43):
Any chance we see him in the batter's box before
the All Star break, meaning your Don Alvarez.

Speaker 6 (44:48):
Yeah, I mean, look, I think there's a good chance
he's just started as hitting on Sunday late afternoon and
so taking some taking some cuts. I think we're going
to amp them up, get them amped up this you know,
this week, we'll allow him to pick some batting practice live,
We'll take some off the t get to the point
where we'll take them off the machine. And so now

(45:09):
it's that time where you know, he's feeling really good,
and so we're going to allow him to swing the bat.
You know. We started on Sunday, Sunday afternoon talking to
your isyand yesterday he feels really good. You know, we're
going to push through this thing with him, and I
think he feels good this time, and where we're looking
forward to getting them back at some point here soon.
I feel confident that it should be before the All

(45:30):
Star break.

Speaker 11 (45:31):
You mentioned the word grit a lot, which is a
great word and a great kind of description of this team.
But you're sixteen and seven and stats can be overrated
and misleading. These two aren't sixteen and seven in one
run games and twenty and oh in games where you've
come from behind.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
You're twenty and oh.

Speaker 12 (45:50):
You know, those are fairly alarming statistics.

Speaker 11 (45:52):
And grit's important, as you well know, and mentioned in
a good way regularly.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
There's something other than grit.

Speaker 5 (45:58):
What is it with this team?

Speaker 6 (45:59):
Yeah, start with the pitching. You know, the bullpen's been
really good to hold down those leads when we come back.
It really starts with the pitching and the defense. The
defense has been really good. You know, we can catch
the baseball. You know, at some point you know, on
our nfield you'll see that we'll have a gold glove
at every position, and so, I mean that's very important.

(46:22):
And then getting those timely hits, you know, our offense
every now and then we'll get on all the cylinders.
We've been on and off, but you know we've been heating.
We've been heating up lately, you know, so that's been good.
There are guys heating up, and so you know, when
you put all three of those together, that's when you
can get those you know, those good numbers like that.

(46:43):
You know, good pitching, good defense, timely hitting very important
to one run games. We've been really good in one
run games too as well. So, uh yeah, it's been
fun to watch the boys are picking each other up,
you know, even with these injuries, is that we have
these guys consistently pick each other up, and we're getting

(47:04):
pretty good performances, you know, out of our guys. And
you know, some of these young starters have come up
and given us some really good starts, like Gordon, you know, Walters, Uh,
you know, Gusto has been really good, and you know, Alexander,
these guys have really stepped it up with these injuries
we've had, you know, in our rotation, So you know,

(47:27):
that's off to them, and you know, we hope they
continue to have some success at the major league level.

Speaker 11 (47:32):
What is the biggest frustration for you, Not that it
can't be fixed, but the biggest frustration for you seventy
nine games into your season.

Speaker 6 (47:40):
Yeah, I don't have much frustration at all. I mean
we're forty six and thirty three, we're thirteen over, we're
in first place, four and a half up in the
in the division, we're battling through injuries, the guys are
showing grit. Yeah, there's there's nothing to be frustrated about.
We just have to continue to do what we're doing.
We're gonna we're gonna get some of these guys back

(48:00):
off the IL, probably going to come at a time
where we're going to need them, and we can continue
to play like we're playing. You know, the frustration is done.
I mean I can't get frustrated when you know the
guys are playing the way they're playing, especially when we
have so many guys on the IL. I really love
the grit of this team, the support we get at
home with our fans and even on a road. I mean,

(48:24):
we're going through, you know, a tough time with injuries,
and these guys are continuing to battle every single night.
And so, yeah, frustration is not my vocabulary right now.

Speaker 7 (48:35):
Probably have to bank that for some other time during
his tenure here. It's impossible for that to be the
case permanently as a general man. It's just part of
what is absolutely in your blood, knowing that, hey man,
we should be better. Like there's frustration at the beginning
of the last year, it shows you what a difference
it is this year that they're thirteen games over five hundred.
Sean mentioned the numbers of twenty three one run games.

(48:57):
They've won sixteen of them. Last night was the sixteenth
win in a one run game. It's been absolutely incredible
how well this team has kind of risen to the
moment over the course of the season. Some of the
injuries that Dana talked about and the progress for them,
you know, Zach Decenzo not yet progressed to hitting, Chas
McCormick and Jacob Melton going through some of their hitting
and throwing progressions.

Speaker 5 (49:18):
Same thing for Brendan Rodgers.

Speaker 7 (49:20):
Their update yesterday with Luis Garcia having a live VP,
Christian Xavier first live BP back on Friday, JP France,
third live BP, that one again taking place on Friday.
Spencer Arighetti, who is in there in Florida and West Palm,
he posted something the other day of him being back

(49:41):
throwing and was excited to be doing so, and he's
continuing to build up to game action. And then in
this clip you just heard, he said he was hopeful
and kind of expected, pleasantly hoping that Jordon Alvarez would
be in the lineup at some point before the All
Star break and the update from him and the update
from their release. He has begun swinging. He's hitting off

(50:03):
a te did that as he mentioned late in the afternoon,
again doing that yesterday, and I assume more of it
to come, however, and I don't know if it was
asked at another time or mentioned on Sunday when he
visited with the broadcast team. So his latest scan showed
a complete heal. That's why he's swinging the bat right, Well,

(50:29):
you can't expect to be given that information. Well, if
he's not asked, he's not necessarily have to give it.
I'm just I don't know if it was, and I
apologize for that. You would assume he's healthy.

Speaker 4 (50:39):
I would assume that they wouldn't put him in a
situation where that would be put in jeopardy.

Speaker 7 (50:45):
I would have assumed that the first time too, But
they did, That's why.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
But according to everybody involved, they didn't know the first
time because of lack of imaging.

Speaker 5 (50:54):
So I'm literally what I'm saying.

Speaker 7 (50:56):
I'm saying you can't let him pick up a bat
and swing the second I'm the second go round after
you let him pick up a bat and swing without
getting the imaging necessary to say it's fully healed, because
you haven't gone into look and see what turned out
to be a problem. You hadn't seen at all. How
can you let him pick up a bat? Well, maybe
they did imaging, we don't know about. That's why I said.
I imagine, like you they did. I just don't know

(51:18):
that for a fact. You should ask somebody.

Speaker 5 (51:20):
I will.

Speaker 7 (51:21):
Mauricio would have told us Marisia is not who I
need to be asking, nor is your on for that matter.
That's actually true. Well, he would probably say if you
did or not? All right when we get back.

Speaker 4 (51:31):
It's been a hot topic of late here on the show,
where people consider c J. Stroud and the pantheon of
NFL quarterbacks going into his third and very pivotal year.

Speaker 5 (51:43):
The Voice of Reason.

Speaker 1 (51:45):

Speaker 4 (51:59):
Well, you guys by now are well aware that I've
got an ax to grind with some of the off
season list makers when it comes to ranking NFL quarterbacks.

Speaker 5 (52:10):
It's not even so much that CJ.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
Stroud is too low as it is certainly I'm not
even gonna refer to him by name at this point.

Speaker 5 (52:16):
I don't. I'm not going to give him the time
of day.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
There's just certain quarterbacks that are consistently and routinely ranked
ahead of CJ.

Speaker 5 (52:25):
That really grind my gears.

Speaker 7 (52:27):
Yeah, I mean CJ got the benefit of having to
play against the Chargers defense while Herbert was tasked with
the impossible goal of trying to succeed against the Texans defense.

Speaker 4 (52:38):
Well, the fifth best quarterback in the NFL should be
just fine in that scenario.

Speaker 7 (52:43):
I mean all the other ones they played were Yeah,
the ones ahead of them, oh, okay, like Lamar and
Pat and that's basically it because they think it played
Joe and you could argue if Josh Allen was successful
or not, he didn't beat him. The only solace I
take in this is a lot of these list don't
have Jalen Hurts ahead of him either, which is also stupid. Yeah,
the only solace I take it is that we don't

(53:05):
hit on every single one of the lists. We don't
fall for it every time, just most of the time.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
Well, listen, I know what Cole was doing earlier today
when he sent me another similar type list where it
was the rankings of returning head coaches to their NFL teams,
And you had a top ten and Demiko wasn't on it.
But Justin Herbert's coach was right around the same spot
as quarterback always is.

Speaker 5 (53:30):
Yep, Justin Herbert's championship coach was ahead of Demiko.

Speaker 4 (53:33):
Where do you win the championship at NRG Stadium? What
kind of level of football were they playing that night?

Speaker 7 (53:39):
Probably one of the most lucrative ones. Second most lucrative
was it NFL football? I mean, most of the players
on the field are NFL players.

Speaker 5 (53:48):
But were they that night? Not that night? So it
was not an NFL game.

Speaker 7 (53:51):
He has coached in infinity times more Super Bowls than
Demiko as a head coach, is a fair point?

Speaker 5 (53:59):
Did he win not?

Speaker 13 (54:00):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (54:00):
Okay, so he's basically the same.

Speaker 7 (54:02):
Seriously, I don't even know who's at the office right now.
Let's pretend there's thirty sports fans at the office right now,
which is way too high. That's far less if you
asked them, who do they think is a better head coach?

Speaker 5 (54:13):
Well, we got to go to a neutral city.

Speaker 7 (54:15):
If we took a flight for this very segment and
this very topic, and we flew to San Jose, California. Uh,
let's see, we flew to where the World League of
American Football used to play, and we said, who do
you think is a better head coach the NFL level?
Jim Harbaugh or Demiko Ryans. Do you think at least
half would say Jim Harball at least half.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
Maybe now do a poll of players in which they
would like to play for more who they would like
to play for?

Speaker 5 (54:43):
The Really you were gonna go play for, mister Khakis?
I don't six. They don't care how he dresses, they
care how he coaches. Well, okay, then we'll start there,
who do you want to play for?

Speaker 7 (54:56):
I just think Jim Harbaugh is not who I would say, Man,
how can you think this guy's a good head coach?

Speaker 5 (55:02):
I just is it an LA thing?

Speaker 4 (55:04):
It can't be. LA doesn't matter in the NFL. It's
been proven over the last five days.

Speaker 5 (55:07):
It's who he is.

Speaker 7 (55:09):
People look at his NFL coaching career as exceptional, and
you can't debate that he's had more success at this
level than Demiko. Then he went to college after he'd
already been at college, winning in two different places to
San Diego State and Stanford.

Speaker 5 (55:23):
Then he went back to college, won the national title
and cheated like.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
It sounds like a bunch of stuff that's happened before
he got to the Chargers, which is where this list
has him the best returning head coaches in the NFL
top ten.

Speaker 5 (55:34):
Harbaugh is on it, Demiko is not.

Speaker 7 (55:36):
Ye Harbaugh and Demiico have both taken their current team
to the playoffs every year of their career. And when
they hear your other dogging Harball for what he did
with the Chargers.

Speaker 4 (55:47):
I'm not dogging Harbaugh. I'm saying, where the bleep is
Demico on this list?

Speaker 6 (55:52):
Well?

Speaker 5 (55:52):
Look Crosses on the list. Well, I always just wanted
to I know you want.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
I want to feature in on the stupid Chargers who
are apparently or the second coming of Christ when it
comes to NFL teams.

Speaker 14 (56:02):
Also met Lafleurza on the list, but Kevin Stefanski is
Stefanski was the one that stood out the most because
it's just stupid.

Speaker 5 (56:09):
So why are we paying attention to it?

Speaker 4 (56:12):
Because Cole sent it to me and did it on purpose?
Just explain that at the beginning of the segment.

Speaker 7 (56:17):
I mean he's not like a trained Monkeyking the Bear.
I mean, you're only supposed to be a trained monkey
when I want you to do impressions of our leaders. Otherwise, No,
I thought it was a very unfair list.

Speaker 10 (56:31):
Demiko is clearly better. He's the best head coach in
Texans history by far.

Speaker 7 (56:36):
Do you think you need work with your speech writers,
et cetera on preparing for a Welcome to the White
House Demiko Ryan's led team or Welcome to the White
House Jim Harbaugh team to which one? Okay, I know
you're you've been busy, but have you put any thought
into what you might say.

Speaker 5 (56:54):
About the speech or the champion.

Speaker 7 (56:57):
You're shaking hands with Will and Cjil and Tamiko.

Speaker 10 (57:02):
You know, I think back to the list before the
twenty twenty five season, and that was a very low
iq stupid person who put that list together. Damiico not
even on it. Jim Harbaugh number six, I'm sorry. He's
not as good and he wears khakis way too much.
People don't like khakis. I thought those those appear I

(57:23):
could be wrong. Don those appear to be the same
type of pants you wear on the golf course.

Speaker 4 (57:29):
Yeah, but here's the difference. Jim Harbaugh's khakis are like
nineteen ninety eight khakis.

Speaker 5 (57:34):
They have pleats. They're a little dated pleats. It's all
about the flat front.

Speaker 7 (57:38):
I don't know because we're here, Andy Reid, Sean Payton,
Sean McVay, John Harbaugh. So the Harbaugh thanks you have
time him the best coach in his own family.

Speaker 5 (57:48):
Do you think Sean Payton's too high on that?

Speaker 7 (57:49):
Like Tomlins, Jim Harbaugh, Kyle Shanahan, Nick Sirianni, Dan Campbell,
and Kevin Stefanski. According to a group of people we
constantly rip for these stupid lists that we keep talking about.
That's their top ten. It's pff. Do I think Sean
Payton is too high on this list?

Speaker 12 (58:11):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (58:11):
I do. Like should he even be on it? Yes
he should? Yeah, I would put him out like in
Stefanski's spot.

Speaker 7 (58:18):
Well, that's definitely someone who does not belong in the
top ten current NFL coaches, does Demiko U at least?
Very That seems the simplest way to rectify part of
the list. Just put Dimiko in his place. Demiko should
have won Coach of the Year over him two years ago.
I thought that was pretty plain and simple, and the
voting was flawed in the way they calculated, and so
it prevented it. But I don't look at any other
of the twenty one other coaches that didn't make it

(58:40):
or Demiko, and nobody really like, oh, this person should
be on there.

Speaker 5 (58:43):
That person should be on there.

Speaker 7 (58:44):
And when I look at the other nine that are
on there, they seem like that's I mean, you can't preclude.
You can't have a list without I don't think I
mean it. Cale Shanahan has taken his team to the
ultimate place, not to the ultimate podium. At that place,
Tomlin has to be on this list. Obviously, all of
the other coaches have won it or have been to
the Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (59:05):
Essentially, go ahead.

Speaker 14 (59:07):
I would argue Shanahan. I'm sorry, like I think he
is the most overread to head coach in the NFL.

Speaker 7 (59:12):
Well, the name of the game is to win, even
if you don't win a Super Bowl, and other than
last year, I know, I think he's had two down
years there.

