Texans Trade Down...OF COURSE!, Astros Rolling To K.C., Shut Up Steve Kerr, for REAL!

Today on The A-Team, the guy's talk about what happend with the Texans in the latest round of the NFL Draft! Who will Houston take with the 42nd overall pick? 

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Nolan Multipi.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
The magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston Sports chill
lates down for the only homegrown afternoon team is talking
your Teams. Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
As It's a Friday edition of the A Team Sports
Talk seven. It's two oh one and the Texans have
yet to make a draft pick here in twenty twenty five,

(00:59):
but they do have more picks, and far be it
from me. Wex As a guy who is on the record,
is saying, this is all a bunch of hullabaloo.

Speaker 4 (01:09):
I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
I get the pomp and circumstance, I get the hope,
springs eternal, all that stuff.

Speaker 4 (01:14):
I just I.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Don't know anything about what these guys are going to
do on the next level. So I've just never It's
not that I don't take it seriously.

Speaker 4 (01:22):
I don't.

Speaker 5 (01:22):
I do. I get it.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
I get it.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
This is your team's future right now that we're talking about.
But I can't sit here and have that attitude and
then say, oh, what are you doing, Nick Cassario. I
can't do it because that would be against my whole
belief system on this event.

Speaker 4 (01:37):
Definitely two ways to look at what they did yesterday
as it leads into draft this evening, as they have
a lot that they can do tonight, So we definitely
want to get into that and to think there are
two very distinctly different ways to analyze the decision making
of Nick Cassia and the Houston Texans from what they
did last night and yesterday, they made two different trades
and added a host of picks to their arsenal for

(01:59):
the future, not just this year, but on into the future.
So want to hit on that. We still unfortunately have
lead up and plenty of it to Rockets basketball. They
won't play until tomorrow evening. I was a pretty interesting
night in the NBA though last night, especially in the
Western Conference, so want to touch on that. And we're
back to seeing the Astros trying to continue their winning streak.

(02:20):
A real, live, twenty twenty five winning streak is underway
for the Astros. An extremely well pitched six game homestand
against the Padres and Blue Jays, the last three of
which were all victories over Toronto, and now they get
Kansas City this evening. A little bit earlier. First pitch
from KC. So we get into Astros on Deck at
five thirty. It'll be on site over at Carbok Brewing.

(02:43):
Little Astros watch party going on over there, so Chris
Gordy will handle Astros on Deck on site over at
car Bok. Always appreciate them having us over there. So
looking forward to getting you all the way to five thirty.
Fully expected we would be opening today's show with comments
from the newest Texan would have had a press conference today.

(03:04):
When the morning began, thirty two NFL teams had their
first round picks, all of them. Every single team was
ready to pull the trigger on a player, and most did.
They were not the only team to make deals in
the first round, and they definitely attempted to make several
other deals during last night's draft. Cole and I were

(03:24):
with you last night throughout all of it, and it
was fun watching the lead up. And here's who's left,
Here's best available player, this is what they're probably looking
at at offensive line. This is the pocket where I'm
sure he's feverishly trying to agree to a deal with
the team at twelve. Definitively we know that for multiple reports,

(03:45):
teams at eighteen, nineteen, and twenty, which he acknowledged last
night when he met with the media. He also said,
we've basically talked to every team, which he doesn't always do,
but just about every team was had a conversation with
probably leading up to the draft, and then again during
the proceedings last night. Ultimate to say yes to a
deal and move back in the draft and out of
the first round nine slots back, which means when the

(04:07):
draft begins this evening and we're not that far away
from it, a little bit earlier start for the picks
get made in the second and third rounds. They have
five of those selections as we sit here today. They
won't draft five players. It's almost a given. I don't
want to put a one hundred percent guarantee on it,
but I think if you stick your head and there's
the bull and a butcher somehow, I can give you

(04:29):
one hundred percent of the guarantee on the box. But
you take my word for it. They're going to move
picks in order to not have a huge gap between
thirty four and fifty eight. They have thirty four, fifty eight,
seventy nine, eighty nine, ninety nine, all which get made
this evening second and third round picks. You went into
the draft having two of the top fifty eight. That

(04:51):
hasn't changed except their first pick isn't twenty five anymore,
it's now thirty four. And I don't think that's an
awful thing to do by any means, But I don't
think there's any reason for them to sit where they are.
These picks were acquired so they have the arsenal to
move up so they can get two of the top forty,
two of the top thirty five, three of the top fifty.
Something more along those lines is what I expect from

(05:12):
Nick Cassaria tonight. We'll get a chance to hear from
him himself. Like I said, he met with the media
last evening, so some of the thoughts about where it
went specific to what did not happen. They were eight
offensive linemen drafted last night in the thirty two selections.
Six came before number twenty five and two came after
number twenty five. So when they pulled the trigger on

(05:34):
the deal to trade with the Giants to move out
of twenty five and back to thirty four, ultimately two
more linemen went in yesterday's draft. There obviously are plenty
of linemen left, but I actually think the line drawn
between I like these guys and I'm not sure about
these guys. Well, it was drawn last night when Josh
Simmons went off the board at the end of the
first round. They will draft offensive lineman today. They probably

(05:57):
will draft offensive lineman tomorrow also, but I don't like
the caliber of talent that they have in front of them.
I'll have one name definitively for you that I actually think.
I'll say, yes, this person is going to become a
Texan today. But that's where the conversation has to begin.
Best available player, wide receiver, running back, D line, O line.

(06:17):
They chose this offseason to put themselves in a very
specific position when the draft began. They don't have an
offensive line and they don't have offensive linemen of the future.
They went out and signed a bunch of free agents.
They obviously made a trade with at Ingram. They have
the players to outfit an offensive line, and they have
a new coach both on the O line and as
OC but the future of their offensive line has not

(06:41):
improved at all, and you could argue that it's gotten
worse since they ended last season. And I figured the
best way to do that is to draft one of
the four best, six best, eight best offensive linemen. I
don't know better than them. They're much better football analysts
than I am, but they're awful offensive lineman evaluation. So far,

(07:02):
as proven by their recent drafts. It can't not worry you.
It has to it does me. Yeah, trade was fine,
but you got to go specific on what happened last
night and where they stand. So that's how I say it.

Speaker 3 (07:15):
Well, I think that in light of how many offensive
linemen were taken ahead of where they're going to now
pick let alone, how about the fact that it was
not It just ended up looking this way. But if
you were just sitting at home, you hadn't heard anything
that Casario said last night, You hadn't paid attention to anything,
and then you saw that one pick ahead of you

(07:35):
where you were going to pick Donovan Jackson at guard
was taken by the Minnesota Vikings. You would think, well,
that was the guy they wanted, and so they didn't
get him, so they made this trade. That's not what happened,
But it just looks that way. And according to Nick,
that's not what happened. Yeah, Well, according to him, he's
saying that, By the way, what does the high teens mean?

Speaker 4 (07:55):
It could be one way or the other, right, no, teen,
I said, well, I think it's when from a number standpoint,
it's nineteen. We literally were talking about that very thing
as it was happening last night. Because the pocket of
teams there their specific needs. Where you are in the draft,
you're starting to yell at the teams that don't have
a pick for a while. This is where you want
to jump up to if there is there weren't any

(08:16):
trades in this pocket. But I do think normally, especially
at that position group, it's where you often see it,
and so it's those teams. It was basically right after Indianapolis,
sixteen through twenty is my range.

Speaker 3 (08:26):
Yeah, but high teens in a draft could mean thirteen, fourteen,
fifteen because it's higher up than you. You know what
I'm saying. There's like, that's what he meant. I know,
no confusion, I know that's what he meant. But I'm
just saying that's how I was kind of thinking it
could go. Because when you see like, what are you doing, Dallas?
I know that Tyler Booker is an amazing talent that

(08:46):
the Texans would have loved to have had I'm sure,
but that's not like their first need.

Speaker 6 (08:50):
Is it.

Speaker 4 (08:51):
We're going to get into that next segment very, very specifically,
because if you're giving, you know, I think that turns
into best available player, Yes, player available on a draft.
So I don't fault the Cowboys for doing it. And
I think this goes a lot a long way into
we just sat here for three months. We're listening to
Daniel Jeremiah and Dane Brugler and Matt Miller and all

(09:12):
of our guests from last week and pretending that this
is what the NFL teams think. And I specifically mentioned
them because they do have intel inside these buildings and
with agents, but it's not always on point. And the
team is doing the very same thing that they are.
They're talking to agents, they're talking to players, they're talking
to teams, other teams, other people in other buildings, and
they might have a different idea. And I think that's

(09:35):
what what ultimately happen. Specific to Tyler Booker, as we're
telling you he should be there at twenty five, he
might even be there, you know, in thirty or in
the second round. And I think the reality inside the
Texans room was no chance. There's no chance that player
is available when we pick at twenty five. There's no
chance we can sit back and wait if in fact
that's somebody they want. Like I said, I've got something

(09:55):
for you. On the other side of this break, we'll
dive a little bit deeper into it. But none of
their needs clearly have been filled. But they started the
day with seven picks, they ended the day with ten.
They have picked very talented players at pretty much everywhere
in the draft, much more so than in the first round.
It's now three of Nick Cassario's five drafts where he's

(10:17):
picked nobody in the first round. Wasn't by choice the
first time. He came to a team that didn't have
a first round pick or a second round pick and
had no assets to go get them. Then he drafted
Derek Stingley Junior in one of his first rounds, and
then he drafted C. J. Stroud and Will Anderson in
one of his first rounds. And then he drafted somebody

(10:38):
that would help them get CJ. Gardner Johnson in one
of his first rounds. But last year, no first round
pick traded out and ultimately ended up with Kamari Laster
and this year traded it out and we'll have the
answer to who it got them on the other side
at some point this evening. Thirty fourth pick in the
draft is where they're slated to go first tonight, and
it's the second pick to go off the board tonight.

(10:59):
Cleveland as the first one. The Texans have the second one,
Warren Moons Titans have the third one. Oh, we're gonna
hear from Warren and the Browns are back on the
clock with the fourth pick thirty three through thirty six.
And remember the Texans have four other selections today another
five selections in the sixth and seventh rounds for Nick

(11:20):
Cassario to play with, and he will absolutely be playing
with it.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
He'll be playing with his new toys tonight in nine two,
Round two of the NFL Draft. We've got a lot
to discuss on that and as wex mentioned, the Astros
and Rockets will certainly factor in as well, among other things.
Here on a Friday edition of the program The.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (11:52):
Back here on the A Team, it is Friday. We
are into day two of the NFL Draft that we've
got hours to go before any selections are made. Yesterday afternoon,
before the first round selections were made, the Texans and
Browns got together on a deal. During the draft. The
Texans and Giants got together on a deal. Wouldn't be
surprised at all if both of those things happened as
we got through this afternoon's program. A dealer two made

(12:16):
before he picks made during the picks that are being made,
and again five of them come the Texans way. We
have to get into what I believe was on their
mind when they got to after Tennessee, after Travis Hunter
was traded up for after they got out of the
top ten, weren't a lot of offensive linemen off the board,

(12:36):
but one of the offensive linemen that they probably were
curious about where he might be was Kelvin Banks. Went
to the New Orleans Saints before the top ten was complete.
And I think he's another player that I think we
had a pretty good idea and the Texans probably had
an even better idea that while well liked by Houston
and many other teams, that second part was clearly going

(12:57):
to be true. Way too many other teams liked kel Banks.
He ended up going after only eight other picks went
off the board. Wasn't going to be there at twenty five,
probably wasn't going to be there at fifteen. I think
they knew that, and so while I think they liked him,
I think they already knew in order for us to
draft Calvin Banks, we're gonna have to give up more
than we want and the other team might not even
say yes anyway at that point in the draft. So

(13:19):
I don't think they were thinking him, But I do
think Tyler Booker at twelve was rather important. You know,
we noticed this last night a couple of reports coming
out of Dallas, and again more today from the people
that reported it. Texans were on the phone with the
Cowboys at number twelve. They wanted to draft a player
at number twelve. They had a deal in front of them.

(13:39):
It was not enough for the Cowboys to say yes too,
and the Texans were unwilling to make it nicer, make
it better, throw more in there that might have enticed
the Cowboys to say no. Cowboys drafted Tyler Booker. Before
we go too far into the mechanics of that deal
and what it then sent the Texans into. After that,
I thought they would love Tyler Booker. Tyler Booker from Alabama.

(14:01):
Tyler Booker basically the offensive version of an Alabama draft prospect,
mirroring Demiko Ryans. Demiko Rans wasn't necessarily the most talented
linebacker coming out in his draft class. He was a
very early second round pick, but his makeup screamed, Man,
I wonder if he's in our building for more than
five seconds before we'll give him a nickname, Captain Cap,

(14:23):
Like this guy runs the show and it's exactly what happened.
And I think they saw in Tyler Booker the same
thing that was going to happen inside their brand new culture,
inside the offensive line room, which was so toxic last year.
They had to make significant changes, which they already have
done and have not yet made the second phase happen
with new young talent. So I don't have any doubt

(14:46):
they loved Tyler Booker. I don't really have much doubt
that they wanted to trade up to twelve two draft
Tyler Booker. Now, if you remember last year, c J.
Stroud and his good buddy Micah Parsons were part of
the Bleacher Report draft cover and it was awesome because
both of those guys were locked in on what was
going on. CJ really had some great intel on the

(15:06):
incoming players. He was a little bit closer to the
college football game just from a time in the NFL standpoint.
Just really good stuff. It was fun to listen to
and it really provided some additional context and content over
the next couple of days. Well, the same thing happened
this year, other than CJ taking part in it. He
was not a part of their draft coverage yesterday, but
Micah Parsons was. Michaeh Parsons plays for the Dallas Cowboys,

(15:30):
so when they line up an interview with Tyler Booker,
the new Dallas Cowboy pick at number twelve, he's going
to have an opportunity to talk to him. So the
question was presented to Tyler about something he'd said about
how much he enjoys playing football because what he thinks
he does to the opposing players. So you listen in

(15:51):
as Michael listens in to his new teammate Tyler Booker
on what he loves about how he plays football.

Speaker 5 (15:57):
Like football is a child is a child's game.

Speaker 7 (16:00):
So like people wake up be like, man, I can't
wait to play this football game today. Their hype music,
they take all the pre workout, they get so excited
to play football until they come across Tyler Booker and
then when I'm going after you quarter after quarter, play
after play, series after series, and I start to see
that love leave their eyes, Like that's what makes me
love the game, Like I just really love like that.

Speaker 3 (16:31):
Okay, So if he was fired, he was ready to
run through a wall because Tyler wants to tear your
soul out as an offensive lineman.

Speaker 8 (16:40):
You know what's really funny about all that When they
announced the pick, Mike has said on air, and then
immediately one question in, we'ready to run through a wall.

Speaker 4 (16:51):
With this dude. That's important. I'm not even this is
not for effect.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
That's important if you're a Dallas Cowboys fan watching that,
and more important, that's important if you're Steven and Jerry
Jones watching that. Because this guy has gone on record
completely the other way about some of the decisions and
the way that organization's being run lately and not been
very filtered at all about it.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
So at least on this night, it was nice to.

Speaker 3 (17:16):
Hear something positive coming from Micah Parsons about the Dallas Cowboys.

Speaker 4 (17:19):
Yeah, and to that end, for those of you that
know the show, and Cole learned a little bit something
about the show last night, which we were going to
now feature here today. I played that audio specific to
why the Texans love Tyler Booker, why they wanted to
make a deal to move up to draft Tyler Booker.
You heard, Oh sweet, this is Dallas Cowboys informational. Let's

(17:41):
talk Dallas Cowboys football here. This is this is why
we're here, this is what this show is all about.
This is what our listeners want to hear, and you're hearing.
That's what you're doing. That's what we have to do here.
So again I introduced Cole to this kind of as
a teaser to what would be in store for our
listeners moving forward. But in light of the fact, rather

(18:01):
than talk about the Houston Texans and their fortunes on
the football field, one of us here would rather talk
about another team and their fortunes moving forward. So that's
exactly what we'll do on Sports Talk seven ninety. You're Southwest,
your deep Southwest home for your Dallas sports. Let's talk
Dallas sports. He's getting out of control. Listen. Maybe I

(18:25):
could talk a little bit more Texans if they had
done something last night.

Speaker 3 (18:30):
Where's the imaging for that? Where's the intro that says Trader?
Nick was at it again?

Speaker 4 (18:35):
You want me to create a Texans related open. We're
in Houston. We talk about it all the time. My gosh, people,
the ears would bleed, how often I'd have to play it.

Speaker 3 (18:43):
My ears are you're getting you know what wex is
getting an imaging ego. Now he's now in charge of
all of our features. He's gonna sing and perform all
of them to get us into our respective intros of
our segments.

Speaker 4 (18:58):
Yourself, lease tell of imaging. What's your or seven ninety?
What's your favorite baseball team to talk about? Obviously it's
the Yankees Sports seven ninety. You're Southwest home for Yankees Baseball?
What an ass I work with over here?

Speaker 3 (19:14):
You know when RAM shirts came out with that shirt
that said Clanton Blummer and an ass. I don't know
if Cole's ever seen that. These are the reasons why
that was me.

