Happy Birthday Wex! Rockets Are Back! Presidential Royal Rumble

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named at him talking your
team Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
A for Wex's birthday.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
If he were to ask either of the other participants
on this show what what we could get him for
his birthday, he would have not wanted it mentioned, not
wanted any sort of music played out of the open,
and he would have he would have. I don't know,
like he's already rolling his eyes just because we want
to tell him happy birthday?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Did not roll my eyes? What would you call it?

Speaker 4 (00:39):
Not that.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
It's his birthday? Can't you tell he's in a good mood?
Happy birthday, Bud?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Thank you?

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Uh, it's Wex's birthday today, So please call in at
seven one three two one seven ninety and.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Secon in a bad mood? But that's not why why
are you in a bad mood already? It's two freaking
hot in here?

Speaker 5 (00:57):
Holy cow?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
How do they do a show like this? Let's just
talk about that.

Speaker 3 (01:00):
I mean, it's but you know, do you adjust it
before we leave at six o'clock every day?

Speaker 2 (01:06):
As I don't, because if you don't.

Speaker 6 (01:08):
Most days all come in here. And luckily we've had
the last three days. Really lucky that they were able
to grab so much great content, do so many great interviews,
but mainly not be here when we want to set up.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
So the temperature and here was fine. I've walked in
here plenty of.

Speaker 6 (01:21):
Times when they have been in studio before us, because
that's not a daily occurrence when they're not out of
town gathering great content.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
But today it's just felt different. It's way too hot
in it. It's like a nursing home.

Speaker 6 (01:31):
In a few minutes, I'll be back in a great mood.
Song is fine. Mentioning my birthday is fine. We got
fifty more segments to mention it's great. I'm all good.
It's just the heat.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
I can't operate like that.

Speaker 6 (01:41):
But you are wearing like a very normal clothing get
up for a day in the thirties.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
That's what I'm wearing, normal clothes. How old are you?
Fifty one? Sure you don't even know, do you? My
son probably remembers, oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
All right, Well, just like when I had a birthdate
at the beginning of the month, you have the day
off for the Rockets basketball game tonight. I hope they
performed better for your birthday. Than they did on mine,
when they rolled over and died against the Brooklyn Nets
for the first of two straight losses to them to
get swept.

Speaker 6 (02:17):
This year, a little doubt they'll put on a better
Both of their games against the Nets, their basketball was poor.
They obviously should have won one of those games that
they gave away, but they didn't play good basketball in
either of those games. They've played really, really good basketball
against the Timberwolves all three times they've played them, once
through the fourth quarter and twice through maybe a small
small segment of the fourth quarter, blowing a fifteen point

(02:39):
lead late in one of them and blowing a laid
lead immediately when that fourth quarter began. Their last game
in Minnesota, the one that ended up with a thirteen
point loss, Minnesota has a chance to do what the
last team that beat them did, and that's win a
third time against the Houston Rockets.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
The only team to do that to date is the.

Speaker 6 (03:00):
Golden State Warriors, or Minnesota would be the second to
accomplish that, and obviously it would come at the expense
of the Rockets. Top four standing Rockets and Wolves are
among the teams that have not played since the All
Star Break. The Lakers are a team that's played twice.
They did win one of those games. They did slide
a little bit closer to the Rockets with their game

(03:22):
last night, and it's gonna be like this the rest
of the way. Memphis losing last night, Denver sliding past them.
They're now the two seed in the Western Conference, and
with what's going on everywhere around Houston, they need to
go play better basketball, and hopefully the return of a
couple of players, one tonight and one probably within the
next couple of games, they can do that.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
No word from me.

Speaker 6 (03:43):
May Udoka yesterday or today obviously doesn't speak today yet
about what he'll do with the starting lineup. I wouldn't
even say he will for sure mention that at five
point fifteen or six forty five tonight when he meets
with the media because of the eight to thirty tip time,
what he intends to do this starting lineup. Jabar Smith
Junior is going to play. He's not listed on the

(04:03):
injury report, went through practice this week perfectly fine, talked
and said I'm ready to go. Not really a conditioning
issue because this was a hand finger injury. He's done
a pretty good job keeping up and from that regard,
according to both he and the head coach. So whether
or not he starts, there doesn't really need to be
any reason to hold him back. And Fred van Vliet
from the moment, basically the moment after he was termed

(04:27):
a game time decision by ema Udoka after they practiced,
while they were saying, well, we'll see how he comes
out of this and whatever.

Speaker 2 (04:34):
Well, he's not a game time decision.

Speaker 6 (04:35):
He put on the out list late when the first
injury report last night and he has remained there ever since.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
So Fred's return is not tonight. Yeah, no, it's I
was hoping that would be the case.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
I actually I thought they would both play the first
game out of the box.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
But then you know, you brought logic into things.

Speaker 6 (04:52):
And according to what he may said right before the
break though the last time it was really addressed. They
were hoping during the break that Fred would be cleared
for practice, which he was. He obviously participated in some
of practice, but it didn't sound like they were ready
to say, oh, as soon as he practiced for five seconds,
he's gonna go out there and play.

Speaker 2 (05:09):
He had a leg injury.

Speaker 6 (05:11):
It's a much bigger, I think instance, and he's it's
not always the case, but I'll make this general. I'm
not a doctor assumption older players leg injuries versus younger
players hand finger injuries, you probably can come back immediately
from one and not the other.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
Well, and with Jabbari, it was not like it was
a major break, but it was also not like you
could like fudge it and speed up the process it
has to heal.

Speaker 6 (05:35):
Non shooting hand right did not have surgery.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
Good to go.

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, And it was just because it was such a
small little fracture. It was it was just here's the
time it's going to take, and when it's done, he'll
be fine.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
And that's exactly what's going on. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (05:49):
Pressed during his time with the media yesterday on who
did it, he declined really to truly answer.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
That's a good teammate.

Speaker 6 (05:58):
I was thinking about that is a good team made
or does it create a good fun story for others.
I mean, we know of the kembe's elbows at a
time should have been standing there, you know, hurting a teammate,
and it's happened plenty. It happens all over the place.
It's totally normal and sometimes just he ran into me.
The nature of the injury is such a minor thing
to begin with. It's nothing you could have prevented. You

(06:18):
got his hand hit during a practice, he ultimately said,
he said it doesn't matter. I don't know it was
a video guy or something. So he didn't name names,
nor should he have. And again, this team will try
to figure out what's the best group. Remember the rotation
they were using at different times this year. It changed
without injuries being a part of it. Kind of thinking
about Cam Whitmore, it's changed because injuries have been a

(06:41):
part of it. And tonight is the first of back
to back nights they will be playing basketball, unless he
may says something different tonight at six forty five, Tarry
Easton and Steven Adams are both unlisted on the injury report.
They are playing tonight, and I bet Tarry Eason will
not be active tomorrow night. I think Steven Adams minutes
might dictate whether or not he's out there, and some

(07:03):
of the lineups that Minnesota uses I think might have
him on the floor, probably not for an overwhelming number
of minutes. So it wouldn't shock me if he plays
both or is available for both nights of this back
to back, but when they went into the break from
e May, it sounded like we're not out of the
sitting them for one of the two nights of back
to backs. They will play back to back games again

(07:24):
early next week.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Well in the competition level between these two teams, although
I know Utah has beaten some teams lately that they
had no business beating.

Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yeah, they have thirteen wins well, but.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
Recently, I mean they beat they beat the Lakers recently,
and I feel like Charlotte, well, yeah, but that's because
the Lakers aren't actually any good.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
You do know that, right, Like the numbers are gonna
bear it out.

Speaker 6 (07:49):
Uh, well, that's pretty much impossible unless they lose almost
every game the rest of the way.

Speaker 3 (07:53):
No, I'm just saying from the standpoint of even bad
teams find ways to win some games. But they're not
good now. There were.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
They're not championship contenders. They weren't before and they aren't now.

Speaker 6 (08:03):
And I think that's the easiest way to not need
to delve too far into the Lakers today.

Speaker 3 (08:08):
I was just gonna say, because it was the trade
that rocked the NBA, if like say, when Luca gets
back to one hundred percent, there's still not.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Going to be a good team.

Speaker 6 (08:17):
When would you say that is I don't know, probably never.
I'm not even kidding.

Speaker 3 (08:21):
Well, if he keeps looking like Shane Gillis in those memes,
yeah or no, it's the other guy. Who's the other guy?
The British guy that does the carpools swing a long.

Speaker 6 (08:28):
Because did a dance with the Laker girls part of
the year, I have seen a Shane.

Speaker 3 (08:33):
Gillis Jersey James Cordon, James Cordon him. Yeah, that was
a funny little bit for a while, and then it
totally jumped the shark.

Speaker 2 (08:42):
What was carpool karaoke with him?

Speaker 6 (08:45):
I don't think it ever jumped the shark. He just
doesn't have a television program anymore.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
That's part of it, jumping shark. I guess I doubt
that's the reason. I mean he went away. If it
wasn't the best bit he was doing, maybe he'd still
have a show.

Speaker 6 (08:56):
I mean, you gotta come up with new bits, you know,
an hour a night, five minutes a week.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
Hurry up with your new signature segment where you sing inappropriately?

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Next week? Next week, do we have a day Monday
or Tuesday? Nice? I don't have to wait that long?

Speaker 7 (09:10):
No?

Speaker 3 (09:10):
All right, good, well, next show I'm gonna call it
or the next one.

Speaker 2 (09:14):
All right. Some other things happen that we will.

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Discuss, like the Texans officially announcing their staff on a
scale of like one being like there's no pulse and
ten being the greatest sports news ever?

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Where does that rank? When they're like, hey, here's I'm five,
I have a pulse, I know right above no pulse.
That's it?

Speaker 3 (09:33):
So one, you're giving it a one. As far as
a sports new story in Houston, I.

Speaker 6 (09:38):
Never anticipated needed to needing to rate this news of
from the text?

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Do they announce their staff every year? Every year?

Speaker 6 (09:44):
If you saw my post today, I grabbed the twenty
twenty four coaching staff announcement or twenty well so people.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
So that's tho.

Speaker 6 (09:51):
These are questions you might get, Oh, I saw the
new staff? Is this guy new? Is that guy knew?
Who's not?

Speaker 2 (09:55):
I just flat out.

Speaker 6 (09:56):
Told everybody these are the new changes, cup to promotions,
several guys out, several guys in most of them lower
level positions, offensive quality control type positions. Obviously other than
Nick Kayley and the other person of significance. I think
mister Schulplinsky as a senior offensive assistant and again the
confirmation which I think we'd gotten from Demiko when we

(10:18):
talked to him and Nick Kayley the other day. Most
of the rest of the offensive staff outside of the
two we've been mentioning all off season, Bobby Slowick as
OC and Chris Strausser as O line coach, essentially everybody
else is back. And then this year, unlike last year,
but like the first year of CJ, they now have
two senior offensive assistant type coaches. Shane Day and Bill

(10:42):
Laser were here in year one with CJ, and I
thought it was kind of important that they had them.
Day left to join Jim Harbaugh's staff in LA this
past offseason and there really was no replacement for him,
And so this year they've gone back to having two
Bill Laser and Jira john Uts, and both interviewed for
the open OC position, neither got it, and both remain

(11:05):
on staff in the same role, which I think is excellent.

Speaker 3 (11:08):
Well, Houston, I feel like it's because they have the
new offensive coordinator that people even like are paying this
even more than just a regular.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
Amount of attention, which is to say barely any.

Speaker 6 (11:19):
I mean he has relationships with the new offensive line
coach who was already here. He was elevated from assistant
offensive line coach through the offensive line coach. He's got
familiarity with Nick Casserio. He's got familiarity with Ben McDaniels,
who maintains insame role as a pass game coordinator, and
wide receivers coach. Danny Barrett back is running back coach
and assistant head coach. And like I said, most of

(11:40):
the rest of the old line. We talked about Frank
Okam the other day. I hope again that's the name
familiar to you. He was a Texan and a Texan
teammate of Demico Ryans. He was also a Texas Longhorn
teammate of the coach he's working with now, Rod Wright.
Rod Wright's the defensive line coach. He enters his second season,
and Okam and Rod were national champs with the University

(12:02):
of Texas together been friends for a long time. Most recently,
Okam was with the Toledo Rockets on their defensive line
and I's the Texans new defensive line assistant.

Speaker 3 (12:11):
All right, it's a Friday show. It's a WEX Birthday
edition of the show. We did not make good on
our promise for Mauricio Dubon yesterday, so we will play
that for you later on in the program.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
And the guy who's going to take work from him,
we'll hear from him as well. Yes, that guy, we'll
hear from him. Mullet. We will get to not Brian mctagger.

Speaker 6 (12:31):
No, Brian's not taking any of Mauricio's work from him.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
You said, Mullet, Brian's new player.

Speaker 6 (12:37):
If you didn't see him playing for Colorado and now
are seeing him with the Astros, he looks the same.

Speaker 2 (12:41):
The mullet has come with him.

Speaker 3 (12:42):
I feel like that's a Colorado thing, by the way,
Colorado Rockies thing. Specifically, we'll get to the best of
X later on in this hour, and when we come back,
the biggest sporting event from the last twenty four hours
and how it relates to Houston, we'll explain.

Speaker 8 (13:00):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
I want to explain to you that it's Friday.

Speaker 3 (13:06):
It's Wex's birthday, by the way, so why don't you
celebrate by getting half price appetizers from nine o'clock to
close and celebrate with Margarita Madness five dollars, margaritas all
day and buckets of astrologje Alasco at eighteen dollars. That
is at Big City Wings. It's Houston's Wing Joint. Wex

(13:26):
You're going there for your birthday, aren't you.

Speaker 6 (13:28):
It's a great place to enjoy yourself, whether it's your birthday,
my birthday you want to hang out, or any other
day of the week. Again, with their daily specials on
food and drink every single day, all seven days of
the week. You mentioned on what they've got going on
on Fridays, They've got thirteen Houston area locations. They really
have an awesome menu. They got wings, bone in Boneless.
They obviously have that it's Houston's Wing Joint, but they

(13:48):
have so much more burgers and specials on burgers each
and every Wednesday, huge menu, great desserts, awesome loaded fries,
and Walderwall TVs to enjoy all the games hoops back
on this weekend the next several months, and of course
baseball not far behind. Big City Wings a great place
to enjoy the games while you're enjoying great food and
drink at Big City Wings, Houston's Wing Joint.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Back to Adam Clinton and Adam wentzlware the eighteen.

Speaker 3 (14:22):
It is the a team Sports Talk seven ninety. It's
a Friday edition of the program. Before you know it,
you'll be able to see us. We'll be simulcasting on
Space City Home Network, coming up at the start of
the three o'clock hour as per usual, and then we'll
take you through until six o'clock tonight. Mentioned in the
open Rockets basketball though you'll will have to wait a
little bit longer to hear it here on Sports Talk

(14:44):
seven to ninety because it's an eight thirty tip tonight,
even though it's here in Houston on their home floor
in the Central time zone.

Speaker 6 (14:52):
Yeah, just like next Thursday, they have back. They have
two home dates at eight thirty. National Television gonna handle
that tonight. You'll be able to see the game on
Space City Home Network as well as here right here
on Sports Talk seven to ninety. Tomorrow afternoon, the beginning
of Astros Baseball broadcasts comes your way on both of
those spots as well, Space City Home Networks first television

(15:14):
broadcast of spring training they have ten is tomorrow afternoon.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
The first of our.

Speaker 6 (15:19):
All broadcasts of Houston Astros Baseball begins tomorrow. Now technically
during spring training. That's even more untrue because if they
play split squad games, sharing both of them, and they
will do that starting tomorrow, it sound kind about fight
we have. We also have a family of networks where
we could probably find homes for both games. But he

(15:45):
won't be the case tomorrow or many times. A little
bit about you know, Joe spot of getting into a
little bit of the lineups for the future. Not gonna
see many, if any of the expected starters over the weekend,
but early next week it sounds like when he's gonna
start dropping some of them in obviously some point in
time during the week. Next week, you will see Jose

(16:06):
Altuve play his first game and that will be in
left field, but he hasn't even pinpointed a date on that.
But Yeahiner Dias, Jordan Alvarez, Peretis Walker, Payna, Altuve and
probably Myers and mccormicker are not likely to see a
tremendous amount of work before we're back with you on Monday,
if any, and then as soon as the week begins

(16:26):
next week, I think that essentially will all change. You
got Spencer Arraghetti getting the ball tomorrow, Gordon and Gusto
getting the ball or excuse me on Sunday. Gordon and
Gusto getting the ball tomorrow and then they'll have a
little bit to work with. Brendan Rodgers, the new Astro
officially signed. He was in camp this morning. We'll have
a chance to hear a little bit from him. He's

(16:46):
been a regular for the Rockies for the past couple
of years when not hurt, and he said he was
a little surprised they did not tender him and allowed
him to hit free agency, and it sounded like he
was even more surprised then he didn't have a home.
He did not come to an agreement with anybody. And
I think a lot of it came from the offers
he was getting, which isn't any different than the offer

(17:08):
he got from the Astros. But I think the team
he got it from and the particulars of the situation
is why it's here and not elsewhere. A lot of offers,
it sounded like that were similar and here's a minor
league deal and you can play your way onto the roster,
and he did not take those. He took the same
deal from Houston. It's a minor league deal if he
plays his way onto the roster. They'll make a move
to get him on the forty man and take him

(17:30):
to Houston to open up the season against Wan Soto.
They have an opening at second base, which was something
that appealed to him. He also shares the same agent
as the former second baseman for the Astros, Jose al
Tuve and Alex Breggman and everybody else that's a boriest client.
So I think he liked the opportunity here to really
just basically go out there and try to win the job.

(17:51):
He's got a resume to bring with him, and then
showed the team that you know, more easy dubon as
the continuing, very important utility player who can fill in
the outfield very very well, and can fill in at
maybe every spot on the infield very very well. He
played all seven positions last year, all four infield spots,

(18:11):
all three outfield spots. Rogers is a second baseman. He
might increase his positional flexibility around the infield some, but
he's a second baseman and that's the job he's now
trying to win.

Speaker 3 (18:24):
All right, Well, games that'll count will be here before
you know it. But in the meantime, that's what we've
got for you. Let's talk a little bit about what
happened last night, and not the I mean the obvious
people cared and wanted to watch it.

Speaker 2 (18:38):
NBA.

Speaker 3 (18:38):
There's a clip floating around not a good look for
the NBA. I don't remember the name of the guy,
but he's an analyst, PK Subah, that guy. I mean,
come on, it's Canada, It's it's hockey, it's it's something
I pay attention to, like once every blue moon. But
I was paying attention last night.

Speaker 2 (18:54):
Now.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
I think I've told you this on the show before.
The wife, huge hockey fan, like got into it randomly,
like two summers ago during the Stanley Cup playoffs, and
she and Brooklyn would watch it in the other room
while I was watching baseball or whatever was going on,
and I was just like, I could not believe of
all the sporting events that I've begged them, do you know, hey,

(19:16):
come watch the game with me, And they don't want
to do it because they want to watch their trash
TV or Bravo or whatever, and they're all about the hockey.
So fast forward to last night and she sends me
a text from the other room and she's like, hey,
it's tied I'm like, I know. I send her a
picture of the screen like I'm watching it. So she's like,
all right, I'm gonna come back there and watch it
with you. So we're watching and this was like probably

(19:37):
the last two three minutes of the overtime, or no,
it was before the overtime.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
I take that back. It was the last two minutes
of the third period.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
So we were just sitting there talking about it during
the Are they all intermissions? Is that what they're called? Yes,
even the one before overtime. They don't change the name
of that one.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
It's intermission.

Speaker 6 (19:57):
There's a first intermission or second intermission, and if necessary,
an additional intermission.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
I where several I'm aware I'm being funny.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
We're just talking about like, Okay, the rumor is here
in Houston. You know, everybody was like, all right, is
Tilman going to try to get a hockey team? Is
Tilman try to get in a WNBA team? And the
rumor is that the WNBA team is right around the corner.
At least from people I'm talking to, it's very close
to happening, like as in the next one that gets

(20:26):
awarded might be here in Houston. The comments are coming
back that kind of thing. Whatever, that's what you're into,
that's fine. I don't understand why you wouldn't want to
at least attempt to have a piece of that. Last night,
and I saw somebody say something that I kind of
agree with, simply because even though it's not my experience,
I could not tell you the rules of hockey, nothing like.