Speaker 5 (59:19):
I don't really have any issue with that. But that's
all they ever do.

Speaker 7 (59:22):
Isn't the name of the game to win the Super
Bowl and not blow it three different times when you
were the OC and it's your offense because you did
it when you had Jimmy Garoppolo, you did it when
you had Matt Ryan, did the city and begin when
you had Jimmy Garoppolo, and you dialed up a brilliant
play with Jimmy freaking awful Garoppolo and he blew it
with an awful throat.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
But let's put it on.

Speaker 7 (59:45):
We're not talking about twenty eight to three, and we're
not talking about the same coach. Yeah, but that's not
what we're what we're talking about. We're talking about one game.
He hasn't won the Super Bowl, all right, Let's talk
about one Super Bowl that Jimmy Garoppolo completely screwed up,
even on just one play. But let's take Shanahan off
the list because his horrible quarterback that somehow he guided

(01:00:05):
to the super Bowl can't make a simple throw that every.

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
Other quarterback was make.

Speaker 7 (01:00:10):
But let's talk about the other games that wouldn't even
make it to the conversation if this easy ass throw
was made by his terrible ass quarterback. On Shanahan, I'm
not even a Shanahan lover, right, but that doesn't make
any sense to me to say, quit getting to the
super Bowl and losing. You're awful at coaching with that
makes no center back.

Speaker 4 (01:00:29):
You're not giving him enough credit for taking the forty
nine ers to the super Bowl with Jimmy Garoppolo quarterback.

Speaker 7 (01:00:34):
Other Super Bowl? Did Matt Ryan plan? Which other? I
mean he had a bunch of coaches during his time
in Atlanta. That was the coach that guided them to
the Super Bowl as not even as the head coach
I was there where twenty eight to three happened. It
is worthy of some discussion and Matt Ryan and definitely
Kyle Shanahan with some of the things they did, their
play calls, some of the designs they did unquestionably below it,

(01:00:59):
no doubt. But he's got too much other stuff in
his resume to bounce him all the way to eleven.
So if you're bouncing him out, we've already bounced to
fan Ski out. But that means we got a second spot.
Who else that's not in the top ten deserves Shanahan's spot?

Speaker 5 (01:01:14):
Batt Laflair.

Speaker 7 (01:01:16):
That's a very reasonable thought, it is. And I brought
him up here now gonna I agree with how good
he is. I'm not giving him shanay spot.

Speaker 14 (01:01:23):
And I'm not even trying to say that Shanahan doesn't
belong in the top ten. But if you were gonna
argue another one that doesn't at this point, Shanahan, with
his insufficient play calling on multiple Super Bowls, to me,
would be in that conversation. I don't think he belongs
at seven. He's closer to ten. I'd probably move Sirianni
up to seven, Campbell up to the eight.

Speaker 5 (01:01:42):
I'd put Tomiko at nine.

Speaker 14 (01:01:43):
And then I put shanahand at ten, or Shanahan at
nine and Tomiko at ten.

Speaker 7 (01:01:46):
So would we even have unearthed this lively discussion if
PFF just told us Dimiko was eleven and we're saying
what he should be nine.

Speaker 5 (01:01:57):
That's a good point, I mean to be fair.

Speaker 4 (01:01:59):
Yeh Ever, gonna get any pushback from me on sticking
up for Kyle Shanahan. By the way, I don't think
he's overrated at all. I think he's actually one of
the best coaches in the NFL. And if it weren't
for Damiico Ryans, I would have been ecstatic if the
Texans had gone out and somehow pried him away from
the forty nine ers.

Speaker 7 (01:02:15):
But think about it this way before we welcome Gordian
for the next segment to talk Astros. When the Texans win,
you and I can and Cole consider and say, amazing
for such an under talented, useless group of people over
there at Texans. Terrible quarterback, awful head coach, How did
they do this? We could write books about this underdog
story that the Texans have put together. Here Gordy Astros next.

Speaker 2 (01:02:39):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:02:46):
Trying to make this weekly Wednesdays sat around three thirty
A visit from our astros and Sidner Chris Gordy, host
of the Crawford Box Cast. There's fairly large Astro topic
that unfolded earlier today that we haven't gotten a whole
lot into. So rather than talk about the one nothing victory,
the domination over the best teams in baseball, the ongoing

(01:03:08):
six game homestand the excellence from from ber Valdez, let's
talk about Jeremy Peney's long term future with the Houston Astros.
Reported earlier today that prior to his moving from his
previous agent to his now new current agent, Scott Boris,
that the Astros and Peyna had been engaged in extension talks,
long term contract stocks to the neighborhood of reportedly five

(01:03:31):
years and better than one hundred and five million. How
do you view that in and of itself, all parts
of it, the fact that they were talking, and they
probably have paused those talks, those figures that have been
thrown around, and I do not think they're nails on
balls accurate. Five years one oh five is what we're
talking about. But in that neighborhood, just your overall thoughts
on getting this discussion started, I think.

Speaker 15 (01:03:53):
That's we need to get back to those kind of
deals happening, like deals that are good of the team.

Speaker 12 (01:04:01):
They're good for the.

Speaker 15 (01:04:02):
Player, and I don't understand why we can't have that discussion.
People want to jump to the no, these players are
worth hundreds of millions. We got to pay them all this,
and it's like, okay, Or he can stay on his
current path of arbitration where he's making what four million
this year.

Speaker 7 (01:04:17):
Let people know that he's got a four point one
million dollar figure for his deal this year, which for
all these players.

Speaker 5 (01:04:22):
These are one year deals.

Speaker 7 (01:04:23):
He'll have a new one year deal next year with
no extension, a new one year deal the year after that.

Speaker 5 (01:04:28):
In years two and year three of arbitration.

Speaker 7 (01:04:31):
Best case scenario for the player, worst case financially scenario
for Houston, he could make thirty five or forty total
over those two years, maybe right, Or you could pay
him one hundred and five figure.

Speaker 12 (01:04:44):
We'll use like twenty million a year right the next
five years.

Speaker 7 (01:04:47):
Like, I don't even believe that he's not going to
jump from pour four point one to anywhere near that
for like forty million is way off base.

Speaker 15 (01:04:54):
Honestly, I just there there needs to be this. We
need to get back to the in between, need to
get back to the common sense.

Speaker 12 (01:05:01):
This is a good deal. For the player, This is
a good deal for the agent.

Speaker 15 (01:05:04):
Instead we have Scott Boris coming in hijacking everything.

Speaker 12 (01:05:07):
You're not worth. You're worth twelve times that, my friend.

Speaker 15 (01:05:11):
And it just it's it's it's bad for the sport.

Speaker 12 (01:05:14):
The Scott boris Is are bad for the sport. I
get it.

Speaker 15 (01:05:17):
They go and get big play the biggest player is
the biggest money. Awesome, you know, but look, this is
gonna sound like I'm a poor guy. He gets to
a certain point where what's the difference between one hundred
and eighty million and two hundred million, like.

Speaker 5 (01:05:30):
Chris Gordy.

Speaker 15 (01:05:31):
That crazy and then like you're gonna move you to
a state whereas higher income, higher state tax, higher property tax,
and you're gonna lose all that money anyway. But it's
just about having the ego to go, I got the
biggest deal. I just we need to get back to
these deals making they make sense. The deal Yordan signed
with the Astros is a good deal for jord On,
it was a good deal for the team.

Speaker 12 (01:05:51):
Let's get back to those.

Speaker 5 (01:05:52):
There's a couple of things that play here and in
Scott boris Is. Then I'm one.

Speaker 4 (01:05:55):
This is why people like me and everybody else roll
their eyes and groan and wine and ash their teeth
whenever Scott Boris is hired by an astro player, because
we know what it means. It means what you just said,
It is out of control. But until hell freezes over
and there's a salary cap, this is the system we're
stuck with. But it's just to me, I think of

(01:06:18):
greater not concern, of greater significance here. This is happening
because Jeremy Pania has finally played this well for three months.

Speaker 5 (01:06:29):
I mean, that's what it comes down to.

Speaker 4 (01:06:30):
I'm not saying he was bad before, right, but he
hasn't done this over the course of his astro's career,
and so that's he's striking while the iron is hot.

Speaker 15 (01:06:39):
But I think it's also fair to like, okay, like
the astros kind of say okay, you're you're playing pretty well.
It still is a gamble for them to do that,
to say we'll give you a five year or whatever
it is, hundred and something million dollar deal like and
for him, you gotta also be thinking that what if
you don't play this way the rest of the year,
What if you don't play the way this way?

Speaker 12 (01:06:58):
The next couple of years.

Speaker 15 (01:06:59):
I mean, your value is gonna come down and you
won't get that big, massive deal that you're wanting. I
just I just get frustrated with the fans and immediately
see those numbers and jump to ha ha ha.

Speaker 5 (01:07:09):
You cheap skates.

Speaker 15 (01:07:10):
You're trying to cheat him, And it's like, good God,
do you not understand we can't give the biggest, massive
deals to every player out there? There's I mean, the
Dodgers are the exception to the rule. They are the
only idiots that can make this thing work.

Speaker 7 (01:07:22):
While they do have credit, that's true, they can't give
it to everybody, but they haven't given it to anybody.

Speaker 12 (01:07:27):
Yeah, to me, it's just smart business.

Speaker 15 (01:07:30):
I think the best thing you can do is flexibility
and not handcuff yourself to somebody for the next twelve years.

Speaker 7 (01:07:35):
Yes, it's definitely way two do business. And they have
a very clear path that they've taken up until this point.
What's happening with Jeremy does actually fall into place with this,
tried to reach an agreement, tried to have discussions may
still continue. Boris doesn't necessarily coming aboard with pain. You
mean they won't have any future discussions about potentially making
him an astro for a longer term. Remember, a five
year deal only makes him an astro for nine years.

(01:07:57):
There's probably another contract for a player at this age
beyond that. But I wanted to get back to Jordon's deal.
I mean, it's I do think at the time. Every
player can view it, and every agent can view their
individual player differently. But Jordan Alvarez, when he makes the
biggest chunk of money next year, in the next three years,
he'll make just under twenty seven million that he basically

(01:08:20):
makes what Cody Bellinger makes and Christian Yelich makes, and
what Willia Damis makes and what Chris Bryant makes. That's
a deal that's fine for the player, it's incredible for
the team. Super lopsided for the team. And it was
the moment he signed it, we all knew it and
we all said, this is awesome. But I don't view
it as I understand why he took it. I would
understand why any of these young players take understood why

(01:08:43):
Bregman took it. He only got one hundred million for
six years and had been in the majors for several
But these are all team friendly deals. One hundred. It
seems like one hundred percent of them. Bobby Witz deal
is team friendly and it's two hundred and eighty million.

Speaker 15 (01:08:56):
I just think, again, we just need to get back
to more I think more teams should be willing to
buy guys out of arbitration. I think more players should
be willing to be bought out of arbitration instead. I mean, like,
the alternative is looking at player and go, fine, make
your two million this year, make your four million next year.
You're gonna be low paid for the next fight in
full of years and again this we had a whole

(01:09:19):
lockout over this thing. But I just think we need
to get back to being what's fair. The Boris deals
are absolutely insane and not good for the long longevity
of this sport.

Speaker 4 (01:09:28):
That's why I love about when people are like, well, yeah,
he hired Boris, But ultimately it comes down to the
player is going to decide where he wants to play now.
When Scott Boris is involved, he never decides to dictate.

Speaker 15 (01:09:40):
But again, like, okay, let the market dictate. You're gonna
be the highest paid player and you're gonna be miserable
on a bad team. Congrats you have that yacht. Now
you have three yachts. Congrats, but you ain't winning crap.

Speaker 7 (01:09:52):
Like you thought you were gonna play with Rafael Devers.
Guess again, I certainly understandable. And again from the players standpoint,
there's something to be said for well, I could make
six million or nine million for the next four years,
next two or three years, or I could get forty
million right now in one hundred and ten. It's all guaranteed.
You're not Alvaze's future locked in. Guaranteed, he's one hundred

(01:10:13):
million dollar player, no matter if he hurts his hand
or his knee or any of the other.

Speaker 5 (01:10:18):
Things that have happened. So there is something that suns they.

Speaker 12 (01:10:20):
Got paid by the game played.

Speaker 7 (01:10:23):
Well, you forgot his oblique, heywy, there there is some
value for the player to do that. Where do you
think this ultimately goes? Is the obvious. With Jeremy Pania,
he he has two more arbitration years.

Speaker 15 (01:10:34):
As soon as I saw the words he has hired
Scott Morris, I said, well, we're gonna roll this thing,
ride this thing out till the arbitration and.

Speaker 4 (01:10:41):
What was your favorite Jeremy Pania as an astro moment.

Speaker 12 (01:10:44):
It hasn't happened yet.

Speaker 5 (01:10:45):
Yeah, wow, brought that up yesterday.

Speaker 7 (01:10:46):
I'd be pretty good if it hasn't, because he did
do some amazing things, but now he's having his most
amazing season. Always amazing to have you here on board.
Appreciate you joining us here this afternoon. By the way,
we'll be over at Carbock tomorrow for the program following
the sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies. Heck, they won one
game already, but two games will be played between now

(01:11:08):
and then.

Speaker 5 (01:11:08):
Chris, appreciate the time.

Speaker 12 (01:11:09):
Thanks pellas.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
The a ted on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:11:19):
Thanks again to Chris Gordy for stopping on by. And yes,
we are looking forward to our journey out to the
Northwest Side tomorrow. Whenever the Astros are done going up
to nil actually no sweeping. Sorry, I always forget that.
I'm like, oh, yeah, two games are gonna be played
before the next show. But yeah, when the Astros are

(01:11:39):
done sweeping the Phillies and we take over on the
airwaves live from Carbock, it's always a good time out there.
Let's get back to yelling at each other about NFL
lists and more specifically, you know, we have talked about
a few out there this offseason where they put c. J.
Stroud more so than he's dumb lists by dumb people,

(01:12:01):
and they are dumb people. The just the view of
where CJ. Stroud is in twenty twenty five as a
starting quarterback in the NFL, where he stacks up against
the rest, and why anybody who puts him wherever they
do puts him there, Like, what's your reasoning?

Speaker 12 (01:12:22):
You know?

Speaker 7 (01:12:23):
Because he wasn't very good last year? It really is
as simple as that. I don't care that he had
offensive line problems. I'm not looking who he's throwing at.
I'm looking at anything other than here's how he played.
I watched a few games, I've looked at his numbers.
I've seen EPA and the numbers are bad. There's no
getting around it. So put a list together great off
of his numbers, think about a little bit of how

(01:12:43):
he played the year before some of those numbers, and
put your list out.

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
It was dumb last year. Doesn't the why matter in
this case?

