Texans Back, Is Texas? What About Rockets On Road?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adham raised.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
My Earl.

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Nolan multed by the magnificent roller coaster ride that.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Is Houston Sports.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Chill late down for the only homegrown afternoon team is
talking your teams? Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the
A team.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's two o'clock here on Thursday. It's the eight team
Sports Talk seven ninety wex Ac Cole Thompson with you
taking you all the way until six o'clock tonight. Hey,
look at that read. Shepherd just hit another three pointer
when we walked in the studio today.

Speaker 4 (00:58):
That was an absolute beat down. I kind of you
hit another one? H know reached.

Speaker 5 (01:06):
Shepherd did not hit another three, but just a few
moments ago, c J Stroud, Jalen Petrie, and Kaymie Fairbarn
were all announced as out for Sunday's game against the
Titans by head coach Demiko Ryans as he met with
the media after today's practice, his first meeting with the
media since Monday. And that's how he opened things up today.
And it was in each of their three cases expected

(01:29):
how insufferable do you think.

Speaker 4 (01:30):
I'm going to be to that one? Dude? On social
media now.

Speaker 5 (01:32):
I still every day you've brought it up. I don't
understand the angst about it because it was just so weird.
It was like, hey, that's a really bad concussion. We
can all tell from the way it looked like. You
really can't tell some of these are worse than others.
You can just by seeing them happen.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
You don't have to add any sort of medical license whatsoever.

Speaker 5 (01:53):
But you also can't tell how the person's going to
react to it.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
No, but like Tua's concussions were, his digits are like
curling up is worse than Titus Howard's, who we didn't
know about to after the game, you know what I mean.

Speaker 5 (02:05):
But it isn't also necessarily directly related to how they
will have symptoms. We know how much we can, like
you said, we can.

Speaker 4 (02:12):
Clearly in the immediacy.

Speaker 5 (02:14):
Yeah, but it also doesn't lead you know, at some point.
I don't know if it was ever or early, or
like I said, never, As Demiko has talked about Joe
Mixon's situation almost comically, this is like the exact opposite,
and there is still no angle of I mean, c J.
Stroud's the future of this franchise. Football football football football.

(02:38):
He's now had two concussions in three seasons, two concussions
in forty NFL games, both of which have had him
sidelined for multiple games. I don't know when he's gonna
come back this time. Some concern for him, some confirm
concern for his personal future probably is appropriate in this situation,
similar to Jalen Patriots. Not his first concussion either. People

(03:00):
have to process things from other positions besides just quarterback.
And that's again just the football side of it. But
those announcements made today again not anything that was surprising.
Keammy Fairbarron hasn't been on the field since he was hurt,
and he wasn't out there again today. He's not going
to be on you know, playing football if he is
not out there at all. And I'm curious, very curious

(03:22):
why he wasn't almost automatically sent to IR with the
designation to return. I know there's some always concern about
running out of those dt R spots because you only
have a limited amount of them. But if he's going
to miss four weeks, and I don't know he's going
to miss four weeks, is just two or three? If
he was going to miss three weeks. I might even
suggest it's a little bit different than what we talk

(03:42):
about with baseball and the Astros running out a team
that's liked on players. They try to have Joe a
spot of managed games with twenty five players at times.
This situation, you have another kicker, you already put him
on the active roster because you knew this was a
multi week injury and he's going to be kicking again
for the Texans. Hopefully he won't be to do anything
from a dramatic standpoint, as there's reason Matthew Wright was

(04:04):
available to every NFL team throughout the first half of
this NFL season because he's not as good a kicker
as the NFL kickers that outfit the thirty two other teams,
and the Texans already played Game one without Jalen Petrie.
It was against an interesting offense, I guess is the
nicest way to talk about the Jacksonville offense. The offense

(04:24):
they're playing this week is probably considered significantly worse. So hopefully,
like I said, I wouldn't be surprised if Miles Bryant
plays one hundred percent of the place this week. He
was at eighty one percent last week. Not sure where
the number would have been if not for m J.
Stewart's injury during the game. But with now MJ. Stewart
out and Jalen Petrie out, requiring an additional body out there,
whether it's a Traymon Smith. They signed Kvon Wallace to

(04:46):
the practice squad today, another safety. They have some options
on what to do. Jalen smith season, if you were unaware,
last week ended as he went back to IR for
the second time.

Speaker 4 (04:56):
That's season ending.

Speaker 5 (04:57):
He also subsequently had season ending surgery in the last
couple of days. Additionally, so his rookie season came to
a close. Couple other players from an injury standpoint, probably
so it's more of the good news variety. Second day
of practice for Titus Howard. I would imagine Friday's designation
tomorrow will list him as a full participant and there
will be no injury designation, so he will be available

(05:18):
to the Texans. I told you all week, and I
won't change that today. Under no circumstances should Titus Howard
not be starting in this game. I don't really want
to discuss how any of the other five linemen played
a week ago. Titus Howard has to start up to
the Texans or where I guess where they would like
to put him. He obviously has been their right tackle
most of the year, but yes, remember Week one when

(05:41):
they had guard problems because of Ed Ingram's injury. They
moved him inside so they could get Cam Robinson into
the lineup and flip Ursery over to right tackle, where
he has never played since, thankfully, so they do have options.
I suppose told you that I thought Jared Patterson played
very well last week. I would think there should be
a way to have him in the starting life when
they get to the field in Tennessee.

Speaker 4 (06:02):
But we'll have to wait and see.

Speaker 5 (06:03):
There's nothing we can see or report on at practice
related to that, so that will come when you get
out there for warm ups before the game against the Titans.
Dalton Schultz did not practice today. I would guess where
the point in the season where he's going to take
every rep he's available for on Sunday and virtually none
the rest of the time. I didn't practice yesterday, but

(06:24):
was out there, didn't practice today. They're going to make
sure he gets through the season, and they have to additionally,
because Harrison Bryant, who played in the game and has
been dealing with knee and shoulder injuries. Also didn't practice
or wasn't at practice today when we were out there.
I imagine it will be another DNP for him. Cade
Stover and Luke Liche those were your practicing tight ends today.

(06:45):
I don't really consider Yakab Johnson a tight end. He's
much more of a fullback, but I suppose he could
perform some of those duties. He would also have to
get activated in his twenty one day practice window is
coming to a close, so that could happen too. Ingram
was out there as well well. Again, I don't know
how they will use him in the game, if at all,
coming up on Sunday, but significant for the second time

(07:09):
in three seasons, a concussion will sideline c. J.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Stroud form multiple games.

Speaker 5 (07:13):
This time, the backup quarterback appears to be get lined
up to get both of those starts, rather than the
third string quarterback a couple of seasons ago, and should
go without saying again the Texans have not signed an
additional quarterback. If there's a need for Davis Mills to
not take a snap on Sunday, those snaps are going
to Graham Mertz, who is running number two for the Texans.

Speaker 3 (07:33):
Yeah, provided that they give him the type of protection
they gave him in the fourth quarter, then I feel
good about this.

Speaker 5 (07:41):
And he is also hitting the weight room so his
stiff arms will work just as successful as they did
in week one.

Speaker 4 (07:46):
Let's get off now, signed Davis Mills. That's pretty incredible
that he was able to do.

Speaker 5 (07:53):
Well spin moves to get away from pressure. Although after
he made the spin move he spun right back into
the defender he spun away from it. Nearly got sacked anyway,
But he as much as the numbers get so focused
on that, you see when you look at a regular
box score, pressures quarterback or quarterback hits and sacks, that's
what's in there. There were probably another seven or eight

(08:16):
where he avoided the hit or the sack. That again,
you know us you're looking at deeper analytic numbers or
hearing them from us or finding them elsewhere. I just
don't realize there was a lot of pressure, more pressure
than it would seem. When you throw forty five passes,
have a handful of scrambles and are only hit with

(08:36):
two sacks, that doesn't mean you dominated the defensive front
for Jacksonville or handled every blitz and stunt that they
threw at you. It just means literally the quarterback was
only sacked two times on his forty nine dropbacks. Doesn't
mean you were overwhelmingly successful, which I would say they weren't.
They were when they needed to be. And one other
reason they were is they ran the ball well. They

(08:59):
ran the ball very well well with both running backs,
especially late in the game.

Speaker 4 (09:02):
Which needs to happen again this week, and it very
well could against the Titans.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
But then provided they win this game and everything goes
according to plan against this terrible football team in Nashville,
by the way, it's on the road, worse than the NFL.

Speaker 4 (09:15):
Yes, when CJ.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Gets back, presumably that Thursday night against Buffalo, the running
game needs to still be good.

Speaker 5 (09:23):
I don't know how presumably How do you know? What
do you mean presumably when do you come back Thursday night?

Speaker 4 (09:30):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (09:31):
Because I think that after this two game, which is
nearly a three week stay away.

Speaker 4 (09:39):
It's just how these things usually go. We'll see.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
I mean, I don't want to like take the complete
opposite side of what I took when this happened. But
for all the times I've seen a severe concussion. It's
very I would say very rare that it's been more
than two games they miss. If that's all it is.

Speaker 5 (09:59):
And again, they're not all created equal, nor is the
schedule it. Concussion protocol is crazy tricky, and then every
individual is different. Two extra days, three extra days. You're
not playing on Thursday, you're playing on Sunday. How about
the Texans are playing on Thursday. I'll make you a deal.
I don't not whatever you offer, I will decline. You
need to make this deal.

Speaker 4 (10:18):
Definitely not going to do it, but I'd love to
hear it.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
All right, Say CJ's on the sideline for this game
because he wasn't last week, and I think that goes
into this. I would feel better about him playing Thursday.
Does that make sense?

