Rockets Lose In Indy, Christian Walker Hurt and Another Team Bolsters OL

Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler makes his return to talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on March 5th 2025.

• Rockets lose 3rd straight game.
• Pelicans tomorrow in NOLA. 
• Christian Walker hurt?! 
• Are the Texans going to make a move on the OL?
• See you next summer KD?
• When is Sting getting his deal? 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham Talking your Teams.
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
A It's a Wednesday edition of the program Sports Talks
seven ninety. Wex and Ac with you all the way
until six o'clock tonight. Great great weather outside the exact
opposite of the effort we got from your Houston Rockets.
Although last night in that game they did have a

(00:37):
They had a smidgeon of a good effort that got
them the lead back and then it was the bad
effort that was opposite of the weather.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Welcome to the A team. Do it do it has
nothing to do with effort. Oh really, that's what their
head coach said last night. So tell me which part
of that you disagree with? The effort part? Okay, Well
you and Emay, who's the coach of the team, disagree.
I disagree with em Okay. Tell me why their effort
was not the problem last night, or else they would
have gotten beat by thirty five points. They fell behind
big twice, came back because they were playing hard. They

(01:09):
made mistakes. They always make mistakes. Why they have to
come back because they can't put the ball in the basket.
You sing this team this year, right.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
So it wasn't effort, physicality the other things he talked
about that got them in those holes.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
It was just some other items which are factors.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Physicality is effort. In my opinion, those are two things
that are in the same family of words.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
That's why they dominated the pacers on the glass, absolutely
embarrassed them on the game.

Speaker 2 (01:34):
I think we should do the Emay you dook a
replay right now then, because clearly you guys had different
press conferences.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
I heard him last night already, I heard him this
afternoon on the Matt Thomas Show. They make mistakes. That's
what costs them games. They go under screens and they
get run over. They dribble into Oh wait, my defenders
right there. If I bounce it in front of me,
he might he did steal it. I didn't think that
was going to happen. Uh, They spin to the baseline
and lose the basketball. It's just not stop. They make

(02:01):
too many mistakes. Some are mental, which then would lean
to effort. But teams that play with low effort in
a game like last night against the team shooting sixty
percent almost at times, and it's not because there was
no effort. They would have gotten embarrassed. They would have
they would have played the same lineup to the last
eight minutes they played two nights ago, because they would

(02:23):
have had to empty the bench because they were getting smoked.

Speaker 2 (02:26):
All right, for the sake of clarity, forty four seconds
of em udoka right now.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
The opposite of what we talked about, what we would
hope to have with some guy who's not playing last night. Yeah,
and so it's hard to win when you don't give
sixty seven in the first half and play uninspired and
you know, black physicality and throwing the ball over the
gym and don't look like we care at times. And

(02:53):
so you know that one hurts because you do all
that work to get back into it and go thirteen
for sixteen, team for twenty six from the free throw line,
miss about five point blank laps. You know you can
extend the lead when you're up one and do all
that work and then give it back. But more than that,
to your point, I care about the fight and effort
and competitiveness from the start to avoid getting into that hole.

Speaker 3 (03:15):
Boo right there at the n save my bacon. I
thought fight, an efforts, effort, from the start, Well, it
was thirty to thirty. He was he expecting it to
be thirty to fifteen if they played harder.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Okay, but the effort that he mentioned at the end,
I thought until he said it was actually a misread
or a mishearing on my part, as he said, actually
something worse, which is that it looked like they didn't care,
which is effort.

Speaker 5 (03:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I just I think he's saying it sometimes because he
needs them to get out of what I think it's
a timing issue. This is the worst stretch of basketball
he's ever I think he's ever been a part of
with the Rockets, email or ever. Uh yeah, I mean
he was in Boston before. So yeah, it's accurate though, ye,
because he's been a better last year. They weren't losing

(04:05):
because they were losing because they weren't good enough. They're
losing because they didn't understand a lot about winning. They did,
didn't have enough from enough guys. They just weren't quite
ready yet. So there were nights where they got blown
out and he's like, Okay, it's gonna happen with the
he this shouldn't happen anymore, certainly, not after what they
showed him earlier this year that we're serious. We believe
we can win. We can outplay teams, we can outscore teams,

(04:27):
we can out defend teams, we can out work teams.
We belong here, And they've spent about four weeks saying, nah,
I don't know about that. We don't really belong here.
They're not second, they're not third, they're not fourth, they're fifth.
And I don't think it could have gone any worse
last night on the scoreboard, as everybody made up ground
on them. I really never believe there was a chance
they were gonna fall out of the top five. And

(04:49):
I've kind of segmented three groups of teams in the
Western Conference. A group of one at to Oklahoma City,
a group of four two, three, four, five, Lakers, Nuggets, Grizzlies,
rock and six through ten, which maybe I'll include Phoenix
after their miraculous comeback last night against the Clippers. But
those teams are going to jockey for positions, and those

(05:10):
teams are gonna jockey for positions, but nobody's really going
to intermingle. Well, the Warriors don't like losing anymore and
the Rockets don't like winning anymore. It very well could
turn into that they cannot go into an out of
games like losing doesn't hurt their feelings anymore. It looked
like the beginning of the year they hated losing. It

(05:30):
doesn't look like they hated as much. Right, Okay, here's
what's crazy. And I don't know if we have this.

Speaker 2 (05:35):
I knew we had e may and maybe we'll get
it just to you know, for the sake of clarity
as well. For like, I don't know how many times
this has happened last year. You probably do because you
watch press conferences because you have an illness. The opposing
head coach just gushed about the Rockets, And it hasn't
always happened after the Rockets beat this coach's team fill

(05:58):
in the blank. It didn't last night obviously. Rick Carlisle,
who's one of my favorite coaches on the planet. I
know that he's not the most likable personality at times,
and I also know that he looks like bald Jim
Carrey older, but just I wanted him to coach the
Rockets once upon a time when he ended up I
think when he went to Dallas there was like the
the availability overlapped or whatever. But I was just always

(06:20):
been a huge fan of his as a coach. Didn't
really like him as much as a player, But I
also was in diapers.

Speaker 3 (06:26):
Great player, huge man, the the Rick Carpile Celtics or
what I referred to. He was on the eighty six Celtics.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
So you know, if you're on that roster, I still
think you're worth your assault.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
So anyway, I mean, he could.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Not be more complimentary of a team that You're right
to me, it's pretty calm. It was a jekylin Hyde knight,
which has been the case a lot lately.

Speaker 3 (06:48):
Yeah, I mean, give a little bit of respect unfortunately,
which also is an indication you're not what you used
to be this year, give a little respect to the Pacers.
At points this year, it really didn't matter who they played.
The rock Its defense was going to show up. They
were going to enforce their will, and they were going
to make a good offensive team. If that's who they
were playing, look bad, look disjointed, be uncomfortable play Rockets

(07:10):
basketball when they don't want to, because that's what the
Rockets defense was capable of. Instead, they played one of
the league's top five or six offenses, depending on what
you'd like to care about shooting percentages or offensive raiding.
Certainly one of the better offenses. And in addition to that,
they've been one of the best teams in the NBA
for two months running on three months now. Since the

(07:31):
calendar flipped, they've been really, really hard to beat. They
just moved to nineteen and seven since the year flipped.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
And until the Rockets started imploring a zone, they were
hitting every three pointer they took last night. I remember
those days when the Rockets did that.

Speaker 3 (07:46):
Definitely a member of your all I hate them first team,
Tyrese Haliburt and just an absolute punchable face. You can
talk about all that you want, and that's why people
listen to the show. In his face. Yeah, he had
two turnovers in the game last night, which is the
most turnovers he's had in three weeks.

Speaker 2 (08:05):
In a game.

Speaker 3 (08:06):
He's good. He makes shots, and he makes his teammates better.
He finds openings, and he makes the rocketsly small number
of mistakes, and it's it's one of the reasons why
the Pacers will have a chance to, you know, earn it.
Maybe I don't think they can catch the Knicks, but
they certainly can outplay the Bucks the rest of the
way and land in the four spot, which would mean

(08:26):
a meeting with the Calves if they win their opening series,
where they would get smoked. I'm not I'm I don't
know if it's just me, because the Calves have won
a lot of important games, they've beaten the Celtics, they've
done a lot of good things.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
You think can playoff time, they're going to be like
the hardened Rockets. Well, who's their best player, Donovan Mitchell?
Do you even after all this time and after the season,
he's currently the raining player of the month in the conference.
Sure he's not to me, he's not quite like hardening
the playoffs because he'll come up with some Oh my god,
we don't have a chance that I because Donovan's going

(09:00):
for fifty and then he'll go five for nineteen the
next night.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
Well that's a hardened series. Well Harden just does that
at the end of the series, right, with a bunch
of turnovers.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
So here's what I think about it.

Speaker 3 (09:09):
I think they're beatable, but odds are pretty good it'll
be cas Celtics in the East and we'll see what
happens in the West. With a thunder end somebody. When
they get to the conference final, I think they'll smoke
everybody who's not Boston. And you know, I don't know
in a Knicks series, if is Jalen Brunson run into
the ground because Tom Thibodeau does that yet I don't
know if he's not. They've got a shot, but they're

(09:29):
only going to go as far as he takes him,
because I'm not gonna sit here and say, oh yeah,
Karl Anthony Towns, there's a guy who's gonna lead me
to the promised Land. He's not the Donovan Mitchell of
the Necks. Jalen Brunson is an elite playoff performer. They
they did very well without Karl Anthony Towns. Yeah, and
without Julius Randalls of the time. Now they have Karl
Anthony shooters is a really good thing.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
I'm Matt Thomas. Stopped texting me. I'm Jalen Brunson's biggest fan.
Stop texting me that. Let's put it that way. But
I can handle text messages on the show.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
But yeah, bottom line is that the Rockets needed to
start to play better basketball at some point. There's plenty
of season left to get there, but the longer they wait,
the worst position they're going to be, and if and
when they do, I hope people realize the Pelicans aren't
quite as awful as their record suggests, because they've played
significantly better since the All Star Break, significantly better with

(10:26):
Zion Williamson available to them. And we'll see if the
Rockets can take advantage of them, at least coming off
a game where they got absolutely smoked last night. Zion
had a great game and nobody else did and they
got beat by a bundle by the Lakers. But it's
the Pelicans Thursday there, the Pelicans Saturday here, And yes,
it feels like those need to be feel good games

(10:49):
for the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (10:50):
You know what, I like it, and I don't like
it a little aside about twenty seconds for me to
bitch about the scheduling again, Oh sweet, I know that
the I don't actually mind the home and away or
even the two in the same venue part of the
NBA schedule they're doing now.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
They didn't just trip to New Orleans ship shape. I
know now if when they were back to backs in
the same city, which in this case they're not.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Like it was Sacramento at one point, but like Okay,
if we're gonna do this, my gosh, the Pelicans, and
it's not just the Pelicans, it's this version of the
Pelicans where nobody's playing. Nobody's good. Now Zion's probably gonna
is he playing right now? I actually don't score thirty
seven last night? Okay, well I bet it wasn't efficient
as the last guy who scored thirty seven against them.

Speaker 3 (11:30):
No, it was morea KD seventeen of twenty three. Hard
to get more efficient than that.

Speaker 2 (11:35):
What if I were to tell you that rafel Stone
should go out and get Zion because it's just so tempting.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
Uh? What if you told me that? How do I
react to that? Yeah, there's no windows in the here.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
You're looking for the biggest eye roll you've made this segment.

Speaker 3 (11:48):
No, I was just like, Oh, should I leave the studios?
Should I jump off the Garrup parking.

Speaker 2 (11:52):
We're on the seventh story, so as you could, provided
you could bust out a window, I think it would
get the job done.

Speaker 3 (11:58):
Or should I just say? Okay, what's the deal? It's
what's what are the terms? That's always the question.

Speaker 2 (12:02):
All Right, We're gonna get down to business next, because
I know we just talked about the Rocket This is
what we do lately this week because they don't win.
I come in, I bitch about the Rockets. WEX talks
me down. It's a lot like Astro season when they
lose games. But we need to get down to real
business next because I'm sick and tired of watching other
teams bolster their lines and the Texans not do anything.

(12:24):
I'm really I'm kidding. I get it, there's more to
it than this, but somebody's doing stuff for their offensive line,
and I sure wish it was the Houston Texans. We'll
discuss next.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
The eighteen one Sports Talk seven ninety. The A Team
continues one Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (12:58):
I hope you guys saw the show tweet. Do it
explain it for the people who can't see in their
cars right now?

Speaker 3 (13:05):
Today A Team is live, Rockets drop another concern level
Dash Segment one. We haven't gotten to the other items
yet because this is a layout of what we'll do
each day. We'll be on the simulcast as per usual
three to six this afternoon. We got Best of X
coming up in ten minutes for thirty. Our signature segment
that is Wednesday's BS which, as you know because you've
been listening, it's a combination of either actual BS or

(13:30):
what BS could stand for, which is a bit stealing.
And now we have to lean on the others to
make sure they have something good for us to steal them.
They usually do, so that will come your way at
four to thirty. Texans are clearly in need of reshaping
the both financial situation and personnel situation in their wide
receiver room. Check one of those boxes earlier today and

(13:50):
more people available to check the other box. Over the
course of today, we've gotten three new names added to
that list, and I wrote, oh bleak ish you for
the Astros. The Astros are currently battling with the Cardinals.
They have hit the ball over the fence three times today,
first home runs of the season for Jeremy Panna, Jake

(14:12):
Myers and their left fielder Hunter Brown got the start
today and Joe A. Spotta had to scratch one of
his original starters. Who was it, Christian Walker? Uh oh,
he has left oblique soreness.

Speaker 2 (14:27):
See this is what I get for making fun of
a Doulas Garcia, who by the way, got good news
on his MRI.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
The jerk you jumped it yesterday. They didn't have news yet,
but you felt it would be b awful. Turned out
it wasn't that bad. We'll get to that later. But
I wrote obleaque issue for the Astros, and I attached
a medically charged picture of someone working their obliques as
the gift for the day, Christian Walker. This is maybe precautionary,
maybe you know, calling it soreness. We'll take them at

(14:53):
their word. We'll see what happens over the next handful
of days and what Joe Spotta has to say about
it before our next a trip to the Diamond for
the Astros who will play in the evening tomorrow and Friday,
and they will be on our airwaves for both of
those games. So just before five o'clock tomorrow and Friday,
we'll step aside for Astros evening Florida Baseball. By the way,

(15:15):
today we have their live edition of Astroline from FLA
and it features Whoooo, Cam Smith. Get on the Cam
Smith hype train here on the A team. We'll have
more on him, but he will be the guest live
this evening with Todd Cows Garrett Green talking to Cam

(15:35):
and we'll see if he's a part of anything going
on today with the Stros, but the oblique issue is
a little bit more than Well, let's give him a
couple of days off and everything will be fine. If
you want to make it something, and I do. He
missed thirty two games last season, basically missed a month
of time from the end of July to the beginning
of September with a left oblique issue, about five weeks

(15:59):
a bait. He returned for the final months of the
season and he was okay. You could probably say it
was his worst offensive month of the season following that.
But he hasn't made any indication that he wasn't really
over it when he came back, or it's been any
issue during the off season, or that it would be
a lingering issue. Usually oblique injuries all right, pain to

(16:19):
get over, but once you get over him, then you
move along and everything's fine. After that, we'll see if
there's more to be concerned with or not. John Singleton
started in his place, and maybe we'll just make this
note for John Singleton here where we are on March
what fifth John Singleton, if you weren't aware, is gonna
make the Astros opening day roster. Yeah, because he's rocked up.

(16:41):
He is rocked up. To his credit, he finally made
it back to the major leagues for a legitimate season.
He was with the Astros throughout the year. He was
playing a ton of first base because of all the
issues they had with a braw and then continued throughout
the season to provide a bat off the bench from
the left hand side, good at bats when he's up there,
even though he still strikes out a bunch, he does

(17:01):
give the team good at bats. He also walks a
lot more than most and yes he bats from the
left side. He came into shape, probably the best shape
that he's ever been in, maybe even better shape than
when he got ten million dollars from the Astros ten
years ago. He is still huge, but he's lost a
bunch of weight, a lot of muscle there. He looks

(17:23):
the part of an athlete and we'll see what he
can provide for them this year. It will be more
if there are any issues with Christian Walker, but trading
Kyle Tucker also presented an issue for Joe spot in
his lineup every day where the lefties. They were one
of the toughest lefties lefty lineup in the league. Even
if they only had two guys that bat it from

(17:44):
the left side every day because they were phenomenal. There
are two of the best left handed hitters against left
handed pitching and right handed pitching this whole league has,
and now you only have one of them with jord
On Alvarez. So not that he's going to be in
the lineup every day, but he's going to be on
this team because he gives them something they don't otherwise have.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
I don't like hearing about oblique injuries for the guy
you just spent all that money on. After Alex Bregmant
walked out the door. I mean, one has nothing to
do with the other.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
You don't want me to tell you that he Soak
Perettis had an error today? Do you no? Okay?

Speaker 2 (18:17):
I won't well, I mean, and by the way, since
we're gonna start talking about fielding issues.

Speaker 3 (18:21):
I mean issues. You couldn't jump five hundred feet in
the air and catch that home run ball in left field?

Speaker 4 (18:29):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (18:29):
Did I forget to mention the wind was blowing out today.
The wind was blowing out something fierce today. It's possible,
according to our broadcasters, none of the three Astros homers
would have left the park on any given day. I
think the balls were well hit. I think Jake Myers
or certainly Jeremy Payne's home run to center field was
absolutely crushed. But win a little bit of a factor.

(18:50):
Al Tuove made a couple of plays, a couple of
plays by meaning that he caught fly balls, also was
chasing balls, hitting the gap, chasing the balls around, and doing.

Speaker 2 (19:00):
What left fields are fully functional left fielder. Now can
we move on? It's fine, We.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Can allow for management to tell us that again, because
we will hear from both Dana Brown and Joe Espata
before today's game. Got a little bit from them, but
most of what we're gonna hear from them is what
we're gonna have fun with until and then even more
fun with it after camp Smith becomes a Houston astro
for real, not just a part of the organization, not
just picking what number he wants the Hooks or Space

(19:27):
Cowboys to outfit him with, but rather the astro's uniform
number that he wants to wear to Dyke and Park
and the other twenty nine Major League Baseball twenty eight,
Major League twenty seven Major League Baseball ballparks, or a
trip to play the Athletics or Rays this year in
non major league ballparks. But the camp Smith hype train
here on the A team is going to be blown

(19:49):
loud this whole season until he is an astro. And
to that we'll hear from both Dana Brown and people
around the team on what they think.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
What's his number right now? Ninete seventy, Yeah, just keep.

Speaker 3 (20:02):
It, first of all, probably not why.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
It's not like MLB's not gonna let him right, I'm
asking seriously, They're not gonna make him go with a
more traditional number, are they.

Speaker 3 (20:13):
Well, then they wouldn't if he wanted it, But I
don't think he will. Well, Aaron Judge wears ninety nine. Yes,
but I bet you there's a major reason why he
wants ninety nine. Cam Smith got the Wechler research team
on this earlier this week, worn number twenty four at
Florida State. Okay, his three stops with the Cubs because

(20:35):
he never had spring training with the Cubs. This is
the first spring training period. He was just drafted in
twenty twenty four. He's young. He played in Myrtle Beach.
He played in South Bend. He played in Tennessee. He
was a Pelican he was a Cub, he was a Smoky.
He wore number eight at Myrtle Beach. He wore number
nineteen with the South Bend Cubs, finished up last year
with the Tennessee Smoke. He's wearing number twenty two. So

(20:58):
from post high school to today, which is not that
many years, all over the map, he's worn four different numbers,
none of them ninety until his first spring training. So
I just like, this is where I'm at with this.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
The only part of this that matters, Okay, I mean,
we're talking about a lot of very important things with
this kid's upcoming career. We all have high hopes for him.
We all think he's going to be better than Aaron Judge.
Oh wait, that's just me.