Speaker 7 (01:12:50):
Well, you're trying to get You're trying to tell me
that they're doing it wrong, and I'm trying to acknowledge
they're doing it wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:12:54):
That's how they're doing it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:56):
Yeah, But I mean, like saying a sophomore slump is
not taking to account everything that was happening.

Speaker 7 (01:13:03):
What it's taking to account is first year good, second
year worse, sophomore slump.

Speaker 5 (01:13:07):
It's a fact it happened. We watched it.

Speaker 7 (01:13:09):
I'm not giving you any other reasons why. I'm not
telling you good, bad, or otherwise. That is literally what happened.
But sophomore slump implies it happens to everybody.

Speaker 5 (01:13:18):
I no, it implies that it's happened enough that it's
become a term.

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
No, in your second year, you're not as good that
have as everybody. It's cross the board.

Speaker 5 (01:13:24):
Somebody says you had a sophomore slump.

Speaker 7 (01:13:26):
Not everybody is going to have that attached to them
because not everybody's going to have, maybe in some people's mind,
a significant drop in their performance.

Speaker 5 (01:13:34):
And I think if you watched CJ as much.

Speaker 7 (01:13:37):
As we did, it's very easy to have some pushback
on that because we understand the reasons why. But there
was a significant drop off in success on CJ as
a quarterback in the NFL last year. There's pretty much
no argument against it. Yeah, the reasons why give you
plenty of hope for it's not a hopes, it's a
sad word.

Speaker 5 (01:13:57):
I don't need hope, No, and I don't care.

Speaker 7 (01:13:59):
I really don't want to say I don't care about
the list, because I do care about talking. But I
have the same amount of doubt about CJ's future as
any other time. After I watched him play a few
games in the NFL, the last twenty five games that
he's played postseason and last season and some of the
rookie season, my view of him has not changed one bit. Well,

(01:14:23):
I already knew what he's going to be, and I
don't think any differently today.

Speaker 5 (01:14:26):
Other people do. I don't.

Speaker 4 (01:14:27):
That's why context actually is more important than hope in
this conversation about this particular player. But don't take my
word for it. Go to the voice of reason, a
guy who would know a thing or two about playing
NFL quarterback at the highest elite level possible.

Speaker 5 (01:14:45):
One Peyton Manning with his thoughts before.

Speaker 7 (01:14:48):
We play this, keep in mind, go ahead and play first.

Speaker 5 (01:14:52):
I'll let you know.

Speaker 16 (01:14:52):
After Cole's talking about how hard it is as a
rookie to play, GJ kind of goes, obviously, it's not
that hard. Because he dominated as a rookie. And what
does that do that it gives defenses more film to
look at to know what they have to do to
try to stop him in his second year. Right, as
a rookie year, you know, and I'll know what you're
going to do. But guess who gets to figure out
what defenses are doing? CJ does by watching film this season,

(01:15:15):
go oh, this is what they're trying to do to me.
Watch me counter this with this type of play. So
you know everybody wants to judge right away. Oh, great
rookie year. Second year. By the way, he went to
the playoffs in his second year, he's it was twenty two.
Let's be careful saying it was a down year.

Speaker 12 (01:15:31):
Okay.

Speaker 16 (01:15:32):
I didn't want a playoff game till my sixth year, right,
and so he's two for two and that's all he's
trying to do is give the Texans a chance.

Speaker 12 (01:15:41):
He's got a great leader.

Speaker 16 (01:15:42):
You have a new coordinator as well, with Demko leading
the charge. Right, there's going to be tremendous you know,
accountability and you know, talent and just leadership every single years.

Speaker 4 (01:15:53):
See, he didn't win until his six sixth year, so
he's obviously not as good as CJ Stroud based on
that logic.

Speaker 7 (01:15:59):
What I was gonna say before or you heard him
say that is this was a panel discussion of Q
and A from this past weekends New York Fanatics Fest,
and CJ was on stage with him. CJ was one
of the five quarterbacks up there. We mentioned the group
last earlier this week, the Manning bros Not Cooper and
Caleb Williams and Bryce Young and CJ Stroud. He even

(01:16:20):
noted there at the end he said, you have a
new coordinator. He was looking at CJ and acknowledging CJ
as he went through that. But everything he said is
the bigger picture. He wasn't even evaluating anything numerically statistically.
He's saying, you play quarterback in the NFL, and the
team that you are the quarterback for went to the
playoffs when you were a rookie and went to the

(01:16:40):
playoffs when you were a second year player, and in
both of those years you won playoff games.

Speaker 5 (01:16:44):
I know what the difficulty is in trying to do that.

Speaker 7 (01:16:48):
And I think it's also noteworthy to mention as the
number one overall pick, just like CJ as the number
two overall pick without a significant trade making it different.
They joined teams that weren't good, and in CJ's case,
they obviously put things together very very quickly around him.
The talent that he's playing with at the time Peyton
was playing in his early years.

Speaker 5 (01:17:09):
Clearly it's better here.

Speaker 7 (01:17:11):
I would love it if CJ played with the kind
of talent Peyton Manning ultimately ended up playing with because
he was surrounded on both sides by Hall of famers,
hall of famers or caliber of at both edges on
defense and clearly who's throwing the football or handing the
football off to among the greatest that have ever graced
the NFL. But like Peyton Manning, who's been there and

(01:17:33):
not been able to do that, said, you got to
give these quarterbacks and their teams a little bit more
credit than man What a falloff, especially when they just
did the same thing back to back years, won the
division with the same record, won their home playoff game
in the same fashion, and then when they were among
the final eight, he and seven other quarterbacks were the
only ones left back to back years to win a

(01:17:54):
Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:17:55):
That seems good, well, and again, when it's Peyton Manning
I'd love to get Tom Brady's opinion on this. Those
are the top two quarterbacks in the NFL pound for pound,
I would say in the last thirty years.

Speaker 7 (01:18:09):
Well, Tom Brady's kind of a cheat code for you.
Obviously he's gonna hate Justin Herbert because he plays in
Tom's division since he's the owner of the Raiders. But
we've heard Tom Brady the last couple of years as
CJ's played NFL football, super complimentary of him.

Speaker 5 (01:18:23):
We know how he feels about him.

Speaker 7 (01:18:24):
I do find a lot of this conversation, especially on
the Demko's side of things, pretty interesting, and even CJ's
side of things, but specific to Demko, like Demiko and
Sefanski took their teams to the playoffs last two years
ago and played each other and Tomiko's team one.

Speaker 5 (01:18:41):
Yeah, with a rookie.

Speaker 7 (01:18:43):
I mean, if you said it this way, you'd say, man,
that's an accompl he won with a rookie quarterback. Your
guys been to the Super Bowl, Now, that would be
a little disingenuous. Acting like Joe Flacco and his super
Bowl experience is a better thing than catching CJ at
the end of his rookie season of the playoffs. CJ
clearly was much much better than that, and that obviously

(01:19:03):
swings things in your favor. What Peyton Manning said, all
you should take from it is don't go berserk when
people less in the know than CJ or than Peyton
are telling you information.

Speaker 4 (01:19:16):
You know me, and I'm not disputing that CJ had
a worse sophomore year than he did his rookie season,
and I'm not disputing that he shouldn't be considered a
top five quarterback. What I am disputing is some of
the people put in front of him on these lists
make those lists stupid. I don't think that's a hot take, though.
We'll try not to have any more hot takes the

(01:19:36):
rest of the show, but we will continue four o'clock hour,
and our best of x X segment is removed. Another
player giving praise to a Houston athlete, this time the
Basketball Variety. You'll never believe what Draymond Green said and
who he said it about.

Speaker 2 (01:19:54):
That's next The Age on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your
Team very Factor.

Speaker 3 (01:20:10):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen Did you
all see this so we're putting out between five and
fix him posts.

Speaker 2 (01:20:22):
A day, four hundred people were arrested for things so
they said on social media.

Speaker 7 (01:20:26):
History repeats itself type bang, you'll succeed.

Speaker 2 (01:20:31):
Never doubt that you're the one who pus for no one,
build the lead.

Speaker 5 (01:20:36):
You're the best of X. Nothing's gonna ever top you
know you're the best of X. Post an every single day.
You're the best of X. Breaking the entire enginet.

Speaker 7 (01:20:53):
Host of options here as we had to four o'clock hour,
normally slated for two thirty, but always bumped if Mauriceo
Dubon has time for us, and he did at two thirty.
If you missed that interview earlier with the astros utility
man that unfortunately is not the everyday astro that we
made him out to be.

Speaker 5 (01:21:07):
Not in today's lineup.

Speaker 7 (01:21:08):
We'll give you that momentarily, but you can catch that
via sports soox seven ninety dot com.

Speaker 5 (01:21:12):
Best of X now falls here.

Speaker 7 (01:21:14):
Host of things to get to, although one thing in particular,
just because I know people would like to get some
conversation up before we dive into a one player who
expresses his displeasure for one specific team. There's another player
who expresses respect for a different player on a different team.
Let's get to a call first, because we've had this

(01:21:34):
topic going on in the last three days and it's
going to continue until we have a resolution to it.
What exactly will Kevin Durant be making in the future
beyond this year as a Houston Rocket yet unknown? Get
out to the phones and get Jeremy in here on
that very topic. Hey, Jeremy, what do you got for
us today?

Speaker 17 (01:21:52):
Hey guys, I love that you're on TV. I can
see that you're both wearing rockets.

Speaker 5 (01:21:57):
Head it over to the draft party after this.

Speaker 6 (01:22:00):
Yeah, I get it. WEX.

Speaker 17 (01:22:02):
I know you're mad the afterword Astroworld clothes ac.

Speaker 5 (01:22:07):
I'm mad to.

Speaker 2 (01:22:09):
Eat them up cats.

Speaker 5 (01:22:10):
Right there you go, there's your theres on TV.

Speaker 6 (01:22:14):
I was.

Speaker 17 (01:22:15):
I was at the game on Sunday in Anaheim and
I was sitting behind the Astros dugout and it was
so beautiful to see all the orange and every time
al Tube came up, they were like boo and it
was like kind of like the scene from The Simpsons
when they go boo worms booms and they're no, no,
they're on your team. But I don't get how we

(01:22:40):
traded seven players for Kevin Durant.

Speaker 5 (01:22:46):
You didn't, Well, technically it's eight.

Speaker 7 (01:22:48):
If we're going with your math, one first round pick,
five seconds and two current what.

Speaker 5 (01:22:52):
Are members of the road name them all?

Speaker 4 (01:22:54):
I mean, I know what you're saying, but you can't
think of it that way, especially because it's Kevin Rent.

Speaker 17 (01:23:01):
Is he gonna play forty games?

Speaker 2 (01:23:03):
Is he gonna play eighty games?

Speaker 5 (01:23:05):
Are you somewhere in between?

Speaker 7 (01:23:08):
It's a risk, this is this is a high risk,
high reward move. I think we'd all agree. And then
there's significant risk. Even if he had no injury history,
there would be significant risk. The odds of him remaining
healthy long term for three years not very high. The
odds that he'll be playing in some games that you
wish he was available for, he'll be out for some
of those games. The question essentially falls into is the

(01:23:30):
team good enough to get you where you want to
go without leaning on him for eighty two games? And
is he healthy enough through two months of postseason basketball
to be the type of trade that makes it payof
and the reward is thus high.

Speaker 17 (01:23:43):
Where we always make trades like this that are high risk,
and we just they never fall through and I can't.
I can't think think of a trade that we have made.
I mean we traded for a bray you in the
Astros be of I mean just Houston sports in general.

Speaker 7 (01:24:03):
Well, championship Houston sports. Clearly, you're going to have to
go back. If it's Rockets basketball three decades, if it's
Astros baseball, you're in the midst of all this. Excellen.
So even saying they missed on the A bra You signing, well, okay,
were they signed a brave you? As World Series champions
and for the three years at first base, the Christian
Walker deal may end up being similar.

Speaker 5 (01:24:23):
It hasn't worked.

Speaker 7 (01:24:24):
It doesn't mean the other things that they've done, you know,
the Kyle Tucker trade and specific to Houston. You know,
Ac and I mentioned it the other day, and I
think everybody realizes this when you think about Rockets history,
both of the past two owners, it's nothing but swinging
for the fences with the talent they think they can get,
not always old talent. They swung for the fences with

(01:24:47):
the deal they put together and put all their faith in.

Speaker 5 (01:24:50):
I think James Harden's gonna be awesome.

Speaker 7 (01:24:51):
Let's go be the team that takes him away from
Oklahoma City because they ultimatumed him out of town, and
obviously it worked out tremendously well. You're one of the
best teams in the NBA during most of James Harden's tenure.
During his tenure, you traded for or signed in free agency.
Dwight Howard, Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul Clyde Drexler and

(01:25:12):
Charles Barkley both were added via trade prior to this.
Now you're adding Kevin Durant.

Speaker 4 (01:25:17):
Clyde was not a popular trade within the players.

Speaker 7 (01:25:21):
Clyde Drexler was added to the World champions and it
cost you players who helped you win the World Championship.
And he was nearing obviously was much much closer to
the end of his career than the beginning.

Speaker 4 (01:25:35):
And again, like, what were you going to accomplish if
you didn't make this deal this offseason with the team
as is?

Speaker 7 (01:25:42):
Yeah, I don't know guarantee. I sense a little negativity
with that thought. And my thought from the beginning of
this offseason was they're in a no lose situation. The
twenty twenty five twenty six Rockets, I felt super confident
we're going to be better than the team that walked
off the floor this past year. No matter what, no moves,

(01:26:03):
no tenth pick, yes, tenth pick, some trades, no trades,
big splash with Giannis, big splash with Durant, doesn't matter.
They are going to be a better team next year.
That's the unbelievably good position they're in, regardless of what
they decide to do, and individually, I think, regardless of
whether the trade was done or not, Alprin Shingoon is
going to be a good player and is going to

(01:26:24):
take that next step. And if you don't believe us,
you can believe a guy he went up against more
often than not in that first round matchup seven games.
Rockets ultimately fell up fell short, but man high praise
recently from Draymond Green about Alprin Shingoon with.

Speaker 13 (01:26:43):
Single number one, this is your first time in the playoffs.

Speaker 12 (01:26:46):
I gotta test that, Yeah, twenty.

Speaker 13 (01:26:47):
Three years old, he only getting better in this league.
I gotta test that I need to try to have
something mentally on you as an agent to this career
and you getting better in yours.

Speaker 12 (01:26:57):
I gotta test that.

Speaker 13 (01:26:59):
I gained so much respect for the young feller that
series because he was following in the beginning, and he
caught up, and he was and he stood up and
once you stand up.

Speaker 8 (01:27:09):
We gonna.

