Madness continues, Rockets vs. Hawks, KD-MJ, Chuck Norris

Friday on The A-Team, Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler react to all the March Madness action, preview Rockets vs. Hawks, prepare for Kevin Durant to pass Michael Jordan in career points, and much more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Edition of the A Team. Sports Talk seven ninety, Wexac
Josh Jordan with you. You know, we were talking just
before we came on the air about longevity in this
business and whether that whether that is a you know,
demonstration of whether or not you are successful. Do you
realize that it definitely is right? Depends on who you

(00:22):
talk to and what you're talking about. You realize yesterday
was the seven year anniversary of at least you weren't
on with me right away.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, I know this, You know me in years in
my memory, which basically is none nonexistent Jello for brain.
But this is pretty easy to remember because all the
odds the A Team was coming together. It was only
half put together for a short period of time because
you were here grinding it out. Oh yeah, well I
was making it work and trying to help you grind

(00:51):
it out because I was still grinding it out of
Channel two and I was on the road with the
Cougars in the NCAA tournament in Kansas City when we
made the announcement that we're going to pair up together
right here on Sports Talk seven ninety and entertained listeners
for at least the next seven years, which we've now
done and hopefully many many more.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
But that makes it very very easy for.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Me to remember it was tournament time when that all
went down, and I would love to be covering them
in a regional again, which even not being at Channel
two where traveling for the regional was going to happen,
it's not going to happen here. We don't have to
travel the Cougars. Thanks to last night's activity with the
vandals there, one went away from returning home to Houston,

(01:32):
and that should be a whole lot of fun if
they can, and obviously the matchup in their next gamely
a little bit different. We've gotten through one day and
a couple of the early starts on the NCAA tournament side,
Yes there were upsets. We'll kind of grate out what
it might mean for those of you that have already
thrown your brackets away. I can't believe people have done
that with who's lost yet. If any of you picked
some of the teams that have lost to crush it

(01:54):
in the tournament, that's a little bit sad for you,
no offense.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
But as we get started.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Here, we'll into that we are really, really and the
players definitely feel it. Winding it down in Florida. The
Astros play tonight and we will have that for you
at four fifty for the five to ZHO five first pitch.
They play again tomorrow and then they play on Sunday,
and that's that for another year in West Palm Beach
for the Houston Astros. They will be back in Houston
for Monday and Tuesday's exhibition games against the Sugarland Space Cowboys.

Speaker 3 (02:23):
And we told you yesterday.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Since the Astros announced it today, they put it out
on social media as well. Your first chance to see
Tatsuya Emi at Dykin Park will be Monday night. He
will make the start and then they will slot him
into the rotation, likely on Saturday. We shall see if
an official word is put out by Joe Spot over
the next couple of days. Obviously everything's lining up for this.

(02:44):
We're now six days away from the home opener, the
season opener, which is a week from yesterday. Hunter Brown
throws today right here on Sports Talk seven ninety. That
will be his last appearance of the spring, and then
he obviously is set to make the opening day start
in that game. It should be because they're absolutely a factor,
how much of a factor. We'll start finding out pretty

(03:04):
early in the season. Some key roster decisions are still
left up in the air, and with the news of
the Bennett Sussa injury, they got even more complicated. We
will have a visit with Chandler Rome coming up at
four o'clock this afternoon, as we will throughout the entire season.
So curious where he pegs what he believes will be
the twenty six that are on the roster for Joe

(03:25):
to utilized starting Thursday.

Speaker 1 (03:28):
A lot since last night's or since the end of
last night's show, that is kind of off the beaten path.
Let's just get this out of the way in the open.
And I have to admit I'm not the biggest Chuck
Norris like movies fan, get.

Speaker 3 (03:46):
This out of the way in the open.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Well, you know what I mean when I say, like,
I recognize he's a pop culture because he's a martial artist.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
We got to get to Chuck Norris's passing so early
in the in our show.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
I feel like he's touched every level of everything we
do in some way, shape or form. He's not a
he's not an athlete per se. He's not a wrestler,
for example, per se, he's not. I mean, he is
an actor or was an actor, but like he he
became an actor after coming to prominence in martial arts,

(04:20):
as you're mentioning, So it's kind of like he's like
a jack of all trades.

Speaker 3 (04:24):
So like the sports World Last Day legend.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Kind of Okay, I mean I don't you do have
to be athletics somewhat to be as successful as he
was in his martial art.

Speaker 3 (04:37):
You have to be exceptionally athletic.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
So I mean, like I kind of look at him
as like a modern Bruce Lee in that way because
he kind of he kind of made his way in
that field first and then became you know, the movie Slash.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
TV in Little Company followed in his footsteps to some variety, right,
Like I feel like like the guy that wanted that
both Rachel and what's her name with the black hair Monica,
they both wanted him on Friends Van Damn.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yes, he actually had a very heartfelt tribute today. Yeah,
And I feel like to some extent, even like UFC
and that kind of stuff might not have been as
popular or gotten as popular if you go back and
look at the trailblazers that do certain things that lead
to this. I'm not saying that Chuck Norris is what
made UFC. That's not what I'm saying. I just mean

(05:26):
guys like that making it like Arnold did the same thing. Correct,
Guys like that, like they're known for one thing and
they become such a Jackson for a pumping iron, you
need milk. But yeah, Chuck Norris will.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Additionally and best of X and one of our most
uplifting best of X is ever with Chuck Norris's passing, well.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
I mean, let's face it, it's the most Chuck Norris
thing ever. And you'll understand once you see and hear
what we're talking about.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
You're pulling for the Tennessee State Tigers today, Well, I
mean you're a big fan of Jalen Petrie, right, Yes,
he's starting for them, is he?

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Yeah, another guy named Jalen is starting in a sports not.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
Just Jalen Jalen Petree.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
Hmmm, will the uh, well, the Rockets draft him so
that he can bring him to Houston and I mean
trade alongside the other Jalen Petree.

Speaker 2 (06:17):
It's possible. If you think they're in line for a
six A. You know, forward, you can shoot a little
bit and hit the boards. I mean, if that's something
there now, so it is possible, I wouldn't say no,
not not.

Speaker 3 (06:28):
Just yet, California kid.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
Uh okay, all right, well you know what, Yes, I'll
be reading for him just like that.

Speaker 2 (06:35):
One of my favorite NCAA tournament characters is coaching that team.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
What who is that?

Speaker 3 (06:41):
I can't that's former Duke Blue Devil Nolan Smith.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
Oh okay?

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Why is he one of my favorite all time NCAAA characters.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
You refresh.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
The current Duke head coach is John Shire and a
handful of years ago, John Shire and Nolan Smith shared
the podium as NRG Stadium that was next to him,
and they were up there answering questions from the media.
I was, as I am today, part of the media,
and it was my turn to ask the question to
the two of them, and I lost my voice one
one comment in I couldn't even get the second word out,

(07:12):
had other media members making fun of me. When the
microphone went their way, I gave a little that's it
with my voice completely going out, and the video everyone
is seen over the last probably been twenty years now,
they're laughing their asses off at me.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
Twenty ten, I believe is when that happened. Yeah, no,
you know what, we should play that because we usually
do this time of year, but like that is that
just goes to show you how insane what we do is.
Because that was I mean, good Lord John Shira was playing.
I vividly remember going to those games because at the

(07:45):
time I was married to one of two major Duke
fans that I know on the planet, the other one
being Matt Thomas's significant other.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Now, always good memories of that, good members of anything
that you've done. More so probably for the players in
the tournament. You know, feel a little bit bad for
the Santa Clara kids today, not because they lost to
Kentucky in overtime after playing really really well. It's because
the last twenty seconds of that game are why the
tournament is awesome. They hit a shot to go up

(08:16):
to Kentucky matched it. They hit a three with less
than three seconds remaining to take a three point lead,
and Kentucky did not have any timeouts. So Kentucky threw
the ball in and they dribbled it up just beyond
half court and launched a desperation three which banked in,
and they went to overtime, where Kentucky wins. Why I'm

(08:37):
sad for the Santa Clara kids who are going home.
That's not that's part of it, obviously, But we talk
about it all the time, you and MT. Maybe we'll
talk about it tonight. With Atlanta having the ball down
three less than three seconds left, what should he may udoka.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
Here the Rockets lead late this week, I'd.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Like to see it happen.

Speaker 2 (08:55):
But they were up three, the ball was in the
back court, they were less than three seconds left. The
other team did have a time out. As soon as
they throw the ball, and then you're next to the
guy running side by side with him.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
You got to foul him.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
And I don't even think the bench was screaming at
him to do so, because the play kind of developed
in front of their bench and he obviously didn't think
to do it. Had he done that, it's not a
guarantee that they don't reach over time, but the likelihood
has gone up significantly because now they have to make
a free throw, intentionally miss a free throw, get the
ball back and put another shot up and in, and
the likelihood of that being a three to beat you

(09:27):
is zero almost zero. So that's what the tournament brings
a few other games going on right now. I'll keep
you updated on those and again address your brackets, which
I'm telling you they should be intact. There have been
some games you might have missed, but winning a tournament bracket,
prediction pool should not be in peril. I don't think
for any of you yet. Maybe if you are an

(09:49):
alum of Wisconsin, I guess, or maybe if you're Kenny
Smith and you foolishly thought North Carolina was going to
go far. I suppose, but neither of those teams remain
in this NCAA Tour tournament, and obviously a new day
brings more mock drafts. We've kind of let the week
develop without diving back into well, now everybody thinks the
Texans are going to do this because more free agent

(10:10):
activity has taken place, and there does seem to be
a consensus on what the Texans will do positionally in
the draft from people that don't matter, like ourselves mock
drafters out there. So we will address that and also
get into exactly what still needs to be done if
you think anything still needs to be done in free
agency with your Houston Texans. A power ranking a day,
maybe not quite, but we do have another power ranking,

(10:32):
which justifies our conversation yesterday about the faulty one. We
went through loads of things for us to get into today.
You're obviously part of the journey with us. As per usual,
we'll have tickets to give away as we always do,
including tickets to go see your Houston Rockets. We'll hear
from me may U Doka in just over an hour.
All that ahead here on the A team. What did

(10:56):
I just skip finished saying closing out the last segment
without the NCAA tournament.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
It's awesome.

Speaker 3 (11:00):
I'll refresh your memory.

Speaker 2 (11:02):
If your brackets are already busted, then you probably are
doing it wrong because even though Duke flirted with losing
to the Saint Bernard's.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
How about there's postgame comments in that by the way, Well.

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I know Cam Boozer said, yeah, we thought we were
just gonna go out and they'd get you know, take it.
Take it from him to can be easy, and it wasn't.
They punched us in the mouth, but obviously we were
able to recover. They can't be they're not happy with
how they played, but again they won, so your bracket's
not busted. I do want to at least well, Iowa
State hasn't lost by any means. They're a number two seed,
and I think a lot of people probably have bought

(11:36):
into them quite a bit, even as just because the
Big twelve has been so awesome and all those teams
at the top if you include Kansas obviously a healthy
Texas Tech team, which they're not. But though along with
you of h and Arizona, clearly, yeah, they played such tough,
tough competition all year, there's a really really good chance
that as they play lesser competition in the NCAA tournament,
at least for the first couple of games, the idea

(11:58):
that they could go far is a pretty good one. Well,
like I said, they're just underway and I'm sure they
will win today. But their best player, Joshua Jefferson, went
down in the first couple of minutes and did not
look very happy walking off the court. He got a
lot of help off the court. He did not sit
on the bench, he went immediately to the locker room.
Looked like some sort of left knee injury. And again,

(12:19):
an update I'm sure is forthcoming. But nonetheless, he's their
best players, their second leading scorer, best rebounder, He's just
their best player, and I'm sure he's unavailable at least
today and very likely for longer.

Speaker 1 (12:31):
I for the injuries they just, you know, from Chris
Paul to Matt schob to, I mean, any number of
just Houston alone related injuries over the years have affected things.
I mean, you know, it's interesting. I was having a
conversation with Jeff Luna one time about who was the

(12:51):
best Astros team during well, really in history, because a
lot of times the nineteen ninety eight club would come up,
the one that traded for Randy Johnson and I believe
one hundred and two games that year where his his
era was like minuscule. It was insane, and then they
were done before you could blink. They were done because
of stupid Kevin Brown. But I was, I was like,

(13:15):
twenty nineteen has to be the best team of all time, right,
even though they didn't win, a lot of people think
that's the best Astros team of all time, Like one
hundred and how many games do they win?

