The A-Team: Live From Toyota Center, Astros Split Arlington and Framber Down

Adam Clanton and Adam Wexler talk about what's going on in Houston sports and more on April 9th, 2024.

• Astros Split In Arlington.
• Yordan Hammering Baseballs.
• Framber on the shelf.
• Final Rockets game at TC this year.
• SayWhat?! 

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adamtalking your team series, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler r D A team eightyright man, let's this one on the

(00:23):
left center field, and that one'sgonna get down for a base hit.
Alvarez around third and coming home he'llscore Sime and hits it sharply to his
left, do bond. He hasit, shovels the second for one.
Pain you on the first. That'stwo and that is smoked to right,
fail and you can't kiss it goodbye. Pull down the right field line.

(00:47):
That is a fair ball. Aroundthird is the brave He scores easily.
That's line up the metal base hichow two Bay scores. Here comes
jord On a two run single,Bertucker at seven to five, Astros Kartinisky's

(01:11):
a to right, fairly deep goingback. Garcia backpedaling at the wall,
Sletter a three run hold on forpicker Kartini and the Astros league is ten
to five. Lifted in the shallowcenter. Myers gliding over tour right center
makes the catch, and that isa ballgame. Nothing I can do.

(01:41):
You want to know what my favoriteresponse was on social media to today's video,
and I quote some woman on Facebook, who is that last guy?
I had to go Vic Carratini.It's not her fault. She didn't know
that they signed a catcher this offseason. Hey, how about that offensive display
last night in Arlene? Just whatit looked like it was time to pack
up and cancel the season. I'mwaiting for the effect. Let's check our

(02:06):
texts from last night. Please do, oh please please read this. This
is so on brand for our relationshipand this show. I think I said
I hate this season at one pointyou did. It was five to two
and they had Blair Henley and hisentire family watching him get walked and beating
batters to death. I thought itwas going to be ten to two after

(02:29):
one inning, but no, theAstros just calm, cool and collected.
Jordon walks in. Did you seethe way he looked at Andrew Andrew last
night like he was a piece ofmeat, Probably the same way he looked
at Rock Burke. Well, Ican't have this lefty face you ward on.
I better go to this lefty toface you ard on work. I

(02:50):
was told Andrew Heeney was a goodpitcher. Uh, he's a he's a
starting pitcher, he throws baseballs towardshome plate. Yeah, and then what
does Jordon do with him? Launchesthem into the stratosphere. That thing was
absolutely annihilated. You could hear itoff the A lot of times you hear
it off the bat and it soundsdifferent because he's such a monster, but
that was one of those prime examplesof it. And it was five to

(03:12):
four, right, so it wasn'teven tied. They hadn't even taken a
lead yet. I just knew Ihad a feeling it. I mean,
yeah, Jordon's different than everybody elsein that lineup, but if he's hitting
that that way, it was justone of those nights like Alex Bregman got
the party started, so you knewit was gonna be a little different because
he doesn't do that much, verydifferent. Three hits for Jordan and Bregman

(03:34):
doing what needs to be done outof that four spot, and Astros didn't
stop scoring until they had doubled upthe Rangers, and by then the Rangers
had long since stopped scoring. Assoon as Blair Henley left the building,
they were done the first inning withtwenty six outs remaining. Yeah, the
Rangers were done. That was allshe wrote. They scored five runs before

(03:55):
Joe Espada eventually and finally pulled theplug on the Blair Henley start. And
I think there's a real good chanceI won't have to amend that statement anytime
further down the road. It willstill be the Blair Henley start. I
don't think there will be an additionalBlair Henry star Blair Witch project because he
was terrible. He just couldn't throwstrikes. Bad situation. Though I felt

(04:16):
bad for him, No, justkidding, I didn't mean that. He's
a professional, made his major leaguedebut and the team won. He can
definitely say that. I'm sure he'llwant to get another opportunity. We'll hear
from Joe spotted talking about the factthat he expects that he'll get another opportunity,
though not necessarily this turn through therotation, also not with the team
in Kansas City, as Joe Spottatold him, that was all we needed

(04:39):
you for the present time, butthat also was probably expected. It was
an unexpected phone call that he gotthe day before from the team saying we're
gonna need you here in Arlington,and unexpected that he could only get one
batter retired after facing nine hitters inthe Rangers lineup. Good news was seth
Martinez was able to get the leadoffhitter batting twice in that first inning to

(05:01):
ground into an inning ending double play, and then they didn't score again.
Jeth Martinez was awesome for his nextthree innings. He got two innings a
piece of shutout baseball, very cleaninnings also from Taylor Scott and then Brandon
b Lack. Scott let the leadoffhitter reach in both of his two innings
and they got the next three guysout without any issue. B Lack got
the game to the eighth inning.They were able to turn things or through

(05:24):
the eighth inning, they were ableto turn things over to Brian Obreu,
who gave up a hard hit ball, a hard hit ball, and a
hard hit ball before ending the gamewith a less hard hit ball that turned
into the third out of the inning. That is, I don't know if
it's costs for major concern, buthe got in and out of the inning
without any damage in a five rungame where he had that kind of cushion.

(05:45):
But nothing's changed in his three outings. They have teed off on him
and the Astros got two wins afterthe Yankees dispatched of the Astros and pretty
much embarrassed them by beating them fourstraight in Houston to open the seat.
The Astras have won four of seven. They took two of four from the
Rangers and their ballpark, took twoof three from the Jas in the Astros

(06:06):
park, and again we're down toan out from taking all three of those
games, where it not for thetwo run homer off of Hater in the
top of the ninth inning. Andnow they have a very surprisingly good Kansas
City Royals team, surprisingly good atleast in the fact that they can pitch,
and we'll see what the Astros offenseoff of this one. They've won

(06:27):
four times. They've scored eight ormore runs in three of those four wins.
I don't think they can only winwhen they score that many runs.
And they do have the three toone victory as well the day before in
Arlington. But it's be a littlebit different against the team. Royals are
off to a six and four start. The pitchers the Astros will see.
The starting pitchers at least have allgotten off to very good starts this season.

(06:47):
Each of the three of them carryingan era under one p fifty through
their respective two starts of the season. Reagan's Lugo and Singer much better than
what they've seen in any of theseason so far, if you ask me.
But we shall see an opportunity toget right before they get home.
If they take two out of threehere, you're six and eight when you

(07:09):
come home. If you take allthree of them, you're a five hundred
team when you get home to seethe Rangers again. Clearly, if it
goes the other direction, then we'llrethink this and see if they've really turned
the corner. I know that questionwas an a roundabout way asked if Joe
a spot of last night after thegame, you know, as it look
like you're putting it together, andI would hesitate to go far that far
with a question after really, youknow, one good night of offense the

(07:31):
night before was pitching. They onlyscored three runs. They're still four and
seven, and it's only a twogame winning streak, So I'll all put
the brakes on that one, atleast with the four and seventeen. I
feel like we've had this discussion beforewhere you highly and vehemently objected to calling
it a winning streak until it's beyondtwo games. No. I mean,
I'll joke about, Hey, theywon one, they're on a streak,

(07:53):
right, he won two in arow, whatever the case may be.
But you know, yesterday Eve andthere was some thinking saying in the Twitter
sphere or elsewhere that this clubhouse isnot the same, that they're down,
that they're not into it, thatthey're out there a couple of them,
you know, at the end ofcontracts, they're just playing it out and
to see what happens next year.I bristled at that because I didn't believe

(08:16):
that for a second. And whathappened yesterday doesn't prove anything one way or
the other. But what they didyesterday is what they've been doing for seven
years. Pay no mind to whathappened the day before, Pay no mind
to what will happen in the future. Pay no mind that your starting pitcher
got an out, a whole outand gave up five runs and they go
out there and win. It's justkind of what they've been doing. And
if that much of the core isstill in place, especially right there at

(08:39):
the top. They had Jiner Diazon the bench yesterday, they're fine.
I mean their records, that's agood point, but I think they as
a team are fine. Yeah,and I think we all thought this would
be the case. Look, we'regonna look back at April and be like,
gosh, they because I really dothink, you know, the Yankees,
as much as I hate to say, you were probably right. They

(09:00):
do look like they might be agood baseball team. Nester Cortez eight shutout
yesterday. They got the best recordin the American League. They've they've been
very good. Yeah. The Rangers, I mean, they're the defending champs,
and until they're not, you gotto give them at least that much
credit, if not just outright they'rea good baseball team. The Braves are
gonna be, you know, anopponent the Rangers again, as you mentioned.
So I think we end up lookingback at April and saying, Okay,

(09:24):
yeah, we're the Astros not exactlyplaying their best baseball? Were they
dealing with some major major injury concerns? Plural big s on the end of
that big s, big les withall of these injuries, Believe me,
could I make it a lower caseM Why is that? I mean,
I don't think they're dealing with majorinjury. We don't know yet. Oh

(09:45):
because of Framber. Yeah, okay, that's what I'm That's why I say
plural. Yeah yeah, Adam Cramberto the mix certainly shifts it. Okay,
yeah, I will use my racerand recapitalize it. Shifts it a
little bit like a poll like Erasmusand Pole. Uh no, Like I
think that they're one game behind lastyear's pace. A win tonight will equal
last year's five and seven start,And you know, if you keep splitting

(10:05):
series with the now prohibitive favorite forthe division, because you know it's two
weeks into the season, I justthink that, you know, we'll probably
look back at April with a littlebit more of well, you're always you
know, hindsight's twenty twenty situation,but uh okay, this was a little
bit of this and that in additionto some other things that maybe you weren't

(10:26):
doing right or made I think,in more of a sense, weren't going
your way. A healthier Astros teammoving forward, you know, obviously is
going to help a lighter schedule.I mean, this really is a murderer's
row. But I don't want tomake excuses exactly That's exactly what I was
about to say. If you're oneof the murderers, then you can't really

(10:46):
use that excuse, because that's whatit is. When it comes down to
it. They both have knives orguns or machetes. Well, are they
at a gunfight and one of thembrought a knife, because that's kind of
what it feels like. I mean, like Blaiir Henley is like coming into
the fight. He brought a wetpiece of paper, not even that it
was like paper mache too, soit was thicker, and it actually,
like, you know, tore easily, tore more easily. I guess I
should say yeah, but you know, I if we're gonna talk about text

(11:09):
exchanges from last night, I didkind of send my Seth Martinez text with
a with a large kernel of truthattached to it. I'm not surprised at
all that that's what he did oncehe got in there, and let's face
it, he's a big reason whyyou were able to make that comeback because
it didn't get any worse than itwas going to potentially, and the comeback

(11:31):
was pretty much immediate. You know, they had two runs on the board.
Jordon came up again and they puttwo more runs on the board.
That guy came the third time andthey were tied. So that guy got
dude to one for jorda home run. They would have lost this game.
Okay, Well, I mean,if it wasn't for baseball, we wouldn't
have one of our major sports.If my aunt had a you know,
you know the saying come on now, it's in the it's an a lexicon

(11:52):
of American speech. So yeah,that was that was fun to watch last
night after it wasn't. And uh, good for them for taking care of
business. And let's see if theycan, you know, like you said,
take on an upstart Kansas City Royalsteam. My mother in law is
ready, she's ready to root againstmy home team. And it should be
an interesting set of days here asthe Astros finish up this roadie. But

(12:16):
we'll discuss that. We will obviouslydiscuss the team that plays in this building.
We are in probably neglected to mentionright off the top, we are
inside Toyota Center. I think it'svery appropriate that on the day and the
night of the home finale portion ofthe calendar, Rockets aren't nearly done,
but this will be the final homegame of the season, and we can
guarantee that now that they've been mathematicallyeliminated. Not that they would have played

(12:39):
a home game anyways, but Idigress that the dunkster nott is on the
floor one last time. Set ita million times. We'll say it again
here. If they went to thispermanently for their logo, I don't think
anybody would be mad about it.If you're not going to go with the
ketchup and mustard, this is definitelybetter than anything else they've got. And
so the Magic are in town.Kind of a bookend, if you will,
since they started the season on theroad against the Magic. The home

(13:01):
finales against them, we'll discuss that. We'll discuss a whole lot more on
a Tuesday edition of The eighteen.Adam and Adam are so Houston that it's
weird to not be wearing shorts.Well, Barmy queuing on Christmas Day,
Adam Flanton work on Sports Talk seveny. It is the eight team here

(13:24):
on Sports Talk seven ninety. Weare live inside Toyota Center. Rockets finishing
up the home portion of their scheduletonight against the Orlando Magic. Do you
have what do you call it?It's not buyer's remorse? Do you have
like basketball roster lust every time yousee Polo Bancaro and you remember how things

(13:46):
went down in that draft? ChetHolmgrim was the number two pick. You
had no choice, so there's noremorse. Yeah, But I think that
a lot of Rockets fans up untillike the day of the draft thought that
they were gonna have Polo Bancaro becauseJabari Smith, by all accounts, was
going to go number one overall tothe Magic What would you say they would
go if the draft were held onApril fifteenth, after this year's regular season.