Speaker 12 (01:27:12):
I liked it.

Speaker 2 (01:27:14):
Cool.

Speaker 5 (01:27:14):
Good stop there. How did that happen? Because well, he
was editing, he was, Okay, it happens. I mean, you
get the idea of what he said this right after
the series.

Speaker 7 (01:27:23):
He is all in the same words he was on
the Pivot podcast when he uttered these more recently.

Speaker 4 (01:27:29):
Yeah, and what Draymond said at the beginning of this
that would have taken a lot more editing the whole
topic was Hey, you know that you're a you're an
a hole. For lack of a better way to put it,
they actually use the phrase, and Draymond at first tried
to push back and say, ah, I'm a nice guy,

(01:27:49):
and then he finally relented and said, yeah, off the
floor or on the floor, I absolutely am. And that's
what he's talking about. Was happening with Alprinch Shingoon, and
Shingoon folded again at the beginning of the series, like
you heard him say, but he came back and that
earned Draymond's respect. And whether you like Draymond or not,
and I think most of us don't. But I mean,

(01:28:12):
the guy is a winner. I know he's got really
good players on teams around him when he's won those championships.
But those championships don't get one without Draymond either. And
for him to say that about a current rocket is
I think a big deal and does carry some weight.

Speaker 7 (01:28:28):
Yeah, I actually think differently. I said this before when
he made those comments the last time. He's too much
of it. He's driven himself out of my mind for
anything good because he's full of it. He's full of
the words we needed to bleep out of his earlier comments,
absolutely full of it. Has no recognition of what he
is and even got into that. And I do appreciate

(01:28:48):
Channing and Ryan and Fred the host of the Pivot
podcast that he's on. They really got after him about it,
and he acknowledged, you know, the Jordan Poole situation. You know,
for a few seconds, I lost my mind. I wasn't
I needed to be, And that's that's my fault, you know,
taking some minimum amount of accountability there. And I do
understand as he described there. You know, everybody's not from

(01:29:08):
the same place. Everybody didn't grow up the same way.
Everybody hasn't had to overcome some of the things that
they have. But that doesn't carry any weight the four
thousandth time, you've done what you've done, And so what
he has to say after the fact or even in
the moment much closer to the series. And by the way,
Alpren and anybody else with the rockets, they don't need it.

(01:29:29):
I'm not saying doesn't need to hear from this clown
on the court. Then he gained his respect.

Speaker 4 (01:29:35):
It's not validation, but what he said is absolutely accurate
that Alpern Shingoon did back down initially and then came back.

Speaker 5 (01:29:43):
When when did he do that? Dominated game one or two?

Speaker 4 (01:29:49):
Well you could say dominated games, but ultimately I mean
Draymond did win a one on one matchup.

Speaker 5 (01:29:55):
Yeah, but he's saying he backed down, as you said,
I don't. I don't remember Alfie Patch and that kind
of stuff, like what about he's passive at times? Absolutely? Yeah,
watch the series.

Speaker 7 (01:30:04):
Well that's fine, go back to the back and you'll
see go back and watch what he did to the
playoff series.

Speaker 5 (01:30:10):
He didn't back. Absolutely, did situation push through him.

Speaker 4 (01:30:14):
You can keep talking over me, but it's not going
to change the fact that he absolutely had a certain
approach to Draymond Green, and then later in the series
he was like, all right, I'm not going to take
it anymore. And that's what Draymond's talking about.

Speaker 7 (01:30:25):
He shot the four percentage of the series at the
end of the series, when he wasn't backing down.

Speaker 5 (01:30:30):
I guess, well, the beginning of the series.

Speaker 4 (01:30:33):
About his shots though, It's like you, a lot of
guys take a lot of shots and have a bad percentage,
but they score a lot, right.

Speaker 7 (01:30:39):
One might not have anything to do with the other.
The percentages of your success rate. But I mean, this
is to me why we can do this. We watched
the same games we watched when he clearly did not
back down or shrink. When Draymond was begging the horror

(01:31:00):
officials in Golden State in the regular season to tee
him up and they wouldn't do it, begging him to
fight with him, trying to get him out of his
game because he's not good enough to keep him from
playing well. And once that happened, that whenever it happened,
because I don't even think it needs to happen. I
just I heard what Draymond said there, and the moment
he said that, it's just more fuel to my thoughts

(01:31:22):
about him. It's just not the way I see it,
And I really don't think the other players see it
that way, and I don't. I said it, then, how
can these other players, current players have respect for him?

Speaker 5 (01:31:33):
He's a fool?

Speaker 4 (01:31:35):
Well, okay, that's but that's Draymond Green, and I feel
like he's one example. There are other guys that I
think have tried to be physical without Brin Shingoon and
have learned the hard wave sooner or later that he's
not gonna take it.

Speaker 7 (01:31:51):
Yeah, revisit this in the next segment. Think about what
Draymond in the playoffs would have been like against Alburn
in the playoffs after a year one, two, or three,
it would have been very, very different. I'll bring it's
a different player without needing to prove it in a
physical series with Draymond Green. But you guys might disagree
with me or Ac or neither of us, but probably

(01:32:11):
one of us. We'll talk about it.

Speaker 4 (01:32:13):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety. It is
the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety. We were flinging things
at each other last segment.

Speaker 5 (01:32:33):
Yeah, but it's a lot easier to do that.

Speaker 7 (01:32:35):
I have an advantage there because when he's flinging stuff
at me, I'm then also not talking over him.

Speaker 4 (01:32:42):
For those of you who don't know, a little peel
back at the curtain, Wax likes to get his point across.
And if I try to start a sentence and he's
not done, he's just gonna keep motoring through.

Speaker 7 (01:32:53):
Wait, don't he didn't see it the way I saw it.
There's no way I'm wrong. I don't That's not even
a possibility.

Speaker 13 (01:32:59):
And.

Speaker 7 (01:33:00):
People will agree with me now not Luckily, I do
stop at a certain level of if you I can't
go the route and if you'd missed it. Even though
I did not like the crew, Bob Myers couldn't help
himself during the last game when he was out there
with stephen A and Kirk Perk and Malika, he actually

(01:33:21):
said this to Steve, and A goes. Just because you're
saying it loud doesn't make it right. Just because you're
screaming it doesn't mean you win or you're right. Everybody
needs to say to stephen A. Smith, I'm not even
saying I disagree with him all the time.

Speaker 4 (01:33:33):
In fact, I mean he's going way into the political
waters right now. Yeah, Mike, more than I ever thought
in our lifetimes we would see. But you know, just
just keeping it to sports. I mean, and he is
one of those people. Yeah, the bone to pick part
of that.

Speaker 7 (01:33:50):
We'll get to Mike and some others on the phone
lines here as we've intensified conversations here on the A
team today. It's just that little part of how Draymond
whether he's right. And obviously you agreed with him.

Speaker 5 (01:34:02):
I didn't.

Speaker 7 (01:34:03):
I think he's presenting a case like almost Here's why
it happened this way.

Speaker 5 (01:34:08):
You got to see it my way. I was able
to get him to shrink.

Speaker 7 (01:34:12):
I was able to physically get him where I thought
I was winning the battle. He you know, he backed
down the words that he used. I just did not
see it that he was a dirt bag. Don't get
me wrong, I'm not taking up from in that way.

Speaker 6 (01:34:24):
And I mean, on.

Speaker 7 (01:34:27):
That comment you just made and I called him a fool,
it's related to as a Golden State warrior, not the
person not walking the streets, not with his family, he said,
as he as a player, as a member of this NBA.

Speaker 5 (01:34:41):
Yeah, that's what I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:34:43):
I think he's actually from all accounts, I've never met
him other than being in a press conference room with him,
and I think I asked him a question or two
one time.

Speaker 5 (01:34:52):
Yeah, they've been in town here and a lot of times.

Speaker 7 (01:34:54):
This is your The playoffs are often the best time
to get to know a Ponings players because not only
after games, you can get to know any opponent player
to a certain degree. Post game, we can go into
the lot of locker room instead of the Rockets locker
room and ask him anything we want.

Speaker 5 (01:35:10):
But it's also a little bit heat of the moment.
You just played a game, how many.

Speaker 7 (01:35:13):
Different high stakes game, but pre game during the postseason,
you know, they're rolling into Toyota Center, they got a
bag over their shoulder with some sweats, a couple pairs
of shoes, and they're hanging out, going through a low
energy shoot around, and then you gather around them at
a court side seat and you're basically having a conversation.

Speaker 5 (01:35:31):
Maybe there's a camera or two. They're not at the podium,
they're just sitting there.

Speaker 7 (01:35:35):
I talked to Draymond Green like that several times, you know,
against the Rockets, I had as many good conversations with
other media members with Russell Westbrook as a member of
the Thunder when he came into town in that format,
and this was during some weather related tough times in Houston.
We all remember how Draymond addressed that when asked about
it many times. So yeah, this is kind of strictly

(01:35:55):
related to you know, he does, I think pretty clearly
take on an uncontrollable persona as a basketball player.

Speaker 4 (01:36:04):
Times a billion. It's a persona even that, like.

Speaker 7 (01:36:08):
I can't believe, I can't believe Dylan Brooks is even
I really don't think Dylan Brooks is in the same conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:36:16):
He's always in the middle of things, no matter what.
Which is how you could describe Draymond.

Speaker 5 (01:36:20):
I know, and I think it's me that's on the
outs on that one.

Speaker 7 (01:36:23):
Draymont or Dylan has had some extremely questionable plays flagrant fouls.
Obviously the Gary Payton junior to the second is one
of them, maybe a few others.

Speaker 4 (01:36:33):
But it's gonna suck playing against Dylan Brooks again. People
are forgetting that part. Rockets Suns.

Speaker 7 (01:36:41):
Rockets will be favored by probably seven to ten points,
but Dylan's going to be in the starting lineup. H
probably not defending Amn, right, he's going to try to
push around Jabari.

Speaker 12 (01:36:54):
Or d n duh.

Speaker 5 (01:36:57):
Of course he's playing Kevin Durant.

Speaker 4 (01:36:59):
Yeah, because if you look like Rob Reese sent us
a text yesterday with all these pictures of that February
twelfth game, and like in three of them that involved
Kevin Durant, number nine was guarding him.

Speaker 6 (01:37:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:37:10):
I was going through the images for some of the
social posts we were making and some of the graphics
I was gonna make in the last two meetings between
the two teams. Ninety percent of the pictures featured both
Durant and Brooks in it, because Durant had to ask.

Speaker 4 (01:37:23):
Dylan Brooks is the guy that, until Amen Thompson was
a thing, you put your best defender on the other
team's best player, regardless of the size and how many
times was Dylan Brooks matched up against, towering over him
and eclipsing him Lebron James.

Speaker 5 (01:37:39):
But you didn't have a better option.

Speaker 7 (01:37:41):
If anything were to advance from a physical nature fight nature,
Dylan Brooks is always right there for you in the
best way possible, rather than necessarily being the one in
like fights fining Muck Draymond Green keeps getting into situations
that you could call fights, because there's you're getting ejected
because you kicked a guy, Are you hunched a guy?

Speaker 5 (01:38:00):
Or you choked the guy? I mean, all these things
happen with it.

Speaker 7 (01:38:02):
Dylan gets ejected for words, yeah, and for getting in
somebody's face, even if he doesn't say sometimes I definitely reputation.
I keep going back to the UH Bulls Rockets game
a couple of years back where DeRozan just lost his mind.
He just ran through Jalen Green. Green didn't get up
and try to go out him because he was what
is this guy doing? And the first guy there is

(01:38:24):
Dylan Brooks, and soever was like, and look at what
Dylan Brooks does to escalate that?

Speaker 5 (01:38:29):
No, no, wrong again.

Speaker 7 (01:38:31):
Dylan Brooks carried over to this year in Sacramento absolutely
because DeRozan's kind of a jerk too. Yeah, and yet
we probably both and many of you guys saw some
thoughts that, well, they're not going anywhere, and everybody's looking
for somebody that could help. If the Rockets don't land Durant,
or even if they do.

Speaker 5 (01:38:49):
I would absolutely take Demartz.

Speaker 7 (01:38:50):
Would you take two point wizard DeMar DeRozan mid range
killer DeMar DeRozan.

Speaker 4 (01:38:57):
Well, listen, he's gonna call a whole lot more than
the options out there. He's just a He's a very
expensive player. I don't know how the finances would work.
And you're gonna have to trade for him, right, he's
not a free agent. I well, they have Durant, they
have Durant, But he's your small for who's playing two

(01:39:19):
guard for you next year? And if it's if you're
gonna say it's a Men Thompson. Okay, but like Men
Thompson is gonna be the starting lineup?

Speaker 7 (01:39:26):
Fred read Cam and a Men among your current roster
and potentially Aaron Holliday. Can you manage those two positions
pretty well?

Speaker 5 (01:39:34):
That's what I like saying.

Speaker 4 (01:39:35):
I'm biased, much like you are against Draymond Green. I'm
biased for Cam. I really am salivating to see if
he gets a shot here and to see what he
would do with it, even though it's not looking like
he would even start.

Speaker 7 (01:39:49):
Regular rotation minutes. I think at times looked like they
were being earned and then they weren't.

Speaker 5 (01:39:54):
But you, like me, were you not the interrupt?

Speaker 4 (01:39:56):
But like did you watch Cam whitm Moore's body language
all season, not just the infamous post game where he
was like, well and think that in his mind and
I'm making this up. Obviously, I would love to show
what I have, but I can't get the minutes because
they keep giving it to the guy that they took

(01:40:17):
with the number two overall pick.

Speaker 5 (01:40:19):
I feel like he felt that way.

Speaker 7 (01:40:20):
That's pretty far down the road, especially in the postseason,
because I said it. I'm sure during our shows between
April twentieth and May fourth, when they played the Warriors,
it's clear that they're the trust factor with the coach.
Wasn't there or else he would have played. There are
a bunch of opportunities for a team that was struggling
to score eighty five, ninety three eighty nine. Those are

(01:40:41):
the Rockets point totals and three of their four losses
in that particular series. Just limiting our conversation to that
particular series, they just hadn't done enough for the coach
to trust to put him out there. Because if I
if I told imy Cam, I'm telling you he's scoring
thirteen points. If you give him twenty four minutes tonight,
do you want that? He would say awesome? How many
is he giving up.

Speaker 4 (01:41:02):
Yeah, and again, what's funny about his offense is he
could be out there for five minutes. Holy crap, he
already has nine points. How did that happen? He has
a knack for scoring. But just like the guy we're
talking about, you're not gonna get playing time, especially in
the fourth quarter where games are decided, if you're not
gonna play defense. Jalen Green learned that the hard way,

(01:41:22):
and Cam Whitmore is gonna have to learn that one
way or the other.