Speaker 3 (13:24):
One hundred and eight? It was insane if you count
the playoffs.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
Well, yeah, and he said he has always thought that
the twenty eighteen team was the best. It was just
derailed by injuries, and I had to think about that, Like,
I think it gets overlooked that you know that that
team still had Garrett Cole, they had just traded for him,

(13:48):
and Justin Verlanders still doing what he did. He had
a really good rotation. Lance mccullors was fantastic that year,
as I recall, and Jose Al Tuove had an injury
that he was playing with the the end, of course,
they ran up against the cheating Red Sox. I mean,
we're gonna talk about how the Astros cheated, you might
as well call a spade a spade. But yeah, I
just I did not think that that would be his response,

(14:11):
and it lends itself to what we're talking about here.
Injuries just are the great decider sometimes and I hate
it when that happens.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
It's almost every time. It's just part of the game.
The part of the game when and when umpires and
referees are making mistakes that are correctable. We don't have
to keep saying they're part of the game. They've been
part of the game. I'd love to see them no
longer a part of the game because we can get
those fixed. Injuries they are and they always will be
a part of the game. It's things you kind of

(14:39):
forget about as the years go by. Winning you as
the winner, Well, this team wasn't quite as strong. We
never had to play that team because they didn't do
this or he got through this team because of that.
But the losing teams always remember it. And that's why
he does too. You know, we had a chance because
of the rostery put together, the quality of players that
we have out there, but now they just have to
be available for and you know, interestingly, over the course

(15:02):
of the season essentially that the players were I mean,
you had four guys on that team make thirty plus
starts that year. Thirty four starts was the most any
pitcher in baseball made that year, and two of them
were astros, with both Dallas Kichel and jv making thirty
four starts that season, Lance with his twenty two, you
barely had to turn to anybody else the whole season

(15:22):
to make starts. You know, it was fit or sixth
on the team and starts. He filled the gap a
little bit in twenty eighteen from ber Valdez, he made
five starts that year. He's just becoming a major leader
and he had a good time of things. By the way,
he'll be the number two starter for the Tigers, who
announced their rotation today. Aj hinch is lined it up
with Schooble obviously one, and JV four Fromber pitching after

(15:46):
schoobl will actually make the start and the Tigers home
opener a few days later, because School will pitch twice
on the road before they get back to Comerica.

Speaker 1 (15:54):
Tigers could not necessarily come out of nowhere but win
the World Series this year and it would not even
surprise me a little bit. Yeah, really good.

Speaker 2 (16:03):
They're definitely not coming out of nowhere. They've been to
the postseason multiple times here the last couple of years,
and those players, the players that were the driving force
behind them getting there, they're still there right and now
they some of those younger players. I don't know if
Scooble can get better, but he's obviously the best in
the game and you have that going for you. But
some of their younger players I think can be even better.

(16:24):
And clearly I think they're pitching rotation. I'm sure they
would say, and there's probably a few other people covering
the game that would agree that they would match up
against anybody in baseball, and.

Speaker 3 (16:34):
We'll see if it plays out that way.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
I mean, quite honestly, their fifth best star or their
fifth starter in the rotation is Casey miz He's gonna
have a better year than JV. Yeah, I mean JV
is going to likely be their fifth best starter. V
is really good.

Speaker 1 (16:48):
JV giving you anything. I know this sounds like disrespectful,
but at this point in his career and what happened
last year where he was basically good for the second half,
if they get anything out of him, it's like a
gravy situation.

Speaker 3 (17:01):
Yeah, I think it's I don't think it's quite that dire.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
Well, I mean.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
From him that's half a season.

Speaker 1 (17:07):
Yeah, but that's more about complimenting what the Tigers have
as far as depth and just talent overall, as much
as it is taking a shot at JV because he's old.

Speaker 2 (17:15):
So which which astros pitcher and their rotation? Would you
apply that to anything you get from him? It's probably
gravy lance. Wow, it's probably Accurate's probably pretty good.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
As it's not what I want to say.

Speaker 2 (17:26):
Well, he's similarly likely at the back end of the rotation.
I would hope that the year plays out that Brown, Emi,
and Burrows are your top three performers, and then between Hovey,
Spencer Araghetti and Lance mccullors junior. During the early portion
of the season, maybe not the first few games or
ten days of the season, they might not be in

(17:46):
a six man rotation yet, but they're gonna be through
the first six weeks. They will be in it for
I think a bulk of that time. So you're gonna
see all six of those guys get the baseball and
then kind of like how the Astros fixed their glut
of infielder's problem because one of the in fielders is
not currently healthy and Jeremy Pania things like this also usually, well,
I don't know how you're gonna get all six starters
and who's going to the bullpen. It might not ever

(18:08):
come to that because one of those six might not
be available at all.

Speaker 1 (18:11):
I might as well say it now to get it
out of the way, since it's March twentieth and the
season hasn't even begun. I know for a fact, I'm
gonna come in here certain days and just be beside myself,
and you're gonna laugh and shake your head like you
always do, because that's just the dynamic of the show.
I'm not built for baseball all that kind of stuff.
I am so looking forward to just being able to
come in here and talk about baseball that counts. And

(18:33):
I'm not going to take it for granted because a
year from now we are going to be so far
into list radio at this point is going to be
a barren waste land for sports talk all summer long
when these idiot billionaires fighting with these idiot millionaires hold
up and we lose an entire season. Thanks Dodgers, thanks

(18:55):
for everything, Dodgers. Dodgers suck man. I really hate that organization.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Who are we doing?

Speaker 1 (19:00):
We're just following the rules.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
If the Dodgers had signed none of these players to
deferred contracts, do you think they would all be playing elsewhere?
I don't know, Like there's one hundred chance Shoe o
Tani is a Dodger, no question about it. If they
had no the most money, well, I'm saying without the
deferred money angle, he would have signed this exactly. You
think they would still have offered him the most.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
You don't think that Steve Ohen could have gotten into
this situation like he just didn't.

Speaker 2 (19:29):
Steve Cohen out bid up for Yet he's outbid on
I mean outid the Yankees.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
That's a big deal. He could, Yeah, sure he could,
though they're not the Yankees of old.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, I mean I g now from a spending again,
I picked show Hey for a reason. Now would they
then also have all these other players? Would you still
have Mookie and Freddie and Will Smith and Tyler Glass?
Now who are I'm talking about the players they already had.
They're all on deferred money contracts of varying degrees, and
then you still had the ability to go out and

(20:00):
add Kyle Tucker. But I mean, I do frown a
little bit that the it's the Dodger's fault, But think
about it. Not the Dodger's fault, it's the way the
league is set up and it needs to be correct.

Speaker 1 (20:11):
I think about this though, when they inevitably come up
with a salary cap and floor, because I think it's
going to be both before they resume play. I just
think that's what the owners are gonna demand. They're gonna
get that.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
The owners don't want to spend all this money and
push all the way up into the cap and maybe
have some loopholes where there's you know, charged in tax
money just so they have to give it to the
teams that are Like so I can own a baseball team,
spend no money, get money from the teams that spend.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
They keep making money because of it. Sign me up.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
But that's only the first problem. The second problem is
how do you handle what the Dodgers have done in
a post salary cap slash floor world our grandfather and
in of course BS.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
Okay, take them off the team.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
You have to.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
You have to leave Kyle Tucker unprotected, and we're gonna
hold a lottery for the other twenty nine team.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Let's think about like all this deferred money, it better
affect them down the line when this cap comes into
play and they're over it because they're paying guys that
aren't playing for them anymore. That better be how this happens.
They can't get a kicky get away with this man
crying about the Dodgers. Season hasn't even started. Ye I
hate them, I really do, but I hate their fans more.
Don't worry plenty on that front.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
Halfway through our number one, we hit you with the
best of ex martial artists actor all part of the
vantist and philanthropist.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Yes, well, on a daylight today where we more in
the passing of a cultural icon like Chuck Norris, it
seemed fitting we would go down this path for the
best of X. By the way, one of my favorite
things about Chuck Norris, the persona in the in this

(21:47):
case legend is he became somewhere along the way, that
guy that defied all odds as far as well. For example,
I just saw a tweet that said, Chuck no, Morris
once told a woman to calm down and she did.
Those kinds of phrases.

Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah, Chuck Norris posts have been a thing for quite
some time. Now, what's the one about his push ups?
He doesn't do push ups, he pushes the earth down.
Sounds about right.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
That kind of thing. So what if I were to
tell you that nine days ago his family posted something
on his socials his Instagram account, for example, But the
last time he actually was responsible for a post was
nine days ago, and in a ironic and bittersweet twist
of fate, it was like the most Chuck Norris post ever.

(22:38):
If you consider both what he was doing and what
he said in this video, just take a listen, you'll
see he's sparring. By the way, in this video, I
don't I live al upe. I mean, that's essentially Chuck
Norris in a nutshell what we're talking about here, you know,

(23:02):
I just I don't know if it could. He clearly
didn't plan that clearly, But of all of the lore
and the things about Chuck Norris that you would imagine
would be what ends up being his final social media post.
By the way, he just celebrated his eighty six birthday
a few days ago.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
That's why the post he says, I'm out there and
I level up. I don't age I'm eighty six today,
a week ago before passing, and the comments didn't disappoint.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Chuck Norris died thirty years ago, but death is too
afraid to tell him. And this was before they knew.
This is that's a week ago, you know, like it is.
I heard he did eighty six push downs for his birthday.
What are push downs? Well, Chuck actually can't do a
single push up because that would involve pushing his body
weight up off the floor. Chuck actually pushed the world down,

(23:52):
so push ups wouldn't be an appropriate dolination of the movement.
I mean, this is the kind of stuff that people
would write, but did you watch his movies a lot?

Speaker 2 (24:01):
Well, that's what I was going to just ask, what
is it for you? And any of our listeners similarly,
which ones or what is it missing? An Action Walker,
Texas Ranger? Something else was Delta Force? Delta Force? I
definitely would suggest he was outstanding. And don't forget Lee
Marvin too. Filmed right here in our great city. Sidekicks, Yeah,

(24:24):
sidekicks a little bit on the other side of things
for him, kind of like what some people probably remember
today from Chuck Norris.

Speaker 3 (24:31):
And I'll remind you of here with this audio.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Air Fad hangs on the film about Final Judge.

Speaker 4 (24:43):
They're wicked.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Let them do that. Thank you Chuck.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
Forrris, Thank you, Peter, Thank you Peter, Thank you Peter.

Speaker 1 (24:51):
Air Fate hangs on. And by the way, that movie Sidekicks,
it was filmed here in Houston and filmed in very
prominent lia locations around the city, bankrolled by our good
buddy Mattress Mac Nice, And they had the premiere here.
And you know who was in that movie, right besides
Chuck Norris and the late Jonathan Brandis.

Speaker 2 (25:13):
Uh was that the Sidekicks? The soccer movie. No Sidekicks what, No,
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (25:19):
It was the martial arts movie.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
No, I don't know who isn't it?

Speaker 1 (25:23):
Uh? She played her Her most prominent role was Winnie
Cooper on The Wonder Years. All Right, Danica mckeller was there,
and that just happened to be coinciding with the end
of the Wonder Years and I was having my first
celebrity crush at the age of like eleven. Well, she
was at the premiere. Brent hooked it up, got a
picture with her.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
My bad, I got Sidekicks and Lady Bugs confused.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Both one another awful Jonathan Brandis Movies yep. But anyways, Yeah,
I credit Chuck Norris for bringing me closer to Winny Cooper.
That's kind of how I look at it.

Speaker 3 (25:58):
That's quite an accomplishment. I'm sure he did it as well.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
Six hundred Degrees of Separation pretty much something like that.
So yeah, like I said, I don't even know that
I've ever sat down and watched Walker, Texas Ranger.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
It was always on. I could didn't watch a single episode.
I'm perfectly well aware of the show. I know how
much fun Conan O'Brien had with it over the years
during his talk show days. But there's no Will Ferrell
to have the mission in action movies as James Braddock.
To me, that's why I think that's why he got
as popular as as he became.

Speaker 3 (26:29):
In my opinion.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
Yeah, it's just just over the top.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
Even when he wasn't over the top, that was still one.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
Well.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
I know that technically by the letter of the law,
the phrase, the title, but yeah, I just he could
have not done anything for the next twenty years and
people would still be referencing Chuck Norris never one way.
It's kind of like a whole Cogan type thing. If
you will, you didn't have to necessarily be a fan
of his main work and everybody from Haley Joel Osmond today.

(26:56):
As a tribute, he had a few few epps of
Walker Texas Ranger that have pre or buried very very
famous on social media because of a line he uttered,
was it about a disease?

Speaker 3 (27:10):
It was?

Speaker 1 (27:10):
Was it autoimmune in nature? He was, I remember that,
are you gonna play it?

Speaker 3 (27:16):
I am not?

Speaker 2 (27:16):
Come on, man, well, I already walked in here and
realized that for the eight hours that the computer was
already in use. Today, I guess everybody who was using
it thought it was in good working order. Took me
about thirty seconds to realize it was not, so after
barely getting that audio to play just now without the
computer saying Nope, that's it for me today, I'm going
to restart it.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Nice. Sounds like we work at iHeart Houston if I
heard it before. All right, well take a quick time out. Hey,
the Rockets are playing tonight. Get excited. The hottest team
in the league is here as well. We'll discuss next
as we wind down the first hour here on a

(27:57):
Friday edition of the program. Wex over there ac right
here Josh Jordan with you here on the A team.
I was just ask a very simple question. Do the
Rockets even win a game this week? They have not looked.
I mean they had their moments, I guess in the
second game against the Lakers.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
I think they did moments in both games. Led both
games in the fourth quarter.