(20:47):
There's one person in here that is an expert on
that sport, and it ain't me. I know a lot
of you are thinking, you know, it's old sports hockey,
not my thing, but I do know enough to appreciate
what I see on television because I've never been into
an NHL game and I famously tried to decide what
venue I would want to go to for my first
NHL game, and any doubts, I'll tell you that much.

(21:09):
Why would you not want a piece of that? And
what somebody said I saw last night was I think
it was Greg Jehanna, the Chronicle.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Huge hockey guy. Yeah, from his Corpus Christie days.

Speaker 3 (21:19):
Right, obviously going way back beach community that loves the
frozen hockey. If you liked this last night, and I'm
paraphrasing because I don't have it right in front of me.
This is what it's like from April to June every
year in the NHL. This kind of environment, this kind
of raucous atmosphere, this kind of electricity on the edge

(21:42):
of your seat. And then you fast forward to like
what actually happened. How many shots on goal did the
US get during that overtime? Seventy thousand and then the
one that Canada got that was a clean one was
the game winner.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
Yeah, as many also said on the social media platforms,
as that was happening, great idea, leaving the best player
in the world unmarked right in front of the cage,
and McDavid did not disappoint.

Speaker 2 (22:10):
It's Sydney Crosby anymore. I mean you could just where
he is in his career.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
Certainly would Again, I have no bearing on this, I
have no background.

Speaker 6 (22:19):
Conor mcdavi's definitely one of If you don't want to
call him the best, he's definitely one of the best
players in the world. He obviously plays on the team
to the North this past evening and throughout the four
Nations face off. Equating what you saw to playoff hockey,
it's probably pretty close. I do think you get two
months of that, it's fantastic. You get these overtime games,
it'll never end, and you just have high quality, high

(22:41):
intensity fans are locked in arenas are fantastic. And that's
the other thing with hockey. Everyone will tell you it
is great on television, and it's nothing compared to what
it's like in arena.

Speaker 2 (22:54):
Can I stop you real gating something? You said? Sure,
you said? What about overtime? They sometimes keep going and
going never.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
So they don't like pull hockey players so that it'll
speed up, potentially the ending of the game.

Speaker 6 (23:06):
Only in the playoffs, where it's exactly like the NFL,
but they don't. Neither team ends games tied in the postseason,
but both leagues will end games tied in the regular season.
The NFL Major League Baseball is very different. They don't
play with a clock the other sports do. That's what
sets them apart. Okay, so they do other things to

(23:28):
accommodate for the fact they're not waiting on somebody to
tell them times up. Game's over clock, ran out, or
another sport where they literally have to tell you the
times up because nobody knows how much times left except
for the one person on the field.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
That's keeping it with their watch, but.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
They don't change up the game and say dumb things
about why they're doing it, like, oh, you got to
preserve the health of these players. They used to go
four on four baseball sucks for that stupid gift runner
a second base. And nobody will convince me otherwise. And
this is just the latest example of it be a
real man play hockey. I mean, that's what I would say,
But again I I don't ever watch it, and I

(24:07):
sat down and I'm like, this is incredible. This is
what I would want to see here in Houston. And
if I have to choose between the WNBA and this product,
it's not even close. I just don't know why Tilman
doesn't agree with me. Anyway, we will get to the
best of X.

Speaker 1 (24:22):
Coming up next the Age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 9 (24:29):
Throw this is cambickwore here every Rockets game, more Sports
Talk seven nine and streaming on the iHeartRadio ad Home
of Your Rockets?

Speaker 2 (24:43):
Did you all see this?

Speaker 8 (24:45):
Putting out between five and fifteen posts.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
Four hundred people were arrested for things that they said
on social media.

Speaker 4 (24:51):
History repeats itself type, Ben, You'll succeed. Never doubt that
You're the one who bustle no one.

Speaker 2 (25:01):
You're the best best. Nothing's gonna ever top you.

Speaker 4 (25:05):
Now, you're the best of it, posting every single day
your nice You're the best of it, breaking the entire internet.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
All right, let's take to the streets of x, Twitter, Instagram, snapchat, Facebook,
wherever you find the best stuff. As you know, yesterday
the announcement coming down, well, we talked about the fact
that Victor Winbinama shut down for the season with the

(25:42):
Spurs and all that kind of stuff. I came across
this because it's got now as of right now, it's
got three point three million views, this this whole exchange.
So Thursday night, some guy named Jersey Mike seven three
to two tweeted the following, just through ten thousand dollars

(26:03):
on Wimby to win Defensive Player of the Year. I mean,
it's only minus thirty five hundred and there's no way
he doesn't win. Only an act of God can prevent
this from hitting. Well, twenty four hours later, he quote
tweets that tweet his own tweet and says, I mean,

(26:24):
you can't make this up.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
My parents are going to kill me. That's why I
don't gamble.

Speaker 6 (26:30):
Well, it can't win because they have parameters of games played,
so he won't can't vote for him.

Speaker 2 (26:36):
He can't win.

Speaker 6 (26:37):
He's only gonna play forty six games this year. You
gotta have sixty five to be eligible for the awards.
And that's the act of God and the injury that
we talked about yesterday. The Spurs announced yesterday the blood
clot in the shoulder that will have him on blood
thinners and thus unavailable to play the remainder of this season,
hopefully not for much longer than that, and hopefully not
an impact for both next season or at any point

(26:58):
in the rest of his career, but that at this
point is unknown.

Speaker 3 (27:02):
You know how I know that people in this country
like to watch people suffer?

Speaker 2 (27:07):
How do you know? Like it's a thing?

Speaker 3 (27:08):
Because the initial tweet that's got like ten point.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
One million views.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
And like seventy seven thousand likes, the one where he's like,
I can't you can't make this up.

Speaker 2 (27:20):
My parents are gonna kill me.

Speaker 3 (27:22):
That's the one that has three point three million views
and only thirty eight thousand likes.

Speaker 6 (27:25):
Prior to that quote tweet even existing, I'm sure his
original one had virtually zero interest at all, just oh
random dude who nobody sees because it's not on your
for you page and nobody follows him but Von Wenby.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
But the responses are off, you know, the one best
of excess, well, the gift that I have to kind
of explain because it's is still radio.

Speaker 2 (27:47):
Uh, not that I could show you guys if it
were TV.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
You know, uh, the one where Kobe and lamar Odom
and Pal and Trevor rees are on the bench and
they're looking up. Oh Luke Walton's in there too, and
they're looking up and then they just start laughing at
what they see. That one was an initial response. Someone
else said, God said, I bet he took care of that.
I mean, it's that kind of stuff. Bro knew he

(28:10):
was cooked. That's from Mark Henry. God fitn't use that
ten thousand dollars. Well, I mean everybody is because again
he brought it up an act of God. So it's
basically God's responses according to these people on X.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
Yeah he meant to say injury. Yeah, well yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:28):
And the other one is again just random, but something
in reaction to our good buddy Jeff Passon, who said
he made an announcement in case people weren't already aware
of it.

Speaker 2 (28:41):
Personal announcement. I had some personal news.

Speaker 6 (28:44):
Honestly, great time over the last decade with the worldwide leader.
I've decided to take my talents elsewhere, alright, moving out
of the industry. Or I love that we used to
have baseball and this is now our last year.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
We're we're actually getting to that next segment.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
That was my plan, but it was on the heels
of a certain baseball franchise releasing a statement. You know,
the Yankees, They're no longer They're no longer making you
shave to the skin.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
At least ultimately, the final decision rests with me. I'm
general partner, Managing general Partner, how Steinbrenner, and after great consideration,
we will be amending our expectations to allow our players
and uniformed personnel, those who wear the costumes to have.

Speaker 2 (29:29):
Well groomed beards.

Speaker 6 (29:32):
Moving forward, it is the appropriate time to move beyond
the familiar comfort of our former policy. It was deemed
an alteration of the Yankees' facial hair policy.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
You know, I know you're not gonna win the World Series,
Like talk about things you shouldn't be worrying.

Speaker 6 (29:48):
About I was gonna sign with the Yankees, but instead
I signed a minor league deal with the Astros, hoping
to make their forty man roster. Signed Brendan Rodgers so
I can have his large beard and an extra lengthy
hair in the back.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Maybe Garrett Cole will become a man again.

Speaker 6 (30:01):
I did have to make a quote tweet of a
Garrett Cole post earlier because when Garrett Cole had his,
I wouldn't really call it much of a beard, but
very much like JV would wear throughout his career. He's
got facial hair because he doesn't shave every single day,
saying with Garrett Cole and he would kind of have
the scruffy look every day. They pulled the graphic during

(30:25):
one of his outings as an Astro, when he was
working his way through that twenty five start streak where
he went nineteen and oh with an era in the
mid ones. I said, Yep, the beard's it. That's what
it was. I didn't have anything to do. I didn't
even need to expand, but obviously saying yes, it was
the beard. It wasn't his being on the Astros, it

(30:47):
wasn't on him learning how to use his arsenal better.
It wasn't on him harnessing his arsenal any better, or
if you want to go conspiracy theory, it wasn't because
of sticky stuff, which was at the time, okay, not
being looked at quite as harshly as it is currently.
Like reasons definitely fall take a back seat to he

(31:09):
didn't shave that day.

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Well, this is what's funny.

Speaker 3 (31:13):
Jeff Passing quote tweeted the statement by the Yankees, could you, uh,
do you have it in front of you by chance?
The statement, Yeah, no, no, Jeff Passon's statement.

Speaker 6 (31:22):
Oh now you're gonna make your pull the string and
make the monkey do something?

Speaker 3 (31:25):
Yeah, dance. Okay, read it like Jeff would. Okay, let's see,
it's not long. You can do your impression.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
It is the word antiquated in there. Yeah, well of
course it is. It's Jeff Passon's Twitter account. Thanks Carl.

Speaker 6 (31:39):
The New York Yankees antiquated facial hair policy is finally dead.
Yankees players are now allowed to have well groomed beards.

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Now, somebody, I think I actually follow this guy R
J o'choa.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Are you familiar with his work? I am today? He
quote tweeted today, I am today, hey man. He quote
tweeted Jeff's tweet instead.

Speaker 3 (32:03):
The following the Yankees allowed players to have beards before
the Dallas Cowboys made it back to an NFC championship game.
That's so awesome. That's insulting two T shirt front running
fan bases. At the same time, if he could have
found a way to get the Lakers in there, it
would have been a hat trick.

Speaker 6 (32:20):
Well, there's plenty of other people that got the Lakers
in there after last night, and those a couple of
things will sprinkle into the rest of the show. But
what this decision by the Yankees also did is everybody
went to the old photo shop. If you want a
picture of Mariano Rivera Derek Jeter with a beard, you can.

Speaker 2 (32:37):
You can see it. They're all there.

Speaker 6 (32:38):
I just saw a more of a caveman look from
a picture of both Garrett Cole and Aaron Judge together
now post facial hair policy, and most Yankee fans do
actually believe Well, if you think Aaron Judge was good
before this, wait till he hits ten more Homers this year.

Speaker 3 (32:56):
Aaron Judge screams, I can't connect my Peach Fuzz more
than any player I can think of.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
I'll add one more.

Speaker 6 (33:03):
Thing to the Yankees' part, and we'll move on and
get to some of those other items that were probably
more conversational later in the show. I never looked at
the Yankees bio before a little piece of information on
their Twitter account, because most of them are pretty boring.
Theirs is as well, except when you get to the
end of it. It says official account of the twenty

(33:24):
seven time World Series champions than with their hashtag.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
I would flex too.

Speaker 6 (33:28):
If I had twenty seven World Championships, no matter when
they got twenty before, more than everybody else, I would
slowly post that there and expecting what followed. Though the
text number mixed us and it gives a number that
I'm sure is real. It's probably a bank where they
hold on to and maybe note if a text is

(33:50):
left here.

Speaker 2 (33:52):
Do you think it's a operational call. I haven't had
the chance to fire off a text to them yet.
Oh I will during the break, but I just wonder
you can call them. I mean, it's text only.

Speaker 6 (34:03):
Usually, like we were talking about it the other day,
radio stations, talk stations, sports talk stations, they often have
a texting function, but it's not You can't call it
because nobody's on the other end. It's not your cell phone.
They're not We don't say. We don't say, hey, don't forget.
You can text us and give out our personal number.
We give out a program that allows you to receive

(34:24):
and send texts from your old CPU.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
It's no need for a phone.

Speaker 3 (34:29):
All right, we'll take a quick time out. We'll come
right back, and when we do, thank god. A certain
broadcast entity has lost broadcast rights to one of the
big leagues.

Speaker 2 (34:41):
We'll tell you about that. Next.

Speaker 1 (34:44):
The Age on Sports Talk seven ninety back to Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler, the eighte.

Speaker 3 (35:03):
It's the eight team. It's Sports Talk seven nineties. Soon
to be simulcast on Space City Home Network as as
soon as next segment will be on the television side.
You can tune in there. It'll be Rockets basketball later
on tonight. You got Astros baseball finally playing tomorrow. It's
a big weekend ahead. Oh, it's happy birthday, wex It's

(35:23):
Wex's birthday. If you're just tuning in, I just want
to remind you of that he's a year older.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
So day older than yesterday. But you're a year older though, Yeah,
you weren't a year older yesterday because the year hadn't
been completed, only three.

Speaker 6 (35:36):
Hundred and sixty plus days older. Gosh, from the last birthday.
If that was your reference point, which I assume it was.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
Who do you think rolls their eyes more during the show?
You or the audience?

Speaker 2 (35:45):
Definitely? Then there's way more of them. Okay, all right?

Speaker 3 (35:48):
So when I saw this news, I admit I didn't
jump for joy I didn't leap.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
I'm not sure what what? Why? Why so joyful? I'll
tell you. I'll explain to you.

Speaker 3 (35:57):
ESPN and Major League Baseball are ending their broadcast partnership
after this season. Now, there's several elements of this story
that are hilarious to me, but not the least of which.

Speaker 2 (36:10):
Was the way.

Speaker 3 (36:14):
Baseball responded to this. It said, and this is just
in a statement from Major League Baseball. Unfortunately, in recent years,
we've seen ESPN scale back their baseball coverage and investment
in a way that is not consistent with the sports
appeal or performance on their platform. Given that MLB provides
strong viewership, valuable demographics.

Speaker 2 (36:36):
This is where it gets really good.

Speaker 3 (36:38):
And the exclusive right to cover unique events like the
home run derby. ESPN's demand to reduce rights fees is
simply unacceptable. As a result, we have mutually agreed to
terminate our agreement.

Speaker 6 (36:54):
Yes, so Major League Baseball is saying, as you, guys
didn't get the numbers you wanted and intentionally scaled back
your coverage of the game, which also impacted the numbers.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
Not getting where you want.

Speaker 6 (37:04):
Now you want us to say, it's okay, just pay
us less than what we agreed on in our contract,
and we met with a no, thank you, we'll just
end the contract early.

Speaker 3 (37:15):
Yeah, but you have to admit because I am on
the side of the majors in this debate if you
want to call it that, Like, hey, I mean I
get where they're coming from, but why would you point to,
of all things, the home run derby as a unique
event they get to cover. I mean, I know they're not.
They're not broadcasting the World Series, so you couldn't say that.

(37:36):
So I get it from that standpoint exactly. I mean,
they could have not said anything.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
That's what I would have done.

Speaker 6 (37:40):
Well, this is the only unique event they have. They
The uniqueness of it is this is the home for
Major League Baseball. Here's a game or two, or now
we have a few more on streaming services on Sunday
mornings on a streaming service on Friday night. YouTube now
also in addition to Apple and Roku that I meant,

(38:00):
and Fox obviously has baseball, and FS one has games,
and then you get to the postseason and they.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
All have it.

Speaker 6 (38:07):
Turner has some, but all season long this contract. For many,
many many years, the home for Major League Baseball was
quite obviously ESPN, and over the last several years their
interest in talking baseball and having when's the last time
MLB Tonight aired? They canceled that so long ago. I
don't know how many of you even remember that they

(38:27):
used to do that Baseball Tonight. Excuse me the name
of the program I already forgot.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
I know what you meant, though.

Speaker 6 (38:31):
I ESPN just decided we're not getting any we're not
doing enough with this. We've made a mistake here, not
the first massive millions, billions of dollar mistakes that ESPN's
made over the years. And they just said, well, our
response to it is we're going to act like we
don't have it, will air the games as our contract suggests,

(38:53):
and that's pretty much. It spend very little time on
our sports program Sports Center talking baseball. We're going to
eliminate our baseball coverage outside of the games and Major
League Baseball. When they then asked to can we just
give you less money? They said no, bye, Well, and.

Speaker 3 (39:13):
They don't have any more money to spend because they
just made probably another mistake, at least based on the numbers.
And I look, I love the NBA as much as anybody,
but I'm not pretending that the interest level has dropped
off significantly in recent seasons. We just got done talking
about record low viewership for the All Star Game, and
while that wasn't on ESPN. ESPN is so in bed

(39:33):
with the NBA, like ridiculously in bed. In fact, I'd
say they're more in bed with the WNBA. Then it
feels like they're in bed with baseball coverage. I mean,
I know the contracts ending, but if you were to
ask me anytime during the course of the day, I
look up at the screen and we've got ESPN on.
They're not talking about baseball ever, and they are talking
about the WNBA a lot.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
Sure, but it's not baseball's I mean it's not the
time of year talking about it during the season.

Speaker 6 (39:59):
I mean, we've been away from baseball season for four months,
and I just told you what I mean. You're never
You're you will literally never look at them talking baseball.
They don't talk about it, they don't have any shows
for it. Yeah, that you're being absolutely one hundred percent correct.
But they are obviously a little bit more interested in
talking about a sport that they are invested in, they
believe is growing, and they believe it because it's true

(40:19):
the interest in that in the WNBA and women's sports,
in women's basketball clearly is growing. But major League Baseball,
for them, they just be done with it. And I
don't want to sit here and act like you know,
major League Baseball is from their standpoint, the company, the entity,
this sport. They're not blameless here by any stretch of
the imagination, even from my standpoint. Clearly that you know

(40:40):
that from ac standpoint, and our good friend from he
runs Boris Corporation, Scott Boris uh said, we baseball invented streaming,
which is a huge component to the NBA contract. And
what did we do with it? We didn't license it,
we sold it. We gave it away, and he's right.
MLB dot TV, MLB. These are things that set the standard,

(41:04):
introduced a lot of this to the other sports, and
some of the other sports have taken it run with
it and created a massive money making machine from it.
In Major League Baseball didn't.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
And while I.

Speaker 3 (41:16):
Don't know his contract situation, and it'll probably only temporary
if it does affect him, it would be nice to
see less of Jeff Passon's face on my screen.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
That's a good byproduct of this situation.

Speaker 3 (41:27):
Our number one is in the books, our number two
coming up next, and we'll be simulcast on Space City
Home Network.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
The A ten on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong
Houston sports guys named Adam talking your teams. Adam Clinton
and Adam Wexler are the A Team A.

Speaker 3 (41:58):
It is the A Team Sports Talk seven to ninety
Hold on second, we're gonna give you guys a little
lighting effects now that we're on Space City Home Network.
Not that lighting effect, Oh my gosh, laser light show
going on in here for Wex's birthday.

Speaker 2 (42:12):
That's a little bit better.

Speaker 3 (42:13):
I think, let's face it, we're both gonna look better
once the sun starts coming out a little bit more.
I'm just gonna put it that way. I could use
some I could use some vitamin Is it Vitamin D
or Vitamin K? I never can't remember, it's yes.

Speaker 6 (42:25):
I'd like how you're trying to pretend you've never been
on social media asking if it's vitamin D.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
Seriously, have I asked that on social media?

Speaker 6 (42:33):
No? But if you check on social media, you'll get it.
That was just, yeah, that was a birthday light show
for everybody. I wouldn't normally turn the lights out during
our broadcast, you know what, specially for today or birthday
to a little bit too light.

Speaker 2 (42:45):
I'll fix them. That's all right, it's fine. Just for
your birthday.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
Tonight, at the end of the third quarter of the
Rockets game with the Timberwolves, I'm gonna have the entire
arena turn red and everybody take their cell phone lights
out in honor of your birthday.

Speaker 6 (42:59):
Well, so hopefully everybody in the arena tonight will get
to see what is now a part of Rockets victories. See,
I couldn't even say, well, that's the end of the game.
Well the smoke show, yeah, is now part of it.
It did not happen last week on Thursday night, and
there was one game this year. It wasn't that long ago.
The lights actually did dim. There was a four second

(43:20):
stoppage in play before they came back on.