Speaker 7 (01:41:25):
Jalen though clearly was trusted by the team in that regard.
Now they had better options, and that wasn't his fault.
He was taken out in laden games many times when
it had nothing to do with how he was playing
or bought in or not or cared on defense. But
we're in a situation where we can go offense for defense.
We just have better options on defense. We have so

(01:41:45):
many good defensive players and Tari and a Men and
Dylan that our lineup might be better served. If you're
not in it, it's not because you're bad, it's just
you're not them.

Speaker 4 (01:41:53):
And I know personally, personally, I've had conversations with people
in the organization telling me, and they weren't trying to
like skew it or anything like that. How hard Jalen
Green worked on both ends of the floor early to practice,
last one to leave kind of things. He worked his
tail off. I know that doesn't make you feel better
when you see the playoffs and how they went for him,

(01:42:15):
And I know it really doesn't matter now in hindsight
because he's not here anymore. But for what it's worth,
he was absolutely putting the work in and I think
that says something about his character, and I think it
says something about, you know what he was trying to
accomplish here in Houston. And again, for what it's worth,
he wanted to stay here and he.

Speaker 7 (01:42:31):
Got bettered by putting in a working He's definitely a
better player than even over the course of just this season,
certainly in the two seasons under email U, Doka, Andy
and Mike. We do have time for you, will work
you in on the other side as we get to
our signature segment. A heck, most of what we've been
doing is what you guys can do as you join
us for some Wednesdays.

Speaker 5 (01:42:48):
BS next.

Speaker 1 (01:42:51):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety A little
help over the Hump with some Wednes, Dave Bs.

Speaker 5 (01:43:01):
Two Adams, and a whole lot of bit stealing.

Speaker 2 (01:43:03):
Bet stealing with Thump Bit Steelers, better known as the.

Speaker 5 (01:43:11):
Do you want to get the callers bss ur Bs?

Speaker 6 (01:43:15):
Yes?

Speaker 5 (01:43:15):
Absolutely, I bet? I bet Michael's full of BS. Mike,
what's going on?

Speaker 6 (01:43:19):
Man?

Speaker 9 (01:43:20):
How are you?

Speaker 6 (01:43:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:43:22):
You know me already?

Speaker 12 (01:43:24):
How's it going at him?

Speaker 5 (01:43:25):
What's going on at him?

Speaker 8 (01:43:26):
Adam Adam Adams?

Speaker 18 (01:43:28):
Yeah, so hey, real quick, two quick questions we wanted
to ask. First, I've been out of pocket for a
couple of days, so I just wanted to I just
found out yesterday that we were getting during excited for that,
but just wanted to find out what do we do
about the supporting crew around him. I know we got
tenth draft, tenth in the tenth pick, but you know,

(01:43:51):
we're we're getting a guy that's leaving. I mean, we're
getting a guy that's coming in for a limited schedule.
And the second guy that we're that we're our elite
player gone and he's there all season. We're gonna need
somebody during those times where he's not playing that's gonna
have to step it up. Somebody big, somebody that can shoot,
and are we gonna be able to do something about

(01:44:12):
that in the interim while you know, we have a
world champ that's playing basically half the time, So that
that's the first quart second question on the Texans, you know,
we we got a new running back now, you know,
we get these guys that are that are veterans, have
have had some injuries in the past. We've got some
guys that have been with us that are brand new.

(01:44:34):
We got Tank, he's got injury prone sometimes. We got
these guys. The offense, We got the offense, the defenses,
you know, I mean, we got the coach defense. So
we're we're doing well there, but it just seems up
the past few years that our O line has always
come up short. When are we gonna get a freaking
O line like say the Eagles or you know, something

(01:44:57):
like that that we can go. Okay, now we have
all three components that we need to get there and
get past these first rounds. I'm gonna go ahead, and
I just want to say it's great seeing y'all, and
y'all take care guys, and I'll hang up and listen.

Speaker 7 (01:45:11):
Okay, appreciate you joining us, Mike, good stuff, we hate
to burst your bubble on the first topic. They also
don't have the tenth pick. The tenth pick and Jalen
Green and Dylan Brooks all headed to Phoenix, with Kevin
Durant replacing them. Kevin Durant sixty two games of regular
season basketball last year. Jalen Green eighty two games, all
of them of regular season basketball that year, And in

(01:45:32):
the twenty games additional games that he played he had
one guy playing three fourths of the season roughly the
other guy playing all four fourths of the season. He
had seventy six more points than Durant. During the regular season,
played twenty more games, had seventy six more points.

Speaker 5 (01:45:48):
Granted, your point is still a lot. No, your point
is still well taken.

Speaker 7 (01:45:52):
Because on those nights you're getting zero points from Kevin Durant,
it will matter, and I'm I would forecast a number
very similar to sixty two, somewhere between sixty two and seventy.
It's just a ballpark guess of what I think they're
going to ask for and get from Kevin Durant this year,
much more importantly as what looked like or turned out
to be the case for the Rockets and their seven

(01:46:12):
postseason games.

Speaker 5 (01:46:13):
Everybody they needed to.

Speaker 7 (01:46:14):
Be available was available for all of those games, and
nobody was in a bad spot after those games. They
couldn't have participated had they won that game seven. It
does dictate a lot of what your end postseason result
is going to be. If you have a healthy team
and they make it through and continue to be healthy
like Oklahoma City did, like many other champions have before,
then that probably means the other team didn't and that's

(01:46:36):
one of the reasons they fall by the wayside. I
don't look at the durant supporting cast here in Houston
with much concern. I don't think you do either.

Speaker 6 (01:46:44):
Well.

Speaker 4 (01:46:44):
The key in that aspect is that the supporting cast
and large part is still intact. You didn't give up
a lot of it.

Speaker 7 (01:46:50):
And mind you this, I do believe Fred van Vliet.
If Mike you hadn't heard, you'll probably hear about it
on Friday. But it happened today, Fred van Vliet, and
he acknowledged it very cleverly. He'll see it on my
social media, he posted on his social I'll set you
up with that fifty million dollars over the next two
years with a player option on that second year, so

(01:47:11):
some reasonable split of fifty million.

Speaker 5 (01:47:13):
I don't know that it'll be exact each year. I
doubt that it will be. But instead of thanking Fred
van Vliet thirty forty forty four point nine million next year,
you're not paying him In the neighborhood of twenty five,
the Rockets projected to be below the second apron. There's
a reasonable chance there below the first apron.

Speaker 7 (01:47:28):
There's a chance they're not even pushing up against that
limit because they've manipulated things in this manner. They don't
know their final roster. But the Van Vliet to your
extension opens the door for them to actually be players
and free agency should they so decide, and allows them
to probably consider even more what they still have. Is

(01:47:51):
Jack Landell here, even though if he's not, you just
saved eight million dollars because it's non guaranteed. Is Aaron
Holliday back on that team option or something else? I
feel confident with one player, Jeff Green is.

Speaker 5 (01:48:03):
Gonna be a Rocket.

Speaker 4 (01:48:04):
I've seen and I don't know how realistic they are.
That's why didn't say anything. But I've seen at least
one report where Landell's already on his way out the
door and his eight million dollar cap hit goes with
it to the.

Speaker 5 (01:48:13):
Free up that kind of space. Yeah, I think that's
almost obvious.

Speaker 7 (01:48:17):
They need a body, which is unfortunately for him personally,
all he turned into at the end of the season.
Once Steven Adams was able to play on any given
night and every given night.

Speaker 5 (01:48:27):
Oh, there you're two bigs. The third big was Landell.

Speaker 7 (01:48:30):
You'll see if Dante's brought back as a third big
or some player in between those two, but for far
less money than eight million dollars, and again it's non guaranteed,
so it seems almost obvious that would be the play.

Speaker 4 (01:48:43):
I'm just thinking about what you were talking about earlier
with you know, like DeMar Derozen was a name that
we brought up. But the problem with that is you'd
have to go get him. You'd have to give up
more in addition to making the numbers work from a
salary standpoint.

Speaker 7 (01:48:56):
But I think he's probably still to me considered he
was a fallback option. They didn't fall Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:49:03):
No, But here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (01:49:06):
When you're talking about freeing up the money and all
that kind of stuff, and e May isn't going anywhere.
He never was, but now he really isn't. And now
Kevin Durantz here, it is Houston. There's no state income tax,
warm weather, blah blah blah blah blah, all the stuff
we always talk about. It's never not been a destination here.
That's why so many big names have come here over
the years. That's not an accident, it's not a coincidence.

(01:49:27):
But players are going to want to start wanting to
come and play here, like right now, and they're going
to be willing to take less money maybe in some cases,
especially if they're veterans. So it's not just the Jeff
Greens where you of the world, where you're not necessarily
banking on them playing heavy minutes. It might be some
guys who actually do get some rotation minutes depending on

(01:49:48):
who they are and where they're at in their career
and what they can obviously provide you is the most
important part.

Speaker 7 (01:49:52):
Hey, real quickly, on the other part of your comment, Mike,
there's really I mean, I brought it up, but there's
nothing to be said. You're one hundred percent right, and
I don't think the Texans approached it the way I
would have with their offensive line. They're definitely turning the
page on everything that had to do with last year,
almost wholly and completely. New coach for the offense, new
coach for the offensive line, multiple starters sent packing, and

(01:50:17):
the only kind of holdovers are your second round pick
from last year and other picks from previous years.

Speaker 5 (01:50:23):
That's about it.

Speaker 7 (01:50:24):
You know, Ursery is probably going to play a prominent
role on this year's line. Most of the rest of
the line free agents brought in or a trade. If
you're talking about Ingram and then Titus Howard, that they
are throwing away what happened last year basically other than
Titus Howard, and I still don't.

Speaker 5 (01:50:41):
Know how much progress they're going to make.

Speaker 7 (01:50:44):
But bottom line is a simple one, same thing I've
said from the moment they made some of these moves.

Speaker 5 (01:50:48):
They're not gonna be worse. They just aren't.

Speaker 7 (01:50:50):
I don't think there's much of a possibility to go
back in that direction. They were so far close to
the bottom with how they played, how they executed, how
they communicated, and how they did not protect free either
the run or the past. I think there were some
scheme issues. I think there were communication issues. I don't
think they're all completely gone overnight. But a lot of
the things that were the reasons for them, they have
been jettisoned and they are doing things differently and that

(01:51:11):
has a little bit to do with it more than
just pure offensive line talent, which still clearly over the
next year or two are off season or two needs
and upgrade more of your thoughts ours as well. Have
tickets to give away. Also, haven't talked about our favorite
x Astro yet. That's not coming to town this weekend,
and we'll do that next.

Speaker 2 (01:51:31):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:51:46):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home Network. We're gonna give away some tickets later on,
like a pair of tickets to the Outlaw Music Festival
with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, the Abbot Brothers and more
coming up on July sixth at the Woodlands Pavilion.

Speaker 5 (01:52:06):
Tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster dot com.

Speaker 7 (01:52:09):
Mes you want to work some r of you in
Before we talked about the still hurts Boston Red Sox
Third Basement, So Andy you.

Speaker 5 (01:52:16):
Are in the A Team continues with your thoughts. What
do you have for us today? Andy?

Speaker 19 (01:52:21):
Thank you very much. I'm gonna give you some fluff
and some fire. The fluff is I have been listening
to you guys and sports talk since sports talk was invented.
That's how old I am. And you guys are bar
nine the greatest sports talk show I've ever heard. I
try never to miss you, but sometimes I do because I.

Speaker 6 (01:52:42):
Work for a living.

Speaker 19 (01:52:43):
But that's the pluck.

Speaker 6 (01:52:45):
The fire is.

Speaker 19 (01:52:46):
This is the officially the second worst trade that the
Rockets have ever made.

Speaker 5 (01:52:52):
What's the first one?

Speaker 19 (01:52:54):
Elvin Hayes for Jack Marin? Hands down?

Speaker 5 (01:52:57):
Okay, that's pretty good.

Speaker 19 (01:52:58):
That was That was a ignorant and I believe racist
trade that they traded away a black guy for a
white guy. But anyway, and this to trade for a
thirty seven year old Durant who's been banged up every
year for the last six years and give up a
Jalen Green and a Dylan Brooks and a tenth round

(01:53:19):
pick and eighty nine second round pick is just mind
bogglingly stupid. You hate it, and I hope that I
hate the trade. I love Kevin Durant. This is not
a disparage of Kevin Durant, but he's thirty seven, he's
been injury prone. He the only time he's ever won
a championship is when he dropped into the greatest team

(01:53:42):
of our generation, the Warriors.

Speaker 6 (01:53:45):
And you know.

Speaker 19 (01:53:47):
He's great, But if we could have got it when
he was thirty one or thirty two. Yeah, but you
don't try Look at what Scottie Pifton did his first
couple of times in the playoffs. He was a complete flock.
So to try to lump Jalen Green in it, oh,
he's never gonna be Come on now, Jordan didn't get
a champion tip till after his sixth year. I mean

(01:54:10):
to me, this was giving up too quickly on this
core and I hate this trade. And Phoenix stole money.
They stole our lunch money.

Speaker 6 (01:54:21):
That's all there is to it.

Speaker 5 (01:54:22):
Interesting perspective on that.

Speaker 7 (01:54:24):
As we've mentioned throughout the three days here since the
Kevin Durant trade on our show, there are people on
the other side. Andy is one of them and calling
it very lopsided at that and I understand and even
if you forgive the what they gave up part just
for the conversation goes back to when we said high risk,
high reward. The reward it the high reward is you

(01:54:47):
put a championship team together here for the next three
years with most of the corps, all of the corps,
but those two players, and you're you're gonna pay off
on that high reward. You're gonna play for the NBA title,
You're gonna reach the NBA Finals. I think Andy, you
could see that's a possibility. I think clearly the Rockets
see that as an exceptional possibility. But the high risk
is all those things you pointed out, and again, don't

(01:55:08):
even let the what they gave up get into this
part of the conversation. The high risk is you don't
have anything from Kevin Durant. He got hurt in May. Yeah,
he got hurt in the playoffs. He got hurt before
the playoffs. You're trying to win without Jalen Dylan and
Kevin Durant because that's all you're left with and without
the tenth pick. Certainly that could play out pure basketball

(01:55:31):
though just basket just put these guys on the court.
I think they had a chance to reach the Western
Conference Finals without making a move at all. I also
think they have a chance to make the Western Conference
Final with this exact move that they made. I happen
to think their chances went up a little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:55:45):
I don't know that I believed him saying he was
around when sports talk radio was invented, until, of course,
he let us know that his worst ranked trade in
Rocket's history was the quote racist Elvin Hayes deal. That's
when it really locked in that he really is old
as old as he says. Anyways, no shout out to
Andy for calling in, especially with the fluff. Well, I

(01:56:08):
mean he did start with the fluff. You gonna start
with the good news with the bad news.

