Rockets Ready To Roll, Stros Struggles Still Around?

On today's episode, The A-Team breaks down the Rockets' preparation for Golden State, more struggles at the plate from the Astros, who the Texans should at No. 25 and more!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised, my.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Girl, Nolan Multipi. The magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Sports Hell Chill lage down for the only home grown
afternoon team is.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Talking Your Teams.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are the A teams.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
A Hello, Houston, Texas. It is a Thursday edition of
the eight Team Sports Talks seven to ninety, soon to
be on Space City Home Network. WEX is over there,
Ac is right here. Cole Thompson is your producers. We
take you up until six o'clock tonight. No Astros tonight,

(00:58):
no Rockets until not Sunday morning, not Sunday midday, not
Sunday afternoon, and not even Sunday evening late into the night.
When that thing finally tips off at eight point fifty
in all likelihood local time for a home game, the
Rockets and the Warriors will get together. I can't decide

(01:18):
WEX and I feel like, because I'm going to be
out the next couple of days, You're gonna have to
afford me some grace as I kind of treat this
show as a bit of a playoff preview from my standpoint,
even though you've got a whole another show tomorrow to
do this without me. I can't decide if it's going
to be a great crowd. I think it will be.
It's the first playoff game in a long time, and

(01:40):
the Rockets fan base will have more than enough opportunity
to get to their seats on time. So any of
the remarks that we usually hear about, hey, where's the
crowd for a seven o'clock start in the middle of
February or whatever it is during the regular season, there's
no excuses for that. And yet on a Sunday night
with a work week, you know, pending, I just I

(02:01):
do wonder a little bit about that kind of thing,
and I'm hoping that that's all much do about nothing.
Since the Rockets fan base has been looking forward to
this for quite some time. I also was looking at
some of the things that the Warriors were saying following
their win the other night over the Grizzlies, and it's
just this is just more proof to me that it's

(02:21):
completely different, even though some of the same parts are
in place. I just I know everybody is picking them.
I've seen the pundits and that kind of thing, but
to hear Steph Curry say something like just a sense
of relief that we have something to look forward to
now after winning a play in game to get the

(02:42):
seven seed. If that doesn't tell you things have changed
a little bit in San Francisco now. I mean they
don't even play in Oakland anymore.

Speaker 5 (02:49):
I don't know what.

Speaker 6 (02:49):
Will how about it's also their first trip back to
the playoffs. Yes, thank you, that's what's changed. Yeah, if
they don't make the trade for Jimmy Butler, it's a
lost season. It's another last year of stiff Curry the
last year, last year, all the year since the championship,
very similar to that. It took him a long time
to figure out. The aging players around him were less
helpful to him, and they figured it out. Finally they

(03:11):
were going nowhere. There were five hundred basketball team this year,
five hundred even in the West. That was going to
be a tough spot. There were two teams that were
just under five hundred that played last night and one
of the bad Ones won and they will play on Friday.
But they were going nowhere. I mean, big deal making
the play in that's the other part of it. Whoever

(03:31):
wins Friday's game, their season just ends a little bit
later whenever Oklahoma City decides to dispatch of them. And
that's what Golden State was facing before they made the
Jimmy Butler trade. It's also what they were facing on Tuesday.
That's why beating Memphis was so important to both teams.
Not winning Tuesday met you're playing Oklahoma City and it

(03:52):
has nothing to do with the other six potential opponents
who could have in a postseason series in the West
that has everything to do with Oklahoma City. There's nothing
at advantageous about that, unless you were looking forward to
an early trip to your summer, to your vacation, like
apparently the two teams were last night that did not
have to travel two unexciting, uncompetitive, unnecessary playing games for

(04:14):
two teams in both conferences that just didn't belong there,
two teams on both sides. They couldn't win half their games.
We had to have it, yes we did, so we
got it last night. Dallas is going to play more
basketball and the Atlanta Hawks are going to play more
basketball thanks to the winner of last night's game, the

(04:37):
Miami Heat. They'll they'll all meet coming up on Friday,
and they'll both be dispatched quite easily when their first
round series begin earlier in the day on Sunday than
Rockets and Warriors. No need to get into last night's game.
Like I said, they're not important, and I really wonder
if the league is understands what it is.

Speaker 5 (04:59):
I understand what it means.

Speaker 6 (05:00):
It means money, So I'm not saying they're doing the
wrong thing, but it's unfortunate that those games and these
teams have something on the line. Honestly, Miami winning is
bad for their franchise because of what it does to
their future picks, in my opinion, but players don't know that.
Ask Davis Mills and Jordan Aikins. As it turned out,
everything was fine, but players play. Players try to win.

(05:22):
Tyler hero bam Adebayo. They went out there to win,
and they did rather easily. A Bulls team put probably
their worst game on the court in about two months.
Kobe White was honestly, he had his worst game of
the season at the worst possible time. Forty two times
this year he attempted at least fifteen shots. That was
the worst night of shooting he had in all of them.
So they lost, and now we don't have to talk

(05:43):
about them anymore.

Speaker 4 (05:46):
I listen, if you're not the Celtics of the Cavs,
I don't even care about you in the Eastern Conference.

Speaker 6 (05:50):
That's how little regardless interest in the East comes today
as it relates to the Spurs and Victor wembin Yama.
And there's no way I'd even pretend that while they
suffered from the same issue blood wise, Victor webbin Yama
hope for the best for his future. And yet we're
getting reports out of Milwaukee from sources or doctors saying

(06:13):
I've never seen anything like this before. Three weeks of treatment,
early detection, early treatment prior to full diagnosis of the
blood clot issue. The issue for both Victor in San Antonio,
but I'm specifically describing that of Damian Lillard. He's going
to miss Bucks Pacers Game one, but he's already on

(06:33):
the court. He's already been playing three on three. They're
going to do some more reevaluating, and he's going to
get back on the court, likely if all goes well
for additional practice. Signs point to him playing in Game two.
Extremely unexpected, and I feel fantastic for the person that
he's back on the court.

Speaker 5 (06:49):
This quickly.

Speaker 6 (06:50):
I'm hopeful that it isn't rushed and everything is actually
fine and hopefully he can play well.

Speaker 7 (06:57):
Well.

Speaker 5 (06:57):
What my question?

Speaker 4 (06:59):
My first question would be, since we're talking about you know,
blood clots and that kind of meaning, this is not
a minor thing and it's not major in that it's
a you know, a soft tissue injury or something like that,
Like this is a major, major thing. What kind of
treatments has he been going through to get to this point?
I mean, I know that there are treatments for a
lot of things out there, but my question is like,

(07:20):
what did they do? Cause I feel like, and I'm
probably slipping on the name recognizance, but wasn't there multiple
NBA players, Chris Bosh being among them, that had their
careers basically curtailed because of this.

Speaker 5 (07:35):
Kind of thing.

Speaker 6 (07:36):
Everybody who has it has their career pacted in some way,
but it honestly has been different for everyone. This would
be extremely different than those that came before him.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Like even Hakeem had to wear those orthopedic leg protective
whatever I call them sleeves sleaves feel like something you
put on your arms, but that's what they are. Like
sleep Yeah, So I feel like, but that was like
his last season in Toronto.

Speaker 5 (08:00):
He was at the tail end of his career. I
don't know. I think I'm kind of surprised that kind
of thing doesn't happen more.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
With the amount of flying these guys do everywhere all
year long.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
It's just insane how much they're on there.

Speaker 6 (08:12):
So we'll see how much it impacts him. Obviously that's
the most important. But then the series itself, all eight series,
Like we've said, they get started on Saturday, where Sunday,
the last of the eight series goes off at Toyota
Center for Houston. It has been a very very long
time since they have been in the playoffs. It's been
an even longer time since they have hosted a playoff
game at Toyota Center. Because of the year they made

(08:32):
the playoffs. The year following they did not have any
games at their home arena, but rather in Florida. Even
for home games and road games and everybody's games, they
played in the bubble. They have been practicing throughout the week.
They are a healthy bunch and they are ready to
do what we're going to do today, not really talk
about Warriors Rockets postseason history. We got that out of

(08:54):
our system, I hope yesterday for the most part, because
all most totally irrelevant. It's fun for us, it's fun
for the fans, it's fun for the organizations. And I'm
not dismissing its relevancy too. It would be nice if
this rivalry had two teams in it. You got to
beat the other team to be a part of the rivalry,
and the Rockets as a franchise have yet to do
that in the postseason. Had not played the Golden State

(09:15):
Warriors in the postseason prior to twenty fifteen. They've now
played them four times. They have not beaten them in
any of those matchups. But as we know, the group
on the court, the group coaching the team on the court,
has nothing to do with that. None of them were here,
none of them were probably even paying much attention to it,
other than the ones that were at least in the
NBA at the time. And remember some of these twenty
one and twenty two year olds on the Rockets in

(09:38):
the twenty fifteen postseason when they met, well that was
ten years ago. I'm sure they bounced to basketball. I'm
sure they paid attention to basketball. They probably even played
basketball and I don't think they were locked in on
Warriors rockets back then like they will be now, and
we'll hear from a handful of them over the course
of the afternoon here as they're over at their training
facility finishing up their day's worth of work, fully locked

(10:02):
in on their opponent. That was the one good thing
as opposed to being the number one seed. The number
two seed at least doesn't have to waste their time
prepping and game filming for a team they end up
not playing. I don't think it matters much for the
quality of Oklahoma State, but it's not much of a
prize as the one seed to have one, two, three,
four five days before you play, all of which are

(10:25):
we don't know who we're playing. Because Friday afternoon, whenever
it is the Oklahoma City Thunder practice, the play and
game that determines their opponent still won't have been played.

Speaker 5 (10:35):
That's so ridiculous.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
I know there's probably not a better way to do it,
but it feels like there needs to be.

Speaker 5 (10:40):
Well if you're going to have this many teams in it.

Speaker 6 (10:41):
It's just like the Wildcard round in the Major League
Baseball The Astros when they win the Division have to
wait till Sunday or Saturday of the first week of
the postseason to play anybody. It's just how it is
when you add those teams and everybody doesn't play. There
are off weeks for some teams, but in the NBA,
the only way to do it is to give every
team that made the playoffs. The twelve teams that made it, well,

(11:05):
they get the full week off, and two of those
twelve don't know who they're playing until less than forty
eight hours before tip off.

Speaker 4 (11:12):
Yeah, I have a question as it pertains to the
playoff format that I'll get to next. We are also
going to get to a little bit of what Dana
Brown had to say earlier today on the Sports Talk
seven ninety airwaves, as well as Ima Udoka and his
visit with.

Speaker 5 (11:27):
The Matt Thomas Show.

Speaker 4 (11:28):
All of that and so much more coming up on
a Thursday edition of the program.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (11:48):
It is the A Team.

Speaker 4 (11:49):
It's Sports Talks seven ninety two o'clock hour. Here Wax
and ac col Thompson with you as we take you
up until six o'clock tonight. Real quickly, we were talking
about the playing games last night in the format of
the postseason. This was not put forth as like a
like a sample, like to see how it works, like

(12:11):
certain things have been in sports. This is like, this
is it. This is how it's going to be from
here to eternity. Correct, like not, you know, even back
in the day, like we're especially wex is old enough
to remember when it was best of three in the
first round of the NBA playoffs. The last time the
Rockets won championships, it was best of five, famously as

(12:33):
they had to go to the fifth and deciding game
against the Utah Jazz that second year when they didn't
have home court advantage for any of the rounds and
all that good stuff, and one from what is still
the lowest seeded team to ever win a championship, And
eventually we got to seven games, and we all know why,
and it's a big reason why the Rockets will have
three games in the span of a week, three whole

(12:55):
games they'll play between Sunday and the following weekend in
this first round series. But yeah, the plan I could
do without it. I mean I get the concept of it,
just like I get the wild card game in baseball
and all that kind of stuff. But if you took
it away tomorrow, it's fine. Just put the top eight
seeds in there.

Speaker 6 (13:15):
You're not a team that's really good isn't going to
miss the playoffs. I don't think you had it last year.
You had two forty six win teams in the play
in Tournament as nine and ten seeded teams, and that's
I think what they were forecasting at times in whichever conference,
obviously it was in the West, because these sucks, it
really does. They're trying to reward these teams for trying

(13:37):
to win. They're trying to really create more excitement instead
of having that many more teams tanking or looking at
playoff positioning already saying well, we can't make the top eight,
so these games are not important anymore. They're making in
their minds making the games more important. Forty six win teams, Yeah,
that's great, it's not likely going to happen. It's the

(13:59):
only time in the history of the play in Tournament
a nine or ten seed had more than forty three wins,
and it was the only time, and now two teams
did it in one year, but they would have met
those games would have mattered anyway. You know why because
if they're that good, guess what they're doing at the
end of the season trying to make the top eight.
They were one game out of the playoffs. You think

(14:20):
the last couple of games of the season would have
mattered without a play and tournament. Of course, the Eastern
Conference last year Bulls were the nine seed, seven games
out of the playoffs and bad. It's for money, I
get it. We talk about it in all the sports.
Why are so many teams? And look what made Major
League baseball so different than the other sports for such
a long period of time. You got this huge league

(14:42):
and almost nobody makes the postseason because they're valuing the
regular season. They're valuing every game. Now, it might make
some of the late season games a little less important
because there's no race going on anymore, but it certainly
made the race to get there super important because there
weren't alternate of ways to get in the postseason. You
had to win your division, or you had to be

(15:03):
one of the four best teams. There was one wild card,
and then there were two wild cards, and now there's
three wild cards without an expansion of teams, So there's
fifteen teams in the American League and now six of
the fifteen teams get to play extra baseball. Some years,
one of those six teams doesn't really play much like Houston. Yeah,
like last year, but you're there, thanks for reminding us.

Speaker 5 (15:24):
So out of fifteen is a lot.

Speaker 6 (15:25):
It got them much much closer to the other sports.
Football expanded their postseason. Now seven teams make it. Now
only one team gets the off week rather than two.
And now here in the NBA, from sixteen of thirty,
sixteen of thirty teams, we're already not having their season's end,
and all sixteen we're already going into a multi game series. Well,

(15:46):
now twenty of the thirty teams don't have their season end.
When the regular season ends, only ten teams don't play
extra basketball. That's more money. It's a one week's worth
of more money. Games two on Tuesday, two on Wednesday,
the two we've yet to see on Friday. That's it
for that amount of money. The playing tournament exists now

(16:08):
as year five.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Yeah, and I know you mentioned yesterday that curiously, the
two teams that will have the most rest between all
of their games will be the series involving both the
Lakers and the Warriors.

Speaker 6 (16:19):
I don't I wouldn't say curiously. I would say obviously.
And unfortunately they happen to also be the two teams
that probably bring probably then you certainly have can disagree
probably bring. We know the Lakers bring the most eyeballs,
so that's one reason we're gonna make sure every one
of their games is exactly where we want it, exactly

(16:40):
when we want it, exactly the night of the week
that we want it, as many weekend dates as possible,
to Sunday date it's a Saturday date another. I mean,
it's it's set up that way specifically. And my thought
is with the longevity of Golden State being the viewers
darling team, they're the next one that they want as
much as possible, as often and of as many great

(17:01):
prime spot eyeballs as they can get. So it happened
to be that they also employ I don't know if
I haven't done the research right, but I'm looking around
at the sixteen teams that will be playing, and we'll
take the most important players for those teams. I mean,
Luca throws it off a little, but he brings it back.
I'm looking at age. The two most important players on

(17:21):
the Warriors are older than any two more important players
on any team in the postseason, so rest probably does
them good. And Lebron obviously fits to that same category.
And Luca, if you'll again allow me every day and
for the history of time, to go back to this,
since the MAVs put it out there because of Luca's
inability to condition himself, drink too much, eat too much,
and not care about his body, it's gonna help him too.

Speaker 4 (17:44):
So you're only saying what they already said exactly. That's
what's crazy about.

Speaker 6 (17:49):
It's good for the team, Nico. I've said it before.
Defense wins championships and he's a factor. You've gotten rid
of all of your future assets and have no picks
to make the next house.

Speaker 5 (17:58):
How is this good?

Speaker 6 (17:59):
I don't know how many times I have to tell
you defense wins championships. But you set up your team
last year to win with Luca, and you went to
the finals. You're the you're currently you, Nico. Your team
the one you put together, the deals you made it
last year's trade deadline. You put that team in the
Western Conference finals. So how is what you did this
season in the best interests of the team. Well, I

(18:20):
keep telling you Defense wins championships.

Speaker 4 (18:22):
Okay, it's it's a very odd situation. I don't think
it's going away anytime soon, at least not in Dallas
where that fan base is.

Speaker 6 (18:30):
It's never going away. No, he keeps saying when we win,
it will go away.

Speaker 5 (18:34):
Like he did. Isn't going to go away.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
Ever, he did something that unless you do win multiple
championships in like the next five years, which isn't gonna happen,
you don't recover from that, as in, you don't ever
get another gig like that. Ever, I don't think anybody's
never gonna hire him to be their GM after he's
inevitably gone from Dallas.

Speaker 6 (18:53):
I don't think a lot of gms operate that way,
like when they say it to us coaches, especially, are
you worried about your job security? Have you heard for management?
Have they given you a vote of confidence? I don't
really coach like that, or I don't really make moves
like that. I'm sure he doesn't either, especially since he
took an exceptionally non conventional path to being a general
manager in the NBA.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
It didn't work his way up.

Speaker 6 (19:12):
He wasn't in the front office for fifteen years at
some other place, and then all of a sudden he
got an elevation or a promotion. He came from a
different part of the industry and has this job. And
like I said, for as much as this deal, clearly
I think takes your team.

Speaker 5 (19:26):
Backwards, which is the opposite of your goal.

Speaker 8 (19:29):
He was.

Speaker 6 (19:29):
Give him a little credit for the team they put
on the floor last year. They didn't add Jimmy Butler,
but Golden State wasn't going to be in the Western
Conference conversation without him. The Mavericks weren't going to be
in the Western Conference conversation last year without two huge
moves to make their team better defensively. Last year good
enough to win the West, adding Gafford, adding PJ. Washington,

(19:51):
they were already good enough defensively. That's how they won
the West. It's fine to keep saying defense wins championship.
We know you just won a Western Gofredge championship with
the roster you just torpedoed.

Speaker 5 (20:03):
We get it.

Speaker 6 (20:04):
But he did put a good team together once. I
don't know if he's ever going to be afforded, like
you said, the opportunity to even try again. They'll probably
line up Kyrie's extension with his time there, Nico's time there,
which already lines up with Anthony Davis's time there. At
least give Anthony Davis some credit for being an awesome
human as we look at what we have all these

(20:25):
fan and player interactions. Maybe awesome humans a bit far,
but it was fun. Nonetheless, Kings fans were screaming at
the Mavericks bench all night, so as the game was
ending and these stands were emptying, he just said, hey, man,
you guys been talking abouts all night.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
How about some for me.

Speaker 6 (20:40):
You guys might want to leave early and beat the
traffic since y'all are losing, so since your season's over.

Speaker 5 (20:44):
It was awesome, did you?

Speaker 4 (20:47):
And I know that part of this is because he
said something about it, but the manufactured exercising of the
demons that Klay Thompson supposedly did last night because he
lost in Sacramento last year with a completely different or
the last time he was there with a completely different franchise,
was a little much.

Speaker 6 (21:04):
I mean, it was less about the loss and more
about his play. Yeah, like he was a bleeping disaster.
I'm not sure how you would like me to say that,
but do you recall how he performed in that game,
he was reminded by the reporter, and then he corrected
him because the reporter said he went one for ten.

Speaker 5 (21:20):
It was over ten. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (21:23):
I hate the fact that I think I would love
Klay Thompson if he was on the Rockets just because
he's a good dude.

Speaker 5 (21:27):
I've said it forever, but I can't.

Speaker 6 (21:29):
I would have, and it's partially about I think he's
a good per player, good teammate, great to talk to.
But he's what this team has always lacked, their three
and D player, darkness, best era. He was both of those.
The three and D players did they think Rockets employed, Yes,
were Trevor Ariza, who was pretty good defensively at least

(21:52):
as good as Clay at times, but nowhere near the
shooter or offensive player.

Speaker 5 (21:57):
And PJ.

Speaker 6 (21:58):
Tucker, who was a good defender too, but an off
beyond awful offensive player unless he was in the corner
like awful sounds.

Speaker 5 (22:07):
Like on the court. No, not a man could score
ten points in his sleep. PJ. Tucker can't score ten
points in a month. I don't know if I'd go
that bad on him. I know what you're saying.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
Players who played the final week this NBA season, since
for some reason the next put him on the court,
I'd say is the least likely to score. Now over
about twenty eighteen, which was like six years ago. Now, yeah,
he did average six points a game in twenty eighteen.
You're right, my bad. He wasn't thirty nine percent shooter.
He crushed it.

Speaker 5 (22:36):
He was awesome. I'd take it all.

Speaker 4 (22:39):
Eric Gordon was probably considered a three and D guy,
even though less on the D and more on the three.

Speaker 6 (22:44):
Yeah, probably so, and all of them, in my mind,
significantly worse than Klay Thompson even are.

Speaker 5 (22:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (22:51):
Yeah, Eric, at times his Clipper days, he was pretty
well rounded all around. Get this ball to this player,
and we're gonna something Good's gonna happen. He's gonna score,
he's gonna create, He's gonna do more than just camp out.
He was a much younger and better player. He's still
pretty good with Houston. Yeah, oh for sure. I mean
they don't win sixty five games without him in there.

(23:12):
But yeah, it's the best part about this upcoming series
is that at least on Houston's side, there is a
complete overhaul.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
They're still gonna be residual if he will on the
Golden State side of things. All right, we have a
ton of stuff still to get to. Now, there is
a certain quarterback floating around in the NFL, still unemployed,
still talking, and I know that it's probably going to well,

(23:41):
it's definitely going to make WEX roll his eyes several times.

Speaker 5 (23:44):
But I can't. I'm sorry, It's just it's like a
train wreck.

Speaker 4 (23:48):
I have to absolutely check in on this guy every
time he says something and he's still talking. So we
will do that. As I mentioned, we're gonna get Gordy
in studio. We're gonna also hear from Ema Yoka and
Dana Brown a whole lot more as we continue Hunter here.

Speaker 5 (24:03):
On a Thursday edition of The eighteen.

Speaker 9 (24:07):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (24:14):
Did you just see this?

Speaker 10 (24:15):
We're putting out between five and fifteen.

Speaker 5 (24:17):
Posts a day.

Speaker 6 (24:18):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 10 (24:22):
History repeats itself type banguls succeed. Never doubt that you're
the one who pus like the one building lead.

Speaker 5 (24:31):
You're the best of X.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Nothing gonna ever.

Speaker 5 (24:35):
Top you know you're the.

Speaker 10 (24:37):
Best of X posting every single day, You're the best
of X breaking the entire Internet.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
All right, it's the best of X. We do it
every day around this time, give or take. We take
to the main streets or Instagram or any other social
media avenue and we find out what's going on. Now,
I am I'm gonna make a little bit of an
exception here and we can carry over if we need to,
because I think, in my humble opinion, just perusing things

(25:15):
that have happened over the last several hours and since
we got together here on the program yesterday, I think
my co host is trying to tweak me a little bit.
I was perusing at Adam J. Wexler on the X
platform earlier, and at around eleven to fifteen this morning,

(25:39):
he wrote the following, the thirty six officials for the
first round of the NBA Playoffs less than nine have
one hundred plus playoff games. Is that what you intended
to say by writing it that way? Or is this
just a random dash in front of the nine.

Speaker 6 (25:57):
It's a dash to indicate here's a new line of information. Okay,
doesn't say less than it's a dash.

Speaker 4 (26:07):
Here we go, Cole, here we go. Scott Foster is
at the top of that list. With two hundred and
fifty five playoff games.

Speaker 5 (26:17):
See the second dash below it same thing. It's way
down there.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
Maybe you should write less with your two hundred and
eighty characters and I wouldn't have to.

Speaker 5 (26:24):
Do blue check mark.

Speaker 4 (26:25):
Sorry, Okay, we can keep welling on this or we
can move on with the actual.

Speaker 5 (26:31):
We got a break in like.

Speaker 6 (26:32):
There's a lot of information to get it, and it's
the first out we can break whenever we want. Best
of X Scott fish Foster for the one hundred billionth
year in a row, has been selected by the NBA
to work the postseason. Same with Tony Brothers, Mark Davis,
dom Capers, Bill Kennedy.

Speaker 5 (26:51):
Dom Capers is an NBA official now, James Capers, Zach Zarba.
Who's Davis? Mark?

Speaker 11 (26:58):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (26:58):
Yeah, I forgot about him. Oh that's right.

Speaker 4 (27:00):
I'm supposed to forget about him because he's not one
that stands out for the wrong reasons.

Speaker 5 (27:04):
But the guy at the top of the list does. Oh,
Mark Davis is good? Yes? How bad is he?

Speaker 6 (27:11):
Do you think Fred van Vliet should have been ejected
from that game?

Speaker 5 (27:14):
I thought that I thought that was Ben what's his face?
That's a different Fred van vliet versus a.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
Oh, so there's two other officials besides Scott Foster and
Tony Brothers who suck when it comes to the rockets.

Speaker 5 (27:24):
Good to know now we have.

Speaker 6 (27:25):
Four, you could go a lot longer than five. I
know that that's kind of my point. So fuch focus
on just just this guy's bad. Well, I know, like nobody,
I don't disagree. I don't think anybody got that. The
officials have a tendency to not be as good as
we think they are the whole group. It's not just
Scott or John Goebel or Bill Kennedy or any of

(27:47):
the names we say. So they they all have they
none of them are perfect. Lots of them make tons
of mistakes and a lot of them make the kind
of mistakes were like, how do they grade it out?
I added this at the end, selected here's the next
cash process.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
Yeah, that's why the tweet should read as follows.

Speaker 6 (28:03):
Using three specific criteria, the referee operations team grades them
and ranks them.

Speaker 5 (28:08):
That's one category.

Speaker 6 (28:10):
They're play calling accuracy as a second category, and then
the teams have rankings and.

Speaker 5 (28:15):
That's the third category.

Speaker 6 (28:16):
Based on those a compilation of those figures here are
your thirty six that at least made the grade to
work first round games, and then they'll pair it down
as they move along in the playoffs. Just Scott Foster
again will add to his two hundred and fifty five
career postseason games.

Speaker 4 (28:34):
Just answer the all important question that we all care about,
the only.

Speaker 5 (28:38):
One that we really all care about.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
Here, what game in the series is that jackass walking
through the door to ruin things for Houston?

Speaker 6 (28:46):
I don't know, but I'll say that if the Rockets
are competitive in this series, meaning they have won a game,
they're going to win a game, they're ahead in the series,
they've been competitive, then whatever game he officiates, if he
draws a Rocket Warriors assignment, I'm perfectly fine standing here
today because I'm currently standing and saying the Rockets will
win that game.

Speaker 5 (29:07):
Why do you say that, because that's so irrelevant.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
Him officiating a game is irrelevant for a Rockets playoff
win against the Golden State Warriors involving Steph Curry. Absolutely,
to me, I could not disagree harder with something you've
ever said in your life, right.

Speaker 6 (29:22):
Because I'm not on board with even though there's lots
of evidence, and specifically from the series we go back
to with the miss three.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
Point or so often.

Speaker 6 (29:30):
It's not just a series though, right, But I just
don't believe that the LEA the NBA is in that business.

Speaker 5 (29:36):
Currently, even though one of their officials that we know of.

Speaker 6 (29:40):
Then how easy is it to quit having people bring
it up? Because there's no reason for you not to
bring it up. It happened, It's a fact. It is
still a story this many years after Tim Ganaghey has
no longer been a part of this league. It's so
easy to eliminate that conversation, and the NBA won't do it.

Speaker 4 (30:00):
They want the reason why they keep bringing it up
because the guy you're talking about, everybody well texting him
hundreds of times.

Speaker 6 (30:08):
Right, there's no disputing why it should be brought up.
You're perfect, you should You're doing your job.

Speaker 5 (30:12):
This matters.

Speaker 6 (30:13):
There's no way there isn't a connection between these two. Okay,
So we wouldn't be talking about it anymore. If Scott
Foster was still in the league, the NBA could prevent
this conversation from happening, which I can't imagine that they
like if he wasn't in the league anymore.

Speaker 5 (30:28):
But he is. Why is that that's there you go,
but I'm not.

Speaker 6 (30:31):
No, the the why is that the there you go
responses because he's a fixer and I can't.

Speaker 5 (30:38):
I can't have that. You can't. I just can't, not
in my brain. But you can't dispute it either. I
can dispute it. How what's your evidence evidence that he's
not one?

Speaker 4 (30:48):
Because I can point to things that at least go
in the general direction that he is one, But you
can't point met anything this says he's not.

Speaker 6 (30:55):
It's just so easy for so many others. Now, maybe
gambling and fixing games with officials isn't the same, although
there's a direct correlation, because we're Tim Donneghy. The whole
reason he was fixing games was for gambling purposes. Well,
when and we have I'm sure there's players that have
gambled before and we don't know it. But the further

(31:16):
along we go, and as the NBA gets more and
more in bed as they should, as all sports leagues
should with gambling and daily fantasy sports.

Speaker 5 (31:25):
That's an opinion. Some people do not think that.

Speaker 6 (31:27):
Well, it's the same thing we talked about the first
two segments. It's about money. That's why you should you
want to make money. So yeah, it's pretty simpl from yeah,
so we are gonna it's gonna be harder and harder
to do it and not get cut and not have
an investigation. And they just keep sending him out there, Like,
I find it hard to believe that the they not
risk all of this right just so Scott Foster can

(31:50):
referee a couple of games and a couple of series
each round of the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (31:54):
But it's not just that they keep sending him out there,
it's when they send him out to what series and
what state of the series it's in when they do it,
I hope another example of the fixer column getting a
check mark next to it in your column where he's
not definitely not getting a check in it.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
Yeah, like one game, yes, and ninety games no? How
about this?

Speaker 4 (32:17):
How about this just for bleeps and giggles to appease
people like me who are obviously full blown conspiracy theorists
and not just you know, people who have vision and eyeballs.
How about Scott Foster does not officiate any game involving
the Warriors or the Lakers just for the first round.

(32:37):
There's plenty of other games you can send him to
So if you really want people like me to shut
the hell up, don't have him officiate any of those
potential fourteen games.

Speaker 5 (32:47):
That's all. How hard is that to do? NBA go
I wish you can't do it.

Speaker 6 (32:53):
I wis This is why I wish their data would
be released, because he doesn't just work the postseason, works
the best teams in the most watched games constantly, so.

Speaker 5 (33:04):
He's gonna be working him.

Speaker 6 (33:05):
He doesn't have one hundred and ten of playoff games.
It's why he has fifty more than every other official working.
Because the grades, however, they're probably doctored and made up
and lied about. Since we don't see him, he keep
how does he keep getting regarded at this level?

Speaker 5 (33:21):
And outside of Chris Paul?

Speaker 6 (33:23):
I don't think the players view Foster like we do,
like everybody else does.

Speaker 5 (33:29):
Well, the Warriors certainly don't. He helps the hell out
of them.

Speaker 6 (33:32):
Players constantly, I believe, don't grade him poorly. Teams probably
it can't grade him poorly, or else he wouldn't keep
getting these assignments.

Speaker 4 (33:40):
But he does have a reputation for having a short
fuse and or he's unapproachable by players.

Speaker 6 (33:46):
Have said that that's the one thing that all officials
should not be like, and he definitely has been known.

Speaker 5 (33:52):
See it's with certain players.

Speaker 6 (33:53):
I feel like his fus is so shows short, and
it's not with certain players who are all at the
same level of greatness. Aymon Green he is along with
and oh I'll listen. I'm like, you can't do that.
That's what a bad official does. And that's that's like
my biggest thing about him that I don't like. I
actually watch games that he officiates, block charge, reaching, blockshot,
and I'm like, it looks like he's officiating a good game.

(34:15):
And then we come in here and you're like, dude,
we were sitting next to each other and our eyes
were open.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
How are we watching the same game. Well, we do
that with a lot of things.

Speaker 6 (34:22):
There you go, best of X thanks to me just
giving you facts. The officials have been picked content. You
call it facts. I call it content. The facts are
these thirty six head shots will be working NBA games.

Speaker 9 (34:36):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
Ry said, send my soul.

Speaker 5 (34:52):
I hear, when's the last time you went to Vegas.
It's a good question. It's been a minute. You were
there on your family vacation, weren't you.

Speaker 6 (35:02):
Yeah, this is when my son makes fun of me
because we go on a family vacation each summer. And
then he pretends, like, you remember when we were in
insert city We weren't in last year and he starts
telling me about it.

Speaker 5 (35:11):
He goes, are you serious? You really don't remember where
we went last summer?

Speaker 8 (35:16):
Telly?

Speaker 5 (35:17):
Doing that was that last summer? Maybe?

Speaker 4 (35:20):
Oh my gosh, you're the worst. So wait you cause
you went to things that I would like to go to.
But my wife would make fun of me, right like
you did the Hoover Dan thing.

Speaker 5 (35:30):
I want to go see that. Yes, that's just outside
of it. I'm gonna go with a yes.

Speaker 6 (35:34):
This past summer, Yeah, well, wilver Dam did a walked
up and down the strip to see as many of
the hotels that we could. Other events did a little Uh.

Speaker 4 (35:42):
You were moving around. You weren't staying there for a
long time, like you went to La in the same trip.

Speaker 5 (35:47):
Right, what year did we have hurricane damage? Recently? All
of them was like this this year? Right?

Speaker 6 (35:53):
Sure, Well we were supposed to come back, but Beryl,
that was last that was last July. Well, we couldn't
come back because there weren't any flights to get us
to Houston. Keep Oh my god, we have to stay
in Vegas another day, again, another day, and you're gonna
let us stay in the same hotel. We don't even
have to move. Oh my, this is the worst.

Speaker 5 (36:14):
This is the worst. That's funny. Same hotel you're going to.

Speaker 4 (36:17):
Yeah, Fountain Blue. Well, it is the official hotel. It's nice,
it's newer. Yeah, that's I mean, apparently there's events there
every night. That's where I think the wrestlers are staying
for a now to night extravaganza. I watched a documentary
recently on Peacock about the first time they had Wrestlemani
in Vegas. It was WrestleMania nine. You remember it well,

(36:38):
I'm sure it was back in nineteen ninety.

Speaker 5 (36:40):
Three Mani and nine.

Speaker 6 (36:41):
So Andre the Giant, Yeah, big John stud but almost
Hulk Hogan.

Speaker 5 (36:45):
Hogan was there, Uh, Paul Orendorf.

Speaker 4 (36:50):
I don't think he was a part of things. This
is ninety three, not eighty three. So they had it.
You've been to Caesar's Palace, right, the real Caesar's Palace.
I'm not getting a sig on my beeper. Does he
live here one of the greatest scenes ever. You've been
to it over the years?

Speaker 6 (37:03):
Car down, they went chargers to lead it out. They've
been been there, blax, he's a dentist. You've been there
many times?

Speaker 5 (37:10):
Right?

Speaker 6 (37:11):
Oh yeah, many many times, many more times earlier in
my life.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
That's what I'm saying. You went to Caesar's Palace when, like,
did you? Had you been there by nineteen ninety three?
I bet you, yes, yea?

Speaker 5 (37:22):
Because in this documentary what's that went with this wolf pack? Yeah? Exactly.

Speaker 6 (37:26):
So then there was the one in the wolf where'd
you go? Wex Oh, I went to score drugs? Let's
have some.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
When you went, because I'm sure you went to several
fights at Caesar's Palace over the years.

Speaker 6 (37:36):
I definitely went there, no outdoor fights, but most of
the fights I think I ended up seeing were at
the MGM Grand when they had just built their in
house arena.

Speaker 4 (37:46):
Because that became that kind of took over for what
Caesar's Palace used to be, which was the site of
all these big fights. And in this documentary they're talking
about that and the guy is standing in the middle
of all these fountains and you know, lavish dec and
He's like, yeah, this is where it was. It was
a parking lot and that's where we had this WrestleMania
nine event, which was attended by like fifteen thousand people,

(38:09):
whereas this one, and it was one afternoon basically because
everything's earlier there. This one is going to be a
two night event where the Raiders play and there is
not going to be a free seat. It's going to
be insane, a little bit of a different feel. But
I just I was wondering if you had been to
Caesar's Palace like around that time, during that time, to

(38:31):
know what it looked like before, because I'm just like
shocked when I see some of the aerial shots of
where they put this thing, like where they actually put
the set in the stands and all it was all built.
They had to build it all because it was a
parking lot. And now there's all this stuff there apparently
because Caesar's Palace has completely like blown up and been
huge made.

Speaker 6 (38:48):
Huger some of the open space where like fan Man,
the guy that fell on the event, and Mike correct,
some of the open space has been taken up by
newer a little build out for it.

Speaker 5 (39:00):
They reference that in the document I think.

Speaker 6 (39:01):
Gordon has a one of his restaurants is in a
little an additional area out there. So this huge open
space just isn't quite as big anymore. It's still there,
it's still pretty open for and they still have an
insane amount of lottage lottage. Their lot is insane even
for Vegas. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Haven't seen
this fear in person yet. I'm looking forward to seeing that.

(39:21):
Was that around when you guys were out there? Yeah,
we saw their movie that they run when there's not
a concert there, so we wanted to see that.

Speaker 4 (39:28):
Apparently right now there's a giant WrestleMania logo on it.
I wonder if I'll be able to see it from
the plane. All right, So yeah, I'm gonna be out
tomorrow and Monday.

Speaker 6 (39:37):
Well you're giving this heads up, I'm gonna be out
like this is our final segment. You got three more hours,
I know, I know. I just since he played the
Vegas music, it made me think of it.

Speaker 4 (39:45):
Three o'clock hour is coming up next here on the
eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety It will include a visit
from Chris Gordy.

Speaker 9 (39:53):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety two. Lifelong Houston
sports guys named at him Talking Your Team. Adam Clinton
and Adam Weckler are the eight Team.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
It's a Thursday edition of the A Team. It's Sports
Talk seven to ninety. It's Space City Home Network. As
the simulcast has begun, wex Ac and Cole Thompson with you,
taking you up until six o'clock to night. First hour
was really mainly centered around the fact that the Rockets
are still waiting around for the playoffs to begin, and

(40:40):
then once the playoffs get here, it's going to take
forever for them to complete just three games. Like you know,
you're playing four games for sure. It's the best of seven.
You will not complete game three of this series until
over a week from now. And I realized that everybody's
got best of seven rounds to play. I realize you've

(41:01):
got the TV schedules to juggle in all that. It
just seems insane that you're gonna be waiting after Sunday's
game until Wednesday, and then after Wednesday's game you're gonna
play another one on is it Saturday or Sunday again?

Speaker 5 (41:14):
I can't remember that. Yeah, you just have an additional
day off. Yes, then you would normal.

Speaker 6 (41:18):
Lab you're gonna get a day off in between every
game no matter what. They get an additional day off
before game two, and an additional day off before Game three.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
And yes, I do realize that if you're a semi
regular listener to the show at all, you are probably
thinking to yourself, geez, this guy cannot stop talking about
back to backs all during the regular season, and now
he's complaining about extra rest. I just want consistency, much
like the officials. I just want it all consistently. They're
very consistent.

Speaker 6 (41:44):
We only do back to backs in the regular season,
none in the postseason.

Speaker 5 (41:48):
Very consistent.

Speaker 4 (41:49):
Yeah, but the extra days, like, are you a I
know you're not an NBA player and you never were
or will be or will be?

Speaker 5 (41:56):
That's true? Is there such a thing as flow?

Speaker 4 (41:59):
Like you know the this happens during the NBA Finals
And I specifically remember this when the Rockets played back
in the nineties. I remember an interview where they were
talking about how much time off was between.

Speaker 5 (42:09):
Some of these games.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
And you have these like in the Knicks series especially,
every game was like down to the wire. It was
nip and tuck, it was every possession counted because that's
back when the NBA played defense. Everybody played defense, and
nobody could reach one hundred because the defense was so
good and they were allowed to play physical defense. And
so you win this like you know war, and at

(42:33):
the end of that game, it's, you know, Sunday night,
you gotta wait till Wednesday to play again. I want
to get back on the floor like in two days
and get this thing going again.

Speaker 5 (42:42):
Yeah, I was, You've.

Speaker 6 (42:43):
Already referenced it, and I made to amend it. So
Indiana and Milwaukee plays Saturday, two days off, Tuesday, two
days off Friday, just like the Rockets. Different days start,
but similar additional days off. Cleveland plays Sunday two days off,
play Wednesday two days off.

Speaker 5 (43:01):
Place Saturday. So I was pretty far off.

Speaker 6 (43:05):
And my first look at these scheduling quirks and that
there are actually four series that have the days off
comparable similar or identical to Rockets, Warriors, and Lakers Minnesota.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
Each conference has two series like that, so it's half
the league. So what are the two in the East
Cleveland and I don't know and Indiana Milwaukee.

Speaker 4 (43:31):
Indiana Milwaukee interesting where Damian Lillard could benefit from extended
rest given his current condition.

Speaker 6 (43:37):
Right, I don't imagine like I'm not making it right,
but that should lead us to Okay, what did they
consider it?

Speaker 5 (43:43):
No, it means the exact opposite.

Speaker 6 (43:45):
They didn't consider it at all, because this is unheard
of that he's even considering playing.

Speaker 5 (43:49):
That's true. And again half the league.

Speaker 6 (43:53):
I mean, yeah, the Lakers and Warriors got it, but
so did four other teams, and so did the Rockets,
and so did the Minute.

Speaker 4 (44:00):
So the team with the best record in the East,
the biggest market with the biggest star, well, the second
biggest market with the biggest star in Lebron James. Okay,
the second biggest star in the league in Steph Curry
among old Wow. And then what was the other matchup

(44:22):
where somebody who versus somebody we don't.

Speaker 5 (44:25):
Know Jannis's team?

Speaker 6 (44:27):
Okay, I mean, but we could have, as you walk yourself,
you could have done that with every series. Well, New
York got it, of course they got it. It's the
league's favorite market. Well, La and Denver got it. Well,
Yo kich is a three time Mvpulous.

Speaker 4 (44:41):
As that sounds, and as ridiculous as some people might think,
some of the things I say about certain things having
to do with the NBA sound all of this, like
you mentioned two segments ago, is so easily.

Speaker 5 (44:52):
Avoidable if you just don't do it the way you
do it, or it's happenstance.

Speaker 4 (44:59):
Well, Scott Foster's not happenstance. I'm not gonna go for that.
I'm like Collin Oates, I won't go for that.

Speaker 5 (45:04):
No can do.

Speaker 6 (45:05):
How about if an injury occurs in a series that
benefits a team that we're.

Speaker 5 (45:11):
Not mad at? Explain further, Well, I'm not.

Speaker 6 (45:15):
I'm trying not to say the two seed in the West,
any random team, because I'm not trying to wish that
on them or anybody.

Speaker 5 (45:22):
Well, you like the Ja Moran injury.

Speaker 6 (45:26):
He's got two days off and hopes to play tomorrow night.
He was injured on Tuesday. No game Wednesday, no game Thursday.
Their last chance to make the playoffs is Friday at home. Well,
it could have been Thursday in the playoffs if it happened,
if they only had one day off. Now they get
two days off, and even if he misses that game.
If you get hurt in the first game of these
extended first three games series, any of these four, you're

(45:49):
hurting Game one Saturday, Indiana plays Milwaukee and Tyrese Haliburton
tweaks his ankle on Saturday and he can't play for
five days. He'll miss one game, by the way, out Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
and then I'll play in game three on Friday.

Speaker 5 (46:06):
Sounds good.

Speaker 6 (46:07):
If the schedule was squashed, he definitely missed two. And
in the case of the OKC series, they don't have
an additional day off unless it goes to a sixth game.
They play every other day the first five games of
that series, nine days, five games.

Speaker 4 (46:23):
I can't, by the way, if you're John Morant and
you're playing the Oklahoma City Thunder, I can't think of
a worst matchup because I'm just assuming who's going to
be defending him the majority of the time.

Speaker 5 (46:36):
It would be Lou Dort, right.

Speaker 6 (46:38):
I think he'd catch a lot of carus Wiggins would
get him a lot Caruso for his limited minutes.

Speaker 4 (46:42):
I think a physical just irritant, and in the case
of Lou Dort, that's a bruising type of physical guy
to be going up against when you're a waif and
you've got a bad, bad ankle.

Speaker 6 (46:54):
Yeah, Lou Dort's one of the guys that would make
us less mad if he were to land higher on
somebody's ballot for All Defensive Team or Defensive Player of
the Year above Amen Thompson. League an outs Today Sunday,
late afternoon, a couple hours before Rockets Warriors tip off.
The awards finalists will be named, and there could be

(47:16):
two I think for the Rockets and Men, Thompson Defensive
Player of the Year finalist and ima Udoka Coach of
the Year finals. I don't think any of the other
awards are going to land with any of their players
being among the final three, the three highest vote getters.
Obviously the votes are in and tabulated so they can
tell you who the finalists are. Does not have anything
to do with All Defensive teams and All NBA teams, etc.

(47:38):
I don't imagine one of the fifteen players listed for
an All NBA team first, second, third team is going
to be a Rocket. But I think this and I
really hope it happens, because I think he earned it.
The first team All Defense I've seen I think five
ballots are heard or seen five ballots, and all five
of them listed Amen Thompson on their first team. I

(48:00):
think he will win that honor being a first team
All Defensive player here in your two of his career.

Speaker 4 (48:06):
No, that's and that's honestly the best case scenario. I
don't think he's gonna win the Defensive Player of the Year.
I think he'll get some votes that might make I
don't want to call it raising eyebrows, but he absolutely
should be All NBA First Team Defense.

Speaker 5 (48:21):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (48:21):
So, and that'll just grow, his reputation will grow. He
won't have to lobby, for example, like Draymond Green's been doing. Hey,
you know, well, this is just.

Speaker 6 (48:31):
Like what we're going to get to later with the
teamless quarterback. I mean, he's I don't unless he asked
Patrick to have him on his show again, where he's
a regular guest and paid to be a regular guest.
The only reason we heard from the quarterback or the
teamless quarterback is because he appeared on somebody's show. Now,
Draymond does have his own platform, although I don't know

(48:54):
how much lobbying he's done for himself on his own
podcast for Defensive Player of the Year. Most of the time,
doesn't the lobbying that you're diference come from him? Being
interviewed and at the podium after a game or just
in an interview during post practice, and he gets into
a conversation about that. They're at where do you think
you fall? Do you think you should be in the
running again this year? Would you like to win it?
Usually it comes from that. I mean, he's not he

(49:16):
is talking about it again because he was asked about it.

Speaker 5 (49:19):
Yeah, kind of like Klay Thompson last night. He's not.
They're not making a narrative up.

Speaker 6 (49:25):
And like I said, I think Draymond's a little bit different.
I do think he talks about it a lot where
we hear about it, but he does talk about all
the he talked about him on Thomps, He talked about
the Rocks, He talked about a lot of NBA things
with current and former NBA players on his own time
on the whatever It's called Draymond Green podcast with Money, Money,
Money twenty three.

Speaker 5 (49:43):
I forget. I don't mean to be glue. I just
can't remember the name of it. He's got a full
time man.

Speaker 6 (49:48):
Well he's making money off of it, Yeah, money, and
he could probably use to pay flights if he had
to fly somewhere on his own.

Speaker 5 (49:53):
Dime. He's going to be part of the T and
T Creuse and they're going to add him as the
fourth guy.

Speaker 6 (49:59):
That's the other question that I can ask in a
roundabout way, how do you think this Rockets series with the.

Speaker 5 (50:04):
Warriors will go A not well?

Speaker 6 (50:07):
B Draymond will be working for the TNT crew by
March first or May first, something like that. Yeah, because
the second his season concludes and he's gotten over it,
he'll be at the desk absolutely positively, one of the
two networks, and probably that one where he's worked many
times before. Yeah, he's good for postseason coverage. Well, but

(50:28):
he I think if he's on the court, yeah, doing
his thing, or if he's at the desk.

Speaker 4 (50:33):
Well, doing his thing and doing some of the things
he does or two different things.

Speaker 6 (50:37):
People have to fill up airtime on their Yelly shows,
and if he's doing his thing, he gives them content.

Speaker 5 (50:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (50:42):
Well, let's just hope he doesn't injure any Rockets. That's
as succinct as I can put it.

Speaker 6 (50:48):
I mean, did the player even did he even I
forget you'll remember, of course, did James leave the game
when he got poked in the eye.

Speaker 5 (50:56):
I don't know. That he didn't.

Speaker 4 (50:58):
He came back, but he had to be read it.
And his eyes looked like he was a zombie. I
mean they were all bloodshot and like.

Speaker 6 (51:05):
He'd been out all night at a strip club and
just come in for the game.

Speaker 4 (51:08):
That's a different kind. They weren't glassy, Okay, they were red.

Speaker 6 (51:13):
He's hurt other people, other teams people, Yeah, and James, and.

Speaker 4 (51:18):
He's hurt a member of the Rockets on another team.
He hurt Steven Well, Mite, he did You heard him?

Speaker 5 (51:24):
You heard him? All right, both of them?

Speaker 4 (51:28):
I had both times he did. He did it twice.
They're going to mix up in this series out. I
cannot wait to see what comes of it. All right,
we are going to have a conversation with our own
Chris Gordy coming up about your Astros and all things baseball.
And again after that we will hear from the Astros
manager Dana Brown. It's all coming up here on a
Thursday edition of the program.

Speaker 9 (51:49):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (52:00):
It is the eight Team Sports Talks seven ninety Space
City Home Network Thursday edition of the program. Wexac Cole
Thompson with you. We're taking up until six o'clock and
joined as promised by our own Chris Gordy. As you are,
he's a multitasker today. I mean normally we talked to
him about Major League Baseball and specifically you're Houston Astros.

(52:21):
But he was also over at the Brand Spanking News
State of the Art smack dab in the middle of
the gallery or right across the street Rockets practice facility.

Speaker 5 (52:30):
So we can we can talk to you about anything.

Speaker 12 (52:33):
Yeah, we could do it either you guys want to go,
want to go Rockets. Let's jump into it.

Speaker 6 (52:36):
The hits are the Rockets. The team that doesn't get
any hits, that's the Astros. So we'll play the hits.
Is not fair enough for today. They'll be fine. They
have a lot of season left. The Rockets season has
come to its conclusion. Give me one thing. We don't
know because as I didn't hear what he may or
Alprin or Dylan Brooks said, nor to our listeners, though
they will shortly one thing when message maybe it appeared

(52:59):
they delivering with their answers to their line of questions today.

Speaker 12 (53:03):
Well, I'll be Shangun was given a lot of credit
to you know, obviously, Look when you put a microphone
somebody's face, it's a chance to put boltip bore material
out there.

Speaker 5 (53:11):
They get that. They didn't want to do that.

Speaker 12 (53:12):
Shan Gun was just gushing over Draymond Green because that's
what they kept asking about that matchup.

Speaker 5 (53:17):
What do that.

Speaker 12 (53:17):
Matchup mean to you? Are you looking forward to this?
He kept talking about, Look, he's a champion. I mean
he's he's won multiple titles and and all that kind
of stuff. So he's saying the right things. You know,
you're the worst thing you want to do is give
those guys or that guy any boltip or material going
into this one. But they understand it's gonna be physical,
it's going to be a matchup.

Speaker 5 (53:34):
You know.

Speaker 12 (53:35):
I think somebody asked, I may you know, what's what's
the one matchup that that you really want to pay
attention to? You He's like Steph Curry, that guy, that's
who you need to be focused on. So, I mean
it's there's no it's a no brainer. I mean, you
know how this team operates, you know what their bread
and butter is. Obviously the addition of Jimmy Butler makes
them that much more dangerous, but again, they seem focused

(53:57):
they seem ready and no signs of a team making
their first playoff appearance in whatever it is, five six years.
They you know, they they're they're saying all the right things.
I just you just worry about you know, what happens
in a in a tight game. If the series gets
tight and you get into close games, it's obviously advantaged.
Steph Curry and Steve Kerr and Draymond Green, those guys

(54:18):
have all been there, done that so many times in
the last decade, and so many of these rockets are
going to be experiencing this for the first time. But
that's why I think Steven Adams, Dylan Brooks, you know,
and Fred Van Vliet, those guys have played in big
playoff games before. I think that's gonna that's gonna help
a little bit with mentoring and helping those young guys.

Speaker 6 (54:37):
Yeah, the Steph Curry angle two things. First thing you
discussed in the second thing about their experience. But the
first thing, you know, that question like what's the main
focus or what's one matchup? Like you said, no brainer,
You're you're being nice, like did you not watch the
last time they played? Did you do you not know
what a team that's capable of defending wants to do.

(54:57):
They might not have succeeded, and they're not always going
to slow them down. But it couldn't have Memphis, though,
we couldn't have been more clear. They just played on
April sixth. Every single thing the Rockets did with Brooks
Jalen Amen, everybody stop this one player, throw a second
body at him, keep the ball out of his hands,
do not let him run free, maynhandle him, all those things.

(55:19):
It's clear what everybody on this team knows is their goal.
And even doing all that, the game was. It was
a one point game at the half. It was a
tight game in the fourth quarter until Jalen scored ten
straight Rockets points.

Speaker 5 (55:30):
Like, their goal is clear. It doesn't mean they're going
to win.

Speaker 6 (55:35):
But in looking back at that game and gauging it
out as they move into a seven game series, how
likely it is do you think the Rockets can actually
hold him down? He only played three games out of
the five he shot thirty six percent against the Rockets
this year, and I know his average is going to
be way down because he only scored three in one
of the games, but he did not go off in

(55:57):
the others. He only scored thirty six points total. Yeah,
seventeen and a half eighteen. And the other two I think.

Speaker 12 (56:03):
The obvious one is I'm and Thompson he's He's the
guy that that I think you know is gonna have
heat seeking laser on Steph Curry.

Speaker 5 (56:10):
Wherever he goes.

Speaker 12 (56:11):
But what stood out if you go back and watch
that last game that they played, was yes, they were
sending a second man, they were sending help, but it
was different guys at different times. Jalen Green defended him, well,
I mean, yeah, so it's it's just being conscientious and
all those guys doing.

Speaker 5 (56:24):
What they need to do.

Speaker 12 (56:25):
But I think the biggest guys is the Rockets have
to hit their shots because it's one thing to get
stops and stop, always stop Steph, oh, he hit a
big three. If you're not answering, then it does. It's
none of this is going to matter on how much
defense you play on them. You have to answer every
bucket that they come at you with. And that was
so crazy watching that playing game the other night. It
was basically Steph and Jimmy Butler, did anybody else do

(56:45):
anything of consequence?

Speaker 5 (56:46):
They scored seventy five points. It was just those two.
They need to if you're gonna score that much.

Speaker 12 (56:50):
But but you guys know, I mean it's been it's
been years since we've had playoff basketball here in Houston.
But there's always that one game where somebody else has
a big game where you know, and it was not
just before it was like Kevin Looney as like a
thirty point Where did that come from? So there's always
gonna be And I think that's how this Rocket team
is built too. It's not man, Jalen better have his
best game, like they have so many different guys. I

(57:11):
feel like we're gonna look back at the series and
you're gonna go, yeah, Game one, that was the Schengung game.
Game two, that's when Dylan went off and hit all
those threes. Like I feel like the way they're built,
yeah right, there's such a team that anybody can step
up on any given night. Whereas I feel like if
Steph has two, three, four bad games in the series,
it's advantaged Rockets all day.

Speaker 4 (57:30):
I feel like so many in this fan base and
it's not even their fault. They've they've got PTSD because
it's the Warriors. I feel like so many in this
fan base, though, are worried about the wrong thing. The
wrong thing being they're wearing a Warrior jersey, when what
they should be worried about is your own.

Speaker 5 (57:46):
You know, he talks about this all the time.

Speaker 4 (57:48):
You worry about what you're going to do, your game plan,
all that, the inexperience, the moment being too big for them,
the butterflies, whatever, that kind of thing that could be.
I personally would be more worried about that, at least
in a game one setting than I would. Oh no,
the Warriors are on the other side of the floor.
We're gonna automatically lose. That's just that you've already lost
the series if you even thinking that way.

Speaker 12 (58:10):
It's not the old Warriors now obviously now they've been
playing great basketball, don't get me wrong, they've won a
lot of games. But it's they're they're different from those
teams of years past. And so I just think, look,
you're the Rockets. You you fought for this all season
long to get that two seeds, to get that home
court advantage. Take care of business here at home, Win
these first two, and you know, and then you can

(58:31):
go to Golden State and lose one there. That's fine,
but like you have in the home court is what
matters most here. If they leave Houston split, everybody's gonna
be hitting the panic button and going, oh my god.
But you look at all the predictions out there. Who's
not predicting this to go six or seven? Almost everybody
out there is predicting this to be a seven game series.

Speaker 4 (58:49):
I didn't have Ramona Shelburn picking the Rockets in this series,
I'll tell you that much.

Speaker 5 (58:52):
Man, she did.

Speaker 6 (58:53):
A handful of others have, not many, but they're going
with the favorite, and to be honest, that's what we
mentioned the other day. The other team is the favorite. Additionally,
you had mentioned on Curry and Draymond and Steve Kurt
they've all been there before. I mean, my thought is
it's not that they've been there before. I like what
the Rockets have, but the best players on the court,

(59:16):
at least two of them are on the other team, right,
and none of them are like Jimmy Butler and Steph
Curry are going to be the best two players on
the court in the last three minutes of this series.
Doesn't mean Jalen Green can't score five points in a row.
Doesn't mean out he can't dominate the end of the game.
But it's not about who the best, it's about making it.
What you said is what we've said for the entire season.

(59:37):
Play your defense, have confidence in that. You gotta score. Yes,
you gotta hit your open shots. You got to find
a way to not have empty possessions, whether that's offensive
rebounding or whether it's making the initial shot.

Speaker 5 (59:47):
But these are things they do well.

Speaker 12 (59:48):
And as good as they've been all year, they still
have had those times of those droughts, that third quarter
where they score sixteen and you're like, oh God, what
the hell happened?

Speaker 5 (59:57):
You played so well the first half. What happened to
that third quarter?

Speaker 12 (01:00:01):
Again, it hasn't It hasn't happened a ton, But those
are just those moments that's scary you going into a
playoff series. But that's what's so fun about this guys,
is the unknown, Like, is I'm in Thompson gonna go
into this series thinking, oh my god, it's our first
playoff series. Ever, how will I contain myself? Or is
he gonna go It's just basketball? Who cares? And that's
what all. It's always funy when we talk about teams
like in Baseball NFL. Sometimes guys just don't know any better.

(01:00:23):
I mean maybe they do go out there just completely
relaxed and lay it all out there and they're hitting
clutch shots and all that, and look, Houston would love it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:30):
But I'm just excited to have it back, man.

Speaker 12 (01:00:32):
I mean, this is the first time since since the
Harden days to get you know, get excited to get
over to Toyota Sarah for su Post's basketball.

Speaker 5 (01:00:38):
That is the amount of excitement that you just proclaimed.

Speaker 4 (01:00:43):
Is the amount of disdain I have watching the Astros
try to score runs, Like, come on, I get it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:49):
You know, everybody's in a slump.

Speaker 4 (01:00:50):
Christian Walker's you know, it's not the the start to
his Astros career you would have liked. But like, can
we just not be trying to like squeeze out of
the side of a rock.

Speaker 12 (01:01:01):
Can I give you something that's pretty depressing about the
team coming in this weekend?

Speaker 5 (01:01:04):
Something else? San Diego Padres? What's that?

Speaker 12 (01:01:06):
San Diego Padres have eight players batting two seventy five
or better. The Astros have one. It's tozel Twov. That's like,
and granted one of them is a guy who's only
played a couple games with Tyler Waite. But like everybody
from Jackson, Merrill, Fernando Tatis, Many, Machado, Gavin Sheets, Oscar
and Gonzalez. Oh remember that Luis Arias guy, he's batting

(01:01:27):
two seventy five. He's one of their worst hitters statistically
at two seventy five.

Speaker 6 (01:01:31):
As per usual, here on the A team, somebody has
a wet blanket, and then I come in here and
save the day. Cardinals third best offense in baseball ninety
four runs seven eighty three ops. Padres nowhere near as
good as the Cardinals. They're fifth eighty eight runs seven
to sixty five OPS. So after playing a really really
good offense, now the Astros only have to face a

(01:01:53):
really good offense.

Speaker 12 (01:01:54):
And now you turn to Ryan Gusto and Hayden was
Nesky and go, come on, guys, you.

Speaker 13 (01:01:57):
Give me this.

Speaker 5 (01:01:58):
Turn to Hayden was Nesky with it's crushing it so
far through three.

Speaker 12 (01:02:03):
But they're not the problem. It's the offense. Gusto can
give up four, but you got to score eight. Can
they do that?

Speaker 6 (01:02:09):
I think they can over the course of the weekend. Sure,
three games.

Speaker 5 (01:02:14):
Fay find a way.

Speaker 4 (01:02:15):
Gordy we appreciate the time as always, and hopefully the
next time you're sitting in that chair, we have a
little bit more positivity to talk about when it comes
to your Houston Astros.

Speaker 9 (01:02:27):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
I got a domestic question for you.

Speaker 4 (01:02:41):
Why do this is absolutely a men versus women thing.
Why do women in marriages, relationships, et cetera. Why do
they ask you or complain to you about something and
then when you give your opinion they just want to
argue about it.

Speaker 5 (01:02:58):
What was the point? So you're there to listen shoulder voice,
that's all I want to do now.

Speaker 4 (01:03:06):
I don't want, I don't know, take the voice out
because as soon as you use your voice, you're either wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:03:12):
I know, I.

Speaker 4 (01:03:14):
Know I said the right thing here. It has nothing
to do with domestic either. This is about a car.

Speaker 5 (01:03:18):
Did you say maybe it's on you? No, it wasn't
on me. No? To her? Oh yes, absolutely did that? Yeah?

Speaker 6 (01:03:25):
Yeah, she said maybe you should rethink how you handled it.
Did you say that No? No, Then maybe you said
the right thing. I know I said the right thing.
You want to know what it is?

Speaker 4 (01:03:35):
Sure, I'm not a huge fan of the supposed ev
wave that is sweeping across the nation. It's you know,
maybe abe right, I think we are in a point
in our country where the infrastructure might not be there.

Speaker 5 (01:03:51):
For like, if you want to go on a long trip,
you can't. You can't.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
Hey, we'll just plan out these charging stations. I don't
want to I want to put full in my car.
I don't want to drive.

Speaker 6 (01:04:01):
I'm going to drive to here and this is where
I fill up. I'm going to drive it there and
this is.

Speaker 5 (01:04:05):
Where I charge. How many times are you filling up?
Probably less fill ups than charge ups necessary. There you go.
So if you're going out a long trip, when you
purchase your vehicle, you're aware of the things that go
with it.

Speaker 4 (01:04:14):
Thank god we didn't do that, or at least your vehicle.
There you go, So choose your vehicle.

Speaker 5 (01:04:19):
There you go.

Speaker 4 (01:04:20):
That's that's the key operative word. We have this sticking point.
And you can tell me like, for those of you
out there who are listening that have an electric vehicle,
don't worry. We'll get the Joe's spot on how the
astros suck. Don't worry.

Speaker 5 (01:04:33):
Well, he might not say that about Dana.

Speaker 4 (01:04:35):
Oh that's why I meant Dana Brown'll hopefully so he'll
say the same thing if you if you decide you're
going to go this route. Sometimes they tell you, like
a cell phone. You ever heard like you don't want
to charge your cell phone all the way because it
might wear out the battery. Dulmost thing I've ever heard
in my life. If that's true, then why are we
buying these cell phones? They're pieces of crap? Alternative? I

(01:05:00):
guess there isn't one. We can't live without a cell
phone now. We didn't do it for thousands of years
before that. You got how we have it right now?
We can't live without it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:09):
So do you charge yours to eighty percent every night
and have it cut off?

Speaker 6 (01:05:12):
I mean sometimes it'll it'll give me the optimization notification
and it takes care of it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:16):
It's optimization to charge to what percentage? West it's a
different number every time. No, eighty one percent?

Speaker 4 (01:05:21):
Maybe you are having an optimized charge to what full charge?

Speaker 5 (01:05:25):
Which is what? How many percentage points? All of them?
Thank you?

Speaker 8 (01:05:29):
So?

Speaker 5 (01:05:29):
Then why would I change that with a car? No?

Speaker 4 (01:05:33):
You just you want to charge it up to eighty
Why would I want eighty percent of a battery when
I could have one hundred.

Speaker 6 (01:05:38):
Cause it's better for it if you do it, or
why is it better for it? Because that's how we
made it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:42):
Why did you make it that way? Because we wanted
to inconvenience you to do what buy another battery? Stop more?

Speaker 6 (01:05:49):
Okay, so you already know when you purchase the when
you choose this vehicle, that there's an you're probably I
don't know what the actual number is. I'll guess two
years battery life it needs to get replaced, maybe three
years maybe, But if you're on a three year lease,
which do you think is going to happen first? So
the car, which is what I told her, you're not
gonna have to worry about that. You're not gonna have

(01:06:09):
to worry about it by the time you get to
that point, I said, So just start filling it up
all the way so I get stop getting text message
during our show that your battery's low again and you're
mad about it. So just charge it all the way
because if you think it's gonna wear out the battery,
then by the time that actually happens, you'll be giving
it back because you leased this thing and you didn't
buy it. Smart car operate better with the battery freaking operation.

(01:06:34):
It's no impact on except for what she brought up,
which is that, you know, when I don't fill it
up all the way, I feel like it runs out
of battery faster. No, that's just a lower percentage you
started at genius. So I'm telling her to just fill
it up. No, no, no, we can't do that. It's gotta
go to eighty. I said, whatever. Then, so when you
get out to charge it for her while she's in

(01:06:55):
the vehicle, does she look at the number and tell
you when to Oh?

Speaker 5 (01:07:00):
No, no, no, no, no.

Speaker 4 (01:07:00):
She does what most And I'm absolutely being sexist and
stereotyping here. She does what every female does, and she
does what she does with her phone too. Oh my gosh,
it's down a battery. Maybe you should have plugged it
in at night like I do every night. It's not
that hard.

Speaker 6 (01:07:15):
Just plug it in portable charger. And where's she going that?
She can't care if you want to.

Speaker 4 (01:07:20):
Do things your way, and I'll do things my way,
but don't bitch at me about it. But you're there.
I don't want to be there to hear that. I
don't want to live there when she's doing that. I
don't want to be there when she does this. That's
what I'm trying to tell you. I don't know the dogs.

Speaker 5 (01:07:35):
They don't talk back. You do. Maybe that's what she wants. Oh,
she likes the conversation.

Speaker 4 (01:07:40):
I don't want like the conversation. I'm like, listen, why
I go, you didn't marry the dog? She goes, We
cannot do that. It has to go to eighty or
the bat battery. It will start to wear down faster.
This is exactly the exact text after I wrote a
whole paragraph about how it's not going to get to
that point by the time we get rid of it.

Speaker 5 (01:07:58):
The next person there to do it with an option
to buy. I'm sure there is, but we're not gonna
do it. We've learned our lesson.

Speaker 4 (01:08:04):
We like fuel, and when the United States of America
comes up with a better infrastructure for this sort of thing,
maybe we'll look into it again. But right now, I
like my diesel, I like my gasoline. I don't like
the battery, and I don't like having a mind floor.
All of the minerals that are in Iceland and Greenland
and all of the lands. I don't want to do
any of the art way, this is the last ev

(01:08:26):
I ever want to deal with in my life.

Speaker 5 (01:08:27):
Tesla, Chevy doesn't matter. I don't want any of those
if it were up to you.

Speaker 4 (01:08:31):
By the way, I'm open for auto endorsements right now,
and I will absolutely speak about how great your electric vehicle.

Speaker 5 (01:08:37):
Is if you pay me.

Speaker 6 (01:08:38):
What you're trying to say is you'd like to take
some of these advancements and throw them into the Gulf
of America.

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
I'd like to.

Speaker 4 (01:08:43):
Put them in the Gulf of America because that's where
they belong, except for all of the pollution type people
are going to be mad at me.

Speaker 5 (01:08:51):
These people. It's just some of them are good people.

Speaker 6 (01:08:55):
Usually adds that not a lot of them, But when
he's talking about a group of people that aren't good,
also indicates some of the people.

Speaker 4 (01:09:01):
Are you ready for me to put a bow on
this segment whenever you feel like it? Do you or
do you not think she brought you up in the
course of this text message chain?

Speaker 5 (01:09:11):
Uh? Is she listening? I don't know, I don't care.

Speaker 4 (01:09:14):
Obviously, I'm going to play her the podcast later because Cole,
this is the segment to pull today.

Speaker 5 (01:09:21):
The answer people will laugh at this. I promise.

Speaker 6 (01:09:23):
The answers one hundred percent. Yes, I was brought up,
or you wouldn't have brought it up. Now, I'm curious
if I've hurt your cause, because i've if I'm curious
that I don't have if I a bad guy. Also,
we are always the bad guy. I feel like I've
done something to you which then happens to her and
I'm blamed for it, which very well might be true.

Speaker 5 (01:09:44):
I'm gonna just recap so that I can get to
the point and drive it home.

Speaker 8 (01:09:48):
Right.

Speaker 5 (01:09:48):
Also, I also need the vehicle.

Speaker 4 (01:09:50):
I also need yet, well, it's got that, and I
don't have to worry about a station to go to.
I said, if it's going to destroy the battery, supposedly
if you keep charging it to full well, in my
opinion onion, by the time you would encounter that with
as little as you drive, which is not much, I said,
you're going to be ready to get out of your
lease anyway. And that's when she says, we cannot do that.
It has to go to eighty or the battery will
start to wear down faster. Like did you even read

(01:10:12):
what I just wrote? Or do you just like go
to your next comment and so I said whatever.

Speaker 5 (01:10:18):
I honestly don't know why I weigh in on bleep.
I didn't say bleep.

Speaker 6 (01:10:21):
I was just checking in on my personal cell phone device.
It reads your battery's health is significantly degraded. An authorized
service provider can replace the battery. It just restore full
performance and capacity. That's just on my Telly Sally happens.
I probably charged it too much.

Speaker 4 (01:10:38):
Is WEX being a jerk today? You are testy? You
want to know what I said back?

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
It was my fault. You know what I said back?

Speaker 6 (01:10:44):
I know it.

Speaker 4 (01:10:45):
I said no, you are. I'm trying to help you
and you just want to argue about it for the
million of time and then you bring up WEX like clockwork.

Speaker 6 (01:10:51):
And that is Dana Brown, Astros general manager. We will
table that until next segment.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
The Age on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 5 (01:11:02):
Ninety Sam tweets in he tags Teresa on it.

Speaker 4 (01:11:14):
I feel like if Clanton saw this poster, he'd rip
it off the wall, but it might make his life
a little better. The poster has two people on a beach,
a man and a woman.

Speaker 5 (01:11:24):
They are not.

Speaker 4 (01:11:25):
Facing each other, and the caption reads do you want
to be happy? Or do you want to be right. Well, clearly,
I don't want to be happy because I love being right.
That's why she brought you into things. Wex.

Speaker 5 (01:11:38):
Is he being testy today? Yeah?

Speaker 8 (01:11:41):
Me.

Speaker 5 (01:11:41):
Like I said, you're just sitting there stray. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:11:44):
But there's there's a pattern to her discussion. She believes
that is a component of the fight.

Speaker 4 (01:11:50):
She thinks that we argue here and then therefore I
go home and argue with her more because of it.
When in actuality, charge your freaking card to one hundred.

Speaker 5 (01:11:57):
Percent, that's it. I'm sorry here.

Speaker 4 (01:12:01):
Do you think Dana Brown wishes he could charge the
astros offense to one hundred percent? And then it's probably
more likely being charged to eighty percent, And then they're
wondering why it's not working.

Speaker 6 (01:12:09):
Well, they have some players that are slumping unfortunately. He
was at his weekly appearance on the Sean Salisbury Show
this morning. Want to share a little bit of that
with you, beginning with is it better to help a
player that's slumping by sitting them or playing through?

Speaker 8 (01:12:25):
Yeah, I'm actually a proponent of both. I think the
biggest part here is you have to find out, you know,
where he is mentally and if it's if he's really
really stressing, you probably have to sit him for a
day and just let him take a deep breath. I
don't think he's to the at that point yet, but
if he really starts to press too much, then you

(01:12:47):
may have to sit him for a day. But ultimately
he'll get this thing turned around. You just never know
when you see a guy that could be the day
that you really get them to turn around. And so
the hits coming bunches. You know, if he can get
a couple hits there and a couple hits there and there,
things will turn around. You know. Sometimes it's a bluep hit,
it's an infill hit. You know, it's a home run.

(01:13:09):
It's something that gets you going and gets you to
turn the corner, all.

Speaker 5 (01:13:13):
Right, Dana.

Speaker 14 (01:13:14):
When it comes to Jordon we Go, he saw the
big blast in the two or nothing game. A couple
of games go sits yesterday scheduled day off. So my
question to you is what a guy like that when
we're talking about rest and the load management goes. I
know it was a scheduled day off, but is there
ever any thought to we need him to Speaking of
a guy who hit home runs in bunches, he hit
his second. Was there any talk or would there be

(01:13:35):
any talked to forget the scheduled day off. Let's let
this guy get on a roll. He's normally a DH
I know he played left field over the weekend, But
was there a thought of, no, let's keep him in
the lineup or is the scheduled day off etched in
stone for you guys.

Speaker 8 (01:13:49):
Look, I think it goes with the territory. I think
sometimes what happens is you shit these guys and all
of a sudden they come back in the lineup, and
then you get five really good games in a you know,
as opposed to continuing to run him out there. And
you know, sometimes the guys get tired, particularly early in
the season when they're trying to get into baseball shape,

(01:14:11):
because it takes a little time to get into baseball shape,
the timing and all of the other stuff that goes
with the long season. And so sometimes these scheduled days
off will do wonders and work wonders. We'll see how
that plays out over the next few days, but ultimately
these days off can create really positive results in the future.

Speaker 14 (01:14:33):
Dana Jake Myers is playing some pretty good baseball. You know,
the question, you're a really elite defender, will he be
able to hit? And some you know say, well, if
he's great at defense, I don't care if he hits
one ninety seven. Well you're getting the best out of
Jake Myers right now. Is this sustainable with him? And
is this what you envisioned for him when you said
this guy can play? Is this the guy you envisioned?

Speaker 8 (01:14:55):
Well? Yeah, so if you get that kind of defense
and you get some offense to go with it, you know,
that's like that's the gravy. And so ultimately, we really,
uh project to him, We project him to continue to play. Well,
we're not sure how long he's gonna you know, hit
the ball as well as he's hitting it now, but

(01:15:16):
right now he's off to a good starter. If he
can sustain that, that's going to put him into another
category of player, like middle of the field, the lead defender.
Now the bat comes and that turns into a different
caliber of a player. So, you know, our main goal
with him is, you know, defense first, and you know,
whatever he gives you with the bat, that's you know,

(01:15:37):
pretty special. If you continue to swing the bat the
way he's swinging it now, that's going to be a
real gift to the team. So, uh, we do expect him,
you know, to have quality at bats and do some
good things with the bat. But what he's doing right
now is it potentially to put him into another category.

Speaker 5 (01:15:54):
Just eighteen games in.

Speaker 14 (01:15:55):
But is there something that's a major concern to you
right now or is this eighteen game typical for the
most part of start that there's concerns but not panic.

Speaker 8 (01:16:05):
Yeah, I mean, look what it is is, you know, guys,
you know when you pitch, you're you're thinking about the
hitter getting get ahead, throwing. It gets so focused on
the hitter it's like you lose track of that base runner.
It's early in the season. Guys are start, you know,
you want to get off to a good start. Our
pitching has been pretty good, and so we just have
to re focus and say, look, we have base runners

(01:16:29):
out there. We have to hold them, we have to
give them different looks, we have to throw over and
you know, it's it's a it's a matter of having
the conversation, implementing a plan, and getting it done. And
so I see the same thing that our fans are seeing.
We've had conversations about it about it, and you know
we're going to definitely address it.

Speaker 14 (01:16:49):
Dana Brown for a couple more minutes here on Sports
Talk seven ninety for his weekly visit. Is there a
timetable on when we should anticipate Lance mccullor starting a
game for the major league team.

Speaker 8 (01:17:01):
Yeah, So he's gonna pitch, you know again this weekend.
He's gonna go up to five innings, seventy five to
eighty pitches. You know, there's an outside chance he could
join us in the Kansas City Series, and so you know,
we're we're aiming for that, but you know, it's one
day at a time. He's been doing very well. He's
been you know, up to ninety four, he's been bouncing back,

(01:17:26):
no issues, no no pain or anything, and so we've
been very very happy with his progress. And look, it
would be really nice to see him take till the
rubber in Kansas City. So, I mean, that's what we're projecting.
You know, we have a target of the of the

(01:17:46):
Case series and hopefully that happens. But if it doesn't
happen there, he probably won't be too far behind. But
he's been doing well and bouncing.

Speaker 14 (01:17:54):
Back very well, and you do see him when he
comes back immediately thrust into a starting role, which as
it currently stands, which would probably mean Gusto goes back
to the bullpen.

Speaker 11 (01:18:03):
Correct.

Speaker 8 (01:18:04):
Yeah, I see him in a starter's row. You know.
Look at the end of the day, we want to
get him back on the mound, but we do see
him as a starter row. That's why we're building them up,
you know, to start. He's a veteran arm he's doing
very well and as we have he's up to five
innings and so ultimately we see him coming back as

(01:18:24):
a starter.

Speaker 6 (01:18:26):
That's been the plan all along, and everything still maintains
that same forward path. Midland the next opposing team for
Lance mccullor's junior. Hopefully it's the last minor league opposing
team for Lance mcculler's junior. The opening commentary about jord
On Alvarez the same conversation we had here on the
show yesterday amongst ourselves, wondering if maybe there's a better way,

(01:18:48):
a different way to do it, that might allow a
player who is probably swinging the bat well enough to
stay in the lineup the next day, even with a
pre planned day off. I totally recognize what they're saying
and what he said there, because what we brought up yesterday,
this is not a new thing for Houston, certainly not
a new thing for the three years that Dana Brown
has been here.

Speaker 5 (01:19:08):
With both managers.

Speaker 6 (01:19:09):
There's some belief and I'm sure there's some numbers behind
it where they believe the second day off, you take
a day off and then you have a team day
off and the player comes back and produces maybe a
little bit more or for a little bit longer period
of time because of the additional rest. We'll see if
it pays off in Jordan's case and see when they
will do that with several other players, because the regulars

(01:19:30):
have been out there a ton to open up this
season to not particularly good results. A visit for me
may Udoka, some more from John Smoltz, the Hall of
Famer all part of the final two hours of the program,
including a look at the Texans and They're draft next.

Speaker 2 (01:19:46):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 15 (01:19:48):
Ninety teen lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking Your Team's.

Speaker 3 (01:20:09):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (01:20:18):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven to ninety
Space City Home Network four o'clock hour underway as we
take you up until six o'clock tonight. Wex over there
ac right here. Cal Thompson with you as well. This hour,
among other things, we will hear from Rockets head coach
Emy Udoka. We will hear from a certain unemployed quarterback

(01:20:40):
who I think still wants to be employed, but is
not happy about the way he is no longer employed
by at least one of his former teams, and a
whole lot more. But speaking of NFL teams and what
they might do with things, it's about that time of
the day where we talk about what the Texans if
they keep the twenty fifth pick, because again Nick Cassario said,

(01:21:01):
if they have the twenty fifth pick, he's pretty sure
they're going to get a good player.

Speaker 6 (01:21:05):
So what we do each day around this time is
we figure it all out amongst ourselves, what might happen
several hours into Thursday Night's draft for your Houston Texans.

Speaker 16 (01:21:21):
In the the Houston Texans select, I really want to
go ahead and just reunite the entire universe with.

Speaker 6 (01:21:32):
Hey, Roger, you're being awfully worthy here, Walter Nolan, there
you go.

Speaker 5 (01:21:39):
Well, he had he wanted to do a U what
he really wanted.

Speaker 6 (01:21:43):
He should have not stopped because that was beautiful. He
and I both played the open just just nanoseconds apart,
So you got it kind of an echo stereo form.

Speaker 5 (01:21:53):
Well it did not have Cole will play on the rundown.
That's what happened there. Yeah, that's what happened there.

Speaker 13 (01:21:58):
But also, as you guys heard yesterday, Texans they need
offensive line help, they need a wide receiver. But y
also in Caserio say this, we never drafted.

Speaker 5 (01:22:07):
For me around here. I mean, we're never going to.

Speaker 17 (01:22:09):
So we're gonna pick the best player that we feel
fits our program, regardless of the position. I'd say other
than a quarterback, I mean I'd say pretty much, any
positions on the table cool.

Speaker 5 (01:22:18):
So any positions on the table. I decided to go ahead.

Speaker 13 (01:22:20):
And just alter the entire draft board by taking the
best defensive player who could be on the board, because
they can take anybody, and that is Walter Nolan, one
of the best interior pass rushers, one of the best
interior defensive linemen, great run support. Transferred from Texas A
and m over to Oxford, Mississippi led ole miss in
number with the number two run defense of the country.

(01:22:41):
Good size, good frame, great lower center of gravity. He
fits the mold of what Demico Ryans loves in his
bowl rushing type of defensive tackles that are able to
add pressure up the interior and get into the quarterbacks face.
This is somebody that loves to do that, and it's
somebody who is very good at it. He has the
right size, he has the right skills set. Most importantly,

(01:23:04):
he has the incredible amount of production over a dozen
tackles for losses last year in the SEC and was
the anchor of an ole Miss defense that ranked in
the top three in almost every single category. If Nick
Casserio and de Miko Ryans truly don't care about adding
in a player at a certain position, what.

Speaker 5 (01:23:20):
Are they gonna do.

Speaker 13 (01:23:21):
They're gonna add in the right player who fits what
is on the board.

Speaker 6 (01:23:25):
Let me ask you something, Nolan, Okay, so bring it
inside their building. The last two years, as they got
to town and had a certain group of off of
defensive tackles, and I thought they played pretty well led
by MALIEK. Collins and Sheldon Rankins, and then that offseason
they just basically wiped them all out and brought in
a whole new group of players. Tim Settle fully fought Acasi,

(01:23:46):
Mario Edwards Junior, and then this offseason Foley's out, but
they returned Mario Edwards Junior. Tim Settle was already under
a two year deal. Then they re signed Sheldon Rankins,
who they did have interest in in bringing back prior year,
but the Bengals said, we have more money, and so
Rankins is smart, but now he's back. If you're talking

(01:24:07):
about Nolan and he's what the Texans like up front,
all of those players aren't clones of each other quite clearly.
Of those players, which one is Nolan most like and
how he plays and how they want him to play?

Speaker 5 (01:24:20):
Sheldon Rankins would be the one I would go with.

Speaker 13 (01:24:22):
And that's the one that gets into the backfield and
adds a lot of pressures, and we'll win with a
lot of quarterback hits, and we'll win with a lot
of uhtograspher losses, and we'll be able to make teams
one dimensional in the passing attack. And he'll be somebody
that finds a role where he is able to go
ahead and put pressure on the running game and make
sure that that becomes obsolete.

Speaker 5 (01:24:40):
That's what Sheldon Rankins did. He was the anchor of
the team.

Speaker 13 (01:24:43):
But we all know that when the Texans draft, it's
not about talent.

Speaker 5 (01:24:47):
I mean part of that, it's really not about talent.

Speaker 4 (01:24:50):
Do you think I'm sorry this guy. I'm sure he's
a fine guy. I'm sure that he's I know he's
a decent GM. He's not terrible, But like, you can't
give sound bites like that and not have them thrown
in your face at nauseum, when like one sentence gives.

Speaker 5 (01:25:07):
Like five different soundbites of that nature.

Speaker 6 (01:25:10):
It's because he's trying to generalize the league, which coaches
do all the time.

Speaker 5 (01:25:15):
The league does by design.

Speaker 6 (01:25:16):
It's the parody of it all, and he's just taking
it away from the schedule and the fact that everyone's
going to be eight and nine or nine and eight
and you know, everybody played. That's what the league wants,
that's what the league pretends that they have. And he
said it during his press conference yesterday. What do we
have like eighty five percent of the games decided in
the final five minutes or or one score games? Well,
accept for I mean, I wanted to say with no microphone,

(01:25:38):
didn't want to wait for it. Well, what about Detroit.
It's okay to be awesome and blow everybody out, isn't it.
But this point, what he's saying is it isn't about
talent because every team has it. Every team has talent.
But then when he says stuff like that, you're like, yeah,
some talent, but it's okay to have more talent. It's

(01:25:58):
okay to recognize talent and get more talent, you know,
which is clearly what he's actually done. Dimiko's great coach,
Bobby Sloweck, great coach, Ben McDaniels, great coach, Roderick Wright,
great coach. They can't do squat if the players aren't talented.
If he's not, Nick has done his job. He shouldn't
be bemoaning his own job the way he does sometimes,

(01:26:19):
which is what that comment is. Sure, they've also drafted,
in my opinion, really really well. They've had four drafts.
They've done something really really well in all of them.
Whether it was at the very top where it maybe
seemed obvious, whether it was a maneuver that was over
the top grand slam as we like to do with
our baseball to football vernacular. Sure like it's not about talent.

(01:26:43):
If it were not about talent, you would never trade
up for character or make up. You trade up for talent.
And if I'm not mistaken, thanks to the NFL dot
Com side in one of their new features, traded up
twelve times. That's more than any GM during his tenure here,

(01:27:06):
because he's going to get talent specific we can't get
it later in the draft, talent that our coaches can
then do something with and we will win because of
and I didn't even have to say he's done it
twelve times. How about the one time we all remember
when he did it? The Texans are apparently the Texans
are on the clock at three that just drafted CJ.
Strout because Will Anderson is a special talent that you

(01:27:30):
specifically target and said, here's how we move our program
forward faster. We trade for a super talent who, for
the second offseason in a row, is throwing the weights
around with Miles Garrett. Now I'm Will Anderson Junior.

Speaker 5 (01:27:44):
I love to see it.

Speaker 6 (01:27:45):
Thanks Flash Garrett for posting it on your Instagram and
apologies for me. That's like ten interruptions in just the
last eight minutes this segment are eight minutes.

Speaker 5 (01:27:54):
Thank you. I'm glad that you're good. Is West testing today?

Speaker 13 (01:27:57):
Oh my goodness, yep, now' yep, we're mutant him at
this point. Listen, here's what I'm trying to tell you, guys.
If it's about talent and landing the right talent, and
Walter Nolan at this point is the right talent, regardless
of how we feel as fans, as we feel as
people that work in the media, as people who know
that this offensive line is still a turnstyle and can

(01:28:19):
get CJ.

Speaker 5 (01:28:19):
Stroud killed or at.

Speaker 13 (01:28:20):
Least on the ir if you're drafting talent, a talent
like Walter Nolan, who, for my money, in Thompson's Top ten,
my patented top ten ranking. He is a top ten player.
You get him at twenty five, that's a win. And
unfortunately where we are today after hearing the way that
Nick Cassero described, we're gonna get a good player. We're
gonna get a good player, So then get a good player.

(01:28:42):
Walter Nolan falls in that category of getting a good player.
I am not for drafting a defensive lineman. I'd be
vicariously out of my limbs saying drafting a defensive lineman
in round one is the right move. But Walter Nolan
is the exception. And unfortunately, after hearing that press conference yesterday,
I have to go ahead and concede and say there's
an opportunity for one player on the defense to land

(01:29:03):
in Houston.

Speaker 5 (01:29:04):
To me, that would be Walter No One.

Speaker 6 (01:29:06):
I believe there were four interier defensive linemen drafted in
the top forty last year Byron Murphy in Seattle. I'll
just ask you for a thumbs up thumb down. Yep,
that was a big thumbs up. Right, that's a huge
thumb thumbs up. It's a longhorn, by the way, see
the other one next?

Speaker 5 (01:29:22):
What's that?

Speaker 6 (01:29:23):
Would you like to say the other longhorn next? Well,
I have to go in order, but I'll get to him.
To Vandre Sweat, I'll say next for you, thumbs up.
He went to Tennessee. Brydon Fisk went to the Rams.
He was but still he was fantastic. And Darius Robinson
in Arizona. I mean, it's not ideal. Teams don't love

(01:29:43):
to do it because they're not necessarily game changers. But
if the talent is the talent, if that's where it's
the right spot, I believe in what one thing that
he said, they're going to draft the best available player,
and it would stink if people are going another defensive
player for a player that talented. Walter Nolan's going to

(01:30:04):
be a very good NFL player, and the worst of
a team that he goes to, the more he's probably
going to impact them because he will stand out so much.
If he's a textan, he might not even stand out
because he's just going to be part of a fantastic defense.
He's going to be in a rotation on the defensive line.
But I agree with Cole. I think the fit the
type of player he is, this four to two five
that he already played at ole Miss.

Speaker 5 (01:30:24):
I think he would be fantastic. Just doesn't happen to
be a.

Speaker 4 (01:30:27):
Need look looking like or looking forward to the six
to three wins the Texans get next season?

Speaker 5 (01:30:34):
With three he wins is what about the defensive scores?
Can't they get any okay, ninety three wins?

Speaker 6 (01:30:42):
That is who the Texans will take maybe with the
twenty fifth pick in the draft. Well here from Rockets
head coach I may you doka next.

Speaker 9 (01:30:50):
The a team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (01:30:56):
For those recapping, that's offensive lineman Donnavan Jackson, wide receiver
Luther Burden, the third offensive lineman, likely interior, not necessarily though,
Gray Zabel, and today it was Walter Nolan defensive tackle.
Those are the players we here on the A team
specifically Cole suspect could end up Texans should they be

(01:31:20):
drafting and holding firm at twenty five. We'll have another
one tomorrow in each of the first four days of
next week's programs leading up to Thursday. NFL Draft given
us ourselves quite a long leash worth of rope to
be correct in that we're guessing nine different players, but
they're back at number twenty five, so I think that is.

Speaker 5 (01:31:40):
Very very reasonable.

Speaker 6 (01:31:41):
So a little bit on the Texans there, just prior
to that, a little bit on Dana Brown just prior
to that domestic bliss. Now time to talk Houston Rockets
postseason basketball. Imy Udoka and the team been practicing here
in Houston over their facility all week. We'll do so
again tomorrow, up with a few more of the players.

(01:32:02):
Tomorrow we're gonna hear from Dylan Brooks coming up in
just under an hour. But Amy of Udoka also has
a weekly visit all on the Matt Thomas Show with
Ross did that earlier today. You can catch the entire conversation.
It's sports Talk seven ninety dot com or via the
iHeartRadio app where Sports Talk seven ninety has to be
should be Please can it be number one on your presets?

Speaker 5 (01:32:22):
But you can catch a little bit of it right here.

Speaker 6 (01:32:25):
Udoka and his conversation with those two begins with his
thought about how life changes now that we're in the postseason.

Speaker 18 (01:32:33):
I mean, we talked about the playoffs and the experience
for the guys for the first time, and you know
how it's the privilege to be planned at this time
of the year. So half of our guys have been there,
obviously the young guys haven't. But what we're trying to
do with overall simplify and keep it simple, keep it
basketball and talk about what we do and how it
carries it well into the playoffs and so not make it.

Speaker 5 (01:32:55):
More than it is.

Speaker 18 (01:32:56):
It is an opponent we'll see multiple times, but guys
have played in high pressure situations throughout this year at times,
and we'll be prepared for that. But like I said,
keeping it simple, keeping a basketball and not trying to overthink.

Speaker 19 (01:33:08):
It through the kitchen sink defensively at Steph Curry went
one for ten. We could go Saturday against Golden State.
How much of that was spent looking at that film,
vivin the memory of the guy's minds, and what can
you do beyond just the fact just irritating best you
can to to replicate.

Speaker 18 (01:33:26):
That well, understanding that it's not a one on one thing.
It's a full team defensive scheme. When you have four
guys on their team hunting shots for him, you have
to have four or five on your team preventing those shots.

Speaker 5 (01:33:38):
So it's not just one guy.

Speaker 18 (01:33:39):
Denying him, being all over him, taking away pick and
roll and all those things, especially with all the offlall screens,
as everybody being on the same page, the communication being great,
and when we're doing that, we're in good shape. When
he gets off the ball, relocates and guys get cost standing.
You know, he gets those he's gets those relocation threes
and a lot of like I said, they're all hunting
shots for him, and so we have to be on point.

Speaker 5 (01:34:00):
And that's what we were in that game. So I
have to duplicate that effort.

Speaker 20 (01:34:04):
What is it like for you as a coach and
with the staff as well, just preparing for this one
opponent going into game one, as far as adjustments that
could happen as well, maybe not even wanting to overprepare,
not wanting to underprepare.

Speaker 5 (01:34:18):
What is that like for you? It's busier at this time?

Speaker 18 (01:34:21):
Yeah, of course you have all these days to prepare
for one opponent, multiple games, like you said, And so
where during the season you play one team and you're
on to the next and you know you're not going
as in depth.

Speaker 5 (01:34:32):
You have to do that here.

Speaker 18 (01:34:34):
Take away certain actions, take away certain personnel, and you
can dig much deeper into that. And so for us,
it's great to have this time. Obviously we earned it
to not be in the play, to have these days
of rest in preparation, and now it's our chance to
get out there and execute. But for us, especially against
the team like Going State that does a lot of
different things, especially with their off ball actions, we have

(01:34:54):
to be on point, like I said, with our communication
and coverage, and when we do that, we're going to shape.
We show that throughout the year in our meetings with them,
holding up to low points. I think Curry averaged sixteen
against this overall, in those games. So we've done a
pretty good job on him, but understanding that others are
there as well, and Butler's added to the picture. We've
only played against him once this year, so that'll be
a newer challenge.

Speaker 5 (01:35:14):
Yeah, you mentioned Butler getting added to the picture.

Speaker 20 (01:35:17):
So they've obviously been a very good team twenty three
and seven with him in the lineup. What does he
do and what does he bring to the table that
makes him so much better?

Speaker 18 (01:35:27):
Well, another facilitator that you know, can obviously take some
of the pressure off of Curry. He's the isolation guy,
which they didn't have much of without without Curry and
some you know, losing Wiggs and some of those guys,
and so a guy that can create his own shot
obviously brings a defensive mentality and you've seen seen the
numbers as far as that with him in the lineup.
But the main thing is that you know, a one A,

(01:35:48):
one B Batman and Robin whatever you want to call it,
another guy that can create his own shot, command double teams,
and he's a really good facilitator.

Speaker 5 (01:35:55):
So it's not just Draymond Green getting guys involved.

Speaker 18 (01:35:57):
He's looking looking them pass the ball as well. Or
create for himself.

Speaker 19 (01:36:01):
I may we were there last week Draymond tried to
poke the bear that was Oppura and shing Gun basically
just praying for a technical foul. Got one that's going
to be in play again. How much did APPI learn
from that experience? Know that more that's coming.

Speaker 5 (01:36:18):
Oh say, we already knew.

Speaker 18 (01:36:19):
We talked about personal and personnel in depth during the season.
So certain guys, you know, bringing that edge and toughness
and physicality, and we'll talk as well. And so Green
has been one of the best at that, and that's
what he brings for his team.

Speaker 8 (01:36:33):
Uh.

Speaker 18 (01:36:34):
And so for Alpi is just keeping his composure, not
backing down from challenge, but also going at it and
then when the chippyiness happens, just continue to play through it.
And so he did an excellent job of that. Of course,
the end of that half was a lot of back
and forth. That last minute it felt like it took
five or so with all the fouls and re looking
at looking at the reviews and all the all of

(01:36:54):
those things. And so for us, it's keep our composure,
continue to play. We play a physical brand as well,
so we know where it can get to.

Speaker 5 (01:37:01):
But especially in the playoffs.

Speaker 18 (01:37:02):
It's too important to have guys kick that out of games,
and so you have to keep composure and play through everything.

Speaker 19 (01:37:07):
Last question, I may do you like the way the
schedule lays out a couple of days in off in
between games one and two or do you ot to
get them kind of every other day if you could?

Speaker 5 (01:37:15):
Yeah? For us, I think it doesn't matter. I think
the rest is always a good thing.

Speaker 18 (01:37:20):
Maybe you'd like to play them against an older team,
you know, more frequent, But we've had this time off
and we're ready to get back after it, especially with
the resting the team resting the guys in LA on
the Clipper Laker game and so got a little bit
of a half for three quarters, three runs in against Denver,
and our guys are getting after it now and ready
to get into another series. So it really doesn't matter
us the chance for adjustments, you have a little bit

(01:37:41):
more time for preparation in between games if something doesn't
work well, and so either or it's fine with us.
But you'll get to one day off in between pretty.

Speaker 6 (01:37:49):
Soon after those first three is exactly what will happen.
It's been a long time since the Rockets have been
in an intense basketball game. One of the most recent
ones was their game against Jimmy Butler, Steph Curry and
the Warriors back on April sixth, when they did what
they set out to do. It's not often during the
regular season where you really put a huge over kind

(01:38:11):
of a massive game plan together, and they probably really
didn't even for that game.

Speaker 5 (01:38:14):
That's the main difference.

Speaker 6 (01:38:15):
You know, you're playing so often every other day or
three times in four nights. You're not spending all your
waking hours as a coaching staff a game planning for
that night's work. You're telling guys what you're stressing, you know,
how this team plays, or here's what we want to do,
and then you go about and you play the game,
and then you get on a plane you go to
the next game. It's just dramatically different from the postseason series.
Whatever happens in game one, both teams coaching staffs have

(01:38:39):
two full days to come up with whatever they didn't
do well or think they need to change to for
game two, or guess what the other team's going to
change to so they can maybe have as much success,
but do it differently. It's going to be a huge
chess match in this series, provided it's competitive, and I
believe it will be because of the additional time off, why.

Speaker 4 (01:38:59):
Do I feel like, and that's all true with the
time off, but why do I feel like the way
people are picking this series?

Speaker 6 (01:39:07):
These people people who pick the series, I regard as
probably they're probably media members. Yes, people talking about the series,
could be anybody. Well, I'm talking about the first set
of people. I don't feel like they think it'll be
a competitive series. Well, let me ask you this to
get us started on that. You got two games here
in Houston, Sunday night and Wednesday night, last game of
the day in the NBA that day, eight thirty tips

(01:39:28):
at toy Ata Center, and like you said earlier in
the show, probably a little bit closer to eight forty
five or fifty if they're pushed back, which they are
completely stupid, totally fine. What do you think is going
to happen headed to Golden State? There's only three scenarios
Rockets win two, Warriors win two are a split.

Speaker 5 (01:39:45):
I think it's a split. I think it's a very
high likelihood. That's exactly what I wi.

Speaker 4 (01:39:49):
I mean, I said rockets in six. That also means
they have to win the series on Golden State's home floor,
but they just won their last week.

Speaker 6 (01:39:58):
If you want a series prior to going seven games,
then you have won a game in their building.

Speaker 5 (01:40:02):
Correct for either team? Correct?

Speaker 4 (01:40:05):
And I and I think, but when you say when
I say that, I don't think they're going to think
it's a competitive series.

Speaker 5 (01:40:11):
That can mean two things.

Speaker 4 (01:40:13):
You can mean it's not gonna be competitive at all,
which means it's a sweep or whatever, or you can
mean it's it's gonna be it's not gonna be a
competitive series, like the games aren't gonna be close, Like
the Astros got swept by the whites Socks in twenty
two thousand and five. It was a super competitive World series.
It sure was, but nobody will look at it that
way when they see it. So and I don't think

(01:40:35):
that's gonna be the case here. I think the games
will be close and it will be, you know, a
competitive series, meaning it's gonna go more than five games.

Speaker 6 (01:40:41):
The last time the Rockets walked off the Toyota Center
playoff court was against the Warriors. It was in twenty nineteen.
It was the six game series. Obviously, a series that
the Warriors won and ended the Rocket season. It was
the last game of the series, Game six, decided by
five points, preceded by games decided by five, four, five, six,

(01:41:01):
and four points.

Speaker 5 (01:41:02):
Yeah, but the Warriors own them.

Speaker 4 (01:41:03):
Remember that's why people are so stupid in San Francisco
and Oakland. But there's other reasons they're stupid too. We'll
leave it at that. For the dumbs that may or
may not be listening on the iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
App the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:41:24):
A new signature seven called.

Speaker 2 (01:41:30):
What's up with that?

Speaker 5 (01:41:32):
What's up with that?

Speaker 15 (01:41:34):
What's up?

Speaker 5 (01:41:36):
I say, what's up do that? It is signature segment time.

Speaker 6 (01:41:46):
Here on a Thursday edition of the eighteen Thursdays, we
ask a very simple question, often accompanied by audio that
we may or may not understand and need some description, discussion,
analysis about what's up with that? We got as a
media hoard, especially the NFL media hord just this is

(01:42:06):
one of those instances where running to their laptops, running
to their phones, their third or fourth phones, scrambling to
the X platform.

Speaker 5 (01:42:15):
Oh my god, Pat McAfee is gonna have Aaron Rodgers
on a showday. This is the greatest thing ever happens.

Speaker 6 (01:42:21):
Thank god, we're going to get an update. I'm sure
we're gonna find out exactly what we all have been
dying to know. Where is this less than star quarterback
going to play his football next year?

Speaker 5 (01:42:30):
Maybe today is the day?

Speaker 6 (01:42:32):
And all the heavy media hitters on the NFL side
just glued to it. He said this, He said that
he's going to do this, he wants to do that.
He might play, he might not play. That's what obviously
was going to happen. That the genesis of this was,
Oh my gosh, I can't wait to hear what he says.
The result of this was he might play football, he
might not play football, he might retire, he might not retire.

(01:42:56):
He's talked to these teams, which have all been previously reported.
And you also got one little bit of information that
we obviously will discuss here thanks to a Rod saying
it for us. How did the meeting go with him
and the new hierarchy in the Jets organization as everything
played out to his ultimate exit.

Speaker 21 (01:43:17):
I was like, yeah, I'm interested. I was like, yeah,
I'm interested.

Speaker 5 (01:43:24):
I know you're interested. I mean you've already said it twice, Aaron.

Speaker 21 (01:43:27):
So I'm sure they're trying to shut this part down.
But you know, I figured that when I flew across
country on my own dime, that there's going to be
a conversation. And it's a confusing thing to me. We
start talking, he runs out of the room. I'm like,
that's kind of strange.

Speaker 8 (01:43:42):
I was like.

Speaker 21 (01:43:43):
Then he comes back with the GM and I'm like,
all right. So we sit down in the office and
I think we're going to have this long conversation. I've
flown across the country, and twenty seconds in, he goes,
should you want to play football? I was like, yeah,
I'm interested, and he said, we're going a different direction

(01:44:03):
a quarterback. We just want to know how you want it,
least the messaging. I don't want to be up in
front of the room saying something and have guys looking
back at you. What does that even mean? Are you
assuming that I would be in the back of the
room during the team meeting undermining what you're saying. I said,
you don't know me, and he said you don't know me,

(01:44:27):
and then I said exactly, which is why I flew
across the country to have a face to face.

Speaker 5 (01:44:34):
I was good.

Speaker 6 (01:44:35):
I was glad we got some actual context, because I
imagine some people on social media saw some of how
that went. I flew out on my own dime, and
two seconds into the meeting they said, we're not interested.
I'd appreciate that, but there was much more to it context.
As you heard from Rogers. There's a lack of opportunity
to get to know someone if you're conducting a meeting
like that, and there is a reason they aren't interested

(01:44:57):
in giving time for Aaron to get to know them.
And they could have certainly told him they'd already come
to their decision before he flew out.

Speaker 5 (01:45:03):
There on his own dime now too, so we'll get
there first on his own dime. What do you think
that means?

Speaker 6 (01:45:08):
That means he had he got on his phone and
booked his own flight on a commercial flight from I'll
just say San Francisco to New Jersey. I don't know
the actual specifics, but well, he lives in Malibu, so okay.

Speaker 5 (01:45:20):
Malibu to New Jews. What do you do you think
he did that? Either that or he was on a
private jet.

Speaker 6 (01:45:24):
Okay, that's probably more like this was much more costly
for him to mention on my own dime. He probably
didn't book a five to one thousand dollars flight. He
probably was on a private jet, which could be I'm
gonna guess again thirty thirty five forty somewhere in that neighborhood,
maybe a little.

Speaker 4 (01:45:40):
More, which he can absolutely afford. Probably so with Ashtray money,
I think he could afford it.

Speaker 6 (01:45:46):
I don't know his finances, I don't know what he's
done with his money, but I'll assume well.

Speaker 4 (01:45:50):
The Jets are probably like, you played nothing for us
one year, and the next year you are terrible. It's
the least you can do is pick up the tab
for your flight for us to tell you to get lost.

Speaker 6 (01:45:59):
I can under stand him, I would, you know, since
he's said on my own dime. It brings the financial
anger into it. But I'm sure he was actually more
mad as I would have been if they had him
do it at all.

Speaker 5 (01:46:13):
Why didn't you make me just yes? Exactly?

Speaker 4 (01:46:16):
And again this is Aaron Glenn's first foray into any
of this, Aaron Rodgers or otherwise, there are ways you
do certain things, and if that's how that went down,
whether you like Aaron Rodgers personally or not, or anything
else that he does or does not do on or
off the field.

Speaker 5 (01:46:35):
I understand that, gripe.

Speaker 6 (01:46:36):
Yeah, and doesn't mean we have a totally different view.
And it's not really the victim.

Speaker 5 (01:46:40):
No, he's not.

Speaker 6 (01:46:41):
It happened, It shouldn't have happened. It's a bad way
to to handle a certain situation. They're not, in their
minds handling one of their players because he's not one
of their players. They weren't interested in bringing him back.
They're going in a different direction.

Speaker 4 (01:46:53):
And if that's how they're approaching it, that's fine, but
common courtesy would then say, okay, well, then tell him
that before he.

Speaker 6 (01:46:59):
Gets on flight. That's the part that does matter. You're
totally right. They're going to be dealing with lots of
other players. If this is a common occurrence moving forward,
then people are going to be turned off by how
they do business. They were taking it pretty far for
the early stages of the Darren and Aaron Show. The
new general manager and head coach. But this was to

(01:47:24):
me kind of obvious to everybody. And he didn't just
have this meeting. This meeting was a long time ago.
He just hadn't talked about it publicly, had not been
available to the media or said anything on his own
through his own social channels.

Speaker 5 (01:47:35):
He did mention some of the other visits.

Speaker 6 (01:47:37):
He knows Kevin O'Connell pretty well, says he's talked to
him more times than just about this vikings of possibility
not waiting on them.

Speaker 5 (01:47:45):
They weren't waiting on him. They appear to.

Speaker 6 (01:47:47):
Be perfectly all set and well positioned to move ahead
with JJ McCarthy Pittsburgh. I don't think they've really given
a definitive answer to their quarterback situation. That's for weeks
and weeks felt like where he's going to end up,
and I still think that's where he's going to end
up after today. Just nothing today didn't really impact that
at any way. He didn't say anything one way or

(01:48:07):
the other, said he knew more about Mike Tomlin now
than he ever did before.

Speaker 5 (01:48:11):
From afar it sounded like in a good way.

Speaker 4 (01:48:13):
Yeah, And I just it's interesting because Mike Tomlin's reputation
is no nonsense. Aaron Rodgers' reputation is well, there might
be some nonsense, whether he's facilitating it or not, but
I mean, come on, come on, if you're like, let's
just say that you were in charge of HBO wouldn't

(01:48:34):
that be one of the top of your list, just
to see those two interactive for nothing else.

Speaker 5 (01:48:38):
It's not like he's gonna be good.

Speaker 6 (01:48:39):
After not getting Jordan Hudson's college football team locked up
for hard Knocks. They absolutely cannot wait to see if
this could unfold in their favor.

Speaker 5 (01:48:49):
And I'll ask you this.

Speaker 6 (01:48:51):
Two years ago, Mason Rudolph and Kenny Pickett led Mike
Tomlin's team to the playoffs. Last year, Russell Wilson and
Justin Fields led Mike Tomlin's team to the playoffs. Rudolph's back,
Skylar Thompson's there, and nobody else. Can Aaron Rodgers lead
Mike Tomlin's team to the playoffs for the third consecutive year.

Speaker 4 (01:49:11):
He can, but he's gonna need help. And I don't
mean on that roster. I mean, well, yes, but the division.
That means Cincinnati's not going to the playoffs again or.

Speaker 6 (01:49:22):
Whatever or they can do they did win division games
last year.

Speaker 5 (01:49:25):
We're like, how did they do that? M And it'll
take that again.

Speaker 4 (01:49:28):
I think Aaron's Rogers still maybe it's stupid, has something
left in the tank.

Speaker 6 (01:49:33):
I think that's also fair, And I don't think he
wants to retire. I think he would settle for retiring
if he's not happy with any situations presented to him.
But I actually think the Pittsburgh situation is a very
good one for him and for the Steelers. May it happened, Mike,
come on, Aaron, let's see it.

Speaker 9 (01:49:51):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:50:04):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:50:07):
I will say, coming off that last segment, I am
a little surprised that an operation headed up by Aaron
Glenn would would handle it that poorly with Aaron Rodgers.
But you have to take it with a grain of
salt because it's Aaron Rodgers telling the story, and it's tough.

Speaker 6 (01:50:20):
To really gauge, you know, how they handled it because
it's clearly up. He already said they're going to probably
try to spin it some other way. But now that
he's put it out there, they almost assuredly asked about it. Yeah,
it was interesting that one little piece of information may
have been hard to understand from the way that he
described it. He was meeting with Aaron Glenn, and shortly

(01:50:41):
after that one on one meeting had commenced, Glenn got
up and went and brought in their general manager to
also be in on the meeting, which may have been planned,
but it was in Aaron's mind rather early, and that
we just sat down, we'd only been talking for a minute,
a few minutes or shorter, and he got up and
went to get It did seem like it was an

(01:51:01):
odd manner of a sequencing of events.

Speaker 4 (01:51:04):
Almost as if to say, all right, I felt them
out a little bit early on the conversation, and then
I decided, all right, well, I'm gonna need some reinforcements.

Speaker 6 (01:51:12):
So or just it's not what I expect right right,
just something that I'm sure we might get more from
Aaron down the road. And I'm sure when most teams
will be beginning some phase of their offseason program, Texans
begin next week. They'll have specific things the team can
do with their players on site, whether it's really just

(01:51:33):
weight work, strength and performance stuff. That's why so many
players were there already. But technically phase two begins, and normally,
along with that and the fact that the draft is Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
as Nick told us, there are players to draft Thursday
and Friday and Saturday, teams will make their head coach
and their general manager almost assuredly available, and I don't

(01:51:54):
think they have spoken yet. Some teams do it a
week in advance, like Nick did yesterday. Others do it
week of so probably you're next week. In addition to
asking who do you think we're gonna they're gonna draft?

Speaker 5 (01:52:03):
Who do you like here?

Speaker 6 (01:52:04):
It's your first go round, both of you guys. Oh, Also,
what happened with Aaron Rodgers in that meeting? He didn't
seem too happy. Did you guys reimburse him for his
private plane or no? Did you just say we paid
him enough already?

Speaker 5 (01:52:15):
And let's just say he signs with the Steelers? Right?

Speaker 6 (01:52:17):
Like?

Speaker 5 (01:52:17):
Yes, what that little scenario we dreamed up? We didn't
dream it up.

Speaker 4 (01:52:20):
What a dream that would be? The Steelers play at
the Jets this year? Just in case you were wondering,
the Steelers play at the Jets.

Speaker 6 (01:52:32):
Steelers probably are better than the Jets, right they are?

Speaker 5 (01:52:37):
Well, you don't know that, col The Jets didn't go
to the postseason.

Speaker 6 (01:52:40):
Who's gonna be throwing passes against TJ. Watt if he's
not holding.

Speaker 5 (01:52:43):
Out, It's gonna be justin Fields? Okay, yeah, je justin Field? Yes,
he signed there?

Speaker 6 (01:52:48):
So a Justin Fields led Jets team on his home
field against an Aaron Rodgers led Steelers team Jets minus
one and a half.

Speaker 4 (01:52:58):
Sure, that's fine. This is redraft numbers that WEX is
giving us here.

Speaker 5 (01:53:02):
Sound right?

Speaker 13 (01:53:03):
If I may counteract to AC's initial point, he couldn't
believe that Aaron Glenn would handle something like that.

Speaker 5 (01:53:10):
The counteract is, it's the New York Jets.

Speaker 13 (01:53:13):
It's the team that has the longest playoff draft in
all of professional So that's why Aaron's there.

Speaker 5 (01:53:18):
So this is Woody's fault.

Speaker 6 (01:53:20):
Wood He said, Hey, Aaron Glenn, the person that I
currently play to work for me. I want you to
handle this badly because that's the Jets way. No, I
think you do not understand this yet. I know you've
only been here a couple months. But the Jets' way
is to do things wrong. I need you to get
on board with that. Mister Glenn.

Speaker 5 (01:53:36):
Now you're understanding Gang Green culture. I'm very proud of that.

Speaker 6 (01:53:39):
He knows Gang Green culture. Aaron's played there, He's been there.

Speaker 17 (01:53:43):
He does.

Speaker 13 (01:53:43):
But also look at the incompetence of everybody who has
come through that organization underneath the Johnson family, whether it
be Rex Ryan or whether it be whether it be
Todd Bowles, or whether it be Mark Sanchez, or whether
it be you know, stop.

Speaker 6 (01:53:56):
Right there, every guy you just mentioned, each of those
three are all doing great work and are currently.

Speaker 5 (01:54:02):
Employed outside of the New York Jets.

Speaker 6 (01:54:05):
Todd Bowles is running teams to the postseason in Tampa.
Rex Ryan is yapping away on ESPN, and Mark Sanchez
he gets given a microphone every week in college football.

Speaker 5 (01:54:15):
Right, They're doing great? And where is the Johnson family?

Speaker 2 (01:54:19):
Still wondering why?

Speaker 4 (01:54:19):
I believe they sleep a money part of my administration.

Speaker 5 (01:54:23):
Dude, where did.

Speaker 6 (01:54:24):
Would he have to come back from to run the Jets?
Where was the ambassadoring?

Speaker 5 (01:54:27):
Uh? Italy, Well that's where Tillman's going. That's not where he.

Speaker 6 (01:54:31):
Was, right, Noland does what he do a great job
of ambassadoring? No, could you say he does a good
job of ambassading. I'd never League Baseball managers do have skippering. Well,
what are you say that to pull the string? It's
not working.

Speaker 4 (01:54:45):
He's not ambassadoring yet he's ruining the Jets again and
for the latest year in a row.

Speaker 6 (01:54:51):
So a hat being worn by Woody if he were
meeting with the president would say make the Jets worse again.

Speaker 4 (01:54:58):
No, it would actually be great, and it would say
in white writing, I was wrong about everything, wrong, wrong.

Speaker 5 (01:55:05):
You're so fired.

Speaker 6 (01:55:06):
What if I told you the only reason the Jets
haven't made the postseason in this length of time is
just just bad luck. That's a lot of bad luck,
bad luck, just that things didn't work out.

Speaker 5 (01:55:17):
I mean, why was I saw Tyler?

Speaker 6 (01:55:19):
Did I not post a video from twenty thirteen on
my Instagram page featuring our good friend friend of the
show Frank Caliendo, our good friend and friend of the show,
Robert Flores, and Todd McShay that indicated that a fake
thirty for thirty was about to come out on the
New York Jets, and it was called the twenty twenty
twelve New York Jets The Butt Fumble.

Speaker 5 (01:55:41):
Todd Todd, Todd, Todd, Todd Todd. That is a true story.
I did post that. If you haven't seen that today,
I have now added it. Okay, good. I was a
little late on the uptake there. Aliando s mel kiper
Junior is elite.

Speaker 16 (01:55:53):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 5 (01:55:54):
He was so funny in person too, like his.

Speaker 4 (01:55:57):
I but going back to this like, I do think
he has something left in the tank, but it's it's
with Pittsburgh where I feel like that would be.

Speaker 5 (01:56:09):
Unleashed if you will.

Speaker 4 (01:56:10):
It's gonna take the marriage of him, a successful marriage,
I might add, of him and Mike Tomlin. You know,
there's not in other words, nobody ever worries about who's
in charge. When you go to Pittsburgh, you know who's
in charge. So if you sign there with that knowledge,
it's not like you go to the Jets organization where
you can kick around any number of people that you
think you can kick around. It's not gonna be like that.

(01:56:31):
And it won't even be like it was in Green Bay.
It's Mike Tomlin's team. You either get in line or
you're not here. And tom It will be the first
person to tell him that. And at his age and
he doesn't need to. Everybody knows that. So just you know,
go to work. Like Russell Wilson had some things in
his past that he couldn't act like that when he
got there. And I don't even talking about Denver anymore. Well,

(01:56:52):
he didn't have his own office. That's for one point.

Speaker 6 (01:56:54):
Went through his very short he wasn't even there for
twelve months in Pittsburgh. It was nothing happened there except
for football. There were no issues, There was no this,
there was no.

Speaker 5 (01:57:03):
Is what it needs to be.

Speaker 6 (01:57:03):
With Aaron Rodgers, he was heard at the beginning of
the season, and thus Justin Fields was out there leading
to four wins in six games, and then Russell Wilson.
They were winning and winning and winning, and then at
the end of the season they couldn't beat anybody and
obviously did not win when they got to the postseason.
But you know, it probably worked out as well as
they could have hoped because they're going on their fourth
consecutive year. Remember how things were for Mike Tomlin when

(01:57:27):
Ben Roethlisberger was the answer to the question for a
decade plus, do we have a chance to win because
of our quarterback?

Speaker 5 (01:57:34):
Is who?

Speaker 6 (01:57:35):
Yeah, Ben Roethlisberger and I just ran through the last
three years that somehow they've made the playoffs with not
the answer, not the answer, And this year is again
gonna not be their future star quarterback. Their franchise quarterback
has been out of the building and unreplaced for now
at least a third consecutive season.

Speaker 4 (01:57:51):
Well, at least we know that if they draft a
young kid in this upcoming draft that they think could
be the future, Aaron will be very happy to take
him under his wing as he's done in the past
to the likes of Jordan Love.

Speaker 13 (01:58:02):
And then what they're gonna do is they're gonna make
the playoffs and lose in the first round as a tradition,
like the Jets always missing out on the playoffs.

Speaker 5 (01:58:09):
As is tradition.

Speaker 6 (01:58:10):
All right, So you see if Jackson Dart at twenty
one can save the day for the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Speaker 2 (01:58:19):
The A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:58:25):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteam.

Speaker 6 (01:58:38):
Finally Football at five here on Sports Talk seven ninety final.
It's comical at best that we have an entire segment
dedicated to football all day, all seasons long, because we
often talk about it at other times. Not only time
we do, but at specific time we will hit on
something football related as it permits. Unlike tomorrow, Chandler Rome

(01:58:59):
will visit with us. Tomorrow five o'clock, Astros will be
back home for the first of three against the Padres.
Still looking for a streak, really, they're not looking for
a losing streak, but they haven't had a losing streak
since the beginning of the month. They're looking for a
winning streak. They haven't had one of those since twenty
twenty four. I've not yet gotten back to five hundred

(01:59:20):
after falling there following their home series home stand when
they were two and four against the Mets and Giants,
more National League opponents. After losing a series to the Giants,
they've lost a series to the Cardinals, and now we'll
have a series against the San Diego Padres, who arguably
have been the best team in baseball. I don't know
that this would have made it into in case you
missed it, but the Colorado Rockies have done what most

(01:59:43):
teams fans think need to happen when you're not hitting
the ball well, they fired their hitting coach six series
into the Major League Baseball season. I posted that update
on my ex platform and somebody responded with the Rockies
have six more hits than the Astros. Just rather interesting.
I don't think the Astros are on the verge of

(02:00:03):
making a change with either of their two hitting coaches,
but this is football.

Speaker 5 (02:00:07):
At five.

Speaker 6 (02:00:08):
We know that the Texans, like everybody else now, is
running close to just twenty four or just seven days
until the NFL Draft begins. Texans will have many more
minutes after that because they don't draft until twenty five.
Very unlikely they're trading up anywhere reasonably high. I could
see them trading up maybe too as high as the
mid to high teens, or not at all, or trading

(02:00:28):
in the opposite direction mentioned earlier. It's something that Nick
Casari has done. Twelve times. They've worked with the Eagles extensively.
Five times have made a draft day trade with Howie
Roseman and the Eagles. I'm not saying win or lose
on those deals, but you're dealing with somebody who's done
an awesome job with his own team's personnel and draft
picks and Howie Roseman. Their roster is probably the best

(02:00:49):
in football, and they've managed the cap very well around it.
Interesting trade partner, obviously, they worked with Arizona on the
Will Anderson deal a couple of years ago, somebody he
was very familiar with with Monte Austin for being the
general manager there.

Speaker 5 (02:01:01):
They shared time in New England.

Speaker 6 (02:01:04):
But we also met with Nick Cassario yesterday and one
thing we didn't get to yesterday is that he got
multiple questions about the offensive line, because while we've talked
about the defense, the players that they've re upped, the
money they've spent there, they did spend more time and
effort on their offensive line than any other position. You know,
three players off of last year's starting group on opening

(02:01:25):
day are no longer here, two were traded away, one
was released, and they've signed multiple players. They haven't even
gotten to the draft, and they already have an almost
brand new looking line with the likes of Tomlinson and
Ingram and Trent Brown and Cam Robinson. There's a whole
brand new look there likely to put out there. So
questions about the offensive line were kind of obviously going

(02:01:45):
to come his way. Answered a few in a little
bit of a different way, and what they're trying to do,
and the competition level, and how much money was allocated there,
because clearly it's not our money, but you only have
a certain amount of money to allocate, and so much
of it was dedicated to a position that was bad,
a bad unit, and they had three players making very
large salaries. Two were gone, one remains in Titus Howard.

(02:02:08):
My question about the offensive line was more about how
they have arrived at this predicament, And I left the
question in here so you can hear a little bit
of where I was coming from, because it's about how
they got here over the last three drafts with a
Nick Cassario and the group that they have in place
as evaluators, because not much of it has changed, certainly
not on the college scouting front. So I asked him

(02:02:29):
this about the offensive line, and this is the answer
that he gave.

Speaker 5 (02:02:33):
The last three.

Speaker 6 (02:02:34):
Drafts, you drafted the six offensive line and three in
the first two rounds. Do you think internally there needs
to be a reevaluation of how you evaluate that specific position.

Speaker 17 (02:02:45):
I mean, Lou, look at everything on a constant basis.
So again, in case by case, I mean a lot
of faith and confidence. I mean, i'd say the entire building,
you know, start with de Miko and the coaching staff
have a lot of confidence in that group. So again,
look at everything and we'll try to make decisions. Is
that you know, we think makes sense for your organization.
They're not all going to work. I mean, I've said
this before. I mean, I don't know how many times

(02:03:06):
I've said it, but it's a lot you can ask Omar,
I mean a draft fifty to fifty. I mean, that's
what it is. So some are gonna work, some aren't
going to work. I mean, that's just the way it goes.
So we're no different than any other team. So there's
something that we can improve and tweak and adjust, we'll
look at it. So it's never one particular thing in
every one factor, but we're always open minded and always
trying to find in ways to make things better.

Speaker 6 (02:03:27):
As I was sitting there, over the course of roughly
forty minutes of him giving his time to us, I
only had a few notes written down that I knew
I wanted to get to at some point yesterday or
over the course of the time leading up to the draft,
and one of the parts of his answers there was
in my notes when he said, it's I don't know
how many times I've said it. You can ask Omar
the director of media relations. Awesome dude. Did not ask

(02:03:49):
him to count for me, because I've heard him say
it before. The draft's fifty to fifty. I don't want
to get too into the semantics of that comment, but
it definitely struck a nerve. All this time, effort, money,
and resources is put into well, it's just a coin flip.

Speaker 5 (02:04:06):
We draft a guy he's fifty to fifty.

Speaker 6 (02:04:08):
I feel like I can't even be so mean about it,
Like I've got to give him some grace with that comment,
Like why mean the first pick to pick two forty two?
Did he well, he's fifty to fifty in the seventh round,
the fifth round, the third round. It can't be fifty
to fifty his in the first round, right.

Speaker 4 (02:04:24):
His need to either be or sound cavalier, Not cavalier,
what's the word.

Speaker 5 (02:04:32):
I'm well, he's.

Speaker 6 (02:04:32):
Setting the bar so low that there's no way to
be disappointed because it's just fifty to fifty.

Speaker 4 (02:04:38):
It almost sounds like he has a need to not
look like he's taking this too seriously. And to me,
if i'm cal McNair, I want you to take it
more seriously than too seriously because it's my money.

Speaker 6 (02:04:51):
We'll think about it from what he says versus what
we think he actually does and how it operates.

Speaker 5 (02:04:55):
We know he's way more serious than that. We know
this is all can just be normal, That's what I'm asking.

Speaker 6 (02:05:01):
There there are teams, I know for a fact, there's
probably all teams all thirty two teams have extremely detailed
data on the actual percentages of hit rate players we've
drafted one through ten, players that have been drafted one
through twenty league wide, picks eleven through twenty, twenty one
through thirty two, and on and on and on every

(02:05:22):
single section of what's the likelihood you're going to draft
a player that pans out, works out, gets the second contract, starts.

Speaker 5 (02:05:29):
Whatever.

Speaker 6 (02:05:30):
A little bit of data they want to add to
it matters because when it comes to value, you can
look at value charts when it comes to the draft,
and who do we believe in most And I want
to trade pick twenty three, but I've got to get
back pick forty two and sixty one, and how they well,
that plays into it. So I know he doesn't really
mean that. There's no way he thinks it's fifty to fifty,
because it literally is not fifty to fifty at different

(02:05:51):
pockets of the draft. One coach actually put it all
together in a presentation for the media and separate rated
it into basically three levels of the first round one
through ten, eleven through twenty and twenty one through thirty two,
and several years' worth of drafts were put into that,
and I wasn't surprised at all. We say first round pick,

(02:06:15):
and we shouldn't because the twenty seventh pick and the
seventh pick are dramatically different in likelihood to be good,
likelihood to hit, likelihood to get a second contract, likelihood
to get their option picked up.

Speaker 5 (02:06:27):
There's a huge difference.

Speaker 6 (02:06:28):
Go look, you guys can do this twenty one through
thirty two each year. How many of them actually are hits?
How many did you succeed on. I'm sure it's much
closer to fifty to fifty than eleven through twenty or
one through ten. Nowhere near fifty to fifty. If it was,
then people wouldn't be tanking the way that they do.
It's just not reality. But it becomes reality pretty quick

(02:06:50):
on draft day. And the Texans are likely to be
only drafting between twenty one and thirty two for as
long as Nick keeps his job, because they're likely to
be going to the playoffs every healthy Stroud season moving forward.

Speaker 4 (02:07:04):
He can talk about it being fifty to fifty OL once.
As long as it's the good side of fifty to
fifty on the offensive line picks, I'll be fine.

Speaker 6 (02:07:10):
And that's why I preface the question so he could
see exactly where I was coming from without talking forever
hearing myself talk during a question.

Speaker 5 (02:07:17):
I'm there for him.

Speaker 6 (02:07:19):
Six picks last three years, two picks every year, three
of them have been in the top two rounds. What
are you guys doing wrong? Where's the evaluation?

Speaker 8 (02:07:30):
Miss is?

Speaker 6 (02:07:31):
What is the internal process to deciding what makes a
good college player a good player for our system? Because
it's not working currently. You missed clearly on Kenyon Green.
He's not here anymore, and when he was on the field,
he was a subpar player. I think you missed on
Juice Scruggs because you graded him out to trade up
for him at number sixty. And I'll give you Blake

(02:07:54):
Fisher because he's only played parts of his rookie year,
but he's starting in the playoffs. And they certainly didn't
play well as a group.

Speaker 4 (02:08:00):
Yeah, I just can't believe that a guy who has
hit on so many other positions, particularly on the other
side of the ball, is that he is not the
only guy. But is this bad as a group at
evaluating the most important position group that's not the quarterback?

Speaker 6 (02:08:17):
And they were pretty specific. It seemed like about what
they did this offseason to give themselves options. I don't
know that any or how many of these four players
that I mentioned that they signed or ended up being
to play a large role or starting role, because the
draft hasn't happened and more free agency is still available
to them. But the types of players they added were
pretty specific. They've all had tons and tons of field time.

(02:08:40):
They've played in multiple different offenses. They were graded out
at one point at some point in their career, like
Ingram and Cam Robinson to be specific, they were drafted
to be essentially much better than they've performed. Robinson's maintained
his starting job most of his career, but he hasn't
performed to that level. And edit Ingram only kept his
starting job for a brief time after he was drafted

(02:09:00):
and then he got benched. This past season, Trent Brown
went healthy, and just two years ago he was healthy.
He was really really good, a plus level player, an
absolute starter who makes your offensive line a good offensive line.
But I don't know that he gets to that kind
of health this point in his career. A couple of
years after that and after the injuries situations he's been through,

(02:09:20):
but that makes a ton of sense for them to sign.
But even the veterans that they brought in, Marcus Cannon
who he traded for, Shaq Mason, who he traded for,
it just certainly I wouldn't call either of those deals
deals that worked. Even though Mason had one reasonably good year. Yeah,
by the way, hod that go south so quick? I
mean he couldn't. He was unsuccessful. He was not a

(02:09:41):
good football player last year.

Speaker 5 (02:09:42):
No, I get that, but it's not like he was
a spring chicken the year he was good.

Speaker 6 (02:09:46):
I think his age, like Cole said, and it was
noticeable to me. I didn't weigh him every day. I
wasn't at the facility every day. He carried too much
weight last year, and it was a little bit more
than he carried the year prior, and it was not helpful.

Speaker 4 (02:09:58):
Well, we're all a little chubby. No, I'm not gonna
go down that road, all right. We have plenty more
to get to. We're gonna hear from Dylan Brooks when
we come back. Rockets Warriors Part five. It's right around
the corner.

Speaker 2 (02:10:13):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:10:25):
It is the A team.

Speaker 4 (02:10:26):
It's Sports Talks seven to ninety Space City Home Network,
WEX and AC with you.

Speaker 5 (02:10:30):
We're taking up to the top of the hour.

Speaker 4 (02:10:33):
Before you know it, Rockets and Warriors getting together for
the fifth installment. It's actually to me hard to believe
they never matched up before this recent run of playoff matchups.
I mean, even the Rockets in the Spurs had at
least that one series way back when before they met
back in twenty seventeen, Rockets had never lost to the

(02:10:55):
Spurs in a playoff series before that. Turns out, Golden
State has never lost to the Houston Rockets in the
playoffs series, and that would need to change in order
for the Rockets to advance this year.

Speaker 6 (02:11:05):
Yeah, the Warriors, prior to the championship era Houston Rockets
nineteen ninety three nineteen ninety four, they'd only been to
the playoffs three times leading or twice leading to that
in those recent years. They were there in the ninety
three ninety four season, but they did not win a series,
didn't win a series in any of the three years
prior to it, did not even reach the playoffs after

(02:11:26):
the rockets first championship season until six o seven, So
the Rockets, obviously in that stretch were making the playoffs
quite a bit and Rockets were down a little bit
not too far after. And then the long stretch of
Warriors excellence I guess seven years of making the playoffs,
five trips to the finals. Well, the Rockets played the
Warriors four times in those seven years.

Speaker 4 (02:11:47):
Yeah, it's it's unfortunate because we talked a little bit
about this yesterday eighteen they should have won in so.

Speaker 6 (02:11:56):
You just said round five, like, it so feels nothing
like that, right. It might from their side, it just
doesn't from this side.

Speaker 4 (02:12:05):
Yeah, because it's been I mean that five years is
a long gap in between, but when all of them
were running together basically every other year and sometimes back
to back years just prior to that five year period,
I think there's probably both fan bases definitely feel like, oh,
here we go again.

Speaker 6 (02:12:20):
And I say it on their side because when they
first started this seeing the Rockets was the first year
they made it to the finals, the fifteen season their
first title. I know it seems ridiculous, but if you're
in the Golden State locker room getting ready for a
flight to Houston, getting ready for your first postseason series
this year, this year with Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry
and Draymond Green and Steve Kerr and in a conference

(02:12:41):
with Oklahoma City. I guarantee you they believe we can
do it again. This is a long time to be
thinking there's a chance we have to win the title.
When their first one came in twenty fifteen with those
three people in it, and they're in it again, that's
a long stretch of hope.

Speaker 5 (02:13:01):
Now.

Speaker 6 (02:13:01):
The hope is really all they've had for the past
multiple postseasons. They did win the finals win the championship
in twenty twenty two. They've only won one other postseason
series in five years.

Speaker 4 (02:13:15):
Twenty twenty two. I don't even remember like they played
who in the finals.

Speaker 6 (02:13:22):
In twenty twenty one, twenty Celtics after they beat the
Nuggets in the opening round, then beat the Grizzlies and MAVs,
and they did so, losing only four tons Gauntlet. They
only lost four games in the West. The matchups are everything.
Listen to those teams you just led are all bad.
They beat Luca, right, that's.

Speaker 5 (02:13:39):
A good team.

Speaker 4 (02:13:40):
Luca had done squat before. Miraculously, they went to the
finals last year and decided.

Speaker 5 (02:13:44):
Well, we don't like that.

Speaker 6 (02:13:45):
Let's break it up, squat, He's in the conference finals.

Speaker 2 (02:13:49):
What do you want him to do?

Speaker 4 (02:13:51):
I think I just think more highly of his championship prospects.

Speaker 6 (02:13:55):
Also totally laid down in that series. He only went
for thirty two to nine and six.

Speaker 5 (02:13:59):
He was awful. It was a joke. He weight drunken
fat then too.

Speaker 4 (02:14:03):
You're doing what pissed off so many Rockets fans over
the years.

Speaker 5 (02:14:07):
I know, and I was on the same side.

Speaker 6 (02:14:09):
I'm on today we're acting like James is bad at basketball.

Speaker 5 (02:14:12):
Everybody everybody acts like that.

Speaker 4 (02:14:15):
And then the worst part is that just recently, Hey man,
James is awesome.

Speaker 5 (02:14:19):
Look at these clips from the playoffs. Stupid idiots. This
is what I was saying back then.

Speaker 6 (02:14:24):
The clips from the first five games of any series,
not the last two.

Speaker 5 (02:14:28):
I mean, did they lose that Game seven because of
James Harden.

Speaker 6 (02:14:32):
He just has a history of having poor basketball and
the later the series goes the worst against It's all
there is to it. He's been unreal at the beginning
of almost every series he's ever played with the Rockets,
just incredible, and the further along the series go. A
lot of those times his performance is not only drag
it's been awful Celtics in the finals, as you. Yeah,
but I even think that's revisionists.

Speaker 4 (02:14:53):
Yes, Game six needed to be won by everybody not
named James Harden against the Clippers on the road.

Speaker 5 (02:14:59):
I do remember that.

Speaker 4 (02:15:00):
But Game seven he's the one that won that series
for them, in that clincher at home, by.

Speaker 6 (02:15:05):
And large, and I'm sure if I searched my own
Twitter for it, I've posted it before. What his averages
are per each game of any respective series. It's pretty
They're very stark. The shooting, for sure is I mean,
if I was a social media poster, I would I
would definitely have created.

Speaker 4 (02:15:23):
A draft for I absolutely this applies to that Spurs
aforementioned series where he got blocked by Monogenobili and then
just rolled over at rolled over and died in the
in the final game. I got to talk about James
Harden dying on the basketball floor.

Speaker 5 (02:15:38):
Ponderous. So do you have a song in mind for
let's see? What do you what do you want to do?

Speaker 6 (02:15:43):
You want to hit on the Mavericks doing a long
distance dedication here as they hope to make the postseason
on a Friday, do you want to do a long
distance dedication for the Lakers, who have added Luca to
their championship hopes a long distance dedication for the Warriors.
The Rockets opponent, Jimmy Butler writes it on their behalf.

Speaker 5 (02:16:02):
What song is he looking for? Maybe?

Speaker 6 (02:16:04):
Steph writes the letter, looking for a specific piece of
music that's been lost or obviously our own team right here.
Jalen Green writes the letter to Casey asking for a
long distance dedication as this year's postseason begins.

Speaker 4 (02:16:17):
Casey, could you please play Sitting by the Dock of
the Bay by Otis Redding, right before the Rockets push
the Warriors organization into that body of.

Speaker 5 (02:16:26):
Water and they die.

Speaker 6 (02:16:28):
Luckily, someone in the Rockets organization gave him a song
to request.

Speaker 5 (02:16:32):
From a few years ago. They did.

Speaker 6 (02:16:34):
Yeah, Otis writing song is a couple of years before.
I think he would have liked to listen to it
for several decades exactly.

Speaker 5 (02:16:41):
That sounds good. Yeah, you know it works Bay Area.
I like it. I don't know.

Speaker 4 (02:16:46):
Like people have asked me, am I gonna do some
some videos for this series? Well, if the Astros keep
it up, I'm gonna have to because nobody else is
gonna be winning I.

Speaker 6 (02:16:53):
Mean, in a regular season video you're doing currently Astro style,
maybe you crank out three in a weekend or three
Monday through Wednesday because they Astros win three straight games.
Like do you have four different lines of attitude for
the fans of the Warriors if the Rockets beat them
four times?

Speaker 4 (02:17:11):
Well, even if I don't, now, I'll have plenty of
time to come up with them with all the days
in between all the games.

Speaker 5 (02:17:18):
That is true. I mean, gosh, such a stick tick.
I mean, it'll be okay.

Speaker 4 (02:17:22):
You know what, you know what else is gonna be
okay playing games at the same time. I promise everybody
will find a way to watch the one they want.
It's not gonna change the amount of money you make.
People are still gonna buy the tickets to them.

Speaker 6 (02:17:34):
Well, if you have four games in one night, they're
probably playing two at one time and two at another time.

Speaker 5 (02:17:40):
You can't watch.

Speaker 6 (02:17:41):
All the games and you don't separate them to But
this way they can sell a package.

Speaker 5 (02:17:46):
That allows you to So the money you'll get made.

Speaker 6 (02:17:48):
More money gets made by how because there are more
games that are going to be watched. Not well, half
the people are gonna watch this game or three quarters
of the people are like, that's on the sales to people. No,
the Bucks and we're selling that. They didn't sell it today,
they sold it last offseason when they got these new TVs.

Speaker 4 (02:18:05):
Okay, what you can put a good matchup like the
Warriors in Rockets is the best first round matchup by far,
It's not even close.

Speaker 5 (02:18:12):
Tell me a better one. You can't.

Speaker 4 (02:18:15):
So the people will find a way to watch that,
and the advertisers will find a way to put their
dollars into that. It's not my fault. You're gonna have
like Hawk's Magic Part ten or whatever. The Eastern Conference
doesn't even exist until the conference finals.

Speaker 5 (02:18:29):
I got bad news for the NBA. That's just the
honest truth of it.

Speaker 4 (02:18:32):
Nobody, nobody wants to watch Eastern Conference basketball unless the
Calves or the Celtics are involved. And now that Jimmy
Butler's out West, nobody wants to watch Tyler Hero. You
mean I've got to put up with Tyler Hero just
so I can watch Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 5 (02:18:45):
Well, that's what it used to be. Now you don't
even have to do that anymore. You're not gonna watch
Carl Anthony Towns Nicks.

Speaker 4 (02:18:51):
No, I didn't watch Karl Anthony Town's timber Wolves unless
I had to because the Rockets were eliminating them.

Speaker 6 (02:18:56):
Mecca of Basketball has a chance to claim yet another title.
The Knickerbockers are formidable. Yeah, let's watch.

Speaker 4 (02:19:04):
I'm guessing that for the first time since nineteen seventy three,
they again won't win a title.

Speaker 5 (02:19:09):
I think it's a safe bet.

Speaker 4 (02:19:10):
Of course, it's a safe bet. Oh, it's the biggest market,
it's the Mecca. Blah blah blah. Right, what is that
done for them? And James Dolan Nothing, He's very rich.
He has this fear in Vegas, and I can guarantee
you there's more people going to that thing than they
are going to a Knicks championship parading time soon.

Speaker 6 (02:19:26):
He made me think of this as something I did
want to discuss. We got it a minute to do so.
The last time the New York Knicks made the finals,
Jeffan Gundy ninety nine was the head coach. Jeff fang
Gundy is hoping to win another postseason series on the bench.
As the Clippers have made the postseason, they've been awesome,

(02:19:47):
defensively awesome, one of the best in the league. He
was a consultant with the Celtics last year they won
the title. He was there, Bob, is jeff san Gundy
interested in becoming an NBA head coach next season and
will the NBA be interested in him?

Speaker 5 (02:19:59):
No, I think he's done. I'm actually shocked that he's
doing what he's.

Speaker 6 (02:20:03):
Doing legitimately being an assistant coach. There's no, he's kind
of a coach. He is an assistant coach the Leaders.
You know why I'm shocked with the Clippers now, First
of all, he was forced because ESPN is stupid. Hey,
let's take him out and put Dick Jefferson on the broadcast.
That'll be better. Well, they wanted to get Lebron's head coach,

(02:20:23):
but he's now Lebron's head coach.

Speaker 4 (02:20:25):
Yeah, well that's your fault for again. But other than that,
why would he want to remember what he said? He
was hired by the Rockets? Oh, so what made you
come back? Well I missed the misery.

Speaker 5 (02:20:37):
That was the first words out of his mouth. I
love it. I know. I don't think he wants to
do that full time. Jokic just team is pretty good.
So he wants to go to Denver and replace Mike
Malone with Nikola Jokicic as his lead dog.

Speaker 4 (02:20:49):
Please let Russell Westbrooks stay there and let me see
those two interact.

Speaker 5 (02:20:52):
In case you missed it.

Speaker 6 (02:20:54):
Earlier today, John Smoltz visited the station, so that will
be part of in Case You missed It, which is.

Speaker 2 (02:21:00):
Next the age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:21:06):
Back here you know how that music means.

Speaker 6 (02:21:10):
Here, halfway through the final hour of the program, we
get to in Case you missed it, handful of items
we might not have had a chance to get into
or things we need to revisit. One such item is
a visit from the Hall of Famer John Smoltz. He
joined the Sean Salisbury Show earlier today, obviously has a
keen eye on what's going on here, has had many

(02:21:33):
Houston Astros games and his sights during this golden era
of Astros baseball behind the microphone as they have executed greatness.
His thoughts on this year's team part of this morning's conversation.
The interview and its entirety, as always, can be found
at sports Talk seven ninety dot com review the iHeartRadio app,
where Sports Talk seven ninety needs to be number one
on your presets. And those you have already made it

(02:21:54):
there and are enjoying it because of it, we thank you.
But our portion of the conversation brief portion of the
conversation with John Smoltz comments his thoughts on how he
would describe from or as a pitcher.

Speaker 11 (02:22:09):
I drew, I love watching him pitch. I think this
is what pitching is all about. I love his mechanics.
I love everything about what he does. I think you're
gonna see him drift in and out of greatness, maybe
mainly because the mental locking in. Sometimes he might drift.
We all I did that. I'm I'm an advocate of listen.

(02:22:30):
Being honest, you know, it's it's hard to stay locked
in every single game. But when I watch him pitch,
that's what I would teach. Finish is in a great spot,
tremendous movement, doesn't have to max effort ninety eight ninety nine. Look,
he's not free of injury, but I would say of
all the pitchers I watch, he's less capable of being

(02:22:51):
injured as we are teaching the other guys throwing max effort.
I think he is one of the best pitchers in
the game, and if he can get to a place
where he could stay more locked in emotionally and mentally.
You're gonna see a cy young no doubt out of
this young man. He pitches in one of the tougher
ballparks and still quiets the bats at a rate that

(02:23:14):
is what it's all about.

Speaker 5 (02:23:15):
And John, Yeah, yeah, Jel, And he eats innings.

Speaker 14 (02:23:17):
John, And you mentioned that part of it about the
question is that I know listening to you, just from
listening and watching you about the mental and emotional approach
to playing and pitching. So is he tough enough mentally
and emotionally in your mind? Did I guess those moments
when he has them, when he's like disconnected?

Speaker 2 (02:23:36):
Can he bring him back in good.

Speaker 14 (02:23:37):
Enough to be that guy who you can rely on
when it matters regularly and consistently.

Speaker 11 (02:23:42):
That's gonna be the big question. You never know when
a player clicks to the next level. It took me
a while to learn some things. In nineteen ninety six,
I went to the next level and I thankfully never
went back. I learned how to survive now. It was
a different rewards system. Thirty six starts is different than
twenty eight to thirty that are expected now. And I
think that's gonna be either his payday or not going

(02:24:05):
to be his payday. There's going to be a lot
of talk around him on when I think he's a
free agent after this year.

Speaker 2 (02:24:10):
I'm not mistaken, And so that's that's.

Speaker 11 (02:24:13):
Gonna be either for some clubs that don't see enough
want to roll the dice for the current club in Houston.
You know, look, I know Jim Crane's very shrewd. He
makes great, really very big decisions, and he makes them calculated.
And so if he feels he's that player, then he'll
sign a ballplayer to a contract that's lucrative and long term.
But if he doesn't, then, you know, I think then

(02:24:35):
then that's that's the rub right there. You got to understand,
as a player, everybody knows everything about you, and your
current club knows the most. And when I see players,
not every time, but when I see certain players go
other places and sign bigger contracts and their club didn't
make it even close to it, it tells you what
you need to know about that club's feeling about that player.

Speaker 6 (02:24:59):
Awesome, awesome stuff. So fantastic guests. If you missed the
rest of that, as you could hear really really good
intel insight on what not only he thinks, but I
think the great majority of people think about certain aspects
of how to run your club at specific to some
astros fromber pretty insightful. So check it out at sports
Talk seven ninety dot com, on the Sean Salisbury Show

(02:25:20):
page or podcast, or like I said, via the iHeartRadio app,
and I've got something for you via the iHeartRadio app.
Will tell you about next segment, but we'll continue with
in case you missed it.

Speaker 5 (02:25:32):
What else do we have today? Cool?

Speaker 13 (02:25:33):
Hey, remember how yesterday Nikosio said, like five hundred players
from the University of Texas are gonna get drafted in
this year's class.

Speaker 6 (02:25:39):
Yeah, they're gonna have like five hundred players drafted. Yeah,
they're gonna like five hundred players. Like you know, I
heard it loud. That was also in my notes. Yeah,
I'm good, I'm good.

Speaker 13 (02:25:47):
Did you also hear that the Houston Texans are one
of those teams that could be interested in one of
those five hundred players, Because, according to KPRC two sports
Aaron Wilson, Vernon Broughton, a local kid, returned to NUR
Stadium and met with the Texans for a pre draft
visit is a defensive lineman who would be a great
addition in Day three as a good, solid debt piece.

(02:26:10):
And it's not a move that's going to counteract what
you have to do in the first three rounds.

Speaker 6 (02:26:13):
Do you send these portions of the show sometimes straight
to Dimico's inbox and say, hey, man, I am all
for making the defense great again. So you want them
to draft Walter Nolan at twenty five and now you
want brought in on the team as well. I mean
they are, they must be hurting for defensive linemen. This
is a local kid, Cyridge, where he played his high
school football. I think as a future text and I

(02:26:37):
would absolutely be all for it. And where they might
be able to grab him again, I think that's probably
a good pocket of I mean, where they have what
they have today, who knows what it'll be when they
get to the Saturday portion of the draft rounds four
through seven. They have three selections, and I doubt they'll
use them where they currently are. Nick has a tendency

(02:26:58):
to make a move or seven with those particular picks,
but he I believe he has an NFL future and
maybe it just kind of depends on where he goes
and where the depth is and you know what they're
looking for from him. But he is one of the
many players that maybe benefit additionally from having Texas where
Texas is as a program now going to Pro Day

(02:27:19):
at many schools benefits some of the other players.

Speaker 5 (02:27:23):
I mean, Colorado is a good example.

Speaker 6 (02:27:25):
Even this year, you're gonna get to see players that
you wouldn't have seen because you wouldn't have gone otherwise.
There wouldn't have been a big enough reason for that
one player or that one player. But they have multiple
that one players. They got three guys that are definitely
going in the first round. You know, Baron's going in
the first round, Golden's going in the first round. Banks
is going in the first round. And then they have,
like Nick said, four hundred and ninety seven others that

(02:27:46):
now you had a chance to see. It wouldn't shock
me if he ended up putting on Texans gear following
his Longhorn career.

Speaker 5 (02:27:52):
We shall see what.

Speaker 13 (02:27:53):
Else you got out of curiosity before we go any further.
You said that I want to go into Dimico Ryan's
inbox and tell him to make that de great again, right, I.

Speaker 5 (02:28:01):
Mean, you're like him, You're you're down with keep on
adding to the defense?

Speaker 2 (02:28:06):
Cool?

Speaker 13 (02:28:06):
Can I get mister President to tell Dimiico to get
that defense great again?

Speaker 5 (02:28:11):
He's not a monkey? Say that again? You want to
you want me to do?

Speaker 13 (02:28:15):
What can I have mister President tell Dimiko to make
his defense great again?

Speaker 5 (02:28:20):
But it is great. You can't. You can't fix something
if it's not broken. Okay, Like he's trying to make
it greater, like the greatest.

Speaker 6 (02:28:27):
Maybe you'd be asking him to say, can this can
you make them the greatest?

Speaker 5 (02:28:31):
You want me to make them a Philadelphia Eagles? That's
what you want. Final piece of information.

Speaker 13 (02:28:37):
A tight end could be coming to the University of
Houston this year, as Tanner Cooyzill from Washington is meeting
with the University of Houston at an Enconnor Wigman recently
worked with Slade Nagel, the offense coordinator that was hired
from LSU turn Mason Taylor into a top fifty pick Houston.
You might have yourself a tight end in the Big
twelve or twenty twenty five. Mason Taylor's aunt was in

(02:29:00):
the news again today. Is that do I have the
family alignment?

Speaker 5 (02:29:04):
Correct? Sure? Joy Taylor? Sure? I mean great, great woman.
What it was there was some news he's a nasty woman.

Speaker 6 (02:29:12):
I don't think so. That's not what I was saying
at all.

Speaker 5 (02:29:17):
Well, that was the opposite of what Cole was saying.

Speaker 6 (02:29:19):
I believe they're they're reaching a settlement in the lawsuit.
Who's they Fox, Chuck Dixon, Skipper Bayless and Joy Taylor
Kipper Bayless are in settlement talks with former hairstylists Nushen
Feraji over her bombshell lawsuit.

Speaker 4 (02:29:34):
That's actually hot off the sports keep it all out
of the public spotlight.

Speaker 5 (02:29:37):
And there you have it.

Speaker 6 (02:29:38):
Won more segment to go and an opportunity to win
tickets via contest here it's Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:29:44):
That's part of our final segment.

Speaker 2 (02:29:47):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:29:51):
Suck to you guys about being in a wreck, which
is not pleasant to think about.

Speaker 6 (02:29:57):
Back here on the A team, and has mentioned an
opportunity for you to win some tickets to go see
Nellie Joe Rule and Eve Jah Rule and Eve. They're
gonna be on the way the party at tour. It's
gonna be at the Woodlands for the thing. It's gonna
be on September fourth and This is as good for
you win or lose, because we're just asking you to
make our Heart Radio updated on your app, because you

(02:30:21):
should already have it. If you don't, go ahead and
download the iHeartRadio app and then make sports Talk seven
ninety number one on your presets, and then get a
screenshot of that and email it to me Adam Wexler
at iHeartMedia dot com, and you're enter to win those
two tickets.

Speaker 5 (02:30:37):
It is that easy.

Speaker 6 (02:30:37):
Many of you listening right now are doing so via
the iHeartRadio app because you've already made sports Talk seven
ninety number one on your presets, So it's so simple
when I'll just grab a screenshot of that very fact
that you love us here and our other programs here
at sports Talk seven ninety and want easy access to
us via the new and improved iHeartRadio app. So screenshot
the fact that Sports Talk seven ninety is the number

(02:30:59):
one preset for you you and we'll get you entered
in that contest. Well, that's the winner tomorrow to see
if you in fact are going to see Nelly, joh
Rule and Eve thanks to your friends at sports Stock
seven ninety and our Heart Radio. What's your favorite Nelly's
song the ones I heard earlier this week, the ones
on my video. There was one about how people speak

(02:31:19):
in the country.

Speaker 5 (02:31:20):
Yeah, bad grammar if you will. Yes. What what were
the other ones you mixed in there?

Speaker 4 (02:31:25):
Well, there was one that causes people to remove articles
of clothing because of the temperature.

Speaker 5 (02:31:29):
That's the wex way of saying it. Yeah, it makes
you want to do that for sure.

Speaker 4 (02:31:33):
And then there was one yes, And then there was
one about the uh, well, let's call it a tuxedo
for your teeth. Some people might call it a grill.

Speaker 5 (02:31:45):
And then I'm trying. I know.

Speaker 6 (02:31:48):
There have been victories since and before uh they won,
they've won games before, the Saint Louis series, not a
ton the last time they were finishing up a road trip.

Speaker 5 (02:31:57):
They were coming back from Prince's Town. Yeah. Yeah. What
were those songs?

Speaker 4 (02:32:02):
Well, there was one about controlling certain aspect of a
certain situations the.

Speaker 5 (02:32:06):
House pet, yes, not the dog. Okay, what else?

Speaker 4 (02:32:12):
I actually don't know if I I think I used
one more and now I can't think of it.

Speaker 5 (02:32:18):
Hold on, let me find out. I believe the song
was about liplocking as well.

Speaker 4 (02:32:23):
Yeah, but I don't know if I actually used that
whole song. I think I just used the intro.

Speaker 5 (02:32:27):
Wow well giving it away. For this weekend, I used.

Speaker 4 (02:32:30):
Like five seconds another song, but I can't. Also, I
cannot say the name of that.

Speaker 5 (02:32:33):
Finding the Padres.

Speaker 6 (02:32:35):
There's two t's and get this weekend. H Should the
Astros bats blitz the Padres with mounds of offense?

Speaker 5 (02:32:46):
Not likely? And you create a good Morning Houston while
whilst in Vegas. You guys know.

Speaker 6 (02:32:53):
He's making videos in Vegas. If the Astros win, lock
it up, guarantee.

Speaker 4 (02:32:58):
I completely upset that there playing the team that's playing
the best baseball out there right now while I'm on
vacation and two hours ahead of the and.

Speaker 5 (02:33:06):
These games are like four o'clock in the afternoon.

Speaker 4 (02:33:09):
Yeah, I guess. I guess I would have that added benefit.
Could you imagine if I went to Hawaii and I
was doing this stuff.

Speaker 6 (02:33:14):
You got two four o'clock starts and a five o'clock
daylight done exactly. So I'm looking forward to it, and
you will give you time to come up with those ideas.
Be your last chance to uh weigh in on Rockets
Warriors on the air. So I'll leave that for the
final two minutes of the program, and we promised you
some Dylan, so we're gonna give you some Dylan, as promised.

(02:33:35):
Dylan Brooks over at the facility today talking about this
upcoming series. It's not new to him playing Golden State.
Is it motivating for him playing Golden State again?

Speaker 8 (02:33:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (02:33:46):
No, I lost it up, so does carryover. They're a
good team. Their experience is a good test for us.

Speaker 6 (02:33:55):
It's a good test for us. Their experience a little
bit of carryover. He lost to them like many others
have during their long running postseason success, although less so
during his losses most of the time. I mentioned earlier
that did meat Memphis on their way to the twenty
twenty two title. What about locking horns this postseason? With
postseason Draymond, I.

Speaker 7 (02:34:17):
Think we did the job last game when we played them.
There those same hattics that he was doing you received
during the playoffs. He plays physical, he plays hard. I
all just gotta keep composure and you know, follow our
game plan.

Speaker 5 (02:34:33):
Now.

Speaker 6 (02:34:33):
If anybody out West, specifically number twenty three, heard those comments,
he should absolutely answer that question with the exact same words.
If asked about how do you guys think you'll handle
Dylan Brooks, not that they're the same player, but his
word for word answered would still fit if said about

(02:34:54):
Dylan Brooks.

Speaker 4 (02:34:55):
Yeah, I just know that Dylan Brooks, and I'm not
even This isn't a Homerism type thing. Dylan Brooks brings
way more to the table for the Rockets than Draymond
brings Draymond Green brings to the Warriors.

Speaker 6 (02:35:08):
And he only used the word antics, so it leaves
it wide open for lots of difference to elbow the
Warriors big in the face midway through the game, like
Draymond did the last meeting. He's not begging the official
with his words. I'm not going to stop unless you
give me a technical, which he obviously did. Lastly from

(02:35:30):
Dylan on what might end up being bolton board material,
just because Vegas decided, I don't know if it's gonna
work out for us, we better make the Golden State
Warriors the favorites. Thus, what about you, guys, Dylan, you're
the underdogs.

Speaker 18 (02:35:42):
No, we embrace me like that.

Speaker 11 (02:35:44):
Overall. We don't care what underdogar.

Speaker 5 (02:35:46):
Bets or spread or whatever the case maybe is.

Speaker 7 (02:35:50):
If they think more physical team, we battle together, and
I think that rhet the more you police or too.

Speaker 6 (02:35:59):
I'm appretiating his treating this like it's we're playing a
basketball game.

Speaker 5 (02:36:04):
It might be the playoffs. That's what they're doing. Perfect
love it. That's what a men Thompson's thinking.

Speaker 6 (02:36:09):
So in your final couple of minutes here before you
burn it off to Vegas, Yeah, what do you think?

Speaker 4 (02:36:15):
I think the Rockets win a very very tight game
in game one, and then we'll see what happens when
I get back.

Speaker 6 (02:36:21):
It is the only game that we'll be played prior
to your return to the airwaves.

Speaker 5 (02:36:25):
I can't complain too much.

Speaker 4 (02:36:26):
We did get the Sunday game, and we got two
days in between, so it guarantees that I can call
game two.

Speaker 5 (02:36:32):
By the way, am I calling game four? Guarantees you're available?
I'm calling game two. It doesn't guarantee that you're working
calling a home game if you get the first one.

Speaker 8 (02:36:39):
I know.

Speaker 4 (02:36:39):
Also, I need to do game four so you can
do game three because there's some scheduling.

Speaker 6 (02:36:43):
Okay, yeah, give you schedule you I'm not that controlling
for game two. Then yes, the possibility that you would
not have a home game would exist.

Speaker 5 (02:36:52):
I would never do that. That's not fair. That's not
fair at all, but because.

Speaker 6 (02:36:55):
Would sweep them and then I would again not let
you do a home game in the second rounds.

Speaker 5 (02:37:01):
I do, I do think they win game one. Do
you think it is a must win in game one?

Speaker 4 (02:37:08):
No, because of whoever wins game one is not winning
game two. Not really like if the Rockets win game one,
then obviously they're in the driver's seat, you know, if
they win game two.

Speaker 5 (02:37:17):
But I can't. This is it's not and it's not
about the Warriors.

Speaker 4 (02:37:22):
I just want the Rockets to get their feet wet
and then get that out of the way, because then
we can see what's really gonna happen.

Speaker 6 (02:37:29):
And intense that you don't think if the Warriors win
Game one that will cause it a bigger Well, now
we can't beat them, or now we have to beat them.

Speaker 4 (02:37:37):
Well, so that's when you're gonna find out who you
are as a team, probably for the Rockets because you're young.

Speaker 6 (02:37:41):
We got a full day's worth of it tomorrow here
on the A Team and each of our other programs
we get to play on Sunday. We've got Astros Baseball
for you Friday, Saturday Sunday and a full boat the
full Show for you, and also after this show, as
is the case most nights when we don't have play
by play for you, we got the nightcap Cole Thompson.

Speaker 5 (02:37:57):
We'll have that for you next

Speaker 2 (02:38:00):
The ag Wons Sports Talk seven ninety