Tie Series, Time To Tie Things Up In Toronto, Time To Tie Up The Record With Texans?

WEx and AC hit Wednesday with a short show, but you caught up on rumors about Steve Sarkisian, a revival of the World Seires following Game 4, Texans return to practice and more!

Episode Transcript

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

Speaker 2 (00:06):
My earl.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
MULTIPI the magnificent roller coaster ride.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
That is Houston Sports.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
Chill lge down for the only home grown afternoon team
is talking your teams?

Speaker 3 (00:29):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team A.

Speaker 4 (00:43):
And just like that, we'll have a Game six in
the World Series. Yeah, I'm leading with that.

Speaker 5 (00:49):
Get to game five first, absolutely leading with that. Yeah,
but Game six will be played. Yes, we've locked it up.
They're going back to Canada. I just want the Dodgers
fans to be upset. That so bad. Yeah, last night
was pretty fun and it did go exactly the way
you heard late here on the show yesterday. I think
show Hey will pitch well, not great but good. When
he left, there were just two runs on the board

(01:10):
for the Blue Jays. When his ledger was finished being completed,
there were four and the Dodgers only scored one time.
So I think you can figure out what the two
times late in the game they got one. I think
you can figure out how things went yesterday. A big
swing from Vladimir Guerrero, a bunch of other big swings
to plate those six runs. How will they react to

(01:30):
losing an eighteen inning game? Fine, they will be just fine.
How many like the questions being asked of them in
the clubhouse and the manager like, how do you think
these guys will react? And on talk shows, you know
you've been around this team and you've been around baseball,
how do you They'll be fine? Here, smolts.

Speaker 4 (01:47):
At the end of the game, they'll be fine. He
was Boball after the game had been determined. He was like, well,
the team with the most Jews coming into this one
was definitely the Dodgers, and it didn't matter, right, John.

Speaker 5 (01:59):
You should know better than anybody the juice. Well, it's all,
like you said, comes down to a best of three,
one game in La this evening, and then they will
burd it off to Toronto for Game six and then
if necessary, game seven and them will have a champion
and no more games that the Raptors play that will
have to be altered. Game times wells like this afternoon's

(02:22):
game the Rockets are playing this afternoon five thirty tip
off between the Rockets and Raptors from Toronto. We will
begin our coverage here on your home for Rockets Basketball
at four thirty, so We're just over two hours away
from that Rockets launch pad. At four thirty, AC will
have that a Rockets count down beginning at five, I'll
have that, and then MT and I will take you

(02:44):
through the Rockets getting back to five hundred, the first
of the two teams here in town to do that.
The Rockets started on two and two games later could
be at five hundred. That's where they will be after
tonight if they get past the one win Raptors. And
the Texans started in three and are now into game
eight and still have not gotten back to five hundred,

(03:04):
but they can do so if they take down the
six and two Denver Broncos this weekend. Today was day
one on the practice field for the Texans. I do
think there's definitely good news coming by the end of
the week when we get to our final injury report,
and obviously at noon on Sunday, with both Christian Kirk
and Nuko Collins expected to see them both on the
field today and did small portion of media viewing allowed.

(03:29):
But they were out there doing what normally healthy players
would do, going through drills while we're out there stretching
typical stuff of players that are on their way to
playing this weekend, probably listed as limited. Certainly would expect
that in Nico's case because there are steps to the
concussion protocol that will have to be cleared for him
to get out of there. There's nothing to call. I'm

(03:51):
telling you flat out. They're both playing on Sunday, all right,
That's all I need to hear. Yeah, that's doctor Wexler.
You heard it here. Unless there is a some sort
of setback, And in Kirk's case, he's had setbacks at
practice twice this year. Before the Opener had a setback
to They played their final preseason game, went through the
final round of cuts, took some time off the practice field,

(04:13):
then had an extended period of practice to prep for
Game one. He got hurt during that period of time.
He and Braxton Burios both heard hamstrings at that time.
I both missed the first couple of games. Both have
since returned, and then again in practice prior to last
week's game, Christian Kirk was unavailable because of a hamstring injury.
Both were out there. Like I said, I'm sure Demiko
will shed a tiny bit of light maybe from a

(04:36):
practical and literal standpoint on where in the protocol Nico
Collins is he may be able to allow for some
of that information to come our way. He will speak
with the media in the next few minutes. C J.
Stroud will do the same shortly after that. But I
will say the Texans signing of Dalton Keen to the
practice squad earlier today probably was rather intentional, more so
than just oh, we've got a spot here, let's put

(04:57):
a tight end there. Dalton Schultz was practicing today. Not
sure why they will list that. It could be veteran rest,
it could be nothing, although he was I think banged
up pretty good in the Seattle game and obviously missed
some practice last week, went out there and played his
very heavy share of reps in the game on Sunday.
In light of the fact they only carried two tight

(05:19):
ends into the game, they now have four tight ends
on the roster if you include the practice squad, they
only have one active tight end who practiced today. That's
Harrison Bryant. He has not been a factor for this
team at all this year, much like Brendan Bates, who
was already let go, and now Dalton Keen and Luke
lache Lesa, the rookie they drafted, are part of the
practice squad, just one more item to keep an eye on.

(05:40):
It cost Juir Jordan his practice squad spot. So four
running backs working out today, but now they also have
possibly two fullbacks because Yakub Johnson, fullback who's been on
ir since early in the season, he returned to practice today.
His practice window opens, so he and British Brooks could
be possibilities if needed elsewhere in the run game. Their

(06:02):
concerns should be more external in what they need to
do to slow down a Broncos team that has been
able to do pretty much whatever they've wanted when it's
necessary in order to get their six wins. And obviously defensively,
they have a retaboc on most of their opponents with
their pass rush. Benito is one of the least discussed

(06:22):
best pass rush demons in the NFL, and the Texans
will definitely have their hands full on that front, and
obviously we will. We'll hear from email Udoka talking a
little Rockets basketball made his weekly visit with The Matt
Thomas Show with Ross earlier today. So getting ready for
Rockets Raptors. All that on the table today here on
the eight team.

Speaker 4 (06:42):
Yeah, Rockets Raptors and I'm gonna have a conversation with
Ben Dubo's about this.

Speaker 5 (06:48):
First of all, yaka Perl Bendubo's joining the A team
today between four point thirty and five. I mean, that's
what you gotta say when you're having a mattinee.

Speaker 4 (06:57):
Yeah, I don't mind this. I mean it's it's different.
It's usually baseball that does this to our show.

Speaker 5 (07:03):
I'm absolutely fired up for my eight thirty dinner this evening.
I cannot wait eight thirty. I'm gonna eat before the game.

Speaker 4 (07:12):
Why you got time to run across the street like
you always do and get that poison.

Speaker 5 (07:17):
Thus, I'm not doing that tonight.

Speaker 4 (07:19):
I'm telling you guys, you get do whatever you can
do at Adam j Wexler call in it.

Speaker 5 (07:27):
Well you should have because they're at the house. They're awesome.
But I'm not a kid.

Speaker 4 (07:31):
Oh my gosh, and do this for me. I want you, guys,
because this is gonna be if nothing else. It's October
twenty ninth, right, if it comes down to a two
days New Year's resolution. Yeah, all that candy for the children,
I bet you're gonna consume some of that and not
be elitist about it.

Speaker 5 (07:46):
What are you dressed up as? I'm my sister, I'm
a teacher. Give us our candy. I'm like, what are you?
What are you?

Speaker 4 (07:53):
I'm a curmudgeon talk show host. Give me a payday.

Speaker 5 (07:57):
I'm giving out the candy. I'm not a big eater
of the candy for the kids. Do you sit there
and give out candy when the kids? Uh ring the doorbell? Absolutely?
I mean Ryan and I will be this year. Yeah, absolutely,
So you put you turn the light on? The light
is on? Are you a light's on the front door
every night of the week. Yes, kind of house when
the sun goes down the lights.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
I've always thought people that don't do that are weird.
You know, there's people in there. Why do they want
to make it?

Speaker 5 (08:21):
When we had youngers, we actually put a table out
in the yard and handed it out from there.

Speaker 4 (08:26):
Really, wow, I did not see. That was Robin's idea,
wasn't it. She's the nice one. It's like such a
nice person thing to do. You don't have to call
them all the way up to the house. Don't wonder
if we're if we're at home or not. You don't
have to break your path. Little known secret you guys.
Outside of the hours of two and six, Wex is
like the coolest, nicest guy to be around.

Speaker 5 (08:45):
It's just a wet blanket to bring the coolest to
the show. Why would people want to hang out with
me four hours a day when I'm cool and awesome,
great to hang out with. You need to start to drink,
no sense? Does it start drinking before the show? Again?
Not against that? Why not? I mean, I'm not against that.
Why not today? Though you didn't today? Let's see what

(09:06):
that we have in the fridge up here. It's just water.
I don't normally ring.

Speaker 4 (09:11):
So the point of all this is when they suit
up tonight against this team that again much like Monday night. Uh,
the Spurs just thrashed. Since we're playing parallel schedules here,
yaka Peertl actually gives the rockets or has in the past.

Speaker 5 (09:26):
Not fits, not trouble. He isn't good, no, but.

Speaker 4 (09:29):
He he is a presence out there that they will miss.
I'm saying it like, I don't think they're a very
good team, but I think he is a presence that
they will miss tonight.

Speaker 5 (09:39):
He's unavailable for the Raptors.

Speaker 4 (09:41):
The injury report you got and we'll hear from emy
Udoka coming up in a three o'clock hour.

Speaker 5 (09:47):
You need to smash them tonight. You need to absolutely
and nat honestly that you need to smash the Celtics too.
That is what people say. You should go out and
do you need to go smash? Yep? I totally. Hey
is that win available? Yep, go smash. You like what
you see, what's in front of you, you smash it
for sure. More of this coming your way two thirty

(10:09):
during Best of X by the way, Oh yeah, yep, okay, well,
looking forward to that. We will get to all that.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
We'll get to an official Nico Collins update maybe in
the next segment.

Speaker 5 (10:22):
And yes you heard it. Progressing well, we'll see how
things go as we get to the end of the week.
You think all this word for word, he hasn't spoken yet.
Why why don't you do pr for some of these teams?
You would be perfect for the astros. Just the coaches
don't need to be coached up on that. They know
what to say, they know how to how to not
give it.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
You give as little information as possible and then use discomfort.