Speaker 3 (43:22):
Oh yeah, knocked the lights out. It was weird. I
believe it was. That wasn't the Phoenix game because I
was there for that game, because I remember I was watching.
I was watching on TV for sure. But yeah, the
Rockets are back in action tonight and it's the first
game back since the All Star break. Other teams I
feel like have played ten games. Feels that way, like

(43:42):
the Lakers.

Speaker 6 (43:43):
Last night was kind of a full night. Wednesday night
was just the Lakers, just the Lakers and Hornets. Lakers
played again last night, got a victory after the loss.
But now everybody after tonight will have at least played
their way back into competition. There's nine games tonight. There
were nine games last night, the ones that impact Houston
and their standings. First game of the night was in

(44:03):
Indiana and the Memphis Grizzlies got smoked and they fell
to third place. When a game later that night, the
Denver Nuggets, who whooped the Hornets, slid past them. The
Nuggets have been unbelievable lately, and they look every bit
like the team that won the NBA Championship not long ago.
So there now second, Memphis is third. Rockets hold in fourth,

(44:24):
but just by a little bit over the Lakers, who
beat Portland last night. And a game we talked about
quite a bit yesterday obviously before it took place, was
between the victor WEMBA Yama less Spurs and the team
they're chasing in the standings that the Rockets would love
to see them catch in the standings, the Phoenix Suns,
and they beat them rather easily. Suns put a nice

(44:45):
run together in the fourth quarter and nearly tied the game,
but they were trailing almost the entire night, ended up
losing by eleven with basically the group that they're continuing
with Bradley Beal and Devin Booker and Kevin Durant have
been together now, all three of them playing thirty three
plus minutes, and they're not very good as a team,
and that has been the case all year. They're now

(45:07):
three games under five hundred, but it's still going to
take a pretty serious slide for them not to finish
twelfth of the fourteen teams that don't make the postseason.
Rockets have that first round pick coming their way from
the Phoenix Suns. It took me thirteen lottery simulations this
morning for the Suns to land in the top four

(45:28):
twice twice from the spot twelve. It's spun it thirteen times,
ten times. I got them in the I got them
as the number two pick on the second sim and
eleven sims later they were third. Listen, they're likely to
give the Rockets the twelfth pick, but they're going to
be in the neighborhood of seven, eleven, thirteen percent to

(45:50):
land in the top four, depending on if they finish tenth, eleventh, twelfth,
one out of ten lottery draws, one out of twelve,
one out of thirteen. It's pretty good for a team
that's gonna finish in the top four in the West
in Houston to land those I mean, they can only
be so good because Phoenix isn't awful and unless they
do sit players or they will which at this point

(46:12):
makes no sense.

Speaker 2 (46:13):
Like the Spurs are doing again just kidding.

Speaker 6 (46:15):
Well, they they own their pick and they're not as
you said, Uh, it wouldn't if there's no benefit for
them to do that. They don't have the pick that
they would be intentionally playing a lesser roster to go
out there and do and for the Spurs to attempt
to make the postseason, which this this is now a
little bit like the NFL situation, where look, we know
we're not going anywhere. Everybody knows it. Well, if we

(46:36):
activate the players, we can't tell them to miss shots
on purpose. We can't tell Davis Mills to not throw
the ball to Jordan Nakens, We just can't. They're gonna
go out there and they're going to try to win,
and dearon Fox, Chris Paul and the rest.

Speaker 3 (46:48):
Of their going to win that it's going to kill
the organization to have them win because they're not going
to do anything without Victor women Yama, and it's killing
them that they can't rest David Robinson with a bad
back so that they can steal Tim Duncan from the Celtics.

Speaker 6 (47:03):
Again, it also was different then the way the lottery
has been changed over the years. I mean, you pretty
much obviously, the Rockets are some of theest biggest beneficiarias
ever Nicks as well. I mean it's you and one
other team who gets it, You or them and when
you lose the lottery, which was a coin flip, oh
you pick second. Yeah, now, when you tank anything. The

(47:25):
Wizards are one of the teams that'll have a fifty
two point one percent chance to land in the top four.
They still don't have an unbelievable chance to win the
best pick. And what we think is a prize in
Cooper Flag. I told you I'd ran thirteen simulations. The
Wizards had number one like twice. They're a nine win team.

Speaker 2 (47:45):
That case almost there.

Speaker 6 (47:47):
I would absolutely be willing to wager it. It's almost
fifty to fifty that they're not going to land the
number one pick.

Speaker 2 (47:52):
Because they never do. The team it's the worst never
gets it.

Speaker 6 (47:55):
See the Rockets, And well they did get it in
a year where they were on the opposite side it
with yao.

Speaker 3 (48:01):
Yeah, but they had like an eight point nine percent chance. Wait,
get it down, and they landed at one. In the
most recent lotteries, they haven't been hosed. They just didn't
get number one. Imagine four. Yeah, but like you said,
that scenario, the last of which happened in nineteen eighty
four when the Rockets got the last coin flip and
drafted a chem at the time.

Speaker 2 (48:23):
Remember Jim Pullis.

Speaker 3 (48:24):
Duel Elijah One. Yeah, they screwed that up in the
movie Air there's no h in his name. Yet that's
ten years from now. Why are you into the future.

Speaker 2 (48:30):
I'm sure it was Bateman's fault.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
But imagine losing that coin flip and having Michael Jordan's
still be available to you.

Speaker 2 (48:38):
Now I want Sam Bouie. That's what Portland did. Pretty
big mistake.

Speaker 3 (48:41):
Then they did it again with Kevin Durant. They did,
and it wasn't even a coin flip that time. I
could have had him. I think the both times were bad.
I do think the first one was worse. Even though
neither Kevin Durant landed at number two, which seems crazy.
He still only played one year of college basketball. He
still carries the same slight uh oh frame that he

(49:04):
carried then coming out of college. But I think if
you were watching North Carolina and watching Michael Jordan, you
couldn't obviously see he would get to this point. No,
but I do think you could obviously see you're in
better hands if you draft him over Sam Buie. The
problem was they just looked at their own team and said,
what are we going to do with another Clyde Drexler.

Speaker 2 (49:26):
That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of in my life.

Speaker 6 (49:28):
Yeah, it was a mistake, clearly, but they didn't realize
the colossal nature of this.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
Like if the Rockets were to be able to say,
like the Phoenix Sun's got on the phone and I
know we're just talking about Kevin Durant, but for this
pretend he's not on the roster, they're gonna blow it
up and Devin Booker is available. And the Rockets were like, yeah,
but we already have Jalen Green, and you're not having
to give up Jalen Green in the supposed fake deal
that we're talking about here. The Rockets would find a

(49:55):
way to make that work.

Speaker 6 (49:56):
Yes, but I also even making that comparison, You're Jalen
Green has been in the league for almost three hundred games.
Devin Booker's been in the league for twice the resume, Yeah,
Clyde just got there, but had not gotten there yet.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
That's what has always been the highest compliment that you
can pay hakim Olaijuan as the individual and the Rockets
as an organization. Not one person has ever criticized them
for taking dream number one in a draft in which
Michael Jordan was available and they had a top pick.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Think about that. There's no other draft I can think.

Speaker 3 (50:25):
The greatest player of all time, sorry, Lebron James, was available,
and nobody says anything to the Rockets about passing on him.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
They didn't pass on them. They just took the guy
they wanted.

Speaker 6 (50:38):
They passed, passed on everybody else, every single player in
the me though.

Speaker 3 (50:42):
When I hear that, it's it's more like Randy moss Ah,
these teams passed on Randy Mossin somebody else.

Speaker 6 (50:48):
Yeah, Yeah, lottery talent still there, still there, still there,
still there. All the Rockets take him at twenty, stole him,
some would say, yeah.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
But anyways, I just I don't know what this offseason
is going to like, how it's going to unfold. But
going back to what you're talking about, We're gonna know
the draft selections in May when the draft lottery takes place,
but the draft itself is not going to take place
for another month after that, in June.

Speaker 2 (51:19):
Late June is usually what it is. You probably know
the date already, you do, don't you?

Speaker 6 (51:22):
Right after the Celtics repeat within the know you're calling
it now a week later, what are they beating the Rockets.
I don't think the Rockets are going to be in
the NKA finals this year.

Speaker 2 (51:32):
I sorry, I think so, Mike for telling.

Speaker 6 (51:34):
I mean, if that were to happen, they would stay
completely healthy. Well two other teams at least in the
semis and then conference finals would have at least one,
if not too significant in Well.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
Clearly the Thunder are better without chet Holmgren.

Speaker 6 (51:48):
I think the Thunder should be heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy favorites,
more of a heavy favorite to win their conference than
the Celtics, who aren't even first play are.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
To win theirs.

Speaker 6 (52:01):
They are the favorite to win the conference in the East,
even though they're probably not going to finish number one
because they don't care.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
Who should be there.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
Who should be a heavier favorite in their respective sport,
the Thunder or the Dodgers to win the conference basically
the equivalent the Thunder.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Yeah, I agree, because of the sport. It's five on five,
it's not a.

Speaker 6 (52:22):
Dodgers three games in five days. Yeah, they're going to
do it during this season. It's just a matter of
will they. Yeah, I'm talking about in the postseason. Yeah,
if it happens to come during their opening series, which
is just a best of five, then they're out.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
It's also it would be the most Dodger thing ever
to do, because they've done it a lot.

Speaker 6 (52:38):
In the Thunder in a basketball sense, barring injury, good
luck beating them four times when you have seven tries.
I mean, you're probably not even gonna get to the
seventh try the way that they play basket.

Speaker 3 (52:47):
And yet I still feel like they are going to
Let's just put it this way, if it happens again
to the Thunder, like they're out even in the second round, or.

Speaker 2 (52:57):
Let's just say the conference finals.

Speaker 3 (52:59):
Whatever, But like you have to the minimum for the
Thunder to not have a colossal disappointing season has to
be making the Western Conference finals. If you don't even
make the Western Conference finals, what are you even doing here?
If I'm Sam Presty, I'm gonna.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
Blow it up. I'm just kidding.

Speaker 3 (53:17):
I didn't mean that, but you're gonna start getting that
doubt creep in. And I just wonder what that means
for this offseason, because once you know the the selections
and the order, and then you know what you have
and you know how good those picks from the Suns
are how do you end up using them? Because I
do think the Rockets are gonna make that movement this offseason.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
One way or the other.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
We're gonna get to what the Astros are up to
out in West Palm Beach. Final day before game action
is today. We'll check in with them next.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety. Back to
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler the.

Speaker 3 (53:56):
Eighteen Happy birthday to Adam Wesler. Here on Sports Talk
seven ninety it's Space City Home Network.

Speaker 2 (54:12):
Have I ever told you this is?

Speaker 3 (54:14):
That is a real time reaction some of the text
messages I get from a certain coworker of ours.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
I just it just throws me for a.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
Loop every single I can't even sometimes look at my
phone during the show because of it. And I know
that's inside baseball and all that stuff.

Speaker 6 (54:27):
Can't look at your phone during the show. He just
thinks people would assume that is okay.

Speaker 3 (54:32):
He's so out of control sometimes in the best way possible.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
Anyway.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
Rockets basketball tonight at eight point thirty is the tip off. Meanwhile,
out at Florida, Parah told you how much I either
hate the word meantime, they done a lot on the news. Well,
I'm telling you right now, I hate it when they do.
They do do that a lot on the news, like meantime. Meanwhile,
over in Florida, the Astros are they're counting down the
seconds to their first minor league action. I feel like

(55:00):
everybody is playing basketball before the Rockets, and I feel
like everybody's playing baseball before the Astros. I feel I
have sports fomo right now. For our local teams.

Speaker 6 (55:08):
Yankees in Rays just finished up a game at both
of their home parks. Even though they don't share it
until the season are really ever, but they will this year.

Speaker 2 (55:16):
Well, they don't share.

Speaker 6 (55:17):
It during the year. That's not sharing it now either.
It's just a weird situation for they played a game.
We a little shut out work from the Yankees pitching staff,
knocked in a couple of runs right out of the gate.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
I smell championship. Stop it. He's like the outfield assist
from center field.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
Jazz Chisholm, who is the most overrated mid season pickup ever,
by the way.

Speaker 6 (55:42):
Overrated. Yeah, he was nobody rated him at all. It
was they added a player he'll help him in the infield.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Because people are trying to make it out to be
something that's not. Again, who are people, as Jerry might say.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
The same people that put him on the cover of
MLB the show worst cover ever, Like, let's pick the
most overrated dude to give that kind of I don't
know anyways, the uh, the Astros and what they're gonna
look like though, is what's you know once they end again,

(56:15):
this is gonna happen tomorrow and you're gonna see all
your reaction to it on social We won't be able
to really talk about it until Monday because it's happening
on a Saturday. I get all that, but like I,
you're definitely this guy. When it comes to spring training,
so many people overreact to so many different things, like
when Fromber broke a bone in his finger or whatever.
It was a couple of seasons back. Actually that was

(56:36):
the World Series Championship year, wasn't it. That was like
the only non health factor that was really baked into
the pitching that year.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
They were so healthy.

Speaker 6 (56:46):
Also erroneously reported that's why people freaked out. That was
Oh my god, he's gonna be out for months, signed
John Hayman.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Not accurate.

Speaker 3 (56:55):
Yeah, that was the only thing that was properly reacted to.
I guess it's still a broken bone. He's still gonna
miss some time. But there's so many other things that
don't you feel like, Oh my gosh, jose Al two
is gonna be this year's version of that. No matter
what good or bad, it's gonna be over the top.
I just feel like, because it's spring training, I have
to tell myself this every time. Just can we just

(57:17):
get to opening Day. I feel like they don't think he's.

Speaker 6 (57:20):
Going to be that unless it's something happens an injury. No,
Like he ran to the baseball and it hit his
glove and then hit the ground, and then he ran
into the wall and had the ball was forty feet
behind him and somebody stole a base on him while
he was holding the baseball and he just couldn't throw
it to the base in time. Like, unless things like
that are happening, You're gonna have ten televised games on

(57:42):
Space City Home Network starting on Saturday. He's not playing
that game, so now we're already down to nine maybe
games that you're gonna see him play left field. Just
see highlights because a lot of the games will be
carried by some networks here and there, and you'll get
video from those that are on site, and then you
got to get into it, Well, how many plays did
he actually have this day? How many innings is he
really gonna play? I aren't really playing full spring training
games to begin with until very very late in the game.

(58:04):
And will there still be days where we got to
play them at second a little bit because we think
we're gonna play it a second a little bit during the season.
So I'm not sure how much you're really gonna find
out or have the ability to just over the top
coverage of this unless we're really seeing something. Guy hit
a ball off of you know, Ryan Gusto. It went
three hundred and twenty five feet, It was a fly ball,

(58:24):
and he ran underneath it and closed his brand new
glove on it. Then he lobbed it into Jeremy Panya
like every other major league has done at spring training
for the last ninety years.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Does he have Is he gonna have what's his face's
glove from the twenty eighteen Red Sox and left field, Well,
that catch everything.

Speaker 6 (58:41):
That's what you it's what you use when you got
to you have you wear clothes and then they get dirty,
so you put him in the laundry basket. That's what
Andrew bennettend to use is as a glove. I'll say this,
I've said it before. I don't know what Major League
Baseball has done all these years because there are limitations,
there are restrictions, there are rules that your gloves have
to comply with.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
And yet I watched some of these.

Speaker 6 (59:03):
I mean Brett Butler for the Matt Thomas era fans
out there, there's some center fielders, obviously in his case,
a left fielder, there were gloves that should absolutely be outlawed.

Speaker 2 (59:12):
I mean, of course bigger than why would you not
do it until somebody says something.

Speaker 6 (59:15):
Well, I do think they are within the limitations they've set.
I think they should have made the limitations on the
side of the glove much smaller for some of those
gloves men out there. But yeah, Alex Bregman mentioned Andrew
ben Attende when it was brought up to him during
his press conference about playing against the Red Sox in
the postseason, and like he told us many times since then,

(59:36):
he thought he won the game.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
He thought that was going to drop.

Speaker 6 (59:38):
He was excited when it left his bat and then
it landed in his laundry basket of Andrew ben Attende,
who's been awful at baseball pretty much ever since. But
jose Al Tuvey will get his shot in left field
sometime early next Week's manager Joe Espada talking about one
of his potential replacements who was in camp for the
first day today, Brandon Rodgers, who has the minor league

(01:00:00):
deal with the Astros and his Channelerome just recently reported
with multiple opts outs in it. No, not a three
year deal, it's a one year deal. The opt outs
come at different times during the season. Should he not
like playing minor league baseball for the Astros if that,
in fact is what it turns into if he doesn't
make the team. But here's a spot of talking about
trying to start and maybe keep Rogers in his one

(01:00:23):
familiar spot.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
I'm going to keep him at second base.

Speaker 7 (01:00:26):
When we talked this morning about potentially getting from Reds
at third base, but you know, mostly second base for
the first week or two.

Speaker 6 (01:00:37):
His major league career from a fielding standpoint includes zero
innings at third base, two hundred and twenty at shortstop.
But like I said earlier, he's an everyday second basement.
The vast majority of his thirty six hundred innings, thirty
four hundred of them have been played at second base,
same place where he want a gold glove. A couple
of seasons ago. His fielding has been a little bit

(01:00:58):
worse in these seasons that followed. Injuries have also been
a part of the seasons that have followed, and I
had a little bit to do with it. But he's
been and there's only thirty teams, and he was in
everyday second basement for one of them. We told you
about his splits, very very good in Colorado and not
very good at all elsewhere. There's some other areas where

(01:01:18):
I've been trying to find some positives about it. Brendan himself,
I thought, said some very interesting things about his own abilities.
But we'll continue with the spata here first to kind
of go around the generics of your spring training atmosphere.
He believes there are plenty of roster spots still available.

Speaker 7 (01:01:39):
There's bench opportunities, roles in on our bench that can
Guys are competing for spots, some of our relievers. I'm
excited to see Gusto. We all know last year he
you know, went to Cleveland and being getting an opportunity
to start that game. So I know he's excited getting
on the mount tomorrow. So i'd be I'd be watching

(01:01:59):
closely on our guys, from our young players. I'm excited
about them, so they'll be playing a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:02:05):
Early twofold on that. He's totally dead solid perfect. On
the relievers, they have two relievers right now. They have
an eighth thinning guy and they have a nine thinning guy,
and that's it. That's all they have right now. They
don't know anything else about their group. There was some
good news on Sean Dubin and that he's throwing now,
the same news on Caleb ort and that he's not
and probably won't for a little bit. And then what

(01:02:26):
he said about Gusto that actually matters. He should have
made his major league debut last year on the final
day of the season, game got canceled and so he didn't.
He will likely make his major league debut this year.
They currently have five pitchers that are going to start,
and that's it. They literally don't They don't know what
right now. If if you ask them who's pitching the

(01:02:49):
first time somebody goes down the first time you need
another starter. They would be guessing whoever they would give
the ball to might have some major league experience. If
you're talking about a player like O Kurt or somebody
else who's on the at camp with them that they
dodn only even have a role for. Otherwise you're talking
about Gusto or Gordon or aj Bluebaugh. You can learn

(01:03:10):
a little bit more about aj on Nara Social Sports
Talk seven to ninety on Twitter's post of the interview
I had with him in the clubhouse from the other
day that is up now today. But those guys are
next to the line. So Gusta's work in spring training
if he can gain some confidence so they can work
on what he has, if they can believe that this
is probably somebody that's gonna get the ball. It's it's

(01:03:30):
no different than last year. It's just different names. That's
how the one of the three players that got traded
to Toronto for usay Kokuchi got into that spot. At
the time, I don't think they knew who that would be.
And as the season went on they had to find somebody,
and that somebody was Jake bloss Well, that's somebody right
now is probably blue baw or Ryan Gusto, both of

(01:03:52):
whom have zero major league innings. There's a lot of
spot five starters. If they're healthy, they've met but that's it.
Just have those five.

Speaker 3 (01:04:01):
You might be curious to hear what a former I mean,
this is a big time part of the core that
helped the Astros do what they did, has to say
about Jose al Tuve's big move to left field, because
he had some comments on that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:18):
So we'll get to that.