Speaker 4 (19:24):
We'll have plenty of We'll have plenty of opportunities over
the one thirty plus that still remain in the Major
League Baseball season and postseason. Just wait until I do
eye roll imaging to talk coming now. It's gonna be fun.
It's gonna be awesome now, truthfully speaking, if you give
us a moment, they have not come to an agreement
with Micah Parsons on a long term extension. They aren't
looking like they're gonna be super competitive in a division

(19:48):
that contains both of the conference finalists from last year,
something that would get him fired up, and he has
indicated his participation in their off season program all unfield
probably limited, but with some of the changes they clearly
have made, they fired their coach kind of last year. Yeah,

(20:09):
they didn't bring him back. Good for Mike McCarthy though
that he's not letting himself go postseason by me not
smoking weed, with Pat declining his offer to puff put
McAfee's having himself a week now. Well, he's just he's trying.
I don't think he's trying on purpose, but he's not changing,
which is what his ina.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
If I got choked out by Drew McIntyre at Ringside,
I'd probably need some weed too.

Speaker 6 (20:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (20:33):
I think he wants to get to learn the off
the defense. He wants to get you know, with his
new coaches with play like he wants to be a
part of all this, but he also has to do
what he and his agent think makes the most sense
for his long term financial future. And a player at
that caliber who's due to make that kind of money,
that's totally understandable. But he's the best player on the
team and it can be awkward, and they need him

(20:53):
moving forward. There's no question about do we extend him,
do we give him the like there's no debate. He's
he's he's your best player for probably for however long
he's on your roster. If they don't have as many
injuries defensively and people do come back as they were before,
they could still be very good on that side. And
you know, Dak Prescott's not a bad quarterback. I just
think he's oftentimes thrust into a stratosphere that he doesn't

(21:16):
quite belong in. You threw him into a realm that
he will never be able to achieve, and people just
don't realize that that's the problem with him. He's probably
gonna he hasn't played his last playoff game in my
opinion now, and I don't think he's played his last
playoff game as Cowboys quarterback either, But we'll see. But yes,
it was probably a pretty good day, even though it
wasn't a huge area of need. They're shifting from our older, established,

(21:43):
all drafted offensive line because of the Martin retirement and
some other injuries that have changed what they're doing. I
know they signed Tyron Back this offseason for a day,
but their Tyler based offensive line is what they're trying
to build moving forward, many more younger player, including Tyler Booker,
to try to take him into the next era. Definitely

(22:04):
something I would have endorsed. I think from a mock
draft chat perspective on our shows, we would have been, oh, what, Wow,
They're going from twenty five to twelve to go get
Tyler Booker, And it would have taken a minute for
us to realize, Yes, that's totally fine. They believe this
is a franchise caliber leader, tone setter, culture player that's

(22:30):
gonna stay on the on your line for the next
eight years. And if they.

Speaker 3 (22:33):
Believe that, even at guard, at some point maybe they'll
be right.

Speaker 5 (22:39):
But they've been come across Tyler Booker.

Speaker 4 (22:41):
They've been wrong too many times before. That offensive line.

Speaker 5 (22:45):
Come across Tyler Booker.

Speaker 4 (22:47):
Fifteen with Kenyan Green might be wrong with jew Scruggs
late second might be wrong on Blake Fisher late second.

Speaker 3 (22:53):
In a way, doesn't that kind of lend itself. Even
if you don't agree with what they did last night,
you don't maybe hate it as much because, well, this
isn't exactly the best track record at this position. So
maybe more picks to do damage. I don't know, but
more picks to do damage. He's He's done plenty of

(23:15):
damage with.

Speaker 4 (23:15):
Damage damage that there is a separation in this conversation
that I cannot ignore. He's going to draft good players
with these picks. He and his team of scouts and personnel,
they have a just as bad as their track record
is on offensive linemen is how good it is everywhere everywhere,
on every position, at every point in the draft. They're
finding starters in the fifth round, in the sixth round.

(23:37):
They're finding big time starters in the third round. They've
done it forever and they're going to do it again
today and tomorrow, and they're getting None of them are
going to be offensive linemen possibly that do something of
great value. They're going to have to get it right
to a degree they've never gotten it right before. In
finding a player in these rounds that can step in

(23:57):
and help this team. And if it's not immediate, it
is it certainly would have to be in the close
to near future. Plenty to discuss, and we'll start giving
you the names of who's actually available heading into the
second round of the draft, and some names you might
hear between thirty three and as they get to one hundred,
when they'll have the last of those selections. As we
continue here, but halfway through our number one on the
other side, we gotta go back to hoops for outstanding

(24:21):
elite best of X work by some of our favorite
people that comes your way.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Next the age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (24:33):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 9 (24:34):
We should be putting out between five and sim posts
a day.

Speaker 10 (24:37):
Four hundred people were arrested, so they save on social media.

Speaker 11 (24:41):
History repeats itself type bangels succeed. Never doubt that you're
the one to bustle no one.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
You'll believe you're the best.

Speaker 12 (24:53):
X.

Speaker 11 (24:54):
Nothing's gonna ever top you know, you're the best of
the post I've ever seen. You're the best of it,
breaking the entire enginey.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
Definitely some good stuff from yesterday to today on social
media for us to sift through and deliver on best
of X Before we do that. Golden State has released
information on Jimmy Butler's injury. He exited the game, as
we know, in the first quarter of Game two, underwent
an MRI yesterday which confirmed the injury as a pelvis

(25:34):
and deep gluteal muscle contusion. He bruised his butt, that
was reported earlier today by Sham Shrania. But his status
for Game three, which will be listed tomorrow, is questionable. Yeah,
this is a non update. I think it's he's playing.

Speaker 6 (25:51):
That's what.

Speaker 4 (25:52):
If he were not playing, he's in my opinion, he
would be listed out. He will be discussed at five
forty five ish. I think there's one. Steve Kerr will
meet with the media five forty five of our time
on SMAR time seven thirty tip off, so someone. I
don't know if he speaks an hour forty five before
the game or two, but he will say he's going

(26:14):
through a workout. We will see and we'll let you
know and then if you know who's starting. No, that's
how it will go, and we'll find out about half
an hour before tip off as rockets countdown gets underway.
I'll have that for you Saturday night. They'll have the
starting lineups and he will be in it. I hate
to be this guy.

Speaker 3 (26:32):
No, I don't, because this is why you can you
can call me a conspiracy theorist all that kind of stuff.
But when you find out that certain series involving certain
teams have more rest time than others, this is why it's.

Speaker 4 (26:49):
A big deal. No way he plays if that game's tonight, right,
But how did you know a player on that team
was gonna get hurt versus a player on your team.
But this is a built in cushion in case that happens,
have the same availability to it. They just didn't get hurt.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
Well, they don't have thirty five year olds going out
hurt because he's thirty five.

Speaker 4 (27:05):
He also didn't get hurt because of him and Thompson.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
Yeah, that's part of what a stupid soft fan base
they are.

Speaker 4 (27:11):
It's it's nauseating at this point on social media.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
Some of these people are getting insane amounts of traction
with these.

Speaker 4 (27:19):
Tweets because it's there's some of it's done because I
believe it, and some of it's done because I'm playing
social media. Here's what I want to do. I want engagements,
I want followers, I want people to believe in what
I do on the Twitter platform, So this is how
I'm going to go about it. I don't have to
believe in it. I just have to believe in how
to play the social media game.

Speaker 3 (27:40):
You But some of these people are of such little
consequence otherwise, and they're getting these kinds of numbers and
it's just honestly, it's a sad commentary on society. But
then again, we got way bigger fish to fry. We're
going to go down that road, so we won't.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
It will get into Draymond. I don't think we ever
gave you his comments on what he said after Game two,
the injury and his vantage point on it was the
first thing was asked when he hit the podium on
Wednesday evening. But we have that for you obviously. I
think we know what some others have said, how Steve
Kerr reacted to it, with the Rockets have said to it.
But there's more from the Rockets on that today because

(28:15):
of what you just mentioned the narratives around it. But
it's a different Draymond related item that we hit on
for Best of X. The Rockets fans felt compelled after
all these years of watching him in their building and
most of it in the postseason, and not too happy
about how games went, games were officiated, his antics, his actions,
and everything else that went into it. It came to
a head to a certain degree on Wednesday night when

(28:37):
they chanted his name, and right before that they said
the word you, and right before that they said a
curse word. And they did it multiple times. Was very
obvious on the broadcast.

Speaker 3 (28:46):
Both you and I were analytical way to assess that
phrase that was being.

Speaker 4 (28:50):
You and I were sitting on the opposite sides of
the arena in the respective geographical clubs. One is West,
one is East. Couldn't tell you which is which, even
though I sit in one of them. Ever gave I
was sitting in East and you were sitting in West,
and so we had perfect We could hear it the
entire time. You shoot a video while the players were together,
when Fred and Draymond were talking, you could hear it
very easily.

Speaker 13 (29:10):
There.

Speaker 4 (29:11):
So yesterday or maybe the day after the game, which
what if, Yeah, yesterday we gave you star Steve Kerr's
vantage point on what did he think about how the
fans were treating Draymond with their chanting and something that
happened last night brings us back into ec Best of
X today. So a reminder, what did Steve Kerr think

(29:31):
about chanting curse words at this father of children, Raymond Green?
Not ideal when a crowd is, you know, channing f you, Draymond.

Speaker 6 (29:41):
It's just I don't know.

Speaker 9 (29:43):
I mean they did in Boston a few years ago
in the finals.

Speaker 4 (29:47):
It is what it is now. This came to me
from a father of children. Draymond Green was also asked
about it, and he said it was an original, just
like Steve said, Boston did it before. And that's really
all he said about it. When it happened. It was
during one of them was during a jump ball at

(30:08):
the rockets end of the court and he was egging
the crowd on, asking for more. So he clearly heard
it clearly felt differently than Steve Kerr did about it,
very very very clearly, and so did another coach who
had to experience it. And somehow I think the children
have survived. The Detroit Pistons and the New York Knickerbockers
played last night. They played in Motown. That meant visiting

(30:31):
Knicks players were, well, they might be up against it.
What might the fans be yelling at them? And the
Pistons fans, over the course of a very entertaining and
close game, decided to chant something very very similar to
Jalen Brunson and Brunson's head coach Tom Thibodeaux, former Rockets assistant,
we love Tibbs. He was asked about it after the game.

(30:53):
I wonder if his response to it will be exactly
the same as Steve Kerr's or will it be this
he did, You.

Speaker 13 (31:01):
Didn't hear that? It's pretty loud those jail and those
are cheers? Okay, he lives.

Speaker 5 (31:09):
For that stuff.

Speaker 13 (31:11):
Yeah, I mean, Jaalen got a lot of hate out
there from the crowd.

Speaker 5 (31:15):
How do you think he handled that? And how do
you think he handled the game? He did?

Speaker 13 (31:19):
You didn't hear that? It's pretty loud those jail and
those are cheers.

Speaker 5 (31:26):
Okay.

Speaker 4 (31:27):
So the question, He's basically like, oh, man, we don't care,
our players don't care. We don't care. But if you
want to make me answered, I'll give you the answer
that I believe this. I'm not going to deride the
fans for it. This is what they're here to do.
Even though I'm not going to tell them to do it.
But I'm not gonna tell him not to. Our players
don't care. We've played NBA postseason basketball enough to not care.

(31:47):
We're from New York. Well, it's not even about being
from New York.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
It's because he's not soft as Sharman like Steve Kurr
is not from San Francisco.

Speaker 4 (31:55):
I'm old school or not. You're not.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
I know if you're not, and you're not, because if
you were, I mean again, think about Steve Kerr's history.
This is a guy who got punched out at practice
from Michael Jordan.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
You think he'd be of the Chicago Bulls. No, that's
the different that's the difference between now and then. Because
Draymond only has four titles and MJ has six.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
The ability for Steve Kerr all right, let me let
me rephrase this, a lot of titles for Steve. The
inability for Steve Kerr to separate the two eras, which
he has thrived in both of is fascinating to me.

Speaker 4 (32:32):
How he thrived in both of them? Would you say
I would you describe his thriving.

Speaker 3 (32:35):
Well, he thrived in the first era because MJ was
his teammate and Phil Jackson was his coach, and then
later Santa Claus in San Antonio was his coach.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
Santa Claus on one of the bumpy seats on the
back of the bus being led by two all time greats,
all time great coach, big NBA final shot. So you
can't take that away from him. Yeah, he can help
win that game.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
He has thrived in this era because he had one
of the greatest rosters bequeathed to him by Bob Myers
and Mark Jackson, who helped draft those guys.

Speaker 4 (33:09):
I don't care what you want to say.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
I don't even particularly like Mark Jackson, but I'm not
going to not give the guy credit for at least
putting the players in the building, if not coaching them
as well as people think Steve Kerr did. But then again,
Michael Walton coached them very well too. When Steve Kerr is.

Speaker 4 (33:24):
Having a bubble, you're talking about needing to acknowledge credit
due to Mark Jackson, and I don't even believe in that,
And you want to give no credit to Steve Kerr.

Speaker 3 (33:34):
I'm not giving no credit to Steve Kerr. I'm just saying,
come on, get real. Let's let's be realistic. Here and
not be like children.

Speaker 4 (33:43):
Well, this is basically the genesis conversation of children. Let's
not be children, and that was what all of this
stem from, because Draymond has kids. So come on, Rockets fans, be.

Speaker 3 (33:55):
Better and about again. Talk about two guys focusing on
the exact I missed aspects of this thing. One of
them is think of the children, his children, and the
other one, yeah, think of his children, and the other
one is, well, if you're gonna insult me in front
of my kids, at least be original.

Speaker 4 (34:11):
Two douchebags. They play for a douche organization like Tibbs
for his player. Draymond didn't mind it at all. He,
like I said, he encouraged it. So guess what, I
hate the Warriors and I hate them even more now.
I don't know if you guys were aware. We'll have
more Draymond news coming up. We gave you the Jimmy
Butler news, and we've got plenty more to discuss, both
on the Texans and their draft intentions for today with

(34:32):
five selections, the first one coming at thirty four, and
of course we will talk a little Astros baseball also
as they head into another very winnable series here on
Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (34:43):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (35:00):
It is the eight team Sports Talk seven ninety winding
down the two o'clock hour.

Speaker 4 (35:04):
When we start at the top of the hour, you.

Speaker 3 (35:06):
Can look at us on top of hearing us because
we'll be simulcast on Space City Home Network. It's Friday
edition of the program. Draft ongoing. Astros will resume their
schedule tonight. Rockets will resume their playoff schedule tomorrow night. Gosh,
this is like October when the Astros are good. It's
a very, very very busy time of year in which

(35:27):
some aspect of all three of the major professional teams
here in town have something big going on. We've been
talking about the fact that, well, we don't have a
lot to talk about when it comes to the Texans
because they haven't made a pick yet, but they do
have more picks than they did the last time we
sat in these chairs yesterday.

Speaker 4 (35:43):
But I've got to get this off my chest.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
I've got to get it out of the way as
it pertains to someone else in the division and as
is usually the case, as is usually the case when
it comes to me in Wex we look at this
very very differently. We always are able to get along harmoniously.
We have not to this point fractured each other's skulls
or done anything of that nature. But there is some

(36:07):
discourse at times, what the bleep are the Jaguars doing.
I know what they're trying to do, But if you are,
if you're trying to get a once in a you know,
a generational talent, once in a life time player, blah
blah blah blah blah, well they need to be doing
that at quarterback. But as we talked about during the break,
WEX they are basically the only people, maybe not the

(36:29):
only people in the NFL, but there's very few that
think they actually have their franchise quarterback at this point.

Speaker 4 (36:35):
It's they think they do and they're really not even
doubting it. And they're also in a position because of
what the general manager walked into, because this is zero
one with month three, month four with James Gladstone. He's
not the one who extended Trevor Lawrence. He's not the
one who if he chose to go another route immediately
they would have to figure out how to make that

(36:56):
work from a cap standpoint, and that's that's a factor
when you he's not quite being hitting the cap at
the biggest figure he's going to hit the cap, but
it's a big enough figure that it's of significance. So
what they're trying to do is make his life easier.
What they're trying to do is something that no other
NFL team has had the opportunity to do in forever
or chosen to do. And they drafted sho heeo Tani,

(37:17):
and they drafted a player that is could be more
valuable to their roster than any other player that's been
in any other draft that doesn't play quarterback in twenty years.
If it turns out that way, no way. You're looking
at this draft and saying, man, look at what they
gave up. But you're doing what the team who made
the deal, Jacksonville, wants you to do. They're saying, look
what they got Travis Hunter being one of the top

(37:38):
five wide receivers in the NFL in the very near future,
or being or top ten and being one of the
top six to eight corners in football in the next
couple of years. If you know that as GM of
the Jaguars, and you believe that that it's going to
happen at either spot, even if you're not sure which one,
which is probably a good thing because if you think
he's that good at both, and it is a deal

(38:00):
I would make. It is a risky move for what
they obviously gave up, but the player they could have
drafted at five or done something else, traded down and
added more assets. What were they giving up really this year?
And we don't know yet what they're giving up next year.
When we saw this deal go down last night, I
reminded everybody how Trevor Lawrence has led the Jaguars to
a top five pick twice. Already he was at the

(38:23):
top pick in the draft, so he joined a team
that earned the top pick when he got there. That's
not on him, but he then delivered the top pick
as their starter the very next season as their starter
on that team played football poorly enough as a team
to earn the number one pick in back to back seasons.
And then this past year, who is the starter he was?