Speaker 1 (28:20):
Yeah, but they just had they could not close it out.
And Luca is in on a planet by himself, as
you so astutely pointed out last night.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
He's trying to tell people who already made up their
minds the sixty five game threshold. Notwithstanding, hey, hey, hey,
wait a minute, what about me? Why couldn't he be
considered shouldn't he be considered for.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
MVP, especially when the opposing fans are chanting it as
you're scoring sixty?

Speaker 2 (28:46):
Yeah, he scored sixty yesterday and there were I mean,
the breathless and scaredy cats, and hey, hey, we're building
in these excuses already, LA media. Multiple members O the
Lakers left after a late tip last night in Houston.
They didn't get to their whole tell till five thirty.
They'll try to get on the court tonight for their
tip here in Miami. And I mentioned yesterday all three

(29:07):
of their big three were listed on the injury report
as questionable with varying injuries literal injuries that obviously were
not listed on the day before against Houston, nor did
they miss any time because of it from the game,
nor did they get hurt in the game, even Lebron,
who acted like he was hurt in the game.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
But then all three of them played.

Speaker 2 (29:24):
Austin Reeves played like he did here in Houston, not
quite his best, Lebron was awesome, and Lucas scored sixty.

Speaker 1 (29:30):
And they tell you that Wex sent Tex last night
breathlessly pointing out the fact that Luca was doing this
on the second night of a back to back. Would
you be surprised.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
It happened?

Speaker 1 (29:45):
And if I were to tell you that, my response
said something about the fact that he should be able
to do that since he only plays on one end
of the floor every night, snarkily, would you be surprised
by that.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Though, because I think I think he's a bad defender.
I don't think he isn't trying. I don't think he's trying.
I mean he's doing what every star does, even Shay definitely,
James certainly, Luca unquestionably Lebron I'm going to use less
energy on one end of the floor.

Speaker 3 (30:18):
Guess which one.

Speaker 1 (30:20):
The thing about it is when he was making some
of these shots both last night and against the Rockets
the other two nights, I mean they were and you
mentioned this yesterday in the case of a men he
was being defended. Well a lot of the time, he's
just that guy. Kobe used to do this to Shane
Battier all the time, and it just defied logic, Like
the guy's hand is in his face, like inches away

(30:41):
from his eyes, just nothing you can do with that.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
Yeah, eighteen of thirty last night, a second consecutive career
high tying seventeen to three point attempts. He only made
seven against the Rockets the next night. Last night, he
made nine against the Heat, and the Heat fouled him
even more than the Rockets did, or at least the
refs called it, and he shot nineteen free throws on
his way to getting an even one hundred in back

(31:05):
to back games, forty against Houston sixty against Miami, both
obviously victories. They've won three consecutive games of the eight
they've won in a row by just eight points, so
they've needed to do the things they were doing to
win by leaning on Luca. And it's probably also worth
noting just because of what he did here, and then
you couple that with what he did there. Lebron also

(31:26):
played clearly both games of this back to back. You
know what he did here in Houston, going thirteen to fourteen.
He played four more minutes against the Heat. In that
eight point victory. He made twenty one of his last
twenty six shots. Granted they're all from last night. He
took no threes, so they're all most of his twenty
six shots have been right at the rim. He also
had a triple double let him and Boards had ten

(31:47):
more assists. This team is, unfortunately as a Western Conference
opponent and foe. They are what their record says they are.
If this is the team they take to the playoffs,
they are going to be a tough out anybody, including okay,
see who I would pick to beat them, and including
San Antonio, who I would probably also pick to beat them.
But they won't be easy to kick out of the

(32:09):
playoffs this year. And I don't know that I would
have thought that even twenty thirty games into the season.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
And I think the Rockets, conversely, will be easy to
kick out of the season this year. And I also
didn't think we'd be saying that about this twenty.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Thirty games into the season. I probably would have said, hey, hey,
wait a minute, why what do you mean? Who are
all these teams that are gonna knock them off? Now
sixty five seventy games almost into the season, you would say,
whoever their opponent is, they're finding a way to not
be the team that's making the plays down the stretch
against good teams. They obviously did that to open the
home stand. It was one of their best closing games
of the entire year, the way they beat the Pelicans.

(32:42):
Pelicans are better than their record, but still a team
that you'd like to think you can beat at home
without needing to come back from down four by making
five consecutive great plays, three on offense and two on
defense where they forced turnovers to win that game barely.
But they just haven't done enough of that. They haven't
put a lot of stretch of games together. It's hard
to win a playoff series as an inconsistent team, and

(33:02):
that's who the Rockets have been. They had been to
play tonight on the wrong side of home court advantage.
They're fifth in the Western Conference. On any given night,
they could move up to fourth, but they could also
fall down to sixth. Probably not gonna let Phoenix catch them.
They have another game with Phoenix. They haven't lost to Phoenix,
and Phoenix isn't winning very often lately. But being fifth
or sixth is not where this team was playing towards.

(33:24):
They were never trending towards being on the wrong side
of this, and even Minnesota and Denver have done very
little to push them down. They're just doing very little
to keep them up.

Speaker 1 (33:33):
They all three of those teams you just mentioned, the
Denver Nuggets, the Minnesota Timberwolves, and the Houston Rockets, for
various reasons, are probably playing their worst basketball this season,
or at least have in recent outings. The Rockets being
at the top of that list. At least Minnesota has
the excuse of being without Anthony Edwards. I don't know

(33:54):
what Denver's excuse is. I you know, I don't know.
The Rockets kind of have had that excuse built in
all season long with Fred van Vliet's absence and a
little bit later on Steven Adams. But then again going
back to the original point, that wasn't stopping them in
the first thirty games or so of the year when
they looked fantastic.

Speaker 2 (34:12):
Steven Adams has been gone for two months, it feels
like it two months, and this is the worst stretch
they've played without him. So I don't like any of
those excuses. They've played good basketball without Fred van Vliet
this year. They've played good basketball without Steven Adams, just
not for an extended period of time. Mean, clearly, when
two are out that changes the equation, but it's still

(34:32):
about who they have, and why enough of them aren't
elevating their games.

Speaker 1 (34:36):
I can't just sit here and say though, and you
mentioned this yesterday and we were talking about, you know,
revisiting the Durant trade. You know, two fifths of the
starting lineup gone. Then you have the Fred van Vliet injury,
so now that's three, and then you have Steven Adams
in his injury. And it's like, how many other teams

(34:57):
in the association would have that happen to them and
would still be a top four?

Speaker 2 (35:02):
Right, it didn't happen to them, though they chose half
of those guys that are missing they sent away. It
wasn't it. It didn't come to their oh what happened here? Yeah,
they sent them out.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
But okay, then just just say, like, where do you
rank Fred van Vliet as far as the importance factor
on the Rockets roster?

Speaker 2 (35:20):
Just something to point out because I was looking at
it earlier today. You had five players in that postseason
series last year played two hundred minutes or more and
the player next to them that played this most minutes
with Steven Adams top six players and minutes played against
Golden State, Adams, Brooks, Green, and Van Vliet that's four
of the six, four of your six most important players

(35:42):
and the only playoff series you played because they were
on the court for more than anybody else. They aren't
here and they're not gonna play any postseason minutes this year.

Speaker 1 (35:49):
Probably, it's wild. All right, We're gonna take a quick
time out, we're gonna reset, come back, start the simulcast,
and there is a little bit of a historical aspect
to the next possibly couple games, maybe three, we'll see.
We'll talk about that when it comes to Kevin Durant next.
The A Team on Sports to the ninety and Space

(36:12):
City Home Network. It is the A Team. Wex over
there ac right here. Josh Jordan is our producers. We
take you up until a little bit before five o'clock.
Astros Marlins spring training action will take over then and
uh we'll be off to uh well, I'll be off
to Toyota Center to help call the Rockets game with

(36:33):
the Atlanta Hawks tonight. Eleven wins in a row for
the team that comes in after the Lakers came in
as another hot team in the NBA and beat you
too straight and now we have to ask this question.
It was a foregone conclusion, wex that before the Rockets
finished this homestand Kevin Durant was going to pass Michael

(36:58):
Jordan on the NBA's all time score list. It's probably
still gonna happen, because he's got tonight and tomorrow night
as far as the home stand goes. But it is
interesting when you think about the fact he's only scored
eighteen the past two nights. Teams are figuring out, hey,
throw a double team at him when he brings the
ball up the floor, and it's probably going to go
very badly for the Rockets and very good for you.

(37:21):
And if he doesn't somehow get it the next two nights, well,
the Rockets next game is in Chicago, where Michael Jordan
played the majority of his career.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
Yeah, averaging about twenty six points a game for almost
the entire season. I hadn't really had too many instances
where he was unable to hit close to that mark
up until the last two games. And there's good reasons why.
There are reasons that the Rockets could certainly avoid And
if they don't and he posts another thirty six points
over the next two games, well he will need another
fifteen somewhere else in order to pass Michael Jordan. He

(37:51):
sits in even fifty behind him, so fifty one points
to pass him. I'd spent a quite a bit of
time the last probably fifteen games, kind of walking you through. Yes,
the odds are very good he will have it happen
on this homestand if he just hit his averages in
the last two games, you had another couple of points
there and you look at where he would be and
it just hadn't happened. And they also haven't won, which

(38:12):
I'm sure to him and everybody else, because it's going
to happen at some point. Would be awesome if it
happened here, the third player that he has passed on
the all will have passed on the all time scoring
list as a rocket, But the first two weren't here,
and it would be nice if maybe this one of
the magnitude of it, for sure had happened. But that
will require him hitting his average basically, and maybe it

(38:33):
comes on a very important shot in the late stages
of a win against the Miami Heat on Saturday night.
Pretty good odds he won't get it tonight. Like I said,
he needs fifty one to pass.

Speaker 3 (38:43):
If he does get it, tonight. That would be remarkable.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
The Rockets, I'm hoping had a win to show for
those fifty one points. He did sit down with The
Athletic for a long form interview about this exact person
on the list that he will be passing. He's passed
how many guys this year? Three? This will be three? Yeah, okay,
so this will be the third, that's right. So, but
it's different when it's MJ.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
I just feel like I'm sure it was for the
other Let's see who passed MJ. Just probably two players,
just Kobe and Lebron. I think so, because he didn't
catch Carl or Kareem, I would assume, is that right,
it's timing right on that.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
I think that's right.

Speaker 2 (39:23):
Or would Carl have passed him?

Speaker 1 (39:27):
No, because Carl played after Jordan was done for good?
I believe, yeah, I know he did, because Carl was
trying to ring chase with the with the Lakers and
they actually won here in Houston in the postseason in
four But I think after that year, after the four year,
I think.

Speaker 2 (39:46):
He did pass him on the all time scoring list
or late in his career all right, when he was
tearing Bokey knock bars Jersey.

Speaker 3 (39:54):
Somewhere in that neighborhood.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
Jordan has always been my inspiration. There's a reason why
I wanted to be able to knock down those shots.
He was always unstoppable, but when he became a mid
range maestro, you never knew how he would attack you.
You never knew what mj was going to do. He
scared defenders every night, and I wanted to put that
same kind of fear in the defender who's guarding me.

(40:16):
That was a quote from KD on Michael Jordan.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Yeah, it's pretty difficult to pattern your game after some
all time greats when only a handful of them might
play the game like you do. None of these guys
that we're talking about, literally really nobody in the NBA
ever patterned their game after Kareem. And Kareem obviously set
the standard for points.

Speaker 1 (40:37):
You sometimes wonder why when it's the hook shot, and
if you're a big man, I mean just master that
you can never defend.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
It, sure, but I just mean like big peep, big
is in general, like who's playing like dream Nobody? Like
as a big there's probably something, some reason why you're great.
Who's playing like Shack Nobody. It's you can't really you
can model your game. You're a wing. Here's what I
can do, and here's what they did. Or here's six

(41:06):
eleven Dirk and he's what he did and I'm six ten,
or I've got a great handle. I just happened to
be tall. I can play more like him. And we
see it in these players. It's so rare that we
see some of these bigs and say, man, he just
reminds me of Yeah, I know, there's just not as
much to it.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
For a while there, I thought maybe Yiannis would go
that route, because he's clearly had the athleticism. But I
just don't think he has the touch from a shooting
perspective that dream ever had to be able to do it.
He's and he would just rather dunk on you. Anyways.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
You can be harsher about his touch. I don't think
he does. He's not a good shooter. He can't put
the ball in the basket unless he's usually very close
to the basket like that on it till he makes
him fifteen to eighteen foot jumpers, and when the coach
is putting his hands on his head saying don't shoot that.
Occasionally the three will go in. But he's he cannot
put the ball. It's not part of his game. It's

(41:56):
not a negative, it's just not who he is. Or
s Shack doesn't have much range. Dwight didn't have any range.
When he's healthy. He's still enough of a factor defensively
to offset some of that. Though, Look, if you're gonna
score thirty points a game, I'm not gonna quibble about
how you do.