Speaker 7 (01:56:13):
Yeah, Just now to the other part of it that
I tried to eliminate and I still pause on some
of the comparisons everybody makes when you give a player
away and you're giving up on him, no reason to
bring the elite of the elite into the conversation. I mean,
you're talking about the best players to ever play. Compare
him to other young players that you know, maybe did

(01:56:33):
not get to a level or helped the team get
to a level you wanted, and Jalen Green barely had
an opportunity to do that. Came to a franchise that
was awful, mired in losing for his first couple of seasons.
Huge reason, along with all the additions and the coach
while they went from twenty two to fifty two and
then finally only once reached the playoffs and only played
in one playoff series. His opportunity to make this franchise

(01:56:55):
better it doesn't exist anymore to I mean, he can't
make that happen. He's he's not the player that Oh
my god, how could you give up on him? If
that happens, Glad to say I'm wrong. You know, it's funny,
but he is going to be a better player.

Speaker 4 (01:57:10):
I would love to see, and it would never happen
because of the circumstances, but I would love to see
the reaction if instead of Kevin Durant, the Rockets went
out and traded for Steph Curry.

Speaker 5 (01:57:23):
Do you know why I'm curious? They're very similar.

Speaker 4 (01:57:27):
I mean, yeah, Kevin Durant had more injuries, but Steph
Curry's been out chunks of the last couple of seasons.
He's the same age, And I mean, I just I
wonder how many people would call in and say, ah,
this trade sucks.

Speaker 5 (01:57:42):
He's thirty seven.

Speaker 4 (01:57:42):
We just traded a twenty three year old promising would
be superstar for an old thirty seven year old, banged
up Steph Curry. No one would say that. Not one
person would call him and say that because it's Steph Curry.
Kevin Durant is in that that realm.

Speaker 5 (01:57:57):
The player you're talking about.

Speaker 7 (01:57:59):
Steph Curry thirty nine point seven percent from three point
distance last year, the identical number to Dylan Brooks. Kevin
Durant the player they actually got forty three percent three
point shit year.

Speaker 5 (01:58:12):
Well, I don't know about better. I don't know that.

Speaker 7 (01:58:15):
Let's say the Rocket Let's say they were playing the
Warriors with Durant instead of Steph. I doubt very seriously,
the Rockets would have defended them the same way they
defended them, specifically because of who Steph Curry is and
the amount of attention. They felt like, if we just draw,
if he draws our attention, that's great because the other
guys aren't gonna beat us. They I don't believe that
any team would do that with Durant, and they're different positions,
so it's probably not even tremendous comparison worthy. And then

(01:58:37):
when you if you're swapping out this trade, when you're
trading out your two guard for their two guard, and
their two guards going to the Hall of Fame, and
he's still playing at a very high level.

Speaker 5 (01:58:47):
He also ended his season hurt exactly like it's actually
a lot of parallels.

Speaker 4 (01:58:52):
Nobody's really even thinking about when you're making these statements,
these blanket and I get it, Like, you know, we
have the numbers in front of us. We know how
much time Kevin Durant has missed. This just in guys
is and here's another unpopular thing you're not gonna hear.
But I think and I hate it, I hate the
concept of it, but I also get it. I think
the Rockets should consider lude management this season with Kevin Durant,

(01:59:15):
because if you won them healthy for when the games
count the most, you still have a good enough team
around you to knock off the Charlottes of the world.

Speaker 7 (01:59:22):
When he doesn't play or whatever. Don't let him play
on the second night of a back to back. Do
the same thing with Steven Adams, because that double BIG's
lineup is just as important to your success in the
postseason as Kevin Durant, and what he's gonna bring is
gonna be. We hit the top of the hour here
the three most important and talented and significant old players

(01:59:43):
in the league, Kevin Durant, Lebron James, Steph Curry.

Speaker 5 (01:59:47):
They all ended their seasons hurt, all three of them.
One of them out of the playoffs, one of them.

Speaker 7 (01:59:53):
Before the playoffs got there, one of them after their
first round exit, one of them during Are during their
first round exit and played through miraculously, and then Curry
during their second round exit.

Speaker 4 (02:00:03):
Load management, Baby, That's what it's all about, this upcoming
Rocket season. It might sound crazy, but I could see
it being employed. We shall see, and we'll also talk
to you about a former astro and what he's up to,
and get into some football conversation like we always do
this time of day.

Speaker 2 (02:00:20):

Speaker 3 (02:00:28):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wetfler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (02:00:40):
Football at five begins the final hour of the program,
as it normally does this time of day each and
every weekday. A reminder again, you can check out the
Mauricio Dubon interview from the two o'clock hour, Dana Brown stopping.

Speaker 5 (02:00:55):
By earlier today, Chris Gordy stopping by.

Speaker 4 (02:00:58):
We've gotten a variety of discussion on topics in on
this show, and this one's no different.

Speaker 5 (02:01:06):
I'm looking at.

Speaker 4 (02:01:07):
The Rundown right now, and I'm hesitating to even go
here because it's another list TWEX. It's another list that
has been placed there to basically get under my skin.
That's what it looks like to me. We talked about
this earlier. We talked about the fact that, well, when

(02:01:32):
it comes to CJ. Stroud and his standing in the NFL,
everybody's piling on even though we played the audio from
Peyton Manning saying, you guys really shouldn't do that. I
didn't win a playoff game until my sixth season. I
didn't realize that until he said that at the Fanatics Festival.
But this is something we mentioned a little bit earlier.
The top ten returning head coaches according to Pro Football Focus,

(02:01:56):
and then Andy Reid was ranked number one. Sean Payton
was somehow ranked number two on this list, which is laughable.
It is yeah, okay, you think Sean Payton is the
second best returning head coach out of all the possibilities
on this I could be.

Speaker 7 (02:02:11):
Wrong, because these are the kind of things I forget.
Andy Reid is a multiple time Super Bowl winner, and
of the other coaches on the list or in the
NFL period.

Speaker 5 (02:02:21):
Who else has done that a multiple time?

Speaker 12 (02:02:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (02:02:25):
Uh, nobody, right, I don't think there is. So Nick
Sirianni's eighth. No, Okay, Nick Sirianni has won, and he's eighth.
Sean McVay has one, he's third. John Harbaugh has none,
Jim Harbaugh has none. Both have been to the super

(02:02:46):
Bowl but haven't won. Wait, Kyle Shanahan has none. Baltimore
got one with John Harbaugh.

Speaker 5 (02:02:52):
Okay has one in twenty twelve my mistake or eleven,
whatever it was, John Jones. There you go, well beat
Jim Harbaugh. Obviously be his brother. So is it out
of the question that one of the one time super
Bowl champs is number two?

Speaker 4 (02:03:08):
What if Kyle Shanahan's gone to the super Bowl more
than once? Because yeah, it's with two different teams.

Speaker 7 (02:03:13):
Great, but I'll give a little extra credit. And I
do think it helps that Sean Payton's time in Denver
should be looked at positively. It's brief, but it should
be looked at as an enhancer to his resume.

Speaker 4 (02:03:25):
You know what's interesting about that is that his first
year there was a disaster.

Speaker 5 (02:03:30):
And then he said, I'm with you management.

Speaker 7 (02:03:33):
Let's go get this kid who will definitely give us
a better chance to win than Russell and the other
players we had here last year. And he was right
also their rosters. I mean, he has some say in it, clearly,
because I do think the management team there believes in
some of what he thinks about NFL talent, and I
think so far, so good the working relationship there. If

(02:03:54):
you ask me right now who the second best team
in their division is, I think it's them, not San Diego.

Speaker 4 (02:04:04):
Well, that's just another feather in my cap to talk
about how overrated everything about the San Diego or the
you said San Diego.

Speaker 7 (02:04:12):
I say it all the time. I know that's of
all the things that have changed. I almost never say Indians.
I say Guardians almost every time. This is never going away.
You don't hardly ever say Redskins either. This is never
going away. I will say San Diego unintentionally until the
end of time.

Speaker 5 (02:04:28):
Why don't they just move back there? It would be nice.

Speaker 4 (02:04:32):
I again, that's just an argument in my favor. That
is another point in favor of my argument.

Speaker 5 (02:04:38):
I just think it.

Speaker 4 (02:04:39):
I don't look, I don't think Jim Harbaugh and his
quarterback that again, I will refuse to name because I'm
just so upset about the whole scenario.

Speaker 5 (02:04:50):
I don't think they're bad.

Speaker 4 (02:04:52):
I just don't think they're as good as some of
these people just keep gassing them up to be, especially Herbert.

Speaker 5 (02:04:58):
I said his name.

Speaker 7 (02:05:00):
I didn't want to, but nobody's picking the team. Ironically,
that's to do anything more than they have done. And
he taught the fore most popular picks. To be ranked
the top teams in the AFC, you would get at
least to six before pretty much anybody is saying the Chargers.
You're gonna have the three teams at the top, Kansas City, Baltimore,

(02:05:22):
and Buffalo, some combination of Houston and Cincinnati. And there's
your top five and the team with the quarterback that
everyone likes more than CJ heading into this year, and
the head coach that apparently this group likes more than
Demiko further back. And it doesn't really have anything to
do with the competition that they played, because that's already
been in place as the same competition roughly that they

(02:05:42):
played last year. They did make the playoffs last year.
By the way, where's Sean McDermott. Dude, they just hate
him too well, Sean McDermott has reached a lower ceiling
than most of these coaches on this list. Most I
would think you would look down this list and call
every coach on it other than Stefanski more accomplished. Not
that McDermott's bad.

Speaker 4 (02:06:01):
Well, McDermott just got done playing in the AFC Championship
game again and he's returning. So those are the credentials
we need, right recency bias, and you're turning, you're returning
to your team. And yet he couldn't crack the top ten,
but Steven Kevin Stefanski and Sean Payton at number two could.

Speaker 14 (02:06:21):
But you're arguing then that Demiko Ryan shouldn't be on
this list instead of Sean McDermott because Sean McDermott's been
to two AFC.

Speaker 4 (02:06:28):
Chang I would have a much less problem with him
being on the list and Demiko not being on it
versus these guys.

Speaker 7 (02:06:34):
My thought is he probably gets nicked because in every
one of those instances last five years, they've gone to
the playoffs five straight years.

Speaker 5 (02:06:41):
All five of those years.

Speaker 7 (02:06:43):
They've won at least one playoff game, and two of
those years, like Cole mentioned, they are AFC Championship Game participants.
Every one of those games was played with MVP level
at quarterback Josh Allen, every one of them.

Speaker 5 (02:06:56):
Some have been against va le quarterbacks some of.

Speaker 7 (02:06:58):
The other coaches on this list to get to that
Championship game, lesser quarterbacks. He's playing in the he's got
other than Mahomes, He's basically got the best postseason best
quarterback you could ever want. If you lined them all
up and said you get to coach this guy for
the next five years, he has that advantage over almost
every other coach on this list, and even coaches that
aren't on this list, and yet they've all been to

(02:07:22):
the Super Bowl.

Speaker 5 (02:07:23):
Basically maybe there was one that hasn't. Here's an inordinate
amount of AFC coaches too.

Speaker 7 (02:07:29):
We said it last year the AFC is the Western
Conference of the NFL, and it's still while Detroit probably
and definitely Philadelphia and then maybe Washington are awesome. Those
teams they would slide right in. If you ranked top
eight teams in the NFL, it's those three and five

(02:07:51):
AFC teams, and then it's probably the Chargers, and then
it could be the Broncos and I'm not sure when
the next The next NFC team's probably the Rams, and
they would be borderline top ten. You said Washington in
the top eight, right, Yeah, Washington, Detroit and Philly. You
could argue I think Washington as that number eight and
flip them out with say Los Angeles at number nine.

(02:08:11):
That would just be me personally. I mean, I actually
think Washington is because I'm just like with CJ. I
don't I don't need to see more of Jayden. My
decisions made and you can have all the hiccups he wants.
And I don't know why my opinion would change. Washington
has a chance to do as much as they did
a year ago because he's there, and they're definitely not

(02:08:32):
gonna have worse talent. And I do think Dan Quinn
is not a top ten coach, but he certainly has
a lot better than a lot.

Speaker 5 (02:08:39):
Of other teams has.

Speaker 4 (02:08:40):
What drives me, this is what drives me crazy about
the line you're talking about, CJ. Stroud the exact same
way if he had a line last year, Because you're
not you don't have those concerns this season for a year.

Speaker 5 (02:08:54):
Too, CJ.

Speaker 6 (02:08:55):
That way.

Speaker 5 (02:08:55):
I've said it multiple I don't have anything.

Speaker 4 (02:08:57):
I'm saying you being the and other not clearly they're
not look at the lists. But like again, Jayden's got
a great line in front of him. He's not gonna
have fifty percent of the problems, probably higher percentage then
CJ did, therefore paving the way for him to have
a much easier path to success in year two than
CJ had. Even if he does make mistakes and people

(02:09:21):
have film on him and all the other cliche things
that people are saying about CJ. Stroud and why he's
going to have or why he had his sophomore slump.
All I'm asking is it I hope he gets the
same treatment if he doesn't wow like he did in
year one in year two this up coming year, you won't.

Speaker 7 (02:09:38):
You can treat him anyway you want, the film on
him and stuff like that. Talking about CJ. The mistakes
that he made last year, I think they're very unrelated
to the league caught up with him, or he didn't
see that coming. There might have been a play here
or a play there. There are a bunch of interceptions
that I don't think had much to do with that.
A lot of those were pure physical mistakes, and then

(02:10:00):
they were also predicated on how much time do I have?

Speaker 5 (02:10:02):
Do I really go through these progressions?

Speaker 7 (02:10:04):
Is the lack of time forcing me to see something
that's not really there versus these DCS caught up with
what the Texans were doing. Now, that's quite ironic when
it's incredibly clear the DCS were winning every single week
against Bobby Slowek's offense. I just don't think they were
winning with their schemes in the back end what they

(02:10:24):
were doing with their secondary They were winning up front
with their schemes against the offensive line more than they
were winning with their scheme against the wide outs and
CJ and then the pass play calls that they were running.
It's noteworthy that the Texans were doing things a little
bit better with their running game later in the year,
when they were doing the things they probably should have
done to begin with, and most likely we'll do at
the beginning of the year next year with some of

(02:10:45):
the schemes that they will want to run behind and
utilize the talent that they have. I don't mind getting
a little worked up over the offseason nonsense list most
of them is that's exactly what they are and meant
to generate conversation.

Speaker 5 (02:10:57):
Clearly in these cases they have.

