Rockets Roll Over In Game 1, Astros Winning Streak...For A Game, Texans Back On The CLOCK?

On The A-Team without one half of the Adams, Wex and Cole break down the Rockets' 10-point loss in Game 1 to the Warriors, what worked for the Astros vs. the best in baseball, the Texans' draft plans at No. 25 and more! Plus, Fantasy Pro Sports Russell Brown joins the show to break down Houston's game plan for the draft at No. 25. 

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Raised my Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Nolan multi byt with the magnificent roller coaster ride that
is Houston Sports Chill late down for the only homegrown
afternoon team is talking.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Your teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A
Team A A.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
A new week begins here on Sports Talk seven ninety
on the A Team. Wex here with you another VAK
day for AC along with Cole Thompson, We've got you
for the next four hours, be joined by a couple
of guests. Over the course of that time, we will
clearly talk about what took place late last night at
Toyota Center, we will talk about what took place last

(01:06):
night at Minute Made Park, and we will talk about
what is expected to take place this week Thursday, Friday
and Saturday over at the Texans facility as they will
try to outfit their team with new talent. The other
two teams, well, they probably are pretty much what we
see today, including your Astros, who took two of three

(01:30):
from the San Diego Padres over the weekend. They are
remaining home for games tonight, tomorrow and Wednesday night. All
three games or night games against the Toronto Blue Jays.
We'll get you set for those three games and an
effort to get back to five hundred tonight with a
victory and getting back to five hundred in the best
of seven first round Western Conference Playoffs series with the

(01:53):
Golden State Warriors.

Speaker 4 (01:55):
It's pretty close. I'm not ready to say yet.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
It's only two h one three days till tip off
Wednesday night, but it sure feels like I must win.
Rockets are trying to beat the Golden State Warriors four times.
They now only have six opportunities to beat them four times.
A loss on Wednesday means they only have five opportunities

(02:19):
to beat them four times, and only two of those
games will be in Houston. Warriors are pretty much the
same team no matter where they play. They were a
little bit better at home in the post acquisition of
Jimmy Butler, and they were much much better as a team.
Following the acquisition of Jimmy Butler. The Rockets were one
of the few teams to beat them. They did so
two weeks ago, they did not last night, and a

(02:41):
woeful offensive effort from the Houston Rockets. I have a
theory on one of the unspoken reasons why I feel
pretty confident about that theory.

Speaker 4 (02:51):
We'll see if you guys agree.

Speaker 3 (02:53):
But ninety five to eighty five the final last night
shooting woes is putting it mildly. You take twenty nine threes,
you don't miss twenty seven in a row, but you
only make six the entire evening and certainly not enough
to stay closer in the tough portion of the game.
The tough portion of the game was through the mid
second quarter early third quarter when they saw the lead balloon.

(03:15):
Remember the Rockets led after the first quarter. Twelve minutes
into their Game one, they had the lead and not
money minutes later, about fifteen or so, they were down
twenty ultimately down twenty three in the early stages of
the third quarter, but were able to shave fourteen points
off of that deficit before the fourth quarter, began, able
to shave another six points off of that deficit with

(03:37):
about five minutes remaining in the game or six minutes
remaining in the game, and never really got any closer,
continue to not have the kind of offensive possessions they needed. Yes,
they missed a lot of shots, guess what, That's what
they've been doing for.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
Eighty two games.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
That really wasn't a huge surprise. The lower levels of
shooting six of twenty nine, ten of twenty nine doesn't
sound like it's very good, and it isn't, but it
makes a whole lot of difference in any individual game.
They didn't have to shoot quite so badly in last
night's game, but they did so many other things that
they need to not do. Obviously, the turnovers, they certainly

(04:15):
coincide with the portion of the game where the Golden
State Warriors turned a close game into a lopsided one.
Credit for coming back in this game, probably some internal
mental assist to a team that obviously has never been
here before. They've never been up in a series, They've
never been down in a series. This team as a

(04:35):
group of players, but they've never played together in the postseason,
or even a small group of them ever played together.
And you know, Dylan Brooks has been to the postseason.
Fred van Vliet and Jeff Green have been deep into
the postseason, playing an all four series and winning the
final series and claiming an NBA Championship, and a host
of others have played in the playoffs. Although if they did,
and you're not Steven Adams, you didn't play in last

(04:56):
night's game, but they haven't done it together. They don't
know how this person reacts and how this person communicates,
and how they need to go about things. The mistakes
they made early in the game, they unfortunately just continued
to make throughout the game. They didn't always result in turnovers,
but they resulted in poor offensive playing. We'll hear from
the people that were involved both sides, Draymond Green and

(05:17):
Steph Curry doing the right thing when referencing this series
as it relates to any previous series between Golden State
and Houston, and they've been saying it leading up to it,
just like the Rockets said leading up to it. Really
don't have anything to do with it. Two different teams,
there's three similar players, and it doesn't matter because they're
playing against different players. Heck, that was the Warriors first

(05:38):
playoff game ever with Jimmy Butler. He's very good. They
are all very good, and they're a very good position.
Now there are only a couple of road teams to
win their game ones over the weekend, one each day. Saturday,
it was an embarrassing loss at home for the Lakers
with the Timberwolves coming in there, and just running all
over them and just simply out playing them to a

(05:59):
very large degree. And the playoffs in general, especially yesterday.
I'm not hat tipping the Rockets for it, but I
guess the NBA should. There was a competitive game yesterday.
They were in it low scoring as it was fifty
one point margin of victory in the early game. Two
other lopsided games in the Eastern Conference involving the number
one and two seeds led into last night's game with

(06:22):
the Rockets, which actually tipped off as expected at eight
thirty five, did not have to wait an additional ten
minutes because Miami did not put up a fight against Cleveland.
So I appreciate that, and I'm sure the fans do
as well. The atmosphere at Toyota Center was pretty good.
It certainly was better than it's been for four seasons,
all those non playoff seasons. And for all the players

(06:42):
that were involved last night, it's the first time they've
ever been a home team in a playoff game with
this team, because obviously Fred and host of others have
played in playoff games, and few of them have even
rolled through Houston over the years, but in their own uniforms,
seeing everyone in red for.

Speaker 4 (06:58):
The most part.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
For the most part, even though they were implored both
in person by people walking around the arena pre tip off,
can you go ahead and put that red shirt on?
And via the video board, Hey you nine people seated
who are looking up at you on the big screen, cheering,
getting ready for the game.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
Their seats are full of T shirts.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
Just put it on.

Speaker 4 (07:23):
That's what it's there for. It's freebee wear. It red out.

Speaker 3 (07:26):
Good atmosphere, nonetheless, and hard to believe what took place
after the Rockets got out in front seven zip. They
hit their shots, they got to the basket, they got
a little give and go and a throwdown would have
been nice if they'd called the foul. I'm not gonna
sit here and complain about officiating. I do not think
they had a very good crew working the game last night.

(07:48):
I don't think they favored one side or the other,
but I do think they made some poor calls. I
hope not to be watching more games this postseason, Rockets
or otherwise with any of those three. Although the third
person in charge, he stayed in the background pretty well.
I think Capers and Taylor handled most of the mistakes,
and unfortunately a rule that I wish the league would

(08:10):
get changed for both the regular season and the postseason.
Doesn't look like they have any intention of doing so,
because they like getting in and out of the arena
and off to their next game as fast as possible.
But you got to be able to challenge calls for
more than just well, you missed one, so your night
is done. You got to be able to challenge calls,
probably more than if you have the timeouts necessary for it. Yes,

(08:31):
more time taken to make sure. When the Rockets correctly
double team Steph Curry at half court, he's stuck, ball
gets battered away when he tries to pass it to
Draymond Jabari Smith reaches for it, and Draymond Green knocks
it directly out of bounds, right in front of James Caper.
Not saying Caper's not an easy call, but he missed

(08:52):
it and everybody in the arena knew it. But the
Rockets had already used their challenge, and that was that
pretty important considering the timing of the game. Easy to fix,
but the mechanism to fix it was taken away from
every team. No team, It's not just the Rockets, it's
every team. I really think they ought to do that.
If they don't do it for the regular season, they
ought to do it for the postseason. Bottom line is,

(09:13):
you would expect them to want to get the call correct,
and there were a couple of reviews in last night's game.
They took about ten seconds. You got a three and
a half minute TV timeout for the national TV coverage
last night, which is an extra minute than usual. Neither
of the two replays cost the game any extra time.

(09:35):
They both were done long before the TV timeout ended,
The announcement was made in arena, and they were ready
to play basketball as soon as the commercial break was over.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
But just something again.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
This applies to all sixteen teams that are playing for
their postseason lives. Seems like a pretty easy fix, Seems
like common sense should outweigh the need to get people
out of there in two hours and twenty three minutes
instead of two hours and twenty seven minutes. But nonetheless,
the ways the rocket it's gonna avoid this going very
very badly is winning on Wednesday. Like I said, it

(10:05):
feels very very very very very much like a must win,
only because you're quickly running out of time to beat
Golden State. If Golden State only lost five games with
Jimmy Butler. If Golden State only lost a handful of
games when Butler and Curry were in the lineup, and
you're trying to get them four losses over a seven
game span, you kind of get my drift with the mass.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
You just you run out of opportunities.

Speaker 3 (10:28):
Each game that goes by that you don't win, well,
there's fewer opportunities to do it. The Rockets are going
to beat the Warriors four times and ten meetings or
twelve meetings or fifteen meetings probably, but they have only
seven to do so. And they did put themselves in
position to continue and complete the comeback, but more of
the same followed, and again you score eighty five points.
They had their lowest scoring first quarter of the entire season.

(10:51):
They've had some poor offensive games against Golden State, and conversely,
or similarly, Golden State has had some poor offensive games
against Houston. Both were true, but in those poor offensive
games there have now been five of them. Only one
game did both teams pop for one twenty Each of
the other five games now including those in the regular season,
and really mainly just including the game where Jimmy Butler

(11:14):
was a warrior. So the game yesterday and the game
two Sundays ago, this is what they're going to be like.
Maybe they're not ninety five eighty five with maybe they're
one oh five ninety five. The Rockets got their victory
one o six ninety six, But it seems pretty unlikely
we're gonna all of a sudden start seeing one fifteen,
one eleven, one twenty five, one twenty one, the closeness
of the game. It was only close for a few

(11:36):
minutes in the fourth quarter, but one more shot or
one more travel called on Brandon Pajemski, you probably see
maybe a little bit different outcome.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
So the particulars of.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
Why it went down the way it went down, we'll
hit on those immediately when we return. Obviously, want to
get into what the Astros did well this weekends. Pretty
much the same thing they've been doing well all season,
but an opportunity for a winning homestand which to me
at this point in the season is an absolute must
not a must win game tonight, but I say must
win homestand and to do that they need to take

(12:09):
two of three from the incoming of Blue Jays mentioned,
We'll have a couple guests along the way. I'll tell
you about those when we come back here. Just getting
started on a Monday edition. Welcome back from the weekend
edition of The A Team.

Speaker 2 (12:22):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (12:30):
Adam's top of the key locked them in going against
Curry on the post up with eight jump hope from.

Speaker 4 (12:37):
Seven feet got it.

Speaker 3 (12:39):
That's just a third field goal the day for a
Men Thompson. It's a one position game at seventy six
to seventy three. That's when you thought, maybe, just maybe
there's a chance for the Rockets here six forty nine
left in the game.

Speaker 4 (12:56):
When a Men Thompson put that in.

Speaker 3 (12:58):
Moments later, the very next possession, he tried to draw
charge on Brandon Pajemski. It was called a blocking foul Live.
This is where the Rockets chose to use their time
out and challenge was deemed an unsuccessful challenge, and I
believe it was officiated unfortunately correctly. I think a Men
Thompson could have gotten the call to go his way,

(13:21):
but he kind of leaned in and fell over, which
sounds hard to do, but if you saw it, you
know what I'm talking about. Leaned into create additional contact
and then fell backwards. All he had to do was
hold his ground, and I think you would have seen
the contact go the Rockets way. They would have kept
the challenge, they would have gotten possession. They would have
had possession of the ball in a one possession game,

(13:43):
and so it's hard to say that was a bad
challenge even though they lost it, although looking at it
with the time we have to look at it and
the team really doesn't have time.

Speaker 4 (13:52):
They have time to look at.

Speaker 3 (13:53):
It once or twice, maybe on the I pad behind
the bench, and then immediately call time out and see
if they get it right. They never had basketball in
a one possession game in the second half. That was
their opportunity to do so, had the ball down four
if you want to call that a one possession game.
They turned it over on that possession because Pajemski only

(14:14):
made one of two free throws, and the ensuing possession
of the Rockets did not even attempt a shot, and
that was really their downfall through the middle portion of
the game. It isn't even that they missed their shots.
They grabbed twenty two of their or twenty of their
own missshots in the game, because that's what they do
they miss and they get the rebound. Now they don't
always have so much trouble putting it back up. And

(14:36):
in a twenty two offensive rebound game, they only had
twenty two second chance points. Twenty two second chance points
is a great number. Probably need to score more than
twenty two on twenty two offensive rebounds, though, and that again,
in a nutshell, that means there were missing shots in
the paint. They were missing shots behind the three point line.

(14:58):
And I'll start here with what has to change. And
Golden State doesn't dictate whether or not it does change.
The Rockets do and that is almost always passing the
ball out when they get those offensive rebounds. They just
did it over and over and over again. Why I

(15:19):
mean three is greater than two. I understand math just
like everybody. But the three pointers they were getting off
that weren't open enough on a night where they were
shooting that poorly. I don't think Fred van Vliet created
his way into thirteen to three point attempts in last
night's game.

Speaker 4 (15:36):
He missed all but two of them.

Speaker 3 (15:38):
It's just to Ben Thompson, we'll grab an offensive rebound
and you throw it back out on top. He had
six offensive rebounds in the game, and the vast majority
of them weren't put right back up, even by him
or anybody else he could have dropped it off to.
They almost always were passed back out, maybe for a
reset or obviously for a shot, and they just weren't
making enough of them. This is why I think the

(15:59):
NBA at large it kind of gets away with it.
But the amount of easy shots at the basket or
just shots at the basket that current NBA players give away,
don't want say no to deny themselves the opportunity for
is amazing because everyone's in love with a three pointer,

(16:21):
and on a night where you're not making them, which
are again a lot of nights for the Rocket's just
something I think at some point during the game I
might have encouraged the Rockets not to do quite as often.

Speaker 4 (16:30):
I do think the Warriors.

Speaker 3 (16:32):
Are way better defensively than anybody ever gives them credit for.
They employ Steph Curry, and he's not a plus defender.
Everybody else they put out there they are, and for
one reason, they move their feet as well, if not
better than anybody else in the NBA. How many times
do they cut their opponent off? You know Jalen Green
thinks he has an opportunity to go right, and as

(16:54):
soon as he gets there, somebody's cut him off. Alburn
Shengun spins and believes he's beaten his man, and as
soon as he gets there, there's a defender, usually his defender.
They do a really good job with their health defense.
They've been seamless, I think from the get go. Obviously
they're now two months in, but seamless in integrating Jimmy
Butler into things. The Rockets turned the ball over seventeen times.

(17:17):
Fourteen of those turnovers were Warriors steals, thus a lot
of runouts twenty five points off those seventeen turnovers, many
of which came direct result of those steals. Jimmy Butler
had five steals in the game. Not concerned at all
about how Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler played offensively, I'll

(17:39):
say it again for those that don't believe what I'm
saying could possibly be true. When Steph Curry went twelve
of nineteen and hit five of his nine threes and
Jimmy Butler went ten of nineteen and they combined for
fifty six points, that's not why they lost and it
won't be why they lose in the future. When they
score more than that, you'll see that what they did

(18:01):
last night, other than a couple of possessions which was
not game plan related, it was execution related. Both of
the threes that Steph Curry hit in the second half
late in the shot clock, they were a result of mistakes,
a little lack of focus.

Speaker 4 (18:18):
It happens.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
It's very difficult to do what they want to do
defensively for an entire game on one specific player, even
though Amen, Fred Jalen, and Tari all had the assignment
at different points in the game. Both of these two
instances came when a men Thompson was defending him. You know,
an inbounds play with four point five seconds left, Quintin
post throws it in and they almost immediately get the

(18:40):
ball to Steph.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
And he jacks up at three.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
A really good look at a three after a dribble,
and a men Thompson's just got to be a little
bit more aware, a little bit more connected to him
and just make it either more difficult or force him
off the line. I thought they did a great job
as a team most of the night forcing him off
the line. That one was I think avoidable. I mean,

(19:03):
he could make a crazier shot than that. You just
have to force him to take a crazier shot than that.
And then the other one with the thirty plus footer
again off of an inbounds play, and this came immediately
after the play. I was just talking about the ball
that was knocked out of bounds after they doubled the
ball out of Curry's hands. Draymond Green knocked it out,
but James Capers thought that Jabari Smith Junior did. They

(19:26):
weren't even out of the replay on the TNT side.
If you were foolish enough to watch that one rather
than the Space City Home Network edition, or listen to
Matt and myself on News Radio seven forty k TRH
as we had the game there last night before we
brought it over to Sports Talk seven to ninety after
the Astros finished up. But they didn't even come back
from replay quickly enough to see Steph Curry just kind

(19:47):
of backed away about forty five feet out throwing the ball.

Speaker 4 (19:50):
He took a dribble and fired it up. A men
was in the vicinity.

Speaker 3 (19:53):
He was their ish, but not connected than the way
you have to be connected to probably two plays in
the NBA and only two players, the healthy version, the
Blazer's version of Damian Lillard, not to bring up bad
long three point postseason memories for you and Steph Curry,
and just.

Speaker 4 (20:13):
Those two minor minor.

Speaker 3 (20:17):
The word that Ema uses is he says, we had
some slippage that would be called slippage on focus, and
unfortunately both of those shots went in. You know the
Pajemski travel that I mentioned a few minutes ago in
the opening segment that certainly wasn't called, and he was
able to take three steps throw it past to Moses
Moody hit a jumper. These were two in space or

(20:39):
two calls in the fourth quarter. They were just missed.
There's nothing really the Rockets could do about either one
of them. You're not gonna there's no review on an
uncalled travel, and they were not in possession of a
challenge when the ball went out of bounds and then
correctly gave.

Speaker 4 (20:53):
It to the Warriors.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
But you can try to prevent those baskets from being made.
Moses Moody hit two in the game, that was one
of them. Seth Curry hit twelve shots in the game
and This was after missing his first three. Each of
his first three shots were three point attempts and they
were highly challenged. They were well defended. Doesn't mean he's
going to miss. He did, and then he went twelve

(21:15):
for sixteen. They let him get going when he went
to the basket. It did get him going. But that's
totally fine. I'll say it again. If he's making twos,
that is not going to beat you. If he gets
him in a rhythm, it's a little bit of a concern,
and maybe you could argue that that's what it did,
but a little bit more connectivity to Curry, who also

(21:37):
turned the ball over four times, and they probably it's
just a possession or two they needed in the fourth
quarter to maybe get it down to a two point game,
maybe get it down to a one possession game. Additionally,
the other guys they let try to beat them. It's
the second game in a row they've by design tried
to have the other guys beat them. Now the first

(21:57):
time they tried it back on the sixth Steph Curry
was so bad when those guys did play well, but
he healed shot the ball well enough. Both Peyton and
Pajemski played very well offensively, but because they were so
good against Steph and he was far, far less engaged
in that regular season game than he was in last
night's postseason game. You know it worked last night. You

(22:20):
had Curry and Butler scored fifty six points. Their teammates
scored thirty nine points. Their teammates hit fourteen shots in
forty eight minutes of basketball. That's winning basketball, that is
winning defense. They did play the type of defense that
could have afforded them to win. They rebounded the basketball
that could have afforded them a win, but it was

(22:42):
counteracted and overbalanced by seventeen turnovers and twenty one percent
three point shooting. The best of that game last night,
there weren't a whole lot of it. The best of
X as we do each and every weekday afternoon, halfway
through our number one that comes deck here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
The eighteen, on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (23:09):
Did you all see this should be putting out between
five and fifteen posts a day.

Speaker 4 (23:13):
Four hundred people were arrested for things of day seven
on social media.

Speaker 3 (23:17):
History repeats itself type and You'll succeed.

Speaker 4 (23:22):
Never doubt that you're the one too. Pusill go one building.
You're the best of X. Nothing's gonna have top You know,
you're the best of X. Post an every.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
Single day and you're the best of X breaking the
entire internet.

Speaker 3 (23:46):
Social media always delivers. That's why the best of X
exists here on the eighteen. WEX and Cole here with
you this afternoon, and we welcome you into the program.

Speaker 4 (23:57):
If you're just now joining us.

Speaker 3 (23:58):
Half hour from now, you can all join us for
our simulcast that begins each and every weekday afternoon at
three o'clock on Space City Home Network. Russell Brown covers
the NFL Draft, will join us at four point thirty.
See we can sneak in our signature segments. In addition
to that, Mondays bring Steve Sparks to Sports Talk seven

(24:19):
ninety his weekly appearance on the Sean Salisbury Show. So
if you missed that, we've got a snippet of that
very entertaining and informative interview coming your way in one hour.

Speaker 4 (24:30):
But here's where we do best of X.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
There is something, there's a saying the gift that keeps
on giving, and there is something in the NBA for
the last three months now two plus months that is
absolutely the gift that keeps on giving. First, the giving
was would you like Luka Doncic to play for your franchise?
The actual giving, giving up on your team and giving

(24:55):
away your franchise player, that was Nico Harrison. He is,
in fact the gift that keeps on giving, and luckily enough,
even though I'm not there in person, to be granted
the luxury of not only sitting down and talking to
Nico Harrison, but also able to use video and audio
recording devices this time. A small media round table was

(25:18):
held last week, coinciding with the end of the Dallas
Maverick season. Their under five hundred team was unable to
win the second playing game, losing to Memphis. Memphis was
then fodder for OKC on Saturday afternoon, losing by fifty
one as the MAVs tried to recreate the magic that

(25:39):
less than a year ago brought them to the NBA Finals.
As the champions of the Western Conference Rockets, Lakers, Wolves, Grizzlies,
Thunder Warriors, Clippers, Nuggets, They're all in the playoffs. They're
the only eight Western Conference teams in the playoffs, and
none of them are defending Western GOFREDS champions. Those are

(26:02):
your Dallas Mavericks. Again, little additional setup. The Dallas Mavericks
watch their franchise player play in the playoffs Saturday afternoon. Individually,
I suppose you could say he played pretty well, but
he played hero ball pretty much the entire game. Luca
was thirty seven points, twelve of twenty two, had eight boards,

(26:23):
he had one assist, and he turned the ball over
five times in his forty minutes and did it effectively
twelve to twenty two. But like I said, if you
were watching that game, it was pretty much haroball the
whole time for him, and honestly it bled over to
everybody else. They had an early eight point lead and
then it got embarrassed at home by the Minnesota Timberwolves,
losing by twenty two. All this sets up today Nico

(26:47):
Harrison met with the media. Allowed cameras, allowed questions, allowed
recording devices, and he still doesn't get it, which.

Speaker 4 (26:58):
He actually fully acknowledges. Listen to him.

Speaker 7 (27:03):
I didn't know that Luca was important to the to
the fan base. I didn't quite know it to what level.
But really the way we looked at it is, you know,
if you're putting on the if you're putting a team
on the floor that's Kyrie, Clay PJ, Anthony Davis, and Lively.
We filed that's a championship caliber team and we would
have been winning at a high level and that would

(27:25):
have quieted some of the outrage, and so unfortunately we
weren't able to do that, so it just continued to,
you know, go on and on.

Speaker 3 (27:33):
Yep, if one of the players, the player no offense
to Max Christy that you added in the deal, had
miraculously stayed healthy for the first time in forever, then yeah, maybe,
like I'm gonna go with Nico on this, Kyrie doesn't
blow out his knee, which I'm not blaming anybody with
any kind of magical potion to foresee the future for

(27:55):
a player who had been much healthier than say Anthony
Davis over the course of life past few years. But
if this is a healthy team from the moment Davis
gets healthy, because I can't give Nico, well, he got hurt,
He was hurt when you traded for him, and then
he got hurt in the very first game you played
against the Rockets, which he was awesome in and they

(28:17):
still won. But I'm going to give you two healthy
stars our people are Miko. I guess does he believe
they're the other Warriors? The Warriors finished eighth. The Warriors
are tied for seventh, and they won the seventh spot.
They had forty eight wins, and this came largely because
the trade they orchestrated at the deadline brought in a

(28:40):
healthy player, brought in a big time winner, and that's
what they did. They won, They won their way into
avoiding the play in tournament, and they still finished seventh.
They were an average team when they made the deal,
and I don't know anybody that thinks the MAVs were
much more than average when they did that. Where did
he think they were going to finish? Who does he
think I think they were going to beat? I'll give

(29:01):
him again, they might be competitive, I suppose, but I
don't see what difference it would make when.

Speaker 6 (29:08):
Were you already won the West? You weren't competitive with
the West. You won the West, probably not better than
Oklahoma City this year, but arguably a healthy Luca led team,
because that's the team you just built around him that
won the West could have done better than this new team.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
So he's still completely clueless.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
And if you missed it, again, Nico totally absent from
the team he's been working for. He didn't just arrive
in Dallas. This wasn't his first week on the job
during the trade deadline. But here today on April twenty first,
two and a half months after the trade.

Speaker 4 (29:50):
This is what he's still saying.

Speaker 7 (29:52):
Didn't know that Luca was important to the fan base.
I didn't quite know it to what level.

Speaker 3 (29:59):
I didn't quite know to what level how I mean,
I couldn't have put it more succinctly myself.

Speaker 4 (30:06):
How are you like? I mean?

Speaker 3 (30:09):
He does come off rather unemotional and a touch robotic,
although they might want to crank up the voice module,
but there's no way you can work inside in NBA
franchise and in the position that he's in. Granted, some
of them tried to be a little bit detached, not

(30:29):
trying to be too close to the players, maybe not
trying to be buddy buddy. It's obviously going to ultimately
be a business and sometimes that can be a little
bit awkward. Although other gms, like the one we had
here in Houston prior to this one, couldn't have been
more buddy buddy with the players that he had and
it's never been any different in the other place that
he now works in.

Speaker 4 (30:48):
Philadelphia's very close with the players.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
One is not better than the other, but one of
them certainly recognize the value of the player in the
city and within the organization a whole lot more than
Nico Harrison. It is baffling that he thinks how he thinks. It's,
I guess less baffling that he's willing to say it.
I'm all for honesty, and it's pretty unlikely he's gonna

(31:12):
be this honest when it's such a horrible take that
I believe it. He does think this way. This is
what he thought. He's working for the Mavericks. He's running
the Mavericks. He's putting a team together in twenty three,
twenty four to add Daniel Gaffer, to add PJ Washington,
because they have Luca. They got Kyrie Irving because they
had Luca. Luca's in the running for MVP every year

(31:34):
that he's healthy. Lucas had unbelievable postseason success. Individually. There's
thirty points per game in your playoff career. There's two
guys that are doing that, Luca and MJ. And that's it.
That's it. That's the whole list, and he doesn't understand
how important a player of this caliber who's never played

(31:58):
for another franchise doesn't understand how important he is to
the fan base.

Speaker 8 (32:01):
It goes a step further. Wex think about this for
a minute. You heard Clay Thompson after the loss talk
about would you still be with this organization?

Speaker 9 (32:11):
Man?

Speaker 3 (32:12):
Don't do that to it. That was a really good response,
and it was a totally reasonable question.

Speaker 8 (32:17):
But think about it for a second, would you? Because
if that's the whole selling point when you look moving
forward on trying to build more players and get the
right talent to come on in and free agency and
make the necessary moves to keep you in the competitive nature,
what's an easier sell a guy that's in the running
for an MVP who's going to average thirty at night
in the postseason, or two guys who are aging and

(32:40):
maybe will or won't be available once you get into
the late stages of April.

Speaker 3 (32:44):
Yeah, I'll not try to be revisionist history when the
deal was made and we had a show, because obviously
we did not have a show overnight when it was
actually made, but a little bit of a chance to
digest it. I can understand believing that the per personnel
that's under contract for Nico Harrison in Dallas on the

(33:04):
Mavericks currently could be a pretty good team, could be
among those in the hunt in the Western Conference, could
be if every single thing was absolutely perfect. And this
is also only short term because of where Anthony Davis

(33:25):
is in his career, so very very short term by design.
You said, holy cow, why is that window so open?
Close it please, there's a draft in here at the AAC.
I do not like this championship window open so wide.

Speaker 4 (33:40):
Stop it. Close it much more quickly.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
I'll leave it a crack open and add Anthony Davis
and claim I've added another star when healthy. But man,
this window is just far too wide. And Tim McMahon
finally rolled out his lengthy piece on why things have
been going downhill for about eighteen months prior even to
them making it to the Western Conference Finals, winning the
Western Conference Finals, and then losing in the NBA Finals.

(34:04):
If you care to read all the way through it,
it's just a matter of I covered the team and
cover the NBA. I watch how you work. I'm looking
at it from a media perspective. I'm here to give
my opinion, and I think they've done a horrible job
from a inside the building standpoint, the front office and
how they've made everything fit together with who's been let go,
and then obviously on the personnel side. Best of X

(34:25):
usually brings us to the comments, and there are some
how can a GM be that out of touch?

Speaker 4 (34:31):
Wildly impressive?

Speaker 3 (34:33):
Nico, just stop talking when you have no idea what
a player means to a fan base slash City. Obviously
the job is too big for you. Maybe du a
little research next time. And I appreciate Ryan pointing out
what I have. A team went to the finals last
year on the back of the player that you traded.
Every time Nico speaks, he's grave gets deeper and deeper.

(34:58):
I am curious what management, his boss, his owner, how
long that rope is because unless they're very, very healthy
next year, they are probably going to miss the playoffs.
They're going to be nine to ten again. Who's going
to fall by the wayside to allow Nico Harrison's Anthony

(35:20):
Davis partially Kyrie Irving led team And I can't even
get over the report. I hope it's true, but we
heard about Damian Lillard having the most miraculous we've never
seen before recovery in the history of blood clots, which, again,
if it's true, it's great and we will likely find
out when he hits the court early in this series.

(35:43):
But Shams was also saying the same thing in the
last week or so about Kyrie Irving's recovery from his
torn acl indicating he's going to be back way sooner
than anybody's ever been back before in the NBA at
this age. So good luck to Nico Harris Harrison and
the Dallas Mavericks. One last comment from that post with

(36:06):
that audio two sorry, Spicy R says, is this dude trolling?
And Ben says thought this was an AI voice dub
for a second. It is somewhat hard to tell Nico Harrison,
Western Conference general manager the gift that keeps on giving.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
Yeah, wex here with you on the A Team along
with Cole Thompson. You know, you can join us via
a number of different ways, social media and the old
X platform one easy way to do so.

Speaker 4 (36:40):
A lot of you participate there.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
We always appreciate the comments on what's being discussed or
questions you might have at Adam J. Wexler, at mister
Cole Thompson, or of course on the phone lines at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. Most of
the show focusing in on the NBA's postseason one game
into each of the series. Only two series will be
two games in by the time we get the end

(37:04):
of the night tonight, as they start to stagger all
the respective tip offs so they can have basketball every
single night. That's what happens when you start all eight
series over a two day span.

Speaker 4 (37:14):
One in the East, one in the West.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
Tonight the Knicks, thanks to a twenty one ZIP run
in the fourth quarter, we're able to take down the
Pistons in their game one over the weekend.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
They'd go tonight in the early game.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
The late game is the one series that produced highly entertaining,
very close, competitive basketball, and they did it for fifty
three minutes overtime. The Nuggets took a one game to
none lead over the Clippers.

Speaker 4 (37:39):
Clippers had a fifteen.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Point lead in that game, and then with the ball
final possession tie game regulation out of a timeout, no
shot did not attempt a shot at the end of
the game to prevent overtime and then in overtime by two.

(38:03):
I certainly thought that was going to burn them by
the way that that possession obviously went for them. Russell
Westbrook a huge part, both good and bad, of what
the Denver Nuggets did in that game, and some of it, interestingly,
was up against James Harden, you know, rebounding a couple
of times up and over the top of him and

(38:24):
his team. Russell's team off of his five of seventeen
shooting performance, including six three point attempts, which is about
six too many, his team got the victory. Twenty nine
for Jokic, thirty two eleven and six six boards, eleven assists,
and only two turnovers for James Harden. Awesome postseason, James.

(38:48):
It's game one that is normal, that is typical, that
is elite, and it probably will continue tonight in Game two,
and then when they get back home in games three
and four. We'll see how things go after that. They
obviously can't close out the Nuggets before a fifth game,
unlikely before a sixth game. This series, maybe the Rockets

(39:09):
series is the only one that looks like it's actually
going to be a series, and I'm hopeful we get
a little.

Speaker 4 (39:16):
Bit more than that.

Speaker 3 (39:17):
There's seven game series this entire postseason, and oftentimes it's
really unnecessary. I think a two games in you probably
know who the better team is, and even when you
visit the worst teams venue, there's no change in the outcome.
I don't think we're gonna see much and I don't
think Damian Liler's gonna change what's gonna happen in the
Pacers series. Oklahoma City is not going to be threatened

(39:39):
by Memphis, even though Memphis will clearly play a whole
lot better. It Not only did Oklahoma City earn the
number one seed and have sixteen more wins than anybody
else in the Western Conference, they didn't know who their
opponent was going to be until less than forty eight
hours before the game. But it didn't matter because the

(40:00):
it was playing basketball in Memphis late Friday night, only
to turn around and have the very first game of
the day Sunday at noon in Oklahoma City. And they
play every other day the first five games of that series,
which will only be four, So Memphis played Tuesday, played Friday,

(40:22):
traveled for all of those games. They had to travel
to San Francisco for the game on Tuesday, had to
travel back home for the game on Friday, and then
had to travel to Oklahoma City for Sunday's game. It's
not unbelievable, Oh my god, how would they ever survive travel?
But it's certainly far from ideal. Memphis obviously didn't know
who they were going to be playing until they lost

(40:42):
on Tuesday. They had to spend a little bit of
time on the Mavericks, I guess, but they knew if
they were going to win that game that they were
gonna be the eight seed, and they would go ahead
and want to scout up.

Speaker 4 (40:50):
The Oklahoma City Thunder absolutely.

Speaker 3 (40:53):
Got run off the court right out of the gate,
a blowout from the jump, giving away runouts all afternoon long,
and honestly, the fifty one point margin doesn't even tell
the story of the game. That would have been seventy five,
no problem if there was any reason to play the starter.
So in addition to getting no rest themselves, well, they
then gave Oklahoma City even more rest.

Speaker 4 (41:15):
Not rusty at all.

Speaker 3 (41:17):
Every team that's not among the bottom two play in
playoff teams they all basically got five or six days off.
Didn't look like much of it mattered and I wonder
if anybody thinks it mattered for the Rockets. I certainly don't.
I don't think there was any rust there. There was
one element of the postgame coverage of what happened in

(41:37):
the Rockets game that I definitely think was some foolish
information Circling around this piece of information and running it through.
It actually was part of the broadcast last night on TNT,
so I'll hit you with that at the top of
the hour here at three o'clock. Also give you the
thought I teased in the opening hour of the show.

(41:57):
One of the reasons Golden State has had so much
success defensively against the Houston Rockets throughout this season series,
both before Jimmy Butler arrived and now in the three
games since he arrives, which is now half of the
six games they've played against one another. I'm not going
to carry over too much from one regular season to

(42:19):
one postseason, but you certainly knew and could tell very
very easily. These teams know each other very very well.
There weren't a whole bunch of new tricks. I think
one thing that Golden State did paid off, and I
think one thing the Rockets didn't do is something we're
gonna see a lot more of in Game two. But
one thing, it's specific about why their defense is so good. Again,
I'll hit you with that. At the top of the hour,

(42:39):
we're going to run through exactly what did go down Friday, Saturday,
and Sunday evening over at Minute May Park, where the
Astros showed not yet ready to tell us we can't
win this year. The best team in baseball came to town,
and if not for a couple of lasers hit off
Taylor Scott in yesterday's game, one caught and one not
caught that went over the fence, the Astros could have

(43:01):
potentially earned a sweep of the San Diego Padres. But
two wins out of three against the team that caliber,
the way the Astros have been playing, and oh my goodness,
they had a two game winning streak, took him a
couple of weeks.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
They got it done. We'll hit on both of those
two items.

Speaker 3 (43:16):
Since we get started at three.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking
your Team.

Speaker 2 (43:34):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wefler are the A Team.

Speaker 3 (43:40):
Into our number two of the twoes Monday edition of
the program. Man I thought I already been here a
whole day. Yesterday was Sunday. The Rockets played last night,
the Astros played last night. It finally begins Draft week
in the NFL. It is Monday. We're into our number two,
our number one on the simulcast on Space City Home Network.
And get a reminder, they've got each of the Rockets

(44:01):
first round playoff games as they did last night, Craig,
Ryan and Vanessa along with Calvin and Esh. And of
course we've got all the games all the way through
the postseason for the Rockets, beginning with last night's game.
In a conflict or two may have those games on
News Radio seven to forty k TRH, as was the
case last night and will be the case again on Wednesday,

(44:24):
until we're able to also have it right here on
Sports Talk seven ninety ninety five to eighty five the final.
Last night, Rockets lose a game one. They again are
at home on Wednesday. Neither team practicing today. Word has
been in town since Friday. The Rockets had a full
week's worth of practice without travel as they were home

(44:45):
for their regular season finale on Sunday, so they were
certainly well rested.

Speaker 4 (44:50):
Injuries I don't believe are a factor.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
I don't think jay Sean Tate and Jock Landell were
going to play last night the way the game went.
Neither was available for their respective injuries, the ankle injury
with jay Sean Tate and the knee injury suffered at
practice from Jock Landell. And while both Gary Payton the
Second and Steph Curry are wearing it's called a splint

(45:13):
looks like tape on their respective shooting wrists, I don't
think it had a whole lot of impact on their
particular play either. So I think you're catching fully healthy teams,
both with plenty of rest. Again, Warriors didn't play since Tuesday,
and neither of these teams is playing till Wednesday, and
then they have another two days off before they play
on Saturday. Suspect the Rockets will fly out on Friday.

(45:34):
The Warriors, I imagine, won't fly home until the day
of after Game two, so they'll probably fly back home Thursday.
In an effort to extend this series. It would behoove
the Rockets not to hop on their plane on Friday
for San Francisco. In a two games to none hole,
while I'm okay saying they had a chance to win.

(45:54):
If it's a three point game in the fourth quarter,
you have a chance to win. But man, if they
do this similar things in last night's game in Wednesday
night's game, I don't expect it to go quite that way. First,
one to hear from emay Udoka and then I'll give
you that theory on what has gone poorly offensively for

(46:15):
the Rockets in this game. One because it's been happening
all season against Golden State. Amay Udoka last night after
the game talking about the unsatisfactory work in the half
court offensively.

Speaker 4 (46:27):
Alpe obviously was having a dominant game inside and you
got some scoring from your bench there in the third quarter,
But what did you think about the half court offensive
creation in general?

Speaker 10 (46:37):
Not our best Obviously, you only score eighty five. It's
not a great offensive night, and the numbers show that.
But I think it was six for twenty nine from
three to eleven for twenty from pre throw line, and
seventeen turnovers that gave up twenty five points. So not
our best offensive night by any means. Like I said,
hold somebody in ninety five, you'd expect to win if
you have a decent offensive night, and not only shots,

(46:58):
but like I said, turnovers playing in the crowd. The
misses in the crowd are the same as turnovers basically,
so had our chances got it to four point game
with two thirty four I think, and gave up a
three there, but you know, guarded well.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Enough to win four point game. Sounds like you're in
it traffic shooting, they're like turnovers. That's what they did
all game long. Dribbled into traffic, passed it into traffic,
tried to pass it through traffic. A little bit of
credit to Golden State, like I said, this is something

(47:32):
they've been doing all season to Houston, but it is
avoidable and I do think by the sixth meeting, the
one on Wednesday will be the seventh meeting. Regardless of personnel,
they play defense the same way. There's only been slight
changes in who they have at their disposal or how
Steve Kerr wants to do things, maybe a little more.

(47:54):
Jonathan Kuminga during the regular season, he didn't even play
in last night's game. He's been a really good offensive
player for them against Houston, but he's not as good
as a defensive player. He gets lost quite a bit,
and so the Warriors are like, well, why bother putting
him out there. They also are playing very very small.
This is not super new. They have one defender. I
think he was very very good against Alpera and Shangun

(48:14):
and he didn't even defend him a whole lot last night,
and that's Kevon Looney.

Speaker 4 (48:16):
I think Draymond Green is a fine defender and.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Totally respectful of the type of defense he plays overall.
And although I don't believe he was one of the
three best players defensively in the NBA this year, the
voters did. He will find out before Game three that
he did not win Defensive Player of the Year but
finished third. I feel pretty confident in saying he's an
okay defender against alper and he had a couple of

(48:40):
moments last night where Alpi thought he was gonna draw
a foul and kind of just drove right into him
and wasn't able.

Speaker 4 (48:45):
To get a shot off.

Speaker 3 (48:46):
He also dunked it on him early in the game
and didn't get a foul call there either, even though
there should have been. But here's why the Rockets don't
shoot well against the Warriors and it's not because Brandon
Pajemski does a great job challenging threes, and it's not
because Curry is a great perimeter defender, and it's not
because they switch so well, and it's not because they
move their feet so well, and it's not because they
have interchangeable defenders, and it's not because they're trying hard,

(49:09):
and it's not because they're an elite defensive team. The
Rockets don't shoot the ball well against Golden State because
their sole focus is chasing Steph Curry, who's taking all
the shots for the Rockets. The guys taking their turns
chasing Steph Curry, who's missing all the shots for the Rockets.

(49:29):
The guys taking their turns chasing Steph Curry. Amen Thompson's
the only one that doesn't fit there, and if he
was the only one defending Steph, I might think otherwise,
but he obviously wasn't, and honestly, last night, for much
of the game, there were plenty of other players doing it.
And this also extends beyond just Steph, because I would

(49:51):
imagine the Golden State Warriors turn up more miles per
game from their players than anybody else does in the NBA.
On offense, everybody's moving around. They have more motion than
anybody in the NBA. It's why they can succeed with
just about anybody out there, even these players that so
many of the fans of other teams are like, how
are you letting this guy do that? How is Gary
Payton getting back to back buckets at the rim? How's

(50:12):
Pajemski driving in there and finding his home? Well, they
move and they get good looks. They had about eight
layups in the first twelve minutes of the game that
were simply because of motion and getting lost behind the defense.
But all this chasing of Steph Curry leads to Fred
van Vliet going two for thirteen, leads for the Rockets,
leads to the Rockets going six to twenty nine. Tarry

(50:33):
Easton he went oh for four. And it's plenty of
evidence to me from watching all five of these games
before last night and then last night, and the numbers
are right there. The Rockets are a poor three point
shooting team, so having a poor shooting night is not
out of the ordinary for them having only bad shooting
nights against the same team six times, that's not a coincidence.

(50:58):
The best shooting performance from three that the Rockets have
had all season against the Warriors is thirty three percent
worse than their yearly numbers, and that's their best.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
They've done it three times.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Their best night shooting threes against the Warriors and six
tries is thirty three percent. They've attempted at least thirty
threes in all three of those games.

Speaker 4 (51:19):
That's awful.

Speaker 3 (51:20):
The three other games are significantly worse, including last night,
they're under twenty seven percent. In the other three games,
they were six of twenty nine. Last night they were
ten of thirty eight when they lost by six. They
beat the Warriors at Toyota Center, as you recall in December,
by one.

Speaker 4 (51:42):
And they shot six for twenty seven.

Speaker 3 (51:45):
They were awesome in the paint in some of these games,
and why they weren't able to overcome it or not
in the paint on twos, I should say, and it's
why they weren't able to overcome their poor shooting in
last night's game, because they weren't awesome on twos. They
should be against Golden State, but they weren't. They weren't
even close. But I'm not sure that we're gonna find

(52:07):
this well. They finally made their shots and look at
what happened. Now, if it happens, but yeah, the Rockets
are probably gonna win. You shoot forty percent against the Warriors,
I feel pretty confident the Rockets are gonna win that game.
Why would they though, Why would they shoot forty percent?
I think they're probably resigned to the fact that that's
just not what's gonna happen, and it's not the way

(52:28):
we need to try to beat them. You can take
all the shots, and you certainly certainly hope they go in,
but you still have to be who you are. And
even with all these misses, when you're that good of
a rebounding team and they're the best, when you're that
good of an offensive rebounding team and they're the best,
you can still win. It just would be nice if

(52:48):
they did the other things.

Speaker 11 (52:50):
Well.

Speaker 3 (52:51):
I can totally accept it, because now I expect it.
They're going to shoot the ball badly, poorly, unsuccessfully when
they shoot threes, and Jalen Green only attempted four threes.
He had a bad offensive game because he was so
aggressive and just simply couldn't finish. Whether he was being
fouled or not, he could not finish. I could not
finish at the rim. Had one sweet reverse layup early

(53:11):
in the game that was pretty much it for a
strong offensive play. Made a couple of other shots, but
the night was not very good for him. It was
awful for Fred van Vliet, and on a night where
he's shooting that badly that poorly be nice if fewer
shots were attempted. Goes back to the point I made earlier.
All those offensive rebounds ultimately ending up in Fred's hands

(53:33):
not a really good idea. And I do have an
idea for the Rockets something I think at times during
the season they realized they should probably do more of
against anybody, and certainly should do more of it against
Golden State. Golden State is aware of it, and they
try to prevent it. If you were watching last night's game,
when the Rockets would rebound defensively, they weren't pushing the

(53:53):
ball because they couldn't hardly ever make the outlet pass.
And when they'd inbound the ball off for Warriors make
I don't expect them to run. I don't expect a
fast break opportunity, but holy cow, you might want to
get into the offense before there's ten seconds left on
the shot.

Speaker 4 (54:08):
Clock, Fred walks it up.

Speaker 3 (54:09):
There's the first eight seconds, no initial pass for the
next five seconds, and all of a sudden, in ten
seconds or less, all of the action is supposed to
take place and you're gonna get a good shot. Doesn't
work that way, and I think they will recognize that,
and you'll probably see some changes. Maybe there's some other
players pushing the ball a little bit more and they're
not so deliberate and slow paced with their half court offense.

(54:34):
But go ahead and try to score on Golden State
before they're in their half court defense, like they tried
to do against you before the Rockets were in their
half court defense.

Speaker 4 (54:42):
Are we mocking the NFL Draft? You better believe we are.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (54:58):
We are two days until one day before the NFL Draft,
three days and several hours for Nick Cassario pulls off
a trade with the Philadelphia Eagles in the twenty twenty
five NFL Draft.

Speaker 4 (55:13):
Pretty good odds.

Speaker 3 (55:14):
He does it every year, not only a trade, but
a trade with that team, so expect to see it. Currently,
they sit at twenty five at four o'clock, like we
do each and every day leading up to the draft.
The sixth potential who the Texans will take at twenty
five will come your way. We listed the first five
last week. We have four more to go until we
get to Thursdays four o'clock installment of that four point thirty.

(55:36):
We'll talk with Russ Brown at RUSS NFL Draft Draft
Analyst about what he sees in this opening round of
the draft and maybe what he thinks might happen in
the twenties. As the Texans currently sit at twenty five,
but plenty of mocking going on, and we got another
one worth while of looking at from someone I think
does a very good job.

Speaker 4 (55:57):
So we mock.

Speaker 3 (55:59):
We also have some intel from inside the building about
what's going on with the Texans.

Speaker 4 (56:08):
Well, I'm so cool in my vest in a room
full of scouts.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
Got the forwarding in pitch.

Speaker 11 (56:13):
If you're passes hell, if you.

Speaker 2 (56:15):
Think Ampete off pick for you and you got us
the warder League.

Speaker 3 (56:32):
Yes, I do want to mock ESPN's Jordan Reed runs
through the draft. I'm gonna ask Russell Brown the same thing, Cole,
but initially I'll ask you. Cam Ward won to Tennessee
Travis Hunter two to the browns Abdul Carter three to
the Giants, Will Campbell number four to the Patriots, and
then the NFL draft begins.

Speaker 4 (56:55):
Is that correct?

Speaker 8 (56:56):
Maybe not that exact order with Will Campbell, but offensive
tackle to the pay and then.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
The draft against they are going to take an offensive
tackle and his name is not going to rhyme with
Will Campbell.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
No, it's going to rhyme with schmarmou Chembo.

Speaker 3 (57:09):
We don't do that on this program. That is a
ten to two bit and we're not bitstealing that. You
can go ahead and say his name Membo. Okay, a
different SEC offensive lineman. Of course they will, yeah, because
one hundred percent of mock drafts currently have Membo to
the Jets at seven. So naturally that will not happen.

(57:29):
So Jacksonville, Las Vegas, New York, the Jets, and Carolina,
they go four through eight. The only thing that is
of any importance to the Texans that happens in the
top twenty technically the top twenty four before they're slot
at twenty five is if there are team or teams

(57:51):
that decide to draft a quarterback that we don't expect.
I do expect Shadoor Sanders to make it two quarterbacks,
as in two players the Texans have absolutely no interest
in because they play quarterback. I'm hopeful there's a third,
maybe Jackson Dart, maybe somebody else's first name, Tyler maybe,

(58:12):
but I'm not really expecting that. But a third quarterback
would push at least one player back towards the Texans.
The other thing that they obviously will be keenly watching,
I think, very very keenly watching, is after Will Campbell goes,
and after Membo goes, how many more of them offensive lineman?
And how quickly is that group of players going off

(58:34):
the board? You know, is Calvin Banks off the board
in the top fifteen? Is a second or third offensive
lineman off the board in the top twenty before the
Texans have decided to trade up. I don't think anything
after Banks is guaranteed. Banks will be off the board,
but I think there may be every other offensive lineman
still there. This particular mock suggests the Texans will take

(58:57):
an offensive lineman.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
His name has been discussed.

Speaker 3 (59:00):
We haven't given him to the Texans at twenty five yet,
we got four more opportunities to do that. And one
thing that certainly sounds like, yeah, this guy screams Texan.
Look where he went to play his college football.

Speaker 4 (59:13):
Duh. They love guys.

Speaker 3 (59:17):
That play for Bama, even when they play for guys
that aren't Nick Saban like he did last year. So
Tyler Booker will be a what. If he's drafted for
Nick Cayley's offense and Cole Popovich gets his hands on
him as an offensive line he will suit up in
weak blank as a what along the Houston Texans offensive line.

Speaker 8 (59:40):
He will suit up Week one as the starting right guard.

Speaker 4 (59:45):
That's my prediction.

Speaker 3 (59:47):
He should be a starter if you believe in a
player that much to draft him at twenty five. I
believe they should be a starter right out of the gate,
especially when you play from a program like that. So
all you're doing is playing against NFL players for three years,
four years, one year, two year, whatever it is, and
I would have to hope he comes with at least
as good a pedigree versus the players that are in place.

(01:00:10):
You know, Cam Robinson might have had a really nice
pedigree when he entered the NFL, but he's got ten
years of Hoham NFL play now. You know, Trent Brown
has had really good NFL film to look at just
not over the last two years when he's been battling
through injuries. Two years ago, he was really really good
and has a ton of game time and Lake Tomlinson
and Eddi Ingram, I think are clearly at a different level.

(01:00:32):
I think Tomlinson is like the rock that every team
wants on their line or in their offensive line room,
but not necessarily playing every single snap anymore. He's played
every single snap for multiple years running on some pretty
good teams. And Ingram was benched last year much in
the fashion of Kenyan Green.

Speaker 8 (01:00:49):
I'll tell you Rolf Fast who Thomas reminds me of
Dan Skipper. Guy just want in the locker room because
of that veteran show. I mean, the tackle eligible that
forgets to check in with the official exactly due exactly
that guy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:03):
He also has Demiko ties for their time together in
San Francisco, and I think the type of person he is,
the type of locker room player that he is, is
one of the big reasons why they added him here.
But he's also, like I said, he's been a starter
essentially his whole career, almost ten years worth of missing
very few games and very few snaps, and I can
understand the value of having that player here. But I

(01:01:24):
certainly would hope if you're drafting Tyler Booker at twenty five,
you're drafting him because he's better than him, and he's
better than him very very quickly, and rotating offensive linemen
during games is extremely inadvisable, and I hope the Texans
aren't anticipating doing that at any of the spots. Nobody
does it at center, but on occasion teams have done

(01:01:44):
that at other positions. I hope they're not among them.
Texans off season in house, come to the facility and
throw the iron around. A little bit began this week,
as has was the case around most of the rest
of the NFL facilities. If you were out this morning,
you noticed it. Will is an absolute downpour. That's okay,
Texans didn't mind. Great video from the social media team

(01:02:06):
over at the Texans with the arrivals, nice of Alabama's
own Henry Toatoa to hold the umbrella for both he
and Xavier Hutchinson on their way in the building. Will
and CJ and host of others. We got to see
them walking in. I actually got to see three Texans
last night, all sitting court side.

Speaker 4 (01:02:23):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:02:24):
Stroud, Joe Mixon, and Tank Bell. But Will Anderson is
one of the many Alabama Crimson tied former football players
that now plays football for the Texans. He spoke today
after their offseason workouts got under way today.

Speaker 4 (01:02:39):
He has some intel on Tyler Booker. Yes, yep, Tyler Booker.

Speaker 5 (01:02:44):
Man.

Speaker 12 (01:02:44):
I speak very highly of him. Man, great character guy,
but I think he has all the attributes you need
to play the offensive line position. He's a maler, he
loves to finish the blocks on his leadership, stills on
his mentality. He wants to be the best, and he's
really hard on himself. And you know, I'm in the
same way, and that's what builds you up, that's what
makes who you are. And he has all those things, man,

(01:03:05):
And I can't say enough good things about him.

Speaker 11 (01:03:07):
Man.

Speaker 12 (01:03:07):
And wherever you end up, he's going to change that team,
change that program, and change the offense a line for sure.

Speaker 11 (01:03:12):
Will.

Speaker 3 (01:03:12):
You were from Alabama, you had a little bit of
time with Tyler Booker. What do you think about his
pro prospects and the possibility that he becomes your teammate
again here in Houston. I don't think there's any other
way to answer that, although I do think Will Anderson's
being truthful, but he can't. He can't give a sigh,
he can't say next question he's going to be super positive.

(01:03:36):
But I do believe he's telling the truth.

Speaker 4 (01:03:38):
I think he is.

Speaker 8 (01:03:38):
And I think the other thing that's really important here
is that there's kind of a proof of concept, especially
with some of these Alabama players at the Texans too.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
And when you how about Alabama offensive linemen in other
places because they aren't here in Houston, but there are
plenty of them that have been drafted over the.

Speaker 4 (01:03:55):
Last six eight years. You want to go back a decade, No,
I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:03:58):
I want to leave it within the decade because these
are the players that we could have seen this team take.

Speaker 4 (01:04:03):
I'm not saying they should have.

Speaker 3 (01:04:05):
Do you believe the group of recent NFL drafted Alabama
offensive linemen have been plus players or not so much?

Speaker 8 (01:04:13):
I think it They've been solid contributors to offensive lines,
not plus players, which is the only negative that I
do have regarding anyone from Alabama.

Speaker 4 (01:04:21):
And that's that thing that's been underneath Nick.

Speaker 3 (01:04:23):
Stateman And do you also have to say things like
that and then also add like you can't draft CJ.
Stroud because he played quarterback at Ohio State. None of
them are ever good. Do you apply that at all
to Alabama offensive linemen meeting.

Speaker 4 (01:04:39):
It's stupid. Either you are good or you're not.

Speaker 3 (01:04:41):
It's not because you came from there and they don't
produce any good linemen.

Speaker 8 (01:04:45):
I mean, how many times did you hear there's not
any good LSU quarterbacks that came out. Now there's two
of them that were Heisman Trophy runners and one run
Offensive Player of the Year of oor Kid of the Year,
and the other one's nearly an MVP.

Speaker 3 (01:04:56):
Yeah, but Danny Etlink's playing in the UFL, so I
stick with that.

Speaker 8 (01:05:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, here's the deal for me with
Tyler Booker. Are you better than the three guys who
were listened after him, Gray's Able, Josh Connerley, Josh Simmons.

Speaker 4 (01:05:08):
If you are the.

Speaker 8 (01:05:09):
Best of the bunch left by all means, go ahead
and put him on the offensive line.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
Let him block for CJ. Stroud. You'll find a home
meet on the left of the right side. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:05:16):
They did do a lot with the veteran acquisitions. They
have a room, they have some well respected players, and
they could play with those players, but there's some specific
reasons why there's a better way to go about it.
We'll hit on that in a few minutes later on
this hour. Next we will hear from Astros analysts on
the radio side, Steve Sparks.

Speaker 4 (01:05:37):
We'll hear from him next.

Speaker 2 (01:05:40):
The aed on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:05:49):
Astros Baseball coming your way this evening with the Toronto
Blue Jays in town. Wex and Cole here with you
now on the A team and right there on Space
City Home Network, same place. You can catch both the
on the radio here on Sports Talk seven to ninety
and there on Space City Home Network. Tonight, the Astros
sending Hunter Brown to the mound. He's been fantastic this
season and they're coming into this series off of a

(01:06:12):
series victory. Taking the game on Friday night, Taking the
game on Saturday. Friday Night's game included a pair of
home runs from Cam Smith's Saturday Night's game included a
very important home run from Christian Walker, a two run homer,
and ultimately the Astros able to push across the winning run.
Last night, it was the Padres that were able to

(01:06:32):
do that a game that started off very dangerously in
the top of the first inning with what happened with
Luis Arise, although it does appear he is fine now
after going to the hospital and being carted off. Cam
Smith's weekend, like I said, started with a pair of homers,
knocked in a run or scored a run, I should
say in yesterday's game, thought he might knock in a

(01:06:52):
run with a ball that he poked over the second
basement and made a spectacular play out in right field.

Speaker 4 (01:06:58):
Again more of the good.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Play side or spectacular side coming on his defensive work.
Then at the early portion of the season mention Steve
Sparks makes a weekly visit to the Sean Salisbury Show
that comes eight o'clock on Monday mornings. I'd like to
share a little bit of that with you here on
our program. You can catch the full interview at SportsTalk
sven ninety dot com wherever you are, our podcast page
same place, or via the iHeartRadio app, where of course

(01:07:22):
sports Talk seven ninety is number one on your presets.
The portion of our conversation with Steve for you here
begins with his thoughts on how cam Smith continues to
work on the little things.

Speaker 13 (01:07:34):
It's funny you mentioned the little things, because that's how
he describes his batting practice. He says, little things add
up to big things, and I expect big things when
I do things the right way.

Speaker 11 (01:07:44):
In batting practice, he goes the other way. He stays
very disciplined.

Speaker 13 (01:07:48):
He'll go at the middle, but just a nice, short,
compact swing and that's.

Speaker 11 (01:07:52):
The way you catch up to heat when it's elevated
like that. And he's special.

Speaker 13 (01:07:57):
It's amazing that he can say this discipline this early
in his career, especially with as little experience as he has.

Speaker 11 (01:08:04):
But somebody's taught.

Speaker 13 (01:08:05):
Him really early on how to go things, how to
go about things the right way, and he does it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:12):
Man.

Speaker 11 (01:08:12):
He stays to a nice little routine and I like it.
I think he's going to be able.

Speaker 13 (01:08:17):
To probably alleviate a lot of those pitfalls and extended
slumps because of it.

Speaker 14 (01:08:23):
Tugo Steve Sparks here from the Astros Radio Network. Of
course here, I'm right here on sports Talks of an
Indy and Sparky the When I looked at this pitching matchup,
it was like, oh gosh, you know, it's advantage Padres.
When you saw heart, when you saw you know, Dylan
Ceese and you knew you were gonna have to throw
Ryan Gusto and Hayden Wiznewsky. Who knew those would be

(01:08:43):
the two stars you end up winning. But I came
away just facing that lineup. Steve like overall just impressed
with what the pitching staff did in this series.

Speaker 11 (01:08:53):
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 13 (01:08:54):
Gusto's start with Gusto five innings, not only did he
not walk Indy, but he didn't even have a three
ball count. I mean, this is a guy that just
comes in, He's not afraid of anybody. He fills it up.
He's going to be on the attack. He's going to
keep counts in his favor, and.

Speaker 11 (01:09:11):
I love it.

Speaker 13 (01:09:12):
He gave up nine hits those five innings, which is
a little abnormal for him. But more than anything else,
I just love his presence. I think he kind of
sets a tone with that, and I think the Astros
feel pretty good about whenever he's on the mound.

Speaker 11 (01:09:27):
I think he's an unbelievable long reliever.

Speaker 13 (01:09:29):
And Sean, you and I have talked about how important
it is for a long reliever to throw strikes and
be efficient and give them innings, and he's been.

Speaker 11 (01:09:38):
Great at that.

Speaker 13 (01:09:39):
You know, and it might be to his detriment for
a little while early in his career, because he's probably
going to be stuck in the bullpen when guys get healthy.

Speaker 11 (01:09:47):
But I loved it.

Speaker 13 (01:09:49):
You know, that's a good point. Chris is wes Nesky.
He's been better than advertised in my opinion. You know,
I didn't know his stuff was this good. A little
crossfire Ashall's up to ninety seven miles per hour, a nasty,
nasty slider cutter and all those things. I think he's
gonna he's going to fit in perfectly in this this rotation.

(01:10:12):
So as they get healthier, they continue to play a
pretty rough schedule. I mean, I think early on they've
played three of the best teams in the National what
the Giants, Padres, and Mets, and they've held their own.

Speaker 11 (01:10:22):
They won two of those three series.

Speaker 13 (01:10:26):
And I think that the Astros are pretty well equipped
to going some kind of a little run here every
you know, at some point, to get him above five hundred.

Speaker 11 (01:10:35):
Once they're this schedule weekends a little bit.

Speaker 15 (01:10:38):
Now, you know, they were going to lose at least
one game because the guy in right field for the
other teams playing out of I mean, he's dressing in
a phone booth. It's absolutely ridiculous the way Tatisa is playing.
But we know he has that ability. Steve, you mentioned
was Nesky and and and the way Paradus is. We've
talked about his addition there at third base and now
Cam Smith as we just discussed Steve, when will we
know and Tucker's no shock is raking in Chicago.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
Steve, in your mind, when do you know when.

Speaker 15 (01:11:03):
We can judge a trade and say both teams won
early on, it looks that way, But when do you
judge it and say, okay, when all of a sudden done,
we can take a look back. When does that start
to kick in as how this trade turned out for
both teams?

Speaker 13 (01:11:16):
I think I think a lot of times I'm gonna
I'm gonna judge this by by how well these guys
continue to develop. And when Dana Brown explained it in
spring training, he said that we traded thirteen years of
service time for one year of service time. At this point,
right know whether or not they still have a chance
to son Kyle talker back, by the way, he's going
to be a free agent and everybody's going to have

(01:11:37):
a chance.

Speaker 15 (01:11:37):
Why are you teasing people like that? Steve Well, why
are you teasing people like that?

Speaker 11 (01:11:43):
Everybody's like the teas.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
Now, you know what.

Speaker 16 (01:11:49):
I love Kyle Tucker too, everybody does, and he's a
great player. But I'm also excited about cam Smith, West
Naski and Parides and what they've done here early on
is great and I think they're going to continue to
get better. And I think that's what the Astros need
to be focused on right now, is.

Speaker 13 (01:12:09):
What do we do to move forwards. I didn't expect
Cam Smith to be on this team. I really didn't,
probably not even next year. He's only played thirty two
games as a minor leaguer, so he's going to have
some ups and downs. But he does so many things
which gets you pretty excited. Last I think ten or
eleven games has an OPS over nine hundred. And the

(01:12:31):
way he's taken to right field for somebody who's been
an infielder his entire life, the way he plays right
field right now now, I keep telling Robert in between innings, man,
he is so smooth, so fast. He's going to make
a couple of mistakes here and there, but he's got
a cannon for an arm. He's going to turn into
an unbelievable right fielder. In my opinion, he's he's what.

Speaker 4 (01:12:57):
I can't wait to hear what he's going to be.
Don't do.

Speaker 3 (01:13:00):
He just did it to Sean and Chris teased him
like that about Kyle Tucker potentially signing back in Houston. Now,
he teased all of our listeners about what he was
about to say, which you can of course catch in
full right there at Sports Talk seven ninety dot com
or via the iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 4 (01:13:14):
He mentioned Kyle Tucker. If you are.

Speaker 3 (01:13:18):
Not wanting to hear about it, well, then you're probably
unaware that Tucker is crushing it. If you thought he
was hitting well last year in his limited time with
the Astros, well, he's hitting it even better this year.
He's fourth in the National League in ops, hitting well
over three hundred, getting on base better than forty percent

(01:13:39):
of the time, slugging better than six hundred. He scored
twenty two times in the Cubs twenty four games, set
the ball over the fence six times. He has sixteen
extra base hits in twenty four games. This is not
of this just in. Kyle Tucker is very good and
the Astros aren't spent the money necessary to re sign

(01:14:02):
Kyle Tucker. As nice as it might be, and even
though it's technically a possibility, it's not a possibility.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
The aged on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
Back to it, guys, will happen tomorrow at two o'clock
when AC rejoins the program.

Speaker 4 (01:14:23):
Today, you got me and Cole.

Speaker 3 (01:14:25):
You'll have being Cole and Russell Brown coming up at
four point thirty talk little NFL Draft. We just finished
up hearing from Steve Sparks. The lineup tonight. I would
call this a major shakeup this weekend. For the first
time in several seasons, Christian Walker was put fifth in
the lineup, and then he homered.

Speaker 4 (01:14:46):
That was Saturday. I was there.

Speaker 3 (01:14:48):
Then on Sunday yesterday, same spot, he struck out three
times and then got himself eliminated from the game when
he popped up to the infield because Xander Bogart's smartly,
I guess recognize that somewhat foolishly, the umpire did not
call in field fly. So with Jeremy paignon first, Bogars
just let the ball drop, picked it up, tossed a

(01:15:10):
second force out. Jeremy's off the base pass and Christian
Walker's out of the game because they wanted someone who
was faster than Christian Walker, which they certainly have plenty
of those players, Chas McCormick in that instance, and he
ended up stealing second base. Walker will get the day
off for the first time this season and a major

(01:15:30):
shakeup in the order, partially because of that. Jose al
two bays back out in left field, Jordan Alvarez batting
second for the first time this season. He has still
not gotten things going and has continued to come up
in some major situations. Emma unable to deliver more than

(01:15:52):
his eleven rbi Paratus has eleven RBIs from the two spot,
cam Smith has ten rbiys from the bottom of the order,
and your Don in a prime position with two of
the players that actually get on base a lot three
if you count Jake in front of him, has been
unable to do much, so he'll bring his six forty
eight ops and his two zero six batting average into

(01:16:14):
the two spot. He'll flip flop with Peretis, who will
bet third. Obviously for the first time. Jeremy paianna is
in the four hole. He kept his eleven game hitting
streak alive by getting exactly one hit in each game
this weekend. He's betting two twenty four with an OPS
under seven hundred.

Speaker 4 (01:16:33):
He's your cleanup hitter.

Speaker 3 (01:16:35):
Jake Myers getting a bump up in the lineup for
the first time this season.

Speaker 4 (01:16:39):
He beats fifth.

Speaker 3 (01:16:41):
We expect to have Jake Myers on the program tomorrow
at two thirty in advance of their game against the Jays.
He made another spectacular catch in the seventh inning of
yesterday's game. Martin Maldonado gave one a ride and hit
it all the way to the wall.

Speaker 4 (01:16:56):
Jake, on a dead.

Speaker 3 (01:16:57):
Run, caught it and then went crashing into the wall.
The next pitch, he tried to do the very same thing,
except the wall exists, and Tatis hit one over the
wall for the deciding margin. Both of those rockets came
off of pitches from Taylor Scott, so while Tuve Alvarez
pereties pagnat Jake Myers, Jiner Diaz will do the catching

(01:17:18):
again tonight four Hunter Brown. Brown continues to work with
both catchers. Last two starts with Victor. Early starts were
with Jiner Jiners off to a very bad offensive start
to one forty three. Cam Smith now bats seventh. Brendan
Rodgers gets to the start at second. It was Duban
yesterday starting at second, and he was the one who

(01:17:38):
stood on first base unintentionally. Despite what Padres small Padres
fans on the X platform thought, why would a player
want to intentionally injure another player in the manner that
he did. He actually tried to catch it and thought
he had time to fly past the bag in order
to avoid him completely.

Speaker 4 (01:17:58):
He was wrong.

Speaker 3 (01:17:59):
He could not have made more contact with Arise. One
player usually gets hurt and one player usually doesn't. Just
happened to be that was Mauricio Dubon, who somehow turned
into a brick wall. He was not running full speed
and certainly not running full speed into a Rise, because
he caught the brunt of the blow in his chest

(01:18:19):
and Arise went down in a heap, essentially knocked out.
That's why they put him on the cart and took
him not long after to the hospital. He did return
to the ballpark and all signs point to it being
a very short term issue with Arise, and that's very
good news. But Rogers will get the started second and
playing first base will be Zach Decenzo played pretty sparingly.
They said in spring training that if they were going

(01:18:41):
to keep players, it was so they could play. Really,
isn't anywhere to put him if Jake plays every day
and Jordan and al Tuo air in the lineup every day,
and cam Smith is in the lineup every day, and
this is day one for off day for Christian Walker,
even though he hasn't done much offensively. He nearly made
another spectacular play at first in yesterday's game, but when

(01:19:02):
he was unable to glove the hot shot in the
first inning, Fernando Tatis was able to score when he
was unable to catch an errant throw from Mauricio Dubon
and would have been an inning ending double play. This
is the play where Tatis scored on it was bounced
into him and he couldn't glove it and didn't grab
it soon enough to try to throw home and keep
Tatis from scoring. Astros nearly got out of that first

(01:19:23):
inning without allowing any runs, but now an opportunity for
Descenzo at least for one day, and of course the
a reward for Decenzo and Rogers, who aren't in the
lineup every day. They get to face one of the
best pitchers this season again in baseball. Kevin Gausman has
had a little bit of an up and down time
over the last handful of years, but when he's going well,
he's spectacular. Does not walk a lot of batters. As

(01:19:45):
he sets in on his fifth start of the season,
he's walked only three all year, but he is the
second best starting pitcher. In tonight's game, Hunter Brown goes
for the Astros. He's been awesome, his stuff has been spectacular.
Would have liked to win more than half of his
four starts, try to make it three out of five,
and again take the first or three of the first
four games of this six game homestand before they make

(01:20:07):
their way to Kansas City after Thursday's off day. Blue
Jays have probably been a little bit better than expected.
They've won twelve of their twenty two They're twelve and ten.
They've hit the ball a little bit better than expected,
and have definitely pitched a lot better than expected. The
three pitchers the Astros will see Bassett is next. He
has been really good and they should know him pretty
well considering how many times they saw him during his

(01:20:30):
time with the A's but they've also seen him quite
a bit in his stops since then, and the Astros
pitching is clearly.

Speaker 4 (01:20:40):
The reason there.

Speaker 3 (01:20:40):
Within a game of five hundred, they're ten and eleven.
They pitched the ball extremely well against an absolutely scorching
hot Padres offense coming in nice that they didn't have
to see Jackson Merrill. But this lineup can hit, and
they basically didn't let anybody hit except for Manny Machado
and Fernando Tatis. It was good enough for them to
nearly every game, but the Astros took two of them

(01:21:02):
unable to do so yesterday. George Springer nine to seventy
one ops three forty four batting average. Early this season,
he has been tremendous, and so has the very very
very rich Vladimir Guerrero Junior. Neither of them have hit
for power three home runs between them, but both of
them are moving guys along and doing their job and

(01:21:26):
getting on base. They've walked twenty two times between them,
each with an on base percentage.

Speaker 4 (01:21:31):
You're better than four hundred.

Speaker 3 (01:21:33):
Very very surprisingly a positive addition to their offense this year.
Miles Straw, He's been in their lineup quite a bit.
He's been on base a ton, and he also somehow
has a home run this year. I have to go
back and see how that exactly happened. But also I
would hope the Astros are happy they're back in the
American League. They are five and seven against the National League,

(01:21:56):
They're five and four against the American League. Maybe this
help them create a second winning streak. They won two
games for the first time all season when they got
the wins Friday and Saturday. We'll need to win the
next two games to attempt to do that again, and
at some point they're probably gonna break free of five hundred.
I hope it's not in the wrong direction. Should they
lose a handful of games in a row, that's what's

(01:22:17):
gonna happen. They've only had one significant losing streak of
any kind when they got swept by the Giants. Obviously,
this is one of the things I was trying to
soften the comment about they have won two games in
a row and the whole season, and they've gone back
and forth wins and losses for since April second. Well,
that also means they haven't lost to in a row
since April second, and that still holds true. Hopefully they

(01:22:38):
can keep that true into Tuesday. Need to get a
win tonight to make that happen. With the twenty fifth
pick in the twenty twenty five NFL Draft, the Houston
Texans select.

Speaker 1 (01:22:49):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named at him talking your Team, Adam
Clinton and Adam Wesler are the A team.

Speaker 3 (01:23:10):
Two hours in, two hours to go here on the
A team, and two hours from now we'll get you
into Astros on deck as they get set for baseball
against the Toronto Blue Jays. We got another few minutes
here to get into the Texans regarding their draft.

Speaker 4 (01:23:25):
We do it each and every day at four o'clock.

Speaker 3 (01:23:27):
Obviously, have much more time to spend on the Rockets
as they fall yesterday ninety five eighty five, last of
the first games for the first round series played last
night at Toyota Center. Early lead for the Rockets, big
second quarter for the Warriors, and they're in position now
to take both games.

Speaker 4 (01:23:48):
Rockets would love to avoid that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:49):
Don't want to go back to San Francisco with a
two games to none deficit staring them in the face.
Warriors certainly a much better team late at this season
than they were early this season, and a lot of
that has to do with adding Jimmy Butler. Playoff Jimmy
certainly was there last night. I can't call playoff Jimmy
from his performance last Tuesday, since it's not a playoff game.
It's postseason in the truest sense of the word. The

(01:24:13):
season is over. The game was played following the season.
I'll call it a postseason game, but I won't call
it a playoff game. Last night's game was the first
playoff game for Jimmy Butler as a Golden State Warrior.
Was the first playoff game for Jalen Green, Alpera and
she Goon, Jabari Smith junior, Amen Thompson in a very
tight rotation, Tarry Eason. Additionally, I don't think that had

(01:24:34):
a whole lot to do with it. Ema Doak was
asked about it after the game, as were each of
those individual players that spoke with the media. Jalen Alprin
and a Jabari Smith junior. We'll share a little bit
of their thoughts with you, but we got to tell
you the sixth player on the list that the Houston
Texans could end up selecting with the pick that they

(01:24:54):
own in the first round. We've run through the first
five Monday through Friday last week. We have four more
to suggest. Probably know their area of need by now,
considering how much of an overhaul we're going to see
on the offensive line, probably know because of the injury
to Tank Dell and the exit of Stefan Diggs, where
they might have a hole in the pass catching department.

(01:25:17):
We've seen a couple players wide outs and offensive linemen
so far through the first five, and today we give
you player number six on that list.

Speaker 1 (01:25:30):
You'd be pick in the draft.

Speaker 4 (01:25:36):
The Houston Texans select.

Speaker 8 (01:25:38):
Calvin Bank's offensive lineman the University of Texas. Wex before
we go any further, I'm prefacing this. This is likely
going to be the one player that you're trading up
for out of twenty.

Speaker 4 (01:25:50):
Five how high ten spots. This is the conversation that
we have to have.

Speaker 8 (01:25:56):
So before we do that, as we want to give
you a preface on who Calvin Banks is.

Speaker 3 (01:25:59):
Winning offensive lineman from Summer Creek High School the Humble area.
We had a chance to catch up with him earlier
this year on this program and on this station when
he was in town to claim and be a finalist.
We talked to him before he claimed it. The Lombardi
Award was the Outland winner and in just one year

(01:26:20):
there in the SEC landed at the top of their
All SEC teams. He was an All Big twelve performer
prior to that three years of starting every single snap
he played in college was as a left tackle. All right,
you need to trade up for him. What do you
gotta do?

Speaker 11 (01:26:38):
Well?

Speaker 8 (01:26:39):
Also, real fast, he held a guy by the name
of Will Anderson.

Speaker 4 (01:26:41):
We know him pretty well here. Did he get flagged
for it when he held him?

Speaker 8 (01:26:44):
No, he held him to zero saxon one pressure in
the one game that he went up against him.

Speaker 4 (01:26:48):
So pretty good performances.

Speaker 3 (01:26:49):
That was when Bryce Young Magic late fourth quarter happened
at that game.

Speaker 8 (01:26:56):
That was Bryce Young late fourth quarter Magic and the
Quinn viewers out on the opening drive game.

Speaker 3 (01:27:03):
Wait, which game did quin uwers get hurt early in
twenty twenty three? I'm joking there were too many of them. Yeah, yeah,
that was not nice.

Speaker 4 (01:27:10):
That was on you. That wasn't on me. Yeah, it
was all me.

Speaker 8 (01:27:13):
I mean, So let's start off with this. You're probably
gonna have to trade up no slower than twenty one.
So where Pittsburgh is. Pittsburgh reportedly is interested in trading
down if they are not gonna take quarterback. They're all
on the defensive tackle, so Cal Kenneth Grant, Derek Carmon
out of Oregon, they want to move down just a

(01:27:33):
little bit.

Speaker 4 (01:27:34):
And a lot of mock drafts right now.

Speaker 8 (01:27:35):
In fact, if you go to Pro Football Network, they
have one out where it says the trade offer would
be and I swell want to preface to you a
twenty twenty three of twenty twenty six third round pick
and pick number twenty five to move up four spots
and get yourself a franchise left tackle. Now, I personally
think you're gonna have to move into that seventeen to

(01:27:57):
eighteen range. The Arizona Cardinals, to me right now holds
the key on will we see a Banks drop off
Because the Miami Dolphins have picked number thirteen. There's somebody
that needs to go after a left tackle because Toronto
Arms said decide to hang up the cleats at the
end of the year, and they need to protect to
a tongue of iloa because if we all know that
that guy has so many issues when it comes to

(01:28:17):
taking hits behind the line of scrimmage. So you gotta
keep him up right. But if he falls past sixteen,
that's where the run is. Do you make a move
to Seattle? Do you make a move past Tampa? Do
you try to get in front of a team like Pittsburgh.
Is there a mood to where Los Angeles is in
the running, But in that range between I would say
seventeen and twenty one is where you gotta gup.

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
So let's go back to the trade assets you need
to send away in order to move up four spots.
So from twenty five they go to twenty one, which
means they swap first round picks and give Pittsburgh what
a twenty twenty six third round pick. That's it, that's it.

(01:28:56):
Nothing else. I don't believe so now that I would do,
And I'm surprised, I would imagine, having not looked at
the value chart for that, and there are several out there. Yeah,
that has to be a positive for the Texans, and
I don't know if it's a sizable negative. But to
give up a eightieth well, I don't do the Texans

(01:29:18):
have somebody else's third round pick.

Speaker 4 (01:29:20):
They have Washington.

Speaker 8 (01:29:21):
No, they have Washington's second round pick next year, so
they have their third round pick next year.

Speaker 4 (01:29:25):
So and you're saying giving them up which one? You're
a third round pick?

Speaker 3 (01:29:29):
Oh, your third round pick is going to be eighty
eight somewhere around there. So you're moving up four spots
and all it costs you is a late third Yeah. Basically, okay,
I would think that's a worthwhile move. But Simmons, Conory,
Booker Zabel are significantly worse at twenty five than giving

(01:29:54):
up a player who you will use that you draft
in twenty six in the third round.

Speaker 4 (01:29:59):
For Ke Banks, that's the question.

Speaker 3 (01:30:01):
And I'm curious of what makes Banks and I don't
really I'm not concerned about his late twenty twenty four injuries.
He came back and played seemingly just fine after that
in the postseason, in the playoff game, after the game
that he missed. I do think he is an NFL
left tackle. I feel like there's some people out there

(01:30:23):
that are curious if he's actually made for interior play,
though he never played interior line in college. What do
you got my player comproo facet It's Christian Dearsaw and
Christian Dearrisaw is a left tackle. That's why I see
you realized. If Christian Darisow would have not gotten hurt
this past year, I feel like there's no way Cam
Robinson is a Texan probably all he got hurt in Minnesota,

(01:30:47):
and Minnesota was compelled to then trade for Cam Robinson
where he started from the moment he got there, they
had to have him.

Speaker 4 (01:30:53):
They were headed to the playoffs.

Speaker 3 (01:30:54):
They where they knew they had a playoff team, so
they needed to do something. I don't think anybody regards
his half a season plus starting in Minnesota is very
positive talking about Cam and now he's here in Houston.
If your player comp is Darrisal, I mean that sounds
like a caliber player you'd be willing to trade up for.

(01:31:15):
At fifteen, that's a top ten tackle and a left tackle.

Speaker 8 (01:31:20):
I would say, top ten tackle, top seven left tackle
in the NFL. Like that's how good he is.

Speaker 3 (01:31:25):
And against the backdrop of the Texans moves on offensive lineing.
We ran through the list of all the free ages
that they brought in, and they've clearly spent draft capital
at the top portion of the draft each of the
last three years.

Speaker 4 (01:31:37):
One of those players is in here anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:31:39):
In Kenyan Green, both Juice Scruggs and Blake Fisher, an
interior player in Scruggs and a tackle in Fisher. They
were both second round picks. And you also have Jarrett Patterson, who,
despite the fact that he was a sixth round pick,
I think he is certainly in the mix to continue.

Speaker 4 (01:31:54):
As your starting center.

Speaker 3 (01:31:55):
So they've tried to find long term answers, but this
off season and the trading of Laramie Tunsel, they're right
back in the We don't have long term answers that
we are definitive about. So in my opinion, there's not
a single player on their offensive line, not a single
player that they added this offseason that tells them not

(01:32:17):
to draft a single player that's available to them at
twenty five or anywhere else. You're drafting Kelvin Banks hypothetically,
or Grey's Abel or Donovan Jackson because you want them
on your line for eight to ten years. You're trying
to find another Laramie Tunsill caliber ligneman. You're trying to
find a permanent, long term I'm willing to give them

(01:32:39):
a big fat second contract offensive lineman, not well free
agencies here another off season of piecing it together. Another
five veterans have to come in because we still don't
have long term answers, and not to mention these rookies.

Speaker 4 (01:32:54):
If they do pan out.

Speaker 3 (01:32:56):
You got four to five years of them not making
nearly that kind of money that you spent on Shaq Mason,
that you spent on Laramie Tunsel, that you're spending on
Titus Howard, and.

Speaker 8 (01:33:05):
You get to spend that money on CJ Stroud, who's
going to get a maya expect you if you want,
I mean, you reset the market a love tap.

Speaker 4 (01:33:13):
They want to.

Speaker 3 (01:33:14):
Undoubtedly was CJ asked about his contract today. He wasn't,
was he I don't think so. I don't think so.

Speaker 4 (01:33:20):
I think he wasn't.

Speaker 8 (01:33:21):
Now now Will was asked about what does it mean
to be a part of a defense where they're paying players.

Speaker 4 (01:33:26):
Because he's up for a contract next.

Speaker 3 (01:33:28):
Year, he's already always smiling. I can only imagine how
wide the smile got.

Speaker 8 (01:33:31):
Then Oh he got giddy. You could tell get in
a candy store moment. Calvin banks final line, in my opinion,
if you feel so strong about him being better than
everybody else and he falls to Pittsburgh got twenty one,
make that trade. If not, I personally say, wait it out.
Let's figure out who's going to be on the board

(01:33:52):
of twenty five because they will be an offensive lineman there.

Speaker 3 (01:33:55):
Yeah, you get into this conversation inside their actual draft room,
and what is the trouble is the hard part about
navigating your way to making a deal or not. Somebody
or somebody's are absolutely in love with Kelvin Banks and
they're begging everybody who will listen, we have to do this,
we have to do this, and the other people are
trying to balance it out, saying, is it that much better?

(01:34:15):
Can we give up this draft capital? That's what's so
fun about it. On Draft Day come Thursday.

Speaker 1 (01:34:22):
The aged on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:34:30):
So we're gonna talk more draft.

Speaker 3 (01:34:31):
At four point thirty, when Russ Brown joins US Draft Analysts,
covers some of the NFC side a team that I
think is we here in Houston. The Texans are probably
a team of interest to him, with one of the
teams that he covers closely drafting not long after the
Texans do. But a conversation we probably don't need to

(01:34:53):
have again and haven't had yet but just out of curiosity.
I don't think anybody covering this draft, analyzing the players,
or even the teams themselves, including Tennessee, thinks cam Ward
is a top five twenty twenty five NFL draft prospect,
maybe not top ten, but undoubtedly the best quarterback available

(01:35:14):
and probably a better prospect than some of the expected
thirty two starters in the NFL this year, and at
least as good as everybody's sitting behind all of them.

Speaker 4 (01:35:25):
I don't think the Titans are making.

Speaker 3 (01:35:28):
A big mistake, and I don't think they're making a mistake,
but it's a pretty underwhelming appearance, perception analysis on the
guy that's going to be the number one overall pick
in the draft. And I wanted to talk about all
of these guys. I want to talk about Ward, Sanders, Dart, Tyler,

(01:35:49):
Show and.

Speaker 1 (01:35:53):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:35:53):
No, I didn't mean to mention him.

Speaker 3 (01:35:55):
But but I will a on Milrow shocked that he was
asked to and accepted the invitation to the draft.

Speaker 4 (01:36:04):
Yeah, Will Love is two point zero situation about to happen.

Speaker 3 (01:36:09):
It is Will. He does have a strong arm. I
don't think he likes mayonnaise. He does girlfriend if he
even has one, is not at the time a social
media star. I don't think she is anyone.

Speaker 4 (01:36:21):
Actually, I'm social media star when it happened. Yeah, that's
probably fair.

Speaker 3 (01:36:25):
I think she was on social media but not yet
known until the red dress came out at the draft
and she got as much camera time as possible because
there was no and with the in the first round
we take Will Levis, they got to enjoy the whole
first night of the draft without having any team take

(01:36:46):
them anyway. Jalen Milroe has attributes that I think some
teams and some coaches will fall in love with. I
think the mistakes that were made from his play on
field mistakes last year or a little bit worse some
but talent obviously who he is and where I think
he could go, I'd be absolutely I'd be probably more

(01:37:07):
intrigued to take him than maybe any other quarterback that
I just ran through. I think what I just said
about Milrow and some of the mistakes he made, that
statement is what I would say about Dart. Unless he's
getting unbelievable coaching and he's wiping out everything he did
in college, then I feel like he has talent. He

(01:37:29):
can make all the throws he has a strong arm.
He's a good athlete, but he makes the worst decisions.
He makes terrible throws, and that would worry me a
tremendous amount. If I wanted to take him in the
first I might be okay later on in the draft,
maybe even outside the top fifty. And if I wasn't
counting on him to BQB one this year, which essentially

(01:37:54):
is what happened with Levis in Tennessee with a lot
of the same issues. Some people tried to say, Oh, well,
Kentucky has no talent. He's out there on an island.
He's got to make something out of nothing. He's got
a cannon, which he even said himself, and he wants
to show it off. But some of those tendencies were
quite clearly a part of who will Levis is. Heck,
look at the couple of Texans games that he's had.

(01:38:15):
He's made some unbelievable plays. They've allowed him to at
times carve them up, and then he makes the dumbest
plays ever and just gives it all back.

Speaker 4 (01:38:24):
Hey Wex, do you know who was his oc in college?
Doesn't he coach the Jaguars? He does coach the Jaguars.
Liam Cohen.

Speaker 8 (01:38:31):
That's what made him that name that people started to
bring up going into twenty twenty three first round pick,
especially number one overall pick.

Speaker 3 (01:38:39):
So let's lock in in two ways here to run
through his quarterbacks.

Speaker 4 (01:38:42):
Real cool? Sure, what I said about cam Ward was
I on point.

Speaker 8 (01:38:46):
You're on point that, yes, he is the best quarterback
in this year's draft. I one hundred percent agree with you.
I disagree that he is a top five player. He
is a top ten player. He on don't even think
he's a top fifteen player in this year's draft personally,
and he's a bottom five quarterback in the NFL next year.

Speaker 3 (01:39:01):
So I kind of feel like he can stay top
fifteen because I don't know how awesome all these other
players are, especially when some people think both Tyler Warren
and Loveland are top fifteen and unless they're Brock Bowers,
forget it.

Speaker 4 (01:39:18):
No way pushback.

Speaker 8 (01:39:20):
I'm going to push back on this one because of
Brock Bowers was a glorified wide receiver that hit the
right system and set records at the position last year.

Speaker 4 (01:39:31):
But he's not a blocker.

Speaker 8 (01:39:32):
Called Loveland and Tyler Warren both offer that value in blocking,
so I completely understand where you come from. When it
comes to Bowers and who he is as a player.
He's a top five tight end in the NFL already,
But my criteria is completely different looking at a guy
like Bowers compared to how I look at Warren and Loveland.
Still would take Bowers over both them, but I do

(01:39:53):
realize that I'm getting a blocker, and Warren not a
great blocker, but still a blocker. I'm getting a blocker
in Loveland, not a great blocker, but still a blocker.
They can be utilized in the right system.

Speaker 3 (01:40:01):
Thirty two NFL teams, including the your Houston Texans, including
the Raiders where Bowers plays, including Kansas City where Travis
Kelsey plays, including San Francisco where George Kittle plays and
is in a contract negotiation dispute. Of those thirty two teams,
how many of them do currently or did recently employ
a tight end that's a difference maker?

Speaker 8 (01:40:24):
One five, four, three, two, I can name one off
the top of my head. Detroit Samuilporta.

Speaker 3 (01:40:31):
Okay, so as we head into twenty twenty five or yes,
the twenty twenty five season, very good, you'll say Laporta
is the difference maker at tight end. And since we're
talking about Bowers like he's unreal and he's utilized like
a wide receiver at times. And Trey McBride in Arizona
is a phenomenal volume pass catcher. Okay, that's too but

(01:40:53):
they're not difference makers. That's my point. There's no way
I'm taking Tyler Warren in the top twelve, top fifteen.
There's a way I'm taking. How are they going to
change your team? Oh, players at cornerback change your team.
Players on the interior of defense and offensive line change
your team. Quarterbacks change your team. Ashton Genty is going
to change somebody's team. These tight ends are not going

(01:41:14):
to change their team. They're just gonna be really productive.
Completely disagree they will change the team. Now I will
How did how did Brock Bauers change the Raiders? And
when is he going to change the Raiders? Because I
don't want to blame it all on him, he's in
his first year. They stink.

Speaker 4 (01:41:26):
They have no talent.

Speaker 8 (01:41:27):
Okay, to be fair, terrible coaching, terrible coaching for the
get go.

Speaker 4 (01:41:30):
Did they blow out the coaches? They did? They did?

Speaker 8 (01:41:32):
They did so Okay, so now we're getting Pete Carroll
and we're getting ship Kelly in here, which is.

Speaker 4 (01:41:36):
A good thing. But I will push back.

Speaker 8 (01:41:38):
And say that I think Tyler Warren and Coolson Loveland
in the right system can be difference makers. Now, a
guy that you haven't mentioned that I want to mention
because if I do believe he is a difference maker,
and he's not getting enough love it, This guy you
know very well today, Barren.

Speaker 4 (01:41:51):
I think that's somebody.

Speaker 8 (01:41:52):
That we have to talk about inside that top ten
range that probably is gonna fall outside of that top
ten range because for some reason we only insert Ravis
Hunter here, who, by the way, he would even tell you,
probably wants to be a wide receiver, not a cornerback.
As a weak cornerback class, it's not a weak cornerback class.
You have guys that can absolutely be ballhawks and difference
makers the way that you talk about Baron being one,

(01:42:14):
Will Johnson from Michigan being another.

Speaker 3 (01:42:17):
Yeah, I wish I was as deep into the analysis
on Johnson as I obviously am from seeing him so
much as Baron. Obviously, there's really no dispute from how
people view them. Baron being behind Johnson, I.

Speaker 8 (01:42:32):
Think he is the safest defensive back in this year's draft, Baron,
I kind of feel that way too, And I have
to look at the two players the Texans selected.

Speaker 3 (01:42:42):
Neither of them were regarded anywhere near as high as
the players were talking about. They weren't first round talents.
They weren't drafted in the first round, and some of
their athletic mark points, especially with Kamari, they weren't as
high as you would like. Sure, but can they play?
Are they difference makers? Are you able to do things

(01:43:04):
defensively that you can't do if you have different personnel
out there the Texans last year. If Eric Murray and
Jimmy Ward are taking all of your safety snaps last
year along with Jalen Petrie, you're just not as good
as a defense. If Kamari Lassiter was put in the
slot where I was sitting right in this very seat
on Draft night, and we had someone join us from

(01:43:25):
Georgia who covered the Bulldogs, and all we did was
talk about, oh, he's a day one starter.

Speaker 4 (01:43:30):
In the slot.

Speaker 3 (01:43:32):
I don't even think he spent five seconds in the
slot at the very first practice he went to for
the text one practice at slot, and then they mean
to play against Nico Collins, Jeff Akuda came out, he
got burned on the next plata and then they said,
you know what, we're gonna move Jalen.

Speaker 4 (01:43:46):
Peachtime the nickel. We're gonna make this work.

Speaker 11 (01:43:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:43:48):
He obviously did really really good things his first year,
and saying with Kaylen Bullock, they turned into what are
absolute difference makers year one, and I fully expect that
to continue. So, you know, starting in on those quarterbacks.
I only bring them up because any quarterback that gets
drafted after number one, to me, is a good thing
for Houston. It's a pushback of a player that you

(01:44:10):
actually have interested. They don't have interest in Sanders or
Dart or Slow or Milrow or any of these quarrels.

Speaker 4 (01:44:15):
No, they're never gonna be Texans in the next five years.

Speaker 8 (01:44:17):
Okay, I'm gonna put on the spot real fast over
under two quarterbacks drafted by the time the Texans are
on the clock at twenty five.

Speaker 4 (01:44:24):
Well, you said it at two and a half. Two
and a half.

Speaker 3 (01:44:27):
I'll take the under because I still think it's just
gonna be Sanders and Ward, and I.

Speaker 4 (01:44:31):
Believe all that.

Speaker 3 (01:44:33):
I brought it up too, so I'm just as guilty
as everybody else, even though this is the first time
I brought it up in the three months leading up
to the draft, I think everything about every other quarterback
we mentioned, even the ones that will be in Green
Bay for the draft, is full on smokescreen nonsense. They
might all get drafted in the second round, but they're
not going before the Texans at twenty five.

Speaker 8 (01:44:52):
Hey, wex I agree with you with the under one
quarterback draft. By the time the Texans are on the
clock of twenty five.

Speaker 3 (01:44:57):
That will be the entire night's worth of coverage. Oh
my god, Sure, Sanders, what a fall. Maybe we'll talk
about that next Russell Brown on the NFL Draft.

Speaker 4 (01:45:06):
He joins us.

Speaker 2 (01:45:06):
Next the A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:45:15):
Well, this is normally the part of the show where
we hit you with our signature segment, the good, the Bad,
the ugly comes your way on Monday. But instead, with
the NFL Draft coming up on Thursday, Friday and Saturday
of this week, finally we're gonna talk a little bit
of NFL Draft. Adam Wexler here with you on the
A team this afternoon. Now, please to be joined by
Russell Brown. NFL draft analysts can find him on the

(01:45:38):
Old X platform at RUSS NFL Draft does work for
the Lions as well, covering the Detroit Football Club and
fantasy pros. Russell certainly appreciate the time and to that end,
it might be of interest to you and your followers
what happens at pick number twenty five, not only because
it's the Houston Texans, but because they are probably in

(01:45:59):
line to take a player that's protecting their very expensive
talented quarterback. As you've kind of looked around at what
might happen in the back third of the NFL draft,
what do you forecast from this group of offensive linemen
after Membo and after Campbell early? Do you have a
kind of progress order of rank of the available lineman

(01:46:21):
both interior and tackles that come to play after that?

Speaker 17 (01:46:24):
Well, first and foremost great being with you guys, Yeah,
I mean the next guy in line after Membo and
Campbell is Calvin Banks, the offensive tackle out of Texas.
I don't believe he'll make it to pick twenty five.
It sounds certainly like he's gonna end up being a
top fifteen, top twenty pick in this draft, and rightfully so.
He earned a first round grade on my board, thirteenth

(01:46:46):
overall player on my board. But that opens the door
for Josh Simmons, who's eighteenth overall on my board and
my fourth ranked tackle. And had it not been for
the serious injury that he had suffered this past year
at Ohio State, he would probably have been a first
round pick for me. And I still believe he's going
to be a first round pick. I just I mean
as far as first round grade. But he's a player

(01:47:07):
that could very well be on the radar for protecting CJ.
Stroud in the Houston Texans. We know they've got those
ties and connections to Ohio State, and I think Josh
Simmons makes a lot of sense for them with what
they've done with their offensive line by moving on from
Laramie Tonsil. As you guys know, and when you look
at Josh Simmons, I mean he's six foot five, three
hundred and seventeen pounds. Arm length is not a problem

(01:47:28):
with him. He's very clean technician, He stays under control,
he stays square, He shows that he can win with
the snatch trap technique. His inside hands strikes are strong,
and he resets his hands quickly. I think he's a
guy that has a little bit of a forward lean
that can be troublesome, especially if he's in the run game.
He's trying to down block and he's trying to beat

(01:47:49):
line stunts and keep his hat on a swivel. But overall,
he's a technically sound prospect that can certainly get better
in the NFL, and I think he's a player that
would make a lot of sense at twenty five if
he's there, and if they don't end up going with
an offensive tackle, I just wonder like, is one of
the wide receivers in this draft intriguing enough for them?
For example, staying with Ohio State is a mecha, a

(01:48:09):
bouquet that they would be more intrigued with outside of
the offensive tackles.

Speaker 3 (01:48:13):
If you were placing a wager, since you just brought
up two of them, I was going to bring up
Jonavan Jackson and you just simply said, I'm just going
to say the Texas are taking a player from Ohio State.
Would you feel confident that at twenty five they might
do it?

Speaker 5 (01:48:28):
Yeah?

Speaker 17 (01:48:28):
I feel pretty confident in that, And I'm glad you
bring up Donovan Jackson because he would have probably been
the next player I mentioned because of course he is
from Ohio State, but he's my thirty sixth overall player
and he's a second round graded player on my board.
But I love the guard tackle flexibility with him. The
experience that he provides is going to be huge for
any team that selects him, whether it's early on Day

(01:48:50):
two or somewhere in the first round. And he was
really the probably the most underappreciated player on Ohio State's
team this past year for what he was able to
do from going from guard to tackle and locking that
down after the injury to Simmons. But he's a player
that also hits, you know, very quickly with his hands.
He strikes defenders and knocks them back with low pad level.

Speaker 2 (01:49:11):
He's versati.

Speaker 17 (01:49:11):
Like I mentioned, he's got a thick frame six four,
three hundred and fifteen pounds thirty three and a half
inch arms. So much to be desired with him, and
I think he's a guy that if they were just
looking to upgrade anywhere up front, he would make a
lot of sense. But you're absolutely right, drafting an Ohio
State player seems very likely for Houston at this point.
With everything we've heard up to this point.

Speaker 3 (01:49:30):
Russell Brown joining us here on the a team at
RUSS NFL Draft on the ex platform second tier second
round wide receivers after EGBUCA, after A Burden and that
group TEP McMillan, if they were to go that route
at fifty eight where their next pick comes up, do
you have a liking to any one of those, Jalen Noel,

(01:49:52):
Trey Harris. There's a few guys that certainly seem like
they would fit both with this team and at that spot.

Speaker 17 (01:50:01):
Yeah, Jalen Nowell certainly, if he's there, I don't think
he will be. I mean, I'm probably a little bit
biased because I'm a leader of the fan club there.
I mean, I love his skill set. He's my wide
receiver for thirty second overall player. I just love his skills.
At five ten, one hundred ninety four pounds, he's got
some true first after the catch with that four three

(01:50:22):
nine speed and really explosive player with a forty one
and a half inch vertical But he makes great adjustments
to the football. He tracks the football downfield. He can
run routes at different gears with a good pace, and
it helps him create separation on a consistent basis. Plus
he's got that special team's ability. He kind of reminds
me of a little bit of a smaller version of
Amena Saint Brown. He's not as necessarily maybe as strong

(01:50:44):
as him, but very comparable play style, and I'm really
intrigued by him staying with Iowa State. I really like
Jayden Higgins as well. I don't know if you'd be
redundant to Nico College is simply because of the size
and the frame. I don't know if they're really looking
for another player that may be more of like a
prototypical X receiver. I know they can move Nico inside
and outside, but Higgins really seems like that prototypical X.

(01:51:07):
At six foot four to two hundred and fifteen pounds.
He makes some really good adjustments on the football, and
he's a guy that can win down in the red
zone because he's got a big catch radius, he's got
some pretty good body control and those types of things.
And then just kind of throwing a dart at the board.
It might not necessarily be in the second round, it
might be more so, you know it picks seventy nine

(01:51:27):
because they've got the two third round picks there in Houston.
I think Saveon Williams is really intriguing out of TCU.
I know the biggest problem with him is that he
doesn't always catch the football. There's those concentration drops. But
when you look at him, he's got great burst, he's
got inside outside ability, he's got alignment versatility into the
backfield as well. So I'm really intrigued with Savian Williams,

(01:51:50):
and he might end up being a player that they
might be intrigued with just simply because of him being
down the street at TCU.

Speaker 3 (01:51:55):
All Right, that's a comical way to say it. I
would have said it the same way. This wide receipt
one issue as he doesn't catch the ball. But I
totally understand what you're saying. You got a minute here,
give me a player in your top one hundred. Considering
the Texans have seventy nine and eighty nine that maybe
not everybody views that way that could end up here
in Houston.

Speaker 17 (01:52:15):
I'm gonna go with one of my favorite players in
the draft from SMU, Elijah Rogers. I love this player.
I love his skill set the interior defensive lineman. He's
very versatile. I love the power to his game. He's
more power than speed. But he's got a nice blend
of speed to power. I think he's more of a
five tech four eye at the next level. But again,

(01:52:36):
he can play in multiple spots. And when I was
watching SMU's defense, I wasn't really even watching for him.
I believe I was watching the offensive player at the time,
and he just he stood out consistently. He can win
in a variety of ways, cross, chop, dip, and rip.
So much to love with the long arm. I love
his skill set. I think he's a guy that can
go solid in the third round. He's seventy first overall

(01:52:58):
player on the board for me. I love his skill
set and I think he can be a guy that
can be a top one hundred pick all day long.

Speaker 3 (01:53:04):
Five years of college football and his resume be twenty
three years old turn twenty four actually during this upcoming season.

Speaker 4 (01:53:10):
An interesting thought.

Speaker 3 (01:53:11):
We'll definitely keep that name in mind and certainly follow
along with a lot of your work right there at
Russ NFL Draft Russell. We certainly appreciate the time and
best of luck as the draft gets underway.

Speaker 17 (01:53:22):
Thanks guys, I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:53:24):
You got it.

Speaker 3 (01:53:24):
Russ Brown joining us here talking little NFL draft again.
The Texans go at twenty five, could pick again at
fifty eight, seventy nine, and eighty nine, all before Saturday hits.

Speaker 4 (01:53:35):
But Nick Caseara's in charge of their draft.

Speaker 3 (01:53:36):
Again, very unlikely they're taking players at those exact spots
by the time we get to them this coming week.

Speaker 2 (01:53:44):
The A team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 3 (01:53:47):
Ninety great stuff on the draft, and we got three
more days to prep for it. Remember the names that
we've discussed here at twenty five and their second round
pick and their two third round picks. We're probably not
going to get too specific about who they draft after

(01:54:07):
that on Saturday, but I do think there'll be some
maneuvering into very likely fewer selections that end up being
a little bit higher, or at least additional selections in
upcoming drafts. I think that's how Nick Cassio might end
up playing it. The idea of trading up from twenty
five to fifteen for one particular player, I can understand,
but I do think this year's draft class at several positions,

(01:54:31):
and offensive line is one of them, there better be
a significant difference between the player you're moving up for
and the players that are likely going to be available
between twenty two and forty for you to go ahead
and give up future assets to do it. So we'll
see if that's in fact how it works out for
the Houston Texans on that front, will get who they
pick with the twenty fifth selection in the draft installment

(01:54:53):
number seven tomorrow. Today's installment delivered Kelvin Banks, and then
Russell Brown joined us a few minutes and he suggested
the very same thing, although also thinks it would take
a trade up to do it. I think Kelvin Banks
is an immediate starter. I think he continues his career
at left tackle just where it was the entire time
at the University of Texas, and which every team drafts

(01:55:14):
him hopefully doesn't have to worry about it ongoing because
even if he's not a Texan, he's from h Town.
We like people from the h Humble to be specific.
I guess this is an NFL story, even though I
know we're going to get into the NFL Football at five.
Not sure if the short segment for the top of
the hour Football at five at five o'clock or our

(01:55:38):
five point thirty in case you missed it segment is
the proper slot for Tony Busby to make an appearance
on the show, but I'm gonna say it's not here,
so I'll save it for one of those two spots,
likely in case you missed it. Yes, Tony Busby litigation
and the NFL they are meeting once again. But I'm

(01:55:59):
going with Dallas Cowboys star wide receiver Jake Ferguson.

Speaker 4 (01:56:06):
But don't you want to retry that one. I want
to go with Haley Cavender's fiance. I mean sure, but
I was gonna say tight end. How did I say receiver?
He said wide receiver. That's that's my mistake.

Speaker 3 (01:56:17):
Yeah, he plays tight end for the Cowboys and he
went out and he went and got engaged this weekend.
She said, Yes, that is one of the two Cavender
twins that are all raged because of social media. They're
pretty good basketball players, but not professional basketball players. They
went to a couple of different spops, created a very

(01:56:37):
very strong influencer influencer platform and have cashed in on it,
and that's what people do, and I applaud them for it,
but they didn't really have any intention of making it
at the next level and are now ready to do
whatever comes next. And in this case, well, Haley's gonna
get get married to Jake. She's gonna be an NFL wag. Oh,
she technical already was, because that's why or girl friend.

(01:57:00):
She was the girlfriend and soon to be wife. So
the other twin was and now no longer is attached
to no longer current NFL prospect Carson Beck because he's
not in this draft, but rather he's like her, watching
his car get stolen, taking a ton of NIL money

(01:57:20):
to transfer to Miami where she was, and then they
since broke up. I don't want to get into all
those reasons. That's that's for pure social media nonsense. That's
for TikTok. I'm sure I could find out all I
need to know there, but I do believe Carson. One
of Carson Beck's opposing coaches had something to say about

(01:57:41):
him earlier this week.

Speaker 4 (01:57:43):
So Lane Kiffin was on with Barstool I believe it
was the Pivot podcast.

Speaker 3 (01:57:48):
The Pivot, So he was with Clark and Channing and
Fred and they were talking about NIL and the changing
landscape and the amount of money, and I imagine Niko
was probably the gist of where the genesis of where
this all came from. And he said they were talking
about the amount of money. The reported amount of money
better than four million dollars. Miami kicked in to bring

(01:58:09):
Carson Beck from Georgia, where he was the starter for
a National Championship caliber football team, to Miami, where he
likely won't be but still probably starts there coming off
of his injury, and he said, did they see our game?

Speaker 4 (01:58:25):
Do they know what they're getting?

Speaker 3 (01:58:28):
And I tend to believe it, Nico, I'm not going
to play here anymore.

Speaker 4 (01:58:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have it for us.

Speaker 18 (01:58:37):
They're in the contract, they're making money. They're making millions
of dollars. I think down in Miami, what's Carson Beck?

Speaker 11 (01:58:43):
Four point three?

Speaker 4 (01:58:44):
Four point he?

Speaker 2 (01:58:47):
I think my biggest year was six.

Speaker 4 (01:58:49):
He's a college kid.

Speaker 18 (01:58:51):
So, like you bring up the comparison of what they're doing,
they're really getting NFL money.

Speaker 11 (01:58:56):
Miami and four point three million dollars. That's what the
evaluation said.

Speaker 16 (01:59:01):
Hey, do they watch this game against Oh, don't have
to be great.

Speaker 4 (01:59:06):
I don't try to go.

Speaker 3 (01:59:08):
I'm saving So twenty eight ten Georgia fell to ole Miss.
This past year, he didn't throw any touchdown passes. He
didn't throw for two hundred yards he threw a past
too ole miss he was twenty of thirty one.

Speaker 4 (01:59:23):
I guess they didn't see it. No, not even little,
but they saw that game.

Speaker 1 (01:59:28):
Oh.

Speaker 8 (01:59:29):
Also just a friendly reminder, wex he's coming off of
an elbow injury.

Speaker 4 (01:59:32):
Yeah, he didn't get to throw. Believe me.

Speaker 3 (01:59:35):
Bring The people that are locally interested in one very
particular SEC team are well aware of his seven for
thirteen for fifty six yards in Georgia's victory over the
University of Texas and his awful twenty three of forty
one performance with three picks and no scores in a

(01:59:56):
victory over Texas this year.

Speaker 4 (01:59:59):
Was doing that game well.

Speaker 3 (02:00:00):
Quinn Yours isn't getting four point three million dollars, although
it looks like he probably could have could have if
he decided to stay in school. He's gonna make about
four point three million dollars literally, if he's a middle
round draft pick, which he likely will be. Sure, that's
roughly somewhere a little bit above maybe up to five
million for where he's picked over the life of that

(02:00:21):
four year deal, whereas six Yeah, that's that's the life
of the contract, which he probably earns. It's not a
guarantee that he earns at all. Carson Beck's getting that
money whether he plays well or not. Nico's getting the
money from now UCLA, whether he plays well or not.

Speaker 8 (02:00:35):
Wax, I'm gonna stop you with Carson Beck. Whether he
play ease, yeah, because of he'll play. Yeah, he's gonna play.
But also one hit. He's out for the year again
with the elbow injury. That's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (02:00:48):
Well, everybody's one hit away, yeah, but Nico can come
back for another year.

Speaker 8 (02:00:51):
Carson's out after this year with eligibility, so he will
get that four point six million, whether or not he
ends up playing more than one snap.

Speaker 4 (02:00:59):
Who's the number one.

Speaker 3 (02:01:00):
Pick at quarterback in the twenty twenty six draft class?
Since you won't allow for that to be arch Manning.
For those that don't know, I don't know if that
was off air or on air, he somehow claims arch
is going to continue saying how much he loves Austin
and the forty acres and just keep on playing football there.
Make you happy because it champion, it's not realistic.

Speaker 4 (02:01:23):
It is realistic. He doesn't need the money.

Speaker 8 (02:01:24):
He can stay, win a title, win a heisman Ian,
multiple titles and you.

Speaker 4 (02:01:29):
Can go ahead and start your NFL career.

Speaker 8 (02:01:31):
Okay, pick and shoes where he wants to go and
complete the prophecy once New Orleans is awful enough to
pick number one.

Speaker 3 (02:01:36):
There's no way the Manning family is going to dictate
where Arch Manning gets drafted and manipulate the draft.

Speaker 8 (02:01:43):
No way, no, no shot ever. They've never done that.
Who is it personally right now? I would say either
Garrett and Nusmeyer Jametier out.

Speaker 3 (02:01:52):
Of oklaholma ooh and the Tears. Interesting. I hope he
doesn't have a very good year though.

Speaker 8 (02:01:57):
Yeah, well, okay, I would like him to have a
good year except against one team, and that's in Dallas,
Texas at the Cotton Bowl.

Speaker 4 (02:02:02):
We shall see.

Speaker 3 (02:02:03):
We can't really deep dive into the twenty twenty six
draft just yet. Do believe the Texans will be in
a very similar position for the third consecutive year come
draft day. They will be drafting after twenty four as
a team that reaches the final eight for the third
consecutive year. Maybe even further back, we'll hit you with
football at five. There are some other items on the

(02:02:26):
gridiron to discuss.

Speaker 4 (02:02:28):
We do that next.

Speaker 2 (02:02:31):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:02:59):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 3 (02:03:09):
It is five o'clock and it is time to talk
football football at five each and every weekday afternoon here
on the eight team at the five o'clock hour, we
have arrived. There, wex and Cole here with you this
afternoon or four days out Thursday evening the first round
of the NFL Draft begins. We're zero days out because
the Texans offseason program has already begun. Chance to catch

(02:03:32):
up with a couple of Texans. They were among the
best draft day stories in Houston Texans history, if not
the best. They've drafted number one overall a couple of times,
three times. I believe we're getting very close to will
Anderson Junior, passing both of the two first overall picks

(02:03:56):
that they've had, although each had very good careers. Mario
Williams's pretty good career in Houston, pretty good career in Buffalo,
and he made a ton of money one hundred million
dollar contract at a time where not everybody was getting
them to leave Houston and go to Buffalo. Jenavian Clowney
will probably be an NFL player again in twenty twenty five.

(02:04:16):
He's had varying levels of success as a former number
one overall pick of the Texans. I thought he was
very good here when healthy, and again, as a reminder
for those that might not have been listening at the time,
I thought it was a player they should have kept.
I was advocating for the long term extension.

Speaker 4 (02:04:35):
Or at the very very least.

Speaker 3 (02:04:38):
Of course, you franchise tag him, and of course you
ask him to sign it, so he's playing for your
team while you're trying to win, rather than pull off
a ridiculously bad deal with the Dolphins, which is what
they did. And he's bounced around obviously, both there and
everywhere else since. So it's not like, Yes, Seahawks awful deal,

(02:04:58):
that's the Tunsel awful bill Over deal. Seahawks deal. It
did get you, Jacob Martin almost awesome guitar solo guy.
Awesome guy, really good guy. Not a bad NFL player.
Probably not as helpful as your defense as Javian Clowney,
but that's not for me to decide. And the only
player in the history of the Houston Texans to ever

(02:05:18):
be named Barkievius was also added that deal.

Speaker 4 (02:05:21):
If I'm not mistaken.

Speaker 3 (02:05:22):
He was, so Will Anderson Junior heads into year three,
and I think there's a reasonable chance we're again rapidly
approaching him on his ascent past both of those two
respective Texans careers, if he hasn't already, He's been out
there for both of their playoff seasons as four games
of playoff experience has been a game changer in some

(02:05:43):
of those games, certainly the wins.

Speaker 4 (02:05:45):
And then obviously c J.

Speaker 3 (02:05:46):
Stroud long ago, in my mind, already passed David Carr
as a better top pick, but neither Will Anderson Junior
nor c J. Stroud was the number one overall pick
in the draft. We'll see how things work out for
Bryce Young. By the way, if you missed it earlier
this week or yesterday. As a matter of fact, CJ.

(02:06:08):
Stroud was at the game yesterday, and I believe it
was before Steph made his way over to the TNT crew,
put on a headset and talked to the studio crew.
I think he had a conversation with CJ. Stroud and
he said, yeah, I met him a couple of years
ago and went through the draft process. My team had

(02:06:29):
a chance to draft him, but we went with Bryce
Young instead, he of course is a Carolina Panthers guy.
He didn't say one way or the other, who was
a good dot or a bad dot, or a bad
pick or a good pick, but just said, just a
couple of athletes chopping it up. Because he was asked
in postgame what their conversation was, I'm not surprised he
didn't say, Oh, you want everything, you want to know
everything I said to CJ Stroud in an innocuous after

(02:06:51):
game discussion between two athletes.

Speaker 4 (02:06:54):
It's okay to ask.

Speaker 3 (02:06:55):
He didn't really tell them anything, but CJ told us
things today he met with the media over at.

Speaker 4 (02:07:00):
The Texans facility.

Speaker 3 (02:07:01):
Is this phase of their offseason workout programs, and that's
essentially all they're doing right now, working out. They're not
on the field and they are merely kind of getting
to know one another. Kind of the day, maybe name tags,
get warn and you meet some of the new guys,
including your new offensive coordinator. Before we hear from CJ,
let's hear from his head coach, Demiko Ryans on what
he had to say about old CJ's off season heading

(02:07:24):
into year three.

Speaker 9 (02:07:27):
He's been working out, He's been dedicated to his craft.
He's been put in a work in throughout the offseason.
It's what you expect now from your leader, from your quarterback.
So I'm excited to see how he attacked the next
nine weeks as well, being around all of his.

Speaker 3 (02:07:40):
Teammates super quick, no thought required. Over under CJ Stroud
twenty three touchdown passes as a rookie in fifteen games,
twenty touchdown passes as a second year player in all
seventeen games. The over under is twenty four and a
half for his first year in Nick Cayley's offense, touchdown passes.

Speaker 4 (02:08:00):
I'll take the over. I would as well.

Speaker 3 (02:08:03):
Texans over under on wins in his third season is
ten and a half over under.

Speaker 4 (02:08:09):
I take the under.

Speaker 3 (02:08:11):
Oh whoopee, all right, I'm gonna try for my best
over the next six months to gets you excited about
a third consecutive ten and seven season for your Houston Texans.

Speaker 4 (02:08:20):
But ont CJ.

Speaker 8 (02:08:21):
At least you knew that I was saying it was
gonna be another ten and seven season, not like a
nine to eight years.

Speaker 3 (02:08:25):
Well, if you're going with Texans nine and eight in
twenty twenty five, then I don't think you believe they're
going to win the division exactly. I do believe they're
going to win the division. I do believe you think
they're going to win the division? That is going to
take a ten win season or better, even in this terrible, awful,
no good, very bad division that everyone thinks can't win
any football games, even though three of the four teams

(02:08:46):
will be very competitive this year no matter what Chris
ballor tries to do to help them lose football games.
Let's see what CJ had to say about that same topic.
What was the difference for him as he heads into
a second true off season as a rookie. It's not
really an NFL off season as you're not fully entrenched.

Speaker 4 (02:09:05):
With everything that's going on.

Speaker 3 (02:09:06):
You do hit your mini camps and you kind of
get on a program, but it's not really the same
as last offseason. When you're a Texan, they have a
plan for you the day the season ends. On exit meetings,
do this, do that, work on this? What are your plans?
Where are you going, who you're working out with, what
are you gonna do? What kind of shape do we
want you in for next season? Well, now he's in
year two of that, what does he.

Speaker 4 (02:09:26):
Have to say?

Speaker 19 (02:09:27):
This experience, you know, just more like more games on
my boat, not only games, but just like an off season,
a free time, OTAs, drafting, like draft schedule, things like that.
Just just comfortability with those type of things. So that's
been the most Probably the best thing is just being
used to like how things go, trades and all types

(02:09:49):
of stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:09:49):
So over under on CJ Stroud this offseason, I'll set
the over under at everything and everywhere. That's where he
will be this offseason like he was last year, every podcast,
every vacation, every opportunity to be in front of the camera.
It seemed like he took it. You're taking the over
the under, and to this offseason under one thousand percent.

Speaker 8 (02:10:10):
He hasn't even been on one podcast I think since
the end.

Speaker 4 (02:10:12):
Of the year.

Speaker 3 (02:10:13):
Now do you think Micah Parsons will draw him back
in this offseason because I thought it was super entertaining,
especially their draft coverage. I obviously liked their banter about
U stink, No, U stink, the Cowboys stink, No, the
Texan stink. That was great, but their actual Draft night coverage.

Speaker 4 (02:10:34):
CJ.

Speaker 3 (02:10:34):
Maybe he gets further away from it each year, but
I thought he had a pretty good handle on players
heading into the NFL, and I was pretty entertained and
what he had to say about Ricky Piersow I think
stood out to everybody, and that when he got picked,
he was like, I would have been a great guy.
I would be for it. I didn't think this had
anything to do with year two, nor would I think

(02:10:56):
if he did it again it would have anything to
do with year three.

Speaker 4 (02:10:59):
I think it's fun to do.

Speaker 8 (02:11:00):
I think it's great for him to be able to
break down film and I think that having that relationship
with the defensive player, it allows people to kind of
combat what is the knowledge.

Speaker 4 (02:11:09):
Of the NFL.

Speaker 8 (02:11:10):
And they seem to get along, and they also seem
to bring really exciting, entertaining and infactual stuff to a podcast.
So Bleach Report wants to hire them again for Thursday Night.
I'm all for it.

Speaker 3 (02:11:22):
Yeah, I would not be down on it, obviously, if
you're unaware. They share the same agency Athletes first, and
David Mulagetta and he will be busy, busy, busy for
both of them. Neither have signed an extension, so obviously
not time for CJ to do so. But it's already
been past time for Mica to do so with the
Cowboys much more importantly than this off the field stuff
and this preparation stuff. And what's different is he's got

(02:11:46):
a new OC. He had the same OC for the
first two years. He had roughly the same quarterback room
both in personnel and on the coaching side last year
as he did in his rookieyear. Really the only change
was Shane Day moving away after year one, going to
the Arders, but everybody else essentially was in place. They'll
have a different third quarterback, whoever that might turn out
to be with case Keenum third quarterbacking it in Chicago,

(02:12:09):
but they have a new OC. That's important. His relationship
with the new OC. Where do things stand?

Speaker 19 (02:12:15):
Very you know, at first it was just introduction. Now
we're starting to get in the scheme of things, but
you know, just more like felling each other out as
people see where he comes from, being from can you know,
not far from Columbus where I'll play ball in college.
And there's a lot of similarities when it comes to
like family, you know, just how much we love our
families and how much we love ball. And you know,
he's very personable. You know somebody that that I've found

(02:12:36):
respect for already just on how he approaches the game,
how much he loves it. So yeah, it's very introductional.
But also as we've come into you know, OTA's and
we've been able to get on the phone a couple
of times to talk about certain things, has been nice.

Speaker 3 (02:12:47):
The respect level. He's starting to earn CJ's respect.

Speaker 4 (02:12:50):
That's nice.

Speaker 8 (02:12:51):
That's very nice that he's earning CJ's respect.

Speaker 3 (02:12:54):
That will be pretty much the entire Texans twenty twenty
five season. Does Nick Kyley bring a playbook capable of
overcoming deficiencies that they could not overcome last year, of
enhancing the abilities and skills of CJ. Stroud, Because as
I just ran through it, it still seems hard to

(02:13:15):
believe even with all of their problems, the numbers were
significantly worse, significantly worse in year two.

Speaker 4 (02:13:24):
I don't think every category two.

Speaker 3 (02:13:25):
Yeah, just straight across the board, and you know the
super unimportant QBR and much more important passer rating. He
hardly threw oh my god, he threw five touchdowns, had
another three hundred yard game, and they came back and
beat the Bucks. There were no games like that last year,
not one game. There weren't even two combined games like that,
A two touchdown pass game for CJ last year was hey, wow,

(02:13:49):
they're really threw They slung it around today does some
great success. And yes we all know the reasons why.
I know this is no sophomore slump. They league didn't
catch up with him. But it all went together along
with the poor offensive line, and there the whole reason
why Nick Cayley is here. They felt like some of
that stemmed from both the offensive coordinator and the offensive

(02:14:11):
line coach. Really the only two coaching moves of significance
that were made this offseason by the Houston Texans. A
couple more notes from CJ will hit on the other side,
a new player in and an old player out. His
thoughts on those two very significant Texans moves this offseason
will hit you with those next.

Speaker 2 (02:14:30):
The AE on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:14:39):
Keith, they're drolling through our number four of the Monday
edition of the show. Wex and Cole here with you
a couple more segments today without AC and he'll be
back with us tomorrow, I'm sure, with a full recap
of a Vegas vacation that included oiled up dudes jumping
around and knocking each other around, driving four wheelers in side,

(02:15:01):
things like that. Looking forward to it. We will also
deliver you Astros baseball six o'clock tonight with the Astros
on deck show and then the first of three against
the Blue Jays coming your way tonight from Dykin Park.
Astros taking two out of three from the Padres, but
wanted to continue the conversation regarding c J Stroud in

(02:15:21):
the upcoming season. Two pretty significant moves were made, one
to bring in talent and one that sent out talent
this offseason. Christian Kirk will be one of the main
targets for c J Stroud undoubtedly this year, and Laramie
Tunsseell will be protecting for Jaden Daniels in Washington with
the Commanders. It'll be interesting to see which team CJ's

(02:15:44):
team or JA or Laramie Tunseell's team advances further this year.
Jade and Daniels had a CJ like first season, arguably
better and then definitively better in terms of advancing his
team all the way to the conference title game in
his first season as the starter fresh out of college,
and now they add to it. Larry Tunsell is an

(02:16:06):
elite pass protector. He's an average run blocker. I think
in that system and with that offense and with one
of the elite, mobile running, super athletic quarterbacks, he'll be
a very good addition to their football team. Well, we'll
start with the player that comes in. Christian Kirk. Some
productive seasons in Arizona, some productive time in Jacksonville, his

(02:16:29):
season last year cut short, a little bit, pretty familiar
with those here from his time in his time in
Aggie Land, and certainly seemed like a nice fit for
what they were doing, and I imagine he's probably an
even better fit for what they will be doing, considering
they added him with knowledge that Nick Kayley's gonna run
things here for the Houston Texans. What did CJ think

(02:16:50):
about the addition of wide receiver Christian Kirk.

Speaker 19 (02:16:52):
He brings a tenacity, a raw ability just to run routes,
fill the game or yeah, you know, run out to
catch and just I think he's a very polished roue
runner and a leader, which is some tonight, you know,
I'm very excited to work with him.

Speaker 3 (02:17:05):
About Okay, Christian Kirk, over under one season of seventeen starts,
came his first season with Jacksonville right after they signed
him to the very lucrative deal in eighty four catches,
eleven hundred yards and eight touchdowns. Since then, he's played
in twenty of the thirty four scheduled NFL games that

(02:17:27):
Jacksonville has on their calendar.

Speaker 4 (02:17:28):
Every year he had.

Speaker 3 (02:17:30):
A little bit more than eleven hundred yards, and those
two years combined, I imagine the numbers you'll see in Vegas
will probably be even lower than this, But I'll put
him at eight twenty five receiving yards first years of Houston, Texan,

(02:17:50):
hopefully first of several, but technically only under contract for
one year.

Speaker 4 (02:17:55):
I go under, but very close under.

Speaker 3 (02:17:58):
Yeah, seven hundred and eighty seven yards a season ago
with some of his time two seasons ago, sometime missed
with Trevor Lawrence out, and obviously he missed sometime. But
I do think he'll end up being the second most
popular target regardless of who they draft. If they draft
a wide receiver and any other free agent they might add,
there won't be any significant trade to add to the room,

(02:18:19):
but they will add probably two to three wide receivers
between Thursday and late night Saturday, when they're undrafted free
agent signing pool is put together at least two to three,
and you know, maybe there's an opportunity for somebody that's
been with them to elevate their game, whether it's been
with them on the roster in Xavier Hutchinson or John

(02:18:41):
Metchi or somebody who's been on the fringe of the
roster and Johnny Johnson, Xavier Johnson or Jared Wayne. But
one player who will only be advancing his career now
with a commander's uniform on is Laramie Tunsel. And the
idea that you're taking the weakest part of your team,
the part of your team that clearly minimize your opportunity
to play successfully offensively, your offensive line, it's totally reasonable, understandable,

(02:19:07):
pretty much mandatory that they couldn't take the group that
played last year and send it back out there again.
They knew that there was no need to bring back
Shaq Mason in their minds, so he was released. They
used Kenyon Green and his contract to trade for a
very good defensive player in CJ. Gardner Johnson, and then
they traded for some future assets for the most part

(02:19:28):
in moving Laramie Tunsel out of town. Before he was
looking at a contract extension, though he might get one
from Washington before he plays football for them. CJ, your
best past protecting lineman isn't here anymore.

Speaker 19 (02:19:43):
What you think, That's something I feel, you know is
not my pay gray. You know, it's just just a quarterback.
But at the same time, you know, you build relationships
with guys and you know your lt of course, what
I know you're talking about as Shaq, you know there
was a two of my best friends. So that coming
to the league weight, So yeah, it hurts, you know
what I mean, it's and you know our our phan

(02:20:04):
office knows that and they know how I felt about it.
But I totally understand, and I'm not against it at all.
I totally think that we're heading to the right, to
the right side of things. But you know, I'm always
gonna be best friends with those guys and rooting them on,
and you know I still talk to them daily.

Speaker 4 (02:20:19):
So that's pretty match sure of c J.

Speaker 3 (02:20:23):
Stroud understand. Not only does he understand publicly, but he
also said, this is we're headed in the right direction.
This is a I mean, he's might not be giving
full he said, they know, they know how I felt. Sure,
they know what I was thinking, I totally understand it.

(02:20:45):
But he I believe he's simply saying what I just said,
like I see it. I'm there. I see it better
than anybody. I'm literally there. I'm getting hit. I'm running
for my life. I'm not able to go to progression
two or three hardly ever, because of what's not happening
in front of me. I'm sure he has a great
deal of football respect for Laramie Tunsel. Anybody who's been

(02:21:06):
here in Houston, anybody who's played against them, has to.

Speaker 4 (02:21:09):
He's too good not to.

Speaker 3 (02:21:11):
And they're going to be worse at left tackle from
a pass pro perspective, probably definitively year one without Tunsil
for twenty twenty five right, for sure. But it doesn't
mean their offensive line can't protect the passer better as
a unit.

Speaker 8 (02:21:26):
Now, I do want to bring this up because if
it was brought up earlier by Steve Sparks talking about
the Kyle Tucker.

Speaker 4 (02:21:33):
Trade, Uh huh. You have thirteen.

Speaker 8 (02:21:35):
Years of roster control for one year for one player.

Speaker 4 (02:21:40):
Now, the Texans they got four draft picks.

Speaker 8 (02:21:42):
They got a twenty twenty five to third, a twenty
twenty six second, and two later picks. Now, depending on
what those picks are, because we know what Nick Cassaria
likes to do, that's potentially twelve years, sixteen years. My apologies,
I'm not good with math, but still sixteen years of
ross control for a guy that you have two years
left and want a brand new deal.

Speaker 4 (02:22:04):
Let's say you hit on just two.

Speaker 8 (02:22:06):
Of those players, just too regards of where they are,
that's eight years of rush.

Speaker 17 (02:22:10):
Ski.

Speaker 3 (02:22:11):
Well, what do you mean just two of those players?
You only have a chance to hit on two of
those players.

Speaker 11 (02:22:16):
Don't you see it?

Speaker 4 (02:22:16):
On four of those players? You're not gonna hit on
your seventh round pick. How do you not know that?
We see it all the time.

Speaker 3 (02:22:22):
He's not even he's We're gonna have to talk. Well,
what did he actually get with that seventh round pick? Well,
he paired that with their fifth round pick, and he
moved up and got a fourth and twenty twenty nine.

Speaker 4 (02:22:29):
So okay, so a cumor of me.

Speaker 8 (02:22:30):
He takes the sixth round pick that they got, and
they move up in twenty twenty six into the second
round and they get themselves as an all pro guard.

Speaker 3 (02:22:37):
Well that's the thing you're you're putting that hit as
a Laramie Tunsil level comp Do.

Speaker 8 (02:22:44):
We not do it with Deshaun Watson all the time
with the draft that we got, the draft return they
got for twenty for him.

Speaker 4 (02:22:51):
I mean, I think it's obvious, but I'll say it
that's different.

Speaker 3 (02:22:55):
It's not though you're taking a team's first round picks
multiple and talking about hitting on them, and in the
fact that it was Cleveland's first round picks, they're also
very good first round picks. Sure, hitting on the Commander's
twenty twenty six second round pick, that means basically, what

(02:23:17):
you have this year fifty eight now time out, it's
gonna be somewhere in that neighborhood. Then their fourth round
pick in twenty twenty six, that's in the mid to
lowe hundreds. You're gonna hit. You're gonna find an all
pro Tunsul caliber player. Where did you find a Pukainakua
in the fifth round?

Speaker 4 (02:23:34):
And I get it of you? Yeah, you isn't Nick?
You is someone else's GM?

Speaker 8 (02:23:39):
Sure, Sure, okay, it's someone else's GM, But humor me
for a second. WEX Yeah, I'm not saying that that
pick Ne's had. What I'm saying is, what if the
regression sets in for Jaden Daniels the way it's sat
in last year for CJ.

Speaker 4 (02:23:52):
Stroud. So now we're.

Speaker 8 (02:23:53):
Talking about that second round pick, maybe in a tougher division,
because you have to admit, the NFC East is a juggernaut.

Speaker 4 (02:24:01):
It is a house of horrors. Yeah, with the AFC.

Speaker 3 (02:24:04):
Cowboys, unbelievable giants, slobbery knockers. When you match up with them,
watch the Cowboys get to half their division is super
Bowl caliber.

Speaker 4 (02:24:11):
That's enough. It's a fair statement. Fair enough because there
we go.

Speaker 8 (02:24:15):
You get forty four that's the pick, or forty five
that's pick, or maybe even you go except further and
go forty two that's the pick. You're telling me that
you can't land a top forty player that somehow slipped
down a draft board, because last night checked there was
a guy by the name of Kamari Lassiter who many
people thought was a Day one talent that fell to
the round of the second because if he ran a

(02:24:37):
four to six.

Speaker 4 (02:24:38):
Yeah, man, it's a lot a lot of ifs.

Speaker 3 (02:24:40):
There reasonable ones, but that's probably a fifteen to twenty
spot jump ahead in the drafting. The forty second pick
in the second rounds top ten or the eleventh pick
in the second round. The Commanders are probably not gonna
land that far outside the playoffs this upcoming season, but nonetheless,
the comparison is noted. You're trying to see if Cam

(02:25:00):
Smith can become Kyle Tucker level player. That's the caliber
prospect you want to replace that caliber player. Not sure
that they can do the same with Laramie. On the
Texan side, last couple of weeks, we've given you the
opportunity to enter a contest to win some sweet seats
to an awesome concert upcoming here in the Houston area.
We're gonna do that very same thing when we come

(02:25:21):
back when. In case you missed it, so stick around
for the deets on.

Speaker 1 (02:25:24):
That the A teen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:25:34):
That music means it's time for in case you missed it.
In case you missed it, well, you haven't missed it yet,
but we have not given you the details on how
you can win a pair of tickets to go see
Jason Aldean with Nate Smith and Raylynn. It's on August
fifteenth that the Woodlands Pavilion tickets are on sale now
should you want them, you can purchase them at ticketmaster

(02:25:54):
dot com.

Speaker 4 (02:25:55):
We have a contest for you to enter.

Speaker 3 (02:25:58):
We'll do a random selection of all of our contest
entries on Friday and we'll pick out a winner.

Speaker 4 (02:26:03):
Here's how you enter the contest. It's rather simple.

Speaker 3 (02:26:07):
Just show us that you've made sports Talk seven ninety
number one on your preset on the iHeartRadio app. Send
us a screenshot to my email at found here. Adam
Wexler at iHeartMedia dot com send me an email with
a screenshot of Sports Talk seven ninety as the number
one preset on your iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 4 (02:26:28):
If you haven't downloaded already, please do so.

Speaker 3 (02:26:30):
If you have it and need to update it so
you can use some of the new and improved features
like presets, which is awesome and super convenient. Makes it
very easy to fire us up wherever and whenever on
your iHeartRadio app. Make Sports Talk seven ninety number one
on your preset on your iHeartRadio app and email me
a screenshot. Adam Wexler at iHeartMedia dot com got a

(02:26:52):
pair of tickets to give away to the Jasnaldine concert
on August fifteenth at the Woodlands Pavilion. We'll do that
on Friday with all of our contrast here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. I'll send that out on my social
as well, so you can see what I just told
you and make your way on over.

Speaker 4 (02:27:09):
To sending me that email. What have we missed today?

Speaker 8 (02:27:13):
So do you know how a guy by the name
of JJ wat pretty popular in miss Town?

Speaker 4 (02:27:17):
Yeah? Yes, Coe's dad is very popular.

Speaker 8 (02:27:20):
He is he is you know he owns a soccer
team or is a partial on over soccer. Bernly Well
Burnley deserve some congratulations, wex because of they're getting promoted,
they're going to the Premier League. Because of the way
that the Premier League standings are. When you lose a
certain amount of games and you sit lower in the standings,
you flip. Burnley was the top seed waiting and is

(02:27:44):
now going to be playing in the Premier League for
the twenty twenty five twenty twenty six season.

Speaker 4 (02:27:49):
JJ of course shared the.

Speaker 8 (02:27:50):
News on social media earlier today, and the Texas gave
him a congratulations of course, as well as the club.

Speaker 4 (02:27:57):
So does that mean their games will be on earlier?

Speaker 8 (02:27:59):
That means that their games will be more nationally televised. Okay,
over across the pond, I'll do my best to Okay,
what else do we.

Speaker 4 (02:28:09):
Have to stay quick for that?

Speaker 8 (02:28:13):
Sir Nick Casseiro did not give us any information last
week on what direction the Texans planned on going.

Speaker 3 (02:28:18):
But now the head coach met with the media and
I'm sure all of their plans are now well known
to all who asked of Dimiko and now all of
our listeners who get to hear from Dimiko. At twenty five,
the Houston Texans will select. I'm sure he has an
answer for us here.

Speaker 4 (02:28:34):
He does.

Speaker 9 (02:28:35):
Hey, no one really knows how the draft is going
to shape out. You don't know who's trading up, who's
moving out, So it's an exciting time to add new
players to your team. There are a lot of the
quality guys to add, a lot of great young men
coming out in this year's draft. Guys work hard, put
themselves in a great position to be drafted, and we
take out it comes. We feel like, you know, we're

(02:28:56):
in a good spot as a team, and we want
to continue to add young talent to guys wn come
in and help us out and in wait that they can.

Speaker 3 (02:29:03):
Now So unlike that Nick describing we will draft players
on Thursday, will draft players on Friday, they'll leave them
be players for us to draft on Saturday instead. He
described it as they want to add young players to
make this team better. So he was giving you more
of what is actually available in the draft, from ages
twenty to twenty three, maybe a twenty four year old,

(02:29:26):
but younger players to help this team.

Speaker 4 (02:29:28):
He likes where they are. We'll never forget that.

Speaker 8 (02:29:30):
There is a twenty six year old that's in this
draft out but the Texans don't have to worry about him.
But there is a twenty six year old who currently
has gone viral for taking up the prom photo with
the starting quarterback and going into a contract year with
the forty nine ers.

Speaker 4 (02:29:43):
Proc Purtin, All right, don't have to check that out.
He's in there.

Speaker 8 (02:29:46):
No, But like at the same time, you're not going
to get any information, which I completely understand. He's not
wrong because of talking about the direction of where the
team is and how trades are going to be effected.
With all this, still it feels like that nobody has
any inclination. Are they gonna go offensive line, wide receiver,

(02:30:06):
defensive tackle, best player available? What is it gonna be, Nick,
What is it gonna be to Miko, just just give.

Speaker 4 (02:30:11):
Us a I have an inclination. I think you do.
I would love to hear it.

Speaker 3 (02:30:16):
With the twenty fifth pick in the draft, the Houston
Texans select insert name offensive lineman, insert college.

Speaker 4 (02:30:24):
That should be the answer that it will be. It
will be the answer. Do you up?

Speaker 12 (02:30:30):
Now?

Speaker 8 (02:30:30):
Do you know you said the twenty fifth overall pay?
That's the keyword there.

Speaker 14 (02:30:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:30:33):
I think they're gonna end up staying, and I think
they're gonna take one of the players probably that we've
already mentioned at our four o'clock segment, which is exactly
what I just described, or even Tyler Booker, who have
not yet put out there as a possible twenty fifth pick.

Speaker 4 (02:30:47):
Is he gonna be on the list? Who's to say?

Speaker 8 (02:30:49):
Now, here's a funny thing for you, WEX You did
talk about how there's a team that the Texans like
to trade a lot with.

Speaker 4 (02:30:55):
Who was that team again? The Eagles.

Speaker 8 (02:30:57):
Now, according to reports from ESPN's Adams After look for
the Eagles and the Texans to be quote unquote busy
with trade speculation.

Speaker 4 (02:31:08):
Now.

Speaker 8 (02:31:08):
The reason that bring this up is we've already mentioned
a player his name Donovan Jackson, somebody that Russell Brown,
who is kind of us the joints today even mentioned.

Speaker 4 (02:31:16):
As well for the Texans.

Speaker 8 (02:31:18):
I could see him being a Day two pick that
you take at number thirty two, which is currently the
pick as owned by you guessed it, the Philadelphia Eagles,
ye has, so.

Speaker 4 (02:31:28):
In the Super Bowl they get the thirty second pick.

Speaker 8 (02:31:29):
So would you be content moving back, say six spots,
landing at Donovan Jackson and picking up a third round
pick in the process to where it allows you to
kind of pick and choose what you want.

Speaker 4 (02:31:39):
To do on Day two, which has been an area
where whether we can go.

Speaker 8 (02:31:43):
Ahead and criticize Nick Cassario on how he drafts offensive
lineman or how he goes about adding in defensive player.
He's done a good job of finding a talent in
round three. Every year he's at least once. Ye.

Speaker 4 (02:31:53):
Yeah, those.

Speaker 3 (02:31:55):
Are predicated on what's on the board at twenty five.
But it would scare me a great deal because there's
not eight offensive linemen on the board at twenty five.
There's going to be four, and you're probably you like
Donovan Jackson. Let's say Booker's there, Let's say connor Ley there,
Let's say Josh Shimmons is there, that would be great.

Speaker 8 (02:32:11):
We'll also take out one because of you have to
remind yourself that grays Abel's already off the board.

Speaker 3 (02:32:16):
Okay, Well, either way, let's say there's four on the
board that you'd be okay with. Sure, you're taking a
chance that one, even just one of them is still
on the board at thirty two, because what do you
do if he's If they're three or off the board
by twenty nine, you're worried about. It's not just the
teams that draft at twenty nine and thirty and thirty
one that are ahead of your new pick. It's about

(02:32:37):
what other teams who are willing to trade up in
front of you to get the player before you get
a chance to that you have to be concerned with.
I'd hate to be put in a position where an
additional trade back up has to be made to prevent well,
we didn't like anybody. Now we either have to trade
back again out of the first round or take somebody
we just really never had our eyes on to begin with.

Speaker 8 (02:32:58):
That's the worst thing off five thing for you. There
is a team that is affecting the AFC South in
the top five s Jacksville Jaguars. Now, most people are
pivoting them to going after Mason Graham out of Michigan
like a smart pick. Well, according to NFL Networks Tom Pelliserro,
do not be surprised if the Jaguars go after Ashton

(02:33:20):
Genty with the fifth overall pick.

Speaker 4 (02:33:22):
Now, how would you feel.

Speaker 8 (02:33:23):
Wex faced off against Ashton Genty twice in a season.

Speaker 3 (02:33:26):
I think people are recognizing that the idea that the
lifespan of a running back is so short should not
tell you not to draft them. What's wrong with five
years of this player or six or seven with a
franchise tag that means the full life of the player, essentially,
if it's a running back. You saw what Saquon did
for the Giants when they drafted him, and then he

(02:33:48):
did it again for the Eagles, and what Bijon I
think will do this year for the Falcons. They'll win, Yeah,
I could absolutely see that happening. Ashton Genty will definitely
not be on the board after the top ten picks
in this I believe strongly that will be the case.
I guess that's my one big bold draft Day prediction.

Speaker 2 (02:34:07):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:34:20):
Another few minutes here on the A team, then Ross
will take you into Astros Baseball. He's got the Astros
on deck show in just a few minutes six o'clock,
he'll send it on over to Robert and Steve will
take you through the ball game tonight. Hunter Brown looking
to make it to another strong start. His start to
the season has been spectacular and he has pitched like
an ace. I believe last night's effort from you fromber

(02:34:44):
Valdez was also that of an ace. I don't really
need to final a few minutes of the show get
into good Fromber, bad Fromber. But six innings, two runs
against an offense like San Diegos, That's that's how you
win baseball game.

Speaker 4 (02:35:00):
You were in the game clearly.

Speaker 3 (02:35:02):
He kept you in the game early and what could
have been much worse start to the game with the
way things went, and pitched around a couple of things
that went wrong that were a little bit out of
his control, but gave you six innings a lot only
two runs. That's what top of the rotation starters need
to do now. He just needs to do it a
little bit more often than he has. You could argue

(02:35:24):
he's done it more than he hasn't, which is still true.
That was his fifth start of the year. Two have
been scoreless, and the most recent one, well, he give
up just two runs. It's absolutely positively winning caliber baseball.
It's just not probably what is expected from him. And
when you consider the two that weren't, well, you gave

(02:35:46):
up twelve runs and nine innings and gave up fourteen
hits in those nine innings, and the Astros obviously did
not win those games. One other note on fromber starts,
he's their ace. He's their opening day starter. Often lines
up with the opposing team's best pitcher, especially earlier in
the season. He undoubtedly did in this matchup to most.

(02:36:09):
I would actually say the Padres ace was their Saturday
Night pitcher, Michael King. But Dylan See's pretty good. Obviously,
the Astros only scored two runs. The Astros with from
ber Valdez.

Speaker 4 (02:36:19):
On the mound.

Speaker 3 (02:36:20):
In the five starts he's made, they've scored two, three,
two in twelve innings three and three. Have yet to
score four runs in a game when he pitches. Granted,
they haven't scored four runs in a game all that
often this season. We'll see if they brought fair a

(02:36:42):
little bit better with Hunter Brown, and he's fared tremendously well.
Nothing allowed in each of his last two starts to
seventeen innings scoreless streak is what he'll take into this game.
But as I mentioned earlier, somehow despite pure excellence from
Hunter Brown, the Astra are only two and two. When
he starts, they face a very good Kevin Gausman in

(02:37:05):
a pretty good Toronto Blue Jays lineup, not a super
powerful one as yet, but I think that will come
in time. Bashett Springer, Vladimir Guerrero and a couple of
other younger players have helped make them a pretty good
offense this year, and they've obviously kept pace with their
respective divisions. These two teams, the Astros have kept pace.

(02:37:28):
Dodgers hooked the Astros up a little, probably could hooked
him up even more if Shohe a Tani would have
played in all the games. Like Alex Bregman, he and
the misses went off and had a baby. Congrats to
all of them on their recent additions to the family.
But nonetheless, you don't want anybody in this division to
get too far away too soon. With the Astros just
basically playing five hundred baseball and nobody has done that.

(02:37:50):
The Rangers are good, but they're thirteen to nine. The
Astros have the fewest wins in the division at ten.
Everybody has between ten and thirteen wins, and that includes
the cityless Athletics. Not much as likely to change. The
Mariners have found some offense recently. They've now scored more
runs than any team in the Division. Cal Rawley is

(02:38:12):
a major league leader in home runs with nine. He's
been great offensively when he's not stealing signs legally, legally
and apparently the Blue Jays pitcher Jose Burrios, who will
not be throwing against the Astros, he was not too
happy about it, felt pretty confident and well. Ralegh was
at second base, he was relaying signs, and then he

(02:38:35):
was more than happy to tell him about it. Just
outscore them, Just play better baseball. That's all anybody really
cares about, I think in this day and age, and
there's only one team with more than thirteen wins in
the entire American League.

Speaker 4 (02:38:48):
Sadly it's the Yankees.

Speaker 3 (02:38:51):
But nobody's doing anything crazy to me, like what's actually
happening in the National League.

Speaker 4 (02:38:55):
Potters are ten games over five hundred.

Speaker 3 (02:38:58):
After losing a series to the Astros, they got a
half game lead on the Dodgers, who are sixteen and
seven and one of the teams the Astros beat in
their three game series to open the season, the Mets.

Speaker 4 (02:39:11):
They're fifteen and seven. The Mets have been phenomenal.

Speaker 8 (02:39:14):
What's even better is that they're doing it without Wan
Soto being that big of an impact.

Speaker 3 (02:39:18):
And he was a big impact here, yeah, and has
been less of an impact after he left Houston. He
was still a pretty big impact last year. After he
left Houston. I wouldn't say he's been poor, but you're right.
He hasn't been overwhelming by any means.

Speaker 4 (02:39:33):
He's not been.

Speaker 3 (02:39:34):
Quite the unbelievable seven hundred and sixty five million dollar
talent that I'm sure over the course of his contract
he will prove to be. He's been good. Pied Alonzo's
been outstanding. Although this world, if I told you Pete
Alonzo had six bombs at twenty four RBI NOPs of

(02:39:55):
eleven to seventy one, the last of those two numbers
are National League leading numbers. But he went viral for
a different reason. Would you know that reason?

Speaker 8 (02:40:05):
Now that the top of my head, I know what
it is. I saw it, but I don't He tripled,
That was it.

Speaker 3 (02:40:10):
And the camera shot from behind second base pointing towards
third base makes people take to Twitter. Only in baseball
can you be a whatever, one hundred and fifty millionaire
and run like this?

Speaker 4 (02:40:27):
He runs like us Wax and he gets paid one
hundred and five. I mean he runs like I used
to run. Maybe, okay, he runs like me.

Speaker 3 (02:40:34):
Well, he really doesn't run like anybody, because you're not
supposed to your feet aren't supposed to kick out like that.

Speaker 4 (02:40:39):
I don't know how he didn't fall down.

Speaker 8 (02:40:41):
He runs like Phoebe in the episode of Friends when
they go for a jog.

Speaker 3 (02:40:43):
That's how well which one was worse? Her or Rachel?
Neither of them know how to run.

Speaker 8 (02:40:48):
No, but she was worse because you thought that was normal.
Rachel was actually tried to run. And that's totally true. Yeah,
Pee Alonzo he I'm sure he doesn't mind. And this
is kind of it. It's what it's why they did
what they did in the off season. They went to
the front of the line.

Speaker 3 (02:41:05):
We'll give one soda the most money, and we will
then bring back Pete Alnzo short term deal, big money.
This is what they actually should be doing. They did
this to be the best team in their division to
potentially sit at home during the wild Card round of
the postseason, and signs are pointing to that being a
very good off season. We'll see if the money comes

(02:41:25):
back to their super rich. Doesn't even matter if they
make money owner, but I figured they would be better,
and undoubtedly they have in one Soda an ops any
Astro would kill for at eight twenty one, and.

Speaker 8 (02:41:40):
Their pitching's not back yet either, so imagine that when
they get fully healthy there.

Speaker 4 (02:41:43):
They'll be all right.

Speaker 3 (02:41:44):
Hopefully the when we know the Astros won't see him
again until the postseason. We got Astros on deck that
comes your way. Next, we'll be back with you tomorrow,
beginning at two. More discussion of Rockets, Warriors, and of
course Astros. Blue Jay, it's great to be with you
on Monday, will be even better on Tuesday.

Speaker 2 (02:42:05):
The a t on Sports Talk seven ninety