Speaker 1 (42:10):
It, how you do it exactly. And if you're gonna
put him next to say Kevin Durant and he can shoot,
and it's freeing him up to shoot because you've got
to double him. Like, I don't think a lot of
teams are leaving KD so that they can double Shangoon,
for example. It's the other way around.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
So I mean that the Rockets need to do take
the next step from what do we do with double teams,
Whether it's crashing out to thirty five feet running those
blitzes and doubles at KD, or it's a run of
the middle double team against any player in the post
like Shangun or whatever they're doing with Durant in the
half court more inside the three point line. Because they

(42:51):
figured out a little bit of where the ball needs
to go next and how to get it there without
turning it over. But you got to make the teams
pay because if you're not paying for it, they're going
to keep doing it.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
It was so bad.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Not only were they not paying for it, they were
taking the ball from you. I'm not saying they've licked
that problem, but it was much less of an issue
in the second Lakers game. But they just didn't do
it enough with it. You didn't take advantage of the
four on three. You didn't take advantage of the player
at the high post that you got the ball to
to an immediate cutter for a dunk. Things like that,
or a wide open three, which they did on occasion,
but recently, wide open threes for the Rockets are long

(43:23):
rebounds because they aren't making them.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
Yeah, and I think we were going back to Steved
Adams and being able to still play well in the
face of his and Fred Van Vliet's injuries. But it's like,
how many of those games that you were winning and
winning comfortably, for example, were because you were able on
nights where the shot wasn't necessarily falling. You were able

(43:47):
to get second, third shots on the same possession because
Steven Adams specifically was giving you those extra possessions with
the rebounding, and now that's not always happening. It's definitely
a factor, and it also in so doing or keeping
the other team from getting some of those rebounds and
running out in transition, which is again another of several

(44:08):
big time flaws in how the Rockets approach games. They
are terrible in transition.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
They don't do what the other teams pretty much all
of them, and the Lakers are a huge benefit benefactor
of this. They take advantage of teams that don't get
back and the Rockets shooting because of the long rebounds
and really the fault of the shooter oftentimes or the
other player on the wing who thought maybe it was
his shot. They are just they're watching, They're watching the
basketball go up. Is he gonna make it? Is he

(44:35):
gonna make it? No, he hasn't made Why the ball
go over my head for a lamp? And they're doing
that too often. They're not getting back defensively. These are
simple principles that they just have to follow. Again, you
talk about it like that, and we've talked about them
all season long. I just don't think that some of
these issues can be solved just because Fred and Steven
are back healthy next year exactly. And I'm like, it's

(44:58):
who they have. It's not who they don't have, it's
who they do have. That has been the biggest problem
as to why they have not put together a better
regular season, a more consistent regular season, a longer stretch
of games where they're constantly winning or winning nine out
of ten. It's because of who they do have and
what they're not doing. Clearly, they could be better with
who they don't have, but the players that they do have,

(45:19):
you know, the just counting on bigger steps forward from
them and more consistency from them. This is the longest
stretch of games that we've seen consistent basketball from like
two guys at a time, because it's just Jabbari and
a men right now.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
It doesn't even include Kevin.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
Kevin's in a slump basically in terms of how much
he's contributing offensively versus how much he's hurting them offensively. Alpi,
I can't give you one way or than other. He's
only played in one of the last three games. In
his last game, he was awesome. Before that, he was
not playing his best basketball Tarry Easton's in the biggest slump.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
Of his life. Guy, he's costing himself money every night out.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
I mean he's playing.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
I don't think again, there's anything wrong with the way
he's playing. I think he's helping this team defensively, and
he's the one who's getting the first crack at Luca
in both games games and as long as he's out there,
that's who his defensive assignment is. And not saying he
shut him down, but I think he's He's still hitting
the glass, he's still giving him the second chance opportunities.
He's their best non Capella Adams offensive rebounder. I think

(46:14):
I think a Men is very much like him, and
that is the way he can help the team, no
matter if he's not making a shot or not. But yeah,
he's not putting the ball in the basket. Is nothing
will overcome that. Nobody's gonna say, but he does this
or like I just did, no no GM or no
current GM or no teammate or no coach and say, well,
he's still doing this. If he can't put the ball

(46:34):
in the basket for something you're on the court to do,
he's not just oh man, why did they leave that
terrible shooter open. Well, he's not supposed to be a
terrible shooter. He currently he is.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
He's become a terrible twin because the two of those
guys just cannot shoot right now, neither one of them.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
Well, I, like I said with if you can get
thirty points, I'm not gonna quibble with how you do it.
I got zero problems with the men's offense. No, I
could care less. If he could make a three, it'd
be awesome, he'd be a bigger Star'd be harder to
come to accommodate for that. But I can't pretend that
that's who I think he's a ever gonna be, or
certainly that's not who he is now.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
So what does he do?

Speaker 2 (47:08):
He doesn't shoot them unless his teammates drive to the basket,
get an open look themselves, pass it up stupidly and say,
hey man, there's three seconds on the shot clock.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
Why don't I give it to him? Inn it up?

Speaker 1 (47:17):
Stupid.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
The amount of shots that are makeable that NBA players
give up on because they want to kick it out
is crazy.

Speaker 1 (47:26):
And when Reed Shepherd's one of them, it drives me
insane because he actually does have the ability to hit
those shots. We'll leave it at that. We'll resume our
Rockets conversation when we hear a little bit of what
ema Udoka had to say earlier on the Matt Thomas Show.
But coming up one member of Team USA that doesn't
want to hear that that team didn't care enough about
the World Baseball Classic. You'll hear from him next.

Speaker 3 (47:50):
On Friday afternoon.

Speaker 2 (47:51):
Hope you guys are enjoying things, maybe even got off
of a little bit of work so you can enjoy
some of the tournament activity, which we will keep.

Speaker 3 (47:58):
You updated on.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
By the way, was talking about Joshua Jefferson of Iowa
stayed a little bit earlier. He went out in the
first couple of minutes of that game, and then his teammates, well,
they didn't let Tennessee State score for like about thirty
minutes of actual time, about ten minutes of game time,
and I have a massive lead.

Speaker 3 (48:17):
He ended up getting.

Speaker 2 (48:20):
MRI or X rays of his foot and ended up
that court side on crutches. Obviously not set to return
to this game, but no official award on exactly the
extent of that injury. Clearly Iowa State has a massive
massive lead in that game. Get you updated on the
other items out there, getting a little bit closer to
opening day. On the baseball side, some necessary or unnecessary

(48:41):
changes to the World Baseball Classic I think are fresh
in people's mind considering how fresh in our minds the
activity was in the championship game and the excitement level
of most every game, including the ones here played at
Dykin Park. We suggested some changes to the format that
maybe helps have more players without guardrails participate in the game,

(49:03):
but maybe there actually isn't anything wrong with it, And
I think there's some people that would argue that we'll
probably have several years before we get there. There's an
Olympics to come before we get there, and clearance between
everybody involved in Major League Baseball specifically what is it
that we want to do with our season and exactly
how it's going to play out to get Major League
Baseball players into that, all while they're also negotiating a

(49:27):
CBA to actually have a baseball season next year and
the year after LA twenty twenty eight when the Olympics
would take place, and most people expect with how popular
and how entertaining and how exciting and how good for
the game of baseball. The WBC has been there'd be
no reason to wait four years to have it, but
rather likely have it in three years, just as they

(49:47):
did from twenty twenty three this year twenty twenty six,
so probably again in twenty twenty nine. So changes to
it formatically, changes to it with who can and will
participate and teams involvement in that and players desire to
be in it.

Speaker 3 (50:04):
It's been a huge topic.

Speaker 1 (50:05):
Well, and that's where Logan web comes in because other
than looking like the next door neighbor cop in Game Night,
which I always like to point out because it's just
uncanny the resemblance, and I can never remember the actor's name,
you always know it too, Yeah, Logan Webb, he does
not want to hear that Team USA didn't care enough

(50:30):
about this tournament. Now we've talked extensively about how many
of the other teams' players might have cared almost too much,
like it's more important to them that they win this
thing than a World Series, Like more than one player
said basically that very phrase. But Logan Web's like, I

(50:51):
feel like there's a narrative that we didn't care talking
about Team USA. That's complete BS and he doesn't say
the letters. I think we probably can. He cared the
most out of every team. To be honest with you,
we do things in different ways than some of the
other teams, but we care a lot. I don't know
if I agree with that.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
Well, I think we're unfortunately, and I'm trying not to.
People are looking at this thing all wrong, Like, how
do I know how much Logan Web or Jesse Plemons
cares about this?

Speaker 1 (51:21):
You gotta be around their head.

Speaker 2 (51:23):
How do I know how much Aaron Judge or Bryce
Harper Alex Bregman cares about this? Because all anybody's trying
to tell you about how much the individual players care
about this is well, tark Skooble couldn't even stay around
for another game, and then he wants to come enjoy
it in the dugout while not participating. And two their
manager obviously stuck his foot in his mouth and made

(51:45):
it very obvious that he was uncertain, unknowing, and oblivious
to how to qualify for the next round. Doesn't mean
Logan Web doesn't care, and he's only I mean, he's
speaking for guys. I'm sure he's very familiar with in
his own dugout in his own clubhouse. He probably is
speaking for more than just him. But let's say Mark
DeRosa never went on hof Stove. I never said that.

(52:06):
I mean, I think that's a huge part of the
America doesn't care narrative, not oblivious to the other narrative
being built. And why because when Captain America hit one
of his two homers, or Bryce Harbor hit the most
important home run in the entire Classic four Team USA,
arguably he didn't freak out and have fun with it

(52:26):
the way other I don't mean freak out in a
negative way. I mean in a positive, overtly to mind
Jeff Bagwell type of way. I mean, and many other
players for almost every other country did that. And it's
just displaying pure, unfiltered enjoyment for the game of baseball
in their own way, which a lot of players don't.

Speaker 3 (52:49):
A lot of them happen to play for the United
States of America.

Speaker 1 (52:52):
Yeah, And one of the responses to this tweet about
this encapsulates everything that you mentioned. And then what more
thing this guy and these I'm just picking up a
random response. They didn't care. They being TEAMYSA, didn't care
enough to have one person in the entire organization know
the rules, or for Schoolble to stay or for Miller

(53:13):
to pitch, Like those are the three things this guy
just happened to bring up. That's what you're talking about, Like,
there's all these convenient storylines or occurrences that help with
this narrative that culminates in Tmosa. Didn't care that much,
would we?

Speaker 2 (53:30):
I mean, I'm curious is everybody saying the exact same
thing and acting like it matters. If they scored a
third run a couple of nights ago and they won
three to.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Two, that is interesting.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
They cared so little about this that they won enough
games to advance, and then they won two more times
to advance to the championship game, and then they hit
a home run in the bottom of the eighth of
the championship game descended to the ninth inning tide. But
they didn't really. I mean, it's freaking baseball for crying
out loud. If care was all that mattered, they definitely

(54:01):
would not have advanced to the championship game. You know
what I know is if only way you can grade
care is how players react to the awesome moments they're having.
The Dominican Republic would have steamrolled everybody.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
You know, what's funny about this is that baseball is
the only sport I feel like where this happens. Everybody's
such a snob about everything about it, Like everything about baseball,
whether it's you know, the sanctity of the game, whether
it's the numbers and how hollowed they are. Even though
it's okay that these players cheated this way, because even

(54:34):
though that screws up some of these numbers because they
are on performance enhancing drugs, it's not nearly as bad
as this team over here that cheated using electronic sign stealing,
you know, methods, and all of this kind of stuff.
To the point of what we're talking about here, these
guys didn't care enough. But I feel like it's the
same people that were upset that Juan Soto was doing
all this theatrics in the batter's box when he was

(54:55):
a member of Walgreens and taking his bat down to
first base, so that Alex Bregman had to turn around
and do the same thing. Well, did they care too much?
Was he too demonstrative? Was he too hyper? Jose Limo
the way he pitched on the mound, people had a
problem with that. Well, they wouldn't have had a problem
with him in this because it would have shown that
he cared enough. It's so dumb both ways, Like just
watch baseball.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Yeah, caring about being a part of it, that's clearly
something we can discuss because that's more about just availability
be a part of it. Like if you cared enough,
is it enough to overcome this? And the guy's about
to make thirty two million dollars this year because he
won his arbitration case. Because his team will not extend
him to the point that he believes it's worth what

(55:38):
was while to sign a long term extension, he would
rather likely hit free agency. Well I can in March
of the year, I'm going to hit free agency. Can
I take that chance that I'm throwing sixty five crazy, intense,
most fun of my life pitches if it costs me
an opportunity to play a healthy season here. I'd love
to win a title with the Tigers too. I'd love

(56:00):
to do everything I can for the team. The only
team I've been with is as much as I can.
And there is a little bit of concern, but there
were very few. There just weren't that many elite level
players that chose not to play for those reasons. There
are a bunch of players that weren't allowed to play
because of insurance reasons. I'm here in Houston, and they
were for varying countries.