Speaker 5 (10:43):
That's what the astros are. So who's your quarterback this week?
Is it to Rod Taylor? Is it justin fields? Do
you know? Yeah? I know, but you don't want to
tell us. That's right. I do not want to tell you.
Those were Aaron Glenn's exact words at the press conference
last week. It was awesome. I couldn't tell if he
was smirking or not, or as he was being war
demonstratively unhappy with them, saying that's right. I do not

(11:05):
want to tell you. Where's he gonna coach next? Well,
it depends how he's He's fine for the year. He's
not getting fired from the Jets, so let's see if
something does change. After they got their first win, his
speech in the locker room was awesome, Like it's he
has the right mindset to coach a group of men
in them but my gosh, like Cleveland, like New York.

Speaker 4 (11:25):
It's just places you can't you kind of notice. It's
not usually the coach. Yeah, yeah, no matter who it is,
over and over and over again. All right, So a
lot to get to. Obviously, on a very abbreviated Wednesday
edition of the program.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (11:57):
It is the eight Team Sports Talks seven ninety Cole
Thompson with you on a Wednesday edition of the program. Well,
we're not gonna do the Neco update now because we's
ruined that on the way to break ye.

Speaker 5 (12:08):
I mean, he knows I was there. I can't tell
you what they're gonna do, and I can't tell you
where he is in the protocol, but I can tell
you what he looked like. He looked totally fine, and again,
health was not the concern. It's a concussion situation, so
it's a matter of can he pass that. So I've
seen him at the minimal amount of practice we're allowed
to view during the season. He looked exactly like that
when he was running his limited number of drills were

(12:30):
allowed to see and reaching up to catch passes, catching
passes on the side. Christian Kirk was also out there,
and he's obviously trying to come back from an injury
to his hamstring. He also looked very good. Again, I'm
sure they'll be listed as limited. I'm sure they were limited.
I don't think this team is like the Ravens and
tries to cheat, so we'll probably find out more by
the end of the week. But if I were to guests,

(12:50):
I would think both of them will be available should
Demiko decide to have them both active on Sunday, and
I'm sure that he will. Lamar Jackson's playing tomorrow night. Right,
we can all agree on that based on him, you know,
talking with the media, the fact that he's practiced for real,
practiced in full, but they also have some estimated practice.
A short week.

Speaker 4 (13:08):
He basically went into a bunker and hid from the
media this entire time.

Speaker 5 (13:12):
Well, when players are hurt, even when they're quarterbacks, they
don't usually talk to the media. I know, I guess,
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (13:19):
Maybe it's uh, oh my gosh, the Turkey rug guy
is texting me right now. I'm sorry. It just came
up on my screen with another phone number. All right,
this is this is insane. So anyway, if you've listened
to the show in recent weeks, you know what I'm
talking about.

Speaker 5 (13:34):
What was I getting to you here? Oh? So this
morning we all walk outside and it's like, Chris, I mean,
I this is how close, this is how happy I
was about the weather. I almost texted you to say, hey,
the time he heading over to the stadium, I was
going to join you five.

Speaker 4 (13:53):
No, it's not because I wanted to watch practice. I
just wanted to be outside.

Speaker 5 (13:58):
My little guy goes to school very very early, insanely
early as a matter of fact. So he walked out
the door, and by the way, it was its college
day today, so they can wear their gear. So he's
wearing a long Horns jersey under a letterman's jacket with
little jeans and his Air Force onees all white. No
Bearcat's tattoo under any of that.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
No, we're not sending money to that school anymore. So
he's gonna wear the colors.

Speaker 5 (14:21):
Of owl anywhere. Nope, nobody in this chest is not
on his shoulder.

Speaker 4 (14:25):
Not whatever community college that she went to for a
year before she dropped out and made more money than
she ever would have if she got a degree like
I have. No but he looked like a little like miniature,
like dark high school. He kinda he has. He has
a better hairline than Sark. He's younger. Wow, she's compressed.
She also convinced. She's also convinced he's not gonna get

(14:45):
my hairlines.

Speaker 5 (14:46):
Sarks got to figure out if they can win it.
Can the Longhorns win without Arch my column? They can
barely win with him. So it makes sense that there's
a reasonable chance they can. How about fact without him,
and that they were only tied when he left the game,
then they outscored their opponents seven to nothing and won
the game. How about Diana Russini speaking of Sark, Yeah,

(15:08):
we could probably dig into what she did when she
makes a weekly appearance on the Lebatade Show. And so
that obviously came yesterday after her Sunday article where she
wrote three thousand words and at the very very end
of the article, in a final thoughts portion of her notebook,
she wrote that one sentence about Sark, which really re
ended up pushing Sark's agents to put a strongly worded

(15:30):
statement about is this is not true? And then Sark
for about a minute of his postgame press conference after
they had just beaten Mississippi State, because it's all happened
the day of the game on Saturday, just before their
mid afternoon kickoff, and he said, it's ridiculous we played
that audio for you. It's ridiculous that you guys in
the media wasn't specific to the people in the room,

(15:53):
but us like Ac and myself and everybody else in
the country that's covering college football. You guys all just
ran with it. One person puts it out there and
everyone just takes it and runs with It's embarrassing for you. Well,
in her subsequent interview or subsequent guest appearance her the
only point she made to try to not make it

(16:13):
sound like she was wrong or made it up, was
nobody said he's committed to Texas. That's what I was
waiting to hear. Wasn't in the statement. Sark didn't say
that either. But if you go and listen to all
the things that she did say, and we do have
some body language readers on the X platform, this is
very best of X type of stuff. You could even
tell by the way she was deflecting it. She had

(16:36):
no one idea what to say, because as people who
don't have to back up their what they say, like
we do. Oh she can you not? How many more
ways can she tell us she made it?

Speaker 4 (16:44):
It's like a very eighteen semantics segment type of situation.

Speaker 5 (16:49):
Well she didn't say this, Well, the people I didn't
get the information from Sark in his agent. It's not
like they called me and said, hey, report this, no kidding,
no kidding, They didn't do that. It's very obvious. Now,
all parties could absolutely be playing the game. It's that
happens all the time, especially with high profile when you
wonder aloud, and I wonder aloud all the time, why

(17:10):
would agents give stories? Why? I mean, you might have
a nice relationship with the reporter, and you may have
some good rapport over the years, but there is an
element of you scratch my back all scratch yours and
if the agent thinks the media the public knowing stuff
can help their cause, whether it's a coach getting a
new gig, where there's a coach getting a raise, whatever,

(17:31):
my coach is drawing interest all over the country because
this person reported it. Would you mind reporting this? I'm
telling you it's true. But now I'm literally giving you
the information because I want it out there. Why don't
you do me a favor and go ahead and write
about this I'm giving you this. Well, conversely, it may
work the other way. I don't know what this does
for anybody, whether he's whether it's like, why would you

(17:55):
want that out there? You can do that all you wants.
He's not coaching this year to get a raise from Texas.
He's not coaching this year to get another college job.
So if he wants an NFL job, just go ahead
and take it, go ahead and interview for it, and
take it whenever the time comes. If he were in
a different situation, like if they were still holding on
to the same ranking they had when the year began,

(18:16):
which was one, then things would be a little bit different.
He would be the hottest coach in the He'd be
hotter than Lane Kiffen. Everybody, including Texas who's already re
upt with him, would be angling to do it again
so they wouldn't lose him in the momentum and what
they're building there, you know, in that vein.

Speaker 4 (18:35):
I've thought about this a lot because it's you know,
first you have the tiers of conferences.

Speaker 5 (18:40):
You know, the SEC and everyone else. Because the SEC's one,
Well that's because it just means more. But it just
means more to coach in the SEC as well. It's
not just playing in the SEC. How And maybe I'm
asking the wrong person this because not only do you
have someone there, but you also are a graduate of
this school. My degree is right there in the closet
dust I dusted off every couple of years.

Speaker 4 (19:02):
It like, how how many jobs no matter, don't think
about how they're doing right now from a play standpoint,
How many jobs in this country are really better than Texas.

Speaker 5 (19:18):
Yeah, that's the conversation we've gotten into. I think with
Dan Lanning, whose name is out there, like, is it
really a better situation for him to leave Oregon? Is
it really a better situation for Sark to leave Texas
from one SEC school presumably to another. You wouldn't leave
for Penn State. I wouldn't imagine you'd leave for Florida State,
which will likely be open at the end of the year,
or any of the number of other schools. The other

(19:39):
jobs that are open are all SEC jobs, and they're
probably going to be more of them. You could make
more money, because that's movement means money. When you move,
you make more money. Or is LSU a better job
than Texas? What do you mean by then? It's up
to you to decide what's better. Is it better to
have in your lifetime, on your lifelong resume, on your
coaching legacy. I won a national title at Texas, I

(20:00):
want a national title at LSU. I would think it's
actually better to say it at Texas, considering well they
had some national titles when they won them with the
guy who the stadium's named after, and then they won
one other, yeah with Mac Yeah, and is definitely there.
But I, in my opinion, I think that is a
lateral move. I don't think one's better than the other.

(20:22):
No either way, right, I really don't. You know an
ole Miss is that different? Is the move to LSU.
I think that's a tier down. That's why I think
that many people believe that could have. But he's also
not at that. He's not coaching like that this year.
They're they're not playing that kind of football this year.
And maybe it doesn't even matter to anyone, But yeah,
I think like this landing at Texas, like like Kaylin
de boor, he's the Alabama head coach. Right, Let's say

(20:44):
he doesn't lose any games the rest of the year,
and they win the conference, they win the conference title game,
and then they win the playoffs and they win the
national title. There, you're not poaching him. He's at Alabama, right,
That's why.

Speaker 4 (20:54):
And that's what I was about to say, Just like
I just said that ole Miss is a tier down.
I think that we're talking about the SEC. So it's
like an embarrassment of riches in every direction. You look,
even at Vanderbilt just kidding.

Speaker 5 (21:04):
But like the big game this week, I know they
do have.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
But but what I'm saying is, whereas LSU in Texas
right now, I mean are probably like right here, I'm
doing an even side by side with my hands because
we're on TV.

Speaker 5 (21:18):
Yes, prior to Brian Kelly, the three consecutive coaches won
a national title there.

Speaker 4 (21:21):
Right, But I still think that they're like lateral movements.
Whereas because of only because of what Nick Saban recently did,
is Alabama a next tier up?