Speaker 7 (02:11:01):
You can put the coach, you can put the team,
you can put the quarterback anywhere you'd like. I don't
have much doubt that they will outperform that based on
what we've seen. Very few are very high on the
texans immediate future. Part of that is who they are
and what they did last year. The other part of
it is for the Texans to be better next year.

(02:11:21):
They almost assuredly have to beat Baltimore in the playoffs,
or beat Buffalo in the playoffs, or beat Kansas City
in the playoffs. On paper, based on the moves that
have been made, the coaching changes that have been made,
anything you want to point to, I don't have any
evidence that the Texans are better than any of those
three teams.

Speaker 5 (02:11:40):
Nice as they head into year three with CJ. Will
and Debiko, excuses are not about the lion where the
rubber meets the road.

Speaker 4 (02:11:46):
That's the only thing that's going to get any of
these criticisms and naysayers off of CJ's back, specifically in
the Texans in general, because that's unfortunately where they're at
right now. These teams are ahead of you, and you're
gonna have to prove that they shouldn't be by the
most important and the easiest way to do that, which
is to actually beat them. That's what's gonna take. We'll see,

(02:12:08):
we'll see if it happens, it'll be a fascinating twenty
twenty five campaign. As we continue here on a Wednesday
edition of the program.

Speaker 2 (02:12:17):
The Agam on Sports Talk seven ninety, a couple of things.

Speaker 7 (02:12:24):
We haven't shared with you yet this afternoon here on
the A Team. There will be Astros baseball this evening.

Speaker 13 (02:12:29):
You know.

Speaker 7 (02:12:29):
That's a second game of their series with the Phillies.
Phillies looking to score for the first time in the series.
Astros won nothing victory last night. The seven innings shut
out baseball from Fromber, shut out eighth inning from a Brew,
the lead earned by the Astros when Cooper Hammel hit
to one of Roynger Suarez's pitches into the Astros bullpen,
and then the one nothing leads saved twenty saves and

(02:12:51):
twenty tries to start the season for Josh Hader. He
did hit a batter, but he was very good and
the Phillies didn't truly threaten and the Astros moved to
having the fourth best record in Baseball. They're a game
behind the Phillies going into tonight. Obviously, they just beat them.
The Tigers the only American League team ahead of them,
meaning they have passed the Yankees. They've gone back and

(02:13:13):
forth with the Yankees the last handful of days. Last night,
in the American League Wests, similarities pretty much across the board,
sans the A's, the Astros, the Mariners, the Angels, and
the Rangers all won one run games by scoring in
their final at bat, two extrating victories, and then the

(02:13:35):
Mariners and Astros both scoring in their last at bat.
Mariners continuing to chase Houston at four and a half
games back, They've got the Twins. Twins are cratering for
the second time this year. They fall into five games
under five hundred, the other so called Chasers and the Division.
The Angels will be a five hundred team if they

(02:13:56):
hold on to victory tonight. They have started and got
into the seventh inning of their game against the Red Sox.
You say Kokuuchi seven innings, his Angels lead five to
two over the bregmanless Red Sox range an Orioles again tonight,
and that's your story. In the American League West, as
we had to do basically the halfway point of the season.

Speaker 5 (02:14:20):
It is Game eighty tonight for the Houston Astros.

Speaker 7 (02:14:24):
They've also pushed past half of their home schedule with
the game tonight and have been incredible at home. The
starting lineup tonight, Unfortunately, even though we mentioned where he
Studbon is an everyday Astro, he's available, he's not Tonight's
starting lineup. A major or an Astro's debut for Taylor
Trommel is on tap. He's the Astros' ninth different starting

(02:14:49):
right fielder, our eighth different starting left fielder.

Speaker 5 (02:14:52):
I should say he's bat ninth than in the order. Tonight.

Speaker 7 (02:14:54):
Cooper Hummel gets another spot. They've won all five games
that he has started so far this season. They'll be
the designated hitter this evening.

Speaker 6 (02:15:02):
You know.

Speaker 7 (02:15:02):
Their cleanup hitter, of course, has to be Victor Carrottini.
Victor Carrattini who will catch Colton Gordon today. Of course
he bats fourth. The soon to be Phase two entrant
into All Star voting at second base is Jose Altuve,
familiar spot at number three. The new player under the
Scott Boris Group umbrella Jeremy Pania continues to lead off.

(02:15:22):
Isak at third bats second, Cam again in right field
bats fifth, Christian Walker batting sixth, and Jake Myers he
plays center field.

Speaker 5 (02:15:31):
Hope bets seventh.

Speaker 4 (02:15:32):
I can't think of a worse moniker for a player
than new Scott Boris client Jeremy Pania.

Speaker 7 (02:15:39):
I probably won't keep running it out there like that.
Jeremy's been one of the best players in baseball this season.
He's been one of the hottest hitters in baseball this month,
still leads the majors and hits. He's been the best
leadoff hitter in baseball since he arrived in the leadoff spot,
and that continues. Nearly hit one out after Cooper Hummell
hit one out last night instead was stranded on the
basis late. But these are situations, and Dana Brown was

(02:16:03):
asked this earlier right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
Are they measuring stick games or do they just merely
give you an idea of what kind of baseball needs
to be played in order to beat the best teams
in baseball? And he even noted what I hope everybody
has seen play out this year when they've played the
better teams and you look at the first place teams.
Detroit's the first place team. The Astros are two to

(02:16:25):
one against them. You know, the Mets or Phillies have
basically in first place all year. Right now, the Phillies
are in first place, clearly. They beat them last night.
Their first meeting of the season went to to one
against the New York Mets. They haven't yet played the
far and away best team in the americanly East New
York Yankees. I don't know what their record will be
against them. Get their first matchup with the Chicago Cubs

(02:16:47):
coming up. Get their first matchup with the Dodgers soon
beating the Padres two out of three. The only team
they've played that's at or near the top of their
respective division that they've fared poorly against is the Pan
And that was series number two of the season at home,
when they lost all three games.

Speaker 5 (02:17:05):
Yeah, that was a disgusting sweep. Bye.

Speaker 7 (02:17:09):
Look alany Astros were an under five hundred uh oh,
here we go again team rather than the thirteen games
over five hundred best team in baseball in June that
they are presently.

Speaker 4 (02:17:21):
It's insane what they're doing in spite of the injuries mainly,
but again getting good news about Jordan Alvarez. We think
am I even allowed to say that much. I mean,
if he's hitting off a T.

Speaker 7 (02:17:33):
That's he has an injured right hand, and we know
he was in the outfield the other day. Brian McTaggart
out there this afternoon with some updates from Joe Spot
and noting that he was throwing to the bases today.
He didn't pick up the baseball with his left hand
and start throwing with the opposite hand. And I know
it does not impact him nearly as much to throw
the baseball as it does to hit the baseball. But

(02:17:55):
hitting the cage again, these are all signs that he's healed.
I hope he's fully healed, and that's why he's doing
these things. The pitching side of it, a bullpen for mccullors,
we'll do some PFPS. Still appears to be on track
to be activated at or near that June twenty eighth
date when he's first ELIGIB will come off. This was
a foot injury, a toe injury, a weight room injury,

(02:18:16):
not an arm or elbow related injury. Araghetti had a
bullpen today. Javier threw a live BP today Garcia live
BP yesterday, and in each of their cases, they're now
past their first one.

Speaker 5 (02:18:29):
I believe it's.

Speaker 7 (02:18:29):
Number three for Javier and number two for Garcia. All
you're looking at is are they having any setbacks? And
when they are not, that means they're that much closer
to be sent to even a simulated game if they want,
or a rehab assignment, a ramp up opportunity, And we're
probably not too far away from rag Getty getting to

(02:18:51):
ramp up.

Speaker 5 (02:18:52):
He's gonna throw bullpens.

Speaker 7 (02:18:53):
He'll probably have a live VP shortly thereafter, and then
it should be ramp up time for him. It was
a hand injury, finger injury, that not a shoulder and
elbow injury.

Speaker 5 (02:19:03):
I don't even get. He's on his way, on his way,
just on his way back, very very shortly.

Speaker 6 (02:19:09):
Well.

Speaker 5 (02:19:09):
He he posted himself a video of him throwing the
other day in FLA.

Speaker 4 (02:19:15):
Yeah, by the way, wasn't at one point Luis Garcia
seemingly on track before the setback or.

Speaker 7 (02:19:24):
There's been so many definitive setback okay months ago, sadly.

Speaker 4 (02:19:27):
So that's what I thought, But I like, but before that,
like he was on track to maybe I don't know.
I don't know what the timeline was because now I
can't There are so many I can't remember when they
all happened, Like when was Louis Garcia's actual injury in
the middle of uh year, before last.

Speaker 7 (02:19:44):
Year, before last Yeah, I mean, I believe his surgery
was in June, the injury in May, and so.

Speaker 4 (02:19:50):
That would have been around this time last year where
he was about to be coming back, maybe a little
bit earlier in the calendar, and then they had the setback.

Speaker 7 (02:19:56):
He was one of the names mentioned very often and
at the time it seemed very reasonable by Dana Brown.
These are trade deadline acquisitions quote unquote, so to speak,
and it obviously did not happen for him then, and
we're approaching the following seasons trade deadline.

Speaker 4 (02:20:11):
When you play as well as they've played, you can
make statements like that and not get laughed out of
the building.

Speaker 7 (02:20:17):
Well, I mean, he was only speaking as to where
he was at the time, right, that's what setbacks do.
They rearranged the timeline the time. He wasn't lying, No,
it was the timeline he was currently on.

Speaker 4 (02:20:27):
But when the Astros have played without some of these
I mean big names, the way they have this year,
no exception. It feels like you're making a deal to
get this awesome player even though he was actually on
your roster the whole time.

Speaker 7 (02:20:41):
Yeah, Alvarez, according to Dana Brown, could be making a
return before the All Star break.

Speaker 5 (02:20:46):
There's not much time before the All Star break.

Speaker 7 (02:20:47):
If you weren't paying attention to the calendar, they were
into the last days of or June baseball already. They'll
be playing the Cubs as July is approaching, and then
they All Star break.

Speaker 5 (02:20:59):
So he is able to squeeze in a few games.
They're great.

Speaker 7 (02:21:03):
If the additional five days of rest matters, great. No
rehab assignment is likely for jord On Alvarez. I believe
the team long has thought this for most players, and
definitely in his case. Get him some live vps, run
him through some simulated games. Have that take two or
three days. He feels fine after he's playing, I hope,

(02:21:24):
so it's gonna be awesome again. I'm predicting he hits
a home run in his first his first game back,
that's what he does. It's still remarkable to me the
similarities the Astros have absolutely taken off while he's been out.

Speaker 5 (02:21:37):
He absolutely took off while Kyle Tucker was out.

Speaker 7 (02:21:40):
And in this case, for sure, they've barely missed anybody
else the been you know, I know they have a
lot of other outfielder injuries. Jacob Melton's gone down, Chas
McCormick's gone down, Zach Desenzo's gone down, and none of
those players was an everyday player, and Zach or Jake
Melton wasn't even an astro to begin with until all
these other injuries hit. Last year there were again very
similar There was a few other minor injuries, but the

(02:22:02):
bulk of your non Tucker roster everyday players, they were
out there every day. And this year has been the
same thing. And those are the guys that have somehow
kept it together. Even though outside of Paynia Payes having
a remarkable offensive season, Parentis is having a season we
absolutely could have seen coming. A twenty five to thirty
homer season, three fifty plus ops, moderate average, eight hundred ops,

(02:22:25):
Guy Diaz down season, Walker down season, offense from second
base down season, al tuve back sliding from last season.
Jake Myers, he fits in the Jeremy Payne category. Monster
jump forward. We'll jump forward into it in case you
missed it next here on the A Team.

Speaker 2 (02:22:47):
The Aged on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 7 (02:22:50):
Ninety probably a few items we've not yet delved into
to their entirety, or things we've made entirely.

Speaker 5 (02:23:00):
That's when a case you missed it is for what
do we have today?

Speaker 14 (02:23:04):
Hey, So congratulations are in order, not just justin Berlander
for becoming a dad for the second time, but how
about one of our own, JJ Watt welcoming in a
brand new, healthy baby boy, Nico Benjamin Watt, as announced yesterday, Mom, dad,
kids doing fine and now JJ Watt had been playing
some zone coverage.

Speaker 7 (02:23:25):
Versus Samanda Man as he used to Yeah, I went
with that angle as I usually do here on the
X platform earlier. When the Texans announced their preseason or
excusing training camp schedule earlier today, it indicated to everybody
publicly didn't know this already but not for public consumption
until they announced it.

Speaker 5 (02:23:43):
They're going back to the Greenbrier.

Speaker 7 (02:23:45):
They were there in July of twenty eighteen, so was
yours truly July twenty fifth, twenty eighteen, video from me
as they got off the bus in West Virginia for
several days worth of practice including some joint practice work
with Bill Belichick's new England Patriots. So I hit everybody

(02:24:06):
with a quote tweet of that, and here's who I
noted in the video. You can watch throwback Billy O
first person. You see he got off the bus first.
He's the head coach at the time, Coha and Nico's dad,
JJ Watt forty nine, ers long snapper at John Weeks
forty six, Kellogg's executive MPa program grad at Mercy three

(02:24:29):
eighty who Grass to Whitney Merciless, a recent graduate of
that excellent MBA program at Matthew Underscore era jjo and
Renboy twenty five, DJ Reed ninety eight, DeAndre Hopkins, and
then I said others for all the other assorted Texans
that were in that video because they're on that team

(02:24:50):
in twenty eighteen, including extensive coverage of the quarterback exiting
the bus and heading on into the wonderful facility at
the Greenbrier. Fourth through the seventh, that's when they will
be at the Greenbrier practicing that has advanced in advance
of their game against the Minnesota Vikings.

Speaker 5 (02:25:08):
So they'll have a bunch of open practices.

Speaker 7 (02:25:10):
Of course, seven of them here, and it includes the
joint practice with the Carolina Panthers. The vast majority of
the open practices basically come when in a one week
period from Saturday the July twenty sixth to Saturday the
eighth or the second of August sixth, of those seven
open practices will take place.

Speaker 5 (02:25:29):
Get their site to find your way in all of
them at nine am.

Speaker 7 (02:25:34):
So those are those Greenbrier practices are not open to
the public. Correct, No, they're open to the public. They're
just in West Virginia if you're gonna make the trek out.

Speaker 10 (02:25:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (02:25:43):
And when I was there there, there's there were a
couple of people that made the trip, but it's it's
just people that live there that decide, Oh, the team
came to town this year, let's go watch them practice.
I give were Patriots fans on the day that we
were there and east they were there.

Speaker 5 (02:26:00):
I was there every day.

Speaker 4 (02:26:01):
Much easier trip to make, I would assume for New Englanders.