Speaker 3 (01:04:19):
We'll also hear more from Joe Aespotta, We'll hear more
from or we'll hear from Brendan Rodgers himself before the
end of the hour. Here it's a Friday edition of
The A Team Sports Talk seven to ninety and of
course we've got Rockets basketball coming up later on tonight.
Got Mauricio du Bond as well. We intended on playing
that for you yesterday, but we'll get to that in

(01:04:39):
the five o'clock hour. Still a lot to come here
on the program, The.

Speaker 1 (01:04:44):
A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
Hey, it's a man to jam down for every Rockets game.

Speaker 9 (01:04:54):
Sports Talk seven ninety A streaming on the iHeartRadio app
home of Rockets Basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
It is the A team. It's Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:05:07):
It's Friday edition of the program, talking a little Astros baseball.

Speaker 2 (01:05:11):
Some of the things we had not gotten to in
the last segment.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
As far as Joe Espotta goes Jose al Tuove in
left field, I saw an article yesterday in the uh.

Speaker 2 (01:05:24):
What's it called again? Hang on?

Speaker 3 (01:05:25):
Hang on, hang on the Minnesota Star Tribune. Carlos Korea
is kind of keeping an eye on things down here.
Made that at apparent in some sound bites or some
quotes that he gave he is not even a little
bit worried about Jose Al Tuove. You know, they hooked
up with a couple double plays over the course of
time here in Houston. And he said that little man

(01:05:46):
can do anything. He'll be fine. And he said if
he puts up a nine hundred ops, that would be
a good sacrifice, talking about making a sacrifice for the
team not playing second base so that they can kind
of figure out their infield there.

Speaker 6 (01:06:03):
Well, I really didn't understand that at all, which part
the So he's going to sacrifice the sacrifices. I'll do
whatever you want because they're not better. I mean, I
don't know if you're viewing this as well, we can't
play we can't play the art on out there. We've
got to find somebody. Okay, Jose, you're sacrificing. This is great.

(01:06:25):
They're getting him off of second base. This is not new,
and Joe Spotty even indicated that the other day in
his conversation that this was not a new thing, new
to this year. But then the nine hundred ops stuff,
I mean, yeah, that'd be awesome. I don't envision a
player who's played infield his entire professional life, who turns
thirty five in May is going to take a thirty

(01:06:45):
four year old seven to ninety ops as a second
baseman and now play a lot of games in left field,
run around all the time, have a much longer jog
back to the dugout and to his position, and get
back to a nine because he's running more. I don't
I don't think that's how it's gonna work. But Carlos
does well. I mean, I don't know why he decided

(01:07:10):
to bring that up. Of all things, him saying that
he can do anything is totally on brand for really
anybody that's ever played.

Speaker 2 (01:07:17):
With those to the bottom of the article. Oh, when
he talks about cooking for Alex Bregman chef Corea.

Speaker 3 (01:07:22):
So, yeah, they asked him about, you know, Bregman going
to the Red Sox and the contract and everything else,
and he says, I already told him he's got to
come over to the house and I'm gonna cook for him.
I'm a really good cook. I don't know why he
would come over to Carlos Korea's house now. Is it
just because he lives sort of closer in Boston?

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
I mean, I don't. I mean, I think they's talking
about where they currently are.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
Oh, okay, well it didn't. It doesn't say that in
the article anywhere.

Speaker 6 (01:07:51):
Well the part of the article that I'm surprised you
didn't enjoy even more, which you can now. Does he
not make a comment about how things what would mean
things are going well for the twins his own team?

Speaker 8 (01:08:02):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
You mean out line about that?

Speaker 3 (01:08:04):
Yeah, he says he was talking about, you know, staying
healthy well Royce Lewis and Byron Buxton, you know, the
two healthiest guys not named Carlos Krea.

Speaker 6 (01:08:12):
Carlos looks at them and says, man, you guys get
hurt a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Quote. We all talked about it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:19):
If we all three can stay on the field for
one hundred and forty games, it would be special. That's
the dream. Once we're on the field healthy, good things happened,
you know. Carlos Korea also had observations on the Rockets
in the mid two thousands. He was like man If
Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady could just stay on the court,
things could good things could happen.

Speaker 6 (01:08:37):
There were two twins that played over one hundred and
thirty games last year. None of the players you just mentioned.
Carlos did barely play more games than Royce Lewis, and
he actually played far fewer games than Byron Buxton. One
oh two was the max Buxton got into one hundred
and two games last year, Carlos eighty six and Lewis
eighty two. Lewis was kind of ridiculous for part of

(01:09:00):
the season. He just absolutely could not stop hitting home
runs at one point. But they have had trouble keeping
those guys healthy, and I think the others around them.
They're not a bad team around them, but they clearly
count on certain players, and I don't think they were
counting on some of the things they got last year.
Jose Miranda had a nice stretch of games. That's why
I'm not I think I've picked the Kansas City Royals

(01:09:23):
to win the division, but I think all four teams
will be in the race all the way the whole season,
you know, barring some major, major missed injury that causes
somebody to be out. But the Guardians are good, the
Twins are good, the Tigers are good, and the team
I picked the Royals that they're just none of them
are great.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
But they're all thinking.

Speaker 6 (01:09:42):
They're all going to and now at spring training expecting
this to be a playoff season, and they should.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
And by the way, I need to apologize. The article
does mention that Alex Bregman is training just up Daniels
Parkway at Jet Blue Park, as I completely make. You
got to get the there's a giant ad right at
that point in the article, and I had skimmed down
to the actual quote which was on the other side
of it about the cooking, which, by the way, we

(01:10:08):
didn't get to. He said he's going to cook him
all sorts of things. He can make anything from Italian
pastas to steaks, to smash burgers, Asian food, orange chicken too.
My wife says, I deserve a Michelin Star.

Speaker 6 (01:10:21):
Well, at some point they need to get to Kylo
and Kenzo together with.

Speaker 2 (01:10:27):
Knox and whatever they named the Second Trick. I don't
know that they'll do that when it's in April and
they're no longer in Florida. Why not, Hey, let's go
a little bit for their apart. Why well, we're playing
here now.

Speaker 3 (01:10:40):
Yeah, they were always seemed like there was called Lance
mccullors in Korea.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
I think we're the closest and still are. They have
been for a lot longer. Yeah time, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
All right.

Speaker 3 (01:10:50):
So some of the things that we did not get
to as far as Joe Spata was him talking, for example,
about not overworking Jose Altuve.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
As spring training gets underway.

Speaker 7 (01:11:01):
We are keeping a close, a close eye on how
the volume. You know, he has thrown a lot of
yards so for the last the first three or four days,
and we are holding him back for certain you know,
doing certain times, doing the day you know, live shacks
or base running drills, just to make sure that we
control the volume because right now he you know, he's

(01:11:23):
getting after it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:25):
Zah. I mean there's there is I guess technically more running, but.

Speaker 6 (01:11:31):
It's not really technically, it's absolutely but I just standing
there at second base, jogging back to wait here until
your turn, then jog over here field to grounder and
toss it to second or throw it to first.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
Yeah, but I's running around chasing fly balls.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
What I mean by that, though, is like I don't
jose al Twove has never had like hamstring issues, for example,
And I only bring that up because George Springer was
constantly having them when he was here and playing center field.
But in my mind, when you're playing second base, or
really any infield position other than first, and this could
even happen in first, I feel like there would be

(01:12:05):
for whatever reason, I think there would be more of
a propensity to have an injury like that.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
Just from a burst standpoint.

Speaker 6 (01:12:11):
I don't think they're worried about him getting hurt. They're
worried about getting worn down. They're worried about the work,
how much work he has to put in to learn
a brand new position, and so let's scale back on
this so we don't do that. It's one reason why
his you know, I think they have a pretty significantly
thought out plan on when he's going to play and
how many innings he's going to play, even though he

(01:12:32):
clearly needs the work.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
He's never done it.

Speaker 6 (01:12:34):
But the balance between how much work we're getting done
in non game situations and what they'll get done when
they're actually playing him in games. I think they have
a detailed plan for that, and I also think that's
one of the reasons that they brought in Rogers, so
they have a plan on the infield in light of
what it just continues to push down this path that
he can play second base, I'm sure at the drop

(01:12:55):
of a hat anytime they need him to. I don't
know that that's going to be a huge need for
them with signing a second player. I mean, they had
a starting second baseman and Mauricio he's done it before,
not an ideal one, not a great one, not a
plus one. But now they have another one who's very similar.
But now they have two guys all one hundred and
sixty two games are taking care of.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
Its second base.

Speaker 6 (01:13:14):
If Rogers is put on the roster along with Dubon
and Altove playing zero innings there, they're fine. It's not again,
I'm not saying they're going to get the production you
got from your all star level second basement offensively far
from it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:26):
But they're not going to.

Speaker 6 (01:13:27):
Be scrambling and trying to say, well, we really wanted
to move them out there, but now we don't have
an answer here they do.

Speaker 2 (01:13:32):
You're not gonna believe what Rogers had to say about
this whole situation.

Speaker 3 (01:13:35):
I am going to believe it. It's absolutely insane, and
we'll tell you that. We'll let you It'll actually let
him tell you that when we come back here on
the program, The.

Speaker 8 (01:13:45):
A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:13:50):
Adam Clinton, Adam Wexler, Back to Houston's eighteam on Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (01:14:05):
Winding down on the three o'clock hour Friday edition of
the show Sports Talk seven Nighty Space City Home Network,
Happy birthday to Adam Wexler. We were talking a little
bit about just the moves and the way things are
going for the Astros is they are are mere hours
away from their first spring training action and Brendan Rodgers
is a part of things.

Speaker 2 (01:14:26):
This is gonna be a huge surprise to you.

Speaker 3 (01:14:27):
One of the first things he was asked about and
what he wants as a member of the Astros organization.

Speaker 10 (01:14:36):
Was kind of getting antsy at home and kind of
just wanted to get out and start playing, just wanted
to be you know, this is a good organization. A
lot of a lot of death here, a lot of
you know, winning winning talent and winning coaches, a lot
of guys that have been around you know, world Series teams,
and that's kind of you know, where I'm at.

Speaker 2 (01:14:54):
In my careers.

Speaker 10 (01:14:55):
I want to win, and I felt like this was
a good opportunity for me.

Speaker 2 (01:14:59):
You know, those guys want the money. He wants to win.

Speaker 6 (01:15:01):
I spent a little bit of time on some of
his pages fan grafts work, and a lot of time
on his Baseball reference page since this news broke a
couple of days ago, and now that his arrival has
been there, I was trying to find some good stuff
because immediately it was very easy to find the not
so good stuff, and that he can't hit very well
if he's not playing in Colorado, and the Astros are
not going to play in Colorado but three times this year.

(01:15:24):
There's two things that are definitely missing from his.

Speaker 2 (01:15:26):
Baseball reference page.

Speaker 6 (01:15:27):
One, it's good that it's missing because we don't have
to waste our time talking about his nickname because there
aren't any and two a playoff tab because there's not
one of those either. During his years in Colorado, there
are no playoff games for him to have played in.

Speaker 2 (01:15:41):
He didn't play any playoff games.

Speaker 6 (01:15:43):
There are a couple areas where he's maybe a little
bit better than you can hope he can continue to
do things. It's not something the Astros are in dire
need of, but as is normally the case, right handed
hitter left handed pitchers. Numbers against left handed pitching for
his career and even for his past season, they're very,
very good. They happen to have an extremely right handed,
heavy hitting lineup already, and that's a huge concern of theirs.

(01:16:07):
So it's not like he helps in that regard, But yes,
it'd be nice if he could produce as an eight
hundred plus ops hitter as he has the rest of
his career. Again, most of those at bats come in Colorado,
so it's not the guarantee that that's exactly where he
will go, where he fits in the order. If again,
he's not even on the team, he's not a minor
league dealer or a minor league deal with a major
league invite, and a very large number of these sixty

(01:16:31):
six players in Astros camp are in the very same boat,
and very few of them will make this team coming
out of camp. But if he doesn't make this team
out of camp, his contract is as such that he
can just say, all right, great, well I'm out of here,
got opt out of the deal, and I'll go look
for work elsewhere. And I think there were the Astros
would be better off if he did not say that,
and if he in fact did become a part of

(01:16:53):
what they're doing. But he also talked about his own
deficiencies a little bit in his time a ballplayer there.
I was a little alarmed actually to hear some of it.
But he was hoping to build on what he has
done good.

Speaker 10 (01:17:07):
Yeah, you know, the last major one was my left
shoulder and twenty three, missed most of the year, came
back and finished the year pretty strong. You know, I
felt felt healthy, felt good, and last year had a
good healthy year and just trying to capitalize off of
last year and you know, tweak some things and be
back to a competitive baseball player again.

Speaker 6 (01:17:30):
Well, most of what he was talking about there is
the injuries that he's dealt with, and he had a
major situation prior to last year. Last year wasn't a
huge deal with the injuries, but he was talking about
being a competitive hitter, and he said, you know, I
like to build on last year. And then he continued
saying I had an okay year, and he talked about
being more patient at the plate, learning how to walk more,
learning how to put the ball in the air more.

(01:17:50):
And I couldn't help but think that that sounds like
a kid. It sounds like a prospect. It sounds like
I'm good, but I think I can get better. Not
a twenty eight year old, seventh year or whatever you
want to call it, major leagueer. He made his debut
in twenty nineteen, didn't play regularly until twenty twenty one.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
He's accurate. He does not walk very much.

Speaker 6 (01:18:10):
It's on base percentage as it relates to his batting
average is not much of a gap there, not as
much as you'd like to see. He's accurately assessing it.
But I wonder if he's hoping like so many others
on the pitching side, he just rolls into the Houston
Clubhouse and Snicker and Centro and get a hold of him,
and they're gonna say, well, all you have to do
is this and you need to work on that. And

(01:18:31):
if this plays out and you can do this, but
I'm not sure how many players this deep into their
career make those type of adjustments.

Speaker 2 (01:18:38):
If it's possible, that'd be great.

Speaker 6 (01:18:40):
I'd love for him to be able to do that,
and he's becomes a much more valuable player. It goes
from being an everyday player that you have to play
because you don't have anybody else, to an everyday player
that actually helps you win games.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:18:50):
I mean, I feel like the Astros are there's no
way to say this without it sounding just absolutely you know, insulting,
and it's it's not meant to but with where they're at,
especially with the outfield, and I realize he's not an outfielder.

Speaker 2 (01:19:08):
That's not what we're talking about here, but just certain.

Speaker 3 (01:19:10):
Positions the bargain beIN discount in like back in the
day when you would I know you were a huge
connoisseur of buying DVDs like I was that first came out.

Speaker 6 (01:19:24):
I know you weren't, but I got loads of DVDs
at the house. Do you if they're funny?

Speaker 2 (01:19:30):
I have them? Do you really? Of course I've been
sleeping on the Yeah, yeah, I have them. Okay, I
just didn't see you as I mean, I know I
can watch the movies all the time. I thought you
enjoyed them with commercials. I don't enjoy them. But if
that's what's offered, I'll take you. When you would buy them,
did you go to those bins? I would look there
was almost never anything there, exactly. That's what I feel

(01:19:52):
like some of these.

Speaker 6 (01:19:52):
This guy was a starter last year. He had five
hundred and thirty nine plate appearances. It's February sixteenth, unsigned.
I'm not trying to pretend this player is gonna turn
this team around. But the outlook of this team, and
I'd say this about any team the Astros have had.
You put nine batters out there every day. I don't
really care which ones of them stink. It's gonna happen.

(01:20:13):
Even the Astros are gonna have a weak spot. Doesn't
bother me that, oh my god, their outfield can't hit well.
It just happens to be that two or three of
their weaker hitters play outfield this year. Some years it's
your short stops and your outfielder, and you're a catcher.
It doesn't mean they have a plus offensive catcher, maybe
the most plus offensive catcher in the American League. This
year we'll find out they have a plus DH. Definitely

(01:20:37):
the best DH in the American League. Definitely. They probably
have one of the five best offensive first basement in
the American League.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
With Christian Walker. They might have one of the five
best offensive third base.

Speaker 6 (01:20:49):
Maybe might be a little bit of a stretch, might
be asking for an improvement that isn't there.

Speaker 3 (01:20:52):
That's all I mean when I say I'm worried about
the outfield. Those just happen to be the positions, who
they are, where they play. Just you're gonna have a
weak spot in or every team does.

Speaker 6 (01:21:00):
They have a weak spot, and it happens to be
the players that run the furthest away from the dugout
when you're playing defense.

Speaker 3 (01:21:06):
Even the twenty nineteen Astros had a weak spot in
their lineup whoever was catching that day.

Speaker 2 (01:21:11):
It's odd for people.

Speaker 6 (01:21:12):
I'm sure to see it, and it's gonna happen, and
it happened immediately. When we watch the offseason unfold and
you're putting together a lineup and you're trying to play
Joe Aspata, it doesn't look right for all everybody who's
followed baseball and looks at box scores and goes to
the stadium and looks up on the big board. You
don't normally see all of your hitters bat and then

(01:21:34):
outfielder outfielder, outfielder batting seven, eight nine.

Speaker 2 (01:21:36):
It's very abnormal.

Speaker 6 (01:21:38):
You don't normally have three hitters you want to hide
in your lineup, all playing your three outfield positions and
the Dubon McCormick Myers setup, which at the time I
think most of us thought was reality. That's probably where
they belong in this Astros lineup. It's only going to
change now in that it's gonna say two B next

(01:21:58):
to Dubon instead of lf right because Alto is going
to be in the outfield.

Speaker 2 (01:22:01):
But I don't I am, and maybe this is foolish
on my part.

Speaker 3 (01:22:04):
I do think that Chas McCormick he has to be
better this year, and I take that back, he will
be better this year because I can't see him being worse.

Speaker 6 (01:22:16):
If it's all mental, which I think one hundred percent
was last year. I think there was too much tinkering
and there's too many voices I think he got in
his head, and you could see it at the plate.
He was shaking his head after every pitch, every every
every look he was he was walking back to the
dugout on pitch one, knowing that's where he'd be headed.

Speaker 2 (01:22:34):
That's where he was mentally already. Yeah. I think he's
strong enough to get over that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:38):
Yeah, because you can't show what he did and then
it just disappeared. You can forget how to play, didn't
forget how to hit, and the fielding's fine. Kind of
sounds like Jake Myers, except for minus the hitting part
of things.

Speaker 2 (01:22:51):
So we shall see. We will come back.

Speaker 3 (01:22:53):
We'll start our number three subplot to tonight's Rockets return
to act against Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves. We'll
tell you about that when we come back the eighteen
on Sports Talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys

(01:23:14):
named at him Talking Your Teams series, Adam Clinton and
Adam Wexler are the A team A.

Speaker 2 (01:23:27):
Our number three.

Speaker 3 (01:23:29):
On a Friday edition of the program Sports Talk seven
to ninety Space City Home Network, we're taking you up
until six o'clock tonight. Talked a lot of Astros baseball
over the course of the last hour. As there in
spring training, a lot of guys won't play a lot
of guys, meaning the usual projected starters, but there will
be an action tomorrow in their first action, I should say,

(01:23:50):
of spring training out at West Palm Beach and as
they get ready for the twenty twenty five campaign. A
lot of talk about Jose Al two vy obviously in
left field, and then the fact that the team, you know,
added Brendan Rodgers.

Speaker 2 (01:24:03):
We heard from him over the course of the last
thirty minutes or so.

Speaker 3 (01:24:06):
We talked a little bit about the team USA lost
to Canada in the early stages of the show, humongous numbers.
I only saw the is it sports net sports com
something like that, the Canadian ten yeah, ten point one
million or whatever it was viewers. I don't know what
the US side of things was. I just kept thinking about, Okay,

(01:24:31):
this is a not a gimmick necessarily thing, but it's
it's in the same category, I would say, as like
an NBA All Star Game, And how much more interest
there was just in hockey, which is not It's a
distant fourth on the list of big sports.

Speaker 6 (01:24:44):
You stowing up PK Suban earlier on the show. And
one thing not to go into everything that he said,
all of which was on the money, But the simplest
part is one of the biggest differences. You want to
go out there and play a basketball game, half speed,
not caring, no problem. You want to do that in
a hockey game, big problems.

Speaker 2 (01:25:02):
Cannot do that.

Speaker 6 (01:25:03):
Yeah, that's why nobody really does. But you know, and
I don't think it's even fair to compare what you know,
the All Star Game was. I mean, we're trying to
compare an All Star game that happened this week to
a game like this that happened last night. It's clearly
not the same. I mean, they took a break in
their season because this is what the players wanted.