Speaker 3 (21:21):
What size orange blazer will they need to get him? Yes, see,
questions like this, But what's important is what number he's
going to wear at the big league level so I
can get the jersey. That's all that matters here. Everything
else is going to take care of itself. This is
priorities one through ten right now.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
If you guys, you guys being the Astros front office,
don't want to put him on the big league roster
for opening Day, fine, make that mistake.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
I'm really playing it up. Oh that mistake, Yeah, waste
that at bat or fifty.

Speaker 2 (21:57):
No, I really I don't know that I've looked for. Like,
I remember when Bregman came up, I remember when Korea
came up. I remember all of them.

Speaker 3 (22:04):
And I really remember when Jordon came up, because it
felt like he was already up before he got here,
because he was murdering baseballs in minor league ballparks across
our fair.

Speaker 2 (22:15):
Land, and when he got here, he just kept on
doing it. This is the most excited I've been since
him based on just the long ball alone.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
He does other things. It's not like he's a one
dimensional player. Yeah, just if you don't recall ac clearly,
does he hit fifty home runs? Jordon Alvarez hit fifty
home runs. It was stupid with the Astros, which was
split between the Astros and Round Rock, which had been
their Triple A team. Twenty three homers before his call

(22:46):
up in two hundred and thirteen at bats, twenty seven
homers in three hundred and thirteen at bats with the Astros,
he was the runaway rookie of the year and one
hundred and forty three trips to the plate. What idiot
didn't felt him for Rookie of the Year. I'd like
to know their name. Uh, there had to be some guy.
I'd have to check on that for you. All Right,
to wear very very very very important while we premire

(23:08):
be given to our listeners.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
For the Best of X's next segment, the Wexler research
team is going to look into that very very important tidbit.

Speaker 3 (23:16):
There's none okay, good, it was unanimous. It was unanimous.

Speaker 2 (23:21):
Well, he got that one right. Even Derek Jeter didn't
get that.

Speaker 3 (23:23):
Ten other guys have been unanimous Rookie of the Year.
He's just one of them.

Speaker 2 (23:26):
Now eleven interesting, all right, when we come back, we
do it every day right around two thirty. It's not
the pancake breakfast. It's it's Best of X.

Speaker 6 (23:36):
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talk about it, we'll mock it, we'll enjoy it, we'll
get angered by it. And many times it is right
there on the X platform where we will begin today.

(24:52):
Probably if you're a longtime listener to the show or
a recent addition to our listening audience, well, first of all,
we appreciate you, welcome. Probably know that I have built
in eye rolls for certain things, disdain for certain things,
and on the X platform, one of those things is
reference to well, I saw this on X and it

(25:12):
comes from awful, embarrassing, clickbaiting rumormonger insert at handle here,
not quite like NBA sentel because I can appreciate what
they do.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
What's the word where the guys put all the stories
together and you hate those people.

Speaker 3 (25:28):
This is. These are the people I'm talking about. Aggregators. Aggregatores.
Aggregators are also the people that write for some of
the national outlets that don't pay anybody anything, so they
hire them to aggregate stuff and add their uninsightful words
to what is called a story. Well he doesn't write,
oh he writes for what bro Bible.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Just you know, he's an aggregator, that's all I know.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
He's in the group of I will never ever bring
anything posted by him to the show. It might get
discussed here because somebody else does, but I would never
do it. It falls in that and so I feel
like this must be some such account. There are three
hundred and sixty two thousand followers, and for the most
part it does deal in accurate no accurate news pushing.

(26:13):
And they're not really writing stories. They're just here's a rumor.
Here's a rumor. It's a rumor, NFL rumor social media
account and it reads from earlier today breaking multiple alert emojis.
Former Raiders wide receiver Hunter Renfro has announced his retirement.
Hunter Renfro, who has usually you hear a lot about

(26:35):
him from fantasy football players. I know you don't have
anybody to pick up. But he's probably good for five
catches in thirty six yards and maybe that'll help you out.
And then last year, no NFL general manager even bothered
with that. He did not play in the NFL last year.
So I bet if you came across that rumor, you
thought I didn't even know he was trying to play

(26:55):
in the NFL. Readers have added context to that post, thankfully,
but they actually didn't need to since somebody quote tweeted
that particular post earlier today. So that was sent out
earlier this morning and it got quote tweeted. I'll read
you what the quote tweet is and you could probably
figure out who quote tweeted it. Former Raiders wide receiver

(27:17):
Hunter Renfro has announced his retirement. Quote tweet says, just
when I thought about making a comeback, I get hit
with this bombshell. I guess I shouldn't have started working
out again two months ago. Lol. That account is at
Renfro Hunter, So who dropped the ball here the most?
I mean, that's why I don't bring accounts information like

(27:39):
that to the table here. They fall in the Jordan
Schultz category for the most part.

Speaker 6 (27:44):
For me, it might be.

Speaker 3 (27:45):
True, but until I have it from somewhere where I
respect them, I probably won't bring it to the table.
I'm gonna take his word for it. I'm also gonna
believe that this is truly his account, since like me,
he has a lot of followers, but he's not verified.
But I'll take his word for it. I think ninety
two thousand people following a fake Hunter Renfro account, it's

(28:06):
probably not really true. So I'm gonna go with him
on that. So, if you think the Texans should be
looking at this wide receiver and not Cooper cup and
not DK Metcalf and not Tyler Lockett and not Christian
Kirk and not DeVante Adams and not Stefan Diggs and
not DeAndre Hopkins, apparently Hunter Renfro is available. Should the

(28:27):
Texans be looking to add somebody to Nico Collins wide
receiver room this upcoming year. One other note that also
comes from social media, since he posted it himself early
early in the am this morning, likely on his way
to the hospital. Tank Dell posted on his Instagram story
that surgery scheduled for today. This was the ACL surgery

(28:50):
that was always planned following the initial surgery to deal
with multiple other injuries within the knee. Aaron Wilson again
reporting that also later today, doctor Lowe set to perform
that surgery, which I assume hopefully is already over it.

Speaker 2 (29:05):
Shout out doctor low Great dude.

Speaker 3 (29:07):
But again, you get some info from social media when
people decide that are involved to just go ahead and
give you the information. This is at least some indicator
as we knew from this severity of the injury. This
was an injury suffered later in the season. We're multiple
months removed from it, and this was always the scheduled

(29:29):
plan to have surgery on the ACL. This far from
the actual injury, as wild guess on the timeline and
how it affects it. That's why the timeline for it
is so pushed back.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
People like my wife would have insane anxiety waiting on
the next surgery.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
Keep this in mind. We've seen in places he's gone
to games, Rocket, I've seen him at the facility. Also,
he's walking around. He's not doing athletic activities, but he's
not like walking with crutches. If he's not walking around
with a you know, shaw Neil scooter.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah, but what if like Dylan Brooks and somebody got
into it. Dive for a ball on the sideline and
it went right into his knee. That's an actual, real race.

Speaker 3 (30:10):
He and em mer c J. Stroud would have jumped
in front of him, both of whom were attending that
same game, although Case with his wife. Yeah, the case
was with him.

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, Case wasn't sitting on the other side of him,
Like I would have had to.

Speaker 3 (30:19):
Really make an athletic move himself coming off injury. That's true,
he was a few too many seats away. I mean,
nobody's one hundred percent. No, is there another item before
I get to anything else?

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Just real quick, nauseating audio from a former friend of
the show. This is uh. This is Kendrick perkins assessment
of the current state of affairs in the National Basketball Association.

Speaker 10 (30:41):
Right now, the Los Angeles Lakers are saving the NBA.
A month ago the mactual question I excited were y'all
a month ago before the Lucal trade about the NBA Final?

Speaker 3 (30:53):
I mean I thought excited. I thought headlines that said
the NBA stole the Super Bowl, because that was the
headline that.

Speaker 10 (30:58):
Week, So y'all, So now y'all can honestly say that
y'all more excited. Why because we could possibly get Boston
versus Lakers with the superstar power. And then you take
a deeper dive is you're looking to say, who's gonna
stop them from meeting up in the finals. So not
everyone that all the fans around the world who probably

(31:18):
was like in and out when it came down to
what's gonna happen in June, they're committed.

Speaker 3 (31:23):
They're all in.

Speaker 10 (31:24):
And when you have Showtime back in there late now,
all of a sudden excitement.

Speaker 2 (31:29):
Shut it off and shut it off. Come on, man, Showtime,
are we serious with this?

Speaker 3 (31:35):
When? When? When?

Speaker 10 (31:37):
When?

Speaker 6 (31:37):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (31:37):
When? When? When? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Really I see it. I'm impressed. I'm so impressed with them.

Speaker 3 (31:41):
One hundred and thirty six points last night. That helps
a lot in the playoffs with fifteen first eight minutes,
that's great. We were already We're forty two minutes into
the show and you haven't even mentioned yesterday, before last
night's game, the only player in NBA history with forty nine,
ninety nine and combined points in the playoffs and regular

(32:02):
season was set to play a game. And now today,
forty two minutes into the show, we haven't mentioned the
only player in the history of the NBA to score
more than forty nine, nine hundred and ninety nine points
played last night. Huge, huge deal. Let's go live split
screens so we can show you Lakers Pelicans for the
moment he does it. He was, he'd all like these benchmarks.

(32:24):
I've talked about this before, double doubles, ten points, ten rebounds.
You're good. If you had twelve points and eleven rebounds.
You're not good if you had fourteen points and nine
rebounds because you didn't hit that magical ten. You're a
pretty good player if you rushed for nine hundred and
sixty eight yards, but you're awesome. If you ran for

(32:45):
one thousand and one yards, well, and you have hard
magical number. Yeah, and we'll only reference that in years
to come. Oh, he's a thousand yard rush. Like before
he scored the magical fifty thousand, he was already two
thousand points ahead of everybody else in playoff his street,
he's roughly the same amount ahead of Kareem In regular
season history. He's the only player with forty thousand in

(33:05):
the regular season forty one thousand. He's the only player
with eight thousand in the playoffs. But because he went
from forty nine to nine to ninety nine to fifty
thousand and a couple huge, Oh, it's huge.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
James Harden would have had an additional MVP Award at
least if Russell Westbrook hadn't averaged a triple double and
had only averaged a double double on a six seeded
thunder team.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
Yeah, I think it's it's it's a personal thing. I
think it's I feel like it's an affront to me
that I'm so dumb and I don't understand numbers in
such a dramatically awful, unintelligent way. They have to have
benchmarks to help me. Hey man, I'm gonna help you out.
This guy who had two nine hundred and sixty two hits,

(33:47):
he's pretty good, but the guy who had three thousand
and two hits is unreal. Close the door, Hall of
Fame you're in, everybody else you're gone. I gotta have
the benchmarks, so I don't know if players are good
or not. Craig Bigeo's Hall of Fame resume, Yep. You
think you'll get to three thousand and they'll be a
sure thing. I don't know. We'll talk about it. Next.
I love it. I can't get enough of that stuff

(34:09):
right here on the A Team.

Speaker 6 (34:12):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
I don't mind using the word big when appropriate. It
is a big deal when you enjoy Big City Wings
thirteen Houston area locations, daily drink and lunch specials and
food specials. How about Wednesdays? What do you think they
have on Wednesdays? Today's Wednesday? Right? Yeah, last time I
shootee Burgers eight dollars specialty burgers. It's whiskey Wednesdays over

(34:39):
there at your Houston area. Big City Wings locations, big TVs,
great place to enjoy your sports, big menu, big everything.
I can't get enough of the word big today talking
about Big City Wings.

Speaker 2 (34:55):
And by the way, just while we're on the subject,
we want to think Big City Wings for being a
partner of the show and advertising with us. They're fantastic.
They've been on Sports Talk seven ninety for a long
long time. And if you guys want to advertise with us,
reach out. You know where to find us on social
media or at Sports Talk seven ninety dot com. But yeah,
when it comes to Big City Wings, they call themselves

(35:17):
Houston's wing Joint, and you can't do that unless you're
the best in the city. And that's exactly what they are.
And don't forget all of the wall to wall TVs
to watch the games to get in what you want
doesn't matter. The sport doesn't matter, the time of year,
doesn't matter, what's the calendar. You're going to be covered
with the screens and with the best food possible. Actually,
I was talking to somebody yesterday. They texted me and

(35:38):
they're like, man, I just heard you guys talking about
Big City Wings. Haven't tried them out yet. I'm going
tonight taking the lady with me. Boom, just like that.
Sam's gonna be happy because I already know what he
already knows. They are the best in town. Houston's wing joint.
It's Big City Wings.

Speaker 1 (35:55):
The A team continues on Sports Talk seven nine.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety. Thank goodness,
the Lakers are saving the NBA. I didn't even get
to the part where I was like, that's the most
ridiculous statement I've ever heard. This is why, by the way,
when when people are complaining that we don't have a
new face of the league, all that that's that's feeding

(36:27):
into it. I mean, I guess I see what Kendrick
Perkins is trying to do.

Speaker 7 (36:31):
Well.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Luca was already there, but now that he plays for
the Lakers, now he can.

Speaker 3 (36:35):
Be the face of the NBA.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
Before, when he was just with the Mavericks and they
hadn't made the stupid decision to trade him, it was different.
But now that he's on the Lakers now we can
move forward. That's kind of what I hear.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
When he's so big, he'd be saying the same thing.
If Luca and Kyrie were on the team that went
from fifth or sixth to second in the last fourteen days. No,
he wasn't. He wasn't saying that, Well, they did. I'm
saying if there was no trade being made. Because the
Lakers are the second best team in the West now
and they're playing standpoint, Yeah, I think it's fair to

(37:07):
call them that with the way that they're playing, even
though they haven't played Memphis and Denver and Houston recently,
so the good teams three other teams. That's nice of
you to say that about Houston.

Speaker 2 (37:17):
I think they well, they're not playing well right now,
but they're a good team overall. Their body of work
says that this is a rough month, right, Not a.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Body of work for the Lakers says they're pushing further
past the Rockets in rapid fashion because they don't lose.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
Yeah, both of my predictions before the season not going
very well for me right now.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
Yeah, I don't think that it would be the same
if the Mavericks were second, But the Mavericks were in
the finals last year. Let's say the Mavericks were forty
and twenty two and we're sitting in second, the only team,
you know, the closest team to Oklahoma City. No, it
wouldn't be the same because they don't play where they
they don't play in really three places. They don't play
in Los Angeles, they don't play in Boston, four places.

(37:57):
They don't play in Philadelphia, and they don't play in
New York and maybe including Philadelphia as a stretch, probably
just New York, LA and Boston. It's always been that way.
I'm not sure that it's ever gonna not be that way.
I mean, the Knicks are not really truly championship contenders,
and I really don't think that necessarily about the Lakers,
but it's getting easier to convince me they are. But

(38:19):
they don't have to be to draw this kind of attention,
and you you need somebody out there. I mean, there
are a lot of eyeballs there, there are a lot
of fans. There's just the simple population numbers. It does matter,
it does help. It's certainly a good thing. I mean,
what do you think, major league based? I don't know
if it ever be the same in some of these cities.
What if the Cubs and the White Sox were both good?
What if the Yankees and the Mets were both good?

(38:40):
What if the Lakers and the Clippers were both good?
I mean, would it make a difference. Would it be
a huge, huge year for any of those respective sports
because both of those teams and relatively huge markets were
both really really good.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
I do think for whatever reason, and I guess to
it a lesser extent, or maybe to a more extent,
I don't know, tell me what you think, this does
still happen in Major League Baseball two. It just it's
a it's another example of the NFL not thinking that way,
and basically the other two.

Speaker 3 (39:09):
Leagues thinking that way.

Speaker 2 (39:11):
Got to have good teams, good players in these markets,
otherwise nobody will pay attention to our sport like.

Speaker 3 (39:19):
Not a fair comparison. Why because yeah, but so what
every one hundred percent of the NFL's schedule is a
national broadcast.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
Yeah, every game? Okay, that's It's still the point remains
the best or most marketable team right now is in
midwest Kansas City, LA. Traditionally has been a terrible market
for the NFL, which further bolsters my point. I know
what you're saying about volume of games, but it's never
been a problem.

Speaker 3 (39:50):
It's the product. Is what you're watching five times a year,
Like say the Lakers, maybe you would have Shay Gil
just Alexander as the face of the league. That's the
end of that sentence. I'm not even kidding. What if
the end of the sentences, people wouldn't be watching, Well,
they would be you because you don't like how much
he pushes off. No, I just what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
I'm being extreme, but like, if you want different faces
of your league because your guys are aging out, then
make new faces. Stop forcing the Lakers saving it. You
have a talent on your flagship. We just paid two
point whatever billion dollars to air games, and we couldn't
afford Major League Baseball because of it, saying that this

(40:31):
forty year old and this guy who's fat and plays
no defense is saving your league.

Speaker 3 (40:36):
That's not a good look. They're they're all NBA players,
you know.

Speaker 2 (40:39):
It's funny though, And I will continue to bash this
dead horse until I don't have to anymore. There is
a difference between the two flagship heritage franchises in the NBA.
You know what I mean when I say that. It's
what he just referenced.

Speaker 3 (40:55):
Ooh ooh, we could have the to the Lakers again
for the fiftieth time. I'm in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Fanuels Well, one of those teams like hung a bunch
of banners because they were playing against plumbers and all
that kind of stuff. I get all that, but I've
never felt like these Celtics were gifted this. In fact,
far from it. They got Tim Duncan stolen from them
back in the day. So that's the opposite of it.
The Lakers always find a way to just come up

(41:21):
with someone. Oh, well, Kobe's languishing now that Shack's left
and he can't get it done by himself. Here's pau
Gasol on a silver platter. Oh Lebron wants to summouot
his legacy. Well, he can't help it that he just
decided to go live in LA where he already had
a home and all that. Kay, they didn't do anything
to get these guys, and now you have an absolute

(41:41):
I mean, I don't know how to say this in
a family friendly PC way, but Nico Harrison's brain dead
for making that trade and that's the only reason the
Lakers have their next generational superstar.

Speaker 3 (41:54):
Then ear any of those three deals I just mentioned.
They were hand delivered to them in one way, shape
or form.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
So excuse me if I'm not excited about the Lakers
saving the NBA again. Kendrick Perkins, you moron, don't ever
come on the show again. I don't want you.

