Literally Raining On Houston's Parade: Rockets Drop Game 7, Astros Dip In Seven Vs. White Sox

The A-Team saw two different types of rain on Sunday afternoon. In Chicago, literal storms cost the Astros a win over the White Sox and a series victory. In Houston, the Rockets saw Buddy Hield have the game of his life and Steph Curry surge ahead for a Game 7 victory. Both stunk. Both led to multiple conversations for the boys on Monday's show. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
The two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
My Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Nolan multipot, the magnificent roller coaster ride that.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
Is Houston Sports Chill Late Down for the only home
grown afternoon team is Talking your Teams.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 4 (00:39):
A Oil that sucked.

Speaker 5 (00:49):
It is the eight team Sports Talk seven ninety. It
is a Monday edition of the program. Wex and ac
with you, getting you through the next almost four then
we'll get you into Astros on deck.

Speaker 4 (01:02):
But we will be your therapist.

Speaker 5 (01:04):
We will be your couch to sit on, to lay on,
to talk about all of your troubles to us as
a Houston sports fan, because yesterday was about as big
of a punch and that, you know what, as we've
had in quite some time. I mean, losing to Chicago
the way the Astros did two out of three and
having the game called like that's that's a bummer, I guess,
but at least she has you had Game seven on

(01:26):
the way and then the Rockets forgot to show up
for Game seven, so that wasn't a lot of fun either.
And if it sounds like I'm low energy today, just
it brother, they're beating down.

Speaker 4 (01:38):
What am I supposed to say? They did win one
game this weekend night, that was awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:42):
I asked somebody this last night, and I'll ask you
the same question, and I know the answer. It's not
even rhetorical. It's just that I know what you're going
to say. But I know some people would say the opposite.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
Would you have.

Speaker 5 (01:51):
Rather than just gone ahead and lost in that fifth game,
rather than have a thrilling game five win and a
thrilling game six, would win only to come back and
just completely no show last night?

Speaker 4 (02:03):
Well, I obviously don't think they know showed last night
at all, but yeah, I would never once did there's
half of your team correct? The offense se You're right,
you know what.

Speaker 5 (02:10):
I retract my statement because they still played amazing defense
last night.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
The offense like they played last night, that is a
forty five point blowout if they know, show totally. But
they didn't. They constantly gave themselves That was the Rockets
during the season. Many nights they gave themselves a chance,
but they weren't going to make any baskets, so it
was few touchs. So frustrated. It is very frustrating when
you know you still have a chance. The Warriors on
many nights would be able to score and would be

(02:38):
able to blow you out with that much inability, And
we talked about this plenty before the show. We don't
always do that, but we did today, even early in
the show. It's okay even though you hate them, even
though after the fact they make you hate them more.
The Warriors had to earn it. The Warriors had to
beat the Rockets. They weren't gifted this series. They didn't

(02:58):
walk over the Rockets. Do think the Rockets gave them
some of their wins with their free throw shooting and
their inability to execute, But I think some of that
is also due to the fact they couldn't just drive
to the basket and finish on the Warriors. They could
against a lot of other teams. The Warriors are actually
pretty good at a few things, and they certainly got
a whole lot better when Jimmy Butler arrived and they
were afforded the opportunity to not need Steph Curry to

(03:22):
score thirty forty fifty to win a game. I was
pretty tired of it, even just one day's worth of it.
After the Rockets forced Game six, even in postgame, Hey, Steph,
does this remind you of when you played Sacramento two
years ago and you scored fifty in Game seven? Their
media sucks. I just couldn't. I knew it wasn't going
to be needed because I would never have to say

(03:43):
it unless the Rockets did what they had been doing
the last two games and they won the series and
moved on. Like Steph scored fifty in that particular Game seven,
very recently against the team that absolutely embarrassingly bad production
on defense, Sacramento couldn't stop him in games one through
six either. The team they stopped was the Rockets thirty. Well,

(04:04):
this is two years ago, totally thirty three points per game.
That's what he was averaging going into their Game seven.
Stephan was averaging twenty three points a game against the Rockets.
And while he was shooting the ball overall fairly well,
and he did again last night at fifty percent, there
was no way, if the Rockets cared had any pride,
he was going to score fifty against them. It would

(04:25):
literally be impossible because he would be taking shots he
cannot make, which he didn't have to do because he
passed to his teammates for the sixth consecutive game, seventh
consecutive game, and for the first time they made their shots. Obviously,
Buddy healed. So there are a bunch of different storylines
they should all include. The Warriors had to earn it.
The Warriors are in a really bad spot now, considering

(04:45):
how they had to get out of this series. Would
have been slightly different for Houston and that they wouldn't
have had to go anywhere. They would have won Game
seven last night, they would have gotten all their filmwork
on Minnesota today and tomorrow, and the Timberwolves would have
arrived for the first of their best of seven conference
semifinal series Tuesday night. Warriors obviously have to travel Minnesota.
A sixth seed is the host team has home court advantage,

(05:09):
and these Western Conference playoffs finally came to an end
in the first round with two lower seeded teams winning.
The five seed went to a seventh game with the
team that beat them. These teams, any matchups you could
have had in those three series I think could have
produced exactly what we just saw. There's no difference between
the fifty two win team and the forty eight win

(05:30):
team and the forty nine win team and the fifty
win team. There's only a difference between OKAC and the
rest yep, and they're not unbeatable in my opinion. But
I don't know how much we're going to get into
that today, well any day in the future.

Speaker 5 (05:41):
Well, I do think that Denver, in a weird way,
might have the best chance to upset them, But I
don't care, and I listen, it's tough like I used to.
I remember back in the day, and this was primarily
post Elijah.

Speaker 4 (05:57):
On and pre.

Speaker 5 (06:01):
Let's see, trying to think of when they drafted ste Wow,
No one of the Steve was in the was like
in the interim that was ninety nine. Yeah, was two
thousand and two, I believe, Yeah, two and two because
he was the year before Lebron. So in that small
little window right there, I e the rigged Sacramento LA

(06:23):
Conference Finals Tim Donnahey's words, not mine. I remember watching,
and maybe it was because the Rockets weren't participating. I
just remember watching an inordinate amount of playoffs and enjoying it,
even though I knew it was totally like thrown for
the Lakers. Like I would watch and then I would
like peek in on the finals because it was so
nauseating back then.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
But like I and I'm not.

Speaker 5 (06:44):
It's not to say I'm not gonna peek in on
the NBA playoffs, but man, like a season like this,
like once the.

Speaker 4 (06:48):
Rockets are out, I'm just like, oh gee.

Speaker 5 (06:51):
I can't. First of all, I can't. I'm not gonna
like sit there and grudge watch Warriors Timberwolves, like rooting
for the Timberwolves. I know everybody in the organization is
rooting for the timber Wolves. And by the way, they
should probably send the Rockets to thank you note for
what you just said. Rockets absolutely wore out the Warriors
when that could have been over in five games. Instead,
the Rockets were like, no, we're gonna go all the way,

(07:12):
all the way until we get a Game seven in
our house, and then we're gonna roll over and die.

Speaker 4 (07:16):
Well, good news for the Warriors as well. The Timberwolves
will not be at all trying to affect Steph Curry's
shot in any way that will be totally unaware of
his injured thumb. They'll leave him be. They won't follow
through on their defensive rotating the Rockets only Houston targeting
him another reason to hurt him.

Speaker 5 (07:34):
But I said this too, So I was saying my
goodbyes last night because I don't know the next time
I'll walk well, I do know, the next time I'll
walk into that building for a sporting event, it'll be
some Rockets preseason game. If I go into Toyota Center
this summer, it's going to be for some concert or
something like that. In the meantime, I'm saying goodbyes to
people that I'm not going to see for a while
because of that. And I'm saying my goodbyes to the

(07:56):
radio play by play for the Warriors because he's again,
the nicest people on the planet, and I'm just like, god,
you know, like again, here we are. And it reminds
me that there are elements of that organization, primarily the
broadcast crew and the pr crew, that I really liked

(08:17):
and everything else about it, and I lumped them in together.
The basketball ops and especially their media are just insufferable douchebags.
And it's because of things like what you just said.
And look, I'm not this is not me being bitter
about a loss. This is any given year. I would
say this because they, their fan base and their media
are so entitled, so arrogant and just so misguided about

(08:42):
stupid simple things like what you just said that that
was an actual narrative that they tried to force during
the series. The Rockets are trying to hurt Steph Curry
and they're the only team that does this because of
their head coach, while they employ Draymond Green over here.
Like the irony is just palpable. So I won't miss
that at all. And the sooner they're out because they're

(09:02):
not championship contenders.

Speaker 4 (09:04):
Twelve winning it all again, Yeah.

Speaker 5 (09:06):
That's great. When they get to the finals and win it,
it ain't happening.

Speaker 4 (09:10):
I probably won't need to let you know that for
the rest of any of their current players careers.

Speaker 5 (09:14):
No, it's like the Lakers, Like they're not as constructed
even with Jimmy Butler. They're not gonna win anything, which
may be the most bitter part about this, but it's
completely different than twenty eighteen.

Speaker 4 (09:27):
It just is. It sucks. They weren't favored to win
this series. The grant the viewpoint from the gambling masses
this one thing, and the Warriors were favored even as
a seventh seed who barely had fewer losses, who won
the season series, who clearly were a better team as

(09:47):
currently constructed than the one that put together forty eight
wins over the whole season. That's why they put together
most of their wins. At the end of the day,
they won almost the same number of games with Jimmy
and without Jimmy, even though he was only there for
a third of the season. It's a totally different animal
that you were dealing with. And clearly I think that
showed the Warriors who beat the Rockets earlier this year

(10:07):
without them, they weren't going to beat the Rockets in
a seven game series. But that point is moot because
that's not who they were anymore.

Speaker 5 (10:12):
Well, and I don't think, like you know, you hear
this all the time, well the better team won or
the better team didn't win, and however you want to
look at that. I just cannot look at a series
where until last night, the Rockets were up by digits,
double digits every single game and just say, well, the
better team won. The team that played better last night
is who won that series. And unfortunately, that's what it
comes down to. Sometimes in an evenly matched or closely

(10:34):
matched or however you want to describe it, series like
that that goes to a seventh and deciding game. I
set it going in, I set it at halftime, and
I still believe it. If the Rockets do what they do,
they win that game. They didn't do it last night
on one of the ends of the floor.

Speaker 4 (10:47):
Yeah, and then you just determine how much credit do
you give the other team's defense and how much do
you really blame it on what they were unable to do.
We're here to dissect some of that, obviously, get your
thoughts on it. It's kind of a we're the shoulder
for you today if you'd like to use it. Gives
call seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
You know where to find this on the socials at
Adam J. Wexler, at Adam Clinton, at mister Cole Thompson.

(11:09):
We are the a team. We clearly do expect to
talk a lot about what went wrong. And even though
it's just the first day after not even a full
twenty four, what is next? What are the options on
getting this team in a better position to advance? They
still think it's worth noting even though it sounds awful.
The Rockets went home after the first round. They did

(11:30):
not win a postseason series in the Western Conference and
the team with Luka Doncic and Lebron James did not
win a first round series in the Western Conference. The
team with a healthy Kawhi Leonard and a healthy James
Harden did not win a first round series in the
Western Conference. It is difficult. This conference is not like
the East. For me to sit here and say, Yannis

(11:52):
didn't win a first round series for the third year
in a row. It is not the same. It has
not been the same for such a long period of time.
And I think Lebron is actually indicative of that. And
I'll tell you why as we get through here. But
it doesn't sound very good today. It's not much of
an excuse. But you have to recognize internally inside these organizations.

(12:14):
Did we lose because we don't have it. Did we
lose and now we have to make some major move.
Did we lose because of us? Or did we lose
because it's just it's hard. Teams that are really, really
good and have championship aspirations for this season did not
win a first round series, maybe more than one, if
you believe. Both the Clippers and the Lakers felt like

(12:36):
they were in that boat. That's definitely debatable. But they
couldn't even win one series because the competitiveness basically you
had and I'm not even including Memphis, who won forty
eight games. These teams all they're all fifty win teams.

Speaker 5 (12:51):
Yeah, basically it was very very evenly matched across the board.
If your name wasn't Oklahoma City. So there is a
ton of layers to peel for that onion. And yeah,
we'll get into the Astros. There's just they We're not
up against a fifty win team. Oh wait, actually they
probably were. Dude, If the White Sox win fifty games

(13:11):
this year, I'll go streaking down Richmond.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
I'm just kidding. No, they have more games against the
Astros remaining. That's mean and fair.

Speaker 5 (13:20):
They beat him twice last year. I know, Lex, I know.
Let's just not talk about the Astros for a little while.

Speaker 4 (13:25):
I can't.

Speaker 5 (13:26):
I can only take one disappointing team at a time,
and we'll dive in.

Speaker 4 (13:29):
I can't wait to be riding around late night with Teresa.
Passenger seat is that? Adam? Adam? What are you doing?
Everybody's doing it, Adam, Get in the car. Cold out there,
a little cold out there, huh? Frank after July. All right,

(13:50):
we dive into everything some more.

Speaker 1 (13:52):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (14:12):
It is the A team Sports Talk seven to ninety
Massacre Monday edition. They didn't even get massacred. I said,
you know what, WEX said it best in the first segment.
If the Rockets no showed last night they get blown
out by forty. The Rockets played absolutely spectacular defense, believe

(14:32):
it or not. And by the way, if they hadn't,
I mean that would have been the case. They were
giving themselves chance after chance after chance. Whenever it was
like eighty four seventy four or eighty two seventy two,
that's a run of like they had like three or
four straight stops and then they would go down to
the other end and one of two things would happen.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
Jalen or Fred.

Speaker 5 (14:53):
Or basically anybody who was on the perimeter got shut
down because the Warriors credit to them, the only credit
I'm giving them were to I'll give Buddy Heel credit
because he carried Steph to another series win. They would
shut down whatever the Rockets were trying to do offensively.
Oh look, Shing Goon finally got the ball and there's
four point five on the shot clock, do something with it,
and then inevitably he would spin and he would turn

(15:14):
and he would do and then finesse some weak, bleeping
shot that made me want to kill myself every time
he took it, or he would fade away and that
wouldn't work either. You would think that Draymond Green was
eight feet five, but he's only like six foot seven
on a good day with his shoes on. But you
know what, Draymond Green game sevens against the Rockets or

(15:35):
anybody else, A dude shows up.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
Dude shows up. He had a five zero run to start.

Speaker 5 (15:41):
The game, and then he was scoring cheap baskets and
he was dropping dimes and he was ding up on Shingoon,
which Shingoon was helping with his finesse way that he
was approaching offense. But I gotta give it to Draymond Green.
He's a total a hole, but he's good. He's really good.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
Yeah. I thought it's tough to even say if it
favored one team the other. I kind of don't think
it did, but it definitely was a factor in the game.
They let more than in any other game this entire series.
I thought they let the players play through fouls, they
just didn't call them, and it was Again, I don't
think it's unfair. I don't think it was good or bad,
but I do think it was a factor in the game.
It definitely impacted some of the things that happened in

(16:19):
the game. There's no if a different group of officials
or if this is an April game before the playoffs.
I mean, Draymond Green probably picks up three early fouls.
Whoever was chasing Steph Curry picks up three early fouls.
My vantage point last night's game was courts at as.
I was trying to keep Calvin calm through the non
TV portion of the game. I mean, he's into it

(16:39):
like everybody else there and really so many people, especially
when we're downstairs doing the Space City Home Network on
site non studio, but we're literally right there where the
fans are, right there where the Rockets Tunnel is. The
fans they're talking to Calvin before the game, during the game,
and and they're saying some of the name things he's thinking.
And it is difficult last night for how they game went.

(17:00):
But you know, from our vantage point, this was the
Warriors' basket. We were essentially right underneath for the first half.
I mean, Steph was turning around and I think Tony
Brothers was the baseline official. He's like, you really don't
see this, You're really going to let him do this?
And Steph had curled from the right base line all
the way underneath the basket all the way out top,

(17:21):
so a good thirty feet and Jalen Green had a
hold of the back of his jersey the entire time. Yeah,
he was grabbing his jersey. Wasn't a physical play, but
it was just normally, even in the playoffs, I would
have expected them to call that and they didn't, and
they did that throughout this game. I do think it
allowed Raymond Green to play even more physical than usual,
especially on those takes to the rim you just mentioned.

(17:42):
Alpern had one, tar Easton had one. I mean, Thompson
had several. And while you could even argue maybe it's
not a fact, it's very physical and it's just how
last night's game went, I definitely think that led to
the rockets being put just putrid inside the painted area
and on two specifically, and when you cut that with something,
I didn't even bother looking it up because I thought

(18:03):
it would be too tough to stomach the attempts. I
haven't seen an NBA game like that ever. I can't
remember the last time, this is pre three point line existing.
The Rockets took two threes in the first quarter, they
didn't make either one of them. They took another four
to threes, six threes, i should say, in the second quarter.