(38:44):
Where are they drafting fifth? So if they do that again,
then now the value they gave up is massive. They
just gave away a top five pick in addition to
the fifth pick in this year's draft. I don't think
that's gonna happen. I think they're a little bit better
than that, whether or without Trevor Lawrence playing at a
high level. And now it's just a matter of what
do you believe you have a Hunter, And that's where

(39:04):
there may be varying opinions. Their opinion was he's going
to be elite, and we potentially got an elite player
to do that on both sides snap counts. Who knows,
But I do believe he's going to play both sides.
I do believe he's going to be a fun player
for the league to feature. Sure, maybe when they play
the Texans, so there's probably a little more interest in that.
He'll literally want for you know, he's this awesome wide receiver,

(39:28):
but his matchup versus C. J. Stroud will matter because
he'll be on the field when they play defense. This
is a unicorn. It's a unique player moving up three
spots in what it took for Gladstone to do it.
I wasn't mad at it last night, and I'm not
mad at today. As a neutral observer, it's a draft viewer.

Speaker 3 (39:47):
Far be it from me to criticize the Jaguars from
getting a corner of that caliber at in the first
three picks of the draft, since clearly that's what the
Texans did, and they did it without having their franchise
quarterback because wasn't Stingley the year before?

Speaker 4 (40:01):
CJ and will Anderson? Yeah, he was love he's guy.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
And on top of that, if Jags fans were listening
to this segment, for example from duvou County.

Speaker 4 (40:10):
Guess what the people associated with the Jaguars for longer
than Liam Cohen know how to say it. Eric Armstead
was on the mic for that last night. He did
it right, he did Yeah, he did it right. But
it goes back to what we talked about at the
very beginning of the segment. You don't actually have your
franchise quarterback, even if you have paid him as such. So,

(40:33):
I mean, while this is important, and I saw somebody
last night say that Texans have to deal with him,
you know, twice a year. Okay, I'm fine with that.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
As long as Sunshine is the quarterback there, I'm absolutely
fine with that.

Speaker 4 (40:47):
I'll deal with whatever, and CJ will as well.

Speaker 3 (40:49):
I'm more worried about the line in front of CJ
than CJ having a throw against Travis Hunter in the
division twice a year. Let's put it that way. I
guess that's the most simple way to put all right.
Three o'clock Goer Coming up next, simulcast on Space City
Home Network. Coming up next, what is the Texans plan
for tonight?

Speaker 2 (41:08):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (41:11):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam We're talking
your team there is Adam Clinton and Adam Weckler are
the A Team.

Speaker 3 (41:30):
Welcome into the three o'clock hour here on Sports Talk
seven ninety and now simulcast on Space City Home Network.

Speaker 4 (41:37):
It is a Friday edition of The A Team.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
In many respects, this is our favorite edition of the
show each week, but I do like Mondays as well.
A lot of things happen on the weekends at times,
and as it pertains to this weekend, it's going to
be action packed because if you were watching last night,
you already know the Texans did acquire more draft picks,
but didn't make any trading out of the first round,
make a deal with the New York Giants, who promptly,

(42:03):
by the way, did not draft Shadoor Sanders at the
quarterback position, although they did take a quarterback.

Speaker 4 (42:10):
They're smart.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Well, well we're learning about that. There are We're getting
into that next segment.

Speaker 4 (42:15):
The ones that paid Daniel Jones and didn't pay Saquon
they're the smart ones. We're smart about not taking Shadur,
We're smart about taking Jackson Dart.

Speaker 8 (42:23):
I will get into this later with you. Wex we
were so we got into it last night.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
Snarky today, I mean, far be it for me to
let you get away with saying, Man, I think the
team the draft of Jackson Dart at twenty five is smart.

Speaker 3 (42:37):
He's not saying that though he just did. No, he's
saying they made a smart decision.

Speaker 4 (42:40):
What exactly is out and about at three o'clock today?

Speaker 3 (42:43):
Three o'clock guys perpetually wet blanketing everything.

Speaker 4 (42:47):
But at least I'm not riding a bike on stage
and Lambeau like Roger and the other cohorts that introduced
us to the draft did last night. Can we talk
about the introduction of the draft last night?

Speaker 14 (42:58):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (42:58):
Sure, I mean I couldn't hear it at the time.
I have since learned of some of the things that
were said about a bunch of Green Bay quote unquote
luminaries former Packers. James Jones, I believe was out there.
Obviously Clay Matthews was out there as well.

Speaker 3 (43:12):
Were you aware that the current leader of the free
world had such disdain for the Bears organization?

Speaker 4 (43:17):
I believe he was telling a lie. I don't believe
that came from our fearless leaders. So if I were
to guess, if I were to guess when he said
I talked to him, But let me open this letter
from an envelope I have to unfold so I can
tell you what he told you. He ruined the bit.

Speaker 3 (43:34):
He did ruin the bit. Yeah, that's all right. I
did think the crowd was cool. I mean, we talked
about this.

Speaker 4 (43:39):
Two hundred thousand people, there's pretty neat. They were all
in one place and we Cole and I talked about it.
We were all talking about it. If it happens, it's
going to be awesome. And as it turned out, it
happened for one of ours, a player that we know
very very well here in a Houstonian and Matthew Golden
and the longhorn receiver he's drafted by the Green Bay Packers.

(44:00):
Probably wasn't his most enjoyable several hour lead up to
that selection, but it all changed as soon as it happened.
Because his team's fans are on site in his team's building.
I think they get to go out there. That's a
big part of it. And I gave their president, Mark Murphy,
who made the announcement, credit for setting it up the

(44:20):
way he did. He he knew, he knows, he's in
touch with the embrace the mode. We don't draft wide
receivers in the first round. It's not a narrative, it's
a thing. It's been twenty plus years. He gave the numbers,
so he put it, He put it out there. He
he got the crowd going with what he had to say,
and so he set up Matthew Golden to be absolutely
beloved and so far, so good.

Speaker 3 (44:41):
Yeah, he if he does what he does at Tech,
what he did at both Texas and U of H,
I think they'll absolutely love love him.

Speaker 4 (44:49):
Yeah, definitely want one of the better picks and more
fun picks of Green Bay going into the draft. And
I tell him, you're not going to be able to
make a trade and you're drafting mat Mathew Golden. Believe it.
It's a pretty good night. So what position was he
taken at or what twenty three twenty So that's why
some people here were like, could it happen? Is it

(45:09):
possible he slips two more spots if he was, nobody
trades up and neither of the two teams sitting there.
And if it happens, would the Texans pull the trigger?

Speaker 3 (45:17):
Are you saying that we were basically two picks away
had that pick not been made by the packers from
my scenario of a bold prediction for the Texans unfolding,
do you think they'd taken He said.

Speaker 4 (45:29):
They would see that.

Speaker 3 (45:29):
I would that they would take a wide receiver instead
of an offensive lineman.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
I didn't say who. Yeah, I would have turned out
to be even bolder than your prediction, because I think
it was fair to say you were you were thinking
a different receiver. Wow, there's no way he's sitting there. Yeah,
that would have been the text. Try to take it better.
I would have if they what they did was trade out.
When six of the eight linemen had already been taken
and both of the Josh's were still available Joss Connery

(45:52):
and Josh Simmons, they chose to add to their arsenal
slide only nine picks back. Probably feel like there's a
bunch of players they like, acknowledge that maybe one they
could have drafted at twenty five is still draftable. That's
what I wanted to get to you as they get
to two picks from now. So, in my opinion, I
think there's a pretty good chance they would have taken Golden.

(46:12):
But I'm not one hundred percent sure, and I don't
have enough inside intel on their thinking to say it
for sure that they would have I think the answers, yes,
they would have drafted.

Speaker 8 (46:21):
I think they would have at least had a long,
hard conversation on what would be the asking price to
move back with the wide receiver of this caliber on
the boardstone.

Speaker 4 (46:28):
He's better than the wide receiver they will draft tonight
at thirty four for Missouri.

Speaker 8 (46:33):
I will say that, Oh, look at you already making
a bold prediction.

Speaker 4 (46:35):
H I didn't.

Speaker 3 (46:36):
We're gonna have to do bold predictions for a second
consecutive nything is that what they're doing.

Speaker 4 (46:40):
Look at me. Going all the way into the second
pick of tonight's draft, every single undrafted player is available
to the Texans but one. Every undrafted player is available
to them at thirty four except for one. So they
pretty much can take whoever they want. Yeah, and who'd
you say they're gonna take Luther Burden the third? If
you look at their needs, you would think differently time out.

(47:02):
If you look at the board of players and talent.
I think it has to be him, and I understand
there's reasons why it might not be.

Speaker 8 (47:11):
What's the time out ac, Yeah, it's the right pick
if they do that one.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
And I'm soothsaying no, No, I'm not sooth saying you.

Speaker 8 (47:19):
What I'm saying is Wax brought up a great point
in the first hour. You look at the offensive lineman
that are left on the board and Luther Burden is
sitting there at thirty four, You feel way more confident
making a trade up to go get one of those
linemen than passing on Luther Burden for one of those
linemen and hoping that he falls into your range.

Speaker 3 (47:38):
Breance SRII, this is the first tackle that's probably gonna
be available.

Speaker 4 (47:43):
Probably if he's first on your board. And I could
probably ask five different people and Cole I'd consider them
all draft experts, and he might not be. He might
not even be the next second or third or fourth
tackle on any particular board. You could pick up the
phone and ask for some advice and some intel and
see if Bill O'Brien answers, Oh no, because Boston College

(48:06):
lineman Azu Trepello hey on the board. To just do
something real quick before we go any further.

Speaker 3 (48:12):
Let's not take anybody associated with Bill O'Brien if we
want the Texans organization to continue to put him in
the rearview mirroring.

Speaker 4 (48:20):
There's not a player good enough to take it. Thirty
four at offensive line, I'm lying at a list right now, right,
and they're going to draft one of the players near
the top of the best available offensive lineman tonight. They're
going to draft one of them. But they sure as
heck shouldn't be doing it. At thirty four.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
There are twenty five players on this particular page. I'm
just this is just kind of like throwing a dart
right at what is left as far as best available,
and on this particular one, just this group of twenty
five players that can basically fit on the page right
now that I'm looking at. For every offensive lineman that's available,
there's at least one, if not one and a half

(49:00):
receivers as far as a ratio that are being said
as that put it.

Speaker 4 (49:05):
This way, I'll take a probably different list of twenty
five there's two offensive linemen on it. Yes, best available
player and you can take it with a grain of
salt for sure.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
And Luther Burden is one of two wide receivers before
well more than two.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
There's also a lot of players on a lot of people.
Luthor Burd is not the second best available player on
probably twenty five boards at least, if not thirty boards.

Speaker 3 (49:26):
But at the wide receiver position you would put him
ahead of say Jalen Knowle or Jayden Higgins are questions
because both of those are ranked ahead of him on
this particular Actually one one is is on either side
of him, and Trey Harris is one spot ranked ahead.

Speaker 7 (49:43):
Cool.

Speaker 4 (49:43):
That is incorrect, Cool fantastic. I'm just saying, is it
supposed to be like this? Doc? Just so, I'm sorry,
that is incorrect saying what I'm seeing right now in
this particular. Did cold you catch oh Luther on the
social media's last night? Absolutely tell the people what Luther
was posting.

Speaker 8 (50:00):
Not only was he getting ready to show the world
why he is going to be the steal of round two,
but he was shown working out at Missouri's complex, saying
wait until they see me. Okay tomorrow, Now give me
some latitude here if you will.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
Sure he posted a picture. Yes, it's a picture of
a water bottle, his yellow gloves, his cleaked, a flip
flop or slide better term, his keys, his helmet, and
a football and they're all placed rather strategically for an
awesome ig photo just beyond the end zone of the
football field. There's a timestamp and it says twelve fifty

(50:38):
two am, am I, And it also says something into
the along the lines I'm gonna show them what's up.
Do you believe this picture was taken sometime near twelve
fifty two am today, April twenty fifth, twenty twenty five,
or do you believe this was a picture already found

(50:58):
in his or the social media department at Missouri Football's
camera role.

Speaker 8 (51:02):
That was one taken probably in the middle of June
of last year when Texas, when Missouri was getting ready
to go on a run to the college football playoff.

Speaker 4 (51:09):
That's my picture. A couple of things.

Speaker 3 (51:12):
First of all, just just because it's interesting for what
the who we're talking about him going to his pro
comp according to this one is Stefan Diggs.

Speaker 6 (51:21):
It is.

Speaker 4 (51:21):
And secondly, and by the way, the Stefan Diggs comp
isn't the Texans Stefan Diggs, it's the It's the Buffalo.
It's the prime Stefan Diggs. It's the it's the caliber
player he could be at his best.

Speaker 8 (51:36):
I think it's the end of Minnesota early Buffalo. Stefan
Diggs is his best version.

Speaker 3 (51:40):
Another thing written in this paragraph, though small hands smells
like cabbage. Okay, the cabbage part is Austin Powers. The
other thing is, though more importantly again and I know
what Cole just said. The Cole is once again asking
me that on a night where the Texans have not
taken an offensive lineman in the first night of the draft,

(52:01):
there he is now he gold this is cold doing
this is now asking me to be happy that they
don't take that position with the first pick on night
two of the draft.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
You should body dollar. I am okay.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
If that's the case, then why are we taking any
offensive lineman in this draft?

Speaker 4 (52:17):
Because they all suck?

Speaker 8 (52:18):
Can I explain in the next commercial that says to me,
I promise you I have a reason behind it.

Speaker 6 (52:23):
All right?

Speaker 4 (52:23):
Do it when we when we when we go to break.

Speaker 1 (52:27):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (52:37):
Before we start.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Throwing rocks at each other over Shador Sanders, I do
want to expand upon what we were talking about last segment,
and by that I mean I want Cole Thompson and
Wex to explain to me why I should be happy
about the Texans taking a wide receiver with their first
pick of the draft on Night two.

Speaker 8 (52:56):
Well, let's start with the fact that we don't know
if they're gonna take a wide receiver. We're telling you,
is that the best course right now to where you
walk away feeling better about the Texans is it they
take a wide receiver at thirty four.

Speaker 4 (53:07):
So let's start off with this.

Speaker 8 (53:09):
Luther Burden, in my opinion, is this year's Brian Thomas junior.
He's falling down boards for no particular reason other than
the fact that something is off with his overall game
that most I would say personnel members aren't excited about.
But when you get him in the right system, he's
gonna flourish. We watched it at Missouri for three straight years.

(53:30):
Consistency in the slot, he lined up on the outside,
he was great on special teams. He rarely drops balls.
He's a very good route runner. He wins at the
intermediate part of the field. He's played in an offense
that allows him to be a complimentary piece. More importantly,
he takes pressure off of the opposing wide receiver, THEO Wiz,
Mookie Cooper, whoever else you want to throw in that

(53:51):
running over the last few years, and he is a
serviceable run blocker in the open field, which you need
at this point because of somebody has got to be
able to open up lanes seven to ten yards down
the field. For Joe Mixon, you get that at this value.
Number one, it's a smart pick because if he is
the best player that's left on the board far and
away for my money. Number two, it's a position of need.

(54:14):
It's a major position of need that you have to
feel confident that he can earn and more importantly, be
a part of for the long term. Four years from now,
Luther Burton is going to be a reason why the
Texans have one of.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
The best passing attacks. And you have to consider Nico
Collins is a long term Texan and that's it. Nobody
else in their wide receiver group is a long term Texan,
even Christian Kirk, they would have to sign him to
an additional year's worth of contracts in order to do that.
They have some younger players, but even those guys Mechi
and Xavier Hutchinson are on the backside of their rookie
deals and aren't really trending towards getting a second deal.

(54:47):
It's certainly not a lucrative one that you added Justin Watson,
who's been pretty much an afterthought in our discussions about
the wide receivers, and that's probably accurate. He's a name,
he's it. He played with one of the most potent
passing attacks up until last Yearkansas City for several years
with a host of different players, and all of those
hosts of players were always in front of him on
the depth chart and were much more popular targets for

(55:08):
Pat Mahomes and Kansas City. One last thing on Burden.
He was first team All SEC back to back seasons.
He had twelve hundred yards and eighty six catches in
twenty three. He had less than seven hundred yards and
twenty five fewer catches last year, but still landed on
first team All SEC both seasons. Last year, By every

(55:30):
possible measurement and eyeball test was not nearly as successful
as season. He wasn't as big a part of the offense.
They obviously didn't get as strong of an offensive play
or their play on offense wasn't as good this past
year that it was the year before. Quarterback had a
lot to do with it. There are some concern about, well,
why did this? Why was there? There were several different
factors in the trend down pretty missed multiple games. Yeah,

(55:53):
that's why I said, with the quarterback issues, I think
that was part of the reason. But I would agree
with the assessment of that's all old news to me. Now,
what are you doing in this draft? If you're the Texans,
If they don't draft a wide receiver, specifically him, they
still shouldn't be drafting an offensive line with what's available
at thirty four. I'm telling you they should draft one.

(56:15):
They should draft one in the top forty probably tonight,
maybe top forty five. I might be willing to go
back that. So this is a value argument. Well, whoever
they're drafting an offensive line, I think they'll be reaching
for them. But I think that's a must. I don't
know what pick it's going to be because they're definitely
trading up from fifty eight in my opinion, But take
rudd Ledge as a player. Ret Ledge is a player
probably worth discussing because I think there's a real good

(56:37):
chance that's somebody that they're looking at. They could be
looking at an additional Georgia player, although I'd be a
little less enthusiastic about going all the way to the
middle of their line and drafting a center. And I yes,
and I certainly wouldn't do it in the forties or fifties.
I think today is fine. Fifty eight. I would do it,
not at forty two or forty five in a trade up,

(56:58):
but just wanted to put a couple of names out
there that I think there's real interest in the Texans
and be a guess as to where, because I'd say
no at thirty four, and I don't expect it at
fifty eight, even though that player could be there, I
just don't expect it there. I think the Texans are
moving around a See.

Speaker 8 (57:14):
Before I just shout out for like the next thirty months,
let me ask you, you get the version of Chris
Godwin in Tampa in Luther Burdon, Happy about that?

Speaker 6 (57:21):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (57:22):
Yeah? So okay that he's got it. But that's the argument.

Speaker 8 (57:25):
That's the argument in my opinion, because if it's a
similar style of offense that last year was top ten
in scoring, you're adding in a weapon on the outside
for one year to replace Tank Dell, and then you
can have this conversation, Hey, Luther Burdon's a slot receiver. Well,
Tank Dell's fully healthy, and now he's on the outside again,
and now we have three guys locked up through twenty
twenty six, and we can decide on what we want

(57:46):
to do with Tank long term and we can have
a top ten scoring offense.

Speaker 4 (57:50):
To me, that ends the argument.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
Todd Again, this is very very simplistic, but I feel
like that's okay given who we're talking about and what
they've done. None of that happens if you can't protect
your quarterback.

Speaker 4 (58:04):
There's no top ten offense with Luther Burden on it.
Yet they don't have the ability to sample amazing the
way that they want to and from where they're starting.
They're not a top fourteen, fifteen eighteen offense. That they
were not a good offense. There's so much there are
too many other teams that outplay them. Offensively for me
to vault them that high just with the addition of
this player in new OC, a new line coach. And

(58:27):
I'm not even I'm not trying to rip the players
that they added, even though they're all coming off of
unsuccessful seasons, they're probably going to be more successful offensively
this year, even before we know what else they're drafting,
Because I think they specifically targeted this actual coach, not
the one who won the lottery by being their selection
after they interviewed everybody. I think this was specific in

(58:49):
nature to we need someone who's capable of doing what
we didn't have done last year, and that's week to
week changes and in game changes. If you spent all
week preparing for ex opponent and then you're early in
the or late in the first quarter, you're running your
fifteenth play and it's clear what you prepared for is
not what's happening out there. What you thought your line

(59:11):
could handle, they cannot. Well, are you going to spend
the next three quarters saying, oh, well, we just spent
six days pretending to wanting to do this and I'm
just gonna stick with it and see if it works,
or are you capable of going to a different portion
of your playbook, leaning on what you have already taught
these guys, which you've already run at different points of
your season, maybe not specific to this week's game plan

(59:32):
that you want to go to, because what you're doing
isn't working for CJ and the offense. And I think
that's why Nick Kaylee is here fully recognized making that statement.
You're asking a lot of a first time play caller
with his first ever playbook brought to the table parts
of everywhere he's been. Clearly, it's no different than what
Bobby Slok was two years ago. Both are relatively young,

(59:53):
yet Kaylee has a little bit more NFL coaching experience,
but relatively similar backgrounds to they're ascent to first opportunity
to call plays. Demiko Ryans is going to be coaching
a team for his third season. He'll have a first
time play caller for the second of those three seasons,
and all those things matter. But you've gotten to a
point to me where the idea that they're making their

(01:00:16):
line significantly better in the twenty twenty five draft, I
just don't believe it. They might draft a player that's
better than Je Scruggs. They might draft a player that
ultimately outplays Blake Fisher, and they certainly should draft players
that outplay anybody they signed or traded for Tomlinson, Brown, Robinson, Ingram.
But did you land an awesome player? Did you land

(01:00:38):
a sure fire eight year starter? It's nothing more than
a maybe, and it certainly doesn't have to happen, and
it better not happened at thirty four. I just want
to feel better about CJ.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
Stroud moving forward because he's protected, not because oh he's
got weapons, and I know he needs.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
To me to me.

Speaker 4 (01:00:55):
Your idea of it went out the door yesterday, and
it's not all Nick's five. The only thing he really
maybe could have done differently is overpay the Cowboys and
then put all their eggs in the We better get
Tyler Booker right and make the Cowboys say yes to
this deal. And you know, again, trading with the Cowboys
and getting them to say yes means the Cowboys have

(01:01:17):
to be okay with passing on thirteen guys because you're
telling him you can't pick anybody at twelve and now
you can't pick again until twenty five. That's a hard
trade to pull off. And that's one of the reasons
you say no, in addition to the fact it appears
they liked the same player or the tyler. Overpay to
move up one spot.

Speaker 8 (01:01:36):
No, I'll overpay to go up to like twenty one
and make sure that he also is there.

Speaker 4 (01:01:39):
But it's gonna cost you at least a third round pick,
by the way, who do which is perfectly fine for me.
That's why I say it went out the window. They
chose not to do that.

Speaker 3 (01:01:47):
Yeah, and don't get me started on how maddening his
press conference was. Not for any particular reason. I just
I'm not particularly a huge fan of the way he talks.
He puts a line in the sand.

Speaker 4 (01:01:57):
I offered you something we in this room believe is
perfectly good value, if not more so. You're winning this
trade the other team who he's talking to, But I'm
not willing to let you win it by a ton.
That's my foots in the sand. I'm not giving you
any more. I have to put my foot down at
some point. If you say no to us, then there's
nothing we can do about that.

Speaker 6 (01:02:12):
Out of you.

Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
Last night, that's what he says, is that clip of
Draft Day was floating around.

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
That movie you love so much it's a comedy. I
do love it. That's very entertaining.

Speaker 3 (01:02:20):
Oh, by the way, real quick, before we go to break,
who do you guys agree on who the player he
was referring to was that they still have on their
board it's available to them.

Speaker 4 (01:02:29):
We'll discuss that in the next segment because there's a
couple of possibilities on who that might be, considering what
where they were at twenty five, all the picks that
we saw go off the board after it, because there
were several picks to go to until they got to
the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles pulling off their deal,
which was also entertaining last night. But yeah, what's actually
on the board, what's best available, what makes the most
sense of the Texans and what should where should they

(01:02:51):
move up to tonight to get higher than fifty eight
to go with thirty four or hit on those items decks.
Obviously more discussion from us and from you on Rockets
Warriors Game three, Astros Royals Game one coming up tonight.

Speaker 1 (01:03:05):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
It is the A team Sports Talks seven ninety, Space
City Home Network. All right, so this mystery player, it's
just so over the top for effect. Nick Cassario last
night talking about the fact that there's at least one
guy they had on their board available with the number
thirty four pick that they now have after trading back

(01:03:37):
from twenty five with the New York Giants, and you know,
just referring to the fact that there's one guy.

Speaker 4 (01:03:43):
Already still on the board that they would have liked
to have picked.

Speaker 3 (01:03:46):
And I asked, you, guys, who this mystery guy is,
And if you agree that it's the same person, good question.

Speaker 6 (01:03:54):
Actually one of the players that we were talking about
is actually still on the board.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
Yeah, so it's a good question.

Speaker 6 (01:04:00):
Well or not we actually picked the player, Like, we'll
see if that actually happens.

Speaker 4 (01:04:04):
Very unlike Nick, I thought, oh, revealing anything, you mean,
except on the night of drafts, because he'll speak again tonight,
and they'll speak again on Friday or on Saturday. He
does have a tendency if again, I do believe him.
But I do also say this, if he's giving you
the real story rather than telling you something that may

(01:04:26):
or may not have happened, I do believe what he
explained last night to that particular question by John Alexander
of The Chronicle. They had players they wanted to take
at twenty five. Every team does when their spot comes up,
even if they might execute a Dray trade, and they
did so they traded out of it. That means twenty six,
twenty seven, well, twenty five first, but twenty six, twenty seven,
twenty eight, twenty nine, thirty, thirty one, thirty two all

(01:04:47):
those players had to be picked last night, and clearly
Jackson Dart was not one of them. They were not
going to They have no intention of drafting quarterback at
any of those spots or any of the remaining spots
they have in this evening or tomorrow's draft, so you
can immediately eliminate him even from their board. But he
says that the player remains. I think if you watch

(01:05:08):
the two offensive linemen go off and you look at
what else was drafted there, I would believe they would
also have been on their board. I'm surprised that they
didn't just draft one of them there at twenty five,
what I think would have made some sense. I think
he got really good value for the trade. I've tried
to make that clear. The actual value when you look

(01:05:29):
at what they did for the future of this football team.
This year and beyond. It is easy to like the trade.
It's hard to knock the trade. Their immediate future is
not like most teams in the NFL. Their immediate future
is how long do we want to keep knocking on
the door and having them open it and punch us
in the face, because they've done that for two straight years. Yeah,

(01:05:51):
and that's the place they sit in the same place now.
They're knocking on the conference title game's door, but they're
being met by a of punches and they're bloodied and
buried going home. And they haven't done anything this offseason
yet that suggests otherwise. So they've put themselves in a
position to almost have to draft free, almost have to

(01:06:13):
put a better product in one very particular area on
this football team because they chose. They chose this was
the off season rather than next offseason, rather than after
Laramie Tunzel's contract runs out, rather than another year of
learning about Blake Fisher and Juice Scruggs and Jarrett Patterson.
And I don't really I'm not faulting them. I'm just saying,
this is what they did. They made themselves this bed,

(01:06:34):
they put themselves in this position. It's honestly, no different
than many other seasons they've had long before Nick Cassario
was here. I didn't have any problem with the Rick
Smith era Texans saying goodbye to the guy who wrote
on his shoes Dante Robinson, pay me Rick. That's fine,
but you can't not do anything to replace him, and

(01:06:54):
that's what they did, and they can't do that now. Either.
It's okay to say goodbye to Laramie Tunzel, it's okay
say goodbye to Shack Mason and Kenyon Green, but you
can't go out and do what they did this offseason
with lesser players Trent Brown, lesser player Lake and Tomlinson
on the interior lesser player I mean, and expect to
get significantly better because they don't have to get a

(01:07:16):
little better. They can't do what they want to do
with the twentieth best or eighteenth best offensive line, I
don't think, and that's where they still need to jump
up to. Initially, potentially, with what they've done this year,
they should be a striving for a top twelve offensive line,
one that can pass, block and run block successfully. They
haven't had one of those lines long before CJ's.

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
Arrival, So give me a scenario where I should feel
good about this draft.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
Well, it's not about feeling good or bad. It's just
one area. Here's how you can feel good. Wait till
we get back on Monday, and I say they drafted
very good players. They drafted players that would start in
other places. This team is so good they may not
because you draft any player in the secondary, he has
zero chance to start. If you draft any line back,
he has zero chance to start. If you draft an

(01:08:02):
edge rusher, he has zero chance to start. Zero point
one injury could dictate otherwise a serior defensive lineman, that
player could start. I don't think they would. And you're
also at some point, you're at the thirty fourth pick
and the seventieth pick and the eightieth pick, and you're
not necessarily forecasting them as year one starters. But these
players aren't going to matter. They're going to be really,
really good players. Like all the almost all of the

(01:08:24):
great players that Nick drafted at wherever he drafted them,
they were immediate starters because your team was terrible, because
your team didn't have anyone, You didn't have anyone in
front of them, because everybody that was starting as someoney
you wanted to get rid of. He's built a team
that that clearly is no longer true. They're entirely one, completely,

(01:08:45):
totally ready to dominate the NFL defensively with zero help
from this year's draft. Not forecasting they draft zero defensive players,
but I'm telling you the twenty twenty five defense is
one hundred percent ready right now today. They need some
depth in this spot. They need some you know, maybe
somebody for the future to replace somebody who won't be
here in a year. Sure, then it's like the complete

(01:09:06):
opposite on offense. Did you see Fox Sports's mock for today?
I saw the PFF mock. What does this mock you
refer to? What do they say?

Speaker 8 (01:09:15):
So there's two marks out there that I just wanted
to openly vomit ad so so Fox Sports.

Speaker 4 (01:09:21):
Rob rang very well respected to you. I like him
a lot.

Speaker 8 (01:09:24):
He has the Texans going best player available, which would
be Will Johnson, the cornerback out of Michigan, which makes
absolutely no.

Speaker 4 (01:09:32):
Sense when you just traded for CJ. Garner Johnson.

Speaker 8 (01:09:34):
CBS Sports had the Texans taking Nick Scrton, the defensive
end at Texas A and.

Speaker 4 (01:09:40):
M and I believe that makes some sense. What he
probably had a if you drafted at thirty four. If
you drafted at thirty four, that means on your board
inside their facility, which was not shown on TV. And
I'll get to why I said that. In a moment,
he probably was a top I would guess he's a
top twenty player, twenty four player on your board somewhere

(01:10:01):
in that neighborhood Nick's corner, Will Johnson s Gordon. I'm
not yeah, Will Johnson. No dissension on here. Analysis of
why that makes very little sense, even though he's a
very very good player and was invited to the draft.
But I could see them finding a way to think
when it happens when he's on the field, when he
proves that he belongs as a starter, which will be

(01:10:22):
when others that are already here aren't. You'll see why
we drafted him. He can play, He was gonna make
us better. We don't need a lot from him today.
It's kind of what I went through. But I don't
have a negative feeling about his NFL future. No I
don't either.

Speaker 8 (01:10:36):
But see the way that AC talks about drafting anyone
other than an offensive lineman at thirty four. If you
draft Nick Gorton or any defensive player at this point
at thirty four, even at defensive tackle, you will watch
me turn into Adam Clayton, but I still have hair.

Speaker 4 (01:10:50):
The thing is, I don't. I don't disagree with doing
that because I don't who's not going to be there
this year. That's right now on that defense. Probably three
guys are going to miss significant time next year on
the Texans defense. Maybe you drafted the right player for
depth at that spot, maybe you didn't, but it is
why those players get picked. And you're not picking a
player to sign him to his typical four year deal

(01:11:13):
for just the next year. You're picking them to make
your team better for all of the years that he's here.
And that's what you got in Jalen Peecher, That's what
you got in Kaylen Bullock, That's what you got in
Kamari last year. These are all non day one starters
for the Texans from day one. Should have been in
Klan's case, wasn't but shortly after, and it was essentially
for Jalen now at a new spot in Demiko's defense,
and obviously it's been the case for Kamari from day one.

(01:11:36):
You're going to find those players, and this team has
done a great job of finding those players. They will
again today, but they will not have addressed the most
important area of need.

Speaker 1 (01:11:45):
Still the Aeed on Sports Talk seven ninety it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:03):
Is the A Team.

Speaker 3 (01:12:03):
It's Sports Talk seven to ninety, Space City Home Network.
As we are continuing here on a Friday edition of
the program Real Quick on the Rockets as it pertains
to uh tomorrow night's game three. Specifically, we got the
non update update on Jimmy Butler. I'm sorry, it's not

(01:12:23):
an update. Yes, absolutely, the same thing Sham said yesterday.
Nothing has changed at all. He's not doing well because
he has a bruise, but we don't know until the
game time.

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
That's not an update. The same thing we heard yesterday. Well,
the update is he didn't break it. There's no fracture.
It is a bruise. It is uncertain about how he
will be able to deal with the pain. Well, thank guy,
it didn't break his booty. I mean, I know, I
know what you're saying. We don't have an answer to
whether or not he's playing, so you can treat it
as a non update. That's fair. Well, that's what I

(01:12:55):
now know that he if he if he broke it,
and the MRI it's just disclosed unveiled, you know, showed
he's out for the series minimum, So that's an update.
He's not out for the series yet. He might not
play in Game three, and then he might not recover
well enough to play in the games that are now
only one day apart, which will commence after this game,

(01:13:16):
every game the rest of the way just one day
off in between, regardless of travel.

Speaker 3 (01:13:20):
But I got I mean, I'm looking at that non
update and I'm saying to myself, is this better if
he does play for the Rockets.

Speaker 4 (01:13:29):
I don't see how personally well.

Speaker 3 (01:13:31):
If he's severely hampered in any way, What's what's he
look like if he's playing but he's severely hampered, Like
to me that you can't have both well, Either he's
playing because he's not severely hampered, or because he's severely hampered.

Speaker 4 (01:13:44):
He's not playing.

Speaker 3 (01:13:45):
Jimmy Butler the NBA player. Okay, we'll even give him
this playoff Jimmy. Okay, what is jim What does playoff?
Jimmy to Adam Wexler, what is his game? Uh?

Speaker 4 (01:13:55):
He's going to exploit your defense? How by finding spots
where you're not defending well enough, which is all that
he did. He only took two threes in the last game.
He made ten of his nineteen shots. He can get
to the rim pretty much whenever he wants. He can
beat almost any defender, not any Rockets defender, but a
big versus a small versus a player of his size.

(01:14:15):
He's very good at recognizing how to beat this particular
type of defender, and his midge range game is very good.
I mean, he's hitting fadeaways. He he's a really talented
offensive player that for the last several years and still
this year with Golden State, he's intentionally taking a back
seat when it's necessary, and for him in the regular season,
it's pretty much necessary all the time because it doesn't care,

(01:14:36):
there's no reason to exert himself that way. But during
the postseason he's only taking a back seat to Steph
when the or teammates that he's created for, when that
particular possession defines it.

Speaker 3 (01:14:46):
So what I heard you say is that the mid
range jumper should be good to go. But a lot
of what you said exploiting defenders, you know, creating his
own shot getting to the rim that would be handed.

Speaker 4 (01:15:00):
See, I don't think so, because he's not backing anybody down.
He's just facing up, driving on him and get into
the rim.

Speaker 3 (01:15:05):
What's funny about you saying that is that he specifically
was backing down certain defenders through the first two well
for mainly the first game, and he does that, he'll
post up, but it's not it's not like a forte
of his game. It's not his go to, but he
was doing it. I'm just looking at their team.

Speaker 4 (01:15:20):
Yeah, under no circumstances can I envision a team that
has Jimmy Butler in uniform being worse because he's there.

Speaker 3 (01:15:26):
But how many times have players not been one hundred
percent and in some cases been severely hampered.

Speaker 4 (01:15:32):
I mean, he's not a good not a player to
bring into the conversation, but I'll do it anyway. They
started Brandon Pajemski last night for the same reason I
think they're going to start Jimmy Butler tomorrow night. They'd
rather see what he can do for them, Let him
go out there and give everything he has for whatever
number of minutes he can go out there, because they
prefer that to Gary Payton, the second and rec league guy,
and Quinton Post same thing with Butler. They prefer that

(01:15:54):
to Kaminga and others.

Speaker 3 (01:15:56):
We're since we're so much in the middle of talking
about out how the Houston Rockets are clearly the only
team that has played physical brand of defense in the
history of the NBA, at least that's how I hear
it from the other side. You know, no other team
tries to knock Steph Curry around or just be physical
in general.

Speaker 4 (01:16:13):
Only the Houston Rockets. Uh, it's the Rockets did something
in the regular season. Pretty much nobody else does. They
played him like it was a playoff game. They should, right.
Teams don't do that though, right, And that's why they
play defense, is what you're really saying. You know what
I'm saying is they played the type of defense you
usually say for the playoffs, because if the referees wanted to,

(01:16:34):
they absolutely every single Rocket that defended him could foul out,
no question about it. I would never want to watch
another NBA game again if they did that. Knowing what
they don't call in the paint. But they do hold,
they do grab, they do clutch. These are fouls if
you would like to call them. They could certainly have
to react to that. And change how they're defending, because
they could call them if they wanted to. I'm glad
they don't, because I don't believe that's the way anybody

(01:16:54):
should referee an NBA game. But they did that on
April sixth, and pretty much nobody else tried even try.

Speaker 3 (01:17:00):
And nobody else can nobody else. They don't have the personnel.
Personnel is very key. You know, if you're going to
talk about how the Rockets don't have a go to
score from a personnel standpoint, that's fine, but just make
sure you give them the credit where it's due as
far as what they do have personnel wise, and when
it comes to defending the way they do specifically. Absolutely,
I love their roster, but as it pertains to Jimmy,

(01:17:20):
if you are the second best offensive player on the roster,
you your game is somewhat predicated on you know, you
don't nobody's ever one hundred percent this time of year anyways,
because you've already played an entire eighty two game grind
and you've played a couple of playoff games where everything
is ratcheted up. But if you're dealing with that kind

(01:17:41):
of injury and your him, I would argue and this
could be coming back to bite me in the backside.
No pun intended, ineffective minutes from Jimmy Butler is a
plus for the Rockets overall.

Speaker 4 (01:17:54):
And I'd actually take everything you're saying and put it
more on the other end of the court. I don't
think as Allen if he I don't know how aggressive
he'll be in light of this. I can't guess that.
I'll admit that, but I think his ability to make
their defense that much better might be what's more impacted,
because the Rockets will try to do things that put
him in arm's way. Potentially, this is a pretty unique injury. Also,

(01:18:17):
he didn't twist his ankle. He's right, you know he didn't.
He doesn't have a bad shoulder. He doesn't have a
thing not broken on a shooting hand. It said, how
does it affect him at all? And that I mean,
I'm actually I could have gone back and listened to it,
But I'm actually glad we listened to Steph at least
a little bit. He's not only that he hurt himself
in this way here in Houston. In previous season share

(01:18:37):
he fell off of the court into a chair. Though
wasn't it that did the injury? Yes, it's it's just
what can you do because it is not there's no
fracture that was revealed by the mri I, So it
just seems more like pain tolerance. How much movement can
he make without it impacting him? Oh, I just can't
do this. I can't make this play. I can't do
these things that I need to do to help my team.

(01:19:00):
So they'll either find out five minutes into the game
that's the case, or they'll decide five minutes before the
game that's the case. But to me, once he's out there,
I kind of believe he already knows the answer. He
can play, and he's going to play in my best
Adrenaline is gonna help put that kind of thing. And
then again it's still about what's next. They know what's next.

(01:19:20):
Jonathan Kaminga and Stevens and all these other players that
counting on them to give them the kind of effort
that puts the Warriors up two games to one in
this series is something they don't want to do. You
want to know.

Speaker 3 (01:19:31):
I think this is gonna go. He's gonna try and
play tomorrow night. The Rockets are gonna steal that game.
The Warriors are gonna somehow, some way take Game four
to tie it up, and you're gonna come back to
Houston best of three, with two of those games on
the Rockets home floor.

Speaker 4 (01:19:46):
Potentially, that's what I think is gonna happen in this series. Yeah,
coming back to to seems a reasonable guess. I think
we both made that immediately after Wednesday's game. Maybe that
changes a little bit if we learn more about Jimmy's situation,
and it's possible during the day to tomorrow this release
from the Warriors is just put out by the team
saying this is the status. They didn't put out an
injury status for their team for tomorrow. Nobody does that

(01:20:09):
in the playoffs until day of so tomorrow morning he'll
still be listed as questionable. And again, I don't think
it changes until we hear from Steve Kerr. I hope it.
I mean, honestly, I'm fine either way. I still like
the attitude that most of the Rockets have indicated and
everybody would publicly yeah, I hope he's healthy. Let's go
beat the team. I don't I don't want to use this,
but if it happens, it happens. Everybody knows what happens

(01:20:29):
to the playoffs. Injuries often dictate who's advancing, and maybe
you'll say that it did this year. We'll find out.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
The Aeed on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (01:20:40):
Ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking
your Team.

Speaker 2 (01:20:53):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are.

Speaker 13 (01:20:56):
The A.

Speaker 3 (01:21:01):
Four o'clock hour is underway here on Sports Talks seven
to ninety is the eighteen. Also on Space City Home Network.
We will step aside a little earlier today for that
early start in Kansas City. Chris Gordy will have the
Astros on Deck show coming up at five point thirty,
and then we'll be off and running getting you into
Astros Baseball as day. I mean it's Thursday last night,

(01:21:22):
so they had the day off. That's going to be
how it's been and how it will be for the
foreseeable future going into May. But in the meantime they
are looking to make it four wins in a row.
Unfortunately the team still ahead of them. They don't like
to lose, particularly Seattle at least, and hopefully it all
balances out, it all shakes out. What I think it
was McTaggart's article said quarter to one of the Astros

(01:21:45):
is saying, we're not even playing that well right now
right there.

Speaker 4 (01:21:48):
That's part of the division not being that great. The
team ahead of them got them closer to them. The
Rangers have lost too in a row. Yeah, the Rangers
have lost now only a half game out of first.
They'll be in first place byther than the weekend boom
need to take care of a Royal team was pretty
much like the Astros. They just haven't really gotten things
to click. I'm not gonna say that they've turned the

(01:22:10):
corner because they just wrapped up a series against the Rockies,
which is like not major league Baseball, certainly not major
league competition. The Rockies are white, Sox think the Rockies
are a bad baseball outfit. I'll put it that way.
Their four wins don't really scare anybody. They're four and twenty,
and they had a rainout on Wednesday or a weather

(01:22:31):
out on Wednesday, so the Royals and Rockies had to
play a double header yesterday. So in advance of this
three game series beginning, that might have led you to
believe us could be good for the Astros, well, there
was no competition to win something did happen that matters.
Cole Reagan's had to leave his start early with an injury,
which meant they did have to kind of use quite
a few bullpen arms for quite a few innings and

(01:22:52):
pitches yesterday. Could be somewhat impactful coming up this weekend,
but there are a couple games under five hundred and
pitched white as well as they thought they might, and
they haven't kind of come around offensively yet. Bobby Wits
been pretty good, but some of the others, and Salvey's
been pretty good. Some of the others that they're expecting
to be better just haven't yet. The Astros can absolutely

(01:23:13):
relate to that. They've also played better baseball. The Astros
have when they're inside their conference, the American League, as
long as they're not playing the National League. And I
know they kind of flipped it a little bit on
the Padres. They've been outstanding when playing their own Kansas
City would qualify as their own all right. I feel
all right about that, and hopefully that's how that goes down.

(01:23:36):
The eight and four against the American League this year,
you're Astros, who has the best record against the American League.
In the American League somebody else about the Seattle The
Mariners are twelve and seven against the American League. They
haven't seen the National League that much similar situation.

Speaker 3 (01:23:56):
I feel like it's a very Western Conference type situation
where it's going to be tight, or at least it
is now tightly contested.

Speaker 4 (01:24:03):
Well, this awful, terrible, no good, very bad division. The
Astros are in first and fifth, are separated by two games. Sorry,
everybody's bad. No, everybody's in it. The best team in
the American League has fifteen wins. Two teams in this
division have fourteen. Yeah, nobody's done anything in America.

Speaker 3 (01:24:24):
But that's to my American League broader pictures point is
what I'm making They it's very tightly compacted, all right.
So let's get back to the playoffs a little bit.
I saw Charles Barkley say that that series is over
between the Clippers and the Nuggets. I can't really argue
with him after what I saw the Clippers do. He
said it after the game, not before the game.

Speaker 4 (01:24:45):
Well, yeah, that's why he So he spent the night
before the game saying, how come we got the crappy
Oklahoma State Oklahoma City Memphis game? Was a good game.
Last night. Believe the Clippers Nuggets game was non competitive.

Speaker 3 (01:24:58):
Yeah, it's funny how that always seems to happen with him.

Speaker 4 (01:25:01):
Well, the Memphis OKC game began as non competitive, and
you certainly can't ignore this particular injury for two reasons
for our show. For one, the game completely changed when
Ja Morant left the game. You should never lose the
twenty nine point lead. You should never lose the lead
anywhere near what they had, no matter what situation is,
where you are, who's against you, where the playoff shouldn't happen,
and they let it happen. Memphis should be down two

(01:25:23):
to one and not three to zero, but Oklahoma City
out played them for and they crushed him. They have
to what happened. That injury is of great significance to
me and it should be to everybody. Because we're today's Friday.
The playoffs started Saturday, so we're less than a week
into the playoffs and we've seen the same dangerous fall

(01:25:44):
to the ground for three different players at the rim.
Lou Dort did it last night with John Morant on
the play was injured on when Scottie Pippen Junior threw
it behind the legs backwards passed to him, which I
don't think was the wrong play the studio did, but
lou Dort was gonna either or block the shots. He
gave it to his high flying dunker who was trailing.
The play just didn't work, so he went crashing to

(01:26:05):
the ground because of the awkward way in which lou
Dort slipped and then hit him in his body and
he heard his hip and he was out for the
game and maybe out for the next game. Jason Tatum
went to the rim, got hit by two Magic players
and went to the ground. They looked at it and
called it a flagrant only because he stayed down. In
my opinion, he wasn't hurt, didn't leave the game. However,

(01:26:28):
he's had trouble with his wrist sense and he's listed
as doubtful for the upcoming game. And then obviously what
happened with Jimmy Butler. Only one of those situations involving
four players, both of the Magic players KCP Wendell Carter,
lou Dort, and Amend Thompson up ending Jimmy Butler. Only
one player has had a narrative attached to him for

(01:26:50):
this play. I don't think players people media or stupid
social media muses are calling Amen Thompson dirty for historical reasons, like,
look at the other plays has been involved with, this
is a history with it. Oh, I do well there.
None of them are saying that they may it may
be inferred that way, but they're not going back to
look at all these other plays that he's been involved

(01:27:10):
in because you know why, because they can't. But anyway,
they're citing this particular play as well. This is a
dirty play. This has impacted the series. This is what
we don't want in the game. So I'll take you
back to as this narrative gets created, the game happens,
everybody hits post game and you hit social media, and
where a couple of days later and you've talked to
all the particulars. Essentially, this is what Draymond Green said

(01:27:32):
about it on night one. And remember this is after
Steve Kerr had already said, you know, he you know,
was unfortunate. I don't believe that there was any intent.
It's nothing intentional. You know, he was hurt and hope
he can play and we move on, and Draymond just
happens to he's a player. He goes to the podium later.
It was the first question asked of him, you know
from his vantage point or what did you see or

(01:27:52):
how did you view the play where a men put
Butler down. I don't know.

Speaker 5 (01:27:55):
I was trying to bunch some tom so somehow Jemulary
extremely current see it.

Speaker 4 (01:28:04):
Didn't think anything of it, and from I can understand
it because you can actually see what he said if
you go back and watch the play, it to me
matches exactly how he acted. You know, I had my
arm on a man, trying to box him out. He's
kind of squeezed through, and all of a sudden, as
I push him, he's going to the ground. Because he
didn't know at the time, and he probably didn't know
when he answered that question he had been tripped from

(01:28:25):
the other side by his own teammate, who was also
pushed into him. But that's why a men was on
his way down, and I thought you could see in
Draymond's reaction he's like kind of reaching for a man
or reaching like how did this unfold? It was nothing
intentional from him pushing a man, I don't think, and
nothing intentional from a man the way he fell into him.
This is what Dylan Brooks had to say about it today,
and I also reference what the head coach, imy Udoka

(01:28:47):
had to say about it. Because now we're two days
after Wednesday, today's Friday. It's been festering. The narrative has
been been narrated by those who want to create it.
So Dylan asked about the narrative of a man being dirty.

Speaker 10 (01:29:02):
No, I think dirty players Draymond giving a little push
as regular basketball players do, and Jimmy's fighting the air
for a rebound, and that stuff happens anything to do
with being a dirty player.

Speaker 5 (01:29:20):
We're not worried about that.

Speaker 4 (01:29:21):
We're on the next game.

Speaker 5 (01:29:22):
And you hope Jimmy can get better.

Speaker 4 (01:29:26):
I hope Jimmy can get better. We're not worried about it.
We're on to the next game. Doesn't have anything to
do with the dirty player. And now let's focus briefly
on his bulletin board comment. That sounded like he he
would never do this, but it sounded like this. He
almost took back all in the same breath. I think
Draymond's the dirty player. He says that, and but he
says what he pushes him, which is what a regular

(01:29:48):
NBA player would do. So he's saying dirty, but he's
describing the play as totally normal, which I agree with
the second part.

Speaker 3 (01:29:54):
It was totally normal plays unfortunately could have been called
a foul, but it was out of the ordinary.

Speaker 4 (01:29:59):
Unfortunately for Rockets fans.

Speaker 3 (01:30:01):
This is an example of how society reacts to things anything.

Speaker 4 (01:30:05):
Sports are otherwise these days.

Speaker 3 (01:30:07):
Well, we have this video clip right here, Okay, well
I can interpret it this way, this person can interpret
it this way. And when we interview people about whatever
subject it is, it doesn't even matter what they say
sometimes because who is saying it far out weighs anything
they're saying. That's how society works today. It's awful in politics,

(01:30:27):
and it's happening here. All that Warriors fans, Warriors media,
anybody on the Warrior's side is going to see is
that Dylan Brooks, aka a dirty player, was the one
saying this, so immediately, it doesn't matter that everything he
said in that entire clip you just played was one
hundred percent factual.

Speaker 4 (01:30:45):
A man is not a dirty player.

Speaker 3 (01:30:47):
Draymond Green is a dirty player, and Draymond Green was
doing something that a lot of players, Dylan included do
all the time, which is give somebody a shove as
they're trying to box out, which Draymond said himself. But
because it's Dylan Brooks saying it, and because his Warriors
fans are so unaware of self that they don't realize
their team employs the dirtiest player in the NBA, it's
all become the Rockets are a dirty team, up to

(01:31:10):
and including the point that an article has been written
where Ema Udoka telling his players to play through the
contact and the physicality. Don't worry, they're not going to
call anything. You know what he's saying. He's telling his
offensive players to play through the physicality because they're not
going to get calls. In this article that somehow has

(01:31:30):
become they're not going to call anything, so we can
injure Jimmy Butler. That's how stupid society is, and that's
how stupid NBA media and fake media can be in
covering an event like an event like this. It's the
only one of three you mentioned that's getting this kind
of attention because stupid people are involved.

Speaker 4 (01:31:49):
I guess you could say it that way. Throw that
on the clip. Cole. I mean, I'm so tired of
like here you're saying it a little farther for where
it actually is, because Dylan just said this, I know,
five minutes.

Speaker 3 (01:32:00):
Before Dylan even opened his mouth, it was the Rockets
are a dirty team and they're trying to hurt Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 4 (01:32:05):
GTFO Warriors fans, you suck.

Speaker 1 (01:32:09):
The ad on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:32:21):
You know what I'm looking forward to the most about
Monday show that I don't have to ask who the
Texans are taking.

Speaker 4 (01:32:26):
In any round.

Speaker 3 (01:32:27):
We're still asking that though right now, because they did
not take any one last night. Earlier, I asked you guys,
who you thought the player was that Nick Cassario alluded
to when he said that there was at least one
guy still on their board that was available to them.

Speaker 4 (01:32:43):
My hope is the answer was Burden, But I suspect
that it wasn't, even though they might draft him at
thirty four. I think they're just just didn't strike me
as somebody that may be super high on to trade
up for, but looking at how the board might fall, Yeah,
this is a wide receiver that makes perfect FO ball
sas for us, But just if O were guessing it
wouldn't be him, there's very few other positions I think

(01:33:05):
that would have made sense that are still available for
them at twenty five, that are still on the board.
But I mean, I know it seems odd because we
just talked about him. I mean, is Nick Skurtin that guy?
He's available and probably one of the top handful of
players that will get picked tonight and certainly could be
the Texans pick at thirty two. Is Traveon Henderson that player? Again,

(01:33:26):
I'm saying it because I don't really believe it, because
I can't imagine them sending the card up there with
number twenty five and his name on it. I think
he makes perfect sense pretty much at any other pick
that they currently have and knew that they would have
when they traded back to thirty four. But I think
it's a little bit of a guessing game. I'm again
surprised he acknowledged that there was one. But there's only

(01:33:48):
one pick before they picked today. So it will make
it easy. Just give us three names. I'll give you
the player that gets picked, and I'll give you a
one player buffer. One of these three names is going
to be picked at thirty five four, presuming the Texans
actually make it by the Houston Texans. Cole you got
three players to pick from. Yeah, I do. Number one
Luther Burden.

Speaker 8 (01:34:08):
I just think if you can get a wide receiver
number two to can elevate your offense, go ahead and
do so.

Speaker 4 (01:34:12):
He's the best player on the board. I'll take that
as well, so I don't have to list him again.

Speaker 8 (01:34:16):
Number two Ariante or Serene, who's probably the best offensive
tackle left out of Minnesota. I personally would feel more
comfortable if you traded up with fifty eight, get up
a twenty twenty six third round pick, let him sit
for eight or nine games behind Cam Robinson. But if
you think that he's the best player available, that's probably
the pick.

Speaker 4 (01:34:33):
So that's two players, right, Yeah, that's two, okay, And
then number twe to keep count number three.

Speaker 8 (01:34:39):
And I don't know why, but I feel like that
it's gonna happen because if they want to at least
get better in the passing game, I'm gonna go.

Speaker 4 (01:34:46):
Mason Taylor the tight end at LSU.

Speaker 8 (01:34:47):
I think if you want to move off of Dalton
Schultz after this year, knowing that Brevin Jordan is in
a contract year and you don't think he fits the
system for Nick Kaylee, go get yourself a tight end
that probably is a little bit better blocker and adds
at least value across the intermediate part of the field.

Speaker 4 (01:35:01):
All Right, I won't duplicate that pick. I'll have two
others to go along with Burden. You have a threesome
for us.

Speaker 3 (01:35:08):
They see, Well, he's the second person that has said
something to me about taking Mason Taylor tonight. And I
just want to drive my truck off the freeway. If
if the Texans don't take any offensive lineman on night one,
then they don't take anybody with the first pick on
night two, which is their first pick, and it's not
a wide receiver and it's a tight end.

Speaker 4 (01:35:30):
I mean, why shouldn't I put my head through that
monitor behind you. Well, I wouldn't take Mason Taylor under
any circumstances anywhere near this point in the draft because
he's just a run of the miller. To me, he
plays tight end, the most run of the mill position
there is.

Speaker 3 (01:35:40):
On the made more difficult than you're saying.

Speaker 4 (01:35:44):
They didn't take any offensive lineman. Their max was one.
They were going to take one offensive lineman yesterday at
twenty five or twelve or wherever they would have traded
up because it was the only pick right. So they
missed out on one player so far, one person for them.
They missed out on probably six players, because that's what
I'm saying. After Banks and after the fourth overall pick,

(01:36:05):
the Pinstripe Greener, there were they could they would have
had to give up a lot to get to where
Banks went. They would have had to give up a
lot to get where Booker went, which is why they didn't.
They didn't negotiate a deal with the Cowboys that both
sides weren't happy with, so there ultimately wasn't one. And
then there was a night there's there's still a pocket
of where it seemed like any acknowledged they made calls
to do that. Yeah, the really the players they technically

(01:36:27):
missed on were the players that got drafted after twenty five.
They chose not to pick one of them. They had
the opportunity to do so. They did not have the
opportunity to take any of the other linemen because they've
never got another team to say yes to their trade,
so those are a little different. But they could have
taken either Josh Connelly Junior or Josh Shimmans, and to me,
both of them are way better pro prospects, have way

(01:36:47):
brighter pro futures than anybody we could name. Even the
tackle that was mentioned by cole My three again, Burden
mirrors that. And this is specific to thirty four. I'll
say Savanayah Julian Savanaiah, the Arizona interior offensive lineman Jonah Savanaiah.

(01:37:08):
It's fine. I will say, it's another offensive lineman. I'll
give you Tate Ratlic. I believe he has a brother
named Julian, which is why I mean. But here's here's
what are somebody like me.

Speaker 3 (01:37:24):
It was like, Okay, I'm listening to what you guys
have said all day, and I'm hearing you didn't take
any of the guys you should have taken at that
position in the first round for whatever reason, because you
thought it was too rich to trade up for them,
or or you couldn't come to terms as you just spoken.

Speaker 4 (01:37:40):
The teams that traded up were loudly criticized or pointed out.
The Jacksonville trade up and the trade up with the
Rams that was made for Pierce. Both teams that traded up,
most everybody thought, wow, they gave up a ton to
do that, and the Texans likely would have been viewed similarly.

Speaker 3 (01:37:59):
Yeah, and if you didn't trade up at all, which
they didn't obviously, but like just say, they just stayed
put at twenty five. They kept that pick and they
had taken I don't know, give me somebody that would
have been available. There was a ton of offensive linemen
that went off the board before even that point. Yeah,
there was clearly the pick before them.

Speaker 4 (01:38:18):
Josh Connelly Junior and Josh Simmons were two offensive linemen
no longer available, but were available at twenty five.

Speaker 3 (01:38:24):
What I'm hearing though, is that, well, you didn't take
any of those guys, you moved back, and now what's
left isn't worth taking. What point do you take an
offensive lineman in this draft?

Speaker 5 (01:38:35):
Then?

Speaker 4 (01:38:36):
Yeah, that's what I'm struggling with. Well, you have to
balance the perception of it all in your own you're
battling your own brain, Oh, because you can't move forward
with this team without young build around offensive lineman. But
you're looking at the board. You spent all these months
watching film, going to games, getting in the room, going
over scouting reports, and you know, deep down, none of

(01:38:57):
these players that are available are worthy of the thirty
fourth pick, and then you get into the risk reward game.
So do we trade back again, so we hit the
value better and we gain assets, but the chances at
hitting but there's the risk involved with that. The risk
is now you don't get him either, Listen. I get
the mentality of the value involved. Even though I'm talking

(01:39:19):
about this all the time being the biggest crapshoot ever.
Even if you take one at number twelve, you tramped
to number twelve, you get there's no chance. There's there's
no guarantee. In other words, I should say that that's
a hit. I mean, we've seen that. If the text
and segment offensive Lineman at thirty four, whichever coverage you're
going with, whatever article you read immediately after, I don't
believe anybody's gonna say, man, I love this pick for the.

Speaker 3 (01:39:41):
Text because of where they took it. Just because yeah,
there's not a player.

Speaker 4 (01:39:45):
There's a pretty sizable and noticeable line top eight offensive
lineman available versus the ones that are available now because
eight have been drafted. There's a big difference between what
you're gonna get from Connorley and Simmons or any of
the six that went before for them and player I
mentioned I mentioned two offensive lineman, the player that Cole mentioned,
they're just they just didn't put tape together. That suggests

(01:40:07):
you got what you got from them, you know. Rattledge
is maybe I can't. I still can't believe the size
player he is for what he doesn't at Georgia. I
don't like him at thirty Yeah, I don't like him
at thirty four. I was about to say what he
just said, just I can see him being a long
term starter in Houston, but I wouldn't. And and but
there's a level to it. Like all five linemen on

(01:40:28):
your on your starting successful positively impacting the game offensive line.
They're not all going to the Pro Bowl, they're not
all among the best players their position, but they can
be part of a line that they start with for
several years in a row. That's good. It's capable, and
you have to have some of those players. I don't
know that they have any any literally any I couldn't
tell you for sure they have won other than Titus Howard,

(01:40:50):
then Titus Howard at this point, Titus Howard as a tackle,
I think has proven he can be part of a
very right tackle. A right tackle, yes, not the position
he's played most at Houston. Correct.

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
Yeah, well, I just it's out of necessity now that
you would even consider him for the other side.

Speaker 4 (01:41:05):
It was because of Laramie Tunzel. He was also out
of necessity that he was at right tackle because he
can't play left tackle.

Speaker 3 (01:41:11):
Larry Thomas, Laramie Tunsel. Yeah, listen, I get it. I
guess it's just to me when the offensive line has
so clearly been your biggest area of weakness on either
side of the ball for going on two years now,
I mean, let's just take all that matters is you.

Speaker 4 (01:41:28):
Did it the right way. You said it's the biggest weakness.
You didn't call it total crap two years ago, but
it was still the biggest weakness.

Speaker 3 (01:41:33):
Right, And I think that all that matters because it does.
All that matters now is is the CJ. Demico era,
which is two plus years old. Now, everything that happened
before that doesn't matter because you weren't trying to win.

Speaker 4 (01:41:45):
But now that you.

Speaker 3 (01:41:46):
Are, I guess I'm just shocked that you didn't do
anything in that realm of Okay, these guys are worth
taking this player at this pick, and I'm not saying
they tried.

Speaker 4 (01:41:57):
He didn't want to play desperate general manager, and that
totally understand. That's just when you're good, you're back at
the back of the draft, and.

Speaker 3 (01:42:04):
The question is can they repair this offensive line enough
with taking these guys where they're gonna end up taking
them to make you feel good going into training camp.

Speaker 4 (01:42:14):
I have to point out some other teams, and I
did it via the X platform earlier today, and it
doesn't sound very good, but it happened, and I think
it's worth noting. So I'll touch on that when we
come back on the other side. A few other things
for us to get to beyond this. A few other
players probably worth noting. Because they have five picks, they're
drafting at least three players tonight over the next two rounds,
it's worthwhile to have a little bit of discussion on

(01:42:35):
all of them. Texans didn't I hope people weren't expecting
the best feeling ever out of the draft where you
had the twenty fifth pick, but I don't know if
it got worse from last night. We'll discuss next.

Speaker 1 (01:42:49):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (01:42:58):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:42:58):
During the break I started last year and I moved
backwards and I'm just shouting out.

Speaker 4 (01:43:04):
I didn't. I wasn't shouting. I could hear you. I'm
the only one here. I could hear you pretty easy.
I was speaking in a normal indoor voice.

Speaker 3 (01:43:10):
Who's normal how I'm talking now?

Speaker 4 (01:43:14):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (01:43:14):
Okay, I wasn't, you know, not how I was talking
about dumbass Warriors fans for example, just to give you
an idea of the difference.

Speaker 4 (01:43:22):
And all I was doing was.

Speaker 3 (01:43:23):
Throwing names of Texans offensive lineman. I didn't even say
where they were being picked. This guy over here, See,
here's the genius of Wex. If you don't involve the
year he's got you, Hey, how is this guy?

Speaker 4 (01:43:38):
Awful? Awful? Suck?

Speaker 3 (01:43:39):
He was really good, especially for where he was taken.
As long as I don't involve the year, Wex's head
doesn't explode and he can tell you how good the
player was because he's you're a freak.

Speaker 4 (01:43:50):
So there his compliment. It's a very much compliment after,
you know, including Nick and everybody else. So all these
years of Texans drafting that they don't spend a lot
of assets on, haven't spent a lot of assets on
offensive line.

Speaker 3 (01:44:04):
I'm wondering how they fielded a line most it was
it all free agency.

Speaker 4 (01:44:07):
The good ones. A lot of it has been and
some of the players that weren't drafted the.

Speaker 3 (01:44:11):
First round this year not from a not a high
talent standpoint, high dollar.

Speaker 4 (01:44:16):
First round draft picks on the offensive line for the
Texans are few and far between, and they did not
add to that list today. Dwayne Brown's the only no
doubter and Titus Howard was a first round pick yea,
but he's not a no doubter. Dwayne Brown was a legend,
no doubt in terms of he's a qualified starter. Yes,
nobody's confusing those two ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, right,
But I I know he made the Pro Bowl while

(01:44:38):
he was here, so he was still playing. He's a
very good player. He's not playing anymore. No, I was
a joke, but he played with the Jets about as
much as Aaron Rodgers did his last couple of years
he was He did play the first year Aaron was there.

Speaker 3 (01:44:51):
I mean, you're talking about a guy who was drafted
in two thousand and eight just now retire.

Speaker 4 (01:44:56):
And none of this isn't even relevant to Nick, but
just a historical perspective on the tech Xen's inability to
use assets early that pay off in the long run.
For well, I just got an answer to this question,
who's going to be my right guard for the or
right tackle or left tackle for the next eight to
ten years. They've just been able to do that other
than Dwayne.

Speaker 3 (01:45:13):
To that point, he was taken very close to their
Texans original draft pick. Last night, they had twenty five
before they traded it. Dwayne Brown was taken with a
twenty sixth pick of the two thousand and eight NFL DR.

Speaker 4 (01:45:23):
They also traded back to do it. They had the
eighteenth pick, which they gave to If I'm not mistake,
you give them to the Ravens to draft the best
quarterback currently on the Browns roster, Joe Flacco.

Speaker 3 (01:45:32):
Unless your name was Amobia Koye, if you were drafted
in the first round by Rick Smith, more often than not.

Speaker 4 (01:45:39):
You were a good You were a good player. He
didn't have it.

Speaker 3 (01:45:41):
They weren't all perfect, but his first rounders, as you
look through the years, they weren't. I mean, I can't
pick out one well other than a Mobi that was
just an awful pick.

Speaker 4 (01:45:53):
Do you think a seventy five percent hit rate on
first round picks if those seventy five percent are Hall
of Fame track is good. Yeah, okay, well that's Nick Assaria. Yeah. Well, hey,
in the first round he's drafted Kenyon Green, he's the
twenty five percent, and then he's drafted CJ, Derek Will.

(01:46:14):
I should have CJ.

Speaker 5 (01:46:17):
But there's a.

Speaker 4 (01:46:17):
Difference between what every other GM was taking when they
didn't have the number one pick and what Nick had
the opportunity to do. Not yesterday, but in those particular drafts,
Derek Stingley Junior went third, Will went third, CJ went second.
Or to screw them up. Of course you're gonna hit
on those right.

Speaker 3 (01:46:35):
Well, most of the time there's still people the Cleveland
Browns would screw it up.

Speaker 4 (01:46:38):
So as it plays into where we go tonight told
you I put a couple of things out there on
the old X platform. I'll give you the oh my god,
WEX Thanks for putting the blanket in the washing machine
and drying it for once a positive thought heading into
tonight's draft for Nick Cassario and the Houston Texans, for
anybody who can absorb a non offensive line pick. But

(01:47:01):
the last the wet blanket is dry for the moment.
The last five picks at number thirty four. The last
five drafts have produced these five players at pick number
thirty four. All five of them are pass catchers. Michael
Pittman went thirty four to the Colts in twenty Eli
Moore Elijah Moore went to the Jets in twenty one,
Christian Watson Packers in twenty two, Sam Laported the tight

(01:47:25):
end to the Lions in twenty three, and last year
was laddim conkie Chargers wide receiver from Georgia Ladi McConkie
stud Michael Pittman outstanding got his extension from the Colts
well earned. Christian Watson super talent, injuries have obviously prevented
him from producing at a super high level, and they
just drafted another wide receiver to try to compensate for that.

(01:47:47):
Eli Moore certainly I wouldn't call him a hit, and
he was looking for a home. And Sam Laporter is
probably one of the five best tight ends in the NFL,
five or six best tight ends. Not only have they
drafted a very specific need or fit the very same need.
All five of these guys are plus patch or expected
to be plus pass catchers, and the Texans will make

(01:48:09):
it six straight when Luther Burton is their pick at
number thirty four. Five wide receivers at thirty four the
last six drafts. The other was an elite tight end.
I think that's what's happening tonight. How's Luther's blocking skills?
I don't have to ask them to block too much.
It's not terrible now. The other side of things, the
offensive line. I also posted this as I head outside

(01:48:30):
into the rainstorm with my blanket. Minnesota, Seattle, and Houston
had poor offensive line playing twenty twenty four. Decided big
shake up, need it, and I pointed out some of
the changes for each team and in very specific order.
Seattle did this with their offensive line. Among their moves,
Lake and Tomlinson out Gray's Abel number eighteen was drafted.
Minnesota offensive line Cam Robinson and Ingram out Donovan Jackson

(01:48:55):
drafted at number twenty four. Houston offensive line traded out
of the first round and added each of the three
players let go that I just mentioned for poor play, Laken, Tomlinson,
Cam Robinson, and Eddy Ingram. Not all the moves that
were made, but specific to these three teams, they all
recognized a clear problem and their manner in which they

(01:49:16):
went to successfully hopefully change their fortunes on the offensive line.
Couldn't have been a bigger one to eighty. This player
is going to be replaced, and here's how we're going
to replace him. We're gonna use our draft pick and
he's gonna literally slide right into that spot. Minnesota's a
little different because they did it right. I mentioned a
couple of their changes. Their twenty twenty five starting offensive

(01:49:39):
line is one hundred percent locked in today. One day
after the draft, they signed two linemen from the Uneapolis Colts,
in my opinion, both plus lineman Ryan Kelly and Will Fries.
They obviously have the benefit in this discussion of welcoming
back from injury Christian Darisaw and they just drafted Donovan Jackson.
They let Bradberry go. They're the offensive line is one

(01:50:00):
hundred percent in place in one off season. They're gonna
change four spots, yep. And the Chiefs did that after
their loss to the Bucks in the Super Bowl, basically
the same thing. Drafted Humphrey and Smith in the same
draft and free agency, basically reshuffled the whole thing, came
back the next year, and it worked. It's not a
guarantee that it'll work. But it did work. But true
Texans had the same thought I thought heading into the
off season, went so far as to take a player

(01:50:22):
off in Laramie tunsl and trade him away so they
could get value in return. And they have value in
their future drafts because of it, and had the flexibility
to make some of the deals they've already made because
of that deal. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm saying
where we sit today is remarkable that the progress from
their plan there hasn't been enough. There's been almost none.

(01:50:45):
There hasn't been any they have, what's the almost They
got their equipment services department to type new names on
the back of the jerseys of the compartmentials for half
a percent of the process. By the way, again, we
could sit here to after they drafted Donovan Jackson. It
wouldn't make that much of a difference. But there's still
five spots to fill, and they would have filled one

(01:51:07):
of them, we think successfully.

Speaker 3 (01:51:09):
I you know what's gonna suck is when the high
risk becomes a reward for the freaking Chiefs and Josh Simmons,
the gamble pays off again, you know it will? I
hate them so much all right when we come back
someone else. A lot of other teams hate shadoor sanders apparently. Hey,
it is such a strong word, and I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:51:28):
It the a t on Sports Talk seven ninety.

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Speaker 14 (01:56:25):
This is Bill Warrew and you're not the cold blooded
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the Collected the A Team continues on Sports Talk seven
ninety Home of Your Rockets.

Speaker 3 (01:56:47):
It feels like we're trying to make you feel better
about the Texans not taking an offensive lineman in the
first round.

Speaker 4 (01:56:53):
It's not exactly what I mean. I listen.

Speaker 3 (01:56:56):
I'll say this, between wex and Coal, I absolutely understand the.

Speaker 4 (01:57:04):
The the method to this apparent madness.

Speaker 3 (01:57:08):
I just didn't think that's the way they would go
in light of again, what you guys have been talking
about and what we've all been talking about for over
a year now, Hey, you should probably make your offensive
line better. But oh, there's a lot of teams out
there that haven't even bigger problem. Then I have a
quarterback and all of them that have that issue said no,
pass on shud Or Sanders.

Speaker 4 (01:57:29):
Media driven story that they passed on him, No, that
they made a mistake by passing on him. Oh, this
is a total I mean, I know it's not a
non story, and I'm not going to pretend that it
should be. And I recognize his last name and who
his coaches, all that is part of it. But the
idea this entire last three months that and I said

(01:57:52):
last night when they got to pick twenty one, do
I think the Steelers are going to take him? And
I said, yes, I did think they were going to
take him. And that was pretty much it. It wasn't
that he didn't deserve to be in the first was
that once you got to a certain point, you start
to run out of teams that would even consider it.
So whether he's a first round talent or not, after
you got to twenty one, now you're gonna tell me
someone's gonna trade up for him. They're so high on him.
And this is what people were writing all the time,

(01:58:13):
like there were really teams that really loved him, that
he really belonged as the second quarterback in this draft,
or maybe he was in a battle with cam Ward
to be number one. This was the thing this offseason. Well,
what happened last night showed it was a thing from
the media. The teams weren't telling you this. There was
an information you should have gathered, and there certainly wasn't
film on it. And I say all that saying I

(01:58:34):
absolutely believe Shuhar Sanders can play in the NFL. I
believe he can be a starting caliber quarterback for a
playoff team. I don't think it's immediately gonna happen, and
I think because of where he sits now, he might
end up on a situation where he gets to play,
but he might not be in a very good situation.
He'll just get to play with a bad team. It
could be the Cleveland Browns at thirty three or thirty six.
Although I don't believe that either. I think the whole

(01:58:58):
idea that this draft first night and much of the
lead up to it was spent with so much blathering
about Shadeur Sanders, and it sounds like I'm insulting the player,
and I don't mean it that way at all. It
has nothing to do with him, has everything to do
with everybody else that has all the airtime to fill in,
articles to write and podcasts to do. It's a it's
a waste of their time. Well, it's funny because.

Speaker 3 (01:59:21):
Matt and Ross had and I can't remember who it was,
a draft guest on two days ago, the flat out
said the exact opposite of what you were saying about
him being he's not an NFL player.

Speaker 4 (01:59:34):
Was the exact phrasing used, like, he's just not an
NFL player? As an expert, I sure I don't remember
who his name was, not an NFL player. It was
two days ago. He pulled the audio.

Speaker 3 (01:59:47):
Because if you go to that podcast and you I'm
almost positive that was the exact phrasing he used, and
that he would be a backup.

Speaker 4 (01:59:56):
Which would mean he's an NFL player.

Speaker 3 (01:59:59):
Now because there's people that are on rosters that have
no business being in the NFL right now.

Speaker 4 (02:00:04):
Okay, I mean that's not true. You're definitely not wasting
our semantics talk on this.

Speaker 5 (02:00:08):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (02:00:09):
Well, in that vein, Ian Rappaport, one of the big names,
one of the big name talking heads out there, says
he is Sanders is the biggest name available in round two?

Speaker 4 (02:00:22):
Are your word for wording that? Yeah? Well it's his tweet. Yeah,
the biggest name, correct? Is that matters in this discussion
because it is his name, it generates all this conversation.
Like the draft goes down and cam Orgo's number one
could not have moved on from that any faster. I
know there was no mystery, but the amount of time
spent on a player that was very unlikely to be

(02:00:44):
drafted in the early portion of the drafts.

Speaker 19 (02:00:49):
The same.

Speaker 3 (02:00:50):
Never mean, if if his name was Sanders but he
didn't carry himself off the field the way he did,
would you still think that?

Speaker 14 (02:00:58):
No?

Speaker 4 (02:00:59):
I don't, and I'm almost ready carried himself off the field.

Speaker 3 (02:01:04):
He built himself a draft room, dude, and then make
my draft? God, what are we going to do with
this confident quarterback? The worst thing ever man.

Speaker 4 (02:01:12):
Because of who he is. But it's the Dean Sanders kid.
That's why we're talking about this. Deon promoted this. That's
why we're talking about this. Some of this is on
him for telling us you're gonna be wrong if you
don't draft in number one. He is a top five player.
He should be the number one quarterback. Nobody else thinks that.
Nobody else would ever say that. He said it, so
we continue to talk about it.

Speaker 3 (02:01:30):
I know how disingenuous it sounds when you say, oh
my gosh, he's just a confident player.

Speaker 4 (02:01:34):
That's not the same. Well, to your point, you're right,
it's not about him building his own place to watch
the draft that could fit more people than a tiny
other hats. But you know, the stupid, stupid, stupid. We
should absolutely be playing Chris Ballard every year on this
because he cursed and it was awesome. We'd bleep it out.
It's the he had a bad interview. He needs to

(02:01:55):
be humble. It's curse word. I can't, I want to,
and I won't. But it's the worst curseword stuff.

Speaker 8 (02:02:02):
And it happens to at least one or two, maybe
ten players every draft season. But at the same time,
you have to realize that scouts are smarter than anybody
else that is in the media, because if they know
what they're looking for. And Ian Rappaport was on earlier
today and he was asked about what was going to
be the future of Shader Sanders.

Speaker 4 (02:02:18):
Where could he go and take a listen.

Speaker 9 (02:02:20):
But one of the bigger problems that Shador Sanders had
last night really wasn't about the play that he put
on the field. Whether he took too many sacks, who
his father was, it was the lack of quarterback spots.

Speaker 4 (02:02:31):
He is still there.

Speaker 9 (02:02:32):
If you look at the potential landing spots, still there
aren't that many. That would say the closest and most
realistic landing spot for Shador Sanders is the Las Vegas
Raiders early in the second round. They have Gino Smith
as your starter, just signed a new contract, so he's
locked in for a couple of years. But he is
a veteran, he is a good guy, would potentially be

(02:02:53):
a mentor to Shador, so that there's one spot. If
not there, it might actually even be third round to
the Steelers.

Speaker 5 (02:03:01):
Guys.

Speaker 4 (02:03:02):
It's kind of what I said about the first round.
You just we're promoting this all these teams that are
bad and have need quarterbacks, but doesn't mean they're gonna
reach that far and they might be desperate, like one
team was desperate and they reach for Jackson Dart one team.
After you got past the first few teams that all
need quarterbacks, well, Sanders wasn't on their board in the
top ten, so they're not even considering it.

Speaker 5 (02:03:22):
And now you have to.

Speaker 4 (02:03:23):
Now he's in competition, which he with the other guys.
Do you take him? Do you take Millery, do you
take Scheff, do you take Sanders? But this is exactly
where this he's going. He's getting drafted tonight, and he's
gonna get drafted by a team that wants him, that
wants to find a spot for him, that either has
an opening at quarterback. And we're still pretty limited on
those teams. And they're also the same teams that are saying, nah,

(02:03:43):
I don't really want Aaron Rodgers. There's a team right
now that does make sense, though, I thought, like yesterday
twenty one with the Steelers, I thought made sense. I
think the Saints makes sense. Obviously, what Ian Rappaport I
think said makes sense. The Raiders and Geno Smith any team. Honestly,
why are all these no's coming up? Will you specific

(02:04:03):
to the two teams you say it doesn't make sense
for the Saints, who suck at quarterback? Why he makes
sense for one team? In my opinion, I just said too,
and you said no to both. The Saints were one.

Speaker 8 (02:04:12):
He's the scheme fit. He belongs in to Kevin stefanski
Salle offense. If one of the two picks with Cleveland
in their first four is handers. I think that's the
best case scenario possible for him to go to. Sounds
like I learned behind Joe Flacco for at least three weeks.

Speaker 4 (02:04:26):
He's not talented enough to play quarterback in that many
OC system or they don't know how to coach a
quarterback because of their own system.

Speaker 8 (02:04:35):
No, the system that Kevin Stefanski runs, the style that
he promotes, that is what works Intrader's game at its peak,
and that is what's going to make him one of
the better quarterbacks and actually a functional starter in the NFL.

Speaker 4 (02:04:48):
It was probably Shane Hallen, by the way, that was
on the other day with MT just for the name,
just someone who covers the NFL. Shane Hellm, that sounds right.
I believe it was their guest to couple days ago. Yeah,
I mean, I can understand not believing in him, as
he's not going to be a starting caliber player. He's
not going to take a team like not an NFL player.

(02:05:08):
That's just if that was really what was said. That
seems dumb. Well, now I gotta find out for sure.

Speaker 3 (02:05:12):
Anyway, we're going to be back at it starts five
o'clock hour next we will start it with Chandler Rome
of the Athletic Tuckle Astros Baseball as they head into
this weekend series with the Royals.

Speaker 1 (02:05:26):
The A team on Sports Talk seven night, Adam Clinton

(02:05:53):
and Adam Weckler are the A team.

Speaker 3 (02:06:04):
It is the eight team Sports Talks seven to ninety.
Space City Home Network no longer see how I fixed
that fire us. I don't pix that on a Monday.
We're not simulcast anymore, but that doesn't mean that we
can't still have our weekly guest here at this time,
Chandeler Rome of the Athletic joining me as joining me
in WEX, I should say, as we get ready to
watch the Astros and the Kansas City Royals, is it

(02:06:28):
fair to say that both of these teams are not
exactly having the type of twenty twenty fives that their
respective fan bases and organizations thought they would to start
the year.

Speaker 6 (02:06:39):
From an offensive standpoint, yeah, I mean the Royals have
been worse than basically every offensive category than the Astros,
which is hard to believe.

Speaker 8 (02:06:47):
You know.

Speaker 6 (02:06:47):
Obviously, the Royals have Bobby Witt Junior, who's if not
the most exciting player in baseball, in the top three
or four and he's kind of being himself. He's being
Bobby with that. Really, no one around him is doing much.
Given the way the Astros offensive has gone the first
twenty five or so games, I'd imagine these are going
to be low scoring games. The one thing the Royals
can do is they can pitch it really well. Their

(02:07:09):
rotation is really good one to five and yeah, I
would imagine that these are going to be some low scoring,
quick games because neither of these lineups are hitting right now.

Speaker 4 (02:07:19):
We often try to pick apart some of the things.
We maybe this can get better. Are we seeing a
guy turn the corner? We'll save that maybe for later
in the conversation. And rather, this has been an unbelievable
start to their season. From a pitching standpoint, the Astros
have been flat out sensational. On this past weekend, it
was on full display, you know, two starts from Augusto
over the course of the six game homestand completely embarrassed

(02:07:41):
the Blue Jays from a pitching standpoint, And for the
second straight year, what is it attributable to any one
thing in particular, and that so many of these guys
are clearly following an Astro's plan of how to pitch
if they're like Weznsky and Ochred who came aboard, and
then the other group of pitchers are basically Astros lifers.

Speaker 6 (02:08:01):
Yeah, I mean, I look, I think they felt really
good about their pitching staff coming into the season. I
don't think this is surprising to them. You know, they
did they expect to have, like, I don't know what
they have in the last ten games. I think it's
like almost a sub two era, Like that's obviously not sustainable,
like what they did against the Blue Jays and what
they did against the Padres is probably not sustainable, Like
they're not going to pitch to a sub two era

(02:08:22):
all season. But they felt good about their rotation and
the bullpen coming into the year. They knew that pitching
was going to have to carry this thing, especially after
they traded Kyle Tucker this winter. So to say their
surprise is probably not true. But there's also you know,
look that there's some there's some regression bound to happen.

(02:08:42):
I mean, if you watch Ryan Gusto's start against the Padres,
and this is no disrespect to Ryan Gusto, who got
through five good innings, I mean he was giving up
rockets all over the place just right. Two guys, you know,
kind of the same thing. Against the Blue Jays, they
swung early a lot, they were hitting, you know, I
think they had a ninety three average of ninety three
mile on exit velocity against him. You know, look, there's
some days and some stretches where the balls bouncing your way.

(02:09:05):
There's some days and some stretches where you run into
a club that's not hitting very well. That was with
the Blue Jays, and you know, the Astros just got
them at the exact right time. So pitching is going
to carry this team. Pitching is always going was always
going to be the thing that carries his team. Are
they going to pitch this well all season? Probably not,
But I don't think it's that far off. Like they're
going to be, you know, top three four in the

(02:09:27):
r in the American League pretty much all year. And
as to how they're doing it, I mean, look, Ryan Gusto,
It's simple to say it, but he just throws strikes,
man like, he just attacks his zone with his stuff.
He gets guys to swing early because it's a little
like watching Ronel Blanco because neither of them have stuff
that jumps off the page. They don't have Hunter Brown.

(02:09:49):
Stuff they don't have fromber Valdez is electric stuff. But
they command it well, they're not afraid. They throw strikes
and you know, hitters just can't find ways to square
them up and and it's working well for him. So
you know, look, like I said, pitching is always going
to carry this thing. The bats have to come around
to support them a little bit. But yeah, they can't
ask for more of what they're getting right now.

Speaker 4 (02:10:11):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:10:12):
You mentioned it's not sustainable overall, but I know the
answer is no as far as what he's been doing.

Speaker 4 (02:10:18):
But Hunter Brown is overall? Is that sustainable?

Speaker 3 (02:10:22):
Just the electric delivery and just being able to count
on him as if he's a second ace because that's
what he's pitched like so far.

Speaker 6 (02:10:29):
I mean he's pitched like the ace I was the
second ace. I mean he looks like he looks like
the best pitcher in baseball right now, like and that's
not hyperbolic. I mean he looked And maybe I'm just
Jaden because I watch him. I've watched every start, but
just the stuff is electric, and you just it's a
different you see, kind of a different mindset with him
and everyone wants to talk about Verlander and have the

(02:10:50):
constant Verlander and I understand why, but there's a little
bit of Garrett Cole to him too, and that I'm
thinking that starting against the Blue Jays, when George Springer
got to third base with outs and I mean he
just baared down. He threw ninety nine mile out, nine
nine miles an hour down the middle to Alejandra Kirkins
and try to hit it and he couldn't hit it.
And that's kind of the stuff that Garrett Cole used
to do when he was in his prime and with

(02:11:12):
the Ash Shows. So it doesn't even have a one
one six e r al season, no, but even if
like you double that, what is that like a two
five two six era. I mean, yeah, I could see that.
I mean, they've got to keep him healthy and he's
got to, you know, keep this run going. But i mean, look,
you're looking at a front of the rotation, like best

(02:11:33):
pitcher in baseball type of guy. You're looking at a
guy that could win the Cy Young this year if
he keeps if he keeps it up like this, and
it's something that you know, there was some talk about
it in the in the offseason that he was a
sneaky cy young candidate. I don't think it's sneaky anymore.
I mean, this guy is he is a top. He
is pitching better than anyone in the American League right now.

(02:11:53):
And it is and it's pretty been pretty uh fun
to watch.

Speaker 4 (02:11:56):
Astros made a shift, Joe Spotta made the shift. With
the lineup, it is Jordon Alvarez batting second. It appears
like that will stay that way regardless of what they
end up doing behind him permanently. But it's peretis now
at three. It seems rather alarming that Christian Walker had
a couple of good games after his off day and
now his ops is six forty and Jordon's is six

(02:12:17):
sixty one. Jordon's going to be great again very soon, right.

Speaker 6 (02:12:23):
Yeah. I mean I had this stat on my podcast
this morning. You know, he's got the difference between his
three I believe he's got like a three ninety eight
slugging percentage. His expected slug is over five hundred. So
you look at the bat and bald data, you look
at some of the peripherals, it does suggest that he's
getting a little bit unlucky. You don't want to blame

(02:12:45):
that you don't want to say that for everything. It's
not a broad statement that everything about what's happening is
bad luck. But the quality of the contact, the launch angles,
and everything suggests that there should be some more extra
base hits coming just if he keeps this this quality
of contact up. You know, I think one thing that's
being overlooked when you talk about Alvarez's slow start is

(02:13:09):
I mean, you don't want to blame at all on
Christian Walker and Jiner Diaz, But before Joe moved into
the two hole, Jordan was hitting third, Christian Walker was
hitting fourth, Diaz was hitting fifth. Ordon got nothing to
hit because he had no protection behind. Like the guys
saw how badly Walker and Diaz were scuffling and just said, look,

(02:13:29):
we're not even gonna throw him anything, and we'll just
go after these two guys who were in far deeper
funks than Alvarez. And that don't scare us as much
as Jordan Alvarez. So look, Jordun's got to pick it
up himself. He knows that. But I think, you know,
the moving the line up the way Joe did probably
gives him some more pitches to hit, probably gets him
in a better situation to get some pitches to drive,

(02:13:50):
and now it's just a matter of swinging good pitches
and and seeing if they can fall.

Speaker 3 (02:13:56):
We're talking to Chandler Roma the athletic here on Sports
Time seven ninety Astros in Royals beginning a weekend series
up in k C. By the way, I haven't ever
asked you this before. What's your favorite barbecue up there, Chandler?

Speaker 6 (02:14:10):
None of it. I'd really Houston barbecue. I'd rather Houston barbecue.

Speaker 4 (02:14:14):
Are you are you playing a role? Are you being diplomatic?
Or do you really mean that?

Speaker 14 (02:14:17):
No?

Speaker 6 (02:14:18):
No, no, no, I really mean that. I'm like, I'm
kind of out on Kansas barbecue. It's not really my thing.
I'd rather. I'd rather Texas. I'd rather Texas barbecue Houston barbecue.
I think it's a lot better. He's endearing himself to
the listeners here. I didn't I did not think you
would say that. I wanted to ask you about Christian
Walker and just him coming around seemingly. I think I

(02:14:41):
asked you about this earlier in the year.

Speaker 3 (02:14:43):
If it was more of a mental thing for him,
just with the pressure to perform, especially in light of
a lack of production at that position. Seems like he's
kind of back to normal at this point in your opinion,
or is he still trying to get the cobwebs out.

Speaker 6 (02:14:57):
I mean, it's two games. You don't want to overreact
two games. But yeah, I mean it looks better, and
I think more than anything, he just needed to see
some hits fall. He just needed to and he has
said this. You know, he needed to contribute to wins,
because that's one thing. You know, when I talked to
him in Saint Louis, when he was kind of at
the lowest of his lows, he said, you know, I
feel like I'm not contributing to wins, which is why

(02:15:18):
I was brought here. And I mean he is acknowledged
of putting pressure on himself signing a big contract, being
the guy that was in the four hole from day one.
The bats have looked better in the last two days,
but I mean he's still got an ops with a
six that starts with a six, so we still got
some work to do. But yeah, I think just seeing
seeing bald over the fence, seeing the team win a

(02:15:41):
few games that he had a hand in, I think
that's gonna help him just to settle down and just
to like stop pressing and stop kind of feeling like
the weight of the world's on his shoulders. Because him,
probably more than most baseball players I've covered, he like
really wears it, and I think you can see it
on the field, like when he's not having success, Like
it's visceral that he's that he's in pain, he's anguish

(02:16:04):
that he's not coming through. So, I mean, you could
tell it was weighing on him and it was grading
on him. So from a human perspective, I guess it's
nice to see him having success because you don't he
doesn't look so sad all the time. I mean, that's
nice to see.

Speaker 4 (02:16:17):
One thing we're seeing now and it's not necessarily a
full blown problem yet, but it's something that certainly could
become a how do we figure this out? Jose al
Twove is at second base today. Jordan Alvarez is still
the DH, but that allows for Zach Dezenzo to be
in the lineup tonight along with cam Smith. Desenzo and
left camp Smith in his usual right field. The last
twelve games for the Astros, camp Smith's that started eleven

(02:16:39):
of them. He's got an ops of better than eight hundred. Obviously,
Zach had some real nice stretch with six hits and
eight at bats around the thumb injury. Do you think
they will continue with this until the performance says they
need to not force Zach into the lineup or do
you think he can play well enough to have them
consider every day? How do we find spots for those

(02:17:00):
two Jordan and Jose You know what else do we
do because obviously they're trying to find something to get
a more consistent production from their offense.

Speaker 6 (02:17:09):
Well, it's a little bit of both. It's kind of
what you just said that if Zach Dezenzo keeps hitting,
they're going to find places to put him in the lineup,
and it's contingent on him being able to produce. And
you know, look, as I reported this week, you know
they are exploring Cam Smith in center field. They're hitting
him fly balls in center field. As I wrote in
that story, it is not imminent. We're not talking about

(02:17:30):
a total position change. We're not talking about him becoming
the primary center fielder. But it would give them some
flexibility if they'd want to run an outfield out there.
Of let's say ow two Van left, Smith and center
and Dezenzo and right now. Again, this is all contingent
on if Zach Dezenzo's hitting, because I don't think they're
going to weaken themselves defensively that much in the outfield

(02:17:53):
if he's not hitting. If he if he maintains this production,
he's going to force their hand. But I think it
would be interesting to see what Cam Smith looks like
in centerfield. He has exceeded my expectations, and basically everyone
in the ASTROS system their expectations for how he has
handled right field. It's why they feel comfortable at least

(02:18:13):
giving it a look in center field to see if
he could see what he could do there. The athletics,
he's a freak of an athlete, and you guys have
seen that. It's not look, the technical routes aren't perfect,
some of the reads aren't perfect, but he is so
athletic that he can kind of compensate for that just
by pure speed and instinct instinctual awareness and athleticism. Putting

(02:18:34):
him in center field, I mean, that's probably the easiest
way for them to get both Smith and his Zenzo
in the lineup. Now, everyone kind of keeps coming back
to the al Tuo by thing they since day one,
it's been this, this is a failed experiment, put him
back a second base, all that stuff like I'm here
to tell you, like that's not happening because they have
too much respect for jose Al two be to yo

(02:18:56):
yo him like this. And it's one of these things
that when they approach him this offseason and said we
want you to do this, he was all game to
do it. But one of the things that from what
I understand, that was made clear to him and that
he was he wanted assurance on, was that they were
going to put him in one spot and they were
gonna let it go. Like again, he's obviously gonna get

(02:19:17):
some time at second day few that he knew he
was gonna start second base every now and then, but
they they did not want to and they don't want
to make this a situation where this is like a
week by week evaluation of oh, this week will be
in left field, and then this week he'll be like no,
like he's going to stay in left field. He's gonna
get a predominant amount of his playing time in left field.

(02:19:37):
And as much as like no one wants to talk
about it, like the experiments working do you know why?
Because their infield defense is great and he's barely getting
anything hit to him in left field, which was the
whole point of this entire experiment, because they knew they
could hide him in left field because left fielders generally
don't get a ton of chances out there, and especially

(02:19:57):
behind this pitching staff that has two of its best
pictures as big ground ball guys. It is working the
way they wanted it to work, and I don't think
they're going to mess with that.

Speaker 4 (02:20:06):
One quick last thing is that you kind of brought
it up. Have you been impressed or maybe surprised at
the quality defensive work they've gotten from estoc Paratis over
at third I have.

Speaker 6 (02:20:16):
Yeah, And I actually talked to Tony paris Cheka, the
third base of the nfield coordinator, about that a couple
of days ago, and one thing he said that was interesting.
You know, the book on estoc Paratus was always that
he would feel anything hit to him, hit in his
little circle, in his little vicinity. The range was always
the problem, and they've done a lot with him. Tony
paris Chica has about quieting him down, Like apparently if

(02:20:38):
you go look some back at some of his stuff
with the Cubs and the Rays, Like he would go
to he would go to get a ball to his
left ors right, and his arms would be out. He
would kind of be very kind of open. Now they
made him more compact. They made him kind of, you know,
scrunch him up a little bit to eliminate some unnecessary
movements and that helps his first step, that helps his range,

(02:21:00):
and I think you've seen that. You've seen that the
range is a little bit better than even the Astros
thought it would be. He's not Alex Bregman. He's not
a gold glover, but he certainly has He's been more
than adequate for them at third base, and it has
been a little bit surprising.

Speaker 4 (02:21:12):
Yes, Texans at number thirty four, who are they taking?

Speaker 6 (02:21:20):
Can they take Sugar Sanders? Please? Because I want everyone
wrong with you.

Speaker 4 (02:21:23):
So I thought he was the fans that would be
So do.

Speaker 6 (02:21:27):
You hey, I got an actual question. Do you think
they turned Cal's computer on in the draft room last night?

Speaker 4 (02:21:34):
Come on, man?

Speaker 13 (02:21:34):
Do you think what?

Speaker 6 (02:21:35):
Do you think like they turned it on? Or do
you think he just sat there staring at a blanket like, Yeah,
I'm sure he does think that dude? Do you think
that dude was looking at a spreadsheet as to like
who was on the board. Do you think do you
think Cassario told him that they were trading out of
the first round?

Speaker 4 (02:21:52):
Yeah, after they did it was Hannah told him he
was in.

Speaker 6 (02:21:56):
The middle of playing like World of Warcraft or something.

Speaker 4 (02:21:59):
Right, What did you think of Hannah's blazer?

Speaker 6 (02:22:03):
I mean, is that why they can't extend everyone? Is
that why they had to trade Punsil because they had
to spend that money on her blazer?

Speaker 4 (02:22:10):
I love you so much. I open up that can
of worms.

Speaker 3 (02:22:14):
All right, Chandler, good stuff as always, both baseball and otherwise.

Speaker 4 (02:22:18):
We'll catch up again next week.

Speaker 3 (02:22:20):
Enjoy, well, don't enjoy Kansas City barbecue apparently, but enjoy
Kansas City.

Speaker 4 (02:22:25):
All right, Thanks guys, Chandler, Rome of the.

Speaker 3 (02:22:27):
Athletic Here on your home for Astros Baseball Sports Talks
seven ninety. Final segment of the show. Some trade winds blowing.
We'll explain when we come back.

Speaker 2 (02:22:39):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (02:22:49):
It is the A team Sports Talks seven ninety about
to make way for.

Speaker 3 (02:22:54):
The Astros on Deck show, getting ready for the opener
between the Royals and the Astros up in Kansas City,
another random early start time.

Speaker 4 (02:23:02):
Why can't you start at seven o'clock like everybody else Anyway,
Chris Gordy is gonna handle that for you this afternoon,
and he's over at car Bock. They've got a nice
little fiesta going on over there, a little Astros watch party.
Great place to enjoy some SuDS and some apparently nice
little weather. But he'll be out there starting at five
thirty and throughout the evening, so you're can to hang
out with him and some other of the astros essentials

(02:23:26):
like Orbit and the Shooting Stars.

Speaker 3 (02:23:28):
Real quick, before we get to something of note from
the Rockets Warriors playoff series through two games, Aaron Wilson
fri end of the show, tweeting the following. A few
minutes well, in the middle of our conversation with channeler Rome,
which we thank him for yet again, Aaron Wilson said
trade action could unfold at the top of the second round,

(02:23:50):
per league sources, with the Browns at thirty three and
or the Texans at thirty four drawing back or drawing
trade back interest among players, prompting a potential trade up move.
The aforementioned all afternoon long Luther Burden the third the

(02:24:11):
Titans at number thirty five, I guess, apparently wanting to
pair him with cam Ward could have opportunity. What are
the chances that the Browns do business they go into
business for themselves with the Titans to screw over the Texans,
if indeed that was what they were going to do
with that first pick, is take.

Speaker 4 (02:24:29):
Him, take which of the two? Well saying that, saying
that trader picks so somebody else can take Luther Burden
at thirty three.

Speaker 3 (02:24:37):
Well, the Titans are probably the ones saying, hey, give
us your pick at thirty three so that we can
take him so the Texans can't have him.

Speaker 4 (02:24:44):
Right, But you're not. If you're the Browns, You're you're
not thinking of it that way. You're like, I don't
really care about the Texans. I care about the Titans
want to give us some assets for for us, it's nothing.
We're not if they're compelled to believe that in order
to draft Luth who apparently we can't live without, we
have to trade up one spot because otherwise the Titans

(02:25:05):
are going to trade a.

Speaker 3 (02:25:06):
Hell, I'm saying, Titans doing business with the Texans. Let's
take some of their assets if that's who they want
so badly. That's what Texans and Titans are trading one
pick to the other. I mean when they're back to back.

Speaker 8 (02:25:17):
We watched it last night and it was a fifth
round pick that went back to Kansas City. Is that
really worth passing up on a player that you could
use in your own division?

Speaker 4 (02:25:25):
If you, I don't think it's happening. But what Cole's
basically saying is, if you you're Intel, says, yes, we're
not drafting Luther Burden unless we trade to thirty three
because he's getting drafted at thirty three by the Titans.
If you want him, you have the assets, which aren't
even that valuable, but you have a surplus of them
now hopefully that you can make that deal without even

(02:25:46):
really thinking twice about it. And that's kind of the
point of making some of the deals that Nick has made.

Speaker 8 (02:25:49):
You have what five picks on Day three, They are
all six or seventh rounders, unless you have many additional
picks now in your future drafts. Right exactly, you have
enough to say, take a six and a seventh for
us to move up one spot and get our wide
receiver two.

Speaker 4 (02:26:05):
Because if we don't. Then guess who's gonna be playing
against us next year?

Speaker 8 (02:26:09):
The dude that people are salivating over to take it
thirty four.

Speaker 4 (02:26:13):
Yep, he'll be awesome catching passes from a rookie like
he was catching passes last year from the bad quarterbacks.

Speaker 3 (02:26:20):
So if you're keeping track at home, Wex thinks he's
gonna suck. If he plays with the Titans, awesome. If
he plays with CJ.

Speaker 4 (02:26:24):
It's less about oh man, they got him, It's just
about you didn't you need players. You don't really care
who cares who's playing for the Titans at this point.
At some point you'll care. At some point, you'll care
that Travis Hunter is playing with Trevor Lawrence and playing
with Josh heinz Allen. But it really shouldn't be about
them anymore, or not for at least this upcoming year.
No way the Texans are competing with those three teams

(02:26:46):
for the division. If the Texans have a good offseason,
I'm not saying they have yet. I don't know that
they haven't had an offseason yet.

Speaker 3 (02:26:52):
Really, I mean they have, but the draft wise, they
have everywhere else on the team that needed it except
for the offensive line.

Speaker 4 (02:26:59):
They've they've spent money on defense, They've extended this player,
They've made a trade for CJ. Gardner Johnson, They've added
DJ Speed, they they've brought back Sheldon Rank, and they
have made things better for their defense this offseason. But
you know, just someone I'm responding to them now, but
I'll bring it into the conversation here. I had mentioned
the offensive line makeup of Seattle, Minnesota and Houston and

(02:27:19):
how they went about it so far, and the response
was let it play out. I'm fine with that, but
where are we in the let it play out scheme?
Free agency is over. There's no good talented offensive lineman
in free agency, and the idea that they're going to
orchestrate a trade for a plus level talent, I'm not
saying it's impossible, but at this point in an off season,
it rarely happens. Clearly, there are six more rounds of

(02:27:39):
drafts to go, and the Texas have ten selections to
play with. So I will afford you the letting it
play out probably ends tonight after round three and let
what play out an over drafted player that might surprise.

Speaker 8 (02:27:53):
There's one offensive lineman currently as a free agent that
I think is a still viable starter, and he's coming
off of injury, so you can bank on him to
be ready.

Speaker 4 (02:28:01):
Will Hernandez. Will Hernandez was probably more highly thought of
as a player, I think than any player the Texan signed,
but the injury obviously impacted his still availability. Played in Arizona.
Trent Brown, Lake and Tomlinson, Cam Robinson at Ingram all
been brought in. He's a better player than every single

(02:28:23):
ye every single one of them.

Speaker 8 (02:28:23):
He has a better player then, but you can't bank
on it right now because when is he going to
be ready to go and how much is he gonna
want on the market.

Speaker 4 (02:28:30):
I will say, okay to this responder, I will let
it play out. I think that's fair. No, it's fair.
The draft is not over tonight. One of the players
they draft will be an offensive lineman. I'll afford the
extremely great evaluators at the Texans facility on offensive lineman
the chance to get it right this year.

Speaker 8 (02:28:50):
Can I just say that if they take Eurosi at
thirty four, the smarter pick is to take Charles Graham
from William and Mary the FCS player at seventy nine,
because in my opinion, you're getting I think the same
value for less money and more importantly, the same amount
of upside because neither one is gonna be starting Week one.

Speaker 3 (02:29:07):
Well after last season, I think we all thought the
first offensive line in the Texas would take it would
be an FCS guy.

Speaker 4 (02:29:12):
That's an awesome draft. Doesn't mean he can't play, but
it is also pretty rare for Nick in this group
to do. They've never done it Round one yes. As
for where else have they done it?

Speaker 8 (02:29:22):
No?

Speaker 4 (02:29:22):
Where they don't draft them all right.

Speaker 3 (02:29:24):
Astro's on deck with Chris Gordy from Live at Carback
next

Speaker 2 (02:29:30):
The a T on Sports Talk seven ninety