Speaker 7 (02:26:05):
Yeah, and when it's not that trip was ended with
a road game at Carolina. And when we got to Carolina,
the amount of jerseys for Clemson's DeAndre Hopkins and Clemson's
Deshaun Watson Yeah, they were all over Orange.

Speaker 5 (02:26:23):
They were very happy to have them there. This time around.

Speaker 4 (02:26:26):
They're gonna go to Minnesota after that. Yep, I get
the open practices here. Obviously those go without saying. It's
it's I don't understand why they're doing this because it's
such a small amount of time.

Speaker 5 (02:26:39):
This is a Demico special. This is I want you know,
the teams.

Speaker 7 (02:26:42):
This is a get them away like I'm amazed they're
able to pull this off without Jack Easterby with all
the logistics that he's so good at, because this is
a logistical nightmare someone else. You're taking your old decrepit
facility that you have here that has to be replaced,
and you're moving it to there. You're in higher diet program,
you're everything in their kitchen, basically the whole program. It's

(02:27:05):
all being moved up there, the equipment, everything. Just four
or four days of practice because there's nothing else for.

Speaker 5 (02:27:12):
The players to do.

Speaker 7 (02:27:13):
They're going to be together all day every day now
because they're there, they're going to go hang out after it.
The one or two things they have to do in
West Virginia near this facility, it is one hundred percent.
This is a camp experience. We are going to bond
Demiko loves this stuff.

Speaker 4 (02:27:29):
That's why they're doing it. Yeah, isolationism, if you will,
to a certain extent. I just figured if they were
going to do all that, because that's what I was thinking,
all the things you just mentioned, the gear, the food,
the facilities, all that stuff. Well, if you're gonna make
all the trouble to do all that, do it for
longer than a handful of days.

Speaker 7 (02:27:47):
Well, I mean you are in the middle of nowhere,
and you get it accomplished in a shorter period of time.

Speaker 5 (02:27:51):
Like how long did the Cowboys stay out in California?

Speaker 7 (02:27:54):
Believe they have sixteen open practices in ox and Art
this year.

Speaker 5 (02:27:57):
That seems like it's worth the trip.

Speaker 7 (02:28:00):
It's four weeks something like past. Yeah, for the it
really is. For what they believe are their fans. The
Texans aren't going to ever have any fans of note
in numbers in West Virginia North attitude, not with any
NFL team. The Saints went there a couple You're not
gonna there are fans of the Cowboys, thousands and thousands
and thousands of them because they go to ox.

Speaker 5 (02:28:21):
Andard to do it that way. You're right, another example
of Californians being stupid.

Speaker 7 (02:28:24):
Yep, and the Cowboys doing it right and the Texans
doing it wrong according.

Speaker 5 (02:28:28):
To you, Oh, I mean I didn't say that. What
else we have?

Speaker 14 (02:28:30):
So you brought those and there up in the rundown
and we didn't talk about it, which by it's in
case you missed it. But there are some low moments
in the world of professional sports, and last night we
wish witnessed it out in Chicago as a twenty two
year old has been permanently banned by all MLB parks
after yelling something extremely negative and honestly quite disgusting. The

(02:28:52):
Arizona Diamondbats second baseman could tell Marte during Tuesday Nights
went over the Chicago White Sox. Marte was brought to
tears in the incidant after he sat the batter's box,
seemed visibly upset after hitting a pop fly, and need
to be consoled on the field afterwards when he took
it when they were up four to one. The person
has not been identified, just Yaped. According to ESPN's Chesse Rogers,

(02:29:14):
the overall comments were made as a derogatory towards his
late mother, who passed away in a car accident in
twenty seventeen.

Speaker 4 (02:29:25):
Just and he's been banned from all MLB stadiums, not
just yeah, not just Chicago, which is a good thing
mm hm, but.

Speaker 5 (02:29:34):
Unlike Chicago White Sox just for those that are parks.

Speaker 4 (02:29:39):
Yes, right, it's disgusting, it's it's absolutely gross behavior.

Speaker 7 (02:29:46):
I was just I'm stunned about every aspect of this story.
I'll just leave it at that. It probably and unfortunately
will hit him again emotionally when he's in the batter's
box and receives a large, large ovation.

Speaker 5 (02:30:01):
Yeah. Yeah, because Docs.

Speaker 14 (02:30:03):
Have already come out and released a statement and they
send their support to Katel Martin and his family have
to be accident.

Speaker 5 (02:30:09):
They put a big graphic up on the board in
the stadium. What's it called? Now the jump is that
Cleveland's play's rate field.

Speaker 4 (02:30:18):
No, No, I think you're right, because it was US
cellular field and then it's guaranteed rate.

Speaker 5 (02:30:22):
Yeah, not a raight field. It's so dumb.

Speaker 12 (02:30:25):
It is dumb.

Speaker 14 (02:30:26):
Kind of like more college football playoff realignment, as Texas
State is expected to leave the Sunbelt Conference and be
the eighth and potentially final member.

Speaker 5 (02:30:37):
Of the new form PAC twelve.

Speaker 14 (02:30:39):
An announcement is expected on both sides, as first reported
by ESPN's Pete Damil later on this week, no earlier
than July first.

Speaker 5 (02:30:47):
The eighth team and the Big twelve or the PAC twelve.
Is that what she said? That is exactly what I said.

Speaker 14 (02:30:51):
Because if there's also seventeen teams in the Big ten,
and seventeen teams in the Big in the ACC and
sixteen teams in the Big twelve, because you know numbers, we.

Speaker 5 (02:31:00):
Have ten seconds. Col GJ.

Speaker 7 (02:31:02):
Kinney will take a major head coaching job at what
university in the very near.

Speaker 5 (02:31:06):
Future, either Baylor or TCU.

Speaker 7 (02:31:09):
Former Texas Longhorn quarterback, current Texas state head coach, very successful,
headed for big things in the future, just like us.
Here as we give away tickets in the final segment.

Speaker 2 (02:31:21):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:31:31):
All right, let's give away some tickets.

Speaker 4 (02:31:33):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety Wednesday
edition of the program.

Speaker 5 (02:31:37):
As we are about to.

Speaker 4 (02:31:39):
Shove off and head on down to Toyota Center for
the Draft experience the Rockets have going on tonight. Already
posted some video on social and it's looking like the
crowd is going to be fantastic. They got a lot
of cool stuff down there. Before we do any of that, though,
mentioned that we do have tickets to give away. Pair
of tickets I might add or more to the Outlaw

(02:32:03):
Music Festival Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, the Abbot Brothers and
more July sixth, right around the corner coming up at
the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets are on sale now at ticketmaster
dot com. We just did in case you missed it,
called did a very good job telling us about the
newest addition to the PAC twelve, which I made fun of.

(02:32:28):
The newest football team addition to the PAC twelve will
now make it. How many teams in the PAC twelve?
How many teams will be in the newly formed PAC
twelve Football teams?

Speaker 5 (02:32:43):
Football teams? Yeah, we'll be in the PAC twelve.

Speaker 8 (02:32:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:32:48):
If that were me saying that, you would know the
answer is twelve. But it isn't. Why because you give
away obvious hints on the show.

Speaker 7 (02:32:56):
I mean eight out of eight times I give it
away somehow with how I'm talking about it.

Speaker 5 (02:33:00):
Yes, all the time.

Speaker 4 (02:33:01):
Well, the confusion is always there. When we can, when
we can do our part to put it there, which
is what we're doing right now. Hopefully, hopefully it's effective.
Hopefully you guys win though. At seven one three two
one two five seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven ninety What part of the Rockets not
actually taking a player are you looking forward to the

(02:33:23):
most tonight?

Speaker 7 (02:33:24):
Well, well, I don't actually believe it will play out
this way. I do think there are scenarios where they
can take some of their future assets or something that
they currently have and believe there's a better, maybe even
more financially cheaper avenue and trade into this first round.
I don't think we're going to see anything anywhere near
the selection they've given to the Phoenix Suns at number

(02:33:44):
ten uh borderline top twenty. Once you get outside of that,
you also find a lot more teams that would prefer
not to draft anybody at that spot and just not
be not have the commitment financially to that player over
the next several seasons, and you trade out into the
second round, you trade ad into a future pick and

(02:34:05):
that just fits there either their timeline or what they're doing,
so moving into the first round or really is not
even that difficult. It's just a matter of are you
doing it, you're the sole reason you're doing is this.
This is a player we didn't expect to be here.
It's not very costly to get there, and we can
shift a little bit of our timeline. When the Rockets
had the tenth pick, we didn't think they were going

(02:34:26):
to find a player even at that high, even after
only nine players had been taken, there was gonna be
a significant impact player for this year's team, maybe in
the future, and even that player, grading or trying to forecast,
mock drafting out this draft past even past two. Cooper
Flag's going first, Dylan Harper's going second. I think vj

(02:34:48):
Edgcomb's going third. I think the team that drafts Ace
Bailey somewhere between four or five and six will turn
out a big winner in this draft, but I'm not
sure which team is ready to.

Speaker 5 (02:34:58):
Pull the trigger on it.

Speaker 7 (02:35:00):
I think starting at three with Philadelphia, there's a possibility
that we will see movement. I think we're going to
see movement in the top ten. Probably won't include the Rockets,
but I can't help and I think Rockets fans at
the party tonight and with us tomorrow on the air
after the Astros game, there'll be some thoughts about the
players that were drafted one through nine because every other
player on the board would have been available to you.

(02:35:21):
And I don't think the Rockets were interested in moving
up into the top nine, but they had the tenth pick.
They earned the tenth pick through previous trades, having Phoenix's pick,
which they then gave back to them. But what could
that player have done for you moving forward? It's there's
always a small what if game. I'm not saying it
needs to happen, it's just human.

Speaker 5 (02:35:38):
Nature of it. It helped you get Kevin Durant.

Speaker 7 (02:35:41):
It helped you put this team in what the organization
believes is a better chance to win next year's title,
the year afters title, and the following year's title. I
think Kevin Durant's probably a retired player after these three
seasons go by. Forred van Vlietz been extended, Steven Adams
is returning for three seasons of contract work. Any Man
Udoka has been extended for a team that finished the

(02:36:04):
way they did last year, fifty two regular season wins,
a seven game series in the opening round of the playoffs,
and the loss to the Warriors, and now looking ahead
to who's the closest competitor to the NBA champions the
Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference, they have to
be in the discussion. They would be in it regardless
if had they made any moves or not. Denver's probably

(02:36:25):
next in line just because they have the best player
in the West that isn't Shay. Clearly, Minnesota's back to
back visitors to the conference championships, losing both times. Decidedly,
there's no reason the Rockets should not be in that
conversation ahead of LA. Also ahead of LA, ahead of
Golden State, ahead of Memphis, and ahead of everybody.

Speaker 5 (02:36:45):
Else that's there.

Speaker 4 (02:36:45):
Yeah, And you know what's funny is I'm seeing we
were obviously seeing all of the Russell Westbrook chatter, and
there are still people out there for some reason that
think the Rockets should try to add James Harden to
this mix. I'm like, what could be the one move
you would do to undo everything good you've built?

Speaker 5 (02:37:07):
That'd be it?

Speaker 6 (02:37:08):
To me?

Speaker 7 (02:37:09):
I mean, I'm not He's still a good enough player
that you could probably concoct a deal. If we're strictly
being dumb and entertaining this conversation the Rockets. I mean,
just look at last year with the Clippers. James Harner
is pretty darn good and the Clippers were one good
game seven away from beating.

Speaker 5 (02:37:27):
The Nuggets, and what did he do in that Game seven?

Speaker 7 (02:37:29):
That's always the concern, And on that team it should
have been less of a concern because Kawhi Leonard's there,
because you had a rapidly advancing zobots. The longer he plays,
the less of him you need to count on, and
it's still bit him and that would be my major concern.
And honestly, for all the negatives of James Harden, that's
my number one concern. I don't want him here in

(02:37:52):
games five, six, or seven of any playoff series.

Speaker 5 (02:37:54):
It's just the way it is for me with him.

Speaker 7 (02:37:55):
So I'm not really concerned with how he gets you there,
how much he helps your team that nine and a
half half assists, he has the great shooting percentage, he has,
the fantastic plays he'll help other guys make. Because I
don't know what I'm I kind of do know what
I'm going to get with him at the end of
a close series, and it's not enough. They have other
players that can take over that should be the bigger,
better players. But he's still gonna be out there, so

(02:38:16):
no thanks.

Speaker 5 (02:38:17):
Maybe if you just.

Speaker 4 (02:38:17):
Don't play him in the first few games of a series,
then he forgets that it's game seven.

Speaker 5 (02:38:22):
He thinks it's like Game four, and he's good and too.

Speaker 7 (02:38:25):
In this year's case, I think it's probably fair to say,
I'm not sure what you could have gotten from James
Harden in Game seven to change the outcome of their
one twenty to one oh one loss on the road
at Denver.

Speaker 11 (02:38:40):
He was bad.

Speaker 5 (02:38:41):
It wasn't even that close.

Speaker 7 (02:38:42):
Well after the first quarter. It was absolute embarrassment, blowout city.
It wasn't on him, it was on the group. They
cratered after the first They led by five after the
first quarter and only got out scored by thirty two
points in the next two only what was.

Speaker 5 (02:38:58):
The final tally in the fourth. Well, they outscored him
in the fourth to not lose by twenty. They got
it under twenty.

Speaker 7 (02:39:04):
Way to go, Yeah, yeah, they Russell Westbrook. James Harden,
I mean, you want to waste our time? Mission accomplished
the last forty five seconds.

Speaker 5 (02:39:12):
You got it done. A total waste of time. You're
so upset right now. Well, it's just it's not reality.

Speaker 4 (02:39:18):
I yeah, Well, but you know, he was in the
Rockets offices last offseason talking about coming back.

Speaker 7 (02:39:24):
Just acknowledge he's not a bad basketball player. I just
don't think it makes any sense for this team to
be where he plays next. He's gonna finish his career
as a Clipper.

Speaker 4 (02:39:33):
Yeah, And I think it makes even less sense this
offseason than it does last offseason. Even though we're talking
about Kevin Durant and James Harden wants playing together and
then trying to put them together again.

Speaker 7 (02:39:43):
You're gonna have conversations like this with us if you
are with us at the Rockets draft party. That's where
we're headed next, both on Space City Home networking right
here on Sports Talk seven to ninety, heading into Astros
baseball coverage.

Speaker 5 (02:39:55):
Ross will have the Astros on Deck four show for you.

Speaker 7 (02:39:58):
Next, Colton Gordon will lock it up to night against
Zach Wheeler and we'll talk about that game and Hunter's
game tomorrow from Carbock Brewing after Astros Baseball tomorrow afternoon
here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:40:11):
The Ag on Sports Talk seven ninety

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