Speaker 5 (21:33):
You know what I'm saying. You know, if Alabama's job
opened right like any school, but that's what happened when
Sark or when Sabin left. I mean, shouldn't we just
go get Sark? I mean, this is a big job.
I mean, he's familiar with the program, he's doing well here.
This is the guy we should tell you, This is
the guy we should overpay or pay as much money
as we have. They ended up getting a coach who

(21:54):
was playing for the national title instead, and now they
could be again with new school.

Speaker 4 (21:59):
The prominence factor, Like, I mean, there's probably two arguments
to be made, one way or the other.

Speaker 5 (22:04):
When it comes to like Notre Dame. Yes, there's also
history to discuss. This conversation will continue to have because
things are not changing anytime soon for stability. They're gonna
change for more instability as we move forward through this
college football season, and clearly once the regular season twelve
games get played in a handful of conference title games,
maybe there's gonna be a lot more opening. So there's
gonna be a lot more movement. There's gonna be the

(22:25):
ridiculous period between well, should I keep coaching my team
even though I'm recruiting for the team that I'm now
working for. Just oddity in college football? Best of X
and hopefully soon hearing from Demico Ryans and CJ. Stroud.
That's what's in front of you here on the A Team.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
The A teed on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (22:45):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 2 (22:46):
And you should be putting out between five and ten coats.

Speaker 6 (22:50):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 5 (22:53):
History repeats itself, type, Ben, You'll succeed.

Speaker 2 (22:58):
Never doubt that you're the one two bustle, no one yo,
the best, nothing's gonna have the top.

Speaker 5 (23:07):
You know you're the best. Posting every single day. You're
the best of best breaking the entire enginet. We love
you social media and listeners and each other. Wex cole
c ac, wex cole ac. Yeah, that's all of us.

(23:29):
It's eighteen and we got best of X for you here,
the best of social media, whether it's something we might
have missed, some awesome replies and comments, or just fun
stuff on Snapchat, Facebook, threads, Instagram or other methods of
social media. We frequent here on this program and elsewhere
in America and all parts outside. So the NBA reached

(23:54):
week two only week two with games that were played
last night. Season began last Tuesday, So a handful teams
on the court last night. Some more national TV coverage,
and along with it, some more from a very well
known contributor to one of the new networks, NBC. Peacock
Network is getting contributions from one Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan

(24:15):
and Mike Turrico have had some conversations. I think they
are piecing them together and dropping them into different weeks
worth of coverage. I don't know how much, if ever,
we're gonna see Michael Jordan live in studio. I know
we had mellow Vince and Timac along with Maria in
last night's studio. But Tarico and MJ. We're talking, and
you're getting the viewpoint from somebody who played in the

(24:36):
league for a long period of time very successfully, was
an owner in the league for a very long period
of time, extremely unsuccessfully, and is the most well known
name associated with the league period Michael Jordan. So, I
think anytime he's talking about the league, its current state,
or anything like that, it's pretty important for people to
You'll see what he has to say. Whether they agree

(24:57):
with it or not is always up to them. His
viewpoint on what's he's been going on in the NBA
since after he retired and not immediately after he retired,
definitely part of this generation of basketball watchers, and that
is resting players commonly referred to as load management. And
he was asked about that and said, quite Frank Ladges
loved the game too much, and I loved what we

(25:18):
were there to do. We're entertainers. I'm a player, I'm
a competitor. I wanted to prove to the people that
came to the game because they didn't like my team
or me, and that I'm the best player out there.
I wanted to be out there for all the people
who did put everything they had into all Right, I
made a little extra money this week. I worked a
little harder. I've got money for us to all go

(25:38):
to this one NBA game this year, and the Michael
Jordans are in town and that's why, so I wanted
to be out there for them too. All the feel
good stuff about why we often looked negatively on load management.
He said it just wasn't even a thing. And many
players from his generation when they weren't doing it, they
all seem to have said the same thing. And we'll

(25:58):
hear from one of them from an interview earlier this year.
But that's basically what Michael Jordan had to say. Considering
it's all part of the coverage there on NBC, it's
something that they referenced, so we'll get to what they
referenced here. Secondarily, we'll get to what was referenced by
one of his best buddies a couple months back, when
he was a guest on the late night talk show

(26:20):
of Taylor Swift's fiance's brother brother Jason Kelcey housed a
late night talk show and Brian Baldinger and others were panelists.
One of those panelists was Charles Barkley. He gave his
thoughts on load management. The question was, and this was
back in January, how do you feel like we are
in this league? The state of this league where we

(26:41):
are currently with this NBA that you love?

Speaker 2 (26:44):
His answer, I don't like the current landscape at all. Listen, man,
we're not still workers.

Speaker 5 (26:50):
Yeah, we're not teachers, we're not nurses.

Speaker 6 (26:53):
We're not somebody on the service to make thirty four
to fifty million dollars to play basketball two days in
a row. If that's too much to ask, please tell me.
And like I say, we're so lucky and blessed. And
in my day I'm made five million dollars, which is
a ton of money. Now these guys are making fifty

(27:15):
sixty million, And I'm like.

Speaker 2 (27:18):
Are y'all serious?

Speaker 7 (27:19):
Right now?

Speaker 2 (27:20):
Are y'all serious?

Speaker 6 (27:21):
Y'all can't play basketball tuesdays in a row for sixty
million dollars?

Speaker 8 (27:26):
You know?

Speaker 9 (27:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (27:27):
I always tell these guys, you know, because they talk
about Zion's weight.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yeah, I was going to tell you something. He's making like.

Speaker 6 (27:34):
Forty million dollars. I'd be anorexic for forty million dollars. Maybe,
like Charles is too skinny, you need to get them.

Speaker 5 (27:45):
Yeah, you get the idea. So some of the comments
there Charles just mad. He didn't get a chance to
get that fortune he made. Like you said, he made
a handful of million dollars compared to what they're making.
If he was playing today and he was a superstar
like these guys are. This is clearly a max contract
player and these years of his career, he would be
a fifty five sixty million dollars player, no question about it.

(28:06):
He played sixteen seventeen years in the league. He would
have reached that payscale, the Dame Lillard payscale, the Jimmy
Butler payscale, the Kevin Durant payscale, if he wanted a
max deal. But he didn't, so he got forty five.
But that's a big even from when he played to
where we are now, Charles is clearly making plenty of money.
He's also still making money because of inside the NBA.
So his contract is over there. Well, it's more than

(28:27):
five million, I can tell you that, yeah, but is
it more than fifty like the max players are, No
question about it's way way less than that. So that
was his standpoint on it, and other people commenting, I
wish everybody would be as real as Charles and I
tend to agree. We've always talked about it that the
literal sense of why they're doing what they're doing, because
all they're attempting to do. What can we do to

(28:48):
win a few games, create a little bit of chemistry,
but make sure, above all else, these three players are
healthy when we get to the postseason. That's all we're
trying to do. I want to get to the postseason.
Chris Paul doesn't have anagging injury. I want to get
to the postseason. And Kevin Durant is as healthy as
he's been all year and hasn't been overworked and isn't
playing forty minutes a night eighty times a year. I

(29:10):
get it, and I'm not really that much against it,
but I do think it's absolutely gotten out of hand,
and I think we've seen that over the last handful
of years.

Speaker 4 (29:18):
My favorite comment was the most Kobe Bryant made in
the year was twenty four million and some change. You
would have had to have handcuffed him to his locker
to keep him out of a game, and same with Mike.

Speaker 5 (29:29):
And some players are still like that and definitely bristle
at it, but don't usually win. Their team says you're
not playing in these five, six, eight games, whatever it is,
and they don't play clearly. Because this was a part
of the NBC Peacock coverage last night. The panelists that
I mentioned Maria the host, with Tracy, Vince and Carmelo
Anthony who was brought up with them. They are a

(29:51):
bunch of children like we are. So that conversation went
like this, mellow talking and Vince Carter asking him a
question for.

Speaker 10 (29:57):
Me, I've played kind of right, So I understood the
mentality of the low management.

Speaker 5 (30:04):
I understood the conversation and the dialogue.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
Did you enjoy it when they tried to manage your load?

Speaker 5 (30:08):
No, because I'm huh. I was different in our program
when we were on television. You could see Vince Carter
not knowing since he's on air, should he give the
usual pause. So he actually tried to call a time out,
put his hands up, made the tease on that that

(30:30):
was his television version of pause. After he questioned whether
he appreciated his team doing what he just asked Mellow
that they did. And that's basically every single comment on
that post that was made last night. Hey, look at Vince,
he knows where pause fits. Trying to call a time
out there.

Speaker 4 (30:49):
I tell you what, I'm surprised that more people aren't
in trouble on some of these shows these days.

Speaker 5 (30:58):
Well, Charles gets away with whatever, and it's all this
post game coverage they had, like inside the NBA's post
game coverage. Yeah, it happens much much later at night.
And you know there's like eight billion gifts for this.
Alexander said a good pause joke. We'll never get old.
T Max said, whoa. As soon as you heard that,
I was posted by young Larry David, Vince wanted to

(31:18):
say pause so bad.

Speaker 4 (31:21):
Do you remember when James Harden, Chris Paul, and Clint
Capella were at the podium after a post game. I
think Clint said something yep, and James said pause and
Chris Paul absolutely lost it.

Speaker 5 (31:33):
Yeah, it happened. It happens on an NBA podium in
the postseason quite often because that's when multiple players are
up there and they're looking at it. It happened during
the WNBA when Lexi and Caitlin Clark were out there.
They were talking about all the balls coming at them.
It was absolutely outrageous. By the way. Within the hour,
some information on the NFL side concerning Bryce Young and
it applies here. This was head coach of the Panthers

(31:55):
talking about the availability for Bryce Young as they went
through practice earlier today. Bryce had a really good day.
We're gonna take it each day, try to push it
a little bit more.

Speaker 8 (32:04):
Had a little bit of a modified mode at practice today,
but he handled it, handled the load.

Speaker 5 (32:10):
That is your edition Wednesday. Here on Best of X.
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (32:20):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Everybody's got a song Colors Star on In of the Park.

Speaker 5 (32:32):
I'm gonna read aloud speaking of the NBA real quick.

Speaker 4 (32:35):
Just interrupt me whenever you get to something that actually
surprises you. This is from Sham's This Morning. Miami Heat
guard Terry Rosier and Portland Trailblazers coach Chauncey Billups will
not be paid while on leave of absences from their teams,
sources tell ESPN. Both of their paychecks are expected to

(32:57):
be withheld and placed in escrow pending outcome of FBI cases.
Something tells me that they're not going to be able
to do the whole property taxes thing at the end
of this mortgage. I don't think they're getting that money
back when this is all said.