Speaker 1 (56:20):
But Taric Schoolble doing what he did, which is what
you just described as zero problem with that, and actually
I think that's what he should have done. I think
he went above and beyond doing what he did to
be a part of things.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
When you consider what his situation is, how about if we.

Speaker 2 (56:35):
Don't try to defend them and just say, you're right, Logan,
I don't think y'all cared as much to the other teams.
I'm sure you cared to win the baseball games. Nobody's
going into this and saying, hey, this is neat. Clearly
they weren't thinking, hey this is a neat time. They
were into it. They were intense. Every pitcher coming out
of the bullpen is I've gotta throw strikes here. If

(56:56):
look at what Willuck looked like after he gave up
the third run, after you know, he walked the first
batter like he knew, oh my god, I can't believe
we just hit the game tying homer, And look at
what I've done, and he was awesome in the rest
of the tournament, you know, and the guys that weren't
as awesome, like look at the reaction of McLean in
his first start. In his last start, and he's a kid.
He was not very effective, not nearly as effective in

(57:17):
start number one. He gave him a chance to win
the championship game and start number two by holding the
other team down early and eventually and finally Team USA
did score. But you probably are this is just the
personality of so many of these players, like honestly, Alex
Bregman's most overtly emotional moments in the history of his
Major League baseball career have been when somebody else did something,

(57:39):
Like his most famous jumping up and down moment isn't
when he knocked in Derek Fisher. It's when Jordan Alvarez
turned the series upside down, and when those moments happened,
and they weren't that there weren't that many of those
moments either.

Speaker 1 (57:52):
Technically, it was the game that got turned upside down.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
What did I say, he turned upside down series? Okay,
he turned this game upside down. We're just telling you
what Joe Oh my bad. No, I've recalled not very
well though, since I botched it, It's okay.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
It happened and that's all it matters. All right, We'll
leave it at that.

Speaker 2 (58:09):
Yeah, maybe if their offense was dropping twelve runs on
teams repeatedly, it would have been more fun and they
would have shown more how much they care like other
teams that did that. And we're celebrating constantly, maybe you
should boat race and celebrate it more, Team USA. Just kidding,
Logan Webb. I still like you. I'm glad you're in
the National League too, all right.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
Ema Udoka stopped by The Matt Thomas Show featuring Ross
earlier today. I'm not sure he's going to be in
the best of moods based on how his team has
performed this week, but you're gonna have to tune in
to find out next. Daniel House, may he never be
the general manager of your Houston Rockets. Thin can be
a general manager of any other team, especially some of

(58:49):
the Rockets rivals. But wow, he had a very interesting
slant on the whole KD trade.

Speaker 3 (58:55):
All Right, enough about that, let's get to.

Speaker 1 (58:58):
People who actually do affect what's going on with the
Houston Rockets these days. Eme Udoka stopping by for his
weekly visit on The Matt Thomas Show featuring Ross earlier today.
A portion of that conversation. Obviously, the Rockets back to
back losses to the Lakers, and then they've got the

(59:19):
hottest team in the NBA coming into town tonight. Eleven
wins in a row for the Atlanta Hawks. Just obliterated
the Dallas Mavericks the other night, and they come in
here with the what by eight? They obliterated them?

Speaker 3 (59:31):
Yeah they did? Oh that team by fifteen? Sure?

Speaker 1 (59:34):
Yeah, who'd you think I meant?

Speaker 3 (59:35):
I was sorry? I had Lakers on the mind.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Oh yeah, yeah, no Lakers. Uh, those you know what
talks about those games, they did feel like they were
closer than they wound up being.

Speaker 3 (59:44):
Because they were.

Speaker 2 (59:45):
But I mean there was a dagger shot from Luca
in the final minute.

Speaker 1 (59:50):
I know, I just never I don't know. It just
felt bad from the get go, from both with both
of those those games, Like the Rockets looked like they
were doing fantastic and the first quarter and all of
a sudden, oh they're down by nine? What like that's
how it went. And it was just it's very fast,
and that's that's credit to Luca because that's exactly who
was pulling the strings, if you will. But Ema Udoka

(01:00:13):
talking about a good third quarter but not being able
to finish in that game on Wednesday night, the second
of two losses to the Ellie Lakers, Well.

Speaker 5 (01:00:22):
I would say our energy and see it was way
better than the third. Obviously, getting down, we battled back
and that was a good sign. But you know, defend
at a high level holding them to twenty two. Obviously,
scoring thirty seven is a great number for a quarter.
The fourth quarter to start it was it was a
few bad plays in the road turnover as they led
them out to easy baskets and kind.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
Of went on.

Speaker 5 (01:00:44):
I think they went on thirteen to six run to
retake the lead. And so after all the work we
put in the third, it was, you know a little
disappointing to come out in the fourth and kind of
give it right back.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
You know.

Speaker 6 (01:00:55):
It's the turnover account was significantly lower than it was
from Monday, but it meant it felt like one of
them turn out to be leakouts into baskets for the Lakers.

Speaker 5 (01:01:03):
That's at least the way I saw it. Yeah, you
have twelve turnovers. They scored twenty three points off those
and they're eight for ten and fast break points. That
was a big part of it. And so a lot
of live ball turnovers that got out to the layups.
You know, you want the dead ball ones. If you
do turn it over, you want to throw out of
bounds or a travel or whatever the case may be
instead of a steal that leads to an easy, uncontested break.

Speaker 4 (01:01:23):
And so.

Speaker 5 (01:01:24):
To their credit, they were efficient in those although we
had the number lowers, just the types of turnovers that
really hurt us.

Speaker 6 (01:01:30):
Did you feel like man with a men being as
efficient as he was? Alpi was ten of fifteen.

Speaker 1 (01:01:36):
That was it was.

Speaker 6 (01:01:37):
You needed something of a bounce back in that and
get to get out be out there and tell me
obviously at the disappointment level for losing those two games
at home and then obviously now unfortunately a little bit
of separation between you and the Lakers for that three
spot in the West.

Speaker 5 (01:01:50):
Yeah, we had an opportunity to go the other way,
especially how tight the standings are, and you know, we
at least want to win one and win the season
series a tiebreaker and put ourselves on little bit of
a hole there, but have time to kind of dig
ourselves out. We're two games behind and lost column. So
get on the streak, like you mentioned, start to play
more consistent basketball, and finish here on the right note.

(01:02:11):
We can get ourselves right back in contention where we
want to be.

Speaker 6 (01:02:15):
You may Tari got to double digits for the first
time this month. Unfortunately he just has one three point
two his credit. This is a prolonged slump for him.
Is this a deep dive into shot selection? Is it
to where the balls leaving his hand? Because I will
always have the before belief if I can usually tell
when the ball leaves a hand if it's going to
go in because the rotation of word was shot. What's
what's in his mind right now? Because obviously this is

(01:02:36):
the deepest funk he's been in quite some time.

Speaker 5 (01:02:39):
Yeah, it starts to become mental at some point, you know,
like I always had with young guys, You have your
ups and downs, and Jabari played his way out of
it and been playing great basketball this year. Alpiece had
to deal with this somewhat at times, and so you
want to do other things to inject yourself into the game,
not just rely on three pointers going down, you know,
cast some havoc on the defensive end, like he does,
get some easy basket, he got some out in transition,

(01:03:02):
get to the freak the line and put backs, you know,
get on offensive last things of that nature. So you're
not just relying on three point shot. But honestly, it's
the same great looks he was getting all year when
he was shooting forty five plus. And it just has
your ups and downs. But he has to stop overthinking it.
I think that guys will start to hesitate and pass
up open shots trying to get something better. You know,

(01:03:22):
stay the course, trust the work that you put in,
and you'll shoot your way or work your way out
of that.

Speaker 7 (01:03:26):
Sloan ROCKETEC coach Ima Adoko was here on Sports Talk
seven ninety. We know that every game at this point
of the utmost importance. Do you feel like, as a
coaching staff and around the team, are you guys trying
to get into playoff mode or trying to try to
keep things a little bit normal.

Speaker 5 (01:03:42):
No, you have to ramp it up and understand that
after all, start breaking goes very quickly, and let alone
the standings of how tight it is this year, you know,
and when you've given some games away early, you have
more sense of urgency you know later in the year,
and so for us you already have to kick into that,
no doubt. I think in general we understand what's on
the line now the rest of these games. Do you
want to get to that mode as quickly as possible.

(01:04:04):
But also you know, understanding that this that you can
go from three to seven pretty easily and get on
a good streak ourselves.

Speaker 6 (01:04:11):
This Atlanta team, I think we'll catch them. You may
at the absolute wrong time. They have won eleven consecutive games.
Not only are they winning games, you may be as
you know, they're blowing people out. What's what's the election
that's working for them right now?

Speaker 5 (01:04:23):
They've been number one on offense and number one on
defense in the last you know, just on their streak
eleven games. I think Jalen Johnson's playing an extremely high level.
But they're playing fast, aggressive, you know, shooting the three
really well, and then they're great on the boards.

Speaker 1 (01:04:36):
So that's always a you.

Speaker 5 (01:04:38):
Know, formulas for success. You shoot the ball with fast
in transition and crash the offensive and defensive glass.

Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
And they've done that.

Speaker 6 (01:04:45):
It looked like albe was pretty fresh for a couple
of games of back spasms.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Those things can always pop.

Speaker 3 (01:04:49):
Up, but he looked very nimble and was able to.

Speaker 6 (01:04:51):
Really be effective at least scoring for you and when
you needed too.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
A couple of nights ago against the Lakers.

Speaker 4 (01:04:57):
Yeah, he's feeling good.

Speaker 5 (01:04:58):
I think, you know, had it been in the playoff,
he could have played probably the first Laker game, but
you want to give him that rest to make sure
he's one hundred percent coming back. And so, yeah, he
looked looked really good. Obviously a very efficient game, twenty
seven points, ten, ten assists and you know, very efficient
ten for fifteen shooting. So great bounce back night for him,
and obviously we're gonna need him down the final stretch.

Speaker 6 (01:05:17):
And lastly, a men Thompson continue to give you lots
and lots of minutes. He is scoring has gone up.
He's twenty six for you. How's he how's he holding
out during all this? I know he's young in spry,
but it feels like he has really taking a lot
of bumps here and a lot of probably a lot
of cold tubs after games these last few weeks.

Speaker 5 (01:05:35):
Yeah, he's definitely meticulous with the recovery, you know, getting
the needles and massages and everything, taking care of his body.
But yeah, we lean on him in several different ways.
Obviously the scoring has been great, has bumped there, but
the rebounding, assists numbers, no turnovers last game, and then defending,
you know, on the best player on the nightly basis, it's.

Speaker 1 (01:05:53):
A lot of work.

Speaker 5 (01:05:54):
And so he takes care of himself to be prepared
for that and has really relished in this in this role,
and I think that's what he's looking for, that's what
we need from him. And he's in the forty winter
range consistently, but still does at a very high level.

Speaker 2 (01:06:06):
As he may mentioned the Hawks tonight, there are four
teams in the NBA that have won at least nine
of their last eleven games. The Spurs have a net
rating of ten during that period of time. The Oklahoma
City Thunder have a net rating of seven point three
during that time. The Lakers have a net rating of
nine point six during that time. The Hawks lead the
NBA with a net rating of seventeen point two during

(01:06:28):
that time, as they've won all eleven of those games,
but them beating the Rockets this year ever, and that's
who the matchup is tonight.

Speaker 3 (01:06:36):
Good luck Hawks.

Speaker 1 (01:06:40):
Sports Socks seven ninety. I would ask you what your
weekend plans are, wex but you're just gonna sit around
and watch sports like you always do.

Speaker 2 (01:06:49):
I mean unless I'm headed off somewhere, like to pick
up a kid or something or send them back to school,
which I actually am this weekend. But I don't have
to do anything, just shove them out the door. Oh
there's some I have a performance to watch. I don't
know what time it will be yet, but a UIL
competition Rane's involved in, so I gotta take that in
on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
Are you going to be watching tournament action on your
phone during that?

Speaker 4 (01:07:15):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:07:16):
You put it away?

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Not appropriate? Wow?

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
Well, Also, of note, I don't feel like there's gonna
be a game that I have to see at that time.
I would say put it that way. So obviously, both
U of H and Texas won last night. Texas is
the winningest team in this NCAA tournament. I have two wins,
and U of H handled the vandals rather easily. I

(01:07:39):
will say that yesterday I wasn't sure how harsh to
how strongly I should word the.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
Post or text.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
I was going to send off to my Longhorn buddies
because I wouldn't didn't want to sound like too big
of a jerk, so I softened it a little instead
of saying, by the way, not to be a downer.
I think BYU is going to destroy the Longhorns tonight,
I said, I said BYU is going to cruise. I
didn't want to be so so much of a downer.

(01:08:08):
Shot color me shocked that. And I know BYU's not
the same team they were earlier in the year.

Speaker 4 (01:08:14):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:08:14):
They have a lot of good wins, They beat a
lot of good teams. They played in a crazy difficult conference,
and I thought it showed themselves very well. I thought
they were one of the Big twelve, and I know
they were seated tenth in the Big Twelve tournament, tied
for the seventh Paths record. But nonetheless, I did not
see what happened last night happening. They were in control
almost the entire game. They made just enough shots late
in that game to ensure that they would advance, and

(01:08:34):
they did against arguably the best player in the country.
UFH had no issue whatsoever in getting past the Vandals.
Both of those games will be within an hour of
each other tomorrow afternoon, So afternoon's probably out, late afternoon,
probably outside the window that I'll be engaged with my
family properly, with both eyeballs and one single brain.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
All Right. You know how we're always talking about a
lot of times, you know, sidelined reporters and those interviews
that are sometimes had, especially going into the half, and
sometimes there's not the most worthwhile dialogue going between the
two parties.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Yeah, in the NCAA tournament, they have gone with players.
Players are being interviewed in game, not while the action's
going on. But it's not a coach, it's not an
assistant coach. They are talking to players during the half.

Speaker 1 (01:09:26):
Well, Villanova, have you checked in on what they did
in the first half of their game?

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
Well, they're losing, but they're an eight seat it's a
pretty even matchup. Utah State has three points better than
them right now.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
As opposed to a player. They went ahead and interviewed
head coach Kevin Willard, and he just went straight to
the point as to what he's going to do to
adjust at halftime. He said, I'm gonna fire my staff. Yeah,
I should should have gone more along with what you
were saying. They interview the coach, usually at the first
or second time out of the game, and then they'll

(01:09:57):
get a player at the half. I think this was
at the half, though, but he.

Speaker 3 (01:10:01):
They haven't reached the half, so I know it was not.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
Well, then maybe it wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:10:04):
No, it's in game. They talked to the coaches in game.
They you know, I just saw tj oughtson my shirt's
too small. Burger of Iowa State get his in game interview.

Speaker 1 (01:10:11):
Well, the caption I'm looking at said adjustments at halftime,
So I guess he already knew earlier in the game,
before the half that he's gonna fire his entire shit.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
I don't I don't think too many people look at
them as playing particularly well. But that's the thing you
never know, which is kind of why they do it
if you're doing it with a player. I mean, the
only thing that really alarming that could come out of
it is they might accidentally say something they shouldn't.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
They're really kind of tuned out. What do you guys
need to do.

Speaker 2 (01:10:36):
We need to play harder, or we need to get
on rebounds, we need to not turn the ball over.
A coach they might say something, and so I think
that's why they do it. Nine times out of ten,
it's we need to do this, Okay, thanks coach. But
the one time out of ten, guy says he needs
to fire his staff. So they find that. I think
TV broadcasters, people behind the scenes, you know, producers, directors,

(01:10:57):
et cetera. They're like, yeah, perfect, this is why we
do it.

Speaker 1 (01:11:00):
Uh, just real quick, since we're going about to be
on the subject of this, what do you feel? How
do you feel when you hear the name Sidney Brown?
The Eagle safety Sydney Brown.

Speaker 2 (01:11:12):
Okay, my first thought when you said Sidney Brown, and
now I know it's wrong because I've had a little
time to process. I was thinking that was Woody Harrelson's teammate.
But that's Sidney Dean. So Sidney Brown doesn't make me
think anything.

Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
The Eagles have traded him to the Falcons. Yeah, that
doesn't make me think anything.

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
I didn't think it would. I just wanted to pass
out along since we're about to talk a little Wait, wait,
say his name again, Sidney Brown? Okay, can I do
the story now?

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
Yeah, this just came across breaking news from the NFL.
It's finally happened after years worth of discord inside the building.

Speaker 3 (01:11:44):
The Eagles have traded Brown.

Speaker 1 (01:11:46):
That's a good one. It's not Aj it's Sydney. But
you know what, that's probably not far behind.

Speaker 4 (01:11:53):
No.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
I mean now that I again, if properly processing, that
not a bad player. But I'm gonna guess the return
Sydney Brown was a late, late round pick.

Speaker 3 (01:12:02):
I don't know yet. I don't know that yet. Legit
just happened.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
But you know now that somewhat the dust has settled
in NFL Free Agencies or NFL Free agency, there's a
lot of articles, a lot of lists, a lot of analysis,
if you will, about how teams have done. And what
if I were to tell you that the Texans made

(01:12:27):
this list, They're a little farther down. But the number
seven overall best deals, fits value contract. All that kind
of stuff is weighed into this, obviously, is Brayden Smith
signing with the Texans.

Speaker 3 (01:12:44):
At least according to one outlet, how does it rate?

Speaker 1 (01:12:47):
A little over a week after agreeing to trade Titus
Hour to the Browns, the Texans found their right tackle replacement.
In terms of value, the swap is a coup for
Houston in thirteen games last season, Smith quarter to pass
block win rate in the fifty first percentile and run
block win rate in the forty fifth percentile. Both numbers

(01:13:09):
are better than what the Texans got out of Howard.
It's an interesting way to put this, seeing as how
Pete Prisco thought it was the worst deal ever basically
didn't say that. I'm paraphrasing. Smith's numbers in twenty twenty
four were much worse, but he was dealing with a
serious mental health matter that caused him to miss the
final five games of that season, and they go on

(01:13:30):
to talk about that. From twenty eighteen to twenty twenty three,
he started eighty games, record pass block win rate and
run block win rates in the fifty sixth and sixty
fifth percentile in that span, respectively, Injuries limiting him to
the ten games in twenty twenty three and had offseason
knee surgery after that year. At twelve point five per

(01:13:52):
in twenty twenty six and essentially just one guaranteed year
for a solid right tackle, his deal looks like a bargain.
And if we consider that deal in conjunction with the
tightest Howard trade, then it looks even better. The Texans
got the better player at a cheaper price and gained
a fifth round pick. Do you agree with all that?

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
I agree with every single part of it, but it
still doesn't necessarily it shouldn't make everyone jump for joy
because you're plateauing yourself and it's not a very high plateau.
They're not trying to be an awesome offensive line yet,
they're just trying to be a better offensive line than
they've been. And he even laid it out that way.
The bargain of it and the financials of it, oh,

(01:14:34):
it looks even better, But is the player that much better?
They're spending less money on a better player. We all
know that based on what they've done. I don't know
that Braden Smith stays on the field enough to have
a better season than Tightest Howard might have. And that's
obviously still out there. They're just they're not bargain been
shopping anymore. But they're still not going out there and
saying this problem's over for the next five years. We

(01:14:56):
just got one of the five best left tackles in
the NFL, both of the run blocker and a blocker.
It's over. We got it. We're set now, we just
have to fill out the other's four spots. It's going
to be more complicated because we spent a little too
much money maybe, or money we didn't have, or it's
gonna cost us elsewhere, and now we can't extend disease.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
A'll shy.

Speaker 2 (01:15:11):
There's all sorts of things that could do. They chose
other ways to go about it. But you can't lie.
I'm not gonna lie to you. They did not try
to produce an awesome offensive line. What they did try
to do does commend I would commend them for they
tried to produce a better offensive line in one particular area.

Speaker 3 (01:15:27):
They should.

Speaker 2 (01:15:28):
I think in their mind they believe they have created
one of the top ten, top twelve run blocking offensive lines,
and I think with that they maybe can promote a
much better offensive unit in the hole. Wyatt Teller's a
plus run blocker. I think at Ingram's a plus run blocker.
I think Brayden Smith's a plus run blocker. That's three
fifths of your line already. If ersree advances to that,

(01:15:49):
you know, if Jake Andrews is held, all these things
can go hand in hand to making David Montgomery's life easier,
which in turn makes CJ. Stroud's life easier, which should
help the offense in general. But they didn't go out
there and try to sign the best offensive linemen that
were available.

Speaker 3 (01:16:02):
I'm not gonna lie to people. They don't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:16:03):
That's why it's only the seventh best deal and not
the first. All right, when we come back, we will
switch gears to baseball. Our good buddy Chandler Roam of
the Athletic stops by for a conversation. This is going
to become a pattern on Fridays. You'll notice that that's next.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
He's been covering the Astros for a long time as
his own podcast Crush Shitty Territory and shed some light
on the Astros situation with us on a weekly basis.
Happy to have Chandler on with us right now as
the last first of the last three games in Florida
goes off in about an hour and then two more
games here at dyk In Park. Chandler, we haven't mentioned
this today, but you posted some information from the Astros

(01:16:41):
earlier about what likely lays out their pitching plans on
the starting side, So why don't we start there? Hunter
Brown makes the start today. We already know he's starting
a week from yesterday, the home opener, But it does
sound like they have planned out their first handful of
starting assignments from the pitching side when they get started
with the season next week.

Speaker 4 (01:17:00):
Yeah, it's not official, but I mean kind of follow
the tea leaves here, follow the routines, right. Hunter Brown's
going to pitch tonight in West Palm Beach. Mike Burrows
is going to pitch tomorrow in Port Saint Lucy against
the Mets. Christian Javier will pitch on Sunday and the
Florida Finale. Tatsuya Emi will start on Monday against the
Space Cowboys at Dyke and Park. I'm not sure who's

(01:17:23):
going to pitch on Tuesday yet. Spencer Aarraghetti is going
to factor into that game. I'm not sure if he's
going to start come out of the bullpen, but he'll
probably pitch in that game as well. Again, wouldn't go
buy your tickets yet and say this's is set in stone,
but I think it's pretty safe to say the first
three guys in the rotation are going to be Hunter Brown,
Mike Burrows and Christian Javier. The only reason I say

(01:17:46):
not to set it in Stone yet is there's a
lot just sort of up in the air with Tetsuya Emi.
They're letting him kind of dictate his schedule, how when
he wants to pitch, how many days of rest they
think he thinks he needs. So I'm not saying he's
definitely going to be the fourth guy to start in

(01:18:06):
the rotation, but you know it could be that next Sunday,
a Monday and Emi again, and then after that I'll
have to go between McCullers and Arenghetty. So yeah, it's
starting to kind of map itself out a little bit.
For all the fans listening that are freaking out that
Tatsuya Emi is now the fourth starter, the order does
not matter. It doesn't matter until October if they get there.

Speaker 2 (01:18:29):
Yeah, it might be a really good thing if he
really was that, if he has a good season and
the three guys that not really are ahead of him
but are scheduling wise also pitched that way, let me
ask you something about the roster decisions that are upcoming.
Hunter Brown, as I mentioned, makes the start today, saysar
Salazar is catching for him today. Christian Vasquez has now
become a part of the Astros once again. He's been

(01:18:50):
there since early this week, has gotten in some game action,
and they wouldn't have signed him to a minor league
deal with a major league invite unless they were serious
about considering him to be with this team when they
get out of camp and for any role in the future.
Where do you think things stand there with those two guys,
and if it really is just for one spot, and
who's it might be on opening Day?

Speaker 4 (01:19:10):
Yeah, I can't see them carrying three catchers, especially three
catchers that especially like if two of them are Salas
are in Basquez. You know, they've never used Salazar in
any meaningful role on a major league roster, and I
can't imagine it's going to change this time around. If
they carry three catchers, and then Christian Basqez doesn't give
you a ton kind of offensively off the bench, it

(01:19:30):
doesn't allow Joe to really be as flexible as he
wants with his bench. So I think it's two guys
for one spot. I don't have a great read of
where they're leaning. There's some people in the organization that
really like Fasar Salas are there's some people that are
worried about overexposing and playing him too much. And seeing
how that goes. You have seen in the four times

(01:19:52):
in the four years, I should say that he's been
up and been with the Astros. I always say actions
speak louder than words, and he's gone on used for
very long stretches of his time on a major league roster.
So you're right, and that they didn't sign Christian Basquez
just for some sentimental fun like they think he can
help them. I would this is just purely a guess.

(01:20:16):
I would probably say as of right now, Salazar probably
has a little bit of a leg up, only because
he's been in camp the whole time. He's been here,
from day one of camp. He's obviously very well liked
in the clubhouse. The pitchers like throwing to him. Basque
has only got here this week. Obviously he's familiar with
the staff, he's familiar with how they do things here.
But I think that I think Salazar probably has a

(01:20:39):
leg up right now for no other reason than that
he's been here for longer than Bascue's.

Speaker 1 (01:20:43):
I feel like I asked you this the last time
you were on with us, and I just kind of
won an update. You mentioned Christian Javier. I just got
an I'm keeping an eye on him because I'm still
hopeful that the guy that you know, you saw before
the injuries is still in there somewhere. What if anything

(01:21:03):
that you've seen with him lends itself to thinking that
may be the case, or is this going to be
another season where he's a gigantic question mark.