(14:11):
That's tough. Jabari still goes three. I think that's the easiest question
to answer, But I really don'tknow. I mean, I think Paolo
probably would get a slight edge.His numbers are better. But Chet's played
one year, and Chet plays withShae Gil just Alexander, so I really
really don't no. Plus Halo banCarroll's what six' nine, six'

(14:35):
ten in platforms, I mean,Chet's bigger and actually uses his height.
Like the thing about Chet and thedifference right now between him and my opinion
in Victor wan Minyama, you cantalk about San Antonio being worse around him
versus you know what Chet has.He has one of the top five NBA
players around him. But I justthink that Victor has He's gonna have big

(14:58):
numbers, and I don't think it'snecessarily always going to translate to wins.
They could put a better team aroundhim, and I'm sure they're gonna try
to, but I right now,I think Chets should actually have more of
a I think saying or a backingin a Rookie of the Year award,
even though I know he's not gonnaget it. I don't think Chet's gonna
get a single vote, to behonest with you, any like a single

(15:20):
vote or like that, a singlefirst place vote. Well, yes,
that's all that matters. Well,I know, but like nobody should vote
him first on their ballot. Heshould not get a single vote. But
I think I'm saying but I thinkthey're not saying it to mean him.
No, I know, but Ithink the main reason he won't is because
he's getting penalized for playing with Shay. I mean, and I don't think
that started it. I don't thinkso at all. I mean, he
could put up your right in hisnumbers, no question what you're saying is

(15:41):
one hundred percent right. From anumber standpoint, he could score twenty points
a game, no problem at all. If he was playing for a crappy
team, probably have ten boards anight because their team stinks and they'd be
missing all the time. No oneelse is gonna rebound. But as a
player, like if the Thunder hadVictor on their team, there would be
no race for number one. Theyhave it locked up already with five,
four or five games to go.I mean, he's just better than him.

(16:03):
But the question was about the twentytwenty two draft. I think Chet
would go number one because he's unique. Really Yes, he's different. Polo
is really really good, just likethe other best power forwards in the league,
and I think he's gonna get intothat category. He will be an
All Star regularly in the Eastern Conferencewith the Orlando Magic, and I think
Chet probably will become the same,maybe a little bit more difficult, just

(16:27):
because of the voting star power whichonly leaves seven other spots. And I
know Palo's not likely to get votedin as a player on the Orlando Magic,
but I think that's what's going tohappen. I think Chet is playing
a role on a team for sure, just in exactly the way that you're
saying. But I think his skillsare unreal. I think he will be
a dominant He wanted me over,you know. I couldn't stand him when

(16:48):
he was coming out, was like, I want to know. That being
said, the two games that Rocketsfans probably are most impressed with from a
what was their game plan going intothis game are the ones against Wemby where
they embarrassed him twice and the oneagainst Holmgren where in a year where he
has missed zero games, Chet hasplayed in every game this year, and
it is not debatable his worst gameof the season was against Houston in his

(17:11):
points and six fouls, took twoshots, scored no points, had six
fouls. He's never fouled out ofa game but that one. He's never
had a zero point game. Butthat one that was without Shoon, wasn't
it? That is correct? Itwas also without Shay, But that really
doesn't make it better. I don'tthink Jay makes it easier for you,
But now they're actually counting on youmore, you even less. But he'll

(17:32):
be playing playoff games this year,quite possibly playing seven twelfteen who knows how
many playoff games, potentially because ofhow strong of a team that he's on.
But you know, those top threeplayers in the draft, every time
things come around and they meet oneanother, it's usually pretty interesting. And
then that's what's obviously going to happentonight with Javari Smith Junior and Paolo Bancero
getting together. They haven't been together, like the teams haven't been together since

(17:55):
the very beginning of the season,when the Rockets turned in one of their
worst performances of the season. Theyinteresting to see how the rest of the
draft clack works out. But forus and for our purposes, you're right,
big draft party that night, andthe expectations were during our show for
hours leading up to it. Dowe even believe this latest right up to
the minute rumor that Jabari isn't goingnumber one, that Pallo all of a

(18:17):
sudden is the Magic's choice, andhe was. It wasn't a rumor that
was unsure, was very much foundedin fact, and that's who they went
with. I'm sure they're very happy. They're probably happy with some of their
other draft picks because Wagner is abig part of what they're doing. Jalen
Suggs has played better this year,but for where he was drafted, maybe
a little bit of a disappointment.Cole Anthony a later first round pick that

(18:40):
has probably performed to where they'd hopeand they are. I wouldn't call them
a contender by any means in theEast. Even though they're standing is pretty
good, They're just not I don'tthink they're capable of beating anybody, quite
honestly. I mean, I'm beingliteral. They're going to make the playoffs
as a team, possibly with homecourt advantage. But when the Rockets take
the court tonight against the Magic,they have forty six wins. Does Orlando

(19:03):
Bucks are ahead of them with fortyseven? There's two other teams with forty
six. There's two with forty fiveand forty four. Today, the Magic
are third. By the time thepostseason hits, they could be in the
play in tournament and two to eight. That's why this is such a They
could go from three to seven.Yeah, they're currently third. Seven,

(19:23):
eight or nine obviously would put them, but they can't fall all the way
to nine. It's important to them. But like I said, if the
Magic are playing the Calves, thePacers, the Sixers, the yeat doesn't
matter. They're not gonna beat anyof them this year. They have more
building to do. They put alot into winning in the regular season.
We talked about it the other daywhen the Heat were here. The Heat

(19:44):
all they care about is being there. They don't really care what they do
in the regular season. I justthink going back to the Rockets, though,
you had those awful, dreadful,as you would say, seasons,
and you got high draft picks toshow for them. Uh you you got
six of them. Yeah, butyou when you were picking near the top
of the draft for three consecutive seasons, you didn't. You probably got the

(20:10):
third best player of the top threeor somewhere in that range. Like it's
just I just wonder. But thenagain, if the Rockets had gotten say,
let's say they got uh Polo,do they even get in the running
to get Victor last year? Youknow what I mean? Like, because
he's that, I don't think theydo. I don't know, man,

(20:30):
why they stink They were so bad? No, I know, but just
bad at basketball even with one betterplayer. Yeah, but it's a lot
better of the one they got interms of wins and losses for a team
that didn't know what they were doing, Like, how many more wins could
Polow have? That it the lastyear's team taking Jabbari's everything out and putting
Pollows everything in. You know,coach Silas and his staff were still here.

(20:52):
Their inability to run any semblance ofan offense to you add Powlo to
that as opposed to eliminate Jabbar.I mean, maybe they win twenty six
as opposed to twenty two. It'sjust it's just fun to think about San
Antonio, which they won, whichultimately they lost. Yeah. I mean,
you look at these three drafts,since you're kind of coupling them together.

(21:15):
They had number two in twenty twentyone, so Kate Cunningham was the
only player off the board. Idon't think anybody is really upset about it
unless they absolutely love Evan Mobley,who's played roughly thirty fewer games than Jalen
because of injury this year. Buthe obviously has promise and I could totally
be on board with that. Butthat's it. Top three players are definitely

(21:37):
Cunningham, Mobley, and Green amongthose that would are likely to go in
that spot. Because you can't dismissthe fact that Alpern's been so good,
but he was never under considered.You know, it's funny too about Cunningham.
It's like, what has that gotyou in Detroit? Nothing? Absolutely
nothing. I mean he is okay. So those are the top three guys.
You got Jalen, not Kid,and not Evan Mobley. The next
year you had the third pick,so you had no choice took the third

(22:00):
best of the three. But rememberit was Keegan Murray, j and Ivory
matherin Sharp Daniels, Sohan Davis whowent after that. The best player after
that in the lottery was probably JalenWilliams, one of them that plays for
Oklahoma City who plays very well forthem. Great, but nobody would have
taken him number three. I thinkpeople were even surprised he went where he
did. And then last year youonly had the fourth pick in the draft

(22:22):
following the lottery balls, and youprobably got one of the top three players.
In my opinion, I like ScootHenderson, but I don't like him
more than Amen Thompson. And that'sokay to say Brandon Miller and Victor will
be better than a men in threeyears. It's not a given, but
I'm okay with hearing it. Idon't necessarily believe it, but it's a
perfectly reasonable explanation. I think it'scrazy the actor. All is said and

(22:45):
done. When you talk about thepicks you got at the tippy top of
the draft, Amn, Thompson mightbe the best one overall. Well,
he's definitely, without any question,no shadow of a doubt, should be
entering a strong man competition because nobodycan throw down Maxi Cleblad like two hundred
and fifteen pound of men's What didhe do? He's Maxi Kleiba. I

(23:07):
still couldn't figure out he was wearinga Dallas jersey. What he did that
made a man so mad? Isaid something about his mother he did have.
Well, then, I'm sure hewould have said the same thing to
us, sir when they played thepistons. I don't remember him getting pushed
by him. It's such a terribleand funny joke. At the same time,
Uh, he had his arms uphigh on a men when you know
they were kind of going through thelane and pushing on one another. But

(23:27):
it didn't look like he hit himin the face, and looked like he
had his arm up in his neck. It just maybe it was more of
he's pushing and not letting go,and so this is a surefire away to
make him let go. But ifyou watch it, even in live action,
was easy to see. It's eveneasier to see in replay, as
many players do. He didn't getpushed over. He's he made himself into

(23:48):
a uh, basically a wet blanketand when he got shoved, he fell
over like nobody's business and pushed hisfeet back to embellish it all and it
worked. It was like the flagranttude Amen Thompson for pushing somebody. That's
as Eme said, this league hasgotten soft and you got to be aware
of that. He wasn't trying tonail the league with the comment. He

(24:11):
was trying to spin it in anice way saying that's on us for not
recognizing how things are being officiated now, when in reality he's saying that's weak.
Correct, all right, So magicin rockets all that to say,
they get together tonight in the homefinale. We've got a lot more to
get to, including more on yourHouston Astros, and we're getting closer and

(24:33):
closer to the NFL Draft. Ijust it I want this to be a
home run, like I think thisoffseason is going to be. How are
they going to do that? Idon't know. I don't know. But
it's an O two count and they'refacing the best pitcher in baseball and they
don't even have a bat. Well, I'm not gonna hit up. I'm
run with number forty two. I'mnot taught. It's happened before. When

(24:55):
we come back, the best fortysecond picks in the history of the NFL
draft, Okay, maybe not,but we will continue here from inside Toyota
Center, Sports Talk seven ninety Oh, Dylan Brooks here, back to Dylan
reverse lamp goddess. Stay clutched withthat. iHeartRadio app here every Rockets game
on Sports Docs seven ninety. Hereit is Dylan Brooks, Home of your
Rockets Center, Rockets eighteen, rollingalong here on Sports Talk at seven ninety

(25:18):
live inside Toyota Center, Rockets Magic. Later on tonight wex on the television
side, myself and Matt Thomas hereon the radio side. But we're all
noted up tonight. It's a veryformal event, the home finale, fan
appreciation night, all that good stuff. If you're on your way over to
Toyota Center last time you'll be ableto watch this Rockets team. You know,

(25:40):
not to completely go into Rockets conversation, but just a dovetail off of
last segment. Who would be AndI'm putting you on the spot here,
but I don't care. I wantan honest answer. Who would be the
guy that won't be on next year'sroster that would surprise the fan base the
most? In your opinion? Ihave a question for you under that,

(26:00):
who will address the crowd before tonight'sgame? Not Jalen? Okay, I'm
gonna say Alperin because he'll be here, but he won't be playing, so
he's got nothing better to do,and he's he's he has that personality.
The fans love his demeanor. He'sperfect for it. I'm so happy it's
been a good season and we lookforward to making the team better next year.

(26:23):
I thank you, Houston. Ithink it's gonna be a uniformed player
personally, all right, fine,Dylan Brooks. I think it's gonna be
either Fred Fred or Jalen. Ithink they want a young player, and
I know Jalen is not. Iknow why you aren't you choosing him?
But I wonder if they might.But he's well spoken. It's okay to
say that he's fine. He's butfor something like that I've spoken. That's

(26:48):
just he doesn't speak clearly when he'sdoing interviews, right, he's not well
spoken. No, he's been inplenty of He's done other like he's been
in commercials where he's perfectly fine,which is rather annoying. That's what I'm
talking about. That's what I meanby saying that he can do what more
than capable of doing it, Hejust doesn't. Yeah, but okay,
we're gonna give one of our playersa microphone in front of a live crowd.
It's between Fred and Jalen. Thewhole room says, liable to curse.

(27:11):
That's fine, you'll be able tounderstand it. Probably, I would
think that, you know, thosetwo guys, the veterans they signed last
year to multi year deals, areprobably not the choice. I don't think
it's the time to move on fromeither one of them, even though I
think definitely in Dylan's case, Ithink there will be an opportunity during the
remaining three years of his contract whereit might be a good situation for the

(27:32):
Rockets to send him somewhere where hecan help that team, and they will
have players that maybe they're better suitedto have on the court than playing and
splitting minutes with him. I'm gonnasay it from a surprise standpoint, I'm
gonna say it's Jabbari that would surpriseme, really, because some of the
other players are less surprising for obviousreasons. I mean, we can't ignore

(27:53):
how much the national media is barelypaying attention but running the narrative. Oh
my god, we saw it foreleven game games or nine games of the
eleven game winning streak. We don'tneed to see anymore. It is clear
you can't have a team with bothJalen and alburn on it. Case closed,
end of story. But I don'treally believe that. I do think
because of the talent level of bothof those players that one of them could

(28:15):
be moved because it helps you ina different way. Well, you're able
to get something in return because ofthe quality of the player you're sending out,
and I think Jay Jabari still fitsthat mole. So he would surprised
me the most in that he's onlygoing into year three. There's more improvement
clearly on the way. I stillthink he'll get bigger. I'm hopeful he'll
make more free throws in the finalten seconds of games in Dallas, And

(28:37):
that would be the answer to yourquestion. That would be the most surprising
of the young players A man andCam are not even in the conversation for
obvious reasons. Um, yeah,that's no, that's I absolutely agree with
that. Plus I'll get mad.Let's just put that out there, like
those two, like everything they're doingthis year is exactly what you hope you're

(28:59):
trying to, you know, producesome crystal ball of who they'll be in
year two, three, eight.Well, what you're seeing this year gives
you this idea that, holy cow, can Cam Whitmore be good in year
four through ten? Wow? CanAmend Thompson be a game changing player,
a win versus lost type of playerfor his entire career with what we're already
seeing him do as an impactful playerto winning, not an impactful player to

(29:23):
piling up numbers. He's an unbelievablerebounder, especially offensively, He's tremendous flexibility
defensively, great at pushing the breakand running tempo, which this group of
players needs to do. And allthat is without having any plays drawn up
for him, without him being afocus in any way offensively, And that

(29:44):
will definitely change even if he doesn'tdevelop a consistent shot, because you'll still
have opportunities to create mismatches with himwhere he's faced up on guys, where
he has opportunities to just simply beatthe guy he's faced up against. And
yeah, you know, sixty someodd games into their respect careers, because
neither one of them played a fullseason this year, you're not gonna turn
your back on what could be withtwo kids. You just I mean,

(30:07):
I don't think they stole a minutefor but they definitely stole Cam at twenty
oh. I could not I meanthat. And that's an example of a
guy who I was like, allright, wow, Warriors, Lakers,
And there was one other team aheadof the Rockets at twenty year wherever it
was a twenty or twenty one thatthey took him Cam? Was it twenty
Yeah? So there were the WarriorsI thought were gonna get him, which
would have made me absolutely physically.Could you imagine them benefiting from what he

(30:30):
does? They don't deserve that,none of them do. The organization,
the fans the city screw them all. Well, both of their rookies played
important roles in their victory here theother night. Yeah, kid taken right
in front of him, Yes,and then the other one was taken second
to last in the draft. Yeah, awesome, fifty Good for them.
I'm really happy for them and allof their stupid, annoying fans. But

(30:52):
like the Heat, are probably prettyhappy with Hamie Hawks. He won eighteenth.
I'd rather have Cam. I'm notsaying you're wrong, but he had
a decent game against them there inJanuary? Did he not? Okay?
So I mean I just thought forsure one of those teams would scoop him
up, but they didn't, Sothat's good. Toronto, keep in mind
took Grady Dick at thirteen. Yeah, but the Memes Orlando took Jet Howard

(31:15):
at eleven, and we're gonna seehim do what tonight. Nothing, thank
you, That's what I was opening. It's possible he'll play his fifty fourth
minute of the season, I guess. Hmmm, yeah, not Cam Whitmore,
dude. I do wonder though,like you talked about a crystal ball,
are the Rockets looking at Jalen Greenas Okay? He upped his trade

(31:40):
value or all right, this iswho he could be after that basically month
of March, because he hasn't beengood since the calendar flipped. Like,
he hasn't been shooting well. He'smissing the threes he was making. It's
just to drop off is again,I'm like, what happened? Just keep
playing that way. It's not thathe when they have been defended differently because

(32:01):
of how well he played, they'retrying to get the ball out of his
hands. He took seven shots inthe final forty one minutes of basketball against
the Mavericks, and the Mavericks havebeen playing better defense. I mean,
he was six of seven in thefirst quarter, and then they did things
differently to specifically slow him down andit worked. Not to mention he had
four foulsand in the first half,brutal. All right, we will continue

(32:25):
here inside Toyota Center, the ateam Sports Talk seven ninety We'll also tell
you why wex was absolutely right.We will do that. I'll explain final
segment of three o'clock hour. Nextback to Adam Clinton. Adam Wexler,
the eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninetyeight team rolling along here inside Toyota Center

(32:47):
Sports Talk seven ninety final segment ofthe three o'clock hour, Rockets and Magic.
Later on tonight, speaking of hoops, my esteemed co host here,
Adam Wexler, what was it thatMarissa Tomay said and my cousin Vinnie dead
on balls accurate last night's National titlegame? You nailed it. Unfortunate And

(33:10):
I don't think you should be uninterestedin watching Yukon play because they're awesome.
I just was hoping for a littlebit more competitive game. I just did
not expect it, and that's certainlywhat we didn't get. They're just much
better than everybody else this year,everybody they had to play, at least
in the postseason. That's the samestory for two consecutive seasons, twelve straight
wins by double figures. I mean, even with Purdue getting every single thing

(33:34):
they could get out of Zach Edi. Not to mention the way the game
was officiated for Edie, I actuallythink it was a bad night for him
from a future standpoint. If I'msure NBA people have been paying more attention
than casual fans have, but itwasn't quite. Ricky Rubio defending James Harden
in the postseason a few years ago, and to illustrate that the Jazz were
so clueless on what to do tostop James Harden, they tried something extraordinary.

(33:59):
They put Ricky Rubio between James andthe basket, the other basket,
the one that had no players bythe way him, trying to force him
to go a certain way, whichyou can't do from playing behind him.
But it would not allow James toplay the way he normally plays, where
he feeds off the defender. Heyou know, rips through all those Yeah,

(34:19):
it just was totally exploration. Andso to paint that picture into last
night's game, Connecticut was basically guardingZach Edie, especially early in the game,
with their big on top of hisleft shoulder, basically not between him
and the basket, but between hisleft shoulder and the sidelines because they they
knew he couldn't go the other way. He just kept barreling further and further

(34:43):
into him until he created the spacehe wanted because they weren't calling offensive fouls
on him, and then he wouldstill find a way to go to his
right. It'll never work in theNBA. And I was amazed at his
inability to go the other direction.I'm not amazed by the fact he's not
projected to go in the first roundby many. Some have him there,
but I wouldn't end it was nice. He's a National Player of the Year,
but uh, I did see someshortcomings with that team. He was

(35:06):
great, his teammates aren't, andthey were able to beat everybody else that
wasn't great. Yukon's great, theybeat him easily, and coach Hurley's team
has now done that two consecutive seasons, even though the only thing everybody was
talking about yesterday was coach Kyle isa razorback. And some of the stuff
that's coming out about this too.It's like the leaked text message from from

(35:30):
Kentucky Athletics about John Cala Powry's counteroffer that just and was it Boogie co
Cousins saying that this and this andthis should be the next head Like even
Gordy's wife, Lauren, who's themost massive, should be the next head
coach. I don't know, butshe's everybody's weighing in on this. Yeah,

(35:51):
she's no Rajon Rondo. It's crazybecause they just they still are at
the epicenter of it all and yetYeah, Arkansas, really no, Arkansas
is going to benefit from this.I think a great deal. Dillingham,
their star point guard, as expected, has hired an agent put his name
in the NBA draft. He willbe a lottery pick. Reed Shepherd,

(36:14):
his teammate, will also be alottery pick, just a matter of when.
And we don't know yet where theRockets will pick, but they will
have a lottery pick. Brooklyn's pickis in the lottery, could be as
high as four inside the top four, could be as high as one,
but it will not be any furtherthan ten. They don't know the other
teams yet that are in the onethrough fourteen mix, because clearly the play
in tournament affects that, and itcould affect it pretty significantly from a Rocket

(36:37):
standpoint, which is the pick thatthey won't be using. But those Eastern
Conference teams that are gonna make theplay in tournament, the Hawks, the
Bulls, both of them are almostassured to finish with worse records than Houston,
So when they ultimately lose in theplay in tournament, that's gonna bump
the pick the Rockets are giving away, and the chances of that pick going

(36:58):
somewhere better get smaller again. Thattop four protection is gonna change dramatically,
and ultimately those teams don't won't finishanywhere different than the Nets. The Nets
have thirty one wins. That's goingto put them probably with the ninth best
odds in the This is the Rocketspick. This is a fill in the
blank upcoming NBA draft. Describe thetalent pool. Do you want any to

(37:22):
do it on a scale like zeroto one hundred hundred being awesome? I
want you to give me a wex. I hate this word, but it's
a very good description. I think, Okay, it's serviceable. No,
oh, it's mey. I mean, I think we're gonna find somebody's six
through ten. Somebody is gonna bethere that turns into somebody great. I
don't think there's more than two reallygood players in the top five, whoever

(37:44):
it turns out to be, andthen you'll find a few other players.
I think this is an extremely It'shard to say because so many of these
guys do nothing in college, andit's no different than you know, Men
Thompson. He literally didn't even goto college. He played over time elite
basketball. Jalen Green didn't go tocollege. He played in the G League
for Ignite, which now won't happenanymore because it doesn't exist. The NBA

(38:04):
is smart and realize that it's notdoing anything to develop the players and they're
losing the battle to pay for thembecause all the players can make more money
of that caliber by going to fakefake going to school and getting nil money
if you hadn't been paying attention tothe stuff beyond the coach cal store.
The nil money being generated by universities, including the one right here in Houston,

(38:27):
is out of this world. BothLJ. Crier and j One Roberts
are going to stay at the Universityof Houston, So after they had Senior
Night and after they went to theNCAA tournament again, they will now both
go back to the University of Houston. I'm presuming they won't have a second
Senior Night send off late next yearat Fortita Center. But now I'm not
super entu I think the first twopicks will both be international players, so

(38:50):
it's not like people will be superexcited about them because they don't carry what
Victor carried. But I do thinkthey are the two best players in the
draft. There's time when the kidfrom a I don't know if you saw
your friend Frank Caliendo mocking Charles Barkley'swork at the NCAA tournament. I mean
it doesn't me Well, it's funnybecause he says what's everything is true,
even in a positive way. Hedoesn't know the teams, he doesn't know

(39:13):
the players. He butchers everybody's name, and it's totally fine. It doesn't
really bother. He doesn't pretend to, right because he's super honest about it.
And at the end of the day, all he's actually really doing is
presumably watching the action and then analyzingwhat happens. He doesn't need to know
all that background stuff necessarily. Buthe was mocking the pronunciation of Philipowski's name.
The kid from Duke, who attimes was thought to be a very

(39:36):
high pick. I think we wouldlike to see him drafted well after the
Rockets. So yeah, I'm notso enthused about it. But it's always
fun because your team has gotten alot better and yet they still have a
lottery pick from their previous trip.Well, and here's the thing. If
it is like, let's just sayit's ten, that's the lowest it can
go. But it's still it's atop ten pick. Don't you feel like
they're more apt to include it ina deal packaged with maybe a player to

(39:59):
get vetter and take that swing thatlike the Tim McMahon types we're talking about,
for sure, but one of theirtop six players would also have to
get that's fine, Yeah, noquestion. I don't think that's a problem.
I don't have a problem with that. Further future assets, the Brooklyn
picks, brook and their own andyeah they don't because this year is the
one that goes okay. See,but their own picks that they can still

(40:20):
manipulate in a certain way, theirown picks are getting worse and worse by
the moment. It's awesome. Yeah, that's a good thing. That means
that the development is happening. Allright. When we come back, we'll
get the four o'clock hour underway.It's going to include, say what,
it's also going to include another setof tickets to the Dave Matthews a band
show coming up in the Woodlands.We'll get to all that more on four
o'clock hour. Here on the eighteentwo lifelong Houston sports guys named at him

(40:46):
talking your teams, Adam Clinton andAdam Wexler are the A Team A Team
Our Clock Hour underway here inside ToyotaCenter. It is a Tuesday edition of
the A Team Rockets Home Finale gettingunderway tonight Orlando Magic in town for that

(41:10):
wex ac out here the show KillerDan Matthews back at the Ranch. One
thing we did not get to yesterdaythat I kind of wanted to a little
bit. Stefan Diggs didn't waste anytime getting acquainted with his new teammates.
Now, with social media, thisstuff always can be highlighted and and I

(41:32):
guess can happen if you will,sooner than maybe we would have known beforehand.
But isn't that ironic that that's kindof how this whole thing started?
Like you see guys really, Imean, because they were there together at
the Pro Bowl Rains CJ. Stroudand Stefan Diggs, Tank Dell, Stefan
Diggs, CJ. Stroud among thoseworking out together in California. I a

(41:57):
UCLA nice enough to so, yeah, we got an outdoor field. Nobody
else is using it right now,go right ahead, we don't care.
And so they've been out there doingsome work and it is pretty cool to
see Stefan Diggs in his gear.I think it's kind of at this point.
I think we realized what NFL playersdo in the offseason, and that
is hang out well and each otherstay in shape well. The upcoming season.
They're not gonna get to the facilitywhen they have their first set of

(42:21):
non mandatory time next week. Thereare another couple of teams started THEIRS this
week. The Texans will start THERESnext week. You know, Stefan Digs
is not gonna show up there saying, ah, we don't play a game
for three months, so what ifI wait two forty five. I'll get
down to the two twenty when it'snecessary. I mean, players just don't
do that. Big big players don'tdo that. Nobody does that. When
you come into camp or come intothe facility at any point during the year

(42:43):
and you're clearly not ready to play, everybody knows it and acts that way,
and you're you're shamed. So yeah, he's gonna get a chance to
work with CJ quite a bit thisoffseason. Remember CJ last year, he
got together with all these guys.Last year he didn't know anybody and joined
the team, got everybody together inthe off season, they started their workouts
together, they started getting comfortable withone another. I mean, it's now

(43:05):
not CJ that has to learn thisplaybook. I don't think it'll be difficult,
but it is a new playbook forStefan Diggs and virtually nobody else on
the entire offense other than Stefan andJoe Mixon. And that's a good thing.
Although those are two very very importantplayers added to the mix, because
they're the ones that presumably, youknow, will help take this thing to

(43:25):
the next level if you're adding themto what you already had. But you
know, seeing them get together andput it out there on social media just
kind of solidifies it. The Thisis just another example, though, of
what we heard so much. AndI look, if I was a team,
if I was a fan of anotherteam last year, and I think
I talked to you about this atsome point during the year, you know

(43:46):
you're gonna You're gonna just by default, get the backlash if you will.
I'm so tired of hearing about howperfect CJ is all the time. I'm
so tired of hearing about all thethings this kid does right. And then
as he was lead them to notonly the Division championship, but then a
postseason birth and a win in thepostseason you just kind of have to like

(44:07):
go with the wave and just realizethe real deal. Everything comes as advertised,
and then this is just the latestexample of that. The guy just
is magnetic to everybody, and StefanDiggs being at the events with him beforehand.
I mean, you've seen this allthe time where guys take pictures together

(44:28):
ooh, maybe they're talking ooh,like and then it never happens. But
this time it actually did, andI think that's kind of cool. We
really have not talked much about thefact that the Texans made it just this
year, though for Steffan Diggs wedid a little bit. I'm just hearing
a lot of people like whoa,whoa, whoa, this changes the deal?
What are they doing? And I'mlike, easy, if it doesn't

(44:49):
work out, you kind of havean out now, Like who says,
what are they doing? Well,just people, They gave away a second
round pick and they can't like that'sno, it's them shaving the years off
his current contract, like, inother words, make or break this year,
and then even if he does havea successful year, they feel like
maybe the Texans have put themselves ina bad spot to bring him back,

(45:10):
or it's gonna be too much moneyor whatever. I get why you would
question that. Well, so hecounts twenty plus million on the cap this
year, and he'll have some voidyears, so there'll be a figure that's
there in the future. But otherwise, the money you're not spending on him,
you can spend on Nico Collins,for one. If he's not already
under an extension, you obviously cannegotiate with Stefan Diggs on an extension prior

(45:36):
to him hitting free agency. Butlike, okay, right now, you
can find somebody else. Yeah,but right now you might even already be
on the roster by then, trueor right now, Like if best case
scenario happens and he's awesome, whatpercentage do you put on him coming back,
Because doesn't that mean that he's goingto want all the more money and
they're not gonna want to pay it. I mean, what do that age

(45:59):
receivers, no matter how good theyare, see Mike Evans, what do
they get how many teams are reallyin the mix? I mean, Mike
Evans could have left right and hechose to come here. Well, did
he take less money by staying Hetook a friendly deal for a player his
age that was good for him butalso good for the team. I think
he would argue. I mean,next offseason, Diggs is going to be
thirty one. You know, MikeEvans got a twenty plus million dollar deal

(46:21):
with an opportunity to make it intoa twenty five and he even thirty deal.
He's going into his eleventh year.Diggs is going into his tenth year.
Okay, yeah, and look,I get it. If you get
a guy like that, I don't. I don't care so much about this.
Oh, you gave up a secondrounder and that's whatever. Like Nick

(46:42):
Cassario doesn't care, so why shouldwe. I mean, it's kind of
how he does things. Well,you had to give up something to get
him. I mean I had togive up a second to get that out
right. But I think people thatsay that are thinking, Okay, you
gave up that thing of value,but now you're only getting one year for
it versus two that like three thatI understand. That is a reason.
You know, I kind of setit up to where you say, yes,

(47:04):
exactly, yes, That is whypeople would look at it that way.
A second round pick in the future. Well, that's guaranteed. That's
a four year contract for nothing.It's nothing, And probably next year's second
round pick is like it is thisyear. The pick we're talking about is
fifty nine, not forty two thatcame via trade. Their own pick is
at fifty nine, and that's roughlywhere I would expect it to be next
year. So that's the pick you'regiving away for Stefan Dicks. In a

(47:27):
year where this year's draft has tremendouswide receivers, they'll probably be a pretty
good class. I don't think we'regonna see too many years where there aren't
really promising wide receiver prospects. Thenumbers that come in every year and immediately
succeed is through the roof, andlike I said, I don't see that
changing a tremendous amount anytime soon.So that's at some point you kind of
look at, Well, the firsttime Diggs got traded, it's basically exactly

(47:51):
what the Vikings did. Okay,well for losing him, we got to
replace him. How about justin Jefferson? How does that work out? How's
that? Does that sound? Allright? And I think that's what Buffalo
might be looking to do again,not with quite as strong of a pick,
because that was a first round pickand this is a second one better.
But to soften the blow, right, But what you're what you're really
doing, is you're saying, Ican't be I can't live with myself.

(48:15):
I can't go to sleep in myvest and feel good about it at night
if I'm not trying to do everythingI can to win right now, losing
that second round pick will not youprevent them from being really good in twenty
twenty five. True, this isthe opportunity to be really really good in

(48:35):
twenty twenty four. First, andthen you deal with whatever you have to
then second. Obviously twenty twenty fiveisn't here at twenty twenty four is here
right now. I can't help butlook at, you know, Justin Herbert,
and maybe for one, I mean, look at what Justin Herbert's been
playing with in the early years ofhis career. He's at Keenan Allen every
year of his career. He hadMike Williams when he wasn't hurt, he

(48:55):
had Austin Eckler, and now hedoesn't have any of them. And they're
coming off a miserable season and he'swe think, really really good, right,
Yeah, So you don't want towaste any of those years. And
I don't think the Chargers did froman offensive personnel standpoint. They did from
a play calling standpoint, and theirhead coaches obviously was a disaster. All
things considered, that's a major upgrade. So I totally get it. And

(49:20):
it doesn't bother me one bit togive away a second round pick for even
if it is one year of digsand the money it costs versus he's not
there anymore, and now you havethis space cap space that he's no longer
eating up to go spend just somethingelse with it. The Texans win the
Super Bowl this year, Stefan Diggsis playing where next season? The season
after? I guess, not nextseason. I mean, that's impossible to

(49:43):
nd. No, I want youto right now. You basically mean here
or elsewhere? Yeah? Yeah?Uh. If I were to guess and
that would leave, he would leave, it would look bad for him because
it's like it was his like he'ssomehow the problem. I'd say the odds
are in his favor that he wouldbe leaving. But if his contracts up
and he goes and takes a payday. That's not about Oh, they couldn't

(50:04):
play a move like. He's notbeen traded. He just took money that
the Texans and him couldn't come toan agreement on. You would like to
think, well, we spent adraft pick on Mechi, we spent a
later pick on Hutchins, and maybethey draft another wide receiver this year.
Somebody can step forward and be whatyou need as a compliment to Dellan Collins.
I mean, heck, before theDigs deal, they thought that would
be Noah Brown or Robert Woods.Those caliber players are available every single offseason.

(50:30):
If they're drafting another wide receiver thisyear, doesn't mean this is the
end of the line for John Metchie. No. I just feel like,
I mean, how many It's morelikely the end of the line for somebody
else like Robert Woods. I don'tthink it's even gonna be here for the
offseason. But we already knew that. I'm talking about moving forward, like,
right, So in a year,we only have Noah Brown under contract

(50:51):
for a year, right, Sothat's your top two. If Diggs is
gone and your new drafted receiver,well, that's still only three guys above
Mechi, Yeah, and he has. I mean, it's it's a special
case. But I just think thatrelative to what they not what they gave
up. Let me let me phrasethis properly, but moving up, I

(51:12):
guess to get him, I guessI just thought that they would have gotten
more for a guy like that,whoever he is, I mean, whatever
position. I hope people were listeningthen, but if they weren't, I
thought it was a very surprising playerYep. To trade up for Yep.
They spent the sixty eighth pick,a fourth round pick, and an additional
fourth round pick to move up twentyfour spots and that's where they drafted John

(51:38):
Metchi with the forty fourth overall pick. An undersized well short, he's not
undersized, he's very well. TankDell's undersized too, and look what he's
done. Well if they both playfootball in the NFL for the same team,
and then we're pretty much and catchpasses, and that's pretty much worth
most match, pretty much where thecompounds. But yeah, way too soon

(51:59):
to say that she doesn't have valuefor you. And no, I don't
think the end of the line forhim is approaching because of anything else that
they have or are about to do. That's fair, all right, Well,
it's just something to keep an eyeon. And like so many guys
that are not just good, butgreat at the quarterback position. And I
don't think it's early too early tosay that about c J. Stroud relative

(52:22):
to what he did and the limitedsample size we're talking about. No matter
what people think that are sitting inthe vicinity of me, he is great.
I think I think that he hasa tendency to make guys maybe not
look better than they are, butyou know, playing with this guy versus
this guy at the quarterback position,I think it's pretty obvious to say it

(52:44):
makes a difference. And I thinkc J. Stroud is that difference and
that's why a lot of guys still, I think, want to come play
with him. And I think it'swhy it's so exciting that even before they've
drafted anybody, I think everybody islooking forward to what the Texans is going
to do this upcoming season. I'mlooking forward to what we're gonna do.
Next segment. It is our signaturesegment. It's say what and we will
uh get to that when we comeback. We've also got Dave Matthews Band

(53:07):
ticket to the bottom of the hour, and we'll get to all that when
we come back here on the teamAdam Clinton and Adam Wexlor the A team
now continues. What bro, whatare you talking about? Man? What

(53:32):
do you say? What one monk? What are you gonna go down there
and rehearse with them? It's soloud in here, absolutely ridiculously loud inside

(53:52):
Toyota Center. But hey, ifyou're coming to the game tonight, you'll
have a great performance ahead of you. And the Clutch City dancers. I
think they're going to turn it down. Now, there we go. How
are you doing over their wax?Can you hear? Okay? Is this
thing on? I wish you guysknew how irrationally angry it makes lag.

(54:15):
Finally, I mean, you guyshaven't even been to the postseason forever.
Get out here and practice magic.Finally, one of their players has decided
to hit the court, so he'llhave to take over some of the responsibilities
of what's taking place here in frontof us on top the dunkster. Not
we get some work done. It'sfour fifteen, right, signature segment time?

(54:37):
Yeah? Can we do that?Yeah? Sure, yes, Well
we heard the maybe we heard theentry. I didn't hear it, but
maybe somebody did. Hopefully our listenersdid. We appreciate each and every one
of you. It's a fan appreciationnight here on the A team and at
Toyota Center. So you're impaired appreciation. Say what? Over the course of
a week's time that's elapsed since lastTuesday's edition of this signature segment, I'm

(54:58):
sure a lot of people have saidand done some things that we don't really
understand or get, or maybe hadbeef or a gripe or a complaint that's
probably a little bit too much forus to handle. Usually fits into our
say what conversation? And I believewe have someone who's been an unwilling but
constant contributor to sports talk radio herein Houston for about twenty years. Is

(55:21):
that Bill Simmons that I'm thinking,Oh yeah, whether it was by design
or not, he has been atthe forefront of you. He delivers a
lot of material. It fits intosay what what do you do? This
time? All right? So heand Ryan Rossillo on the Bill Simmons podcast
were giving away their NBA awards andthey had weird names for every single one
of them. They got to oneof their awards, and he decided this

(55:44):
was a time to award, disingenuouslyto Lebron James and a former Ringer employee,
JJ Reddick. I did this onefor you? Did Jim Conflin Award
for you think You're better than me? Which I think we have to hand
the JJ Lebron pie cat. I'mglad they're doing it, but they're the
first fifteen minutes of the pod whenthey were lecturing everybody that the basketball discourse

(56:06):
is so bad, so they're hereto save the day. I was personally
offended. It's okay, man,we're trying. We're trying to have basketball
conversation. What was that day likefor you? It's like, all right,
guys, good grats. There's there'sa lot of people trying to have
smart conversations about basketball, and we'vebeen trying to do that for the last
fifteen to twenty years on podcasts.All right. So Redick used to be

(56:30):
with The Ringer and apparently he waskind of annoyed with Simmons' reticence to take
his platform to YouTube and to involvevideo with it. So he went to
four Are Three Four to two productionswhere he now does the Mind the Game
podcast with Lebron that you just heardabout right there. It's also part of

(56:52):
The Uninterrupted and also he still hasThe Old Man and three podcasts. So
judging from Bill's tone right there,I'm guessing that he was not too upset
about seeing JJ leave. Well,here's my thing. What like I I
didn't hear it, and I'm nevergoing to because it's involving Lebron James and
I can't stand the guy. SoI don't know what he and JJ said

(57:15):
that got Bill Simmons all riled upabout basketball discourse. As he put it,
are they just are they? Werethey acting like they were God's gift
to podcasts about basketball? Yes,so he was basically saying that the very
first episode they had, which Ibelieve, had about five million views on
YouTube and ever since then. Apparentlyhe's also mentioned that the traffic has dropped

(57:37):
off since the debut episode. Butyes, that they basically waxed poetically and
lectured people about the game of basketball. And he's just like, Okay,
we don't get that. Here's thething. I like you, and I
think WEX would agree with this.We both like JJ Reddick As a basketball
analyst, I think he does agood job for the most part. Sometimes
he can get a little you know, up of the year or whatnot about

(58:00):
things, But I think for asfar as just pure basketball analysis, I
not only think he's spot on alot of times, I think he does
a good job of presenting whatever he'stalking about. With regards to anything Lebron
James is doing from a media standpoint, And this is where I'm not going
to speak for WEX because we probablydisagree on it, Like that's that's his

(58:20):
mo. He had five million viewsor whatever on his first podcast, Yeah,
because Lebron James could fart on cameraand it would give views the first
time around. And then people startto realize this guy's kind of a dumbass.
When he talks. He says stupidthings. He thinks he's smart about
this, that and the other,and he's actually the quite the opposite.
Like I'll you know, just forexample, since it's close to home,
when the whole thing with Darryl Morey'stweet about China happened, he said some

(58:44):
of the dumbest things I've ever heardin my life. That's what Lebron does.
What's the TV show he had onHBO or whatever it was, The
Shop, the barbershop, the shot. Like I the next episode of that
I see will be the first.I don't want to hear him talk about
things. And from that standpoint,I think it might be a waste of
JJ Reddick's talent, and maybe that'swhy Bill's all upset about it. But

(59:06):
yeah, I mean, it doesn'tsurprise me that he's upset because he's upset
about everything. That's it. That'sthe whole premise of that entire Say what
Bill Simmons, I don't even evenneed the other people. That's just pure
Bill Simmons nonsense as always. Imean, call into this show. I
realize who I am. Bill doesn'trealize who he is. Call into our
show right now and say you wantto talk about basketball and we'll say that's

(59:28):
awesome. We love talking about basketball. Who do you want to talk basketball
with? Right now? I'm here. I work in sports talk radio.
I do broadcasts for the Rockets,been around the game my entire life.
Also, we have JJ Reddick here. Which of the two of us would
you like to talk basketball with?I mean, come on, yeah,
wake up Bill. Of course,his butt hurts because he left him.
That's all this is. Everybody hasan opinion, which is why everybody has

(59:51):
a podcast. That's why it's great. If everybody had the same opinion,
none of this would be fun.But you have to have those same or
different opinion the way Bill Simmons wantsyou to on his medium. Otherwise the
hurd of the butt. Yes,yes, so yeah, Bill, of
all people should probably. I mean, he doesn't have to change course,

(01:00:14):
but I'm sure deep down he realizesit. Of all, I say of
all people, because think about whathe's done in his media career. Huh,
Like ninety nine percent of the peopleout there would be envious of the
absolute unbelievable fortune he's had. Idon't want to call it luck because I
think the work that he did initiallywas good enough to garner interest, to

(01:00:36):
garner media entities throwing stupid money athim, giving him outrageously awesome platforms to
continue doing what he did well.Like every I think most people in the
media, even the highest people inthe media that aren't technically reporters but are
huge parts of you know, thebasketball media, would kill for some of
the things he's been able to do. The opportunities that he's been given,

(01:00:57):
some good, some bad, somesuccesses, some failures. That's just the
nature of it. He's he's swamin the biggest waters of all well,
and as a guy who so onforty three So I was reading him on
something that used to be called forthe young ones out there. He used
to be called this thing on ESPNdot com called Page two, and it
actually had some decent writers until theyall got completely inflated egos and just started

(01:01:21):
like going totally rogue. And BillSimmons used to I used to like look
forward to his article like every likeI used to read Peter King. The
same thing happened to him. Butthat's because he wasn't weren't scrolling your phone
because there wasn't anything else true.But I was still scrolling the internet like
I do scroll my phone. Today'sdial up connection wasn't being interrupted at the
house on the telephone. When Igot that fifty six K connection to upgrade

(01:01:45):
from the twenty eight point eight,it was unbelievable. We thought we were
just we were high on the onthe hog. But no, like years
ago, at this time April ninth, twenty twenty one, JJ Reddick was
in Texas playing en basketball still andnow he's doing all this. He's on
the number one NBA announced team forthe league's channel, basically ABC ESPN.

(01:02:08):
He's gonna be calling the finals thisyear, three years after retiring. Well,
the amount of jealousy that I'm surejust oozing out of people is extreme.
Bill probably thinks somehow, some wayhe should be in that seat,
which is hilarious. But I mean, I'm still bitter about Van Gundy.

(01:02:28):
You can take Mark Jackson away.He sucked. Dan Gundy still calls games.
Yeah, but he's not Dan.Stop. His name's Ron Jeremy.
It's not Ron, it is Ronit is It's Ron Jeremy van Gundy.
And uh, I mean I don't, I don't. I still don't understand
that decision because it's not like Benny. I mean, you get it.

(01:02:50):
So save the money on Mark Jacksonbecause he brings nothing to the broadcast.
He's spending it on Van Gundy,who does and people like him. It's
not about his age, it's notabout he's a funny Dutch or any of
that stuff, because if it wasabout that, then you could say the
same things about a number of otherguys that have been in their positions for
a long time. All that beingsaid, Jeff Van Gundy is going to
have to turn in some personal informationto the NBA this year. He's he's

(01:03:14):
going to have to tell the leaguevia the Celtics, what his ring size
is so they can size him upfor his championship ring. He's gonna win
this year working for the Celtics.First ring, right, he didn't get
one or ninety four? I knowthat. I mean assistant for pat Riley
on announcers. The national announcers getrings for finals appearances when they call them,
I don't I don't believe they're Washe in the same role as Mike

(01:03:35):
D'Antoni is with I know it wasthe next hard to say what they ask
of him, but they're both consultants. He's with the Pelicans now, Yeah
he's been with dance arted with themfor a handful of years, but yes,
a senior consultant for basketball ops.I couldn't tell you what Joe Missoula
asks of him, or their GMasks of him, or if Jason Tatum

(01:03:55):
has his cell phone and calls himand asks him questions. But they're all
possibilities. You know what's interesting is, and we just got done talking about
this last week. You were askingme about the West and who I would
take at the top since there's thatbattle for the top seed of the three
teams, and I said, obviously, I've got to give the nod to
the defending champs and all that kindof stuff. There isn't a team out
there in the West or the Eastthat I think can go toe to toe

(01:04:16):
with the Celtics in seven games andwin four none. I don't even think
it's gonna be particularly close. Ifthey get upset somehow, it will honestly
be one of the more massive upsetsin NBA history. And I'm not even
it won't be looked at that waybecause I don't think they're held in that
esteem. But they should be.Like they've been from wire to wire,
They've been awesome this year. It'shard to measure their care over the final

(01:04:40):
four games bucks Nick's, Hornets,Wizards. I'm sure if they don't care
at all, they'll still beat theWizards and Hornets and that will give them
sixty four wins. But they're they'refar and away the top seeds. So
I'm saying everybody, when you goto the you go into the postseason with
the sixty four, sixty five,sixty six win team. That ought to
tell you at least something about howawesome they are. There's never been a

(01:05:00):
race for the number one spot inthe East. There's no race for the
number one overall seed either. They'llhave home court throughout. I totally agree.
The only way they're going to loseis the worst way, when something
else happens, and it's not theother team, it's when injuries come aboard,
and those in the NBA playoffs morethan in any other postseason, because
they seem to happen while it's goingon. Yeah, just sass Rockets fans.
That's where things sometimes go alright.They don't have tremendous depth. They

(01:05:25):
have tremendous upfront death Like they gotso many stars on that team. They
can withstand some of this stuff.But once you get further down the list,
they lean on them heavily because whywouldn't you want them in the game
crushing things. By the way,I'm looking at that set of banners from
ninety four to ninety five, whatdo you think it would have looked like
if they had won an eighteen theywouldn't have done the same design because the
logo is different and all that.But where they've been the same font and

(01:05:46):
they just put a different logo,I've always wondered that because they should have
a third one. I bet shouldbe one hundred like nothing. It would
be completely different, but it wouldn'tbe wrinkled, no, no things or
dusty. Let's put it that way, all right. The A team continues
from out out here at Toyota CenterSports Talk seven ninety. We'll give some
tickets away to the Dave Matthews Bandshow coming up next. Hey, is

(01:06:10):
coach Udoka here every Rockets game onSports Talk seven ninety and on the iHeartRadio
app Home of Your Rockets. Wecan't have him getting technical fouls on things
that are like that. So forthe third time this year, the league
said, no, no, no, our referees are wrong. Do not

(01:06:30):
do that to Luca. How manytimes plenty of a cushion for the final
four games of the season to notget technicled out of a game? How
many times do you think they've scenteda technical foul and a Dylan Brooks zero
times this year? I know thatfor a fact or ever I don't know
about ever. I'd have to putthe WRT on that haves and the have
nots. And the thing about Lucasis some of them are warranted. Like
Fred had a technical foul rescinded thisyear. He had a first quarter technical

(01:06:53):
foul right here and at Toyota Center, right in front of the Rockets bench.
We're like, unless he very heavilyused some magic word, I don't
know how that warranted a technical.This is he got it rescinded the next
day. It happens. I'm justsaying it's odd. This is another example.
The player hit one player has hadthree of them rescinded in over a
seventy eight game span. It's notodd. It is odd, literally because

(01:07:14):
it hasn't happened in any previous year. Right. But that and I'm not
talking to you when I say this, it's not odd because this is what
the NBA does. It's wildly inconsistentand the worst part of some of these
technicals the ones that should be rescinded, by the way, not this BS
one the latest. Because Luca talks. Luca talks all the time, like
Draymond Green talks all the time.He earns these technicals. But because we

(01:07:36):
all know why he got it,rescinded we all do. Well, you
don't have to say it. Theonly time he doesn't talk is in the
third or the fourth quarter in overtimeof a game against the Rockets, when
he's doing nothing, absolutely gassed.Yeah, and I don't know if they
hits a shot anyways, that's crazy. I don't know if I was talking
to you or somebody else here.I know what's here at Toyta Center.
Earlier in the year, I thinkI was on TV when they played the

(01:07:58):
Mavericks and he hit fifty on Houston, So I think I said it to
Calvin. Maybe he looked it wasforty seven. It was at the beginning
of the year, oh that one. Maybe it was even it was closer
to the beginning of the year.He was clearly in shape. I thought
he was in better shape heading intothis year than in other years. And
then Sunday, both this Sunday andlast Sunday, I obviously goet like you

(01:08:19):
did a very good look at him, and I thought he's in the same
awful shape that he usually is.Joey, he's gotten out of shape over
the course of the season. That'simpressive because it means that he's going back
to his hotel and probably enjoying roomservice or who knows what, he just
probably likes to eat. I mean, guy, listen, I know this
because I'm the same way. Whenguys are doing the amount of physical activity

(01:08:44):
that he has to do that's requiredto be successful as an NBA player,
running up and down the floor,I would say play defense, but we
know he's not doing that. Ohman. There were multiple instances where he's
just awful. Man, like youwonder, Like we talked about Aalen Green
against the Mavericks after the first quarter. He essentially he didn't make a shot
after the first quarter. He madea handful of free throws. So the

(01:09:05):
Rockets had to score another eighty someodd points from everybody else to make up
for it. And it wasn't thathard because they got so many open looks
because if he was on the floor, the other four guys had to scramble
to cover for him. Like I'mnot just saying because of the way he's
his offense when I say save time, yeah, just say it's the white

(01:09:26):
James Hard's the same player. He'sthe exact same player up to and including
his miserable failures in the playoffs twothree rounds. Shy of where a guy
of his caliber should be finishing,but that's who he is, and he's
never ever going to win at thehighest level until he gets somebody on his
team with him. And it's notKyrie Irving, by the way that's going

(01:09:48):
to be able to deliver them thatelusive championship relative to what he's not going
to be putting forth at the defensiveend and even at times on the offensive
end. He is different, andwe were talking about this with the numbers
last week. He is different inthe sense that he doesn't have clear examples
of games you could point to whereyou're like, oh my gosh, he

(01:10:10):
was a total no show. That'swhat James has still and we have talked
about this topic before because I knowI've mentioned his postseason career six years in
the NBA. Now this is yearsix, so his postseason, which does
not include last year. If yourecall, he's been awesome in the postseason.
He's won series for them, he'smade game winners for them. They
have not advanced most years, althoughthey have made it to the conference finals.

(01:10:31):
I think he's been great in theplayoffs. I think he'll continue to
be great in the playoffs. Andnow a new argument is a new signature
argument. I actually do think theycan win with Kyrie, and what they've
done against Houston is exactly why whatdo you mean when you say what they've
done against the Hill Literally take seventeenminutes off in the game because Kyrie is

(01:10:51):
doing his thing. And two weeksago when they played here, coach Udoka
was asked about Kyrie. Irving said, I've been around him, I coached
him, because that was how thequestion was presented, and he said,
this is the best one on oneplayer in the league. He basically agreed
with that sentiment. Kevin handles areunparalleled, man, And you saw it
was literally on display. Fred vanVliet, Dylan Brooks, Jalen Grid.

(01:11:13):
It didn't matter if he was inthe zone. He was in the zone
and he was in it. Andthat's how I think they're not going to
slow everybody down. Clearly they donot play or are going to play great
defense. But that's why they wentand got Daniel Gafford, That's why they
went and got PJ. Washington.They have other players that they're gonna try
to. It's not that different ofa makeup for when the Rockets went and
got Chris Paul, they needed somebodyelse. Chris Paul is nowhere near the

(01:11:33):
offensive talent that Kyrie is. Butthe way to get that many points,
buckets good possessions out of them iswhat they needed to do. Because he
Kyrie could do it by himself,Chris was doing it through his teammates and
it took a lot of offensive pressureoff of harden Well. The problem for
them though, is that unlike whenthe Rockets had one clear roadblock in the

(01:11:54):
way of them winning the championship andit happened to be in their conference,
there's two in the West, forsure, maybe three. There's definitely one
or two in the East that I'mlike, I'm not picking the Mavericks to
eat them. Ever. Yeah,I didn't say I agree with that,
but there are some teams I dothink that I will be picking them to
be if that happens to be theirmatchup. I know one thing. As

(01:12:15):
we get further along in this,and you know baseball season rolls into here,
we are very excited about where we'regonna be on Friday. Yeah,
Tom's Watch Bar. It's going tobe fantastic because if you need a downtown
ultimate sports bar that is offering youa free shuttle to and from Astros home
games, let me just say thatagain, because downtown can get hairy,

(01:12:39):
and especially when it comes to Astrosgames. You guys already know a free
shuttle to and from Astro's home games. That's Tom's Watch Bar. They're the
only ones that I know of that'soffering something like this. Yeah, Tom's
Watch Bar is right there in GreenStreet. That means the Green Street garage
available for you. They'll validate yourparking, they'll shuttle you to the game,
so that's free parking. Plus,well it's game night, so let's

(01:13:00):
have some Tom's Watch Bar specials.Buy one, get one drink specials.
And that shuttle that takes you tothe game. Well, obviously they're gonna
take you back to Tom's Watch Barand your vehicle after the game and you
can continue to enjoy everything they haveto offer. Fantastic menu, tremendous cocktails,
the largest TV that ever you couldsee hit you in the face right

(01:13:20):
when you walk in the door.A great indoor and outdoor seating at Tom's
Watch more. Yeah, and thatmeans if you're using that free shuttle,
you're not paying forty dollars parking,and that that can happen. I mean,
that's what happens when you have awinning team. They can up those
prices and they will certainly do that. So avoid all of that. Get
those specials wex was talking about andeverything else that you want when you go

(01:13:41):
to Tom's Watch bar and tell themthe A team from Sports Talks seven ninety.
Since you went, We now returnto Adam Clinton and Adam Wexworth on
Sports Talk seven NY a team hereon Sports Talks seven ninety. Winding down
the four o'clock hour. We've gotAstros on on deck coming up in a
little over thirty minutes, as we'llget you ready for the opener of the

(01:14:04):
surprising upstart Kansas City Royals series.The Royals, especially with the pitching that
they have displayed here in the earlygoing so nice little. I don't think
they nobody's gonna be taking the Royalslightly on the Astros with what's happened with
them, but it might be itmight make for an interesting series, certainly

(01:14:25):
better than the last few seasons wherethese two have got together. Although I
feel like the Royals took like twoout of three from the Astros in one
of those late season series last year. Wasn't that one of the teams that
beat up on them when we werelike, what's going on? They destroyed
them, That's what I thought,embarrassed them. I think might be a
way to to make that sound good. And that was in the midst of
The Astros won one of those games, right and lost the other five.

(01:14:49):
Ooh, I didn't realize it wasthat bad. And wasn't some of those
coming at a time with the schedulesgoing to soften up for the Astros here,
they should have a good chance tobe in good position to take the
division. It's great that these KansasCity games come late in the season.
I mean, they just got luckythat they fell that way too late September
series and they lost five out ofsix. But the thing is, I
think that was also coinciding at atime when the Rangers were spiraling, so

(01:15:14):
the Astros could have surged ahead andnot have it come down to the final
literally the final day of the season. Yeah, but they couldn't beat Oakland
either. I remember, oh,I remember that that was way worse.
That's losing games to Oakland. Idon't care. I lost a game to
Oakland. Okay, that's won toomany. That team was atrocious last year
and the ass finished eighteen games overfive hundred. They went into the series

(01:15:39):
with Oakland, which was the firstof their last six series of the season
twenty games over five hundred. Ohmy gosh. But couldn't beat Oakland,
couldn't be Kansas City. Thus twoout of three to Baltimore, and then
they won the last four games ofthe season and won the division. Sorry
Rangers, but you got the theultimate title last year. But yeah,

(01:16:00):
that's gonna be again. Why arethe Royals having these games so insanely early?
Insanely early? Yeah, I don'tknow. Well, they're not in
a Eastern time zone, so whyis it preempting our show? Like why
are they doing this? It's whattimes they having it? Twenty minutes early.
That's too early, that's too earlyfor the Central time zone. Okay,

(01:16:24):
what are they trying to do theyhave like early bedtimes? Is there
like a Loubie special? What's goingon in Kansas City? Maybe they're trying
to drum up money. So EricGoodman doesn't steal the Eric Johnson doesn't steal
their team. Oh he's gonna stealthe Royals now too, the other team.
Okay, the mayor of Kansas Citysaid, you're an idiot basically and
nuts in so many words. Theyplay right next door to each other in

(01:16:45):
pretty much equally old stadiums. Onehas had more success recently than the other.
Yeah, but both have had theultimate success, the ultimate prize,
winning it all an NBA championship.Neither of them, neither of them done
that. Bill Walton wouldn't wouldn't bea fan of either of those titles because
they don't come in the Larry O'Brientrophy form. All Right, we will
get to our Football at five conversationcoming up next here on the A Team

(01:17:09):
Sports Talk seven to ninety, butnot before we tell you, guys about
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Wexler R. The A Team Asee you're right at fuessl Football five o'clock
Songs, five o'clock football. Professionalfootball in America is a special game.

(01:19:00):
A team are rolling along here onSports Talk seven to ninety and as is
always the case, at five o'clock, we talk about a little bit of
pigskin here on the program. Youknow, one thing we haven't done,
mainly because the Texans aren't drafting earlyand then traded away the number twenty three
pick that Minnesota now possesses that camevia the Cleveland Browns trade for their starting

(01:19:26):
quarterback. We haven't talked about moxbecause Texans aren't mocked to draft anybody in
the first round. Handful of mockersout there really go above and beyond and
delve into the other rounds, whichis nice. I have an idea of
who I think is going to beavailable in that second round, those thirty
additional thirty two additional players that getdrafted after the top thirty two. Texans
still have two of those selections,forty two and fifty nine. Chad Reeder,

(01:19:49):
who has been on the show acouple times over a handful of years.
He's been coming the draft here andhis mock draft runs five rounds deep.
He just put it out this week, and already because of what's happened
this week in NFL draft news,I would be very surprised if things played
out this way for the Houston Texansnumber forty two, after the Packers take

(01:20:14):
a safety, two picks after theKamis take Cooper John who blew up at
his pro day. He had notbeen one hundred percent healthy this entire offseason,
but was, and he showed itthis week. I think he's probably
going a little bit higher than that. Brandon Fisk, the DT from the
Panthers or from the Seminoles, goesto the Panthers. Those are the three

(01:20:38):
picks preceding Houston at forty two.Defensive tackle. I mentioned that specifically because
obviously many think the Texans might beinterested in a defensive tackle. The player
the Texans have selected to them atforty two is actually a corner from Notre
Dame cam Hart. I absolutely buyinto the position. I think that it's

(01:21:00):
a reasonable spot for heart, althoughI thought maybe you'd be a little bit
later. But if it's forty five, fifty to fifty three, whatever the
case may be, Drafting at fortytwo, I can absolutely understand that.
A little surprised though, that thevery next pick is Bama corner kool Aid
McKinstry. I mean, I couldgo super simple Dullard and say, well,

(01:21:21):
I don't even care if he canplay or not. He went to
Alabama. Of course Nick is draftinghim. That's all he ever does.
Well, and the head coach two, I mean, he's probably a little
bit partial, I guess, buthe wasn't here when Nick started drafting player
from Bama. True, it's notthe first time they would draft the corner
from Bama either. Nope, KareemJackson, well, neither of them drafted

(01:21:45):
him. No, I know,I'm just talking about the organization, so
I'd be surprised. They have hadother gms, you though, Well,
I don't really care what they did. It has no impact on this year's
draft, unless we're talking about themost recent one who left the team with
nothing. Basically, he was alsoa logistics guy more than a football guy.
Thanks Jack. So yeah, i'dbe surprised if that's their choice one

(01:22:05):
versus the other corner for corner,but the pick, I'm sure nobody thinks
we'll actually play out this way.As you get to fifty nine, the
Bengals take a defensive tackle Mason Smithan it's Rakestraw. Another corner goes off
the board. Mike Hall, detackle from C. J. Strouds alma

(01:22:26):
mater at Ohio State, goes atfifty two. Ad Ni Mitchell, a
wide receiver Georgia then Texas. He'snow off the board. Edrick Cooper,
I think has a lot of peoplehere fairly excited about that possibility. But
again according to this mock, he'snow been taken off the board. Jatavian
Sanders the tight end from Texas.Edrin Cooper is the linebacker for Texas,

(01:22:48):
and m by the way, alsonow off the board, Javon Bullard.
Some are very very high on Bullardin the second and third round area,
so I'm not so much I'm onthe bullish on Bullard, but he's now
also off the board. So atnumber fifty nine, the Houston Texans select
defensive tackle University of Texas to AndreSweat Tell, the guy we talked about

(01:23:12):
yesterday who has a little bit oflegal issues going on right now, was
written on April fifth, prior tothat incident. I do not believe I'm
again I ran through the dts thatwere taken on this mock, and I'm
not so sure that he would ratebehind them. And again, this was
before the incident. After the incident, I'm sure he'll meet with teams that
are interested. They'll get maybe alittle bit better understanding of how did circumstances

(01:23:38):
lead up to the decision that wasmade here, what's ultimately going to be
the result from the being booked onthose charges, and what do they think
about his you know, in thiscase as the second round pick, it's
not a super long term future,but he should be drafting a second round
pick with the idea that he's goingto get a second contract with us because
he's good and he's making our teambetter and we like that. I mean,

(01:23:59):
have it happen all throughout the draft, clearly, but here in the
top sixty you should be thinking that. Well, and here's this is a
terrible question, but I've always kindof wondered this, you know, when
something like this happens, and Isay that because it has happened several times,
not like this, but legal typethings. Does he have, like

(01:24:23):
when he goes in for these meetingswith these teams and they're gonna clearly ask
him about a legal issue. I'mnot even joking when I say this.
Does he bring representation with him?No, but they probably have told him
there are certain things that you knowyou can't answer. You should answer,
we'd like you to answer. Thisis what we'd like you to say.
And then there are probably some otherthings potentially that they either would know ahead

(01:24:45):
of time because they'd talked to hisagents or whomever, that he's just gonna
be in a position or he feelslike he needs to be in the position
to say. I mean, Ican tell you this, and I can
tell you that, but I reallycan't give you some of this because of
what's going on. They might notlike that answer, but it's not one
that you might hear. Again.I don't think this is necessarily super complicated.
What do you mean, like whathappened? Oh? No, I

(01:25:08):
know, but I just it willmake them do more digging, It will
make them ask more questions. Itwill make them ask other people around him
more questions. Anything you say ordo can be used against you, all
that kind of stuff. I mean, guys, get you know, all
these things happen even on the socalled eve of the draft and the players
still get drafted and still. Imean there's plenty of players who've had to

(01:25:29):
leave one school to go to anotherbecause they got kicked off the team and
they're super awesome at football, andthen they get drafted. I mean,
it's Tyreek Hill that different. Imean, the incidents are different, but
he had things going on at schooland they have clearly still gone on as
an NFL player, and two differentteams have been thrilled to have him on
the squad. And if you're draftingat that spot and you have you know,

(01:25:51):
this and this and this and thisand this areas of need and typically
you would say, oh wow,you just take the best player available for
one of those one of those needs. But then this is you know,
hanging over the situation. Do youthen, if you're the Texans or another
team, automatically go the other routelike a cornerback. I don't know.
I can't speak for these teams,but my guess is there's thirty two NFL

(01:26:14):
teams. There's probably more than ahandful, so more than five that will
just make it very simple off theboard, not draftable by us. If
that's how they feel. This incident, you know, played some role in
who they think he is, whothey think he's going to be, which
from my guess, that's not accuratefrom what most people who covered him in
Austin or people that know him.From what I know, it's just a

(01:26:38):
very bad decision that was made.I don't think it's a mark of some
poor character person. Well that's thething in this sense, I don't know
that for a fact. They probablyhave more information. He's hardly the first
guy to ever do something like thisin this scenario, you know, like
the college game, heading into thedraft, or even close to the draft,
all that kind of stuff. Butlike that's you bring up a good

(01:26:58):
point. If this is a that'shad this issue in this issue and this
issue leading up to this, andthen he does this, you know,
a couple weeks out from the draft, that's a serious red flag. Not
saying this isn't a serious red flagbecause it was stupid. It was absolutely
stupid. If indeed it's proven thatthat's what he did and everything, But
if it's like a lone incident,he doesn't have a littered resume. If

(01:27:19):
you will leading up to this point, then maybe you are willing to not
look the other way but take thatinto account when you're making a decision like
this. And I what I saidabout off the board, I think teams
that do that for players with supertalent are dumb. And I go back
to Tyreek Hill twenty sixteen draft.That's the draft that he was in.

(01:27:42):
The first wide receiver taken was CoreyColeman at number fifteen. He was terrible,
not an NFL player, had anall useless career, went with Baylor.
The next wide receiver taken was WillFuller, obviously by the Houston Texans,
and sixteen receivers later in the fifthround at one sixty five. Tyreek
Hill was drafted far and away byleaps and bounds, by measurements that are

(01:28:05):
too enormous to even mentioned here.The best wide receiver in the twenty sixteen
draft will Fuller. Will Fuller iseighth on the receiving yards list from that
draft. He for all things,you know, equal. He injuries clearly
derailed him. When he played,he was very good. You didn't know

(01:28:25):
he's gonna have injury history. Therewas nothing at Notre Dame that suggested it
was going to be a long termseasonal problem. Legit one of the most
terrifying things about the draft ass perusual every single year. You never know
when you're drafting an off injury orinjury prone guy that you don't know his
injury prone until you get him inyour building. Yeah. Point I was
making about Tyreek is there were therewere teams that said, oh, I
can't draft him, and there wereother teams that said, I can't draft

(01:28:46):
him here, and so draft himdown here. Yeah, at one hundred
and sixty one hundred and sixty fourplayers off the board, and one of
the five best players in that draftis now sitting in your lap, and
you win championships. Championship with TyreekHill on the roster. They've won two
without him, So I guess they'rebetter off. That's one way to look
at it. I think I thinkMiami would beg to differ, although they

(01:29:09):
weren't in the Super Bowl so andthey lost to the Chiefs. That's gotta
steeing him, actually, especially inthat kind of weather. Heck, what
will Fuller is the fifth has thefifth most yards in that draft among wide
receivers. Three guys ahead of himwere tight ends. Sixteen he was taken.
Yep, do you know how longago twenty sixteen is in the echelon

(01:29:31):
of Texans history. Yeah nine yearsit was pre to Shawn yeah barely but
yeah yeah the year before. Butthat I mean, good lord, things
we're looking up. Think about it, not the not even decade since that
decision was made to take Will Fullerin that draft. I mean Will Fuller,

(01:29:53):
Nick Martin who started for years therethough he wasn't good. Yeah,
and their last pick in the draftwas their best pick in the draft.
He just got a fat contract fromthe Lions this offseason, after getting a
fat contract to leave the Texans togo play for the Bengals. DJ Reader
gosh, he was taking a sixteen. Yep, our lives are flying after

(01:30:15):
Tyreek Hill. Wow. See that'swhy I'm I'm just I know it's not
a first round pick. I knowwe're gonna have to suffer through the first
night of nothingness, but I am. And it's again it goes back to
because you have CJ and everything elsethat's happened. I mean, I'm ecstatic
about what they're gonna do. Ihope. The problem is, and this

(01:30:38):
is usually the case, you justyou might not know for a while on
some guys, depending on where they'retaking if they're gonna be you know,
others right off the bat CJ.Not the least of which you know they're
they're superstar right away, but somesome positions are it's not as easy to
tell. And again I watched thetop three drafted with the forty second overall

(01:31:01):
picks, and that last yesterday,over the last fifteen years. Only it
wasn't yesterday, I asked a fewhours ago. It feels like yesterday.
It does. Lot's happened, sure, number one, this is all time,
right, this is my personal listover the last fifteen years. Oh,
fifteen years. Okay, the numberforty two overall pick. The best
player drafted at that spot. Thatwas twenty ten Aaron Hernandez teammate and played

(01:31:28):
the same position. Gronk was takenat forty two. Yep, Gronk had
some major injury one of them ascorrect, and others around them are still
alive as well because they didn't killthem. He's so he's the best player
drafted there. I'm already struggling tosay who the next best player is because
there's a debate or they're just there'sa bunch of guys that they're Okay,

(01:31:50):
the Texans have had too. Ifyou go back to six, Daniel Manning
was a forty second overall pick,Brooks Reid will buy the Texans was the
forty second overall pick, the twentyeleven season player, and then it's a
who's who of this guy played afew years, nothing special, nothing great.
Unless I'm missing something. A handfulof these players didn't really even make

(01:32:12):
it in the league. So yourexcitement level is great because you don't have
any other pick, but the excitementlevel, I mean, heck, last
year's forty second overall pick might bethe next best guy, because I think
Luke Musgrave is going to be veryvery good. Another tight end drafted by
Green Bay this past year. Imean, is forty one forty three sexy?
You know what I mean? Likethat's that's such a depressing outlook.

(01:32:34):
But you know, Ohio State quarterbackssucked until the Texans drafted CJ. Shroud.
That's why it's so silly. Fortyone is littered with amazing picks.
Yes, Kenney Walker running back,Jonathan Taylor running back, Harold Landry end
for the Titans, Dalvin Cook runningback. You're getting the gist of this,
Yeah, Yeah, so they justneed to be the first ones to

(01:32:55):
make forty two hot outside of currentTexan Robert Woods first overall, pick not
for long? He gone. Allright, we will get to some of
the things we have not gotten toin case you missed it. Coming up
next, We've got you ready forAstros on Deck coming up at the bottom
of the hour here on the ATeam Sports Talk seven to ninety. But
we need to tell you one moretime about options. And by options,

(01:33:19):
I mean one option. If youare heading into an Astros game at Minute
Made Park, if you're a downtownfor anything and you're looking for the best
place to call your own ultimate sportsbar, there's only one option for you,
and that's Tom's Watch Bar, offeringa free free shuttle to and from

(01:33:40):
Astros home games. That alone isworth walking in the doors. But as
wex will tell you, there aremany many other reasons to get yourself into
Tom's Watch Bar asap. Yeah,let's hear that one more time. That's
a free show to and from Tom'sWatch Bar for Stros games. You know
where it is, right there onthe corner of Carolina Polk Downtown Ultimate sports

(01:34:00):
bar location. Be honest with you, I'm over there a couple times a
week. We're doing some of theTV work that I do. It's right
next to it. It's right inthe heart of it all, not far
from Toyta Center. And as wementioned, free shuttle to Minute Made Park
for Astros home game to and fromthat means you get to skip forty dollars
ballpark parking and take Tom's free shuttle. And they're also giving you buy one,

(01:34:21):
get one drink special. It's fantasticopportunity. Go check out Tom's watch
Bar. For those of you thathave, I know you'll be back.
For those of you that haven't,great opportunity before and after Astros games.
During Astros games right there at Tom'sWatch Bar, twelve oh one Caroline,
Caroline and Polk is where it's located, Downtown's ultimate sports bar, the baseline

(01:34:44):
for Freddie. Did you listen toevery game on any device with our free
iHeartRadio app Sports Talk seven ninety Homeof your Rockets. Wow, good time
for us to hit you with incase you missed it. Here and there
are a bunch of items to getto. I'm gonna rattle through the first
one at is Astros roster move related. We knew there were several coming.

(01:35:06):
Blair Henley mentioned last night he wouldnot be remaining with the team. He
told he was optioned out, andthat in fact is the case. His
spot on the roster is going tobe taken by Wander Sweow had a pretty
good camp with the Astros spring trainingand has some major league experience, one
hundred and ninety games worth of it. I was looking at the Space Cowboys
last handful of games, and Ihad come to the conclusion that Sweow would

(01:35:28):
likely be the guy because he's available, and they can't go into another game
a man down like they were yesterday, and clearly Henley can't pitch again,
and neither can several of the othersthat did so possibility he's not only with
the team, but makes an appearancewith them tonight. Forty man roster spot
had to be opened up for Swear, so that comes via Oliver Otega.
He had recently had Obo's surgeries priorto the season, so he goes from

(01:35:50):
the fifteen day to the sixty dayIL, and they have in fact placed
Framber Valdez on the fifteen day IL, which seemed obvious yesterday, but they've
done so today. Left elbow sorenessis how they've reported it. Left elbow
inflammation is what Joe A Spot hadtold reporters there today. Shut down for
a few days while it subsides,and then there were further evaluates. So

(01:36:12):
his spot, because it's an injurysituation, is allowed to be taken by
Parker Mshinsky, who was simply recalled. Of course, he made the team
out of camp and then did notpitch very well and they needed his spot.
But because an injury has arisen,he is allowed to make his way
back after not seeing the requisite timeaway. So what else do we have
today? All Right? I gottabelieve Ac is gonna love this. So
I found this on TikTok earlier.This was a recent Laker game that I

(01:36:36):
guess DeShawn Watson went to and afterthe game there were fans outside as Watson
was going to his ride trying toget his autograph. Well, he didn't
really pay them much mind, andat least one guy was not a huge
fan of the shun. Come on. That's why that not because he was

(01:37:04):
not here anymore, and not becausethe Texans drafted c J. Strau,
but because he didn't give that guyan autograph and or a picture. That's
why c J Strau took his job. Just so you guys know that laugh
was a c's. I would havelaughed just as hard if the guy would
have said, that's why Davis Millstook your job. That's actually true.

(01:37:27):
I mean, technically could have saidTyrod Taylor took his job. That would
all that would be more true.That's yes, in the in the purest
sense of your semantics. That isexactly. It was years he'd been off
the field about the fact that threeguys took your job. I mean,
but I said I had to throwa pass for the Texans before CJ did.
Was clearly not Deshaun Watson. That'sa He's gonna deal with that for

(01:37:50):
the rest of his career and he'searned it. When does that was purely
football? Exactly? When does thechant the next time the Texans and Browns
play each other at RG Stadium,CJ's better clap, clap, clap.
CJ's better like that. Kobe's gonnahave to chant it because it's just gonna
happen, and he'll know, justlike he knew when he was here last
time, and well, he wasn'tplaying because he was injured. But C.

(01:38:13):
J. Stratt was the best quarterbackon the field and he will be
again this and again. Remember theNFL said, oh man, we got
to suspend a show on Watson rightup until they go to Houston so he
can come back and play in thatgame. I love it. He played
quite poorly despite the fact that histeam was victorious, as nearly all Texans
opponents were that season. Yeah,well Texans had the last laugh. Hope
you enjoyed the Laker game. Whatelse all right? So Fanatics explains why

(01:38:35):
the Astros got their City Connect jerseyslast week, and of course they wore
them on the night that Renel Blancothrew his no hitter. The Rangers were
supposed to wear theirs on Friday,but they decided against it because well,
they hadn't even shown up yet.So Fanatics, through a spokesperson, says
that each major league club was givenshipping windows, and as to prioritize their

(01:38:58):
on field uniform knee to be deliveredby specific dates between March and mid May,
the Astros placed a greater priority ontheir City Connect unis. Thus they
were able to wear them last Mondaynight. Are we kind of tired of
hearing about the whole Nike fanatics jerseysbonts thing. I mean, clearly they've
had a switch because the Rangers wereone of the teams like Houston who was

(01:39:19):
not waiting until this season to seetheir City Connect jerseys for the first time.
They had them last year. TheAstros wore them each Monday Night last
year. But with a new manufacturingspecs on these new jerseys this year,
it obviously created the lag time thatyou were mentioning and a built in seat
through feature. But I do thinkthat we were doing it. At the

(01:39:41):
time we were doing it, wewere even mocking ourselves. We're spending so
much time on this nonsense, itwill be totally meaningless when baseball games are
being played. I think we'll placemore importance on the baseball games, and
yeah, we have just because thisis a topic that has been brought up
here. It's going to be coolto see the Texan new whatever whatever they
end up being fourteen days away.Yeah, but like, because of where

(01:40:04):
they're at right now, it shouldbe a passing topic for like a segment,
if not a day. It willbe much much larger than that.
Why, because I've heard is tena reason to wear jerseys for such a
long time. That's why we keptgoing to games the last three seasons,
and the only jerseys in the buildingwere either from famous NFL players, the

(01:40:26):
other team's NFL players, or JJWatt, Arian Foster and other former Texans.
This place ANRG stadium, and thesurrounding tailgates and the city is going
to be littered right with Stingley Juniorand Anderson jerseys, Stroud Jerseys, Dell
Jerseys, Diggs Diggs Jerseys, Collinsjerseys. The list is impressively long for

(01:40:48):
how bad this team was prior tothis passage. All of that is accurate.
What I'm saying is the what I'veheard because I've heard from people who
have actually seen more of it.I guess, plus we've seen the leaks.
They're not that different team. Yeah, they're not that different, though,
they're not like radically different from thestandpoint of That's what I mean when

(01:41:10):
I say right, and I'll getback to my usual boring color scheme.
Thought, if they were radically different, they would not have the same three
colors in it. So you're right, they'd have to have orange or yellow
or green or purple or Columbia blue, red, white, and blue.
Yeah, and but the only differenceis wex it's a darker blue, so

(01:41:31):
dark in fact, that people aregonna think it's black. That's what I've
heard. Well, certainly the onethat we've seen I can definitely fly with
that. That's why we were talkingabout the Falcons resemblances and otherwise. But
yes, the two days from thefirst day of the NFL Draft, they'll
have an unveiling of those jerseys.Three days after the unveiling of the jerseys,

(01:41:51):
the Texans will have some new players, presumably when they are allowed to
draft somebody at number forty two onFriday night forty two fifty nine nine,
mid eighties, a couple of picksin the one twenties and on throughout.
Nick outfitting this team for ultimate greatness. I'm sure they'll have some vests to
go along with the new jerseys.Well, we'll soon see which jerseys the

(01:42:14):
Astros are wearing. Actually, weprobably have an idea if we've seen any
sort of video from Yeah, whatis Wander Square, what will Christian d'javier
be wearing and his teammates as theytake on the Royals and the opener of
this three game set in Kansas City. We're gonna get you ready for that
sooner rather than later here as thatis upcoming here on Sports Talk seven to

(01:42:34):
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