Speaker 5 (10:30):
Yes, But because of like a home game last week,
this is a road game strout on a Saturday flight
to Nashville for a game he's not playing in when
he's going through trying to get out of concussion protocol.

Speaker 4 (10:43):
I did not think about that.

Speaker 3 (10:44):
All three of these guys shouldn't be If that's the case, yeah,
they won't be. Yeah, all right, well that sucks. But
if you're gonna have cj miss a second consecutive game.
I would definitely think that it would be favorable as
the competition somehow declines from one week to the next,
because that's certainly the case here. As bad as the
Jags are, they're not the Titans. The Titans are awful.

Speaker 5 (11:06):
Titans are the worst team in the NFL, and the
Texans need to do what they did to them similar
to what they did to them the first time they met.
First win of the season for the Texans of their
four was a twenty six to nothing beatdown of the Titans.
Twenty of those twenty six points did come in the
fourth quarter. Hopefully it won't be like that this time
and it'll be a little bit more of the easy
street variety. NFL Week begins tonight with the Patriots and

(11:27):
the Jets. We'll run through some of the other particulars
going on in the league this weekend. Got a couple
of guests lined up for you this afternoon we come back,
we'll lay those out for you. Got tickets to give
away again to go see the Cougar's final home game.

Speaker 4 (11:39):
Coming up on November twenty second.

Speaker 5 (11:41):
We'll do that at the end of the four o'clock hour,
our usual concert ticket A veil will come your way
at the end of the program, and the final segment
of the show today is Thursday, So our signature segment
we ask the very simple question, and sometimes we even
have answers to it.

Speaker 4 (11:55):
What's up with that? Just getting started here on the eighteen.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
The ad on Sports Talk seven Nike.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
So, because I'm a glutton for punishment, wex You know,
I couldn't help myself.

Speaker 4 (12:15):
I went back into the annals of time.

Speaker 3 (12:19):
Of my Twitter timeline and it wasn't just I know
you were like, ah, the one guy whoy has it
bothered so much? Is actually an a litany of people
that were just I guess me saying he might miss
more than one game with a concussion was just a
huge deal. I really didn't think this was that controversial
if you'd watched like any football ever, I don't think

(12:39):
it is.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
Oh my gosh, these people were really upset, though.

Speaker 3 (12:43):
We're talking like four or five responses upset. And then
one guy said, sorry, but speaking of bad and minor concussions, SOS,
you have basically zero knowledge on the subject. Well, this
is a pretty bad concussion, seeing is how he's gonna
miss more than one game, and some guys have and
they missed just one. I don't know. I just think
that this isn't that big of a surprise. I know,

(13:07):
I asked you if it hadn't been the Titans, do
you think that would factor in? I know that's a
dirty question to even bring up, but you can sut
dirt All answered very clearly. No, not in any possible way.
He is not out of the concussion protocol. It's not
relative to anything else. He's in the concussion protocol.

Speaker 5 (13:23):
And the sad part past these stages of it unless
they're telling us a lie.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
And the sad part about that is that it just
kind of got that way in the last maybe decade
or so in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (13:33):
And that they have one. Yeah, yeah, exactly right. But
I mean back in the day, hey, do you know
your name? Follow this pen? Okay, you're good, go back
out there.

Speaker 5 (13:43):
I mean it, it's even more remarkable. And I hope
this stays this way for as long as possible. I
think every time we talk about how it used to
be versus how it is now and still try to
be relatable to our audience. What quarterback do you think
of with all the concussions that he had undiagnosed or diagnosed,
and he was still out there all the time. Several

(14:03):
he's in the booth every week. It's Troy Aikman. Yeah,
he had some of the worst and I'm wholly in
a late stage. But we're hearing from him every week.
Is an indicator of what we will still hear from
him for as many every week for the rest of
his life, even though it's obvious he was brain wise
beaten soundly as an NFL.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
I remember one I think it was in Washington against
the Redskins at the time, and he got hit so
hard and it was it was essentially an uppercut via helmet,
if that makes sense.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
Yeah, the guy came up underneath him and got him up.
You know that's we see these concussions. Just remember this,
this brain that's inside your skull. A shot to the chin.
You've seen boxing, and a shot to the chin like
you're describing with Akman can create the same results a concussion.
The shot that C. J. Stroud took against the Jets

(14:55):
two years ago. He got hit in the chest and
driven into the ground and head bounced off the turf.
He got hit on the side a couple weeks ago
against the Denver Broncos, but the angle of his body
at the time drove his back and then his head
bouncing off the turf. The concussion that has Jameis Winston
starting this week for the New York Giants that was

(15:16):
suffered by Jackson Dart was a hit from behind and
his head hit the side, the side of his helmet
hit the turf, the temple area, the back of your
head up underneath your chin. A number of different angles
of hits, especially two quarterbacks, but the violence of so
many of these hits can't create a concussion. And how

(15:40):
does that impact the individual player and how severe was it?
And when are you out from under the symptoms? No,
I can't offer any obvious answers because they don't have them,
and nobody has them, and I don't think we'll ever
have them. It's just the nature of this particular type
of brain injury. There's only so much we know at
this point, and it's not very not related to football either.

(16:01):
It's just in general, you can have a concussion doing anything.
Lots of amateur athletes have concussions. People get concussions around
the house, people have concussions and car accidents quite obviously,
how that individual reacts to it as an unknown until
it happens.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Yeah, I just the sad part is, again going back
to the original point, is that the way this is handled,
the way this is treated, all that kind of stuff
is just now getting not to I'm not gonna say
it's in a good place, because I just don't think
there can be a good place when you're talking about football.
I just think there is an inherent risk, especially at

(16:37):
the quarterback position.

Speaker 4 (16:39):
Every single week. You're just trying to do things better.

Speaker 5 (16:41):
That's all I really ever want from anything in life,
definitely in sports, just like officiating, just like performances of
the players themselves, the jobs that the coaches do, the
jobs that the general managers do, and the jobs that
the owners do.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
Just get better at it.

Speaker 5 (16:54):
Figure out a way to be more accomplished in your
analysis of injuries, being more accomplished in your prevention of injuries.
I mean maybe I'm really actually extremely surprised that quarterbacks
aren't forced to wear the Guardian caps. I don't understand
that every week, every time they put a helmet on.

Speaker 4 (17:17):
Period.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
I would have every single player on the roster. Any
day we're wearing helmets doing any kind of contact, I
would have them doing it. They mandated it for portions
of your roster for practice a couple of seasons ago.
This group of players has to wear them at practice.
This group of players has to wear them. It's your
choice if you'd like to wear them for a game.
And I'm surprised they leave it like that, because they

(17:40):
have enough data now about the impact from hits and
how it can prevent the enormous impact from when you
don't have one on. It's a preventative measure forced them
to wear them. I'm shocked, like I said, shocked that
they are not mandated if they do help, And I
I don't know anyone who's looked at any data and

(18:02):
has come to an otherwise conclusion.

Speaker 4 (18:04):
They clearly help, so put them on.

Speaker 3 (18:07):
But how many things in life, sports or otherwise you
look at and it seems like the answer is so obvious,
and yet this mass group of people over here want
to do the exact opposite for whatever reason.

Speaker 4 (18:19):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (18:20):
I just think maybe I don't know how the union is.
Sometimes this now gets into the true the balls and
strikes automated balls and strikes. You want it to be right,
don't you? And some people are answering that question with no.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
That's what I mean.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
That's a very good analogy or parallel to this, because
it seems so easy for most people with a functioning
brain in their head.

Speaker 5 (18:42):
It does it make your helmet a little bit more uncomfortable?
Is it a little bit heavy for your neck? Is
this a concern? You're waiting for them to develop an
even lighter version of it. There are can be all
sorts of answers. I mean, people players are very specific
about their helmet. I want it made a certain way inside.
It needs to fit a certain way. Some one advisory
guys with relation to regulations, obviously, but all these things

(19:04):
do change it. But I from all I can gather
from everything I've read and everything that they've been able
to answer questions about. From the NFL side, there's a
reason why they have forced players to wear them at
practice because the data says they assist you in having
less damage done when you are hit, So wear them
everywhere when you're in the game when the hits are

(19:25):
more violent.

Speaker 3 (19:25):
To begin with, what's the NFL equivalent of a player
saying yeah, but I want that human error element in things.

Speaker 5 (19:33):
That would be the answer from someone who has already
suffered from several Unfortunately, Yeah, that's I don't like I said.

Speaker 4 (19:40):
There must be more to it.

Speaker 5 (19:41):
Maybe I'm being a little bit too naive or elementary
about the whole situation, but it does strike me as
a bit odd. But if you missed it in the
opening segment, when Dimiko Ryans met with the media today
for the first time after they had begun their weekly practices,
which began yesterday, he just came to the podium and said,
these three players are not playing. They can cussion for
jay On Peatrie, concussion for CJ.

Speaker 4 (20:01):
Stroud.

Speaker 5 (20:02):
We'll have each of them missing their second consecutive game.
And Kymie Fairbairn has a right quad injury that will
sideline him for the second consecutive game.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Yeah, so that's that's not great news when it comes
to the fact that he was a huge part of
building that lead against the Titans the first time.

Speaker 5 (20:19):
Yeah, huge part to say that he was on the
field and as they built their six to nothing lead
before the fourth quarter, they wouldn't have had it without him. Well,
I still think the odds are extremely good that the
Texans remain three and five with c. J. Stroud as
their starter and go to two and zero with Davis
Mills as their starter. You just can't beat the season.

(20:40):
You can only hope to contain them provided you play
two crappy teams. I'm sure that will continue all year.
Oh but they don't have nothing but crappy teams the
rest of the year. If they could rearrange the schedule
and get the Raiders and Cardinals to bump up their games,
maybe they'd be in good shape. But that comes later.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Well, especially if the fact if the Jags were doing
them some favors and losing some games of their own,
and even the Colts.

Speaker 5 (21:00):
But that's not the Jaguars will do that when you
rolled out to Toyota Center. That is one thing I
mentioned before we hit the break and get to Best
of X. Something to keep an eye on this weekend
when the Texans get to five and five and get
their second consecutive win with Davis Mills, get ready for
their Thursday night game, which obviously is of great importance

(21:21):
because they're playing the Buffalo Bills. When we get back
on Monday after the Texans victory and they are five
and five. The Texans will be tied for the final
spot record wise in the AFC playoffs. Jacksonville will lose
this weekend at home to the Chargers, they will fall
to five and five, and when the Kansas City Chiefs
lose on the road at Denver Sunday afternoon, they will

(21:44):
also fall to five and five. The Texans will be
five and five and an extremely good position to stay
there the rest of the season if not improve it.

Speaker 4 (21:54):
She's not losing that game. Best of X is next.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (22:05):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 6 (22:06):
Should be putting out?

Speaker 2 (22:07):
Between five and fifteen posts.

Speaker 7 (22:10):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
History repeats itself type Bangul's succeed.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
Never doubt that you're the one who pers for no
one building. You're the best of X. Nothing's gonna ever
top you know you're.

Speaker 4 (22:28):
The best of X. Posting every single day. You know
you're the best of X.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Breaking the entire internet.

Speaker 4 (22:45):
Best of X.

Speaker 3 (22:47):
No, I'm not gonna do what you guys thought I
was gonna do, which is go back and answer everybody
individually about the c J. Stroud concussion. That wouldn't be
fun instead. Apparently we're gonna talk about the Rockies.

Speaker 5 (22:57):
Yeah, in a roundabout kind of way, we are going
to talk about They's why I mean GM meetings are
going on. Maybe they're having a fire sale and some
of the players that helped them produce one of the
worst seasons in MLB history would be of use to
the Astros. Nope, that's not exactly the reason why the
GM meetings are ongoing. They have made a major change
to their front office. Remember they made their hire earlier

(23:20):
this week. He's got tremendous experience in the game of
Major League baseball, very well regarded, very widely respected for
the work that he's done when he's been on the
Major League baseball side, none other than Paul D.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
Podesta.

Speaker 5 (23:36):
Well, do our best to kind of remind you of
those things as we get into this Best of X,
Paul D. Podesta becomes the man in charge of basically
all the personnel decisions in Colorado. He's President of Baseball Ops.
He was introduced today. His career in baseball took him
to Cleveland in the nineties and with the Athletics, second

(23:58):
in command to the Dude that was played by Brad Pitt.
In a very popular movie. Then he worked for the Dodgers,
so you know he knows how to win baseball games.
Went from the Dodgers to the Padres, to the Mets,
and ultimately he is now with the Rockies. I swear
he did something in between his stop with the Mets

(24:20):
and the Rockies. You have any recollection of what that was, Well, yeah,
I was kind of a big deal. And he was
asked about it today at his introductory press conference, Paul
de Podesta talking about the future direction of the Colorado
Rockies while he's there, his excitement about the job, getting
his hands dirty, you know, all the typical questions you

(24:40):
will hear and answers that come from it.

Speaker 7 (24:43):
Also this, in your last position in Cleveland, you received
a lot of blame for the Deshaun Watson trade that
objectively was a failure with that organization.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
Is that fair? And if so, how can you.

Speaker 7 (24:53):
Be assured that you won't do something like that again
here now in Colorado?

Speaker 4 (24:57):
If you were unaware, who's the reporter? And I want
to shake and the.

Speaker 5 (25:02):
Previous employer of Paul D. Podesta was, in fact the
Cleveland Browns.

Speaker 4 (25:06):
Holy forgot about that?

Speaker 5 (25:07):
Got there in twenty sixteen, and was there through the
last all these most recent seasons, including right before is
hire by the Rockies. So back in twenty twenty two
helped to facilitate a trade for Deshaun Watson, where the
Texan said, we'll give you Deshaun Watson and a sixth

(25:29):
round pick in twenty twenty four if you'll agree to
give us your first round pick in this upcoming draft
in a couple of months, plus next year's first round
pick and the year after that's first round pick pick,
plus a third round pick in twenty three, plus fourth
round picks in twenty two and twenty four.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
What do you think? Does that sound alright? Is that
something you might be interesting?

Speaker 5 (25:48):
Let me talk it over with the owner, his wife
and the GM and i'll get back to you. And
when they got back to them, they said, absolutely, we'll
do it. By the way, just so you know the
reason we're saying yes, because we've been able to get
in touch with Deshaun and his agent and we have
agreed to guarantee a five year, two hundred and thirty
million dollars deal to bear a quarterback for a handful

(26:10):
of games and play crappy football. And then probably never
play again. That's probably where they're at now. So that's
why that particular question about how can you guarantee, how
can you tell us that a move like that won't
get made again? Now that you're here in Cleveland. Like
apples to apples, I know it's not it's so fun
to hear.

Speaker 4 (26:28):
Here was his answer.

Speaker 8 (26:29):
The previous question was about big swings. Huh risk, Yeah,
you know, I was also calling plays for the Browns,
you know. And now, look, and I've said this before,
I think whenever you have a significant player decision, whether
it's trade, brief, free agent, signing, number one draft pick,
whatever it is, like those are organizational decisions, right, Those

(26:52):
are done collaboratively like a lot of people on board,
and if you're a senior leader of that organization at
that time, then you own that decision.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
I mean you do. We all do.

Speaker 8 (27:02):
So that's the way I feel about that, and it's
the way I feel about sort of almost all the
decisions we made there in Cleveland.

Speaker 9 (27:09):
I absolutely, you know, own them all.

Speaker 8 (27:11):
And look, I've said this now for probably twenty five
plus years. Like I lost my No hitter a long
time ago, like a long long time ago, I'm not perfect.

Speaker 4 (27:22):
I haven't been perfect.

Speaker 8 (27:23):
I won't be perfect going forward, Like we are definitely
gonna miss again.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
Oh that still a ton of confidence.

Speaker 5 (27:30):
I did leave that in there at the end baseball analogy.
I lost my no hitter a long time ago, and
we're definitely gonna make mistakes again. I mean, that's pretty
self aware. You're a general manager. The Astros, Rockets, and
Texans each have a general manager. Each or one of
them has made countless mistakes. It's the nature of the business.
You don't hit home runs on all of you don't
score touchdowns on all of them. It's not a slam

(27:51):
dunk every time you make a deal. So that's a
little bit self aware. The magnitude of the mist is
is really what is at play for all of these
If the magnitude of not resigning some players and trading
away Kyle Tucker had left this team at seventy to
ninety two, well the Texas or the Astros would be
looking for a new general manager. If the Rockets rebuilds

(28:13):
under rafel Stone, netting them multiple first round picks over
three consecutive drafts, still had them trying to make the
play in game five years after that process had begun,
things would be a whole lot different here. That'd be
a lot of misses, where obviously in Refel's case it's
been heavily weighted on the two point shots and three

(28:34):
point shots going in the basket. I was a little surprised.
Scotty Gang a sports acre in Denver at nine News
is where he works, and he posted the question and
answer a little video along with what he had said
about It has almost no views and has only one comment.
He's got over nine thousand followers. He's a TV personality

(28:55):
in the city. I'm shocked by this. I'm wondering if
comments are turned off or some thing, but I'll give
you the one comment since it's best of becks. The
off field issues made the Watson deal look awful before
it happened, but hard to predict his game with nosedive
like it did. In terms of an on the field only,
it was very similar to the Russell Wilson trade contract
with the Broncos. The Podesta should get a clean slate

(29:19):
here in Colorado.

Speaker 4 (29:21):
We're kind of burying the lead here.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
This is a former football personnel guy that's now taking
over baseball.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
His heavy, heavy, heavy, professional career has been in baseball. Yeah,
followed by eight years with the Browns.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
Which is even better because that means the Browns made
another catastrophic decision by going and getting a baseball guy
to help run their team, and this is what he did.

Speaker 5 (29:47):
It's hard to argue with that. By the way, what
he did is a little much. I can absolutely understand
the framing of the question. But it's similar to what's
going on in Dallas right now. Dumont didn't cut the deal,
he approved the deal, and I think Deepadesta is in
a similar situation. Nick Casario, I'm fairly certain was I imagine
he talked to Paul, but he talked to Andrew Berry,

(30:09):
their general manager much more so. That's who put the
deal together and discussions were held internally, but that's really
the architect.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
Ever got off the phone and was like, guys, I
cannot believe what they're gonna do this.

Speaker 5 (30:21):
Well, keep in mind this is one of the three teams.
Atlanta definitely in heavy negotiations. Atlanta was like a done deal.
He's going to Atlanta. Watch where the jersey was there?
Which guy on the field are they taking? Are they
taking a safety? Are they taking a corner. They're getting
their future drafts like this is why Nick probably wasn't
in disbelief because had Cleveland not said yes to that,

(30:42):
then there was probably another deal that was slightly worse
that he would have said yes to because he was
in a situation where, under no circumstances were the Texans
keeping Watson holding on to Watson. He was being dealt in.
Every team in the league knew it, but somehow there
was a leverage should have been on their field. They
had leverage and multiple teams were interested. I don't know

(31:04):
that they all wanted to give him that type of deal,
but they were. They were able to leverage teams offers
against one another for a player who was one hundred
percent not going to stay there.

Speaker 3 (31:15):
Amazing work they got over Again, Nick Cassario does get
credit for that.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
He gets credit for a lot of things.

Speaker 5 (31:21):
So when Nick Cassario moves on to baseball sometime in
the future, maybe he'll go that.

Speaker 4 (31:26):
Maybe he'll replace Deepdesta in Colorado.

Speaker 5 (31:28):
So the same reporter can ask him the same question
with the opposite intent, Can you let us know what
blockbuster deal that's going to set our franchise up for
greatness a couple of years into your tenure here like
you did when you were there in Houston with the Texans.

Speaker 3 (31:43):
Can you imagine when somebody asks him about quality starts
from his pitching rotation and he says the following, I mean,
what does that even mean? Can somebody please define me
what quality start is?

Speaker 5 (31:52):
I mean, come on analytics baseball, Nick Cassario, I'd love
to see it.

Speaker 4 (31:57):
Of course, there you go, Best of Eck.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
I still can't believe that Podesta not only had the
stint with the Browns, but that I forgot about it,
especially in light that it.

Speaker 5 (32:24):
Was eight years well, because he was, like I said
he was, it was not the general manager. It wasn't
really him that all of this fell on, and when
they would hold press conferences about it at the time,
and then when they would hold press conferences about it
because of what was going on with the Shawan off
the field, when they would hold press conferences about it
because he's been suspended when they held press conference about
it because he couldn't get on the field and surgeries.

(32:46):
He was never the person at the podium was always
the general manager, Andrew Berry or the ownership family of
the Haslam so a little bit buried in it all,
but obviously a huge part of their football operations. The
Texans happened to have the essentially the same person in
both of those roles. I mean we talk about Nick
Cassario all the time as the general manager. He's also
the vice president of football operations. He has both hats

(33:09):
or both vests to run the Texans football operations.

Speaker 4 (33:12):
There's no other person, well, speaking of guys that aren't
going to be in charge of things anymore.

Speaker 5 (33:17):
Yeah, this story came out earlier today, and there is
some question. There are some questions about the story and
what had already happened versus why is what's happening today
happening with Baylor Ad mac Rhodes. He also you probably
saw him on the Telly a couple of times since
the college football playoff rankings have been released over the

(33:39):
last couple of weeks. In that he was the committee chair.
I say was because he is now no longer the
committee chair and thus spokesman for each time they come
out with us, So why'd you do this?

Speaker 4 (33:49):
And why'd you do that?

Speaker 5 (33:50):
How could you guys see you know what it all
is he also is stepping aside from his role as
Baylor AD and they sent out a statement saying for
personal reasons. But the story that accompanies it from OutKick
and now a couple of other outlets was an incident
took place prior to a Baylor game earlier this year,
where there was an incident involving him and a player

(34:12):
and an assistant coach, and his behavior was clearly out
of line for which he indicated remorse for. But the
school also had put a statement out when asked about it. Previously,
it had been investigated, We've given it its due attention,
and we consider the matter closed. So now there's some
questioning about, well does the incident relate to the reason

(34:36):
that he is stepping aside because this was a sideline incident. Essentially,
a player was wearing a gold colored shirt as he
and the rest of the team were getting ready for
the game. Everybody else was in white, and as the
story is written, he grabbed this player. It's Michael Trigg,
a tight end, an NFL prospect at tight end, grabbed
him by the shirt, used an expletive question why he

(34:57):
was wearing it, grabbed an assistant coach at the time,
and I guess dressed him down if you want to
use that phrase for the language that was used in
the manner in which he was speaking to him. Other
coaches essentially some of this, according to the players family
stepped to his defense, and you know, basically we're saying,
what are you doing? You're in the wrong ear, completely
similar as the coaches did with the assistant coach. But

(35:20):
as I mentioned, the incident itself from a university standpoint
seem to have already been in their eyes done with.
So its relationship to why these personal reasons note on
why he is stepping aside as AD of Baylor and
obviously relinquishing his role within the College Football Committee, well,
they have now both happened. Interestingly enough, Mac Rhodes, for

(35:42):
many of you know this, he's a former you of
h AD and he's likely to be replaced on the
committee in that chair that he was in by another
former U of H A. D who's now the AD
at Arkansas h her Year Acheck. I can't believe he
staws a job. Well, all of what they do, no
matter how good they are at everything else that they're
in charge of, every other program, fundraising, everything, Nil fundraising everything.

(36:08):
If there are issues with the football program, it will
trump every single other decision or any amount of money
that you've raised. We've seen what has happened at LSU
with Scott Woodward. The rest of their athletic department, of
which he has a heavy hand in, a good heavy
hand in, is in very good shape and some very
good decisions have been made in different areas. Hunter Eurachek's
position with Arkansas, well, they have an interim head football

(36:32):
coach right now because they finally fired Sam Pittman. You
could look at some of the other programs there and
think they're in pretty good shape, and they have been,
and they've made coaching changes while Hunter Yurichek has been there,
but seemingly positive ones. You know, Baylor Macroodes was there
when they hired Dave Randa. Their program reached very good
heights Sugar Bowl victory in a conference title. They have

(36:54):
been exceptionally mediocre at best since and this year seems
similar to that.

Speaker 4 (37:00):
So it's a it's.

Speaker 5 (37:01):
Always all about the football, But they both have very
very good resumes as to why they are where they are.
I don't know what this exactly is with mac Rhodes
yet where it could be the end of him as
an athletic director anywhere, because you have to be pretty
well respected to be a part of the committee, and
to not only that, be the they face forward part

(37:21):
of the committee.

Speaker 4 (37:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:23):
I was trying to think about this. You mentioned he
was at you of ahe I was trying to think
of how many just how many athletic directors they've had
in a relatively short time.

Speaker 5 (37:33):
What years was he there? He was at you of
He'd actually made a couple of stops. This is He's
had a very long career. Fifteen was his final season
and I'm not mistaken, replaced by Chris Peesman and Chris
Pessman more recently replaced by Eddie Nunz.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
Okay, was Hunter not in between them?

Speaker 5 (37:49):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (37:49):
Hunter, that's see, I knew I would mess up? Was
in between them? And then it was Chris pat.

Speaker 3 (37:53):
Yes, okay, but yeah, it is a long distinguished if
you career doing this, And I know we were we
were kind of peeking in on match show before the
show started and not me. Well you were very you
were laser focused. But he said something that's true. And
I think about this, especially with regards to you of age.

(38:15):
But this is also true in a lot of in
today's college landscape, regardless of the sport. Unless you're like
athletic director at give me the handful of the biggest
schools out there, it's.

Speaker 4 (38:32):
A that is a grind. A you don't think it's
a grind.

Speaker 5 (38:36):
Where Jim Harball went through everything they went through at
Michigan and what they just hired a new coach for
the retiring Nick Saban.

Speaker 4 (38:42):
You better get that right.

Speaker 3 (38:44):
Yeah, you say that what Jim Harball went through put
them through, praise that I will correct. Yeah, but that
stuff can always seemingly be on the horizon.

Speaker 4 (38:56):
Connor Stallion's what do he put them through?

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Too?

Speaker 5 (38:59):
Well, they put Michigan stay through hell because they got
fourteen vacated wins because of Connor Sallions. The vay shated
wins are like college sports comedy.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
But you know what's funny about that is you get
these guys in here, these coaches or whoever it is
that ends up in these scandals. And like in the
case of Art Briells, nobody would have saw that coming.

Speaker 5 (39:17):
And he the timing of his arrival at Baylor was
upon Brill's and the others in the departments.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
Exits tall in Sessions.

Speaker 5 (39:25):
Calling this a scandal even is probably too strong today. Yeah,
so we know more about it. I don't know what
is the reasoning behind it, but this is where they
are with the obviously college football bigger picture, and with
Baylor with their ad with a couple of games left
in the season, including their season football finale against the
University of Houston Cougar is November twenty ninth, right there
in Waco. We'll get you roll in on the three

(39:46):
o'clock hour about twenty minutes from now. A very familiar
voice to Houston sports fans when you haven't heard in
a while, will join us at three fifteen. We'll get
you set on that when we come.

Speaker 2 (39:56):
Back the eighte on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (40:01):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking
your team's very Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the
A team.

Speaker 4 (40:20):
Our number two here on the A Team.

Speaker 3 (40:22):
It's Sports Talk seven ninety It's now simulcast on Space
City Home Network. Wex is over there ac right here.
Cole Thompson with you on a Thursday edition of the program.
We have talked about a number of topics in the
first hour as the Texans got the unfortunate yet not
that surprising news that CJ. Stroud was going to miss

(40:43):
a second consecutive game. But they're also going to be
without Jalen Petrie and Titus Howard, so all three of
those players will play. Sorry, Titus Howard will play, Jalen
Petrie will not play. Those two players, I should say,
with concussions last week and uh miss time, and they
will miss a second consecutive game each of them. As

(41:04):
the Titans will be the opponent. It'll be in Nashville,
and then you've got that short week turning around to.

Speaker 4 (41:09):
Play the Buffalo Bills. But gosh, I gotta say WEX.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
I am very surprised, even though you went through the
scenario and what it would mean, you're also penciling in
a Chief's loss at the Denver Broncos to make this
scenario happen. I just surprised how confident you are that
this team's gonna make the postseason.

Speaker 5 (41:30):
Well, these steps are it's a process. That step one
is they need those they need help. All of the
steps after that all include that help. They got to
help themselves. Once you're tied with the Chiefs, now you
control your own destiny. Yeah, because you play them. Once
you beat them, they should not pass you. If you're good,
you're there behind you. You have the tiebreaker. Now they

(41:53):
have to outplay you by two wins. You control your
own destiny. Again, it's extremely leveraged by beating them, and
you could be in that similar situation with the Buffalo
Bills in that you could at some point obviously by
beating them with no other help, you get within one win.
Texans are sitting at four, the Bills are sitting at six.

(42:14):
Both have played nine games. When you play them Thursday
of next week. If you beat them, now that you're
only one win, only have one win separating YouTube. But
that means you still need help from someone, and I
think their schedule suggests you can absolutely get that help.
Just so everybody knows before they have to wait until
four thirty tomorrow when we get to our stone cold
locks the Texans Titans game currently. I saw it earlier

(42:38):
and it was a little bit higher. I'm not sure
if there was a real reason for it to go
down other than the news of CJ. Stroud not playing
has come out. Texans were favored by six and a
half they are currently favored by six. I told you
the other two results that would assist the Texans and
seeing themselves tied at five and five at the bottom
of the inside of the AFC playoff picture, that's a

(42:59):
Jaguars law. Jaguars are at home, they host the Chargers.
The Chargers are favored to win that game, they are
minus three. And the other games obviously Chiefs Broncos game,
which we've mentioned a couple of times. It's in Denver.
The Chiefs are favored on the road against a team
that's won seven consecutive games. That is the biggest, loudest,

(43:20):
clearest sign that the Broncos obviously have problems, Mainly they
don't have a whole lot of success putting points on
the board. Their defense is very similar to the Texans,
and that they can explosively make plays to overcome their
inability to score. They've done what the Texans haven't. They've
won games when the offense hasn't scored. The Texans would

(43:42):
it would be in a totally different position if they
scored six more points and got to the grand total
of fifteen against the Rams. Well, they held the Rams
to fourteen, That would flip your four and five to
five and four. That's what the Broncos have been able
to do. They've won four times while allowing twenty points.
They've won four of those games. That's why they are

(44:03):
where they are. But I do think it's a pretty
good indicator that there's belief you are what your record
says you are. But you're at home on a seven
game winning streak, playing a division team that you lead
by two and a half games and you're underdogs.

Speaker 4 (44:16):
Yeah, I don't I don't know.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
I still can't believe you think they're gonna get because
when it comes to the Broncos, they can't score.

Speaker 5 (44:25):
They can't, but they do know how to win even
when they can't score.

Speaker 4 (44:29):
And I haven't looked at their schedule as much.

Speaker 5 (44:31):
As they can't score, Like the Texans couldn't score on Sunday, Right, Well,
the Texans twenty six point fourth quarter was nice. It's
not even close to the thirty three point quarter the
Broncos had earlier this year. Yea, what is the Giants
If you're clearly not out into the fourth quarter by
the Giants scored thirty three points to win.

Speaker 4 (44:53):
But it just tells me you're clearly able to do it.

Speaker 5 (44:55):
It's the quarterback, and it's now Davis and Knicks aren't
clearly the same talent level. But what happens specific to
those two games, because there's only one Mills games, but
one Mills game, but it's happened many times in bon
Nick's games. He's super inconsistent, he's crazy inaccurate, but he's
also super athletic and is a gunslinger. So they're making

(45:19):
enough plays to kind of get away with it. They
get off to poor starts, then they get it together
for ten minutes and it's enough to win a game.
You think there's a chance that the Texans just did
that against Jacksonville. Yeah, that's what the Broncos have done
all year.

Speaker 3 (45:30):
You think there's a chance that did Bo Nicks and
the Broncos kind of take a similar path to the
Giants when they had Daniel Jones, Like he had a
one good year, but he's so inconsistent and he can't
You're not going to be able to consistently expect greatness
from him. It's certainly not accuracy and all that kind

(45:52):
of stuff, And so you're in the same boat you've
been in Denver basically since John Elway left.

Speaker 5 (45:58):
I wouldn't quite say that because we're way too soon,
way too early in Bow's career. We were much further
along in Jones' career when Dave b ol got him,
and they have that one season where they went to
the playoffs and won a playoff game. Their backfield obviously
is extremely different. Saquon Barkley had a huge huge role
in Daniel Jones' final season as a quarterback prior to
this year, just like Jonathan Taylor is playing a huge

(46:21):
huge role in Daniel having another very strong season. It's
not quite like that in Denver with their running game, though,
They've been able to manage their way around Dobbins and Harvey,
and they also have what I don't think Jones had there.

Speaker 4 (46:36):
The Broncos offensive line is awesome.

Speaker 5 (46:38):
Awesome, and bo Nicks I think is still waiting to
be sacked for the tenth time this year.

Speaker 4 (46:45):
What's that like?

Speaker 5 (46:47):
He hit ten on last Sunday just now, Yeah, in
Week ten, Yeah, last Thursday when they played the Raiders.
Ten sacks and it's again, there's pressures and other things
to it, and he's athletic enough to avoid those sacks,
but ten is a pretty important number. If it's that
far in either direction, like cam Ward's been sacked thirty
eight times, I really don't need to look at the film.

(47:09):
I know their offensive line is bad, and I know
he's a young player. It does add up. If you
have been sacked ten times, you might be super athletic,
you might have the quickest release, you might be the
best processor, you might have the most talent at your
wide out, tight end and running back position. But I'm
just gonna go ahead and assume you have a good
offensive line. Maybe someday the Texans will know again what
that's like. They did for like a three or four

(47:30):
year period.

Speaker 3 (47:31):
They had probably one of the best offensive lines in football,
with the best running back and a competent quarterback before
his mental acumen went south or he got the yips
or whatever. Richard Sherman ended him basically from a mental standpoint,
But that was all there, and it was very brief,
very fleeting in the grand scheme of this still young,

(47:52):
relatively speaking, franchise.

Speaker 4 (47:54):
But it was awesome when they had it. Yeah, bo
Nicks still does.

Speaker 5 (47:58):
As we get back to the what I do think
will happen, they're still just they make so many plays.
I ran through the numbers before the Texans played the
Broncos two Sundays ago. He was second in the NFL
and touchdown passes over his last I mean he's only
started twenty seven games because he was a rookie last year.
I think over his past eighteen starts, he's among the

(48:19):
top five most touchdowns produced. Like there's still something there
and that this is a please already at a place
I don't think Daniel Jones has even reached this year,
and he's again infancy stages.

Speaker 4 (48:31):
He's in the second year. He's working with Sean Payton.

Speaker 5 (48:33):
As much as you want to debate Peyton if you
want to, I think it's okay to recognize this pretty
good offensive mind to be working with. So I do
think that has its advantages. But yeah, I would call
for an upset for the Broncos to win at home
against the Kansas City Chiefs. And as we look at
the Chiefs just in terms of how their team is

(48:53):
going to have a lot to say about whether or
not the Texans do, in fact make their way to
the playoffs. It all starts with the Texans helping themselves,
but the Chiefs in twenty twenty five. They're coming off
their off week, so ten weeks into the season, they've
lost one score games to the Chargers and the Eagles
to open up the season. They've lost two more one
score games since to Jacksonville and that one was super late.

(49:17):
And then they lost two weeks ago to a Buffalo
team that I think we know has many cracks in
their framework this year, much more so, like this is
the worst Buffalo team at least to date this year,
that we've seen in five years, and the Chiefs lost
to them. All four of their losses are by one score.
Many of their wins are not, meaning they have handled

(49:37):
themselves easily all five times. They have zero one score victories.
Because all five of their wins have been lopsided, they're
five and four football team because they have been unable
to win the close games. The Pat Mahomes led Chiefs
have been on the wrong side of close games this
year for the first time ever.

Speaker 4 (49:56):
Will Homes, I mean, your scenario as it play is
a it's heavily contingent upon the Texans actually winning these games.

Speaker 5 (50:05):
Well, this just a let's go week to week, just
this one first, Plus, the Chiefs are going to lose
to the Colts a week later anyway.

Speaker 4 (50:12):
That'd be great. That's that's a twofer.

Speaker 5 (50:14):
Then Dak will get them on Thanksgiving. Dak's not losing, No.

Speaker 4 (50:18):
It's it's in Dallas. You know, it's a big deal.
The Chiefs defense isn't like it was last year.

Speaker 5 (50:24):
You know, briefly here probably worth mentioning since the Cowboys
were off last week, so this week they just got
back to being together again. And I don't know how
many of you watched what their head coach, Brian Schottenheimer
had to say yesterday about the things that they're doing
for Marshawn Neeland's family, his fiance and how difficult it
was just I mean, obviously it's difficult for what happened,

(50:45):
it's difficult, and that they weren't around each other. They
were on their off week, they were you know, in
different places doing different things and recouping and getting their
bodies right, and now they reconvene to you know, play
the second half of their season without somebody who was
a huge part of their family, not their team. Obviously
they're both true, but it's a tough way to try
to complete an NFL season beyond whatever their record is

(51:07):
or whatever football issues they have, but someone that's been
in their locker room all year, a very young player,
someone who's just in the end zone for them, out
a lot ahead of him, and he's not there, and
they have to deal with all those things as they
get back on the field this weekend.

Speaker 3 (51:21):
All right, we are going to take a quick breather
from the football conversation. We'll jump back into that at
three thirty, but right in the next segment, we've got
Brian T. Smith, familiar name for those of you longtime
Houston sports fancy.

Speaker 4 (51:35):
I haven't gone that long.

Speaker 3 (51:36):
He's gonna call us from across the pond when we come.

Speaker 2 (51:39):
Back the ag on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (51:54):
Dante's that we were talking about in the last couple
of days thanks to the general managers meetings taking place,
and one note on that, Chandlerome visited with the Matt
Thomas Show earlier today Matt Thomas Show with Ross without
Ross Stealing, and we will let you hear a little
bit of that interview coming up in the five o'clock
hour around five point fifteen. But he and Matt Kawahara,
Brian McTaggart reporting, and now the astros are making note

(52:17):
of it with their own release today about the changes
to their staff both on the field and off Victor Rodriguez,
Anthony Aposse, Dan Hannigan gonna head up hitting duties, Hitting
coach Victor, assistant hitting coach Anthony, director of hitting and
offensive coordinator Dan and They announced the promotion, as was
reported by Brian McTaggart and others previously, that Connor Huff

(52:39):
is in an assistant general manager role moving forward, as
he has been promoted been with the Astros since twenty
twenty two, so he will work alongside Dana Brown and
the assorted other assistant gms. They will also have the
additional draft compensation thanks to Hunter Brown finishing third in
the Cy Young voting. We never really kind of ran
through that not of great consequence, and I did expect

(53:02):
that that is exactly where he would finish third. I
was a little surprised there wasn't another weren't another couple
of votes that went his way. It was pretty clearly one,
two and three with all thirty votes going to Tark
schoobl among first place votes, So he was a excuse me.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
Twenty six It was Skeins who was unanimous.

Speaker 5 (53:23):
Twenty six for tark Schooble and Garrett Crochet got the
other four, and then the flip for second place votes.
Hunter Brown was not placed second on anybody's ballot, but
he was placed third on twenty four of the thirty ballots,
with Max Freed getting the other six nods, so he
was clearly considered the third best pitcher in the American
League ast cy Young voting goes. The Yankees had two

(53:46):
pitchers that got some consideration, none of them higher than
third other than Freed, Carlos redn O, Roldis Chapman. Four
people thought that Closer was the fifth most deserving cy
Young candidate. I mentioned all those things, so later on
down the line, when an agent or a writer says
something like, well he was he was up for the

(54:07):
cy Young, or he was a contender for the cy Young,
or he's something you had to consider it. No, there
wasn't one person who thought he should win the cy Young.
They have thirty voters, not one of them said he
should win it. So he was not in the race.
That's that's how I see it. At least, if nobody
thinks you're the best, then you you weren't about to
win it.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
You weren't close. Not one person thought you should win.

Speaker 5 (54:27):
It top three though for yes, I'm just trying to
it has more of a Yankee spin to it. When
inevitably in the offseason they write articles about how awesome
they're pitching staff and how all these cy young contenders
are on it. They're not contenders. They received consideration as
some of the other pitchers that pitched well during the season.
They weren't contenders for the award. Nobody thought they should

(54:47):
win it. I like the way you said that the
Yankee spin, Well that's where it comes from. I think
it was a piece specifically written by Joel s and
it just it struck me as come on, man, as we.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Are tracking down Brian T. Smith to talk about some
NBA since you brought that to make.

Speaker 5 (55:04):
The call, and then it goes to Seattle, and then
they routed through Michigan, and then it goes down to California,
and then they bounce it off a satellite and then
eventually it'll get over there.

Speaker 4 (55:13):
It's all by hand what we're working on here. Something
like that.

Speaker 5 (55:15):
Yeah, Libby Dunn's boyfriend, like I said, got all thirty
votes in the National.

Speaker 4 (55:18):
As he should listen.

Speaker 3 (55:22):
You kind of just mentioned the scenario just now with
with Joel s I like how you didn't say his
whole name that.

Speaker 5 (55:28):
He's actually really good. He's good on TV too, much
better than John h but he's still too je.

Speaker 4 (55:35):
Yeah, but he's just what he writes. You see what
I'm You see what I did there, I see what
you did there. Are we really doing this now? ESPN
are we doing? Are we doing.

Speaker 3 (55:45):
Puff pieces for the Spurs when they lose because of
statistical stat filling? Because that's what happened with Michael C.
Wright after last night's lost suit.

Speaker 5 (55:55):
This piece includes, but I'm hopeful it includes the following,
which is the opposite of puff Is he noting that,
for the first time in NBA history, a team had
two players post a triple double which included twenty or
more points while losing the basketball game?

Speaker 4 (56:14):
Is that the puff piece?

Speaker 5 (56:15):
Note that he included in their historic night of basketball
in a loss which nobody's.

Speaker 4 (56:20):
Ever done before. Way to go, Spurs.

Speaker 5 (56:22):
You accomplished losing in a scenario where no team in
history had ever lost before.

Speaker 4 (56:26):
You know, I like that.

Speaker 3 (56:27):
You know he talked about he talked about the fact
that he was one of Shy have a triple double
and then with zer point two seconds left, the layup
was converted and therefore he was able to get it.

Speaker 4 (56:36):
I'm like, are we just doing this? I just put a.

Speaker 5 (56:38):
Phone call into the guys working in KRH right now.
Luckily while you were talking, and they were able to
get me the audio of last night's Rockets rap, which
I handled over on news radio seven to forty KRH,
was running through the scoreboard and noted Victor Womangana got
his tenth assist late in the game along with Steffan
Castle had a triple double, although he was dangerously close
to a quadruple double with his eight turnover.

Speaker 4 (57:00):
That's what I said about the game.

Speaker 3 (57:01):
They did. They did point that out, all right. We
got them from across the pond. It's late night in
London town and that's where Brian T. Smith joins us BTS.
A lot of people know you from your time here
at the Houston Chronicle. Now you are overseas but still
doing the sports thing. Talk Sport is where this article

(57:24):
that you wrote was. But just before we do any
of that, let's just catch up. How you been, man?

Speaker 4 (57:30):
Good?

Speaker 9 (57:30):
I'm gonna be honest, I miss you guys.

Speaker 4 (57:33):
It's good.

Speaker 9 (57:33):
It's good to hear your voice, Adam. It's good to
hear the other Adam. I see you on Twitter all
the time. I haven't seen you like two and a
half years. I miss I miss everybody. I'm loving it
over here. But it's good to hear your voice. Man.

Speaker 4 (57:45):
No, So it goes both ways.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
And I see that you're still You're still cranking out
good material. Before we get to you ranking the best
teams in NBA history, what do you see from Afar
with this Rockets team adding Kevin Durant and then at
the exact same time the seemingly the the ascension.

Speaker 4 (58:07):
Of the Spurs here in the state.

Speaker 3 (58:09):
We can get to the mads as a mess in
a moment, but there's a lot to take in if
you're off you're a basketball fan in the state of
Texas right now.

Speaker 9 (58:19):
There really is look number one. Uh completely applaud the
Rockets for what they are trying to do. Well, well
it work out. We're gonna find out in a few months, right.
I mean, Kevin Durant is getting older, and you know,
losing your your your point guard before the start doesn't
help everything. But they can. You know, they can figure

(58:40):
that out over time. I applaud that they have gone big.
You're dealing with Okay, see, you're dealing with a still
loaded West and the Nuggets and you know Luca in
La and it Actually, you know, when they made the
Durant trade, I thought back to you know, pre dating
till went for Tita and and you know refell Ze

(59:00):
Darryl Moury. I remember writing about this to Chronicle. I
mean Darryl Moury and the Rockets, you know, had their
eyes on Durant. So the Rockets fascination with Durant goes
back a long long time. And there's no way you're
going to win the West. You're gonna win the NBA
Finals by doing it softly or by doing it safely.

(59:22):
So is it gonna work? Who knows, But they had
to try something. Kevin Durant is one of the greatest
basketball players at all time. He needs another ring, he
needs a real ring. So I hope it works out
for the Rockets. Look, I'm at talkSPORT now talkSPORT dot com.
You can follow me on Twitter at bt Smith UK.
And yeah, I write a ton I actually write more

(59:44):
in London. Than I even did at the Houston Chronicle.
A lot of that as NBA stuff. Wimby is huge
over here, and you know the fact that the Spurs
in many ways lucked into that pick. I mean, he
is obviously it's he's there, Tim Duncan, he's their David Robinson.
He is the face of the NBA, you know, Area

(01:00:06):
of fifty one and a unicorn, all these things. But
they've built a nice team around him, and I like
that they've been able to do it through the draft.
A lot of it is luck, you know. I mean,
they have been fortunate. They have been lucky, but they're
still doing it the Spurs wave and without Papovich. So
it's a fascinating time to follow the NBA right now.

(01:00:26):
And I love it that all this is happening, and
it's a it's a really cool time for the league.
And Lebron's not even playing. It shows that the NBA
doesn't need Lebron and they're gonna be just fine moving
on without him.

Speaker 3 (01:00:39):
Yeah, No, it's it's been a it's been an interesting
start to the NBA season from that standpoint. And then
of course you mentioned Lebron. You can't say Lebron these
days without saying Luca, mainly because Luca is the one
of those two that's actually playing and he's not in
Dallas anymore. Obviously, haven't been able to talk to you
about that, but you know what happened, and and then

(01:00:59):
Nico Harrison getting fired this week. The drama is is
just all across the lone Star state and it's not
necessarily good when you go up north.

Speaker 5 (01:01:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:01:09):
No, I love that you asked that, actually, because ironically
I spoke to Mark Stein, you know a long time
ANDBA reporter knows the MAVs as well as anybody. Spoke
to Mark Stein today for Talk Sport. We'll have stories
up at our site, talkSPORT dot com. It's on my
Twitter right now at BT Smith's UK the video. Spoke
to Mark for twenty minutes. He went in depth into
the to the MAVs situation. Look Mark was saying and

(01:01:32):
telling talkSPORT Adam, I mean, it's ri to the point
that they're seriously considering having to tear their team down,
potentially trade Anthony Davis Hunt on twenty twenty five, twenty
six and just fast forward everything to next year's draft.
That's how bad it is in Dallas, and how bad
that is for the Mavericks that they allowed this to happen,

(01:01:55):
Whether Nico Harrison went rogue, whether the owner signed off, whatever.
I love that Mark Cuban doesn't even have the power
there anymore when his team and his franchise are falling apart.
I'm sure you get a kick out of that too,
But it should have never ever gotten to this point.
I mean, we've talked about dumpster fires and just horribly
run organizations a lot on Sports Talk seven ninety, right,

(01:02:18):
But what the MAVs are doing right now that they
put themselves in this spot, zero sympathy for them, and
nobody's talking about Cooper Flagg. That's the craziest thing. Like
Cooper flag was supposed to be the new face of
the NBA. He's been average. His team isn't good enough,
the culture's bad, the front office is bad. And the

(01:02:39):
only answer they had was the answer they should have
had when Luka Doncis was traded, which was this fire
Nico Harrison. They waited too late to fire a Nico
Harrison and now they've already torched another season. So I
would much much rather be I'd startleybe the Texans and
the Cowboys, and I'd much rather be the Rockets than
the MAVs right now.

Speaker 3 (01:02:58):
Interesting thoughts. Do you mind if we can keep you
through the break real quick? We need to take one,
but I want to get to some stuff we didn't
have a chance to because we kind of started later.

Speaker 9 (01:03:07):
I would love it, Adam, I'd love it anytime.

Speaker 3 (01:03:09):
All right, sounds good. We'll keep you on hold. We'll
come right back. We're gonna catch up with BTS a
little bit more on the other side here on a
Thursday edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:03:25):
Back here on the A Team, Adam Wexler, Adam Planting
here with you, and a pleasure to be rejoined by
our guest, Bryan T. Smith of Talk Sport Overseas at
bt Smith UK. You mentioned Kevin Durant in the early
stages of our conversation, talking about him being one of
the best players in the NBA. I believe, according to you,

(01:03:46):
he's the eleventh best player in the NBA, as you
just wrote an article ranking the best NBA players here
in twenty twenty five. My only question is if he
is eleventh, and you know this is what happens with Liz. Obviously,
eight people will inevitably pick them apart. It's good conversation piece.
If he is eleven, Brian, how is Donovan Mitchell number seven?

Speaker 9 (01:04:10):
Oh Wex, I miss you because you're a smart guy
and you you read look put him head to head,
I mean who is better? Yeah, I would lean Kevin Durant,
but Donovan Mitchell is a He's a top ten player
in the league. Donovan Mitchell is the the core of

(01:04:31):
the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers had a really good season last year.
The Cavaliers are good again. I think you know in
full transparency that that one through ten and every rank
them every week at tops talkSPORT dot com. But that
one through ten, you know, you can move a lot
of those pieces. It's it's almost impossible to find any separation.
I do think Donovan Mitchell, I mean, you know, all star,

(01:04:52):
good player. It's not like Durant is the most dominant
player in the NBA. Drant's on of my top five.
You know, he's a he's a top ten player. He's
top ten, eleven somewhere in there at scadam ten the
previous week. So I totally get what you're saying. It's very,
very close. It's hard to actually separate those guys.

Speaker 5 (01:05:10):
Let me ask you one thing before we get to
football over there, but just particular to this list. Like
you said, it could change every week, but any given week,
the best five players on this list in the NBA
are not American players. They are players who would be
facing American players in the new format for the All
Star Game. They would be a part of Team World.

(01:05:31):
Is this something no matter where the international players are
from that plays into the audience you're writing for. Is
there a what is it that they like in the NBA?
Who are the players that they like in the NBA?
Beyond the obvious? Since you already mentioned it, Victor webmbin Yama,
you know.

Speaker 9 (01:05:48):
I mean no, it's I love that you asked that
as well. It's it's interesting over here, right because I
would still say Lebron is the name, you know, I mean,
even though he's not playing, right, I mean, he is
Lebron James, but he's at the end of his career.
It's not going to last. It was really cool. So
the summer the twenty twenty four, so last summer I

(01:06:13):
went to the Olympics. But before that, Team USA was
qualifying and they played at the O two in London.
They did, you know, a warm up game and a
practice and it was incredible seeing you know, Durant and
Curry and Lebron together, but just seeing the fans, you know,
completely sold out arena, very similar Toda Center, just seeing

(01:06:36):
the fans freak out, you know, being around those names,
the classic old school names and the modern NBA Durant, Curry, Lebron,
they still drive it. But you're one hundred thousand percent right,
and it's it's just an interesting time for the NBA
to where there's no way around it at them. I mean,
the best players in the world are truly international players.

(01:06:59):
I actually would argue the NBA has done a poor
job of promoting its international players. You know, it feels
like they should be bigger because we do still talk
so much about Curry and Lebron, even though there worries.
You know what, they're seven and six. They're not world
beaters anymore. There should be a way to get Jokic
elevated in the conversation, to even have Giannis and not

(01:07:21):
just talk about is Gianni is gonna get traded to
the Knicks. You know, we should actually be talking about
him as a basketball player more. But that's just that's
the way it's gone. That's been the impact since ninety
two in the Dream Team. And it's such an international game,
but I personally feel like the NFL is far far
ahead the NBA when it comes to actual international exposure.

(01:07:41):
But we're not sitting around talking about the best quarterback
in the NFL is from Spain or from Germany, but
that is the case in the NBA. It's it's very
very interesting.

Speaker 5 (01:07:51):
Have you in person? Covered three NFL games this year?
In October?

Speaker 9 (01:07:58):
So I covered the first NFL game ever in Dublin
between the Steelers and Vikings, and I did actually did
radio from Wimbley Stadium and covered two games at Tottenham
Hotspur Stadium.

Speaker 2 (01:08:11):
So I covered four.

Speaker 9 (01:08:13):
I covered four international games this year WEX and UH
for Talk Sport and thoroughly enjoyed it all. If you have,
if you ever get a chance to do it, and
if you haven't done it, watching an NFL game international
is a super super cool experience. I'd still take Premier
League over, but it is. It is a really cool

(01:08:33):
sporting experience and the fans really really show out.

Speaker 3 (01:08:36):
Well, that's what I was going to ask you. It's
such a soccer hungry rest of the world.

Speaker 4 (01:08:41):
Basically, what what what term is that?

Speaker 9 (01:08:43):
Clinton?

Speaker 4 (01:08:44):
Uh, soccer? We call that soccer over here in the
eighty Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:08:47):
I don't know what soccer is anymore, Adam.

Speaker 4 (01:08:49):
Do you walk around saying football?

Speaker 9 (01:08:53):
If you say soccer over here, they're gonna think you're
You're worst than Ted Lasso. You will, you will get
kicked out of the You'll get hunted out of the pub.
I have not used soccer in like twenty six months.
I have, I have. I'm fully immersed over here, man.

Speaker 2 (01:09:09):
I will.

Speaker 3 (01:09:10):
I will be the ugly American and I will lean
into that role. I know that surprises you like zero percent.
But what is the reaction though, because I mean, obviously
the fans show up, but it's.

Speaker 4 (01:09:20):
Not the world's sport over there like it is here. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:09:26):
Yeah, you know, when I'll go on the radio out
here and for Talk Sport, I always you know, I
often draw the comparison, and it's it's the only way
to explain it that, you know, the Premier League is
it's just it's the NFL over here. I mean, it's
it's on every channel, you know, every night in some fashion,

(01:09:48):
it's all that people talk about. The NFL over here
has one percent of the market, you know, point oh
five percent of the market. I mean the just like
just like in America, right, I mean, for me, when
I left the US two and a half years ago
and went over here, I mean I would have said
the NFL was at eighty percent. College football was in there,

(01:10:11):
and then the NBA and then Major League Baseball, you know,
some combination of that. It is it is so of soccer,
it is so English football dominant, and then you would
you would actually have you know, rugby and cricket and
you know, on down the list, and then you get
to the NFL and then then maybe the NBA. The

(01:10:32):
NFL is big over here. It is cool that on
Sunday nights at six pm, which would be you know,
new in your time, you can watch pretty much every game.
You'll get red zone, you you know, that's how we
stay up on it. The flip side is you're often
staying up till midnight three am to watch Sunday night football.
So a lot of it you're just living off of

(01:10:53):
social media and YouTube videos. But it's it's big over here.
I mean you know, you'll see it at pubs, you'll
see it around, but it really only has about one
percent of the UK sports market, a very passionate one percent,
but that's probably where it's at. Well.

Speaker 5 (01:11:07):
Brian would say, it was great to catch up with you.
Hopefully we'll do it again soon. I don't know if
that will be after yet another Bill O'Brien moment, because
what's up. Trevor became famous earlier in November, just as
it doesn't matter, Brian became famous several years ago. But
always out there, always in the news. Love hearing from you.
Still follow you there and we'll continue to look at
your latest on the sports over here in the United

(01:11:29):
States of America right there at Talk Sport.

Speaker 4 (01:11:31):
Brian T.

Speaker 5 (01:11:32):
Smith BTS joining us here on the A team. Great
catching up with you, Brian.

Speaker 9 (01:11:37):
Thanks so much, guys, and tell Matt Thomas to get
to work.

Speaker 4 (01:11:40):
Yeah, we'll definitely do that. Brian T.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
Smith here on Sports Talk seven to ninety. We'll react
to that and wrap up the three o'clock hour when
we return here on the eighteen, the eight on.

Speaker 2 (01:11:53):
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:11:58):
Hope you enjoyed that conversation so trying to spend.

Speaker 10 (01:12:01):
The formula of first crops currently in Talk sports, covering
the American game over there when it's there, and over
here from there when it isn't so interesting, perspective on
a bunch of different things.

Speaker 5 (01:12:15):
Among those things the Spurs, Rockets, and Mavericks. He had
just had a conversation with Mark Stein if you missed
it last night, another home game for the Mavericks, which
they came out on the losing end of. They are
three and nine now this season, and at seven of
twelve games that Anthony Davis has not been able to
participate in over Toyta Center last night, the first of

(01:12:35):
their three game homestand began with a relatively easy victory
over the Wizards. Kind of went back and forth for
about eight or nine minutes because of the pace the
Wizards liked to play at, and then they stopped making
every shot you didn't expect them to make, and the
Rockets continued making every shot that they always make, and
they had a forty one point first quarter, a forty

(01:12:56):
point second quarter, and even with a lackluster third quarter,
he easily put down the Wizards one thirty five to
one twelve. They've won seven of eight they maintain their
spot through ten games as the elite offense in the NBA,
number one in offensive rating, number one by a pretty
wide margin, as the best three point shooting team in
the NBA. Earlier today, the head coach of the Rockets

(01:13:17):
spent some time here on Sports Talk seven ninety, as
he does each and every week. He made Udoka's visit
on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Today without Ross
can be heard in its entirety right there on our
website at Sports Talk seven ninety dot com or via
the iHeartRadio app. A portion of it for you now,
with Udoka talking initially about what the Rockets noticed about

(01:13:37):
the Wiz right there in the opening quarter.

Speaker 4 (01:13:44):
Uh so I have to play that, well, I'm not
prepared to play that obviously.

Speaker 11 (01:13:47):
You got off to a great start of forty point
first quarter is always nice, and then forty one in
the second. So we were consistent there. But you know,
we didn't just want to get in the shootout go
up and down. We wanted the fan at a high
level as well, and so to hold them to kick
four in the first half was great as well. I
think a lot of times when you play an interior opponent.
A lot of times you relax and just getting to
that up and down, open gym style game. But we

(01:14:09):
wanted to maintain our discipline on defensive end, obviously share
the ball, and only three turnovers in the first half,
twenty assists in the first half. All those are great numbers.

Speaker 6 (01:14:18):
The turnover number has been something that you've talked about
on a semiregular basis, and sometimes they're influential in games.
I even in San Antonio and maybe against Oklahoma City.
Do you feel like things are getting a little bit better,
that we're going back to more of the norm, because
especially that first half as you're not only scoring all
those points, but you guys took tremendous care of the basketball.

Speaker 11 (01:14:41):
Yeah, it's been an emphasis since day one. I think
when you look at the Oklahoma City game, you know,
giving up twenty eight twenty eight points on twenty five
turnovers in a double overtime loss, that really stands out.
And then to your point, thirty three points in San
Antonio given up off of our turnovers. So we know
what we can look at when we lose certain games.
Specific things and taking care of the ball is one
our main main points of emphasis.

Speaker 4 (01:15:02):
You know, he's scoring eighty.

Speaker 11 (01:15:03):
One points and us being the best offensive, rebounding and
team in the league, where almost like, just get shots
up and we'll have a good chance to get it
back if we miss, but let's not turn it over
and field teams in transition.

Speaker 6 (01:15:13):
You may this has been I don't know if it's
a four or five game stretch now for Reid. He's
come off the bench for you and has really provided
some nice offense. He's also very active in terms of
stealing the basketball turnovers have been Okay, did the light
bulb just turn on? Or is this the mid just
making the most of his opportunity to be given to him,
especially now that friend's gone for the season.

Speaker 4 (01:15:30):
It's gonna be a little bit of both.

Speaker 9 (01:15:32):
Uh.

Speaker 11 (01:15:32):
You know, he gained some experience last year, but getting
this the opportunity to play now is always gonna help
a young player. And just being aggressive and confident is
gonna those things are gonna show up in the statue. Offensively,
we want him to take those shots and make the
right plays and you'll be a backup point guard and
play some off ball off of LPNKD. But also defensively
take on the challenges and he's done that. You stick
to the assignment, to the game plan, and he's just

(01:15:54):
a really a really good, uh smart plug for us.
Every team has that, and we want him to be
that for us.

Speaker 6 (01:15:58):
Then the offense this league, just in your game last night,
the league in general, we are seeing some incredible performances.
And you have talked about this at least once before
about usually sometimes the offensive ahead of the defense, but
it feels like, I mean, we're talking about it. Most
teams have played at least ten, eleven, twelve games. These
offensive production numbers are incredible. Are we going to see

(01:16:19):
this for a forty two or do you think it's
going to regress a little bit at some point or
you think.

Speaker 11 (01:16:23):
It would come down and teams would be a little
more stinsy on defensive eventually. But teams played towards their
strengths and a lot of times, you know a lot
of those teams are really gifted offensively. Try to get
in those shootouts and like I said to our team,
like I said, quite often we can do it on
both sides, and so we're scoring at a great pace,
but we still want to not to get our identity
and what gave us success the last two years. So

(01:16:43):
improve defensive league, continue to cut out communicating our zone specifically,
and start to hold teams down to those lower numbers.
And when we're scoring, you know, one, ten, one twenty,
we should win easily.

Speaker 6 (01:16:54):
If you and I were talking during the preseason and
I said to the first ten games of the season,
the Rockets would be the number one team even three
point percentage, would you have said, all, that's nice and
pleasant surprise, or would you have said to me more,
we better be No, it is.

Speaker 4 (01:17:07):
A great surprise.

Speaker 11 (01:17:08):
It's not unexpected that teams are going to guard Opera
and Kevin the way that they do, and that's going
to lead to some wide open shots. And so credit
to our guys for putting in the work in the offseason. Obviously,
our numbers weren't where we wanted them to be last year.
But when you're getting these wide open looks, so the
percentage is going to go up, confidence is going to
go up. And you continue to work off with Kevin
and Ouper and with those double teams, guys are going

(01:17:29):
to be recipients of those open shots.

Speaker 6 (01:17:32):
It even feels like to me, man, please tell me
if I'm wrong. It's a lot of teams guys will
use a slidestep to get a little bit of a
better angle. It feels like to me this year it's
a lot of catch and shoot from your guys. That
the guys are positioning themselves well that once the ball
reaches their hands, they're letting it fly pretty quickly.

Speaker 11 (01:17:48):
Yeah, our spacing has gotten much better. Anytime we have success,
it's been the large part due to that. And when
we haven't, guys have kind of been out out of
their spots. But we're really encouraging guys to be aggressive,
not pass up any shots. And like I said, we're
such such a great offensive rebounding team that we know
teams are gonna double, they're gonna be a scramble mode
and it's gonna lead to some mismatches on the glass

(01:18:09):
as well, and so get the shot up, not pass
up shots. So guys are kind of learning on the
fly as far as that. You get some guys early
in the season passed up some shots and you don't
always get a better look, and so we're encouraging them
to be aggressive and then hammering the glass like always
a Steven out being Clinton.

Speaker 6 (01:18:24):
You know, I don't remember much about Steven Adams early
in his career, but I've obviously watched it intently the
last four or five years. Is he playing the best
in terms of just not only getting his fair share
of offensive rebounds, the putbacks, the pick and rolls, and
then he's able to now hit some free throws. Is
he even exceeding what you thought he could bring to
this team when you first originally brought him here.

Speaker 11 (01:18:44):
No, I wouldn't say I'm surprised at all. If you've
coached against him or you're played against him, you know
what he's all about. You know, he does a lot
of the things that don't always show up on the
stat sheet. But one of the best screen setters in
the league defensively, really smart, has a high Q. And
then offensive rebounds is one of the things he's been
great at throughout his career.

Speaker 5 (01:19:03):
You heard it a couple times there at the end
of that portion of the interview, which again you can
catch in full right there at sportstock seven ninety dot
com is weekly visit on the Matt Thomas Show. He
mentioned offensive rebounding. I did also. I'll give you the
numbers on that to illustrate what he was saying and
what I was saying, there is a big This is
the difference between the Rockets and the next best team

(01:19:23):
in offensive rebound with the Rockets sitting at forty one
point four percent of the offensive rebounds are are what
their offensive rebounding percentages, and the next team is Utah
and they're at thirty six point five. So that's a
four point nine percent difference. If you drop down the
difference between one and two, it's four point nine. A
four point nine percent difference also occurs if you go

(01:19:46):
from number two all the way down to number sixteen.
That's how many teams are clumped together, and roughly a
five percent difference. And that's how far ahead of all
of them the Houston Rockets are offensive rebound The chart.

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
That they it showed, it's very much of a better
graphical representation of just how far ahead they are.

Speaker 5 (01:20:09):
Yeah, it's incredible what they've been able to do. They
are the best rebounding team overall in the NBA. So
even when the rare occurrence that they miss a shot
because they're shooting exceptional percentage this year, they're getting another
two or three chances sometimes on each trip down the Court.
Four o'clock hour is going to bring us an interview
with Aaron Wilson. We'll talk more Texans. That's fifteen minutes out.
I've got more four packs of tickets to join me

(01:20:30):
in the bud Light backyard for Cougar football coming up
on the twenty second. We'll do that in the final
segment of four o'clock hour. All of that next

Speaker 1 (01:20:38):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety ye