Ime Extension, Top Five Coach In 2025? Chandler Rome A Day Early & More C.J. Stroud HATE!

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam, raised by Earl Nolan,
volted by the magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston
Sports Chill late down for the only homegrown afternoon team

(00:31):
is Talking Your Teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are
the eight teams.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
A welcome in Houston to a Thursday edition of the program.

Speaker 3 (00:50):
It is Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (00:52):
It's straight up two o'clock in the greatest city in
the history of mankind. Wex Ac called Tom with you
on a extension Thursday. Yeah, the Astros once again raked. Yes,
the Astros once again won. But you know what, Nicks,
you know what, every other team out there that wants

(01:13):
to try and poach emay Udoka from the Houston Rockets,
you can't have him. He's ours long term Rockets locking
up there, man. And I will say this now, and
I have full confidence in this, even knowing what I've
seen and not knowing what I haven't seen yet. Obviously,
I think Adam Wexler, on a day like today, it's

(01:36):
never been more appropriate to make a bold statement like this.
By the time emay Udoka is finished coaching the Houston Rockets,
he will easily be the greatest coach in the history
of this franchise. That means he's going to win multiple championships,
because that's a starter for having that kind of conversation.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Yep, Hall of Fame head coach Rockets three time champion
Email Udoka, that's what he said. If you guys were
listening right now, He's zero time champion, He's been to
the playoffs one time. He's won zero playoff series. And
if I have to refute all of the things that
were said in the first two minutes of the show,
I don't know this for a fact, because I want
to give the Rockets some credit that this might have

(02:16):
happened anyway, and probably would have happened anyway, And the
timing suggests for the two years that he's been here,
in the thirty win increase that the Rockets have made
since he took over, they probably were well on their
way to doing this this offseason. But shouldn't you be
thanking the Knicks to a certain degree, because if they're
not truly interested in making a deal and offering the

(02:39):
Rockets something, if for some ridiculous reason they said, oh yeah,
sure you could talk to Email you want to do
your head coach, Great, we'll just take some compensation in return,
or if you just make the call. And then e
May and his agent are like, well, clearly everybody in
the league, teams that are in the conference finals, they
want me. So I guess this is the off season
We're going to reach a con tracked extension. Rafel, Patrick Tillman,

(03:02):
what do you say? Well, look, and now they have
There is a report out today. I'm sure you've heard
about it right here on Sports Talk seven to ninety
that the Rockets at email Udoka have reached an agreement
on a contract extension, as you would expect always this
way from a timing standpoint, to make him one of
the highest paid head coaches in the NBA.

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Eight figures annually, though not seven eight figures annually.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Well, in order to be in that stratosphere now in
this day and age, it needs to be eight figures.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
This zero time NBA championship head coach. And that's I mean,
I'm saying that intentionally because it is a fact. But
I don't say what I just said if I didn't
think he would have already had at least one championship
in Boston that was basically his championship.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
I mean that as outrageous.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
Why why it's his roster, it's his guys, it was
his culture that he instilled, and it was his assistant
that coaching them. And well, in a similar sense, I
think Mark Jackson gets screwed over for credit and helping
to put the Warriors dynasty together. It wasn't his championship,
and that wasn't e May's championship.

Speaker 3 (04:13):
Like Mays, especially since it's where the Rockets were talking,
I'm almost willing to not say anything about that one,
but I obviously did. Mark Jackson's not even remotely close.
Why so you existed in their building so you get
credit for it. No, how close were they to winning
a championship with Mark Jackson.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
If you think all Mark Jackson did was exist in
that building, as he was legit helping to put that
roster together that would become a dynasty, then that's your.

Speaker 3 (04:40):
He was helping to coach the roster. That's not true. Yeah,
it actually is.

Speaker 4 (04:45):
You don't think Mark Jackson had a big part in deciding, no,
we're gonna trade Monte Allis and keep Steph Curry.

Speaker 3 (04:51):
That's not I'm not eliminating him from a conversation right there, right,
But that's not his's history influenced the people that pulled
the trigger on the deal.

Speaker 4 (05:00):
Well, and I will say this, I think ima Udoka
has a much bigger influence on the Rockets roster shape shaping, shapement,
how do you say it, roster shaping than Mark Jackson
probably ever did in Golden State.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
But that kind of lends itself to what I'm arguing here.

Speaker 4 (05:17):
I know that Rudy tom Jonovitch is the greatest coach
in franchise history, and I know that Hakim Olaijuan remains
the greatest player in franchise history. I'm just saying that,
if this is the trajectory that we're on right here,
and I know it's early, this is a lot like
the CJ. Stroud conversation we've had. He's had two whole seasons,
and because of the way they each went is why

(05:37):
people are either really really stupid saying dumb things right
now ranking him where they are, or otherwise. I realize
it's a very very short tenure, but I don't think
the Rockets commit this money to him if they don't
somewhat agree with me.

Speaker 3 (05:51):
Well, everybody agrees with you to what they think and
would love to see happen. But it's just too hard
to say that nobody does that. Like how many coaches
have three titles and Oklahoma the league does exist? Crazy
tiny Yeah, And then now you have that also going
up against you because the Rockets ran through a host
of different coaches and you'd start that list with Mike D'Antonio.

(06:11):
They're gonna win a title with this team and with
this coach, no question about it. Oh wait, I forgot
there's a team that's better than them. Well that's Oklahoma
City now. It was Golden State then. But it's a
great conversation to have. And that is part of the
conversation about em for him moving forward with the Rockets,
where do you actually think he fits? For all that
he does for this team? Culture creator, coach, in game
strategy strategies, working with players, wanting players to come here

(06:37):
because he's here, all the things that he does for
the team he is working with to get an NBA championship. Now,
rate him against the other twenty nine outfits and the
other twenty eight head coaches in the NBA, because the
Knicks don't have one. Where does he fit. I imagine
there's ranks thirtieth currently in that it's a vacant seat

(06:57):
and they actually wanted to maybe steal this coach for
that seat. So yeah, that's an interesting conversation to have,
and I don't think there's too many, but we're all
ears if there are out there people that think this
was the other side of it, because we listen to
all sides. This was a bad move by the Rockets.
Come on, seven won three, two, one two five seven nineties.
We get that into our conversation as we head into

(07:20):
the last day of the NBA season Oklahoma City Thunder
and the Indiana Pacers. It's not Game seven, but it's
like that for the team that's going to lose tonight.
The Indiana Pacers. Odds are pretty good that Tyrese Haliburton
will play, but odds are also pretty good that he's
not going to play particularly well, So they'll need the
rest of the team to play much much better than
they have if they're going to win at home and

(07:41):
extend this to a seventh game and keep us involved
to some degree in the actual basketball. While we've spent
most of the last two to three weeks talking about
where other basketball players are going to play in the
upcoming season, what teams should be thinking about everybody in
this draft that isn't Cooper Flag and the Rockets still
holding the number ten pick in this upcoming draft. All

(08:04):
on the table for discussion today, including the absolute latest,
which is dramatically different than what we've discussed every day
on Kevin Durant and how much longer he will be
Sonny in Phoenix. And yes, it's always Sonny in Phoenix.
It is always Sonny in Phoenix. A great place to hang.
I don't know if it's a great place to try
to win an NBA basketball championship anymore. And obviously, as

(08:25):
you mentioned in the open, a second consecutive day of
playing baseball just like it should have been played. You're
in a minor league park and you're playing against a
team that doesn't have a ton of major league talent
on it. You're going to a minor league team. Coon
treat them like it's a minor league team. They play
like a minor league team when they're in their minor
league ballpark. At one point during last night's game, the
Astros and the other opponents that had visited of their

(08:47):
minor League Ballpark had out homer them by thirty. Their
first baseman made that number go down by one in
the ninth inning off of Nick Hernandez, who got an
innings worth of work for the Astros. They continue to
manipul the roster. Threw this six man rotation, but plenty
of offense, plenty of long balls, a seven run inning
and you were able to overcome a unfromber like evening,

(09:13):
and he still only gave up two earned runs. He
did not have his best stuff. He wasn't able to
punch guys out with a baseball, not the way Adrian
Peterson likes to do it. And they still were sitting
on if we just score any runs, we will win,
and they have each of the last two days. They've
had seventeen or more hits four times this year, twice

(09:33):
in the last two days in this minor league ballpark.
They got another one in that Ballyard tonight with Colton
Gordon on the mound. He makes start number seven. The
Astros are won all but one of his previous six starts.
They get another one tonight. They jump to thirteen games
over five hundred and potentially increase their lead in their division,
which went from four and a half to five and

(09:54):
a half with their win. Yesterday, we were here in
studio as the Seattle Mariners lost their game to the
Boston Red Sox. The Mariners and Astros not both playing today,
so a win for the Astros will put it at
six as they head to La to take on the Angels,
who are playing well. We're playing much better baseball, much

(10:18):
better baseball. They're the third place team in this division. No,
I get that, and they were flirting with five hundred.

Speaker 4 (10:24):
How about the Astros are flirting with Oh no, they're
not flirting with that. They are the second best team
in the AL.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
We didn't mention that may or may not be true
later in the show. With the Yankees holding a four
to three league, there's still time and again it's always
up for debate, but you do sometimes refer to their
record and currently a record of the Astros. With their
forty third win last night and a fifth consecutive loss
for the Yankees, it is better. They have a forty

(10:49):
three and thirty one team and Aaron Boone has a
forty two and thirty one team. So sometimes I marvel
at the judge is awful this month? If you haven't
been paying attention since you mentioned his name. Strikeouts in June. Yeah,
but something of this.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
His last stretch is like fifteen of his last twenty
four or something like that.

Speaker 3 (11:12):
He is piling him on. It's like, not just June,
luiski Orme thinks he strikes out a lot. Hey, man,
he was just he just got here and he made
a really great catch to the night when you don't
have to kick him in the ribs when Luis ski
Orme wears his glove. Major league talent, there is a
bat to the plate, not a major league talent. Well,

(11:32):
it's the a team.

Speaker 4 (11:33):
Adam Clanton and the most perfect man who ever lives.

Speaker 3 (11:36):
I don't play baseball anymore. Gosh, you are you are hard.
That was one of the best players in the league,
certainly the best player on the team many many, many
years ago.

Speaker 4 (11:47):
Did you wear a jersey with the number sixty nine
on it in your league?

Speaker 3 (11:50):
No, that was a softball league. When I was playing baseball,
where would you where would you normally put the best
player on the team? They play shortstop? Oh, I was
gonna say first base. That's the worst play, the worst
fielder on the tam I was about to say worst
player on the team goes in left field. Yeah. I
was a short stop and a pitcher, so that I
fashioned myself as a pretty good baseball player. Dang, But
then that everybody else got better and I did you

(12:12):
ever play? I stayed. I guess I was very very
woodtersenate at baseball. Did you ever got better? And I
stayed the same? Did you ever play in Polo's league? Well,
that's a softball league. Did you'm talking about actual when
I grew up and played baseball? Oh? Well, I don't
want to talk about that. I'd rather talk about you
and Charlie Pelo playing softball with Charlie. One media game
I did play. I invited you all after college and leagues.

(12:35):
That were fun.

Speaker 5 (12:35):
Wait, so then, what's the worst position to play in softball?

Speaker 3 (12:38):
Yeah, that's that's a good question. It's catcher, right. I
here's what you know. When I played catcher and softball.
When I broke my arm rounding third base on an
inside the park home run, you broke your arm? Yeah,
because the bases were not affixed to the ground. They
were those floppy orange bases. So when I put my
foot on the bag when I was running backwards from
second to third because I was very well pimping a

(13:00):
ball that was still rolling out in the in the
trees right the mark, the ball or the base went
out from under my feet when I put it my
foot on it, so I put my hands down to
catch myself, and I broke my right arm, my usable arm.
I I'm a right handed person, So I played catcher
the rest of the game still batted with one arm.
Then drove myself to my pediatrician dad's house and said,

(13:20):
you think this is broken? He said, yes, Did he
put a cast on it right there? He didn't. We
went to you went to the hospital. Yeah. Oh my gosh,
the things I learn about you. I had to finish
the game though.

Speaker 5 (13:31):
The last time we played in my championship league are
shortstop rounding third tour.

Speaker 3 (13:35):
His ACL a clchair. That's awful. That's the way was
broken arm just a few weeks in a cast. Everything.
He hasn't played sits. I wouldn't if you turned you
off from athletic activity when you know that's a possibility.
And achilles tear and ACL tair, they might make you
a little little worried about what's in your future. My goodness. See,

(13:56):
this is why I don't play sports anymore. Oh, they're
so fun. All right.

Speaker 4 (13:59):
When we come back, more of a war stories from
Adam Waxler playing days I think you did, but we
will talk more about Ema Udoka and who he may
or may not be coaching this upcoming season.

Speaker 3 (14:12):
That is straight ahead, the A.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Team on Sports Talk seven ninety all.

Speaker 3 (14:31):
Right, it's the A team. It's Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (14:35):
So one of the things you keep hearing about, whether
it's Kevin Durant, whether it's really you hear this out
there no matter what. And this is regardless or before,
I should say, when the Rockets were caught up in
all this trade talk.

Speaker 3 (14:51):
People want to come play for em Adoka.

Speaker 4 (14:53):
People have wanted to play for him every stop he's
been in and that was before he was a head coach.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
One of the four very very important people slash reasons
while the Rockets have an advantage over everybody else, Emy
Udoka is one. Royal Ivy is two, specifically to the
pursuit of Kevin Durant. Steven Adams is three and recently
hired member of the Rockets basketball slash front office staff.

(15:20):
DJ Augustine is number four all close in some very
good fashion to Katie personally, longhorned connections obviously with Royal
and DJ and Royal with OKC, along with Steven Adams
and Brooklyn and Emy and kad all of them have
long standing, very positive working and personal relationships with Kevin Durant.

(15:48):
Most of the other teams have either nothing or one
person who he's bounced the ball with before somebody knows
they're wouldn't mind whatever. I think if he wants to win,
they're at least on level footing with everybody, or slightly
below Minnesota and slightly above everybody else we're talking about,
and where he wants to be, and most importantly, one

(16:10):
of those four people we're talking about, he's playing for him.
He wants to play for him. Who wouldn't want to
play for him? That wants to win? I think those
things matter. But as you were saying, the rockets in
the midst of all this stuff, and they've now reportedly
inked ema udocas to a super lucrative contract extension. Yeah,
he's not going anywhere.

Speaker 4 (16:29):
And because of that, his influence on the building of
this roster is not going anywhere. And if anything else,
or if anything. It just got more solidified that he is.
He is running this franchise.

Speaker 3 (16:45):
Are you I'm trying to wait. You're driving me down
this path and I'm I'm listening while I'm in the
card off. You're basically saying, I May will win a
I want Kevin Durant signed e May. Elstone says, I don't,
and Emay is going to win.

Speaker 4 (17:04):
If that was the scenario, which I don't. It's a
fake scenario you're making up all right now. But you're saying,
in our minds got a heavy, heavy.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Word heavy influence on what the Rockets do, and we
already know this to be true. Ace He's not saying
anything we don't already know because of how they already
put the team together. James Harden's influence on maybe coming
back here was influenced by Emai Udoca's thoughts about how
to build the roster from where they were and how
they build the roster from a fifty two win team.
Certainly it's a little bit different. And I'm not saying

(17:35):
Rafelstone doesn't want him. I'm saying, if it turns into
a I want him to, I really like him. I
think he could help us win I can't pull the
trigger on this deal that costs us that in order
to get him, and he may probably I mean just trying.
I'm just trying to put them on opposite sides hypothetically.

Speaker 4 (17:53):
If they're not, let's just take Kevin Durant out of
the equation. If there is any personnel move to be
made that Eme Udoka has not signed off on, it
ain't happening.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
That's what I'm saying. So that's almost the reverse. No,
what I'm saying is that he has He's not going
to be given players that he doesn't believe should be
coming here to win with.

Speaker 4 (18:14):
He's also and more importantly in my opinion, if the
sentence hasn't finished coma, he's also not going to have
players taken away from him that he doesn't approve of
having put in a deal.

Speaker 3 (18:26):
That's what I'm saying. All right, all right, Eme, but
just just answer me this. So we just gave you
all this money because we believe you can win, and
now you're telling us you can't win without insert current players. Thomson, Well,
nobody's trading him and Thompson. We're talking about the actual cases.

Speaker 4 (18:44):
Go to the list and let me know when we
get to a name where that would come into play.

Speaker 3 (18:49):
That's what I mean. You're you made it out. Is
it going to stand in the way of them pulling
the trigger on a deal? But because he doesn't want
to lose Tai, because he doesn't want to lose you.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
You just mentioned the top two. Yeah, but I could
mention any of it, but I no, I think it's different.
That's what I'm fain That's.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
What I mean. Everybody but Alperin and a man I
would mention in this statement. Those are just the three.

Speaker 4 (19:08):
Idea and when that would happen, when that fake conversation
would be had, I think I may would step in
to object more vehemently to certain.

Speaker 3 (19:18):
Guys that you strenuously object strenuously.

Speaker 4 (19:21):
Yes, I think he would like I think Tarry Easton
is one of those guys. I don't think Udoka is
down with parting ways with him because he is the
prototypical emy Udoka guy.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
You know.

Speaker 4 (19:34):
He Yeah, he does some boneheaded things. He's also like
nine years old. I mean, they're all so young, but
like he's a dog. He a men, Thompson's a dog.
These these are guys that he wants. I feel like
he feels the same way about Fred van Vliet. By
the way, let's just get that out there. I think
the reason Fred van Vliet's not going anywhere in any
sort of deal whatsoever and it's gonna get re upped

(19:56):
and all that kind of em Udoka wants him here.

Speaker 3 (19:59):
So should we post that on socials to see if
we get any traction A team announces Fred van Vliet,
like Amen Thompson also untouchable.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
Well here, I mean, look, if you if you go
make a deal and Fred's in it, who's your point guard?

Speaker 6 (20:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (20:14):
I what you're saying is, you know, I'm making light
of it, But it's absolutely true. We know that we've
talked to enough people that enough has been made public
about it, and it's for the one of the reasons
you just said, well what do you do then, But
it's more about they want him here. They want to
play the basketball that Fred helps them play. They want
him helping the other players that clearly are going to
be the driving force. It was not good news. It's

(20:37):
not ideal what happened in the second half of their
series against the Warriors. It was nice that it allowed
you to continue playing that series. It was nice that
it gave your other players a longer rope to get
it together or to bring more to the table. But
to have a game five leading the way offensively, that's
not what this team is still just money. It's full,

(20:58):
it's absolutely goal and that's all season. That's not just.
It could come up over a four series postseason run, sure,
where you get three to four games from Jalen going berserk,
Jabari Tari Fred, anybody going, I'm gonna carry you for
these couple of days. I mean, we're one game removed
from Jalen Williams scoring forty in a finals game. He's

(21:21):
their second best player. He took that game over at times.
But that's gonna happen because that good.

