Rockets Beat Nuggets, Can Texans Knock Off Defending Super Bowl Champs? Ravens Claim Diontae Johnson

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Lunchtimers. This is the Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Show, ten uh oh two in the am on Sports
Talk seven ninety Hello and good morning, and welcome in
to a Thursday edition of The Matt Thomas Show with
Ross without Matt Thomas, Pamily and the.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Logo rights out of the floor.

Speaker 3 (00:25):
He pulls up, looks bobs at left side Adams back
door pass.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
There's Thompson for a flush.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Another nasty handoff between Adams to a mend for the finish,
a green around a Shenggoon's spool always elected by Jordan
Nasa Steel and throws it back out to mid court.
Brown had it momentarily back in the hands of shn
guon new shot clock right side Jalen three pointer and
he nails it.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
Rock is just working at a different speed. Tonight takes
a set.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
James Demasis goes, he's gonna jam it over. Dario Sarich.
That's just not nice. Period ninety five seventy two. My
goodness longerly walking.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
Away by Manet and he's.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Stolen by wig Moore. Look out, he's all by himself
in a reverse Jube Michael a little cold of time
out highlights Galore primarily with the guys wearing red and
black Rockets to shoot well Benwell and take advantage of
two of the best Denver players out of the lineup

(01:28):
and secure in the modern High City a.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Rockets win.

Speaker 3 (01:37):
Final score Tonight your Houston Rockets eight the Denver Nuggets
one eight oh.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
In honor of Matt Thomas not being here, we're going
with John Denver to open up the program. Well, also,
because you can't really come up with a better song
from Denver, can you. Jimmy Buffett had a song Mile
High in Denver. Yeah, we get it, Jimmy Buffett. You
like to smoke weed and sing about being on the beach.

(02:07):
Cool stuff, bro Well, Anyways, we went with the Rocky
Mountain High instead with John Denver to open up the
show to honor the Houston Rockets and their big win.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, I still say big win.

Speaker 4 (02:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Nikola Jokicic didn't play, neither did Eric Aaron Gordon. Eric
Gordon didn't play either for that matter, but I still
say a big win for the Rockets over the Denver
Nuggets yesterday. A part of the conversation we will have today,
along with many other things here on The Matt Thomas
Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. So because of that

(02:41):
game last night in Denver, Matt traveling with the Houston
Rockets to Sacramento.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
They will be on a back to back.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Good news is the Rockets were blowing out the Denver Nuggets,
so the starters didn't play the last five minutes or
so of the game, and some of the starters didn't
play at all. I think in the fourth quarter, I'd
have to pull that back up. But the Rockets get
to win. Matt is traveling with the Houston Rockets. They
will be in Sacramento tonight and then Portland on Saturday.
So in the meantime, you have me right now, so

(03:10):
low because well we're a little short handed. Matt's out,
Gordy's on vacation. That's okay, Dan Matthews is gonna show
up at noon, so I can handle two hours by myself.
I used to do it on Saturdays on the Sports
RV Show. You could be my co host if you'd
like to get in at seven one three two one
two five seven ninety. Is the phone number seven one
three two one two five seven ninety. You can also

(03:33):
send tweets to at Sports RV. Connor McGovern is on
the is well here as well. You can find him
on the Twitter verse at Connor deep McGovern.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Coming up at.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Let's see eleven o'clock where I've been dubosed to talk
some Rockets. We'll also get the news at noon. Eventually
we've got a Bregman update for you coming up on
the show. But I do want to st I'm gonna
do it against my better judgment. All right, I'm doing
a temperature check. Where are we at on the Houston
Rockets right now? Are you paying attention? Are you watching?
Are you starting to creep back in and get a

(04:04):
little bit into it? Because I'm somebody who has always
been a Rockets fan. When I was growing up nineteen
years old, that's when the Rockets were winning their championships.
That was my first love as a sports fan here
in Houston. Somebody was born and bred in this city,
and the Rockets took over the city in those times
with achem olajuwon of course, and then Clyde Drexel all that.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
We don't have to go through the names.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
So it's always been ingrained in me to be a
Rockets fan, and obviously it's been tough sliding since then.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
There was the nice run with James Harden.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
There was the Catino Mobley Steve Francis malaise, and then
after the James Harden era, it's been like Christian Woods
season and one are these young guys going to perform?
But right now the Houston Rockets are twenty seven and twelve.
They are number two in the Western Conference. They are
two games up on the Memphis Grizzlies and a half

(05:00):
games up on the Denver Nuggets, who they just beat
in that spot. And they are far exceeding expectations for
this year to where all right, you're thinking playing game.
Then the season keeps going along, keeps going along, and
you're thinking, okay, top six would be nice. Now it's like,
I want top four, I want I want home court

(05:21):
advantage in the first round of the playoffs is what
I'm looking for for the Houston Rockets. And they play hard,
they play good defense. They they they're number one in
the NBA in rebounding, their top two to three in
defensive rating, which is points allowed for one hundred possessions,
which accounts for pace. So it's it's a number that
I like. So they play great defense. A men Thompson

(05:42):
is flying around. Jalen Green's playing like a freaking All
star right now. He's scored thirty four points last night,
ten to sixteen shooting. The hot three point shooting will
subside at some point. He's been shooting over close to
fifty percent from three in the last seven games. That
will go down, But his aggressiveness is getting to the basket.
His getting to the free throw line has been key

(06:05):
as well. Eleven of eleven from the free throw line
two games ago, eight of eight from the free throw
line last night from Jalen Green.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Fred Van Vliet is a fun guy to watch.

Speaker 2 (06:15):
He's got a good assistant turnover ratio, aubrynching goon making
fools of people in the post and behind the back passes.
You know what else is sneaky about the Rockets. I
like Steven Adams coming off the bench. Steven Adams comes
off the bench for like ten minutes or whatever. He
grabs a bunch of offensive rebounds. Dude's throwing no look
behind the back passes to a men. Thompson cutting to

(06:37):
the basket. Like this Rockets team has been really fun.
They're really good, and I don't know where they're gonna
end up at the end of the season. I don't
know how far they're going to go to the playoffs,
but right now it's all gravy. It's all exceeding of expectation.
And in the last couple of weeks there has been
some discussion talking about, Okay, what now should they go

(06:58):
for Jimmy Butler. Should they had to make a big
move for Devin Booker or Daron Fox and get that
superstar player. I don't think that's entering the mind of
the front office and this coaching staff at all. I
think they are looking at the guys that they have
in front of him, saying, we can win with these guys.
Maybe you want to tweak and add a piece on
the bench or something like that. But I would be

(07:20):
surprised if between now and the end of the trade
deadline in February if there was a major earth shaking
move from the Rockets. That's even before they started surging
up the standings. Now that they've won five in a row,
I think they're trusting the process. I think they like
their guys. You're allowing Jalen Green some time to blossom.
He is looking like a superstar in the last seven games,

(07:43):
and we'll see if it lasts, because we've seen it
from him before, like March of last year. But he's
twenty two years old. He'll be twenty three on February ninth.
Happy early birthday to Jalen Green. And sometimes it takes
guys years and years to figure it out. To me,
this is the best defensive season he's had, and it's

(08:05):
not the best offensive season in terms of raw scoring numbers,
but as far as being a complete player and doing
things offensively for himself and for others, and recognizes and reading,
recognizing and reading defenses, I do think it's starting to
shape up to his best offensive season. And his three
point percentage right now is at thirty five percent, which
if it can just stay around there, I'm not asking

(08:27):
him to shoot fifty percent like he has in the.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Last seven games.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
If he could just stay in a good range, Jalen
Green is going to be extremely effective for the Houston Rockets.
We know he's a streak shooter. He's on a great
streak right now. Hopefully at can't sustain. Rockets are looking good.
Are you paying attention? That's what I want to know.
Seven one three, two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number if you would like to get in

(08:50):
seven to one, three, two one two, five, seven ninety.
A lot of stuff to get to, as I mentioned,
Jeff Passen and Buster Olney commenting on Alex Bregman and
the latest. We'll talk about that coming up at ten thirty.
Also we will talk about the Texans as they prepare
for the Chiefs going up to Arrowhead.

Speaker 1 (09:09):
We got much to discuss.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Anything you want to get to you can at seven
one three two one two five, seven ninety. It is
the Matt Thomas Show without Matt Thomas. We got Dan
or Lossy coming up at noon. We got Bendubo's on
some Rockets coming up at eleven. Dan Matthews gonna join
me as we go along, and you it is the
Matt Thomas Show till two o'clock.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
We're gonna take a quick break here back in a minute.
This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on four
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
This is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, without Matt
Thomas and with just Ross sitting in right now. Dan
Matthews will join as we go along. Well, Bendubo's on
to talk some rockets. He of Rockets wire fame You
can also find on Twitter at Ben Dubo's Dan Orlovsky

(10:04):
talking about the Texans versus the chiefs of ESPN. Great
get by Dan Matthews. He'll be coming up at noon
here on the program. Then we still have I just
don't get it. I mean, we've got a lot of
stuff to get to here with you until two o'clock. Yes,
if you have not heard, tell your friends, tell your neighbors.
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross is ten am to
two pm here on a Sports Talk seven ninety. Phone

(10:26):
lines open at seven one three two one two five
seven ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
Some people.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Still not getting with the program with the Rockets, and
I get it, and it's okay, And you know, I understand.
Not everybody's like you know, there's some of us like
me and probably many of you.

Speaker 5 (10:46):
Of you.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
First of all, if you're listening to the station, you're
a big sports fan, we appreciate you, thank you for
listening to this station.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
But also some people pick and choose.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Some people like the entire buffet of sports and they
really get into all of us, all of us choose
what we get in. Because I don't get into every sport.
I'm not deep in the cricket game. I don't watch
F one. I'm not a big NHL guy, like my
producer Connor McGovern is. There are certain things that I.

Speaker 1 (11:10):
Pick and choose. I choose to get into.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
You got only a finite amount of time, certainly, if
you have any sort of personal life, you can't get
into every single sport.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
You have to choose.

Speaker 2 (11:19):
And I've had people tell me that on Twitter before, like, yeah,
I used to be a big Rockets fan, but then
I had kids and I had to choose, and I
chose the Texans, or I chose the Astros, or I
went some other way. And I get that, But to me,
it's really a fun brand of basketball. You have football
kind of letting up. Baseball isn't getting going right now
for a while. And even the end of the basketball

(11:43):
season is before the baseball season really ramps up in full.
Probably the end of the Rocket season will be anyways.
The finals are in June, playoffs are in April April
May ish, So yeah, I would say it'll be fun
to walk. And this is a team that is basically

(12:03):
built from the ground now. Big free agent deals with
Fred Van Vliet and with Dylan Brooks. But the core
of this team right now is Jalen Green and alprin Chingoon,
both draft picks for the Houston Rockets. So it's been
fun watching them grow and mature. And there have been
some growing pains for sure. And it's been a long

(12:24):
road on the in this process with the Rockets, where
some people have called this guy bus, that guy bus.
Jalen Green included, there have been some moving and shaking guys.
I really want Josh Christopher to be the next thing,
and he's gone. And oh Christian Wood, he's the worst
and he's gone. It's been an interesting run in the
post James Harden era for the Houston Rockets.

Speaker 1 (12:44):
But things are going great right now.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
Twenty seven and twelve as the number two seed in
the Western Conference, beating the Grizzlies three and nothing. Denver
Nuggets didn't have Nikolaiokich, but a nice win from the
Rockets last night. Mentioned the phone lines are open at
seven one three, two one two five seven ninety. Let's
get to Roger northwest side holding alongest what's up, Roger?

Speaker 6 (13:08):
What's going on?

Speaker 7 (13:09):
ROSSI? Or did not call you? ROSSI?

Speaker 5 (13:11):
Uh?

Speaker 4 (13:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (13:12):
He calls me Rossi, And it's kind of weird because
the only people that have ever in my life and
now I think people take cues from him and everyone
calls me Rossi now. But before he kind of picked
that up, I only heard it from my family, Like
my mom would call me Rossi. My sister always called
you know, since she was a little kid, would call
me Rossy. And then my nieces and nephews call me
uncle Rossi. So Rossi is not something I normally hear

(13:34):
outside of family. But you're family now, Roger, so you
can call me Rossi.

Speaker 7 (13:38):
Oh well, thank you.

Speaker 6 (13:38):
Ross So we're going with uh, you know, if you're
calling this sports station and don't know that Rockets are,
you know, are legit, then I'm not sure why you're
calling a sports station, But anybody who's not living under
a rock should know that Rockets are a viable candidate
for a top four seed. Also, I'm getting a lot
of a lot of whispers and rumors about trading and

(13:59):
and getting some kind of guy who can shoot and
this and that. I'm of the I'm of the part
of hey, it' stop broke, don't fix it. If you
want to do all that, just wait for the offseason.
Let this thing play out, because it might just be
very very special this year.

Speaker 7 (14:15):
You got guys.

Speaker 6 (14:15):
You got guys who just fit the pieces, just fit.
They might not fit on other teams or other guys
come in, might not play the same role as as
other guys are playing now.

Speaker 7 (14:25):
With the exception of poor.

Speaker 6 (14:26):
Reed Shepherd, he he just looks like he's just a
little bit, a little bit not ready yet for the
prime time. Uh, you know players, but you know he
took a shot yesterday his feet weren't even set yet.
But aside from that, this team's on a role. Let
it play out. Uh, these trust the process type thing
is going on here and it's looking really really nice

(14:49):
on the break the breaking situation. Uh you ever see
those cartoons back in the day, and you know the
cartoon character makes a mike a goof and his head
turns into a jackass.

Speaker 4 (15:00):
Well, the same situation.

Speaker 6 (15:04):
Correct, this situation is gonna play out again, but.

Speaker 1 (15:08):
In real time, in real life.

Speaker 7 (15:10):
I really think, I really think.

Speaker 6 (15:12):
His uh, his agency Bars really did him at disservice
and we gave him probably the best deal and you know,
all full disclosure, how many how many years out of
those six years, do you think he was gonna play
We're gonna just go ahead and let him have the
money anyway.

Speaker 7 (15:28):
I think about four of those years would have been viable.

Speaker 6 (15:30):
The last two would have been, you know, whatever he
wanted to do. And I don't know why he didn't
think about that, because we would get We gave him
the best option, and what teams are signing up and
what general manager co signing for a three week rev
up period or three week calibration period that he a
three month calibration that he starts up with every year

(15:50):
just to get going.

Speaker 7 (15:51):
What teams are starting up for that.

Speaker 6 (15:53):
I'm gonna tell you only one team And it was
us that tolerateed that because it was Breakman. He's our own,
he's a legacy player, and it was okay, I don't
see other teams that are signing up for that much
less you know, media members and fan bases and all that.
So there you go.

Speaker 8 (16:07):
That's what I got. Ross.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Good, Thank you, Roger, appreciate you getting in. Yeah, a
couple of things.

Speaker 2 (16:11):
Yeah, on the Rockets part, as you said, yeah, I
expect them to not rush things, to trust the process.
They talked about Phase two two years ago with the
hiring of Email Adoka, with the signings of Fred Van
Vliet and Dylan Brooks, like we're it made sense in
theory and it's making sense now in practice. We're bringing
in those three guys represented and have brought a culture

(16:37):
reset for the Houston Rockets, a culture of accountability, the
culture of toughness, of just not taking anything from anyone,
setting a defensive edge, trying on both ends of the floor,
and not accepting failure. And it is so far it
has worked in spades, and it has looked great. And

(16:57):
I know there are a sport more so couple of
weeks before this five game winning streak, like, okay, what's
the next step. You gotta get over the hump, Gotta
win the championship, got to win the championship, Okay, yeah,
Or you can just kind of trust your core that
has you exceeding expectations right now and let them grow
and get better and flourish. Not saying the Rockets are
the next great dynasty in basketball, but if you remember

(17:20):
it took a few years for the Klay Thompson Steph
Curry Warriors to get to the level that they they
they reached. You have to bang the door down a
couple of times normally before you bust through it. Save for, like,
off the top of my head, like the two thousand
and eight Celtics who got Ray Allen, what Paul Pierce

(17:41):
and who is Kevin Garnett is their big three? And
then they won in their first year and that was
all free agent stuff. Normally teams have to grow. We
can point to Michael Jordan getting over the Pistons homp
and the Rockets losing to the to the Sonics in
ninety three and then finally busting the door down in
ninety four to ninety five. Like it takes a little
bit of time. It's not win now, win now, win now,

(18:01):
win now, or you're a loser.

Speaker 8 (18:03):
I know.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
That's what a lot of the sports discourse is surrounded around.
That's a lot of the talk that we have. But
in reality, with rafel Stone and Yimadoka, they have a
vision and it seems like to me they're going to
give this vision time.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
I could be wrong.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
They could go and make a big move for Devin
Booker or I don't think Jimmy Butler is way out
of the realm of possibility.

Speaker 1 (18:25):
In my opinion, but you can let these guys grow
and flourish.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
If you're looking for that superstar player who can rise
this team to a new level, maybe it's Jalen Green
to an extent. Maybe it's Alprin Shun Goon to an extent.
Certainly it could be a Men Thompson to an extent.
I mean, that guy is doing everything. It's almost like
he had a bad game. He had eleven points and
nine rebounds, four steals, and two blocks. He does everything

(18:51):
for you. He's a huge X factor in all of this.
It all kind of makes perfect sense ideally, right, Just
think about it. You've got your veteran defensive pieces who
can knock down threes at least their career track record
says in the case of Fred van vliet He and
Dylan Brooks. Those guys are going to play defense, they're

(19:11):
going to provide leadership. Then you've got a wing player
who can blow by anyone on the perimeter, can dunk
on anyone, and can knock down step back threes. And
then you got your big man in the middle finishing
with both hands, and he's a good passer and has
a really high basketball i Q. I mean, think about
that from a team building standpoint that sounds really good,

(19:32):
A good second big man and Steven Adams coming off
the bench, a three point sniper gunner slash score off
the bench right now, and Cam Whitmore in the way
that he's playing. This team is well constructed and it's
not an accident that they keep winning and winning the
way they do. On the Bregman thing, well, we'll get
to that on the other side, because I do have
a bregmant update that Roger did bring up Bragman how

(19:55):
much did he shoot himself in the foot here, how
much did he overplay his hand or how much is
it bad circumstances? Say, I don't think it's unfair to
say I want more than Matt Chapman. And then apparently
the market disagrees. All right, So certainly some nuanced discussion
to get to. On the Bregman thing, we're talking some rockets,

(20:15):
anything you guys want to get to as well. We
do have to take a bottom of the hour break
seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number seven one three two one two five
seven ninety Bindubo's talking some rockets coming up At eleven o'clock,
Dan Orlowsky and Dan matt It's a double Dan coming
up at noon as well on the Matt Thomas Show
with Ross, Matt Thomas, Ross Veriel.

Speaker 9 (20:38):
It's a Matt Thomas show with Ross. I'm Sports Talk
seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
Yes, it is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross, but
without Matt Thomas. He is out traveling with the Rockets
right now.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
I am here.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
Dan Matthews will be joining in a little bit along
with Dan Orlowski for an interview coming up at noon.
Been to Bo's at eleven to talk some Houston Rockets
as well. And you folks have been great getting on
the phone lines. I do appreciate you, and they are
a couple. There are a couple of lines opened if
you'd like to get in seven one three two one
two five seven ninety seven one three two one two

(21:36):
five seven ninety holding the longest Mike and Tomball go
ahead and get after it. Hey, Ross, Now you doing, buddy,
I'm doing great?

Speaker 1 (21:45):
What's up?

Speaker 4 (21:46):
You know what?

Speaker 10 (21:46):
I'm just gonna chime in on the Rockets thing. I'm
a little older, uh I you know, watched the Rockets
since I was a kid as well. And back to
the Moses Malone and Ralph Samsonarira and then the Hakeem
and the directs for Barkley stuff, and then to ya, I.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
Mean, Steve Francis, James Harden and.

Speaker 10 (22:02):
I gotta admit I'm kind of taken a break the
last few years, like a lot of It's probably because
of the state of the team, but man, I'm stoked.
I started watching them again last year pretty hard and
seeing the team improved the way it is right now.
This is a good young team, man, this is They're exciting.
I'm not a big fan of trading a bunch of
that talent away for some big name. I just don't

(22:23):
think they should do that. I think they should let
this marinate. And if they do that and this team
Jill's like it's been doing, I think it could be
one of those teams where you have a great team,
a championship team for a long time. I don't know
what you think about that.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
Yeah, thank you, I appreciate it, he adds, like a
good room, Mike, you gotta let the flavors blend. You
gotta add a little bit of the onions, the Bell
Peppers and the tree, the trio. Then you gotta saute it.
Put some garlic in there. Then you start adding other
stuff and you let it grow. Rockets added Jalen Green
and Outbryn Shingoon and well Josh Christopher at the time

(22:58):
who was gone, and then you had Jabari Smith Junior
one year. Then you ad him in Thompson another and
he has really blosso him into a guy people are
talking about as far as is like a first team
All defense quality defender. I mean Thompson, He's gonna need
to stay in the starting lineup, which I think he
will even when Jabari Smith Junior comes back to live

(23:19):
up to those expectations and Alprin Shinggun doing his thing,
and you add it in as well in the injection
of life, as I said, with the coach, Imo Udoka,
with Fred van Vliet and with Dylan Brooks, and this
team is really playing well and they're fun and they're.