(18:24):
They made two of those, so there were two of
eight at halftime on three pointers. Then they launched another
four during the third quarter. Heading into the final period
of a game they were still in down eight, they
were three for twelve on threes. That's impossible to play
NBA basketball at this level, regular season or postseason and

(18:47):
not even get the attempts up. You cannot win that
way offensively, miss them all like they did in Game
one then when they went six for twenty nine, but
you got to shoot them.

Speaker 5 (18:58):
Yeah, well you're looking at Jalen Green last night and
I'm like, really, eight shots in Game seven, And again
credit to the Warriors and you you were talking about
this before the show after we had our Like it
wasn't even it was like a pseudo screaming match, but
it was like a whisper scream and then like I
calmed down a little bit, had my annual physical. He's like, hey,

(19:19):
you should probably get on some mild blood pressure medicine.
I'm like, why do you think my job affects my
heart rate? But Fred shot six threes. Nobody else on
the team took more than three. Right, again, I don't
know if you're gonna make them or not. Eighteen total, Yeah,
eighteen total, and most of them don't really count to
the tally because they were long after the game was
out of right. Finally, when they finally pushed the lead
to twenty and you got the put the team to

(19:41):
sleep from step, which wasned.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
What you said about Jalen before the show. Honestly, I
think he was on I didn't say this. I think
he might have been on the bench because he wasn't
aggressive enough with his own shot. Yeah, like they needed
him to at least attempt to be more aggressive on
the he.

Speaker 5 (20:00):
And you said this before the show. The Warriors were
just like, we're just going to take you out of this.
We're going to absolutely eliminate you as a possibility. And
I don't know what happened in game two, because they
did it. They did the same thing in Game one.
They won that game, but I just felt like, like
you said, we're gonna make you go left because you can't,
and we're not going to allow you to be a

(20:21):
factor on the offensive end. Jalen Green played excellent defense
in this series. You don't get to a seventh game
without his defense. So I'm not gonna sit here and say, oh,
Jalen's just all bad. But his offenses and even if
even if you're being concentrated on and blitzed and all
that kind of other stuff, it's just And this is
why I get to this.

Speaker 4 (20:41):
May twelfth is the draft lottery. One whole week from today,
one week from today.

Speaker 5 (20:47):
I said it last night on the broadcast when I
signed off, I made it a point to say, look,
we're eight days away from Honestly, what I feel will
determine not just the Rockets season or offseason and their plans.
I mean, but guys like a Kevin Durant, guys like
Age Yannis, like what the Rockets have that no one

(21:09):
else has is a bad team who's looking to change
things big times future draft picks starting this year, and
in the unforeseen miracle that the Rockets get a top
four or God forbid the number one pick.

Speaker 4 (21:25):
I honestly don't know what I would do with it.

Speaker 5 (21:27):
If I was like a lot of people would be like,
you're gonna draft Cooper Flag and add them to this
young core. You're gonna go, well, yeah, that's one option.
But if you know you have the number one pick
in the draft, now you can pick up the phone
to a lot of other teams, not just Phoenix, and say, hey,
would you like this? Here's what I would like you know.
And I just feel like there's some possibilities out there
to where it's not just Kevin Durant or Bust.

Speaker 4 (21:50):
I know he's the easy go to.

Speaker 5 (21:52):
He's easier to get because of where he's coming from
and because of his age. But I still very strongly
feel like, if you're dealing with Phoenix this offseason, and
you have the leverage over them that no other team does,
you need to be trying to get Devin Booker off
their roster onto yours.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
Yep, they have to consider what many other teams who
spend and don't win have to consider. Do we have
the time to build around somebody that we're spending a
lot of money on Devin Booker? Can we rebuild this
team for a third time around Devin Booker, or do
we have to just face the facts that our fans
are gonna be upset, We're going to lose basketball games.
But this is our opportunity to write the ship, to

(22:29):
fix our cap, to get younger talent in here. I
hope we hit it big on this player, that player,
to load up on picks in the draft, which we've
given away by going all in with Kevin and sadly
with Bradley Beal. You notice how we never talk about
Bradley bil In exists because all he does is eat
ups cap space. It's not a good basketball player anymore.
He certainly doesn't impact winning, and it's making it very

(22:49):
difficult for them to attempt to get back into it.
Fourteen lottery ball ping pong ball combinations are thrown in
the bin for next week's draft lottery. The Rockets with
the Phoenix Suns pick, currently by far the best team
that owns any lottery chances. Every other team in the lottery,

(23:10):
whether it's via trade or this is just whose pick
they have because they were bad, has forty wins or fewer.
We're obviously non playoff teams. Even with both Atlanta and
their pick that they're getting and the one they're giving
away to San Antonio because San Antonio has two of
the lottery combination sets their non playoff teams. The Rockets
just played in the seventh game. How about if you're

(23:31):
gonna be so mad at me, how about if I
keep mentioning the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five
Rockets as advancing to the final nine, You're gonna be
mad at me if I say that? All right, they're
in the final nine. There were only nine teams that
had a chance to win the championship this year at
the end of it all, and the Rockets were one
of them.

Speaker 5 (23:47):
We joke like that, but they wildly overachieved this season,
and that's another reason why last night hurt, because once
you get a taste, you want more.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
If they overachieved wildly, something I mentioned at the end
of our broadcast on the TV side certainly fits here.
On this three hour plus ride to Astros on Deck.
At five thirty, we'll get into that. At two forty five,
we'll get into something else somewhat postseason NBA related, but
not at all postseason NBA related. When we hit you
with best of X next the Age.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (24:27):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 2 (24:28):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen posts
a day.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
History repeats itself.

Speaker 4 (24:37):
Type and you'll succeed.

Speaker 7 (24:40):
Never doubt that you're the one too before.

Speaker 4 (24:42):
No one build believe you're the best of X.

Speaker 7 (24:47):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know you're the best of it,
posting ever single day. You know you're the best of X,
breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
As teased, There's a couple there are a couple of
things we could run out there for you. I'll ask
this question first, what's the big deal? What's going on today?
What's the big event of the day in our fair country?
Ac It's Stinker Tomayo. I love this holiday. It's one
of my favorite holidays.

Speaker 8 (25:22):
That people get together and they have drinks and they
have Mexican foods. Some people in Texas have tex mechs
and they drink too much and the production in this
country goes down. But it's fine because the people have
four more days of the week to work.

Speaker 4 (25:38):
Let's say we went family feud style and one hundred
people were asked that very question and top two answers
were on the board. That was one of the two answers.
Fifty five people said that. That means forty five other
people noted this other event taking place today. I know
an event that's going on today. What would that be?

(25:58):
No way, forty five people would say that.

Speaker 5 (26:01):
By the way, Cole is the only person in the
city that would have come with that.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
Oh, this guy was unbelievable as a junior with Kambloops.
It's just seventy five goals in thirty seven games. They
got themselves a real winner here. He also turned sixteen.
Now to do tweets, it's May fifth. It's May fifth, right?

Speaker 5 (26:18):
May I want to get into hockey this this postseason?

Speaker 4 (26:23):
A lot of time your Dallas Stars advanced with a
don't among to nothing deficit and period number three to
score and win that game. No, I'll tell you what's
taking place tonight in New York City at the Metropolitan
Museum of Art.

Speaker 5 (26:41):
Oh, is this the one where AOC had that paint
on her dress or whatever?

Speaker 6 (26:46):
That?

Speaker 4 (26:46):
I don't know. It's not the purposes of our discussion.
I really want present this evening. It's and I will
read to you from social media at a fifth twenty
twenty five, last edited at twelve oh five pm. Two
point seven million users have viewed this post.

Speaker 9 (27:03):
So literally, we're talking about people in costume tonight.

Speaker 6 (27:06):
Great.

Speaker 4 (27:06):
Unfortunately, because of my knee injury I sustained at the
end of the season, I won't be able to attend
the metgal in New York tonight, as so many people
have been asking and congratulating me on hate to miss
an historical event. My beautiful, power, powerful Queen will be
there holding down the castle as she always has done.
And then a host of emojis. This comes from at

(27:26):
King Jane shut up lebron So we discussed it last
week after he got run over by Puny Dante DiVincenzo,
he hurt his knee apparently, though he did step away
from the game for about a little less than a
minute's worth of action, came back into the game to
finish it out the last game of the season for
the Lakers, as they their season ended in a Game five.

(27:47):
They lost all but one game in that series, and
he was seen limping off the court and then he
was seen limping heavily out of the arena after the game. Subsequently,
Malik and his husband reported that he had a knee
injury that would have forced him to miss three to
five couple and he well, he covers the Lakers. It's

(28:09):
days right, that is why he's insufferable. Dave mcmanhaman that
he would be out of action should there be any action,
for the next three to five weeks, and so this
is the injury which Lebron is referring to. So in
that it is posted on the X platform, replies are
not prohibited there, so some people have replied in number
of different ways. Your guy, I'll call him that, Zilgaro says,

(28:34):
Michael Jordan would never mix the met Gallon, wouldn't He
wouldn't be seen there to begin with. He would also
beat the met Gala because he would take it personally.
Berner GPT says he had to let the world know
why he lost, for one and keep up with the
narrative that he's injured. Triple laughing emojis, mister James, I'm
crying and throwing up at the thought of not seeing

(28:56):
you at the met Galla tonight. Please get some crutches
or a wheelchair and do what you have to do
to be there. Your fans deserve this, The Wizard says.
If Curry gets his fifth ring, might as well say
goodbye being the greatest player ever. Apparently it's no reference
to MJ at all or anybody else, but merely to

(29:18):
these two current modern NBA stars.

Speaker 9 (29:21):
By the way, Ac, did you see Stu Gott's tweet
this morning?

Speaker 6 (29:24):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (29:24):
No, I did not.

Speaker 9 (29:25):
He said that Curry was better than Lebron.

Speaker 4 (29:28):
Okay, well, we'll get to that.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
You were asking that exact question last week. Who are
these people?

Speaker 4 (29:33):
There? You go, there's one. Now it's worthy of our
discussion time, and we will get to it. A someone
whose handle is official deck supporter Michael Jordan played forty
four minutes with the flu and dropped thirty eight in
the finals. You can't make it to the met Gala
because your knee hurt two weeks ago. One is a killer,
the other is a content creator. It's true at this point,

(29:55):
that's all he is all year round. New York Will says,
this post should have said, Unfortunately, because I flop a
lot in the games I play, I have a knee injury.
I have to stand at the end of the season.
I will not be attending the met Gala in New York.
Hold on, I got one for you. And this is
Unfortunately Steph Curry won't be able to attend the met
Gala either because he's still in the playoffs. Can go

(30:19):
to this account? You ready?

Speaker 5 (30:20):
Yes, he type on the fly. I can't at Adam
Clanton go to that account.

Speaker 4 (30:25):
I can.

Speaker 5 (30:25):
I don't even have it bookmarked. Read the latest tweet
from that account, aloud. I love to hear you read this.

Speaker 4 (30:33):
I don't even have a voice to use. I'll just
posted about a minute ago. Was it a responsor? Straight up?
The original original flash? All right? This comes from the
X platform twenty five seconds ago to forty pm Central
Standard time, May fifth, twenty twenty five. This person goes
by the handle at Adam Clanton and he's the underscore.

(30:56):
Well he does not, but he does have a blue
check mark. It read. Still waiting for the Rockets to
carefully plant stories with various members of the media about
all of the multiple injuries their players suffered to excuse
a first round exit parentheses, what's that they're not the Lakers? Ah, yes,

(31:16):
that's on brand. Yeah. And during the segment, Hey lebron
I wrote a story as per your request that you
hurt your knee, could you do me a solid and
post something on social media about you not being able
to attend the met Gala, because if you go and
you're not hurt and make me look bad, did you
a favor? Thanks by Dave.

Speaker 5 (31:38):
This upcoming season, I'm gonna take my talents to not
the met Gala, just ridiculous thing after a ridiculous thing.

Speaker 4 (31:48):
Yeah, there's a couple other items we will get to
later in the show. They don't have to be exclusively
segmented here to best of X happened during last night's
Rockets game. We'll get to that. The Draymond Green, once again,
he's narrative. He has a big narrative that he tries
to make sure people realize. So sometime over the course
of this afternoon show, we will revisit his absolute inability

(32:11):
to control his arms and legs when he's playing in
a basketball game. So we'll get to that a little
bit later. What about stan Van Gundy's assessment of the
situation is at the forefront of this discussion, what a
stupid and positively because he feels bad for somebody that
wears number twenty three for the Warriors.

Speaker 5 (32:26):
But we'll get to that. He's always been the lesser
Van Gundy brother. Uh in many ways?

Speaker 4 (32:31):
Gee, in which ways? In which ways?

Speaker 9 (32:34):
I mean he is the Now that's too low a blow,
do it. He is the fatter one.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
He's lost a lot of weight. No personal attacks, No
personal attacks. When's the last Jeff Van Gundy while coaching
an NBA team press conference? You can recall where he
said something about a player who was standing there unbeknownst
to him. Never now, I can't remember that happening. When's
the last time Stan was on an NBA bench or

(33:02):
with an NBA franchise that won the NBA title. I
know it was just last year for Jeff. Now this year,
one of their seasons has come to an end. Jeff
A Gundy with the LA Clippers, his season came to him.
I presume maybe you should have coached them harder. Stan
will maybe get another assignment or to As TNT continues
their postseason covers, I love Jeff and Stan isn't thrown

(33:26):
into this Willy Nilly. Stan was on the broadcast and
said some things, and we'll talk about those things as
we continue here on the A team. Welcome to join
us as always, especially on A. I can't believe it's
over kind of Monday here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (33:42):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (33:57):
I'm doing it wrong if this makes me think of
Pee wee herm Oh, you're not. I'm not. I'm doing
the dance. I'm aware I'm on the bar. But the
Miker's probably specific to this being between the fourth and
sixth day of May.

Speaker 5 (34:11):
Hey, we are like twenty two days away from that documentary.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
We did have an off air text exchange I believe
about the uh Paul Rubens documentary. Listen, that's how you
do it.

Speaker 5 (34:25):
Whether you were a fan of him or even know
who he is, there's something you listening You're like, what
are they talking about?

Speaker 4 (34:29):
And what is that music?

Speaker 5 (34:31):
But if you didn't know who he was, I guarantee
you this, you'll still because here's what he did. Paul Rubens,
he has had an eclectic life, or he did. He
had the time and not everybody gets this chance. He
knew he was on the way out, so he sat
down and did a documentary on his life. Now, it
only works if you're famous, But I'm just saying it

(34:51):
helps if you're famous. One but like that's pretty cool, like,
you know, kind of similar.

Speaker 4 (34:58):
To Norm McDon kind of did.

Speaker 5 (35:01):
He didn't do that, but he did some shows knowing
that they were gonna be some of his last public appearances.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
That's why.

Speaker 5 (35:07):
And I know, I just it's one of those things
where I was a kid when Pea pee wee, when
it was in his heyday. So I know it's gonna
kind of get me in the fields. But hey, May
is suddenly wide open. Thanks Rockets. I mean, the Astros
aren't gonna They're not gonna do anything.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
Yeah, well, don't talked much about your astros as they
still remain over five hundred, but just barely. After losing
two of three, almost playing three full games against the
Chicago White Sox this weekend. They played a lot of
game in the rain yesterday, but not enough of it
continued for them to maybe come back after losing their
four nothing lead. Get into that, like I said, get

(35:43):
into the Rockets and what's next. The specifics of yesterday's game,
maybe we didn't talk about a tremendous amount. I thought
the way that they got back into the game so quickly.
Most of this series has had one team or the
other really getting off to a nice start. Last night.
It was the Warriors. Their first four shots all went in,
and it got the three pointer early from Draymond, which

(36:05):
isn't all that different from many of the other games.
But the Rockets, they got that first bucket, they got
that second bucket, and all of a sudden, in the
blink of an eye, was thirteen to ten, and there
was thirteen all, and the Rockets made a couple more shots,
even in a super low scoring start to this game,
which we've seen before Game one. For sure, they were
in position to head to the second quarter in a

(36:26):
very good spot up maybe a couple or a couple
of baskets and really would have completely overcome it. But
they were really never recovered from their offense getting off
to a slow start, even though they immediately got back
in the game. I told you already, I thought it
was a super physical game. I thought the Rockets were
maybe a little gun shar maybe just didn't feel confident
in their shot, which is interesting. Was their fourth game

(36:48):
at Toyota Center this postseason. First game there were six
of twenty nine. The second game, it wasn't just Jalen
who was eight of eighteen, which is great, but everybody
was knocking down shots. They had another game where they
blew the Warriors off the floor. Similarly, everybody was knocking
down shots. And when we say that about the Rockets,
we're pretty much meaning they're knocking down three point shots. Well,
he can't make them as you don't take them. And

(37:09):
they must not have felt very positive about taking them
because they just simply didn't. And when they went inside,
which is not even against Golden State, the way that
they were clearly that's what's so weird. How did the
Warriors stop you from hitting a good percentage of your
your twos? Well, they were packing the paint. Well how
were they packing the paint and getting you off the
three point line? That's virtually impossible, And it's kind of

(37:30):
how the game played. And I do credit them for
the lineup they used as much as the Rockets clearly
found something with Steven Adams and Alpera and Shingoon and oftentimes
with Jabari Smith Junior as sort of the big package,
if not just the double bigs. There's a reason why
the Golden State Warriors were changing their starting lineup pretty
much all the time, and it had nothing to do
with Gary Payton. The second being unavailable in last night

(37:52):
time actually hurt the Rockets. He was not a very
effective player in this series, no matter what somebody might
tell you. For the one game where he put points
on the board. He was a defense of liability the
entire series. And he's he's good when he plays away
from the ball and hits his shots. He doesn't do
a whole lot else. And you know, he did take
advantage of getting beating the Rockets down the court a
couple times. Were talking about a six game series. Up

(38:12):
until last night. He had a very small positive impact
in one game for the Warriors, so he was unavailable.
So you want with an even smaller lineup essentially for
the whole game because they didn't ask their bench to
do anything. Can you give us a minute or two here,
I don't care if you shoot or score, Like I said,
with the Rockets only taking twelve threes, only hitting three

(38:33):
in the first three quarters, can you remember the last
time in any NBA game, literally period, where the bench
hit a shot and scored three points. That's what the
Warriors got from their bench in last night's game. One
field goal and three points from one of the three
players that played in last night's game before they put

(38:53):
their reserves in. After the timeout with eight seconds left
in the game, they got three points from their bench.

Speaker 5 (38:58):
That was up until the final minutes when like Buddy
Heel completely classless patting the lead.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
He didn't have to take that three. Yeah, I don't
do it that at all. Yeah, look, don't put yourself
in that situation.

Speaker 5 (39:11):
You want to get mad about it, But right up
until that point, neither team was gonna was gonna eclipse
one hundred. This was a nineteen ninety four Knicks Rockets
Finals game right up until the very waning moments, and and.

Speaker 4 (39:22):
Hard to BELI like some of these numbers, say, no way,
you're telling the truth. The Warriors shot forty two percent
on threes, they shot forty eight percent from the field,
They only turned it over seven times. How did they
only score one hundred points? Right? Well, but they were
at one hundred one oh three because of that three.

Speaker 5 (39:40):
If you have any semblance of a go to guy
that's not Alpera and Shingoon, I'm sorry, like all of
the things, like I'm not gonna sit here and criticize
Alpera and Shingoon for not being aggressive enough at least
in the scheme of the offense. Now, how his shots
were taken, that I will criticize, like he should have.

Speaker 4 (40:00):
Seven more shots than all of any of his teammates
if he's having a good night. He probably shouldn't have
seven more shots than any of his teammates if he's not.
That's what happened last night.

Speaker 5 (40:09):
But a lot of his shots would have gone in
if they weren't finesse, you know, short armed jump hooks
and finger rolls.

Speaker 4 (40:16):
And he said he did not play a good offense
this season.

Speaker 5 (40:21):
I have no doubt though that. See, that's a guy
where I will listen to the argument, Hey, he's young,
he's gonna get better.

Speaker 4 (40:28):
Jalen, I've been hearing that for four years.

Speaker 5 (40:30):
And that's the difference between those two in my opinion,
because one of them just he just seemed more assertive
even if he's missing shots. Did he play quote unquote
scared at times?

Speaker 4 (40:41):
Maybe?

Speaker 5 (40:42):
But Jalen just out there barely just like floating around, right.

Speaker 4 (40:47):
They there's something to that that we definitely want to
expand on. We'll start in the next hour with that.
You know, where do you go? Where are your feelings
on those two players, obviously everybody else around him. Fred
was asked about his contract situation to discuss it personally,
but there's some things to be gleaned from that. The
Rockets and what's next is next here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (41:09):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston
sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team's Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 5 (41:32):
It's a Monday edition of the A Team Sports Talk
seven ninety and Space City Home Networks. You can actually
see at least one of us wallowing in our misery
after the Rockets season came to an end last night.
Of course I'm the one that's the emotional one. He
is a cyborg. His name is Adam Wexler. My name
is Adam Clanton. Shout out to G two. Would like

(41:55):
to be working tomorrow night?

Speaker 4 (41:56):
What do you mean? I would like to be working
Thursday night? I would be liked'll be working Saturday night
and Monday night.

Speaker 5 (42:01):
If it's you're analytical about your non emotions and I'm
very not analytical about my all of the bleeping bombs
I was dropping during commercial breaks last night. You know
how you're not supposed to talk around an open mic
or the mic that could be open.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
How do you know the mic to your right is closed?
I mean, Adrian could be saying something.

Speaker 5 (42:19):
When I really yeah, but it's Spanish. When I really
really really want to let loose, I make good and
sure to ask Josh c our Network producer, I say, hey,
are we clear?

Speaker 4 (42:31):
Are we clear? For sure?

Speaker 5 (42:32):
Like, and He'll always say the same thing. MIC's are off,
buttons off, pots are down, and then it's and then
I feel better when I come back. That's how every
single time out felt last night, except when Jabbari hit
a three pointer and the Rockets were within sixty three sixty,
I'm like, this could actually happen. And then of course
they just were non existent on offense after that, getting

(42:55):
tons of stops, keeping the Warriors scoreless on several possessions consecutively.
At times where if you go down to the other
end and you score baskets, you're coming back.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
They never did it.

Speaker 5 (43:06):
They just couldn't get Either it was Jalen getting taken
out of the offense for the umpteenth time, or it
was Alpa and Shingoon given the ball way too late
in the shot clock, or once he gets the ball
with enough time to do it. He turns, he makes
a move, he makes another move, he makes twelve moves,
and then there's a finesse shot that rolls harmlessly off

(43:27):
the rim. Traymond Green was absolutely assaulting him last night.
It's not why the Rockets lost. And by the way,
morning of I sent a text message to one Adam J.
Wexler and I go, Tony Brothers, are you bleeping kidding me?
Tony Brothers had nothing to do with why the Rockets
lost that game last night. Nothing Scott Foster did in
twenty eighteen, and I'll fight him. It's hands on site

(43:50):
if I see Scott Foster.

Speaker 4 (43:51):
Guess what the Rockets definitely could not do last night.
Miss twenty seven consecutive threes. They'd have to have taken them.
They took eighteen. And the game last night, sixty three
to sixty, was probably about the last time that I
think the arena really felt like they have a chance here.
They have not played well. They have managed to stay
in this game. They have, as you just said, gotten

(44:13):
the necessary stops to put a run together, to start
stringing good offensive possessions together to try to get out
and not have to only score in the half court
this entire game, and at sixty three to sixty one
of the very useful timeouts that Steve Kirk called, because
they scored off the timeouts all series long. They ended
up outscoring the Rockets to the tune of having an

(44:35):
eight point lead going into the final period. It was
sixty three to sixty off that three you just mentioned
from Jabari Smith Junior two forty three until the fourth quarter. Again,
I'm trying to make you realize there were only sixty
three points on the board for the team that was
winning with two minutes and forty three seconds left in
the third quarter of a game seven. The Rockets were

(44:56):
doing a lot of the things necessary to win on
one end of the floor, and from six. They were
down seventy to sixty two going to the fourth quarter,
so seven of the final nine points were scored by
the Warriors. The Rockets did not make any of their
final four shots in the period. They had a couple
of free throws from Amen Thompson. They were never any
closer than seven the rest of the game. They got

(45:16):
it to seventy five sixty eight off of one of
those floaters from Alpi, but then they were basically playing
trade baskets and not getting any closer. They the game
wasn't fully out of reach until the very late stages.
It went from an eighty two to seventy four game
under five minutes ago when Dylan Brooks took that little floating,

(45:37):
unattended free throw, and it was eighty two to seventy four,
and there were still four and a half minutes left,
and you still had a chance to get back in
this game. And then you forced them to take a
Draymond Green three and got the ball back down eight
with four minutes to go. Missed a shot, They got
the clear path foul. Jimmy Butler, savvy veteran move Buddy Heel,

(45:58):
got out on the break and attempt to prevent Fred
from catching him. Jimmy Butler just started running in front
of Fred, so Fred pushed him. It was a foul,
it was upgraded. They got the free throw, They extended
the lead. Curry hit his three. Curry put his hands
next to his cheek as he did in the Olympics,
and he was right. The series was over.

Speaker 5 (46:17):
Yeah, Well, you know when he was hitting that shot,
which it was, it helped clinch it.

Speaker 4 (46:21):
But I was just like, man it is.

Speaker 5 (46:25):
I did not look at this series and think to myself,
that sucked losing to Steph Curry. Again, I thought to myself,
that sucked losing to a bunch of role players around
Steph Curry and most of the time, Jimmy Butler and
I thought of Game three because Game three is the
one that if you look back at this series, and
who knows, maybe the Warriors don't like completely roll over

(46:48):
in Game five and Game six because they know they
have another game in their back pocket and they actually
get up like they did last night defensively at least
if they don't. If they if they lose a Game
three and it's two to one, rockets, because that's the
one where you look at a three point loss, you
missed twelve free throws, this, that and the other went
wrong for you, you had that was a gettable game

(47:10):
on the road. I don't even look at Game four
the same way, even though I feel like you're talking
about Game four. No, I'm talking about Game three. You're right,
they lost Game four one oh nine, one oh six. Correct,
that's correct. Okay, it was Game three that they lost
by double digits, and Steph Curry actually for once in
this series showed up. Yeah, I was getting those two
mixed up. But yeah, that's a two to two series tie.

(47:31):
You're coming back home for game five. But maybe the
Rockets don't play with their hair on firing game five.
If that's the case in game four.

Speaker 4 (47:38):
One four one oh four mm hmm, before the Dylan
foul on the Jimmy Butler three free throws, before the
late miss by. I don't call that foul last night,
do they? I really don't think so. You're probably right,
Probably wouldn't call it for how that game was called.
Maybe how last night's game. Probably not. But you're in
that game, you win that game, and if we watch
and think about it, how they played game one totally

(48:00):
gun shy, afraid of the moment, acknowledged lost, came out,
busted it in game two, dominated, came out and played
well enough to win Game three, then well enough to
win game four. Now tell me they win game four
and come back home to Houston in a tie series
after playing the last three games the way they did.
Now needing to win twice with three chances to do it,
rather than needing to win three times with only three

(48:21):
chances to do it. I do think they win this series.
I do think Game four was pivotal in that it
would have set you up for a much better situation. Yeah, no,
I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 5 (48:31):
And it's it could have showed a what is But
when a series is this close, it just makes it
almost it makes it all the more excruciating. But again,
I don't look at twenty eighteen and this, It just
happened to be the Warriors like that.

Speaker 4 (48:46):
What do you think about the desperation angle of this?
There was desperation for Game five, six, and seven. The
Rockets played with desperation. In Game five, the series is over,
they lose, they went out and played great basketball and
they won. There was only desperation for one team, no
matter what the Warriors tried to tell you, there's no desperation.
They're playing at home, they have a three to two lead.

(49:07):
They got a cushions enough, they have a cushion exactly.
The one team played with desperation was Houston, like the
Rockets did in twenty eighteen. Right, and then in Game seven,
clearly the Warriors now have desperation. Did it feel like
the Rockets had desperation? Technically they still should have They
shouldn't have felt good about themselves. They shouldn't have felt
like they have the series that it shouldn't have felt

(49:27):
like they have their number. They just knew that we
still have a chance. Our season isn't over. But watching
it unfold, as we both did from different vantage points yesterday,
there's no question that was the most desperate the Warriors
have played all the way around. Not only did they
made shots finally from their other players, specifically Buddy Healed,
but just in the manner in which they went about
their business to try to keep the Rockets from getting

(49:50):
going mostly defensive. When you're that desperate, you'll see something
different on offense. You'll see way way more difference. Defensively.
They were much different defensively.

Speaker 5 (49:59):
Draymond Green was was allowed to but he was. Look,
I don't mind that if the whole series is called
that way, Like, I'm not.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
Making these referees work the same amount of nights as
you do Tony Brothers every game. Here's the thing.

Speaker 5 (50:12):
If you have a good set of officials, like the
NBA thinks they do every single night at every single game,
which is laughable.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
But if they did, why wouldn't you.

Speaker 5 (50:21):
Just assign a crew to the same series and have
them officiate every single game, because then at least you're
getting the same style of officiating. If last night's officiating
crew officiates Game four, maybe the Rockets win that game.

Speaker 4 (50:38):
What do you think about how that impacts how you play?
Can the same group keep things in order if they
have any games like Game seven? What if last night
was Game one? Then what happens in games two, three,
and four with the physical play you've been allowing?

Speaker 5 (50:50):
Well, there's more ejections and technicals, But like, here's the thing, Like,
who's gonna have a better handle on things, or at
least a better feel of how to handle things than
a crew that's officiated the first couple of games officiating
the rest of this seven game series.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
I don't think it's a terrible idea. No, I don't
think it's a terrible idea. I'd be interested if Major
League Baseball would follow along, since they refuse to just
fully implement, Well, we have the technology. They're dumber than
the NBA. There are Major League umpires that quite clearly
are graded by the people that grade it online, you know,
Empire Auditor, et cetera, or those that grade them inside

(51:25):
their offices. They clearly can rank them. These guys are
good at calling balls and strikes the way we want
them called, like here's the strike zone, and there are
others that aren't. But they just rotate guys through. Here's
your four man crew. These three games, everyone rotates through.
So today you're getting somebody who's good behind the play,
Tomorrow you're getting somebody who's good behind the plate, and
then on Sunday you're getting the worst umpire we have
in our rotation. Live with it, you know. I don't

(51:46):
think the NBA is quite like that, but there's no
question this is what applies. You figure out what the
strike zone is every day because there's a new umpire
back there. You figure out how the officials are going
to call the game in an NBA postseason game, as
the game progressive. I think they figured it out pretty
early in last night's game because the Rockets kept going

(52:07):
inside to Alprin shnguon and he was not getting creating
the bludgeoned. But I do think he was having everyone
understand this is the kind of game we have tonight.
But again I don't mind that as long as you're
doing that on the other end.

Speaker 5 (52:20):
And they were, so I'm not I hate it because
they don't have the opportunities that I thought they should have.
I mean, Jalen got crushed the first time he drove
to the basket. No tweet, Let's go back up the floor.
You better match up on defense because they're not calling that.
But they did that on both ends, so I can't
get upset about that. What I can get upset about
is Jalen Green. And we'll probably fight about this, but

(52:40):
we've got some numbers as well to back up the
fact that No, maybe Jalen Green's on the move this summer,
although I would say he plummeted his trade value in
the last few games.

Speaker 4 (52:52):
Well shall discuss when we come back.

Speaker 2 (52:56):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (53:03):
That's the Blues sounder. I guess you have something for us.
I'll sit back and wait, turn your mic on and
tell the people what you have for us.

Speaker 9 (53:11):
According to reports from the Houston Astros Twitter account, that's
not a report. We have placed outfielder Jordon Alvarez on
the ten day il retro right hand inflammation retro to
May third. In a corresponding move, we have recalled catcher
Caesar Salazar.

Speaker 4 (53:30):
From Triple A Sugarland. So if you missed it over
the weekend, Jordon Alvarez was in the lineup Friday, but
upon working in the cage, determined if something wasn't right,
and it was deemed inflammation of that right hand. He
was out of the lineup then and was out of
the lineup throughout the weekend. We actually talked about this
off the air a little bit. You know, ten day
il stint. If you think he's coming back in a

(53:52):
few days, Okay, maybe you don't do it. If you're
trying to make sure he gets in before those ten
days are up, can you manage to go light on
your lineup? Playing a man short for several games just
so he doesn't miss full ten and he misses eight.
Never seems to make sense with the player of this caliber.
I know you flirt with that idea, but now you
no longer have to. And it also means it's way

(54:13):
more serious than he should be back tomorrow or the
next day or the next day. He's now not going
to be available to them for a minimum of seven days.
And I don't know that we'll get too far along
this question, but it's an automatic assumption. It's the same
one I made on Friday afternoon. Okay, is this the explanation?
I posted something on the X platform when he was

(54:35):
scratched from the lineup, only to note his own production.
He had the eighth highest ops on the team. There's
only thirteen guys on the team. He was eighth in ops.
Jord On Alvarez, number forty four, the man who turns
the series upside down, eighth on a team who's floundering offensively.
He was eighth. Now, I wasn't saying they should be

(54:57):
benching him, which someone asked about, but merely an explanation,
an illustration of his struggle. Well, now do we have
the explanation. I can't help but assume it must have
and they did acknowledge. This is something that had bothered
him for at least a couple of it. Has it
bothered him since late March? Has it bothered him for
the last four weeks? The power, I'm not saying home

(55:20):
runs of four hundred and fifty feet. I'm saying hitting
balls with power in his fashion. He had plenty of
line drives that turned into outs, but they weren't the
typical Yordan Alvarez at bats. There wasn't a stretch of
time where I'm like, man, he is about to break
out of it, because it's one hard hit ball after
the next. It was far from it, especially recently, when
I can only imagine this was impacting him more.

Speaker 8 (55:40):
Now.

Speaker 4 (55:40):
Of course, they went out and scored plenty of runs
the first day was out, and then they did it
again on Saturday when it was Jake Day with his
four extra base hit day. But I don't expect that
to happen all that often. This I can't say it's
going to be crippling to them because they managed to
get to over five hundred with him doing next to nothing.

Speaker 5 (55:59):
Well, But the other side of this, and I think,
I guess, I guess it's a good thing. If it
has to be an injury, If it has gone back
to who knows when, it would explain a lot about
his lackluster start. He does not perform when he's not right,
but when he is right, he's the best tender in
baseball not named Aaron Judge.

Speaker 4 (56:17):
Yeah, and in years past he's right there. This year
obviously not. This is I don't know what it is.
I'm not a doctor. I'm not going to play one
on the radio. I am going to give you some
of his history. He's had problems with his end of
wrist before, whether it was a rist issue, whether it

(56:38):
was a hand issue, whether which hand it was. We
talked about this in circles with Dusty and Yordon multiple times,
and I'm not saying it was Dusty or yard On.
I'm saying it was both of them. We got different
answers from them all throughout this time, where this hand
is well, which hand is it and what is the
problem And we never could really figure it out all
the other than he's not right and played through it

(56:58):
at times. I owed it times and managed to produce
a whole lot more than he's been producing this year.
Far from the only guy out there. I do think
it's interesting they brought up a third catcher. Joiner Diaz
has started to hit the ball with a lot more force,
has been getting on base a lot more. He had
a huge weekend for himself personally. Also hit one over
the fence. They're going to probably try to get a

(57:20):
left handed bat in the lineup as often as possible
because he was there only one. Victor Carrottini was in
yesterday's lineup, saysar Salazar is a left handed hitter, and
because he's now the third catcher on the roster, they
can put both Yiner and Victor in the lineup pretty
much any day they want and not be concerned about, well,
what if we're down one and I'm slower than Christian Walker.

(57:43):
Victor Carrottini reached his first base, they can now pinch
run for him.

Speaker 5 (57:47):
Yeah, but going back to don't you think that that's
gotta be what's been the main culprit with his lack
of performance.

Speaker 4 (57:55):
Without any definitive information, Yeah, I have to assume it,
but I don't know that he didn't forget how to
hit a base. Nope. So he's had down times before,
He's even had a down month before. But it just
didn't seem much like this, and I think it definitely was.
It definitely becomes louder when they're not able to overcome it.

(58:15):
All that time that Kyle Tucker missed last year, it
wasn't very loud because they were scoring at will, their
offense was clicking, everybody was hitting. It would have been
great if Kyle Tucker was there, but it didn't hurt
their cause and granted their record is light years better
than it was a year ago, but they were about
to get into the stretch. They're playing today at Milwaukee.
It's game thirty four. They're seventeen and sixteen. It's fifty degrees.

(58:38):
They were twelve and twenty four last year after thirty
six games, which will happen during this series, that's when
things changed. Thirty six games into the season, they were
still awful and they couldn't do anything right. They couldn't
figure out how to win a game. And this year
they have, but they don't look very good doing it.
They're pitching fine. Their bullpen's been very, very good. They

(59:01):
look like their record. Last year, they didn't look like
their record. They didn't look like a twelve and twenty
four team. They certainly didn't look like the best team
in baseball. Now they do. Yeah, all right, real, real fast.

Speaker 9 (59:12):
I just have a question for both of you, why
not play more of Dezenzo just because of his bad
I know that you're talking about having a left handed
bat lineup, but the guy has been probably one of
the more consistent hitters when he's in the lineup.

Speaker 4 (59:24):
He just did a two run blast yesterday, So they
are playing him more. I think you're absolutely right. Once
they got him an opportunity a little over a week ago,
He's essentially he would have been in there every game,
probably for the last eight to ten games, if he
didn't jam his thumb and when he slid into second
base on another extra base hit. I do think they
love his flexibility. I don't think they love that his
glove led to the loss. If you want to be

(59:45):
as harsh as possible, you can't catch a pop up,
you three are unearned run scored. Why were the Astros
even able to get to two games over five hundred
because they would never give runs away. I hate that
I even brought it up when they were number one
in the majors having a giving up three unearned runs.
It's been a barrage of unearned runs ever since the
Payna error on the flip to Rogers three runs score

(01:00:07):
after yesterday's era with Zach Dezenzo, Yesterday was in right field.
He's obviously played some left field. He's made some very
good plays. He and Cam Smith look super comfortable out
there for players who that is not their natural position.
Both are natural infielders and both can certainly play. It
was just one particular instance where he didn't make the play,
his bat will be in there, and with the ord

(01:00:28):
On being out of the lineup, I'm sure Cole what
you say is certainly gonna be true. Now they won't
necessarily have to decide is it time to put cam
Smith back out there for five days in a row
or Descenzo to continue, or they can play both, or
at least you can.

Speaker 9 (01:00:40):
Just say, hey, we're gonna put one of you at DH.
You're gonna hit in the seven spot, the other one's
gonna hit in the eight spot. We'll flip it depending
on what position you're in and who or if we're going
up against some righty or lefty.

Speaker 4 (01:00:48):
The other thing. It clearly does I back to saysar
Salazar being here, they still need, or believe they need.
They've got to have somebody batting for the left side,
and Carroteam or Salazar can be that, and the designated
hitter spot is wide open with jord On Alvarez not
using it all right, we are.

Speaker 5 (01:01:09):
It's a situation, by the way, where if you can't
take I don't know, two out of three in this
upcoming series. I mean, Milwaukee's not as bad as Chicago,
but a lot of good that did the Astros. That's
going to be a super super disappointing road trip where
you thought going into this you're gonna get right. I mean,

(01:01:32):
I don't know. If I don't know, maybe this is
a good thing. Maybe the fact that he'll come back
whenever he comes back, that's my other question.

Speaker 4 (01:01:41):
What if this is worse than What if this is
worse than they're letting on.

Speaker 5 (01:01:44):
You can't even get mad at me for asking this
question when they did what they did with Kyle Tucker
a year ago.

Speaker 4 (01:01:49):
Well, there might be more information. Hopefully if there is,
they can divulge that a ten day I elstin doesn't
mean you're healthy in ten days, And hopefully Joe A.
Spot can expand on that this afternoon when he meets
with the media. Is they're an opportunity for him to
acknowledge we expect this to be longer than ten days.
We don't expect it. The imaging showed us this. I
think initially he said we don't believe imaging is necessary,
which I find wild. Is it a cost? You want

(01:02:12):
to know? Is it a cost thing? Are they they don't?
Can I not afford it? I guess there no machine
available to them. Of the doctor's off. I would think
you would want to check in on it as much
as you can, especially when it's this player. I would
do that for any player, but they with what was
lined up this weekend. If you recall we said they
really need to get innings from, you know, Fromber and Hunter,

(01:02:34):
if not win the games, because you never know. With
Lance mcculler's making his first appearance since twenty twenty two,
what you're gonna get in terms of length. Turns out,
he went three and two thirds eighty seven pitches and
you had to go to the rest of the game
with your bullpen. He didn't give up any runs. Your
bullpen gave up five and in Fromber's start, much like
has been the case all season. I haven't looked, but
I'm sure he's got to be close to top five

(01:02:56):
or worse. They don't score runs when he pitches. They
hate him like Roger clem Ace is a lot for
obvious reasons, but less than two and a half runs
per game for him, which hey, they don't score any
runs for anybody. They score six when Hunter's on the mound,
they score almost five when Renel Blanco. Tonight's starter is

(01:03:17):
on the mound and Hunter's better this year. He has
been all right.

Speaker 5 (01:03:21):
We still have some Jalen Green conversation to get to
before the end of the hour. But when we come back.
You mentioned Lance mccullors junior his return. That's one of
the topics that Sparky was covering today earlier here on
the station. We'll hear some of what he had to
say next.

Speaker 1 (01:03:36):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:03:45):
It is the eight team Sports Sox seven ninety Space
City Home Network, just solving the world's problems during the
commercial break like we always do. Hey, we can solve
this one. Hey, uh, Jalen Green, You're gonna be a
rocket next year. We'll just us that next segment. But
as promised, we will catch up once again with Sparky

(01:04:06):
Steve Sparks.

Speaker 4 (01:04:07):
We like to call this the Sparks Fly. Yeah, Sparks
Fly every Monday morning, eight o'clock, his weekly visit on
the Sean Salisbury Show. Like to give you a little
snippet of that and send you on over to Sports
Talk seven ninety dot com for the full interview, or
via the podcast on the iHeartRadio app. The free app
that's new and improved that offers you the ability to
set your presets, especially number one number one on your presets.

(01:04:29):
This just in make it sports Talk seven ninety make
it that much easier. Right there on the palm of
your hand or in your vehicle, right through your phone.
You can set Sports Talk seven ninety number one on
your presets. Please do and we will entertain and inform
you right there through the iHeartRadio app same place you.
As I mentioned, you can catch the full interview with
Steve Sparks from this morning. A snippet of it here
for you, beginning with his thoughts on Lanceo mcclor's return

(01:04:54):
to the mound for the Astros.

Speaker 10 (01:04:56):
Well, I can't imagine all that was going through is mind,
nine hund fifteen days since the last time he pitched
on a big league mound. So it just just to
get to that point. I mean, that was very encouraging,
you know, very happy for him to be able to
do whether he did, and I thought the ball came
out of his hand really nice. He's he talked about
not having a great feel as far as landing his.

Speaker 6 (01:05:19):
Breaking ball, but I thought he threw some really good curves.
The slider was a little probably breaking a little earlier
than he thought, but I mean it was huge. I mean,
he can spin the.

Speaker 10 (01:05:28):
Ball as well as anybody, and the change up was
really good. So the thing that's going to make his
change up and everything else a little better, especially if
he throws maybe a mile per hour or two miles
prior slower than he did a couple of years ago,
is to make sure he uses his fastball inside, especially
the lefties, to be able to dot the fastball and

(01:05:50):
get it in there to get him off of that
change up, because the change up is a great swing
and miss pitch.

Speaker 6 (01:05:56):
But all in all, you know what he was able
to do.

Speaker 10 (01:06:00):
It came away very encouraged, making some big pitches and
big moments and getting through that and hearing his comments
afterwards how good he felt was very encouraging.

Speaker 11 (01:06:11):
Yeah, Steve, when does a guy know, I mean, that's
a long time. I guess we're all speculating, but you're
around it and you see it. I can kind of
speak from when it's a knee injury in football, when
they know that confidence is back, I can put my
leg in the ground.

Speaker 4 (01:06:22):
I'm ready to go.

Speaker 11 (01:06:23):
But when do you think it kicks into where it's like,
you know, as you mentioned the first time, you're kind
of feeling your way.

Speaker 4 (01:06:28):
Through it and all the emotion, the raw emotion that's.

Speaker 11 (01:06:30):
Going through getting back on the mound. When do you
know how long does it take before you settle in
to say I'm in the rotation, this is who I
am and I feel great about it. How long does
that takes? Do you see you almost trust that your
rehab worked? When does that happen?

Speaker 8 (01:06:45):
You know?

Speaker 10 (01:06:46):
I can't get into his head, and I can't imagine
all the thoughts that ran through his mind. I just
know for me, my mind wasn't real clear unless I
exercise some really disciplined things on the mound, like pre
pitch routines and things like that.

Speaker 6 (01:06:58):
But I bet he was thinking about so many doctors.

Speaker 10 (01:07:02):
And rehab right and you know, then he would, you know,
maybe be behind the count too, and oh and scramble
to get back in it. I think he will know
that he's all the way back once he just sees
the glove and hits it, you know, And we can
talk about basketball, we can talk about golf, we can
talk about football.

Speaker 6 (01:07:20):
Sean.

Speaker 10 (01:07:21):
When you're throwing a leading a guy with the past.

Speaker 6 (01:07:24):
You're not thinking about mechanics. You're ripping it and that's it.
You just react. And I think that's when Lance is
at his best and he's going to know he's all
the way back.

Speaker 10 (01:07:35):
He's not thinking about an injury or rehab or how
long it's been since he's been out there.

Speaker 6 (01:07:40):
He's seeing the glove and hitting it.

Speaker 11 (01:07:41):
The mechanics are the last thing, Steve. If you think
about when you're going good, right when you're finally it's
because it's just it's I've worked on these a million
now when you start when you need to, I'm talking
about that day pitching. I don't want It's like you
read Goolf dies. Hey, if you can't fit your swing
thoughts on a three by five card, you got too
many of them so to be able to flood, you know,
get rid of the clutter and you just let it.

Speaker 6 (01:08:03):
Yeah, that's a great point, but you have to practice
that show.

Speaker 4 (01:08:06):
Yes, exactly, if you're on if you're on the.

Speaker 10 (01:08:08):
If you're on the driving range, or you're throwing a bullpen,
or you're you're taking batting practice or whatever it is,
there's part of that that practice that does need.

Speaker 6 (01:08:17):
To be mechanics.

Speaker 10 (01:08:18):
You got to agree that you may have to go
to the iPad or whatever it is part of its mechanics,
but part of it and maybe fifty percent and sometimes
seventy five percent has to be on the mental part
of what you need to do to be successful. And
it's got to be real simple. It's got to be
just seeing the glove and hitting it. Because you can't

(01:08:39):
think about mechanics and compete against the best players.

Speaker 6 (01:08:42):
In the world. You just can't, right, I mean, you
just have to react.

Speaker 10 (01:08:47):
So you have to practice that way, and you have
to be disciplined and learn how the latter stages in
your last couple of rounds in batting practice just has
to be see the ball and hit the ball and
trust the work that you did with your mechanics will
show up.

Speaker 11 (01:09:02):
All right, Steve, maybe from the weekend or maybe just
so far the overall body of work, even though it's early.

Speaker 4 (01:09:07):
What are you most concerned about right now?

Speaker 6 (01:09:10):
I'm not.

Speaker 10 (01:09:11):
I'm not super concerned. I think some of these guys
are gonna get going. I would say my biggest probably
concern is Jrdan's health.

Speaker 4 (01:09:19):
Maybe, Yeah, how is where are we with this? Yeah?
What's going on.

Speaker 10 (01:09:22):
Ste Dana said yesterday that we'll know in a day
or two, but he just didn't feel comfortable with his
right hand and batting practice on Saturday. So they just
want to They just want to get whatever's in there
out of there. They don't feel like anything other than
rest is what's gonna help him to fill at his best.
So I think that's probably my biggest concern because he's

(01:09:42):
your best He's your best hitter, that's plain and simple.
But I think you were seeing signs with janer Diez
coming around the last couple of weeks starting to drive
the ball, Kristen Walker with more extra bases, the Astros
nine hole hitters. Whoever they put in the nine is
going to bang. But they took Cam Smith out of

(01:10:03):
the lineup last couple of days. Last time they did that,
he was able to reset and come back for a
couple of weeks span and really drive the ball. So
I just I just feel, and I've said this in
our pregame show a couple of times in the last week,
just waiting on three or four guys to get hot.
At the same time. You know, Jeremy Payne has been great.
He leaves all sorts stops in war. You know, that's

(01:10:26):
including Bobby Whitt. So there's some guys that are doing
some pretty good things, but there's still three or four
guys that we know there's.

Speaker 6 (01:10:33):
A lot more in there.

Speaker 4 (01:10:34):
Certainly is and needs to come up. A couple of
things there from the last part of that interview with
Steve Sparks again, catch it in full right there at
Sports Talk seven to ninety dot com. Is weekly visit
on the Sean Salisbury Show. That nind spot big boost
over the weekend from what Jake did, but it's been
there all year. Number one in the American League out
of the nine hole in both batting average and ops.

(01:10:54):
You noted that Jeremy Pagna has been killing it. He
is the astros best everyday kidder, little bit better than
what you know Jake has been with him in and
out of the lineup, not really qualifying for it. And
then quite simply here before we get into some more
Jalen Green talk on the other side, lancemac colors, what's
your initial thought, first appearance since twenty twenty two.

Speaker 5 (01:11:15):
I mean, I can't really complain about any of it.
He it was vintage. He had a lot of traffic.
He pitched, he threw a lot of pitches, he got
jobbed on the final pitch, and he didn't he didn't
get hurt. I can't really complain about that first appearance.
And if this is the trajectory where he goes up
from here, I mean he's he's gonna be great for them,
especially when he consider that they should be getting Spencer

(01:11:37):
Arighetti back in less than a month.

Speaker 6 (01:11:39):
Now.

Speaker 4 (01:11:40):
We'll see about the timeline on that. We'll actually hear
from Dana Brown on that very subject coming up, and
Astros on Deck that part of the show probably about
two hours away. Astros on Deck begins at five point
thirty our discussion on the future of the Rockets as
it relates to their starting point guard. We will dig
in on that next here from a few Rockets Jalen

(01:12:00):
Green The Rockets their future.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
Eighteen.

Speaker 5 (01:12:17):
Continuing here on Sports Talk seven ninety Space City Home Network,
Jalen Green a lightning rod for conversation before, during, and
certainly after a seven game series loss to the Golden
State Warriors, not just a best of seven series loss.

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
In the seventh game, you all know by now what happened.

Speaker 5 (01:12:38):
It was not without successes for Jalen Green, the individual,
I think's defense. You're not at that seventh game without it,
and you're certainly not winning game two without his offense.

Speaker 4 (01:12:48):
But that was an outlier in this series.

Speaker 5 (01:12:51):
And just for the sake of argument, since this is
going to ramp up certainly now, and it's going to
really ramp up when the draft lottery happens a week
from tonight and the Rockets find out exactly how good
that twenty twenty five first round pick via the Phoenix
Suns is. I just find it fascinating when you're talking
about the percentages on where that pick might land, that

(01:13:13):
one through four as possible, and nine after as possible,
but you will not be picking five through eight at all,
zero percent.

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
If you're unaware, the lottery only is a selection process
for who gets the first four picks. Everybody else is
slotted in by record. After that, you could certainly jump up,
but if you don't, then the only reason your position
will change is if somebody behind you going into the
lottery did jump up to the one through four spots.

(01:13:40):
So the Rockets will have pick one, two, three, four, nine, ten,
eleven or twelve. If all three teams that get in
or four teams that get inside the lottery are behind them,
and there's only five teams that are behind them, they
could slot back all of those spots, and then the
teams that have the eight best records heead of them
that all also missed the lottery would all be ahead

(01:14:03):
of them. So nine through thirteen or one through four,
that's what the Rockets will have following this Monday's NBA
Draft lottery. Pretty much consensus that Cooper Flagg goes one.
Seems likely that at least one Rutgers players player Harper
or Bailey, will be the second or third pick. Bj
Edgecombe probably also in strong consideration to be top four

(01:14:27):
and maybe an outlier, but pretty good chance that those
are probably four of the top five or six picks.
So certainly in the area where the Rockets might end up,
and whatever they do with this pick, it's definitely gonna
impact next year's roster the simple ways you take a player,
because you land it up there, and now he impacts
how you're gonna set your rotation. Where does this player
fit in if he's like any of their other top

(01:14:48):
ten picks, they've made. He deserves playing time. He's earned
playing time during his rookie season, whether Rister, Bari Jalen,
or Amen Thompson, anybody not named Reid yep, anybody not
named read of the group that was in this year's
rotation a seemingly lesser draft, the one that read Shepherd
was the third overall pick. In No, he never earned

(01:15:11):
rotation minutes for this team. They're super high on his future,
but it's also still how do you get him on
the court, Because I know Fred's deal could be done,
definitely doesn't appear like it's going to be the case.
What most likely is the case is he will not
opt the team will not pick up the option because
they will have already agreed to a multi year deal

(01:15:33):
for less money than forty plus millis very team friendly.
I mean, they can try to get as team friendly
as they want. It'll be more friendly than forty plus
million a year, for sure, but it's still gonna be
a pretty good chunk of change. I wouldn't be surprised
if it's not much different than what Alpi and Jalen
are making, which is plus thirty. He's not going to
be included in any deals, No, very very unlikely. Jalen Green,

(01:15:54):
on the other hand, is there an opportunity Is this
where this team can get significantly better if he's someone
you dangle and thus replace Jabari Smith Junior only in
the fact that he's a younger player with talent. Is
he somebody that you dangle Kim what More, Similarly, you're
gonna have to give something up to get something. You're
gonna have to consider what of the future assets that
you own from Phoenix and elsewhere and your own are

(01:16:15):
you willing to give up? And are you certain that
the group that just walked off the court last night
isn't good enough with improvement or better offensive play or
play design that you can get over the hump without
a deal.

Speaker 5 (01:16:31):
Well, if if you're trading Jalen Green this offseason and
it's for a deal that's bringing you back Devin Booker, well,
I mean, obviously I think that's a that's like absolutely
the bare minimum in a transaction with the Phoenix Suns,
because it's not even about the Suns. You're not gonna

(01:16:51):
play Jalen Green and Devin Booker together anyways. Like if
they were like, well we want al rinching gun or
whatever they end up saying. I mean, you're not gonna
that's just with pray Fred van Vliet especially, that's too
much going on in the backcourt. I mean, it's Devin
Booker or Jalen Green. If you're talking about the Phoenix
Suns and a deal for Devin Booker, you're not putting
both of them on the Rockets roster somehow. But what's

(01:17:13):
fascinating to me is Bovada has the list of teams
that are the favorites to land Jalen Green if he's
not on the Rockets next year. Of all the teams
you could have told me, I would have never guessed
that the Lakers were at the top of that list.

Speaker 4 (01:17:28):
So how does he become a Laker? I don't know exactly.
I mean, it's not even about the Rockets. Who is
on that roster that the Rockets would want. Where I'm at, well,
you would have to Again, you're gonna hate this, but
it would definitely be a part of the deal. Austin
Reeves would be a Rocket, no question about it. I
wouldn't hate that he can shoot better than Jalen Green,
makes less money for another couple of years with the deal,

(01:17:48):
he signed, and the obviously the extension that Jalen Green
got he definitely can handle. I would hope you're aiming
much higher, but you're stuck right then and there. So
which Dalton can act a seventeenth overall pick from a
year ago? What do you want of their future better
with dealing with the Lakers? Well, the only way you're

(01:18:09):
gonna get better is if what happened for Golden State
happens for you. In what Buddy Heel did last night,
the Golden State's not moving on if Buddy Hill doesn't
have the best game of his life, and he had
the best game of his life, I'm not exaggerating or
giving you a hy purpose. What happens the best game
he's ever played as an NBA player, and it isn't
even close. He's in a group of three player three
active players have done what he did last night. Only

(01:18:32):
three active players have done what he did last night.
He becomes the third and he's in a group with
Devin Booker and Kawhi Leonard. Scoring thirty three or more
points in a playoff game, fifteen or more shots and
hit eighty percent or higher. It's pretty unique. It's hard
to do and the level of player that has done it.

(01:18:52):
When you consider some of those that aren't active that
have done it, he doesn't belong on that list. But
what he is with or without last night, he's someone
who can shoot the and for all this clamoring for
Kevin Durant specifically, you just need people who can score
hit open threes. Dylan Brooks had a great regular season,
he had a lesser postseason shooting threes. Jalen Green improved

(01:19:14):
as a three point shooter this year. He had an
awful shooting postseason. In his seven games, even with an
eight of eighteen, he was terrible. They don't have anybody
other than I think Reid who doesn't play that you
expect to go off on any given night or you know,
the other team absolutely positively cannot leave open because if

(01:19:34):
you do, he's gonna make it. The closest thing they
had to it was clearly Jabari Smith Junior. He was
outstanding in this series shooting threes. I don't want to
turn him into only that, but for a team that
misses on that, they probably needed him to do more
of that.

Speaker 9 (01:19:49):
Speaking of deals, for Devin Booker, would you do this?
Fandal came out with one Jalen Green Read Shepherd Tarry
Easton twenty twenty six first round pick twenty twenty nine,
third first round pick for Devin book.

Speaker 4 (01:20:01):
If that, if Phoenix says yes to that, yeah, would
I do it? Okay? Well, by saying twenty twenty six,
that makes it sound like it's your pick, the Rockets pick,
even though it's theirs, right, they don't have Washington one,
they don't have Phoenix's twenty twenty six picky twenty seven.
It's odd years, right, so they have the twenty nine pick, right. Well,

(01:20:21):
if it's only giving them back one of their picks, well,
you're keeping the one that's closer to current. Well, it's
really good. I'd love to keep that pick. Why did yeah,
why did they do that pick in that trade proposal?
Then you're you're trading away your shooters and getting back
a shooter. It sounds fine. Yeah, No, I'm fine with that.

Speaker 5 (01:20:39):
Anything that gets Devin Booker on the Rockets and does
not have like outburn Shingun and a Men Thompson going out,
I'm fine with.

Speaker 2 (01:20:47):
The eight.

Speaker 1 (01:20:48):
On Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys
named at him, talking your deeds So.

Speaker 2 (01:21:01):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckfler are d a team.

Speaker 5 (01:21:09):
Four o'clock how' underway here on Sports Talk seven ninety
and Space City Home Network. Wex ac Cole Thompson with
you on a Monday after the Rockets are eliminated four
games to three by the Golden State Warriors. Just real quick,
going back to last segment when we were talking about
Jayalen Green and the fact that the Lakers have the
biggest odds or the best odds, I should say to

(01:21:30):
land him if he's not with the Rockets this upcoming season.
I had a hilarious trade proposal floated to me, and
it's just it's because of who's involved coming back to
the Rockets and the Clippers would never do this anyways,
sweet and the Rockets would never do this anyway from

(01:21:50):
the Clippers because they could have had him last offseason.
And MA said thanks, but no, thanks.

Speaker 4 (01:21:56):
So James Harden to the Rockets.

Speaker 5 (01:21:59):
I said, no, I would not trade Jalen in part
of a deal to bring James Harden back to the
Rockets because we already have a guy who sucks on
offense and at least Jalen plays defense.

Speaker 4 (01:22:11):
James Harden had another bad weekend. Uh yeah, because Thursday
was technically still the week. He was very good in
Game six, he was very hardened like in Game seven.
Now he does contribute. They were winning in the first quarter,
they were up five after one in Game seven before
getting blown out middle two quarters. They got absolutely smoked
and he and most of his teammates were in the

(01:22:32):
heavy minus twenty five, minus twenty eight over just a
twenty minute period. He had thirteen assists, but which is nice,
and that means thirteen shots were made off of things
you did, many of them threes. But they do need
him to put the ball in the basket a little
bit more than twice, which is all he did. They
need him to probably advance the aggressiveness more than just

(01:22:53):
eight attempts. You know, the balls in his hands. Nearly
every single offensive possession is the point guard a few
where it's just Kawhi go at it. But clearly their
defense was the biggest culprit of all when they just
watched Denver kind of do whatever they want winning that
series earlier. Much like Houston, the Clippers had an opportunity
to win pretty much every single night early in the series,

(01:23:13):
and they couldn't get past those two wins. They were
facing the elimination after Game five and they only ended
up with three. They certainly played well enough to win
a lot more than three times against the Denver Nuggets.
Denver didn't have a chance to win every game they
got blown out. It was a little bit like what
I said. The Rockets had a chance to win seven
times against the Warriors, and the game seven was the

(01:23:35):
game they had the least likely chance to win. It
the only game in the fourth quarter where it was
not less than a seven point game. So this one
is the only one that's kind of the outlier in
Golden State's favor. Golden State had a chance to win
four times. They won four times.

Speaker 5 (01:23:48):
Yeah, and as the Rockets provided them ways to do
so in a lot of senses.

Speaker 4 (01:23:52):
Fit from a hardened standpoint, as he gets older, if
Fred van Vliet's on this team, and I just don't
know how you would ever do that, And I think
it's pretty clear they're not interested in adding a player
like James how he plays to the way they want
to play. You know, we're talking about one reason Jalen
is on the court in this series and is helping
them stay in games. Is because of what they were

(01:24:14):
able to do defensively. I really think what the Rockets
did defensively is uncopyable. It cannot be replicated by other teams.
They do not have and I don't mean just they
don't have a men Dylan and Jalen and Fred to
chase Steph. I mean when they're playing zone. I mean
when you're switching literally everything. Steven Adams is running all

(01:24:35):
over the court to pick up this guy, and Alprinchingoon
is blitzing on doubles and screens out top. They don't
have personnel to do it. I mentioned this to you
Ac before we even got any here, knowing we won't
go deep into the Minnesota series against the Warriors. Rudy
Gobert is a nice enough player in the regular season,
and he's a nice shot blocker and rebounder, and he's
nice above the rim when he can catch the ball.

(01:24:56):
But the Lakers hunted him mercilessly during this series because
he can't go on the perimeter. He can't move his feet.
Albern can, Steven Adams can. He will be a liability
if Minnesota allows that in this series, which we won't
discuss a whole lot but first franchise this cover, don't
worry about it. Nas Reeds should be a needs to
be a monster. And they do have the wing personnel

(01:25:19):
the length of McDaniels Walker obviously ant there are things
they can do. Plus, unlike Houston, they are a little
bit more potent offensively. Yeah, and it's not just Edwards. Yes,
it's not on the perimeter they are. Yeah, and they
have someone who do not run into him or else.
You're gonna be out for three to five weeks, Dante DiVincenzo,

(01:25:43):
He's gonna be out so much. They're gonna miss the
Macallen's gonna miss the Meccal's gonna miss.

Speaker 9 (01:25:47):
The pajama party tonight.

Speaker 4 (01:25:50):
Jalen one more time for the first time, and one
hundred more times. What we didn't talk about yet, and
certainly I think it's worthwhile. What you saw in this
series was what needs to get better if Jalen Green's
gonna be good here or anywhere. There clearly are weaknesses
in his game that get exposed when a team decides
to defend a certain way. He's got to get a
much better handle. He's got to be able to do

(01:26:12):
more on his own. But I think the team could
have helped him in that regard. This team doesn't run
an offense that Getskys shots. They run the offense through
OPPERA and Shengun. He was not capable of going to
his left and beating guys who was not capable of
changing directions and going back through the openings very often.
He was met at the rim quite a bit in
this series, unable to finish. And while he does have
a very good step back that I still think can

(01:26:34):
be even better, it just wasn't on display outside of
Game two hardly at all. The aggressiveness I think was
there through the regular season, I think it kind of
disappeared in this series. E May talked about the hockey
assist before Game seven when asked about what Jalen can
do and what he hasn't done or what he is
doing to help this team. He did make the right

(01:26:54):
decision more than not. And if the other guys, like
last night for the Warriors, well, when you got Buddy
Heald making shots, he got Jimmy Butler is a great
second option. All these things happened for the other team,
they didn't happen off enough for them. For the Rockets,
he was making the right play. It is. If they're
gonna send two guys thirty feet from the basket to
keep you from doing anything, well, then the rest of
the four on three that that creates should be very good.

(01:27:18):
It should be a situation you throw the ball into
the middle with Alburn, he's basically got the ball at
the point of attack with only three defenders. Create from there.
Other guys need to move without the basketball, which is
simply again this team. They didn't do that all year.
This was nothing new in this series. They don't help
their perimeter players. It is all one on one play.
They didn't help Fred either. But during the three games

(01:27:39):
where Fred was so awesome shooting the basketball, scoring nearly
twenty seven points a game and hitting a ridiculous sixty
seven percent of his threes, the defense was still focused
on Jalen so Fred, as he indicated after game I've
got there's more space. They're giving me more space. The
play that won them Game six, arguably out of the

(01:28:02):
break in between quarters. They paid so little attention to
Fred van Vliet. He hit a three and got fouled
six seconds into the quarter, eleven to fifty three on
the clock. When it goes in and hit it because
they just didn't defend him coming out of a timeout, right.
They never didn't do that to other players. They weren't
allowing that, And I don't know how they could do
it three games into this domination, which he was dominant

(01:28:25):
offensively for three games. But yeah, there's clear areas Jalen.
His handles got to get better, his strengths got to
get better. This does need to finish at the rim
even better. There were times where he really did that
and some of the strengths of his game were taken
away by Golden State. And it's not just him. The
Rockets are a great defensive team because it turns defense
and offense. They run, they push tempo, they get out

(01:28:48):
on the break. Didn't do much of that in this series.
That takes six points off the board for Jalen. He
doesn't have a steal, they can't throw it up top
to him because they haven't done those things in this series.
And yesterday was the worst of all. They only created
seven turnovers. They hardly created any mishots, so they were
always taking the ball out of the basket and they
didn't create any turnovers. So part of what he's really
good at finishing on the break and beating the other

(01:29:09):
team down. They just didn't do a whole lot of
in the series.

Speaker 5 (01:29:12):
Two part question, do the Rockets go with the we're
gonna stand pat, We're gonna let this core grow one
more year, or do they make a move? And you
know who is it? Who is I guess leading the
package out going from Houston?

Speaker 4 (01:29:30):
Is it Jalen? And I guess?

Speaker 5 (01:29:32):
Part two A is how much is that determined by
where this pick is coming up?

Speaker 4 (01:29:37):
A week from tonight? Because we were talking about the lottery,
I did give the draft lottery simulator a couple of spins.
Last segment took me all of three spins for to
spit out number four, Philly, number three, Washington, number two,
New Orleans, and number one, the pick belonging to the
Houston Rockets via the Phoenix Suns, the number one overall pick.

(01:29:59):
It took me all of three spins to get the
Rockets to that spot at number one, and they only
have a seventeen zero point three percent chance of landing
top four. They only have a three point eight percent
chance of landing one, which did not take me ninety
seven spins to get there. It took me three spins
to get there. You never know. I do think it

(01:30:20):
changes dramatically if you get one. I have no idea
what teams think about the value of two, three, and
four once they know if it's you, if they love
Edgecomb or love one of the players I mentioned for Rutgers.
We're talking about Jalen so much today. We got into
his draft and the drafts that have followed, and how
this might not be a deep draft and you might not.

(01:30:42):
One through five there's one player and he went one.
One through five, there's two players and one of them
went four, which is what happened to the Rockets in
two different instances. I mean, I don't know how strongly
people feel about Jalen Green's draft and Cad Cunningham's draft.
They obviously went one two. Kate Cunningham's team and Jalen
Green's team reached the playoffs for the first time the

(01:31:05):
same time. This year. Kate Cunningham had an awesome year.
Kate Cunningham's better than Jalen Green. Kate Cunningham got drafted
in front of Jalen Green, and there was never a
doubt about that he would and it's played out that way.
Evan Mobley's a very good player. And what about the
rest of the draft. The next best player in the
draft is a Rocket. It's Alprin shin Gun. Yeah, it's

(01:31:28):
I mean, it's that's a lot and he was where
for he was sixteen. That's a lot of restaurant. Like.
The fourth pick is Scottie Barnes. Never gonna win in
Toronto and never gonna win anywhere if he's the second
or third best player, you know, Franz Wagner reaches the playoffs,
Josh Giddy's been traded. Jonathan Kuminga he finally played last
night badly again. He was the seventh pick in the draft.

(01:31:50):
What these teams think of any particular draft and how
it works out in the lottery matters. The Rockets earned
the right to be very high in the lottery. They
were awful, but they landed the second pick after the
ping pong balls and the combinations were put out. And
then in another draft where Wenby went one, they only
got the fourth pick. But it was a man Thompson,

(01:32:12):
better than Scoot Henderson, better than Brandon Miller, both of
whom went before him.

Speaker 5 (01:32:17):
Yeah, it's going to be fascinating actually to wrestle with
this all off season long. Maybe not all off season long.
I mean they could make a trade quickly. What's the
July thirtieth, is that the free agency? No, it's July first.
I think in advance of that we might see some
sort of movement if we are going to see it

(01:32:37):
with your Houston Rockets.

Speaker 1 (01:32:41):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:32:48):
You know, sometimes football decisions are incredibly difficult, and this
is one of those instances. Considering our current roster, We've
made the tough decision to release this play. This player
created many significant and unforgettable moments in our franchise's history.
His reliability, focus, drive, resilience, and extraordinary talent made in

(01:33:10):
one of the league's best for over a decade. We're
grateful for his many contributions while playing for us. We
sincerely wish him and his family the very best in
this next chapter of their lives. That's from the executive
vice president and general manager of one of the thirty
two NFL franchises, referring to one recently released player from

(01:33:33):
their team. Sounds nice and generic.

Speaker 9 (01:33:36):
I'm gonna miss Matthew Stafford.

Speaker 4 (01:33:38):
It's not Matt Stafford. Dak Prescott. No, both of those
teams would be up a creek and they would be
Sam's paddle without those players.

Speaker 5 (01:33:46):
What what's the creek called? It's a TV show, you
can say it.

Speaker 4 (01:33:50):
I can't say an s the right way on TV
or radio. It's the Double Levy Performance Program. Very much
so they can't. Most teams can't release their quarterback despite
all the great memories he Now, this is a very

(01:34:11):
good guess, although what I read clearly is not talking
about DeShawn Watson. His reliability, his focused drive, resilience, and
extraordinary talent made him one of the best for over
a decade. None of that is true. That's certainly not.
It is crazy going to get a massage many significant
and unforgettable moments in our team's history. Name one unforgettable

(01:34:35):
moment in Brown's history that Deshaun Watson has been a
part of. Oh, he signed Techie just another day. It
was it mattered to Houston. It didn't matter to them.

Speaker 9 (01:34:47):
Signing two hundred and thirty million dollars on That's pretty significant.

Speaker 4 (01:34:51):
Wrong, if you'd like to keep guessing, Hold up, was
this player? This was sent twenty minutes ago, and it
is going to hit the transaction WI today.

Speaker 9 (01:34:58):
Was this player known for doing something else in his
career like singing opera? Uh yeah, so you could say
that the fat lady has finally sung on his tenure
in the AFC. He also hit the podium David Caruso
on CSI. He did go to the podium once, I
believe after a game and ask people in the room

(01:35:21):
about updog, trying to get an office like response.

Speaker 4 (01:35:26):
Yeah, Justin. This is kicker Justin Tucker, formerly of the
Baltimore Ravens. Framed completely and solely as a football decision,
as in the very first sentence of the statement. Sometimes
football decisions are incredibly difficult, and this is one of
those instances.

Speaker 10 (01:35:45):
LI.

Speaker 4 (01:35:45):
When we had the opportunity to draft a kicker in
the draft, we knew we could make this move for
our once very good kicker. I'll take the football side
of it. Justin Tucker's twenty twenty four NFL season and
postseason was not typical of the guy who'd been commonly
referred to as the best kicker of this generation, if
not even more highly thought of. He definitely was not

(01:36:08):
as good, He was not as reliable, he was not
as successful. In fact, his field goal percentage wasn't even
just off from his NFL record setting best of eighty
nine point one percent. Now, it was way off.

Speaker 5 (01:36:25):
When did the accusations that were Deshaun like come about
prior to this season or in the middle of I
couldn't remember.

Speaker 4 (01:36:33):
He was already kicking poorly, right, he had already become
a thirty five year old kicker. He'll be a thirty
six year old kicker if he's in the league at
some point in November of next year. That he's been
very good, Well, what if you're starting to kick worse,
which he clearly did.

Speaker 5 (01:36:53):
Yeah, but I'm just saying that kickers can get a
little grayer in the beard than most NFL players and
it's still be very, very accurate.

Speaker 4 (01:37:01):
I can confirm, either with the social media post or
by just telling you now. The new blonde locks, at
least on top of Kaymie Fairbairn, were on full display
on the golf course today. That's great. I hope he
kicks better than he did last year. He was one
of the many Texans over at the Texans Foundation Golf Classic,
twenty second annual record setting numbers generated this year by

(01:37:24):
the Texans and I don't think that the Texans are
looking for a kicker. I a doubt, very seriously, any
team in the NFL is going to sign Justin Tucker.
The Baltimore Banner has been at the forefront of all
these allegations. They were the ones who had the initial

(01:37:45):
group and then the secondary group of complaints against him.
He has denied all of it. He's had legal representation
deny all of it. The Ravens have directed everybody, much
like the Texans did with Sean Watson, to ant and
ongoing league investigation, though they have claimed that it hasn't

(01:38:05):
this has one has nothing to do with the other.
And now, as I said, I presented the football side
of it. He's denied all allegations of wrongdoing, and of
course the league all they can say at this point
is yeah, Justin Tucker remains under review.

Speaker 5 (01:38:22):
This smells the high heavens. I know it's easier to
frame it as a football decision because of the aforementioned
lackluster performance.

Speaker 4 (01:38:32):
And once they believe they found his replacement, which they
chose to draft the Arizona kicker in the draft, right
then you can go ahead and.

Speaker 5 (01:38:40):
The second Baltimore Raven in as many decades. It's had
some unsavory behavior off the field unceremoniously lead to him
being axed.

Speaker 4 (01:38:49):
Who's the other one? What's his face? Ray Rice? Now
I would have a similar argument for ray Rice. I
wasn't asking because I couldn't remember I was asking, so
everybody would hear it.

Speaker 5 (01:39:02):
Ray Rice's Lewis, that was another unsavory twenty years.

Speaker 4 (01:39:08):
I knew you were talking about this, Ray. Yeah, they
didn't kill anybody allegedly. Ray Rice's final season as a Raven,
which was his sixth year, there was significantly less productive,
less successful than any of the previous five as a
running back from a football standpoint, And I don't know

(01:39:30):
that anybody would have signed him. I presume he would
have gotten a chance somewhere if this would not have
been attached to him. But I'm not saying I think
you would have signed somewhere and succeeded. Not every running
back is done after six years, and not every running
back who has extreme usage like he did for four
of those six years, is completely finished. He was who

(01:39:52):
wants to put their team with him? And once the
league did what they did and how they handled it,
which of course was very very I don't know. I
don't know what happened to the tape. Oh, I haven't
seen the tap. Oh everyone's seeing the tape. We don't
have that. If that tape didn't exist, he would have
never been cut now fact. But okay, here's the other thing.

Speaker 9 (01:40:09):
He's a thirty five year old kicker at a position
that you see get completely revamped or replaced overnight. I mean, like,
I'm sorry, whether or not you want to say he's
the greatest kicker of all time, He's a replaceable position.

Speaker 4 (01:40:21):
He's not a quarterback.

Speaker 9 (01:40:22):
He's not a star wide receiver, he's not a star
outside linebacker. He's a kicker that started to decline. They
drafted his replacement high Petrayal Sia justin Tucker.

Speaker 5 (01:40:31):
They have an uncanny ability to cut ties with guys
at just the right time, don't.

Speaker 4 (01:40:37):
They, honestly? And I know that's not the reason he
was let go. I could have absolutely seen this happening
if zero allegations were out there, if they really felt
that he can't kick, and they have a year's worth
of evidence to suggest that's the case at his age,
just moving on to the next guy. Just like Cole said,

(01:40:57):
Now there are allegations to do with it, but it is.

Speaker 5 (01:41:01):
Odd that these allegations come about at the tail end
of his career.

Speaker 4 (01:41:05):
Sure, no way to Yeah, I don't have any idea
as to what to prompt because these do companies aren't
from a year ago or two years ago, from the
early twice some of them are many more than ten
years ago. You know what's really interesting.

Speaker 9 (01:41:18):
Do you remember how we talked about Shack Mason kind of
falling off the cliff last season and how rapidly he declined.
That was an underlying thing compared to what Justin Tucker did,
because even before he wasn't declining this way. In twenty
twenty three, this was like a one off year where
it all just came crashing down.

Speaker 4 (01:41:35):
Yes, things happened very very quickly for Shaquille Elajuan Masons
last year. Real name, yes given.

Speaker 5 (01:41:45):
His parents must have been huge fans of the nineteen
ninety five NBA Finals.

Speaker 4 (01:41:48):
When he arrived in Houston for his first availability up
on the eighth floor, we got into it, and that
obviously was from his mom who was a big fan.
The name was unbeatable, but I would have made it
my first name. He was not, even though he was smiling.
I don't think Dream was happy last night when he
was in his seat, or when he left the arena,
or when he went back for halftime. It's impossible for
him not to smile because everyone's saying hi to him

(01:42:10):
and being nice and can I get a picture? And
he's nice back. But that could not have been fun
for him to stomach. He's been in his fan situation
for all of these Golden State games, in all of
these Golden State series. He was there. Many others were
there Stroud. Since we're talking foot to tap up his boy.
Well he did not score at the beginning of the game. Yeah,

(01:42:32):
well maybe he should have. Well, so Nico was there
for Game two, right, and he drained it, drained it
and they crushed. Yep. The only other Texan to take
a first shot in the four first shots was CJ,
who did it for Game five. I don't remember. I'd
have to look back. Buns did it for game one.

Speaker 6 (01:42:50):
It was.

Speaker 4 (01:42:52):
It was it was Steve Francis. Yeah, it was Steve
Francis and Bun made his shot in Game one. They
did not win, though, Nice job, CJ. Way to bring
up there.

Speaker 5 (01:43:01):
All right, I'll tell you about the other at least
surprising Texans news. And we'll also get to the good,
the bad and the ugly from over the weekend. I
wonder if it's a Rockets edition.

Speaker 4 (01:43:12):
When we come back.

Speaker 5 (01:43:14):
It is a Monday edition of the eighteen wex ac
Cole Thompson with you uh, taking you up until five
point thirty when we transition to Astros on deck as
they start that three game set in Milwaukee.

Speaker 2 (01:43:27):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:43:33):
Now the good, good, the bad, that's not good, and
the ugly don't make me good.

Speaker 12 (01:43:40):
With the A team, we're selling you the good, bad, good, bad,
the ugly signature segment time each and every weekd afternoon,
halfway through our number three four thirty, we hit you
with our signature segment.

Speaker 4 (01:43:57):
Today it's good, bad in the ugly. Clanton has suggest
maybe it's Rockets related. I'll go with that, since I
have the good. Rockets didn't win Game seven. I don't
know how good this can be, but you watched it
unfold for seven games with Aman Thompson. That is absolutely good.
It's as good as it can get, all things considered.

(01:44:20):
If the Rockets were to win Game seven the way
that that game was played, it was going to be
because he was the driving force saying it without saying it,
We're not losing tonight. Our season does not end Tonight.
Is the best game, in my opinion, that he played
in this series, even though he was phenomenal in Game five.

(01:44:41):
I think circumstances of how his team was playing, circumstances
of what was on the scoreboard, and the circumstances of
what was on the line, and yet another elimination game.
I thought what he did in last night's game was
just absolutely tremendous. Unfortunately had to play some of it
working through a calf injury. Pretty clear that it did
him when he did not challenge Steph Curry on one

(01:45:03):
of those threes late in the game. It was very
easy to see where it happened, as he immediately pointed
to it, was getting work done on it, and missed
time later in the game because of it. But we
were lamenting Amen Thompson. If this was good, bad and
the ugly earlier in the series, he certainly would not
have been good. Four shots made, four shots made, five
shots made, and shooting under fifty percent through three games

(01:45:25):
in this series, had not scored over eleven points in
any game in this series had a one rebound game.
Granted they won that game, but what he did the
final four games of this series absolutely incredible. Eighty points. Obviously,
that means he averaged twenty points per game. He hit
his free throws, including all six in last night's Game seven,

(01:45:47):
after getting off to a miserable start at the free
throw line, and that was early in game one. Hey, men,
Thompson to the free throw line early. This should be good.
Over two, Hey, he's back at the free throw line
early in this game in the first quarter. Over four,
he started four for ten. Then he won twenty one
of twenty six. The good is the things that get

(01:46:08):
said about your future stars. What would you like them
to have? And there's no better person to have this
discussion with than Ac What do your stars have to have?
What do your leaders have to have? What do they
need to be in the playoffs? A killer? His offense
doesn't dictate that he's your typical postseason killer, and it should.

(01:46:29):
His mid range game, I think is going to be awesome.
I think it's going to be a shot that he's
going to take and make a ton in the future.
Maybe he extends it to parts of the three point line.
Maybe not, but his offensive game is going to do
nothing but get better, because that's the part of his
game that I think is most easily fixed or improved.
You just take a bunch of shots over the offseason,
you just work on getting to those spaces spots a

(01:46:51):
lot more often. But he is what I looked at
last night, and a leader by example. We're not losing tonight.
We are going to kill this opposition. Their season ends tonight,
not ours. That's what I thought. He was playing like
most of the remainder of this series and definitely help
this team stave off elimination twice before Game seven. I

(01:47:13):
think that was good. No, I was.

Speaker 5 (01:47:16):
There's a lot of good actually to come away with,
especially when you consider again how far ahead of schedule
the Rockets are. But nobody wants to hear that the
day after, so I get that. I'll give you some
bad and it's not even it's not necessarily Rockets related.
It's more of a series related note. And I wanted
to bring this up earlier in the show, and I
just forgot to bring it up. This this loss, this

(01:47:39):
series loss, seems a lot worse in my opinion because
of who you lost to, like it's easy and believe me,
everybody's doing it the low hanging fruit. These are the
same idiots that will say, Houston, we have a problem.
They're the ones that do that stuff. They're dumb, they're
lazy especially, and they are looking at this like, huh,

(01:48:03):
there it is. Rockets are owned by the Warriors again,
even though it's a completely different roster, and honestly it's
a big time change in the Warriors roster. But because
it's these two organizations, and because it's within a I
guess decade, this loss is now lumped in with those
previous losses, which could not be further away from each

(01:48:26):
other as far as who's the head coach, who's the
star players if any how, the rosters you know, put together,
who's the GM, all of that stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:48:34):
It's just the logos are the same.

Speaker 5 (01:48:36):
But because it's the Rockets and the Warriors, and Steph
Curry was involved and did a stupid ninety nine thing,
it's the Rockets are owned by the Golden State Warriors.
Even though there's five years in between the last two series.

Speaker 4 (01:48:48):
There's probably six entities involved in that discussion. The two franchises,
the two actual current rosters, and the two sets of
fan bases, and it probably meant something to five of
those groups. Not the current players of the Rockets, right,
but it did mean something to the current players on
the Warriors, especially Draymond, because he said as much last night.

(01:49:08):
He said, it matters because this is the organization. It's
fun beating this organization. It matters to the Warriors organization,
It matters to the Rockets who cannot be sicker about
losing to this team again, and it clearly matters to
both sets of fans what Fred said before this series.
I do think it's true. This is not that team.
He's right, you just laid it out. This has nothing
to do with those teams and what happened on the

(01:49:29):
court in those four series and then now this one series.
So to Jalen and Alpi and Jabbari and Fred and Dylan,
it doesn't have that kind of franchise versus franchise meeting meaning.
But I do think to the other five entities I
brought up, it probably sadly does something ugly on your mind. Cole.

Speaker 9 (01:49:48):
Yeah, I was gonna go with hockey because of just
I had a rant and an epiphany, and unfortunately AC
had to deal with that on Saturday night. But I'll
keep it basketball related. AC brought up the conversation that
he had with somebody about, well, maybe trade Jalen Green
to bring back James Harden. Naturally, automatically just that's a

(01:50:08):
straight ugly take. But let me just go a little
bit deeper after what we saw in Saturday's game, nine
points in a must win showdown for a guy that
still believes he is the enforcer and one of the
difference makers in the NBA since leaving the Houston Rockets,
a guy that people are saying, well, maybe you should
trade for him back. He's shooting forty one percent from

(01:50:32):
the field, he's shooting thirty one percent from downtown. He
is averaging less than thirty nine minutes a game, and
he's averaging less than thirteen points per contest, and in
game seven must win situations, he has yet to score
more than twenty points since leaving Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:50:51):
It's atrocious.

Speaker 9 (01:50:52):
It's a tragedy to anybody who says we have a problem,
we should go bring back a guy like James Heard
because number thirty is gona.

Speaker 4 (01:50:59):
Help us so much.

Speaker 9 (01:51:00):
It's not it's absolutely abysmal to think that you would
even have the type of take.

Speaker 4 (01:51:05):
It's so ugly of a take.

Speaker 9 (01:51:07):
Decided to surpass what happened last night for Saint Louis
with one point six seconds remaining on the clock to
go to the second round, decide to go ahead and
loose to them one of Peg Jackson double overtime.

Speaker 4 (01:51:18):
That's pretty ugly. Probably for another day, maybe another show,
or maybe another city, potentially another country like Canada that
might fit in the ugly. But we'll take the no
thank you, very pleasant no thank you to currently thirty
five year old James Harden, the Beard, El Choppo, Jimbo, Slice,
honeybun Uno, the System, Saint James. He will be thirty

(01:51:42):
six before his next NBA campaign begins. We do not
think he is the answer to what ails the Houston Rockets.
I would agree a trade bringing James Harden back to
the h to play basketball for Houston. I would deem
that rather ugly. And that's the city interest segment for today.
Here on the eight Team. On May fifth, twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (01:52:07):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:52:20):
It is the A team Sports Talk seven ninety Space
City Home network, wex and AC with you until five thirty,
and then then we'll stay with you a little bit
longer because we'll be getting you ready for Astros Brewers
Game one. Astros on deck in case you missed it,
or don Alvarez placed on the IL retroactive to May third.

Speaker 4 (01:52:42):
Ten day. Right, there's a ten day for ten day
position players. He's on that. There's also a sixty day
for pitchers, fifteen day for those and other players as well. Yeah,
ten to Ael, but it doesn't mean it's only a
ten day stint. It means it has to be at
least a ten day stint, correct. I just don't know
what to do with the Astros.

Speaker 5 (01:53:03):
I think it wouldn't hurt as much if traditional slow
starter Alex Bregman wasn't cranking homers every other day at Fenway.

Speaker 4 (01:53:13):
For his average team.

Speaker 5 (01:53:15):
Yeah, but that doesn't matter. This team wouldn't be average
if they had him on it.

Speaker 4 (01:53:20):
No, maybe he'd be taking away arguably one of the
Astros' best offensive players.

Speaker 5 (01:53:26):
I mean, sadly, isn't Bregman overall having a better season
than Estak Paraitis right now.

Speaker 4 (01:53:32):
Without a doubt, he does have a bunch of errors,
But I don't think we care like Alex Bregman is
more errors than any other third basement. You care more
about the bat right now than you care about the defense.
Why is he he has fielding errors? He just does?
I mean, why he never does that they did this year?
Is it just getting used to Fenway. I'll take those
five flubs and bad throws and take the awesome at

(01:53:56):
bats he's had for a month. How many homers does
he have now?

Speaker 9 (01:53:59):
Seven?

Speaker 4 (01:53:59):
I thought I was gonna say eight. It's seven or eight.
I'll tell you a second.

Speaker 5 (01:54:03):
That's just I mean, go figure man, he's he's here
all those years.

Speaker 4 (01:54:09):
He signed for forty million a year. We had this
thought we should still have today. He was not gonna
play here, as much as they strung it along, as
much as it sounded like they were in the mix.
He's also acknowledged the Astros weren't even the next team.
They weren't Tiger Lead. He was going to be at
Detroit Tiger before this crazy offer was put in front

(01:54:32):
of him, which I of course said yes to. His
agent got him even forty million a season and guaranteed
one hundred and twenty if he wants it. If not
more guaranteed after this season when he opts out and
they throw even more crazy money at him.

Speaker 9 (01:54:46):
And he's gonna earn that money because currently he's eleventh
and batting average at three seventeen.

Speaker 4 (01:54:50):
I never thought we'd see that. You were right.

Speaker 9 (01:54:52):
He has eight home runs, he's tied for eighth, but
twenty seven RBIs and he's third overall in ops at
nine to seventy nine.

Speaker 4 (01:55:00):
It here because you haven't even started to talk about
Kyle Tucker. Yeah, because they sent him away. Then he
chose that Alex. They chose not to force a player
to agree to a lower market value team to sign
with them anytime over the last few years, and then
obviously get an even better deal to that we never
saw coming to do so with the Red Sox, where honestly,

(01:55:21):
I thought he was going to be the whole time,
just one last thing on Alex. It would have still
the way if he was a Tiger. Of course, he's
playing great. He's going to the ballpark where he was crushing.
Of course he's hitting well at Fenway and he is.
He's got a nine to forty two ops. He's hitting
two eighty six there. Well, I thought Cole just said
he was hitting over three hundred. Well, he must be

(01:55:41):
hitting even better when he's not at Fenway, which he
is by a lot this year in a very small
sample size, but eighteen games away, he's been insane, arguing
he's definitely one of the five best hitters away from
his own ballpark. Do you think this would have happened
if he had stayed in Houston?

Speaker 5 (01:56:00):
He got the money, The money's the same, Okay, it's
just an imaginary world.

Speaker 4 (01:56:03):
But the familiarity, the routine. I feel like he's doing
this because he's not in Houston. I think the only
way to answer that is to know what they've done differently.
He's not doing the same. There's no way he is
handling himself and was asked to handle himself and do
the same things at the plate that he was asked
to do here. There's got to be some sort of tweak.

(01:56:24):
There's got to be some tip from his personal hitting coach,
or some tip from a Red Sox staffer, or something
that they've also looked at, or that he's now looked at,
or that he did something. There's no way, there's no
way everything would be the same. I don't think he'd
be doing this for the Astros. No, I think this
is just a it worked out this way. Doesn't mean
he's going to keep doing this.

Speaker 9 (01:56:43):
If you're telling me that he's hitting three seventeen in
the Houston uniform. Now, if you told me he was
hitting closer to two eighty nine with maybe five home
runs and twenty four RBIs but an eight seventy nine ops,
I could buy it. But he's not hitting like this
if he's in the Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:56:57):
Uniform, I'm sorry. He's not a three hundred hitter, not
even he's never been a three hundred hitter. He's not
likely going to remain a three hundred hitter. He's had
one season close to this season, and he was runner
up for MVP twenty eighteen and was twenty nineteen or twineteen.
It was during the first half of his career where

(01:57:18):
that first half was unreal, and the second half is
Astro's career. The second half of his Astro's career was
shan way. I'm giving this guy one hundred twenty million,
a round sixteen million, two hundred million. He's still a
very good player, and he's total heart and soul of
your team, and he makes other players better. But he's
a little bit. One hundred and eight hundred ops. Guy's
a little bit. He's about one hundred and twenty ops

(01:57:39):
plus guy, not one sixty or one fifty or what
he's currently this year, won seventy. That's not who he's
been for five years, for the whole season, not just
this crazy start.

Speaker 5 (01:57:54):
Don't tell me about the twenty nineteen season, some other
aspect of that that's going to make me even more bitter.
I could have sworn it was twenty eighteen, or you
sure he.

Speaker 4 (01:58:01):
Finished top five and then he finished second in twenty nineteen.

Speaker 5 (01:58:05):
Yeah, he finished second and twenty nine. This whole time,
I never knew that. I thought that twenty eighteen was
the only season where he was in the top five
at all. Back to back years, yeah, wow.

Speaker 9 (01:58:14):
Say back back years. I thought for some reason it
was twenty.

Speaker 4 (01:58:17):
No, because nobody did anything in twenty twenty. Because I mean,
if I told you had forty one homers in twenty twenty,
that would have been something during the sixty game season.

Speaker 5 (01:58:25):
Yeah, well, they wouldn't have been. They wouldn't have been
one game under five hundred.

Speaker 4 (01:58:29):
He still wouldn't have won American League MVP though probably
they probably still would have voted jose A Bray American
League MVP twenty twenty.

Speaker 2 (01:58:38):
Facts.

Speaker 4 (01:58:39):
Now you're just making me angry. What about his start?
Was it not good enough? What about his finish?

Speaker 13 (01:58:45):
Oh god, he's still finishing right now. This season is
still on the bill.

Speaker 4 (01:58:49):
You realize you'd think somebody would have Yeah, it probably
could have gone a little bit differently for him. You
do look at the financials for this year and next year,
and you see way down at the bottom on whichever
site you may be looking at, or your own spreadsheet,
maybe you've made one at home, Yeah, you have. It
goes through all this guy's do this much, and this
guy's at this figure, and then next year he's a

(01:59:09):
you know, his arbitration too. And next year this guy's
set to make seventeen million. Next year Jordon gets a
huge bump. Next year, Christian Javier gets a huge bump.
And next year you're not on the hook for nineteen
and a half a million like you are this year
for jose A Bray, who you signing. They're not signing anybody.
We're using that money on. They're saving that money. They're

(01:59:30):
not gonna next year's free agency spending for the Astros,
it's gonna be less than it was this oft Have
you've seen the free agents that are hitting the market
next year. Well, Kyle Tucker's at the top of the list,
and he's alone now that Vladdie has signed his extension. Yeah,
he's gonna get He's gonna get five hundred minimum. I
think minimum. Yeah, I think minimum. He's getting closer to

(01:59:53):
before twenty five. I think Maximm's getting fire. Are you
watching him this year? Dude? I am.

Speaker 9 (01:59:57):
I just don't know who's gonna pay that price.

Speaker 4 (01:59:59):
There's always somebody.

Speaker 9 (02:00:00):
There's only a select amount of teams, and honestly, I
think it should be the Cubs. It's no, it shouldn't, Okay,
Why because if I actually like Kyle Tucker as an individual,
and I know he doesn't play here anymore, but.

Speaker 4 (02:00:12):
I want to be able to root for him or
at least Yeah.

Speaker 5 (02:00:15):
But as far as like baseball itself, the Cubs just
traded away Cam Smith, right, so you need to keep
the guy you traded for.

Speaker 4 (02:00:24):
They should, but you.

Speaker 9 (02:00:24):
Know what, they're disaster of an organization, which makes me
cackle and feel so delighted inside. That I want to
see them make a mess of this entire situation.

Speaker 4 (02:00:32):
You are Houston AF. That goes back to the NL Center.

Speaker 9 (02:00:36):
I'm just not Chicago AF because of my dad, gre
up a white Sox fan.

Speaker 4 (02:00:41):
So you're just rooting it against your dad to spite him.

Speaker 9 (02:00:44):
No, I'm rooting against the Cubs because if I grew
up in a white Sox house.

Speaker 4 (02:00:47):
Oh, I got you, I got you. Now I misheard you.

Speaker 5 (02:00:50):
All right, Well we're gonna get to uh why Draymond
Green is still a victim and some Football at five
conversation when we come back.

Speaker 1 (02:00:58):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 10 (02:01:14):
You know what that means.

Speaker 4 (02:01:15):
It's five o'clock. It means football at five, the eight team.
Wexac Cole Thompson here with you. Your Houston Texans were
on the golf course today are the Texans Foundation Charity
Golf Tournament twenty second Annual. And I know a lot
of people that would like to play golf are actually
glad that they can continue to play golf. Take a

(02:01:37):
moment to thank the awesome people our friends over at
QC Kinetics. They're part of the A Team. You hear
us talk about them all the time. It's great. We
can help our listeners by getting them set up with
the QC Kinetics getting your life back, as we say,
you can be a part of the A Team, have
a partnership with the A Team as well. If you
want me to speak for your company like I do
for their company, just let me know. Email me at

(02:01:59):
Adam Wexler at iHeartMedia dot com. So a simple thank
you to QC Kinetics for their partnership here with the
A Team. So on the golf course, making some funds
for the Texans Foundation, we had a chance to speak
with new Texans President Mike Toman. We had a chance
to speak with continuing ownership duo Calan Hannah McNair, spoke

(02:02:22):
with the head coach, that's Demiko Rians and saw assorted
other Texans players and legends. Had a brief conversation with
Andre ware own Daniels out there, Travis Johnson among the currents,
Dare Davis. Tim Settle was making sure everybody knew that
he's not very good at golf. He'd love to shoot

(02:02:46):
on the front nine in the thirties, but does not
expect it and got to see Kymie Fairbairn tee off
who was wearing his bucket hat which I saw him
take off for a moment. He had blonde tips. As
he prepares for the remainder of the off season, the team,
what will be on the field, the young young young
part of the team for rookie mini camp beginning this weekend.

(02:03:06):
The whole team will get together the following week. We
do not anticipate activities on the football side for Tank
Dell anytime soon. The questions will continue to be asked
of Demico Ryans pretty much every time he is available,
and the answer will remain almost identical every single time.
Because of the severity of the injury and the unknown

(02:03:28):
portion of it, and Demiko's very clear plan position on
injuries over the two plus years he's been here, he
says precious little about them, especially when it's of a
little significance because it's so far off in the distance.
His answer today about an update on Tank Dell was this.

Speaker 14 (02:03:46):
For Tank, I wanted to continue to get better and
continue to attack. He's able to rehab process the right
way like he's been going with great attitude, and he'll
he'll be back when it's time for tank to be back.
There's nothing to russ as hells a timeline and we
need him back by his certain day.

Speaker 6 (02:04:03):
We need Tunk back when the tank is ready to
be tank. And that's that's good enough for me. How much.

Speaker 4 (02:04:09):
Draft, what's happening on the tremendous stuff. Unfortunately, with the
timing of how far off this is, it's it's the answer.
We'll continue again, I hope. I mean, I understand the
need to ask it. It's just there's nothing to be
gained from it because he's not gonna tell us anything.

(02:04:31):
Because there's also a huge portion of this that I mean,
they have a little bit of an idea, but he's
not about to step back on the field in We
got basically a full month of May. He got a
full month of June, full month of July. End of July,
they'll be in camp. He's not going to play in camp.
He's not gonna be running rountes. He's not gonna be
taking reps with the wide receivers. That's four months from now.

(02:04:53):
The idea that he's playing at all this year is
not a given. And when he's not participating at the
beginning of camp and and this is the tenth time
that Demiko or Nick has been asked about it. I
don't think the answer is going to change much. He's
on his schedule, he's attacked the rehab. We like what
he's doing, and you know, when it's time for him
to be ready, he'll be ready. Now they didn't have

(02:05:13):
to draft two wide receivers. I was interesting the way
Demico described it, saying, you know, when we get in
there and we start, you know, going through the process,
we didn't think we would be able to land both
of them. I wasn't expecting to be able to do that.
When Nick gets to doing his magic act of adding
assets and trading assets at a feverish pace during the draft,

(02:05:33):
everything is on the table. The Texans trading up to
twelve was on the table. The Texans trading out of
the first round was on the table. The Texans trading
back up into the second round a second or third
time on the table. All nine of their picks were
acquired via trade at some point during the proceedings, and
so anything was possible. They did land a player who
can play his role in Jalen Knowle. They did land

(02:05:56):
a player who will make it very very difficult to say, well,
this is the only guy we have to check, Nico Collins,
so he has to play Nico. What about the other
Nico on the other side, Jayden Higgins, even though he's
a rookie, I shared a lot of the similar characteristics.
Certainly is a stature is one of them. I mean,
you guys remember what his pro comp was, right, Nico Collins,

(02:06:17):
Nco Collins. Yeah, there's no question that that is something
of They didn't just put two players in because they
took two players out, Tank Dell Stefon Diggs out, Jalen
Knowle and Jadan Higgins in. It's much much more than that.
You know, Jaden Higgins' career arc could be spectacular, might
not be. And playing with this team with Nico, with

(02:06:39):
how established Nico is, I don't expect it to be
that out of the gate. But it's certainly the characteristics
of being a great NFL player exists there, and I
don't think it's much different for Nole. That's just different
players and different skill sets to fit the new still
somewhat unknown Nick Cayley offense quite obviously. The only other
thing of interest that I think came from the interview

(02:07:03):
with Demiko from a football standpoint, was what he had
to say about the other pick they made in the
second round, because he was pretty clear, which is pretty
nice because we don't always get that of what their
intentions are with tay with ursery on their offensive line.

Speaker 14 (02:07:19):
Connie really liked to take your college at tackle, playing
that tackle. So we're starting out at tackling for him.
I can see how he goes there, and my vision
for him was always need.

Speaker 4 (02:07:30):
To be almost flexibility is great, but he's a tackle.
He'll play on the interior when we're at wits end,
when it's game day and we have injuries and we've
got to shuffle things around or like what happened last year,
and we don't know what to do on offensive line
because though he could play well, but he is a tackle.
Was drafted as a college tackle, and it's with the

(02:07:52):
intentions of him playing NFL tackle. Case closed.

Speaker 9 (02:07:56):
We never ever say, even at whits and tay Erseri
should be playing offensive guard. He is a tackle. Figure
it out with somebody else to play guard.

Speaker 4 (02:08:07):
Yeah, because the Texans would never ever move a tackle inside,
never ever, ever, every year for the last five years,
would ever do that never under the head coach side,
never under this GM, never under the last GM or
the previous coach. It would never ever do that. Teams
never do that on game day when they have eight
players dressed.

Speaker 5 (02:08:26):
Who's playing left tackle, the second year tackle or the rookie,
well one of them.

Speaker 4 (02:08:31):
Now, they do have options if somehow both Cam Robinson
and Trent Brown at different tackle positions show that they
can still outplay these kids. But I don't even think
that's what they're I don't. I think they're both scheduled
to get reps and beat one another out at left tackle,
while Blake Fisher is expected to beat Ersery out initially

(02:08:53):
at right tackle.

Speaker 9 (02:08:54):
I think what there's going to be the game plan
is you brought in Ursery to be the long term
left tackle, but you're gonna let him battle it out
with Blake Fisher for right tackle and let Cam Robinson
just play the left side for this year.

Speaker 4 (02:09:07):
That's a one year deal. Both of those players are
on one year deal. They're not gonna next year get
million dollars deal on the other ones on a one million,
three money It doesn't even matter what the money is.
They would have to play their way into a second
deal as they play their way into a team wanting
them back for the first time and how long.

Speaker 9 (02:09:21):
Well, the other thing is that you gotta you can't
have an Ursery or a Blake Fisher take a step
back because then you're forced to then sign them to
another one year deal.

Speaker 4 (02:09:29):
No, you're not entirely. But if like those two players
are playing seventeen games plus playoffs end of story, Cam
Robinson is not going to be a Texan twenty twenty six,
You'll sign some other tackle.

Speaker 5 (02:09:38):
I know this is dangerous, especially considering who the quarterback is,
but shouldn't these guys play. You're not gonna like Dwayne
Brown had a nightmare rookie season, but he became the
best left tackle in franchise history overall in my opinion,
because he But.

Speaker 4 (02:09:57):
You're not here to watch them get better during their
rookie season while your quarterback in your offense is at
a detric You are because that's what you set your
team up to do. That's why you signed the veterans.
So that isn't what you're forced to do. What was
their record the year that Dwayne Brown came into the NFL.
I think they were like it was one of those seven.

Speaker 9 (02:10:16):
Yeah, okay, Well, you're a team that has made it
to the playoffs and won the division back back years.
You're not taking a step back because of you want
to get these offensive linemen prepared for the future of
working Mecez struck.

Speaker 4 (02:10:26):
The worst part about is we keep I mean, I
even said it just to you. You don't want to
take a step back. These guys stink no offense. No,
the two players they signed are not coming off good years.
Took a step back, You're already taking a step back,
but you're taking a step back with a veteran who
probably knows what he's doing, who knows how to communicate,
who can at least prevent your quarterback from getting slaughtered,

(02:10:47):
but rather just the play gets dissolved and it gets
disrupted and you have to throw it away. Versus a
rookie who gets completely obliterated by a defensive lineman who's
put a move on him or outstrengthened him to the
point where this guy's sitting on his backs on the
edge and one of the most fearsome edge rushers is
one step from CJ one second after he said hut.

Speaker 9 (02:11:06):
Plus also, you get to keep his confidence up for
a little bit longer.

Speaker 4 (02:11:09):
Can Ersery get bigger than three twenty one Erser's probably,
I don't know what the size they'll have Brown and
Robinson at this year. Brown could certainly be bigger, but
you know he'll be one of the bigger. He'll play
at the size he currently is. I don't think they
need him to get bigger, and I don't think they
want him to get lighter.

Speaker 13 (02:11:25):
Well, as long as he's a house he is, he'll
play I think around anywhere three fifteen to three eighteen.

Speaker 4 (02:11:31):
Oh, he's gonna lighten up. Huh, he lose a few
LB's before he starts blocking for CJ. Stroud maybe.

Speaker 5 (02:11:38):
By the way, all this stadium talk on the way
out of this is just fascinating to me.

Speaker 4 (02:11:43):
Well, I do think a lot of what was disseminated
my own post included gave people the impression that all
the answers, which often are the only part produced in
a post like on my own on Twitter on x
this was way more about the practice for and their
training facility and their headquarters, way way more than what

(02:12:05):
they're planning on doing from a stadium perspective. They want
to They likely they're definitely investigating. It feels like they're
their whole facility out of the stadium. They're not trying
to get a new stadium built, and nothing that was
said today suggests that although if all you hear are
their answers talking about Calan Hannah and their president, some
of the answers sounded well if you didn't have context

(02:12:27):
with it. I hopefully the more can be provided here.
They're talking about if they move their facilities, where might
they go and what is it that they're looking for
that they currently don't have. We can dig into that
a little bit more as we continue here in the
five o'clock hour on the Texans and oh my god,
they're moving. No, they're not here on the A team.

Speaker 1 (02:12:46):
The ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:12:55):
What are we at their office wedding?

Speaker 5 (02:12:57):
Who's getting married to Pam? I think so yeah, yeah,
after they went to Niagara Falls, after they are already
got married. They got married twice in one day.

Speaker 4 (02:13:07):
That was planned. B I think I was planned to
see all I know, well plants C. I thought, was
you know marrying or knew he was gonna marry the
first day he met her or something like this.

Speaker 5 (02:13:17):
All I know is that the hottest smoke show that
Dwight ever got with was in that episode and.

Speaker 4 (02:13:23):
She got kicked in the face. I mean, for Dwight connections,
I would agree, no offense Angela. I mean, Angela is
so mean and cantankerous. If we really want to briefly
run through this, it's a pretty short list on the show.
So Dwight took some his housekeeper to the dinner party.

Speaker 5 (02:13:43):
Yes, I would say, she's his older babysitter, the old housekeeper.
She wasn't cleaning the place, she was watching him, Okay.

Speaker 4 (02:13:52):
And then there was Angela, yeah, and then there was
this woman, and then there was Angela again. But that's
it right.

Speaker 9 (02:13:58):
There was also the girl that he was going to, Mary,
who was a farmer.

Speaker 4 (02:14:02):
Was that moses friend or something? Yes, that was Moses' friend. Okay.
Arranged pretty short list of conquests if you afford for
that language to be appropriate. Well, he never he didn't
have time for those. It was simply.

Speaker 9 (02:14:16):
A it was a ploy to have his seed.

Speaker 4 (02:14:22):
Yeah. Although although if you think about it, if I'm
not mistaken, even just at four dates or girls or
opposites or partners, that would land pretty high on the
list of cast members like Michael had two Jan and
his actual wife. Well it depends Pam's mom, okay, and

(02:14:47):
then what's her name in hr all do so see,
I had to talk to myself, so that's four.

Speaker 9 (02:14:51):
No, But he also had two other women that he
was just associated with, and I guess we'd have to
count the blind date where they went to the pool hall.

Speaker 4 (02:14:58):
That would have to count. That was one. So now
he's at the top of the list.

Speaker 5 (02:15:02):
But you just glossed over the underrated line from the
dinner party when he has his babysitter with him there
at dinner, it starts getting heated when Jan starts talking
about Michael's soft teeth and she goes, I got to
get out of here, and he goes, fine, leave.

Speaker 4 (02:15:19):
That's a good way to end the date. So I
had the date end. I told her to get lost.

Speaker 5 (02:15:23):
Of course, I remember the the cops come and Jim
opens the door and he goes of course.

Speaker 4 (02:15:30):
We heard there was some screaming, Oh.

Speaker 9 (02:15:33):
Man on that nice large plasma screen television yep.

Speaker 5 (02:15:39):
And then Jim and Pam got ice cream afterwards, oh nice,
and Angela put an ice cream cone on the side
of the car.

Speaker 4 (02:15:46):
Was that she was sitting Andy, I think so, yeah,
and her run is Dwight Andy the Senator, and I
think that's it. Okay, The Senator was my favorite. What
about Kevin?

Speaker 9 (02:15:56):
Kevin was dating one girl who had a daughter and
then that was it.

Speaker 4 (02:16:01):
And let's see who else. Oscar I think had more
dates that the Pam replacement redhead Aaron Aaron, Aaron dated
he was. She's so funny in real life, but I
just didn't like her on that show.

Speaker 9 (02:16:17):
Seriously, I liked her better than Pam Stanley just his
wife and the woman he cheated with, right, yeah, because
then he stayed with the woman that he cheated with
afterwards he had and then Phyllis was with u Tom
Van's Vance refrigeration, Bob Vance. Come on, hate the show, okay,
so it's not like.

Speaker 4 (02:16:34):
Certainly know a lot about it. How do you hate
the show? And you know all this.

Speaker 9 (02:16:37):
Because my wife watches it.

Speaker 4 (02:16:39):
It's awesome. I hate it.

Speaker 13 (02:16:41):
Why do you hate it? Because it's perfect? Parks rec
is completely better? Oh my god, this is also good. No,
Parks of w Rec is ten times better. It's a
better mockumentary, and they have better characters. I look at
you okay, Now do you have favor go through the
list of characters. The side characters in the Office, in
my opinion, are better than the main character in Parks
and Rec. But the side character, I mean, the main characters.

Speaker 9 (02:17:03):
In Parks and Rec are miles away better than the
main characters in the Office, far and away. Leslie is better,
Ron Swants is better, Tom.

Speaker 4 (02:17:12):
Is better, April is better.

Speaker 9 (02:17:14):
Andy Dwyer is beyond better than Jim Alpert in every
single way, shape and full.

Speaker 4 (02:17:18):
He doesn't look at the camera the way Jim does. No,
he's like he doesn't.

Speaker 9 (02:17:21):
But you want know why, because if he also understands
what he is supposed to be, which is funny, comical
and childish, Jim just walks around the office acting like
he is better.

Speaker 4 (02:17:31):
Than everybody there. He is he better than everybody there?

Speaker 5 (02:17:35):
Who isn't he better than in that cast of characters
in real life?

Speaker 4 (02:17:39):
Michael Michaels, Steve Correll?

Speaker 9 (02:17:42):
Really, you're gonna tell me that John Krasinski is better
than Steve Correll?

Speaker 5 (02:17:45):
No, I was talking about as far as the characters
go either way, Parks.

Speaker 9 (02:17:49):
And Rec is way better than the Office. I'll die
on that take. I think The Office is one of
the most overrated shows of all time.

Speaker 4 (02:17:55):
My gosh, that's definitely why it's on all day, every
day on every network.

Speaker 9 (02:18:00):
Though it else is on right after Parks and Reck
not as much. Oh baloney, Literally go to Comedy Central.

Speaker 4 (02:18:08):
Gotta c W.

Speaker 5 (02:18:09):
You know what it really should do Matt Wex to
make him really mad is to take a look at
the ratings for both shows.

Speaker 9 (02:18:13):
Oh, you should guess what it's gonna tell you that
The Office, which was a pompus show that had really
terrible writing after some had better ratings.

Speaker 4 (02:18:21):
You know how that usually happens, like you.

Speaker 9 (02:18:23):
Know, when Friends was one of the most hot topic
shows and then it kind dwindled away, and then How
I Met Your Mother was one of the most hot
topic shows, and that windled away because writing.

Speaker 4 (02:18:31):
Started to suck.

Speaker 9 (02:18:32):
Yeah, but the ratings stayed well because they had hope
that things were going to change.

Speaker 4 (02:18:35):
They never did.

Speaker 5 (02:18:37):
You know, Parks and Rec is the lebron to The Offices, MJ.
I just wanted to let you know that.

Speaker 4 (02:18:43):
So it's better no, depending on which generation do you means?
Since we're going nowhere anyway, So Steph Curry's probably not
gonna win this year, Right, it's gonna be glorious again.
But if he did and he got a fifth ring,
he's still not better than MJ or Co. No, it

(02:19:03):
has only to do with a contemporary. If you're promoting
Lebron as as great as he is for this era,
how could you do that if another player in his
era has more titles than he has as the best
player on his team, just like he was on his.

Speaker 5 (02:19:20):
The funniest part about that conversation that nobody wants to
have because it would hurt their feelings, because that's what
happens today nowadays.

Speaker 4 (02:19:29):
Yeah, it would be.

Speaker 5 (02:19:32):
The most glorious eat their own argument to watch happen
because both sets of fan bases of these two guys.
In other words, I root for Lebron whatever team he's on. Well,
you've had a lot of choices. Steph stayed with one organization,
but neither one of them is in actuality what their
respective fan bases try to make them out to be. Again,

(02:19:56):
I'm not saying that that Lebron's not one of the
all time greats, and I'm also not saying that Steph
isn't the best shooter of all time. But my goodness,
like trying to trying to argue Lebron over MJ after
this latest just flame out in the first round, and

(02:20:16):
then right on top of it, here's Dave mcmannimon carrying
the water. Here's his injury. I don't believe that injury
for one second. We didn't hear nothing about this until
after they got ousted in four in five games by
the Timberwolves.

Speaker 4 (02:20:27):
And he had to miss the Met Gallop because of it,
And now he has to miss the Met Gallop.

Speaker 9 (02:20:31):
The Pajama Party of all parties.

Speaker 5 (02:20:33):
And Steph Curry's never gonna win again. So you know,
if you want to make it out to be like
he's one of the top players of all time, that's fine,
but there's no way he's top five or even top ten.

Speaker 4 (02:20:44):
In my book. Yeah, I think it's fair to put
him where we've put him forever, and I don't think
this year would change it, even though it's pretty significant
at his age if this were to happen twelve more wins.
By the way, they are only twelve wins away from
winning the title this year if he was able to
get a fifth title. But last thing on these two.
So we spent many of the years on the radio

(02:21:05):
talking about Man. It's a foregone conclusion. Nobody's beating Lebron.
They're gonna win the East again. In eight straight years,
they did win the East. He didn't lose a single
postseason series to an Eastern Conference team for eight consecutives.
There were some strong Eastern teams back there were some
strong Bostern Conference teams back then. I would think that
is a fair statement. He has now spent the last

(02:21:26):
seven years in the Western Conference as a Los Angeles Laker.
He he does have a title, No, he doesn't. Nobody
believes that title. So championship. Made it out of the
first round in a non COVID bubble season, once out
of the first round once. In those seven seasons they

(02:21:48):
lost in the Western Conference finals, got three first round
losses and multiple postseason absences. Don't you think there's a
difference at all he had to do to Hans his
legacy was nothing. Just keep playing in the East. But
he chose to play where it was more difficult to win,

(02:22:10):
which is a challenge which he and whichever teammates he's
personally added to the team have been unable to accomplish.
The Dallas Mavericks up until this one.

Speaker 5 (02:22:22):
That's the best personnel move ever, by the way she brought.

Speaker 4 (02:22:25):
Into a team. He was on.

Speaker 5 (02:22:28):
The nine, went to Miami where Dwayne were Dwayneane already
was Chris Bosh.

Speaker 13 (02:22:33):
Okay, but Bosh was going to go there no matter what. Right,
maybe probably no matter what. Actually, no, that's not actually true.
Cole Bosh was probably going to come to Houston if
Lebron didn't go to Miami.

Speaker 4 (02:22:46):
That's a fact. It was almost a done deal. I
don't think it was the Heat came back with something
he and his agent did not think they were going
to get, and they were ready to sign with Houston.
He was he was a rocket. I remember this, He's
talked about it. I was on my way to Summer
League to cover the Rockets in the airport. As I was,

(02:23:07):
as I got on the plane, I thought, Okay, when
I get off the plane, he's going to be a rocket.
Was it a signed trade? As I recall, I think
it ended up would have ended up working out. Yeah,
that's usually technical stuff. That's yes.

Speaker 9 (02:23:21):
But did he signed before Lebron Didmm?

Speaker 4 (02:23:26):
No, I don't think so.

Speaker 5 (02:23:27):
I think Lebron did his stupid TV stunt and then
that was the last kids.

Speaker 4 (02:23:33):
You know what he would have said, He made promises.
Take that personally. No, it was about the kids. It's
a meme. Look it up. I'm not going to say
it on the air. Well, now you're say, I'm confused.
You're talking about Michael Jordan. Yeah, that's you're talking about
Michael Scott.

Speaker 5 (02:23:49):
No for the kids, but the idea for parks and
recreation began when Greg Daniels and Michael Sure, who had
both served as producers on the smash hits NBA, NBC
sipcom The Office. We're tasked with making a series spin
off based on Karen Philippelli, a character on the Office
played by Rashida Jones.

Speaker 4 (02:24:08):
Boom roasted, no better way to get into astros on
deck than office talk and Lebron vs. Steff talk. That's
what we've done, and that's what's

Speaker 1 (02:24:15):
Next the ad on Sports Talk seven ninety