Speaker 4 (01:21:11):
You know, his last start was encouraging with Javier. I
wouldn't look so much at the velocity with him just because, yeah,
I think they'd like it to be ninety three ninety four,
but he can be successful at ninety two ninety three.
He's got so much ride and carry on the fastball
that that's part of what makes his fastball great is
that it's not that high velocity of a pitch, but

(01:21:32):
it looks so much harder and it disappears and it
carries up because of the movement he gets on it.
So I wouldn't look at the fastball velocity itself and
get concerned. They did say that they wanted him to
throw his off speed pitches and his breaking pitches a
little bit harder, and he did that in his last start.
He had some success. He threw some good change ups.
They liked everything they saw on his last start, But yeah,

(01:21:55):
I think it would have given them a little more,
you know, comfort, if he would have been a little
bit more assistant this camp. But you talk about him
not being continued, he really only had that one bad
outing and everything else has been pretty in line with
what they've seen from him before the surgery, when he
was at his peak help. So it'll be interesting to
see Alley pitches on Sunday, a day when everyone is

(01:22:17):
going to be swinging at the first pitch, everyone wants
to get out of here. That's you know, It's usually
a thing in the final day of Flora's spring training
is that if you don't swing at the first pitch,
you're in trouble. So I don't know how much you'll
be able to glean from his start on Sunday, but
still it'll be interesting to see what the what the
numbers look like, what the pitch shapes look like, and
things like that.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
If I tell you that Bryce Matthews, Joey low, Perfido,
and Roderie Munio's all make the team out of spring training,
which one do you think is the least likely to
be correct?

Speaker 4 (01:22:47):
Well, that's a good one, because I think all three
of them are going to make it. I probably would
say Roddery Munos would be the guy that was be
least likely, only because of the roster inflexibility that gives
them the because they have to keep him on the
twenty six man roster all season because he's a little
five pick. But I'll say this, if Andyel Della Santo's

(01:23:07):
is not ready for opening Day and he's gonna pitch
tonight Muno's, I don't see how they don't carry him
because they have a real lack of right handed leverage
relievers behind Brian A. Brady, the filling closer. So you know,
I think all three of those guys have put themselves
in pretty good positions to make this team. So I'd
probably say Roderie Muno's, But I'm gonna tell you, I

(01:23:28):
think all three of those guys are in pretty good
spots to break camp.

Speaker 2 (01:23:32):
It's kind of the maybe the last guy on the
roster Nick Allen, in that they probably find other places
to use everybody else. And even though he's an everyday
shortstop caliber defender, I don't he doesn't have as much
positional flexibility as say Bryce and certainly speed on Bryce's side,
And I mean just is that a fair statement. I
think he's making the team, especially with paying the injury,

(01:23:54):
but maybe not used very often.

Speaker 4 (01:23:57):
Yeah, I think so, and I think maybe more so.
Like I'm righting about this right now, Like I think
Bryce Matthews is going to make this team as a
primary league outfielder. You know, he's starting in left field
tonight for this Great Fruit League game. Like that's not
an accident, he you know. And if you look at
the first home stand of the season, they're gonna face

(01:24:18):
at least three left handed pitchers, and Garrett Crochet, r
Anders Schuarez, and y Say Kakuchi, if reed, Debtmers pitches
for the Angels, and they'll face four left handed starters.
There is room in that first homestand to get Bryce
Matthews a good bit of it bats and they get
him some run against left handed pitching. You know, Joe
spot has always been a guy that says, you know,

(01:24:39):
if he carries a prospect, he wants them to play regularly. Well,
they have that lane here. Zach Cole has not had
a good camp. Just offensively, He's still swinging and missing
way too much. He's hitting the ball hard, but hasn't
gotten rewarded for it. The base running has not been good,
I can I can see a scenario where then maybe
they sends that cold triple a to Art of the year.

(01:25:01):
They carry Bryce Matthews and maybe it's a left field
platoon with Bryce Matthews and Joey Loperfido who's left hands
and natural platoon Bryce Matthews and Jordan Alvarez when they
want to put Jordon Alvarez out in left field. I
could see a situation where Bryce Matthews makes his team
and maybe he never touches the dirt. Maybe it's solely

(01:25:21):
in an outfield role. And part of that is because,
like you said, like they have Nick Allen. Like Nick
Allen is to think of him as a less versatile
Mauricio Dubond. But he's the guy that's the insurance policy.
He's he can really pick it at third base, can
really pick it it short. They feel confident with him
at all three in field positions, not first base, so

(01:25:41):
he's going to kind of be the guy that's just
there and breaking case of emergency. But I think Bryce
Matthews probably makes this team man, and you could see
him get a decent shot at maybe look a look
in the outfield.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
Chandler, how do you rank or how do you rate
the Texans offseason so far, especially updating that offensive line.
I know you're a huge fan of that situation.

Speaker 4 (01:26:04):
I mean, I just couldn't believe that Cal and Hannah
drove in with the grilled rapper last night. You have
to have you have to pass a test to get
a driver's license. I couldn't believe.

Speaker 1 (01:26:14):
Cal, oh man I did. I mean, I knew somebody
would catch astray, but you just I mean.

Speaker 4 (01:26:25):
Has Paul Wall done anything since Grills? Has he released
a song since Grills? Or is he just living off
of that?

Speaker 2 (01:26:33):
I don't even think that's really that big of a
negative personally, Like you did something awesome and Houston really
loves you.

Speaker 3 (01:26:40):
It seems like a pretty good good for him, Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:26:42):
Yeah, good for him. Threw a nice first pitch to
WBC a couple a couple of weeks ago, Like I'm
all four just it's that's the American dream, right, do
one thing and then coast off of it your whole life.
I'm good for him.

Speaker 2 (01:26:53):
Well, I know this is not what I'm supposed to do,
but I'm gonna bring you back to baseball for one moment.
What's that's your big takeaway here in America? Maybe, And
moving forward about the WBC.

Speaker 4 (01:27:07):
You know, it was great for baseball, and I hope
people in America and the United States that watched it
appreciated how the different cultures of baseball and how baseball
is just played a little bit differently all across the globe,
and baseball culture in America. And I'm not saying this
is a bad thing. Baseball culture in America is very

(01:27:28):
buttoned up. It's very hierarchical, it's very you know, you
need to prove yourself, you need to you know, unwritten
rules were a thing up until about ten years ago.
Unwritten rules were a huge part of Major League Baseball.
That's starting to go away a little bit. But like
you're seeing how in other countries and the other how
other countries play the game. It's different, and it's more fun,

(01:27:50):
and it's more lively, and it's more passionate. And I'm
not sitting here saying teen usay did not have passion
for this thing. They did, they just expressed it in
a different way. And I think that was really instructive
for a lot of people because this thing had a
ton of eyeballs on it, and so many people watched it.
You know, I don't think Mark DeRosa did Team USA
many favors, just with how he messaged some things, with

(01:28:12):
how you know he went out there. He wasn't a
good public face for them. But those guys really really
were passionate about this and they enjoyed it. I loved
the WBC. I thought it was unbelievable. And I think
if you've seen anything from Omar Lopez these last three days,
pavierre Bruckamani, like Joseel Tuve like, I don't know that
you can see the emotion and the passion that these
people have for this event, for this tournament. Even you

(01:28:35):
know some of the Dominican guys after they got eliminated,
like how crestfallen, they were like and it's something that
I think Major League Baseball and players and teams should
encourage their players participate in.

Speaker 1 (01:28:48):
So for the record, you do think Team usay cared enough?

Speaker 4 (01:28:52):
Oh I do. And if you were around them for
like ten minutes to Dike in part, yes, they cared.
They they just didn't again like it's just a different culture.

Speaker 8 (01:29:01):
Right, Like they're not going to be like running out
of the dugout, almost running a field after a home run.
They're not gonna bat flip all the way up in
the sky like they celebrate and they show emotion, but
it's it's just not on the.

Speaker 4 (01:29:18):
Level of other teams. And that's okay. That's okay. That's
what makes baseball great. So it makes us world great
that we can all do things in a different way,
that we can all have different cultures and different ways
of doing things, and we can all come together under
one kind of umbrella of the WBC and have it
all showcase for a couple of weeks. I feel like
I'm a I feel like I'm a marketing executive. Now,

(01:29:39):
this is great. They should tape this and that this
should be what people listen to before the WBC every year.

Speaker 1 (01:29:45):
He's doing very well. Well.

Speaker 2 (01:29:46):
He did say what makes this world great even amongst
all that stuff. So I've considered it a good visit.
All right, diplomatic Chandler Rome, As always, Chandler, we appreciate
the time. We're looking forward to talking to you next week.

Speaker 4 (01:29:58):
All right, thanks guys.

Speaker 1 (01:29:59):
All right, the realm of the athletic here on your
home for Astros Baseball Sports Talk seven ninety. We will
continue here get back into some Texans free agency conversation
when we return the A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

(01:30:20):
Thanks again to Chandler Roam of the Athletic for stopping by.
We are less than a week away from opening day
and that is a very very good thing. Real quick,
before we get into this Texans conversation, something that Wex
has brought brought up many many times. I just saw
this on Blummer's Instagram Draft Kings, one of their accounts,

(01:30:44):
did ah, it's just a slideshow basically on its Instagram
account if college basketball coaches dressed like MLB managers in
other words, were the costumes or the uniforms in this case?
And I gotta tell you, Kelvin Samson looks pretty funny
in his U of H get up. He has a

(01:31:05):
red undershirt under the red and red jersey shorts combo.
In case you're wondering, NFL coaches, college football coaches, they
do not wear football uniforms. NBA coaches, college basketball coaches,
they do not wear their respective teams uniforms. College baseball coaches,

(01:31:26):
Major League baseball managers, Minor league baseball managers all wear
the full UNI and it's interesting just off of one thing. Well,
first of all, they I think.

Speaker 2 (01:31:36):
The the body type of coaches might play into it.
There's a handful of NFL coaches that are former players,
and a lot I would say, there's a pretty good
chunk of you know, NBA coaches and even college basketball coaches.
They've played some basketball. They're usually is Tho is by
far my favorite. Well, you get out on the court
and you play like Emais on the court with his team.

(01:31:57):
You know, Kelvin over the years with probably a little
bit less just from age standpoint and the youth of
his coaching staff and how good the players were on
his coaching staff as players for almost his entire time
of year.

Speaker 3 (01:32:08):
Maybe it's a little different.

Speaker 2 (01:32:09):
You know, Tom is to win a basketball uniform, that
means this seventy year old man is wearing shorts on
the basketball court. Another seventy year old man wearing shorts,
Like could Nate Oates pull it off? I don't know
if he'd still want to wear his ridiculous Alabama jacket
that's become famous because of wimp. But yeah, he's a
younger guy. He could go out there and do it.
Sean Miller, Longhorns coach. I could have said Bobby Hurley

(01:32:34):
a week ago, but I can't anymore now. I don't
want to see I mean, Dan, these guys are players.
Like have we not seen Bobby Hurley in a college
basketball uniform?

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
Of course we have, it's been thirty years.

Speaker 2 (01:32:44):
Yes, it does point out the silliness of you know,
Joe and Dusty and aj all gearing up before the game. Like,
if I may wanted to, he could roll up to
the arena in the clothes he was wearing gonna wear
on the bench, which would include dude sneakers, very loose fitting, comfortable,
not quite sweatpants, but very comfortable pants, tech pants maybe,

(01:33:07):
and some sort of rockets pull over.

Speaker 3 (01:33:09):
That's what he wears.

Speaker 1 (01:33:10):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:33:11):
He chooses to come to games most of the time
in Houston in shorts and a T shirt or a
pullover depending on the weather.

Speaker 1 (01:33:16):
You've never seen him walk in in something that's not.

Speaker 2 (01:33:22):
Coach gear, right, But what I mean, the Demico can
do that too, if he wanted to. What he's gonna
wear to game day? He can wear a super tight
fitting shirt that's dying because of his muscles, and then
a shirt over it, and then pants and sneakers team issued.
I don't really think AJ's getting dressed at home for
a baseball game, ever, It's not possible.

Speaker 3 (01:33:44):
I don't think Joe A.

Speaker 2 (01:33:45):
Spot has gotten dressed for any of his games, first
two hundredth or whatever at the house and then saying
to his family, I'll see at the game. I've got
your tickets are right here. It does feel silly, though,
because he's walking out to go to the coaches off
the manager's office and make sure that Carl and everybody
else that works inside the Astros clubhouse has his uniform laundered,

(01:34:08):
his jersey laundered, the shirt that he likes to wear
underneath it, the hoodie that he wears to almost every
single game.

Speaker 3 (01:34:14):
Because he's probably not wearing his jersey top.

Speaker 2 (01:34:16):
His baseball pants and belt, whatever form of socks stirrups
combo he likes, and his not quite baseball spikes but
baseball looking very comfortable shoes.

Speaker 1 (01:34:30):
I think he is wearing his costume top underneath the hoodie.
I mean he's because if something happens and he has
to take that hoodie off, you better have it on.

Speaker 3 (01:34:38):
It's never gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (01:34:39):
In the games where he doesn't wear a hoodie and
he's you're right, he's uniformed up, but if the weather
conditions call for it, he's not taking it off.

Speaker 1 (01:34:47):
I guess that's probably true.

Speaker 2 (01:34:49):
And if we were, you know, I mentioned three different managers.
In Dusty's case, I'm going to text Ags he's got
the wristbands. I mean Dusty might mean into it, might
take his ride to the stadium or drive to the
stadium with his wrist spans on, but I think they're
more likely placed on his wrists once he gets to
the ballpark.

Speaker 1 (01:35:05):
He does lean into the role.

Speaker 2 (01:35:07):
I think, yeah, I mean I don't think we want it,
but after I don't think we want these other coaches
that don't do it to start doing it. By the
same token, do we want Joe Aspata in a pullover,
a quarter zip and pants and sneakers at the game?

Speaker 3 (01:35:22):
We're well.

Speaker 1 (01:35:23):
If major League Baseball change something up and the manager
started wearing managerial gear as opposed to the costume, I
do think it would be very seamless. I mean it
might stand out for a little bit, and I think
you'd get used to it, especially because of the aforementioned pullover. Situation.

Speaker 4 (01:35:43):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:35:43):
If anybody's gonna to get to the bottom of this
is super important. First item of the day lead with
its story. It's us here on the A team.

Speaker 4 (01:35:50):
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:35:51):
I didn't mean to completely throw it, Yeah I did.
I always do this, all right. When we come back,
I want to jump into the Texans free agency for
a couple reasons. One very well known analyst is kind
of breaking down how he thinks they've done. And he's complimentary,
by the way, but what's interesting about what he says

(01:36:14):
is he's trying to go through and talk about what
all of these teams are missing. And you would think
it'd be like the most obvious answer ever for the
Houston Texans, but it's not. And it's something that stood
out to WEX the day it happened. And he goes
into extensive detail about what the Texans are missing and

(01:36:35):
it has nothing to do with their offensive line.

Speaker 2 (01:36:37):
Amazing, amazing stuff. Looking forward to it. Don't forget being
that it is Friday, our last day of the week.
We'll also hook you up with concert tickets. We're off
the air a little early today, so we'll do that
in our upcoming segment. Hostly Dave Matthews, and we have
Rockets Bucks tickets to still give away here, so we'll
also do that in the final segment of the show
and thank our listeners for listening to the program thus

(01:36:58):
they'll know the answer.

Speaker 3 (01:36:58):
We'll do that next.

Speaker 2 (01:37:01):
He says, I want to give you, guys Rockets tickets.
I'm gonna have to ask you a basketball question to
do so, and then we can figure out another way
to give you Dave Matthews tickets because it's probably not
going to be Dave Matthews question because we didn't talk
about Dave Matthews on the show, but we did talk
about basketball. So for your Rockets tickets, you call in
a seven one three two one two five seven nine.
They're playing the Bucks on April first, and that's what
we have for you, a pair of tickets to see

(01:37:21):
the Rockets and the Bucks. Answer this simple question. We
talked about it earlier here on the program. It was
actually last segment, one of the finest segments we've done
since four fifteen today, and we did talk about basketball,
and we mentioned several coaches by name, and we thought
might look ridiculous if they were wearing their team's uniform

(01:37:43):
on the bench. And standing up near the scorers table
throughout a college basketball game, because we see it in
other sports, sometimes name any of those coaches by name.
I can think of three week we had by name
that we mentioned that either we'd seen the mock up
because this is all generated by somebody said hey, what
if these coaches were costumed up for their team's games.

(01:38:04):
So I saw a picture of one of them, and
I imagined a picture of another. We described an email
as not a possible answer. The only answers that will
be acceptable are college basketball coaches that we said by name.
So a little clarification on the question, any one of
the three college basketball coaches that I mentioned by name
is the answer to the question seven one three, two

(01:38:24):
one two five seven ninety. How comical would it look
if any one of three these three college basketball coaches
that we mentioned just last segment we're wearing their team's
respective basketball shorts and jersey top. How silly would they look?
Give me any one of those three names at seven
one three, two one two five seven ninety. Because he
loved basketball so much, you will see rockets Bucks coming

(01:38:47):
up on April first. Closer to the end of the segment,
we will give you tickets to Dave Matthews all Right.

Speaker 1 (01:38:55):
Mentioned that the Texans free agency has obviously gotten under way,
dust a little bit settled, and we're to the point
now where you can maybe kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:39:06):
Sort of grade it out a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:39:09):
Bill Barnwell did this, and in so doing he actually
shocked me because he brought up something that I just
didn't see wex having the type of visceral reaction that
he did when it went down. Why not, I don't know,
because it's a punter.

Speaker 2 (01:39:30):
So he wrote a lot about what's missing for the Texans,
and he thought the thing they're missing most is punter.

Speaker 1 (01:39:35):
Well. He first of all complimented Nick Cassario's He said,
I was underwhelmed by his handling of the offensive line
after the first day, but he has subsequently made a
series of moves to upgrade the line. He goes into
those moves, he said, this isn't a great line, but
it's massively improved on where the Texans stood a week ago,
and as a result, they are in a more comfortable

(01:39:56):
roster building place at the moment. And then he talks
about some of the things they could do that leaves
us with punter yes, Tommy Townsend left for the Titans
in free agency, meaning that the only punter on Houston's
roster is Ky Kroger, who was the worst punter in

(01:40:17):
football by punt Olympics Puntalytics metrics in twenty twenty five.
I didn't even know that was a thing. Texans traded
a swap of twenty twenty eight late round picks to
acquire him, which is about as little as you can
spend to get a player in a trade. You'll have
a chance to compete for the starting job in camp,
but he shouldn't have an unimpeded path to what could

(01:40:39):
be an important role, And he says the solution is
to explore veteran options. Again, how much money was Tommy
Townshend asking for. I said it that day and I'll
say it again today. It's absolutely foolish and it's a total,
huge mistake. You'll have to overcome it now and go

(01:40:59):
find me this veteran punter that's just wandering in the
streets right now. It's probably Thomas Morstead. I mean, that's
probably who I would think they would have come in.
And again, unless Kai Kroger is some off season magician
and figures out how to pun at the NFL level,
which great Punalytics told me that I told you this
the day they signed him. Every other regular rudimentary number
tells you how bad he is. He had an awful year.

(01:41:20):
He's terrible. He's unusable as a punter.

Speaker 2 (01:41:22):
If you're an NFL football team and you care about winning,
he's fine to use as a punter. If you're New Orleans,
you don't care about winning, you're not gonna have a
good football team. The Texans do. Special teams matter. Special
teams impact winning and losing, and winning and losing your
games matters. I think this is I mean, it's not fireable.
He's not a moron. He's really good.

Speaker 3 (01:41:41):
GM.

Speaker 2 (01:41:41):
There's a bunch of other stuff that I just saw
today that was measuring, you know, what kind of value
did you get from your draft picks. So it's not
about what you had and where you drafted and what
you're doing in trade. It's more about you had the
thirty third pick and the value got from the player
that you selected, how does it rate against the rest
of the league. And the Texans look great in all
those metrics I'm talking about. From twenty twenty two, to

(01:42:01):
twenty twenty five, the years where they're trying to win,
and he's been great, he really has, and offensively it
looks worse. Defensively, it's like at the top of the league.
It's unbelievable what he's done with this roster, and certainly
on draft days. I think he's done a great job.
And this is such an easy mistake to avoid. That's
why I got so up in arms about it, And

(01:42:22):
to me, it is a huge mistake because it's such
an easy mistake to avoid. Right, I don't know where Again,
maybe he knows something that I don't that there's some
team that has two awesome punters under contract right now.
One of them's clearly going to get cut. So he's
just gonna hang out and wait. Why they're gonna make
the same amount of money that Tommy Townsend made or less,
or maybe a slightly more. Because punters don't make any money.

(01:42:45):
You really had to figure out how to make the
rest of your roster work by saving a million and
a half on downgrading from average Tommy Townsend to the
worst punter in the league. The worst punter in the
league is on the roster. He's set to make a
million bucks. An average punter who they had last year,
who they won twelve games with last year. He's gonna

(01:43:06):
make two and a half million next year. He gets
paid like he's an average punter. He played like he's
an average punter, and you chose to spend less money.
I think it might end up costing them more money
because if Kai Kroger is their punter, I mean he
has to really, he has to take on somebody else's body.
Frank Ross is not a punting magician. So unless Kroger

(01:43:29):
tanked it this year on purpose because he hated New Orleans,
the only team to give him a contract after he
wasn't drafted, then I don't know how he's expected to
be a good punter in the NFL just one year later.

Speaker 3 (01:43:39):
What is he doing this offseason? I cannot wait to
find out.

Speaker 2 (01:43:43):
Man, I just all everything because it's so dumb it
hurts your football team. Where do the Texans have a hole?
They running back is fine. If you want to upgrade
wide receiver, go ahead, But the five that they already
have are fine. The tight end position, they went out
and got Foster Morrow now number eight, cad Stone changing
his number, He's now your third best and Brevin Jordan's

(01:44:03):
coming back. You reshuffled the offensive line. Okay, check check
check check check check check every position quarterback, no problem.
Need some money to save. Let's redo Kymie Fairbairn's contract.
Austin Brinkman wasn't a problem as a long snapper, and
as the second best long snapper in Texans football history
to John Weeks by a mile.

Speaker 3 (01:44:21):
But he was fine. Bring him back.

Speaker 2 (01:44:23):
You had one non starter on your whole defense, and
now you have none because you side red blanketship.

Speaker 3 (01:44:29):
Extend this guy.

Speaker 2 (01:44:31):
Redo this con busy at work, just crushing things left
and right. And A for these ten moves, A B
plus for these five moves, a B minus for these
three moves. All of the f's in the world for
how you handle the punting situation. For me sitting here
today on March twentieth, it matters. You're not not punting.
Next year, you will not have zero punts. I can

(01:44:52):
handle Tommy's eleven shanked punts if the other fifty nine
are serving their purpose, any of them inside the twenty
five of them go outside inside the five when you
don't have somebody down there to down it because it
went out of bounds and he held.

Speaker 3 (01:45:08):
Well, come, you just had a record breaking year. He
got a new holder.

Speaker 1 (01:45:12):
You want the good news.

Speaker 3 (01:45:13):
There isn't any You can't tell me there is any.

Speaker 1 (01:45:15):
Well, aside from the fact that he's forty and just
turned forty. Thomas Morstead is a local product. Well, I
know that.

Speaker 2 (01:45:23):
That's why I brought him up. I know he's a
vill I know he's local, and I he also mentioned
in the article is one of two options. I did
not see that. That's another reason I brought it out.
But yeah, he's a product of Paarland. He's taken in
the He was taken in the fifth round of the
nine draft. He was born in eighty six. But yeah,
of the two that were mentioned, he's clearly the oldest.

(01:45:47):
The other one was Ryan Stonehouse, former Titans punter who
was not in the league last year, but he's much younger.

Speaker 1 (01:45:56):
He was born in ninety nine. Oh yeah, yay, you're right, though,
I mean, it seems like you're getting big.

Speaker 2 (01:46:04):
Punt to Linux list lists thirty four punters. Kai Kroeger
was thirty fourth, Thomas Morristead was thirty first. Tommy Townsend
was just as I said, right in the middle. I'm
not telling you letting Tommy Townsend go your nuts. I'm
saying letting him go for this?

Speaker 1 (01:46:22):
Yeah? Is I mean? I don't. I'm not.

Speaker 2 (01:46:25):
I'm trying it. It's Friday. I'm trying to have a
good time. I get you could, but I don't. I mean,
I guess maybe that's in their plans. Maybe I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:46:34):
So we get a winner for those Rockets tickets. Can
I move on to Dave Matthews.

Speaker 2 (01:46:38):
We were looking for Nate Oates, Kelvin Sampson or Tom Izzo.
Dave Matthews Band. They've got a concert coming up on
May eighth, over at the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets on sale
now at ticketmaster dot com. You didn't have to be
listening a long time ago. You just had to be
listening in the last three minutes. Who is the only
punter on the Texans roster? Who is the only player

(01:47:00):
they're capable of punting the football for the Houston Texans
if they had a game tonight over at NRG Stadium
May twentieth, twenty twenty six seven one three two one
two five seven ninety. If you'd like to go see
Dave Matthews and you love punting. You probably know the answer.
That's a very exclusive group right there. All right, big
weekend ahead.

Speaker 1 (01:47:19):
It starts with the Rockets and the Hawks coming up
in a little while here, as a matter of fact,
it starts with Astros spring training baseball. But eventually over
on News Radio seven forty k t RH, you'll be
able to hear the Rockets Hawks game, and of course
they've got a back to back with another one tomorrow night.
We will have all of that and more to talk

(01:47:41):
about coming in on Monday afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:47:44):
Don't forget tomorrow Astros on kbm E, You of H
on KPRC starting at four forty five, the Longhorns on
KTRH starting at five thirty, and the second of the
back to back right here on Sports Talk seven ninety
Tomorrow night, six o'clock start for Rockets and Heat. Have
an awesome, some awesome weekend, everybody. Don't let Punny get
you down.