Speaker 1 (23:37):
Knocking down their threes right now, That's that's what we
need to happen.

Speaker 5 (23:41):
Now.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Is this a short lived spurt where Jalen Green's knocking
down all his threes and the team's hitting fifty eight
percent threes the last couple of games where they've basically
been one of the worst three point shooting teams in basketball,
and the water will find its level and go back down.
It's possible. But the good thing is they can bring
their hard hat, their lunch paale, whatever cliche you want

(24:02):
to make. They bring that defense on a night in,
night out.

Speaker 1 (24:05):
Basis.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Entire year long, they've been basically one, two or three
as far as best defensive rated teams in the league.
Oklahoma City Thunder has been consistently number one, and that's
probably not going to change. And they're going to be
the West favorites. That's probably not going to be changed.
But that's okay. We're ahead of schedule right now. If

(24:28):
you'd have told me that the Rocket's almost almost halfway
through the season twenty seven and twelve in the two seed,
I would have said you were crazy. I would have
thought you were crazy, and we would have had you
locked up. But now you're free because the Rockets are
twenty seven and twelve, So we appreciate you, all right,
seven one three two one two five seven ninety the
phone number. Let's keep it rolling on the phone lines

(24:50):
with our good friend. Let's see what was biscuit right
about this time? Biscuit? Go ahead, Ross, Ross Ross, what's up,
my brother, Biscuit, Biscuit, Biscuit, how are you. I'm just
going chillan listen to some Zapp and Roger.

Speaker 1 (25:03):
What do you got there? You go?

Speaker 11 (25:04):
Man?

Speaker 5 (25:05):
Hey, you know me and you man, we basketball all
day long. Man, I don't know why we can't give people.
You know, I'm happy now that the Rockets are winning, man,
because now I get some of my fellows to go
to the game with me and everything.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
There you go, well, you buy the ticket, Still go, Biscuit.

Speaker 5 (25:22):
I'm gonna disagree with you all on one thing, Ross,
that you just stated earlier. All right, you said you
said the nucleus was Sang Goon and Jalen Green. I
stayed the nucleus, the sang Goon, Jalen Green, and the
me and Thompson.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
Yeah, I think of the men Thompson in there. I
was thinking of that that they're in the same draft class,
and that's really when the rebuild started. So I put
them together. A men of course came a couple of
years later. But you're talking about on the floor right now.
The nucleus of the rebuild is is Jalen Green and
out brnching Gooon. But the nucleus on the floor right now.
Absolutely a men Thompson's in that mix.

Speaker 5 (25:56):
Well, when I mean the nucleus them the three guys,
I'm not trading. Yeah, I may move some of the
other pieces and some of the thread might not be
here when we make that championship run. Uh Jabari maybe
even get moved. Those three are untouchable. That's what I'm
talking about, those three, right, Those three guys right there,
they're untouchable. And you talk to the coach the other

(26:16):
day and they recognize it, and there's no coincidence ross
the Jalen Green run last year and his run this
year basically happened with a man Thompson on the floor.
It's no, it's no, that's not a coincidence. Those guys
play well together and and one of the reasons is
because Thompson is probably the smartest player on the team.

(26:39):
And so when Green taxed the bucket and somebody comes over,
Thompson goes to the open spot, so he knows he
has somebody he can get it too, so you know,
and and they kind of both like the run and
so that that that's you know, that's the positive thing
about it. But the coach got a decision to make.
You say, Jabari come back, and you say Thompson may
stay in the start a lineup, And I can to

(27:00):
agree with you. But the guy to me that's gonna
go to the bench ain't gonna beat JR. Bari. To me,
it's gonna be Brooks if they make that move, because
they still need the height of JR.

Speaker 8 (27:09):
Bari.

Speaker 5 (27:10):
You know what I mean, because the other night, I
don't know if you remember the other night Jackson on
Memphis was taking advantage of Brooks with his height, you know,
And so I don't know how the coach is gonna
do it. I can to think he's not gonna take
Brooks out of starting line up just yet. Maybe next
year move. But here here's a question I would ask you, Rosster.
You said, let it work, and I'm with you to

(27:33):
a point. But if I can get the Aaron Fox
without giving up, without giving up those three guys, I
just said, you gotta look into it, because if you
add Fox to this now you can get Oklahoma City.
You see what I'm saying. And we're talking about championships,
you know, and you always talked about me Ross, I said,

(27:55):
eleven game improvement over last year and you and Matt
laughed at me at the beginning of the seasons. It's
gonna be a like eleven twelve game improvement and y'all like,
I don't know about that, I'm telling you. But if
you get Fox with Jalen Green and Sang Goon and
Ama Thompson, now you got something. But I'm not going
no once again, I'm not trading Thompson Green or saying Goon.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, I don't know that you don't get him. Thank you, biscuit.
I appreciate you getting in. I don't know that you
can get him without giving up something substantive. Can you
go to the Kings now, I think Eric dearon Fox
has one more year in his deal. Can you go
to them and say, uh, here's Jabari Smith Junior and
Cam Whitmore in a first round pick or two.

Speaker 1 (28:37):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (28:38):
I mean, this is just me speculating spitballing right now
live on the air. So I don't know if you
could do that without giving away something like that. What
exactly are the Sacramento Kings looking for in return? But yeah,
if you it's it's pretty much impossible to trade Shingoon
and Jalen Green the way with the extension signed, it's

(28:59):
a poison pills situation. You have to match that much
more money in salary. In the NBA trade you have
to match salary. You have to like close within twenty
five percent or something like that. So if you send
out fifty million dollars, you got to send out at
least what for forty million dollars in they're somewhere in
that neighborhood, and Rockets would have to do that and

(29:21):
then some I believe, and when you're sending out I
think they would have to send out that much more
salary if they were to trade one of those guys.
So I don't think it's going to be happening with
either of those guys. You're certainly not trading him. In Thompson,
I mean, he's completely untouchable right now, the way that
he's been playing in the X factor of this team,
kind of the Swiss Army Knife do everything guy do

(29:42):
everything except shoot, and it's the offense still hasn't skipped
a beat. And then as far as the starting lineup,
it could be Dylan Brooks going away for am N Thompson.
I think coach Yudoka still loves his toughness and what
he brings it. I love the toughness, and I mean,
now you have kind of two players. It was always
Dylan Brooks getting the assignment of the toughest player to

(30:04):
guard on the other teams on the opposing team one
through four generally not sinners, but sometimes if it's Victor Wimbinyama,
Dylan Brooks has been dispatched on him to get physical
and with him and try to keep him off the
block and stuff like that, to where a lumbering big man,
you know, wouldn't be able to stay in front of

(30:24):
Victor Wimbinyama as much. But it'll be interesting to see
which way it goes if it is Jabari off the bench,
because Jabari does provide good defensive versatility for the Rockets.
He can guard one through five on switches they like
to switch with Jabari Smith Junior.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
And oh, by the way, he's a.

Speaker 2 (30:42):
Credible three point shooter, which is the Achilles heel of
Amn Thompson. So it's one of those good problems. Rockets
have a lot of good starting candidates. Amn Thompson is
emerging as an extremely viable dual threat cutting to the bass,
get getting offensive rebounds and playing crazy great defense, whether

(31:06):
it be on ball defending or off ball, flying in
for blocks, poking away balls for steals. Just has a
nose for the basketball, extremely high basketball IQ for a men. Thompson,
extremely valuable to what the Houston Rockets want to do.
Seven one three two one two five, seven ninety is
the phone number if you'd like to get in. Dwayne,

(31:26):
I see you on hold. We'll get to you as well.
We still owe you an Alex Bregman update. We got
bend Bo's talks and rockets coming up as well. It
is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas.
You folks want to get in, you can at seven
one three two one two five is seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (31:43):
Matten Ross return return on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (32:07):
Welcome back to.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross as the big voice.
Man said ros Viria with you until two o'clock. Dan
Matthews joining at noon. Let's see we got I just
don't get it coming up later on the show News
at noon. At some point on the show, Bendu Bow's
coming up to talk some rockets as well, and you
at seven one three two one two five seven and

(32:30):
ninety seven one three two one two five seven ninety
Dwayne and al Paso has been holding for a very
long time, so.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
We appreciate him for that, and we'll go ahead and
get him on. Duane, go ahead. The floor is yours.

Speaker 4 (32:43):
All right, thank you, Ross. Hey, I got a question
for you the I was looking at the chronicle and
it says that the Astros signed twenty international players.

Speaker 7 (32:57):
Now my question is to.

Speaker 5 (32:59):
You the Mets.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
I read this morning they signed top prospect international player
and they were given or they were either the Mets
paid them five million or did they International League pay
them five million?

Speaker 1 (33:16):
Probably the Mets. No, I would imagine the Mets.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
You get a certain amount of pool money you can
trade for the pool money. Also, I think you know
in the years past, one of the problems with the
whole cheating scandal is the rocket. I mean, the Astros
got penalized pool money. I'm not sure exactly what goes
into the total year after year, but the Astros had

(33:39):
just over five and a half million dollars in pool
money this year and they signed twenty guys.

Speaker 4 (33:45):
Okay, then so does that because the pool money is
does that go to that player or does it go
to the Yeah, you.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Signed eat them to a contract and you make them
an offer and they agree with you. For example, the Rockets,
the I mean guy's keyboard Rockets, Modell Hour, the Astros,
the Astros Crown Jewel. Apparently this year was a Cuban
prospect named Kevin Alvarez, who is lefty outfielder prospect with

(34:13):
a good hit tool, good power.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
They signed him to two million dollars.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
That's basically the headliner of their international pool international signing.

Speaker 4 (34:20):
Oh okay, okay, Now question do I go to the
chronicle to find out how much they paid each player
or where do I find?

Speaker 2 (34:27):
I don't know if they have those numbers, but yeah,
I mean, I guess you can go to the chronicle.
You can try the Athletic. I don't think we have
a post up here or anything like that, but let
me go. I saw the list yesterday. Yeah, it's a
list of players. It's not necessarily a list of the
signings for you want to see who everybody signed for?

Speaker 5 (34:45):
Why?

Speaker 1 (34:45):
Why you want to do that? Dwayne get a lot
of free time?

Speaker 6 (34:48):
No?

Speaker 4 (34:49):
No, yes, or I do, But I was looking through
it they have catchers, they have the three or four patures.
But the point I was trying to get to is
that is everybody making money on this twenty.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
Or yeah, all twenty signed to a contract. Yeah, some
certain amount of money.

Speaker 7 (35:07):
Okay, appreciate Russ w all.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Right, thank you, Dwayne, appreciate you getting in. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah, the the Astros, as I said, Kevin Alvarez is
a top ten international prospect. But the last time the
Astro signed a top ten international pool prospect, his name
was Pedro Leone. They spent four million dollars on him.
And well he's looking like a quadruple player right now.
So no guarantees to be sure, but the young teenaged

(35:34):
Kevin Alvarez uh hopefully can work out and develop in
the Astro system because the Astros have really relied on
some of these international players, international pool players to play
very well for him. From er Valdez, Renel Blanco.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
I want to see he signed.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
He wasn't he washing cars and he signed for like
five thousand dollars. Then the dude's throwing a no hitter.
I mean, I can't I can't wait for the Rono
Bloweko movie. That'll be really really fun. I think Christian
Javier signed for cheap as well. So we'll see what
happens with Kevin Alvarez. He's a Cuban outfielder who is,
as I said, supposed to be the crown jewel of

(36:13):
the Astros International signings twenty of them yesterday. Well, speaking
of the Astros, I do owe you one of these, Okay,
you ross the show.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
The Bit's never going away. Much distagrine of sum The
bit is never going away.

Speaker 2 (36:42):
The update on the Matt Thomas Show Alex Bregman, ESPN
putting out an article with some updates on the free
agent moving and a Shakings buster Onney and Jeff Passen
commenting on Alex Bregman, who might be intertwined with Pete
Alonso as in if one signs, then the other will,

(37:02):
especially as it relates to the Mets buster only on
Alex Bregman. The perception from some of the teams involved
is that Scott Boris might simply be waiting for someone
to get closer to the financial terms they wanted at
a time when some execs think Bregman's market has been
largely defined. Matt Chapman's six year, one hundred and fifty
six million dollars deal is just about what the Astros offered.

(37:26):
Astros have moved on, Red Sox, Tigers, and Blue Jays
all have varying degrees of interest. Jays are in position
to offer the most money given their level of desperation.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Hm hmmm.

Speaker 2 (37:42):
Jeff Passon says, all it Texas for either his sign
is to one team, and in Lonzo's case, the obvious
team is the Mets, and then he starts talking about
Matt Chapman and Blakes Now and blah blah blah. So
it'll be interesting to see what happens with Alex Bregman.
But according to Buster Ol, Red Sox, Tigers, Blue Jays

(38:02):
all in on Alex Bregman. And it's in a way
I feel bad for Alex Bregman because for him to
see it doesn't seem unreasonable for him to scoff at
the the Astros first offer of five years what one
hundred excuse me, six years, one hundred and fifty six
million dollars because that's only five million dollars than the

(38:25):
Matt Chapman deal. So wait, wait, six one fifty six.
I thought six fifty one was the Chapman deal. Buster
only is saying, hold on, hold on, let me pull
this up, folks. Uh I thought it was six yeaes
six one fifty one, did it right?

Speaker 1 (38:39):
Buster? Six one fifty six is what the Astros offered.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
And for Bregman to believe that he's more than five
million dollars over six years, he's worth more than that
than Matt Chapman. I don't think that's crazy to say.
I don't think that makes me say, Alex Bregman, you're
a diva and you should have signed the deal. I
think it's smart for him to go look elsewhere. But
apparently the market is saying, yeah, you're closer to Matt

(39:04):
Chapman than you think, Buddy. And Scott boris whether he
wanted to say the market was reset that much by
Juan Soto and and or Matt Chapman and they want
to be that much higher than Matt Chapman. Right now,
the market isn't saying that that is the case. But

(39:25):
we'll see as far as the as so far as
the landing spot for Alex Bregman, because time is ticking,
we're basically about four weeks away from pitchers and catchers
reporting for some squads and as it gets closer and closer,
it feels like it's more and more likely Alex Bregman
will sign to a short term deal or maybe something

(39:45):
will happen. It was around this time last year. Was
it the fifteenth, today's sixteenth? Was it the fifteenth that
Josh Hater signed with the Houston Astros? Somewhere around there,
So it's very late in the game.

Speaker 1 (40:00):
There we go.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
I'm pulling it up January nineteenth, so we're a couple
of days away from that. And if you remember, that
was late in the game and very much a surprise
with Josh Hater coming to the Houston Astros. So something
probably needs to happen soon or it's gonna be three
year deal with opt outs for Bregman, which is not
a good idea for a thirty year old walking up

(40:20):
a long term Like what if he gets hurt and well,
I guess he would opt in, so he would have
that option.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Why would why do teams even sign those deals?

Speaker 2 (40:29):
Either A the player is gonna play great and opt
out or B they're gonna get hurt and be terrible
and opt in. He gets lose lose to me for
those teams to sign those types of deals. All right,
we're gonna take quick break here on the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross, and when we come back, we will
have Ben Dubo's of the Rockets Wire to talk some
Rockets ball as well. Look, we're your home of the Rockets,

(40:50):
the number two seed in the West. We're talking a
little Rockets ball. I hope you get into the squad
as well. Then coming up at noon, Dan Orlowski of
ESPN and Dan Matthews as well. And well, speaking of
playoffs and the NFL, have you tried Pick six from
DraftKings yet?

Speaker 1 (41:07):
What are you waiting for?

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Speaker 1 (42:24):
Launchtimers. This is the Matt Thomas Show, Hour.

Speaker 2 (42:29):
Number two of The Matt Thomas Show with Ross Without
Matt Thomas. He is traveling with the Houston Rockets, who
last night defeated the Denver Nuggets. Tonight we'll be on
a back to back taking on the Sacramento Kings. That'll
be a nine o'clock start here on Sports Talk seven
ninety eight o'clock Rockets launch pad as well. Coming up

(42:50):
at noon, we'll have Dan Matthews joining me in studio.
Dan Orlowski will be joining us to talk some Chiefs
and Texans. But right now, Ben do bo I would say,
two of the three people on the show right now
all about the Miszoo Tigers.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Ben, thanks for the time. How about them Rockets?

Speaker 8 (43:09):
I know, this is the most fun it's been to
watch this team in a long time. I know you
can point to, you know, the Jalen Green surge last March,
but that was just scrapping to get back to five
hundred and maybe in the back tour of the play
in tournament, to not only have Jalen going off, but
to win games five in a row and consistently beat

(43:30):
good teams. Yeah, this is the most fun it's been,
shoot since the James Harden years.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
Yeah, and so where where are we now? When when
do I buy in and jump.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
In with two feet and say this is the I mean,
are we passed the thresholder where I say this is
this real Rockets team? Because you got the big victories
over the Grizzlies. Okay, it was a short headed Nuggets team,
but I haven't seen a game even against the Oklahoma
City Thunder. They have lost some of these games, but
a lot of them been close. Like this is the
real twenty five Rockets, isn't it?

Speaker 8 (44:01):
Yeah? I think it is. And you know, they do
have a difficult schedule coming up. They've got three games
in a row against the Cavs and Celtics. Towards the
end of this month, You've got a game at Madison
Square Gardens. So it's not that they're just going to
run off and go on and at least I don't
think they are a ten to fifteen game winning streak,
but I think the stample is enough. I actually have

(44:23):
had one of the most difficult schedules in the NBA
to date. I think it's pretty pretty real. I think
what stood out to me the most about this ross
the last time, Well, there's two games basically all year
that they have been uncompetitive. Two games one at the
very beginning of November against Oklahoma City and they played
the Thunder competitively twice since and beat them once. And

(44:46):
then that game in Boston or at home against Boston
a couple of weeks ago, when you didn't have a
Ben Thompson, you didn't have Jabari, you didn't have Tari.
And that's the defending NBA champions. That's the only game
in the last two months that the Rockets I have
not at least had a chance to win in the
fourth quarter. So, on top of the record being legitimate
at twenty seven and twelve and everything that comes with that,

(45:08):
the fact that they are so competitive night in night out,
there's not any game where it looks like they don't belong.
That to me, makes it seem like that that it's
pretty real.

Speaker 2 (45:18):
USA Today's Rockets Wires. Ben Dubo's here on the show,
and of course we cannot have you on the Talk
Rockets without talking who you mentioned, Amen Thompson.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Where is all this coming from? With a men Thompson?
And I mean, just.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
Do you think he's going to make a probably a
first or second team All Defense certainly if he stays
in the starting lineup, which we can get to in
a second.

Speaker 8 (45:41):
Yeah, I think he will. And I do not envy
emy Udoka when Javaris Smith Junior comes back, because I
just don't see how they can take him out of
the starting lineup. It's not even so much what he
does for Jalen Green. I know there's been a lot
made of that. It's just he they really could basketball
player period. He makes the game for everyone because he

(46:02):
provides value in so many different areas. He doesn't have
to have the ball in his hands to be effective.
The heavy lifting he does defensively, I think that's where
it helps Jalen the most. And Jalen identified that after
the game the other night at home against the Grizzlies.
A Men is so dynamic defensively. The Rockets have a
lot of good defensive players, a Men is the one

(46:22):
that's truly great. And he does so much heavy lifting
on that end that to allow someone like Jalen Green
to sort of conserve his energy a little bit and
load up for the high leverage offensive possessions where he
can attack the rim much more aggressively, draw more free throws,
those types of things. So yeah, I do not envy
Emai Udoka, because you know the politics of a midseason
lineup change if you're winning games, that's always dicey in

(46:44):
the NBA. But a Men is so good. I think
it's clear on a permanent basis. He's the best player
on this team already, So I just don't see unless
the team falls off, and I don't expect them to
over the next two or three weeks, I just don't
see how they're going to be able to take him out.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
The chalk pick is a men Thompson staying in the
starting lineup, then't that begs the question?

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Who is out? Is it Jabari Smith Junior? Is it
possibly Dylan Brooks.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
I've seen some fans say that Fred van Vliet should
be the odd man out, which I don't think there's
any chance of that one. But how do you how
do you think this this starting lineup is constructed If
a men Thompson stays, yeah.

Speaker 8 (47:21):
It's tough. I tend to think that Jabari will be
the odd man out because he's in year three, he's
just twenty one. I don't think there'd be any hurt feelings.
And you know, he's got a guy in the same
draft class, Torry Easton, who's arguably been when healthy, been
a better player than Jabari, and Tari has come off
the bench, so I don't think it would be a
huge shot to Jabari's ego. With that said, Dylan Brooks

(47:43):
has fallen off a little bit over the last few weeks,
so you could make a case for maybe leaving Jabari
in the starting lineup and bringing Dylan off the bench.
But given you know, veteran status and the fact that
the team is winning games now with this amen at
power forward Dylan a small forward configuration, I think the
easiest thing for Emay to do would be to say,
you know what, we're going to stick with what's working,

(48:04):
and we'll figure out everything else in the offseason. Not
a shot at you, Jabari. The other thing that would
be interesting with bringing Jabari off the bench is that
in these games where Alfred Shagoon struggles defensively and you
want to play five out be able to switch one
through five, then you can bring Jabari Smith as your
backup five off the bench. It'll be a little tricky

(48:25):
because Steven Adams has played better of late as well,
but I think in these games where the Rockets want
to play smaller, they want to be more agile, bringing
Jabari off the bench might help you in that area
as well.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Yeah, it's funny because I mean, just as the team
is constructed now with Jabari Smith junior feeling like the
odd man out. I mean the starting five that it
is right now. You have a dynamic, quick scoring wing.
You have a big man who can I mean operate
from the elbow, who can operate in the low post.
You have a Swiss army knife do everything defender who

(48:57):
can basket cut and stuff like that. And then the
two veteran guys who set the edge as well. That's
just I mean, it feels like if I was like
conceiving a team, it would be pretty close to what
the Rockets have in the starting five right now.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (49:11):
Absolutely, And I think to go back to the earlier
point on a men's defense, that's so important because if
he is able to and it's not a shot at
Jabari because he's a good defender, but a men is
a great one. And so because of that, if you
can conserve energy for Jalen Green, so often it comes
down to the efficiency for Jalen I heard you talking

(49:31):
earlier about the free star that's so important. Last night
he was eight for eight, I think the other night
against the Grizzlies he was eleven for eleven. That's the
hack in terms of getting his true shooting percentage where
it needs to be clearly above average, and it has
been in the last twenty games, it's been like sixty
one and a half. To get it to that level,
you need to get to the free throw line. What
do you need to get to the free throw line?
That often if you're an undersized guard in the NBA,

(49:53):
you need energy, You need a willingness and ability to
absorb contact on your drive. How do you do that?
You have other guys that do the heavy lifting defensively
and give me some possessions off and so when you
have a men Thompson and Dylan Brooks being able to
physically handle and take the pounding that comes from guarding
top shelf win players on the other end of the floor,
then that's truly it's what Jalen Green needs in my opinion,

(50:16):
to really, you know, attack the bucket relentlessly on the
offensive end. And so I think what a men and
Dylan do defensively. And then Fred Vanvlee look. One of
the really impressive things to me about that Memphis game.
He hit one of the biggest shots, that three in
the fourth quarter. He only shot five times the entire game.
A lot of players around the league need shots to

(50:37):
get in rhythm, the fact that Fred is so graceful
and able to sort of scale down his role without
needing a ton of touches or shot attempts, And so
if Jalen has it going, he's willing and able to
defer without it taking a toll on him. Yeah, I
think that's a pretty perfect backcourt partner for Jalen, And
so because of that, I just, you know, I feel
bad for Jabari, but I just don't see who you

(50:59):
can take out assuming the team keeps quicking the way
they are.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Yeah, going from the starting lineup to the bench. What
are we making of Cam Whitmore? The scoring has been up.

Speaker 2 (51:07):
We know, of course the postgame comments a couple of
weeks ago, Emy addressing those on this show, saying it's
much ado about nothing, especially with the body language stuff
as well. And how are you feeling about Cam Whitmore
in the rest of the season, how it's going to
go for him?

Speaker 8 (51:23):
Yeah, I've been encouraged. I thought there was a play
at the end of the third quarter in that Memphis
game that showed a lot of growth from him. The
clock was winding down, he pumped fake from three, and
he could have gone to the brim could have pulled
up from mid rage, but he found to Aaron Holliday
in the corner for an open three, which Aaron made
at the buzzer. It cut it to five and from
that went forward. It felt like it was competitive, gave
great crowd and I think Cam's willingness to make the

(51:46):
right read to pass even when everyone in the building
would have understood if he took the shot himself with
a little bit of space and the shop clock running down.
That's why the Rockets have had him on something of
a tight leash. The gifts are there. But while he
can score easily, what's going to be the difference in
him being a good player or a very good player.
It's going to be whether he can do the other things.

(52:08):
And so we know off ball awareness. Defensively, he may
talk about that a lot. You gotta defend, at least
at a capable level to play for I may Joka
he's gotten better on that end. But offensively, the fact
that it's not just his scoring and you know, putting
up shots and putting up numbers, but the fact that
he seems to be seeing the floor a little bit better.
In your two at just twenty years old. That's really encouraging.

(52:30):
So I don't think they're going to be able to
take him out of the rotation. It's going to be
tight if and when Harry Eaton comes back. I think
Cam Whitmore has done enough that this is a team
that needs scoring punch at times, and now that he's
coming along in the other areas of his game, I
think Cam's going to play. I think, barring you know,
a dramatic down turning his performance, I think he's he's

(52:51):
earned at least something of a role for the rest
of the year.

Speaker 2 (52:54):
All Right, three weeks from today, February sixth is the
trade deadline. How much do you think the Rockets are
itching to make a move in rath Elstone or how
much do you think they just say, hey, we can
improve enough internally and trust the process.

Speaker 4 (53:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (53:11):
I think at this point it's trusting the process. I think.
You know, a month ago, when Jalen Green's numbers were
below average efficiency wise, you could wonder about, hey, do
you use his contract as something of a trade ship
and try to upgrade that spot, because that was the
clear deficiency getting a tip of the spear of score.
But look what people forget about this Rockets team. Plan A,

(53:32):
if not trading for a star, plan A is that
it works out organically, and this core seven of first
round prospects that you drafted the last four draft cycles,
then enough of them work out that you don't have
to go out and make a big deal for a
Devin Booker or a Donovan Mitchell or whoever it might be.
There were times the last couple of years where it
was fair to wonder if Jalen Greene is actually capable
of being that guy. I think at this point the

(53:52):
sample has did long enough. The last twenty games are
what they are, but really going back to about this
time a year ago, the last eighty games, he's been
above average efficiency wise, scoring about twenty two points per game,
leading scorer on a good Rockets team. He's definding at
a capable of enough level that hemy Udoka trust him.
So if you want to give Jalen green longer runway,
and I think he's absolutely deserves at least the rest

(54:13):
of this year, if not longer, I don't think he's
going to upgrade that spot. And then beyond that, the
reason I'll think they do anything wrong. Who are you
going to bench to give a new guy minutes. This
team is so deep. We were talking about Cam Whitmore.
The question is how do you keep playing Cam Witmore
enough when tarry Eathan comes back, and it looks like
that's getting pretty close. So I just don't see who
they could bring in. And by the way, we haven't

(54:33):
mentioned Jay Shantate. He's been good the last three weeks.
So I'm inclined to say the Rockets stay the course
because the biggest weakness was the Jalen Green spot that's
obviously sort of resolved itself the last few weeks. And
then beyond that, where are.

Speaker 12 (54:45):
They going to play?

Speaker 8 (54:46):
That's my big question. I'm inclined to say they just
stay the course. You see what happens the rest of
the year, you see what happens in the playoffs, and
if anything bigger needs to happen. Ri Felstone looks at
that this summer. That's my prediction.

Speaker 1 (54:55):
Ben Dubos of USA Today's Rockets Wire, Ben, let the
fu know where they can find your stuff.

Speaker 8 (55:02):
Yep. Benjubo's on Twitter, slash Acts, the logger line the
rocketsware on the same rocketswar dot usccday dot com for
all your daily Houston Rockets new company.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
Look at this, you got this nailed down. Ben, Thanks
to the time as always to talk to you down
the road.

Speaker 8 (55:15):
Absolutely, thanks for having me, Bud, all.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Right, appreciate it. There you go.

Speaker 2 (55:18):
Ben Dubo's here on a sports talk seven ninety doing
a lot of Rockets talk y'all, getting in with some
Rockets talk.

Speaker 8 (55:23):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (55:24):
Let's go seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
Is the phone number seven one three two one two
five seven ninety. I agree with Ben. I think they
do trust the process, stay the course with this team.
Are they better than the thunder?

Speaker 4 (55:38):
No?

Speaker 1 (55:38):
But are they still ahead of schedule? Yes?

Speaker 2 (55:41):
Or do you say maybe you've got some expiring deals
like Fred van Vliet and that might offer some value
to somebody in three weeks when the trade deadline passes
for the twenty twenty five campaign. All right, time for
a quick break. Coming up at noon we will have
Dan Orlowski talking about Texans and Chiefs. Dan Matthews will
be winning as well. We've got I just don't get

(56:03):
it coming up later on the show News at noon.
At some point we had Daniel Losky at noon. We're
not gonna do news with him, So we'll figure out
when we're gonna do that. And you At seven one three,
two one two five seven.

Speaker 9 (56:14):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues so on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (56:40):
Swaying and you swing and you swaying to the lift.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
Oh, welcome back to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
Without Matt Thomas, he is out traveling with the Houston Rockets.
He will be back tomorrow from No not from Sacramento.
From Portland on Friday.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:57):
I think they play Sacramento tonight, travel to Portland tonight
and then play Portland on Saturday.

Speaker 1 (57:03):
So Matt will be joining us from Portland. That should
be fun certainly tomorrow. He is out today. Dan Matthews
is coming in at noon.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
Dan Orlowski will be joining us at noon of ESPN
as well to talk some NFL. You do not want
to miss that. We will certainly go into Texans mode
at some point, also go into whatever mode you want to.
At seven one three two one two five seven ninety
seven one three two one two five seven ninety talking
with Ben and we. I didn't realize it was only

(57:35):
three weeks away from the trade deadline in the NBA
to see if something will happen. I mean, as constructed,
the team is really good. If everyone is living up
to their potential. Right now, it's easy to say, right
Jalen Green is living up to his potential. Last seven games,
he's been playing great, averaging over thirty points, shooting like
forty eight percent from three as well. That is going

(57:57):
to go down. That is something we do need to realize,
right I think kind of talked about it. The first
one was the first five games of the season where
he had twenty plus points in all five games. And
as we've done it feels like half dozen times at
this point with Jalen Green.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Is this the real Jalen Green?

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Well, no, then he has it goes into a lull
and he's not playing well and he's scoring in tingle digits.

Speaker 1 (58:23):
So is this the real Jalen Green?

Speaker 2 (58:26):
So far seven games into January, thirty point six points
per game. How about ninety four percent from the free
throw line, forty seven point eight percent from the three
point line.

Speaker 1 (58:38):
And these things are splashing in this dude.

Speaker 2 (58:41):
This dude is straight up swishing these threes like it
looks natural. It doesn't look like an accident. They're not
just rattling in or banking in or anything like that.
It doesn't look like there's any luck involved. It's been
incredible knocking basically every type of three catch and shoot, wing,
catch and shoot, corner, step back in the wing, top

(59:01):
of the key, like every kind of which way you
can score. Jalen Green has the capability of doing that,
and so far the last in the year of twenty
twenty five, the year of our Jalen so far he's
been very good and a big part of this rockets
surgeons up the resurgence up the standings. And the good
thing was that they we've already saw earlier in the

(59:24):
season they can win with him not performing. Other guys
can step up. The Alpbrnching Goons of the world and
Men Thompson doing a great job. Fred van Vliet here
and there, Dylan Brooks here and there. You're not gonna
expect twenty a night from those two guys, but it
can happen. Talking about Dylan Brooks and Fred VanVleet, you
do expect twenty a night from Albrynching goon. Sometimes he
had bad nights, but that's everybody, and sometimes he's completely

(59:47):
going off and really that game a couple of weeks ago,
that Thursday night, like that first quarter against the Grizzlies
where the Rockets scored like forty five, forty six points
or whatever it was.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
That was about as good as their offense as I've seen.

Speaker 2 (01:00:03):
I guess a really good defensive Grizzlies squad, whereas everybody
doing their part, and it was like a.

Speaker 1 (01:00:09):
Well oiled machine. We've seen it more and more from
this offense.

Speaker 2 (01:00:13):
They continue to get better and better on that side
of the ball, while not really seeing slippage on the
defensive side of the ball, where there's number three in
defensive rating right now, number eleven in offensive rating. They
were hovering around nineteen twenty for most of the season.
Offense is really coming along, and if they can have

(01:00:34):
a top ten offense and a top three defense, they're
gonna have the capability of beating just about everybody. So
it's been really fun to see from the Houston Rockets.
David in Vegas has rung in here on the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. What's up, David's David?
How are things in Nevada?

Speaker 1 (01:00:53):
They're fine.

Speaker 13 (01:00:54):
Hold on a second, let me get my soone adjusted here,
all right, don't hurt yourself. Well, let's get off the
damn speakerphone here.

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
Okay, I appreciate that, but.

Speaker 13 (01:01:05):
I can't get my I can't get my thing to work.

Speaker 1 (01:01:08):
All right, Dan, I mean David. Sorry, Dan, Dan's coming
up at noon? All anything else? David, can you hear me?
I can hear you perfectly fine, so you can just
go ahead and talk.

Speaker 13 (01:01:20):
First of all, I'm just a personal note of the Rockets.
You know, I love this basketball team. I always have.
It changes my mood whether you're doing well or not.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
So this is good.

Speaker 13 (01:01:28):
That's how things are in Nevada.

Speaker 1 (01:01:30):
I'm in love with my basketball team.

Speaker 13 (01:01:31):
There's a cool thing going on for Direct TV subscribers
because I don't get that full court thing. I don't
get to see very many Rockets games since they still
don't get their fair served.

Speaker 1 (01:01:39):
To the book. David, what are you doing there?

Speaker 5 (01:01:42):
Well, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
I stay home a lot.

Speaker 13 (01:01:46):
But anyway, there's a free preview going on over a
week of it. So I got five Rockets games that
I wouldn't have otherwise gotten and I'm in the middle
of that, and what a joy. But as for the
trade versus stay where we are.

Speaker 5 (01:01:59):
Thing.

Speaker 13 (01:02:00):
I mean, I think the most important thing is this
is we've still got Easton. We're doing all this without
Easton or without Shabari Smith Junior. And when you think
of their coming back, it just seems to me that
we've really got a lot in terms of depth and
sort of the things, the roles we think we need
that I kind of would be a state of the
course guy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:20):
But yeah, I guess the other.

Speaker 13 (01:02:21):
The other way to look at that is maybe those
guys could be your trade assets. I mean, I don't
know who's going to trade for two guys that are
injured right now. I know Jabari is going to come
back in time for the playoffs and everything like that.
So I'm you know, I think you can look at
it one of two ways. I mean, we we apparently
get assets because we don't want to sit there and
put Jayleen or or or.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Uh I'm in.

Speaker 13 (01:02:46):
Or I'm in or Shingoon. You don't want to put
any guys in the trade package.

Speaker 4 (01:02:50):
I don't think.

Speaker 13 (01:02:52):
And then the other thing is uh, just the you know,
who's really attracted. I think we want what backcourt helped.
Maybe outside shooting is what we're sort of what we've
been trading for. I suppose and I look at like,
if the Aaron Fox might be the best possible name
that's around, that's possible to get. But you know, he's
shooting thirty two point five behind the arc this year,
and then we as a team are shooting thirty three

(01:03:14):
point nine, So are we really upgrading? I mean, all
we're doing is think, to me, is adding a little depth.
And you know we'd give up depth to get depth.
So I think I'm in the state of course category category.

Speaker 1 (01:03:25):
All right, Thank you, David, appreciate you getting in.

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
Yeah, and I was thinking I would feel like the
Aaron Fox, the name that was more floated the last
couple of weeks. And yeah, he is not a great
three point shooter. You mentioned thirty two and a half.
I think he's career around like thirty three ish somewhere
in there. That's not great, it's viable, it's okay. It
translates to about a fifty percent from the floor two
point shooter, which is not bad, which is pretty good.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
But you would like more. You would like.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Somebody who can come off the bench shoot thirty eight
thirty nine percent basically three and d win like you
in theory. In the NBA in these days, you get
a couple of superstars and then you get as many
three and D players as you can to space the
floor for three pointers and to play good defense and
then let the stars do their thing. Now you're hoping
as of right now, as I'm speaking, as these words

(01:04:15):
are coming out of my mouth, Jalen Green's playing like
a superstar. Now, how much will that continue remains to
be seen. But right now shooting his highest percentage from
the three point line in his career, highest field goal
percentage as well, highest free throw percentage as well over

(01:04:35):
a thirty nine game sample, which is not nothing, although
it's really surged up those numbers past his career numbers
last seven games or so. But we know he has
the capability of catching fire like he has. All right,
quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.
When we come back, we're going to take a look

(01:04:55):
at some of the sports items going along in these
sports we're going around in the sports world. We got
Dan Matthews and Dan Orlovsky coming up. It'll be that's
the news at noon. We have to get to it
a little bit early because at noon we will be
having an interview, so News at noon coming up next
here on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

Speaker 1 (01:05:20):
Eleven thirty two in the am.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety The Matt Thomas Show
with Ross without Matt Thomas traveling with the Houston Rockets
coming up at noon Dan Orlofsky and Dan Matthews. We
also will have I Just Don't Get It coming up
at about one thirty. If there's something you just don't
get in your life, it's a couple hours away. If

(01:05:42):
you want to stay with us, you can circle back to.
I know four hours is a long show, trust me,
but a lot of stuff to get to here as
we do get go along here, including well, because we
have the interview coming up at noon, well you gonna.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
Do the news at noon at eleven thirty with come
on We'll go.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
Oh just great news bed here makes you feel like
something importants happening.

Speaker 1 (01:06:09):
What do we got today?

Speaker 14 (01:06:10):
Connor Jalen Green scored thirty four points and Alprinschinghud had
twenty in the Rockets victory over the Denver Nuggets last night.

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
Tate sets a screen for Jalen down the Ladies. Josey's
Gonna jam it over Dario Sarich. That's just not nice.
Period ninety five seventy two. My goodness, that's just not nice.
Matt Thomas is on the show.

Speaker 1 (01:06:36):
That's not nice.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
That was a great jam over Dario Sarag's head from
Jalen Green. Part of a thirty four perform but thirty
four point performance, as you mentioned, But I would say
most impressive game of the season was a couple of
days before that against the Grizzlies.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
He had the forty two.

Speaker 2 (01:06:54):
Points on eighteen shots, eleven of eleven from a three
throw line last night eight of eight from the free
throw line. So I can't count back to the third game,
but at the very least nineteen straight free throws made
for Jalen Green.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
He's looking pretty good.

Speaker 2 (01:07:09):
We've been talking a lot of Rockets ball in the show,
probably more than we have done all year, I would
say deservedly. So we definitely have time to talk about
the Texans and the Chiefs and.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
What's going on with them. But I'm feeling pretty darn
good about the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (01:07:23):
I'm feeling pretty good about them getting locked into the
top four at this point to where thunder one then
Rockets Grizzlies, Nuggets in some conglomeration. I think they're clearly
better than the Clippers and the Lakers at this point. Again,
I will stick with it Lakers fraud alert. Fraud alert
on the Los Angeles Lakers. We'll see what happens to

(01:07:43):
the Mavericks when they get healthy. But as teams are
comprised right now health notwithstanding Rockets gonna they're gonna finish
top four in the West.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
In my opinion, I.

Speaker 14 (01:07:53):
Mean, yeah, like you said earlier in the show, the
Nuggets were without there two or were without sure their
rotation players jam leading score. But I mean the Rockets,
that's their fifth winning row. They're ten and three in
their last thirteen games, and they remained the number two
spot in the Western coffee.

Speaker 2 (01:08:06):
Nikola jokis running scared from olprin ching gooon. What's up, Nikola? Yeah,
baby Joker has overtaken Joker. No, I'm just kidding. Nikolae
Hokich is the greatest player on the planet. He had
was it elbow inflammation? I can't even remember what he had.
It doesn't an MVP.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Yeah, that's fine whatever, As an NBA champion, greatest player
on the Planet's greatest horse trainer of second greatest horse
trainer on the planet behind Bob Baffert. He's going to
get there. Don't worry. Oh, he's gonna get there. Star
this year along with Jalen they're both gonna be all stars.
It'll be fine. I hope you're right, But they won't
both be a star.

Speaker 2 (01:08:39):
I'd say predicting multiple NBA MVPs for Alprin Shangoon will
be a little bit much.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
But we'll see. He's still very young as well.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
We talk about Jalen Green being young, Alprin Shangoon is
even younger, so much room to go.

Speaker 14 (01:08:51):
What else is going on on the news at noon?
Connor McGovern, we'll talk about the Texans. Wide receiver Deatay
Johnson was claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Ravens one
day after parting ways but the Wesons. Johnson joined the
Texans on December twenty sixth after being waived by the Ravens.
He played one regular season game in one playoff game
for the Texans, recording three receptions for twenty four yards.

(01:09:12):
Johnson can't technically join Baltimore until after the Super Bowl
since he's an underrestricted free agent this offseason, but he
could potentially earn the Ravens an extra draft pick in
twenty twenty six if he signs but another team through
the NFL's compensatory pick formula.

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
So I guess that's why the Ravens picked them up.
To the Ravens, they're working the system, So I don't
get it. They claimed him and then so they could,
but they can't sign him until next year. And now okay,
here only I'm reading a story. By claiming him, the
Ravens will have a chance at earning a compensatory selection
depending on the contract he signs in free agency. What

(01:09:48):
if he didn't sign with anybody? Is he not even
want to sign this guy to anything but a non
guaranteed camp invite? I mean, gosh, I.

Speaker 14 (01:09:57):
Mean the report about him in the Texans locker room
is not going to help his case, especially because those
were already concerns before he got to the Texans.

Speaker 2 (01:10:03):
Yeah, I think I don't think the Ravens are keeping him.
I guess he's They put it so he's on the
roster because they claimed it, but they can't. This is
very confusing, but it seems like it's very smart stuff
from the Ravens if he does indeed sign somewhere else,
if another team besides the Steelers, Panthers, Texans and a
Ravens who all gave up on him within the last year,
want to sign Deontay Johnson somewhere else. Man, that's I mean,

(01:10:29):
you're a team, You're going up to Arrowhead. You just
lost Kate Stover and things are so bad with the
Deontay Johnson situation that they waived him, not saying that
Texans are on the wrong here at all. Clearly the
track record is Deontay Johnson isn't worth it. That's that's
crazy to me.

Speaker 14 (01:10:44):
I mean, yeah, why wouldn't Deontay Johnson, even if he
wish just a role player and taking like taking the
attention off Nico Collins, why not ride it out?

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
You you could go.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
Don't you look in the mirror at some point apparently
he was all upset about his targets and his usage.
Don't you look in the mirror at some point and say,
you know what, the Panthers as traded, the Steelers traded,
and we win. The Pants are traded, we away. The
Ravens cut me. They all need wide receiver help. The
Texans aren't using me. Maybe I'm not as good as
I think I am. We all have these moments in

(01:11:13):
our life. All right, you get shut down by three
straight girls in the bar, You're like, you know what,
maybe I'm not as handsome as I think I am.
Maybe it's time to reevaluate. That's what Deontay Johnson needs
to do right now.

Speaker 1 (01:11:26):
Go after someone a little bit more realistic.

Speaker 2 (01:11:28):
Yeah, you're saying, find the big girl with a mustache
in the corner, is what you're saying.

Speaker 1 (01:11:34):
Sometimes five's okay, two five is equal of ten. That's
what I've always said, Connor. True, but as head coach.

Speaker 14 (01:11:42):
In regards to Deontay Johnson, as head coach, Dimiko Ryan said,
the Texans are on to the Chiefs, where they will
face a high of twenty six degrees and a low
of seven degrees with cloudy and clear conditions and wins
up and up to ten to twenty miles per hour.

Speaker 1 (01:11:55):
Wait, where are the winds ten to twenty miles?

Speaker 7 (01:11:57):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:11:57):
Where?

Speaker 1 (01:11:58):
Oh, Kansas City? Oh yeah, so that's interesting.

Speaker 14 (01:12:01):
Twenty six, low of seven, it's not quite that colds
you're in Houston. But offensive coordinator Bobby slow It says
the weather in town is helping them acclimate to game
time conditions.

Speaker 15 (01:12:11):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's always helpful. You know,
the closer you can get to what it's going to
be like on game day, you know, the better it's
going to be for you. Obviously, when we were out there,
we got a little bit of rain made the field
a little slick for us. But like truthfully, when when
you go play in cold weather and it gets real
cold and that field starts to freeze, it gets a
little slick, you know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
So it's good training for us.

Speaker 15 (01:12:35):
And thankfully we got a little cold wave coming through
right now which is helping acclimate a little bit. But
I really think at the end of the day, we're
prepared to go play wherever we need to play, whenever
we need to play. And at the end of the day,
I think, like always, you know, we feel like it's
going to be about us and what we do.

Speaker 14 (01:12:54):
The Texans are ready for whatever. The chiefs confused. Yeah,
that's what he's saying. Well, we'll see how it goes.

Speaker 2 (01:13:00):
Especially with these practice reports dnps from Shaq Mason and
Juice Scruggs has me worried about the offensive line.

Speaker 1 (01:13:07):
This weekend but.

Speaker 2 (01:13:08):
Speaking of Bobby slok, I'm still waiting. Does anybody want
to call it?

Speaker 5 (01:13:11):
Go?

Speaker 1 (01:13:12):
Seven? One, three, two two five seven nine.

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
He congratulate Bobby slog for his play calling over the weekend.

Speaker 1 (01:13:17):
I said it thought he did a great job.

Speaker 2 (01:13:19):
They had their best offensive performance of the year relative
to what the yards that they gained and against the
quality of the defense. Bobby Slowick had himself a Saturday.
Hopefully he can do it again. But it's gonna be
tough with Steve Spagnolo and the Kansas City Chiefs and
that defense that is gonna definitely give them some problems,
certainly if they're missing a couple of their offensive pieces.

(01:13:40):
But certainly something to keep an eye on is going
to be that win. Because cold kind of matters, snow,
rain kind of matters, But it's really about those wins.
If the wins are high. This is a little preview
for me for you folks on tomorrow when I make
my DraftKings spotlight picks, I'm gonna be looking at the
wind and if they're low, we might be all systems

(01:14:00):
go on some passing yards for some folks.

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
We do know the Lions are going to be in
a Dome.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
That'll be the only domed game of the weekend Lions
versus the Washington Commanders.

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
What else you got in the news at noon? Conn
of m Agevin, the.

Speaker 14 (01:14:13):
Final piece on the Texans wide receiver Tank Dell, underwent
a successful surgical procedure yesterday. He has multiple surgeries left
in front of him to repair that left knee, but
is expected to make a full recovery and return to
full ball, likely by the twenty twenty six a season h.

Speaker 1 (01:14:30):
One down couple ago. But it's good news.

Speaker 2 (01:14:34):
Yeah, he's Oh man, what a bad injury that was
too And that was just like it was his friendly fire,
like when he got rolled it was concerning the first
injury that he had last year or last season, as
it were, we got rolled up. It's like he should
be in there. He's too small this time. It was
kind of a freak accident. It can happen to anybody.
It's the NFL. It's a violent game. I mean, breaking

(01:14:56):
basically every ligament in his knee. A year year off,
you're going.

Speaker 1 (01:15:01):
To be missed.

Speaker 2 (01:15:02):
Texan's clearly having to address the wide receiving court in
the offseason, especially with Tank Dell not factoring into the
plans or anything else anything off beat connor before we
get to break, not.

Speaker 1 (01:15:14):
Really off be it.

Speaker 14 (01:15:15):
I don't want to end on then the news note
on sad notes, but I kind of have to the
news come how about an hour ago? Bob Ucker Bob Ucker,
former major league catcher, the voice of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers,
and recipient of honors from the Hall of Fame, has
died at the age of ninety. Uker was best known
as a colorful comedian and broadcaster who earned the nickname
Mister Baseball through his numerous appearances on the Johnny Carson's

(01:15:37):
Late night talk show. He was also known for his
iconic role in the Major League Movies as the announcer
for a down and out Cleveland franchise that becomes a
playoff contender.

Speaker 11 (01:15:46):
They juvenile delinquent in the off season and is major
league debut into the lineup. In his first offering, Josh
the bit outside. He tried the corner and missed all four,
all eight, hell and is what the base is loaded
on twelve straight pitches.

Speaker 2 (01:16:07):
So rest in peace to Bob Yucker. A baseball legend,
Bob Ucker certainly a legend. Diagnosed with small cell lung
cancer twenty three dead at twenty five to twenty twenty
five at the age of ninety. Maybe we'll honor him
tomorrow and believe it or not, I think we might
have had Bob Bucker before, maybe when he retired or something.

Speaker 1 (01:16:26):
I don't remember. I don't have to dig up those archives.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
All right, that's gonna do it for the News at
noon at eleven thirty, because coming up at twelve, we
do have a guest and a co host joining. It's
Dan and Dan, dan Orlowski, Dan Matthews joining the fold
coming up here on a Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
In the meantime, you can get in if you'd like.

Speaker 2 (01:16:44):
It's seven to one three two one, two five seven
ninety is The Matt Thomas Show with Ross March is
on till two pm.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (01:16:52):
More Matt Thomas Show with Ross now Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
Eleven am here on Sports Talk seven ninety The Matt
Thomas Show with Ross. Our number three is coming up.
You want to make sure you stay here. Dan Orlowski
coming in Dan Matthews as well. It's a double Dan
joining the show, but Dan will be co hosting the
final couple of hours.

Speaker 1 (01:17:35):
Then later on we will also have I just don't
get it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:38):
We've been talking a lot of fun stuff going on
with the Houston Rockets and the way that they're playing now.
They've won five straight games. They're number two in the
Western Conference. They are not going to catch the Thunder,
They're not as good as the Thunder, but they are
in the mix as one of the best teams in basketball.
They continue to prove it night in night out. Now

(01:17:59):
in the second half of a back to back, thankfully
blowing out a shorthanded, yes shorthanded, Denver Nuggets team enough
to where they were able to rest their starters at
the end, and then the back to back in Sacramento tonight,
then one day off, and then it'll be three games
and four nights Saturday against the Portland Trailblazers, who are

(01:18:20):
a dumpster fire so far this year. The worst teams
in basketball Jazz, Pelicans, Wizards, Hornets, Rockets need to take
care of business against those teams. Not must win games,
but very important. And that's one of the beauties of
this season is the Rockets. Okay, outside of the opening
night against the Charlotte Hornets, they've really been taking care

(01:18:42):
of business against those lesser teams. And that's what good
teams do, they beat bad teams. You go fifty to
fifty ish against good teams, you're gonna end up with
a pretty darn good record by the end of the season.
And that's where the Rockets are right now. No mistake
that they're at the number two seed thirty nine games
end of the year. Crazy how they continue to surge

(01:19:04):
up the standings. Phone lines open for you at seven
one three two one two five seven ninety seven to
one three two, one two five seven ninety I will
be keeping my eyes peeled for uh, let's see, it's Thursday,
so they'd be there playing on Saturday. Are the Houston
Texans for a practice report? But the practice report from
yesterday not encouraging, especially on the offensive line. I went

(01:19:28):
back and watched the game again. To me the offensive line,
at first, I was like, yeah, they did really well.
They weren't giving up a ton of pressures. But a
couple of those plays that CJ. Shroud made when he
was running down the field, he was running for his life.
I thought, Bobby Slowick and the offensive scheme, they did
a good job of the quick hitting passes boom one two, three,
drop passes already out to Dalton Schultz, passes already out

(01:19:51):
to Nico Collins or John Matchie, even on the first
play of the game where unfortunately John Matchie fumbled. The
quick hit passing game was huge for the Texans in
limiting the pressures and the run game.

Speaker 1 (01:20:06):
At the end of that game.

Speaker 2 (01:20:07):
That was the Joe Mixon fourth quarter. It was the
Joe Mixon drive. I believe on the last drive if
my math is correct, so.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
Quote me on this.

Speaker 2 (01:20:16):
I probably I didn't go back and uh in the
fourth quarter for sure, he had twelve carries for sixty
seven yards in a touchdown. I think ten carries of
that for fifty eight yards were on the final drive
for Joe Mixon. He just took over the end of
that game and put it on ice. And a lot
of that was him doing some some magic. There was

(01:20:38):
a lot of the players getting but pootah Ford Longhorned
legend for the Chargers, and there was another guy was
his named Tier Tate I think or something like that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
Like on the interior, Titus Howard was having issues. Titus
Howard could have been called for like five six holds
in that game and he wasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:20:55):
That's every game the NFL players can get called for holdings,
but it was a regiously bad in my opinion from
Titus Howard, I'm a little worried about his run blocking
long term because they were getting blown up by by
some I mean, now, they're very good players in the interior.
Punaford having a great season for the Los Angeles Chargers,
But if you're gonna tell me that Shack Mason is

(01:21:16):
going to remain out, I know a lot of you
hate Shaq Mason, but I still think he's a good
option on the interior for the Texans, and Juice s
Grug is going to be out. Man, I'm a little
bit worried about what's going to be happening on the
interior of that line for the Houston Texans this coming
weekend on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs against

(01:21:37):
Steve Spagnolo and his defense to where the communication issues,
especially on the road, have been problem for this offensive
line all year long. The best remedy for that is
coaching and continuity. If you're not having continuity, Juice Scrug's
going to be out again and you're reconfiguring your offensive
line again and has me worried. It has me backing
off of my opinion, like the Texans are going to

(01:21:59):
go up there, and I don't think they're going necessarily
gonna win. But they can go up there and they
can compete. They can cover the eight and a half points,
make it a one score game late and then maybe
a ball will bounce their way and they can win.
But injury report from yesterday Aziz outsha here did not practice?

Speaker 1 (01:22:18):
Or this is from tuesday? So why do I have
this from tuesday? Interesting?

Speaker 2 (01:22:24):
All right, well, let me try to pull up the
latest practice report I'm getting from yesterday. Did Robert Woods
did not practice? Dalton Show's limited, Aziz alsha Here limited,
Joe Mixon limited as well, So hopefully yeah, Juice scrugs

(01:22:45):
and Shack, Well, we'll see. With Shaq Mason not the
biggest miss if he's not involved. But I'm worried about
this offensive line this weekend for the Texans. That is
the biggest storyline. I'll be paying attention closely to practice
report later today from the Houston Texans. All right, we're
gonna say quick top of the hour break here on

(01:23:06):
Sports Talk seven ninety. When we come back, Dan Matthews
will join to co host. Dan Orlovsky of ESPN will
come in to break down the Texans and the Chiefs
as well. Then later on we got stuff like well
I just don't get it and some other fun stuff
with you until two o'clock. But Dan Orlowsky and Dan
Matthews next here on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

Speaker 1 (01:23:28):
Lunchtimers.

Speaker 2 (01:23:29):
This is the Matt Thomas Show, twelve o'clock noon straight
up here on Sports Talk seven ninety hour number three
of The Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas,
with Dan Matthews, without Dan Orlowski apparently. Now, Dan, thank
you for a graciously booking us. Dan Orlovski, you're all

(01:23:52):
during this time. But as you know the old phrase
it's live radios, that means that things don't always go
according to plans. So TM D on Dan Orlowski joining
the program or perhaps the A team later on, as
we say in radio, we're efforting, we are. Maybe he's
working on some more bad food takes. I mean he's

(01:24:14):
he's notorious for his bad food takes. Just when the
weave that into our conversation, do people get more angry
with your food takes or do they get more angry
with your football analysis? Hmmm, okay, I'm not aware of
his food takes. It sounds he's had some doozies. I mean,
and you know, specific examples I can't think of right
at this moment, but he's had some that has sent

(01:24:34):
the Twitter world into a blaze.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
Okay, plain nachos he likes. That's weird. I'm just hitting
Google and seeing what have uh, seeing what Dan just
the cheese and the chips.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
Yeah, I guess, like like what Will Ferrell is making
it at the beginning of Step Brothers. No, those those
rule those rules, Yeah, like you know, you sprinkle some cheese,
you sprinkle some chest stop, Yes, they do. Come on,
I mean those those are great. You throw some down fair,
Come on, man, you can class it up. Put some

(01:25:08):
when you're in a pinch.

Speaker 1 (01:25:09):
It's not a bad thing. You get in the pinch,
all right.

Speaker 2 (01:25:11):
You gotta you gotta throw the totinos in there and
fold it in half like a taco, and that's your
dinner in college.

Speaker 1 (01:25:16):
I've been there.

Speaker 2 (01:25:17):
But then maybe you gotta throw like some qeso on top,
or maybe even some sour cream. Okay, some people like
the Pico de gayo. You'll it time out on the
food references here it is noone though, I suppose hungry.

Speaker 1 (01:25:29):
What's happening on lunch? Tilers say this is your show,
the show that that caters to the lunch time.

Speaker 2 (01:25:37):
We also cater to the people with very short attention
spans because we moved from topic to topic, sometimes within
the same sentence on this show. Okay, So Dan Matthews
is here, dan Orlowski, I'm throwing up the shrug emoji.
I don't know when he's gonna be here. I guess
we'll keep you abreast of the situation as we go on.
Maybe maybe that could be for the about the next
ten minutes or so that we're in this segment is

(01:25:58):
what's your favorite emoji? Someone three, two and two? No,
I'm killing how about this. I'm gonna throw questions at
you like I would Dan Orlowski. Instead of it, we're
gonna we're going from one day in to another. So
day matts half the criteria, but gracious enough to co
host here with Matt Thomas of course, lazily out.

Speaker 1 (01:26:15):
I mean that guy's been here like half the days
of January.

Speaker 2 (01:26:19):
So far, it's got some nerve to come after other people,
especially other people who come from said show and sub
in for him.

Speaker 1 (01:26:28):
As they say in radio, that is the bit. Therein
lies the rub. But anyways, now, if you want to
go after the Adams, that's fair game. Oh well we do.

Speaker 2 (01:26:37):
Everyone is fair game on this show. That's how we roll,
all right. Texans going up to Arrowhead this weekend. Conor
mc governor was talking about the wind it possibly could
be a factor ten to twenty miles an hour. Also
worried about some possible injuries on the offensive line for
the Texans. But I would say, especially when you factor
in the situation and the defense they were going against

(01:26:59):
most yards, it's the Texans scored, I mean gained all
year was four thirty five against the Jaguars. Jaguars defense
is terrible. Four to twenty nine against a really good
Chargers team and you turn the ball over three times.
This was the Texans team we talked about early on
in the season.

Speaker 1 (01:27:17):
Where are they?

Speaker 2 (01:27:17):
Who are the real Texans? When are they going to
play their best ball? Well it's been one week, so
we don't know if we want to completely buy in.
But that was their best ball this past weekend against
the Charger. He almost wondered if there was some sort
of come to Jesus on the sidelines of is this
really how we want to be remembered this year? We
want to be remembered as the team that missed every
single chance, every single opportunity, and never came up clutch,

(01:27:40):
because I mean, there was an absolute flipping on that field,
and maybe it wasn't even said.

Speaker 1 (01:27:44):
It was the CJ play of when that happened.

Speaker 2 (01:27:47):
And CJ also realizing to himself, I can either stay
back here and get hit or I can run with
the fear of possibly getting hit. But one way or another,
I'm going to get hit. And that was him finally saying,
you know what, enough of this. I'm not going to
be shackled back here. I'll take off. I'll show these
guys that I can pick up yards myself. And it
translated to the rest of the team. And if that's

(01:28:09):
the team we get in the second half or for
this game against Kansas City that we saw in the
second half, shall I say, then it's a much better
feeling coming out of that one than you have for
many games that you stepped into that you know fit
this criteria of teams like this, It.

Speaker 1 (01:28:25):
Did feel in many ways like a flipping of the
switch with CJ. Stroud.

Speaker 2 (01:28:30):
He talked about how when he threw that interception, he
was like there was acres of space and there was
there was He could have ran for a long long
time if he had taken off in that moment when
he was feeling the pressure. And then he had that
the ninety nine yard touchdown drive with that big pass
to Xavier Hutchinson. Then the next drive when they got

(01:28:51):
the ball back quick and got the field goal, the
twenty seven yard game that he had on the ground,
that was when I was like, man, this looks like
maybe a switch has flip for CJ.

Speaker 1 (01:29:00):
Stroud.

Speaker 2 (01:29:01):
He looked a lot more confident even later in that game.
Whereas last year, talking about twenty three not you know
what I'm saying that his rookie year, he was taking
hits and still standing in the pocket. This year he
started to take off. He started to look a little skittish,
see ghosts. It wasn't as much poise in the pocket.
And it's not necessarily his fault. He was getting beat

(01:29:22):
down in that pocket, but it's some of that came back.
That pocket poise, especially in that second half of the game,
was coming back for CJ. Stroud to where he started
to look like himself from last year. It was both
of those things. I mean, him using his feet and
then you know the play where he scrambled out and
it just looked like, you know, oh, man, don't throw
that football. Actually, no, do throw that football. Because CJ,

(01:29:46):
I don't think, by any stretch of the imagination, is
a timid guy. He is a guy that exudes confidence,
at least last year did. And then over the offseason
on podcasts where you know, hey, you know you're dealing
with the killer, you know, all of those different things
that he said I was getting, you know how he
said during astro season, I want good fromer. Yes, we

(01:30:07):
were not getting good CJ. We were getting timid concave
chest CJ is who we were getting. And that interception
was one of them. That's timid CJ. Right, Yeah, that's him.
Just I didn't know what he was doing, I mean
or not, that's what I couldn't figure out either, but
it was that's but I mean, and that's the thing
is is after he did that, he finally said, that's

(01:30:31):
that's enough.

Speaker 1 (01:30:32):
That's enough.

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
If if I don't have Nico Collins, I don't have
Dalton Schultz, I don't I don't even have John Metchi
or Xavier Hutchinson and I and you mentioned Joe Mixon,
then it's gonna be up to me.

Speaker 1 (01:30:42):
I'm gonna be the one that makes it.

Speaker 2 (01:30:43):
It was like he grabbed aj Brown's self help book
in the middle of that game and then really started
to believe in himself.

Speaker 1 (01:30:48):
Maybe he did that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:49):
See here, I was thinking the other day when Brian
McTaggart tweeted that, I was like, did McTaggart like co
author that? Because I was like, that's that's interesting if
that's the case. But I don't think so. I think
he was just pointing out that it was that book
and then promoting his book as well. Oh, Brian mctagger did,
Oh if anybody wants to read in the dugout. Yeah,
I saw that tweet. Yeah, maybe we can give it

(01:31:10):
to c J. Strouttee works. No, don't mess with CJ.

Speaker 1 (01:31:12):
Strout. He's good. They're coming off the best game of
the season. And then it's like kind of like we.

Speaker 2 (01:31:18):
Were asking last year, who are the real Astros and
really we're like, who are these are the real Rockets
because they're the number two seed, Who are the real Texans?
Because they did go they did start out of the
gates five and one, but none of the wins except
for the Patriots, were extremely impressive. And then it was
just bad, bad, bad to Worset to the lowest of
the low as it got, was that loss to the Ravens.

Speaker 1 (01:31:39):
I have good news, by the way, Dan Orlovski is
going to join us in five minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:31:42):
In five minutes, okay, well, let's go ahead and take
an early break then, I suppose here on the Matt
Thomas Show with Ross, Dan Roloski was supposed to join us,
but he will be joining us in a few minutes,
So we're gonna go ahead and take a break right here.
Appreciate you folks hanging with us. Don't go anywhere. Dan
orlost is next.

Speaker 9 (01:32:02):
Back to Matt Thomas and Ross via Real on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:32:21):
Twelve fifteen.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
And the PM here on a Sports Talk seven ninety
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross, Ross back with back
with you, Dan Matthews with us as well.

Speaker 1 (01:32:36):
Until two o'clock.

Speaker 2 (01:32:37):
Connor McGovern has been here for the duration, and we
were told five minutes till Dan Orlowski. Well it's been
five minutes and we're still trying to track him down.

Speaker 1 (01:32:45):
We will go ahead and figure something out.

Speaker 2 (01:32:48):
We'll make it happen. Yeah, it'll be it'll be fun.
He won't let us down. I'm jerking us around, Dan,
I'm just I'm just kidding.

Speaker 1 (01:32:54):
I'm just kidding.

Speaker 2 (01:32:55):
It's not like that hasn't been said to me before,
so you know, it's yeah, So I'm getting in the
territory that I shouldn't get into. Juice scrugs and Shaq
Mason back at practice. Shaq Mason apparently going to be
back at right guard for the Texans. Now my only
as I was kind of talking about earlier, and we
have been talking about this, this offensive line and how

(01:33:18):
it's going to be shuffled around for the Texans. The
biggest thing I want is some continuity. I like Shack Mason,
but it's not like, you know, he's had some issues
this season as well.

Speaker 1 (01:33:27):
No, I want to say I like them, so I like.

Speaker 2 (01:33:29):
Them as options for the Texans for what they have
because they clearly, of course have some issues in the
interior of the line.

Speaker 1 (01:33:35):
I have for a long time. You missed your chance.
I'm sorry you missed your chance.

Speaker 2 (01:33:39):
I mean, if you were playing all of that well,
I think that they would have wanted you to get
back even sooner. But the way this offensive line has played,
they've at least been serviceable. I don't mess with it,
like why why why even tinker with anything that you
have installed into this offensive line? And I mean, has
Juice Scruggs necessarily done anything to lose the job?

Speaker 16 (01:34:03):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:34:04):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (01:34:05):
Now they put so what they did they initially was it?
Was it the first game they did it against the
Chiefs or was it before that? What they wanted was
tunsil Scrugs, Patterson, Mason Howard.

Speaker 1 (01:34:21):
I want to say that they had done that before.

Speaker 2 (01:34:23):
Then with Mason going down, they kicked Titus into left
guard because they were getting thrashed on the interior by
pass rushers, which Titus Howard did not have a good game.
He could have had five the holdings called on him.
He had his hands full of Pooniford and tire Tart
on the interior with the with the Los Angeles Chargers,
And are they saying with him back? Are they going

(01:34:45):
to go back to that configuration because on Sunday it
was tunsl Howard Patterson scrugs Fisher who I thought Fisher
did okay. He comported himself well, he didn't give up
a lot of pre He was getting beat up physically,
but kind of held his own. It was kind of
a bin but don't break performance to me for the

(01:35:05):
most part from Blake Fisher. He was getting pushed around
by Joey Boson Khalil Mack when they were switching around,
but for the most part he wasn't giving up a
ton of pressures, unlike Larrymy Tunzel, who, by the way,
did give up the sack. They had the bad one
on the stunt that that was missed by Titus Howard.

Speaker 5 (01:35:19):
So uh.

Speaker 1 (01:35:21):
Still the offensive line was better.

Speaker 2 (01:35:23):
But that's like going from absolutely horrible abomination to just bad.

Speaker 1 (01:35:29):
To me, on Saturday against the Chargers.

Speaker 2 (01:35:31):
Works, I mean better's fine. You weren't getting better, you
were getting awful. You were getting terrible. You were getting
either pre snap, you're not on the same counts, you're
getting holdings, you're getting all of these different types of things.
And at least with the group that you've run out there,
the last couple of weeks, they haven't crashed the car.
I mean, at this point, that's my expectation for that group,
and you want to mess with it again. I mean

(01:35:53):
just because hey, we've shot out a lot of money
to this guy, and hey, he hasn't necessarily done anything
to lose his job.

Speaker 1 (01:35:59):
I just agree he was all of those things.

Speaker 2 (01:36:03):
And I'm not saying that you inserting Shaq Mason back
into the offensive line is going to be the reason
you lose the game. I just don't understand going away
from what has at least given you an opportunity.

Speaker 7 (01:36:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:16):
Well, I'm just gonna say they that they feel like
it's the better option. Obviously, they wouldn't be putting Shack
Mason in there if they didn't think he made the
offensive line better. However, they're going to configure it, and
however they're going to put the five guys out there with.
Is Shack Mason one of your best five linemen? I
would say yes, I don't think so at this point.

(01:36:37):
I think the best five offensive lineman you have are
the guys you got out there right now.

Speaker 12 (01:36:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:36:41):
And on top of it all too, I mean, just
to kind of further your point, do you trust that
they're going to get this right. No, because I mean
it's you know, you're hearing about, oh hey, we really
like this configuration of five guys that were running.

Speaker 1 (01:36:54):
Why weren't you messing with this before?

Speaker 5 (01:36:55):
Then?

Speaker 2 (01:36:56):
Like why were you not trying to find this before
when you had off offensive line play? Like I mean
it just seriously offensively, this year has just seemed like
it is a period of just insanity where it's hey,
it's going to work, trust me, it's going to work.
It's it's the guy in the relationship that tells the
girl I'll change, I'll be better. Soon enough you realize

(01:37:19):
they're not going to change. They are who they are. Yeah,
soldiers can move on. Man, Okay, I see where you're going.
So yeah, I feel like we'll see it is. I
don't like the shuffling. I don't like going in and
out doing this because, like I said, one of the
things that this team needs. Their biggest issue has been,
especially early on in the season as it went along,

(01:37:39):
dealing with those stunts, dealing with those pressures, and if
you're shuffling around the offensive line a ton, that's that's
where you are gonna run into these types of issues.
And that's what I'm a little bit worried about. On
the road in a loud environment in Arrowhead Stadium with
this Steve Bespagnolo defense, that's going to show seven eight
guys at the line of scrimmage and our three coming

(01:38:01):
or our six or seven coming, I don't know. So
that's where the offensive line to me is going to
have to be on the same page right now. Please
to be joined by Dan Orlowski, mister do everything for
ESPN on get up on the NFL shows, does a
great job as well.

Speaker 1 (01:38:17):
Thanks for joining us.

Speaker 12 (01:38:18):
Dan.

Speaker 8 (01:38:18):
How are you?

Speaker 12 (01:38:19):
I'm doing fantastic.

Speaker 4 (01:38:21):
How about you?

Speaker 1 (01:38:21):
Guys good?

Speaker 2 (01:38:22):
We're also pulling our hair out trying to figure out
what's gonna happen with this Texisan offensive line.

Speaker 1 (01:38:26):
We'll get to that in a second.

Speaker 2 (01:38:27):
But you, as the quarterback, of course, and as somebody
who played here in Houston, Ross and Dan with you here,
I do have to ask you right off the bat,
who is the real CJ.

Speaker 1 (01:38:37):
Stroud?

Speaker 8 (01:38:39):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:38:39):
I mean cjs A sensational players. He's a young man
that you know, obviously took the league by storm last year,
and you know all off season I was one who
was pretty clear of what he did was even greater
than maybe the numbers painted the picture as because he
was so remarkable on third down and asked a lot

(01:39:00):
of some of the inefficiencies of the offense as a whole,
and that's obviously one of the harder downs to be
good at that position of the league. So it was
even more impressive then again maybe the surface numbers said.
And then this year it caught up to them a
little bit this year. The poor performance on first down
caught up to them this year, the lack of consistently
being able to control the line of scrimmage on Leonard downs,
and the poor production. I remember going back to Week

(01:39:22):
one and I did a quick little thing on the
NFL and I was like, man, they better figure out
that protection because it was ugly and it's it's rained
terror on their offense. And as it impacted CJ's you know,
play negatively, There's no question about it. Has he played
lesser than he has at last year, absolutely, But I
think that's the direct reason why that the protection has

(01:39:44):
kind of impacted him, impacted his vision, made him a
little antsy at times, which is one a real thing.
But I don't think that's made him a lesser player
now again.

Speaker 2 (01:39:57):
Dane Olowski joined us here on The Matt Thomas Show
with Rosty and Matthews in for Matt. You know, Dan,
A couple of the things that we've been talking about
all week that seemed like it was the aha moment
for CJ is one the busted play with the fumbled
snap and he's got to roll out find Xavier Hutchinson
and also using his legs. Did you see a guy

(01:40:17):
in the second half and who got back to being
the guy that he was last year where I mean,
let's call it what it is his own words, he
was a killer on the field last year.

Speaker 7 (01:40:27):
Yeah, Yeah, I mean that's kind of one of the
things that he has done a little bit more, I
would say, this year, and just take off with his
legs and be a threat. You know, situationally, it's not
necessarily that you're designing quarterback runs for him, but those
situational backbreaker Patrick Mahomes Joe Burrow type of runs where
you know it's third and six and they take off

(01:40:48):
and it's like, oh my gosh, everyone was covered, but
he got a first down. So yeah, I saw that.
I don't have any reservations about who CJ is or
what CJ is. I think that, you know, some of
the injuries and the lack of performances have been to
the significant part of why the playoff's falling off. But
that's going to be a huge part of this game
for them this weekend as well, as you know, for
both quarterbacks, is who's going to have those two or

(01:41:10):
three runs and those crucial moments to either you know,
keep a drive alive or put points on the board,
or take three minutes off of a clock longer. And
so yeah, I think that's another kind of as I
don't know, wants the astrosk bullet point in this game.
As you know, Ken CJ pull those off.

Speaker 2 (01:41:27):
One of the big problems with the offensive line has
just been allowing those free runners Dan with maybe a
lack of communication, and I am worried about that going
up against the Spagnolo defense this weekend on the road
in a loud, Arrowhead environment.

Speaker 1 (01:41:41):
How did the Texans in the offensive line prepare for that?

Speaker 7 (01:41:45):
Yeah, I mean it's it's obviously a huge part of
the challenge. I think the number one thing that they
can do to help that is you've got to run
the football in twenty one personnel something that actually, going
back to a couple of weeks when they did play,
they were decent hit me successful at it, and so
twenty one putting a fullback on the field or maybe
unizing a tight end in that role. But you've got

(01:42:06):
to be able to do that. The second thing is this, Actually,
I'll make this the first thing. Every single time that
CJ breaks down and walks the line of scrimmage, he's
got to be thinking blitz because it comes at any
point from anywhere. The situations don't matter, So there has
to be a constant at the forefront.

Speaker 12 (01:42:24):
Of his mind, where's the blitz coming from?

Speaker 7 (01:42:26):
Where's the n If they don't, it's almost like as
a quarterback you're often reacting to the blitz. This is
a reacting to the no blitz situation. If you're CJ,
like every play you're expecting a blitz so it doesn't
surprise you. Then again, the twenty one personnel has.

Speaker 12 (01:42:42):
Got to be a big run. I think that The
second thing is you.

Speaker 7 (01:42:46):
Got to try to hit some screens against them when
they pressure you. You know, there's there's two methods deal
dealing with pressure. As an offense. You want to try
to survive it or you want to try to kill it.
And one of the ways that you try to you know,
do both of them at the same time. As some
perimeter screens where it protects you you get the ball
to your hands, there's usually more than not a bad

(01:43:06):
play that but if you touch it at the right time,
right angle, right people, you can hit on run. And
so I think some of the perimeter screens or slip
screens would be a big deal.

Speaker 12 (01:43:15):
And then I mean one of the things that was
disappointing is the.

Speaker 7 (01:43:18):
Plan for protection and the execution for protection.

Speaker 1 (01:43:20):
And so you know, you got to have a plan
for it.

Speaker 7 (01:43:23):
You got to know exactly how you want to protect
it and communicate it. And while it's hard, you know,
it's one of the challenges of the business. You know,
if it's third out, I wouldn't be surprised if you
get into some no huddle and try to give yourself
as much time at the line of scrimmage to communicate.
And then, you know, one of the things I've always
learned and I learned this from Coach Kubiak, and you know,

(01:43:44):
if everybody's wrong, we're gonna be okay. So you don't
chasee perfection in these situations, you know, like to think
that you're gonna get to line of scrimmage, you know
exactly what's going to happen, and that's not real. But
as long as everybody's on the same page and it
knows what or who the problem is, you're gonna be
o pay more often than not. So that's the big

(01:44:05):
thing is you can't have four guys thinking one thing
and one person doing another thing. That's when catastrophe happens again.

Speaker 2 (01:44:11):
Dan Orlowski join us here on the Matt Thamas Show
with Ross and you mentioned the screen game. I mean,
that's something that I've been screaming about all season, Dan.
With Joe Mixon, I mean, you see it all the time,
he's running into a wall, He's running for forty fifty
yards a game. You can't really get the run game going.
And you hear Bobby Sloan talk about one to get
the run game going. But all off season, Dan, we

(01:44:32):
heard about what a great pass catcher he was out
of the backfield. I mean, are you kind of disappointed
in Bobby Slowick for not using that part of his
game more especially factoring in the struggles at times.

Speaker 7 (01:44:43):
Well, there's no question about it. I mean, I'm a
massive fan of the screen game in general. I mean,
if you look at just if we're no Tree Top,
do you look in at some of the offenses that
have been really good this year and certainly in the
years past. He would sit there and go Kansas City, Man, Okay,
really good screen game. And then you go, well, Detroit, yep,
really good screen game. And well, the Minnesota Vikings really

(01:45:06):
good screen game, and the Los Angeles Rams really good
screen game, and the Buffalo bill is really good screen games.
So you know, I think as in totality, and you
know that that's got to be one of the foundations
staple of your offenses. It's different screens that you can
get to it you're just trying to create a numbers
advantage and then space advantage. And so I think it's

(01:45:26):
a different way to get Joe mix in the ball.
It's a different way to you know what a mix
and strengths is. Yeah, he's a tough tackle, man Like
this is a tough tackle in space, and so you know,
I think it's also a breather for your quarterback. You know,
we're calling this player, we're running this play don't have
to think mush and so you know it's something that
I would try and hit four or five times on
this game.

Speaker 2 (01:45:45):
A couple of more minutes with Dan Orlowski and Dan,
I mean off topic football wise, I told Ross, I
told the audience, I'd ask you this. You're pretty renowned
for your food takes. So two part question here. Number one,
what gets more of a this reaction analysis that maybe
upsets a fan base or your food takes? And is

(01:46:05):
there a food take that you were willing to die
on a hill for? And I mean even you're hunched
over skulling bones on that hill when it's all said
and done, that you will not come off of it.

Speaker 12 (01:46:17):
Yeah, definitely the fan bases.

Speaker 7 (01:46:20):
You know, I always say this every year, it feels
like the fans become more and more passionate. And listen,
when you're in my role, like and you you're convicted
about the things you say, it's it's going to come
your way. So at times I'm like, well that's a
tough one. But definitely the fan bases. But the food
does make people upset in an odd way. You know.

(01:46:41):
The food take that I would die on is I
think mushrooms are disgusting. That's the one that I.

Speaker 12 (01:46:48):
Ain't blinking off. I ain't blinking off that one.

Speaker 5 (01:46:53):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 7 (01:46:53):
I often say like I love a good meal.

Speaker 5 (01:46:56):
I do.

Speaker 7 (01:46:56):
I do. I love a good meal, but I need
a good meal every time I eat. It's not like
I have to walk away from having, you know, food
and being like, oh my gosh, that was a on
of body experience. And so you know, I think that, uh,
that's probably.

Speaker 12 (01:47:12):
One as well.

Speaker 7 (01:47:13):
It's funny you guys Houston, we used to live down there.
We were having in a group text with some friends
up here in Connecticut. We were my wife was vividly
describing LTMPO to them and I honestly did not know that,
and it was it was great having the questions fired
back from them of like wait what they put brisket

(01:47:34):
in caseo and.

Speaker 1 (01:47:34):
Were like yup.

Speaker 7 (01:47:35):
And then they were like, wait, you dip your pahetas
and butter and We're like yeah, it just the food
stuff triggered my mind.

Speaker 1 (01:47:44):
That's great.

Speaker 2 (01:47:45):
That one last one before we get you out, just
uh your eyes what the Texans defense is going to
have to do? And then a prediction a prediction, and
then take it easy on us with the prediction here
in Houston.

Speaker 7 (01:47:56):
Yeah, again, I think can't say he wins the game.
I don't want to misrepresent it, but I do think
Houston can hang. And the really question is that can
they do enough offensively? You know, can they do enough
obviously the depletion, but I think defensively, if you had
to ask me, you know, build a defense that could
you know, really hold its own and have success against
this Chiefs offense, I say, man, you've got to have

(01:48:16):
two good end rushers and you've got to be able
to play man coverage well, you know. And so I
think that's what gives them a good feel in this
game is you know, Will and Danil were freaking unbelievable
last week, and I think their heavy hands are a
big deal versus these tackles. How Shy here definitely, you know,
was a myth, you know, when you felt his impact
and then they can play man, you know. And so

(01:48:39):
I actually think that their defense can keep them in
the game. I wouldn't be surprised that this is a
one score game on the fourth quarter. I just I
don't know if they could do enough offensively versus a
darn good defense.

Speaker 2 (01:48:52):
Dan appreciate Tom Man good stuff as always. It's great
to hear her you again here in Houston, and of
course you get to see him on it up.

Speaker 1 (01:49:02):
First.

Speaker 2 (01:49:02):
Take pretty much any of the NFL shows, I mean,
everything that's gonna say. I mean, you know, fill in
the blanks that I'm missing here, Dan, Yeah, there.

Speaker 12 (01:49:12):
Is nothing I tell everybody else. And you know the
best part about.

Speaker 7 (01:49:16):
ESPN is it's twenty four seven, you know, so it's
obviously got a massive platform and there's a lot of opportunity.
And the worst part about ESPN is it's twenty four
to seven. You know, there is always another show looking
for somebody. So, uh no, it's it's it's all good.

Speaker 12 (01:49:30):
I'm super grateful I get to.

Speaker 1 (01:49:32):
Be a part of it. Awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:49:32):
Man, Hey, thanks for carving us some time for us today. Man,
we really appreciate it, and uh we'll catch up soon.

Speaker 7 (01:49:38):
Thanks guys.

Speaker 2 (01:49:39):
All right, take care of Dan Orlowski again, ESPN former Texan.
But even you'd even thrown out the idea of do
you throw out Texans leg Texan's legend Dan Orlovsky appreciate
him making some time for a stowart in that locker.
He was always a go to guy talked to even
off Mike. You know, you knew that he probably had
the gift for doing what he does, the gift of gab.

(01:50:00):
Only good stuff there with Dan Orlofsky. You want to
rack to anything he had to say about the Texans
this weekend against the Kansas City Chiefs.

Speaker 1 (01:50:06):
You can do so, those of you and hold, we
will get to you as well.

Speaker 2 (01:50:09):
It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas,
with Dan Matthews and you at seven one three, two
one two five seven ninety seven one three two one
two five seven.

Speaker 9 (01:50:19):
Ninety lunchtimers, lunch timers, It's a Matt Thomas Show with
Ross on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:50:37):
All right, we're back with you on the Matt Thomas
Show with Ross without man Thomas, with Dan Matthews, with
Connor McGovern with you at seven one three and we
won two and we got golf on in this five
seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:50:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:50:49):
Look, I don't like watching these talking head shows. I
like to put on live sports and truth be told
that Well, of course it is an adjustment moving from
twelve to three to ten to two, but there's just
there's not as much live sports on tended too. It's
like ten am, I don't know what's happening in Pakistan?
Can we put some cricket on or something. I don't
want to watch talking head shows. They just make me angry,
So I always want to put live sports on easier

(01:51:10):
to do twelve to three normally when when Dave baseball
season is happening as well? What about darts? Like you
watch darts? Do I want to watch darks or I
don't want? I want to watch screaming a smith. Say
a team's got zero percent chance in the final four
of the AFC playoffs, Well I'm gonna go with the former. Well,
the week before you had Rex Ryan, So just I

(01:51:31):
don't want to watch any of those guys. They're screaming,
they're going for reaction. That's fine. I'm gonna die on
this hill all by myself, not all by myself with
a few of you with me.

Speaker 1 (01:51:41):
But it's it.

Speaker 2 (01:51:41):
That's just where sports discourse is headed and where it
already is, and I just don't want any party. See
for some with Dean Orlowski's renowned food takes, I'm with
them on mushrooms. I can't do them no matter what
the chewiness. Yeah, it just it weirds me out. I
think they get a good flavor on certain things. I'll
get a good beef strogan off. Well, mushrooms can to it.
I pick around him.

Speaker 1 (01:52:01):
Okay, that's fine.

Speaker 2 (01:52:02):
Yeah, Like some people don't like onions, I love onions.
I love onions. I don't like onions are idiots. Onions
are the backbone of cooking. Literally, onions, garlic, peppers. And
my grandfather was not a big garlic guy. Oh all right,
now he's getting out. That's at that's out of control.
You you can't cook without onions and garlic.

Speaker 1 (01:52:22):
I was gonna say. I mean, it's it's the It's
the benchmark for most of the stores that I eat.

Speaker 2 (01:52:25):
Why don't you just eat dirt? Grandpa Matthews or whichever
he pretty much did. His burgers were well done, his
steaks were well done, yeafe. To remember, he grew up
in that hardened era in the Midwest. I don't want
to catch their tricking out, says, being is dirty where
you don't complain about anything. If you cook the hell
out of everything and you eat it and you have

(01:52:46):
a smile on your face after you eat, or you
know who was like that when he used to order
his burgers. Well, palles, I'm ordering a hamburger. And this
is what he would tell the waitress. All right, this
is the way I wanted. I want it well done.
And then when you think it's well done, wanted to
put back on the grill. This is he would literally
do this to the waitress. And then when you think
it's well done, from there, I want it back on

(01:53:07):
the grail. Get me that thing burnt to a crisp, honey,
like all right, Milo cool. He would get it like
it would be like the most burnt. I saw him
send back a hamburger. Then that thing looked like burnt
to a crisp. He's like, oh, this isn't done enough.

Speaker 1 (01:53:22):
You think you think?

Speaker 2 (01:53:22):
Like once he went back to the kitchen, the server
just brings the plate back and goes Milo.

Speaker 1 (01:53:29):
Exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:53:29):
And that was sponsoring the astro lines at that time, which,
by the way, Astral line coming up at six o'clock tomorrow, Yes,
six pm here on a Sports Talk seven ninety Astral
Line back with Joe Spotted and I believe Bryce Matthews
and I think Jeff Blum is going to be part
of it.

Speaker 1 (01:53:47):
Tomorrow too, al right, man, Yeah, hey, I'm gonna be
part of it. Man.

Speaker 2 (01:53:52):
Talking with Bryce Matthews, you said cool can be a
good time, all right?

Speaker 1 (01:53:57):
Getting ready for the season at Dyke and Park?

Speaker 16 (01:54:00):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (01:54:00):
I heard somebody say, Dacon Park, I'm going to get
this figured out.

Speaker 2 (01:54:03):
The video that they released with Todd Kallis, okay, was
welcome the dyk in Parks.

Speaker 1 (01:54:08):
Okay, I can't. I can't do it like like like
ac can.

Speaker 7 (01:54:12):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:54:12):
No, of course, I mean we'll be hearing it sooner now,
absolutely absolutely, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:54:16):
Anyways, let's get Martin's been holding patiently. Uh, Martin, I
just want to remind you before we start this call,
you are not funny.

Speaker 1 (01:54:22):
Go ahead.

Speaker 17 (01:54:23):
Oh hey, hey, hey, I called about the Texas. I
wish they would incorporate Damian Pierce into the offense more
to to have like two running backs, you know, instead

(01:54:43):
of just depending on mixing all the time. I guess
they just don't have the confidence in Damian Pierce.

Speaker 2 (01:54:51):
Huh uh. It doesn't seem like that he got a
lot of run there in that last game against the Titans.
What do you have like one hundred and ninety yards
or somewhere in that neighborhood. He had that big run,
But clearly they're more trusting of Joe Mixon, and Joe
Mixon did a great job. He closed that game for
them in the fourth quarter. He had like ten carries
for fifty eight yards in the last drive. I'll take
it even a step further. It seems like they have

(01:55:12):
just as much trust on third down and Darya Goombawalle
and Darry's definitely the.

Speaker 1 (01:55:16):
Third down guy.

Speaker 2 (01:55:17):
He's a good pass catcher. They like him in pass
Pro and stuff like that. He's been the third down
guy all year long. For whatever reason, Damian Pierce just
has not been the right fit with this regime change
and Bobby Slowck's offense.

Speaker 17 (01:55:30):
Yeah, I have a tribute to John Denver. Go ahead,
Rocky Mountain, Colorado, Rocky Mountain.

Speaker 2 (01:55:47):
All right, thank you, Martin. I reminded you before the call.
I reminded you before the call.

Speaker 1 (01:55:54):
Mark.

Speaker 2 (01:55:54):
I mean, technically, he wasn't really trying to be funny.
He was trying to be he was trying to shoot
up times. Next time he calls, I'll have two reminders
from Martin. You're not funny and you can't sing.

Speaker 13 (01:56:05):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:56:05):
Almost it almost felt you know it sounded like the
country boy was in this room with us right now.
It is almost somebody wants to hear the ghost of
John was here. Nobody wants to hear people who can't
sing singing on the radio. That's ridiculous. All right, quick
break here there on there's no place of like people
who think they can sing, like church, and you know,
of course, you know, well there is that, but I mean,

(01:56:25):
at least when karaoke there's drinks involved, so it kind
of takes off the edge. But it's when you're at
mass or a church service and somebody's just belting out
the hymns and you're just like, it's it's not it, man,
Please don't do that. Just give him a little signal,
just just tune that up. Just just just hum along,
all right, just do it. Most of us too. A
quick break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

(01:56:48):
Short segment here because we went a little bit over
with Dan Orlowski, but of course it was worth it.
He was talking to some Texans. How are we feeling
about this offensive line? If I say, Shaq Mason inserted
back into the offensive line. You say, but we know
that Dan says the same thing. When he sees mushrooms,
he says yuck. But we'll talk about that as we
go along. Hour number four of the program coming up
soon as well. We'll also have I Just don't get

(01:57:10):
It with you Until two o'clock. It is The Matt
Thomas Show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Back after the
short break lunchtimers.

Speaker 9 (01:57:19):
Back to Houston's longest running lunchtime sports show with a
guy that yells.

Speaker 1 (01:57:29):
For a living. Yes, Matt Thomas, the legend continues.

Speaker 2 (01:57:34):
Now, well, the legend's gonna get to you tomorrow because
Matt Thomas.

Speaker 8 (01:57:41):
Is not here.

Speaker 2 (01:57:43):
Welcome back to The Matt Thomas Show with Ross without
Matt Thomas. I'm telling you, I understand sticking up for Connor.
I understand like when I'm out, But if I ever
hear it from Matt about me being out boy, it
is going to truly what was your favorite sports MDMO?
This part of the bid, it's it's having roles. It's

(01:58:05):
like I how I'm saying it now and I miss
basically the entire month of November here.

Speaker 1 (01:58:10):
That is true. Hey, I get a lot of vacation,
so I take a lot of vacation. I've been in this.

Speaker 2 (01:58:15):
I Oh my gosh, I think I just hit sixteen years.
It's Sports Talk seven ninety. I think this week or
at well at iheard Houston, so I take my vacation
about the same time I take my vacation. So I
but also when I'm here and Matt's not, we're gonna
make fun of them. Well, it's not just me, it's
it's the people on Twitter streets. And it's it's also too,

(01:58:36):
I mean, isn't it funniest too? Whenever you're off and
then somebody, hey man, can you subm in? I'm like,
I'm off. Oh man, I really need somebody. The first
part kind of knocked out the second follow.

Speaker 1 (01:58:45):
Up right there. Yeah, that's fine. I know if you're off,
I don't ever bother you. You don't, you don't.

Speaker 2 (01:58:51):
All right, Well, moving along here on the Well you
want to sense some tweet you can at Sports RV
at Dan Matthews Hou that is Matthews with one he
Daniel making some good points. He said, let's get real,
when are we gonna change the show to The Ross Show?
With occasionally Matt Thomas.

Speaker 12 (01:59:07):
I like that.

Speaker 1 (01:59:07):
I like that a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:59:08):
He's making a lot of good points. Mike said, what
was your favorite sports and team memory? Then he put
the hashtag sarcasm on there or the sarcasm signal, So yes,
just some sarcasm, having some fun. Matt Thomas would do
the same to us. So that's why we uh, he
likes to make fun of people, and we like to
make fun of him back. See that's called family.

Speaker 1 (01:59:28):
That's it. That's it, that's it's all the fun of it.

Speaker 2 (01:59:31):
I mean, you know, we all had that old friend
that they were good at dishing out the barbs, but
then they weren't good at taking them.

Speaker 1 (01:59:37):
Oh, some people that I can think of that are
very bad at that.

Speaker 2 (01:59:40):
And that's neither of you guys. You both got broad shoulders.
He's a good fit with the show, Connor. Connor McGovern doing.

Speaker 1 (01:59:47):
A great job.

Speaker 2 (01:59:48):
I'm sorry, Connor McGovern. One of the finest lads from Limerick.
Oh that's Horry Hill's from swings a Wide, Chile. All right,
we're doing a great job here on the Matt tom
Show with Ross having a good time time sports here.
Let's see, we were talking Texans in the last segment.
We'll talk some rockets coming up as well. We have
astros the I don't know if you heard the Bregmant

(02:00:10):
update from earlier on the show. The Bregmant update was
there wasn't much of an update, But bus are only
saying that the latest is there is the Toronto Blue Jays,
the Red Sox and the Tigers down still in the
mix for Alex Bregman as a possible landing a spot.
I mean, it truly is, you know, I know that
we've had the JV update before you guys have had

(02:00:30):
the JV update. I mean it feels like that there
does need to be production of day whatever I Bregman watch.

Speaker 1 (02:00:36):
We do have a Bregman update. Okay, we did use
that earlier.

Speaker 2 (02:00:39):
All right, So I mean, I'm just saying that, you know,
it's it's getting to the point here where I mean
what we're a week away from FanFest happening. And I'm
not saying this from the perspective that the Astros could
get him at the last minute. They're done, They've moved on.
But I mean, is this a we pull in to
West Palm Beach and we get the notification on our

(02:00:59):
phone that he got the Carlos carea deal like a
short term opt out late Man that's with somebody that
was fine because car Correa hit free agency at what
like twenty seven I think so, Yeah, Bregman's about to
be thirty one.

Speaker 1 (02:01:13):
That's one year.

Speaker 2 (02:01:14):
Odden defensive numbers have not been Yeah, I mean very good,
but not great. Very good ops plus a one to
eighteen is solid plus a gold Glover, it's solid. Plus
the leadership, I think. I think that's there's no accident
that the Tigers and Red Sox are in the mix
with Alex Quorra and aj Hinch, guys who know Alex
Bregman and with the value that he can bring to

(02:01:34):
a team there. But we are just drawing closer and
closer and closer to pitchers and catchers. As you said,
and I brought this up earlier as well, Josh Hater
deal last year was felt very late in the game.

Speaker 1 (02:01:46):
That was January nineteenth. Now we are three days.

Speaker 2 (02:01:49):
Away, that's Sunday on this calendar to where I mean,
if you get even further past that, I mean, Alex
Bregman's gonna be working out, getting ramped up no matter
where he is. But he needs to be in campus
with whoever he's gonna sign with. It happened the day
before me, you, Gordie and whoever else was out there
for fan fest freezing?

Speaker 1 (02:02:08):
Are you know what the wax was out there?

Speaker 2 (02:02:10):
But yeah, I mean the very next day we had
Dana Brown on and we got to ask him about it,
and I mean famously, Ryan Presley was not there, so
didn't have a chance to talk with him about it.

Speaker 1 (02:02:20):
But yeah, I mean that's no Ryan, we had him scheduled.
He ducked us.

Speaker 2 (02:02:25):
Ah, yeah, that's a shame. He was like, yeah, I
don't know, I think he I think he ducked his
media availability.

Speaker 1 (02:02:33):
I mean I can understand that though, too.

Speaker 2 (02:02:35):
I mean it's just kind of like, sorry, Ryan Presley,
Josh Hater's better than you.

Speaker 1 (02:02:39):
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (02:02:40):
We love you, Ryan Presley, You're you're another year older
and not as good as Josh Hater, who they signed
to a big We'll get Hater this year too, And
if a full time that's the time that I'm on air,
I've got to ask, you know, haircare routine. I mean,
I don't know that's true. Maybe he's uh, maybe he
can give us the secret tips. You guys did gut

(02:03:00):
feelings you Tuesday? Yeah, yeah, so I wasn't. Yeah, yeah,
it's Thursday. I don't know what date it is, man, Well,
one of the best days of the week. So can
I add a late gut feeling? Okay, let me get
the Let me get the file out from uh from Tuesday.
Now I should just reverse sort this because I have
to scroll down. I have like four years where the
gut feelings on this file. All right, here we go

(02:03:22):
getting into Oh I'm writing twenty twenty four on these years,
it's twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (02:03:26):
Adult, All right, let me go ahead. Ryan Presley will
be traded.

Speaker 2 (02:03:31):
That clears the way for the Astros to go get
a capable enough left fielder.

Speaker 1 (02:03:39):
I hope you're right.

Speaker 2 (02:03:40):
I mean, they're just gonna have to send cash with
Ryan Presley, though nobody's gonna pay him fourteen million dollars
to be a seventh inning guy for one year, eighth
inning guy for one year. Team that really needs both
the help they would and I mean, who's to say that.
For example, he's got a no trade as well, so
he's not gonna want to go to a bad team.
So the Yankees, they lost Clay Holmes, they don't have

(02:04:01):
a closer.

Speaker 1 (02:04:01):
Right now, Okay, do you want to help the Yankees
like that? Well, he said, actually, you know what, Ryan
Presley go close for the Yankees. I actually don't mind that.
I mean, I don't think that you can necessarily think about,
you know, who it helps or who it hurts. I mean,
I just I think that you find yourself in a
situation where you're up against it with the CBT, yeah,
and you need some help out in the outfield.

Speaker 2 (02:04:22):
You cannot go to West Palm Beach with this outfield
the way that it is and think that you're winning
the AO West. That's not that's not gonna happen. Yeah,
Jack Peterson signed with the Rangers. Who who are the
who are the lower rent outfield options right now? A
name that I heard, Randall Gritchick, Randall, Gritchick, Randall Gritchick.

Speaker 1 (02:04:44):
Isn't he Is he from the area?

Speaker 12 (02:04:46):
Is he?

Speaker 2 (02:04:47):
He's a Lamar consolidated guy. He was He was that
Lamar Little League team that went to the World Series
years ago. So he's a local kid. And another guy
that I've thrown out two numerous times, Adam Duvall. Adam Duvall. Okay,
well either way it sounds better. Look I like Mauricio Dubon,
but you like him in the utility role, playing all
over the place.

Speaker 1 (02:05:06):
And he's not an everyday bat.

Speaker 2 (02:05:08):
We know that the Gold Glove utility finalists and before
that Gold Glove Utility winner. But certainly room for improvement
because if you're going with Dubon, Myers and McCormick, hopefully
Chas can bounce back. But it's not a great outfield.
You saw it last year. I mean of you know, hey,
we need to start Racio Dubon. We need to start

(02:05:30):
Mauricio Dubon. Hey, the bat's not as good. G I
wonder there's a reason why he hasn't been an everyday starter.
Is that reason right there that you just said. So, yeah,
you can't sell me on the idea of a left
field that is platoon with. Hey, Mauricio Dubon's gonna be
one of those guys. I need Mauricio moving around. Yeah, exactly,

(02:05:52):
you need to use him everywhere, days off for guys,
stuff like that. So we'll see what happens. I like
that gun feeling. If they trade Ryan pro Wesley sign
a left fielder, I'll be feeling a lot better about
what's happening. Not necessarily that I want Presley gone. He
has value in the bullpen, but they want to offload
the salary to stay as low as possible into the
competitive balanced tax. Time for a quick break here on

(02:06:14):
the Matt Thomas Show with Ross three hours in one
to go. Dan Matthews is here. We got rocket stuff
to get to as they beat the Nuggets last night
firmly in the two spot.

Speaker 1 (02:06:25):
They've won five games in a row.

Speaker 2 (02:06:27):
Yes, your Houston Rockets are there Texans getting ramped up
for the Chiefs over the weekend as well. We'll have
the latest for you on the offensive line in What's
going there. Also have I Just Don't Get It coming
up at one thirty and you at seven one three
two one two five seven ninety seven one three two,
one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (02:06:47):
Lunchtimers.

Speaker 2 (02:06:49):
This is the Matt Thomas Show Power number four of
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross.

Speaker 1 (02:06:58):
Without Matt Thomas.

Speaker 2 (02:06:59):
He is out traveling with your Houston Rockets last night
playing in Denver, getting the victory over the Nikola Jokic
and Aaron Gordon list Denver Nuggets, but still counts as
a W in the column. All the same, they will
be taking on the Sacramento Kings tonight here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. That'll be a late night nine o'clock start.

(02:07:22):
You were me Dan on the Rockets launch patter eight o'clock.

Speaker 6 (02:07:25):
Is it you?

Speaker 1 (02:07:25):
It's me? Yeah, I'm the guy, so I can rest.
It's gonna be me.

Speaker 2 (02:07:30):
No Rockets wrap though, No Rockets wrap with the lay
want we want you to get your sleep.

Speaker 1 (02:07:35):
We hope that you're getting your sleep.

Speaker 2 (02:07:36):
After which, by the way, I mean, even though it's
a back to back, energy might be low a little bit.
I gotta believe there's a feeling going back into that
building with the non calls on Denatas Simonis that yeah,
it's a little bit of hey, we're gonna make these
guys Rockets revenge. Well, the good thing is you had
your starters not play a bunch of minutes there at

(02:07:56):
the end of the fourth quarter because you were blowing
out the Nuggets. Emio Dooka pulling everybody out with about
five minutes left to go. Five minutes of rest not huge,
but it matters on the back to back any second
that you can get. There were only like six and
a half point favorites in that game able to get
the victory and the win.

Speaker 1 (02:08:13):
So Dan Matthews is here. I am here. It is
the fourth hour of the Mount Tomas Show. Connor mcgovernor
is here.

Speaker 2 (02:08:18):
You can send us tweets at sports RV at Dan
Matthews hou that is Matthews with a single T and
those are you on the phone lines that would like
to get in You can as well at seven one
three two one two five seven ninety seven one three
two one two five seven ninety We had been to
Boson earlier as well, talking some rockets and uh, honestly

(02:08:39):
ticking the I think the slight uptick in rockets, interest
in the city of Houston in the building. As you know, Dan,
you go to the games too, feels like people are
getting there in bigger numbers and a little bit early.
It's not like it's going to get to levels of
where they were in twenty seventeen eighteen just yet, but
I'm feeling a little bit more of a rock It's

(02:09:00):
interest in the city, if it's trending in the right direction.
I mean, I think if nothing else, this kind of
feels like the twenty fifteen Astros season. I mean, even
though you little bit got that last year with the Rockets,
But I mean twenty fifteen was when they were hitting
home runs like crazy. They get to the playoffs and
the Kolby Rasmus of the Houston Rockets say, I think

(02:09:22):
you might be going with Jay Shawn Tate there. I
think I think Jay Shan Tate is going to be
the one that has the crazy locker room celebrating. Thompson
is the Carlos Korea, the young, the young well Man's
not a rookie, but he's bursting onto the scene.

Speaker 1 (02:09:35):
Was that Korea's rookie, but I mean, you know, I
mean think he was a true rookie.

Speaker 2 (02:09:38):
In fifties, you started to get those guys coming up,
so you were like, okay, hey, we we know what
this is like. We we we we think that this
thing can be pretty great. We just don't one hundred
percent know yet. And that's what the Rockets are showing already.

Speaker 1 (02:09:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:09:52):
So it's it's feeling good, teams looking good, and we
got the trade deadline three weeks away. There had been
some talk the last several weeks or so about Dearon
Fox or Jimmy Butler or the really swing for the
fence move would be Devin Booker or one of the
pieces from from the Phoenix Suns who continue to just
be mired in mediocrity throughout the season.

Speaker 1 (02:10:14):
So I think it's going to be a stay of the.

Speaker 2 (02:10:17):
Course, trust the process type of trade deadline from the Rockets.
Maybe a bench score or somebody who can knock down
some threes reliably, although the Rockets three point shooting is
on a bit of an uptick now. I mean, I
you know, just from what rafel Stone has said, I
think that it probably is going to be what you
said that. You know, if you're going into that trade
deadline expecting a massive splash move, you're not going to

(02:10:39):
get it. Then, I think if the Rockets are going
to make a move like that, that's an off season move.
That's a in the middle of July. That's when the
hot stove of the NBA fires up. But I mean
two at the same time, it sucks because of injury.
But you've gotten to the point now where even when
Jabari Smith is healthy and readily available and.

Speaker 1 (02:11:02):
Is relegated to the bench, bingo, probably I can't. I
can't pull a men Thompson off the starting floor. I can't. No,
you can't.

Speaker 2 (02:11:10):
It's even though he is a non shooter and Alprin
Shangoon is a non shoot Generally, an NBA philosophy is
in twenty twenty five, having multiple non shooters on the
floor at the same time not a good idea. But
with somebody who is so fast and active as a
Men Thompson is, who can be a blur down the floor,

(02:11:30):
he can be a one man fast break.

Speaker 1 (02:11:32):
The basket cuts work so well.

Speaker 2 (02:11:34):
This action that they're doing now where it's a it's
a pick and roll at the top, whether it be
left side, right side with Jalen Green, then Shingoon starts
rolling to the basket, Jalen Green pops it to Alprin
Shinggoon and then a Men Thompson comes on a basket cut.

Speaker 1 (02:11:49):
They do that three four times a game and it's
just an.

Speaker 2 (02:11:51):
Easy, uh, it's an easy one percent fueld goal rate
type of shot from a Men Thompson or I mean,
how many times have we seen it where it's an
air shots and it's even an airball and it's oh, hey,
look there's number one.

Speaker 1 (02:12:03):
He's right there, he's everywhere.

Speaker 2 (02:12:05):
It's like you know how they said, like a like
a Dennis Rodman would go and practice and shag balls
basically off the shots of he would learn how Michael
Jordan and Scottie Pippen and whoever else where their missus
were going.

Speaker 1 (02:12:20):
It's like he knows where the ball is going.

Speaker 2 (02:12:22):
When that one of the craziest parts of the last
dance where he was if a shot hits off the
right part of the room, it's going to bounce this way.
If it's this way, I was just like, good God,
that is just awareness that I don't think any of
us can comprehend. But no, I mean, he just he
He was that guy off the bench for you. You
loved what he gave you from that and especially too,

(02:12:42):
once Jabari got hurt, it precipitated the need for him
to be on the starting floor and you're like, all right,
let's see what this guy has. And it's been a
starting five that I think has given more confidence. It's
not I think I know, especially too, when you see
the way that Jalen Green is playing since he's been out.
That's freed up Jalen Green. Yea, John Green's now a
guy that says I can shoot this basketball, I can

(02:13:03):
make this shot. Yeah, And there was you know, people
have been saying that, you know, Jalen a Men Thompson
unlocks Jalen Green, and that was like, at first, my
first blush reaction was like, I mean, I guess I
don't know exactly how that makes sense because the way
that the two of them, they're not necessarily running, picking
rolls together, stuff like that. But where it is, it's

(02:13:24):
it is those actions where men Thompson is everywhere, but
then it's on the defensive side where normally Dylan Brooks
takes on the other team's best player, and then it
would be onto Jalen Green. From there, now Jalen Green's
further down in the pecking order to where it is
a Men Thompson. That sometimes even depending on you know,
if it's a fast wing if in the case of
John Morant, john Morant first of all too quick for anybody,

(02:13:47):
but certainly too quick for Dylan Brooks, they put him
in Thompson on John Moran, then they put they put
Dylan Brooks on Jaron Jackson Junior, whoever else as far
as a threat, and then that does free up Jalen
Green to where he's been a really good perimeter defender
this season, but he doesn't have to sap energy on
that side, and a forty minute game, energy is finite,

(02:14:08):
and some guys have more than others, of course, you know,
like Michael Jordan in the fourth quarter. It was Jordan
winning time and all that time Kobe bryantcter. But everybody
reaches a point to where they're not going to be
as effective, and Jalen Green is saving that energy thanks
to him and Thompson and to Dylan Brooks, who was
already ahead of him in the pecking order that way
to where he can be more effective for longer in

(02:14:29):
games offensively for the team. You're seeing in the last
six games now seven with last night, and of course
he went above this number. He has scored no less
than twenty two points in those games. He's averaging thirty
point six over that stretch. The Rockets are six and
one in that stretch. That's pretty good. I mean, you
want to talk about what the key is for the offense,
it's as simple as possible. And that's the frustration that

(02:14:50):
people had for the longest time with Jalen Green. Of man,
we need more out of you. I mean, people are
getting so upset with Fred van Vliet, and I'll give
a shout out to Jackson Gatlin, who brought this up
on his podcast not too long ago, where he said,
stop getting mad at Fred.

Speaker 1 (02:15:05):
Fred.

Speaker 2 (02:15:06):
You're asking Fred to do things that he's not supposed
to do. He's not supposed to be counted on four
key shots, crucial shots late in games. That's not why
you brought him here. You're getting mad at the wrong guy. Yeah, yeah, Fred,
it's a lot. Fred offensive output has been lower, you're
asking less of him. Three point shooting has been coming

(02:15:27):
along a little bit in the last several games to
where hopefully he can get somewhere closer to where he
has been in his career. A thirty seven percent career shooter,
now up to close to thirty five percent. So he
started making the threes. It's taking the pressure off him.
He's getting open looks as Jalen Green is creating those.
I think we haven't even mentioned Alprinching going. He's been
very good. We know what he's been capable of doing

(02:15:48):
as well. He had twenty points last night. So you
add it all up, Like and I mentioned this earlier.
If I'm building a team from scratch, I want an
effective big man who can score and pass you have
that an outprnching goon. You want a dynamic wing with
who can shoot threes and right now Jalen Green is
making threes and who can get to the basket the

(02:16:09):
way he is. You would like somebody like him in Thompson,
a Swiss army knife do everything kind of guy, and
then some veteran, a veteran ball handle like Fred van Vliet,
and then a veteran wing defender like Dylan Brooks. This
is starting five right now is like about the way
you would construct an NBA team. That's why when Dylan
Brooks had the line, it was a nice line of
one night it's you, one night it's me, but it's

(02:16:31):
always all of us. I said, that's cute, that's nice,
that's really great on T shirts. It's not going to
propel you to where you want to be, and where
this team wants to be is to be a top
seed in the Western Conference, get into the Western Conference playoffs,
and go as far as they can possibly go in
the Western Conference playoffs. This team plays the way that
they have right now, and you heard email Udoka talk

(02:16:53):
about it the other night that they still feel like
they can get a ton better. You're what fifteen games
above five hundred right now? Yeah, and you still feel
like you can get better. That's exciting to think about
what's coming the way, coming our way in March and
April when when you do get into playoff playoff positioning, Yeah,
and things I often look at like point differential, net rating,

(02:17:14):
stuff like that. Like I said, by those metrics, the
Lakers are a fraud and they continue to tumble down
the standings as I as I've been telling you guys
for a couple of weeks. By those types of metrics,
Rockets are a top five, top six team in basketball.

Speaker 1 (02:17:26):
So it is real.

Speaker 2 (02:17:28):
It is here, and it's a little ahead of schedule.
But it's fun too, and it's and it's also you're
taking care of the business you need to take care of.
I mean, you've already won the season series against Memphis.

Speaker 1 (02:17:39):
That's huge.

Speaker 2 (02:17:40):
Uh, you'll get them one more time. I think in
about a couple of weeks, and then you still got
Denver a couple of more times. But Dallas is banged up.
You can try to tell me that Kyrie will be back,
but you start having disc issues in your back.

Speaker 1 (02:17:54):
It's not good.

Speaker 2 (02:17:55):
I mean, that's that's much more than just a week
or two, Like that's a prolonged all throughout the season.

Speaker 1 (02:18:01):
He's on, he's off. Type of a scenario. Same deal
with Luca.

Speaker 2 (02:18:04):
I mean, a couple of weeks ago, you get a
video of Luca riding off the floor on one of
those scooters.

Speaker 1 (02:18:10):
Does that look like a guy? Strain?

Speaker 2 (02:18:11):
Does that look like a guy it's gonna be back
anytime soon? And a guy who likes to let himself
go and get out of shape. When he even comes back,
how well his shape is he going to be in?
That's another question? So be hell on the referee. Oh god, yeah,
that guy's never committed a foul.

Speaker 1 (02:18:25):
Just ask him. He's the worst. He's the worst.

Speaker 2 (02:18:28):
It really takes away from his dynamic, fun fun to watch,
so far to the point that Brian when Orst even
said the team talk to him and said, stop complaining to.

Speaker 1 (02:18:38):
The Referee's not making an ass out of yourself. It's done, man,
shop doing it? Get over it? To get this man
in therapy or something. All right, Time for a quick.

Speaker 2 (02:18:44):
Break here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross without
Matt Thomas, Dan Matthews is here. We got I just
don't get it. Something that's puzzling you. You can't figure
out why that's going on. We'll do that at one
point thirty. We can also get you in on anything
you want to talk about. We've been talking some Texans.
We did have a Texans call on hold. We can
definitely talk anything you guys want to get to at
seven one three two, one two five seven ninety seven

(02:19:07):
one three, two, one two five seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (02:19:11):
Matt Thomas, Ross viial It's the Matt Thomas Show with
Ross Hi Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:19:30):
What nights data the pup here on Sports Talk seven
Holy like sounds like we're all the alternative rock show.
I was gonna say before before you hit the rest
right there, and it was a guy who used to
work with that. We would, uh, everybody's working for the weekend.
It was kind of like our Friday work whistle. I
got you and he would act like.

Speaker 1 (02:19:52):
Eighties nineties cheesy rock DJ and uh, you know, get
you set up for it, and then right before it
hit everybody is working for the week Are we gonna
a Friday prank coming up? At one thirty? Here? You
not got a bit what I'll miss this one? Here,
you're gonna here's some Fleetwood. Mac.

Speaker 2 (02:20:08):
We're gonna have Bozo call in from the car lot,
all right, Dan Matthews here.

Speaker 1 (02:20:14):
Ross Villarrialo with you as well. Connor with the.

Speaker 2 (02:20:17):
Titans that paved the way for us. Connor McGovern. Yeah,
we appreciate all of you all. You know, we stand
on the shoulders of giants. That's it, damn man, that's it.
I mean, hey, it's it's the guys that took the
chances before us. And here we are, bingo, here we
are Sports Radio Fix. Appreciate you folks listening to us,
with you until two o'clock.

Speaker 1 (02:20:36):
In the next segment we have I just don't get it.
You can get in as well.

Speaker 2 (02:20:40):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven
one three two one two five seven ninety I am
like hurriedly trying to just look around our good friend
Adam j wexer uh talking about what the Texans have
on at practice. I see Nico Collins there, that is good,
says he did not currently see Joe Mixon at The

(02:21:01):
open to media part was listed as limited yesterday, but
as wex says, we should, we should see Joe Mixon there. Yeah,
it's there's zero reasonable that he doesn't play in this game,
and we haven't had any reason to think that he
won't play in this game. I mean a lot of
times it could just be getting a little extra treatment.
He is listed on the injury report with an ankle,

(02:21:22):
so that could be a part of it. There's also gamesmanship.
I mean, you're to the time, You're to the time
of the year where paranoia even hops up another level.
I mean, not so much to the level where, say,
there was a former head coach who wanted the top
level of a hotel nearby the practice field bought out
because he didn't want somebody to possibly be able to

(02:21:42):
see into their practice.

Speaker 12 (02:21:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:21:44):
I mean, you know, it's not like anybody would ever
do that.

Speaker 2 (02:21:48):
You know, but I mean you still want there to
be I mean, the Chiefs did it with the Texans
with Patrick Mahomes when it was you know, hey, is
he gonna play? I think I think I'll be out there.
Well yeah, that'll be yeah, Well of course he'll be
out now.

Speaker 1 (02:22:02):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:22:03):
One of the things we had Dan Orlowski on earlier.
I meant to talk to him about that, about the
rest versus Russ argument. Twenty four days off for the
Houston Texans. We'll get to that in a second, but
did want to run through at least yesterday's practice. Support
haven't seen today's. But he's as he's out here. You're limited,
as was Denico Autry, Shack Mason and Joe Mixon, Dalton
Schultz and Juice Scrugs. Latest we heard is that Shaq

(02:22:25):
Mason will be inserted back into the lawn into the
starting lineup at right guard. What does that mean about
the configuration around him remains to be seen. I've given
my displeasure about making that move because I mean, you've
had two games and you've been able to run the
football pretty well with the group of five that you have. Now,
has everybody been great? No, but it they've been better.

(02:22:45):
Absolutely they have. And at this point you give me
C minus work CEA passes the class. There are times
out there where you were running a group of five
out on the field that was given you FS brother
get yeah there, you had to retake that class. In
certain cases you couldn't retake that Q drop back in

(02:23:06):
the day. Yeah, exactly. You know, I still have dreams,
by the way that like I haven't shown up to
a class all semester that I had no idea that
I was enrolled in really, and the professor tells me
to my face, no, I Q dropped you. Oh dqued you.
And I'm just like, ah, what, I'm sorry, so pissed.
I'm sorry that you have to live and why how
does that make you feel? Damn, It's it's fine because

(02:23:26):
then I look on my wall and I see the
diploma and I'm like, Okay, you're all good.

Speaker 1 (02:23:31):
I mean, but that was the offensive line.

Speaker 2 (02:23:33):
I mean, they're they're having those dreams times after some
of the but twenty four days off for the Chiefs,
I imagine this is why I say I don't think
there's going to be much of a rust factor. Even
if the chief did all play all their starters, they
were still going to have the bye week. You always
want the buy week for everyone arrest, certainly for Pat Mahomes,

(02:23:54):
whose ankle had been bothering him towards the end of
the season. And if it were a bad idea, I
just boil it down to this. For a bad idea,
Andy Ree wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (02:24:01):
Have done it.

Speaker 2 (02:24:02):
It's also having trust in his team, the ultimate trust
last year of the regular season by their standards was ohum,
and you're thinking yourself, well, there's no way they're gonna
go out to Buffalo and win.

Speaker 1 (02:24:13):
Then they did.

Speaker 2 (02:24:15):
There's definitely no way they're gonna go to Baltimore and
win and the same result and the following a couple
of weeks later in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (02:24:22):
So I think that that's something that they kind of
bank on.

Speaker 2 (02:24:26):
I mean, this has been a team that if you
can say a football team has slept walk through a
fifteen and two season, they kind of have.

Speaker 1 (02:24:33):
That's crazy. And that's how good they are.

Speaker 2 (02:24:35):
They're the number one seed, they were fifteen and one
in games that they actually tried in with the Wallne
loss coming on the road to the Buffalo Bills, and
I mean, back to back Super Bowl champions.

Speaker 1 (02:24:48):
And I'm feeling pretty confident that the Texan's gonna mean
to make this close into the fourth quarter. Like Danie
Rolowski said, I'm feeling confident because I feel like this
is a Texans team who finally just I mean, either
it was said or it was just understood enough, like enough.
I understand there's been injuries.

Speaker 2 (02:25:05):
I understand that there's been suspensions and everything else that
have kind of cut into the depth of.

Speaker 1 (02:25:11):
This team this year.

Speaker 2 (02:25:12):
But I mean, people were talking Super Bowl with us,
and we look like a team that doesn't even doesn't
even outside of playing in an awful division, deserve to
be here.

Speaker 1 (02:25:21):
And in the second half, I saw that team.

Speaker 2 (02:25:23):
I saw that team that had enough of hearing just
how underperforming they were all all season. And now I
kind of hope that that's kind of carried into this
week where they're like, that's the team that we're supposed
to be. It's get ready, Connor, It's it's it's Mike
Lowry and Mike Lowry. Yeah, it's Mike Lowry. And I

(02:25:43):
can't remember Martin Lawrence's character's name. Remember with Bad Bad Boys,
which bad bad Boys for life? Bad Boys won, Bad
Boys won the OG? Yeah, driving on the airport tarmac.
From now on, that's how you drive.

Speaker 1 (02:25:55):
That's how you drive. That's how you're supposed to drive.

Speaker 7 (02:25:58):
That.

Speaker 2 (02:25:58):
You know, there was somebody that was Mike lower in
the decker room after that Texans game and said, from
now on, that's how you play. Yeah, when you when
when you play, that's how you play. It's funny because
you know, we're always week to week in the NFL,
Like if we were coming into this game somehow and
we could teleport that thirty one to two game, we'd
be like, Texans are going to get crushed by fifty.

Speaker 1 (02:26:19):
In this game. But you had, I mean, all three
phases were really good.

Speaker 2 (02:26:24):
And we've been talking about the offense and the offensive line,
but the way that the backbone of that victory was
the defense was the four turnovers forced at the hands
of Justin Herbert and really locking up that Chargers offense
that had been i mean through the air and on
the ground doing very well.

Speaker 1 (02:26:40):
Towards the end of the season.

Speaker 2 (02:26:41):
See people can't see me right now, but I'm I'm
doing like kind of like the grabbing. Okay, the straws,
that's what you have.

Speaker 1 (02:26:49):
That's what you know.

Speaker 10 (02:26:50):
No, no, not doing that.

Speaker 2 (02:26:52):
What you have to look out for in this game
against Kansas City is this is prime defensive holding territory.
Don't get angry, it's going to happen. You're going to
have a defensive back for the Texans that's gonna get
flagged for defensive holding because of what Patrick Mahomes does
and if he doesn't have that quick out that he's
able to throw immediately. Then he's gonna start running around. Yeah,

(02:27:14):
he's gonna be elusive. He's gonna be all those things grambling,
and you're gonna think to yourself, yeah, hey, we just
got him for a ten yard loss. And now say
Martin's gonna get on the microphone and say number twenty
three defensive holding, Like that's going to happen in this game.

Speaker 1 (02:27:27):
We gotta get Eric Murray like that. Eric Murray was
a hero last week.

Speaker 2 (02:27:31):
I mean, look, it's not a Texans Wildcard game at
NRG Stadium unless somebody returns a pick six.

Speaker 1 (02:27:37):
He carried on the tradition. Good for him, Yeah, we
do appreciate him for that.

Speaker 2 (02:27:40):
In the last game Texans played at Arrowhead twenty seven
to nineteen, Texans lost Patrick Mahomes two hundred and sixty yards, touchdown,
no picks, and the run game was really going with
Kareem Hunt. He had eleven carries for fifty five yards
and then Pat Mahomes himself scrambling around for thirty three
yards one hundred and twenty four yards rushing on twenty

(02:28:02):
eight carries. That run game was going pretty well for
Kansas City in that game. Yeah, the run game was
working for them, and that's eventually what ended up allowing
them to salt it away. And your run game was
not Your run game was even without Chris Jones out
there was pretty ninety seven yards. I mean mixing that
ain't gonna get it. No, it's not that ain't gonna
get it done against the Cincinnati Bengals, who are not

(02:28:24):
even in the playoffs, and that defense is terrible. But
I mean that's something that this week again, it gets
back to the conversation we had about Shaq Mason. You
ran the football last week. You ran the football against
a hapless Titans team with that group on the field.
Why are we switching this thing up? Why are you
overthinking it? It's not broken, don't fix it. It's kind

(02:28:45):
of like, you know the pitcher in baseball, all his mechanics,
he's gonna have problems. Well, he's still striking people out.
He's still getting people out, and once he stops doing that,
then you can.

Speaker 1 (02:28:55):
Go ahead and be the doctor in the laboratory with him.
But until then, leave them the hell alone.

Speaker 2 (02:29:00):
I'm just gonna trust them. I'm gonna say they know
more about Shack Mason in this offensive line than I do.
And however they're gonna configure it. I certainly am wary
with you. I share the same like concern, especially going
on the road. I want some continuity, I want good communication.
But if they're in their mind Shack Mason is the
best option. He that's what they're gonna go with. And

(02:29:20):
we'll see what happens this weekend at Arrowhead Stadium. Might
not even matter the way things could go with them
eight point dogs in this one. All right, quick break
here on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Is there
something in your mind that you do not understand? And
you're like, what is going on with this? I just
don't get it. We're gonna talk about it in the
next segment. You want to get in you can't seven
one three two one two five seven ninety. What don't

(02:29:44):
you get seven one three two one two five seven ninety.
That's coming up next here on The Matt Thomas Show.

Speaker 1 (02:29:50):
With Ross, lunchtimers.

Speaker 9 (02:29:52):
Lunch timers, It's The Matt Thomas Show Show with Ross
on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 16 (02:30:05):
Do you have something in your life that you just
don't get? No need to worry, no need to press.
We will discuss the something. Just see if we comprehend
the things that they can use our friends, it's time
to say I just don't get it.

Speaker 1 (02:30:27):
Is there something you just do not understand?

Speaker 2 (02:30:31):
Like why is Matt Thomas taking off half the month
of January already using all his vacation days.

Speaker 1 (02:30:36):
I don't get it.

Speaker 2 (02:30:37):
Seven one three two one two five seven ninety is
the phone number seven one three two one to two
five seven ninety. Dan Matthews filling in here for Matt
Thomas on The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. So Dan,
we will give you the floor if you would like
here in this segment. Yeah, it's a two for one commercials.
I mean, you know, we see him as we're watching

(02:30:59):
the playoff games. Number one, Suppose there is a burrito
place that is of the fast food variety and no
names for the sake of protecting the innocent. I don't
care if your ingredients are fresh. I don't care what
goes into making the burritos. Your burritos are mid at best.
I am sick and tired of said burrito companies commercials.

Speaker 1 (02:31:19):
Oh so nothing is frozen. I don't care.

Speaker 2 (02:31:23):
You get a fresh bachelorhosteria with their with every burrito
allegedly there are so many other options here in the
city of Houston that you could go with. Well, I
didn't any names. It's gonna be not could be talking
about any of them. But I mean, it's just certain commercials.
And then let's just say for part two of this,
there is a certain insurance company that has a commercial

(02:31:44):
with maybe a quarterback that Texans are going to see
this week and the guy, the guy from ted Lasso
of their bubbling football in football. Dude, a commercial sucks.
I seriously want to rip my tea. Doesn't make any
sense either, Like as soon as I hear, hey, we've
combined it, and then he starts I'm going I'm going

(02:32:07):
to take I'm going to take my soundbar and like
a baseball match, you don't do that. Uh did you
watch you're telling us off the character. The character is great,
The show is great. I just kind of feel like
it was people who made you feel obligated to like
the show. Oh, it's such a good show. I'm like, okay,

(02:32:29):
it's it's a cute, nice show, and it's got you know, yeah,
it's it's it's got, it's got good lessons in it,
well written and who who would have ever thought that,
you know, there'd be even parts of it that you
start to tear up through it, like you know, I mean,
I don't think this is gonna be a spoiler, because
it's like when Ted Lasso gets shot and killed on

(02:32:49):
the pitch, well, when his wife leaves him.

Speaker 1 (02:32:52):
Oh hey, come on, man, that that one got me.

Speaker 2 (02:32:55):
I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He doesn't get shot and killed
on the pitch. It was Thomas was spoiling shows the
other week.

Speaker 1 (02:33:01):
It was him.

Speaker 2 (02:33:02):
I almost did it to Ari Alexander the other day
because we're both huge fans of Landman. So you say,
my way of broaching the topic is did you watch it?
And then of course if they said no, that, I'm like, okay, yeah,
then you can move along. Dan, all right, I'm with
you on that. I think you know what And I
wasn't even gonna bring this up, but there's a certain

(02:33:23):
mattress company where they're commercials. It's like some guy acting
like a douchebag. He leaves sweat all over the equipment.
Oh yeah, and then the other guys like double dip
and chips and stuff, and they're like, oh, I buy
a mattress from this place. So you're just saying, douchebags
buy your mattresses?

Speaker 15 (02:33:40):
Is this?

Speaker 2 (02:33:40):
What is this how you're trying to sell us to
get your mattress. I don't think it's necessarily the wholesaler.
I think it's the type of mattress that they say
they sleep on.

Speaker 1 (02:33:48):
Yeah, agains.

Speaker 2 (02:33:48):
Then they tie it into the said company of saying, hey,
we sell those. I'm a terrible person. I don't wipe
down my equipment and I double dip community chips. You
should shop where I shop. No, he doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 1 (02:33:59):
I don't get it.

Speaker 2 (02:34:00):
You drive sixty miles an hour in the far left lane. Hey,
how do you sleep at night?

Speaker 1 (02:34:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 6 (02:34:04):
On this?

Speaker 1 (02:34:05):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:34:05):
Well, I just don't get it. I want to be
like that person, So I'm not gonna shop at your mattress.
Se I would feel like that you hit the target
a lot better if you just had oblivious people, because
we've got countless of them they walk among us, that
you could have that as opposed to and I guess
in a way with the sweaty guy at the gym,
that is being oblivious, because I think you have to

(02:34:26):
know what your perspiration is and you bring along the
proper cleaning materials are selfish by your mattress where I
buy my mattresses? All right, sorry, let's see Connor McGovern.
Is there anything that you don't get? Sometimes either before
after work, I go down to the gym. Oh speaking
of do you wipe down the equipment afterwards?

Speaker 14 (02:34:49):
They have wipes there? So are you a heavy sweater?
Actually I kind of am, so I think you need
to do it.

Speaker 1 (02:34:54):
Okay, but you get like seven wipes before before the
bad boys clean. I'm just gonna go.

Speaker 14 (02:35:00):
No, usually just one, it's fine, but well, yesterday, actually
yesterday I went down there. I was I used a
bench and then I wiped it down right after. And
the guy's like, oh, can I use that? I'm like,
I just was like super wet. I just wiped it down,
he insisted. So I'm like, okay, that's very nice of you.
Though it was just like let you you want to
let it drive first? Maybe he likes your scent?

Speaker 1 (02:35:21):
Oh well I missed your musk after this? Is that
your right? Just don't get it. We need to get
in an apartment together. That's aside. We need a dig.
We need more digs. Why don't you set this one out, Champ?
There's not enough time, it's okay, go ahead.

Speaker 7 (02:35:39):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (02:35:39):
Yeah, right.

Speaker 14 (02:35:40):
So I was down there the other day and it's
not a very big gym. In the morning, there's nobody there,
but in the afternoon there's some people, and there was
a there was a woman down there and she was
she had her phone on a tripod and was like
filming herself working out, and I just kind.

Speaker 1 (02:35:54):
Of didn't you serious.

Speaker 14 (02:35:55):
I didn't get that the work gym, I'm out here,
it's not even that big of a place for twenty
four hour plan of fitness.

Speaker 2 (02:36:02):
Don't be using the free work gym to be filing yourself.
That's horrible. Yeah, I don't get that at all. I'm like,
I don't care whether you're an influencer or not. I
don't want to be in the background of your video.
And also like, hurry up, I want to use that
a question. You should go in the background while she's
in the mid set and start scratching yourself.

Speaker 1 (02:36:16):
That's what you need to do. Just ruin every one
of her shots. That's ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (02:36:19):
See, I mean, you guys know the rules of social media, though,
I mean, there's two things that if you don't post
that you did it, you didn't really do it is
voting and working out. I mean, I want to say,
there's what's one of the ground rules of this work
gym is there's no filming. I would think so, but
it's also too I know, I want justice off the sheet.

(02:36:40):
Let's unpack this just a tad Did she look like that?
She was trying to focus on form and everything else.
That's what I was like, are you just checking your form?
But it was definitely like pointing, like there was definitely
I was in the background of a car, so it
was on an instant story of here, I'm getting that work,
I'm getting this daily bread.

Speaker 1 (02:36:59):
She's a part time influencer.

Speaker 2 (02:37:00):
You should buy a fart machine and then you play
it as loudly as possible in the meat in the
middle of her shooting. There are some gems that have
cracked down on that, like it has gotten to a
point where there's enough complaints where they're like, if we
see you trying to be TikTok famous in here, we
will not allow it. I'm gonna buy you a shirt
and to say I do not consent to be in
your video, and then you can just stand in the
back and with that on.

Speaker 1 (02:37:22):
It's ridiculous to keep me updated. I thank you, but
that's out of control.

Speaker 2 (02:37:26):
Be like those people in the old Jackass videos that
would get angry because they're being filmed and they're like,
don't film me.

Speaker 1 (02:37:32):
I'm good, I'm glad Matt Thomas isn't here. He would
have asked you six questions about how she looked.

Speaker 2 (02:37:36):
All right, let's keep it going on the phone lines,
Paul in myreland, go ahead.

Speaker 1 (02:37:41):
What don't you get?

Speaker 15 (02:37:43):
Well?

Speaker 18 (02:37:43):
First, I want to apologize for Rickroll and Dan the
other night.

Speaker 7 (02:37:46):
He did it.

Speaker 1 (02:37:47):
Okay, I'm sorry I had and I wonder it was
well played.

Speaker 2 (02:37:51):
I I appreciate it, just I just you know, I
was like, I just don't know if I want the
door open for possible pranks down the road.

Speaker 1 (02:37:57):
Has that you know? Has that beenroach? But no, you're good.

Speaker 18 (02:38:02):
All right, look good, Matt, I mean Ross, you look
really good, like the most interesting man in the world
in your little iHeart Radio.

Speaker 1 (02:38:08):
Video the other day. Thank you. I appreciate that very well.
That was amazing.

Speaker 4 (02:38:13):
Uh.

Speaker 18 (02:38:13):
Now what I don't get I've got what they call
a high efficiency washing machine.

Speaker 1 (02:38:18):
Now, yes, and you have to buy that high efficiency
detergent correct.

Speaker 18 (02:38:22):
You buy the high efficiency detergent and you have to
buy a cleaning solution for it where you're supposed to
clean it every three or four months. Why would you
have to clean a washing machine. It's sole purpose in
life is to clean your clothes. Why do you have
to clean your washing machine? And if you don't do it,
you know what happens? What it's stinks?

Speaker 2 (02:38:40):
Yes, it does, really, Yeah, Like they have like do
you put vinegar in there? How do you clean it out?

Speaker 1 (02:38:45):
There's like these little got a special solution and you
get at the store. Oh, you got to buy that too.
That all sounds like a scam, Paul.

Speaker 2 (02:38:51):
You can also buy like they're almost like dish washing pods,
but they also look like like a toilet cake.

Speaker 1 (02:38:58):
Okay, and you throw it in there it cleans your washer.

Speaker 2 (02:39:01):
No, that's that's why they tell you, Paul, to leave
the door open and to wipe down the door so
then you know the water drying up does not start
to stink, which, by the way, speaking of that, appreciates
call Paul. Speaking of that, there is a certain host
who's part of the show who represents a company that

(02:39:22):
takes care of said appliances. Okay, And I asked, said host, Hey,
one of the things you just talked about in your
live read, how much they.

Speaker 1 (02:39:29):
Charge for that? I never got a response. Man, that's rude.
That's rude. I don't get it. All I get it.

Speaker 2 (02:39:35):
Matt Thomas is rude and is it's a bad I'm
not looking for freebies. I'm looking to pay. But just
how about a response of hey.

Speaker 1 (02:39:43):
They charged this much?

Speaker 2 (02:39:45):
You know what, I'll do very busy because you're such
a swell guy, I'll give him a call. Let me
know what day works for you. Maybe maybe he's very busy.
He is very busy, just sitting around town and around
the country as eating seventy dollars breakfast.

Speaker 1 (02:39:56):
I do get that as well.

Speaker 2 (02:39:58):
All right to respond, Time for a quick break Here
on the man, I'm gonna let you take that up
with him. It is the Matt Thomas Show with Ross
without Matt Thomas. Dan Matthews is here, Connor McGovern is
here as well. We're gonna take a quick break final
segment of the show ahead of the A team is
coming up next.

Speaker 9 (02:40:14):
Listen to Matt Thomas Anywhere with our free iHeartRadio app
Number one for music radio and podcasts all in one,
you know, like Matt Thomas, Sports Nut, Cheese Ball and
Hotel Snob all in one.

Speaker 1 (02:40:42):
Welcome back to.

Speaker 2 (02:40:44):
The Matt Thomas Show with Ross. I waited to the
last segment to ruin my vocal cords, so glad to
do that. Here final segment of the program. Matt Thomas
not here. He is jet setting with the Houston Rockets.
He'll be back on air tomorrow. See people who listened
to the music that we just heard right there, they're
they're not doing Maari's They're they're they're not series like

(02:41:06):
mirror selfies. I just combined the two eeries. Wow, you
know you see him at the gym. I mean my
favorite two are the ones who they don't turn their
flash off and it's just like, okay, like I can
see legs, I can see that there is a person there,
but maybe turn the flash off before you take a
picture of yourself in the mirror.

Speaker 1 (02:41:26):
M Okay, you know what. I you know what I
also don't like. I don't like when this happened to me.

Speaker 2 (02:41:31):
I was at a local music venue and somebody was Okay,
it's bad enough when you put the flash on to
take a video of the stage.

Speaker 1 (02:41:41):
Yeah, but then they were they were taking a video.

Speaker 2 (02:41:44):
Of the crowd and flashing the love flash in everyone's eyes.
I gave this now, of course, as a lady that
was probably over fifty years old. I gave her the
like ah like I was like she was blinding me.
I definitely over exaggerated my face and I covered my eyes.
I was like, oh, you've had a few drinks. You've
had a few drinks. The eyes are sensitive at that point.

Speaker 1 (02:42:03):
There's reason two would be to ambers at the time.

Speaker 2 (02:42:05):
There's a reason why you're all standing, you know, or
at least that the venue itself is dark on the
crowd and the lights are on the performers. Yeah, all
got to stop with this is too much with the
do not put your flash on. Most cameras these days
are pretty good in low light. We don't, we don't.
Nobody wants First of all, Number one, nobody wants to

(02:42:25):
watch your two and a half minute concert video.

Speaker 1 (02:42:28):
Anyways.

Speaker 2 (02:42:29):
It's like take ten seconds, max, show it. They're maybe
they're playing your friend's privates favorite song. I guarantee you
the person you're sending that video to is not watching
the entire link of that video. We don't need it,
and we certainly don't need people who are trying to
enjoy the show getting flash in their eyes. I would
say that the loud singers are that way too, because

(02:42:51):
another concert pet peeve of mine is the person next
to you who is singing incredibly loud.

Speaker 4 (02:42:55):
Oh.

Speaker 1 (02:42:55):
I like that though. That brings the energy depending on
the song and where you are.

Speaker 2 (02:43:00):
If I'm paying more attention to you than I am
to the performer, then it's a problem.

Speaker 1 (02:43:04):
If the whole crowd's getting into it. That's why you
go to a concert.

Speaker 2 (02:43:07):
Well, and here's another reason at a concert that you
you're not at a concert for this is the performer
who does this.

Speaker 1 (02:43:14):
Oh, they let you sing the whole time.

Speaker 2 (02:43:15):
They're like, yeah, you could tell, especially like when some
of these old performers get into their like seventies and eighties,
they're like, yeah, I'm gonna sing half the song.

Speaker 1 (02:43:23):
You guys can do the rest. We'll go We'll get
it from me. You gotta come serve energy like Connor,
And it backed me up on this. If I'm wrong.
I heard justin Timberlake did that the whole show. That's
why people. Well, Connor actually did mention that this show
was pretty mid Like, dude, we came to see you dance.

Speaker 2 (02:43:40):
We came to see you perform dance Timberlake, you don't
you don't want to hear us singing sexy back.

Speaker 14 (02:43:45):
We want to hear you singing sexy back. I actually
didn't notice it, really, I wasn't. I didn't have the
best season. I was kind of out there, and you're
pretty hammered. Wow, No, I'm not kidding up, pretty aver, big, big,
big lush. This guy just kidding. I think I don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:44:01):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:44:02):
I don't know Connor personal life like that. He's responded, Okay,
so it wasn't that. Yeah, when they have you sing
the half the song, I got you. I mean it
can be fun whenever, like once or twice when the
when a whole arena is singing a song. I think
that's one of the cool reasons to go go to
a concert. Otherwise it's like you're at a crowd. The

(02:44:22):
music the concert is super expensive, the food and the
drink is super expensive. It's like, what are we here for?
You're here for the collective energy. It's the tail off
from a song. I can allow for it. Like at
the end of Welcome Home for Cohat and Cambria. I
don't know the entire crowd when I eat now Cohed
and Cambrio, Bless you, they're they're a rock band. Okay, Yeah,

(02:44:43):
like Elliott and the crew over there at ninety four
to five, they know Coheed and Cambrio.

Speaker 1 (02:44:47):
The guy is a really large guy.

Speaker 2 (02:44:48):
That has like a huge like it's not even an afro,
but it's like massive hair where he almost looks like
a sideshow bob okay, and he and his voice is
as high pitched as you can possibly imagine. Yeah, but
but uh, there's a song called Welcome Home and at
the end of it, it's the background vocals doing ah.

Speaker 1 (02:45:08):
And the entire crowd was doing it, and I was like,
that's pretty cool. I'm down with that. I'll take your
word for it, dame.

Speaker 2 (02:45:13):
But like you know, it's it's the singing at shows, Okay,
come on, man, I I went to go see. I
don't know Papa Roach. I want to hear Jacoby sing.
I don't want to hear you sing. I don't care
what you have. Hey, you know I mentioned this on
air before. I'm not a big Papa Roach fan. That
dude what's his name, Jacoby? Jacoby put on a good show.
That guy's got stage presence. He's gonna be good stuff

(02:45:34):
from Papa Roach. That was free tickets. I got the
Buzzfest from work, so you know it is what buzzfest?

Speaker 1 (02:45:40):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (02:45:40):
Them and Bush and yes either yes either Yeah yeah.
Bush kind of mailed it in, dude, Yeah he did.
He did, like the run around the arena.

Speaker 1 (02:45:50):
Yeah, well he did the yeah good take a shirt off.

Speaker 2 (02:45:55):
He knew what he was doing. Yeah, of course, I
mean he he knew that. And I'll see you at
the Marriott on the Waterway after he's separated from from Gwyn.
Gwen's now with Blake Shelton. Oh really, So, I mean,
you know he's he's got to put himself out there
absolutely good for Yeah, he's I'm sure he's still pulling this. Dude,
if you're a rock star fans, if you're a rock

(02:46:16):
star and you're not, the problem is you, it's not
the other way around.

Speaker 1 (02:46:19):
That's true. That's true. All right, Well, what were we
supposed to talk about?

Speaker 16 (02:46:23):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (02:46:23):
One last thing I almost put on. I wanted to
put on. I just don't get it, but I forgot.

Speaker 2 (02:46:27):
Why is Edward reporting that Dion Sanders would accept the
Jerry the Now Actually, okay, I get why Dion Sanders
would accept the Cowboys job.

Speaker 1 (02:46:36):
I mean it's an NFL job. It would pay him
a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (02:46:40):
Why would the Cowboys go from Mike McCarthy to Dion
Sanders as their head coach?

Speaker 1 (02:46:44):
I don't get that.

Speaker 2 (02:46:47):
Because Jerry the Marketer as a guest marketing the week
that the Texans played against the Cowboys. His line was,
Jerry the Marketer will went out over Jerry the football man.

Speaker 1 (02:46:58):
And that's what it is. It's your bringing back Camelot.

Speaker 2 (02:47:00):
And then watch he's gonna try to bring back I
don't know, Darren Woodson or somebody. Yeah, and and you
know Jason Witten will be the tight ends.

Speaker 1 (02:47:07):
What's Mush Johnson up to.

Speaker 2 (02:47:09):
He's still on Fox Bingo, you could possibly bring him
back to Toroy Aikman offensive coordinator.

Speaker 8 (02:47:14):
I like this.

Speaker 2 (02:47:14):
Actually, bad organizations find a way to remain bad.

Speaker 1 (02:47:18):
Oh Man.

Speaker 2 (02:47:19):
The roster was finally pretty good for a couple of years,
and they had some injury, some bad injury luck, and
then they just got waxed by Green Bay in the
and the wildcard. It's the old thing even bad bartenders
do well during spring break.

Speaker 1 (02:47:32):
Wow, I've never heard that one. Yeah, I'll take are
Garret Winston actually had that line.

Speaker 2 (02:47:36):
Oh really, and I was like, that's pretty good, Eric,
I'm want to steal that with proper attribution, which I
just gave you. I'll take a refreshing Mehito. All right,
we're gonna take a well, now I'm gonna take a break.
We're gonna end the show here on a Sports Talk
seven night. Dan, thanks for hanging out, dude, it's the best.

Speaker 1 (02:47:50):
Appreciate it. Thanks for getting Thanks for a forgetting that.
Booking like a mudda as one that Matt Thomas would
say with Dan or LOSSI get him on the show.
That was good stuff as well. You get that with
Thomas or condescension for four straight hours.

Speaker 2 (02:48:04):
Well, and he's a swell fella sometimes as well. So
thanks to you for hanging out, Thanks for being to
both for joining us. Well, thanks to Dan Orlovsky for
joining as well. Coming up, you gotta do this with me, Dan,
It's not only one, Adam, it's another one. They call
it the team and they're next up here on Sports
Talk seven ninety. Don't go anywhere

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