Speaker 3 (42:09):
That's pretty harsh.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Well, I keep asking and he doesn't answer anymore.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
Something else to it. I'll hit you with the upcoming hour.
We still got three more of them to go. We'll
dip into the NFL because a ton of news was
made today and it relates to your Texans. That's next.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams series Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team A Team.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
It's three o'clock. It is Wednesday. Here on the A
Team wexay Ce Dan here with you for another afternoon
full of chit chat about your favorite topic. Sports. NFL
continues to draw closer to the new league year, and
general managers are feverishly working with their capologists to save

(43:08):
money and at the same time spend money. This is
a point in the year where a lot of extensions
are agreed to. Had two big ones or two big
contracts handed out today, much like the one handed out
yesterday to say, Kwan Barkley restructures, one of the most
important Texans restructured his deal with the team earlier today

(43:30):
reportedly and well, man, you were really awesome here, but
we don't need you anymore. More of those today at
the very same position we were focused on most of
the day yesterday and I even posted about it. The
NFL wide receiver carousel. It spends every single season, productive

(43:51):
players wanting new contracts heading into the final year of
their deal. You won't give it to me, Well, and
I got to talk to the other twenty nine one teams. Please,
I'm requesting a trade. DK Metcalf has done that with
the Seattle Seahawks. He signed a three year, seventy two
million dollar extension. This is year three. He has no

(44:11):
more years left after this year. He's still a very
productive player. He wants more money, he wants more years,
he wants more guarantees, and Seattle's okay, was saying, well,
let's see what we can do to find you that
somewhere else. This is also the same day they said
man ten years of Tyler Lockett was awesome. Eleventh year
is not something we're looking forward to, so they'll be

(44:33):
releasing him. He already sent his message of I had
a great time here, appreciate everybody in the organization. He
is now available. A Jacksonville Jaguar wide receiver heading into
his final year of a multi year deal. A four year,
seventy two million dollar deal was signed by Christian Kirk
three NFL seasons ago. This is the final year. He's

(44:55):
also coming off of an injury. It broke his collar
bone last year trying to catch a ball thrown a
bit high shockingly from a Jacksonville quarterback, and when he
landed on his shoulder, he broke schollar bone. He missed
the final nine games of the season, though he did
score against the Texans when he played them earlier this year,
scored against the Texans when he was at an Arizona Cardinals,
had a pretty nice career against the Texans playing for

(45:16):
those two teams, and certainly seems like he might fit
what they like to do. A stretch the field, speed talent,
a player who can play multiple spots among your wide receivers.
Not a typical six to four to two hundred pound
wide receiver, but you've seen him play enough in those
two spots. I think he'll have plenty of teams interested,

(45:37):
and I suspect this team will be one of them.
But heading into the final year, Jacksonville's not interested in
giving him the money he's due on that final year.
So it goes back to, hey, I'm the agent. Of
course I'm gonna say he signed for seventy two million.
In reality, he probably signed for fifty six, fifty four,
fifty seven somewhere in that neighborhood is what he's gonna

(45:58):
end up making for the team that signed him to
a seventy two million dollar deal. Because even the NFL
contracts are not fully guaranteed. Those are just a couple
of the players newly available on the wide receiver circuit,
Max Crosby. We're gonna have to hear from him because
it's so funny. Yes, not right here, but a little

(46:19):
bit later in the show. Are you gonna make me
and everyone else? Wait? He got one hundred and six
million dollar extension. He talked about it a little bit.
He is the highest paid edge rusher now in the
NFL and has played accordingly, I haven't won a lot
of football games there. And they also decided to push
past the Gardner Minshew era.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
He'll be released. Hey, we're letting you know you suck,
so come June, you're out of here.

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Beat it. We just don't need your services for the
amount of money we gave you contractually, which we can
now get out of and not have it hit our
cap at such a figure when you're probably not even
going to be the starter and we can find somebody
for the last.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
That right there is how they probably said it not
my way.

Speaker 3 (46:56):
I don't know how much we'll care about this one
hundred undred and six million dollar extension today, but I
do think we will care about this one hundred and
six million dollar extension that makes him the highest paid
edge rusher in the NFL. When Will Anderson is attempting
to reach an agreement with the Texans, he's not going
to hit free agency. He's not going to be threatening

(47:19):
to leave. He's not going to ask for a renegotiation
on his deal, which is essentially what happened here. There
were two years left on Crosby's deal, and he is
at that level. He's proved that year in and year out.
He's a proven commodity. Will Anderson's two years in. Will
Anderson's under contract for two more years. Will Anderson's under
contract for three more years. Considering they have a player
option on our first round draft pick, and if things

(47:42):
were awful between the team and Will Anderson negotiations wise,
they could still just slap the old franchise tag on
him for two years see T Higgins. So Will Anderson
seven years of Texans football. That's happening bare minimum. But
he will get a new, big fat contract extension as

(48:04):
soon as they can make it work with in my opinion,
two others coming before that, both this offseason, Derek Stingley
Junior and Daniel Hunter. And I think that's how they're
also going to help their cap situation a little bit
this year with an extension for Daneil Because if you
think nflgms like kicking the can down the road, then
pay attention to what's happening between now and the end

(48:27):
of the first week of free agency. It's nothing but
void years and reconfigures, restructures tidy. I mean, I'm going
to pay Daniel Hunter fifty million, but I'm going to
have nine of it count this year, and thirty account
next year, and fifty count the year after that until
I restructure that fifty into twenty two and then twenty

(48:49):
into avoid year, and another eight and avoid year after
that when the cap goes up and it doesn't really matter,
which is why I always go back to if you
can't figure out how to pay your players as a GM,
you need help. This is why Capologist. Yeah, you need
other people there because you're doing it wrong. But it
takes me to this because he brought it up in
the opening hour of the show, setting it up for
us to get into here for the second day in

(49:11):
a row. Unofficially because the new league year hasn't started,
Caleb Williams is getting help on his offensive line. Ben Johnson,
the new head coach of the Chicago Bears, is getting
help on the offensive line for his quarterback, who was
sacked seventy two times. There are a lot of quarterbacks
hit as often as Caleb Williams. He just happened to
lead the league in sacks.

Speaker 6 (49:30):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (49:30):
Stroud and several other quarterbacks were hit well over eighty
ninety times last year between saxon quarterback hits, and all
of them need offensive line help. Pat Mahomes second best
offensive lineman, Joe Dooney is being traded to the Chicago Bears.
Tony's so good that he was playing multiple positions for

(49:51):
them on a whim because they didn't have anybody else.
They threw him out a tackle against the Texans twice
and he performed very well. There an interior alignment probably,
but can play outside and very well and has been
very good for ten years. But the Patriots are franchise
tagging Tray Smith Creed Humphreys, already one of the highest

(50:12):
paid centers in the NFL and the best team in
the AFC is sending one of their best offensive linemen
who's still playing at a really high level.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
He was the team in this year voted voted on
by his teammates and what you just got done talking
about with capology and how they kick the can down
the road and everything else is why I never want
to hear, Well, they've invested in their offensive line. Their
A line sucks, and there are creative ways to make

(50:43):
it better. I know we're early on in the spending season,
the transactional season before the draft, but no better time
than the present, Nick like, get on it.

Speaker 3 (50:55):
I don't.

Speaker 2 (50:55):
I don't really want to hear excuses anymore because I
think that highly of CJ. And I think that highly
of what they're capable of doing with him at quarterback
and the aforementioned big time players on the other side
of the ball. They just got to make it happen
with the one thing they haven't done. And again, don't

(51:15):
tell me they've invested. If I see one more person
who's wearing his battle red and deep steel blue colored
glasses saying they're not gonna do anything. They've put all
of this time and effort in money into the offensive line.

Speaker 3 (51:26):
Why that gets you. Last year, you'll see people saying
both of those things. I see people telling other people, Oh,
they have invested, that is a fact. You're correct, they
have invested. They've spent a ton of money. They have
one of the more expensive offensive mind I was the
one they were telling that too after the season and
second part of well, they're not going to do anything.
Does somebody really believe that heading into this season that
there's a real chance that they think the fix on

(51:47):
their offensive line is internal. We're going to fix it
with the players we have and our new promoted offensive
line coach that was on staff this past year, and
our new offense for our first time offensive coordinator that's
going to let me ask you a question, play calling
or scheming, and the same personnel that's going to fix
your offensive line problems. There are people out there that

(52:08):
think this.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
I'm being dead serious when I when I answer your
question with another question.

Speaker 3 (52:13):
I like that. I know. Do you think so? Does Nick?

Speaker 2 (52:16):
The Texans think that internally based on the decision they
made this offseason and move on from Bobby Slowick because
he was the Bee's knees a year ago, and they
got better from a personnel standpoint all around that offensive line,
and many members of that offensive line were in place

(52:38):
when they were supposedly better before CJ supposedly regressed. So
I'm asking you do you think that's what they're thinking
of their personnel.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
As it turned out with what happened during the season,
clearly it got better in the backfield. Joe Mixon was
better than anything Bobby slowk had to work with. But
tight end group didn't get better, and you could argue
it got worse. Words, the wide receiver group was better
for how many games to get a tiny portion of
your seventeen game season, and for the other portion it
was clearly worse because Nico was roughly the same player

(53:11):
and your offensive line the personnel changed. You Really what
turned out to be made was George Fant not being
here and Titus Howard being bumped back outside before he
had to get bumped back inside, and Kenyon Green being there.
Kenyan Green was not a part of the first year
of Bobby Slowick Texans, and then when he was a
part of it. And I don't mean to heap all
this on him, you can do it, It's okay, but

(53:33):
he they got worse because he was not having a
good season, and they didn't They wouldn't face the facts.
For as much as this gets put on Bobby slok
whoever's decision, it was even week to week. No, we're
still starting him. Nope, we're still starting him. Nope. He's
not the problem. Nope, he's not the problem. This is coaching,
not only the what they're literally doing as a coach

(53:54):
during the week and film study and technique, but the
decisions on who to play and who to have as competent.
And that's what I wanted to get into next, and
we'll hit that on the other side, because there are
creative ways for the Texans to get better, very very
simple ones. They're hard decisions, and they're very personal decisions
with the players who've met a lot to you, but
they aren't that difficult I don't think to make from

(54:15):
a business standpoint, And you are a businessman when you
are the general manager and vice president executive vice president
of a football team. So it's on your shoulders, vest
Nick Cassio. We'll talk about you next.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety The A Team
continues on Sports Talk seven ninetyes.

Speaker 2 (54:44):
All right, so, carrying over a little bit from last segment,
talking about, you know, trying to improve the offensive line
and specifically how's Nick Cassio going to go about doing
it this offseason? Two trades in twenty four hours, basically
for the offensive line of the Chicago Bears for a
quarterback who probably just isn't that good.

Speaker 3 (55:03):
I don't know yet. Take it easy.

Speaker 2 (55:05):
Well, did you see anything up close and in person
this last September on Sunday night.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
In his second NFL game? Yeah, I saw a few things.
He had the ball at the end of the game
with a chance to win.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Well, in CJ's second NFL game, he looked a whole
lot better than Caleb Williams.

Speaker 3 (55:21):
Didn't. They fall to Ohen too, probably, but they looked
better doing it. No, this is it's a smart move,
but you're also in a different This is every time
this whole off season is going to be spent repeating
the same thing, all the things that other teams are
doing to add talent, expensive talent. That's what the Texans
did last off season because they were set up to

(55:41):
do that. They had created a situation where they were
really good, and they had a lot of really good players,
and they made a lot of money, and then they
got rid of all of them because they were ready
to lose because the Bill O'Brien earraw was ending. As
all these contracts were still in hand. So let's get
rid of all the good contracts and the good players.
Let's maintain all of our draft picks and get more
when we trade to Sean Watson, and basically we're starting

(56:05):
all over financially. When they drafted c J. Stroud and
Will Anderson five minutes later, who made money on the
on the active roster that CJ. Stroud joined, Larie Tunsell,
that's it, Larie Tunzel. You gave more money to Titus Howard,
You've extended and traded for Shaq Mason. Those are a

(56:27):
couple of things that you also did. And then you
spend some money in free agency a little bit. Jimmy
Ward comes aboard. You know he knows the defense. Spend
a little money on him, not crazy money. You've since
extended him. That's why he's under contract for the upcoming season.
But nothing's so overwhelming. And these guys are on rookie deals,
even though they're the second and third overall picks. They're
making some money, but not crazy money. So the second

(56:47):
year of their respective careers, their first offseason as Texans,
you've set yourselves up very well. Job well done by
the GM, and everything's worked out we've got a bunch
of money to spend. We can take on players, we
can trade for players. We talked about trading for ste
Von Diggs yesterday and how much it was very easy
to do. They even were able to rework his contract
to their liking, which maybe now isn't as ideal as

(57:10):
it was then, but you could do all those things.
What the Bears are able to do is a little
bit similar to that. You know, they went out and
got Keenan Allen a year ago to help them with
Caleb Williams, but he's also now not under contract. They
have yo Roma Dunze on a first year deal. They're
not paying their offensive lineman a tremendous amount of money
until now because they've added to high priced, already under

(57:34):
contract offensive lineman via trade. Because they're set up to
do that, because in this case, their general manager put
them in a position where whatever it is we find
out that we have to have as we move forward
in the Caleb Williams era, were set up cap wise
to do that. Texans did all that last year. Now
they've got to make corrections. Now they've got to make

(57:57):
post June first cuts. Now they've got to restructure deals.
Now they've got to extend players who merely are being
extended to help their current cap situation. Granted they might
be really, really good, but the main reason why they'd
be pushing for it is to get that part of
it accomplished. Well, they're not that many players who make

(58:18):
enough money, who have a long enough contract, who make
enough sense for them to go ahead and restructure. Nico
Collins is one of them. He's just getting started on
a deal he signed after the you know sign a
year ago, but you know, four years of rookie contract
football followed by the extension, they added a couple of
void years. They took off a huge chunk of the
money that was to hit the cap. This year, his

(58:40):
cap hit went down tremendously. Guess what his cap hit
for the next two years went way up, and cap
hits for years He's not even on the team for
yet exist. That's what void years are. It's comical. But
you had that player, you could do it. You could
do that with one of your offensive linemen, but I
hope they don't. What you need to do is look

(59:01):
at the cap savings versus what you're paying them. Your
options this year with Shaq Mason. Do you want fourteen
and a half million in dead money paid to Shack
Mason or do you want five? And in those two situations,
here's the difference. Five million in dead cap and he
doesn't play on your team or fourteen million dollars in

(59:22):
dead cap because you're paying him to be on the team.
And it sounds super harsh. It's absolutely not personal. It
never is. I brought him up a bunch for the
same reasons every time I don't. You can have all
the respect in the world you have for a player,
and he's played for a Nick Cassario run team now twice.
Is there the Patriots for him? He who obviously understands him.
He was a good player in Tampa, and he's been

(59:45):
an OK player for his first year, and he was
not a very good player in his second year. And
guess what, he's getting older and he's getting less capable
of spinning it around into becoming a good player. So
respect him all you want. And you know, I was
talking John Alexander of The Chronicle the other day, and
I actually spoke with him yesterday about this topic. They

(01:00:06):
have a lot of respect for him, and you always
want to do what you think is right by a player.
So do you bring in competition for him and let
him go through camp and you make that decision later.
You're just kind of pushing the decision down the road,
but by doing so, you're not taking advantage of the
monetary portion of it until you make that decision, and
that means you've got to make other decisions because you're

(01:00:26):
just trying to create competition for him or show him
respect by allowing him to say, no, I'm going to
be better, I can be better. I fit this offense better.
I was playing through something last year with maybe they
know and we don't. I would just make just move on,
go play for here's your opportunity to get one more
contract from somebody else. You weren't awful, you're not unsignable.

(01:00:48):
The Raiders just signed a player much worse than you
with Alex Kappa earlier today, who the Bengals let go.
He'll get money, he'll get paid, he'll go play somewhere,
he'll start somewhere. I'm not sure that it makes the
most sense for him to do that. And then your
other two options are you gonna get Laramie Tunsel work
a restructure in for him, doesn't mean he's even the
in even longer term Texan. I don't think you found

(01:01:11):
out that Blake Fisher's replacement. I'm not sure that you
thought that was going to happen, but I certainly don't
think it did after one year. And Titus Howard is
the other player who make these are They don't have
that many players that make a ton of money. Heck,
Denico Autry could be a huge cap savings, but you
also wouldn't have him on the team, and I don't
think you probably want him on the team. But can
you restructure these guys? Is that how you're gonna gain

(01:01:32):
the money to actually go get players. And that's really
the main reason why I keep trying to push Shaq
Mason off the team via a post June first release,
because I think they're better off if a different player
with starting experience who's been a good player is who
they spend some money on. If that's Kevin Zeitdler, great,
If it's somebody else, that's fine too.

Speaker 2 (01:01:52):
The league is littered with guys at all sorts of
positions who you're paying dead cab money to because it
didn't work out for this reason or another. What I'm
hearing you say, is why can't he be one of
them for the Texans Because the task at hand here
is about protecting CJ. Stroud, So all the details getting

(01:02:13):
to that endpoint, just do what it takes, because this
is what's frustrating about last year. And I know injuries
played a big role in why the Texans ultimately didn't
get as far as we all would have liked. But
you know, you set yourself up for a lot of
success even outside of those injuries. Like look if if

(01:02:33):
Nico Collins goes down for his month and then Stefan
Diggs is lost midway through the season or to a
late later you know, part of the season, or you know,
Tank Dell gets injured.

Speaker 3 (01:02:42):
But like c J. Stroud might have beaten the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (01:02:46):
At Arrowhead if he could, like have more than one
second to throw the ball. I really do believe that
they were This was the year they were gettable. We
saw that the Bills couldn't do it. The Eagles finally did.
They had a monumental defense of effort that did seriously helped.
But some of the Texans and I just feel like
if the other side of the football had played a

(01:03:07):
little bit but obviously they were shooting themselves in the
foot at every turn.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
So maybe you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Make some of those mistakes, they outcomes different. I don't know,
But just getting back to what we're talking about here
and what the Bears are doing in the last twenty
four hours.

Speaker 3 (01:03:21):
Yeah, cost of those are trades. Cost of a fourth
and a sixth to land two players who will make
very good money, and Thony might end up it probably
ends up getting a contract extension. He was headed into
the final year of his deal, and Jackson's already under
contract a lucrative won that he just signed the year before.
They spent a fourth and a sixth, which is extremely
reasonable to give up. Again, you're the team taking on

(01:03:43):
the money. That's how NFL trades work.

Speaker 2 (01:03:45):
But is there a player out there right now that
obviously a has to be available, And that's always the
biggest question usually when it comes to guys like this,
at least that you would say, all right, I would
rather give up draft capital because I know what I'm
getting this team doesn't you know, Team X doesn't want
to pay him this amount of money. Because that's the
other question we haven't really asked. Why are the Chiefs

(01:04:07):
getting rid of this guy. He's so good because they
don't want to pay him.

Speaker 3 (01:04:10):
There you go, I did you know Trey Smith's now
going to make twenty four ish million, depending on if
there's a long term deal or if it's the franchise
tag that he plays under. Creed Humphrey's one of the
highest paid players. They just drafted a first round lineman,
although he played particularly well and they're not sure where
he's going to play in the future, which just why
they were moving tuning around so much last year. But
he makes a bunch of money. He's another He's a Metcalf,

(01:04:31):
He's a Christian Kirk. He's headed into the final year
of his deal, which means it's time to pay him again.
They're the team that got him on a five year,
eighty million dollar deal. Well, it means he's roughly a
fifteen million dollar a year player.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
They're gonna you know, we all know what they're going
to do. Though, what are they picking, like thirtieth, Well,
they'd be thirty first. Okay, they'll probably just draft his
replacement and nail it like they always do.

Speaker 3 (01:04:55):
Well, that's where they did do it after their first
Super Bowl loss, where their offensive line got smoked. Smith
and Humphrey were both drafted that year, neither in the
first round.

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
And all they've done is go back to a bunch
of Super Bowls and win some of them, some of them.

Speaker 3 (01:05:08):
Not this last one. Not this last one too bad,
so sad they couldn't win another one. All right, We
will continue here on a Wednesday edition of the program
Sports Talk seven ninety. As a matter of fact, you're
gonna hear from Eme Udoka some of his conversation with
Matt Thomas earlier today here on your home for Rockets basketball.
That is straight ahead.

Speaker 6 (01:05:28):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 11 (01:05:33):
Matt fri and Shingoon, Hey, Salpie Turns Left, Spens Rise,
Stay Clutch with the iHeart Radio, Suits, Sports Dolls seven
nine Home all for Ruckus Basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety Wednesday edition
of the program, as we take you up until six
o'clock tonight, no Rockets basketball, which is probably a good
thing for all parties involved after a back to back.
Really last night was frustrating for different reasons than Monday night.
You just got beaten by a better team with a

(01:06:11):
really short handed roster. But maybe I was more frustrated
about the fact that they were as competitive as they
were and then still lost, as we talked about yesterday,
basically because of a handful of minutes to start the
second half. That's really what determined that game last night
was all Right, we're gonna score thirty in the first quarter.
We're gonna look good, we're gonna look spry because we
rested all of our starters the night before. Everybody's gonna

(01:06:32):
look good. Then we're gonna get down by seventeen. Then
we're gonna come all the way back and take the lead.
Then we're gonna lose that lead and lose the game.
So both of those are frustrating scenarios for very different reasons.
And we played a little bit of em Udoka from
last night's press conference following the game, talking about effort,
talking about physicality, talking about making mental mistakes and all
that kind of stuff. You might be wondering what he

(01:06:56):
had to say today, and when he caught up with
Matt Thomas Ross for the weekly visit on the Matt
Thomas Show here on Sports Talk seven, ninety year home
for Rockets basketball, he was, well, he's basically already ready
for tomorrow.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Night's game against the Pelicans.

Speaker 4 (01:07:11):
Yeah, ready to get back after tomorrow, you know, try
to write the ship here and then get back on
the winning side. And yeah, get everybody healthy eventually and
then start to play the way we're capable of.

Speaker 12 (01:07:21):
One of the things been seeing the last couple of games.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
We like the way that Jalen.

Speaker 12 (01:07:24):
Green's been playing, especially when he's been scoring, but careless
turnovers have been cropping up for him a little bit.
What do you chalk that up to. Is it some fatigue,
is it just playing click carelessness? And what are your
conversations with him about those?

Speaker 4 (01:07:38):
Yeah, we need more playmaking out of him, especially with
Fred and some of our little guards out and guys
that missed some games. So the onus is on him
to obviously handle a little bit more, initiate offense, get
guys into into sets, but also to score and be
aggressive like he always is. And so just the careless
ones are the main thing. It's it's you know, travels
are gonna happen, or you know, a tough shot here

(01:07:59):
and there, but the simple ones that are unforced are
the ones that really hurt us. Obviously had a few
of those last night. I think out he had out
he had four and he had five, and so a
lot of them just playing in the crowd and just
keeping you know, we set against okay See. You know,
hit singles, make the simple play when the when the
crowd is there, get off the ball, and he will
get those wide open looks. And so, yeah, just continue.

Speaker 3 (01:08:20):
To grow in that area.

Speaker 4 (01:08:21):
He's done a great job obviously added to his game
over the year a year and a half that I've
been here, and need him to continue that, especially with
Fred out.

Speaker 12 (01:08:29):
What have you seen from read Shepherd? Of course we
know the big breakout game and then last night.

Speaker 4 (01:08:35):
Yeah, ups and downs to the young guy who's gonna
have at times. It's good to get that experience for
him out there, you know, up and down rookie year
with the opportunity and our depth and you know, different
lineups we were having out there.

Speaker 3 (01:08:46):
But wanted him to.

Speaker 4 (01:08:47):
Be aggressive, stay confident, and take.

Speaker 3 (01:08:49):
Advantage of opportunities.

Speaker 4 (01:08:50):
So obviously a really good game against okay See is
a really good defensive team, and last night had some
open looks that he missed. You know, he missed a
few freetos, which is uncommon for him, and added to
our free throw woes, but yeah, learning experience for him
if either grow be confident aggressive at all times. And
and you this year to really kind of put your
stamp on the NBA and learn as we go.

Speaker 13 (01:09:14):
You know, I've talked to you a few times about
all these three games and four nights and back to backs.
It feels like, I know the NBA has made it
try to at least concern an effort to have less
of them. Do you, as a coaches group, as a
coach association get to visit with commissioner or somebody at
the scheduling level to say, hey, can we space some
things out? I know you're you're fighting with buildings that

(01:09:35):
are hockey in concerts and whatnot. Is that even a
item of conversation on a yearly basis or do you know?
Because look, hell, you've been in the NBA between a
coach and a player for twenty years.

Speaker 3 (01:09:44):
I mean you just it is what it is. You
just got to play through it.

Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
Yeah, at some point or the other, everybody hits that
stretch in their in their season where you have a
lot of back to backs or a lot of games
piled up. And we're in that right now with all
the back to backs before I'll start breaking coming out,
and so you just have to deal with it. You know,
some teams have more than others. I think we do
have the highest amount of back to backs this year,
but as I said before, until you prove yourself in

(01:10:09):
the league, you'll get a favorable schedule eventually, and so
going to continue to build what we're trying to do here.
But the second youngest team in the league, we have
a good depth and some unfortunate andrees again relied on
that depth this year.

Speaker 2 (01:10:22):
Think as to where we're at.

Speaker 3 (01:10:25):
Unfortunately, there's a summar away that you couldn't get a
good connection even though he was called twice, appreciate Connor
and Matt and Ross working on that for everybody's benefit.
But what he was saying there at the end is
a common topic here on this program. And as of
this date, with about five six weeks of basketball left
in the NBA, nobody's played more than thirteen back to backs,

(01:10:48):
except for the Rockets, they played fifteen. Thirty of their
sixty two games have been part of a back to back,
which is obviously right out about half of them, and
that's certainly too many to be the team that happens
to be on the wrong side of it. There's a
host of teams that have done it thirteen times, another
group that have done at twelve and eleven, and it
does get as low as ten and nine. So it's

(01:11:09):
a pretty significant difference. And that, above all else is
what I actually would be fine with discussing all the
time that you can't have as big a discrepancy, and
it'll get corrected a little bit over the final few weeks.
Rockets only have two remaining. A bunch of those teams
have more than two sets of back to backs remaining,
and some teams are dealing with a few more arena

(01:11:29):
issues than others, but not to the point where you know,
if you have five more back to backs than any
other team, that's ten of your eighty two games that
are impacted in a way that theirs aren't travel on
the front side, and you know you've just played the
night before on the backside. Rockets dropped to six and
nine in the second night of a back to back.

(01:11:50):
In our discussion to open the show about effort or attitude,
or energy or juice brought to the game, you would
think with all the rest that was given on an
non back to back, so they could prevent it from
being an issue with so many players sitting the first night. Well,
it didn't really pay off in the way that they
went after things against the Pacers, And that's what Imay

(01:12:10):
had also talked about. Giving up sixty seven points in
the first half. You talked about the beginning of the
third quarter where it just didn't seem like they were
gonna miss any shots, and then they couldn't make any shots.
The Pacers went ten to fourteen to open the third quarter,
and then they didn't score again. They missed seven shots
in our own the Rockets began what turned into a
fifteen zip run. Rockets made five of their first six

(01:12:33):
shots in the fourth quarter to get through those last
of the fifteen consecutive points to turn a ninety seventy
three deficit into a ninety to eighty eight deficit. Then
they took the lead at ninety six ninety five, and
then the Rockets missed fourteen consecutive shots. And again, this
is when when.

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
You go out this summer and get whoever you're gonna get.

Speaker 3 (01:12:59):
The guy who hates I think Mike Budenholtz. We'll get
to that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
We'll get to that in a little bit, including what
he said about if you only saw.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
The beginning of the video rather than the whole video.

Speaker 2 (01:13:09):
Yeah, a matter of fact, we'll get to that next segment.
But it will solve a lot of those problems on
the offensive end.

Speaker 3 (01:13:18):
Particularly you don't seriously look how hard this forty seven
year old's plan out here. You guys can't bring it
like KD that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
I mean, I feel like it's almost as simple as
just sitting down and making a pros and cons list.
But I don't know who you're giving up in a
deal for him, other than the pick.

Speaker 3 (01:13:36):
Yeah, to get back to the comical point I was
making when we opened up the show and we played
some emay from last night, and he was talking about,
you know, the way that they're getting after it. He said, well,
they we didn't follow the things we discussed. He does
not telling them to play hard. They don't discuss that.
He's not saying I'd like you guys to bring some juice,
just as Sooner's point number one too, bring the gus

(01:13:57):
play hard. No, what they discussed was here's how you
defend this. This is how I want us to play that,
and they just they just didn't do it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
Yeah, for whatever reason. Though maybe that's the mystery. What
were the reasons?

Speaker 3 (01:14:09):
Okay, you're not perfect. I think it is reason number one. Well,
and other than the case out there reason number two.

Speaker 2 (01:14:15):
Yeah, and some of you didn't play last night, so
that's not one of your reasons. But Jalen Green could
say that he did. All right, we will get right
back to discussing the rockets and that guy that Wex
was mentioning when we return.

Speaker 6 (01:14:30):
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Speaker 6 (01:15:10):
Better than an eighties movie. Reboots You.

Speaker 1 (01:15:15):
Our eighteen returns Now keeping Out Free Mohawks. Back to
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler Fine Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:15:31):
It is the a team Sports Talks seven ninety wex
and AC with you taking me up until six o'clock tonight.
This is weird just about at the halfway point of
a Wednesday edition of the program. Look, you mentioned it earlier,
the fact that Kevin Durant got into it last night
with Mike Budenholtzer. Unless you don't believe your eyes, like

(01:15:54):
these kinds of things happen all the time.

Speaker 3 (01:15:56):
During NBA games, right absolutely, and people, if you cut
the video off sooner, then you can believe what you
want to believe. They come off the court, he's not
real happy, he's saying something to his teammates. He walks
by the coach, he grabs him by the hand politely,
and then they have words. And the manner in which
Durant shoes him away is extremely evident, and then the

(01:16:19):
video stops. If that's the video you happen to watch,
it's a social media video. It's a quick video and
then he goes to the bench. I've since seen the
lengthier version from you know, one of the Phoenix TV
stations that shoots the game from the concourse, and you
can see him all the things I just described. He
goes back to the bench, He gets back up again

(01:16:39):
and says something to the coach in a productive way,
says something to a teammates, sits down. They go through
the timeout, and they talk again on their way back
to the floor in a little bit different manner. You
could see one of them saying this, the other one's
saying that. They're clearly describing how something went or how
something needs to go in the future, and they go
about their day, raising voice, not really anger back in

(01:17:02):
their face. Nope, not at all. It looked like your
typical conversation between a player who's been there and done
that and a coach who just saw it differently, who.

Speaker 2 (01:17:12):
Gets into these sorts of altercations all the time that
you think of that comes straight to mind, he used
to play with him. There's a hint, Russell Westbrook. No,
it's Straymond Green. The difference being not only the talent
level of the players involved, but just the scenario itself
that stuff always would blow over because they're winning more
often than not.

Speaker 3 (01:17:32):
The Warriors. This is different because I know they came
back and won. You want to quick believe it or
not believe it? It is a believe it. You haven't
even heard the scenario. Did I try to figure out
for sure that Mike Budenholtzer is getting fired after one
year by reading up on some things and looking around
at his background and why he was told to leave
both of the places before he got here.

Speaker 2 (01:17:54):
Why was he told to leave both of those places?

Speaker 3 (01:17:56):
They weren't winning at the level they needed to. They
obviously want to title in Milwaukee and then continue to
have a good team, and then they weren't winning enough,
so they fire him.

Speaker 2 (01:18:05):
That the Greg Popovich coaching tree, as it were, is
one of the most overrated things in all of the NBA,
if not sports.

Speaker 3 (01:18:14):
Uh. I think it's I know what you're saying. Yeah,
you're you're saying these guys aren't that great. They're not.
I don't think people regard them as great. I mean,
I know who we think the best one is and
he hasn't won anything yet. He's only in his third
season in two places. Yeah, but I think Budenholzer has
done a good job for the time that he had

(01:18:35):
his job, and I think he made it impossible to
keep him every time. And I think he's going to
be a one year coach. Your only issue with firing
him is whatever you still have to pay him and
the next coach is going to do? What with this group?
If you're getting rid of everybody, what's the difference.

Speaker 2 (01:18:53):
Well, if you're firing your coach, then that would tell
me that you're not getting rid of everybody.

Speaker 3 (01:18:56):
That's why I'm a little bit concerned.

Speaker 2 (01:18:58):
But you're you're not getting rid of everybody like you
might be wanting to hang on to Devin Booker and
just maybe retool around him.

Speaker 3 (01:19:06):
That's fine. Yeah, I think durant Is is fine with
how he handles things, and I think Devin Booker is
the same. But I don't think they're trying to lie
to everybody either, you know. I think Devin Booker has
said what he needs to say about their situation, and
I definitely think part of it in his mind, and
that's a very important mind inside their building is coaching.
I don't think they believe in their coach and thus

(01:19:29):
what he's telling them to do and how they do it.
It's amazing what was happening if you were watching their
game last night when they weren't split screening it with
Lebron's fifty one thousandth point just run that Clippers were
embarrassing them. And Stan Van Gundy happened to be on
the call. I happened to be watching it at the time,
and I know somebody pulled it and its been flying
around social media. He was talking about they're not playing

(01:19:50):
hard enough, and you know, they're just not doing the
things they need to do defensively, and I he's describing
this ancient broken down Kawhi Leonard is driving through the
lane in the half courts for an uncontested monster throwdoun
And so he had to continue his thoughts saying, see,
their defense is pathetic. Sounded like Jeff Aangunney when he
said it. But this is why they fell so far behind.

(01:20:12):
I bet you most of the non West Coast NBA
fandom woke up this morning and said that can't be right.
There's no way Phoenix won that game last k Right,
they got embarrassed for three quarters and then they came
back and beat a very good not one hundred percent
La Clippers team. I'm shocked, but that's the kind of
stuff they haven't done enough of. Yeah, they lost eleven

(01:20:34):
or fourteen prior to that, so it doesn't matter.

Speaker 2 (01:20:36):
And when he comes out and he says, you know,
that's what usually happens when you don't know dynamics of
the relationship.

Speaker 3 (01:20:41):
He's talking about the media running to the TV.

Speaker 2 (01:20:46):
He said, you call some right, you catch something on TV,
you get a quote, and now you're pushing that narrative,
as if me and Bud don't do that bleep all
the time. We're competitive as two individuals who want to
see things done the right way, and sometimes my ain't
the way that Bud want to do it, and vice versa.

Speaker 3 (01:21:03):
I'm reading the quote.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
I know he allows me, as a player on the team,
a veteran on the team, to voice my opinion, as
if anybody that has Kevin Durant on their roster has
a choice. This guy's never shied away from voicing his
opinion in any variety of whats good exactly Please, but listen,
you know who wouldn't have a problem with that?

Speaker 3 (01:21:24):
Winners and emy Udoka is at the top of that list.

Speaker 2 (01:21:28):
I it look, if you and they're gonna come back
in town on the twelfth, you're gonna see it all over.

Speaker 3 (01:21:32):
Again, rapidly approaching a long Rockets homestand.

Speaker 2 (01:21:37):
Well, it's about time since they've been playing all their
games either on the road or on the night after
the game they played the night before. I think the
last time they were in town, I said this during
the game off air to Matt or somebody. It might
have been Josh, like this feels like an audition. He's
out there.

Speaker 3 (01:21:56):
Definitely did to you because he mentioned a bunch here
on the show.

Speaker 2 (01:21:58):
Fifteen of twenty three, shooting thirty seven points, like he
won't the reason they lost that game that night if
Devin Booker didn't play.

Speaker 3 (01:22:05):
We'll probably need to institute this as a part of
the program until mid season, mid off season when a
trade might take place. You know, you know, not quite
a take your temperature. It's called take your Temperature on KD,
and we'll mix it in we're appropriate throughout our day's programming.
Sometimes it'll come up, sometimes it won't. It's time to

(01:22:26):
take your temperature on KD. Kevin Durant's playing the twenty
twenty five, twenty six NBA season as a Houston Rocket.
You feeling that without knowing what the deal to get
him was, No explanation needed. Yes, ho are you're feeling that? Yeah,
that's your temperature for today. You're feeling that he will
be a Rockets. Not asking you if they're trading for Booker.
I'm not asking you for trading for some other star.

(01:22:46):
Not asking you particulars, just taking your temperature, like feeling it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:50):
Kevin Durant is the prized acquisition of the Rockets off season.
I'm fine with it, provided they don't give up too much.
I'll allow banks.

Speaker 3 (01:22:58):
Judges will allow a little contingency on the end of
the comment. Because the thing is, and we've talked about
this on and off the air, if you're Phoenix and
you keep losing.

Speaker 2 (01:23:07):
I know again they won last night, it's rare.

Speaker 3 (01:23:10):
But he's still eleventh in the West. As you keep losing,
how are you demanding more in a trade for this
player who's not winning you games. That's how the Rockets
will say, here's how you demand for more. It's not
about we don't we know we the other gms in
the NBA. We know you're blowing it up. Come on,
we know, but if they're multiple teams who want him,

(01:23:31):
that's how your leverage becomes a thing. And multiple teams
that want Kevin Durant, if you're the Rockets, all the
same assets to give them exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
That's the first thing you say. And the second thing
you say is, Okay, I don't have to buy this car.
I'll walk away because we'll just let our core grow
another year. All the principles are under contract.

Speaker 3 (01:23:47):
That car is seeing a lot of action, there's a
lot of tread off the tires.

Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
But you know you want to break in that engine,
you want to take that route, okay, Or if you
want to get a classic and add that to your garage.
Kevin Durant's definitely going to be available the Aight on
Sports Talk seven ninety. You know what else is available
to you? Kushata. It's a short drive to Kinder, Louisiana.

(01:24:14):
And guess what they're celebrating. Well, they're always celebrating, but
they're actually celebrating their anniversary as in their thirtieth. Can
you believe Kushata was started way back in nineteen ninety
five and look at what it's become and what it's become.
Wex is a place that is I like to call
it an oasis of entertainment.

Speaker 3 (01:24:31):
An oasis of entertainment sounds like the definition for a resort.
The Kushata Casino Resort. They got the rest sports Book there.
There's always great sports to enjoy and wager right there
from the comfort of the rest Sports Book, which of
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(01:24:52):
Concerts as well. You always want to check them out
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as you get set to plan your visit. Cushata Casino
Resort is where you find him. Three beautiful hotels, fantastic
Cajun cuisine, a great time as you look ahead. So
maybe a good long weekend planned at Cushata.

Speaker 1 (01:25:13):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Teams
series Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team
A Team.

Speaker 3 (01:25:28):
It's four o'clock, it is the A Team.

Speaker 2 (01:25:30):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety, It's Space City Home Network.
He's wex I'm a c and we have talked a
whole lot about the future, the future here in Houston.
Will it include a healthy oblique for Christian Walker? Will
it include a better offensive line for CJ. Stroud? Will
it include Kevin Durant as a rocket?

Speaker 3 (01:25:52):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
All of these situations are going to require people to
do their job. That's what it's going to have to take.
And Nick Cassario's at the top of that. I know
that rafel Stone's going to do something this offseason. I
can feel it at my bones. And I think that
Christian Walker's oblique.

Speaker 3 (01:26:07):
Is going to be fine too. While we're on the subject,
he was in the lineup when it was first announced.
He was not in the lineup when they played the
baseball game today. Left oblique soreness. The reason for it.
John Singleton got to play in his place. We'll have
that game for you coming up in three hours. Astros
on tape delay. You will want to listen all the
way through if you want to hear the walk off win.

Speaker 2 (01:26:28):
What do you think the tape looks like in this
tape delay?

Speaker 3 (01:26:32):
I mean, should we be at a point where we
try to be as accurate and as literal as possible
digital delay? I mean it's been recorded, but just not
on tape, quite obviously digitally recorded. It's going to be
played back through an audio system that also requires no tape.
Nobody's splicing anything. So I'm going to talk for at

(01:26:53):
least the next thirty to sixty seconds, and in that timeframe,
you need to come up with a new term which
I will use in the for the remaining Spring Training
delayed broadcast. You could just be as simple, We're gonna
bring it to you on a delayed basis. I can
just get rid of the word tape as simple as that. Yep.

Speaker 2 (01:27:07):
I will do that.

Speaker 3 (01:27:07):
Moving forward on a delayed basis, We've got Astros Baseball
for you tonight. They hit the ball over the fence
four times in today's game. So if you want to
listen to Todd and Garrett tell you about it, tune
in tonight seven o'clock. Six o'clock. Astro Line comes your way,
same two gentlemen that called today's game. We'll be hosting
Astro Line with Cam Smith. Cam Smith Train. The Cam

(01:27:31):
Smith hype train is a topic for this show probably
every single day.

Speaker 2 (01:27:37):
Hope put Cam Smith in the back of the train
at dyke In Park.

Speaker 3 (01:27:40):
Well, I hope he hit someone into the back of
the train. We just don't know what he's gonna dent
when he does that. I mentioned earlier today that we
were gonna hear from Joe Spotta and the general manager
Dana Brown on Cam Smith, and there's no time like
the present. If I want to make people give me
their best, get on the hype train for Cam Smith,
which we're gonna do here on the A Team. I

(01:28:00):
don't know that there's any team in the country that
believes in Cam Smith quite like we do here on
the A Team. I don't even know if the Astros
team believes in them to the level that we do.
But we'll let you decide if you believe Aspata or
Dana believes more than that. Are good friends. You guys
know him and love them. I'm sure some friends of
the program. They run a little program called foul Territory

(01:28:23):
Talk Major League Baseball. A former Astro Eric Kratz part
of that party. A former major league catcher who most
Astro fans from his playing career don't like. Aj Pierzinski,
Ken Rosenthal a host of others are usually a part
of the foul Territory Party, and they're all part of
their visits around the majors. Today's visit was two Astros
spring training. They sat down with Spencer Arraghetti, really really

(01:28:46):
good stuff. This just in Spencer is elite at interviews.
I hopefully we will see an elite pitching season from him,
So really good stuff from him talking about both his
own work this upcoming season or what he was trying
to fix last year, or even his teammates talking about
Hunter Brown a little bit more from a leadership role
this year because of the absence of JV. You can't

(01:29:09):
just go into the clubhouse after a day you pitched
and maybe look over and see number thirty five there
and ask him a question or two. But expects other
guys to step into leadership roles the Astros. One of
their coaches, first base coast Gave Clark, sat down with them.
He actually had some very enlightening things to say about
Jose Altuve in the outfield. They also sat down with

(01:29:31):
Mauricio Dubon and then after the interview, aj Perzinski had
to come back and say, I got to tell you
this little story that Mauricio told me after we finished
up and went to break and he told the story
about what happened and then he acknowledged, I didn't even
know he was my teammate before Mauricio thanked him for

(01:29:52):
giving him a bat at spring training in twenty fourteen
when they were on the same team, and aj today
in twenty twenty five, had no idea that they were teammates.
Granted it was spring training, it was Mauricio's first and
he wasn't going to make the major league team, and
there's sixty seventy people there players, but he couldn't even

(01:30:13):
remember that he was teammates and gave him a bat,
which is why Mauricio told him the story. But the
point of this story was to hear about how loud
the train whistle needs to be for Cam Smith. We'll
start with Joe Spota talking about the great things First, Actually,
Joe talked about the person, because this is all getting
to know him stages for everybody involved, getting to know

(01:30:34):
him as a person, getting to know a little bit
of what he's about. If you've heard from Cam Smith
so far this spring training, you know that this is
home for him. He's living with his parents currently because
this is so close to home for him. It's one
of the reasons why he'd had been working out with
Kyle Tucker. This wasn't the first off season they even
met because they work out similar place both area and

(01:30:55):
representation for it. So after Joe got done talking about
a lot of the good things about who the person is,
he got into the train whistle stuff that we love
so much here as he is definitely on the camp
Smith hype train.

Speaker 7 (01:31:06):
His skill sets, he's off the chart. The power he
actually he's a really good runner. You know, can play third.
You know, if you could put him in the outfie,
I'm sure he's athletic enough to do it.

Speaker 3 (01:31:16):
Over there.

Speaker 7 (01:31:16):
We are excited about him. I'm excited about his future.
And you know, he's close. He's close to being a
big lead player, very close.

Speaker 3 (01:31:23):
I probably could have just played that last part for you, Ac.
He's close. He's really close. I mean, here's the thing,
and I know that's the only part you want, right well,
of course, Louder, Louder, this is the simplistic way of
looking at this.

Speaker 2 (01:31:38):
You remember when Jordan was doing his thing, we just
talked about it earlier during the show and we would
watch the videos.

Speaker 3 (01:31:43):
Now about how did Jordan play in college and where
was it drafted?

Speaker 2 (01:31:46):
More like how did he play with the Dodgers organization. Yeah, Oh,
that was just the gift that keeps on giving. We
all knew he was coming. We were, you know, very
excited about it. We saw the home runs on and on,
on and on on.

Speaker 4 (01:32:03):
He was.

Speaker 2 (01:32:04):
If you wanted to make the excuse he needs more
time or better yet, this is a crowded lineup. I mean,
he's not getting able to bust into this line. Stop. Well,
I'm being again, I'm laying it on thick. You don't
have that excuse here.

Speaker 3 (01:32:18):
Just if that was an excuse, Yeah, because you brought
it up for those that aren't aware, and I think
most everybody is. The Astros acquired yard On Alvarez from
the Dodgers as a nineteen year old, and he spent
his first pro season with Houston playing only A ball,
A ball and high A ball. He spent a second
pro season playing both double and Triple A baseball, and

(01:32:40):
he was pretty good in each of those first two
seasons twenty seventeen and twenty eighteen. Twenty nineteen, he began
the year at Triple A and they probably were, you know,
he's trying to put the league out of business with
all the balls they had to replace because it was
hitting him out of the stadium. He became an Astro
in twenty nineteen, acquired in twenty sixteen, played in the
majors in twenty ninetheen, but that's after two complete seasons

(01:33:03):
of minor league baseball. Camp Season has played zero complete
seasons so currently of minor lot But he has played
college baseball exactly. That's the same thing. It's it should
be considered the same thing. And there is the super two,
and there is the timeline of how many arbitration years
are you holding on to and when does that clock start?

(01:33:25):
And I have a feeling that will play into the
Astros thinking, just as it did with your honest he
played eighty seven games at rookie season because he wasted
fifty six games beating the ball around Triple A ballparks
and having an eleven eighty five ops and hitting you
know bomb. He had seventy one runs batted in in
fifty six games in Triple A the last year he

(01:33:46):
played Triple A baseball. Let's put it this way, if
camp Smith is on that kind of track, for give
me a number of weeks, two, three, four, give me
a month. What are you waiting on. Honestly, what are
you waiting on? If you're the astros, I need to
know you're waiting on believing it. Dana Brown also had
thoughts on Cam Smith specific to kind of his early

(01:34:09):
entry into the Cam Smith hype train.

Speaker 14 (01:34:12):
The most exciting thing for me right now is to
watch cam Smith and watch him develop and to see
him really played third base. I ended up seeing him
last year during the ACC tournament. Uh, you know, we
liked him, didn't know if he was going to be
able to play third Looking like he's developing at third base.
So he's really creating a lot of conversation and he's

(01:34:32):
playing well right now.

Speaker 3 (01:34:33):
Crazy listens to the show, creating a lot of conversation.
He means what he's been talking about all off season,
Dana internal conversations about his future. He did note that
he had he tries to see all the first round picks,
so he had just happened to be at the a
SEC tournament last year. Florida State is where camp Smith
was playing. That's where he got his first look at him.

(01:34:54):
I think, up close and personal. Probably not expecting. I
don't think at that time he was a very highly
regarded prospect that he would be there when they drafted.
He obviously was not there when they drafted. He had
been drafted at number fourteen. They went with a catcher instead.
But he also noted that he wasn't sure then if
he would be a third baseman. But he has continued

(01:35:14):
to show progress that yes, we believe he can be
a third basement. And Dana again added to that, it says, oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:35:25):
Well, here's the thing. I feel like I'm going to
be laughing my way to the not the bank. But
I don't know the correct parallel analogy I should make
when he finally is called up and he's making a
joke out of things. I know I'm putting the cart
ahead of the horse. I know he's young. I know
all the things I'm supposed to be saying and thinking
right now. But you said it yourself. It's just not

(01:35:48):
the same as how it used to be September call
ups and just you know, the trajectory for some of
these guys, especially in his case where he has played college.
I don't know. Maybe it's just the way he carries himself,
maybe the way his interviews go, like all of it
just screams this guy is not going to be a
long wait, and I hope that's the case, because I

(01:36:09):
don't know how I'm gonna decide who I'm gonna be
the most mad at if I have to wait very
long for this kid, Well.

Speaker 3 (01:36:15):
He's got to go out there and do it. And again,
he needs to see more starts so he can fade
like today, you got home runs off Sunny Gray. The
Astros hit three home runs off Sunny Gray. That matters now.
It also matters that there was heavy winds helping to
blow those out, but they also made great contact. He
needs to see more of that, and he will and
he will start it definitely sounds like there's a lot
more third base in his future and a lot less

(01:36:36):
right field in his future, which means we are probably
gonna have to have the Astros put Esak Perettis at
second base more in his future. And one instring answer
for Mauricio Dubon a quick question for him about where
he prefers to play. He couldn't have answered any faster
saying second base, So it'll be interesting to see if
that's in fact where he really truly be will be
for this upcoming season.

Speaker 6 (01:36:59):
The ag On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:37:03):
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Speaker 1 (01:37:49):
Adam and Adam, well, I'm sorry, Adam one on top buildings,
So excuse me here, Adam and Adam Baytay back to
Adam Flanton at Adam Wexworth find Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:38:09):
A team here on Sports Talk seven ninety Space City
Home Network you mentioned and we've talked about some of
the restructurings, signings, trades, a lot of NFL activity, which
is usually the case this time of year.

Speaker 3 (01:38:23):
It comes in flurries.

Speaker 2 (01:38:25):
But to kind of make the joke here, but I'm
really not kidding, Like, when does Stingley get that deal done?
It's probably going to come sooner rather than late. I
would assume they would want to get it out of
the way, like, you know, by the end of the
show today something along those lines. Nick Cassario says, well,
I knew I'm I'm going to do this this offseason,

(01:38:45):
and you know, it's not like if he waits and
does it later in the offseason, I think things are
going to change too much.

Speaker 3 (01:38:52):
Although I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:38:53):
There might be some defensive back out there that sets
the market.

Speaker 3 (01:38:57):
Again, I don't think that's the case. It's definitely not.

Speaker 2 (01:39:00):
Yeah, But you know, I wonder, as we're seeing Max Crosby,
as we're seeing other deals get done, how quickly this
will come together, because it kind of feels like both
parties have said all the things that make you think
it would.

Speaker 3 (01:39:15):
The only thing that matters is if they need to
make his number for next year different, which they probably
don't for what purpose? Just cap? Yeah, purely from a
cap standpoint, make his cap number different. If there's a
factor that weighs in and you know, I say, they
probably don't. You can always make it a little bit
better if you really feel the knee. But you know,
he goes into the extension year and you know what

(01:39:38):
the factor, you know what the figures are, and to me,
that's probably what they're working off of. But this is
the year say this with all these extensions. These are
no brainer extensions. These are players you want here forever.
So the idea that you're going to hem and haw
about it, or you're going to, you know, maybe we
don't want to do this, or we'll just put it
off a year. Putting it off a year means it's

(01:39:59):
going to cost you more. That's all. It's all it means.
It's all it ever means. Nobody the team never wins
by putting it off a year. Maybe you can bring
it a case to my attention that I'm unaware of,
but you know, waiting a year to do it. Cowboys
Michael Parsons. He wasn't. He seemingly wasn't very interested in
having those discussions last year that's I think the gist

(01:40:19):
of how things went between him and the Cowboys last year.
So they didn't and now their attention is clearly going
to be focused on making sure that happens. They've gotten
a restructure from Ceedee Lamb's deal. They've done a restructure
today reported by Todd Archer, significant savings on Dax deal
instead of franchise tagging their defensive lineman. They have agreed

(01:40:41):
on a twenty year or twenty million per year deal,
four years, eighty million. And so now those figures are
in place for the current situation and for the next
couple of years before they would restructure again and any
of the void year's kick in and things like that.
So now they have a little bit of a okay,
well this that money's for him, and it's more money

(01:41:02):
then it would have cost for them to sign him earlier.
It's the same thing with Stingley. If you sign him
this offseason, then it's less Everything about it is less
than it would be in a year. There's nothing that's
going to happen in twenty twenty four or twenty twenty
five that would send it in the other direction. And
in my opinion, I know you can always say well this,
I mean that would make it sound like you're hoping

(01:41:24):
he has a bad year. You're hoping he has a
catastrophic injury. So you can so you can get in
a situation where you can then pay him what you
only want to pay him. Nobody's saying that. The Texans
aren't thinking that. They would never do that. Teams don't
do that. But when you don't get it done, it
means you've probably put yourselves in an awful cap situation.
And all you're doing is saying, maybe it'll be easier

(01:41:46):
to do it later, maybe other things will help dictate
why we're going to be able to do this. This
player who's due this amount of money for the next
two years, well, now we know he can't play for
this reason, or now we want to move on move
away from him for this reason, or we've now been
able to move that player and a deal and that
money's now, that spot space is available. But when the
time comes to extend. Three players that you've drafted in Stingley, Stroud,

(01:42:12):
and Anderson, all in the first round, all very high
in the first round, all whose fifth year option is
pretty expensive, but nowhere near as expensive as the new
contract extension will be for them. I'm always on the
sooner the better. There's no It's not like quarterbacks though,
and it really the Max Crosby deal doesn't make a
whole lot of impact on this. If this were a

(01:42:34):
year where three corners from the same draft were all
awesome and we're all ready to get extended, that would
be one thing. Maybe there's two because of Sauce Gardner's situation.
And we usually get into this with quarterbacks and when
we ask the question, who's going to be the highest
paid quarterback this offseason? The answer is the same every year,

(01:42:55):
the last one to sign.

Speaker 2 (01:42:57):
It's like that with a lot of I mean, defensive
ends are the same way. Jjay's deal was alri eclipsed
like the next off season.

Speaker 3 (01:43:03):
I'm just saying, even in the one off season, if
if Deshaun Wats or Dak Prescott and another quarterback are
all ducks at Kyler Murray, they're all gonna get the
extension in this particular off season and a relatively similar
place in their career or established, well, it's the guy
who probably gets Pat Mahomes was on a little bit
different stratosphere because of what he was okay with doing
with how he structured his deal, and nobody else really was.

(01:43:26):
And it's also why with Deshaun's deal, I kept saying,
he might have gotten the best deal we've ever seen,
fully guaranteed, and money he really hadn't earned by playing
because he wasn't obviously on the field. He played well
enough before that to earn it. But it wasn't a
market center. It did not. I said it before it
then played out. It happened to be right on this one.

(01:43:47):
It didn't set the market. Where are all the other
fully guaranteed deals There certainly weren't any until you got
to some of the shorter term deals that did turn
out to be fully guaranteed quarterbacks getting a little bit
closer to a three year, forty million a year. Nobody
was getting those deals. Kyler Murray scrubbed all his social
media with Cardinals stuff, and he still didn't get that deal.

(01:44:08):
And then he put it back. I was about to say,
did he put it back? And how long did it take?
And he also had the awesome opportunity to not only
scrub the social media evidence of the cardinal's love for
him and vice versa, but he could also put up
some as stuff. Hey, look, I'm a baseball player too.
Look at this leverage. I can just go back to baseball.

(01:44:29):
He got his money, and that makes me think of something.
Since you brought it up. I know that.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
Christian Walker's on Twitter. Isn't he what at see Walker?

Speaker 7 (01:44:41):
That?

Speaker 2 (01:44:41):
I can't think of it, but I feel like one
of his accounts when he signed with the Astros. I
looked it up like weeks later and it still had
you know, Arizona stuff on it.

Speaker 3 (01:44:53):
And I'm always curious, like Bregman, Well there for between
Bregman and everybody else on social media because of his
branding and businesses.

Speaker 2 (01:45:04):
True, but it didn't take him long to scratch Astro's
references out of his bio, like right during free agency
when it began.

Speaker 3 (01:45:13):
There have been three posts on Christian Walker twenty eight
on his Instagram platform since becoming an Astro if you
afford for the post mate on the same day about
his goodbye Arizona right and which I saw. Yeah, one
of them is him in the jersey He'll never wear

(01:45:33):
the thirteen jersey.

Speaker 2 (01:45:34):
Oh okay, I'm like, but has he done what? What
does his bio look like? Wex you're on the.

Speaker 3 (01:45:40):
Page hashtag Arizona dbacks, hashtag game cognation. Maybe while he's
down with that oblique he can update that. Also, he's
in eighty four post Instagram user as in to say,
not very active.

Speaker 2 (01:45:53):
How long has he had the account though? That's the key,
h You.

Speaker 3 (01:45:56):
Want me to see if he's got any pictures of
him marrying his wife, playing for South Carolina those, yeah,
but those are pretty old, by the way, just because
minor league baseball photos, it's a long time ago.

Speaker 2 (01:46:08):
They little frames on them that Instagram used to have
way back in the day.

Speaker 3 (01:46:12):
That's how you know it's an old post that was
like I would say, he's said from a you know,
stories and posts not always the same. Sometimes people are
big storiers and not big posters. But I think he's neither.

Speaker 2 (01:46:23):
Oh you mean like George Springer, who why do you
have an account that's that's for the missus?

Speaker 3 (01:46:29):
Clearly?

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
Do you know you ever seen when like celebs do that.
It's like it gives me like the most ridiculous social
media anxiety. Like someone with like huge amounts of followers
just decide we're gonna scrub everything, and they do.

Speaker 3 (01:46:46):
They just take every post they've ever made, and then
they have people working for them, people plural, Yeah, like staffs.
Makes it easier for them to take care of that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:46:59):
By the way, I need more, Josh Allen, Pat Mahomes matchups.

Speaker 3 (01:47:06):
You're gonna get them because.

Speaker 2 (01:47:07):
I think Hailey Steinfeld greater than Taylor Swift at what
yes at looks life at life.

Speaker 3 (01:47:16):
Why because she's not as popular, So any stance she
might have catches less eyeballs.

Speaker 2 (01:47:22):
I don't know her stances. It's kind of nice, That's
what I mean.

Speaker 3 (01:47:26):
Well, knowing them and disagreeing, Josh Allen, I don't mind either.
I don't mind knowing their stance and I don't mind
disagreeing with them. But I do I know that's the difference.
Why not?

Speaker 2 (01:47:40):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:47:41):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:47:42):
I think it bothers you that it bothers me more
than it bothers me does.

Speaker 3 (01:47:46):
I think everybody can hear that every time it comes up,
it bothers you more. She plays decides to have a
stance on things, whooped he do.

Speaker 2 (01:47:54):
It's bad music, That's the big part of it. It's
bad music.

Speaker 3 (01:47:58):
If you don't as much as you pretend that matters
to you. It doesn't, which is correct. You shouldn't care
the whole package. Do you care about the other stuff,
which you really shouldn't to this level that you do.
The whole package matters and it should good. It does
half of the show half when I'm not talking.

Speaker 2 (01:48:15):
That's okay, there's plenty of time for that during a
four hour marathon. Speaking of which, we've got time to
get to some more of this kind of stuff. Well,
it's BS. You can determine or you can define it
any way you want. But that's what we will do
with our signature segment on a Wednesday edition of the program.
That is Straight Ahead here on Sports Talk seven ninety

(01:48:35):
and Space City Home Network.

Speaker 1 (01:48:38):
The Eight on Sports Talk seven ninety Dylan Brooks here.

Speaker 13 (01:48:43):
Back to Dylan Reverse Lamp Goddess.

Speaker 4 (01:48:45):
Stay clutched with that iHeartRadio app here every Rockets game
on Sports Docs seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:48:50):
There it is Dylan Brooks, Home of your Rockets.

Speaker 13 (01:48:53):
Rockets, a little help over the hump with some Wednesday BS, two.

Speaker 3 (01:49:01):
Adams and a whole lot of bit stealing.

Speaker 1 (01:49:03):
Mit stealing with dump Bit Steelers better known as the
eight Team.

Speaker 3 (01:49:09):
Sometimes here on the A Team, the B and the
S Stan for bit stealing, as you just heard sometimes
here on our signats segment. They are more to what
most people refer to those letters as when they're driving
around the town and listening to us on the listening
to us on the iHeartRadio app wherever you might be.
And that's what it will be today, the B and
the S. You're off the hook, Sean and Brian, Matt
and Ross Dan and everybody else that hosts programming here

(01:49:32):
on Sports Talk seven ninety other than ourselves. We're not
stealing any of your bits today. We're just gonna talk
about some bs. You know, how many quarterbacks started a
game in the NFL last year? Mmmm? Thirty two teams,
seventeen games, eighteen week schedule. Trying to do rough math m,
I have forty five. It's higher, much higher most years
it is. Really it's fifty nine. Wow, So fifty nine, gentlemen,

(01:49:55):
we're awarded the opportunity of being the starting quarterback for
their respective team. Obviously, many teams started more than one
over the course of their seventeen game trip to the
offseason or the playoffs. We'll do the fun stuff first.
I will give you the name of three of the
worst five starting quarterbacks, and see if you can name

(01:50:17):
either of the other two. The three you're getting are
the ones you clearly would not be guessing. You weren't
gonna guess. Dorian Thompson Robinson, he came in at fifty six, Cleveland. Yes,
you weren't going to guess. Skyler Thompson, he came in
at fifty five. One of the foolish ideas as a
backup quarterback for the Dolphins when they employ Tua as

(01:50:39):
their starter. Dumb, dumb, dumb, that leaves two spots are
also the other one you would not have guessed because
you probably didn't even realize he was helping the Chiefs
score zero points in Week eighteen against the Broncos. Oh wentz. Yeah, Yeah.
So these two guys started multiple games for their teams,

(01:51:00):
and they came in at fifty eight and fifty nine,
and both are continuing to be under contract for that
same team this upcoming year. Seaan Watson, he's fifty nine.
I knew it. Figured you'd get that one right, And
I'll read you the first line from Nick, who writes
for NFL dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:51:16):
Okay, his statement on Watson.

Speaker 3 (01:51:19):
Watson proved in twenty twenty four, he's not fit to
play quarterback in the NFL anymore?

Speaker 2 (01:51:25):
Did he mean to rhyme that, uh, twenty twenty four anymore?

Speaker 3 (01:51:31):
I mean I just read it in a way that
gives him more credit that he probably deserves. But I
thought it was very well written.

Speaker 2 (01:51:35):
Yeah, well, no, I mean it's accurate. The other guest
I would have had is David Carr's brother.

Speaker 3 (01:51:43):
I mean that he the ironic thing of especially me
talking down to his performance all the time. These Saints
could not win at all without him, and with him
they were okay, Like he was clearly a cut way
above Rattler and Hamer, clearly much better than them. Is this,

(01:52:05):
But they're in NFL purgatory with a quarterback who you
can't really win with like win big, be a playoff contender,
be a championship contender. And he's in the process going
to prevent you from having a good draft pick. You
might draft the right guy at eleven or twelve, but
he's not going to help you get a pick that's
going to clearly be a superstar this draft, maybe notwithstanding.

(01:52:27):
So no, it's not Derek Carr.

Speaker 2 (01:52:30):
Is it a starting quarterback if he starts starting to.

Speaker 3 (01:52:34):
Year, then his general manager one hundred percent will be
getting fired during the season. Okay, Derek Carr is number
twenty four. By the way, Sorry, Derek, this really ask hey.
I can read you the first sentence of his write
up and it might help you. Okay, get the answer.
This guy comes in at fifty eight. He was out
there for a little bit. It was kind of a

(01:52:54):
second stint in the Spotlight. It reads a twenty twenty
three final ranking was thirty six, and he fell to
fifty eight this year.

Speaker 2 (01:53:02):
It reads as follows.

Speaker 3 (01:53:03):
Tommy Cutlet's second episode in New York was not nearly
as thrilling as his first. Tommy DeVito comes in at
number fifty eight.

Speaker 2 (01:53:12):
You know what I was going to say before you
read that, Jimmy Garoppolo.

Speaker 3 (01:53:16):
I did not, if I'm not mistaken, James Garoppolo the
first last year he came into forty six. He did
to get that one game when they didn't need to
play anybody in Week eighteen. I went that far off. No,
not that far off. Okay, now to the part that
actually matters, because the Texans started one quarterback, so he's
obviously on the list, although he wasn't the only quarterback

(01:53:37):
to play was not the only quarterback to play, but
we will get to him as we make our way
through the list. How many do you think you can
get of the top five before you miss three? I
think you're going to be correct. Go Josh Allen, he's

(01:54:00):
number two. Lamar Jackson he's number one. Jalen Hurts not
not three, four, five, six, seven, eight. He's ninth. And
this is after the Super Bowl. Where's Mahomes? He's seventh.

Speaker 2 (01:54:17):
Okay, so you were wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:54:19):
IK should have taken the under on they.

Speaker 2 (01:54:21):
Now I'm bothered about who's the third one is?

Speaker 3 (01:54:23):
Mahomes is not in the top six, Hats is not
in Hurts is not in the top eight. Obviously C J.
Stroud is not either three, four, and five. You haven't
named any of them. M missed the playoffs, had the
best record, and yes, he's three. What did you say

(01:54:47):
about the other two? One had the best record and
the other played in the conference title? Jared Goff he's four?

Speaker 2 (01:54:57):
And who did have the best record last year?

Speaker 3 (01:55:00):
Jared Goff? Okay, that makes sense. So it's a conference
title losing quarterback. I can't do that. That's Jadon Daniels. Okay,
So if I've given you that information, and I've given
you seven for my homes, and I've given you nine
for hurts, where CJ Stroud eleven eleven is incorrect. It's

(01:55:25):
too high.

Speaker 2 (01:55:26):
Oh man, they're really dogging him the worst of the
He'd better be above fifteen.

Speaker 3 (01:55:33):
Uh well, technically he's not above fifteen. Right in the
middle he is. Now quickly we can eliminate a couple
quarterbacks that were put ahead him because it's total stupid,
just nonsense. But why did they do it? I mean,
I don't know, I really because they If you watch
only how they played last year, I could almost believe
CJ is outside the top ten, eleven or twelve. They're

(01:55:56):
under no circumstances. Could I have watched him last year?
Even with how poorly they performed, was how poorly the
team played, how their offense was a very good in
the reds, all the bad things. I still couldn't put
some of these quarterbacks and how they performed last year
ahead of them. Some of them include Gino Smith twelve.
He completed seventy percent of his passes and twenty one touchdowns.
He also threw the ball to the other team fifteen times.

(01:56:18):
And I just I don't know, man, how mean picks
the CJ have twelve? I just don't understand. He could
watch even just last year, not the other years, just
last year at thirteen, Okay, and think that, but the
audience in front of him that would give you like
we all know their futures aren't brighter. We all know
GMS wouldn't pick them first. Rock Party's about to get
paid huge, huge money in San Francisco is absolutely doing it.

(01:56:41):
He's fourteen. Sam Darnold has no team but was not
tagged by the Vikings either. Still a chance they re
signed him.

Speaker 2 (01:56:48):
Fascinating story to me, by the way, and I said
it was as such right after the season.

Speaker 3 (01:56:52):
Herbert's eleven.

Speaker 6 (01:56:55):
Great.

Speaker 3 (01:56:56):
He had a great season. He had a bad playoff
game with as they played a team that was extremely
well suited to make them look bad, which is what
the playoffs are all about. They had a really good
offensive line most of the year. They did not have
a very good offensive line against the text. Forget all
of that.

Speaker 2 (01:57:14):
Now, just go around and pull gms across the league
and ask them which one they want to start their
franchise with.

Speaker 3 (01:57:19):
It's great way to send us into the next segment,
because I would say something you would not believe about
that very question if it was presented to We'll say
thirty gms, we'll eliminate the Chargers GM and we'll eliminate
Nick Cassario from the conversation, unbiased opinions from the thirty gms.
Who do you want? Justin Herbert or c J. Stroud?

Speaker 1 (01:57:40):
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Speaker 1 (01:58:46):
Adam Clinton, at Adam Weckford, the eighth team.

Speaker 15 (01:58:55):
All right, so we're polling every GM in the entire
NFL except for the one in Los Angeles and the
one here in Houston.

Speaker 2 (01:59:07):
You got CJ. Stroud and Justin Herbert. Who do you
starting your franchise with today? I mean, okay, it's blacks
is one of the gms. Yeah, I'm the.

Speaker 3 (01:59:17):
GM that clearly is going to have the differing viewpoint
for the player you're going to pick. For the purposes
of our argument, give you some of the background on
just this happened to be off this list bumped up
from seventeen to eleven. That's what Justin Herbert did and
in his first year, working with Jimmy Harbaugh and the
rest of the offensive talent they added last year, mostly

(01:59:38):
on the offensive line with Joe Alt and other assorted places.
Lad mcconkeye he had a three interception season, followed by
a four interception postseason. In one afternoon, one postseason afternoon,
he had one more interception than the entire eighteen game season.
He had just played twenty four touchdowns three picks, led
the NFL in interception ratio with just three thrown to

(02:00:01):
the other team. He had been in the top ten
following the first three seasons of his career, though, So
take note of that and then bump back a big
time in twenty twenty three. They fired their head coach,
they got everybody else on board. Now he's back in action,
heading back up the charts. His work over the two
years that coincide with CJ's two years in the NFL,

(02:00:22):
he has the eleventh best passer rating in the NFL.
He's got twenty four or forty three touchdown passes in
those two categories. CJ's got the seventeenth best quarterback passer
rating and the same number of touchdown passes forty three.
In that same time, CJ's throwing seven more picks. Justin Herbert,

(02:00:44):
if I was trying to put on film of the
prototype quarterback, look at his height, Look at the arm angle,
look at the velocity, Look where this ball's going Look
at his ability to throw deep. Look at how he
moves in the pocket. Look he moves when he's not
in the pocket. Build me a quarterback better than this.

(02:01:05):
There might be one out there, but it isn't c J. Stroud.

Speaker 2 (02:01:09):
So you think he's going into the Hall of Fame too,
that's what you're saying.

Speaker 3 (02:01:13):
I'm just on the other side.

Speaker 2 (02:01:15):
You really would take Justin Herbert over CJ.

Speaker 3 (02:01:17):
Stroud. I think you think the difference between them after
two good two years of c J. Stroud, one of
which was bad. In this argument, he was bad for
a variety of reasons. It doesn't matter. He was bad,
but was bad that line. And tell me if when
we talked about him having the yips yesterday he had them.

(02:01:39):
Would it doesn't matter why it means it happened.

Speaker 2 (02:01:43):
But would Justin have the same yips if he was
getting hit in the same amount? Almost assuredly quarterbacks do.

Speaker 3 (02:01:48):
I'm not.

Speaker 2 (02:01:49):
I know it always sounds like I'm making excuses for CJ.
But if you're going to tell me that this is
the guy you're choosing over CJ, I'm absolutely gonna make
excuses for CJ.

Speaker 3 (02:02:00):
Because I just don't think he's that good. I think
you know what I think about justin Herbert.

Speaker 2 (02:02:03):
I think he puts up a lot of regular season
numbers and never wins anything of consequence. And I think
that because there's a Harball coaching him, and because he
plays in Los Angeles, he gets more whatever than he
would if he were anywhere else.

Speaker 3 (02:02:15):
He was rated higher before Harbaugh arrived three straight years
in this person's system.

Speaker 2 (02:02:23):
That backs my argument he's not as good as people
make him out to be.

Speaker 3 (02:02:27):
Okay, so you gave CJ excuses, I get to back
my guy up with Herbert excuses. You thought he's gonna
win football games with stupid staly head coaching. You thought
they were gonna win football games that horrible decision maker
leading that franchise. You thought he was gonna win games
with that horrific line that he had in front of him.
I mean he did. Actually they got to the playoffs.
Now you should be yelling at me. What about the

(02:02:49):
playoff game that they had a huge lead in against Jacksonville,
a team who can't win that the Chargers and Herbert
somehow lost. See I didn't have to what about that.
I don't think he's over hyped for those reasons, because
I think the hype that he had going into this year,
I was upset by it. I was like, what are

(02:03:10):
y'all doing? Let's he's played for four years. Everyone had
already decided enter Harba, elevate Herbert. It is a fact
it's gonna happen. I'm not saying it won't happen, but
you're telling me there's no question. It is absolutely no
doubt about it. Look at what this guy's gonna do
for him. You won't e believe how awesome he is.
Turned out? He was pretty awesome turned out. Whatever the

(02:03:32):
reasons are, Harbaugh gets some credit for it. I do
think drafting Joe Alt and having him played pretty well
immediately helped great greatly. Friend of the show, Friend of
the show. God, I love him right now. What if
my guy back on Herbert? I'm his agent again. Yeah,
this is weird. What if this first season, first season
with Jim Harbaugh, he was just scratching the surface.

Speaker 2 (02:03:53):
Okay, I'm glad you brought that up because to your
point and to support your argument, even though I'm winning.
I think you could say the same thing about Sean
Payton's first year in Denver.

Speaker 3 (02:04:04):
What did he do with Russell Wilson? Is that what
you're saying his first year was.

Speaker 2 (02:04:08):
Well, what I'm saying is the oh you mean bo
Nicks just the first year that he got there. Now,
don't get me wrong, Denver sucked last year because Russell
Wilson sucked last year. But what I'm saying is I,
after last year, didn't you think maybe Sean Payton's lost
his fastball without Drew Brees in his prime?

Speaker 3 (02:04:26):
Oh? I didn't think that. I'm a GM. I'm smarter
than that. Some people thought maybe what like some people
thought he didn't have a fastball because he had Drew
Brees in two thousand and seven, eight nine, ten eleven,
other than the year he got kicked out of the
league fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventy eighteen, nineteen, twenty twenty one.
Where are all the visits to the Super Bowl? I'm
not even telling you to win them all? How about

(02:04:48):
just getting what did Peyton Manning play in the NFC?
And I forgot? But did Tom Brady play in the NFC?
And I forgot?

Speaker 4 (02:04:54):
No?

Speaker 3 (02:04:55):
And no? When Moore Sean, you have Drew Brees. Same
thing for Micha McCarthy and Aaron Rodgers. I was just
gonna bring him up. But here's the thing, Jam Condo
is going, well, you're losing still.

Speaker 2 (02:05:08):
Uh I just how much of bo Nix's success is
going to now be attributed to Seohn Payton versus bon Nix. Yeah,
it's it's a It's always a tricky balance to give
credit in the NFL, no matter what you're talking about.

Speaker 3 (02:05:25):
So now our argument has to be who do you
believe will make sure my quarterback is great? Jim Harbaugh
or Demiko Ryan. Well, you said it yourself.

Speaker 2 (02:05:35):
Good luck winning in that division when at least one
other team is clearly better than you.

Speaker 3 (02:05:42):
And they did win, they made the playoffs, they won
eleven times. My guy, Justin Herbert and my team won
eleven times. And where the wild card the best wild
card team that turned in the worst performance.

Speaker 2 (02:05:54):
And the Texans Division as it stands right now is
a dumpster fire outside of Houston. Yes, we love but
and it probably will stay that way because I just
I don't see any franchise quarterbacks walking through the door
for any of the other three teams one of them.

Speaker 3 (02:06:08):
Selm me CJ Yeah, thirty seconds, selmy cj uh. I mean, I.

Speaker 2 (02:06:11):
Think the decision making is a blip on the radar
when you consider how bad his offensive line was. I
think you can't you cannot ignore the fact that his
weapons were taken away from him, like week after week
after week. Seemingly he never got the team around him.
Those weapons that you put around him last year. How
many times did they all play together?

Speaker 3 (02:06:32):
All of them? Not just him too?

Speaker 2 (02:06:34):
He was out there, But like that's those are two
very very big reasons why you would have a quote
bad second season, not the convenient and lazy?

Speaker 3 (02:06:45):
Can I can I combat that? Can I throw a
reverse card at you with the best receiver either one
of them through to all year was Nico Collins? No,
he does? Your guy? Yeah, your guy? What about the
guys that my guy was thrown too? He missed a
month of and a bunch of other buddies. Yeah, he
missed a month of the season. That that means, yeah,
because you made him run his hamstring out of the

(02:07:06):
ground fault.

Speaker 2 (02:07:07):
You hurt him. Justin Herbert to go to.

Speaker 3 (02:07:10):
The top here, and this for their argument's sake.

Speaker 2 (02:07:12):
Also if in their wins, like how many signature wins
did Justin Herbert have.

Speaker 3 (02:07:18):
Well, there can only be a playoff win as a
signature win. He didn't have any more time on the
regular Did I just lose? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:07:24):
Well, I mean like Josh Allen was in the AFC Championship.
The Texans clearly CJ made him play the worst game
of his career weeks in CJ. Well, it happens, it happened,
and then he won the MVP, that's true. And he
got Hailey Steinfeld.

Speaker 1 (02:07:43):
The a on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston
sports guys named at him. Talking your teams Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler or the A team A team.

Speaker 2 (02:08:14):
Geez, I don't know what we're going to talk about
after talking about football for the last forty five minutes.

Speaker 3 (02:08:18):
Get you caught up on what has taken place in
advance of the league year beginning and the tampering period
beginning next week. The tenth for the tampering period, the
twelfth for the new league year beginning. Texans probably having
the neighborhood of eighteen million dollars in cap space now
looking over the work at over the cap from Texans
cap Troy, who does a phenomenal, phenomenal phenomenal job here

(02:08:42):
locally of keeping up with the Texans cap situation. This
following the report of a restructure for Nico Collins. He
signed his long term extension prior to the start of
last year, and so it's time to restructure, trying to
get some more cap space, and they were able to
do that with that move. There are others to be made. Also,
a report of Daria Goombowale re signing with the Texans

(02:09:07):
two million dollars a season, So those things calculated into
the neighborhood of eighteen million dollars in cap space. That's
a little bit lower than the nineteen million dollars of
their cap being eaten up in dead cap money. That
number is going to go up with some of the
moves that get made between now and the tenth and
some that get made after and those moves that are
remarked as June first designated releases, and I do believe

(02:09:30):
the Texans will be making at least one of those.
The wide receiver group of available players grows by the day.
There were three guys out of the list yesterday, three
more of consequence in both cases added to the list today.
One you would likely have to trade for DK Metcalf.
He heads into the final year of his deal with
the Seahawks. He's been very good there. He's played there

(02:09:51):
for six years. He's playing into the final year of
his initial extension, which got him three years and seventy
two million. He wants more money, and he wants more years,
and he wants more guarantees. In Seattle appears not ready
to give that to him. It appears that both sides
are good with looking into a trade. He's made the request.
They seem amenable to looking for a possible place to

(02:10:14):
send him, and presumably most deals like this, if they
get made, they come along with an extension. So whatever
team is adding DK Metcalf will not be renting him
for one year. They will be locking him in for
multiple years. He's true number one, super skilled player. Big
target has flourished with multiple quarterbacks in Seattle. Gino Smith.

(02:10:34):
We just mentioned a very accurate quarterback in this day
and age in the NFL, and he certainly fed Metcalf
the football. He's been very good. This is a very
good player you would be acquiring if you move on
a trade for him. The guy who's been playing opposite
him throughout his six years there in Seattle is Tyler Lockett.
He will now be playing opposite somebody else next year,
not because of the trade request, but because the Seahawks

(02:10:57):
requested that Lockett no longer be on the team. Very
polite and known managable. Yes, he sent out a statement.
They sent out a statement. They love each other. They
were there for ten years together. He opens his own
post on social media. I really enjoyed being in Seattle.
I'm thankful for everything. The Twelves really make this place meaningful.

(02:11:19):
He will be moving on, not the twelfth Man, Nope,
just the Twelves and Christian Kirk. Similar situation to DK
metcalf final year of his deal Jacksonville's I'm really interested
in paying that or giving him more money for the future,
so they'll just be releasing him. Those last two names,
in my humble opinion, would make sense for the Texans.

(02:11:41):
I think Tyler Lockett still can do the things that
Christian Kirk, who's very similar to him but just a
little bit younger. I think he can still do those things,
and I'm not sure what cost it would be for
either one of them. Definitely it's an affordable one. I
don't think either one of them is so high on
the list of available players because again, and it keeps
growing every day, and if you have the money, you

(02:12:03):
might shoot for a better target. Chris Godwin might be
the best free agent catch. I still think he is going.
I think Tampa wants to play next year with all
three of their top receivers, McMillan elevating to one of
the top three, Evan's still one of the top three,
and bringing back Goodwin to also be one of their
top three. He missed half the season after getting hurt

(02:12:24):
last year or late in the season got hurt. They're
probably okay with McMillan being a bigger part of their offense,
which is actually what he was as a rookie down
the stretch last year. But they probably know they're a
better team if they keep him. I'm gonna guess he
goes and I'm gonna guess he gets the best free
agent deal out there. Even though he's pretty He's played
a lot of football, so I'm gonna also guess that

(02:12:45):
he's not a Texan. I think these last two players
that are added to the list today that I just
mentioned wouldn't shock me at all if they are Texans
not on a long term deal. Maybe it's a fairly
lucrative one for the player. On the front side of that,
they're a great fit. I think there's a lot of
good football on both of them. I think they both
have enough speed to do the things that you want
them to do. In the offense, we've never seen before,

(02:13:07):
because I'm not sure exactly what Nick Cayley's offense will
look like. And many people are claiming that they do
know what it will look like, and I don't fault
them for that, but we really don't because we haven't
seen it before. He's got Patriots in his blood, He's
got Rams in his blood, and it will be some
concoction of what he's learned over the years from both
Sean McVay, Josh McDaniels with New England and other coaches

(02:13:29):
he's worked with. But these receivers fit on anybody's offense.
You know when Jacksonville decided to help Trevor Lawrence a
couple of years ago, you know, signing Ingram, signing Kirk,
bringing in a lot of talent for him when he
was he just didn't have anybody, and they felt like
in order to get away from Urban and everything we're doing,
we're gonna spend money. And I was really down on
it because I thought they spent a ton of money

(02:13:51):
for not elite talent. Good talent, but not elite talent.
Whether it was an overpay or just too much money
to be spending on those particular players. But they were
all productive there and they made them better, So in
the end I kind of understood it. That's how I
would view the Texans trying to do the same thing
might end up being more than they wanted to spend.
But if you're looking further down the list at players
we mentioned yesterday, maybe Elijah Moore heading into his fifth year.

(02:14:15):
Had somebody comment to me on the X platform about
Elijah Moore and it got me looking into more of
what he had done. He'd played in New York for
a couple of years with the Jets and then the
last two years with Cleveland. Immediately, if you're looking at
a receiver, and I told you he played with the
Jets for two years two years ago and then the
last two years with Cleveland. One thing probably for sure,

(02:14:36):
and this person who who sent that message my way
acknowledged it very clearly and smart. He hadn't had a
quarterback yet, so I went to looking and saw the
like they arguably the six best games of Elijah Moore's
career at the times he was targeted the most and
had the most yards most productive days. He had six
games where he had ten or more targets in four
seasons with the Jets and then the Browns. Two games

(02:15:00):
with Joe Flacco, two games with Jameis Winston, a game
with Zach Wilson, and a game with Mike White. Yikes,
just couldn't be more on point? Now? Is that the
reason the Jets said goodbye to him after two years?
Is that the reason why the Browns are likely to
not bring him back because the actual quarterbacks he was

(02:15:20):
supposed to be catching passes number we're so awful that
that's why his numbers are Dre Hopkins didn't make those excuses, Well,
he's the players not making the excuses. I think it's
totally reasonable to look at the offensive that he was
in and how they moved. Like when Jameis Winston started
throwing passes for the Browns, Guess what happened. Jerry Judy's
numbers went through the roof. Elijah Moore's numbers went through

(02:15:41):
the roof because they had a capable passer. Now, he
threw the ball to the other team way too much.
He was the same Jamis as always. But he can
throw the football down the field and you're gonna have
a lot of passing here. He threw for almost five
hundred yards in a game this year. Elijah Moore is
probably a little bit better than maybe his production shows.
But it's a bit of a risk to say he's
going to take a leap with you. And if you're

(02:16:01):
signing him, you're asking this new player, you're gonna need
an eighty catch season from him. You're gonna need aka
fifty nine hundred yard season from him.

Speaker 2 (02:16:09):
If you're confident in your scheme, which again is new,
if you're confident in the guy tasked with not only
calling those plays, but implementing that scheme, and you're tasked
and you're I should I say you're confident with the
offensive line for whatever reason, getting better, becoming better whatever?

(02:16:30):
Shouldn't that be a no brainer? If you think the
guy has the pure talent, then anybody can be taken
out of one situation and plucked out of that and
put into another and start putting up the type of
numbers that you're looking for, and it I mean, you've
got me almost sold just because of the Every time

(02:16:51):
we hear a big name who makes a lot of
money or is intending on making a lot of money
become available or declare themselves available or whatever, that pushes
guys like this or they're down and makes them more
In my opinion, if you're Nick Cassario and you're looking
to retool on the fly with not unlimited funds, more appealing.

Speaker 3 (02:17:08):
No question about. It's a perfect way to look at things.
That is great, and that's why I brought it up
a couple days ago. This is going to happen. It
doesn't happen with any position quite like wide receiver. They
more than any even more than running backs. When they
get to the last year of their deal, they demand more,
and if they don't get it, they demand to be traded.
And when players get to that point, if they haven't

(02:17:30):
been the one to do it, then the team just says,
you're on. This is a great way for us to
save money. You might not be asking to get an extension,
but we're asking you to not get paid by us anymore.
Because the number's too high. And we knew this the
day we signed you. Christian Kirk signed a four year deal.
I'm sure Jacksonville's GM at the time said, yeah, here's
four years or two. We'll see you here, gone after three.

(02:17:51):
It happens all the time. Well, so I'm gonna guess
one of the three names we discussed, Elijah Moore, Christian Kirk,
Tyler Lockett, all of whom will be drawing tons of interest.
One of them is gonna be a Texan. I'll make
that call today.

Speaker 2 (02:18:07):
Is Tyler Lockett the one that has the the one
that has the uh exorbitant earringhi the one? Well, no,
it was either him or DJ Metcalf, and I can't
remember which one had it.

Speaker 4 (02:18:19):
Well.

Speaker 3 (02:18:20):
DJ Metcalf took his shirt off for his interview with
Pete Carroll when he was a prospect, when Pete also
complied and took his shirt.

Speaker 2 (02:18:27):
Off at the age of seventy three.

Speaker 3 (02:18:30):
Uh no, not then. I think he was younger then
six years ago. I don't know that Tyler Lockett screams
loud jewelry. You could be correct, but I don't know that.
It was very Lawrence Taylor like a Dame I'm gonna
guess no, I'm gonna guess no, it's not Tyler Lockett. Okay,
I think it could be. I think it's dj Metcalf.
I mean, if it's only between those two, I'm gonna

(02:18:51):
I'm gonna guess Metcalf.

Speaker 2 (02:18:53):
Well, And that's actually a compliment to them because I
felt like throughout their tenure together in U Seattle, they
were balanced, if you will, kind of like when we
right before the injury, we were looking at Nico Collins
and Stefan Diggs's numbers and they were like insanely close.
Like that was the probably the biggest compliment you could
have paid Bobby Silowick last year, other than feeding the

(02:19:16):
ball to Joe Mixon as much as he did and
getting that return on your investment. So I am fascinated
to see because it's it's I don't think it's going
to be forgotten by the fans. I mean, it's obviously
not gonna be forgotten by the team, but it's low
key a very very big decision because had the team

(02:19:36):
been healthy with the players that were assembled, you know,
you think that the Texans would have been able to
accomplish more. You have to fix that line and you
have to either bring him back or replace what Stefan
Diggs and Tank Dell brought to the table.

Speaker 3 (02:19:51):
So big decision looming.

Speaker 6 (02:19:54):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:19:58):
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Speaker 6 (02:20:57):
Adam Clinton Adam Wexler.

Speaker 16 (02:21:00):
Back to Houston's eight team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:21:14):
It is the eight Team Sports Talk seven ninety. Winding
down a Wednesday edition of the program, wex and Ac
with you No Rockets Basketball Tonight. Astro line coming up
at the top of the hour. Cam Smith, my latest
Houston athlete, Man Crush, will be the star of that attraction.

Speaker 3 (02:21:31):
We're gonna talk a little bit of Camp Smith here.
But first, can I get you to reverse your unnecessary
but overwhelming hatred for a professional athlete? Depends on who
it is? He has got red hair, he once had COVID,
he won a World Series, Oh, Justin Turner. All right,

(02:21:53):
I'm gonna leprechon. I'm gonna get you to come back
around on him. Has he played for every MLB team
yet nobody will be playing for a different MLB team
than he played for this past year. Okay, you remember
who he played with last year, Seattle Mariner for Yes,
the season came to a close.

Speaker 2 (02:22:09):
He was he was in a deadline deal though, right.

Speaker 3 (02:22:11):
He was moved from he moved inside the States. He
was outside the States. Oh, he was in Huh. He
really has played for every team. He's played for a
lot of teams. Okay. He spent a lot of time
in a little bit of time in Boston, a lot
of time in la probably where he's most known for.

Speaker 2 (02:22:27):
He lost the twenty seventeen World Series.

Speaker 3 (02:22:29):
So your good friend Bob Knight and Gale wrote a
story about Robert Seattle Mariners. The line to open the
story reads as follows, reminding you this is a you
should like Justin Turner piece. It reads to open like this,
It's like buying a shiny new Porsche with a rusted

(02:22:49):
Honda Civic engine. So why would something from Justin Turner
be a part of this because Justin Turner sounds like
an honorary member of the a team with how we
have talked about the Mariners running on two seasons but
running as loudly as possible this off season, and uh,
Mariner's former infield or Justin Turner says the following the

(02:23:12):
fact that they missed the playoffs by one game, and
didn't go out and had an impact bat or two
when you have the best pitching staff.

Speaker 2 (02:23:18):
In baseball, which I said, yes, he was.

Speaker 3 (02:23:20):
Absurd to me. Absurd honestly, as much as I wanted
to be back there, if I was the only piece
they brought back in, I would be saying the same thing.
What the heck are we doing? Are you trying? Where's
he playing this year? Again? Not there? No, I know that,

(02:23:42):
that's that's obvious. Where's he going to be somewhere else?
Where's all that matters? This is gonna this is going
to help you like him. I have to tell you
where he plays. Well, that's why I want to balance
things out. I know, no, is it in the state
of Texas. I'm withholding the information. I think I know
where it is. He's playing with Kyle and Ryan. If
you weren't already aware.

Speaker 2 (02:24:02):
Oh that isn't Bud, he's in the National League. He
barely matters. Okay, yeah, yeah, he's You're right. He does
sound like not only an honorary member of the A team,
but an honorary member of the Wexler family who hosts
talk shows.

Speaker 3 (02:24:16):
There's not a better time to go for it, So
I don't know what they're doing. Yep, I'm very confused.
A head scratcher for me. I've said all these things.
He could not be more correct. And how come it's awesome, awesome, awesome,
best news ever for the Astros that this is a
clueless team when it comes to winning. It's this is it.

(02:24:38):
And this team went out and traded for Luis Castillo.
This was what I thought, Oh my god, they do care. Yeah,
this stinks, right, this is bad news.

Speaker 2 (02:24:48):
Instead, not only is he not the only piece they
brought back. The only piece they brought back was Jorge Polanco.
That's all they did this year. You're hoping that cal
Rawly big dumper doesn't suck like last year.

Speaker 3 (02:25:03):
He's still he keeps productive while hitting for a very
low average and striking up.

Speaker 2 (02:25:08):
You're hoping Julio Rodriguez doesn't suck like last year.

Speaker 3 (02:25:13):
Keep in mind, in addition to trading for Castillo, he
was available because it was going to be time to
pay him money and the Red's we're going to do that,
and they did that. They give him a hundred and
eight million dollars. Yeah, he's under contract through twenty twenty
eight if it vests and he's awesome and they're not
trying to win. That that's it, that we we're gonna
sign him. I mean, that's it.

Speaker 2 (02:25:31):
Like look at their their lineup, their everyday likely lineup.

Speaker 3 (02:25:36):
Who do you fear?

Speaker 2 (02:25:38):
I'm seriously asking you right now, Julio Rodriguez, why he doesn't.

Speaker 3 (02:25:43):
Do anything either? Give me a guy that I believe in,
Julio Rodriguez. I understand he had a down year.

Speaker 2 (02:25:49):
I haven't feared anybody in their lineup since Kyle Seger,
and that's because he only killed the Astros.

Speaker 3 (02:25:55):
I'm serious, no season of comfort to improve. Randy rose
Arena's numbers. Oh, I get to be here all year.
It's all good. He went to Seattle and realized he
was a Mariner. Keep this in mind. Brought it up
everybody to everybody yesterday. Numbers are one thing. They play
in a place where you don't produce numbers. They have
the reverse cores field for their home field. There's one

(02:26:16):
the other team is not gonna score either. But you're
not gonna be is whatever amount you score on the road,
whatever you hit on the road, however much you slug
on the road, take a huge chunk out of it
and those are gonna be your home numbers. This you ever,
and Raley and all these other.

Speaker 2 (02:26:31):
Guys, do you ever sit there and think, because I
do this, do you ever sit there and think about
how unlikely it is that they swept them by having
Jeremy Paana hit a home run in that park for
the only run of the game scored.

Speaker 3 (02:26:44):
By score that year, eighteen innings.

Speaker 2 (02:26:47):
And that was the guy, not your don, not Bregman,
not any number of guys in the Astros or Mariners.
Well just kidding, Astro's lineup left the yard. It was
Jeremy Pana who win end up, you know, winning the
World Series.

Speaker 3 (02:27:02):
MVP start of U or the continuing of what would
be a great posted To remember, he'd already played two
playoff games by then, he was well seasoned. Well.

Speaker 2 (02:27:10):
Also, it was the start of after the start of
the bookend for jord On Alvarez. He didn't do anything
after Game two until he hit that home run in
the World Series against the Phillies to clinch the second
World Series championship.

Speaker 3 (02:27:24):
Or we could talk about it the other way, the
right way way to go. Jeremy Pania way did not
go oh for eight, one for eight, not much better.
One for eight Game winner.

Speaker 2 (02:27:33):
Well, everyone else was over.

Speaker 3 (02:27:37):
Jordan also over before he was taken out of the game.

Speaker 2 (02:27:41):
Who started that game for them? Game three for the Mariners,
Kirby makes sense. I know that he so how many
innings did he go?

Speaker 3 (02:27:49):
Seven? He went six? No, he went seven seven the
other way around, okay, and then Luis Castillos as I
mean Luis garcias I recalled, went four, six, five, correct,
it was a lot. He went the last five innings.
It was only two pitchers.

Speaker 2 (02:28:10):
That's only eleven total.

Speaker 3 (02:28:11):
Bro. Oh, that's right. The only people will throw shut
out baseball that day for the Astros were everybody Plant Sector, Rafael,
Ryan Brian, Ryan Hunter.

Speaker 2 (02:28:21):
And Luis What did you say, Ryan Brian?

Speaker 3 (02:28:24):
Well one in succession. Dusty Baker went to Ryan Presley,
then he went to Brian Obrew, then he went to
Ryan Stannick. Oh, Ryan Stannick. Okay, I forgot about that
all while Matt Festa and Eric Swanson and Matt Brash
were setting out the Astros.

Speaker 2 (02:28:42):
Hey, have you met my tax attorney. His name's Eric Swanson.

Speaker 3 (02:28:46):
Okay, So every I would this takes me to everybody
in the majors justin Turners knows how good these players are.
There's teammates, does he know how he's Everybody in the
majors has to be looking at them like, thank you,
thank you. You're not trying, Like we're not even saying
you're making wrong. They're not even trying, and they're there.
GM has been in the same spot for multiple years.

(02:29:08):
This is the same GM that nearly got pushed out
the door. We all thought he was gonna be fired.
Tondel Graveman deal with the Astros at the deadline when
they were in it and they're like, what are you doing?
The whole the whole clubhouse was like that. And here's
that is a good organization, a good GM to have

(02:29:29):
in your division. Yes, but here's the thing.

Speaker 2 (02:29:31):
Say they decide to just, I don't know, do something
weird and wacky and make a trade at the deadline
this year, so you're adding whoever that bat.

Speaker 3 (02:29:41):
Is to nothing. Granted, they have a tremendous farm system currently,
they have a lot of players that are probably going
to be a part of this year's team but we
haven't even mentioned and they'll get called up and they'll
play well, but that the assets to go get something
that's the thing. I'm a little bit surprised they haven't
used them in that way. And and all the while
it's the same conversation I'm sitting here saying that they

(02:30:03):
have these great prospects. MLB's top prospect lists were put
out today. Obviously there's some interest in where a certain
new Astro and others that are new Astros might be
number one. There was no doubt he was already number
one the day joined the organization, and that's where he is.
I believe there will be four of the astros top

(02:30:23):
five prospects that will play for the Astros in twenty
twenty five. He's gonna play for the Astros this year.
Zach Dezenzo is gonna play for the Astros this year.
He's five. Jacob Melton's gonna play for the Astros this year.
He's three. Bryce Matthews, who will be in Triple A
to start the year. I think he's gonna play for
the Astros this year. Also one huge note though new

(02:30:46):
to the list, because he's new to the organization and
by far the youngest player on the list and one
of the most costly two million bucks the Astros spent
in their international money for Kevin Alvarez, seventeen year old
six for ver. A lot of teams wanted to do it.
The Astros were the team that spent the two million
two do it. No relation to jord On he comes

(02:31:07):
in at number nine. And Dana Brown said it again
today in that interview. I was mentioning earlier they don't
mind making they don't mind playing young guys. They don't
mind moving guys along quickly, A little bit card ahead
of the horse. He's never played at all for them.
Twenty twenty eight World Series is on its way. This
is the type of player that will make me so

(02:31:29):
happy when I get to tell all the well other
farm system stinks. I get to tell them all to
shove it. You don't have to have thirty good players.
What if you have two awesome players. What if you
have three awesome players? What if you're always able to
trade your players for other players, which.

Speaker 6 (02:31:41):
They're always able to do.

Speaker 3 (02:31:43):
Should I give a shout out to one local guy
who's always saying their farm system is bad? Doesn't sound
like a shout out? What up? Jeremy Booth.

Speaker 1 (02:31:53):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:31:57):
Maybe you can go to Kushatta Casino ort and the
res sports Book and place a wager on the Astros
winning the twenty twenty eight World Series because I just say, hey,
that is confidence right there. But you know what, you
can do a lot of things at Kushata as they
are celebrating their thirtieth anniversary. Way back in nineteen ninety
five when they opened this bad boy up, it was

(02:32:19):
just a big rice field at the time, and then
they built an amazing casino in the rest is history.

Speaker 3 (02:32:23):
Can I can I make a long distance dedication and
request for the Kushata DJ certainly? Can you play winning
it All by the outfield? I'm sitting here at the
Red Sports Book might bring me some good vibes.

Speaker 2 (02:32:33):
Here it is at your slot machine, your long distance
request and dedication.

Speaker 3 (02:32:37):
Appreciate it. Big congrats to everyone at Cushata as they
celebrate this thirtieth anniversary. By the way, Kushatas Advantage Club
voted as one of the top ten best players clubs
in the entire United States of America. Very popular or
great place for you to be and join when you
make your plans to visit Kushata.

Speaker 4 (02:32:57):
Hey's coach Udoka here every Rockets game on Sports Talk
seven ninety and on the iHeartRadio app Home of Your Rockets.

Speaker 3 (02:33:11):
As you know, it's music means we've got tickets to
give away. Next segment, four pack of tickets to go
see the Roughnecks. These music means, yeah, four pack to
go see the Roughneck season opener against the battle Hawks.
They play from Saint Louis. It's on March twenty eighth.
We got a pair of tickets to see Journey on
March fourteenth, and we'll give you all the details on

(02:33:31):
both of those events. You can win tickets to in
the next segment. Listen closely to this segment or some
information we'll deliver during In case you missed it, you'll
need to redeliver via the phone lines next segment to
win those tickets. What do we have and in case
you missed it today.

Speaker 5 (02:33:46):
It's exactly what this music means, AC So hopefully I
give you and WEX some good ammunition to give the audience.
All right, So right as we went on TV earlier
today at three o'clock, there was a post on X
from Joe Mixon. OMG, imagine Nico multiplication sign in v M.

(02:34:09):
Just wait for it with the eyes emoji right there
does Joe Mixon know something that was right around the
time that the DK Metcalf news came down.

Speaker 3 (02:34:17):
Well, Joe Mixon has been a popular Pro Bowl caliber
offensive talent in the AFC. He went to Oklahoma, he
played a bunch of years in Cincinnati. Is there a
connection through his agency, through his college days, through someone
he might have played with on a Pro Bowl roster
or Pro Bowl Games roster that he would be saying

(02:34:40):
this specifically about or is he just doing what we
did a couple of segments ago. Tyler Lockett's available, Cooper
Cup is available, Christian Kirk is available. DK Metcalf is available.
Which one he's talking about? That's that's what this is, right,
So where's the connection? If T Higgins wasn't franchise six
degrees and Joe Maine Mixon posted, OMG, you imagine Nico

(02:35:01):
times never mind just wait on an eyeball emoji, I
would have my answer. He would be talking about T
Higgins and Nico playing together in Houston without that as
an option. The connection to who who is he talking about?
Is he talking about TK because he's the best receiver
we've talked about the number one talent.

Speaker 2 (02:35:22):
The problem with the situation like this is that you
want immediate gratification, and so what do you do in
a situation like this?

Speaker 3 (02:35:29):
You go to the comments.

Speaker 2 (02:35:30):
The only problem with doing that is every name you
just mentioned is someone's response.

Speaker 3 (02:35:34):
Plus on the day that Tank Dell went in for
his second surgery on his a c L. Come on, Joe,
don't do that to Tank. He's still here.

Speaker 2 (02:35:43):
Well, I don't think it ain't that. I mean, he's
the best of the best. Ability is availability and he
didn't have it right now, so until that changes.

Speaker 3 (02:35:53):
But I do believe if you have caff was a
text and and they acquired him via trade and gave
him the money he's looking for. The Texans twenty twenty five,
Nick Kayley led offense would be really good if they don't.
Don't they don't. It'll be good without that.

Speaker 2 (02:36:14):
Better than last year, because that's what it's gonna take.

Speaker 3 (02:36:16):
Five guys out there, you run DK Nico Joe, who's
your third receiver? And another title is that just five
wides every play? You know we're throwing. We know we're
throwing beat us bingo. Actually I actually like that, you
know why? It's very Madden? All right?

Speaker 2 (02:36:35):
What else do we have.

Speaker 5 (02:36:36):
All right, let's get to the rockets and I'll just
miss another offensive put back too. Sad as they're off tonight,
they're gonna be back on the floor tomorrow against the
Pelicans and Ac. You mentioned this audio a little bit earlier.
This is before last night's game, and they played against
the Indiana Pacers.

Speaker 3 (02:36:52):
Their head coach is Rick Carlile.

Speaker 5 (02:36:54):
Rick Carlile took a few seconds to dote on his
opponent last night.

Speaker 9 (02:37:00):
Physical beasts, really, and they live in the paint, they
live at the rim. They lead the they lead the
universe and rebounding it's you know, it's it's a it's
a nightmare game. And and they junk up the game
with with cross matching and and a lot of stuff
like that. And they have you know, they have guys

(02:37:23):
on their team that are that are agitators, and so
they they're aggressive.

Speaker 3 (02:37:28):
They're an aggressive bunch.

Speaker 2 (02:37:30):
I loved him and me myself and Irene underrated film.

Speaker 3 (02:37:34):
Gosh, you were serious. I thought you were trying to say, well,
let me think of one of his worst movies. And
you say, never seen him and Jim Carrey in the
same room once. Why don't you say, I loved him
in Mask or Dumb and Dumber or something. Was he
better as Hank or was he better as Charlie Hank? Okay,
I mean seriously, me myself and Irene. Well, there's others.
I mean. I loved him in the Cable Guy. There

(02:37:56):
you go. That's much better, much better. I loved him
in Dumb and Dumber. I did to Richards point. Now,
the Pacers made a bunch of shots. They still missed
forty two of them and none of their free throw
so just forty two launches were making the Rockets. They
only grabbed five offensive rebounds. The Rockets are beasts. They

(02:38:18):
lead the world in rebounding. The Rockets missed fifty eight
shots from the field and thirteen shots from the free
throw line. They grabbed thirty four of or twenty four
of those misses. They set a season high in offensive rebounds.
They bludgeoned the Pacers on the glass.

Speaker 2 (02:38:35):
Fifty eight to thirty five. And you lost comfortably.

Speaker 3 (02:38:39):
Because you couldn't put the ball in the basket, even
after your grage kid, Kevin Duran. They did have a
possession that included five misses at the rim, three of
which were blocked by or two of the five misses there,
plus the ensuing shot on the next possession blocks by
Miles Turner. The Rockets also, aside from all those things,

(02:38:59):
they did so one thing they haven't done the entire
season last night, or didn't do something they have done
the rest of the season.

Speaker 2 (02:39:09):
Block a shot.

Speaker 3 (02:39:09):
Yeah, they didn't block a shot in last night's game.
That's how much resistance they offered at the room. No
block shots. First game all season that they did exactly
what Carlisle said. They junked it up. They are beast
on the boards. Tari had nine rebounds of the fourth
quarter alone had eight offensive rebounds in the game.

Speaker 2 (02:39:26):
But they don't put the ball in the basket. He
even mentioned their prowess at playing zone defense. They did
throw a little bit.

Speaker 3 (02:39:31):
Back into it. Two biggs. There have been this is
this is bad. I hate to say it. There've only
been two games all season where a team has shot
at least twenty free throws and made fifty percent or
worse from the free throw line.

Speaker 2 (02:39:46):
The Rockets have been evolved in both games.

Speaker 3 (02:39:49):
They lost to the Jazz when the Jazz made forty
eight percent of their free throws, and then they lost
last night they out scored the Pacers the free throw
line thirteen to ten. They out missed the Pacers at
the free throw line thirteen to nothing. That is horrible
of this idea. What else do we have? All right?
Real quick?

Speaker 5 (02:40:09):
So more than likely NFL on Fox is going to
replace Jimmy Johnson with someone after he announced his retirement.
Awful announcing throughout an idea. Five names to consider? Dan Orlovsky,
Julian Edelman, Mike McCarthy, Michael Irvin, and Chris Long.

Speaker 3 (02:40:25):
Any of those cut your fancy? No great segment? Why
there I go? No, I don't what else I just taught?

Speaker 2 (02:40:38):
I thought I made my I thought I made my
opinion clear on these studio shows earlier in the week.

Speaker 3 (02:40:45):
Okay, Ace's out on this. I think Dan Orlovski is
probably not their way to go. I think Dan will
probably figure out a way to be a bigger part
of somebody's football production, whether it's a podcast performance or
online or back with ESPN in some capacity. I don't
think Mike McCarthy is the right guy. I'm not sure
what he'd be like on television. I also don't think

(02:41:05):
he's done with coaching yet, not that he'll be a
head coach next year. He can always leave. Sure Michael
Irvin that persona the edge and attitude which he brings,
And in both cases I think it's awesome for TV.
He seems like a horrible fit for them because he
has too much energy, He's too excited about football. He

(02:41:28):
loves talking about it so much. I'm not sure that
it's a good fit with that group. Chris Long wild
Card a lot of podcasts work, probably be a nice
little fit there, Probably a little bit subdued on his podcast.
Would need to bring a little bit more to a
show like that.

Speaker 6 (02:41:45):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety The continues.

Speaker 2 (02:42:00):
Segments of a Wednesday edition of the A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety WEX and AC with you astro Line
coming up at the top of the hour, Cam Smith.

Speaker 3 (02:42:10):
Did you ever get to Camp Smith?

Speaker 4 (02:42:12):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (02:42:12):
Yeah, the train. Did I ever get what? Cam Smith?

Speaker 2 (02:42:14):
Well, I remember at the beginning of one of the
segments I had mentioned him being on astro Line tonight,
and you said we would get him in a second,
and then you probably did, and I just forgot the
conversation already.

Speaker 3 (02:42:24):
But it will be. It will be absolutely.

Speaker 2 (02:42:31):
The storyline of the season for the Astros, particularly hope not.

Speaker 3 (02:42:36):
Why not?

Speaker 2 (02:42:37):
Why wouldn't it be the number one prospect because Okay,
if things are bad.

Speaker 3 (02:42:42):
The guys on the team aren't getting it done. If
things are going badly, bigger story, unfortunately. But he'll be
the savior. Okay, the savior. I mean, he's not the
hangman that's saving mav And that kid's son.

Speaker 2 (02:42:57):
One thing, if that kids, what did you say that
kid's son?

Speaker 3 (02:43:02):
Yeah, Goose was a young kid when he first got
to Miramar, Fighter Town, USA. Exactly have you ever been
out there? This is your savior speaking. Oh that's right.
What's his name again? Glenn All? What's his name again?
He's one of the most famous rom com actors in
our generation, But I.

Speaker 2 (02:43:20):
Feel like he didn't really take off until he was
in that movie.

Speaker 3 (02:43:23):
Yeah, and then he was in a movie with Sydney Sweeney. Hey,
did you know he's from Texas? Have you ever heard that?
I've seen him pimping the Longhorns, which I.

Speaker 2 (02:43:30):
Usually Calt McCoy and Jordan Shipley were roommates. I've heard
I've heard about that. Did you know that Juan Soto's
twenty one? Did you know that Rick Carlisle looks like
Jim Carrey. He does, and in that vein. How about
we give you guys some tickets.

Speaker 3 (02:43:45):
I mean, we're always doing that.

Speaker 2 (02:43:47):
A pack of tickets to the Houston Roughnecks. Four pack
of tickets. Yeah, I should have said that. Uh, it's
their season opener against the hated Saint Louis BattleHawks. Gosh,
that rivalry goes back years on March twenty eighth over
at TDECU Stadium. A single game and season tickets on
sale now at ticketmaster dot com.

Speaker 3 (02:44:08):
Or a pair of tickets to see.

Speaker 2 (02:44:12):
The original lineup of Journey plus the guy that sounds
like Steve Perry that they found on YouTube. That would
be Journey March fourteenth at Rodeo Houston. I'm sorry, I
can't say you're going to see Journey when it's not
all of Journey. But anyways, tickets and full entertainment lineup
available now at Rodeohuston dot com. So I mentioned last

(02:44:32):
segment when we were talking about Rick Carlisle that I
loved his performance in fill in the blank. Now we
listed a bunch of movies, but I think he looks
like Jim Carrey. There's a massive hint for you what
was the first What was the initial Jim Carrey film
that I mentioned last segment when we were making the
you've never seen him in the same room.

Speaker 3 (02:44:52):
Well, I like to give people hints. This particular movie
draws a forty eight percent approval rating on Rotten Today.
What does the crowd say? That's all it matters, right,
fifty eight fifty seven percent on pop comment er. Okay,
well what is on Rotten Tomatoes.

Speaker 2 (02:45:09):
It has a forty eight percent for the tomato the critics,
what is it?

Speaker 3 (02:45:13):
What is the audience?

Speaker 2 (02:45:14):
This is just overall.

Speaker 3 (02:45:15):
I don't see anything. I know what you're talking about,
but I don't see it. You know that Reagan movie
they came out with with one of the Quaid people, Uh,
they're very different. It was Randy one his cousin Eddie,
and the other one is you have at promoter? Yes poorly?
Uh No, he was energetic, That's all we want. That's true.

(02:45:36):
So again seven one, three, two, five, seven ninety. If
you know the initial movie that AC referenced in saying,
hey man, he coach of the Patiers looks like Jim
Carrey and I loved him in blank. Why do I
sound like that? That's that's me doing you. Okay, that
Reagan movie has like a two percent from the critics,
and then like the crowd like the pop he's the popcorn.

Speaker 2 (02:45:56):
It's like ninety eight percent approval rating. It's weird. It's
so obvious because it's politically slanted. So it just came
out in the last year. Yeah, ninety eight percent versus
eighteen percent. Yeah, in full disclosure, I tried watching it
three different times and I fell asleep all three and
why because it was late at night mainly, but it
was so did.

Speaker 3 (02:46:16):
You see enough of it to see Coach Kilmer in it?
What about drama? No? Both in it.

Speaker 2 (02:46:22):
I don't think I got very far. But guy, I
start I would start it late at night.

Speaker 16 (02:46:27):
Ye know.

Speaker 2 (02:46:27):
I'm like you, you're always watching movies you've seen a
million times, but you do it on cable because you're
extra weird.

Speaker 3 (02:46:33):
I will like, oh, set it up. I don't fire
it up on the DVR. I almost shared it today.
I almost shared this today.

Speaker 2 (02:46:39):
Tell me if you guys think about this, you guys
being like, if you're let's just say thirty five and above,
and that's really I should probably say forty because I'm
forty four.

Speaker 3 (02:46:49):
Say twenty five to fifty four.

Speaker 2 (02:46:51):
Oh for our key demo men only.

Speaker 3 (02:46:53):
No, I'm kidding, there was.

Speaker 2 (02:46:56):
It was a nineties nostalgia like Instagram story. I'm in right.
So one of the things that was shown in succession,
by the way, was the exterior of a Blockbuster Video store,
and then right after that a Hollywood Video.

Speaker 3 (02:47:16):
You remember Hollywood Video.

Speaker 2 (02:47:17):
They were going to cut in on the Blockbuster monopoly
for a while there.

Speaker 3 (02:47:21):
I do not have a Hollywood Video card in an
old wallet at my house. Blockbuster, for sure. Oh you don't, No,
I definitely don't. I know. You think I walked into
a Hollywood Video I did. I did. I don't think
I had a card, but I did saying you are
not Blockbuster. I just warned a snob about your cassette rentals. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:47:41):
So they're showing all this, and of course I go
to read the comments after I get done crying.

Speaker 3 (02:47:48):
Uh not really.

Speaker 2 (02:47:48):
It got a little dusty in the room at one
point because it was just pictures of people. There's no
cell phones, you know, everybody's just kind of like free flowing.
It's not people talk to each other, yes, then eye
contact and everything.

Speaker 3 (02:48:01):
The word social was about what you were being not
to be followed by the word media.

Speaker 2 (02:48:06):
Right, And so of course I start reading the comments
and one of the people nailed and I think they
got like the most likes out of anybody that was
on this particular account, like thousands of likes on this
As I recall, you know, we used to go into
a Blockbuster and it said Blockbuster on Friday nights.

Speaker 3 (02:48:23):
That's different.

Speaker 2 (02:48:24):
Blockbuster on Friday is different than Blockbuster really any other
night of the week, especially because you all know, if
you're of that age, you went there to get the
latest and greatest, and then you probably order pizza, maybe
from a place that doesn't exist anymore. I don't know
how nostalgic are we getting, But now you this person's

(02:48:45):
comment was brilliant. You sit there and you scroll on
streaming devices all these movies that you either you've either
seen them before or you want to see them, but
I want, I gotta keep scrolling, and by the time
you're done, you still haven't made a decision, and you've
wasted all the time it would have taken to watch
any of those movies you chose instead of this is

(02:49:07):
what I'm going to the store to get and I'm
gonna take it home, and by god, we're gonna watch it,
and we're gonna rewind it before we turn it in.

Speaker 3 (02:49:14):
You're gonnakind.

Speaker 2 (02:49:17):
Yeah, good for you. Please rewind be kind man. They
put a smiley face on there.

Speaker 3 (02:49:22):
Now, Blockbuster is where it's at. There's still well tonight,
I'm gonna go rent a movie and watch Blank.

Speaker 7 (02:49:28):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:49:28):
One of the things I scrolled past on one of
the streaming services a documentary about how they only went
down to one store Blockbuster.

Speaker 3 (02:49:34):
I mean, maybe you should, you know, come back with
a segment like this in the coming days and just
fill everybody in what your Netflix page looks like. You know,
they ask you before you fired up, who's watching? You
might have a multi Netflix user household, so we do
usually who's watching?

Speaker 4 (02:49:50):
You?

Speaker 3 (02:49:50):
Punch that in so it keeps things in line. So
when you get to the homepage with everything you have
to watch, they've got some suggestions for you. I can't
even imagine. I can't imagine what the suggestion are for you.
This is super long. It's a story you probably already know,
but in this documentary, here's what you're gonna get. First,
nine suggestions, do I have the soundtrack for the OJ documentary,

(02:50:12):
Believe it or not, believe it. I can't believe it
took you that long. It's good, But every time I
see the last dance on that much more is there?
There's probably some things. I don't know what. You know
what I'm dying to do. Whether he did it, no,
I know that.

Speaker 2 (02:50:26):
I know that he already told his agent Mike Gilbert,
that if she had just answered the door without the knife,
she'd be alive.

Speaker 3 (02:50:32):
Are you still single? It's a mystery. I told you.

Speaker 2 (02:50:35):
I want to sit down with him so bad. Mike Gilbert,
his former agent. What doc was he a big part of?
I remember the name, the latest one and the big
one with eight parts or whatever or eight hours?

Speaker 3 (02:50:46):
Nice? All right, more OJ tomorrow. Oh oh, we'll talk
to you tomorrow

Speaker 6 (02:50:51):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety