Short-handed Rockets Lose In OKC, Wex Is A Casual and Threat To Astros In The West

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

Speaker 2 (00:15):
A Welcome into a Tuesday edition of the A Team
Sports Talk seven ninety Wex and AC with you until
five o'clock and then we'll stay with you because I'll
be hosting a local Rockets pre game and then before
you know it, wex will be getting you into the
network side of things. Rockets. That was something just like,

(00:39):
I don't know, five seconds before tip off last night,
we find out that like they're franchise loading, That's what
I would call it. There's load management and then there's
like franchise management, and that's basically what they did last night. Now,
Jalen Green got the start, Jabari Smith Junior found himself
back in the starting lineup, But as far as any
sort of other rotation players whatsoever, that was not going

(01:02):
to be the case last night. They were all in
the street, closed on the bench and we were talking
about this earlier. Wex clearly it was intentionally done, but
what was the reason for it. It's like all these
guys have ailments because everybody's beat up this time of year.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Amen Thompson is leading the league in minutes or top
five and minutes played over the last two months. Probably
worth a night off when he's got a sore shoulder.
Dylan Brooks not a young guy minor knee issue alprin shngoon.
Despite the fact that he only had to play eighteen
minutes against the pathetic Spurs the other night, which was
a half of a night off, it's got his back issue,

(01:42):
not one that's kept him sideline because players play through
injuries when they're young, and obviously Fred van Vliet legitimate.
He's out again tonight. Tar Easton doesn't play in back
to backs. There's an explanation for all of them. But
why sit half one night and half the other night,
and then consider the game you have two days from now.

(02:04):
They're playing three games and four nights. It's not just
a back to back. And again it's literally not just
a back to back. This is back to back number
five in the last thirty days. So a lot of
things go into it, but it makes the most sense.
I get a kick out of the reaction to this.
Every time the Rockets or your team does anything as

(02:25):
it relates to back to backs and when you sit
certain guys. Everybody complains about it pretty much no matter
what they do. Oh, they threw this game. They just
basically took an l Oh. These guys just don't want
to play hard, and we'll see what they play. What
they do tomorrow night was what the team wants. They're
clearly taking the night off. Hey, how come you're playing
Tari this night when you know he could play in
one night. Why is he playing against this team when

(02:47):
he should be playing against the team on the second night.
I don't understand what they're doing. Make up your mind, fans,
the Rockets are not a good matchup for the Thunder,
despite the fact that they beat them once. They ease
could have won last night's game if SGA didn't have
one of those games. He's the best player in the NBA.
He has a lot of one of those games. And

(03:09):
I have said it so many times. I don't feel
like it's a reaction to last night at all. If
you're not paying attention to Shay gillisis Alexander, then maybe
you're not aware. Nobody in the NBA, in my opinion,
gets away with more offensive fouls than SGA.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
It's incredible.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
He's so good at it, and he's reached the point
in his career somehow this quickly that referees just they
act like they don't see it. Do you wonder why
he has separation on every single shot, whether it's a
fade away, whether it's a drive, whether it's a taller player,
whether it's a shorter player, whether it's a younger player,
whether it's an older player. It's because much like James Harden,

(03:51):
who out weighed Shay by one thousand pounds, he pushes
people off of him and then takes his shots. They
let him get away with the two. It is just
part of the NBA. It helps when all of your shots,
most of your shots are basically uncontested. Because of it,
you can shoot sixty percent. He's done it fifteen times
this year. He's a guard fifteen times. Most of the

(04:14):
other players on the list who've done it ten or
more or sixteen or seventeen times, they're Nikola Jokicic, They're Giannis,
They're dunking and dropping the ball in the basket NonStop.
He's not just a factor of who Oklahoma City is.
I do not have one issue at all about what
the Rockets did last night. Obviously coming off of watching
what the players who were on the court did.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
A great night for Infali.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Dante made his NBA debut and looked like he certainly
could be a part of somebody's actual game day roster
sometime in the future. Probably not this year, but the
rest of the group won't all be back next year.
Maybe there is a second center spot available on this team.
No guarantee that either Jack Landell or Steven Adams will
be here next year. Heck, for that matter, who knows,

(04:57):
Maybe I'll be his trade bait.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
Obviously, Cam Whitmore and Reached Shepherd played real NBA basketball
last night. Also played as a starter, got the minutes
normally reserved for a starter. You start the game, you
run the show, you play your six, seven, eight minutes,
you go to the bench, you know you're coming back in.
You go through that stretch, and each of them, I
thought took it very well and did what normal NBA

(05:19):
players should do. They're talented, super talented first round picks.
They're on a team that has talent, though they don't
play for some of the crappy Wizards and other teams
that draft these terrible players and they get to play
thirty minutes to night for three years before the Wizard say, God,
we met an awful pick. Let's get rid of this
guy after we got rid of the guy before him,
after we got rid of the guy before him.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
It's different in Houston. Now. It's awesome.

Speaker 3 (05:43):
I'm not saying it's awesome for Reed Shepherd or Cam Whitmore,
but it's awesome that your team isn't just throwing these
guys out there because they know they're going to lose anyway,
because they know they don't have any talent in front
of them. They lose to Oklahoma City last night, score
the most points they've scored against OKC by a pretty
good margin. Also give up the most points they've given
up to Okay See, by a pretty nice margin. And

(06:04):
the gift of it all the little cherry on top
of the Oklahoma City Sunday. That was your fourth meeting
of the season against the Thunder, the best team in
the West. Luckily you get a fifth one this year,
a very rare fifth game against a team, any team
in the NBA, your conference or not, your division or not.
So that will come later. But tonight it's all about

(06:26):
the Pacers.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Well, this is what I wanted to get to, and
I said that he may did that intentionally because he's smart. Yeah,
but the side of me that wants to believe that
there are more people that think the way I do
about the back to back situation. I'm not saying he punted.
I'm just saying that if you feel like you're shorthanded

(06:51):
or you want to give your all in one of
the two games more than the other anyways, which I
don't understand why it wouldn't have been Oklahoma City because,
like you just got done saying, they're not a good
matchup for them, even when they're completely shorthanded, as you
saw last night.

Speaker 3 (07:05):
They're also not a good matchup for anybody. Well, I
mean they went eighty two percent of their games.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
M I'm saying the Rockets give the Thunder problems. I mean,
he's right up.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Like last night's game was exactly what happens at every
single Oklahoma City Thunder game.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
There's a quarter that goes bad.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
They're just probably not probably three minutes the first three
minutes of the third quarter, ball game's over.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (07:27):
The Rockets caught up multiple times, they got within six,
They made a bunch of plays, but it happens every
time they did do something else differently. Last night another
I think really good thing. They played zone and played
zone this year, certainly not for the extended amount of
time they did last night.

Speaker 2 (07:43):
And I don't know if this was more.

Speaker 3 (07:44):
I mean, I heard what he May had to say
about it after the game, and he was pretty pleased
with what it looked like here in kind of its
infancy stages with players who probably won't be involved in
it as they move forward. But they had the lead
throughout most of the first half. They had a lead
in the third quarter. I mean, I don't they should
put it half times they punted. Maybe it was a
fake punt, No, it was a trick play. Maybe you

(08:06):
snapped it to Justin Reid and got tackled on fourth down.

Speaker 2 (08:08):
They were within they were within a possession every single
quarter as far as the scoring went. You won the
first quarter, We're down by one at halftime, and I
think they were out They outscored the thunder and the
third the fourth quarter. But it was like that that
third quarter, Like you said, I just to me in
my mind, and I know I was making this up.

(08:29):
I'm like Emay's telling the NBA, screw this. I'm tired
of these back to backs. It's not that I'm tired
of back to backs, it's I'm tired of so many
in such a condensed period of time on my calendar.
I mean, there's two more left after this. They're also
over a month's time. For a month and a half,
they just have five and thirty days. That's my that's
my problem. I know there's going to be back to backs.

(08:51):
I I know. I come on, and I say, gotta
get rid of all the back to backs. That'd be great.
In the perfect world, you would also have automated you know,
balls and strikes and robo umps in general. But like,
I get it, you got to make some concessions. But like, yeah,
like what you just said, five and thirty, like when
they're playing one of the most it's not a coincidence
they've had their worst month of the entire season. It's

(09:13):
not just because Fred's been out. It's not just because
j Bari's been out since January third until you know,
a few games ago.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
It's also the only month they had seven days off.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Yeah, the All Star break. Yeah, so I guess that's
what the NBA thought Okay, well at least there get
what about the other teams, because there's got to be
another season. I mean, I don't think it's all because
of their schedule. Like you know the Spurs every year
have the rodeo. Well that's their fault. If you want
to share a building with a rodeo for an NBA
season and not an NFL season, and that's your fault,
you're stupid.

Speaker 3 (09:41):
Yeah, Pacers tonight, a couple of games with the Pelicans
coming up after that, including Thursday night's Roady into New Orleans.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Watch party time.

Speaker 3 (09:49):
Tom's watch party, hosting another Sports Talk seven to ninety
watch party on Thursday night. I will be out there
for that, so looking forward to seeing many of you
out there. Hopefully an opportunity to make it two straight wins,
but they'll have to at that first one of those
two tonight against the Pacers. Pacers at a home waiting
for the Rockets. The Astros obviously have the off day today.
I imagine you've heard over the first six hours or

(10:11):
excuse me, eight hours of our broadcast day here on
Sports Talk seven ninety, so they're getting a little bit
closer to starting to figure every other item out beyond
there was no decision to make on the five man rotation.
There really was a Musta's decision to make at left field.
I think that's made, but there are quite a few others.

(10:32):
They don't have an answer foul two day's open position.
They don't have an answer for anything in the bullpen
beyond the last two pitchers to pitch in a perfect
day's work, the eighth and the ninth with a brave
and hater. Good starts to spring for Forrest Whitley, and
considering he has no options left, the odds of him
making the team on opening day are exceptionally high. Hopefully

(10:55):
they will get Caleb Ort back on the mound pretty soon.
We didn't even get into Lance mccullor's word over the weekend.
He was pitching against hitters, which again doesn't sound like
much to maybe everybody else at spring training, but a
big deal for him to be getting it up there
at almost ninety five miles an hour, to be throwing
all of his pitches, to throw a live VP, and
to me, it's also important that this is the timeline

(11:16):
he expected to be on once the calendar turn, once
they got to spring training, once they get kind of
figured out how they wanted to play things out. So
maybe there is a healthy major league ready Lance mccullors.
In May or even earlier, you get your thirty day
minor league rehab stint, you hopefully get a start or
two at least an appearance, I guess I should say,

(11:38):
or two or three or ten. Here a spring training continues,
and then you go out and you make your regular starts.
Consider a six man rotation if he's healthy, see how
the other five in the rotation are doing. And obviously
a host of other things on the astros front. NFL news,
as will always be the case, as we draw twenty
four hours closer to the new league year starting, which
is a week from tomorrow, less than a week away

(12:01):
from the timeline of the legal tampering period, and we
just pushed past in the last couple of minutes the
franchise tag deadline. There's news on every single one of
those fronts, and certainly as it relates to the AFC
more specifically, you're Houston Texans and positions of need so
jump in on that conversation when we come back. What

(12:23):
happened today around the NFL?

Speaker 2 (12:24):
What made news?

Speaker 3 (12:25):
That means something to your Houston Texans. We'll hit on
that next here on the A Team.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (12:36):
We now returned to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 4 (12:39):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Well, I know you'll be surprised to hear this, but
Stugi is listening to the program and he weighed in
on the Rockets conversation. From the first segment. Wex said, sheesh,
how do the Rockets get that brutal back to back
gamest time? Seems unfair to be honest and honestly, I
need the Rockets to make the playoffs and win the
NBA Championship. I want my shot to come to Fruition

(13:08):
this year. He is a diehard Spurs fan who's not
a huge fan of Victor Woman Yama or necessarily the
darn Fox deal, but he's He's like a lot of
people I talk to that are die hard NBA fans,
where no matter who you're talking about who you're a
fan of what's happening in the league. Everybody I think

(13:28):
agrees on the schedule just sometimes being ridiculous. And this
is the thing you were talking about with the February
and the back to backs, and the amount of them
in such a short span is where we really I
think people actually have a legit act to grind, as
opposed to just saying, oh, hey, beck to becks like
me most of the time.

Speaker 3 (13:49):
Oh, let me know when they get rid of them.
I mean, they're not going anywhere. They've already tried to
lessen the load, which has succeeded, gotten rid of four
games and five nights. For the most part. The rockets
don't happen. Not every team has zero of them. They
have played fourteen full back to backs. Tonight they'll complete
their fifteenth. They have seventeen. So we can revisit this
conversation four more times during the or maybe maybe five

(14:12):
more times the lead up to the first game than
in between the first and second game. Then we can
revisit it on the show after the second game, and
we do that at least two more times, and we
got four segments an hour, so four hours, so sixteen
well probably maybe twenty five or thirty more times before
the end of March. We can revisit this, but I
doubt the NBA will change it between now and then.

Speaker 2 (14:31):
But I'm not sure. Hard at work, Adam Silver and
the crew. Well, you can't fix the problem if you
ignore it. That's my fault.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
If they were ignoring it, they'd have even more back
to backs. They clearly aren't.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
They're not paying enough attention to it though what.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
They are paying attention to Unfortunately in Rockets Land. We'll
get there because we're on it, and we'll get back
to the Texans in a minute. What happened last night
with the Dallas Mavericks is impactful to Houston. Dallas Mavericks
are going to be without Kyrie Irving for the remainder
of the season and quite possibly part of season. He
has an option on his contract, a player option. I

(15:04):
doubt this will be much of a decision from the
Mavericks side, and I think they'll make it worth his
while from his side, and I think they'll probably be
in agreement this offseason. Albeit it's kind of tough while
the player's hurt, but it's something they'll have to consider.
I guess it is possible he'll take the team option
and there won't be any other options for him, and
he'll be under contract for one more year at forty

(15:25):
three million after they made that big trade. After he
and Anthony Davis have amassed zero healthy games together so
far as Mavericks, and now whenever that first healthy game
they play together will be I don't know, but probably
not in twenty twenty four, maybe or not in twenty
twenty five, maybe during the second part of the twenty

(15:47):
five twenty six season. But it means something of the
Rockets because the MAVs are tenth fading, the Suns are eleventh,
three and a half games back of the Mavericks.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
What's worse than fading, because that's what they're doing well.
They're playing their players and losing crazy. Mavericks are losing
players left and right.

Speaker 3 (16:06):
If you just look at their timeline basically since I
mean Christmas, I guess to include all the injuries, running
through the trade, running through the additional injuries that have happened,
They've only lost four bigs, three of them centers Anthony
Davis injured, Derrek Lively injured, Daniel Gafford injured, all of
them lengthy injuries.

Speaker 2 (16:24):
PJ.

Speaker 3 (16:25):
Washington has been in and out of the lineup with injuries.
Jaydon Hardy went down last night. Though he's not a
good player, he's just playing because they're running out of players.
And how Kyrie Irving's done for the season, and they
traded Luka Doncic away and the only player I mentioned
they got back in that deal that matters, that's hurt
was obviously Anthony Davis. But the point is Phoenix definitely
not making the playoffs unless a team ahead of them

(16:49):
falls apart. The Mavericks have fallen apart. It's over for them.
They're going to win a very small number of games
the rest of the season, very small number of games.
I think they'll play hard. I think they'll give it
everything they have. It won't embrace the so called tanking
until way later in the season. And I know Phoenix
has what looks like an impossible schedule, one of the

(17:09):
most difficult in the NBA, and they're losing on an
extremely regular basis. But they could very easily make up
that gap. And then all of a sudden, you're playing
one game as the ten seed to make it into
the next game to be the eighth seed. Can Kevin
Durant and Devin Booker and whatever else they put out there,
can they not beat the ninth best team? Maybe not,

(17:32):
because those teams are to me clearly better than them.
But I don't I don't think anybody even wants to
see them have a chance. Just miss the playoffs, entirely
missed the play in tournament, continue going downward.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Portland won again last night. Portland's a half game back
of them in the standing. What is going on with
Portland by the way they play their butts off? Yeah, no,
I know, but their coaching staff and their players. Chauncey
Billips doesn't surprise because he's hard.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
Jeremy Grant, you would think is one of the reasons
why I know people put these out there.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
I don't because I'm nice.

Speaker 3 (18:03):
One of the five worst players in the NBA this year,
all things considered, contract, veteran status, you know, games played before,
and what he's been. He's having the worst season of
any veteran player basically in the entire league. And they're
winning because other players are playing well and he's not
a part of things much anymore.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
It's been incredible.

Speaker 3 (18:20):
But between Simon's and Shadon Sharp a little bit with
a Scoot, even Denny av Dia has been good. They've
they've played well and so they're pushing. I would be
awesome if they if they were the team that took
that spot because the Rockets have obviously Phoenix's future, so
don't give him any chance to make the playoffs. They
still think it's a small chance, but it just got

(18:40):
bigger with the injury to Kyrie Irving.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Definitely something to pay attention to. No, it's it's unfortunate,
especially if you're the I mean much maligned. To call
the general manager of the Dallas Mavericks much maligned is
probably doing it a disservice. But I mean he's got
to be thinking, are you kidding me right now? Because
it's not what he envisioned. Even at full strength, he

(19:06):
was going to be taking all sorts of flack.

Speaker 5 (19:09):
But to have.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
Two thirds of his big three. If you want to
call Klay Thompson that, I don't really I wouldn't. I
wouldn't either. I'm just he's a name at this point
he can still shoot, that's right. He's not the defender
he ever once was, he never will be again.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
Honestly, like he to me, he was barely part of
the Warriors Big three.

Speaker 2 (19:27):
That's why they let him walk.

Speaker 3 (19:29):
No, I mean at the end of course, I mean
he wanted a billion dollars. They don't have any money
to pay anybody's letting him walk now made.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Sense before his injury, I would disagree simply because he
was what allowed you to mask the absolute allbatross on
the defensive end, that was Steph Curry. He was a
great defender before his leg injuries, but once that happened,
that that went away. And he's just basically a guy
that can If you can shoot, Matt Bullard once told

(19:55):
me this, if you can shoot, you'll always be in
the league. But that's basically all he can do now.
I don't he's not creating off the dribble like he
used to. He's not defending. He's certainly not defending like
he used to.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Right, not just a guy he isn't just the guy
that can shoot the three extremely well.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
That's still shooting Crockets. You would love to have him exactly,
but he wouldn't play defense very well here.

Speaker 3 (20:19):
He would be a humongous asset for the Rockets if
he were on their team.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Right now, like, okay, right now, twenty twenty five, since
you use those exact words right now, Dylan Brooks or
Klay Thompson.

Speaker 3 (20:33):
That's a pretty good question, you know what I mean,
Like I think help the team become who they are
and have an identity. But I do think there's some
things that Klay Thompson would make it easier for you
to win games.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Like he's one of the few guys in the league
that probably without even looking, is shooting a higher percentage
than Dylan Brooks, who's having a phenomenal year behind the
three point line. For Dylan Brooks, well for the Rockets too,
because they suck is shooting the three.

Speaker 3 (20:59):
Right, Dylan Brooks is enjoying a very very good shoot
thirty nine percent. He's a career thirty five percent shooter,
and that comes from the first three years in his league.
In the league, the four years prior to coming to
Houston he shot better than thirty or prior to coming
to Houston, he didn't shoot thirty five percent even once
in three years.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
That's why that's part of the reason Memphis was willing
to let him walk. But I just love this narrative
that still goes on to this day by the way
that he was one of the main problems in Memphis.
When your superstar is waving guns around and constantly getting
suspended for doing alls, I mean, it's like, come on,
you want to if you want to saddle that onto
Dylan Brooks because you felt like he quote shot you

(21:36):
out of games because it's convenient since you're fine if
he leaves anyways for whatever reason, and you're ignoring the
big elephant in the room that is Ja Morant's. Well,
that didn't happen until he was gone. Yeah, but the
jam Morant issues were percolating before he actually like did
something insanely over the top public.

Speaker 4 (21:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
I think Dylan Brook's on the court for the most part.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
Yeah, but I think Dylan Brooks took far more of
the blame for that divorce than he should have. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:05):
Anyone who thinks that is not paying attention. We've tried
to make that pretty clear. Reports were put out there,
and I think his agent and himself and a lot
of other reputable reporters thought it was ridiculous how that
was framed.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
And I agree.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Dylan's been phenomenal for this team, So I'm not even
attempting to cast him aside for Clay just came up
in conversation. It's something that the Rockets would like to
take advantage of if they can get Phoenix as the
tenth worst team, the eleventh worst team maybe catch a
break that one of the crappy teams in the East
that's a nine or ten seed upsets a team that's

(22:38):
an eight or seven seed, and all of a sudden,
one of those two teams with a little bit better
record is not a playoff team and is a part
of the lottery, which potentially could help the Rockets when
it comes to what position Phoenix will actually be in
when they spin the lottery wheel and yank out a
bunch of ping pong balls and then tell you what
the combinations are that we're assigned to your team.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Because that's how the lottery works.

Speaker 3 (23:01):
It's very fun. Phoenix currently at twenty eight and thirty three.
It Land is twenty eight and thirty three. Portland's twenty
eight and thirty four, and then the Spurs and Bulls
could still be in their ballpark. But more than likely,
what I need and what I was saying is a
couple of those teams that are better than them in
the East would have to fall out of the playoffs

(23:22):
once they get to the play in tournament, because when
you're top ten or seven through ten, you're not out
of the lottery yet you have to qualify for the
playoffs to remain out of the lottery. So until those
final two spots are actually in place and the two
teams that are gonna get clobbered by Cleveland and Boston
in the opening round of the playoffs are known, there's
an outside chance this pick from Portland will give you

(23:43):
better than excuse me, Phoenix, will give you better than
an eight and a half percent chance of landing top four,
maybe as much as twenty percent of landing in the
top four from eleven to nine and the lottery standings,
that's how big a difference. It is an eight and
a half percent chance of landing in the top four
if you have the eleventh worst odds, Well, if you

(24:05):
move up two spots, that eight and a half goes
to twenty your odds of landing the number one pick
more than doubles.

Speaker 2 (24:11):
Again, it's only four and a half percent, but it's something.
It is something, all right, when we come back, we
are going to get to the best of X. It's
something that well, a lot of teams are going through
across Major League Baseball, and it's something that kind of
warms the hearts of Astros fans. Also, we will get

(24:32):
to the Texans offensive line and a trade that makes
me very sad as it pertains to that very subject.
It's all coming up still on the two o'clock hour
here on the eighteen.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety, we now return
to Adam Clinton and Adam wexlerth.

Speaker 4 (24:50):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 4 (24:56):
We should be putting out between five and fifteen posts.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
Ida four hund of people who are arrested that they
said on social media.

Speaker 6 (25:03):
History repeats itself type and you'll succeed.

Speaker 2 (25:08):
Never doubt that you're the one who puts for no one.
You're the best. Nothing's gonna ever top.

Speaker 6 (25:17):
You know you're the best of it, posting every single day.
You know you're the best of x breaking the entire enginet.

Speaker 2 (25:33):
All right, it's happened in Toronto. I don't know if
it happened in Minnesota. They don't really, they haven't really
mattered much. It's definitely already happened once that we know
of in Boston, and it's happening again. And what I'm
talking about, and it's it's honestly, it's happened in a
lot of other places around the majors, just with less

(25:54):
visible of the main cast of characters from the Astros
shooting schoon. You know, the Astros cheating scandal. The only
team in Major League Baseball that cheated in twenty seventeen
and parts of twenty eighteen, and the only team really
that's ever done anything wrong in Major League Baseball. As
some people would have you believe, Orange Team bat It's
happening again. An opposing fan base, particularly one in the

(26:19):
American League, is embracing the villain, the ones that they hated,
the ones that they are on record as hating.

Speaker 5 (26:28):
Like.

Speaker 2 (26:29):
For example, an account known as Boston Strong Underscore thirty
four tweeted out a couple of pictures a couple of
mornings ago of Alex Bregman at spring training. He's wearing
Red Sox gear. He even has a backwards Red Sox
hat on in one of the pictures, and he's got
his arm around a teammate in one picture, another teammate.

(26:51):
He's grinning, obviously very happy to be part of things.

Speaker 3 (26:55):
Yeah, but one of those teammates is even the guy
who's playing his position.

Speaker 2 (27:01):
And the caption that at Boston Strong Underscore thirty four
tweeted was everybody loves Alex Bregman. Well, as you can imagine,
wex it didn't take long for the people to bring
their receipts. As the kids say, We've got some replies,
got some replies, got some quote tweets, even.

Speaker 3 (27:23):
Like, well, I do want to at least before you
get into the fun part, just confirm what you had
initially said. On May thirty first, twenty twenty two, the
actual Blue Jays account says love your teammates the way
George Springer loves Alejandro Kirks, just in the fact that
is consistent this guy's ours. We love him, we love him.
And it was just a year and four months after

(27:44):
they were able to push out there. We've signed three
time All Star, two times Silver Slugger and World Series
MVP George Springer to our six year contract. Welcome to
our Blue Jays family. They love him well.

Speaker 2 (27:56):
I don't recall a lot of blowback in twin when
Carlos Carea landed there, especially in light of the fact
that he was I feel like I remember him flirting
with other teams as well, almost like an Aaron Judge situation.

Speaker 3 (28:10):
Yeah, I'm just making at some of these comments from
the what I mentioned from January of twenty twenty one.
Most of the comments are from Astros fans, you know,
take care of him, Michael Scott crying emojis, and I
did notice one from a friend of ours, friend of
the program, Tony Big, Oklahoma state guy Tony for those

(28:34):
that know him, T five and he commented on that post.
And I'm sure we'll see more as Adam gets to
the Red Sox from this week, he writes, and the
cheating amnesia begins here.

Speaker 2 (28:49):
It's true, though, and the best part is the amnesia
is right out there for anybody to find. This account
that just tweets everybody loves. Alex Bregman also tweeted the
following back in February of twenty twenty. Fact, wasn't even

(29:09):
nine am yet, Alex Bregman and jose Al Tuve just
gave one of the worst all caps apologies I've ever seen.
That was obviously the training facility Spring Training Facility fiasco.
Don't worry, he had more when he tweeted that. Some
other people from Astro's land obviously reacted like quote tweeting

(29:32):
the Alex Bregman jose Al Twove tweet and saying, bleep
off you hypocrite, But he also had other ones like
this one at Boston Strong thirty four at nine o'clock
basically on June third, twenty eighteen. That's going way back
in what would eventually be a Boston championship season as

(29:52):
they cheated. If there's a player I really dislike is
Alex Bregman midget ass. That's what he wrote. This is typical.
But the fact that it's happening in Boston for a
second time, considering they took in Alex Korra and then
he led them to a championship over the Dodgers. I

(30:13):
might add in five games with Mookie Betts. There's a
lot of incestuous moving parts. It just cracks me up
that this is still a thing because of what people
said and wrote and did back when the scandal broke.

Speaker 3 (30:27):
Yeah, the thing is it's amazing that jose Al tuve
is who he is, took on that leadership role. Was
one of the two at the podium outside the Astros
spring training clubhouse to acknowledge some remorse, and many times
since when asked to talk about his own participation of it,

(30:47):
always said, it's not about what I did or didn't do.

Speaker 2 (30:49):
It's about what we all did.

Speaker 3 (30:51):
We're all a part of this, and however you want
to that's how I always answer it, and always has
and through all that, even he probably knew what Bregman, Korea, Springer, JV,
anybody new. That's left the Astros. The clearest path to
we don't care anymore is putting on another team's jersey.

(31:14):
Nobody will care that. Nobody will even pretend to care,
because they've been pretending to care that the Astros did
what they did. Nobody will do it anymore for Korea.
Nobody will do it anymore.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
For Bregman.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Nobody's been doing it anymore for Springer, and on and
on and on. While they will continue to pretend and
create a narrative and push this perception that they're anti
Jose Altuve because he's still here.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
He's the one who's going to continue.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
Alex Bregman's not getting booed anywhere except a rival of
the Red Sox.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
He'll get booed in New York because he plays for
the Red Sox. You think he'll get booed louder now
that he's a member of the Red Sox, or was
it louder before when he.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
Was actually, they actually do hate the Red Sox. They're
not pretending, so they will actually dislike him pretending to
hate the Astros, but they were pretending to care that
he was a part of a cheating scandal. When their
team you're picking out it not a random team. You're
picking out a team that everybody in baseball knows cheated,
the New York Yankees. He now plays for a team

(32:16):
everybody in baseball knows cheated and punished for it. In
both cases, there's also the unsealed letter that's always going
to be fun to talk about because it's still unsealed.
They're making it a thing by not unsealing it. They
will no longer pretend this like he's going to go
to ballparks all across the rest of the country and

(32:36):
here next to nothing. While Altuve will bat lead off
for the Astros, and now he's also this selfless move
he's making to left field additionally, will increase these.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
A second baseman can't.

Speaker 3 (32:52):
He's a second base right now that he's in the outfield,
he will get booed. He'll probably have some fun interactions.
There'll be some clever people out the outfield that yell
things at him. That he'll appreciate. Maybe he'll have a
catch with a fan every once in a while. Now
is an outfield.

Speaker 2 (33:07):
You can't do that. As the second basement, he'll have
more time to chew his nails off. They'll be gone
by longer run April probably.

Speaker 3 (33:13):
I hope that doesn't impact his play, but it is
the surefire away to eliminate the vast majority of the
booze and all of the vitriol. And considering these are
some of the people who are going to vote on
Hall of Fame, it's gone now for another Astro, been
gone for George, been gone for Carlos, Now gone for Alex,
but it will remain for Jose.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
The best quote tweet, by the way, before we wrap
this one up, the Alex Bregman JOSEL two A just
gave one of the worst apologies I've ever seen tweet
from back in February of twenty twenty. Somebody quote tweeted
it and said, well, she's hot now.

Speaker 7 (33:49):
I'm sure a lot changed, all right, Texans and their
offensive line, plus a trade that has to do with
that that makes me want to cry.

Speaker 2 (34:01):
We will discuss when we come back.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Tell you about where we like to enjoy our wings.
Big City Wings.

Speaker 3 (34:12):
Want you to enjoy them there with us. Got thirteen
Houston area locations. No better place to well take advantage
of them. Why Well, they have specials every single day,
Big on specials, Big on Sports, Big on Wings. That's
Big City Wings. It's Tuesday two for Tuesday Wings, bone
in or boneless t Long Island style. Also part of

(34:33):
their drink specials each and every day, lunch specials every
day eleven to three and again hit them up online
at Big Citywings dot com to find the location nearest
to you.

Speaker 2 (34:43):
Yeah, crawfish is back. Plus they got the new shrimp
boil Saint Patrick's Day special with green beer and green waffles.
Big City Wings your basketball headquarters. You guys know about
that here in the month of March. Again, like wex mentioned,
thirteen convenient locations to serve you, it's Houston's w joint,
Big City Wings.

Speaker 5 (35:03):
We now returned to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexlwerth.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
On Sports Talk. It is the A Team.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
It's Sports Talk seven to ninety winding down the two
o'clock hour here on a Tuesday edition of the program.
So the Texans and their offensive line woes. I have
trade envy. Is that is that a thing? If you
have it, it sounds like it is in the NFL.
I don't know when the Bears are going to be

(35:43):
good again. I really don't like. I feel like every
year they do something rather drastic and it doesn't work,
whether it's a coaching higher, drafting a quarterback, or making
a trade. I wish the Texans were trading for Jonah
Jackson from the Los Angeles Rams. And it's not just
because he's a guard who makes good money and has

(36:03):
started sixty one games over five NFL seasons, which included
a Pro Ball a few years back. He's a left
guard predominantly, but the fact that he has familiarity with
some of the personnel that's coming aboard here, coming over
from the Rams. But he makes he makes a crap
ton of money.

Speaker 3 (36:24):
So you do or you don't have trade envy. Now
you're confusing me.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
I have trade envy in that they are probably getting
a more talented player to put at that position, and
I would like the Texans to do that at that
very exact spot. But I'm rather certain they're not going
to be able to able to afford that. You might
be able to argue he was.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
He wasn't as good as the Texans left guard last
year because he only played four games. He signed a
three year deal fifty one million bucks to join the
Rams for last season.

Speaker 2 (36:51):
That's my next question.

Speaker 3 (36:52):
He played four games for them, and in year two
of the contract they said bye.

Speaker 2 (36:57):
Yeah. I'm wondering if that and I'm not really wondering
when I say this is why he's available.

Speaker 3 (37:02):
He's available because he was hurt and he had an
issue they thought would be fine for the season, a
shoulder injury that he suffered early in camp, missed most
of camp, came back, reaggravated it, and that that was
his season. His one year there with the Rams. So
his familiarity with what the Rams do is mostly book learning.
It's mostly practice work, because again he only got in
four games. He's from the Bears, though, and he's with

(37:26):
the Bears for this one year. I kind of said
it all backwards. He was signed by the Rams in
twenty twenty four, so he spent a little bit of
time with what the Rams do. Only spent four years
with the Lions and played really good football there to
earn that contract. It was interesting that the Lions who

(37:48):
drafted him in the third round were not the team
he signed with. They let it get to that point
where he could leave. And clearly, when you signed for
fifty one million over three years, you're a good player.
But look at who did sign it or did trade
for him. It's former coach. That's why he's there. He's
there because he played for multiple seasons in Ben Johnson's offense. Well,

(38:09):
Ben Johnson's with the Bears now. Now he's on the
Bears offensive line. Yes, Nick Kyley has some relationship with
Jonah Jackson. Four games worth, Ben Johnson has multiple seasons
worth of the good version of Jonah Jackson. And at
seventeen and a half million over the next two years,
whatever you could have done financially to figure something out

(38:30):
a little bit better than taking that on, maybe you
could open the door to me saying, yeah, they might
have been able to do something. But offensive linemen usually
become available for the reasons you aren't necessarily the team
that needs them. Everybody the Texans could add, in my opinion,
as much as maybe I'm on the wrong end of it,

(38:50):
the extreme end of it, every player they could add
is an upgrade on the interior in my opinion. You know,
the Bengals let one of their offensive linemen. They're going
to release him. Alex Kappa an awful for two years.
And I even had to consider it before I came
to the I really want to say that he would
be an upgrade. I decided to no, because he's had
back to back years of Man, if the Bengals don't
want him, he must really be bad, and he is.

(39:11):
But I'm waiting for that team name to be bounced around. Well,
the Texans could do that. I Jonathan Alexander, we've had
on a couple of times so all throughout the offseason
and many times during the regular season. Beat writer for
The Chronicle, talked about some of the things he'd heard
over the course of the combine and something specific to
Shack Mason, and that he believes the Texans aren't likely

(39:31):
to immediately move on from him to designate him a
post June first cut as they head into free agency.
Ultimately it might get to that, but doesn't end. He
doesn't anticipate. From what he understands and from people close
to the situation, it isn't what their plan is currently
as they prepare for the new League years tampering period
beginning on the tenth, and the new league year at

(39:53):
large beginning on March twelfth, when you've all got to
be compliant with the cap and you're two days into
negotiating with players and free agency and maybe working out
some other restructures and everything in the days leading up
to it. I don't understand it. I'm every day it
comes up, and every day I'm as loud as I
was the day before having Shack Mason on this team
for the amount of money he makes next year versus
the amount of money you can save in cap space

(40:15):
nine million plus and not having him here as a
post June first cut. I don't think there's somebody who
could explain it to me and how it makes sense
that he would be here for that. I don't think
Nick Cassario could do it. I don't think Nick Kayley
could do it. And I recognize the moment he's not
a Texan. You don't have his replacement. They don't know
for sure with who's on their current roster, who would

(40:37):
play his position. I get that you're opening up an
even bigger hole, a literal hole, in front of CJ. Stroud,
but it was no different except you had a body there,
a big one. I don't know for a fact the
weight of Shack Mason when he arrived here in Houston,
but I'm gonna guess it was less than when he'll
leave here. And I don't think it was helping him

(40:57):
play better football. Sometimes teams ask players to do it,
so I'm not necessarily blaming the player, but I certainly
don't think it enhanced his ability ten plus years into
the league to play at a high level. He did
not play at a high level, and I don't think
this was year one of not playing at a high level.
Both of his years in Houston, in my opinion, weren't good.
This year was just a pretty significant drop off. They
have to add players at that position. They cannot add

(41:21):
only players in the draft. There has to be competition
with players who have played on somebody else's offensive line
in the past and started. That's the competition they need
for Green and Scruggs and Patterson and anybody else that's here.

Speaker 2 (41:36):
On the interior.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
They only have one player that fits that role currently,
a veteran who's played on the interior of an offensive line.
That's Titus Howard, who's probably a veteran on your offensive
line this upcoming season.

Speaker 2 (41:49):
Again, I guess I want the crystal ball to know
what exactly they're going to do overall, because you're right,
you know, offensive line is a positiondition where you can
add guys in the draft and immediately have them contribute
in a positive way too, and not just oh, well
he's out there, he's you know, learning the ropes like
Dwayne Brown his first year, just getting beaten up in Pittsburgh.

(42:11):
But it's you know, you're right, it's not going to
be as simple as just all right, well, we're going
to draft these guys and that's going to be the
offensive line that gets the job done. We'll continue to
discuss actually many many NFL items. There's players available, there's
a lot of ways to get better for the Texans
this offseason. Three o'clock hour Coming up next.

Speaker 4 (42:32):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (42:38):
Two.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham talking your teams.

Speaker 4 (42:45):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
A welcome in to our number two of a Tuesday
edition of the program Sports Talk seven ninety and now
simonill Can on Space City Home Network. It is the
A team. WEX and AC with you as we take
you up into Rockets coverage tonight's second night of a
back to back after they fell in Okay C last night.

(43:13):
I honestly was really impressed with what the players who
were out there on the floor did for Houston, especially
in light of the fact that shake Gilgess Alexander went
absolutely crazy. By the way watching that game last night,
I don't want to say it was the quietest fifty
point performance I've ever seen, but I never felt like

(43:34):
I mean, you talked about the amount of offensive fouls
he commits for lack of a better way of putting it,
the pushoffs if you will, it never to me, it
never felt like he was dominating the way he clearly
was last night. He's just slow, steady, grinded out efficient scoring.

(43:54):
I always am. I feel like he's gonna get his
and then it's the Jalen Williams of the world that
are going to get theirs. Chat Holmgreen is like, well
will he play or will he not? He didn't really
do much for me last night. By way of all this,
I just felt like, Wow, the Rockets really put a
nice showing for it. I hated the fact that they
lost because, like we mentioned in the first hour, basically

(44:14):
just the first handful of minutes in the third quarter
is what determined this game last night.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
I know, breaking news here on the A team definitely
saw it differently. The Rockets probably take a double figure
lead minimum to the second quarter. If shake Gilgess Alexander
just kind of hummed his way to fifty one points.
He ate their lunch in the first quarter, embarrassed them
almost he had a twenty point first quarter. They would
have been smoking the thunder with how well they were

(44:41):
playing offensively in that first quarter. If he was either
missing or they weren't giving him the opportunity to take
a part any defender that attempted to play against them.
They even had an eight point lead in the first
quarter with less than two and a half minutes to go,
and then he and the rest of them started putting
the ball in the basket, and all of a sudden,
they went to the second quarter a one point lead,
only a one point lead after a really awesome, unexpected

(45:06):
twelve minutes of basketball from the group that they had
out there. If you weren't paying attention or you weren't
listening on Sports Talk seven to ninety last night or
watching right here on Space City Home Network, Jock, Jalen Reid,
Cam Jeff, Yeah, that's just started last night. Yeah, for
your Rockets and severely outplayed the Thunder in the opening quarter.

(45:31):
Other than Shay gilgos allahead twenty that's what we scored
twenty in the first on twelve shots. The rest of
his team was fine. They made four baskets.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
That's what I'm saying. He was their offense, but he
was awesome from the jump.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
An he wasn't, they would have been an unbelievably strong
position going into the second quarter and going through, you know,
with the lead for these guys who probably didn't have
much confidence going into the game, I'm sure they had
some and that they had a thirty one point quarter.
They had the lead for almost the entire first quarter.
They got contributions pretty much up and down the starting lineup.
I mean, everybody for the Rockets hit at least two

(46:05):
shots in the first quarter, except for Reed Shepherd, who
was the only player to hit two free throws in
the first quarter.

Speaker 2 (46:10):
They all had at least four points.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
They all were contributing and what you get out of
it is is Reed Shepard hopefully realizing quit playing like
a I don't belong here. At some point he's got
to quit playing like that. And last night he bens
is coming out party. I mean, I don't know if
it was or not, because I've thought a couple of
times before. He said, what am I doing here? I'm
in the game in the NBA. Play like it, play

(46:33):
like it, and he did last night. Was confident with
his drives. He didn't have too much of an aversion of, yeah,
this SHOT's getting blocked, but I'm gonna shoot it anyway
because we'll have a chance to score. He went up
against chet Holmgren once and threw up a layup off
the glass that was easily eaten up, and that Javari
Smith Junior was right there for well, should have been
one put back, shouldn't have been two missed putbacks, but

(46:56):
it was. But that's not Reed's fault. That's that's the
play to make. You're a good rebounding team. They trailed
to play well. He was making good basketball plays. Cam
Whitmore hasn't had very many games where he's been in
the mix. You're starting, here's your rotation, you go out
there and you don't do anything wrong from a forgot
your assignment, made too many mistakes, then you're gonna go
back out there.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
And that's what he was able to do.

Speaker 3 (47:17):
You were able to see two players take advantage of
I'm playing starters minutes tonight unless I tell the coach
with my play, I can't because I am starting, and
you got fifty two points from them.

Speaker 2 (47:28):
They outscored Shay by one. When you say, well, yeah,
he was, I felt like you're saying, well, yeah, you'd
have a chance against the Bulls back in the day
if Michael Jordan didn't play like I know what you're saying.
He doesn't average fifty one.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
Now, if you hold him just to his thirty three
point a game average, that's eighteen points every time.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
Yeah, thirty three game, And every time I look up
at the box score on a night where the Thunder
have played, he's absolutely he's put up thirty six minimum.
A lot of times he's put up close to forty,
if not forty. I just was on a night like
last night, I really didn't give them much chance of
doing anything. But once I saw that they were gonna
be actually competitive, I was like, well, let him get

(48:10):
his It's when Jalen Williams and company got going that
they really started to pull away. Like you said in
the third quarter, it was because I felt like it
was by the way, Jalen looks like a like a
discount Donnelle Marshall. You ever notice the uncanny resemblance discount
who actually Donielle Marshall would be the discount version of this.

(48:30):
They just look similar.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
Yeah, I can appreciate Chet's ability to impact a game
because of his hype, because of his rent protection. He
didn't play particularly well last night, and still in thirty minutes,
there's eleven points, there's eleven rebounds, there's three block shots,
there's a couple of steals. He's impactful towards winning. But
he's not their second best player.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
That's who it is.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
And everybody does know that. Now, nobody really says it.
They said it because he was an All Star. Jalen
Williams was at the All Star Game because he plays
like an All Star. And this is one of the
things you hoped Oklahoma City wasn't doing these past couple
of years. But Williams and Wiggins and Wallace, these aren't
right at the top of the draft picks like chet

(49:13):
Was and Shay. Technically obviously they added via trade, but
these are players outside the top ten, that they were
the ones who scouted best, that they were the ones
who found and for the amount of shooting they get
out of some of those guys wiggings, specifically off the bench,
that's where the Rockets tried it. The zone that they
played for the bulk of the second half. They made

(49:33):
a few mistakes. Let the dribble get into the middle
of the floor. Once you do that, that means every
shooter is going to be wide open, and they kind
of burned them. But I understood why they went that route.
Jalen got his Jalen Williams, the one who's good, got
twenty four points. If that's fifteen, maybe you're in a
little bit different situation. If Wallace doesn't come off the

(49:53):
bench for another fourteen, maybe you're in a different situation.
But I don't have anything wrong with how they played
most nights, that's usually true. Some of the losses we
know they can't have afforded to get the nets losses,
and a couple of other games, maybe five or six,
it was an effort issue. They're pushing into their sixty
second game of the season tonight. Most nights it's not

(50:15):
an effort issue, and it absolutely wasn't last night.

Speaker 2 (50:17):
I'm hoping that we have other than Fred van Vliet,
who is already He's definitely out tonight, in case you
were thinking he might pop back up after that injury,
the latest injury. I'm hoping the rest of the lineup
is back to normal because that give him as good
a chance as any to Yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:35):
It took a while to see the injury report earlier today,
but when it was released, it won't change between now
and tip off. And Jack Lendell is the only one
you're waiting on. He's listed as questionable. I suppose there's
a possibility he is not playing tonight. But Brooks, Shngoon,
Amen Thompson, Tarry Easton, they're all available, no listing at
all on the injury report. They were all on it
last night with vary small injuries. Steven Adams did not

(50:58):
play last night, and he is also available tonight if needed.
All right, I don't know that he will be against
Miles Turner and the rest of what they throw out
there from the front line.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yeah, it's always about matchups. I just feel like every
time he's out there, he is a walking ten rebound machine.

Speaker 3 (51:16):
These are pretty good, they'll miss a bunch of shots,
so they might need him for offensive rebounding.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
All right, answer this question for me. Has a running
back had a better calendar year on and off the
field than Saquon Barkley. Yep.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
News for Saquon was maybe a little bit unexpected, but
certainly fantastic. It comes off of his one year not
even yet as a Philadelphia Eagle, turned in one of
the most spectacular seasons the running backs ever had from
a productivity standpoint, no shortage of highlight reel plays, no
shortage of fifty and sixty yard runs, and then their

(51:53):
postseason was a thing of beauty. As a team, he
was a huge contributor through the early portion of it.
The opponent in the Super Bowl said, you're not beating us,
and then the rest of Barkley's team said, okay, we
will beat you, and they focus in on slowing him
down a little bit in the run game, and they
did a phenomenal job of doing that. And the Eagles
then paraded and have now since rewarded him as he's

(52:15):
the first player ever to be a twenty million dollars
a year running back, one season complete in his multi
year deal that he signed the last offseason, and he
got to redo. He got a little bit of an
extra kick, a little bit of extra money, and probably
there's parts of it that helped the team as well.
As they continue to tell some of their Super Bowl

(52:36):
winning secondary your service is no longer needed here.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
Yeah, we didn't talk about that yesterday. That Darius Slay
is Gonzo.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
And James Bradbury follows. They'll be post June first cuts.
We explained this earlier. That's one of the other Like
if you think the salary cap is a ridiculous thing
to explain, which we won't, you can designate a player
as Yeah, he's gonna be cut. We're planning on making
him a June first cut.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Today's mark.

Speaker 3 (53:00):
We're in the first month of March, and like Aaron
Rodgers of the Jets, who will be a post during
first cut designated player, teams can negotiate with him. He
can come to an agreement with a team even though
he's technically not off of the team.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
He's currently on going back to Saquon though twenty five
over twenty five hundred yards. He broke the single season
record previously had held by Terrell Davis, which is saying
something because that was nineteen ninety.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
Eight, Yeah, when they didn't have seventeen games.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
And before that, nineteen ninety seven, you know, the guy
who dragged John Elway to finally winning the Super Bowls.
He was there, I guess, taking snaps. Yeah, but I
just this guy what I mean by the best calendar,
like he was on one of the worst teams in
the league, gets rescued, wins the Super Bowl with one

(53:52):
of the most spectacular seasons ever. And listen, this is
a big deal that a running back is getting money,
period in today's NFL.

Speaker 3 (54:01):
I think it was very much miss just misanalyzed and
mishard and misunderstood. It's not that you don't need running
backs and they can't change your fortunes, because you do
and they can. But everyone just didn't understand, Okay, well
I don't want to sign them to a five and
six year deal or maybe even four. Okay, three year deal,

(54:22):
two year deal, and you could turn almost everything around.
And we saw it countless teams this offseason. That team
was one of them. Quite Obviously, the Ravens were another,
the Texans were another, and there'll be more.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
The eighteen.

Speaker 2 (54:38):
On Sports Talk seven ninety I want to talk to
you guys about Two Creeks Crossing Resort. We're talking about
a unique destination that is right up the road from
wherever you hear the sound of my voice. We're talking
about Lake Livingston, and we're talking about being located an
hour and a half from Houston, three hours from Dallas.

(54:59):
It's convenient retreat to enjoy nature and country living in
a resort atmosphere, and it's also affordable because what they're
doing right now is offering you guys twenty percent off
all lodging, whether you're campers or glampers, from now until
May thirty. First. That does exclude holidays. Twenty percent off

(55:20):
all lodging right now at Two Creeks Crossing Resort. They're
calling it their Spring Super Savings. Check them out online
now at Two Creekscrossingresort dot com.

Speaker 5 (55:31):
We now return to Adam Clinton and Adam wexlerth on Sports.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
Eighteam rolls right along on a Tuesday afternoon. Get to
our signature segment at four thirty as we do each
and every weekday afternoon here on Tuesdays, that is, say
what a not long after that, we'll be into Rockets
basketball the second night of their back to back, their
fifteenth back to back of the Sea has them in
Indiana to take on the likewise fifth place in the

(56:04):
conference standing Indiana Pacers. Tip off at six o'clock. Of course,
you can catch that game right here on Sports Talk
seven to ninety and our simulcast home Space City Home Network.
As NFL teams prepare for the upcoming league year and
the onset of free agency, lots of accounting needs to
be done. And if you've got players who are due

(56:26):
X amount of dollars but none of it's guaranteed, and
you can save massive amount of X fictitious dollars on
your salary cap. While those moves are getting made fairly
regularly today, they'll be made again tomorrow and through the
weekend and on into Monday as they open up the
legal tampering period, and then Wednesday when you can put

(56:47):
pen to paper and sign players. DeVante Adams, who was
sought after in trade by the Jets last year because
they had no idea what their football team was like
and thought that would be a good idea.

Speaker 2 (56:59):
He doesn't have any money.

Speaker 3 (57:00):
That's guaranteed moving forward, but his massive thirty plus million
dollar hit on their cap can be helped a great
deal by letting him go.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
They have done that.

Speaker 3 (57:10):
DeVante Adams one of the most accomplished receivers productive receivers
in the NFL during his time in the league, and
he's into his thirties now. He's ten years plus into
his career, only spent a couple of years not catching
passes from Aaron Rodgers, most of it in Green Bay
and then again here in New York with the Vegas
Raiders in between. But he will be available under whatever

(57:33):
contract terms his new team decides. I sent out a
little post on the X platform a little bit earlier.
This is an age old staple of the offseason, probably
more so than at any other position. Veteran wide receivers
are going to become available, not just the ones like
Diggs and Chris Godwin and Amari Cooper who are in

(57:54):
the final year of their contract, but many other players
like Deebo Samuel, like Cooper cup Now, like DeVante Adams
and many more. Well, they'll become available because their team
can't afford to pay them because of how they manage
the cap, or they feel like the productions declined, or
they knew this the day they signed the contract with
these players. Every player I mentioned is essentially available this offseason.

(58:17):
You have to figure out how to get Cooper Cup
to Houston with the fact that he's under contract and
do a lot of money. Also been hurt a lot
the last couple of years. You got guys in free agency,
and now you add Adams to that, and Deebo Samuel
already got moved. Texans were not very interested, as multiple
reports were put out after he was acquired by the Commanders.

(58:40):
Nice player feelers, maybe you could describe the Texans interest.
But for the amount of money that was likely going
to hit their cap for the player that they were
getting in return, very very unlikely they would have been
interested in The reports seemed to indicate that very thing.
So he's now a Commander. He's had some things to
say already. It was very nice with his comments the
organization he's leaving, but also wanted to make sure the

(59:04):
reports about him struggling to be at the right weight
during his time with San Francisco very much like the
Luka Doncic nonsense after that came out after he was moved,
and he quote tweeted a report about weight always being
on the minds of the Niners. All right, whatever, but
he wanted to make sure everybody knew that this will

(59:25):
be one of those best seasons of my life health
wise seasons for Debo. He's really in a good situation
and probably will thrive in it. But specific to what
I mentioned that I posted, I mentioned all those names
and posted who do you want to the credit of
Some of the shrewdest people on the X platform didn't
necessarily take the bait of well, this is the list,

(59:46):
this is it. These are the only veteran wide receivers
the Texans can look at only the biggest, brightest names
that everybody knows. They were smarter than that, and they
went a little bit deeper and suggested a couple of
other players that might make more sense. But our discussion
begins with DeVante app DeVante Adams, the Texan Yeah, Ornee.

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
No, because if you're coming off a season in which
your next best option after Nico Collins at the wide
receiver position tore his acl I'm not saying that DeVante
Adams is going to tear his acl because he's old.
I am saying he's old. You know you had to
say you aren't because you are. He's very productive. He

(01:00:25):
was a slow burn and he kind of, you know,
put up big numbers as the season went on. But
I just you know what he reminds me of. And
I know it's a different position, so I know it's
probably not fair, but this would be like almost feel like,
at least I'm on green all over again. Look at

(01:00:47):
what this guy did. He did in a Packers uniform
for the majority of his career, but he did all
this and now he's here to compliment Nico Collins. He
would I'm not saying he'd be expensive necessary, but he's
not gonna be cheap either.

Speaker 3 (01:01:02):
Yeah, his lack of productivity the last two years off
of three insanely productive years arguably the three best years
of any receiver in this era, again just two years.

Speaker 2 (01:01:14):
Two seasons removed from that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:16):
Every year in a and NFL player's life can be magnified,
your drop off can be massive and quick.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
But his two seasons away from that are with.

Speaker 3 (01:01:27):
Aidan O'Connell and Jimmy Garoppolo and Brian freaking Hoyer and
then Aaron Rodgers throwing him the football. I'm shocked his
production went down.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Floord can't believe it. It's definitely his fault. Old over
the hill. I don't want him. I can't say that. Okay,
I give you a choice right now. Davante Adams or
DeAndre Hopkins.

Speaker 3 (01:01:51):
Night and day, not even the same debate. I wouldn't
let Dan force on us yesterday, Sam Darnold or Aaron Rodgers.
DeAndre Hopkins is unproductive with an elite quarterback and limited
wide receiver talent, and Devanta Adams is playing with Garrett Wilson,
a superstar talent, as his production went down to touch,

(01:02:13):
played with crappy quarterbacks the year before that as his
production went down, and two years ago DeAndre Hopkins was
not the best receiver in the NFL, DeVante Adams was.

Speaker 2 (01:02:24):
Yeah. That's what's crazy is how electric he was at
such an advanced day. Advanced Yeah, I'm.

Speaker 3 (01:02:30):
Saying at thirty years old, his first year with Vegas
with not as bad of a quarterback situation his first
year there. His first year there in Vegas, he was
catching passes from Derek Carr from a fantasy perspective, Kirk
Cousins and Derek Carr are fine. From a yardage perspective
and touchdowns perspective, They're both fine. But if you like winning,

(01:02:52):
you know what, they actually play the game for, not
yokels like us playing fantasy football.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
They stink.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Of course, he had good numbers with Derek car. Derek
Carr is not a terrible production related quarterback if you
eliminate the word wins from production, and that was an
awesome one of the best. He was first team All
Pro with Derek Carr in twenty twenty two. No comparison

(01:03:19):
between so where he is and where DeAndre Hopkins is presently.

Speaker 2 (01:03:23):
So let's move on to the real question at hand.
You have all the you know, factoring in the cap
and everything else that you have to put your best
case scenario with those factors in. Who is opposite Nico Collins,
and it's obviously Tank Dell. We don't know when he's
going to play again, if if ever, in twenty twenty five,
that's what I mean. He's not gonna play in twenty

(01:03:43):
twenty five. I don't think I would.

Speaker 3 (01:03:45):
I would go into the season as a team, as
a management, as personnel guys as Demiko, not expecting him
to play. And if he goes through everything and you've
pug got him on IR and he obviously doesn't count
against the number and you can designate him to or
whatever you want to do, he might have a different
way through that because he would have never been on
the active roster, would never taken off you know, the
active pop list in camp. Maybe there's an opportunity, maybe

(01:04:09):
that far away, you know, twelve months removed. Maybe there's
a chance he returns. But this is a significant multiple
knee injuries, as we've seen quite some time.

Speaker 2 (01:04:19):
If the injury is that bad, though, that's why I
say ever, I just yeah. I mean, I'm not saying
you shouldn't say it, but I do not.

Speaker 3 (01:04:25):
I don't want to say it. Well, I just don't
think that's the case. I think in twenty twenty six,
he's returned to full health but still has to play
through the I haven't played in a year.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Right, Okay, So who's the who is not just who
you'd want, but who's likely to be lining up opposite
Nico Collins.

Speaker 3 (01:04:43):
I honestly don't have any issue with Devonte Adams. He
went to the Jets last year to line up opposite
Nico Collins, because that's Garrett Wilson. Garrett Wilson's their number
one wide receiver. He's one of the best in the league.
He remains their number one now. Adams is pretty close
to a one A and he would definitely be that here.
Where did the tech. I mean, it's hard to say
what they'll be needing help with this year. Offensively, I

(01:05:04):
can tell you what they needed last year and why
Devanta Adams would have been such a great addition.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
They were awful in the red zone.

Speaker 3 (01:05:09):
They were awful throwing the football in the red zone,
the awful converting we're ten yards away, let's not settle
for a field goal. He would help dramatically in that.
I still believe he creates separation, though I have not
presently looked up what those numbers looked like last year.
I know he makes the tough catches. I know he's
a tough defend I know he can make he can
run all the routes. I actually think that would if

(01:05:32):
money works, because obviously there's no you can put the
deal together how you want it, and you just have
to hope he agrees. There's no assets you have to
send out to go get him. You're in competition with
a bunch of other teams, maybe in a better, better
cap situation. But maybe this is like last year with Digs,
even though that required a trade to do it. Maybe

(01:05:53):
this player wants to play in Houston, both with c J.
Stroud and for Demiko Ryant.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
That's a big thing, and it could be another. And
again this might not be what he wants from a
personal standpoint, but a two year deal like you gave
a Daniel Hunter, so that because of the advanced age
in the.

Speaker 3 (01:06:13):
Case if you if you give them more than that,
then you're not not like the Texans. Yeah, you shouldn't
be giving him more years than that.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
No, but he might want more than that because he
is so productive. Maybe that's what his agent and he
are arguing. It's just something to keep an eye on
as we continue into a very interesting offseason. Speaking of which,
the Dallas slash Arlington injury curse continues. I'll explain next.

Speaker 4 (01:06:38):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
First, I want to explain to you who you need
to call if you have been in any sort of
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available to you. They take the time to really get
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headaches to come with it. You're probably dealing with injuries
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Speaker 4 (01:07:44):
Myers crushes it said goodbye.

Speaker 2 (01:07:48):
Hey, Jake Myers catch every Astros game on Sports Talk
seven ninetyfore the iHeartRadio app home of your Astros eight
team rolling along here on a Tuesday edition of the
program Sports Talk seven ninety WEX and AC with you

(01:08:10):
taking you until five o'clock. Rockets Pacers pregame coverage will
get underway at that point. So we already talked earlier
today about the it's an absolute disaster in Dallas for
the Mavericks. You have Anthony Davis going down by the way,
Scham's saying that you might not see him the rest

(01:08:30):
of the year. You don't know for sure, but he's
not necessarily looking for him to be coming back. But
you're definitely not gonna see Kyrie Irving come back after
his season ending injury last night.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
Did Shams enlighten us with the reason or did he
lie to us and say it was injury related.

Speaker 2 (01:08:48):
I'm gonna need you to explain that comment.

Speaker 3 (01:08:50):
We got to get Anthony Davis back so we can
miss the playoffs while he's playing, or he could just
sit out the rest of the season and take his
time coming back for next October's debut.

Speaker 2 (01:09:00):
Yeah, and you know, I don't think it's gonna hurt
to lose some games and get a better draft pick
out of it. I mean, I wish they were.

Speaker 3 (01:09:06):
Like I said earlier, I would love for him to
come back, give the Maps a chance to make sure
Phoenix doesn't land inside the top ten, because that's really
what the Rockets should be concerned with for the pick
that they could actually get from them. And with that
three and a half game lead still, I mean, the
Mavericks only have twenty more games left. They've played sixty
two games. I got twenty remaining. They still need to
lose quite a bit to be outside the playoff picture.

(01:09:28):
But it's pretty clear I think to the Mavericks if
they're in, it doesn't matter. If they're in as the
ten seed, they're gonna lose to Minnesota right in the
first game, and that'll be their season. Okay, you're gonna
tell me they beat Minnesota. Well, then they're gonna beat
the Clippers or the Kings, and then they're gonna actually
qualify for the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:09:48):
Okay, well then they're gonna play Oklahoma City. Yeah, it's not.
You'll be the eighth seed.

Speaker 3 (01:09:53):
They would have to rise above nine or ten for
this really to be much of a factor, and they're
gonna be playing at least significant number of games without
Anthony Davis if they decide to bring him back among
the final twenty games in another injury riddled season for him,
by all means Dallas, if the train's already going down
the mountain and going to crash, why not What difference

(01:10:14):
does it make?

Speaker 2 (01:10:15):
So again, there's some impact to Houston, Yeah, well yes.
And also if you're a Mavericks fan and you're like, well,
that sucked went to the finals last year. Then our
our GM decided to trade away our franchise player for
a guy who got hurt in his first game against US.
Then our point guard goes down and Klay Thompson's not

(01:10:36):
the Warriors Klay Thompson. But at least the Rangers are
gonna save us. Now, the Rangers might be good this year.
I honestly don't know what to make of them, but
I do know this, A Doulas Garcia is probably gonna
miss Opening Day, or at least there's a good chance
he will. And it's not with the injury that you
want to hear about him having, especially when you consider
he's not even the only Rangers outfielder that has suffered

(01:10:59):
this injury in spring training, So Doulas Garcia scratched from
the lineup today, is going to undergo an MRI and
his left oblique. That means that when they open the
season on March twenty seventh against the Red Sox, he
might not be in the lineup. And Wyatt Langford went
down on February twenty first with a strained oblique. So

(01:11:20):
this is Garcia is coming off one of those seasons
where okay, he's got so much pressure on him to
bounce back and be the guy that he was two
years ago and that World Series champion. I think did
they win the World Series championship? I don't remember he's
that guy this year. This isn't the way you want
to get started.

Speaker 3 (01:11:41):
No, they don't have any word on exactly the extent
of it, but certainly an oblique injury for anybody is bad.
It's really bad when you swing like he does, see
gian Carlos Stanton. It's probably something that's very hard to shake.
He's played a lot of baseball to his credit, despite
what some would suggest he does to do so, No,

(01:12:02):
one hundred and forty eight games plus four consecutive years,
really the only four years he's been a major leaguer.
But that's pretty impressive. You know, six hundred and thirty
plus or six hundred and twenty plus played appearances every year.
If nothing else, he's been there, he's been available, and
he's certainly mattered.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
He's coming off of an awful season.

Speaker 3 (01:12:19):
Just like Ac mentioned, it's a little bit of a
who are you really kind of year because a second
consecutive poor season would make his one awesome season really
stand out. Two seasons prior to twenty twenty three, he
was a good player. He was a starting caliber player
and a little bit about a average player. Then he
became a star level player and then last year was awful.

(01:12:41):
Whyat Langford did what they thought one of their prized
rookie was going to do last year, and it was
a good thing he did, because their other prized rookie,
who the Astros found out all about, Evan Carter last year.

Speaker 2 (01:12:54):
Was a zero. Injuries derailed his season.

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
He never got on track while Langford was out there,
you know, probably having a typical rookie season for a
player with a lot of hype.

Speaker 2 (01:13:05):
He wasn't unbelievable.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
I mean, he's pretty darn good for a guy I've
never seen major League pitching before, and I'd actually be
more concerned about him for what I think he can
do this year if I were the Rangers, not to
relate to the the magnitude of the injury. I don't
really know the timetable for either one of them, neither
do the Rangers, but I think Whyatt Langford was trending
more towards being a twenty five one hundred ops plus

(01:13:30):
one twenty player than a Doulas Garcia.

Speaker 2 (01:13:34):
So what do you think like if he if he's
not right? For example, I mean, we know what they
did a few years back on the on the infield,
if you will, spending all that money and ended up
looking like it was going to pay off. You were
convinced they were going to be fantastic from there on.
Now because they had all that young talent coming up,
have you adjusted your expectations? Because if it's not the

(01:13:57):
Astros winning the AO West, I honestly don't know who
has the inside track to be the underwhelming AO West
champion between Seattle and Texas just looking at their rosters
right now.

Speaker 3 (01:14:10):
Yeah, I would say Texas without any hesitation because I'm
just kind of a believer, and you don't get lucky
with your pitching over and over and over again. I
think both cases they had poorer offensive seasons than their
talents suggested they should. The Mariners should not be that
bad offensively, and neither should the Rangers have been this
past year. If Seer and Simeon are healthy, if Josh

(01:14:32):
Young is healthy, that's three really good hitters to start with,
And like you said, that's their infield. That's pretty amazing. Well,
Jake Berger's now added to that. That's twenty five home runs.
That's probably eighty rbids, even if he doesn't have a
great season. If he has a great season, now you're
looking at one of the best offseason ads of anyone.
Pitching staff's clearly a question because of injuries and other reasons,

(01:14:53):
but it can be very good. I just can't imagine
the Mariners needing only six starters for the second.

Speaker 2 (01:14:58):
Year in a row. But they were so good.

Speaker 3 (01:15:00):
Yeah, and they kept pitching every sixth day or every
five days, I should say, I just I don't envision
that happening back to back years with all five of
them basically never being hurt, and they also have some
incredible splits.

Speaker 2 (01:15:13):
I don't know how many people brought it up. We
brought it up here on the show.

Speaker 3 (01:15:16):
One of the reasons why they look so good pitching
wise is because they basically pitch in the best pitchers
park in the Majors. It's also why their offense looks
so bad because other pitchers come to Seattle and look
great because they're pitching in that ballpark. Seattle's pitchers pitching
that ballpark, so they look great. Then take them on
the road, go ahead, and add a run and a

(01:15:38):
half to the opponents because that's about where their starter's
era came from in Seattle and went too when they
weren't pitching in Seattle the other eighty one games. They
were one of the many Major League teams to play
eighty one games on the road and at home. Last year,
the Astros were not. They got one extra day off
so they couldn't play the finale. I wouldn't bet on

(01:15:59):
the Mariners bouncing back offensively and repeating what they did
pitching wise. Plus their bullpen probably took a turn for
the worst.

Speaker 2 (01:16:06):
Okay, but they still have the best rotation in the
al Right? Is that fair to say? Uh? Sure, I
can't ignore that. I know what you're saying about the
offense they did last year too. I know what happened.
Their offense sucked, But you just got done saying you
don't think it'll suck that much again.

Speaker 3 (01:16:23):
I yes, their offense will go up in their pitching, which.

Speaker 2 (01:16:25):
I don't think the pitching will be as good. Yeah,
I got you.

Speaker 3 (01:16:27):
I don't know it is the You don't know who's
gonna finish such I really don't who's gonna finish first.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
Gonna finish first? Definitely think it's the Astros without a
shadow of a doubt. Okay, we shall see. We want
have to wait too much longer. I just I'm still
on that Camp Smith watch. That's my thing. I want
him to get to the big league's asap.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
The A On Sports Talk seven ninety, they say, you
only have one laugh, so we don't waste it being
Dallas fans, your sac to Houston's A team.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
Alright, alright, alright.

Speaker 1 (01:17:05):
Adam Clinton, Adam Wesler on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
It is the A team, Sports Talk seven ninety, real quick.
Last night on the Rockets the postgame, Ema Udoka got
up there, and I was surprised that the first question
wasn't about his lineup, even though you know he talked
about it beforehand, and I think we've kind of gone

(01:17:38):
back and forth about why he did it, the reasons
for it. Here's my thing you talked about Reed Shepherd.
Kim Whitmore had another one of those games where it's like, geez,
this guy. I don't know what to make with him,
make of him, because I have this bad feeling that
the Rockets make some seismic move this offseason. He's going
to be thrown into the deal, and I just don't

(01:17:58):
want them to regret, Like right now.

Speaker 3 (01:18:00):
You don't want Rafel Stone to go Sam Presty, what
do you mean, Well, I mean we didn't have We
had room for Serge and Kevin and Russell mich having
a room for James, so he's the odd man out
and then look what happened.

Speaker 2 (01:18:13):
You don't want rafel to do that to Cam Whitmore.
Cam Whitmore is not getting sixth the man of the
Year minutes Cam Whitmore.

Speaker 3 (01:18:19):
Last night for one game awesome twenty seven and eleven.
You're just gonna add him to a deal or move
on without him.

Speaker 2 (01:18:26):
All Right, I'm glad you said that. With that scenario,
you just mentioned if they traded one of these guys,
which one of them? Are you more likely to be
really seriously regretting in five years? Cam Whitmore reed Shepherd,
see neither why you don't think Cam Whitmore, given the minutes,

(01:18:50):
could keep doing what he's doing.

Speaker 3 (01:18:52):
I definitely think he can. But to get something, you
do have to give something up, and I'm totally on
board with that. They have an ugh talent that they
can unforld. I mean, I don't want to see him
play elsewhere, don't want to see him go twenty and
ten somewhere else. I doubt he would, but I think
he's probably the most talented offensive player on the roster.

(01:19:14):
He's the I think he has the best offensive game
and it's in its infancy. It's only it's not gonna
get worse, it's only gonna get better. But there's more
to basketball than what he currently does. And that's why
he's not on the rotation. It's why he's two years
in and most nights wondering are we gonna blow him

(01:19:35):
out tonight? So Emay will ask me to take my
warm up off. You can't get a player that's gonna
put you over the top. Or a player that's going
to keep you in the top three in the West,
or firmly put you as a fifty four to fifty
five win team with a real chance to win and
keep everybody. It's just not possible anymore. They have so
much talent they can't utilize them to their best. At

(01:19:56):
the beginning of there, I was like, come on, man,
Cam Witmore's got to be able to make a few
enough mistakes and have a few you know, he's got
to be in the rotation. There's no way he cannot
be in your rotation. And the season continues and they
keep winning games and he's still not a huge part
of it. There's a small portion of the season where
he was in it, and I thought, okay, here we go,
and we're right back to where we started. You know,

(01:20:18):
depending on what the other team is giving up and
where their holes are created, and what kind of talent
they already have. You know, Cam's a fit, or is
Jalen a fit or is Jabari a fit? Or are
they in search of a specific player because they're a
fit that could help dictate what you move out. But
just strictly in terms of pure offensive talent, I mean
if he really wanted to. If he got thirty minutes

(01:20:40):
a night with this Rockets team and they just said, hey, man,
just shoot it man. I don't think they have to
tell him. He'd be their best three point shooter. He'd
be their player most likely to go to the rim
and finish. He's I feel bad for him, but not
as bad for Jalen.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
It's a joke.

Speaker 3 (01:20:59):
It absolute as a joke watching those two guys drive
to the basket. Cam's too big, so they won't call
fouls for him, and Jalen always falls because he always
gets fouled. He waved twice in today's show, unprompted. I've
complained about the officiating, but it is no it's it's
just in these cases. But I mean, Jalen got a
technical last night because he had the technicals. If he cared,

(01:21:22):
I cared to get them because he has reason to
complain nearly every night. But to the task at hand,
if you're looking to help Phoenix out and give them
back a pick or two or three, it's pretty unlikely
that's all they're going to get in return, because these
players are so young, and in Cam's case, because of
where he got drafted, where he got drafted. He doesn't

(01:21:43):
make money now, and he's not gonna make money pretty
much ever until you give him a new contract. These
are the desire they should be in my opinion, they
should be desirable assets, players that another team would want.
I don't want them asking for a nd because I'm
gonna have to say no, and that might mean, well,
then you you can't have the player you're after.

Speaker 2 (01:22:02):
And Men's not going anywhere. He's untouchable. He's the only
player on this roster. I feel it's untouchable right now.

Speaker 3 (01:22:09):
And you know now your Phoenix is phoenix accepting of
the twenty five pick and the twenty seven pick and
some talent, but not a men. Are they okay with
one of those two picks plus a men?

Speaker 2 (01:22:20):
You may rip the band aid off? Just you may
rip it off. I want to ask you right now,
how much is it going to hurt if you trade
out Prenching Goon this offseason?

Speaker 3 (01:22:27):
It all depends on what you get back because there
people can complain about him. That's what the ex platform
is for, That's what rockets rap is for. That's what
our program's for.

Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
Bring it on.

Speaker 3 (01:22:37):
Tell me where you are without him? Tell me what
this team looks like when he's not a part of it,
because clearly you're getting something in return, but you're very
unlikely getting a center in return that can do what
he can do. He might not make six mistakes in
a game, he might not dribble a ball off his foot,
he might not ask for a replay on every single play,
but he's still for as much of his game includes

(01:23:00):
how could you do that?

Speaker 2 (01:23:01):
And there are a lot of how could you miss
free throws? Don't forget the miss free throws? He does
a lot of that.

Speaker 3 (01:23:05):
Yeah, but that's a basketball thing, that's a skill thing
that that is inexcusable. The mistakes I would hope you fix,
but I four years in, I'm wondering missing your free
throws and getting worse at it as you play more
NBA basketball. That's kind of a disaster that you can fix.
He shoots the ball too well, he's his form is
too good. This should not be happening.

Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
This is mental. So he'll get I think he'll fix it.

Speaker 3 (01:23:30):
I think somebody will teach him how to clear his
mind or focus in or serenity now or whatever it takes.
What he's doing at the line doesn't look like he
should be shooting the ball to the left of the rim,
too far, to the right, short, every possible way you
could miss it. He's doing it. But you're I'm okay
trading him too. But you gotta tell me, what what's

(01:23:50):
your team gonna look like? With absolutely no presence in
the middle. Are you turning into a team that has
a shot blocking rebounder who can't be a part of
our offense and less he's rolling to the basket to dunk.

Speaker 2 (01:24:01):
It like Clint Capella was not a bad not.

Speaker 3 (01:24:04):
I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm not saying you can't
win with that. It just changes what you do quite
a bit. They go to him when the games are
on the line, those five minutes left in a close game.
He gets a lot of post ups.

Speaker 2 (01:24:17):
If you're trading Kevin, If you're trading for Kevin Durant,
that takes care of that part, takes care of who
you go to, but it doesn't take care of the
other stuff. You're talking what are you the.

Speaker 3 (01:24:25):
Best at in the NBA this year? Better takes away
from that. And Kevin Durant, though he's not going to
get ten boards a night, No he's not double digit.
He's not going to push people around so other people
can get rebounds either. I wouldn't call him a good
rebounder anymore.

Speaker 2 (01:24:42):
Now you're trading Jabari instead of Alpern, Is that what
you're saying.

Speaker 3 (01:24:44):
I mean, you're losing similar rebounding with what Jabari does.
I wish does at least grab double digits most nights. Yes,
if you kept him again, that's strictly on the number
he helps you rebound as a team, because whoever their
best rebounder is is focused on keeping alpurn from grabbing
a rebound, both offensively and defensively.

Speaker 4 (01:25:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:25:04):
Like, the interesting thing is, as the Suns continue to lose,
I would think that those obviously those draft picks become
more valuable in a deal between Houston and Phoenix, But
you still have to make the salary match.

Speaker 3 (01:25:19):
Yeah, they'll find always find a way. There's always a
Danny Ainge out there that can be kept in the dark.
Say hey, man, we need your stuff for this trade,
and I'll say okay, all right, and then you can
make that happen. So I definitely think Kevin Durant's in
a different uniform next year. I think we can safely
say that couple of saucy rumors from the NFL Combine
that relate to your team and could drive the Texans
path as they head into twenty twenty five.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
We dig it on your Texans and that news.

Speaker 4 (01:25:44):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:25:53):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking your
Teams series, Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A
team A team?

Speaker 3 (01:26:08):
Wex and ac here, Sorry, casual and ac here on
Sports Talk seven ninety talking a little Rockets basketball last segment.
So now I know who I am. You guys know
as well thanks to calling you a casual. I'll get
to that later. I tease Texans, So let's talk Texans, Okay,
I mean I'd far be it for the listeners too,
want to listen to a casual talking Rockets, so we won't.

(01:26:29):
Texans went to the Combine just like everybody else. Sands,
Nick Kyley Dibiko Ryans mentioned that they have most of
the outfit there that they wanted, but Nick Cayley and
a lot of his offensive staff, and that he and
some of them are new, certainly new to Nick. They
wanted them to merely get their involvement at the combine
via zoom, so they were in all the meetings and
on the interviews and in on the knowledge, but just

(01:26:51):
not there in person. Texans held interviews with the host
of players whose names you will hear a lot regarding
the Texans currently sitting at twenty five, but also a
team because of who their general manager is, Nick Cassario,
they will very likely be on the phone with a
lot of teams about moving They haven't moved up in

(01:27:13):
the first round since they traded for the number three
pick to draft Will Anderson Junior, moved out of the
first round last year well in advance of the draft,
ultimately ended up taking Kamari Lassiter with what was then
their first pick in that draft. Moved back a couple
of years prior to that from thirteen to fifteen to

(01:27:33):
watch one of the Super Bowl winning Eagles get drafted
and one of the teams ahead of them in the
AFC Baltimore drafting Kyle Hamilton, and then they took Kenyan Green.
A lot of trade ups elsewhere in the draft, Nick
will be busy. Nick's phone probably rings more than almost
every other GM.

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
In football because they know what he likes to do.
He has picks.

Speaker 3 (01:27:54):
He likes trading his picks. He loves he's Daryl Morey
loves loves trading his picks. He definitely gets locked in
on certain things, and some of those things have happened.
While Demiico Ryans is head coach, we locked in on
hey man, Dimiko's here, why don't we just go ahead
and get things started. We're drafting our quarterback at the future,
and then we're trading up to draft our defensive leader

(01:28:15):
of the future.

Speaker 2 (01:28:16):
And both of their futures is right now.

Speaker 5 (01:28:20):
C J.

Speaker 3 (01:28:20):
Stroud and Will Anderson, and they were able to get started.
They are winning. They are one of the four best
teams in the AFC. Had a long conversation with somebody
who's simple yesterday, who simple question was, are the Texans
gonna next five years? The Texan's gonna reach the Super Bowl?
Are they gonna be in the AFC Championship Game? And
in answering yes, I still had to explain, in order

(01:28:41):
to do that, you probably have to beat two of
these four to reach the Super Bowl, maybe three in
the playoffs, especially if you're not the one seed, which
I doubt they will be. That's three wins you'll need
just to reach the super Bowl. Gotta beat Joe Burrow's team,
Gotta beat Josh Allen's team, Gotta beat Lamar Jackson's team.

Speaker 2 (01:28:59):
Got Pat Mahomes team.

Speaker 3 (01:29:01):
Probably two of those four, maybe three in any giving year,
you're trying to reach the super Bowl out of the AFC.
Not even to mention some of the other really good
quarter it's very in my opinion, it's still dramatically different
in the NFC, just night and day. Jalen Hurts is
really good, Jared Goss pretty good. Rock Party's about to
get paid. I got some nice players over there. I

(01:29:23):
got some nice quarterbacks. It's nothing even remotely close to
what is an absolute gauntlet that CJ might not even
be in the top four of He's on one of
the top four teams, but he might not be in
the top four of those five quarterbacks when you add
Joe Burrow to it. But specific to a rumor that
Matt Berry of NBC Sports writes his stuff for Pro

(01:29:44):
Football Talk, twenty five things very Pete kingish I heard
at the NFL Combine two relating to the Texans. I'll
give you the obvious one that I sure hope everybody
in the NFL is aware of, fans are aware of,
and can easily be corrected because it has to do
with c J.

Speaker 2 (01:30:03):
Stroud.

Speaker 3 (01:30:06):
Like I said, I think it's pretty simple. Ask the
simple question, what happened to CJ Stroud last year? It
requires only a simple answer one line. According to Matt
asked to Houston source, a Houston source, what happened to
c J. Stroud last year? Simple? The offensive line was

(01:30:26):
bad and then he got the yips. If you were
watching him like we were all year, if you'll afford
for me to pretend I'm not a casual when it
comes to the Texans, also, you could see absolutely that
statement being true. Why is that pass missing its target?
Why did he do that on that play? We just
watched him play twenty plus games part all of last year,

(01:30:49):
most of this year, early portion this year, I should say,
and he just wasn't making mistakes like that with the football.

Speaker 2 (01:30:55):
Where's it going? Why is it so off? Why did
he do the whyse?

Speaker 3 (01:30:59):
This is the answer, and it's the same thing we
have noticed and we have said four months during the
season and since then. I think the rest of the league,
the rest of the fans the rest of the people
that care about the NFL are aware of that, and
more times than not, if that really is the reason
put in all the time and effort because you're good.

Speaker 2 (01:31:19):
Like al Jose Altuve throwing to first base a few
years back, he.

Speaker 3 (01:31:23):
Was afraid of what mad afraid of throwing first Now
the rumor that really could impact the Texans in a
much more significant way from a roster standpoint. After Barry
notes what's likely to happen with the guys at the
top of the wide receiver availability landscape, there were only

(01:31:45):
two players tagged franchise tag deadline is passed Tray Smith
offensive line into your offensive line Kansas City and T
Higgins Wide Receiver one A in Cincinnati. That's it the
only two tags used, so T Higgins off The free
agent mark Deebo Sam is no longer a part of
the off season movement chart because he's already been traded
from the Niners to the Commanders Chris Godwin. I think

(01:32:08):
conventional wisdom would say he's probably going back to the Bucks,
but he might be the number one wide receiver on
the free agent market even coming off injury, so maybe
his price helped dictate helps dictate A his decision and
B what else is happening with the market, which brings
us to the Texans related item. He follows that whole
explanation up with saying it's also why Stefan Diggs may

(01:32:31):
not return to the Texans. They like him, they want
him back, But a team source indicates, despite Digs being
over thirty coming off serious injury, there's a real market
for Digs out there, and as a result, the market
could dictate they would not necessarily be able to reach
an agreement that both parties are happy with. I tend
to agree with that sentiment if it's true, if there's

(01:32:54):
a market, I doubt very seriously, he comes back here
and in looking at what else is available, and we've
talked a lot of about the names. Definitely Adamury Cooper
to that list, probably as Keenan Allen to that list.

Speaker 2 (01:33:05):
Yes, I thought, well, I don't know. I thought that
Amari Cooper has still had one year left on his deal.

Speaker 3 (01:33:10):
He heads in a free agency off of his unremarkable
finish with Buffalo dark Horse. If you don't believe that
years have gotten to him, or that he's not quite
the player he was.

Speaker 2 (01:33:21):
It's up to you, I would love for him to
come here and be successful. While Deshaun Watson watches from
Cleveland could be the case.

Speaker 3 (01:33:27):
There's a bunch of other receivers much much further down
the list. DeMarcus Robinson, who played for the Rams last year,
probably knows a little bit about what the Rams former
tight ends coach a new Texans OC might like to do.
Have the name Matt Hollins sent my way by a
couple of people here in the media that I was
talking to about this. He was a Bill last year.

(01:33:49):
He's been on This would be his sixth team. It
would also be his fifth team in five years, and
he's never really pushed into a clear number two, which
is what the Texans are quite obviously looking for.

Speaker 2 (01:34:01):
They don't have a number two.

Speaker 3 (01:34:02):
I would hope anybody don't have a number three right now.
If you don't have a number two, you don't have
a number three. Definitely the case, but I think that
that is what I think. It's one reason why Stefan
Diggs isn't already a Texan because I think his representation
believes exactly what the sources were indicating to Barry.

Speaker 2 (01:34:19):
He give more money.

Speaker 3 (01:34:20):
There's a market for me, I'm going to make the
Texans get to that market if I return here, and
if they're not interested, just play elsewhere.

Speaker 5 (01:34:27):
See.

Speaker 2 (01:34:28):
And this is going to be what's tricky for Nick
Cassario because you have to approach your draft from this standpoint.
You have to approach other options out there. You don't
want to try and guess the market or lack thereof
and then get burned because of that one way or
the other.

Speaker 5 (01:34:48):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:34:48):
And I think I tend to think he's right just
because of the factors that are listed there, even though
he is thirty plus, even though he had the injury
that he did. There is a team out there because,
like you said, with Alex Bregman, all it takes is
one team. It was to overpay.

Speaker 3 (01:35:06):
But why for as much as we had consternation about
oh Scott boris Man butchering this offseason for Bregman, totally wrong,
brilliant market. Five teams in on Alex Bregman the day
he signed, all with legitimate offers he could have said
yes to any one of them. Could have said yes
to the Cubs at thirty million. He said yes to

(01:35:27):
the Astros for six years. See, he wasn't coming off
any sort of injury.

Speaker 2 (01:35:31):
His problem was problem was declining numbers that were consistent
across the board. This is different. This is in the
most physical league in well, at least North America physical
sport in North America. You have a guy who's on
the wrong side of thirty at a position that demands explosiveness,

(01:35:54):
demands all the things that he could still probably do,
but there's still a question mark about that those very
things because of the type of injury it is. Alex
Frigman didn't have any of that. He just had numbers
that were kind of trailing.

Speaker 3 (01:36:07):
Yeah, the last four years's numbers have been pretty comparable,
a significant step back from the Alex Bregman's and the
MVP conversation numbers that preceded.

Speaker 2 (01:36:15):
Do you know that happened like one year maybe two.

Speaker 3 (01:36:18):
Yeah, but he was producing very similarly throughout that run.
Then COVID then the last four years clear separation.

Speaker 2 (01:36:26):
Also squad injury in the middle of that.

Speaker 3 (01:36:29):
That didn't impact his production. I mean, it doesn't impact
his ops plus or his ops. He just missed some time.
He's the same kind of hitter just when he's out there.
What really separates it, which you know you can talk
about if you want, and when we talk about the
Sein stealing scandal all the time, total coincidence that the
years where he was MVP caliber offensive player coincided with
twenty nineteen in previous I know.

Speaker 2 (01:36:50):
That the numbers as they pertain to certain guys, Marlin Gonzalez,
it's like glaring, just like it is with Mookie Betts
the year he was in Boston before he came over
to the Dodgers. Did they jump off Adulas Garcia? There's
one season there where it just jumps out at you.
I just as disciplined as Alex Bregman is with the

(01:37:12):
strike zone and all that kind of stuff, and as
ridiculous and convoluted as that quote system was. Man, it's
so hard to hit a baseball. I don't know how
that could have helped that many people, even if you
know it's coming. I mean, things you have to do
in such a quick, snap second amount of time to
make that successful. I don't know. So who's signing with

(01:37:32):
the Texans at wider She really? Sure?

Speaker 3 (01:37:34):
Hm?

Speaker 2 (01:37:35):
That's the million dollar question going into this latest fascinating
offseason for your Houston Texans. We've got our signature segment
right around the corner at the bottom of the hour.
Plenty more come up.

Speaker 4 (01:37:47):
Next the age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:37:54):
Back to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler.

Speaker 5 (01:37:57):
The ag.

Speaker 2 (01:38:02):
Hey wex Hey. What you're familiar with the work of
one Mike Leslie.

Speaker 3 (01:38:07):
Correct, he does some middle of Texas type work, right
he works at w WFAA.

Speaker 2 (01:38:16):
Yes, I'm familiar with his work. Did you see Dallas
area TV station for those times? Yes, that's that actually
is pertinent here did you see what he tweeted? I'm sorry,
posted at about ten after one pm today? What did
this to first named gentleman post? Well, I'm gonna skip
down past all the dates, but it's basically the month
of February through yesterday. Oh, MAVs timeline. I can't think

(01:38:41):
this is the last paragraph of a very long tweet.
I can't think of a timeline worse for a single
team in a very long time. Absolute insanity from the
word go until now. And it starts on February first,
my birthday. Where for my birthday, the MAVs gave me
the gift of making the Lakers supposedly a contender now

(01:39:03):
by giving them Luka Doncic for Anthony Davis's carcass I
mean it's February first, don Ches Strade, February second, the
Harrison press conference. February fourth, Luca introduced. February fourth, MAVs
trade Quentin Grimes.

Speaker 3 (01:39:20):
This, I mean, it just goes first and on on,
even my newly retitled for the eighty billionth time text.

Speaker 2 (01:39:26):
Thread with my bros. Oh, give me some of the
name food.

Speaker 3 (01:39:30):
And horns, because they're back on the long Horn trail.
It's got a you know, there's plenty. It's all MAVs
all the time, basically here. That is so fun, fun
that they brought it up a couple of days ago,
like he says, Mike says, February fourth, MAVs trade Quentin
Grimes to seventy six ers. Stop, Oh my god, he
had he had a forty four point game. What a
stupid move by the math thing.

Speaker 2 (01:39:51):
I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:39:52):
He had one really awesome game. And I love Quentin
Grimes and a lot of teams have.

Speaker 2 (01:39:56):
February eighth.

Speaker 3 (01:39:56):
February eighth, Anthony Davis debuts, dominates, then gets hert doesn't
even say verse rockets, but it is true. Dirk attends
Lucas fiasco Luca's Lakers debut. I saw the word fire
Nico in there. I turned it into fiasco, the ejection
of fans with fire Nico the game. Three days later,
in another part of Dallas on campus at SMU, the

(01:40:20):
students section had a Nico. Here are a couple of
things we haven't mentioned. One of their assistant coaches who's
been away from the team since February fifteenth because he
was arrested for aggravator assault a weapon involved.

Speaker 2 (01:40:34):
Former point guard Darryl Armstrong.

Speaker 3 (01:40:37):
We did not mention this from earlier this week, although
it is all over this text thread. Like I was
talking about March third, Mavericks raise season ticket prices eight percent.

Speaker 2 (01:40:51):
It was in the rundown yesterday. We just didn't get
to it. Holy terrible read of the room. Mavericks.

Speaker 3 (01:40:57):
So that Mike Leslie's television station and reported that on
the third, and that was met in the text thread
with you accepting the increase. Three question marks to the
season ticket holding Mavericks fan in this thread response debating.

Speaker 2 (01:41:11):
Here's the thing I don't know. I'm honestly blind. Is
a bat going into this, Like a lot of segments,
I don't know that the Rockets raised their ticket prices
after last year. But but if they had, you don't
know anything about what's going on this season. That they've
been a top two team for the large first part

(01:41:32):
of it, that they've been a home court advantage seed
for the majority of it, all that stuff. If the
Rockets had gone from whatever it was, twenty eight wins
to five hundred like they did last year, and they
raised their ticket prices let's just say four percent, would
you really have that big of a problem with.

Speaker 3 (01:41:50):
It's just the way it is. They went from twenty
two to forty one. It was one of the biggest
increases in franchise history, biggest in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:41:55):
Go to the finals, didn't play trade the number one
got you there. That's when you make those announcements.

Speaker 4 (01:42:02):
Then raise it.

Speaker 2 (01:42:04):
By eight and a half. It was actually eight and
a half percent. It wasn't eight.

Speaker 3 (01:42:06):
Do you want to know one item that mister Leslie
left out on the timeline that I am aware of
because of the season holding ticket fane.

Speaker 2 (01:42:14):
Ticket holding a franchise has folded.

Speaker 3 (01:42:17):
That same time, they also sent out the email to
their season ticket holders, Hey man, you want to opt
in for playoff tickets.

Speaker 2 (01:42:25):
Yeah, play in is what they should say, playoff tickets.
What are they? What seed are they right now? Seven?

Speaker 3 (01:42:31):
They would currently not host a playing game. They're ten.
Oh okay, they would not host the second game either.
They'd play on the road at the seven or eight
whoever lost, and then they would play at Oklahoma City
because if you're nine or ten, the only seed you
can earn is.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
Eight to make the playoffs. Let me tell you something
right now, other than the Lakers, and you know, to
a large or lesser extent, back in the day, the
jazz I can't think of a better organization. Have all
this happened to them.

Speaker 3 (01:42:59):
To been it in a small positive way for Kyrie
little hat tip or big hat tip or brouting those
free throws, shooting those free throws. Listen, I know Kyrie
Irving has done and said some things. I mean, let's
face it, they weren't.

Speaker 2 (01:43:15):
Just done and said some things. Yeah, different things. Yeah, well,
I've been doing and saying things since before then, even
but like I get it, I'm not excusing any of
it behavior speech otherwise, there's some some rotten stuff that's
that's been associated with him. I've never questioned him on

(01:43:37):
the floor. You think about that, all the places he's
been where it supposedly ended badly, He's won. Everywhere he's gone.
He's been awesome. He's been no less than the number
two player on the team and a lot of times
the best player on the team. He's just got some quirks.
But like I've never questioned Kyrie Irving's toughness, his basketball IQ,

(01:44:01):
his winnability.

Speaker 3 (01:44:02):
I guess winnability scale is strong rating. Let me ask
you about these one everywhere he's been, because I believe
within the week's time you've said about Kyrie, he's won
everywhere he's been. He's got one title, he's been on
multiple teams. But you won't say that Luca's accomplished anything.
What's the difference. Kyrie has a title. Obviously, we know

(01:44:25):
he won the title with Kevin Love.

Speaker 2 (01:44:27):
He also hit the game winner.

Speaker 3 (01:44:29):
He's a I don't when you say he's a winner
and he wins, I don't want there's no pushback.

Speaker 2 (01:44:34):
He's unfreaking lebron came back to Cleveland to play with him.

Speaker 3 (01:44:39):
Right, but did they not win? Right after he left Boston,
he did not win in Brooklyn. Again, these are shorter
terms and if he did win in Dallas, well then
you have to say Luca won in Dallas.

Speaker 2 (01:44:53):
They're on the same team. No, I know, I know
what you're saying. He also plays on both ends. Uh,
he's pretty good defensive. That's better by a light years.
But Luca's also doing a little bit. They also didn't
trade him because he didn't play on that end, or
because he was fat or alcoholic or whatever. Yeah, just
from a skill standpoint.

Speaker 3 (01:45:12):
Since I casualed myself out of the basketball conversation earlier,
I'll just double down. You want to give me one
player in the NBA that's a better offensive skilled player
than Kyrie Irving. I'm only asking for that position anywhere
on the court. Kevin Durant. You think Kevin Durant's a
more skilled offensive talent, Yeah, I can accept that.

Speaker 2 (01:45:36):
I mean, he came into Houston and gave them thirty
seven on like fifteen makes and twenty three shots or whatever.
It's the most efficient thing ever and they lost. But
that's what the Sons do.

Speaker 3 (01:45:46):
That's the kind of offensive talent Kyrie is. I think
people don't realize it's skilled.

Speaker 2 (01:45:51):
This funny years ye say that that wasn't the case, though,
I'd want him for his handles alone. He makes guys
look stupid like Root Tenley, Like I know I he
is what Steph Curry wishes he could be on both
ends of the floor. Now, Steph Curry is a better shooter.

Speaker 3 (01:46:07):
But like when I when you're a high volume three
point shooter and you sort of a little bit higher
percentage forty two to forty or thirty nine, it adds up.

Speaker 2 (01:46:15):
Give me, give me the series they played against each other,
and that was the one where the Cavs came back
from three to one, correct fifteen sixteen, when he hit
the game winner over Steph by the way to clinch
the title.

Speaker 3 (01:46:27):
As you would say, what an accomplishment. It wasn't well
for Steph.

Speaker 2 (01:46:31):
How did he do that? Well, that's just who happened
to be attempting to guard him that. I would love
to see the series numbers for those two guys. I'm
sure Steph is otherworldly shooting. I'm sure he had a
ton of three point makes all that stuff, but I
bet you it's closer than you think.

Speaker 3 (01:46:47):
Well, fifteen sixteen, the one year and four they didn't
win the title, he went for twenty five points on
forty four percent Curry Curry forty four percent shooting, forty
percent for three point land.

Speaker 2 (01:46:57):
Five and five, five boards, five assists. That's really good.

Speaker 3 (01:47:00):
Kyrie's championship winning calves who beat them went for twenty
five points a game on forty eight percent shooting and
forty four percent three point shooting with five and three.
That was playoffs for the playoffs. What's the final I
can add that to the to the convo if you'd like.

Speaker 2 (01:47:17):
Yeah, I'd like that very much right now because that's
the series they played each other. Yes, but those those
you gotta get that. That's a playoff run in Steph's prime,
when the Warriors were at the peak of their powers.
That is that's what I'm talking about.

Speaker 3 (01:47:30):
Twenty seven points is Kyrie twenty seven points, forty seven
percent forty from three, and he.

Speaker 2 (01:47:37):
Missed two of his thirty three free throws. So not
what I miss bomb.

Speaker 3 (01:47:41):
Uh, Steph twenty three points per game on forty percent
shooting both from the floor and overall. There's probably no
way you could spin it that point guard versus point guard.
He got considerably outplayed by Kyrie in that series.

Speaker 2 (01:47:55):
I mean, that's what I'm saying. When I say he's
got a horrible series for Curry. But in A eight
series four Curry is also playing with Prime Clay who's
not injured, and Brian Draymond. And was Boget setting illegal
screens or was it someone else at that.

Speaker 3 (01:48:08):
Point Boget was setting sixty minutes worth of illegal screens,
not very much.

Speaker 2 (01:48:12):
Who is their starting center? They really kind of went okay, Barnes,
Iggy and the three Oh that's right, Iggy was okay.
So I mean, this is why I'm always I shake
my head about the Curry. Oh he's one of the
top five players of all time. Get out of here.
He's the best shooter ever. That's it. That's enough. That's
all you need. You don't need to try and make him.

(01:48:33):
Michael Jordan, Wow, come on now, some people try. Yes,
they do, aren't They are there? Those people are out there,
They're out there. Find them for me. I will find
them during the.

Speaker 4 (01:48:44):
Break the a on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:48:50):
And I will find you during the break. If you
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(01:49:15):
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f CU dot com. Today, Nice stream Davis talking about
frog baseball Strike one. Hey you dummies, listen to Astros

(01:49:36):
baseball and Rockets basketball games on any device with the
free iHeartRadio app.

Speaker 1 (01:49:45):
This is Adam and Adam sweekly chunked through mind buckling
moments that make.

Speaker 2 (01:49:50):
You go, hey, what what?

Speaker 5 (01:49:55):
What? What are you talking about? Man?

Speaker 2 (01:50:00):
On a Tuesday? Play what a jillion?

Speaker 4 (01:50:03):
I dare you now?

Speaker 5 (01:50:05):
Say? What?

Speaker 2 (01:50:09):
Push me again? I dare you? DeMar to Dylan could
be a say what if you wanted? Did anybody get
fined for what? Playing basketball? Very very strong?

Speaker 3 (01:50:20):
They were got fined the typical find that is assessed
to a player who draws a thousand dollars?

Speaker 5 (01:50:26):
Wait?

Speaker 3 (01:50:26):
Is it twenty five hundred or five thousand? I believe
it's not five thousand. I actually think it's two thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:50:31):
Oh Okay, for some reason I thought it was five
because they're each twenty five hundred a piece. But I
could be wrong. I'll definitely get that information too. Yeah,
did you go ahead and do that while I searched
for all those people that call Steph Curry the grace
of all time? Oh, imagine that, still looking, haven't found it.
They're all twenty two and below age range. Say that again,
twenty two all.

Speaker 3 (01:50:50):
The people that think Steph Curry's better than Michael That's
what you just said, right, twenty two and below. Like, literally,
there's not a single person. Ayisha Curry doesn't think that.
She probably carry doesn't think that. Del Curry doesn't think that.
Dell Well, who's Dell's X again? What's his mom's name?
She might think it, Come on, what it's her baby boy?
One of them the better one at basketball?

Speaker 2 (01:51:13):
Who does Larsa thinks better? A rapper? Whichever one she's
with at the time. Who's h Scott?

Speaker 3 (01:51:20):
It's five thousand dollars fine for a technical foul if
it's your sixteenth and beyond, two thousand for the first five,
three thousand for the next five four thousand for the
next five gales on these Now, yeah, plus you get
a warning letter at feel like that wasn't always the case.
They're trying to be nice to the guys. They'll find
them for a small amount when they do this. But

(01:51:40):
then when you toss the ball into the stands with
some amount of force and it's the thirty five thousand
dollars fine or twenty five thousand dollars fine.

Speaker 2 (01:51:48):
What about if someone who isn't who you think it
is tosses a cup of water from the stands onto
you as you're laying on the scorers table, and then
you go into the stands and try to beat the
crap out of them, even though it was the guy
next to them.

Speaker 3 (01:52:01):
That one's the more famous water toss involving a player
at the out of bounds line.

Speaker 2 (01:52:09):
Second most famous involved Jason Kidd, who did it on purpose.
Maybe what about Blake Griffin? Wait, which one was he?
He was he the one that threw it at the
guy in the press row.

Speaker 3 (01:52:18):
He was standing in front of their bench near the
scorer's table, and they were looking up at a replay,
and he had a cup of water in his right hand,
and he pretended like he was, Oh, what kind of
call is that? And he intentionally threw the water behind
him on a fan. Remember, like he didn't he was great.

Speaker 2 (01:52:33):
I do remember that. I just saw that video the
other day for some reason. Remember when Blake Griffin used
to dunk on everybody and was awesome and then one
day just woke up and sucked. And then we found
out he fought some guy who was a trainer or
something like that because he stole stuff out of his Duffel.

Speaker 3 (01:52:44):
Bag or the top five in game dunk or history
of this league.

Speaker 2 (01:52:48):
Even what even he did the dunk contest Lebron that's
when they had a car sponsor. Coward wouldn't even do
one in twenty years of playing. Okay, real quick, we've
all been talking about it all week long. The heel
turn heard around the world. Even WEX knew about it.

Speaker 3 (01:53:05):
Cody Yep gettingar of train wreck with the heel turn
on the.

Speaker 2 (01:53:09):
Remized by John Cena's heel turn victimized. Well, yeah, he
was the victim of the heel turn. Okay, he wasn't.
That wasn't the only thing he was a victim of.
You're familiar with Travis Scott's work, right, Yeah, a lot
of it. Local rapper was.

Speaker 3 (01:53:25):
Involved in the Elimination Chamber, He's involved in spring training.

Speaker 2 (01:53:28):
Is they you know, got the name of his him
a local rapper even though he's worldwide.

Speaker 3 (01:53:34):
Has the Cactus Jack Foundation, softball tournament foundation in it
of itself.

Speaker 2 (01:53:38):
Yeah, I'm familiar with his work. Apparently he got carried away.
You know, these things are scripted.

Speaker 3 (01:53:47):
So you're making me sound like you're you're making me
believe you're being literal. Oh, it's very literal wrestling. You're
saying he got carried away? Did he literally get picked
up and taken somewhere?

Speaker 2 (01:53:58):
Why are you the way that you are? That's wrestling? Seriously,
every time you say things like that, you make me
not once. So anyway, according to Dave Meltzer, who's really
really he's like the John Hayman of wrestling writers. You're like, okay,
or maybe would it be Bob Nightingale. I don't know,
he's one of those two. He just you don't know

(01:54:19):
if you should believe him. But this seems like it's
it's pretty cut and dry. This is a quote in
the Wrestling Observer radio show Cody Got hurt I'm pretty
sure it was Travis Scott that did it during the melee,
the scripted melee. Apparently. I've heard he had a busted

(01:54:40):
ear drum and a black eye. Guys get black eyes
all the time. And Cody has actually gone through some
serious injuries. He had a tooth knocked out by Drew
McIntyre at the Royal Rumble last year. He also had
and this was awful to see a torn peck that
he actually wrestled with. But a busted ear that sounds

(01:55:01):
pretty painful. But you gotta bring the Travis Scott portion
into it. Is this saying that it was because Travis
hit him with something. Yeah, so they all so the rock,
John Cena and Travis Scott are all in the rings
surrounding Cody Rose, and the duh and the heel turn

(01:55:21):
happens and they all kind of take turns getting licks
in on him. I actually watched this again the other day,
the video of it. I don't I don't recall seeing
the exact moment where I would say, oh, yeah, he
definitely busted his ear drum right there, But apparently that's
what happened. You think you would know it based on
the reaction well, I mean Cody was so messed up
at the by the end of that segment that I

(01:55:43):
mean I saw definitely as I was a little bit
worse than normOn.

Speaker 3 (01:55:47):
Like you know, he's down with the report from Fight
Full select sure that Travis has been exonerated doing some
wrestling training, Oh yeah, for sure, because it was in
fact in the future.

Speaker 2 (01:56:01):
Wouldn't be the first time a celebrity is called upon
to display his newfound skills or lack thereof.

Speaker 3 (01:56:10):
I know, not big on their uh not big on
weight classes. But what what might be a good matchup
for Travis? I mean no one, I mean he's not
one of the women. Can I say he was the
smallest performer in the ring at the time? Is that
fair to say of the heel turn of the four people?

Speaker 2 (01:56:27):
By far? By far? Like there are people in the
crowd that were outweighing him significantly.

Speaker 3 (01:56:31):
Like Coco Beware has been retired for a while, right,
probably not wrestling him.

Speaker 2 (01:56:36):
No, is there anybody listening right now who knows who
Coco Beware is.

Speaker 3 (01:56:39):
I do, But I'm trying to think of another wrestler
that I clearly know for a fact was not big.

Speaker 2 (01:56:47):
Oh well, there's plenty of those gray mysterio. Okay, probably
he's like four foot eleven. There you go, and there's
others slight of build.

Speaker 3 (01:56:57):
Maybe he'll show up on the shows where I forgot
the title already. Raw no no, they're SmackDown.

Speaker 2 (01:57:05):
Oh no, no, no.

Speaker 3 (01:57:06):
It's a teacher and their students as they hope to
become a part of the circuit. Oh back in the day,
tough enough, Okay, tough enough. I don't know what it's called.
Now it's something else. I think, Well, hopefully you can.
You can bring him to New Heights. Busted ear drum?
Pretty painful after?

Speaker 7 (01:57:25):
Is this?

Speaker 5 (01:57:25):
What?

Speaker 2 (01:57:26):
Like there's like two hundred and fifty million views across
all social channels for this monumental event that'll hill on
its own, Like what is that compared to in like
regular sports?

Speaker 5 (01:57:38):
What?

Speaker 3 (01:57:38):
Okay, isn't it because of what happened? Isn't it supposed
to create more interest because nobody tuned in for a
heel to.

Speaker 2 (01:57:44):
What I'm saying is like the night know it was coming,
like February first, I'm sitting around, I'm like, oh, it's
my birthday. Great, ah, look at God traded? How much
did that generate as far as like views like Shams's
tweet that kind of thing. That's what I'm saying, A lot,
two hundred and fifty million a lot. Probably it's pretty significant.
I mean, we're talking about it days after only because

(01:58:05):
I made you say what yeah, exactly? All right, We've
got our final segment before we turn to Rockets coverage,
so to get you ready for Rockets Versus Pacers at
the top of the hour that is coming up next
here on the.

Speaker 1 (01:58:18):
Eighteen, the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety one show
two Adams Endless Possibilities to the eighteen continues on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:58:45):
Is there anything more Pete Rose than him basically not
being on his deathbed but doing in his final interview
making the statement, yeah, I'll probably go into the Hall
of Fame after I pass away. Friend of the show.

Speaker 3 (01:58:57):
By the way, he did that when September September unfortunately
passed away September of last year.

Speaker 2 (01:59:04):
It's thought to be his last interview, and so he
died on the thirtieth. This interview happened ten days prior.
It's Dayton, Ohio sportscaster John Condit. I don't know if
you're familiar with his work, great never heard of him
for an undisclosed documentary. I've come to the conclusion, I

(01:59:27):
hope I'm wrong that I'll make the Hall of Fame
after I die, which I totally disagree with, because the
Hall of Fame is for two reasons, your fans and
your family. That's what the Hall of Fame is, for
your fans and your family. And it's for your family
if you're here. It's for your fans if you're here,
not if you're ten feet under. You understand what I'm saying.

(01:59:47):
What good is it going to do me or my
fans if they put me in the Hall of Fame
a couple of years after I pass away? What's the point?
What's the point? Maybe they'll make money over it. That's
a really depressed set of paragraphs there that he said.

Speaker 3 (02:00:02):
Yeah, his accomplishments on the fields for we're obviously Hall
of Fame worthy and undeniable. His transgressions also on the
field resulted in him basically not even being under consideration
for the Hall of Fame and repeatedly denied requests when
he applied for reinstatement, repeatedly by this current commissioner who

(02:00:27):
now says, oh, yeah, we'll look at it.

Speaker 2 (02:00:29):
Robert Manfred that's correct. I mean we know him and
seely didn't get along. And who is the one that
prior to that that actually banned him? Pete? Yeah you
were off?

Speaker 3 (02:00:39):
No?

Speaker 2 (02:00:39):
No, no, who was the commissioner? Are your body?

Speaker 5 (02:00:41):
No?

Speaker 2 (02:00:43):
Is that it Vincent? Faye Vincent? Wasn't it? Fay Vincent
was the one that bann him, right, I ran through
all of them. Had to be one of them. You're
the worst. Why can't you just answer it like a
normal I won't say that was normal. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:00:54):
I can't definitively say I remember exactly it was Fave Vincent.

Speaker 2 (02:00:57):
I'm sure it was.

Speaker 5 (02:00:57):
What year was it?

Speaker 2 (02:00:58):
Wex yeah, whatever, I just like we all know that well.
I think several of us know that. Donald Trump said
he was going to pardon him, which I don't really
know what that has to like. He went to prison
for tax evasion in nineteen ninety, but that had nothing
to do with his gambling on baseball, which is what
kept him out of the Hall of Fame. Like there's

(02:01:21):
so many people that are in the Hall of Fame
that are horrible people. This was one that I guess.
As time went on, I was like, really, what are
we doing here?

Speaker 3 (02:01:29):
I mean, are there really that many people in the
Hall of Fame that are horrible people?

Speaker 2 (02:01:32):
Yeah? I'm sure there are. Well that's a little broad
of him. Do you think Babe Ruth was a swell
guy off the field?

Speaker 3 (02:01:41):
Was he doing anything that anybody really like? Did he
drink too much? Did he party too hard?

Speaker 2 (02:01:45):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (02:01:46):
So what, Well, that was a bad person. I mean
he might have done other things, but I don't know
what those are. But what did Pete Rose do that
was so bad? In that he you think he applied
for reinstatement as soon as he could for the Astros
sign stealing scandal. Okay, so I did this and they
did that. I mean, come on, let me back in.

(02:02:07):
But if we're gonna the game issue right, and you're
gonna keep doing this.

Speaker 2 (02:02:11):
Over and over and over again. But I asked you
point blank, probably a few weeks ago, do you think
the scandal's gonna keep jose Al Tuove out of the
Hall of Fame from on the first ballot? I mean,
he's he's gonna be a first ballot Hall of Famer.
You think his career? Says so maybe not quite yet,
but it will. I think it will by the time

(02:02:33):
he's done.

Speaker 3 (02:02:35):
I think it's probably not obvious to enough of voters
that that's an easy excuse if he's not in the
first time he's eligible.

Speaker 2 (02:02:42):
It's a convenient, baked in excuse.

Speaker 3 (02:02:44):
Well, I mean plays second base, who's probably the best
second basement in baseball for five years, at least the
five years where he was piling up two hundred hit season.

Speaker 2 (02:02:52):
So he's better than the guy who played that position
and is a Hall of Famer for the Astros. But
he's not going to go in on the first ballot
because it's not a question. He's already better than Craig
Bigio other than not having three thousand hits, but he
could get that, or at least very close to it.
I think he probably will.

Speaker 3 (02:03:09):
I wonder what that will mean as years go by,
because there are going to be fewer and fewer people
I think that get there. But in Craig's case, since
I mean, I guess that's a and obvious comparison, even
though his whole career was not spent there. He was
not a first ballot Hall of Famer or a second
ballot Hall of Fame, if it's a third ballot Hall
of Famer, if Craig Vigio, if.

Speaker 2 (02:03:29):
Craig Bigio didn't get into the Hall of or didn't
have three thousand hits, do you think he gets into
the Hall of Fame?

Speaker 3 (02:03:35):
I think it's pretty silly that he might not have,
but I would have to acknowledge that that's probably and
I agree with that scenario.

Speaker 2 (02:03:41):
These are the types of people we're talking about, these
idiot oders.

Speaker 3 (02:03:44):
They're not looking at Okay, he reached this, so he
got there. They should be looking at what was he
a good player the last two years of his career.
The answer is clearly no, as he piled up two
hundred and sixty five hits to get sixty over three thousand.

Speaker 2 (02:03:58):
Okay, So going back to the original question, if what
he did was so bad for the integrity of the game,
was it better or worse? I guess that's a bad
way to phrase it. Then what guys like Barry Bonds
and Roger Clemens did, well, it's very because they're clearly
being kept out for the integrity of the game reasons.

Speaker 3 (02:04:20):
Right, And in their case, I think it's actually worse
because they how many guys, are you why are you
keeping all these guys out because they were awesome? You're
not keeping out this player because he wasn't good enough.

Speaker 2 (02:04:32):
But you know he used too.

Speaker 3 (02:04:33):
You know why they who used hundreds of people? We
care about the ones that were really good at it though,
because they're the only ones in the Hall of Fame conversation.
But it's so clearly was not a I can't believe
Barry Bonds cheated when everybody else wasn't doing anything. What
a bad person he was for baseball. That's what it
looks like. You're saying Pete's case, How many other zero

(02:04:54):
other managers were betting on their own team even to win.

Speaker 2 (02:04:57):
Yeah, but it was his team exactly.

Speaker 3 (02:05:00):
That's where he's still it's it's a little bit different.

Speaker 2 (02:05:03):
I just think it's hilarious that people want to tell
me that it's that Sho Heo Tani is completely they
know without a shadow of a doubt. I just can't.
I can't believe it.

Speaker 3 (02:05:16):
You can use the logic to make your argument on
both sides. Your logic is, come on, man, we're gonna
believe this guy, And my logic is, well, why would
he There's too much at stake for him to have
so much enjoyment from gambling and losing that he would
do this is a year's worth of gambling, over and
over and over again, all at the expense of what

(02:05:38):
is his major league career and the country that he
represents and every everything that's attached to him. He's not
just your run of the mill superstar ballplayer. I just
think it makes so little sense, even a tiny bit
of common sense inside show Heyo Tani's batting helmet would say, no, thanks,
not for me. Not a good idea. Somebody would help

(02:05:59):
guide him back on the correct path. You want to gamble, Okay,
I'll do it for you, but we got to keep
you clean. Even that seems ridiculous. Why I did know
J make the montage?

Speaker 2 (02:06:10):
Uh? What montage? Well, the people that had passed in
can't remember which awards show us this weekend.

Speaker 5 (02:06:15):
No, no, no, no no.

Speaker 2 (02:06:18):
Although as a sometime movie star that would have made
never nominated. Did you have to be nominated? I don't
know that.

Speaker 3 (02:06:26):
I don't think every actor who's passed would make it
into a montage unless they were more were well known
for their great work.

Speaker 2 (02:06:32):
I thought you brought it up to me on the show.
There was some show SNL fifty mentioned him a couple times.

Speaker 3 (02:06:38):
Their memoriam was not to the people that have passed,
but to these skits that they can't believe hit the
airwaves over the years for their insane insensitivity.

Speaker 2 (02:06:48):
Like Norm MacDonald making jokes about him killing two people.

Speaker 3 (02:06:51):
That barely even makes the list of where they had
so many. Really they weren't even in poor taste, like
take portaste and multiply it by a billion.

Speaker 2 (02:06:59):
What about when Tim Meadows used the telestrator That was
funny as Oreenthal to say, I did it. I did
it all right. We'll be back at it again tomorrow.
We being the A team to discuss all things Houston sports.
We got Rockets coverage for you right around the corner,
the taken on the Pacers. I've got Launchpad. WEX has

(02:07:21):
the network coverage. Matt Thomas will have the call. It's
next

Speaker 4 (02:07:26):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety

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Short-handed Rockets Lose In OKC, Wex Is A Casual and Threat To Astros In The West

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