Speaker 4 (21:28):
Keep hammering that since some people keep trying to say
it's somebody else.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Well, it's pretty awesome when chet's only your third best player,
and he's only he's only getting bad some nights. He's
not even that well. He gets the Rockets. He's the
third best player. I mean, there's it's not overall, yeah,
but I mean there are guys that that's why they're good.
It's the same. That's actually where the Rockets are the
same on any given night. Well, yeah, Jabari was the
third or second biggest reason why the Rockets won this game.

(21:54):
Jalen's the number one reason, Amend's the number one reason,
Alpi's the number one reason, and on down the line.
That's why some people keep wanting to say, can't you
just leave it alone? A lot of people are can't
you just watch what Oklahoma City is doing and believe
that you're them. I do have some pushback on that,
and I think everybody will know the reasons why. But
we'll get into that as we continue here. The NBA,

(22:16):
to their credit, I actually think, well, it's probably tough
on GMS and everybody else. They take what momentum. I
think they believe they build in the postseason and have
it go as long as possible by immediately holding the draft,
immediately opening up free agency, and then kind of taking
a back seat to baseball and the rest of the offseason.
I think, honestly, it is the best way, and it

(22:38):
sometimes does take away from our interest in the final
if it doesn't hold our interest, or the people most
important to talking about it hate talking about it, which
is pretty evident this Finals series on the Disney Networks. Unfortunately,
but this is all that. This is front burner stuff.
The Rockets, their possible deals, They're head coach staying and

(22:58):
being extended. It is the big news in the NBA,
even though this is probably the last day of the
NBA's regular season. We'll get to that on the other
side of Best of X, which is next. More on
what offense the Astros hope to take with them after
they played tonight in this minor league ballpark. What you
might be able to believe in in what they're doing
right now as they await the return at some point

(23:20):
of your Don Alvarez. But Best of X is next.

Speaker 1 (23:24):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (23:31):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 5 (23:32):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen posts
a day.

Speaker 3 (23:35):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media. History repeats itself, type and you will succeed.
Never doubt that you're the one who plus no one
Bill believe you're the best X. Nothing's gonna ever top
You know you're the best of X posting ever single day.

(23:58):
You know you're the best of breaking the entire Internet.
And it's time for Best of X Xaca Cole here
with you on a Thursday afternoon. That also means at
four thirty when we get to our signature segment, we

(24:18):
asked that very important question, what's up with that? Chandler
Rome also should note will join us today rather than
tomorrow five o'clock for him, So baseball at five and
we will probably revisit his visit tomorrow at five o'clock
as we get ready for the weekend and the Astros
get ready for the Angels, and the Astros and A's
have finished up their second series of the season. So far,

(24:41):
the Astros have claimed victory four times in five opportunities
to try to make a five out of six tonight
with Colton Gordon on the mound. But the Los Angeles
Sports marketplace has been in the news quite a bit lately,
and yesterday was in the news because the Dodgers bought
the Lakers. Right, Yes, the ownership group that is in

(25:02):
charge of the Dodgers is now the same ownership group
shortly to be all confirmed and locked down that is
in charge of running the Lakers. There were some questions
about how things might change moving forward, but it noted
that they would run under the same management team led
by Jeanie Buss, which made people say, well, I think
we heard this before when the Mavericks were sold and

(25:24):
everybody was told, yeah, but Mark Cuban is going to
keep his major stake and he's going to continue running
the team, and that lasted less than a year. There's
still belief that the manner in which this deal was
put together and what is in writing will actually have
her in place as she currently is for much longer
into the new ownership group than that, maybe even at
her own discretion. But nonetheless, it brings me to this

(25:47):
from at the Hoop Herald. It's a post a video
from Timeless Sports. It's a video of a teenager dribbling
up and down the court at the LA Sports Arena,
undefended and making jumpers and throwing down dunks and shooting
a left handed shot and making it. And it comes

(26:08):
with this caption, The Clippers watched Kobe workout pre draft
and said no, thank you. And I figured that would
be met with a lot of very clever responses, replies
and whatnot. Since we talked about Kobe Bryant and the
Lakers and their path to greatness and all the things
that went along with it earlier this week, just a

(26:30):
little refresher. The nineteen ninety six NBA draft, the Clippers
were one of twelve teams to draft before Kobe Bryant
went number thirteenth overall to the Charlotte Hornets, where he
went on to score the same number of points with
that franchise as I did, which is none. Ai, Marcus Camby, Sharif,
Steph Ray, Allen, Antoine Walker all off the board, while

(26:53):
lorenzen Wright, Kerrie Kittles, Samaki Walker, Eric Dampierre, Todd Fuller
vitally put a Pink or Potapenko, depending on how much
you like of it. Pajestoyakovich, Steve Nash, Jermaine Wallace, Drunas, Ilgalskis,
d Fish and others were all on the board at
number seven along with Kobe Bryant. Six players were selected,

(27:17):
including lorenzen Wright, to the Clippers at seven, and Kobe
ultimately went thirteenth, and then a deal was orchestrated to
put him in the Purple and Gold.

Speaker 4 (27:25):
Is lorenzen right, the guy that eventually played in Memphis
and got shot by his ex girlfriend.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
You said it so with such a soft heart. Yes,
that is who that happens.

Speaker 4 (27:34):
What happens a pretty tragedy, shot him on a boat
and then light about it like Bison Day.

Speaker 3 (27:41):
So, like I said, the comments and replies on this
would probably be entertaining, which is what I'm trying to
do here. Uh, Midnight Pie chimes in and he's a
verified account if you did not know, and he goes
in on this is where somebody just kind of out
of nowhere catches astray. Yeah, Aaho once had an opportunity

(28:01):
to buy Google for a million dollars. The Clippers still
made a bigger mistake in passing on Kobe Bryant. Somebody
said not many teams took chances on players coming straight
out of high school. That's too broad of a statement
to let it slide. I would say the Wolves took
a chance on Kevin Garnett at a much higher point

(28:22):
in the draft, straight out of Farragut, and it worked
out quite nicely. You know, Jermaine O'Neil a little bit
further back. So for the most part, that's not a
crazy statement. Elvi says, thank god they did at La
Clippers job well done, And of course we wondered about
it from a Lakers standpoint, had Kobe not been there.
Now specific to the Clippers. Clippers are arguably sports biggest, definitive,

(28:49):
hardly ever debated little brother. They're the little brother to
the Lakers. There's a bunch of other instances of it.
We talk about it all the time with the Aggies,
Longhorns and other college football, university rivalries and other sports. Similarly,
I don't think there's a bigger one. How does that
change if Kobe Bryant goes there? And we got to

(29:11):
take all the questions into account. Does Kobe become Kobe
if he's an LA Clipper? Can he as this level talent,
a superstar, a championship level player? But is he so
good that he now brings championship level basketball players to
play with him, gets championship level basketball operations people in

(29:31):
house around him. That really we can say, well, he
won all these titles with the Lakers, so of course
he would win all these titles with the Clippers. Are
you okay saying that?

Speaker 4 (29:39):
You know what's funny about And again this goes back
to the comparison between MJ and Lebron. I've always said
it's Mjay and Kobe. MJ did that in Chicago, which,
while it was a much bigger market. What did Chicago
do before or after Michael Jordan? And don't tell me
Derek Rose won an MVP because I just don't count
it because he got hurt, so it was cut short.

Speaker 3 (30:02):
I know what you're saying. I think they're been awful
before and after him, but it's not impossible to win
in any of these cities if the guy is that guy. Well,
that's why I'm agreeing with you. He didn't have to
get anybody else. They didn't have to.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
We don't have to because they drafted Scott Well, actually
they didn't draft and they traded for him Bingo.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
Scottie Pippen will also be a part of today's show
for different reasons later on. But yeah, that was kind
of already in place, and so I'm suggesting, well, maybe
the Clippers do the same thing. Maybe in an upcoming
draft they do end up taking the right guy, because
they're not gonna win immediately with Kobe, they weren't going
to be immediately awesome, just because they drafted a teenager
who we saw not become an immediate superstar, not until

(30:39):
year three, all the way into year three before he
was awesome at basketball and was clearly at the type
of player that would help you win big, big, big,
But even the player he ended up winning multiple titles
with Shaquille O'Neal is Shaquille O'Neill signed away from the
Orlando Magic to play with the La Clippers because Kobe's there?

(31:00):
Or is he still signed away to play with the
Lakers because it's the Lakers. How about this?

Speaker 4 (31:05):
Here's a semi hot take on this whole scenario. The
reason that the Clippers were the Clippers is because of
who owned them and how they were run. It wasn't
so much about the Lakers. I know the Lakers had
all that success whilst the Clippers were just an absolute
doormat for decades, But you had Donald Sterling owning them

(31:25):
and Elgin Baylor running them right into the ground, both
of them as a tandem every single year, which, by
the way, is its own interesting subplot when you consider
what Donald Sterling is known for and what race Elgin
Baylor is.

Speaker 3 (31:37):
But I digress.

Speaker 4 (31:39):
I just feel like that had so much more to
do with the little brother thing. Like the Clippers right
now have a better chance to win an NBA championship
than the Lakers if you ask.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Me, Yeah, I think That's definitely true. Honestly, there was very,
very very close to advancing this year. They did not
have a good Game seven, but they pushed the Nuggets
to a Game seven and might have like their chances
had they operated a little bit differently earlier in the series.
But just to the Clippers and how they were put together,
you know, Lorenzo Wright was that pick in ninety six.

(32:09):
They picked in the top five four times in the
next five drafts, but they took Ollawa, Candy Otum Miles,
and Tyson Chandler where they ultimately traded, So none of
those players did anything to help him win any games.
Would have been any different with Kobe, because I don't
think their record would have been dramatically different in the
early years. The first first round pick they took after

(32:30):
the Kobe Bryant draft was future Houston Rocket Maurice Taylor.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
Again, another Chicago Bulls tie. Who was the starting point
guard on the second three peat? And what team did
he come from?

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Tell the people, well, it was Ron Harper, former Cleveland
Cavalier first obviously famously in the Last Dance, but he
was on the Clippers for a long time before coming
over the Bulls. Yeah, Cleveland and LA before he joined
the Bulls for his five season run there. He was
also a very different player. I mean, this was one
of the league's better players, and I'm not calling him

(33:05):
all NBA caliber player, but this an eighteen nineteen twenty
point a game score for ten years, and then he
came to the Bulls as an injured older role player
played a very important role. But now you're talking about
a guy that takes six or seven shots a game
instead of seventeen or eighteen shots a game. But I
think it's an interesting question, and you have so many

(33:26):
of them. The Rockets have them, the Texans have them,
the Astros have them, everybody has them. An all time
great across town. The Clippers at seven say no. The
Lakers via trade at thirteen essentially say yeah, we'll give
it a whirl. We'll see what Joe Jellybean Bryant's kid
is all about. Joe Jellybean Bryance, former Rocket, former Rocket.

(33:49):
Didn't they draft him? The Rockets, I feel like they
drafted him unless Philadelphia drafted him. And that's why they
were kind of based there because that's where Kobe's from,
or at least that's where he went to high scho
he was drafted by the Warriors and played with the Rockets.
I knew it was later in his career. His last
year was the only year he played in Houston. He
only played eight years.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
Oh okay, were they still a strange when Kobe passed away?

Speaker 3 (34:13):
Do not know that? Well, come on, man, where's that?
Where's your tabloid knowledge when we need it? I don't know.
You talking about Joe Bryant. That's what we're talking about. Yeah,
Joe and Kobe.

Speaker 6 (34:22):
I mean.

Speaker 5 (34:23):
I believe they were a strange. Actually I do, Uh, yeah,
I believe. How I recall it?

Speaker 4 (34:30):
All right, We are going to wind down the two
o'clock hour next by getting you caught up with the
latest Adrian Peterson news. Uh, and then of course we
will start our simulcast as per usual at the top
of the hour, reset, jump back into some Astros baseball,
and of course the big news of the day, em

(34:51):
Udoka Ain't going nowhere.

Speaker 7 (34:57):
The a team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
It's the eight team Sports Talk seven ninety Thursday edition
of the program. Wexac Cole Thompson with you until six
o'clock tonight, simulcast on Space City Home Network coming up
at the top of the hour real quickly. Probably a
lot of you who are listening have seen the video,
know the story, knows at least the basics what in

(35:30):
the world is going on.

Speaker 3 (35:32):
Well, for those that don't, what you tell in the
basics with Adrian Peterson.

Speaker 4 (35:36):
So apparently, and this is a guy who, after his
playing career, has had some other incidents of an unsavory.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
Variety, several different incidents, right, and this is just the latest.

Speaker 4 (35:50):
So apparently he got into an altercation with a fellow
poker player following a dispute over a hand.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
I'm reading from the TMZ report. But there they're the
ones that have it.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
Well, there's a million different ones out there, but they're
the ones that have the video.

Speaker 3 (36:06):
Well they're the I mean, you could be right, but
they're the one who has the video and they're the
one who has the details behind it, which is usually
what happens.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
Yes, it is more often than not, just before we
ever even get in anything. Am I crazy in thinking
that the other guy got the better of him most
of this little tussle.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
You're not many others do, myself included. And we also
didn't see the end of it, which might have changed things.
It didn't like no part of it. Didn't like any
part of it. But yes, apparently it was in Houston.
It was last month, late last month, and it did
just you know, you're at a social club, you're playing cards,
and you well didn't agree. Where is Joker Stars? I

(36:45):
don't know. I don't either. I had never heard of
it until this. But if there was nothing else in
Adrian Peterson's career timeline lifeline, then this would probably not
be as important or a minor blip. But it is
an ongoing series of unsavory things, and this is super minor. Essentially,

(37:10):
he went somewhere, you got in a fight. He happens
to be somebody that everybody knows, so obviously it ends
up there. If we fights like this, at places like this,
or at bars or at restaurants, they happen quite frequently,
and they don't end up on TMZ. In his case,
they do, and I don't think much is going to
come from it. I don't think this was even a

(37:30):
big enough incident according to the report that police were involved,
but it certainly doesn't look good as his post playing
career career life, most of which has been spent here
in Houston, continues.

Speaker 4 (37:43):
Isn't he living in Montgomery County, like a little bit
north of town. I know that's where one of the
incidents that we're talking about took place several years ago.

Speaker 3 (37:51):
I don't know where he currently houses up, but I
do know it's in the area. Yeah, well, I don't
know where the actual house is. I just thought that
that's where that's the county where he resides, because that
was where the police report was with the the child
issue several year. That was almost ten years ago now
now that I think of it. But yeah, the quotes

(38:12):
are just weird.

Speaker 6 (38:13):
Though.

Speaker 4 (38:13):
Me and the guy, we're cool. This is Peterson, We've
known each other. It was literally like a brother situation.
We agreed to disagree, we had our words, we threw blows,
and that was it. In a weird way, this is
like what boys will be boys will do when you're

(38:34):
much younger, and maybe even like kids. I think it's
because of the fact that he's a obviously a former big,
big time NFL superstar player, one of the most durable
and amazing running backs or just athletes in general I've
ever seen in my life. The guy is just he's
different to play that position as effectively as he did

(38:56):
for as long as he did is a story in
and of itself, but this just keeps pushing that further
back with each passing incident that has nothing to do
with his football playing career.

Speaker 3 (39:08):
Yeah. I basically treated this more like a come on, man,
you can do better than this, right, because I don't
think it's a team I'm sorry what he's my favorite
running back of all time. I don't think this is
a huge incident in and of itself, but it does
add to the fact that it's just one more thing
that he'd probably prefer not to be out there that

(39:29):
he's been involved in it. It's such Again, I'm not
trying to blow this instance up. It is close to
a nothing, and if both parties involved believe it's nothing,
at least he certainly does. And speaking for the other
person he's telling you that he also does. Is a small,
small thing on a long list of other things that
aren't nearly as small. Yeah, player, I mean, if we

(39:52):
were merely discussing the player, hard to argue with what
he did. There are very few players that could do that.
Hardly any of them could have even attempted a come
back in the manner that he did, you know, three
different times led the NFL in rushing and was doing
so by well, I can run over you or I
can run past you. And basically he was kind of
Derrick Henry before Derrick Henry. That is such a good description.

Speaker 7 (40:16):
Much sports and much more talking.

Speaker 3 (40:19):
You know what he is. I'm surprised earlier he's up
on the list, up on the list, yes, but there's
separate looked still in front of him and it's still.

Speaker 4 (40:34):
Thursday of the A Team Sports Talk seven ninety coming.
We're taking up guilt so much more. There is another
example during the break of how I just keep forgetting
that my pretty much everything numbers wise, except for the year.
If you ask him about well, you're trying to figure

(40:55):
out because of that Adrian Peterson story when he was
at OU, and I had never really been familiarized with
the story about why he went to Oklahoma instead of
coming to Texas where, oh my gosh, they would have
been even better than they already were, and I was
I think that was either coming off of the Ricky

(41:15):
Williams years or was it going into them. That's what
I really can't remember now. But you talk about some
insane both running backs that did play at Texas and
ones that shunned them.

Speaker 3 (41:24):
In the case of Adrian Peterson. Get this, listeners may
not have heard this before. Texas high school football pretty good,
pretty good. A lot of good players, handful that might
go on to be great. We'll see if we can
get them to our universities. Adrian Peterson, Cedric Benson Williams. Yeah, Ricky,
I mean the Texas talent, well, not Ricky, but not

(41:47):
all in the other I'm talking about.

Speaker 4 (41:48):
Homegrown right here. Is that why they call him the
Tyler rose Wex.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
I believe it's a reference to these is that a
city in Texas? It sure is. Good job, buddy, But
these guys are all like they're the greatest players to
ever play until the next one came along and became
a part of that conversation. And Cedric Benston's widely regarded
as one of, if not the greatest high school running
back the state's ever seen. I'm gonna read aloud from

(42:13):
an anonymous Texter and so if Max said, well he's
gonna play and you're gonna watch, it's not crazy to
think that he said that to ad.

Speaker 4 (42:20):
Only thing he wanted to do in life was go
to Texas and mac Brown completely fumbled that. Could you
imagine him and v y Oh.

Speaker 3 (42:30):
Yeah, they probably would have won the national title.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
Hey mane they did told him he couldn't compete with
Cedric Benson as a freshman, so he did the most
spiteful thing he could think of.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
That sounds about right. And what did you do to Peters?
He said, why don't you go to Oklahoma and lose
to Boise State dramatically? Why don't you go do that?
In the hook and ladder ball? That was it. He
was actually as usual awesome in the Yeah, but that
was just that was and wasn't that two trick plays,
one to force overtime, one to win. Yeah, the trick

(43:01):
play won the game. I think because there was a
half back pass also earlier, or I think it was
a different halfback passed on the other side of the field.
I don't think i've ever it was.

Speaker 5 (43:12):
What it wasn't Ian Johnson through the past, but it
was a half back pass.

Speaker 3 (43:15):
Right, one of the other multi talented players, not Jared Lebranski.
He was the quarterback. Yeah, he was the one whose
proposal was ruined After the game wasn't he still married though?

Speaker 4 (43:28):
Well good, I'm glad they're happy, even despite Chris Meyer
screwing that up. And by the way, I don't think
that I've ever said this on the air to you publicly,
although I'm pretty sure I turned to you and said
it that day.

Speaker 3 (43:41):
Bob Stoops a likable guy. That's why the same nickname
for two different people in sports means two different things.
Big Game Big Game Bob is to me a teatory
hilarious Yes, now, I granted, I know I'm well aware
of what Big Game Bob did as coach in a
Big twelve cents totally dominated, not trying to clout anybody's

(44:04):
revisionist history during the time he was there, and Texas
was as great as they were, well, they weren't greater
than OU because they weren't ever, hardly ever beating them
for the Big twelfth title. But then there were the
bigger games that would come along because of that for
Big Game Bob, and they wouldn't go quite as well.
And the other one is Big Shot Rob. Well, big
Shot Rob matters, that's all he's done. I was just
watching games today's nineteenth I think there were games on

(44:29):
the seventeenth of June in the postseason with the Spurs
when they were playing the Pistons in two thousand and five.

Speaker 4 (44:38):
Yep, and he was out there. I only know Pistons
were trying to go back to back after beating the.

Speaker 3 (44:43):
Lay reason I know what year it was, It isn't
even because I just watched it two days ago on
the seventeenth. It's because I remember it was Pistons Spurs
NBA Finals that I was watching above my wife's head
in the hospital when we were having child number one,
Anta was born during the NBA Finals. Yeah, her birthday

(45:03):
is next week. I didn't know that for whatever reason,
I thought she was born in the fall. Nope, we
have a January and a June birthday, so did the kids.
This is Roger Dory was hitting big shots for the
Spurs like he did with the Rockets, like he did
with the Lakers. I mean just it was non stop
with this guy. So a very important question.

Speaker 4 (45:22):
Did Mason's pa introductions for the Detroit Pistons help or
hurt with the process of childbirth as she was watching
the starting lineups in the NBA Finals. I mean, because
I can tell you this if I'm in labor and
I'm contracting, and I'm a woman, and I'm going through
the worst pay of my life.

Speaker 3 (45:39):
I don't want to hear. I feel like this might
be right that the volume was as it was probably
pretty close to zero zero, probably pretty close. It's funny
because you and I are who we are and do
what we do, and so it's that is what you remember,
you know what I remember more about how I remember

(46:01):
it and dates like it. If there's a helpful sports
part of it, that helps.

Speaker 4 (46:05):
The fact that my you know, because my wife is
from Kansas City. The first Sunday in the hospital because
I think Carson was born early on a Saturday morning,
so she was still in the hospital the next day,
and we obviously were watching the Texans played the Colts.
This was September of twenty eighteen, September twenty ninth, so
the Colts game would have been like the thirtieth or
maybe even October first, I can't remember the exact date.

(46:29):
But we also found a Chiefs game prior to that,
and Nana is you know, her side grandmother came to
the hospital and full Chief's regalia. As it's not surprising
at all.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
So it was actually an awesome day because the other
part of the day, earlier in the day, I was
watching Texas eliminate Baylor from the College World Series. Of
course you're watching LD ten twelve hours of great TV viewing.
It was a long day that way. I'm going to
push back on the great part of the TV viewing.
Maybe it was good. I was fine.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
It's not great, Okay, College World Series. College baseball of
any kind is never great. It's just good. That's silly
it is. You can't use rocket launchers and it be
called great.

Speaker 3 (47:16):
We've done it before it and I'm not falling for
it again. You should. I'm not do it. Not for it.
I just said I'm not falling for it. I'm not
going to do it. Why not because we can talk
about others. You know I'm right. It's not because I
know you're right. What they're the only it's the only sport,
only sport that is creating unbelievable, unforgettable moments on a

(47:37):
four week basis for the last four weeks, including night
and most of them are because they hand them rocket launcher.
None of them are. All of them. There was a
home run here one of the last night's game that
was pretty significant late in the contest. But everything else
has nothing to do with.

Speaker 4 (47:53):
A home run with a wooden bat. You get that,
I'm gonna get you. I'm gonna reel you into this.
It's not we are going to fight. I definitely don't
want to fight about this, all right, We'll.

Speaker 3 (48:03):
Fight about something else. There are a number of other
more I did also get a text at three oh six,
so it was right before I mentioned Baylor Texas. Uh huh.
It says also College World series. That was for my wife.
Shout out to r what's up, Robin. It's been way
too you remember I've hung out with you?

Speaker 6 (48:21):
Know what?

Speaker 4 (48:21):
I think The last time I hung out with you
was there? Was it Tellman's house. That's the last time
I saw her. It's been way too long. All right,
well we can make that happen. We need to fix that. Okay.

Speaker 3 (48:29):
There are a lot more literally important things to get to,
like the fact that, hey, Rockets fans, E may ain't
going nowhere. He's locked up, he's he's hitched. We're married.
It's a long term relationship.

Speaker 4 (48:41):
Now Rockets extending their head coach reportedly as the Sham's
bombs keep coming and apparently It's an eight figure deal,
which makes him one of the highest paid, if not
the highest paid coaches in the NBA. That's significant, as
I mentioned in the first hour, for a number of reasons,
not the least of which means the Rockets believe in

(49:02):
him even more than I do. And that's saying something
because I love me some Ima Udoka. As a matter
of fact, I'm gonna get a T shirt printed that
says as much you know the I love iHeart New
York shirts, I'm gonna get one that says that I
love I'm gonna get that done and start wearing that
because now it's really like now you can not that
he wasn't focused, but this is an off season that

(49:22):
before the Kevin Durant rumors and all that kind of
stuff was happening, we were having reports of, Hey, the
Rockets told the Knicks, no, you can't talk to him.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
Yeah, but that has nothing to do with the Rockets
and how much they like him. It's not like he
was in the last year of a six year deal.
He was in year three of his initial contract, just
going into year three. There's really no threat of any dissension.
But the timing is probably smart. It's honestly really no
different than what we talk about with Micah Parsons currently
or others in the NFL that are approaching the time

(49:51):
where we should probably just go ahead and do this.
It's a formality. Well, you're not gonna be paying him less,
right if you do it next off season or in
six months or in eighteen months, you're gonna be paying
him more. So go ahead and just acknowledge what the
obvious is. The obvious is we want him here long term.
He and the group we have have created a situation
we believe is gonna produce a ton of winning. They're

(50:12):
just scratching the service on it. They've not won zero
playoff series together. They're at the front side of what
they think is an exceptionally long period of mattering in
the NBA, of playing important games, of winning postseason series,
and obviously hopefully getting to the ultimate. Couple of different
ways to phrase it, because I don't think asking who
would you rather have is the right way to say

(50:33):
it among NBA coaches or out of work coaches you
could have coaching this particular team, but rather, where do
you think he fits in the list of great NBA
current The high coaches. I mean, I think it's kind
of goes without saying. When you have at least one
of these two coaches, Rick Carlisle in the NBA Finals,
what he's already accomplished, what he's already done, how he's
performed with multiple different teams, It's pretty obvious he's in

(50:56):
the super elite, the tier one. I think Eric Spolster
probably for most, even with the current state of the heat,
probably lands in that same tier right at or near
the top. Bloom is fading on that rose. I just
wonder where everybody else fits in. And I know Steve
Kerr exists, and I know he has more rings than
anybody currently. Obviously, Greg Popovich is no longer coaching, and

(51:18):
I don't want to be dismissive of him in any way,
so he probably is. The is a top tier coach
also in that might be it, And there's a couple
close and I'm not sure where Emay fits in there.
I'm curious about you, guys, and our thoughts here, which
we'll share with you on the other side of this break.
You have other capable coaches. You have a championship coach
who just got fired in Denver. You have a championship

(51:39):
coach in Boston who took over for emay Edoka and
plenty of others like Jason Kidd and Tyron Lieu and
JJ Reddick. Where does em fit in with this group?
We answer you answer next.

Speaker 1 (51:55):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (52:04):
Eight team Rolling along here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and Space City Home Network. So last segment, we were
talking about emy Udoka and the fact that he got
his extension. Again, details like specific details aren't out there
except for the fact that it's eight figs, which got

(52:25):
my attention.

Speaker 3 (52:26):
I get nature of the business and where we are. Well,
it's great. So like yesterday the Lakers sold and it
was for one more figure than any other team has
ever sold for. Yeah, eight figs plus three, Yes, that,
But I just mean like we're in that, We're in
that realm now. I mean, I hardly think that ema
Udoka is the first to get eight figures to coach.

Speaker 4 (52:46):
An NBA team, although he could be. We don't know
the number yet. That's the problem.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
So we mentioned what we thought might be a reasonable
Tier one and mind you, I gave you the names
of the coach who is second, third, and fourth on
the active wins list. I did not give you the
coach that is first, nor did I mean to. Was
not an oversight on the active yes.

Speaker 4 (53:09):
Wins list, and that does not presumably pop right.

Speaker 3 (53:14):
He's not active. If his team wins half of their games,
he'll reach twelve hundred career wins. He is not in
the top tier of NBA coaches, so he's a good coach.
That is. Oh, it's Doc Rivers. There you go. I
was like, wait in a second, I know this one.
He will be absolutely floored with the coaches that are five, six,

(53:37):
and seven on the active wins list because of how
you would never consider them. I'll just tell you it's
Hawks coach Quinn Snyder because of all the years he
had good seasons in Utah, good enough seasons to win
four hundred and fifty eight NBA games, okay, and none
in Atlanta. Bulls coach Billy Donovan because of all the

(53:58):
good seasons he had in Oklahoma. And Anthony Davis's head
coach Jason Kidd.

Speaker 4 (54:04):
Because of all the good seasons he had before Dallas turned.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
David won the Western Conference Yes a year ago. That
means they probably had a reasonably good season. He coached
in Milwaukee before that. Right, the lowest winning percentage of
every coach I mentioned by quite a sizable marchin because
he's not a good head coach. So every name I
mentioned so far this segment, we would rate emao U

(54:29):
Dolka better. Then he's definitely in tier two because he's
now better than every other coach so far in the
top ten. Back half of the top ten is a
little bit different Tyron lou JB. Bickerstaff, Nick Nurse, and
shockingly shows you how little longevity there is in the
coaching business, thunderhead coach Mark Daniel. All it takes is
a little bit over two hundred wins and you're this

(54:49):
high on the active Well.

Speaker 4 (54:51):
One of your seasons is sixty eight wins. You're gonna
start creeping up the list pretty quick if you keep consistently. Okay,
so a couple names you make fished.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Him over five hundre this year as a head coach,
just this year. Where was he Well, he was there before,
but the last two years are the only good season
is the only place he's been a head coach though, Right,
he's only coached four hundred games. That's what I thought,
that's little three plus? Was he an assistant seasons? Was
it with with Donovan? He's been in Oklahoma City for
I bet you tried ten plus twelve fourteen years?

Speaker 4 (55:20):
I know, so he might have even been an assistant
on Scott Brooks's staff.

Speaker 3 (55:25):
Twenty fourteen was his first year with the organization. I
think he was only a G leaguer initially. He has
been with Thunder for now ten years. Brooks was with
them then, right, because Donovan wasn't there that long? So
is is Danielle in the second tier? No, he just
got a SGA. No, that's not fair. It's I'm kidding

(55:46):
because if are doesn't that basically make in our minds
Emmy Udoka the fourth best coach in the NBA. If not,
I mean, I don't think I could make him any lower.
I don't think I could make it sound any worse.
I'm going to sound like a Homer.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
I don't care because I thought this before he got
to use him, which is why I wanted him.

Speaker 3 (56:04):
He's that right now. Yeah. The reason for his availability
wasn't because the team he was coaching had reached their ceiling,
was done winning with him, had soured of his tactics
or there was a some sort of risk someone tactics,
but I had nothing to do with coaching. He was
involved in something he should not have been involved in,
and it cost him his job. And here's the deal.

Speaker 4 (56:25):
Where there's chaos, there's opportunity, and that's exactly where the
Rockets swooped in. It is if the Rockets go on
to do what I think they're gonna do, and believe me,
if they do, you guys don't know insufferability.

Speaker 3 (56:38):
You just don't know yet. You're gonna get it. Though.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
If they do what I think they're gonna do, E
May is going to just the Celtics are probably gonna
be kicking themselves. I'm not even kidding. I know that
sounds ridiculous. They've won a championship since all the kind
of stuff. I just I give him that much at
it for putting that group together. I mean, he did

(57:03):
coach them to the finals.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
And then the guy that replaced him one, yeah, like,
I'm not a big Joe Missoula guy, But come on, man,
why aren't you a big Joe Miszula guy. What's wrong
with him? I just I think he's a good head coach.
He's probably in the same tier because I can't ignore
the accomplishment. But I'm not a huge fan of some
of just some of the things that they do specifically

(57:27):
to this year. And I thought they were going to
completely get rid of it in the playoffs, And I
said as much all year, the chucking, the NonStop three
point shooting. I thought they were just coasting through the season,
and for the most part in the playoffs they did
get rid of it. But in the few games or
a few quarters or the few stretches of games when
they they took one two point shot in an entire
quarter in the NBA playoff game that they lost, that's

(57:48):
not good coaching.

Speaker 4 (57:48):
The interesting part about you saying that is that that's
probably emy Udoaka's biggest criticism.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
What's this offense like or what can't we why can
we put more wrinkles in it?

Speaker 4 (57:59):
Or why can't it be more or imaginative, Or he's
too much of a defensive coach, he needs an offensive coordinator.

Speaker 3 (58:04):
I don't actually look at what the Rockets did and say, man,
they should be more imaginative. I look at him like
you're getting a bunch of wide open shots. It's kind
of the name of the game, just getting guys that
can make them, have guys that can make them. Now
the guys they have do all the other things so
incredibly Well, that's the problem. I think you can still
win with them, and maybe you can, and maybe you can,

(58:25):
but they lost out on of a lot, and it
really wasn't in this postseason series. They did not shoot
badly in this series. They shot tremendously well, the kind
of shooting that wins you playoff games, that continues to
win you playoff games. Yeah, but that's has nothing to
do with the offense you run. I don't care about
that at all from an analysis.

Speaker 4 (58:42):
But if the offense you've run is good enough to
win you playoff games, but you lose them because one
of your best players goes terribly from the free throw
line and you missed twelve free throws as a team,
it does factor in.

Speaker 3 (58:53):
That's where I'm like, it honestly doesn't to me. If
you're telling me you can't keep Alprin Shangoon around because
he can't shoot for then we canna have that discussion. Well,
I'll tell you who won't miss free throws. Kevin Durant, No,
he certainly wouldn't Giannis, would you know a man needs
to not do that. He began the postseason by doing that,
he finished the postseason by not doing that. Jalen could
have shot a little bit better percentage. Clearly, Steven Adams

(59:15):
is a wild card in all of that because you
want to play him, but you know, teams are liable
to take advantage of the current rules and he's just
simply a he's a disastrous free throw shooter. Well, look
all those things weighed in because it was beyond an
ALPI problem. It was a team problem. He sent whoever
to the line and they were liable to miss, even
Jalen was missing.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
But okay, so you brought up something in the last
segment that is something that I would apply to Ema Udoka,
the Boston Celtics head coach.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
In this conversation.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
We were talking about him being, you know, the fourth
best in the league, and I would say that was
him back then because he went further with that team,
by the way, not that you didn't know that, but
like he went further. He went to the championship round.
Like you're four wins away, you're one of two teams
still standing at the end of the season, and he's
the head coach. That means something, especially when the Eastern

(01:00:03):
Conference was way better when he was coaching in it,
and that was just two short years ago or three.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
So took over a pretty good team. The factor in
the thought you have, I mean, Brad Stevens maybe saw
that we've we're done with me. Obviously you moved to
the front office. If they had not reached the finals
under Brad and they had reached the conference finals three
times in the five seasons prior to apply what.

Speaker 4 (01:00:26):
You applied to Steve Kerr and Mark Jackson situation. So
basically the same roster, one guy comes in and takes
them to the next level.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
No, I don't, I just it just those things that
just make it different are different. I'm telling you, Boston's
playing in the conference finals over and over and over again,
and then they lose in the first round and Brad
Stevens says, all right, I'm out and we'll hire e May.
And then they went to the finals. Then Mark Jackson
led Golden State Warriors, reminding you he was only there
three years, they had an e May like turnaround. They

(01:00:57):
went from the Rockets two wins pre Emay last year
before him thirty wins improved over the last two years
from forty one to fifty two. They won thirty more
games over the two year span. The roster clearly has
a lot to do with that. Mark Jackson took over
and they won twenty three games his first year. They
were actually a thirty six win team before he got there,
but they went from twenty three wins to fifty one

(01:01:18):
wins in the three seasons he coached there on giving
him his three so he could make the same two
year improvement that he may did. And so Steve Kerr
took over a team that lost in the first round
and won fifty one games. That's a pretty good team,
but they don't have any tin success. And then immediately
the absolute next year they won the first of three

(01:01:38):
finals over the next four years and went to the
finals every year, and the changed coaches to me because
they knew this coach isn't doing what we think we
can do with the current roster of players.

Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
There is something to that, but there is also something
and it can't be ignored, and I don't have it
in front of me, so I could be wrong when
I say this, but I'm pretty sure Steve Kerr also
got the hell fest version of Steph Curry's ankles ever,
because I think a lot of the time Mark Jackson
was there was when Oh turned his ankle again.

Speaker 3 (01:02:06):
He's out for twenty games. Last Mark Jackson year when
they made that huge improvement to fifty one wins, was healthy.
Curry played seventy eight games. They lost in the first round. Curry,
Clay Iggy Draymond.

Speaker 4 (01:02:18):
And Draymond's rookie year was I think his second year
of those three years he coached.

Speaker 3 (01:02:22):
I mean, I think at this point, you guys have
listened long enough. I give Mark Jackson almost no credit,
so probably not enough, and you give Mark Jackson a
ton of credit. I don't even like him too much,
but I just have to. I have to. So he
puts his hand down.

Speaker 4 (01:02:35):
We didn't and there is a man down. We will
get to the Astros next. But there is one more
question I wanted to hold over because we didn't get
to it. This segment about where Emy stands in the
pantheon of coaches on a day where he reportedly gets
a huge extension.

Speaker 1 (01:02:50):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:02:59):
Real quickly before we give the Hometown nine, who are
on the road their love, which we should you you
were talking about where does email you dook a stack
up against all the coaches in the NBA. And my
thing is like, right now, fourth best is like probably

(01:03:20):
the worst spot you could put him in.

Speaker 3 (01:03:23):
Yeah, I probably in my opinion, just keep it simple.
You can't bump his No way, he's not top five,
Oh yeah, no for sure. But like.

Speaker 4 (01:03:35):
First round exit, and I just I hate that it's
against the Warriors and all that kind I feel like
it seems worse than it is because of who they
are and who they've been to the Rockets in the past.
But I also just I can't help but think, once again,
the Rockets really beat themselves a lot in that series
as much as anything else. But that's part of being
young too, and that's something that he can't That's probably

(01:03:57):
the one thing that he can't do. He can't speed
up time, he can't beat up maturity and development and
all that kind of stuff. But this extension and the
way we're talking about him right now almost lends itself
more to don't you feel like the Rockets to just
let it ride, you know, make some adjustments, make some

(01:04:19):
small little wrinkles to the roster.

Speaker 3 (01:04:21):
But I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:04:23):
I just feel like if you really believe in EMAI
that much and you believe in this process and this
youth movement and everything else, I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:32):
Well, they don't have to be mutually exclusive if you
can believe in email all you want. But you might
look around the rest of the West beyond Oka. See Okay,
See has a better roster than everybody in the NBA.
That's obvious. But you might think that Minnesota has a
better roster and that will stay that way. You might
think that there's several other teams in the West and
or East that are better. Your coach can only do
what he has to work with. If you really think

(01:04:53):
this roster with several years of improvement for the younger
guys and a year or two more of improvement for
the older young guys, and yeah, sure, by all means,
run it back out there and you know, get a
reasonable deal done for Fred van Vliet. It does it.
No matter what you do, it's going to be difficult
to make changes to this team of significance without making

(01:05:13):
a trade. There's not much you can do and what
will be available in the avenues you have on a
simple spending basis this offseason, so running it back and
keeping it all together would still be somewhat difficult to do,
even if it's not Durant or Giannis or somebody of
great stature that you go out there and slightly tweak
the roster with. I mean, I can't sit here and

(01:05:36):
expect an NBA title from ema Udoka and the Houston
Rockets with the current roster. I think there's a chance,
and I don't think they're far away, but I do
see the avenue of they get closer to that goal
or that idea if somebody else is on the team,
somebody else of great stature is out there with them,

(01:05:56):
or at least somebody that can do some of the
things they don't do as well better than they do.
So it's a different caliber player but brings some of
what you miss and still is able to play great defense,
still is able to switch the way they would like to.
And I don't know that they're gonna play every team
the way they played Golden State. I tend to believe
there's very few teams they would have played like that.
I like that they have the flexibility to change their

(01:06:16):
defensive mindset or strategy based on their opponent because they
were not a switch everything team in twenty twenty four
to twenty five. They were in this series as it
related to Steph Curry, it was just a NonStop but
you got him, you got him, and you got him
and it was smart and it worked. And they have
the personnel to do that. They have so much defensive
flexibility from who they have on this team, even their bigs,

(01:06:40):
and I give Alpi credit for his ability to move
his feet the way he does as a big and
give them much more help on the perimeter than most
other bigs do. Most specifically, some of those big time
shot blocking bigs, they can't move at all. I'm looking
at you, Rudy Gobert. They get absolutely embarrassed when they
guard on the perimeter. Steven Adams was another player like
Alpi for the most part, who could do things necessary

(01:07:02):
to make those switches work to So who is this
player and how does he fit into what you want
to do? Might actually not be as huge as it
looked like it could be, because you're are you playing
Golden State again? Are you playing a team that you
feel like you can beat if you just take this
one guy out that you're capable of taking out because
they did. They did take Steph Curry out of his
usual contributions to his team, and it took a lot

(01:07:24):
of other guys doing things that they needed to do
to help them win. Are you going to do that
against the Timberwolves and Anthony Edwards? Are you even capable
of it? Is any team capable of it? Do you
even need to commit to that because nobody did that
in this postseason and Aunt still wasn't super consistent. He
still has areas of growth even him, even on that team,
and you, clearly, I don't think, are doing that with Okac.

(01:07:47):
Go ahead, pretend you can take Sga out of what
they like to do. Well, then you're going to lose
to Jalen Williams, chet Holmgrim and Alex Caruso on the
rest of the Thunder.

Speaker 4 (01:07:57):
Well, in a weird way, I do feel like you know,
any any any team that has a chance at knocking
off the Oklahoma City Thunder in the West. Rockets are
right near the top of that group as constructed right now,
just from a defensive standpoint, but that's they're so far
in front of everybody else.

Speaker 3 (01:08:17):
Even Denver, who pushed them to seven games and were
by the end of the series not at full strength obviously,
with Gordon and Porter Junior two of their five starters.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
Is it bad that I don't think of Denver as
a defensive team.

Speaker 3 (01:08:30):
No, but they do things so well offensively it allowed
them to balances things out. They're a hard team to
stop and Okay, so he had to commit to that,
just like Houston would, whereas and they did an awesome
I think, awesome job on shockingly Nikola.

Speaker 4 (01:08:43):
Yeah, And the funny thing is, I don't think Houston's
Houston's obviously, you're not gonna look at them as well.

Speaker 3 (01:08:49):
It's a juggernaut offense. It's tough to stop.

Speaker 4 (01:08:51):
Yet I don't know anybody on their team that is
just absolutely gonna give outbranching goon fits Defensively, he can
get his, is what I'm saying. And then they play
the type of defense they can at least, you know,
neutralize everybody else that's not SGA. SGA has gone off
against them and they still won games.

Speaker 3 (01:09:11):
So I think they view that as the way to
play them, play them, how we're playing our game, and
you go ahead and play a lot of teams view
a lot of other teams that have that kind of
player on the squad that way, just in case, so
there's any Jokic's out there. I'm aware he scored forty
plus twice in that series. I'm aware he triple doubled

(01:09:32):
them five four times in that series. I'm also aware
he shot thirty seven percent or worse three times in
seven games. Well how many shots, and they got blown
out right twice? Blown out. Whatever he did in game
seven doesn't even matter good bat or otherwise, because the
game was over and well before the end, and the

(01:09:54):
same thing happened in game two. Mm hmm, which you
can't have the rockets they've gotten.

Speaker 4 (01:10:00):
I guess if you want to call it blown out
by the thunder, but I don't think they didn't lose
a game by like forty points, not in the playoffs,
or even thirty did they.

Speaker 3 (01:10:08):
I think I would call them lopside, but a lot
of those ended up being lopsided much later in the game.
The game wasn't over at the beginning of the game.
Their game in the in season tournament was basically a blowout,
but it was an embarrassing low scoring. Nobody wants to
score any baskets in the first half game, they were
still in it. They were still there regardless, I'd have
a hard time putting the Rockets chances ahead of them.

(01:10:29):
But I also think there's a real chance that, you know,
the head coach of the Denver Nuggets now has more
postseason experience than regular season experience, because David Adelman is
their permanent head coach. He coached three times in the
regular season, then coached them through their two to seven
game series, a victory over the Clippers and a loss
to the thunder and they're moving forward with his ideas
of how to play great basketball now and probably the

(01:10:50):
exact same roster. All Right, we've talked a lot of NBA.

Speaker 4 (01:10:55):
We have not nearly talked enough Astros Baseball, considering what
they're doing right now, considering where they are in the standings.

Speaker 3 (01:11:02):
Did the Yankees hold on it and they went seven
to three? Astros and Yankees, they're not going to lose
every game, Yeah, but it was four to three. I
didn't see what happened after that, my face times did
they I didn't see what happened either, because I turned
it off and watched something else. Oh, I thought you
were watching it this whole time. I never know what's
going one. This is restricted for where you are. I
just move on to.

Speaker 4 (01:11:22):
Something else, a streaming services. All right, we will discuss
the hometown.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
Nine when we come back.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:11:41):
I saw something earlier on X where somebody tweeted and said,
it's got to be driving MLB fans crazy to see
that the Astros are neck and neck with the Yankees
for the second best record in the American League and
they don't have Alex Regman or Kyle Tucker right now. Now,
I know they're beating up on a terrible, basically minor

(01:12:04):
league team, and they're doing so in a minor league park,
but they're I mean, we've gone over this ad nauseum.
They had played the least amount of games against teams
under five hundred and had still had a pretty good record,
and now they're If you want to say they're getting
fat and happy off of the Sisters of the Poor.

Speaker 3 (01:12:22):
You can do that. They're winning two out of three.
Well maybe they went through out of four tonight. Certainly
could but yeah, I just I feel halfway through the season, Yeah,
it doesn't matter. All everybody's played the same schedule roughly
it's not enough to even get into.

Speaker 4 (01:12:40):
Is there what I was about to say, is there
anybody who you'd look at like the Dodgers had played.

Speaker 3 (01:12:43):
The only thing game, the only thing that stands out
to me, has nothing to do with who you've played.
It has to do with how they've scheduled the season.
Tampa Bay has played an insane number of home games
at this point of the season, and I think that's
due to the fact that of their stadium situation and
trying to manipulate it in a way that they can
get all their games played. But it's not even close.
Nobody else is even remotely close to where they are

(01:13:05):
from that standpoint. You know, the Astros have played a
ton of home games and there's still nowhere near what
you're looking like when you're talking about Tampa situation. By
the way, Tampa's been really, really good. Tampa is forty
one and thirty three. The Astros are forty three and
thirty one, and we know what Tampa has done. When
faced head up with Houston, Houston's played forty home games,
which is the second most in the American League. Forty

(01:13:29):
six home games and only twenty eight away games. That's
Tampa's schedule so far now, they've been good away from
their non home stadium. They're sixteen and twelve away from
quote unquote home. But just being in the situation where
an enormous number of your games to close out the
back half of the season are travel games, you're on

(01:13:52):
the road, You're gonna be serious after series on the road,
and I think that could absolutely impact what they do.
And they haven't been clearly overwhelming at home. They are
four games over at home. They are four games over
on the road. So I don't know that it's a
huge thing they just have. It just stands out. It's abnormal.
It's unlike everybody else in Major League Baseball at present,
they have a huge chunk of road games remaining on

(01:14:14):
their schedule. The Yankees went through this stretch where they
just simply couldn't score any runs and today was, so
to speak, a breakout game and that they got seven.
The Astros' individual numbers here now are definitely skewed, and
they're taking advantage of playing in this ballpark's their first
trip to Sacramento. It's not a fluke that their numbers
have blown up. Nobody else in the major leagues has

(01:14:35):
had twenty hits in a game this year. The Astros
did that last night. The Astros have thirty five hits
in their last two games. Half of their fifteen hit
games have come in the last two days. They've played
seventy four times this year. Two of their highest hit
games have been in this ballpark of the entire season,
and individually, that's also showing. There's no other stretch of
back to back games. And Cam Smith's sixty game career

(01:14:58):
where he's had seven base hits, but last night, in
the night before he had seven base hits. He has
three home runs in all of his other games, and
he hit home runs back to back at bats one
night in West Sacramento. We'll take it because everybody gets
to play there that travels for their one series if
they're a National League team two Sacramento, everybody in the
American League gets to play there. So, like I said

(01:15:20):
that at some point those things will also even out.
But by the way, your Houston Astros second most runs
scored in the month of June and we're in the
back half of the month. It helps when you score
twenty four in back to back games like they did
the last two nights. They're pitching his number one in
baseball this month. Their offense now, thanks to these two games,

(01:15:43):
they're top five this month.

Speaker 4 (01:15:45):
No, they've been and it's not Oh, they're playing this
team or they're playing that team.

Speaker 3 (01:15:51):
I think twelve and four. In June they played three
games against Oakland. I thought they are five. They're twelve
to five.

Speaker 4 (01:15:58):
I thought I thought last night top on the broadcast
said that they were twelve and five.

Speaker 3 (01:16:03):
Uh, well, whoever you want to believe, it's your your call.
One of those is probably right.

Speaker 4 (01:16:08):
No, I'm sure that it's it. Does it either way?
That's best record.

Speaker 3 (01:16:12):
I mean, has he has assistance from time to time
in the booth. I have the made up Wexeler research team.

Speaker 4 (01:16:20):
The Wexeler research team has been so lazy lately, and
you've been doing all the work, like get them off
their butts.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
It is my name, yeah, but it's your staff. They're
twelve and four in June. See, Todd was wrong. I'm
gonna tell him. I'm gonna message him right now. Maybe
you heard him wrong.

Speaker 4 (01:16:37):
I don't think I did. I didn't pass out like
I did the night before. I made it through the
whole thing.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
Last night.

Speaker 4 (01:16:43):
But yeah, I fully anticipate them sweeping these last three games.
That's how I can call it a sleep and UH
and moving on to I think this is an interesting
series starting tomorrow with the UH with the Anaheim Angels,
just because they had been playing better of late, and
just because of what you're talking about, They're they're in

(01:17:04):
the process of putting distance between them and the Rangers.

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
Is that is that?

Speaker 6 (01:17:11):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (01:17:11):
That too much of an effect for you? That's a
little much. It's I mean, you know you strive for accuracy.
It's just like I do, right, No, not in this case.
I just want to. I just want to. They have
lost today to the Yankees. The distance between themselves, the Angels,
and the Rangers is nothing. They're tied. Have they played
each other yet? They had to have, right, So yes,

(01:17:33):
the Angels have the tiebreaker. Is that what you want?

Speaker 4 (01:17:35):
That's what I was looking for here on June nineteenth.
I need to know a tie breakers. But no, I
I just think that in light of who's lining up
to pitch, in light of what has happened, because I mean,
we all know that Lance mc colors is not going
to have his next start because of what happened during
this series or this week.

Speaker 3 (01:17:54):
I'm not sure that we're do one yet, but today's
the nineteenth. He went on the il retro to the thirteenth,
probably getting closer to the about the halfway point of
his stint. Maybe there's some knowledge, further more informational knowledge
about will he be able to make his next start.
He's eligible on the twenty eighth, will he be available
to come back then? That would be nice for them

(01:18:15):
to be able to do that. Otherwise they're going to
have to continue this, and I do I hate it
for the individuals, but it's the right way to do it.
If you're the team. Jason Alexander can't be here for
five days waiting to pitch. They don't have any off days.
They need somebody else who's capable of pitching, because otherwise
they're short changing their bullpen. Granted, it's Nick Hernandez currently
with the team, and he's not a Major League Baseball player. Unfortunately,

(01:18:39):
he's killing it in Triple A and he does that
every year and then he comes to the majors and
he just doesn't get out. He's quad. It was a
struggle fest to get through that ninth inning last time
pitch it was north of thirty. I believe it was
right at thirty. So it's it's and but that's still
that's the way to do it as a team. That's
the best way they can get through these or Alexander

(01:19:01):
whoever's that last guy, and it happens to be Alexander
right now. Previously Walter was making a start and then
being optioned out because well that'd be nice. But you know,
they did score big for Alexander's first start, so he
just kept throwing strikes. You know what, I'm hoping give
up one hit and six innings to a major league team.

(01:19:21):
I'm hoping Cam Smith starting to come on. Yeah. There's
a lot of inflection points in any rookies career, and
in his case, his first three months of his career.
We'll take a look at those we hit the top
of the hour. Some of the things that look a
little bit different statistically for Cam Smith are absolutely staring
people in the face right now. One interesting note among
rookies in the American League that is now a part

(01:19:44):
of the discussion potentially for where Cam Smith might finish
in the Rookie of the Year race happening elsewhere in
the al. So we'll mention that because Campswith clearly is
coming off to outstanding games. He's been playing outstanding defensively.
Now maybe some offensive measurements beyond just the home runs
show you that he's about to do the same thing
on that side of it. So a little bit of

(01:20:04):
an Astros look and your starter from last night, little
love for fromber.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
Next the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety two
lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam talking your team. The
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (01:20:34):
Four o'clock hour underway here on the A team Sports
Talk seven ninety Space City home Network. Wexac Cole Thompson
with you until six o'clock tonight. We are an hour
away from the one and only Chandler Rome of the
Athletic joining us. I was perusing x during the break
happened to see him quote tweet just an absolutely abhorrent

(01:20:56):
trade proposal that involved fromber Valdez, and he quote tweeted
it and said, only six more weeks of this garbage?

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
Uh did you go any deeper than that?

Speaker 6 (01:21:07):
No?

Speaker 4 (01:21:08):
I just it was a it was a surface, It
was a drive by look at it.

Speaker 6 (01:21:13):
Too.

Speaker 3 (01:21:13):
Yeah. Earlier today I did twelve following nine followers. Oh,
I figured it was so. I mean, I know he
knows of it and caught sight of it because it
was a quote tweet of his own. But these are
the easiest ones for me personally to act like I
never saw just keep on moving. Doesn't if they don't
have an extra like even if it's a picture of

(01:21:35):
like a cartoon character instead of their actual face.

Speaker 4 (01:21:38):
That's better than this guy who had He's he hasn't
even taken the time to put anything there.

Speaker 3 (01:21:44):
And he's had since October of twenty twenty four when
he joined or she. I mean, I assume this is
real name. I'm sorry what I hit the cartoon character
face that said nothing? There's literally nothing added to it.
There's no banner pick, there's no nothing. And it, as
you said, was quite the trade proposal. Give it to us.
Come on, these are some bad ideas. Let's do this's

(01:22:06):
that's an accurate description. Now. I was just gonna see
if you could give the names. Here's a player that
they didn't want. Maybe for a lot more money they'll
want him. Now, can you just beat normal for one answer?
Guess which team in Major League Baseball would not be
interested in Christian Walker and the remaining sixty million dollars
that he's owed on a three year deal, you know,

(01:22:26):
fifty whatever it is. Guess which one team would stand
above all others he used to play for. That's the one.

Speaker 4 (01:22:32):
Christian Walker. And fromber Valdez to Arizona four Josh Naylor
and a good pitching prospect, they get the best deal,
best deal.

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
Even if they just flip the guys at the deadline.

Speaker 4 (01:22:44):
It makes us, that's my favorite part, stronger, provided Naylor
is under contract for at least three seasons. Money saved
for the trade deadline deadline. This is why, even though
you're right, you should just keep on moving. Win Chandler
wrong quote tweets nonsense like that and says six more
weeks of this nonsense strap in and you can read

(01:23:05):
it in your head as him. It's still awesome. It
can't help it. And you're not gonna trade fromber because
he's pitching well for you right now.

Speaker 3 (01:23:14):
Yeah, first place teams don't usually do that. Teams that
have vision in a very positive postseason scenario. I mean,
the Astros are a win away tonight from if the
season ended Today commentary, they would be awaiting somebody that
advanced out of the wild Card round to come to
Dyke and Park for a five game series. That's how

(01:23:35):
well they've played, That's how many games they've won. That's
the position that they're in. Despite clearly I'm not gonna
use the word awesome with this team no matter how
many games they get over five hundred, unless certain things change,
like when Jordn Alvarez returns, he plays three months of
I'm one of the best five hitters in the American League.
I'm arguably the best left handed hitter in the American League.

(01:23:57):
Because for one hundred at bats in twenty twenty five,
he's been barely better Brendan Rodgers. That's how bad he
was offensively so far this year. That's as low as
I can go. But when that happens, and you've got
the best leadoff hitter in the American League, and a
couple spots later in the order, you've got Jordan Alvarez,
and in between, maybe you've got still hot Jose Altuve.

(01:24:19):
By the way, he's hot again his last twenty five
thirty games. He's pumping out that high eight hundred ops
stuff that he usually does at some point in every season,
and then there's your home run and RBI leader Esak Perettis.
He's continued, he's been probably the most consistent astro. He's
actually in a little bit of a downturn now. He's

(01:24:41):
essentially hitting homers. He can due almost nothing else because
he and al Tuove both have eight homers over the
last thirty days, which is among the top fifteen in
the league. But he's not really doing anything else. And
he's also i think quite clearly continuing to get starts
when that's why I said it right when he did it,
And I'm I'm surprised they've manage these games the way
they have. I'm hopeful that nothing has happened. And the

(01:25:03):
fact that he keeps coming into the lineup and keeps
playing third base means he's fine. But he's clearly not
one hundred percent. And it's a hamstring. I cannot believe
he's playing and making a play for them to make
like you can't have it hurt, remember hurt more then
he's gone for how long?

Speaker 6 (01:25:23):
Right?

Speaker 4 (01:25:23):
And it's all true and and and should be absolutely
mentioned in that way with that kind of urgency.

Speaker 3 (01:25:30):
But then the other night.

Speaker 4 (01:25:31):
He makes that play and Todd's like, see that ham
thring is fine. He's he makes the throw at a
first base it was awesome as he makes the throw
over first base, Well didn't he make it? It made
some plays. But he also has a pretty egregious throwing
era this series. Nobody had a more egregious double error

(01:25:51):
then Christian Walker's fiasco.

Speaker 3 (01:25:53):
What was that costs from are a few pitches before
they ultimately turned it down, So I think so.

Speaker 4 (01:25:59):
I mean, he made up for it by driving in runs.
But geez, that was the thing, you know, since unfortunately
we got to the point at one point in the
season where we had to start making at least pseudo
comparison simply because he plays the same position and was
having struggles at the plate. You would always say, well,
at least defensively, he's a star wart.

Speaker 3 (01:26:20):
Well, you're gonna make mistakes. He made a mistake, made
it once, and then made it twice. He's got four
errors on the season. Still pretty good. Scooper. Pretty much,
every time a throw goes over there, as long as
it's not twenty feet over his head, I feel like
he's gonna make the play on it, and knows when
to come off the bag to make the play on
it so it doesn't become an even bigger error. But
he's had a couple of miscues and he's not he's
not having a Gold Glove caliber season based on the

(01:26:42):
other metrics that we'll be looked at when it comes
down to deciding who gets that award. But he's been
a clear upgrade. And it kind of goes in that
same conversation about what we're gonna do the next five
six weeks about trades, like I'm not sure where people
think this new player is gonna play. They have an
opening up one spot, one spot barring any future new injuries.
Camp Smith's not an available spot. He's your everyday right fielder.

(01:27:07):
Jake Myers is your everyday center fielder. You're already playing
without Jordan and that's probably gonna change. So now he
and Altuve are your permanent left fielder designated hitter combination,
permanent because Jose Al Tuovy is not playing second base.
He will play on occasion, and those occasions will never
be when Fromber is on the mound. And you could
see why last night, like you could see why in

(01:27:28):
each of the other fourteen starts for Fromber. You are
giving outs away if you play jose Al Tuove at
second base when that much of a groundball demon is
on the hill, turning vps, getting out of trouble in innings,
and just making plays because you're good. This is a
fantastic infield defensively, provided Jose Al Twove is not in it.
You have one open spot. It's second base. And I

(01:27:49):
don't really think the Astros are dead set on trading
for a second basement, certainly not one that's going to
be there very long, because their second basement in twenty
twenty six is going to be Bright Matthews, and he
is going to be ready. Whether they like it or
think it or not, He's going to be here. Then
September call up probably and again September callups kind of well,

(01:28:10):
I'm not really a thing anymore, I know, but I
would like to get a look at him. If you're
saying that, you get to expand the roster by spot
by two spots technically, and so I think his speed,
what he could add to the team even if he's
not in the everyday lineup, which he won't be, makes
some sense. But you also have to look at what
the Astros have done, and Jana Brown addressed it this week.
Because of all the moves they made, they called up

(01:28:30):
two different infielders this week. Shay Whitcomb was recalled back
up due to the Rogers injury and Giormy was called
up so they could send Shay Witcomb down. Initially, again,
neither one of them were Bryce Matthews, and Dana kind
of explained why you do have to look much deeper
into the minor league numbers. Statistically speaking, Bryce Matthews is
in the best stretch of his minor league career offensively,

(01:28:51):
and he's doing it in a West Sacramento like atmosphere.
A lot of the work he's done is in these
ballparks that are just outrageous for offense at the Triple
A level, and you have to balance that out with well,
that's why his splits are what they are on the
road or at a little more reasonably offensive producing ballpark

(01:29:11):
that Constellation Field is, and his swinging miss is still
a little bit too high for them. But yes, of
all the players they have in their system that are
close to helping this team, yes, I think he's somebody
who helps you. When Esak Peretis draws an eighth inning
walk or a ninth inning walk, or he's your batter
on second base to start a tenth inning. Yeah, Bryce
Matthews is a type of player you'd like to have

(01:29:33):
around to go put him out there at second base.

Speaker 5 (01:29:35):
So let me ask you, out of curiosity, if you
are the Astros right now, what is the number one
position that you are targeting at the deadline? Because if
it seems like second base, you're gonna live with whoever
it is this year because of price Matthews.

Speaker 3 (01:29:47):
This excludes getting a picture. I'm assuming you're saying, no,
it give me a picture. But starter reliever, I mean what,
It doesn't exclude them from doing it, But I don't
think that's where they want to spend their money long term,
because again, you're trading for a second basement. On my
assumption is he's playing somewhere very well and he makes money.
Because they actually tried to address list, and they did
it the right way, it just didn't work. They signed
Brandon Rogers for nothing, for relative nothing for a veteran

(01:30:10):
who'd been a starter for four years. They knew what
his splits were away from Colorado, who had great numbers
in Colorado. He had poor numbers when he played everywhere else.
It was a career long but his numbers this year
are even worse than they ever were away from Colorado.
They're untenable, they're unplayable offensively, and he also has no
positional flexibility, but they didn't really think that was much

(01:30:30):
of an issue. If he's only we don't need him
to play other positions. We have Mauricio Dubon to play
other positions. We need you to start at second base
four to five days a week, and he played his
way out of that opportunity by just not being able
to hit. And Luis Giorme is the same thing. Giorme
is a plus defender at multiple positions. He just he's
not a major league caliber hitter. And I was mean

(01:30:51):
to him earlier without even being a superman to him,
which I'll do now. He's had ten played appearances so
far with the Astros. They's a counter for ten outs
in ten that's not as mean as you can be.
One hits five strikeouts and he's grounded into two double
play balls him and managed to get ten outs while
walking once and getting a single in ten plate appearances.

(01:31:15):
That's not the best. You can do call him a name,
say he's a bomb or something, but he isn't. He's
a great clubhouse guy. He can't help you. He's an
elite defensive player. To play eight four plays that are
probably among their top ten defensive plays all in one
game at the plate, what is he?

Speaker 6 (01:31:30):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:31:30):
The other thing that would make me sound mean was
when he made his debut and I was watching the
game with my daughter and I said, he's fifty one
years old, and I think she believed me. He has
a great he has a g bear.

Speaker 4 (01:31:43):
Does she think I'm in my fifties because I've got
a little scruff. That's that's gray.

Speaker 3 (01:31:47):
You're gray, is well, I don't know if it's gray
or blonde, but it's a lot greater than not blonde.
You have much more gray in your beard than I do.
So you have the gray beard of the show. Well
guide us through next second, when eventually we'll get to
the starting pitching this series, specifically fromber next.

Speaker 7 (01:32:05):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:32:14):
Hey, Wex, what's up?

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
Dog?

Speaker 3 (01:32:17):
You know who's a really good starting pitcher? He pictured
for the Astros. I know that much.

Speaker 4 (01:32:23):
Fromber Valdez wasn't a dominant strikeout performance, which is kind
of I don't want to say.

Speaker 3 (01:32:29):
It's rare, especially if you played more than six and
a half strikeouts yesterday? Oh did you?

Speaker 6 (01:32:36):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:32:36):
I did. Our listeners heard about it. Sorry, But I
also played more than six and a half strikeouts for
Chris Sale, and it took him until the twenty sixth
out of the game to get it. And he did,
and then they've already sweating it. I was like, come on, dude,
I know you're going to own these guys. I thought
more was the play and it was has Chris Sale
mixed in a steak yet? No, he's still the same

(01:32:56):
rail thin pitcher he's always been fromber was I do
you think he had a little extra movement on his pitches,
And I think that's ultimately why he kept missing the
strike zone. But he had a little bit of difficulty
putting hitters away, which is not normally. The issue for
him those ten to eleven to twelve strikeout games is
when he's able to finish people off. Wasn't doing that
last night. Still kept the ball down, wasn't in danger

(01:33:17):
very often of you know, getting hit around there. Weren't
those innings where you know, single thing he's kind of lost.
He never really kind of lost it, and I think
he did a nice job of holding his emotions in check.
There was definitely one instance where he threw a strike
and it was not called a strike, and it wasn't
on the edges, and it wasn't a could go either way.
It was just flat out on the zone and it

(01:33:37):
would have been a punchy and it wasn't. And so
not only do you have to regroup on that at bat,
but regroup over the rest of the inning. He doesn't
hide it like most of the other Astros pitchers, even
these young guys, they kind of have the same demeanor
throughout their appearance. He never has, and he certainly doesn't
this year. He's walking off the back of the mound,
he's getting back on the bump without a timeout, with

(01:34:00):
the pitch clock at four, and just casually going into
his motion right when he gets to the rubber and
throwing a strike. I mean, no, I don't think any
other pitchers are capable of being in that that headspace
like he is. It's not a bad thing, it's not
a good thing. It's just not something very many other
pitchers do. It's pretty much something no other good pitchers do.

(01:34:21):
And he's been in a long, long stretch again this year,
probably the last seven eight nine starts. We're telling you
last night was not ideal, not his best stuff, not
his sharp at night. Two eurned runs in six innings.

Speaker 4 (01:34:33):
I mean, he is an and again, like you said,
another six innings kept it under a hundred pitches. His
eras sub three. He's just cruising along, just coasting along.
It's it's mid June, not a care in the world.
And he and Hunter Brown are.

Speaker 3 (01:34:51):
The contract here. Well and yeah, but you couldn't tell.
He looks the same. Yeah, he acts the same, he's
pitching the same, and he and Hunter Brown are just
I mean, what an I wish they were. You know, Well,
let's play it this way. There is.

Speaker 4 (01:35:09):
Not a better duo going into the postseason that any
other team I think could put out there.

Speaker 3 (01:35:14):
The last MOLB Network top ten starting pitchers that I
saw it was earlier today, there's only one team that
had two in the top ten. It was Houston, Hunter
Brown and fromber Valdez. It is an advantage thought it
might have been an advantage last year, and it certainly
they didn't pitch poorly against the Tigers, but the offense
obviously was not there to help them, and they quote

(01:35:36):
unquote were out pitched by the one Tigers starter and
then the rest of the Tigers pitching staff that all
pitched in Game two. Same thing could happen this year,
so I'll avoid the wild card so you have more opportunities.
So there is a game three to four and potentially five,
and yesterday is a good additional day to point out
what continues to happen. Now add another name to it.

Speaker 6 (01:35:58):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:35:58):
I build graphics all throughout the season for some of
our guests, some of those full screens you see, and
I will put a bray hater King and Okurt on
it and put their numbers for the year, and just
keep updating them every time that's necessary because they are
leading this bullpen. And I had to add Bennett Sussa
to the list yesterday. When I made one, I to
add Sean Dubin because now Sean Dubin has the best

(01:36:21):
ra among their bro pen arms, and he's thrown twenty
innings most innings from any of these six guys I'm
talking about. It's thirty three plus for Okurt, everybody else
in that same neighborhood are a little bit less. He's
got twenty innings now as an astro this year. He's
given up two long balls, which have accounted for all
the runs. He's given up three runs in twenty innings.
He's stopped walking hitters.

Speaker 6 (01:36:40):
Right.

Speaker 3 (01:36:40):
He has seventeen strikeouts and seventeen appearances over those twenty innings,
and he did it so effeccion efficiently and effectively. Last night.
It wasn't even a stretch to get him to give
you two innings and six outs.

Speaker 4 (01:36:53):
They're gonna give him three for a second there, then
they didn't, and then maybe Josh Hater started warming up.

Speaker 3 (01:36:59):
But Josh Hater warmed up last night. Well he started
tossing I think one eight run lead. I well, it
was when what's his face couldn't get out without thirty pitches,
and then it was a seven run lead. Yes, well
they're scoring runs, I mean every of Heck, I would
I think the rules will have been outside the ability
to put Sasar Salazar out there, but not I would

(01:37:22):
have done that over Josh Nick Hernandez is part of
this current bullbend, unless they've changed it for today. But
Caleb Ort's the only other guy normally a seven person bullpen,
and Ort's the only one who's not been incredibly successful.
His work against Tampa has kind of skewed his numbers
much in the same way Forest Whitley's numbers are skewed

(01:37:42):
there Force Whitley has now pitched twice for the Rays.
He still hasn't given up any runs to any team
in the Majors in his entire career, except for the
team he currently pitches for. But even Caleb Ort to
get back to Houston, he's allowing a two on nine
batting average against. He's also slightly cut down on his walks.
That's still his biggest problem. And that's it. This bullpen now,

(01:38:04):
top to bottom. There's no other bullpen in baseball as
successful through almost the first half of this season than
the group they have now. I don't even know which
bullpen to look at. That's close. They're overwhelming.

Speaker 4 (01:38:17):
Chadler Rome is texting me and it's just hilarious. But
I wanted to say about this time last year. Maybe
it was later in the year, I specifically remember having
a conversation with someone who's, you know, baseball opinion. I
respect a great deal about Sean Dubin, and basically their
take was that he's got the stuff, it's just about

(01:38:40):
harnessing it, and once that happens, he's going to be
just the latest installment of filth in their bullpen.

Speaker 3 (01:38:47):
And here we are. Yeah, he didn't throw strikes at
any point in his career at the major league level
till this year. Now he throws strikes. He has nasty stuff,
he has good I think he has good everything, multiple
plus pitches, but yeah, throwing strikes is kind of the
name of the game, or else they'll just sit there
until you make a mistake, because that mistake is going
to come in the zone when you're constantly throwing to
hitters at two, zero and three to one, which he

(01:39:09):
was doing with regularity last year. He usually in the
role though he'll probably remain and he is and Susa is.
These are guys that will be asked to give them
multiple innings and if they can get in and out
of some of their innings. Suso was a did it
earlier this series, right after he was on the show
with us. He's eight nine, ten pitches. Well, yeah, we're
getting another three outside of you because there was no

(01:39:29):
problem for you get to get the first three. And
Susa's getting to this point is kind of remarkable with
what he was talking about with us getting through the thrombosis,
which he actually had dealt with before he missed the
entire twenty fourth season. You know, the Astros acquired him
late in twenty three, early enough to let him pitch
for a month in August, but not early enough to

(01:39:50):
have him eligible or excuse me, for a month in September,
but not early enough to have him eligible for their
postseason roster. Had he been eligible, he one hundred percent
was going to be on that postseason roster and they
didn't pitch again until this year because of that surgical
procedure he needed, which was something he had actually been
pitching with for quite some time. Astros have two elite starters.

(01:40:11):
Astros have the best shortstop in the American League or close,
and the Astros have the best bullpen in baseball. It's
why they're forty three and thirty one.

Speaker 4 (01:40:20):
Yeah, I mean, it's a fantastic problem to have about
a unit that, like I'm trying to remember and this
always happens to me because baseball is such a long campaign.

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
Marathon. What have you?

Speaker 4 (01:40:35):
Were we worried about the bullpen coming into this year
or were we just kind of like mildly concerned because
of the turnover with Presley and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (01:40:42):
It wasn't so much that he wasn't there. It was
more about they needed somebody to be there because Presley
was not the Presley that we were seeing before last year.
He was okay last year, replacing him was necessary, but
we didn't know who it was gonna be. I love
Brian King last year, but no, he was definitely going
to be able to repeat that, and he definitely has

(01:41:03):
repeated that he had his one blow up outing against Tampa.
And you had asked us here on the show in
the days that followed, how concerned were you? And I said,
I'm not concerned at all. He hasn't given up a
run since. He's been unbelievable except for one afternoon on
the Diamond for almost a half a season. And you
also have Steven Okert. I didn't know Steven Oker was
going to do this. I guarantee you. Dana Brown didn't

(01:41:24):
know he was going to do this, but he took
a chance on somebody that he saw could do this.
He's never done this before in his career to this level. Well,
now you have those two guys you didn't know you
could count on, and we shouldn't lose sight of this
fact either. Both Brian A. Braw and Josh Hater are
way better than twenty twenty four Brian Abraw and Josh

(01:41:44):
Hater so far.

Speaker 4 (01:41:45):
And that's way better coming off of a Bray who's
blow up. It wasn't a blow up, it was just
a bad he just had a bad outing. I mean
he gave up a run. No you say, Hater or
a bra a Bray You Yeah, he gave up. Yeah,
he's had three, but he's given up runs in now
three three outings.

Speaker 3 (01:42:00):
That's it. Other appearance has been I know that.

Speaker 4 (01:42:03):
But what I mean about the other night is that
that I could see that walk off coming from a
mile away because he just didn't have it.

Speaker 3 (01:42:09):
Well, he's actually that's what he's been. It's amazing how
successful he's been because this is the worst he's ever
been at throwing strikes. He's walking guys constantly, especially the
first or second battery sees, he's just been able to
wiggle out of it. Was not able to wiggle out
of it when Kurtz hit that bomb off of him.
But mind you, last year twelve homers given up by hater.

(01:42:31):
He was had three eighty e er a last year
over the course of a whole season. It does, even
as a reliever somewhat even out. These guys are so
good this year. It's been unbelievable. I hope it continues.
You know, it's been overwhelming, and that's why they're overwhelming. Hey,
you're not winning after the sixth inning? Remember us saying
that last year. Well, now it's a fact this year.
If you're not winning, you're not gonna win. We will
hit you with our signature segment. Next, what's up with that?

(01:42:54):
Comes away?

Speaker 1 (01:42:55):
The ageed on Sports Talk seven ninety sam.

Speaker 3 (01:43:02):
A new signature seven called What's up with? What's up
with that?

Speaker 7 (01:43:12):
What's up? I say, what's up?

Speaker 5 (01:43:18):
Who's that?

Speaker 6 (01:43:23):
Well?

Speaker 3 (01:43:23):
The latest Yahoo out there to draw my ire about.

Speaker 5 (01:43:27):
C J.

Speaker 3 (01:43:28):
Stroud has dropped a list of.

Speaker 4 (01:43:30):
Rankings going into the twenty twenty five campaign of NFL quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 (01:43:36):
This one of the top ten variety so moving up
on the list, yes, up from fourteen. The PFF hit
us with earlier this offseason. Way up from Peter Prisco
into the top ten back end for CJ. Stroud. So
if CJ. Stroud isn't the number one quarterback in the
NFL heading into year three, well, here on the eight team,

(01:43:58):
we will always ask you what's up with that? You
will make somebody very very number I said it. Unless
he's number one, we have questions. He's number ten here
well as we ask something much about him being number
one as it is, it's number one or bust. If
you don't see c. J. Stroud as the greatest thing
on planet Earth, then you're doing it wrong. Sign the
A team. I won't sign off on that. I am

(01:44:20):
not sign if you think CJ. Stroud isn't going to
win more championships than three time NBA champion head coach
Emy Udoka. You just you can't come here, you can't
be here. I'll sign off on that.

Speaker 4 (01:44:33):
I I just again, I'm gonna keep getting mad at
lists that have Justin Herbert shockingly high and in front
of him.

Speaker 3 (01:44:40):
Burrow, Herbert, and Stafford. All three of them are capable
of having explosive days through the air, and Herbert and
Stafford specifically have a level of physical talent that rarely
lets them be drivers of offensive production and firepower. Herbert
is one of the most fascinating quarterbacks in the entire league.
Is he is?

Speaker 6 (01:44:57):
He?

Speaker 3 (01:44:57):
His season ended with the Chargers getting abs asolutely walloped
by the Texans of the AFC Wild Card Round, and
he had arguably arguably his worst game of the season.
He definitively threw the ball to the other team and

(01:45:17):
had it caught by them three times in the entire
regular season, and then it did it four times in
one afternoon at Callahanna's play palace. Now read the sentence,
arguably how the worst game of the season. Read the
next part of the sentence. That makes me blind with rage.
But it doesn't erase everything that happened up until Okay, good,

(01:45:39):
because I'm glad that that's our barometer here. It doesn't
erase anything good that the player had before that moment
in time, because then you could apply that to CJ.
Stroud and he'd be right around the same on this list.
Is justin Herbert. This was the ceiling raising tier quarterbacks four, five,
and six Burrow, Herbert Stafford. Keep this in mind and

(01:46:00):
as the Texans try to rise to a higher level
than just among the top four in the AFC, which
they've been in the last two years. Number one, two, three, four,
and five. And we didn't call this person a Yahoo.
This is on Yahoo. Yeah, that's why I said it. Yeah.
Top fives are AFC quarterbacks Mahomes, Jackson, Allen Burrow, and Herbert.

Speaker 4 (01:46:24):
By the way, the top three are correct. All of
these lists have the top three correct. That's not easy.
It's easy, jeez.

Speaker 3 (01:46:30):
But Geno Smith floor Razer tier. Geno Smith number eight,
Dak Prescott right ahead of him a number seven. Jordan Love,
He's number nine and wearing number seven on the field.
But landing number ten on this list is Coleridge C J. Stroud.

Speaker 4 (01:46:48):
These quarterbacks are good, but just to hair off from
the rest of the players ranked above them.

Speaker 3 (01:46:53):
I have to read it like this because it's so
stick to the CJ part.

Speaker 4 (01:46:56):
These guys have been good at creating competitive team blah
blah blah blah blah. Love and Stroud, the bottom dwellers
of this top ten.

Speaker 3 (01:47:05):
The top ten.

Speaker 4 (01:47:06):
Are both younger, but they have a ton of ability
and have the talent level to move higher on this list.

Speaker 3 (01:47:14):
Have you read this already?

Speaker 6 (01:47:15):
No?

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
Okay, well read it in the voice you should read
it with, because you're acting like it's going to be
bad and it actually is not.

Speaker 4 (01:47:22):
It is when stupid Herbert is ahead of him. That's
his name from him.

Speaker 3 (01:47:26):
The analysis on CJ. Stroud essentially is.

Speaker 4 (01:47:28):
Stroud was under siege last year for the Texans offense.
It didn't have his best statistical year, and he still
gave them a chance against the Chiefs, you know, the
team that has the number one quarterback ranked on this
list in the divisional round. The accuracy and skill level
will always be there, but the poor surroundings drove Stroud
into some bad habits.

Speaker 3 (01:47:48):
Now, can you read the next part all accurate, all
things I've said, all things you've said, all things that
everybody that watched football last year Texans football saw happening.

Speaker 4 (01:47:58):
Do you describe them as bad habits or just bad plays?
That is a bit different.

Speaker 3 (01:48:02):
I think he developed like Keim didn't make three throws
we didn't see in his rookie year. He made thirty
throws we didn't see his rookie year. He developed some
bad habits which were due to the fact that he
didn't have the right pieces in place around any quarterback,
let alone a second year quarterback.

Speaker 4 (01:48:18):
And the part that Cole wanted me to read next
was about Jordan Love. He's a bit of more of
a wild card for his own gun slinging reasons, but
at his best he can go throw for throw with
the top quarterbacks in the league. He just needs more
consistency down to down when it comes to deciding which
throws he should or shouldn't make.

Speaker 3 (01:48:39):
That is to me, one hundred percent right on the money.
Jordan Love isn't quite far of so I don't think
he makes that many mistakes, but he just he throws
the ball around the yard like he probably shouldn't. He's
able to overcome it. You throw fifty seven touchdown passes
in your first two years as a starter. That can
offset the mistakes that you've made. Is the interception total
is too high? It's not outrage lee high. The game

(01:49:01):
that we probably all focused on the most last year
of his was the one that he played against a
very good defense and won. That was the Texans game,
and he made a bunch of what should have been
what could have been game losing mistakes, but he also
completed seventy three percent of his passes and threw for
three touchdowns and made the game winning plays and put

(01:49:22):
them in position obviously at the end of the game
to beat the Texans with their later kick.

Speaker 5 (01:49:26):
I'm not even mad that CJ. Stroud is number ten
on this list. I'm mad of who's not on this list.
And Gino Smith is getting to pass once again.

Speaker 3 (01:49:34):
So who should be since he said he's not on
the base.

Speaker 5 (01:49:36):
It should be Baker top five scoring offense back to
back years with two different offensive coordinators, a sixty nine
point two percent completion reign during that span, back to
back four thousand yard passing seasons, back to back twenty
five plus touchdowns last season forty one touchdowns. Oh and
he also has the highest passer rating among all top
ten quarterbacks the last two years. But god forbid that

(01:49:59):
we get Baker made Mayfield any appreciation because if.

Speaker 3 (01:50:02):
He flamed out in Cleveland, well, we don't know the
reasons for it. I don't know unless he wrote that further,
I know, Chuck, so there's a reason why. Right. So
this is why you have to if you care, and
apparently we do, because it's like the nineteenth time in
the last nineteen minutes, it feels like we've said, oh,
there's another list. We got our rip apart well, people
that make lists, especially when it's an individual's list, And

(01:50:24):
in both of the two we've talked about this week,
it is they clearly have biases. They've clearly made up
their mind, and no future accolades, statistics, wins, performance seem
to ever change it. They never go back and say, hey, look, man,
I was wrong. I think if we asked fifty people
that cover the NFL to give us a top ten,

(01:50:44):
the vast majority forty of fifty would think Baker Mayfield
is currently heading into this upcoming year and based on
the previous performance, significantly better than Geno Smith. This particular
Yahoo writer does not now that's what he is. You're ready,
You're ready for me to lean into it. I'm ready.

Speaker 4 (01:51:04):
He's better than Justin Herbert Baker. Would you prefer to
have him over Justin Herbert?

Speaker 3 (01:51:12):
Absolutely?

Speaker 5 (01:51:14):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:51:14):
See, I've been consistently backing him before Cole even got here.

Speaker 3 (01:51:18):
Like I was back I was winning before this guy
even got But.

Speaker 4 (01:51:21):
Like when he got to Tampa, I'm like, I think
you're sleeping on him a little bit. I kind of
feel I don't feel as.

Speaker 3 (01:51:27):
Strongly over the cards and it didn't help you. We'll talk.

Speaker 4 (01:51:31):
I don't feel as strongly about Aaron Rodgers going into
this year as I did about Baker going into that
season with Tampa, but it's the same type of vibe.

Speaker 3 (01:51:43):
Aaron Rodgers is just older and it's a different situation.

Speaker 4 (01:51:45):
But like Baker Mayfield has been, he's he honestly in
a in a roundabout way, he's a product of kind
of what CJ's dealing with. His bad times in Cleveland
are penalizing him going forward.

Speaker 3 (01:51:57):
Yeah, if there's one thing you need to know about
the A team was hit our break, here is the
A Team loves Baker Mayfield.

Speaker 1 (01:52:06):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:52:12):
I just can't believe, Matt Flex. I can't believe what
we just heard during the break. But I can't share
with you guys right now.

Speaker 4 (01:52:18):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety Space City
Home Network. Again, It's not so much where CJ. Stroud
is on the list. It's just come on, Dudeyeah, you're.

Speaker 3 (01:52:29):
Not gonna like this at least for the next seven
or eight minutes if I keep going. But can we
not just be a little more realistic about what happened?
Last year. No, it's not about I just told you,
it's not so much about CJ's that when I'm looking
at these two guys, why does one guy get all
the benefits of the TAO, all the breaks.

Speaker 4 (01:52:47):
He's the Draymond Green talking to an official of NFL
quarterback rankings.

Speaker 3 (01:52:51):
You understand what I said, Well, I just don't agree.

Speaker 4 (01:52:54):
What's with all the leash? What's this guy so specials?
He's the most fascinating. What's so fascinating about him?

Speaker 3 (01:52:59):
Because they can't believe that there's not even more that's
been accomplished in the season careers or seasons career of
Justin Herbert because they watch him, I hope every week
and certainly last year, since this is most of what
we're talking about, Like, how could you watch Justin Herbert
weekend and week out last year and not think, Man,
this is something. This is definitely one of the best

(01:53:22):
quarterbacks in the NFL. Oh Man, he got picked off
by Carolina once in a twenty three point victory. Oh Man,
he got picked off by Tampa in a blowout. He
got picked off by Denver in another victory, and then
in his other fourteen starts, he didn't throw the ball
to the other team. Even one time he only had
three picks. He threw twenty three touchdowns. He led them
to helped them to eleven victories over the courses. So

(01:53:44):
he didn't lead them well. I do think he has
a quarterback record of eleven and six.

Speaker 4 (01:53:52):
He did an impression of the bobs on office space.
Just space out, what do you mean? What does that mean?

Speaker 3 (01:53:57):
Exactly just like he did. I try not to lead them.

Speaker 5 (01:54:01):
Well.

Speaker 3 (01:54:02):
When you say lead them or you say his record
is I think that's a little disingenuous about the game.
We all rate quarterback play is the most important player.
They're gonna win every MVP award pretty much for the
till the end of time, so their importance to winning
and losing is much higher than everybody else's. But it's
a little unfair both directions. Oh man, there were five

(01:54:23):
and twelve this year. You suck well. The team was bad,
most likely like Deshaun Watson's four and twelve season. I've
said it then, and I'll say it for every year
until somebody else does it worse. I've never seen any
quarterback play that well in such a bad season. His
record was four and twelve and that seems ridiculous to

(01:54:43):
quote as a stat for how he played that year,
because he was fantastic. He did make some mistakes at
the end of games that cost them victories because he
didn't lead them to their thirty seventh point of the
game or their fortieth point of the game, because their
defense couldn't stop us soul that year and was mistaken prone.
But going just to Herbert, there's nothing negative in big

(01:55:05):
picture about how he played last season until he had
a bad afternoon on the biggest stage. His only truly magnified,
huge game leading up this is your biggest game of
the year, and by far they were gonna make the
playoffs as they got to their final three weeks and
racked up wins against bow Knicks and then had one
of the easiest closing schedules of anybody that made the playoffs.

(01:55:29):
They beat the Patriots and Raiders to close out their
eleven win regular season. Yeah, but then they had to
go to play Houston and their defense and it showed best,
maybe the best defense they played all year. They totally
outperformed the offensive line in front of him. He didn't
have a lot of time. He made a bunch of mistakes.
He made some terrible decisions, so it wasn't just he
threw the ball and they just hoped that something he

(01:55:50):
made some bad decisions. I agree to a certain extent
he definitely undeservingly gets more rope than he should. I
also think he's really, really, really good.

Speaker 4 (01:56:01):
Yeah, I'm not sitting here saying that he's a bad quarterback.
That's not what I'm getting AT's. That is one of
my biggest and you know this from doing the show
with me. It doesn't matter what the sport is. One
of my biggest pet peeves in sports is when guys
and a lot of times I feel like they're either
inferior of another guy we're talking about or they're just
not They get the leash, the rope, the whatever, the

(01:56:26):
benefit of the doubt so much more than other guys
who get like an inordinate amount of criticism at times.

Speaker 3 (01:56:31):
And I think in this case that's what we're dealing with.

Speaker 4 (01:56:34):
Because you can't write with a straight face everything that
led up to that point, we're gonna figure out that
you're doing well. I have many of them. You're doing
the same thing with CJ. Stroud from year one to
year two.

Speaker 3 (01:56:48):
If it's a list, and it is that's kind of
made you upset. It has So he's fifth, justin her
undeservingly fifth. Yeah, six, seven, eight, nine and ten are
stef Stafford, Prescott, Smith Love and Stroud. Yep. Should any
of them be ahead of him?

Speaker 6 (01:57:05):
Yep?

Speaker 3 (01:57:06):
I would say at least two. Okay, who Stafford? For me?

Speaker 5 (01:57:10):
Personally, I think that Stafford is the most underappreciate quarterback
I put the NFL.

Speaker 3 (01:57:14):
I'd put Dak ahead of him. I would go with
Jalen Hurts. How'd you go from yesterday to Sorry, Cole,
how'd you go from Dak yesterday to Dak today? You mean, well,
Dak was tenth on the list yesterday and we couldn't
hardly stay in our seats. Well, actually, now you want
to put him all the way up at at least six,
seven or eight he.

Speaker 4 (01:57:30):
Was Well, that was a different list though. That was
one hundred players in the NFL and he was ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:57:35):
Yes, and inside was like on quarterback, I'm just talking
about the quarterbacks here, and you're okay with him going
up to seven or six in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (01:57:45):
Dak Prescott again, again, I can't emphasize this enough. This
has more to do with how high Justin Herbert is
in relation.

Speaker 3 (01:57:53):
To everyone else, So you get him lower by putting
more people in front of him. And I'm just a
little shocked that Dak is one of those. I'm not
shocked at all. Stafford's a totally reasonable suggestion, is a
good suggestion. Jalen Hurts is a good suggestion. Jalen Hurts
is an outrageously good Clearly we should be talking about
this even more than CJ anything. Yeah, what do you

(01:58:13):
want your quarterback to do? Make plays that help you
win football games? Nobody last year did it more when
it mattered most than Jalen Hurts. And I'm telling I'm
listed of the top ten.

Speaker 4 (01:58:25):
I'm telling you why that he and I told you
then and I'm telling you now and I'm gonna keep
saying it until it's disproven, and it won't be as
long as Saquon Barkley is healthy. He's gonna get penalized
for having him on his team, which is stupid because
nobody's doing that to Lamar Jackson.

Speaker 5 (01:58:39):
Just remember that he also led a team to a
Super Bowl appearance two years prior, when Saquan was doing
nothing for the New York.

Speaker 3 (01:58:44):
Giants Bengo, he should have won. If you put Jalen
Hurts on a list ahead of Lamar Jackson, that would
be Okay, what are they gonna say? We talk about it,
we would analyze why. But I wouldn't be up in arms.
I wouldn't freak out. I wouldn't think that's nuts. And
you know what I think of Lamar Jackson. I think
it's an embarrassment to the league that they let the

(01:59:06):
voters do what they did last year to him and
award Josh Allen the MVP last year. Oh gross, Well,
I wouldn't go that far. You can't. He just simply
is he had a better season every possible way you
could look at it. There's nothing.

Speaker 4 (01:59:23):
I don't think he got penalized in that conversation because
of Derrick Henry.

Speaker 3 (01:59:26):
It's this, So what you said is that, like, that's embarrassing,
it's wrong, it's it's doing your job. Your I trust
you to do the right thing and put in your
research and watch enough games and look at enough film
and study the numbers and go deeper into EPA and
then you produce. Yeah, Josh Allen was better than him
last year, more valuable to his team, so he gets

(01:59:47):
my vote. Come on, man, I don't really honestly, I
said embarrassment because I don't even think it was close
and Alan was awesome. I are different. It's close, but
someone was better. I don't care how how close it is.
It's wrong. He was not better than him, not more
valuable than him. So how are you voting for him?

Speaker 4 (02:00:06):
Well, Yiannis wasn't better than James Harden because James Harden
was light years better than the year before when he
did win the MVP.

Speaker 3 (02:00:13):
But people were tired of voting for him for the
one year, right or what word would you use for
voting like that? Sence it embarrassing.

Speaker 4 (02:00:20):
It's narrative based awful, but it's wrong in the case
of those two specifically, I don't I don't think it
was a narrative thing. And I'm not even convinced that
what I'm saying is the overlying factor. I don't think
that people were like, well, he's got Derek Henry and
Josh Allen doesn't have a guy like that.

Speaker 3 (02:00:34):
They're like, well, Lamar Jackson's won it, he hasn't, we'll
give it to him.

Speaker 4 (02:00:38):
I do think that happens Sadly, I'm not saying it's right.
In fact, it's not right, but I do think that happened, as.

Speaker 3 (02:00:43):
Is always the case, five o'clock is here. Baseball at
five comes your way next Chandler Rome. A Thursday visit
to the A team. That is next.

Speaker 7 (02:00:52):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:00:56):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the A team.

Speaker 7 (02:01:03):
It is five o'clock on a Thursday.

Speaker 3 (02:01:04):
Here on the eight team, wex ac cole with you
and making a special appearance on a Thursday as opposed
to Friday. A good friend from the athletic covering the
Astros in Major League Baseball, that is, Chandler Rome joins
us as the Astros wrap up their four game series
with the A's, winners of the last two thirty five
hits in those games, twenty of them yesterday, Chandler as,

(02:01:26):
I welcome you in. Will we remember this later this
season when trying to analyze some of the numbers, maybe
specific to a certain couple of players that aren't clearly
taking advantage of this venue, or does it not even
really matter because everybody in the American League will play
there whenever they do this season. I don't think he's

(02:01:47):
punched up yet. There you go, Hello, Chandler, maybe he is.
We're having phone issues. Well he shouldn't be green, should he. Well,
now he's gone. If he was there, well we'll revisit that.
I was specifically talking about two home runs from Maltouve

(02:02:10):
this week. Two home runs in the same game from
Cam Smith. Seven hits in two days. So when we
get to analyze where's Cam Smith and the Rookie of
the Year conversation, where is he from April to May
to June. Well, he's got these blow up games now
in a sixteen day span in the month or eighteen
day span of the month of June, which is gonna

(02:02:31):
blow those up. But overall, I don't think they'll skew it.
And again, everybody else will be there as we try
again with Chandler looking at these couple of nights in
West Sacramento, I guess it might be even worse if
they're playing daytime baseball versus evening baseball. But how do
you kind of analyze the seasons of players that now
have taken advantage of this ballpark like the Astros have.

Speaker 6 (02:02:53):
Yeah, I mean, look, I think it's twofold. I think
the ballpark's obviously it's a hit or friendly ballpark. You've
seen the way the ball carries out out and left field,
and the Ashers have a very right handed lineup that's
pulling the ball with authority to left field. The other
thing is that the A's can't pitch. They have the
worst pitching staff in baseball. Their bullpen is the worst
in baseball, and the Ashers have just seized advantage of that.

(02:03:15):
They're doing what you should do to a bad team.
That is, that is, quite frankly, from what I understand,
pretty miserable just playing here, playing in Sacramento, playing in
this ballpark. The Ashers are doing what they should do.
So I think, just like I mean, i'm I'm I'm
the king of this, I think when I come on
here routinely, you know, don't don't overreact to one series,

(02:03:38):
good or bad. Don't overreact to one game, good or bad.
But I mean, certainly both teams are playing in the condition.
So the A's could just as easily be pulling the
ball out to left field and get scorn a bunch
of runs. But the Ashers are pitching so well and
keeping them in check. And I think that's that's the
key here. You know, the Ashers offense is going to
have to blow. This lineup has not shown a ton

(02:03:59):
of consistency all but the one thing that this team
has done all years they've pitched. And when you pitch
as well as they pitch, no matter who they're giving
the ball to, it seems like you're going to be
in every game and be able to win. And that's
what's setting them apart.

Speaker 3 (02:04:10):
Are you good with a sixty game sample size to
give some analysis on Cam Smith first thirty games, second
thirty games certainly appear to have some pretty dramatic improvements
in that second thirty is, at least statistically.

Speaker 6 (02:04:22):
Yeah, he's he's coming along. And look, as we've said
since day once to put him on the roster, they
were going to have to have patience with him. It
was not going to all click at once. He was
going to go through streaks and ebbs and flows as
the league adjusted to him, and he adjusted back and
he's taking it. Look, he's taking advantage of playing in

(02:04:44):
this ballpark as well, facing some not good pitching that
has hung him a lot of breaking balls that he
has not missed. But there are some signs that you know,
it's really coming together for him. He I think the
one thing they would like him to do more, and
if you've seen it in this series that he's done
a better job of it, he's got to get the
ball in the air a little bit more. His ground

(02:05:06):
ball rate on fastballs is like sixty percent and he's
seeing about half fastballs thrown to him. So if he
can get the ball in the air a little bit
more and tap into some of that power that we
know he has, it would really kind of elevate him
a little bit. But they believe they are pleased with
the progress he's making, and he's had two really really

(02:05:29):
nice games in a row here. That's going to give
him some confidence. But it's a process with him. It's
it's always an evolution, and they they knew when they
put him on the roster that they'd have to be patient,
that they were going to get stretches like this where
he's playing really well, and they were going to get
stretches like you know, he went one hundred and forty
seven at bats between homers between the two homer game

(02:05:50):
against the Padres and then what he did the other
night here, so it's always going to be a learning
experience for him, but he is, he's handling it all
so well. He's mature beyond his years. He's not over
or matched by any stretch of the imagination, and he's
settling in about as well as you can ask a
rookie that had thirty two games of minor league experience
to settle in.

Speaker 4 (02:06:09):
Let's start like, let's go from there, which is obviously
very very youth and very very young to a veteran
in esac Paratis. And the concern that Wex was talking
about earlier, basically that this hamstring issue might crop up
again he's back in the lineup, is how much of
a concern is that for as Wex pointed out, probably

(02:06:30):
the most consistent hitter in the Astros lineup wire to
wire so far this season.

Speaker 6 (02:06:35):
Yeah, I found it a little bit odd that that
they didn't just put him on the il out of
an abundance of caution, just because you know, with with
with hamstrings, you know, these are these are fickle things.
And given the lead that they have, I mean, they're
they're they're up five and a half games in the
division now, like there's no real urgency to push it.
But again, you know, you saw paratus Is putting together

(02:06:56):
a nice first half, probably wants to merit some All
Star consideration, and he's in his he's in his arbitration years,
so it's hard to just take it bat's away from
a guy that's held that that thinks he can play.
So but I mean, you've seen it, you know he
is not. I would not say he has run out
the miny ground balls he's hit the past couple of days.
He's still taking it pretty easy, and then they're gradually

(02:07:18):
reintroducing him in. So I think they're being mindful and
being proven of it. But yet they've got to protect
against that because I think, as we've seen as the
injuries keep mounting up here, the one thing that the
Astros don't have is they don't have position player depth
at the upper minor leagues. There's a reason that all
of their call ups have been veterans on minor league

(02:07:41):
deals that they signed from other organizations over the winter,
because they do not have much in the way of
homegrown prospects at Triple A or Double A that can
help at the position player level. So that probably played
into it, To be quite honest with you that they
looked at the they looked at what was out there
and probably thought, hey, eighty five percent he SoC Paradus

(02:08:03):
is probably better than anything we can get from you know,
sugar Land or anything that we have down there. So
let's put him in. Let's be mindful, let's be prudent.
But also they need they understood that it was a
it was a net you know, it was a net
wash that they would have gotten had they brought somebody up.
So yeah, they've got to be careful with him. But
it seems like he's he's taken it pretty slow.

Speaker 3 (02:08:24):
Out of curiosity since you're talking about the four A
category and this is not a prospect but rather a
twenty nine year old player. What is Luis Castro to
the Astros organization?

Speaker 6 (02:08:38):
He's a uh, you caught me off guard with that one.
I don't really know.

Speaker 3 (02:08:43):
He's played around the infield, he's obviously hit the ball,
and again, these are PCL numbers well enough to you
would think warrant consideration. But I don't know that even
positionally he would have ever made any sense. Because we
also talked about Bryce Matthews earlier, and I know you
did as well, and Dana has brought it up to
and he's got ridiculous splits this year, home and anywhere
butt Constellation Field. And to that end is Bryce Matthews more.

(02:09:09):
He can help us at the end of the year
with his speed, and we're hopeful that he plays well
enough this year that when we trot the opening day
lineup card out there next year at Dykin Park when
the Padres are in town, that he's the opening day
second baseman in twenty six.

Speaker 6 (02:09:25):
Yeah, I mean, I think that's there. That's always been
the thought is that he's the he is the internal
air apparent at second base, and I think if he
would have gotten off to a better start this year,
you could have seen Brendan Rodgers probably not be here.
They could have exercised the the clause that they had
to release him, and Bryce Matthews could have had a

(02:09:47):
pretty lengthy runway here. But he didn't start off well.
He's played better as of late. But yes, as Dana
Brown brought up unprompted, and as you can see on
every Baseball Reference site, like his numbers are pretty road inflated,
and you have to look into that when you look
at any PCL numbers because they play in Reno, they
play in Albuquerque, they play in Salt Lake City. They
plan all these places where it is a launching pad

(02:10:09):
and the elevation is higher than Colorado in some places,
So you have to keep that in mind. And I
think Bryce Matthews will be up at some point this year.
I don't know when. I don't know what is going
to precipitate that, but I will say this, the fact
that he is not up right now, given the situation
that they're in, given that they have lewiski Orme and

(02:10:32):
Cooper Hummel, no disrespect to them, but that they're on
the roster over Bryce Matthews kind of should tell you
where he stands right now now. To not say it
can't get better, it's not to say that he can't
improve his standing because again he's playing well in Triple
A and he needs to make more contact the defense.
I think they're fine with the defense at second base,

(02:10:52):
but they don't think the bat's ready. And if he's
not up here right now, given all the injuries, then
that you kind of tell you where he stands.

Speaker 4 (02:10:59):
Do you get the kick out of lists where Roman
Anthony is listed as a potential Rookie of the Year
candidate when he's played like a handful of games.

Speaker 6 (02:11:08):
Is Christian Campbell saw on and he gets at the
triple A today. Yeah, I mean, look, I think Cam
what Cam suffers from Cam is and he's not the
first person to suffer from this. When you're on the Astros,
it's really hard to get noticed because you've got Jose
al Tuve on the team, because you've got Jordan Alvarez
on the team, because you've got Hunter Brown from Erveld,

(02:11:30):
guy Josh Hater. You've got household names here that people
automatically go to when you start looking at the Astros.

Speaker 5 (02:11:37):
And to.

Speaker 6 (02:11:39):
Become more to become the guy that people are talking
about like that, you've got to do some stuff that's
pretty superhuman. And Cam Smith has played very well this season.
He is We just talked about how well he has
adjusted and everything, but we also did just say he
won one hundred and forty seven at bats between homers
like the He's hitting a lot of singles. There hasn't

(02:11:59):
been a ton of extra base thump until the last
two nights. He's been remarkable in right field. He's probably
the best defensive right fielder in baseball, which should give
him a ton of, you know, props and prop him up.
But to stand out in these things, you've got to
do something that's pretty superhuman. And while cam Smith has
been good, he has not been oh my God like

(02:12:20):
he's must see TV destroying everything in his path like.
But to be fair, most rookies are not Jack cagleone
who everyone loved. He took until today for him to homer,
and he homered twice against the Texas Rangers.

Speaker 3 (02:12:33):
Pretty fascinating stuff. They just are finishing up a series
with the rookie who has clearly been the best, and
that is Jack Wilson's kid, Jacob. Appreciate the time as always,
look forward to catching you back here in Houston. Always
appreciate the excellence produced there on the Athletic, and we
will talk to you again.

Speaker 6 (02:12:49):
Soon, all right, Thanks guys, Chandler.

Speaker 3 (02:12:52):
Rome joining us on a Thursday here on the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (02:12:58):
Thanks again to Chandler Rome of the Athletic for joining
us for his weekly visit a day early then he
normally does, but get travel arrangements sometimes and they can
cut into the best laid plans. I've been reading a
lot during the break about why specifically or how specifically

(02:13:20):
the Spurs and the Rockets would go about not getting
Kevin Durant, but approaching it like the discussions and how
relatively and the turn keeps getting used conservative. Both franchises
have been towards this subject, and I love that.

Speaker 3 (02:13:36):
That's music to my ears. They are operating. In my opinion,
I wish there was only one team operating this way, Houston,
but I think several others are doing the same thing.
Smart They're operating from their point of view only. This
is for us. We're not concerned about you. We're not
trying to make it a good deal for both teams.
This is it. We're willing to part with this, We're

(02:13:57):
willing to walk away. If that stays true throughout this
entire negotiation period, then we'll see how it ends. I
do think it would end with Phoenix probably looking somewhere else,
or what I think each of these teams thinks could
happen is they don't really have another option. They don't
really have a better option, and one of these offers
that they've publicly through sources have consistently been reported as

(02:14:21):
underwhelming and not blown their socks off or their doors off.
Whichever you prefer. And I think that's when you look
at these two teams, I do think while they're in
different places, and it's less of a given, far far
less of a given with San Antonio because of where
they are. Just a quick reminder about where San Antonio
is nowhere near the top of the standings if you

(02:14:42):
were unaware of that. The San Antonio Spurs are not
a winning team, haven't been close to a winning team,
and either of the years with Victor Webiniana. They also
while their location might not be a giveaway, they do
play in the Western Conference. They finished with a worse
record than every team in the Western Conference except for
the Pelicans and Jazz. In other words, as if you

(02:15:04):
look at just the two years that they've had with Victor,
as they're growing their team, as they've made additions, two
of them this year, which are kind of they make
it difficult to not recognize. They added deer in Fox
the deadline, they drafted Stefan Castle. San Antonio went from
fourteenth to thirteenth. Now, they did have a twelve win

(02:15:25):
improvement and that's definitely noteworthy in a much better way
to say this, but we're in Houston, so I'm not
going to give you that. Where do you think they're
going to be this year, next year, and the year
after that. If they're the team that lands Kevin Durant
and they signed them to one hundred and twenty million
dollar extension, and there are your three years presumably with
all four of those players as teammates, Castle, Wemby, Fox

(02:15:50):
and Durant in the West in San Antonio, as Durant
reaches the age of forty, do they win any playoff
series three years? I'll give you they probably land in
the top eight, whether it's through the playing tournament or
is the fifth or sixth best team in the West?
But are they Are they better than anybody? Are they

(02:16:10):
better than whatever Memphis looks like this year? Are they
better than Anthony Davis and Kyrie's team? Are they better
than James Harden's team, Anthony Edwards team, E May's team,
Jokich's team, SGA's team, Lebron Luca's team. Like, I'm not
saying they're awful and they can't win, but this is

(02:16:33):
what you're up against in the West. If you give
some of your future, and I do think they're gonna
be able to keep those three pieces together might cost
most of the rest of their future if you're putting
it all in durant, because after those three years, then
what dearon Fox is on the wrong side of his
career at that point in time, and what assets do
you have to go out and really truly get better

(02:16:55):
If this is the card you play, I think the
Rockets can can do it, have more to play because
they have more of their core, the core. San Antonio's
young core is two players. The Rocket's young core is
seven players. It's very, very different.

Speaker 4 (02:17:12):
Well, the best part about this article I was reading
with the conservative approach is that both of these teams
come to the same conclusion in that all right, if
you want, if you want our c offer, not our
a ARB offer. Obviously, Phoenix, yeah we'll go get them,
but we would rather play this smart, we being the

(02:17:33):
Spurs and the Rockets, by the way, That's what I'm
getting at, and not, you know, blow all of our
assets for a superstar on this trade when there's always
somebody available in the NBA, and that somebody might be
closer to thirty versus forty and might be actually better

(02:17:54):
for your long term plans, even if it requires you
to give up. I guess more talent or capital or
what a commodation of both.

Speaker 3 (02:18:01):
Yeah, Kawhi Leonard's been moved due to being disgruntled. Paul
George has been moved Westbrook Hardin Durant, previously leading George.
I saw a rumor today Paul George might get traded again,
this time to the Jazz. Why to get his contract
off the books, and when you're the team landing him,
you get favors to do so. But in the same

(02:18:22):
day I saw what really made me chuckle.

Speaker 4 (02:18:26):
Sixers are going to give Joel Embiid and Paul George
and Tyrese Maxey one more go round to try and win.

Speaker 3 (02:18:34):
They don't really like you're mentioning the possibility that George
gets traded. I would be shocking if any team was
willing to take that on, no matter what they got
to do. So I feel like they have to. They
decided that Joel Embiid was too good not to extend
at this incredible financial commitment level, and they knew all
the injury risks that went with it, and they of
all played out. But the alternative is, well, there is

(02:18:56):
not one anymore. They made the commitment. There's no other
team that's about to jump in and say no, we will.
We want that risk, we want that contract, and that
constantly broken down player. Tyrese Maxi is an elite talent
and they did well to draft him where they did
and correctly extended him. But he's the best and most
available of the three. And Paul George doesn't even matter.

(02:19:16):
I mean, I hate to be so disrespectful a player
at a great NBA career, but he doesn't. It's over.
He doesn't impact a team much in terms of winning,
and he's his availability is always also in questions why
he's not anymore? Yeah, tell me Philadelphia is totally healthy
next year and there are some other pieces, presumably Grimes
as a find and to some extent, I don't know

(02:19:36):
how it fits in with the healthy version of that team.
But how high even up the Eastern Conference ladder would
you now put them after we watched the way they
played last year that I think they have no tchoue
Oh they're gonna run it back with the well, of
course they are. What there's no alternative. Somebody else has
to save you from it. If you feel like you
can move on from one of those pieces, and no
team is willing to do that. What they're going to

(02:19:57):
probably do is be active with their pick in the draft.
What do we want to do at number three? Are
we willing to pass on this talent so we can
flip this pick to that pick to that pick. We
know who's in charge of their personnel, and I think
it's almost a given. I do believe one. Not long ago,
while he was here in Houston, there was an additional
Wexler written and sung very badly. I know Jeff I

(02:20:18):
sing very badly. I did do a draft day parody
song for Darryl Moray. Is his favorite day of the year.
You know what it was sung to? I don't remember that.
Rebecca Blacks Friday. That's a bad song and a bad parody.
It went wear very well together. I don't remember this
it We didn't play for that much because Draft Day
only comes up once a year. What he loves being active,

(02:20:42):
and I'm sure that's what Philadelphia is banking. And I
do think McCain was probably a very good pick where
they were last year, probably a better player than some
of those drafted ahead of him, Probably a helpful player.
And I'm by any mean, I'm not saying the East
is awesome. That's why we think the deal that was
just made for Desmond Bank Bain could catapult Orlando to

(02:21:03):
the to the top, literally the very top. I think
Cleveland's probably still there for another year, even with the
Garland injury, because I think Mobiley's doing nothing but getting better,
and Mitchell's not fading yet. They faded in the playoffs.
But we know Boston's not what they're gonna be next year.
Next year is a down year for Boston. They're not
They're not a championship contender. I don't believe woo. Yeah, no,

(02:21:23):
it's just it's a factor in the East. That means
who is somebody else is probably gonna be in the
Eastern Conference finals against maybe Cleveland, who wasn't even there
this year. Is it the new Orlando Magic? Is it
the Knicks because they've made something else happened, they've gotten
a little bit better. Or are they just where they
are already? You think that means you're only four wins
away from the finals?

Speaker 6 (02:21:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (02:21:43):
No, since you got the Indiana to oh yeah, those guys,
since you brought them up, don't you think Cleveland's kind
of like something to keep an eye on? Because they're
the ultimate. Well, we were so close, Like you had
a season that was comparable record wise to the team
that's probably going to win the NBA Championship this year.
And yet I don't feel like anybody looks at those

(02:22:05):
two even remotely the same.

Speaker 3 (02:22:06):
Oh, because they look at what happened to him. For
all the reasons that people thought that Jared Allen had
a bad postseason, They're a really good three point shooting team.
And if that falls by the wayside, which for some
of their postseason it did, they're kind of I wouldn't
say they're sunk, but they were a little bit like
Oklahoma City relative to their competition. Oklahoma City's clearly better

(02:22:27):
than Cleveland, but Cleveland ran away with the East in
my opinion. I know Boston wasn't out of it till
the very late stages, but they dominated the weak sisters,
and they actually did perform well against Boston. They had
a decent record against the better teams, but the only
teams you play in the postseason are the good ones,
and it showed they weren't that much better than them

(02:22:47):
when it mattered most. Cleveland can win any number of
games next year. Again, I doubt I would make them
the fair who picked Cleveland to make it to the finals.
Certainly nobody in this room or that room. I'm sure
a few people in the NBA, but not very many
for a team that was the number one seed. Pretty
Much everybody picked Boston, which also wasn't right.

Speaker 4 (02:23:06):
Yeah, But I until Oklahoma City broke through, I was
sure they were gonna fall apart in the postseason because
that's what they had done once.

Speaker 3 (02:23:13):
Wow, fall apart. I mean, they're just so much better
this year. They got better, and that's why they're in
the finals. That's why tonight I do believe will be
the last night of NBA basketball. The next night of
NBA basketball with the very long anticipated twenty twenty five
twenty six preseason, in case you missed it, comes your
way next.

Speaker 1 (02:23:33):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:23:38):
Few things as we get set up for in case
you missed it here on the A Team, as we
always do. Halfway through the final hour of the program,
we'll have tickets to give away in the final segment
to both Monster Jam coming up on October eighteenth, and
that includes pit passes and to the advanced screening the
IMAX advanced screening of F one. The movie got a
pair of reserve seats for that.

Speaker 5 (02:23:57):
Do that.

Speaker 3 (02:23:58):
It's five forty five, So listen up closely for something
that is going to be said here or has been
said that this hour. We'll ask you about next segment
and initially for in case you missed it. In case
you missed it, the Houston Rockets have come to an
agreement on a contract extension. I like the contract extension
and a lucrative contract extension with their head coach, email Udoka.

(02:24:19):
He's heading into year three with the Rockets, coming off
of fifty two and thirty season, a seven game series
lost in the opening round of this year's postseason to
the Warriors, with better things expected ahead, and they've locked
him in pretty much as expected. Just a matter of
for how much and the timing of it. But Emay
Udoka will remain the Rockets head coach for many years

(02:24:41):
to come. What else do we need today? Listen? I
know that AC is not.

Speaker 5 (02:24:44):
The biggest fan of the College World Series mantra, but
last night's game was one for the ages. Arkansas, needing
to win two to advance to the College World Series Final,
gets a two run lead, in the top of the
ninth off a Justin Thomas te breaking single, and he
looked ready to go ahead and dominate to get to
today's game. However, things went crazy, as always they do

(02:25:10):
for Arkansas, who just seems to be the Penn State
of the world of college baseball. Luis Hernandez comes on
up sends a hard liner two left field after Cole
Gibbler allowed two runners to get on base. Charles Delavan dives,
doesn't make the play, both runners score, and Jared Jones,
who had hit a home run earlier in the game, well,

(02:25:32):
let's us hear it, and as you can see him
there in the foreground, he is the winning run.

Speaker 7 (02:25:36):
He does get one.

Speaker 8 (02:25:37):
Heck cut off the second cons lsu is on to
the finals. Hey pitch to Jones and it bounced off
the glove of Karen Klozel and the Tigers are going.

Speaker 7 (02:25:54):
Back to the final.

Speaker 5 (02:25:55):
So once again Arkansas finds a way to mess it
up at the one yard line and ulis you.

Speaker 3 (02:26:01):
Want to Neet j.

Speaker 5 (02:26:02):
Johnson will fight against the Colsta Carolina. Shantz clears for
an opportunity to claim his second That's what title. Don
Baton Ruse congratulates to.

Speaker 3 (02:26:08):
See you, Gordy. There were basically four things that happened
there that everyone's pointing at, kind of in succession. The
play that the first baseman had to field and throw
over to first. I think that was a nothing. The
runner's gonna be safe regardless. He ended up getting the
second because of the bad throw. But what happened after that,
one of those things that you described certainly played a
huge role in it. And you've got a double play

(02:26:30):
grounder with one out, runners on first and second, but
the shortstop decides to field it and throw to third. Inexplicably,
maybe they don't turn two, although most people think they
would have with any reasonable play, but they certainly would
get one out. They got none. And then the play
that you mentioned, bad read on it kind of stumbled
his way into the baseball, which went off his shoulder

(02:26:51):
and bounded far enough away that the two runs score.
That's play three. And then the final play the audio
that you heard that could have been caught, that nearly
was caught. It would have put them into the game,
wouldn't have ended, they would have gone to extra innings.
But man, it just seemed like, well, of course he
didn't catch jumped up right into and out of his glove.
Not a bad play, not an error, but this closed

(02:27:12):
on four different occasions to not have a mistake go
against them, but they all did. Best player for Arkansas
is who had happened to on that play in the
outfield and it's been heartbreak more than a few times
for Arkansas. Sets up for a great finale. As you mentioned,
the Chanta Clairs have been the best team in college
baseball for months and LSU is the type of team

(02:27:32):
that's played their way into If anyone's going to beat them,
now you insert their name, it's going to be them.
So should be in store for more excitement. The College
World Series results in late game drama have not our
first walk off win by any means in this tournament,
both here in the previous rounds. Sets up for some
more fun. What else do we have, Well, we.

Speaker 5 (02:27:52):
Don't know who is the best linebacker for the Houston
Texans this year, but one of the best linebackers in
the last ten years. He's a side and hang up
the Cleans. Five time pro bowler CJ. Moseley retired from
the NFL just before his thirty third birthday, sharing a
highlight of career naccolades during his time on Instagram. Signed
a five year, eighty five million dollar deal with the

(02:28:13):
Jets in twenty nineteen after five standout seasons with the
Baltimore Ravens, Beciven the first Baltimore Ravens player to be
voted to the Pro Bowl as a rookie, and then
posting three more all Pro seasons from twenty sixteen to
twenty eighteen. His first year with the Jets was eliminated
because of a broint injury dealt with some other things
with the COVID nineteen sit out in twenty twenty, but

(02:28:34):
he was the all time leading tackler at the point
during his last three years for the New York Jets,
with one hundred and sixty eight on fifty eight and
one hundred and fifty two tackles. Recently was released on.

Speaker 3 (02:28:45):
March twelfth, Probably worth noting the extreme defensive talent from
his draft class in twenty fourteen, when the Texans had
the number one overall pick and went defense with Jadevian Clowney. Five.
Umber five overall was Khalil Mack. Number thirteen overall was
the also retired Aaron Donald Moseley was seventeenth overall, four

(02:29:09):
All Pro selections in his first five years, and then
one more with the Jets during a very relatively brief
ten year period in the NFL. This is extreme superstar
defensive talent and a pretty good Jdavian Clowney. Could you
imagine if they had drafted Aaron Donalds. We don't talk
about so nobody revisionist history wouldn't say that he was

(02:29:31):
even in the conversation for them, or the Rams or
the Jaguars or buffalon It was Khalil Mack that I
wanted them to draft, and he was the second defensive
player taken, and in a quarterback starved league where they
have a big problem analyzing and grading quarterbacks. Jacksonville took
Blake Bortles at three and Buffalo took Sammy Watkins at four.

(02:29:55):
Sammy Watkins took them too the AFC Championship game. He's
the boat, took them. Best offensive player drafted in that
first round. He went seventh from Galveston Ball Mike V
Mike Evansie, Oh wow, that's right, still going strong. Next
was Johnny Manziel. He went twenty two. What else do
we have?

Speaker 5 (02:30:15):
So Shandler kind of brought this up, but sometimes you
gotta stop listening to all the people that talk about
farm systems because of one of the best prospects pouring
to multiple names is set it back down to triple A.
Christian Campbell, the starting second baseman for the Boston Red Sox,
is headed now down while William Abray is coming off
the injured list. The reigning Minor League player of the

(02:30:37):
Year signed an eight year, sixty million dollar extension before
ever even taking a step into the batter's box at.

Speaker 3 (02:30:43):
The major league level. Was the American League Rookie.

Speaker 5 (02:30:45):
Of the Month in April after hitting three oh one
with a four to ninety five seleven percentage. But since
May he has struggled, hitting one point fifty nine only
two twenty two ops, and defensively, he has been somewhat.

Speaker 7 (02:30:58):
Of a mix as a liability, not.

Speaker 5 (02:31:02):
Entirely, but also not that great for a team that
currently is still in the Foreign American League walkcard spots.

Speaker 3 (02:31:07):
Yeah, first month of the season, you gave the numbers.
He deserved it, he earned it. He was phenomenal better
than a nine hundred OPS this first month. He became
unplayable an OPS of under five hundred is unplayable, so
they sent him down one of the many Boston Red
Sox stars that's supposed to keep Alex Bregman excited about
being a Boston Red Sox player in the future. They

(02:31:28):
have three rookies they were now having to count on
this year because they traded away Rafael Devers. He's now
one of those three, but he's going to be not
playing for the Boston Red Sox at least for the
short term future.

Speaker 4 (02:31:41):
I feel like you keep asking the same question, what
do you think Alex Bregman's thinking right now?

Speaker 3 (02:31:45):
That was one of the things. Had we had more
time with Chandler, I would have asked him and will
as we move forward is very important Detroit. You need
third basement trade that line coming up. That's where he
was gonna go trade, but they're not trading in. We'll
take the break.

Speaker 7 (02:32:03):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:32:09):
Mentioned it earlier as we get into this final segment
of the show before in edition of the Nightcap and
a little bit later this evening Astros Athletics Baseball, you
got some tickets to give away here. I have a
four pack of tickets with passes to go see Monster
Jam October eighteenth at NRG Stadium. Tickets available for sale
at ticketmaster dot com. Should you not win them, here
a couple of giveaways from the reserved seats. We've got

(02:32:32):
a couple of pairs of reserve seats at the Imax
Advanced screening of F one, the movie That's Stars. Let's see,
how do I want to say his name today? Yesterday
I just called him Brad Pitt. What should I call
him today? Angelina Jolie's X, Jennifer Anson's X. I mean
the list is long and distinguished, mister Smith of the
famous mister and missus Smith. I mean you could keep

(02:32:54):
going fake Billy Bean, Fake Billy Bean, Stars and f
in the movie and you can catch that with air
of reserve seats from us here the Imax Advanced screening.
It's Apple's original film. It's in theaters Imax, June twenty seventh.
From our friends over Warner Brothers Pictures. If you've been
listening to the show both yesterday and today, well thank you.

(02:33:14):
If you've been listening to the show for longer than that,
double thank you. But your opportunity to win those tickets,
because you'll know the answer to this question and we
have found ourselves sunk into the nightmare of looking at
off season rankings lists as it relates to the NFL
and the quarterbacks that play the game, the starters the best.
Let's put them in order and make people talk about it,

(02:33:35):
because the order we've put them in stinks. We did
it both yesterday and today, and one quarterback in particular,
for my co host, has him wanting to rant and
rave about it, and he has each of the last
two days, probably appropriately. What quarterback on these lists we've
unnecessarily brought up gets under his skin the most so

(02:33:56):
far that we have heard about the last two days,
including earlier today on the show show. I can't believe
people keep giving this guy a pass? How is he
so high on these lists? Didn't you just watch him play? Here?
Who is this quarterback? It gets under AC's skin the most,
based on our discussions the last two days, best quarterbacks

(02:34:17):
in the NFL seven one to three, two one two, five,
seven ninety. For the answer to that question, for your
opportunity to win those tickets, just call in and tell
us it's not CJ, of course, and it's probably not
who you're thinking of unless you were listening then it's
exactly who you're thinking of. And that's what I want.
I wanted you guys to be at least for the
last two days long time. Yeah, these are parts of

(02:34:38):
parts of the show. Partners of the show. Listeners to
the show are our bestest buddies out there. These are
for you. We'd love you to enjoy some of the
things we can offer you with tickets. So there you go,
listen to the show, win a prize like it's the
opposite of mess around and do this play stupid games,
win stupid price. No, you're playing a winning game. You're
listening to us. You get great prizes.

Speaker 4 (02:34:59):
Did you see Magic Johnson and Bill Simmons get into
it about the Lakers sale.

Speaker 3 (02:35:04):
I can only imagine and the answer is no.

Speaker 4 (02:35:07):
So you read the other day a tweet from Dodgers owner,
commander's owner, and former Lakers icon in that order.

Speaker 3 (02:35:17):
Yes, former Lakers head coach Magic Johnson. I did read
a quote from him on his ex platform, and he's
had several things to say. You know, the sale they
went for ten talked about his sister quote unquote, Genie
would only consider selling if they can keep going with
the name. All that stuff So what did he and
Willie Simmons get into today.

Speaker 4 (02:35:36):
Well, Magic reacted to the sale and he you posted
the following on X Just like I thought when the
Celtics sold for six billion, I knew the Lakers were
worth ten billion.

Speaker 3 (02:35:49):
He brought the Celtics into the conversation, and Bill felt
he was now needed.

Speaker 4 (02:35:54):
And Simmons responded, we'll have to settle for having six
more championships.

Speaker 3 (02:36:00):
Is there more or is that it?

Speaker 4 (02:36:01):
Uh, Well, they go into a little bit of a
numbers game, which is your thing. So Bill Simmons said
the following. And this was this morning at like ten fifteen.
The Bus family owned sixty six percent of the Lakers,
Walter's side owned twenty seven percent, Randoms owned seven percent.

(02:36:25):
Walter offered four point eight billion for forty eight percent more,
that's ten billion valuation. Bus family said, yes, kept eighteen percent.
So Walter's side paid one point three to five billion
in twenty twenty one for twenty seven percent, then four
point eight billion for forty eight percent. That equals six
point one five billion total for a seventy five percent majority.

Speaker 3 (02:36:46):
It's not that crazy. We'll have to settle for six
more championships. He's I mean, I do think there's a
difference here. We the fans of Boston will have to
settle for having six more championships, versus is me, a
player on the basketball court who won some of these championships,
are fine with that. I get the point of the

(02:37:09):
argument completely, But it's a media member fan arguing about
championships won with someone who won the championships, right right.

Speaker 4 (02:37:17):
He didn't have anything to do with the Celtics success
other than buying tickets, and he didn't even buy them.

Speaker 3 (02:37:23):
His dad did because he was young. It's good stuff, though,
it's good natured fun. I'm sure. I'm sure it was
taken sent and taken from the right perspective.

Speaker 4 (02:37:29):
And all of those numbers he tweeted were to show that,
you know, the money the Bus family has made on
the Lakers just didn't that impressive.

Speaker 3 (02:37:37):
Yeah, for those that are, you know, wondering in what
tonent was sent, Clinton conveniently intentionally forgot to mention the
three loudly crying face emojis at the end of Bill
Simmons will have to settle for six more championships. It's
not that crazy. So the game tonight ends. The NBA season.
Haliburton's going to get it a GOL. SGA is gonna

(02:37:59):
win the MVP. SGA is going to cement anybody who's
ready to start. What about historically and legacy and where's
he fit and what more is to come. He's also gonna,
you know, put together a season's worth of an incredible
resume no matter what happens in the future. This is
in Indiana.

Speaker 4 (02:38:18):
This reportedly, or like about forty five minutes ago, someone
who was there and I can't remember the I don't
know if his shan or somebody reportedly said that Halliburton
hit fifteen consecutive threes and warm ups.

Speaker 3 (02:38:31):
No, uh, I'm not gonna let you do that.

Speaker 4 (02:38:33):
And here's why it's breaking news anytime Steph Curry hits
some stupid trick shot every time in warm ups because
ESPN cameras can't get enough of it. So therefore I
can absolutely say, with tongue firmly planet in cheek that
it's a big deal when a guy who had an
MRI on his calf strain is out there making fifteen

(02:38:53):
consecutive threes before the biggest game of his life.

Speaker 3 (02:38:56):
So your actors, I tried to listen closely. It sounded
like you're being no. I do think you didn't know
who posted it because it was the Worldwide Leader. Yeah,
I figured it was them. Alibert knocked down fifteen straight
threes and they've got the video for it. Yeah, breaking news.
Tonight's NBA Finals will feature the best players in the

(02:39:18):
NBA who make all of their shots when they aren't guarded,
whether or not they have one or two healthy cow visa.
It is to make fifteen consecutive threes on a bum leg.

Speaker 6 (02:39:31):
He have you?

Speaker 3 (02:39:32):
You've also seen this particular player shoot jumpers, right, I'm sorry,
set shots, broken, janky form. He doesn't leave the floor
when he's one hundred percent healthy. You can slide maybe
two pieces of paper underneath his jumpers. Again, jumpers. But
there's no question the season ends tonight. Right, m oh

(02:39:52):
my gosh, no way. I think this guy thinks the
Pacers are gonna win. I do so. The games are
the uh Jalen Brown game that these Celtics had immediately
after Jason Tatum's injury. Put it this way, they extend
this series by one game after that injury. Put it
this way, and play tonight if they do win this game,
tonight they're winning at all. That's not happening.

Speaker 4 (02:40:15):
You know how broken the thunder would be if they
lost this game, that would be tremendous. And Tyrese Haliburton
scored fifty five points on a busted leg.

Speaker 3 (02:40:24):
I'm gonna set the tie over under it. Thirteen and
a half. Not gonna be much. We got a nightcap
for you and xent as mentioned, we got astros A's
finale of that series coming your way in the evening.
One other nine oh five start all part of the
evening here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (02:40:40):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety

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