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
For sure.

Speaker 6 (01:25:21):
The league, I think knew beforehand what it could do
from an interest standpoint, and they obviously went all out.
And it means something to them. They went, I mean,
who won the All Star Game on Sunday? Why you
don't know? And what did they do after they won
to celebrate nothing? They actually celebrated all night long last night.
They I'm sure had many many cold beverages after last

(01:25:45):
night's win. It means something to them. It's it's it actually,
and that's what you saw in the game, and not
just last night's game, every game, the ones not including
the United States against Canada, all of the games with
all of the players involved for all of their countries
and more. We're totally invested in this completely, as they
almost always are in these massive international events, the Olympics

(01:26:08):
the other coming up soon, and you'll see the very
same thing. And yes, comparing it to the postseason is
it's very similar. It's not necessarily the same all regular
season long, but yes, we're comparing it to an elite
competitive night and saying, well, all the NBA players have
to do is you know, they need to bring it
for the All Star Game. I think if the players
brought it for the All Star Game, it would be better.

Speaker 2 (01:26:30):
It just wouldn't be this.

Speaker 6 (01:26:32):
Even if you had USA versus the World at the
All Star Game, it would be better.

Speaker 2 (01:26:36):
But I don't think it quite measures up to this
well in that sense.

Speaker 3 (01:26:40):
You would be trying to capture like a dream team
type situation if you were to pit you know, international
versus US in that format or whatever.

Speaker 6 (01:26:48):
But you have to and I think the lead, I
honestly think the twenty twenty six NBA All Star game
will be the United States against the world.

Speaker 3 (01:26:54):
Well, there's not a lot of alternatives. If you are
trying to change what the original format was in, your.

Speaker 2 (01:26:59):
Alternative is to shake the players.

Speaker 6 (01:27:02):
And I know people are even pointing out these one
on one events that unrivaled was happening, and you know,
they're asking Anthony Edwards, would you do this, asking Yannis
would you do this? Asking James Harden, and they're all
saying yes, and people on the outste are saying, yeah,
look at look at what it did, look at the competition,
look at the interest, and of course these players were
all in. What's the incentive for the female basketball players

(01:27:26):
that participated was a massive windfall of winnings compared to
what they normally make. If you want to equal make
some sort of equal analogy to NBA players, you're not
giving them one hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 2 (01:27:40):
You're not even giving them a million dollars.

Speaker 6 (01:27:42):
You would have to give them so much more than
that for it to financially have that kind of equal
pay for the equal work. Because they're mega millionaires, they
don't need to compete for and I know we pay
the money for the in season tournament. Now the winning
team gets a huge boost for the players at the
back end. It actually matters a lot, and it's clear

(01:28:04):
the players were in so as much as what they've
done with the All Star Game. On the NBA side
is it did not work. Not only the games themselves,
which were a little bit better, but the production of
the whole evening's events.

Speaker 2 (01:28:14):
It just was very poorly done. And I'm sure they
know that.

Speaker 6 (01:28:16):
I'm sure it will be better if they kept the
same format, which I don't think they will, but we do.
I think we need to recognize as much as some
people are still turning their nose at it or just
aren't interested in it, the NBA Cup, the nd season
tournament this year, I think a little bit last year,
I think even more so this year. It sure looked
like the players cared with how they played.

Speaker 2 (01:28:36):
It cared more than the All Star Game. Well that's
not even comparable. You're totally right.

Speaker 6 (01:28:39):
It's they're two totally different events, and you're right, I
shouldn't dismiss it at all. They absolutely care more about it.
So finding a way to do that if there is
still to be some sort of All Star get together
and for me to speak about it, financially the players
at the top. Fred wasn't playing for the money they
were gonna get. Jalen's not playing for the money. Alpert's

(01:29:01):
not playing for the money. Shay gilges Alexander the team
they lost, so he's not playing for the money. But
it sure is nice when the other eight players who
don't even play are getting a boost to their low
salary or low er salary. And in this one on
one tournament that we're pretending might take place with NBA players,
well there's no such thing. None of those players are involved.

(01:29:24):
The only players that are involved are the ones that
are on super max deals, are very close to it,
are about to be on that. So I'm not sure
you're ever going to see the money as the determining factor.
You have to get the players. How you do it,
I don't know, And it's usually one or two guys
leading the way. If we'll take the league where it
is today, if Lebron and Steph and KD and Jason

(01:29:47):
Tatum all said I'm playing, Giannis is playing, whoever else,
James Harden, any of the if they all say they're playing, well,
they're not going to want to lose.

Speaker 2 (01:29:56):
There is some pride involved.

Speaker 6 (01:29:58):
If it literally was a one on one match up,
a tournament, a bracket that they're probably going to play
as hard as they can. Now now you're running a
little bit more of the in season risk for injury,
which everybody that played last night on the hockey side,
they were doing the very same thing. This is during
the season injuries could happen. Obviously, one of the Americans
did not play as the game went on, and it

(01:30:18):
was kind of important. I'm not saying it was change
the outcome, but not having Chuck for most of the
remainder of the game mattered. I wonder if they're still
never going to find that balance between when we're having
it and how much it could potentially impact your real job,
the job you're really getting paid for your day job,
but it's the NBA, they're paying you for everything. Should

(01:30:39):
they not consider it similar It's the team that would care.
The Bucks would care if Yannis went out there and
got hurt. Their season's over. The league would care to
a smaller degree, But the rest of the league's still
playing games without honest This.

Speaker 3 (01:30:52):
Is why, and I mean far be it from me
to agree with Michelle Beadle about like ninety nine percent
of things that she said. Ever, but she did have
a good point when talking about Draymond Green's comments about this.
And you know, Draymond Green famously went on TV and
was talking about how the product is bad and blah
blah blah. And she was like, well, just because you
guys don't care, it's what you're talking about here. They
don't care like these hockey players did. And you notice

(01:31:16):
you brought up, like, you know, the injuries. She I
think she said something about load management, but I know
that's been talked about now. These guys are making all
this money and they're the ones load managing. And that's
that's not Greg Popovich because he's the one that really
started to do it, like just out in public, in
your face. I'm not playing my guys. I don't care
if you paid money to go see these guys play

(01:31:37):
this game. Which is going back to it was his
name again, the analyst for for hockey that was talking
about the difference. Yeah, he brought that up, like you know,
that's fine if you want to go halfway like you
were saying. And but he's like, you know, these guys
that are making all this money, it's clear they don't
care about it, And that's what Michelle Beatle was also saying.

(01:32:02):
It's obvious you guys don't care about it, and you
guys are the ones that were, you know, that made
this the way it is. When the Jordans, the Birds,
the Magic's, the all those guys.

Speaker 2 (01:32:15):
It guess if it didn't mean something, at least it.

Speaker 3 (01:32:18):
Felt like it meant something not that long ago to
I guess that generation of stars at this event.

Speaker 6 (01:32:24):
And it still seems like are we talking about two
different things, caring about the All Star Game versus caring
and playing eighty plus games? You know, load management teams.
Celtics are a good example. They don't They don't care
where they finish. This is not new teams in the
last four or five years. I don't care if I'm
first or second or third. If I'm healthy at the
end of the season, I'll take my one or two

(01:32:45):
non home court advantage series and I'll win them.

Speaker 2 (01:32:47):
It's fine.

Speaker 6 (01:32:48):
I'm not trying to push my guys to the limit
now in November or in May or in March. I
should say I want to push them at the end
of the year when it matters, when every night I
take an advantage in the series versus we want you
to go to All Star weekend and play defense and
care and not take fifty footers and not throw length

(01:33:08):
of the court passes out of bounds.

Speaker 2 (01:33:10):
These guys that were playing last night, who do you
think is more apt to get a serious injury playing
their game? Those guys are an NBA game. Nobody was
thinking about injuries.

Speaker 6 (01:33:20):
Though, Well, they're taking their bumps and bruises. And I
do think there's a financial aspect there too. Now, there
are some NHL stars that are getting paid incredibly well,
but it's still not like the NBA. You're not seeing
such a large portion. And in this case, I mean,
look at the All Star rosters. It's basically one hundred
percent of the players that are getting paid insane amounts
of money. It beyond believe. They way out there, and

(01:33:42):
it's not quite there.

Speaker 2 (01:33:43):
With hockey.

Speaker 6 (01:33:44):
It's getting closer and good for them, but there's still
something to kind of push yourself into that echelon because
I'm not I'm not about to make my second hundred million.
I'm not about to make three hundred or four hundred million,
which some of the NBA players are out there into
that range with these fifty and sixty two million dollars
a season contracts that they are signing at this stage

(01:34:05):
of their career.

Speaker 3 (01:34:06):
All right, So that's the subplot to tonight's Rockets Timberwolves
game that I was wanting to get to. No, we
will talk about that in the next segment. Because they
do resume the schedule tonight. I do think they will
care those who were involved in this game, that were
a part of things over the All Star weekend, they'll
probably care a little bit more about tonight's action.

Speaker 2 (01:34:24):
They will. This is.

Speaker 6 (01:34:26):
What we're saying is not a season long issue, and
I'm not sure how many other teams could say this.
The Rockets haven't done any of those things. The Rockets
are playing to win every night. Listen to their coach,
look at who's out there every single night. I know
the back to backs have some people a little bit.
With Easan and Adam. They are playing hard and playing
to win and will be no different tonight against the

(01:34:48):
team they've only beaten.

Speaker 1 (01:34:49):
Once, The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety, The
A Team continues Sports Talk seven nineties.

Speaker 3 (01:35:10):
It's the eight team Sports Talk seven ninety, Space City
Home Network. Rockets and Timberwolves later on tonight, and I
do mean later. It's an eight thirty tip off at
Toyota Center. I guess the last time these two teams
got together. And Anthony Edwards one of my I have

(01:35:31):
several man crushes in sports, but one of my biggest
was just busting the rockets, just beating the brakes off
of them, to the tune of forty one points. A
lot of that came at the free throw line, you know,
since people like to point that out. Oh wait, that
was just James Harden. Everybody else can choose me free
throws as they want. I just I guess I had
missed it initially, just how much he was trash talking

(01:35:54):
Dylan Brooks after he hit that last three.

Speaker 6 (01:35:57):
He does it all the time, and rightfully so, he
said some big shots. He loves to get involved. He's
usually smiling. I don't think he's at odds after the
game with anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:36:07):
I like it.

Speaker 6 (01:36:08):
I think he does it in a way that suggests
I love playing basketball and being awesome at it. I
don't think it's as combative as it seems, and certainly
not against Houston that like of all the teams that
they've gotten in skirmishes with It's it's not involving him.
I mean they literally did have one when he and
Dylan basically just wouldn't let go of each other.

Speaker 3 (01:36:27):
Well, but it is definitely I'm more awesomer than you. Well,
when he's saying.

Speaker 6 (01:36:32):
I'm more awesome, I can score on you no matter
how much defense you think you play versus I mean,
I don't think Dylan's trying to say, hey, I'm I'll
play this guy tonight.

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
He's trying to slow him down a touch exactly.

Speaker 6 (01:36:43):
But the other part of it, I know, you can't
focus too much on a guy who scored forty one
points when you think about that game. But the reason
the Rockets lost that game is, no, they've just stopped
three quarters. We got the lead, no problem, We're done,
we got it. It was embarrassing. It was their offense.
They lost because of their offense. They did not lose

(01:37:05):
because of their defense. They lost because it was during
that stretch where they just shut down in the fourth
quarter multiple times, over and over and over again. You
cannot play the Timberwolves in this case for three quarters
and outscore them because you put seventy one points up
in the first half and you still had a twenty
seven point quarter. You're sitting on ninety eight points going
to the fourth quarter and you finished with one to fourteen. Yeah,

(01:37:26):
but I can't because you didn't do anything for six
minutes in the fourth quarter and your lead went from
six to two to now you're down four Tonite the
second the Timberwolves passed them the first time they took
the lead in the fourth quarter, shoot gone game over.
They never fought that there was nothing to fight back
with because they weren't scoring.

Speaker 3 (01:37:42):
I know, I know what you're saying is true, but
I think both things can be true. I know what
you're saying. They only scored sixteen points in the fourth.
That would absolutely lend itself to it was their offense.
But they gave up thirty five in the fourth, two like.

Speaker 6 (01:37:55):
After scoring thirty eight in the second quarter and thirty
three in the first. Their offense could have kept up
with that if they didn't shut her down.

Speaker 2 (01:38:02):
Yeah, but their offense doesn't play defense, That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (01:38:05):
The world scored thirty two in the first, thirty four
in the second, thirty five in the fourth.

Speaker 2 (01:38:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:38:10):
The only difference is the Rockets scored thirty three in
the first, thirty eight in the second, and sixteen in
the fourth. There's only one number of those six that
stands out. It's the Rockets offense. And they're not playing
a great defensive team on this particular night. Oh but no,
this was during the stretch where it happened against all
of the teams.

Speaker 3 (01:38:26):
Now, they was about to say all of their that's
why they're I say this, they slipped to sixth, when
really it's like the Timberwolves are one of the teams
that are statistically ahead of them when you talk about
points per game allowed, but it's by like six tenths
of a point, you know, it's that's just where they're
at right now. They both allow basically one hundred and
eight per game. But the Rockets have been steadily falling

(01:38:49):
if for however many little increments of a point that
is to get that ranking. They were one of the
top three defenses by and large for the first chunk
of the season. And I do think while while I
do think that Fred being out has hurt the offense
more than people want to admit, I think Jabbari being

(01:39:10):
out has hurt their defense more than people would like
to admit, even if for nothing else than just to
they were.

Speaker 6 (01:39:16):
Both out for a long period of time. How come
they lost so many games?

Speaker 4 (01:39:19):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:39:20):
I know you got to slow it down. Slowed down,
I can't follow.

Speaker 6 (01:39:22):
But the stars made them worse at both offense and defense,
and during that time they lost more games than they
were losing prior to that.

Speaker 2 (01:39:31):
Right, But there's a couple of things. I'm not saying
this for you.

Speaker 6 (01:39:34):
I think I hope everybody hears me correctly, Like, there's
there's a reason it happens to every team. If you're
not your best players aren't out there, you're probably gonna
be worse.

Speaker 2 (01:39:41):
But that's the thing.

Speaker 3 (01:39:44):
A men Thompson is better than Jabari Smith at like everything,
maybe not shooting it.

Speaker 6 (01:39:49):
But you're getting an extra eight minutes of a men
versus all of the thirty you're missing from Jabbari.

Speaker 2 (01:39:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:39:56):
No, I again, I'm just there's a reason that when
he's out there tonight, he's not going to be starting.

Speaker 2 (01:40:02):
I don't look, I'm just saying it now.

Speaker 6 (01:40:04):
I'm determined it's not happening, unpublic determined he might have
been when we find out for sure, not necessarily a
night he doesn't have to tell you when he has
his media availability.

Speaker 2 (01:40:14):
Email will have his meetings. Give me the first question
they ask him.

Speaker 6 (01:40:17):
Anybody, he doesn't have to answer. He doesn't have to
tell you. You can just know we're still thinking through it.

Speaker 3 (01:40:22):
When has Email not been insanely transparent about it?

Speaker 6 (01:40:26):
I think I don't think he'll do it on purpose
if he really First of all, there's nothing again by
saying that, but there are injury related situations where he
said we don't know yet, I'm not sure yet, and
then thirty minutes before the game or thirty five so
and so is available. But being that he's available, yeah,
I think Email will let you know right when you
ask him.

Speaker 3 (01:40:45):
Going back to the offense versus defense thing, and with
the newfound health, sooner rather than later, starting with tonight,
Jabari's back and then Fred can't be that far behind,
you would assume they get back to the defense. They
were playing for the large portion of the I'll just
say pre February.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
Is that fair.

Speaker 3 (01:41:05):
It's not like they were awesome defensively like they were
the first couple of months January, the January they were
awesome in January as a team.

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
Because their offense was awesome in January.

Speaker 3 (01:41:17):
Yeah, and that's exactly when Jabari went out. That's the
crazy part. January third and they got slapped around by
the Celtics, and then after that game they were pretty
much awesome. Even if they weren't winning every night, they
were better on that end of the floor. So I'm
I'm fascinated to see what like Jabbari because the other
thing is it's not just a matter of a right
are they going to be playing better or worse on

(01:41:39):
whichever end with Jabari back in the fold. I don't
think adding Jabari is a bad thing, and that's not
what I'm saying. But don't you feel like there were
they had their best stretch when he was out overall January.

Speaker 6 (01:41:54):
Well, when you beat Cleveland and Boston and Cleveland all
in that stretch, yeah you did have your best, but
you've also had your worst six game losing Street.

Speaker 2 (01:42:00):
That's why I fascinated. Would have more players.

Speaker 6 (01:42:02):
Were out, just to re emphasize the January splits there.
January they won eleven and four, their coach won Coach
of the Month. Usually when you have the best record,
win you win the award. They did for the Western Conference.
They were eighth in offensive rating in the month, which
is much higher than their season average. They were not
eighth in defensive rating. They were not in the top

(01:42:23):
half of the league. They were seventeenth in defensive rating
for the season, their fourth for that best month of
their season, they were seventeenth. That shows you how well,
how much more efficient, how much higher their offensive rating
was than it's been the rest of the year in
that month, and a lot of that was due to
the style they can play because of who's out there.

Speaker 2 (01:42:46):
Fred's not running the show.

Speaker 6 (01:42:48):
As great as Fred is at running their offense getting
people in where they want to be. They certainly don't
play with the same pace. Fred's not quite Chris Paul.
He doesn't crawl the ball up the floor like Chris
does and run it. But they don't run it. They
don't take advantage as often as they will and have
when other people are doing Heck, everybody brings the ball up.

(01:43:09):
Jalen brings it up, Alpie tries to run the break
and then brings it up. Everybody's been doing it and
it leads to a few more. We don't have to
rely on our half court offense, which isn't very good
I'm telling our points.

Speaker 3 (01:43:20):
It's this is It's as simple as just what you
just talked about bringing the ball. I think Alpern Shingoon
is gonna start playing amazing again when Fred gets back.

Speaker 2 (01:43:30):
I don't ask me why I want to, but I
won't come on do it.

Speaker 3 (01:43:35):
No, it's because they look more organized on offense, even
though I know you just got done saying it bogs
down or it blogs down.

Speaker 2 (01:43:45):
At least yet they run the right off I mean
not the shots aren't going in enough. The real that
is a big part of it.

Speaker 3 (01:43:51):
And maybe that was a burnout that that I was
talking about. We all know that the player he was
referring to is was Alpern Shinggoon, wasn't Jalen.

Speaker 2 (01:43:59):
I don't know.

Speaker 6 (01:43:59):
It's people think he could have been either one. He
was talking about mental and physical and we get we
kind of put it. Yeah, he said mentally and physically fried. Well,
Jalen plays every night. He ain't healthy. He's not playing healthy.
He's definitely not one hundred percent, but he plays. He
plays through whatever it is that he whenever he goes
to the basket gets clabbered and there's no foul called.

(01:44:22):
He just goes ahead and plays the next game, and
plays the game after that, plays the game after that.

Speaker 3 (01:44:26):
I'm so sick of seeing that. And they're obvious they're
not Tiki tak. It's like, hey, his arm is hanging
out of its socket because you didn't call anything here.
Can we do something about this?

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
But yeah, I think the break in that it was
a complete no all star participation break for Jalen, for
most players, well for everybody, but amn Reed and Alprin
and Reid doesn't count because he doesn't get minutes, much
like didn't get minutes during his one game of work.

Speaker 3 (01:44:52):
A man might have been the one person I would
want to have had that clean break and just stay
off the floor, even though he's a gym.

Speaker 2 (01:45:00):
Ratney wouldn't. Then Candice went and picked him for the final.

Speaker 3 (01:45:02):
He probably would have been playing pickup games all week
long if he hadn't been at UH in San Francisco.

Speaker 6 (01:45:07):
Picking up a basketball. While your vacationing is probably not
the worst.

Speaker 2 (01:45:10):
I don't want you to touch in leather nothing it is good.
I do think there.

Speaker 6 (01:45:15):
It would have been nice if they weren't the last
teams playing going into the break. But it's phenomenal that
they're the last team to come back, especially when they
have back to back. There were eighteen teams on the
court last night. Well, they weren't one of them.

Speaker 2 (01:45:28):
I'm not lying.

Speaker 3 (01:45:28):
I don't like the fact that they're going to go
from tonight to Salt Lake City and play a game
in twenty four hours.

Speaker 2 (01:45:34):
Imagine that. Well, while they go to and zero, they better.

Speaker 3 (01:45:38):
It would be nice, especially since Memphis gave him a
gift last night by losing. You could say they gave
it to him. They they got taken. Well, I'm saying
they gave the Rockets a gift.

Speaker 6 (01:45:48):
I'll give you a gift from the Indiana Pacers since
you brought them up. They beat Memphis last night. Tyres
Halliburn busy doing something else last night.

Speaker 2 (01:45:57):
I'll tell you what that is next.

Speaker 1 (01:46:00):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety Myers crushes
it said goodbye, Hey.

Speaker 2 (01:46:08):
Jake Myers.

Speaker 11 (01:46:09):
Catch every Astros game on Sports Talk seven ninety before
the iHeartRadio at Home of your Astros.

Speaker 2 (01:46:18):
Always a bunch of different ways to go.

Speaker 6 (01:46:20):
We've been on the heavy heavy items throughout much of
the day. The lighter item skipped over in Best of X,
but It certainly is all about the social media here.
Just talking about Memphis losing to the Indiana Pacers and
falling out of second in the Western Conference with two
months of basketball to play till the postseasons. Not the
end of the world, but that was a reasonably healthy
Memphis team, And every night, even when they've played the Rockets,

(01:46:42):
I thought, man, why are they so good? I keep
looking at them and wondering. And it's not like Jaws
having an unbelievable year and Jared Jackson having a good year,
but the same year he's had and Desmond Vane's not
having as good a year. Nonetheless, something stemmed from something
Pacers related. Pacers with the team to take them out.
Last night, you'd mentioned something I think off the air

(01:47:03):
that you thought Tim Hardaway Senior had some interesting things
to say at one time or another. Might have been
during an appearance on a podcast from another former NBA player,
Gilbert Arenas. Not sure if that's where it came from,
but I know where this audio from Tim Hardaway Senior
came from, and Tyrese Haliburton was his subject matter.

Speaker 2 (01:47:24):
I'm not sure why they were on the topic.

Speaker 6 (01:47:26):
Not sure why it even came to mind, but it
certainly came out with fire from Timmy the Senior. He's
looking at the current day in the NBA and reflecting
on what it might be like for him to be
out there, current day NBA player, and he says, if
I go back and suit up, I want to go
bleep up Tyrese Haliburton. He talks so much bleep, I

(01:47:49):
want to go back and bust his bleeping bleep. He
think he's all that. We're definitely familiar with it. We
just talked about Anthony Edwards. I think Anthony Edwards does
it in like the best way possible from a trash
jogging sampoint. I don't think it's quite as a strong
a case to be made for Halliburton, but Hardaway's correct.
He talks a ton almost NonStop. Probably not at the

(01:48:13):
level team wise that it should be there. Individually, he's
an all star caliber player. He was one of the
tremendous talents that Steve Kerr had at his disposal in
the most recent Olympic triumph, where he joked that he
was like the kid in the group project that didn't
do anything, but he walked away with a gold medal.

Speaker 2 (01:48:30):
That was accurate for how often he was used. Social
media gives you, if.

Speaker 6 (01:48:35):
You're on it, like at Ty Haliburton twenty two, is
the opportunity to respond, which he did. He quote tweeted
that comment from Tim, who basically said he wanted to
beat him up on the basketball court, maybe in a
basketball sense, and Tyree says, tell the world the real
reason you feel this way, Tim, Now there is no
response from hardaway. I'm people can make any of the

(01:48:58):
guesses they want.

Speaker 2 (01:48:59):
No, he's eluding something.

Speaker 6 (01:49:00):
Another current NBA player, Josh Hart quote tweeted that with
the eyeballs emoji, I don't think there's gonna be a response,
but I can't even imagine how badly it will go
for somebody if there is.

Speaker 2 (01:49:18):
Does it have to do it? I don't. I don't
have it.

Speaker 6 (01:49:20):
I don't think so, well, what else would it have
to do it? I'm not trying to even guess it's
not going to be good.

Speaker 3 (01:49:26):
Well, Tim hasn't been in the NBA in decades, Yeah,
at least fifteen years, if not longer, and so they
clearly would have never played against each other. Yea, his
camps doesn't have anything to do with it, But okay, well, why, Like,
by the way, what Tim Hardaway said about Tyrese Halliburton

(01:49:46):
one hundred percent true. He talks a lot for a
guy who's honestly, he puts up good numbers. He's not
a superstar. He puts up all star numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:49:55):
He's an all star.

Speaker 3 (01:49:56):
Yeah, but they're not like if you look at his
his numbers right now.

Speaker 2 (01:50:01):
He's having him No, he is. He's he's basically scoring
two points less per game. His shooting numbers are down
basically across the board. Well, they are across the board significantly,
especially with regards to his three point shooting. He's he's good.

Speaker 6 (01:50:23):
It's coming off in all NBA season. Seems like that's superstarsh.

Speaker 2 (01:50:29):
He won't be this year. He won't be this year.
And I don't know what the problem.

Speaker 3 (01:50:32):
I don't know why all that is happening because he was,
I mean from his rookie year to we'll go ahead
and say last year, even though he's slightly dipped in
scoring total, perfect trajectory, Like this guy is gonna be
one of the top ten best NBA players really soon
if not.

Speaker 6 (01:50:48):
All right, but the Pacers haven't fallen off. Pacers are
the same as they were a year ago. Same, Yeah,
but you know what you were talking about the Eastern
Conference yesterday. It's like those three teams and then the
Pacers are four right now, and it's like it should
drop off, right. I think there's an opportunity for them
to have improved more if he had played at the
same level, but he hasn't.

Speaker 2 (01:51:09):
So to the answer to your question, do you think
there will be a response, I.

Speaker 6 (01:51:12):
Said, I don't think there will be because I think
whatever it is would be bad for who A number
of different people just always feels like Tip Hardaway. Not
always because it's been about fifteen years since he mattered
vocally or basketball wise, but there was a time where
his mouth got him in some big time trouble.

Speaker 3 (01:51:29):
The Knicks and heat in the nineties was just theater
and he was right in the middle of it. All
the fights, Marcus Camby, Chris Childs, Alan Houston, Alonzo, because
he fight, he fights everybody. He's mad, He's mad twenty
four to seven Alonzo morning, and that was I mean,

(01:51:49):
Tim Hardaway was one of the best Rockets have never
played well at Miami, and he was one of the
reasons back then when they didn't I think they spent
too much time there personally, even Hard and lost there
all the time. Harden would put up the numbers, but
the rest of the team would be dragging because he
took him out partying all night.

Speaker 2 (01:52:04):
And they couldn't handle it, and he could because.

Speaker 3 (01:52:06):
I was told one time I could probably get away
with telling the story now.

Speaker 6 (01:52:09):
I don't think anyone doubts that they went out when
they were in Miami, and they planned certain times to
extend their stays in Miami.

Speaker 3 (01:52:16):
I think that's Harden's coming normal to the hotel on
the day of the game as d'An Toni's coming downstairs
from his room that morning, and he says to Harden,
you guys better not lose tonight after that, or you're
not doing that again. Essentially, I'm paraphrasing a lot, and

(01:52:39):
Harden put up outrageous numbers that night in a blowout loss.
So D'Antoni knew. But yeah, Tim Hardaway running his mouth
is nothing new. But I'm like, why he's got it.
He's got to be thinking about the scenario you're saying
to say something like that, knowing, like why.

Speaker 2 (01:53:00):
Halliburton could have also just paid it no attention.

Speaker 6 (01:53:05):
It's from somebody's an ex NBA player who was on
an ex NBA player's podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:53:10):
Nobody else would have paid. I mean I didn't even
have to pay attention to it. And this was on
Gilbert Arenas's.

Speaker 3 (01:53:15):
Why does everybody go on Gilbert Arenas' podcast and things
get messy? You ever knowice that, Yes, I'd noticed it
and this has happened. Yeah, But there are other NBA
podcasts out there that they don't get that messy.

Speaker 6 (01:53:27):
Because even Bus on his own podcast, he's he loves it.
He can't get enough guns in the locker room Shark Tank.

Speaker 2 (01:53:34):
He's trying.

Speaker 6 (01:53:34):
I mean, he's not making stuff up necessarily, he's just
getting more guys who like him want to paint a
reality of what it was. I mean, there's the All
the Smoke podcast. All the Smoke podcast has two players
who I think also get a lot of NBA guests,
Stephen Jackson and Matt Barnes. But I don't think it's
quite as off the rails as most of what you

(01:53:56):
get from Gill's.

Speaker 2 (01:53:58):
Speaking of messy it, Matt Barnes's wife did recently Derek
Fisher's wife. Sure, I mean, that's all it is. No,
I don't think so, I don't. I don't remember I
see it. I'm not like I'm not in tabloids stepping
out quite a bit. Oh, yes, I did see that. That
was a couple of weeks ago. Yeah, it went recently,
but it was more recent.

Speaker 6 (01:54:16):
A couple of weeks ago that she said that over
a long stretch of time where he did it on
multiple occasions.

Speaker 3 (01:54:21):
Maybe I lied. Maybe that is the messier one, but
that's but that's arsenal. That's often.

Speaker 2 (01:54:25):
She didn't say he was about to crack somebody on
the court. If he would, I want to.

Speaker 3 (01:54:30):
But yeah, it's just very random, very Eastern conference, current
versus former star on star violence, just odd. I tell
you what, there is always drama in the NBA. It's
never lacking for it. We'll try it to have drama,
but we will give some tickets away, and we'll tell
you about a very interesting question that a member of

(01:54:51):
the Ravens posed.

Speaker 2 (01:54:52):
All of that coming up next.

Speaker 8 (01:54:55):
The A on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 1 (01:55:00):
Rest assured no other sports station in Age Down has
two Adams in the afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:55:06):
I'm so lucky to have you looking out for me.

Speaker 1 (01:55:08):
Adam Clinton and Adam wexwaerth are the eighteen.

Speaker 3 (01:55:19):
It's February, which means it's the month after January WEX,
which means that the this year's edition of the Royal Rumble.

Speaker 2 (01:55:29):
And WWE is already in the books.

Speaker 3 (01:55:30):
And the reason I bring that up is because this
is the NFL off season as well, and guys have
time on their hands. The Combine is not quite underway,
the draft is still months away, and the season is even.

Speaker 2 (01:55:44):
Further away than that.

Speaker 3 (01:55:45):
So what are guys like, say Kyle Hamilton of the
Ravens up to. Well, one of the things he was
doing yesterday morning at eight o'clock in the morning, which
now has fourteen excuse me, sixteen point four million views
and one hundred and one thousand likes on x he
just asked the following question, not trying to be political,

(01:56:08):
but if all forty five presidents were in a Royal Rumble,
who would win?

Speaker 2 (01:56:15):
Good news.

Speaker 6 (01:56:16):
The Weshler research team got ahead of this one just
a little bit. Found some numbers might help you with
your selection. We have a guess on what the average
adult male weight is as of twenty eighteen.

Speaker 2 (01:56:32):
Just not president, It's just the average adult male one
seventy eight. Really we are fat.

Speaker 6 (01:56:41):
The presidential average ten pounds less, it's one eighty eight.
And then I can give you individual weights if you'd
like them, for anybody you might suggest that would be
the last president standing during this enormous world rumble for
the people that don't know, if you were putting a

(01:57:03):
royal rumble on, your best number of participants would be
what it's typically thirty, typically thirty. This is larger number
by fifteen, so pretty significant difference. Yeah, but how does
a royal rumble unfold? How many are in the ring
when it starts? At what point does the next one
come in a little explanation. Two people are introduced, because

(01:57:25):
we're taking this very very seriously, a very important offseason question.
Yeah from random not drafted by the Texans, even though
he could have been safety for the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (01:57:33):
Kyle Hamilton, by the way, his uh he admission to
question right after it was William Taft.

Speaker 3 (01:57:39):
Which I'm sure the Wexler research team has the tail
of the tape.

Speaker 6 (01:57:42):
I'll ask you this real quickly, Believe it or not.
William Howard Taft is the largest president ever. Believe it,
Believe it or not, William Howard Taft is the largest
president ever by a mile a mile, Yeah, I believe it. Yeah,
I know he took William Howard hat because he weighed

(01:58:03):
So we know Andre Giant participated in royal rumbles. I
assume the Big Show, Big Show, Big Boss Man. I mean,
anybody that didn't Big John stud the size King Kong
Bundy was King Kong Bundy kever in a rumble where
somebody eliminated him by throwing him over the top rope.

Speaker 3 (01:58:23):
King Kong Bundy might not have done a rumble now
that I think about it. The size of the participant
is very relevant. Their skill set matters. Andre took it
like five guys to eliminate it.

Speaker 6 (01:58:34):
It's very difficult to I mean, here, how do you
get eliminated from a royal rumble?

Speaker 2 (01:58:38):
You got to go over the top rope and both
feet have to touch the ground.

Speaker 6 (01:58:42):
So if they if they throw you over the top rope,
but you're skilled enough to grab the top rope on
your way over and swing yourself back onto the mat
and not the floor, you might remain as an eligible.

Speaker 2 (01:58:56):
Bottom rope.

Speaker 6 (01:58:56):
So that act performed by an actual will wrestler who's
super athletic and Oily definitely can take place. I'm not
sure that Zach Taylor or James Buchanan. If you throw
them over the top rope, they're they're out of the ring.
They're landing on their feet outside of the ring, and
they're running back.

Speaker 2 (01:59:14):
To the shower, the locker room. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:59:18):
Who do you think? You have as many guesses as
you want? How many do you think it would take
to name two of the other top five heaviest presidents?

Speaker 2 (01:59:28):
Go ahead, start. I actually think Trump might be one
of them because he's a big dude. That's why I
asked for two, because he is correct, he is one
of them, And then I would have to.

Speaker 6 (01:59:37):
Not the number he was listed at during the pre
super Bowl conversation we had about his weight, which was
way low.

Speaker 2 (01:59:44):
Yeah, yeah, he's big.

Speaker 6 (01:59:46):
So yeah, he's what he's listed thirty He's listed at
two thirty seven. And these numbers, even for him, they're
multiple years old.

Speaker 2 (01:59:52):
I don't even Gerald Ford.

Speaker 6 (01:59:54):
That's a fine guess. He's just your typical, everyday, average president.
But that's incorrect. Okay, The answer is because we're not
going to do this Forever Grover Cleveland, Donald Trump, Theodore Roosevelt,
and the aforementioned Zachary Taylor, just edging out Hillary Clinton's husband.
So knowing some of those weights and knowing nothing about

(02:00:16):
the athleticism of any of the presidents. The presidents, you know,
George Bush a little bit under two hundred, the other
George Bush a little bit under one ninety. That's both wiry,
especially Senior Barack even more slight.

Speaker 2 (02:00:29):
One eighty. Reagan somehow came in also at one eighty.
Reagan was an athlete. Now, wasn't he an actor? I
know he was an actor.

Speaker 6 (02:00:36):
Biden, Carter, Nixon, Kennedy all just slightly smaller than that.

Speaker 2 (02:00:41):
Wow, Biden's so frail. But I keep thinking of him now.

Speaker 6 (02:00:46):
Well, I would think while your president is the that's
who's competing.

Speaker 2 (02:00:49):
I guess I'm not taking Joe Biden at forty five.
I'm not entering at him in the contest.

Speaker 6 (02:00:54):
Okay, are you familiar with the gift of Grandpa Simpson
walking into right back out of it?

Speaker 3 (02:01:00):
That's that's absolutely But if he makes it into the ring,
there are stairs.

Speaker 2 (02:01:05):
After all, he didn't do well with those shocked.

Speaker 6 (02:01:09):
But nonetheless, if you're not allowed to take three hundred
plus pound William Howard TAFF three forty. Who would you
take like it's I know, it seems like an interesting question,
but it is it really well?

Speaker 3 (02:01:26):
Mina Kime's wait in she's a pretty prominent, uh pundit
on the four letter.

Speaker 6 (02:01:31):
Now, vast majority of presidents because we've been electing presidents
since the seventeen hundreds.

Speaker 2 (02:01:37):
Right the late seventeen hundred.

Speaker 6 (02:01:39):
Twenty five, we don't know pretty much anything about the
vast majority of them except at a certain point in
time in the seventeen hundreds. All of the eighteen hundreds,
the majority of the early portion of the nineteen hundreds,
they probably weren't very good health or shape because nobody was.

Speaker 2 (02:01:57):
Because nobody was, I mean, there was typhoid.

Speaker 6 (02:02:00):
Is you know, I confidence saying at one time in
Bill Clinton's life, Barack Obama's life, Richard Nixon's life, and
the presidents of this era, they lifted weights, They had
a workout regimen to becoming president.

Speaker 2 (02:02:16):
Kennedy did a lot of other physical activity.

Speaker 3 (02:02:19):
Others like Willie I don't know if that was never mind,
but Mina Kaimes said seeing a lot of Teddy Roosevelt,
which I respect, I mean, but don't see it. Yeah,
But don't sleep on Abe Lincoln six foot four and
a famously prolific wrestler, so you know he understands leverage.

Speaker 6 (02:02:39):
Now, some of them might have been bare knuckle boxers
during their pre political days before they passed away at
forty one, gosh.

Speaker 2 (02:02:48):
Or even younger. If you're never mind, I get it,
I could see it.

Speaker 6 (02:02:52):
I still find this of all the things we've discussed,
the hardest to believe, and I think this information can't
possibly be accurate. Is it possible that a United States
president weighs in at one hundred and twenty two pounds?
I mean, that's the number I'm seeing for James Madison,
one of our first five.

Speaker 2 (02:03:12):
I mean, what was he a midget?

Speaker 7 (02:03:14):
No?

Speaker 2 (02:03:15):
But he was during an era where there wasn't a
whole lot to keep you in very good health. Look
like just seeing him on like clip, I'm not picking him.
I would pick him. He would lose. Dwight Eisenhower looked
like he was tiny.

Speaker 6 (02:03:27):
But I'd like saying, which wrestler do you think would win?
I'll take Andrea to the giant you get the field. Yeah,
everyone's taken. Willie Howard taff.

Speaker 2 (02:03:33):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (02:03:34):
I think I take me. Of course he would. Of
course he would take him. Plus he's the only president
that has experience in the squired Sir.

Speaker 2 (02:03:43):
It was five foot four Jimmy Madison.

Speaker 6 (02:03:45):
By the way, Oh my gosh, she's actual football at
five Kyle Hamilton, please.

Speaker 8 (02:03:53):
The eight on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 1 (02:03:55):
Ninetyflong Houston sports guys named at him talking your teams,
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A team A.

Speaker 3 (02:04:12):
T that music can mean only one thing. It's time
for football at five. Although I have been perusing a
fascinating article that I want to bring up in the

(02:04:32):
next segment surrounding the downfall the downfall of a Dallas organization.

Speaker 2 (02:04:37):
Although it's not the Cowboys.

Speaker 6 (02:04:39):
No, it's the one that's currently doing what they do,
bouncing the ball and trying to throw it through the hoop.

Speaker 2 (02:04:44):
I imagine that's just the Rangers.

Speaker 6 (02:04:47):
Some we mentioned earlier is the Texans, like most teams
at this time of their respective off seasons, making announcements
about coaching staffs and other assorted moves. Ravens and a
few other teams in the last couple of days have
noted some changes to their staff. The Texans weren't far
behind doing that today, even though we had already seen
these names had been reported, and even in our conversation

(02:05:07):
last week with Nick Kayley and Tomiko Ryans, a lot
of these moves were confirmed when talking to Nick about
getting a chance to work with Cole Popovich, who is
now the new offensive line coach, and some other things,
but they did make the announcement on the full new staff.
On the coaching stide, Cole Popovich is one of a
couple of staff members from last year moving into a

(02:05:27):
different position. He goes to assistant offensive line coach to
the offensive line coach. Ben Bowling goes from his position
last year as an offensive assistant or defensive excuse me,
he's now the assistant linebackers coach. Those are the only
members of the staff to move into new positions. There's
six members of last year's staff that are not backed.

(02:05:48):
The most notables to most notable we talked about at
length for a couple of months, or it seems like
now a month in change. With Bobby Slok the OC
and Chris Strasser their offensive line coach out, some other
assistants have been not asked back. Two new offensive assistants,
one of them has trademarked the term three peat. Pat

(02:06:11):
Riley is now on board as one of their new
offensive assistants. He spells it differently. And senior offensive assistant
Jerry Sblinsky, who we mentioned a couple of times a
couple of weeks ago and then again earlier today. I
do think that is of great significance, even though when
you hear a senior offensive assistant, just top of your head,

(02:06:31):
what do you think the age of a senior offensive
assistant would likely be. He's senior member of the coaching staff.
He brings a lot of experience to the group and
they'll literally look up to him to hopefully help guide them.

Speaker 2 (02:06:44):
Fifty five That sounds about right. He's forty seven years old.

Speaker 6 (02:06:47):
He's been an NFL coach in some form of fashion
only since twenty thirteen.

Speaker 2 (02:06:53):
Was last year working with Nick Kayley. He was with
the Rams, he was a senior offensive assistant.

Speaker 6 (02:07:00):
Also has a background at multiple offensive positions quarterbacks coach
and tight ends coach, and he's worked for the Rams, Raiders, Giants, Dolphins,
and alongside Nick Kayley, Kolepopovich, Nick Cassario with the New
England Patriots from twenty thirteen to twenty eighteen, so he

(02:07:20):
becomes part of their offensive brain trust Kaylee Schablinsky. Bill
Laser is back as the other senior offensive assistant. Gerad
Johnson is back as the quarterbacks coach, all to continue
to raise the level of play of their star quarterback
from where it was after one year, which was Elite

(02:07:42):
top eight, to where it might be heading into this
year purely off of what they did.

Speaker 2 (02:07:46):
He has not turned into a bad quarterback.

Speaker 6 (02:07:49):
He did not have a very successful season at quarterback,
and for their number of reasons. But I think they
put together like they did his rookie year, a really
good group of minds. And we'll see about the quarterback
room because it will be different this year. Davis Mills
is under contract, he'll be back, He'll back him up.
They will have somebody else on the team, probably not

(02:08:11):
like last year though. And I don't know how much
Case Keenan was really around the team this past year
because he was on injured reserve. I know he'll be
around U of H tomorrow helping them get the place
jumping whose house chant Case will take care of that
tomorrow One pm tip off, by the way for the
Cougars with Iowa state a pair of top ten teams.
College game day is in town. The gates or the

(02:08:35):
parking gates open at five point thirty. The show is
on beginning at nine, and the gates to the arena
gates doors to the arena open much earlier than that,
so the students could get in and then general fans
can get in and throughout the afternoon getting the place going.
So they will continue to pace the Big twelve in
basketball and continue to play their way into a seed
that nobody seems to be wanting to give them. Yet

(02:08:56):
there'll be a number one seed when it's all said
and done, in my opinion. But back to the football
side of it, I think case Keenum was helpful to
c J.

Speaker 2 (02:09:05):
Stroud.

Speaker 6 (02:09:05):
I think Davis Mills was helpful to Stroud. I don't
know that Tim Boyle in the short time he was here,
or Keidan Slovas, who ended the year with the Texans
as their practice squad quarterback.

Speaker 2 (02:09:15):
I don't know how much they helped.

Speaker 6 (02:09:17):
It's nice to have them, and that's the type of
player you usually have as a third quarterback, and maybe
as a third year quarterback. CJ's not looking to another
quarterback in the room but year one, having all three
guys Keenum, Mills, and Stroud on the roster and active
all year long.

Speaker 2 (02:09:34):
I think it was awesome. I think it was helpful.

Speaker 6 (02:09:37):
I think it was personally helpful for someone, you know,
going from I'm a college superstar to I'm a professional
football player being paid to play football and trying to
get all my life in order and everything else in order.
I mean, super rich. Great, but I'm saying, you're an
adult now, this is your job. And I do think
that helped a great deal, at least according to what
all three of them said, you know, dinners that they

(02:09:58):
would have and things like that. I'm curious if they
will consider what their quarterback room looks like in that
they moved away from that because of the injury and
they just never went back to it. I don't think
teams want to carry three quarterbacks if they can avoid it.
Certainly good teams that really really need to maximize their
roster construction. Just something to note. Defensively, the only change

(02:10:20):
of great significance is defensive line assistant is now Frank Okam,
who works with former college teammate Rod Right.

Speaker 3 (02:10:29):
You know, it's funny because once upon a time if
you didn't have three quarterbacks on your roster, it was
like what are you doing? I feel like, but once
upon a time fullback sort of thing, and they're rare,
so I you know, the evolution of the game, like even.

Speaker 2 (02:10:45):
Well, the roster construction, the ability to do different things.
You don't have to.

Speaker 6 (02:10:49):
Carry three quarterbacks anymore because you have sixteen practice squad
spots right there didn't used to be a practice squad
at all.

Speaker 2 (02:10:56):
They had how many on the practice squad last year?
The Texans quarterbacks just one at a time throughout the season.
I feel like they had more. I mean, they were
different people at different times. That's probably what it is.

Speaker 3 (02:11:09):
But yeah, I would assume Davis Mills's contract situation is
what again.

Speaker 6 (02:11:14):
He's just played the fourth year of his rookie deal,
but before that he had signed an extension.

Speaker 2 (02:11:19):
Which takes him through next year. Okay, I wonder what
happens with that.

Speaker 6 (02:11:24):
I mean, the price is pretty much to me, the
one determining factor.

Speaker 3 (02:11:29):
Because like, once you get your guy, which they have
in CJ, and you have a guy like him, it's rare.
I would think that you would have a guy as
young as him to just say, well, this will be
our backup.

Speaker 2 (02:11:41):
It feels like that's what they think. Well, if it's
up to the team, they would love it, right.

Speaker 6 (02:11:45):
I mean, he's got a he's going from a neighborhood
of three and a half million dollar cap hit to
a five million dollar cap hit for this upcoming year,
the one year that he extended his deal for. If
you can sign him again after that, if let's just
say the whole season's same, well you you probably get
him at a very like Andy Dalton just signed the
other day two year deal for eight million dollars, which

(02:12:06):
is very low for your backup quarterback, but he continues
to push Like the year before he made more, the
year before that he made more. And he's been a
back Yeah, he's been a backup for the Cowboys, the
Bears obviously them then for multiple years. But this year
and the next year he's now getting a lot less
than he used to. Case Keenum's two year deal here
way higher than what Davis Mills was playing for. And

(02:12:26):
if you can limit the amount you're spending while not
forfeiting quality play, I don't nobody's asking for Davis Mills
to go out there, But if C. J. Stroud misses
his game eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, and Davis starts
those four games, you're gonna be okay.

Speaker 3 (02:12:42):
He But the question is does he really want to play?
But it doesn't that doesn't always matter. Well, he to me,
where else would he play?

Speaker 6 (02:12:50):
The answer the question why he's signing an extension instead
of just playing it out and hitting free agency this offseason.

Speaker 3 (02:12:56):
It's pretty sweet, gig, provided the guy in front of
you stays healthy.

Speaker 2 (02:13:00):
Well financially, it's pretty sweet. What I mean.

Speaker 6 (02:13:02):
I mean you're putting every bit of the while you're
getting fewer reps, You're putting the same effort into trying
to be great, and you never get to play.

Speaker 3 (02:13:10):
Right like you're not. There's only so many Colt McCoy's.
I feel like he was always getting to play wherever
he was.

Speaker 6 (02:13:15):
Well when he went out there, he played well enough
for another it was case keenan after only here the
first time.

Speaker 2 (02:13:21):
Yes, he played quite a bit for the Rams. He
obviously played a ton for the Vikings. Yes he had
a game winner, played a lot for the Broncos. Yeah,
I forgot about this.

Speaker 6 (02:13:29):
They're the team that really elevated his financial portfolio because
he played well enough for them.

Speaker 2 (02:13:34):
They gave him a really nice contract.

Speaker 3 (02:13:36):
They like to give quarterbacks some nice contracts unless they're
named Brock Osweiler.

Speaker 2 (02:13:40):
And they know another team will give the a nicer one.
You know that's not true. No, I don't.

Speaker 6 (02:13:45):
It's not true what you said. Why they were dying
to give him a great contract. They almost outbid the
Texans for him, but unfortunately the Texans offered more money
than John Elway did, so he signed here instead of
staying there on a very lucrative deal.

Speaker 2 (02:14:01):
You know, after him, they wanted him back. They offered
him a lot of money.

Speaker 6 (02:14:05):
It was war between Yeah, I mean that that negotiation
sounds a lot more like what we talk about on
the astro side.

Speaker 2 (02:14:13):
And actually it was a biding war between John Elway
and Bob McNair.

Speaker 6 (02:14:16):
Yeah, Bob McNair's no, doesn't pretend, didn't pretend to be
a football expert. We want to have a quarter But
I think it was pretty clear he was speaking very
loudly at the time about I'm not telling you who
it needs to be, necessarily, but it needs to be somebody.

Speaker 3 (02:14:30):
Well, he was coming off getting pasted thirty nothing because
who's what was his name again, Brian Hoyer. Yes, there's
a reason I can never remember his nondescript, crappy quarterback
in the same haircut. It's not about the haircut, It's
about the fact that his hair or lack of it,
was on a turf five times in that game and
hanging the ball away.

Speaker 2 (02:14:50):
Yes, he gave the ball away five five turnovers. Before
you got to your seat.

Speaker 6 (02:14:56):
I believe his first pass intended for DeAndre Hopkins was
picked on like people think.

Speaker 3 (02:15:00):
Oh man, the Chiefs have owned the Texans since Mahomes
got there. No, they owned them before that, when Joe
Montana was owning the Oilers.

Speaker 6 (02:15:08):
As much as Jason loss hurt as much as the
Stroud recent loss hurt. None of them hurt as much
as that one. Because you were awesome, buddy, Ryan's defense
that that team was great.

Speaker 2 (02:15:20):
There's no way they should have left that happen. I
don't care. They should have.

Speaker 3 (02:15:23):
Won as much as they did with all the drama
going on though the nineties. If you're a Houstonian, if
you're a sports fan in Houston, you haven't watched that,
I don't know what like, you should drop everything. It
should be appointment viewing this weekend. Find it. It's out there.
It's on YouTube if you can't find it on a streets.

Speaker 6 (02:15:41):
Since I've had some pretty good teams, I don't know
that they've ever had a roster as good as that.

Speaker 2 (02:15:47):
Ever they used to kill quarterbacks, kill.

Speaker 3 (02:15:50):
Them all right, Dallas Mavericks talk Next.

Speaker 1 (02:15:56):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety Adam Clinton, Adam
went for it the.

Speaker 12 (02:16:04):
A team before we catch up with Mauricio Dubon, which
we did not play yesterday, and we promise we will.

Speaker 3 (02:16:14):
I just I can't. I still can't believe what happened
with the Dallas Mavericks. But what I really can't believe
is that like ESPN has written another like long form
article about the fallout of this thing and how the
fans just still can't believe it, and like one of
them who was ejected when when Mark Cuban was caught

(02:16:38):
clearly on camera saying sit the bleep down and shut
the bleep up. He and Mark Cuban, Which this doesn't
surprise me at all because I went back and forth
with Cuban a few years ago before he blocked me.
Had a DM conversation on X after he the fan
had been ejected, and the fan had told him that

(02:16:59):
sick Curity had hurt his surgically repaired leg while they
were being rough, basically removing him. And again, this guy's
crime was wearing a T shirt that said something along
the lines of sell the team or that kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (02:17:11):
I can't remember exactly what it said. Didn't say sell
the team again, just sell the team. Yeah, but I
don't think it was directed at Cuban. I think it
was just because he already complied. Well, but doesn't he
still have some sort of like but he did sell
the team? What a weird Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:17:26):
Anyway, he told Cuban this, and Cuban gave him two
court side tickets for an upcoming game, which he said,
you know, he goes, he goes, I'm not going to
press charges. That's what he told. I guess, uh, Cuban,
but that he said once he got those tickets. It

(02:17:47):
was a small gesture, but one that he said had
meaning for him, this fan because he felt he said
he felt Cuban felt bad for the way he was treated.
At least that I've never I was texting with somebody
else in the league and I just was like, I
can't I've never seen any sports franchise a make a

(02:18:08):
move like this that was so poorly received and then
just double and triple and quadruple down on it. And
they're still going, and I know they've won four of
seven since they got Anthony Davis, who hasn't played since
the first game where he terrorized the Rockets for a half.

Speaker 6 (02:18:21):
That's the real issue I have with the MAVs hype
video that they released today because all of the Anthony
Davis highlights are against the Rockets because there aren't there.
But I think most people's problem with the Dallas MAVs
hype video that was released today is where they blacked
out Luka Dancic multiple times, Like what there has to be?
I think you said they would keep doubling down on
their mistake. Yeah, yes, they're on a trail of one

(02:18:43):
misstep after another.

Speaker 3 (02:18:45):
They've bet and the funny it's one thing this article
points out that I've never really looked at it from
this angle. You know, the bad mouthed his his habits,
his eating habits.

Speaker 2 (02:18:55):
There's alcohol references, smokes doesn't work out, Yeah, it's got
a conditioning.

Speaker 3 (02:19:00):
And then the owner goes up there and starts talking
about some of the names that were mentioned, Michael Jordan,
Larry Bird, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O'Neill.

Speaker 2 (02:19:12):
We talked about that the other day. Famous for playing
his way into shape, but it's like famous for not
caring about if he was in jilted, he wouldn't train
during the off season or during the season. Yeah, but like.

Speaker 3 (02:19:23):
You're blacking out the guy in the hype video, and
what they did, almost like accidentally, was actually boost his
persona because they're talking about all these things he didn't
do or didn't do the way they would like he
was putting up numbers while he was this bad at
all these things you're talking.

Speaker 2 (02:19:43):
About much better as a math than a Laker.

Speaker 3 (02:19:45):
Well, no kidding, but that's because he's being ignored on offense.
He's definitely being ignored on offense. He is not being
ignored at all on defense. Hunt Hunt, Hunt, Where is Luca?
Come set a screen? If Luca guarding you, and that
way I get to attack him. Please, it's working too.

Speaker 2 (02:20:07):
It's going to go badly for both of these teams.
I think great.

Speaker 6 (02:20:10):
Yeah, no, I love it as a Rocket's defending Western
Conference champ and a team that falls they're very kramer
Like and their personnel moves. They can fall bleep backwards
into great talent because they're in la mm hmm.

Speaker 2 (02:20:22):
They yeah, who are you going?

Speaker 3 (02:20:24):
But that's the thing that takes the whole adage of well,
I mean, at least they got the generational talent. After
Lebron leaves, surely somebody's gonna want to come play with him.
Not if he's averaging fourteen points per game and is
even worse defensively.

Speaker 2 (02:20:36):
In his entire career.

Speaker 6 (02:20:38):
The only player that's come to play with him is
one of the guys they decided to keep over him career.

Speaker 3 (02:20:43):
Can't believe that he got traded and is like, hey,
let's slow your role on kicking him while he's on
his way out the door.

Speaker 2 (02:20:52):
Good for Houston.

Speaker 6 (02:20:53):
Presumably that neither of these teams elevated themselves with a
move they had. If we're behind the rockets, and that's
where I think we'd all like them to stay, Lakers
are nipping at the rockets heels standings wise, but I
don't believe they're a true championship contender, and I don't
believe the Mavericks are either.

Speaker 2 (02:21:09):
The fans are one thing right.

Speaker 3 (02:21:11):
They had a two hour town hall meeting for employees
where the owner and the CEO basically took like super
difficult questions from employees who are like, what are you doing?

Speaker 6 (02:21:27):
This is likely to make calls about selling. People are
calling us, Well, why are they calling it? Because they
want to cancel?

Speaker 3 (02:21:35):
Dumont and Welts, these are the two. The owner and
the CEO told sales, marketing and partnership staff members they
empathize with their concerns and that they will get through
it together day by day. No, yes, together, Well, the
ownership and the CEO be there. Yeah, they'll be fine.
But when the staffers can't sell tickets because you traded
the franchise player away, they're gonna get fired.

Speaker 2 (02:21:54):
We've got Anthony Davis.

Speaker 6 (02:21:55):
That's the first thing you needst We've got Anthony Davis.

Speaker 3 (02:22:00):
The owner or the CEO told the Dallas Morning News. Yeah,
we probably underestimated the reaction to the trade, and that
the fallout was different than anything he'd seen in his
forty seven years in the NBA. We'll resign. He was
already retired, right, He came out of retirement to watch
the match.

Speaker 2 (02:22:19):
Trade. Luca just ain it cannot happen to a better city.

Speaker 3 (02:22:24):
All right, Sorry, I just had to get to that
because it's like stunning to me that this is still
what are we on two weeks now?

Speaker 2 (02:22:30):
It's this weekend? Is two weeks right since that trade
was made.

Speaker 6 (02:22:33):
Deadline was the sixth. Yesterday was the twentieth. Love it Well,
that's again as we talk NBA basketball. The hope is
the Rockets stay where they are at the very least,
because now they're on the fringe. They are fourth the
Lakers they won last night, they're right there with them.
They still have a couple of games they need to
catch up in terms of games played, two of them.

Speaker 2 (02:22:53):
The other two nights they also play the Lakers.

Speaker 6 (02:22:55):
The Rockets too, yes they do, and they have That's
where they've come out very well, matched up very well
against the Lakers recently. Obviously, I'm not sure what they'll
look like when they get to them later on in
this schedule. What the status of the two most important
players will be Lebron and Luca.

Speaker 2 (02:23:11):
Well, Lebron will probably load manage.

Speaker 6 (02:23:15):
I mean he all he did from a load management
standpoint is travel too, but not play in the All
Star Game.

Speaker 2 (02:23:20):
Then they had a back to back photo games. You
got to take that photo.

Speaker 6 (02:23:24):
Well, you're acting like he load manages out off of
the court during their games that count the standings. I
think that's not what he's That's not what he's doing
at all.

Speaker 3 (02:23:32):
I think there might have been times where he could
have played and didn't over the years.

Speaker 2 (02:23:36):
I'm sure over the years I'm talking about now over
the Lakers years. I mean, I'm sure you're right where
he's just a guy.

Speaker 6 (02:23:44):
Well, he's played fifty games this year, which is almost
all of them good for him, so he's not really
doing much load managing.

Speaker 3 (02:23:51):
How many games is Mauricio Debond going to play this
year at second base? All of them?

Speaker 2 (02:23:56):
No?

Speaker 6 (02:23:56):
Because I think Brandon Rodgers will make the team, and
I think he will very likely, because Dubon's gonna play
in a lot of places. You want went on a
day off for Jeremy Panya. Guess who's playing shortstop, Maricio Dubon.
You want a day off for Esak Perettis at third base.
Zach Decenzo might be an option, but Mauricio Dubon's a
better option.

Speaker 2 (02:24:16):
He's playing third base.

Speaker 6 (02:24:17):
You want a day off in the outfield for both
Jose Altuve and yord Don Alvarez. Well, Dubon's probably playing left,
and I don't know how you're gonna get a day
off for both of them.

Speaker 2 (02:24:26):
Know how you're gonna score any runs with those guys
on the shelf that day.

Speaker 6 (02:24:29):
It's just saying I think the numbers maybe a little.
It's certainly a lot lower than it probably would have
been before this signing.

Speaker 2 (02:24:35):
But sixty something like that.

Speaker 3 (02:24:39):
Sounds about right. How many gloves is Mauricio Dubon using
right now? Well, I'm glad you asked because.

Speaker 2 (02:24:46):
He go ahead. You wanna tell you carrying this one
right now?

Speaker 10 (02:24:50):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:24:50):
Yeah, that's same for the one right now, So I'm
carrying this one.

Speaker 11 (02:24:55):
Well, I'll say this, when Jose going too left field,
they obviously think a lot of what you're doing there.
When you found out, what was your initial reaction and
now that it's settled in, what's it going to be
like seeing this new infield?

Speaker 2 (02:25:05):
It's crazy, It's crazy.

Speaker 5 (02:25:07):
This is a Hall of Famer, you know, just carrying
on what's best for the team. I mean, when you
see situations in all different places and what's going on,
players win position, and this is the first literally first
ballot Hall of Famer, just saying, you know what f
it I'm going I'm thinking what's best for the team,
and I'm going to the outfield, and you know it's

(02:25:29):
it's Southwest.

Speaker 2 (02:25:31):
What is doing? It's pretty pretty crazy? All right? This
is you and me talking, nobody else listening.

Speaker 11 (02:25:35):
Did you like all the changes or are you a
guy that likes kind of consistency the best you can
get it? I.

Speaker 5 (02:25:41):
Like I said, I like winning. Yeah, for me, it's
like winning. I like whoever, wherever's gonna come and help win.
I love the parades. I love the parade. I love
the feeling of winning. And I think where it comes
and helps them win, I think it's welcome.

Speaker 2 (02:25:54):
I love the parades plural. What what's the what are
the two parades? Oh? For him? Just the one?

Speaker 3 (02:26:02):
Okay, That's why I thought it was funny. I knew
what he meant, though he's not literally saying it. Yeah,
but look, I as much as and I used to
bag on him horribly not that long ago. But they
would have been in a bad place when Altuve went
down with that thumb injury if it weren't for that
guy and he got some Seriously, I think valuable reps.

(02:26:24):
They're gonna help now.

Speaker 6 (02:26:27):
He had a better season that year than he had
last year offensively by a pretty sizable margin. And that's
unfortunate that he'd kind of dipped back down. He onto
almost the same amount of playing time, just not all
in one spot, but his offense was down. Guess what
that's like most of the guys last.

Speaker 2 (02:26:41):
Year, they'd be better.

Speaker 3 (02:26:43):
They have to absolutely step up this year, especially with
some of the off season moves.

Speaker 2 (02:26:48):
We have things we have not discussed. We call it
in case you missed it, it is next.

Speaker 8 (02:26:54):
The A team on Sports Talk seven Nike.

Speaker 3 (02:26:58):
Let's talk about a proud partner of the Houston Rockets
that you need to have their number on speed dial
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Speaker 2 (02:28:03):
Nice stream beat us. All right, talking about frog baseball
strike one. Hey, you dummies, listen to Astros baseball and
Rockets basketball games on any device with the free iHeart
radio apps.

Speaker 6 (02:28:20):
All right, No way, there's a couple of things we
didn't get to over the course of the first three
hours and thirty three minutes of the show, But in
fact it is the way in case you missed it,
arrives here.

Speaker 2 (02:28:29):
Don't forget.

Speaker 6 (02:28:30):
Final segment of the show got a couple of ticket
opportunities for you to claim.

Speaker 2 (02:28:34):
We got tickets to go see Daryl Hall.

Speaker 6 (02:28:36):
We got tickets to go see Jason Aldean in their
respective upcoming concert. So listen closely to something divulged here
we asked about in the final segment of the show,
and we'll give you a chance to win tickets to
see them.

Speaker 13 (02:28:46):
What do we have And in case you missed it today,
all rights you guys been talking about all show long.
Rockets back on the home Florida night against the Minnesota Timberwolves. However, no,
Fred van Vliet already been ruled out with that ankle issue.
I bring him up because Tom Haberstrow has been covering
the NBA for some time with Yahoo. He was on
Yahoo Sports is the Big Number podcast with Dan Devine

(02:29:08):
and they were talking about teams that could make a
deep run in the NBA playoffs. He says, the Rockets
if a couple of guys are part of the fold.

Speaker 3 (02:29:17):
When those two guys are on the floor, the Houston
Rockets are whole. And they're thirty and thirteen this season
a win percentage of about seven hundred.

Speaker 2 (02:29:27):
That's elite. And when they.

Speaker 3 (02:29:29):
Don't have Alpera and Shangoum and Fred van.

Speaker 2 (02:29:31):
Vliet in uniform. They're four and eight. I mean, this
kind of goes back to what I was talking about.

Speaker 3 (02:29:40):
I can't really pinpoint what it is other than to
say the organization. But also I said that Alpera and
Shangom is going to magically, I guess, start playing better
again once Fred gets back.

Speaker 2 (02:29:54):
It can't. Fred can't get back soon enough.

Speaker 6 (02:29:56):
Yeah, they missed or lost all three games that Alpurn
missed late January early February, and then they went on
to lose four of six after he returned, and all
of those games were without Fred.

Speaker 2 (02:30:09):
And that's what he's getting at. When they have been
at their those.

Speaker 6 (02:30:12):
Two players, at least, it doesn't reference anybody else that
might have been out or in a different role.

Speaker 2 (02:30:16):
But yeah, thirty and thirteenths.

Speaker 6 (02:30:18):
That's why they were sitting in second for such a
long period of time. But they've also gone through this
period now. The time from the first game that Alburn
missed to tonight's game, they lost seven out of nine.
It's the worst part of their worst stretch of their
entire season. The six game losing streak obviously came within
that stretch. They have not had any other stretch even
remotely close to that, but they were super duper healthy

(02:30:40):
all the way through Javari Smith's injury in January. They
basically had nothing of major significance for the first two
and a half months of the.

Speaker 3 (02:30:47):
Season and that's why e may can talk about guys
being fried or whatever, but it's that is a big,
big part of it.

Speaker 2 (02:30:55):
That stretch they had before the All Star break.

Speaker 6 (02:30:56):
They needed this for the players that were playing, but
it also happened to coincide with the end of the injuries.
You're gonna have Fred van Vliet and Alprin Shangoon and
Jabari Smith Junior on the court together, probably as early
as next Thursday's game, if not earlier than that when
they play the Spurs. And they basically haven't had that
for two months, and all the players they've been leaning
on and playing Amen Thompson number one minutes in the

(02:31:19):
entire NBA for most of that two months or month
and a half stretch, Well that will drop a little
bit and hopefully that means their play will go up.

Speaker 3 (02:31:28):
Do you think if he had been playing, if he
had been starting like he has been obviously and playing
those minutes, that he would be in the conversation for
Defensive Player of the Year or is it just as
simple as, oh, Wimby's out, so it's Jared Jackson junior.

Speaker 2 (02:31:41):
Uh No, I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (02:31:43):
You don't think he would have been in the conversation.
I don't because he's too young.

Speaker 6 (02:31:47):
I think some of his I mean, I know there's
metrics that point to the kind of defense that he
can play. I know how many deflections and how many
steals and things and blocks, and he does it. He's
I think the credit he deserves is because he can
do it no matter who he's defending, and he can
defend anybody on the court, So he gives you much
more than some of these defenders. But he's also had

(02:32:10):
multiple nights where like, you don't look like the best
defender in the league.

Speaker 2 (02:32:13):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 6 (02:32:14):
I mean, yeah, there's just not enough there for me
to put it there. They've actually asked him to do that,
which is immense. They're asking him to defend the best
player on the court every time he's out there for
a team that has the type of defenders they have.
That's also saying something and it shows you that he's
going to be there.

Speaker 2 (02:32:31):
But in terms of winning the Award.

Speaker 6 (02:32:33):
No, I don't think so, but yes, it became wide
open now that the overwhelming favorite won't qualify because Victor's
not going to play enough games the sixty five game
limit to get the votes, you won't get any votes.
Jared Jackson Junior is the new heavy favorite. What else
do we have?

Speaker 13 (02:32:49):
Well, we hear on the A team are your home
for New York Yankees baseball talk in the Southwest? Happy
birthday Wex hal Steinbrenner. A couple of weeks ago, remember
I had brought up he had said that the Dodgers'
off season spending habits were making it difficult for other teams. Well,
he was asked today, in addition to talking about their

(02:33:10):
new facial hair policy, if there was an edict to
cut payroll this offseason in New York.

Speaker 7 (02:33:16):
Does having a huge payroll really increase my chances that
much of winning a championship.

Speaker 2 (02:33:21):
I'm not sure there's a strong correlation there.

Speaker 7 (02:33:23):
Having said that, we're the New York Yankees, we know
what our fans expect.

Speaker 2 (02:33:26):
We're always going to be among the highest in payroll.

Speaker 6 (02:33:29):
That's not going to change and certainly didn't change this year.

Speaker 3 (02:33:33):
We're right there we're the New York Yankees. We know
what people expect. Nothing since two thousand and nine. I mean,
I know they went to the World Series, so I
guess they had that going for them, But then they
didn't re sign the guy that helped get them there
the most, So I don't know. I wouldn't expect them
to not be one of the highest payrolls in baseball,

(02:33:54):
but I also wouldn't expect them to win a champions.

Speaker 2 (02:33:56):
They're an edict to slash payroll.

Speaker 6 (02:33:58):
No, I didn't tell Brian Cashman to figure out a
way to get rid of Gian Carlos Stanton, Aaron Judge
and Garrett Cole.

Speaker 2 (02:34:05):
They make nine hundred million dollars.

Speaker 6 (02:34:08):
How much payroll slashing can you do if those guys
are on your roster? And and they tried to sign Soto,
they weren't trying to slash payroll. And they did sign
Max Freed, and they did trade for Cody Bell Andrew
who makes almost thirty million.

Speaker 2 (02:34:24):
What does it look like they've tried to slash payroll?
Who asked him that?

Speaker 6 (02:34:28):
I don't know, but it does give us the opportunity
to reference a message got earlier. We were talking about
the Yankees Twitter bio twenty seven time World Series champion.
I'll take this poster at his word and didn't put
the research team on this. When Yankee fans bring up
ring count, just remember eight happened before World War Two.

(02:34:51):
Sixteen happened before minorities could play, Nineteen happened when the
AL only had eight teams. Twenty happened before each league
had an LCS. Twenty five happened before we even had
high definition.

Speaker 3 (02:35:05):
That last part doesn't matter, but everything else does. It
is significantly noteworthy.

Speaker 6 (02:35:11):
Once Baseball twenty seven rings, we could just reference the
sports talk radio era when we could reference. Also, like
the game clearly change when you had a big league,
a major league in terms.

Speaker 2 (02:35:26):
Of size of teams. This is like if the Yankees.

Speaker 6 (02:35:29):
If the current general man managing general Partner hal Steinbrenners
Yankees currently played in the league with seven other American
League outfits, they would probably win the World Series a
little bit more often than they currently have been. If
there were only seven other teams in his league to
compete with, and they were still the New York Yankees,

(02:35:49):
it would be a little bit easier.

Speaker 3 (02:35:50):
Why can't people mainly in New York realize that when
you put it out there that and that's not like Dallas.

Speaker 6 (02:35:58):
The boy fans realize that they haven't want anything and
forever maybe because we keep telling them and it keeps
going on year after year.

Speaker 3 (02:36:04):
Well at least one, two, three, four five super Bowl
rate now, well, at least the Yankees won one with
a two in front of the year. In fact, I
just it's not too simplistic or too black or white
to say that, like you, I don't know, they can't.

Speaker 2 (02:36:22):
They look stupid. I don't know if they know that.
I don't think so. They look not into it, crushing
their looks. Be nice. Well, I meant to the organization, oh,
the organization that we never talk about here on the
A Team.

Speaker 6 (02:36:36):
But luckily we found some time today to mix in
some unless we got the Lakers in.

Speaker 2 (02:36:40):
The Yankees in. We talked to cowboys, talk to cowboys,
even if not before we did. Just now nothing on Arlington.
Just wait until next.

Speaker 1 (02:36:48):
Segment The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety Back
to Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler. The A Team Sports
Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 8 (02:37:01):
Two hand flush free putters. The Suckclock expires, Home of
Your Rocket.

Speaker 3 (02:37:11):
Teased it earlier as the summer of fun continues. I mean,
are you in the thirties? Editters is still in the
forties outside either way. Pair of tickets to see Jason
Alden on his Full Throttle Tour special guests Nate Smith,
Raylan and DJ Silver.

Speaker 2 (02:37:31):
That's August fifteenth at the Woodlands Pavilion.

Speaker 3 (02:37:33):
Tickets are on sale Friday at ten am at ticketmaster
dot com. And or a pair of tickets to see
Darryl Hall with special guest Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze. That's Saturday,
March twenty second at the Arena Theater. Tickets on sale
now at ticketmaster dot com.

Speaker 2 (02:37:51):
All right, here you go.

Speaker 3 (02:37:54):
We just now talked about, among other things, during in
case you missed it, how Steinbrenner was asked a question
about the Yankees going forward and specifically about this team.
What was the topic of conversation that he was addressing
that has made front page news because of who they

(02:38:16):
are and what they do. Just needs you to give
a general consensus or a general ideal idea of what
that was that hal Steinbrenner was talking about when it
comes to the New York Yankees, and you can get
those tickets and you will be having some fun very
very soon. The Rockets playing tonight, Anthony Edwards in the house,

(02:38:40):
Jabari Smith back Fred van Vliet is not Rockets. If
they lose this game, will have lost three out of four,
as you mentioned earlier, and the only team to do
that other than the Timberwolves would be the Golden State Warriors.
If you had told me that that would there'd be
two teams that do that to the Rockets this year,
and the Golden State would be one of them. Obviously

(02:39:00):
I would have said yes. I don't think I would
have gone with the Timberwolves. Maybe the Thunder. I don't
know if that the.

Speaker 2 (02:39:05):
Timber will still get there.

Speaker 6 (02:39:06):
Yes, they have a chance still two more games against
the Rockets and have already beaten them twice.

Speaker 2 (02:39:11):
But they're good. I just don't like the Timberwolves.

Speaker 3 (02:39:15):
They have Anthony Edwards and nothing about them other than
that impresses me. And nas Read's a nice player. But
I don't look at them as one of the better
teams in the West just because they happen to be
in the playoff mix right now.

Speaker 6 (02:39:26):
I think they're the fifth best team in the West.
They currently have the seventh best record.

Speaker 2 (02:39:31):
So you would put who ahead of them, the Rockets,
the Grizzlies, and the Nuggets and Thunder. Do you think
the Rockets are a better team than the Timberwolves.

Speaker 6 (02:39:38):
I think it's embarrassing that they lost to them the
first time. Wow, they fifteen point fourth quarter lead with
five minutes to go.

Speaker 3 (02:39:45):
That is embarrassing, you think is embarrassing. Not that not
lost to that to me, the manner in which they
lost to them. And then you take a fourth quarter
lead where you put ninety eight points on the board
to the first three quarters and you've got a you know,
a couple of possession lead, finish them off. They have
the best player every time you play him, no matter what,
Ifanthony Edwards is available, best player on the court, there's
only ten guys out there, he's going to be out

(02:40:06):
there and he's the best player. But then what and
on many of those nights, you know, nas Reed is
I think you're almost selling him short. I think they
would be better if they just played nas Reed thirty
five minutes away.

Speaker 2 (02:40:18):
It kills the Rockets.

Speaker 6 (02:40:19):
He kills everybody because he's really really good. They were
lucky that he said yes to their extension. A couple
of offseasons ago, because I think he would have ended
up getting more money had he gone elsewhere or figured
his way through the free agency process and the control
and things like that from how he got to that point.

Speaker 2 (02:40:36):
I think they're really, really good.

Speaker 6 (02:40:37):
I'm surprised they've had as much of a struggle as
they have, so I expect them to have a final
stretch of games the twenty six games have remained, he
could go very well, expecting to end up ahead of
both of the Lakers and the Clippers and actually finish fifth,
which means that could be who the Rockets play tonight
could help prevent that. The Rockets are three and a
half games ahead of the Wolves. But a loss to

(02:40:57):
Night by the Rockets not only brings them closer to you,
it slides you closer to them and the actual standings
because the Lakers would, by percentage points slide back ahead
of you.

Speaker 3 (02:41:08):
What's your best best case scenario for an opening around
for the Rockets.

Speaker 2 (02:41:13):
I mean, we can start to talk about that how
it sits today.

Speaker 6 (02:41:16):
I think the Lakers, of all these teams are the
easiest to beat, but I'm saying that not knowing what
they'll actually be. I think the next best is the
other LA team. If the Lakers or the Clippers finished
fifth and the Rockets finished fourth, be all over Rockets.

Speaker 2 (02:41:30):
Change is a hard and playoff matchup. That's juicy.

Speaker 6 (02:41:32):
Yeah, we've talked about a bunch of different players for
different reasons not having you know, just today, Tyre's Hallibert
not having quite the same year, John Moran, not Kawhi
Leonard KWHI. Leonard's bringing his name to the game right now,
he is not, And I don't know if it changes
in a month or two months or in four years.
I don't know that he's ever that player. Again, he's

(02:41:53):
not a bad player. He's definitely helping them because who
else they have. But he was elite as a shooter
as a basket maker, A forty two percent three point
shooter back to back years, a fifty two percent overall shooter.
He's forty six percent and thirty eight percent. That's not bad.

Speaker 2 (02:42:14):
It's just not elite.

Speaker 6 (02:42:15):
And he's his body's not allowing for him to go
out there and play thirty four to thirty five minutes
a night. He's nowhere near that. I'm not sure that
they're doing that intentionally. So later on he can be,
I'd send to doubt it. I mean, I do want
to give some credit Norman Powell and James Harden have
They've just been awesome this year. Not the James Harden
we know, not that rockets James Harden, but in terms

(02:42:37):
of trying to help his team play better basketball and
win games. There's no way they should have thirty one
wins this year with the group that they have. Beyond
to those two and Kawhi, but they've played really well
and they're a well coached team.

Speaker 3 (02:42:50):
I would love the matchup, yeah, I mean the the
TV actually would be off the charts.

Speaker 6 (02:42:57):
Thunder matchup might be Thunder MAVs one versus eight. That
would probably be a sweep, but it would be entertaining
from a television perspective until it became that until the
NBA realized that it's OK, you're gonna say they're gonna
sweep everybody, and the league knows that too.

Speaker 2 (02:43:14):
I don't know. I don't think they will. There are
teams that first round matchup, would you not call a
sweep for the Thunder everyone but that one. You just
said that one was a sweep.

Speaker 3 (02:43:23):
No, I'm saying every that I'm saying that would be
the only sweep.

Speaker 6 (02:43:26):
I think every other every team they could possibly play
in the first round, you would call for a Thunder sweep.

Speaker 2 (02:43:30):
Right Who who's better? What's a better matchup?

Speaker 3 (02:43:34):
You're saying, anybody that's in the playoff field right now
is playing the Thunder.

Speaker 2 (02:43:39):
The team they're playing is the eighth seed the map
that a team that is.

Speaker 6 (02:43:45):
That's what I'm saying. Who's going to be better than
the MAVs at eight? The MAVs are only eight today
because of the injury problems they had, and they might
continue which might.

Speaker 3 (02:43:55):
Leave this because of the seeding right now, I think
the Clippers and I think the Timberwolves, who are ahead
of them by the way, would both give them a
better a better Like I realize if Anthony Davis plays
the millionth dollar question for the millionth time.

Speaker 6 (02:44:15):
Well, he's pretending they're taking two months off right now
like he did during his championship year, and then he'll
return when they get back in the bubble. So he's
in bubble mode. Yeah, I mean, I think steal the rockets.
That's really Alpi's fault. Why do you have to go
dunket left handed on him and have him step weird
and re injure his adductor.

Speaker 2 (02:44:33):
That was weird. That was weird. I don't know. I can't.

Speaker 3 (02:44:37):
I can't sit here and just gas up Anthony Edwards
all the time like I do and then be like, Oh,
he's gonna get swept by the thunder that's just off brand.

Speaker 2 (02:44:45):
He'll he'll drop it, He'll tell have a good night.

Speaker 6 (02:44:48):
Your point was my counterpoint was, I do think there'll
actually be some pretty entertaining matchups because the Lakers carry
their stars, they're on the back half of the picture.
James Harden's on one of those back half teams, Anthony
Edwards is all the back half teams, the two Mavericks.
These are five, six, seven, eight seeds that will present
very good TV matchups. I think for the Thunder, Nuggets, Grizzlies,

(02:45:09):
and the Rockets.

Speaker 3 (02:45:10):
I would I would love the fact that the Rockets
would eliminate Lebron James since he was the last one
to eliminate them from the last time they played in
the postseason. Plus I just don't like him much at all.

Speaker 6 (02:45:24):
If you're the fourth best team, you should be, you
should win. I think the Rockets would be favored to
should it be favored. I don't know that they will
be favored if those are the matchups they get. ZIP
for us for today and for the week. Appreciate everybody
that was with us. Lots of ASTROS coverage tomorrow even
more and now it's game coverage, first spring training game

(02:45:44):
for you, both on the TV side and the radio side,
so appreciate everyone on that end.

Speaker 2 (02:45:48):
For Ac and Dan, I'm WEX.

Speaker 6 (02:45:50):
You got the Rodney Terry Hoops Basketball Longhorn Show next.

Speaker 8 (02:45:57):
The AE on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 2 (02:46:00):
Yeah.

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.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season

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40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season