Speaker 5 (33:12):
Yeah, considering this particular scenario, we see guys find and
suspended all that are suspended plenty for different infractions, placed
on leave occasionally, which is what's happening with Rosier and
Chauncey Billips. I think with the financial link to this
particular story, which is the one hundred percent of what
this is all about, I think withholding their moneys made sense.

Speaker 4 (33:35):
I just I mean, I know he has to say
it because he's just reporting the facts.

Speaker 5 (33:40):
Yeah, nobody thought they'd be on it. No, but he
If you go back and look at the release, the
NBA sent out a statement and said the league is
placing them on leave. The team didn't have to put
out a statement in either case because the league handled it.
But it did not include in their two sentences or
three I believe it was. It didn't include whether there
was paid or unpaid. Sometimes it does, but it didn't,

(34:01):
so the information wasn't said explicitly. And now it has
been reported explicitly. I just think it's funny.

Speaker 4 (34:08):
There's so many times where, like I don't know, government
employees or cops or whatever, that are mixed up in
something that is completely foul.

Speaker 5 (34:19):
It's ninety nine innocent. But that's what I'm about to say.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
Ninety nine point nine percent of the time, everybody that
knows about this story knows they did whatever it is,
and yet they're going to keep pulling paychecks until it's
determined that you know, it actually did happen.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
And sometimes it is what the corporation or the organization
or the team has to do because they're doing everything
they can to protect themselves from any future litigation. Correct.
And I do get that side of it. I mean,
we do live in a litigious country. Just ask Jackie Chiles.

(35:00):
I just again at least surprising update from Sham's on
this situation. My only question is when do these guys
start rolling over on people that are much bigger fish.
And that's the difference between an NBA investigation that completely
clears Terry Rozier and say he's good to go and
you can go play and sign with whoever you want,
and federal investigators. The term roll over the NBA is

(35:21):
not going to get anybody to roll over on anybody
because they don't have any leverage or power. And it
did bring up another angle which has been talked about
a great deal in Charlotte and a great deal in
Miami as it relates to Rogier because of the timing
when the NBA learned of this and the timing of
his exit from Charlotte into a new contract with the
Miami Heat. Should the Hornets have been made aware of

(35:43):
this while he's on their roster? Should the Heat have
been made aware of this when they were pursuing him
and wanting to spend all that money on him. I'm
not saying Terry has to say one last thing before
I sign this four year, ninety two million dollar deal
with you, which we've already agreed on in principle, and
I'm holding the pen in my hand, I just want
to let you know that the NBA investigated me for

(36:03):
gambling allegations and they've they've cleared me, and now I'm
going to sign it.

Speaker 6 (36:07):
Why.

Speaker 5 (36:07):
I don't expect him to say that, but if it's
a league investigation and free agency, has that particular investigated
player sitting in the free agent pool. I mean, clearly,
it's going to prevent that's the thing. What do they do?
And we watched it kind of unfold a little bit
outside of the NBA's hands because there was a public
newspaper report about where things were with Malik Beasley. He

(36:29):
was about to sign a new deal with the Pistons,
who he just played for, and I liked what he
did on the court, but when this gambling or monetary
related issue came up and not paying his rent all
these things, oh well, we're not going to do that now.
So if the league made the Heat and the other
twenty eight teams aware of Terry Rozier's investigation, even if
he was cleared, which he was, well they know who

(36:52):
did The NBA teams and personnel people know how an
NBA investigation goes. We just explained it to and you
guys already know how little power or they have and
how little thoroughness they can do. It's not their faults,
a little bit like the NCAA. We mock how their
investigations go so badly almost every single time. But was

(37:12):
he You know there are people inside the Heat organization
that believe relief for them, cap relief cash relief is
something that they deserve for the Terry Rozier situation.

Speaker 4 (37:24):
Yeah, I just uh, when when it comes down to
how Adam Silver and like, because he's he's basically being
held up right now, you know, like they did do that.

Speaker 5 (37:37):
I don't want to call it a sham investigation, but
the NBA it's it's an NBA investigation. The word sham
and NBA in this case, unfortunately it's they're not if
they're not doing it on purpose, they're not faking the investigation.
But there's only so much had power to do.

Speaker 4 (37:54):
Yeah, what major sports or any other kind of entertainment
entity would come to a different conclude.

Speaker 5 (38:00):
That's basically it. I mean, look at the the investigation
that the NFL had. They hired people, former prosecutors, people
who should be very well versed in how to try
to get to the bottom of this. Yeah, but you're
working for the NFL. What are you going to find
out when you talk to people about Deshaun Watson situation?
And they got a report from her And this is

(38:21):
what I recommend you do with your with your punishment
for Deshaun Watson. And there's only so much now in
this situation getting people to roll over and terrible choice
of words. But the same scenario on Deshaun that can
happen because this is me versus you. You can interview
DeShawn and he might just literally tell you nothing, or

(38:43):
he could tell you his side of the story, which
might not jibe with the other side of the story,
but almost assuredly would not even if he's if he's
telling this ruther, he's not telling the truth. But the
people on the other side are the ones filing all
the cases, the chargers and other people who have decided
not to file but have been in similar situations. So
you can get you could, you'd have to guess, still,
is this information legit? Do I believe this person I've

(39:05):
spoken to? But the teeth you need to conduct an
investigation and it just doesn't work that way. And we
all know that three o'clock hour comes on the other
side of this. We'll dip inside the Texans facilities. Here
from Demiico Ryans his update on a pair of wide
receivers they hope to have against the Denver Broncos this
Sunday over at NRG Stadium.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
That is next the A team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Ninety tea lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Talking your Team.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the E team.

Speaker 5 (39:47):
It is three o'clock here on the eight team into
our number two, our number one of the sim will
cast only our on Space City Home Network. Early Rockets
tip off this afternoon five thirty Tip from Canada for
thirty pregame coverage here locally on our Rockets launch Pad program.
Then Rockets countdown and then tip off and the Rockets
hopefully get themselves a second win in as many games,

(40:09):
winning on Monday against the Brooklyn Nets by twenty eight
points and playing with a comfortable lead for almost the
entire game. Midway through the first quarter, they took a
sizeable lead and were never really challenged after that. Want
to get into the Texans. Want to let you hear
from both Demico Ryans and a little bit from CJ.
Stroud on the likelihood of seeing their offense get a

(40:29):
boost in personnel this week, but just quickly since we
just talked about it. The NBA's Player Association, as a
comment on the report earlier that the NBA will be
withholding pay for their current player doesn't have anything to
do with Chauncey's not in the NBAPA don't play, but

(40:49):
it does for Terry Rozier. Their statement is, while we
are in agreement with the league that upholding the integrity
of the game is of the utmost importance, their decision
to place Terry on leave without pay is counter to
the presumption of innocence and inconsistent with the terms of
our CBA. We plan to challenge their decision via the
proper channels. That's what we left you with at the
very end of the conversation. This is not necessarily suing

(41:12):
the league, obviously, but this is saying this is what
we have a CBA for. This is again the presumption
of innocence before guilt. So I do think that's what
I honestly was curious if they would do this. It
seems so obvious that ultimately they will, because that's where
we think this discussion will go and this investigation will go.

(41:33):
But in the event that it doesn't, then why shouldn't
he be paid?

Speaker 4 (41:40):
It's I don't have a good answer for why he shouldn't,
and that's why in the they know that constraints of
the CBA or the but you're the wording of the CBA.

Speaker 5 (41:48):
I'm sure that this is something that for the league
to do it, they knew they would be met with this. I imagine. Well,
if you're Chauncey Billups though, you're like, hey man, where's
the Coaches Association, there's a Coach's associated where's their statement?
Maybe that it is forthcoming, But like I said, we
will take a trip over to the facility. I got
it for you right here. And update from Demico Ryans

(42:08):
briefly on Nico Collins.

Speaker 11 (42:10):
Ico is technically still in the under the concussion protocol.

Speaker 5 (42:14):
We're expecting him to clear in the next few days,
and there you have it. Like I said, I felt
like the way he was participating in the brief portion
of practice indicated where he probably is. I mean, I'm
no doctor, but I am. I did expect Demiko Rans
to give us more even though I mocked it earlier,
and he did. He expects him to clear in the
next couple of days. He'll need to go through a
second practice like today's first practice. Those are part of

(42:37):
the concussion protocol steps that must be cleared, and their
expectation is he'll clear those steps and thus clear the
protocol and that it was not a shoulder, knee, elbow,
hand injury. He's going to be cleared to play, it
looks like, and he'll be ready to go. An update
on both receivers from Demico.

Speaker 11 (42:53):
Ryans Nico and Kurt Clears. We're hoping that looks great
for us. We got two of them. Are the top
playmakers back on the field. Anytime we can get those
guys out, they add a just explosive element to our offense, playmaking,
playmaker element to our offense. That those guys have done
it for a long time. So we're excited to be
able to get those guys back. Hoping the week goes

(43:16):
as good as he can go so we can get
them back.

Speaker 5 (43:19):
And CJ Strout a few moments ago at the beginning
of his press conference answered it in the very same
they're going to play unless something happens, kind of way.
Excited to get him back. They're actually coming back off
of one of the best days of the CJ led offense,
one of the best fifteen to twenty offensive days from
a yardage standpoint and how they played standpoint in the

(43:39):
history of the franchise. To be flirting with a five
hundred yard offensive day and to score six times on
your first seven possessions, granted to be nice. If four
of those field goal scoring possessions some of them were
touchdown scoring possessions, maybe you have a little bit better
opportunity to do so in the red zone with what
should be an elite red zone receiver in Nukoko. A

(44:00):
couple questions for you. I'll start with this one.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
If they somehow beat this this Broncos defense somehow, even
without you know, certain available and uh you know, with
the with the pass rush and specifically the sack numbers,
what they are.

Speaker 5 (44:20):
In some weird way. Isn't that going to kind of
irritate you? Like? Where was this all season long? No?
I know that it can somehow find a way to
prove the odds makers correct by winning as favorites, if
they can figure out how to do that. No, it
won't bother me at all. I mean I will have
that thought. But what's done is done. I know it's

(44:42):
not about where. What do you think the reason is?
It wasn't there because they weren't as good, because they're
an improving team, because they had a brand new OC,
because they had a very new offensive line. You think
I had Ingram played his best football with the Texans
in Week two when he returned. Do you think ariantae
Ursery played his best game in Week one when he
was out of position. What Mark Scott when he got
a first start at left tackle, or maybe Week eight

(45:04):
last week and there were plenty of people actually pulling
the coaches tape and saying this was the best game
that tay Ursery has played. I would agree. I think
there's a lot of factors to it. You had a
little bit more help by going with so many six
offensive lineman looks. Even though Fisher oftentimes was lined up
on the opposite side, you have to have to recognize
who they were playing against. The edge rushing tandem that

(45:26):
just happened to simply be on the field for the
forty nine ers on Sunday is among the least threatening
duos in the NFL, and just to where they are
as a team with their roster, there's a reason why
roughly halfway through the season two quarters of football, less
than halfway through the season, they've played eight games of
their seventeen, they have nine sacks. They don't put pressure

(45:49):
on the quarterback and it doesn't come from the edges.
When they do oftentimes. Yeah, I would hope they played
their best game of the season. They played one of
the worst fronts they're gonna play all year. And you've
mentioned a couple times, and anybody who was watching the
game there or otherwise saw the injuries they had. They
kept coming to the same group of players, the guys
up front. I'm glad they took advantage of it. But
it's just night and day to what they faced against

(46:10):
the Rams, even the Bucks, definitely the Seahawks, and clearly
this Sunday with the Broncos.

Speaker 4 (46:15):
Mentioned the weather this morning nice, So little guy gets
out the door and you could see, like you know,
I'm my job is to drop him off. Mom's job
is to pick him up, two very different times of day,
especially when you're talking about the weather, and especially when
you're talking about this city. I bring this up because

(46:35):
everybody was in a good mood this morning, everybody, and
it was because of that weather.

Speaker 5 (46:40):
I mean everybody. You can see it.

Speaker 4 (46:41):
There's little kids walking up into the school with their
parents because some of them walked them to the door.
There's others like me who are in the drop off
line in front of the school. All that kind of stuff,
and he was in a great mood because of it too.
I have to imagine it was the same out at
the practice facility after months of sickly practicing in peace,
soup humidity.

Speaker 5 (47:03):
Talking to the players in the locker room this afternoon,
maybe you could glean that they pretty much headed onto
the field in the same way they always do. That's
all I can say, because they grew up in the
northern parts of the country where they don't know to
appreciate this when it happens. Like if this was a
training camp practice and we were talking to the players
after two and a half hours outside in this weather,

(47:23):
and then they just came to the podium, which is
also outside covered, we would definitely get the vibe of,
oh my god, I wish we practiced like this all
the time. And I imagine some of the media members
that aren't on a radio show right now can get
that from them over at the facility that the locker
room opens as CJ finishes up this afternoon, I'm sure
they'll say it. I don't know that it matters because
I don't think they're going to be playing in the

(47:43):
conditions on Sunday. See and don't it's possible and I
don't know this, and I don't know if they will.
I'll ask them if I get over there this week,
or ask somebody if I don't. If the construction which
was intentionally done during the season on the roof and
the panels which they are replacing but not impeding the
ability to obviously continue playing football games, I don't know

(48:07):
if it does prevent them from opening it. I don't
know if there's an issue with it. We obviously had
a game earlier this year, the Monday night football game
that kicked off at six pm Houston time, the Bucks game.
Every intention was to have the roof open. I mentioned
when I got there, which was well after six. I
just happened to be in the elevator with somebody on
the crew that was handling some of the things they

(48:27):
were gonna do for the TV production that they needed,
you know, some pyro stuff and things like that, and
he was talking about it with the other person in
the in the elevator. The intention was to have the
roof open, but I'm not sure what the reason was
for it not to be open.

Speaker 4 (48:39):
They've got a like that's the problem with these cold
fronts here. At these cold fronts.

Speaker 5 (48:44):
Yeah, I mean it could be gone in five minutes,
it'd be back in ten minutes.

Speaker 4 (48:48):
Like I think we're gonna luck out on Halloween this year.
If you are still as the age with your children
that they are out trigger treating, you.

Speaker 5 (48:54):
Don't need a multiple costumes that they're ready for weather. Well,
if it's gonna be this weather, I'm gonna wear that.
Whether I'm gonna wear that.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
My only concern is whether or not I'm gonna be
trick or treating in the aforementioned pea soup and a dressing.

Speaker 5 (49:07):
Up, I am? Are you a slasher murderer from a movie?
Yep again yep? Okay, Well I haven't worn that before
he was born? Yeah, doesn't he want to be that
f Krueger.

Speaker 4 (49:20):
No, he wants to make sure that I'm not scaring
the other kids. That's his way of saying, you're actually
gonna scare me if I don't get to see you
put the mask on so that I know it's you.
It's not the run of the mill, floppy, loose fitting
freddy mask.

Speaker 5 (49:34):
It's like legit, full family dress up. I don't. Well,
here's the problem. He's got his squared away. I've got
mine squared away and Mom's feeling left out. Well, you
didn't exactly pick a costume that needs a partner.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
No, most of the people that he partners with wind
up dead. No, we dressed up together.

Speaker 5 (49:52):
It's a Freddy Krueger Corossum Nightmare on Elm Street costume.
She's not gonna be with us for all of the
night of trick or Treating, though she'll be playing the
role of Tina tonight.

Speaker 1 (50:01):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (50:08):
A lot to be to today and not a whole
lot of time to get to it, whether it's the
conclusion of the baseball season, which is either two or
three games away, with the Dodgers and Blue Jays all
noted up two wins a piece. Blue Jays got the
win yesterday even though the best player to ever walk
the face of the earth was throwing pitches to them,
and they got a game five tonight again in LA,

(50:29):
last game in LA for the season, and they will
be making a trip back to Toronto four, game six,
and if necessary, game seven, so possibly three games over
the next four days, and then we can begin discussing
offers being made and teams stoves heating up. Yeah, definitely
stoves heating up and qualifying offers being made. The Astros
will be involved there one way or the other, and

(50:51):
the Astros Golden Era players are a humongous part of
this offseason. From ber Valdez likely no longer an Astro,
Alex Bregman likely a free agent for the second consecutive
year it's coming back, and Kyle Tucker assuredly to be
a free agent for the first time in his career.
So a lot of things on that front. Clearly, I'll

(51:12):
get back to what was said and what is in
front of the Texans as it relates to trying to
get to five hundred and trying to knock one of
the teams in front of them down a little bit.
When their game against the Broncos kicks off Sunday at
noon over at NRG Stadium, We'll want to slide into
some Rockets conversation here in light of the fact the
weekly visit for head coach Ima Udoka took place earlier
today on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. He is

(51:34):
getting his team prepared to go undefeated in Canada. They
only have one game, it's tonight against the Raptors. Five
point thirty for the tip off there. The Rockets have
already used two different starting lineups to their first three games,
likely a few more iterations of it to come, but
obviously Joshakobe was part of their starting lineup in their

(51:54):
last game, got off to a nice enough start. Tari
East came off the bench midway through the first quarter
and essentially the blow out began. But a Koge a
big part of what they've done in the early season,
almost immediately a part of this team's rotation, and that's
kind of where things begin in the portion of the
conversation we have for you with Ema Udoka about Josha
Koge working his way into the rotation or the starting rotation.

Speaker 7 (52:16):
Yeah, I think we've I've been pretty open about, you know,
the lineup being the switch ability with the lineup, and
you know, we like the big lineup. We tinker with
that a little bit in preseason. But read'll get opportunities
of times if they have two really good scores like
Cam Thomas and Michael Porter, we may go with the
defensive lineup with Josh in edguard one, I'm nd to
guard another, and so we can go all all sorts

(52:39):
of ways honestly and then very comfortable with that, and
I think the guys are prepared for that.

Speaker 5 (52:42):
So that was a look we gave there.

Speaker 7 (52:44):
And at some point when we're when we're fully whole,
we'll kind of zone in on one thing and it
could be Dorian at the time, it could be going
big like we did, or read and read for instance,
and so the like I said, our versatility gives us
options to do that, and I think all of our
guys will come in every role.

Speaker 12 (53:01):
How would you assess Reid's play so far both ends
of the floor but also the shots selection specifically, it's
been eleven shots every single game for him.

Speaker 5 (53:09):
How do you feel about this selection there?

Speaker 7 (53:14):
Yeah, we want to be aggressive and confident, you know,
not passing up, and he looks that he gets he's
one of our best shooters and we understand how teams
are defending him and the attention that he commands himself
and so uh, but when you're playing with the guy
like Alpera and Katie, a man who's going to get
downhill and attract that crowd as well, those looks are
going to be there. We want him to be confident
and not second guess anything and he's done that so far,

(53:37):
you know, getting the getting the training on ball off ball.
You know with some teams that really are up pressuring.
Started with Okay see and then Detroit does more the
same and even even Toronto Brooklyn are heavy load up teams,
and so just giving him different looks, he's gonna.

Speaker 5 (53:52):
Learn on the fly.

Speaker 7 (53:52):
And I think, like I said, with Fred being out him,
my man got to learn to be the PGA like
some off ball, and.

Speaker 5 (53:57):
I think he's doing a good job.

Speaker 12 (53:58):
Rocket Tech coachma was here on a sports Talk seven
ninety and yeah, you mentioned a men being the PG.
I imagine you're pretty satisfied with eight assists and no
turnovers in the last game.

Speaker 6 (54:08):
What is that like?

Speaker 12 (54:09):
Because it's obviously it's basketball, one on one, don't turn
the ball over, get assists, But I mean, how do
you kind of communicate that or drill that into players
and see improvement as the season goes along in that facet.

Speaker 7 (54:21):
Yeah, just overall recognition of what teams are doing out there.
Like I said, we're playing against teams that have really
packed the paint and want to protect the rim with
their with their full team defense, and so the kickouts
will be there, get to our spacing properly and know
where your outlets are at, and so brought men, It's
gonna be different every night depending on who's.

Speaker 5 (54:38):
On him and how they are guarding him.

Speaker 7 (54:40):
You know, he can be aggressive getting downhill, but teams
know what he's all about and know the threat that
he is, so so they're going to load up and
it's up to him to make those reads. And so
I think he did obviously a great job with those
numbers you just pointed out, But throughout the season it's
going to be a game by game thing where he
has to be full understanding of how teams are guarding
him and where to get his shot another guy's shots.
Think that's where he's improved so far throughout the season already.

Speaker 13 (55:03):
May I know you don't like turnovers. Nobody does, but
there are gonna be some that are going to.

Speaker 5 (55:08):
Be I saw what you tried to do there.

Speaker 13 (55:10):
I appreciate that. Others are like, what the hell are
you thinking? Do you guys dissect those turnovers like I
think you do?

Speaker 7 (55:15):
Yeah, And it's really specific to the game plan. Like
I said, we've had pretty much all four teams are
going to either blitz the pick and roll or pack
the paint, make you prove it and beat you from outside.
And so it's just as simple play as we talked about,
you know, hitting singles against okay, see in game one,
and we didn't do that obviously. Twenty five turnovers for
twenty eight points. You know, one possession game is way
too high, and so understanding and learning from game to

(55:38):
game that these teams are going to be there. Keep
it simple and when you see the crowd, get off
the ball and have a two on one or some
numbers on the backside. If you get blitz and pick
and roll, get off the ball and let Outprin and
other guys make plays. And so when we try to
overdo it and you know, split or beat the crowd,
beat the double team, and sometimes you get in trouble.
But we just want to keep it simple. Trust your
teammates and make the easy pass.

Speaker 13 (55:59):
One of the turnover was a Kevin Durant offensive foul
against the nets where the ball hit the player in
the face. Did you get a satisfactory clarification on what
happened there? Because it looked like to me the defenders
right in his face. Where was Katie supposed to go. Yeah,
that's a tough one.

Speaker 7 (56:14):
I think we all thought it would be overturned when
I challenged it, due to the fact that the ball
grazed him, you know, he didn't hit him in his hand,
didn't hit him with the elbow or anything like that.
And like you said, they're crowding your space. You have legally,
you have a legal right to obviously make your move
and try to impede that progress, And so we thought
it'd be overturned. They gave us the reason and we

(56:34):
keep it moving from there. Didn't really agree with it,
but it is what it is, Katie. To you, you've
seen him so many times game playing against him. You've
been with him on the bench now for a short
time here in obviously other places. What has his game
done to change and evolve, you know, as he's gotten
a little bit longer in the tooth.

Speaker 5 (56:51):
I mean, are you still seeing if I went.

Speaker 13 (56:53):
Back and looked at Katie video of ten years ago,
is it about the same kind of player or how
has he transitioned as he's played a little bit later
in life.

Speaker 7 (57:00):
I think he's just continuing to be as efficient as
he always been, as he's always been. I think you
look at the last three years and the you know
the forty fifty ninety and you know that's high efficiency shooting.
He doesn't force it. He understands, understands defenses and what
teams are trying to do the scheme against him, and
he's basically seen it all. So now he's at that
times fine being a decoy or lotting guys that either

(57:21):
crowd him and make plays for others or get it
to out he and let him make the play. And
so he understands that. And if it frees everybody else
up and we get the win, he's all about that.
And so he's not a guy that's trying to force
it and prove anything. He's seen it all done at
all and understands what he does to impact our team offensively.

Speaker 5 (57:36):
A couple of things, in particular, to appreciate a baseball
reference from em, I'm just out there trying to hit
singles in so Oklahoma City, maybe maybe trying to hit
a few more home runs. And the two games that
have followed, they shot very poorly from behind the three
point line. Against Oklahoma City. The good news was so
did Okay see, and that's how the game ended up
in double overtime, they've shot significantly better in the two

(57:57):
games that have followed. Competition level is also against Detroit
and Brooklyn, and then the aggressiveness of this team and
Kevin Durant being kind of at the forefront of it,
Alprin Shongoon and Aman Thompson being at the front of it.
I noticed this, and we brought it up the other
day that the simplicity of this scoring is way up
in the NBA. Yeah, Tyrese maxw with another thirty nine

(58:20):
last night, and I thought this was a reason why.
So I looked into it a little bit more statistically
earlier today. We talked about free throw merchant all the
time last year, how many players shot more than nine
free throws per game? The answer is one, it's just Sga,
just Giannis, Oh yeah, and he was over ten. Nobody

(58:40):
else was over nine when Hard only a beak into
the season this year. So I grant you this that
we're in a tiny, tiny sample size. So go along
with that, there are thirteen players shooting nine or more
free throws per game they are calling. You can attest
to this. I can attest to this. An insane number

(59:02):
of fouls this year and teams scoring is going up
because they're all going to the free throw line more.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
The second quarter of that game with the Pistons was
absolutely brutal, Like it took.

Speaker 5 (59:16):
How long in real time? Does a typical quarter of
an NBA game take twenty minutes? More than that? Do
you ever take about a two hour and twenty minute game,
let's say so you just pull out the halftime in
your other four quarters. I feel like the second quarter
took forty five minutes in the night. It should take
neighborhood of a half hour thirty five minutes.

Speaker 14 (59:32):
It was.

Speaker 5 (59:33):
It was a lot, and it wasn't just the fouls
that were being called.

Speaker 4 (59:37):
It was, you know, discount Adam kinsing or lost control
of the game like pretty.

Speaker 5 (59:42):
Early on in that one. The good news for the
Rockets on those type of discussions, m hm, small sample size.
They're shooting eighty three percent at the free throw line. Yeah,
you may talked about that, and he talked about them
having a seal with one of their coaches. They put
together a little contract before the year started an insert
name here and insert figure here of what free throw

(01:00:04):
percentage you need to shoot this year, and now you're
bound to it. Well, he's all about accountability.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
So when he looked and saw that they were twenty ninth,
thirtieth in the league at that category, he was like, hey,
we should probably do something about this so that we
don't lose as many games.

Speaker 5 (01:00:18):
Yeah, he tried not to make it sound as bad,
and then he checked himself. You know, I've told the
guys it's something I pointed out to them in training camp.
We were twenty ninth at free throw shooting last year,
or thirtieth whatever, they were thirtieth. Yeah, he was being
he was being nice. They are second this year in
attempts and seventh in percentage. Will it stay that way?

(01:00:39):
We will be watching.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
The eighteen. On Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:00:50):
He speaking of wide receivers, John Mechi's already been traded again. Yeah,
I quote tweeted one of the reports that had John
Metchi on the move for the third time this season.
Three teams in one season for two players, where one
of those teams was Houston. But first matchie like you
brought up, I quote posted that and said, so John

(01:01:12):
Metchi on the move again, from a back to back
division winner to defending Super Bowl champion to Woody Johnson's organization. Yuck,
John Metchi being moved from the Eagles to the New
York Jets. Jets getting some cornerback help with Michael Carter
the other player I was talking about. Since the Bears

(01:01:33):
made the announcement today, we have signed CJ. Gardner Johnson
to the active roster, his third stop of this NFL
season with Houston Ravens practice squad briefly and now an
active roster member of the Bears. Mechi just bouncing around though.
It's good that teams are interested in bringing him in

(01:01:55):
to see how he can help them, but it's hard
to do much of anything when you're not on the field.
He wasn't on the field very much here and pecking order,
I don't think they did anything wrong with that. Same
thing happened with him in Philadelphia, even though Philadelphia is
trading a wide receiver out after they just played a
game with AJ Brown inactive and seemingly unhappy. So I'm

(01:02:16):
not sure if they just don't find a fit with him,
or they just think they've got other players that they'd
rather see more from, some of the younger group that
maybe further on the depth chart. The Jets have injury
issues with Reynolds going down. Garrett Wilson is still unavailable.
Hopefully this if nothing else, gets him on the field.
It's again hard to impress as he's playing for his
NFL future, for your rookie contract will expire. He's playing

(01:02:40):
for someone to want to pay him next year or
bring him in.

Speaker 4 (01:02:43):
At least meanwhile from the keep an eye on these
types of things as it pertains to the Houston Texans department.
What do you think about Aiden Hutchinson's extension because it
trails only Micah Parsons as far as his forty five
million dollar average salary. He got a four year, one
hundred and eighty million dollar extension. One hundred and forty

(01:03:06):
one of that is guaranteed, because.

Speaker 5 (01:03:10):
Largest guarantee for a non quarterback. Yes, I think so,
not quite as much as nmik as a Deshaun Watson.
I still can't believe they did that. This relates to Houston.
He's in year four. Next year is the option year
that they picked up from his rookie contract. Four years
is what you get when you're a first round pick. Yeah,
the fifth year option, it's been picked up and now

(01:03:32):
he's got a four year extension, which was always going
to happen. He's been super productive. Now he is hopefully
playing his third healthy season. Last year was not a
healthy season of his four, but the first two years
he's out there pretty much every game, every play, everything
they needed from him and played at an exceptionally high level.
As the number two overall pick of his draft is

(01:03:54):
famously he did not go number one. The Jacksonville Jaguars
took Trayvon Walker instead, same position. Has had a good career,
but has not had a career quite as strong as
a player at the very same position that most people
thought you were going to draft. It also put a
Michigan guy in Detroit, which is incredible just for the
team and the person and everything else that goes along

(01:04:16):
with love him. He loves it. It's just it's perfect. Okay,
So this is it's not good or bad news. It's
the nature of the business. Oh, now the Texans have
to pay No, they were always going to pay Will
Anderson this amount. This is what players at that position
are getting paid. And the next guy to sign his
deal is going to put it at this level. And
you just went through an off season where how many

(01:04:37):
different edge rushers got a new deal It's just the
way things go. It's nothing good or bad about it.
They're paying him and this it's what's what it's going
to cost to keep him here, which they are going
to do and can do.

Speaker 4 (01:04:49):
What if it did exceed Micah Parsons, Isn't it slightly
good news that it didn't?

Speaker 5 (01:04:54):
From the stand?

Speaker 4 (01:04:55):
I mean, I know you're going to exceed, well, I know,
but it's not going to exceed the only thing that
I really look at here is I go back.

Speaker 5 (01:05:02):
I've said it not often because we don't talk to
Detroit football much, but Brad Holmes, if you want to
know who the best GM in the NFL is, and
you're not mentioning his name, you're doing it wrong. They
keep signing their talent and very often it's not setting
the market. It's close, but you're not becoming the new
highest paid player otherwise sign That's what everyone thinks. We're

(01:05:25):
talking about. Not that much different. Like if if Aid
Hutchinson got a bigger AAV than Mike Parsons, what are
we talking about here? A couple of million a year. Yeah,
that's not breaking your team. You just have to figure
out a good way to do it. And I say
it every time, and it's even worse now with the
ridiculous void years, like GM's already had almost any avenue

(01:05:47):
necessary to sign anybody who they want. What do they
do when they run up against the cab? What do
they do when they're running out of space? Does twenty
twenty six exist? I believe it does. What about twenty
twenty seven? Just and push it's it's full proof. It's
impossible for it not to work. And then when you

(01:06:07):
add in void years, it makes it even easier for
it to work. Yes, players occasionally are sacrificed. We can't
keep everybody. Yeah, that to a certain extent, that is true.
But you also don't need to keep everybody. That's now
on you deciding which of the players you do need
to keep and not doing it like the Cowboys have
done it. They chose to keep DAK, they chose to

(01:06:28):
keep CD and their offense is pretty good, yep. They
chose to keep nobody on defense, most notably their best
defensive player, who's also younger at the time. He was
looking for his extension than either of the two when
they got THEIRS, and he's now going to maybe play
for the number one seed in the NFC in the

(01:06:50):
playoffs this year. The Green Bay Packers, who are currently
number one in the NFC. Then look at how again
their defense is going to be bad this year, with
or without Michael Parsons. But having the twenty second, twenty fourth,
twenty fifth worst defense, having somebody who could maybe make
three or four plays a game that you're not making,
it does make a difference. So the Lions keep drafting

(01:07:13):
well and they keep extending the players that they need
to extend.

Speaker 4 (01:07:17):
It's Jerry's now there again. They're still their record is better.
Their offense is actually somehow better than I thought it
would be. So both those cases, their record's better, and
both those situations I thought they're better than they would
be this year. But he's just very the latest example,
he's just not good at that job, and he's never

(01:07:39):
going to hire somebody who is.

Speaker 5 (01:07:40):
Yeah. I didn't want to say it too loud during
the preseason, too loudly because too many of us play
fantasy football here against each other, but the Cowboys being
good on offense to me was an absolute given, especially
from a fantasy football perspective. The players that you would
have wanted to have. I wasn't very high on Javonte Williams.
So clearly that was where I think they've been even better,
Like you'r said saying, but they're gonna lose. They're gonna

(01:08:03):
be losing every single week. Do you want to play
in a shootout, then sign with the Cowboys. They have
to score thirty points a game to even hope to win,
And so Dak Prescott's gonna be flinging the ball all
over the place all season long. Pickens is gonna have
unbelievable numbers, Seedee Lamb's still gonna have unbelievable numbers even
without playing in every game. And Jason Ferguson, even though

(01:08:25):
he's zeroed his fantasy football teams last week, has been
incredibly productive because they have to be what did I
call him, Jason, Jason? It's Jake, Jake. Who's the other
guy I messed up the other day? Tyler Craft? Yeah,
well those are both now Tyler Craft moving forward, not Tucker.

(01:08:46):
And I probably shouldn't even call Ferguson by his first name.
I should just call him one of the Cavendar twins. Dudes,
I can get that right. And don't forget to say
that's different. You haven't said that in a while will
in Week seven when they go to San Diego to
play the Chargers.

Speaker 2 (01:09:04):
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A four o'clock hour Underway abbreviated edition of the A
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north of the Border, so they can fit in all
the things they need to watch there in Toronto, tonight,

(01:12:38):
you know, the World Series and such. Oh, and then
the Raptors are playing the Rockets two to two series.
Springer did not play Vlad did.

Speaker 5 (01:12:47):
It was interesting what John Schneider had to say in
Game with the bow Tie last night about George Springer.
He was talking about how things had gotten better throughout
the day. He took some swings, he was feeling better
at that point in the game. Early he wasn't even
ruling him out for the game, and then gave him
a well, we'll see what tomorrow brings. Hopefully by tomorrow.
He said that, hopefully by tomorrow. Well, first pitch is

(01:13:09):
still several hours away, and as expected, the lineup for
the Blue Jays has not yet been made public. Had
a couple of hours before a first pitch. We'll probably
see it in the next ninety minutes. I would say
the Dodgers lineup is out, and I think there's some
people that are scratching their heads. The Dodgers offense has
been a little hit and miss in this series, maybe

(01:13:32):
even for the postseason. Obviously, two players have produced some
pretty huge moments, Freddy Freeman and shohe Otani. That's mostly it.
Ti Oscar Hernand has been pretty solid throughout the postseason,
has been perfectly fine in this series as well, but
there are some holes everywhere else. The lineup they have
tonight is different at the top after Otani, who does

(01:13:54):
still bat leadoff, but Mookie Betts has been bumped a spot.
He's batting third now, but that for some reason compelled
Dave Roberts to also bump Freddy Freeman a spot. He's
now batting fourth. Will Smith gets the honors batting second.
He's not out a particularly good World Series, but he's
also not out a particularly bad World Series. He's been okay,

(01:14:16):
and his postseeds has been okay. Not a bad hitter,
it's fine to bump him up. Kind Of curious why
you'd want to see Freddy Freeman at the plate less,
but that's what he's decided to do. You got a
lefty in a couple of righties, then a left he
annarrity and the order of things and manipulating how John
Schneider might use his bullpen. I think those things are
at play. But the main problem they've had throughout this

(01:14:39):
series and maybe even the entire postseason and maybe longer,
Shoo Tani bats leadoff who bats in front of show
Hey the rest of the game after he leads off
in the first inning. The worst hitters on the Dodgers,
the four hitters hitting in front of him tonight, for instance,
are hitting one sixty seven, one seventy six, one eighty eight,
and two hundred. It's why it's so easy to walk

(01:15:03):
him and pitch around him. And I'm not saying you
have to take a good hitter and put him at
the body of the order. He's just kind of stuck, like,
what do you want me to do? We have five
guys that can hit the ball. I'm going to back
them as much as I can. I want to see
them the most. But it does definitely make things life
easier on Blue Jay's pitchers because they're not really concerned

(01:15:25):
about anybody else in the line. And they actually showed
it the other night when you were talking about I
can't believe they're walking Bets after walking Otani to get
to Freeman. They're kind of okay if anybody else beats them,
and they don't believe anybody else will other than Otani.
Maybe if a person of the time, they've been right,
it's probably the smartest play, and I think tonight. We'll

(01:15:46):
see more of it. At play is Savage and Blake Snell.
Blake Snell started Game one, gave up five runs in
five innings. He pitched into the sixth inning and left
the bases loaded. All three of those runs came home,
much like last night shoe Atani six innings, two runs,
but he pitched into the seventh inning. He left with
two runners on and nobody out. Both of those runs

(01:16:08):
came home. Their ledgers look worse, but then it also
brings into question, especially in the postseason. It shows you
the belief in their bullpen. They had tons of rest
going into this series, and even though they've played an
eighteen inning game which did proceed yesterday's Otani appearance, He's
fine trying to get more out of his starters because
he knows what he has in the bullpen, and it's black.

(01:16:30):
Blake Trinon has been a total disaster, and so have
a few others, and not having Vessy I do think
has impacted them. Obviously, it's a much more serious situation
than having him available for some baseball games, but it
did definitely impacted them in a negative way. Not having
a pitcher that I think they could count on that's
not out there. How does the team with the highest
payroll in baseball? They are the team with the highest

(01:16:52):
payroll in baseball? Are the Dodgers? Aren't they?

Speaker 14 (01:16:54):
Hm?

Speaker 4 (01:16:55):
How are they starting Key k Hernandez and Alex call
in the World Series? And how do they have a
bullpen that is absolute hot, stinking garbage.

Speaker 5 (01:17:03):
Well, this is the first time in the postseason this
year Kik is really not produced. He's been such a
good postseason performer. He actually has been very good defensively too,
so they probably want him out there. But this is
they're kind of this is what happens when you're running
out of guys to count on. They weren't counting on
Edmund offensively, they're counting on him defensively. They weren't counting

(01:17:23):
on Pajz, who's not in the lineup tonight. They're counting
on him defensively. Now that you get too many of
those players and this is what you're stuck with the
highest payroll in baseball, Well, this is what it actually
does to your roster. You're not paying ten guys fifteen million.
You're paying two guys one hundred and fifty million, or
three guys and so everybody else is making no money.

(01:17:45):
It's what we've seen in the NBA. They could barely
even fill out a roster because Max guy Max Guy's
sixty million, forty million. It's a little bit even with
the deferred money and there's no cap, but their money's tied.
They're not paying most of these guys in the lineup,
five of them. They're paying four of the guys in
the lineup, and it's showing they're they're counting on their
big guns to be big it normally it works, it

(01:18:08):
can work. It just and they're also not down three
games to one and they didn't get it's series. They
haven't outplayed the other team.

Speaker 14 (01:18:17):
I know it is.

Speaker 4 (01:18:19):
That's why when we were predicting this would be tied
up last night, it would. I didn't even it's not
even about.

Speaker 5 (01:18:25):
This is why it's it's why it's it's it's awesome.
I don't care how much teams spend in baseball play
these games in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (01:18:34):
The season is over.

Speaker 5 (01:18:36):
If this payroll is playing that payroll and these players
are healthy, the series in the NBA is over. You
don't have to go through the We would have no
fun talking about it. Well, of course they spent the
most money. They have the best players, they're all healthy.
They're gonna play a basketball game, They're definitely going to
outplay them and they're going to win. It's just not
like that in baseball.

Speaker 4 (01:18:56):
Yeah, And I was looking at a list the other
day on the payrolls of of the last nine World
Series participants each team and the stark differences, especially since
you know, the Dodgers have been in it so much.
Astros were one of the spenders. That shouldn't surprise anybody.
But yeah, I mean Kansas City was in there at
one point. We forget it hasn't quite been ten years.

(01:19:18):
I don't think since Kansas City was in the World Series,
sing the World Series, right, Yeah, at the expense of
the Astros or did they lose the others they beat
the Astros, I can't remember because they went back to back.

Speaker 5 (01:19:29):
Right. The biggest spenders often make it to the postseason
very very very very very often. But teams that don't
the Brewers aren't spending money. Best team in baseball during
the regular season passably bad against the Dodgers and the playoffs.

Speaker 4 (01:19:46):
But see all this that we're talking about with payroll
like and especially with the show Hey, and the built
in advantages that teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers
have with the TV deals that they have. All of this,
like usual, by the way, is going to tie into
what I think is going to be by far the

(01:20:07):
worst work stoppage in the history of the majors.

Speaker 5 (01:20:10):
Yeah, very well could be. There are a lot of
people inside baseball they're missing the season. In my opinion,
believe that that is exactly what's going to happen, and
that is a long, long summer.

Speaker 9 (01:20:20):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (01:20:21):
The NBA will take you basically almost into training camp,
but it's a little different. There won't be any games
of any consequence. The NBA season is going to end
in June, but only the four teams are playing in June,
right and every other night. Teams are playing through early May.
And if your team's not one of them, and you're

(01:20:42):
in an NFL city, say like we are, well from
June to July to all of August, there aren't any
actual games. The NFL is not playing games, the NBA
is not playing games. How did we do shows during
COVID because we're awesome, I know, but I wouldn't I
talked about Cheese It's Snug and die Hard. So that
sounds like an amazing day. I didn't say with the yeah,

(01:21:03):
what about the other four days? Well, probably talked about OJ,
cheese Its and die Hard, and then the next the
next day we talked about die Hard, cheese Its and
OJ and the Last Dance. The Last Dance saved us
once a week or so analyzing and then I ate
the pizza every day we did that. I know, the
analyzed episodes of The Last Dance for shows What a

(01:21:23):
time to be alive.

Speaker 2 (01:21:25):
COVID the A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:21:37):
Hey, WEX, what's up? Trade Deadline's coming up? Yep, the
last game the Texas will play before the tread dead
trade deadline arise.

Speaker 4 (01:21:45):
In the NFL, they are three and four, looking to
get back to five hundred, as you mentioned, they currently
they hope this changes, but right now, the projected first
round draft slot would be number sixteen courtesy of that
one game under five hundred to current record, their chance

(01:22:05):
to make the playoffs just under twenty seven percent. Their
key position of need according to this article is center.
You agree or disagree, we're going offensive line.

Speaker 5 (01:22:18):
That's that's just from a draft standpoint, an off season standpoint,
I would agree. You're not trading for a center in
the middle of the season that's gonna help you.

Speaker 4 (01:22:32):
That's funny because they say who could be targeted Raiders
center Jackson Powers Johnson.

Speaker 5 (01:22:41):
Okay, let me know deadline next week that the Texans
have landed him or anybody else in the NFL. Now,
it does say the.

Speaker 4 (01:22:47):
Move could be for him to play either guard spot
or center, but Powers Johnson is no sure bet. He
ranks sixty fifth out of seventy qualifying guards and pass
block win rate eighty six point two two percent was
bench during the Raiders loss to the Chiefs. But he
ranks eighth among guards in run block win rate seventy

(01:23:08):
six point nine percent, and Houston could use run blocking
help in its interior.

Speaker 5 (01:23:12):
Plus, he's still in his second season. He's gonna grow
and get better. He's in his wet season, it says second,
and he plays for a what team the Raid is
so that helps them? How I'm just telling you what
was written. I didn't rhy would you trade a promising,
even benched, second year player if you're the Raiders, And

(01:23:36):
would Tom Brady get wind of this and have control
over you're supposed to build a team if you draft
players you want on the field and then trade them
in year two.

Speaker 4 (01:23:44):
Well, to be fair, I don't necessarily think of the
Raiders first, or tenth or even twentieth when it comes
to personnel moves in the last row.

Speaker 5 (01:23:52):
No, But I mean, I know we think some gms
are dumb, and there are dumb ones, but it just
somebody in the building would have to say, wait a minute,
the only way we're ever going to get better is
by winning in the draft. If we find a player
that can play and we want on the field that
doesn't make any money, that's winning in the draft. Aren't
they doing that with this player? Are you interested in

(01:24:15):
who someone local thinks that could be on the move
from the Texans besides Damian Pierce and Christian Harris? Sure,
Djbenemy says, defensive end Darryl Taylor. Yeah, Taylor doesn't play.
He's just like last two guys. Scratch for all the
three games.

Speaker 4 (01:24:30):
Pass rush Ability has had twenty four and a half
sacks in the previous four seasons.

Speaker 5 (01:24:33):
I thought it was a really good signing in the
off season for depth. I thought he would have an
opportunity to make a difference here, and he had the opportunity.
He just didn't make a difference here. And now Denico
Autry is off the pup list, even though he'll play
on the inside at the times, they have depth at
those spots now. Dylan Horton's injury, he was not on
the practice field today and he'll be on the injury

(01:24:54):
report in some capacity. I'm not sure what that would
do to impact a Darryl Taylor move, but he's been
inactive more than he's been active, and I think they
have the depth to move him. But I think the
same thing about those two other players. I think they can.
You know, Juwar Jordan was dropped off the practice squad today,
so they get out another tight end, maybe because of
Dalton Schultz situation or maybe not, but they did nonetheless.

(01:25:16):
So they really only have four running backs on the roster.
They're all on the active roster, and one of them
doesn't play running back. That's Damian Pierce. He's not going
to carry the ball for the Texans. I don't think
ever again, unless you have significant injuries. You know, dariag
and Bowally is kind of back in his third down role.
He's seen a few more snaps on a per game
basis over the last two games. Not really sure why

(01:25:36):
unless the other two guys are tired, and they did
have eighty snaps, but they just don't need that many.
You don't want to kill your depth. You need to
have some fallback options, especially on a Sunday, with how
many guys you want to have up. They had all
four of them up last week and they will again
this week. But Pierce, he's very replaceable as their kick returner.
And when you're active and don't get any running back snaps,

(01:25:59):
then you probably replaceable as a running back too. They
would need to sign somebody to practice squad to protect themselves,
but he could easily be moved. And Christian Harris is
very similar. If you have any kind of competence in
Jake Hansen and Jamal Hill playing if you had to
play them, because they're both active on game days most
of the time. Well, Christian Harris plays special teams, but

(01:26:19):
he doesn't play defense anymore. He doesn't get reps. He
doesn't play linebacker. They have three linebackers and they take
all the snaps. Azaz, Henry and EJ take ninety nine
point eight percent of the snaps every game at linebacker,
and they're all four of them are healthy. I'm not
sure that you're getting a whole lot in return. And
I do think the tight end position is absolutely something

(01:26:40):
they should consider maybe looking for at the deadline because
they're basically trying to make it through a whole season.
It looks like with one tight end. They don't use Bryant,
they didn't use Baits, they they haven't used any of
those guys to do much of anything. Twenty five percent
of the snaps Harrison Bryant was on the field for
this last game. He was the only other active tight end.
Dalton Schultz is he's clearly getting worn down. He's hurt,

(01:27:02):
he's playing through it. I commend him for it. But
they need help at that position. That's why they have
signed to other players. And I guess they don't have
any confidence in Luke Lache because Dalton Keen's probably already
ahead of him in the pecking order. He was here
during camp, he was hurt, he was let go, He's
been a couple of places, he's been here a few times.
He's now back on the practice squad, and I can
I can't guarantee it, but I think that he's a

(01:27:25):
strong possibility to be elevated for this game on Sunday.

Speaker 4 (01:27:28):
At the beginning of last week, I felt awful about
the Texans chances against the forty nine ers. As the
week got closer and closer to the weekend, I was
feeling better and better with each passing day.

Speaker 5 (01:27:40):
We're here on Wednesday, I'm kind of getting the same
feeling this week. I wish the team that were playing
had as many holes, yeah as San Francisco, But that's
what I'm saying.

Speaker 4 (01:27:50):
I know who they're playing, and I know I know
what they can do to the quarterback specifically, because honestly,
that's all that really matters going into this game. I
think the Texans defense is going to be fantastic as usual.
They're still elite, there will remain elite, and the only
thing that can stop that or change that, in my opinion,
is injuries.

Speaker 5 (01:28:08):
Well, you mentioned two things in the last couple of
minutes that are worth bringing up. You mentioned with the
Raiders lineman, the run block, win rate, et cetera. And
now you're talking about the Broncos and what they do
offensively versus the Texans defense. And then the clear concern
about their when their defense is on the field. Both
the Texans and the Broncos, when it comes to their

(01:28:28):
defensive win rates, pass rush win rate and run stop
win rate, they're both very good defensively. The Texans are
sixth and fifteenth in those two categories. In the Broncos
are fourth and twelfth in those two categories. These are
ESPN numbers. Now you see a pretty big difference when
you're looking at the trenches on the other side, again

(01:28:49):
not against each other, but comparing both offensive units. The
Texans pass block win rate and their run block win
rate are awful at the bottom of the league. They're
literally last and run block win rate and there are
fifth from last. In past block win rate. They're twenty
eighth and thirty second. The Broncos are eighteenth in run
block win rate. They're not a great running team. They

(01:29:11):
are first number one in the NFL in past block
win rate. Bo Nix is having the time of his
life back there. And that doesn't necessarily equate to pressures
because I've seen some other numbers where the Texans they
rank similarly in these numbers, but they actually aren't at
the bottom of the League this year in pressures allowed

(01:29:34):
watching the games, it is believable, especially when you have
a almost he was pressured. I think it's the lowest CJ.
Stroud has been pressured in his thirty plus starts here.
I could be wrong, but it's very close to it.
If it isn't roughly in the twenty twenty one to
twenty two percent of the dropbacks he was pressured on.
And we've seen games in the high thirties mid forties
throughout much of his time here, so those numbers don't

(01:29:56):
really mesh. If your past block win rate stinks, shouldn't
your pressure rate also be in the same relative area
And it isn't. Necessarily it's credit to CG. It's credit
to the play call sometimes, and it's a credit to
the routes that they're now accommodating him with. We need
more hot routes, we need more quick reads, We need
to get rid of the ball more quickly. You lose

(01:30:16):
you can lose your past block. All five guys can
lose it. But your play call might still save you,
and your route might still save you, and your quarterback
might still save you. And it's probably happened more than
we think based on these numbers.

Speaker 4 (01:30:29):
Now, just nothing about this season makes sense with the
Texan on the offense, I guess I should say defense
has been fantastic. Thought the defense was going to be
fantastic all season long, all off season, all training camp.
Never was worried about the defense. In fact, I thought
it would get better with the aforementioned CJ. Gardner Johnson.
But we know how that all went down. That's I

(01:30:50):
guess maybe that's also a testament to them. But it
didn't distract. They already had something good here before he
got there, and it remained good after he's out of
town and two teams later. The offense, though, looked like
how I thought it would to start the year and
now has come around. But I still like I need

(01:31:11):
to see them play the Denver Broncos in order to
not think that it was fools gold last week.

Speaker 5 (01:31:15):
No question, last thing. On bow Knicks. They're eleven and
five in his last sixteen starts, the eighth this year
and the seven to close out last year. He's been
sacked seventeen times in his last sixteen games, never sacked
more than twice in any of them. I'd like to
say that's going to change. This week. But I'll take it.
I'll go with it. They'll get him three times. Wow.

(01:31:38):
We'll send you into Rockets launch Pad. Coverage of Rockets
and Raptors here on Sports Talk seven ninety begins

Speaker 2 (01:31:44):
Next the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety