Rockets, Royals and Rocky Picks Headline Houston's 'Losing' Weekend

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Two lifelong Houston sports guys named Adam Raised, my.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Girl Nolan Multipi.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
The magnificent roller coaster ride that is Houston sports. Chill
lge down for the only home grown afternoon team.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Is talking your Teams?

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the A Team.

Speaker 4 (00:37):
A two oh one here on Sports Talk seven to ninety.
It is a Monday edition of the A Team. He's
wex I am a c. It's a post NFL draft,
post Astros dropping two out of three to the Royals,
post Rockets falling down?

Speaker 5 (01:00):
Who won?

Speaker 4 (01:00):
To the Warriors? Weekend edition of the program. How do
you feel, Houston? How are you feeling right now? What's
your pulse? What's your sports Spidey sense is telling you?
That's gonna happen tonight when the Rockets will tie this
series up first of two straight games.

Speaker 5 (01:15):
They are going to win. I'm calling it here now.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
And how do you feel about what the Texans did
all weekend long? I think I kind of know how
you feel about what the Astros did, because that's what
we've seen a lot of the season, and then yesterday
they kind of came out of their shells a little
bit on a Brown still awesome, by the way, but
those are the two driving factors, along with the just
ridiculous aspects surrounding the Shador Sanders saga all weekend long.

(01:42):
Mel Kiper might want to start delivering mail or something
like that that that was pretty embarrassing for him over
the weekend. But as it pertains to Houston, those are
the two biggest stories, I would say, the draft and
how you think the Texans did or did not address
their needs, and what you thought of what you saw
primarily in the second half, but even just before halftime

(02:05):
of Saturday night's Game three between the Rockets and the Warriors,
I can tell you this, it looked like they were
effective again early on defending Steph Curry and it wasn't
like he started hitting all these three pointers to get going.
It was driving to the basket. And Steve Kerr said
something after the game that I really really agreed with.

(02:29):
That game turned just before halftime, and I know you
were calling it WEX, so you know that when you
can feel that momentum even though you're still up, even
though it's halftime, everything can reset. After that, the Rockets
needed to come out strong in the second half, and
they did, but so do the Warriors, and you could
just kind of feel it slip sliding away because, in

(02:51):
my opinion, the Rockets went away from their defensive game
plan primarily all across the board, not just on Steph Curry,
and that's how they lost Game three primarily.

Speaker 5 (03:02):
So when did he say the turning point was?

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Kurse said he thought the most important period of the
game was just before halftime, when they got to within
three at the break.

Speaker 6 (03:13):
Yeah, a lot of different ways to look at it.
I definitely didn't see it that way going through. It
turned in the fourth quarter. The Rockets weren't doing much
in the first second or third quarter, but they were up.
They were up by four, they were up by three,
and then they were up by two as quarter by
quarter by quarter went on, and they went to the
fourth quarter in a great position, all things considered, another game,

(03:33):
almost an exact duplicate of Game one. They were in
position to win Game one miraculously because of how far
behind they were at but one point in time, they
were in position to win Game three because they just
managed to stay in the game throughout. There was no
big gap they had to make up. There was no
point in the game where you're like, man, they're just
giving this one away. They just were doing enough defensively,

(03:57):
waiting for somebody to show up offensively, still waiting tonight's
Game four, and that's really where to me they ended
up losing.

Speaker 5 (04:05):
The score is a little.

Speaker 6 (04:06):
Bit higher than Game one, and maybe that's a significant
difference to some not really to me. That was to
me the Rockets, unfortunately, in my opinion, have been their
own worst enemy, and not by virtue of what Golden
State is doing, not at all. I think it's what
they're doing. I think they should have strongly considered changes
to how they're going about attacking Golden State's defense and

(04:29):
the personnel they're using to attack Golden State's defense. And no,
for the one billionth time, I don't mean, man, I
think they should change the starting lineup. If you haven't
been paying attention to the series, you're probably still asking
those questions. There's nothing wrong with how the Rockets starting
lineup has started games, and the only thing you get

(04:50):
when you change the starting lineup is the change to
the start of the game. Everything else can be however
you want it. You can put somebody else out there
for thirty five minutes if you want. A bench player
can play forty minutes if they wanting. The Rockets have
had the lead after the first quarter in every game.
The Rockets have had the lead four minutes into every game.
There's nothing wrong with the starting group the distribution of minutes.

(05:12):
It's totally different scenario. And that's the question that should
be asked of the Rockets coaching staff and players. And
I do think that's where we're finally getting as you
listen to some of the back and forth over the
course of time, but we ought a lot to discuss
about why they are where they are and they are
in a position where you'd like to avoid. It's a
simple philosophy I have in the postseason. Here's how you
advance avoid playing in elimination games. It sounds ridiculous sometimes

(05:37):
when you hear it said like that, but you win
tonight and you avoid an elimination game. It's not a
do or die. Your backs aren't against the wall. I'm
not calling it a must win, and you don't take
the lead in the series if you get a win tonight,
but you gotta do something to prevent Okay, sure, after
not beating Golden State, but once in four tries. Absolutely,
we're about to knock them off three straight times. You

(05:58):
got to avoid that very very difficult when, in my opinion,
look at these three games. One of the two teams
was in position to win all three of the games.
And it's not Golden State.

Speaker 4 (06:09):
No, listen what you said about all three games. You
know what you didn't say. The Rockets have had a
double digit advantage in all three of these games. The
Rockets are doing a lot of things right, primarily at
the start of games, primarily on the defensive end. We
all know the offense it lacks. It leaves a lot
to be desired. It's not championship material. I'm not sitting

(06:33):
here thinking the Rockets are going to win the NBA
title this year, even if they go on some miraculous
run that even gets them to the conference finals. They're
not better than the Oklahoma City Thunder and that's all
that matters in this NBA playoffs. But they're better than
the Golden State Warriors. They're better than the Golden State Warriors.
With or without Jimmy Butler. I will argue till I'm
blue in the face about this.

Speaker 6 (06:52):
Why not what's your argument that they aren't because killed,
not to Jimmy that they just lost to both of
our two out of three they've lost to Jimmy. Now
they've lost without Jimmy. What's the argument that they're better
than that?

Speaker 4 (07:06):
And they've beaten them with Jimmy two in the regular season. Yeah,
but they were one of the few teams.

Speaker 5 (07:11):
You're saying they're better than that.

Speaker 6 (07:12):
I am saying that because top they're not cut, because
top to bottom their roster is better than the Golden
State Warriors.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (07:20):
The Golden State Warriors rely on two people, and one
of them's hurt right now, and the other one you
allowed to do the one thing you couldn't allow him
to do, primarily in the second half. But I the
quote that Steve Kerr had by the way, he said,
I thought the key to the game was the way
we closed the second quarter. Okay, you didn't really expand
upon it. But Steph Curry got thirteen points in the

(07:42):
second quarter.

Speaker 5 (07:43):
I mean, I know what he means. You know what
he means.

Speaker 6 (07:45):
They scored ninth straight. Right, they were down forty nine
thirty seven. You mentioned they had a double figure lead.

Speaker 5 (07:49):
There was it. They had a thirteen point lead.

Speaker 6 (07:50):
A little bit earlier in the quarter, and they had
a twelve point lead with a couple of minutes left
before halftime, and the Warrior scored the final nine points
of the period, and all of a sudden, you're going
into the half with only a three point lead when
you'd outplayed them for twenty three minute or twenty one minutes.
And that's where that's really among the many, many differences
between these groups. There are ways that Golden State has

(08:11):
figured out the things that the Rockets haven't yet. And
we'll get into all the things we're already starting to
disagree on. We welcome you into the conversation. What do
you see and what needs to change? More importantly, we
can look back all we want at the two losses
and the one win. It's much more important about what
can be done to make sure this one tonight is
a result like game two. Play like that or how

(08:32):
do they get to play like that? Is the question
we ask seven one three, two one two five seven ninety.
It certainly is a difficult one to answer. We're pretty smart,
listeners are pretty smart. Those who communicate with us on
social media pretty smart. I don't want to dog anybody,
including ourselves, probably not quite as smart as the Rockets
coaching staff and everybody involved in trying to put a

(08:53):
game plan together. But still, I think you know where
we're headed with this. So there's a lot to get
into there, and we're probably gonna focus quite a bit
on that. But nine new players. How excited are you
about the nine new players for your Houston Texans?

Speaker 5 (09:09):
Good?

Speaker 6 (09:09):
Wait to tell you what was said in the Texans
draft room before they got everything started.

Speaker 5 (09:14):
Today, I've got some.

Speaker 6 (09:17):
Maybe real, maybe not real audio from inside the Texans
draft room, and you're gonna love it because it explains
everything to you some of the stuff Nick Cassario had
to say afterwards. He's screaming at everybody, myself included, and
he's begging me to listen. And we're gonna get into that.
And obviously, like Ac mentioned, they're just kind of making

(09:37):
their way through the season. This interesting Astro season puts
them at well, they know they can pitch, and it
doesn't always equal wins. Three straight games of unbelievable starting pitching,
three straight games where you'd think against the team that
can't score, you should win, Well, you turned into the
team that literally can't score, didn't score any runs, until
Sunday did the Jordan Alvarez wake up two balls that

(10:00):
were absolutely destroyed. He hit like his fourth one off
the wall and didn't score, and then he hit one
over the wall, so he and two teammates were able
to score. Hunter Brown ought to win player of the
Month or Pitcher of the Month i should say, in
the American League for the opening month and change of
the season, and continues to pitch at a level that
this team basically can't do without. And like you said,

(10:24):
if and when, over the next fifteen segments, we drift
a little bit away from the Houston Astros, the Houston Rockets,
and the Houston Texans. There are some very good storylines
around the other six remaining first round series in the NBA.
There definitely are some other good storylines coming from the
post NFL draft fallout. Maybe Sanders makes another appearance on

(10:48):
the show. But now for the reason that you think
and today, what are we also treated with ac It's
a very special day in the NFL and at the
White House?

Speaker 5 (10:57):
Oh is that happening?

Speaker 6 (10:58):
The Philadelphia Eagles visit the White House today, So hopefully
over the course of the next couple of hours, while
we're with you, they all go, well, it hasn't been
It wasn't a morning get together. It is to come.
And the answer to your question is no, they did not.
And so those yes the team went. So that's that's somebody.
But it's all it's not about who does go. It's

(11:20):
always about who doesn't go. Then that person or people
always have to explain themselves for no reason. That's already
happened today. So we'll get in all those aspects of it.
And of course he like everybody, he being mister he
the commander, the head honcho, the runner of our country.
He was locked in on the NFL Draft this weekend.
So we got a lot to get to this afternoon. Rockets,

(11:41):
Texans Astros. Yes, absolutely and positively. As we get going
here on the eighteen.

Speaker 7 (11:48):
The eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (11:59):
It's a team.

Speaker 4 (12:00):
It's Sportsox seven to ninety, Monday edition of the program.

Speaker 5 (12:04):
I can't believe it's almost May.

Speaker 4 (12:06):
Hopefully the Rockets play it well into May, but they're
gonna have to win tonight to go a long ways
towards hopefully that happening. WEX and AC with you, and
just to go back to the first segment. The reason
I think they're better is kind of a big part
of it is kind of a lot of what you
said in the first segment. The Rockets are beating themselves

(12:28):
more often than not in this series. When they're losing,
when they're down, when things aren't going well, one of
a number of things is happening. Either the defense that
they're starting the game with, because all three games they've
started defending very well, is south has gone south that
they've gone away from the game plan, or foul trouble happened.

Speaker 5 (12:47):
There's any number of things.

Speaker 4 (12:50):
Or they're not hitting shots on the offensive end nearly enough.
This isn't like I mean, it's thirty seven year old
Steph Curry. He's clearly still very effective. I'm not saying
he's not. But on a night where you don't have
Jimmy Butler and you're up by twelve in that game,
thirteen in that game on their floor, you need to
finish that. You just need to and they didn't. It

(13:10):
wasn't the Warriors, in my opinion, taking them out of anything.
It was them doing a lot of the turnovers alone
could have maybe changed the outcome of that game.

Speaker 5 (13:19):
They didn't have so many of them.

Speaker 6 (13:21):
Yeah, it's like I said, there's a lot of different
ways to look at it. Had nine turnovers after halftime
led to eleven points.

Speaker 5 (13:29):
Warriors have four led to six points.

Speaker 6 (13:31):
There's certainly differential there, but a lot of that happened
again that late third quarter. I don't dispute that six
of those nine did happen in the fourth quarter, but
they also missed fourteen of their twenty one shots. I
don't really think they're giving it away by any means.
I think Golden State is just simply outplaying them in
every facet. Once they get to a point where like,
well we still have a chance to win the game,

(13:51):
we don't care. And there's also twenty seven minutes left
when you got a thirteen point lead, holding onto the lead.
That's what was so remarkable about Game two. What they
did in Game two is hard to do in the playoffs.
If you have an a lopsided series, sure, it's easy.
Indiana's in a lopsided series. When they get the lead
on Milwaukee, the game's over. Under series is over, and
then Rockets are just now playing Game four. By the way, right,

(14:13):
I mentioned that over the weekend. It's that series began
with no days off, and it would have had many
days off if it ever reached that point. But now
series like the Clippers and the Nuggets, they played on Sunday.
Just like Houston, they have two days off now before
their Game five. The Rockets in the Lakers respective series,
got those two days off on the front side, the
guaranteed days off because who knows how long the series

(14:34):
will go, but I imagine it's probably gonna do the Clippers
a little bit of good to clear their heads knowing
they've lost by two and two and have won the
other two games. Thus they could already have advanced, but
they haven't. And it's an even series that will definitely
go at least six, the only series we know that
will go six yet in the Western Conference. The other
series while we're running through the West, well they're one

(14:56):
game away. What I'm trying to tell you the Rockets
want to avoid this evening the Lakers could not avoid
yesterday they fell into a three games to one hole
to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Timberwolves are a lot of
athleticism and fire and intensity for the Lakers to handle,
and too much for them to handle so far, three
times out of four, been blown out once and each

(15:17):
of the last two games, the team that was capable
of finishing has been the other team. We'll spend some
time on our favorite West Coast basketball team over the
course of this show, but like I said, we got
a little time before they hit the court. Just one
Western Conference game tonight, and it is the Rockets and
the Warriors, and what the.

Speaker 5 (15:37):
Rockets need to do.

Speaker 6 (15:38):
And I'll go back to the point I made late
last week after Game one, before obviously they were in
Game three. They need to make it simple. This is
the simplest point I can make among the fifteen things
they need to do. They cannot run things through Fred
van Dlid anymore. That has to stop, not forever, just

(15:59):
no longer.

Speaker 5 (16:00):
In this series.

Speaker 6 (16:00):
It is absolute disaster basketball to the nth degree. They're
too slow, their pace is too slow, can't get anything
done in the half court, which is leading to their
incredibly awful shooting percentage team wide. Alpi's under fifty percent.
Obviously with a five for fifteen a men fell to
under fifty percent, Fred shooting twenty seven percent and Jalen

(16:22):
shooting under forty percent. Even with a thirty eight point
game and some of it's on them individually, sure, with
where they're trying to take the ball, and that's uh,
let's take all the street lights down and play in
the middle of the intersection. That's what they're doing. We
love traffic, we love the crowds, but the slowness to
which their offense is running no passes for ten seconds,

(16:45):
one pass, first pass. Now there's ten on the shot
clock and it's Alpu's got it and he's twenty five
feet out. Just happening way too often, and not because
Golden State is forcing it, but because they're allowing Fred
to walk it up, because they are not going to
get the ball from Fred, not hiding him in the
corner and maybe turning him into a spot shooter or
having your least effective player stop playing forty one minutes

(17:09):
a night. Just a couple of different ways to look
at what's how Fred needs to be a lot less
of what the Rockets offense looks like. I don't disagree
with anything that you just said. And he had thirteen
points in the first quarter the other night. Yeah, he's
hit the first three shots, including one as a three
point play, and then he went one for his next ten.

Speaker 5 (17:27):
Right absolutely killed them.

Speaker 4 (17:28):
It was vintage twenty twenty five Fred van Vliet basketball.

Speaker 6 (17:32):
Well, but that's on Houston, That's not on Fred. Fred
knows he's not going to make the shot, so does
Golden State. Golden State says, well, he's got the ball,
then nobody else can shoot it while he has it.
I go back to the advanced numbers. As much as
they hate, some people don't like them. His usage rate
is just simply too.

Speaker 5 (17:47):
High in this series.

Speaker 6 (17:48):
It was at nineteen nine in Game three, it was
at twenty two point one in Game one, it was
at nine point four in Game two. Obviously, Jalen being
hot and starting at helped to facilitate that, but it's
clear as day to me he can play him and
he might be more effective, but cannot be taking fourteen

(18:08):
to nineteen shots.

Speaker 5 (18:09):
Let me ask him. The rest of the team has
to do their part to make that happen.

Speaker 4 (18:13):
Right, and Jalen not having a good game for the
second time in three games is a huge part of why.

Speaker 5 (18:17):
He took a back seat. Though. Yeah, OK, I think
part of this is the Fred problem.

Speaker 6 (18:21):
He should not be taking a back seat, but by
design of what they're doing, like he's taken four shots,
and now he's up to eight shots, and now they're
not getting anything done. So finally he got more aggressive offensively.
He shouldn't do that. They shouldn't even allow that to happen.

Speaker 4 (18:36):
You would you agree before I go further, that he's
actually defending Steph Curry yet pretty effectively.

Speaker 5 (18:45):
When he's on him. Who Jalen No? Fred?

Speaker 8 (18:48):
Oh?

Speaker 9 (18:48):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (18:49):
I would.

Speaker 6 (18:50):
I think I know that he's defending him as well
as he can, but he's also getting the Rockets as
a team. It's not like they play poorly defensively, but
Golden State is elite, probably number one in the NBA
in taking advantage of the Rockets defense mistakes. There aren't
a lot of them, but you can even see it
with the fourth quarter with Gary Payton. The second two

(19:12):
of his layups were because of a miscommunication and Fred
had one of them.

Speaker 5 (19:16):
The inbounds play.

Speaker 6 (19:17):
They threw it into Curry and Jabbari was like, I've
got him.

Speaker 5 (19:21):
You have to switch. He was initially on Peyton.

Speaker 6 (19:24):
Jabari was, but he made the correct and as designed
defensive switch and Fred didn't and Gary Payton just went
to the Basketbaile. Two players were watching Steph Curry, and
if he wasn't doing that, he was hitting the threes.

Speaker 4 (19:35):
Like we all talk about Steph and he had a
great game, but like they're losing to as many guys
that Steph is passing to as they are to Steph himself.

Speaker 6 (19:45):
True, but expecting Gary Payton to miss layups and dunks
is silly. No, he's moving without the ball tremendously well.
He did hit two of three from three. Two of
those both of them were corner threes. But the other
shots were all layups. And that's not because the letting him.
They're they're letting him go to the basket. But two
of those five layups were uncontested, just wide open. One

(20:07):
was a runout, one was the play I just mentioned.
Another was when they lost him. This isn't They got
to get a hold of Gary Payton. They got to
figure out a way to slow No, they have to
play better team defense. And it's happened with a few
other players in this series. Just you lose, you know,
the offensive rebound battle. Matt and I couldn't stop talking
about it on Game three, And it wasn't because they

(20:28):
got demolished on the offensive glass on the Warriors end.
It's that every time it happened, you'd see a reposition three.
You know, for their first five second chance buckets were threes,
and it was destroying. You're playing great defense, they missed
the first shot, then the ball and not don't allow

(20:48):
them a second and third, a lot of time shot
at the basket when happening, it's this team. It's it's
not the it's not any team in the East. It's
not the Thunder, it's not anybody else they might end
up with. No nobody is going to kill you more
on second chance the threes, reposition threes than the team
they're playing.

Speaker 5 (21:06):
That is why.

Speaker 4 (21:07):
And there's like you can look at anybody in the
Western Conference mainly because of how tightly compacted it is,
and say, ah, it's not the best matchup for the
Rockets for this reason or that reason. That's the biggest
reason why the Warriors would not be somebody that you
would want to play in the postseason. But you can
find that with I mean, you're gonna if the Rockets
advance and they play the Timberwolves, I mean, I'm far

(21:29):
more terri I am. I don't care if I'm in
the minority I'm far more terrified of a seven game
series against Anthony Edwards than I am against Steph Curry
at this point, I damn.

Speaker 6 (21:39):
We were talking about it through the entire year. You know,
the battle for seeding. I think most of the teams
other than Houston really didn't care about. Obviously, the seven
and eight seeds would have preferred to be one through six.
It was pretty clear the last game of the year
between the Clippers and Warriors was of great importance when overtime,
nobody wanted to beat to fall into the playing tournament.
I don't mean to say that they clearly didn't want

(21:59):
to be there, but they weren't really concerned about who
they were playing or who had home court advantage. And
it wasn't just the final week of the season. They
played that way for most of the season. The Rockets
were different. The Rockets played the regular season to win games.
They needed it, They needed to prove to themselves who
they are and that they can play with these teams.
But we had talked about this before the playoffs started,
and it may sound a little harsh on Houston, but

(22:21):
if you ranked the Western Conference playoff teams, obviously Oklahoma
City would be one, and I think obviously Memphis would
be eight, and I'm not saying that in hindsight. I'm
saying that before they got wiped. But the other six.
Nobody's putting Houston too, and I wouldn't have either. I
don't know that they're seven. But the quality of play
in the Western Conference is showing itself. Look at what

(22:43):
it's taking the Nuggets to beat this Clipper team. You
look at how the Clippers came back from down twenty
in their last game to nearly pull off that upset,
and they already had two wins.

Speaker 5 (22:52):
In this series.

Speaker 6 (22:53):
We've talked already about the Lakers and Timberwolves. The Timberwolves
can be the Western Conference Conference game participants for the
second year in a row with five more wins. This
is very different. They would have had a hard first
time at no matter what. That's the point. It's not
that they're playing Golden State now or whenever whomever they

(23:14):
would have play.

Speaker 5 (23:15):
Would they have been favored over the Clippers.

Speaker 10 (23:17):
No.

Speaker 5 (23:17):
Would they have been favored over to the Timberwolves. Maybe.
Have they have been favored over the Lakers.

Speaker 9 (23:22):
No?

Speaker 6 (23:22):
And this is why it tells me they can't beat them.
But the West is good.

Speaker 4 (23:26):
This is why, even if the Rockets advance, they've got
to make a deal this offseason.

Speaker 5 (23:31):
They don't have a go to guy right now.

Speaker 4 (23:35):
And even if that ends up being Kevin Durant, he's
better light years better than anybody on the roster right now.
And that you can say, I need a basket from you,
and he's going to be the number one option before
anyone else currently on the roster right now.

Speaker 5 (23:52):
An interesting way to look at it.

Speaker 6 (23:54):
None of these games have been close late yet, but
because the Rockets struggled to score both Game one and
Game three in the fourth quarter, which I think is
applicable to calling someoney closer doesn't have to be the
last shot or the last minute or only clutch time.
The last twelve minutes of Games one in Game three
were decided in the last twelve that's where it was

(24:17):
decided and they could not score. They had a very
bad offensive fourth quarter on Saturday night, and Golden State
had an outstanding fourth quarter on Saturday night. Baseball a
big delivery for us today because they're delivering best of
X and that is next.

Speaker 7 (24:33):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety did you
all see this?

Speaker 3 (24:41):
Should be putting out between five and fifteen posts.

Speaker 6 (24:44):
A four hundred people were arrested for things.

Speaker 5 (24:47):
So they said on social media.

Speaker 6 (24:48):
History repeats itself type bangills succeed.

Speaker 5 (24:53):
Never doubt that you're the one who put no one building.
You're the best. Nothing's gonna have a top. You know
you're the.

Speaker 6 (25:03):
Best, posting every single day.

Speaker 5 (25:07):
You know you're the best of it, breaking the entire
in tonight.

Speaker 6 (25:16):
Time to get into the best of social media and yes,
ex help tip me off to this little item today
a reminder we will hear from Astros radio analyst Steve
Sparks coming up in one hour. Is a weekly Monday
eight am visit with the Sean Salisbury Show. Took place
today at eight am, being that it's Monday. It's a

(25:36):
little bit of what he had to say, beginning with
the starting pitching for the Astros, especially at the front
end of the rotation. Last two days, you've got spectacular
pitching from Hunter Brown and a complete game loss from
Frombert Valdez. We'll get you that coming up at three thirty.
We got our signature segment coming up in two hours.
That's four thirty each and every weekday afternoon, including very

(25:59):
very soon. Friday's edition of the Friday A Team Draft
just about set to make its return to the signature segment.
But Monday's are good, bad, and ugly, so we'll bring
that to you. Also, here is where we go through
best of X. One of our favorite baseball newsies to
never reference for breaking news, delivers this to us today.

Speaker 5 (26:19):
You know who that might be no clue at all.
It's Bob Nightingale. Oh okay. He wrote his notebook column yesterday.

Speaker 6 (26:28):
Most of it was, you know, usually it's a little
bit of a story and then a bunch of bullet
points afterwards. The story was about raised prospect Chandler Simpson
and how ridiculously fast he is. It's basically a triple
if he reaches first base. And it's a pretty long
article and you gotta scroll your way through it because
probably don't want to read it because.

Speaker 5 (26:45):
I just told you's fast, and so does Bob.

Speaker 6 (26:47):
But then it gets into some other news and notes
around as he calls around the bass pats, one of
them about the affhilies keeping an eye on a closer
one of them about the torpedo bats that we now
figured out was more a factor of Milwaukee's pitching rather
than the Yankees' bats and the Yankees or the extremely
the Dodgers magnificent payroll. Well, since they started eight to no,

(27:10):
they've lost more than they've won over the last three weeks,
so maybe they're not what everybody thought.

Speaker 5 (27:15):
Also, they're hurt.

Speaker 6 (27:17):
And then you gotta go down for the second, much
much more important Dodgers item. And I appreciate somebody for
pulling that out Sam and posting it. Thus the comments
are ready made for us here on Best of X
and Bob writes, you think the Dodgers new clubhouse is fancy, Well,

(27:37):
it's the first one that comes equipped with eight state
of the art multifunction Do you want to guess what
he writes next? Multifunction eight state of the art multi
function toilets, heated seat beday equip see Japanese style see toilets.

(27:59):
And you know where the idea came from Japan? Ye,
the idea for them to have them, not the ideas
for them to exist. But it's still the answer was correction.
It came from their newer performer, Roti Sasaki. He was
trying to decide where to sign this winner and Dodgers.
He told the Dodgers. He and his representation told the

(28:20):
Dodgers it would help persuade him to come their way.
Now the new toilets and he told the o C
Register Sasaki it sounds like a joke, but for me,
it's pretty important. Do you think a BIDET related free
agency landing spot helper might have drawn some interesting comments.

Speaker 5 (28:45):
That's a long winded way to say it.

Speaker 6 (28:47):
The Dodgers are toilet paper level soft. This is not
I'm not even saying this for effect. I know I
say that a lot different cultures, different things are in
important to them. I'm not saying it was the determining factor.
I mean, you are playing for the Dodgers on a
stacked team. I would assume that had a much higher

(29:09):
percentage in the old Grand scheme of things. This says
it's from someone named SD although I think it maybe is.
Maybe it's one of your burners. I'm not sure. I
don't I can't keep track of all of them, he writes,
I'll clean it up for you. A clean backside is
pretty important. That's why I carry wet wipes with me.

Speaker 5 (29:30):
You never know.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
This is why people think I have burners that Matt
Thomas just puts that out there all the time.

Speaker 5 (29:36):
I listen.

Speaker 4 (29:37):
I maybe I'm more Japanese culturally than I think, but
I'm telling you right now, in today's society, yes, where
you have the ability so simply, yes, to be cleaner
than most, Yes.

Speaker 6 (29:53):
Why don't you, man, I'm not arguing with you. Others
are pointing out what you're kind of hygiene, and you
should too, because you should care more about yourself than
you do already. Jeremy says bidets are the standard in Japan.
To be fair, if you ever used one, you would understand.

Speaker 5 (30:11):
So in Europe too. It's not just Japan. Go to Europe.
I stayed in Rome one time I walked into the bath.

Speaker 6 (30:16):
Lanch says, these toilets are amazing. I would have been
shocked if it didn't have a bidet. And by the way,
it was a separate deal. You had the toilet one
place and the bidet next to it, which is I'm sorry,
col Z and Jay say, respectively, don't knock it until
you try it. They are great. Japanese toilets are incredible.
I completely understand.

Speaker 8 (30:35):
Would you guys like to know how important Japanese toilets are.

Speaker 5 (30:38):
I'm learning as we go. I'd like to.

Speaker 8 (30:40):
Know South Park, which is one of the best current
events when it comes to meta humor. Yeah, did an
entire episode based off a Japanese.

Speaker 6 (30:48):
So that doesn't surprise me at all though, because south
Park is an equal opportunity of fender and an equal
opportunity address or of topics. Someone with the handle of
whatevs says, are legit, but I wouldn't pick my team
based on it.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
No, no, see that's then that's where it gets back
to the sports.

Speaker 5 (31:07):
But are you telling me if the Astros shot life changing? Yeah,
well it is.

Speaker 6 (31:11):
Life changing, but if the Astros had invested in bedets,
I don't think they would have been the front runner.
And now back to the original story, someone posts they
need eight of these.

Speaker 5 (31:21):
I mean maybe a lot of guys got to go
at the same time.

Speaker 6 (31:23):
And many other comments are suggesting what you just did?
What are they doing over there? And Dodger, here's the problem.

Speaker 8 (31:29):
Once you use it for the first time, everyone's gonna
line up to use that one toilet, So you have
to get eight of them because of you don't want to.

Speaker 6 (31:36):
Stocky in there again. No, Mookie's in there now, MOOKI
in there. No f frent. Freddy Freeman's in. There's been
in there a while. You don't have to wait.

Speaker 5 (31:43):
Clayton's there. How about five eight? Famously, Mookie couldn't keep
his uh, you know his well.

Speaker 6 (31:49):
Freddy the shower, right, MOOKI lost many many pounds because
he couldn't. But he said, have to lose. I don't
think you need a bidet post puke, do you? I
don't think so, and I know it was probably what's
the answer to the bidet for the other end? Wipe
a claw, goufwash, napkin, towel.

Speaker 5 (32:09):
A shower. If you puke, just take care of it, man.

Speaker 6 (32:13):
Yeah, so appreciate again. I didn't think we were give
you talking about. And Bob can contribute to the show
in a super positive way.

Speaker 5 (32:20):
It's much appreciated.

Speaker 6 (32:21):
Well, I tell you what, I would rather read this
kind of stuff from him than a lot of other
things he puts out there. Many of the other baseball
specific comments were more about his performance for his Ballyhoot
arrival and the lack of performance It was noted in there.

Speaker 5 (32:37):
It's been just fair.

Speaker 6 (32:40):
His first couple of starts left a lot to be disarge.

Speaker 5 (32:42):
But he's kind of come around. We'll see what happens next.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
Like we said, if we can find our way out
to West Coast Baseball or Yankees Baseball or Arlington to
talk Cowboys or Rangers, we will here on the eighteen.
And we just did.

Speaker 5 (32:56):
You tell your old grandma.

Speaker 7 (33:01):
It's break time the age on Sports Talk seven ninety before.

Speaker 6 (33:16):
We jumped into some of what happened over the weekend
with the Texans.

Speaker 5 (33:23):
Wish Jalen Green are we getting tonight?

Speaker 6 (33:25):
I think he played very badly in Game one. He
obviously played spectacularly in Game two. I didn't think he
played badly nearly as badly in Game three. Like I
said earlier, I just think it was they allowed it
to move in another direction, and I think they were
kind of okay with it until they realized, well, they're
not really like they are trying to shut him down,
and we're okay with that until we find out that

(33:47):
nobody else is gonna step up, and that's that was
the bigger, bigger problem. In Game three, I think he
plays a whole lot better, but nowhere near as well
as he played in Game two, because ultimately, in order
for them to win on the road this game tonight,
everybody that didn't step up in game three or one
needs to tonight, and you got a lot of different
people that can. But you go back and look at

(34:09):
the third game, you know, Jalen Green obviously didn't come through. Well,
neither did alprin Amen or Fred. That's everybody in the
starting lineup that didn't foul out. Dylan played fine, but
he couldn't stay on the court, had a foul fifteen
seconds into the game, and just could not get out
of harm's way often enough to prevent it. And some
of that's still on him knowing what the situation is

(34:30):
or maybe when you want to pull him out limited
him to twenty eight minutes. I think Jabari Smith Junior's
close to being the guy to step up because I
can obviously recognize as shooting numbers which have been very
good in this series. It's just not playing strong enough,
and I think that's preventing e may from playing him
even more. Too many turnovers early in this series also

(34:52):
for that very reason, and I'm just a little surprised
they haven't looked elsewhere. Aaron Holliday is the first person
I would have looked at for the Fred reasons I
mentioned earlier. We're not gonna get the Jayalen Green we
saw in game one, two or three, is my answer
to that. I think we're gonna see somewhere in the
middle of that, somewhere between. You know, he gets a
stretch where he plays well. He gets a stretch where
he drives and finishes and gets fouled. He hits a

(35:14):
couple of threes, he has an eight or nine or
ten point quarter. But he certainly is not going to
dominate this game offensively like he did in Game two.
Nor is he going to somewhat be a no show
as he was in Game one in three offensively.

Speaker 8 (35:26):
Let me rephrase it this way for both of you,
who do you want to see step up that you
think has to be a bigger factor if they're going
to walk away with the winning tie the series.

Speaker 6 (35:35):
I can't help but shay there. Honestly, because I said
it before the series. I'm not gonna change now because
I I haven't seen anything that surprises me.

Speaker 5 (35:43):
I said before the series. If Jalen Green shoots the
ball well.

Speaker 6 (35:45):
The series is over. They will not lose. He shot
the bell once. They won that game easily. If he
shoots the ball well, the series is over, they're gonna
win three games in a row if he shoots well
three games in a row. I'm not counting on it, though,
so I'd probably side with Ac and say the same thing.
Alburn's numbers were better in game two than they were
in Game one, and I'm not sure why people missed

(36:06):
that because they were so focused on Jalen. Maybe, but
his overall game in Game two was that's rockets, offensive, basketball, create, score, rebound, dominate.
He dominated Game two, He scored in Game one, He
dominated in Game two while Jalen was going off for
thirty eight. Oh look that they can't both play well
together on the same night. Eight. Yes, he did not

(36:28):
have a Game three. Yeah, their two best players played
well and they won.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
Go figure.

Speaker 6 (36:33):
Yeah, there was clearly more to it, and the other
part of Game three that I don't think we talked
about hardly at all, other than as it was happening.
I mean, I know they stink at it, but come on, man,
make a free throw. They had a stretch of seven
consecutive trips to the free throw line after Fred made
his first three and the first three for the team,
they had one one trip to the free throw line,

(36:55):
two free throws each, fourteen free throws. One of those
seven consecutive tripsp equal two points. And it came from
Steven Adams, who was getting hacked intentionally. He got hacked
intentionally once and he made them both. It didn't happen again.
But Albert and Shinguam went to the free throw line
one for two, zero for two, one for six, and

(37:16):
then you got one for twos from everybody else that
went during that stret You're just giving points away men Thompson.
It's just he's four for ten at the free throw
line in the series. All this angst about him and
not doing this, that and the other when he's going
to the basket, I'm okay with, but my gosh.

Speaker 5 (37:30):
He can't. He can't beat You can't be four of ten.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
Yeah, it's something that they're I mean, it sounds stupid,
but you need to work on that this offseason, Like
you need to work on your free throws.

Speaker 6 (37:39):
Yeah, it's I don't even know if it's mental or not.
With Alpi, it seems more he can't seem to create
a system. This is what you need to do. You
need three single time. Yeah, he shoots them differently.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
Every time.

Speaker 6 (37:51):
Sometimes it takes them four seconds, sometimes it takes them
eight seconds. Sometimes he really talks to the basketball. Sometimes
he creates his own lane violation that they don't call because.

Speaker 5 (37:59):
He's always lean in. It is incredible.

Speaker 4 (38:02):
I always bring up Karl Malone because the routine was
just if you were a posing team. Like everything else
he did, it was an abomination to watch. I mean,
he had a whole conversation with a stupid basketball. He
would swirl it around the air three times. He would
drib blah blah blah blah blah blah. Yeah, nobody could
take King Carl well. But he he didn't used to
make their nickname.

Speaker 5 (38:22):
That's a that's a lie.

Speaker 4 (38:24):
That's all that is is a lie, a bullfaced lie.
He didn't make them very well early in his career,
like sixty some odd percent.

Speaker 5 (38:30):
Forty eight percent as a rookie. I didn't realize it
was that bad.

Speaker 6 (38:33):
Sixty percent as a second year player, and he averaged
more than five each of those years, got it up
to seventy percent year three, and then when he led
the league in free throw attempts five consecutive years, he
became a seventy six percent free throw shooter over that
time and finished his career at seventy four. That sounds
low to me because he was automatic when he went there,
and he was sitting there all the time. That's this

(38:56):
guy was the leading scorer in NBA or the second
leading score in NBA history for years, years and years
before Lebron got drafted because he lived at the foul line,
which was crazy because he was always flopping for a
man his size. He was a a an eighties version
of nineties version of Joel Embiid or Lebron.

Speaker 5 (39:15):
Lebron falls a lot, but I don't.

Speaker 6 (39:17):
There's more of a wing and the Carl and Joel
are the biggest player on the course pretty much at
all times.

Speaker 5 (39:24):
Why falling down so much?

Speaker 6 (39:25):
Nobody's bigger than you, nobody, nobody should be stronger than
Why are you falling down all the time?

Speaker 4 (39:29):
There is I look at I look at Joel Embiid,
I look at Damian Lillard. Now they're all in the
same category of me. Damian Lillard's not going to start
the season healthy. Joel Embiid has never started the season healthy,
or if he has, he's gonna get hurt. It's just
a matter of when I there's just some guys that
that's Yao Ming was one of these people, couldn't stay healthy.

Speaker 6 (39:51):
Tracy McGrady had two of the worst ten years into
his career. Lillard has fallen to this first ten years.

Speaker 5 (39:57):
He basically hurt. For sure. I'm talking.

Speaker 4 (39:59):
I'm putting him into the category now because I think effectively,
for all intents and purposes, his career is over right.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
But he's like, he's this is what happens. Yeah, he's
in his thirties. Guess what happens. Going to Achilles is
a little little bit of a different stretch, right, But
but yeah, I mean he's played the minutes he has
all those years. And you talk about a guy that
just basically had an amazing career wasted. That's Damian Lillard.
I don't want to talk about it, or are you
a huge Damien a huge fan? I wouldn't say that

(40:27):
it's wasted. It's okay to be awesome and be recognized
framer and not win an NBA title. It happens a lot.

Speaker 8 (40:37):
But that's the problem with loyalty is that sometimes it
comes back to bite you in the rear end, and
the only person you had to blame is yourself because
of you want to be the reason why you bring
a championship to the city.

Speaker 6 (40:46):
Now we're blaming them for loyalty. I thought way the
other way around, blaming them for team jumping.

Speaker 5 (40:51):
Okay, yours, let's calm down. Loyal to the wrong team,
probably when you.

Speaker 6 (40:55):
Still be in college. If he was loyal, hen make
more money.

Speaker 8 (40:58):
We are not going through this right now. We have
got to get a commercial breaks soon.

Speaker 6 (41:01):
So now, yeah, I got a bone to pick with
that one.

Speaker 4 (41:04):
Well, we're gonna get to the NFL Draft to start
the next hour, because we really haven't touched on it
and not going on this weekend. I don't I honestly,
I'm gonna have to be consistent with what I said
on Friday as it pertains to the Texans Draft, because
I can't get all up in arms if I'm gonna

(41:25):
sit here in the same chair and say we just
don't know. But if you don't know, that's one thing.
If you don't even try, that's another. And of course
I'll explain everything that I mean when we come back
three o'clock hour. It will also be simulcast on Space
City Home Network. It is a Monday edition of the
program jam packed with all sorts of topics to talk about.

Speaker 7 (41:49):
The A t on Sports Talk seven ninety tune lifelong
Houston sports guys named at him Talking Your Team. Adam
Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (42:08):
Eighty straight out three o'clock here on Sports Talk seven
to ninety in Space City Home Network. It is a
Monday edition of the A Team wex Ac col Thompson
with you taking you up until six o'clock tonight. Astros
and Tigers getting together for if you blink you'll miss
the Astros in town before they go back out on
the road. I believe it's Milwaukee and Chicago after this,

(42:30):
they're gonna do the whole Midwest tour and then they'll
come back in for a longer home stand. But Astros
dropping two out of three over the weekend, Rockets dropping
their playoff game, the first one of two in a
row in the Bay Area. They are going to try
and even up that series here tonight. And then of
course the Texans with all those draft picks. Trader Nick

(42:53):
was added again and they added nine to nine new players.

Speaker 5 (42:58):
How many of them are offensive line one? How do
you feel about that? Well, let me.

Speaker 6 (43:03):
Get into the math of it all, since you brought
it up in the way that you did. We were
here on Friday in advance of all of the draft
picks except for the first thirty two because that happened
on Thursday night, and he made two trades on Thursday.
He ended up making seven trades over the length of
this draft, just three days. Seven trades. The Texans had
control of twenty three different picks at different times during

(43:29):
this draft. They had seven picks when the day started
on Thursday, they had ten picks when the day started
on Friday, and they ended up drafting nine players total
and shuffling around picks for this year for next year.
Some twenty twenty seven picks were involved. It's what he does,
and it's kind of what I mentioned in the opening segment.
He's telling you every year, this is what is going

(43:50):
to happen. Not everybody's paying enough attention to realize this
is what's going to happen. But one offensive lineman is
probably what should have been expected. He's telling us to
expect this, and nobody wants to And had they been
able to pull off a deal on Day one, it
would have gone a little bit differently and there might

(44:10):
have been a second, maybe even a third, but pretty unlikely.
They did like offensive linemen in this draft. They liked
seven of them tops the whole draft. They liked the
first six that went off the board before number twenty five,
probably three or four of them, and definitely one of them,
Tyler Booker. They would have drafted Tyler Booker if they
were willing to trade up for him enough to make

(44:31):
the other team say yes.

Speaker 5 (44:32):
They just weren't.

Speaker 6 (44:33):
They had a deal on the table for the Cowboys
at twelve, and ultimately it was not accepted and they
weren't willing to put more in it to go there.
The assumption is it was for Tyler Booker, and then
they never put a deal together between twelve and twenty
five that would have allowed him to take their first
offensive lineman. Instead, they traded back to thirty four, ultimately
traded again to get to forty eight. And there's your

(44:55):
draft pick, your single solitary offensive lineman draft pick. Like
I keep saying, Nick is screaming at us. He literally
was ranting this weekend during his multiple stops at the podium.
I'm telling you this every year, and I don't know
how many more times I have to keep telling you this,
and he's also doing it in a rather ridiculous, condescending,

(45:18):
numbskull kind of way. They took one offensive lineman for
one reason and one reason only, because they don't think
anybody else at the spots they were drafting, or at
the spots they could have drafted by making a deal,
we're worthwhile to do it. He is a best player
available zombie and gets locked in on certain players. What

(45:39):
they did the last day of the draft, I mean,
do you want to see it a sixth time next year,
because you probably will. It's what they do every year.
Here are the five guys we like. Here are the
nineteen picks we have to use. Figure out a way
to go get him whenever you feel like it, because
the value is not going to be there at the
beginning of it. And then eventually, well when we have
seven throng picks left if we do, and nobody wants
to trade those picks, so we'll just have to take
the guys there. And those were actually probably pretty valuable

(46:02):
in taking a DT and a tight end, But all
the other picks they made, they just locked in on Smith.
All right, Well, he's there, we'll move up from one
oh two, where he definitely would have been there, probably
would have been there at one fifty, and we'll go
up to ninety seven and get him and.

Speaker 5 (46:13):
On and on and on and on and on.

Speaker 6 (46:15):
But to the offensive line specifically, he was asked a
question about when best available player meets up with need,
is that kind of a dream scenario for you? And
that elicited this interesting answer for the Texans general manager
Nick Cassario.

Speaker 10 (46:32):
We've never talked like what do we need. I mean,
I've said that we need good football players. It doesn't
matter the position that they play. So get him in
the building and sort it out, like we need good
football players, that's what we need, like the whole perception.

Speaker 5 (46:44):
But we need this position, you need that position.

Speaker 10 (46:46):
I mean that's made up like we don't approach it
that way, so it doesn't really matter.

Speaker 9 (46:50):
Truck.

Speaker 10 (46:51):
And I'd say today was another good example of fall
the grades. I'd say we kept coming back to, well, here,
who are our grees on this player? Okay, well all right,
Well if he's the best player and he has the
other qualities that we covered, then we picked the player
and the competition is going to sort itself out. We're
not going to control the competition the players are, so like,

(47:13):
can we draft another receiver? I don't know sure if
he's the best player and he's created accordingly, so it
doesn't matter where they come from.

Speaker 5 (47:19):
So I get what he's saying. I do.

Speaker 6 (47:24):
He is telling you the competition is going to settle
itself out. Yeah, they added two players at wide receiver.
They had two players behind them at wide receiver, three
if you count Watson Metchi, Watson Hutchinson. Now they have
Noel and Jayden Higgins. They had a number one. Yeah,
the competition is going to settle who needs to be
on the field, who makes the team?

Speaker 5 (47:45):
I get it.

Speaker 6 (47:45):
Competition at safety, they added a safety, They added CJ. Gardner, Johnson.
You know, they added players all around this team. Competition
is absolutely going to decide who gets on the field.
And you could argue competition is going to decide who
gets on the field on your offensive line, but you
just haven't created any good competition. You've created below average,
subpar caliber player competition. They're going to have to play

(48:09):
five players there. They're probably going to want to play
eight players there because that's the only way this group
would have an opportunity to protect their quarterback. He wasn't
quite finished with what I called a rant. I'll let
him finish.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
Demiko said it.

Speaker 10 (48:22):
I've said it like this whole concept of drafting for need,
Honest to god, I don't even know what it means.
I mean, what does it mean. If someone could tell
me that, I'd love to hear it. But we don't
look at it that way. We need to keep drafting
good people, good football players that are going to enhance
the overall cultural culture of our building. And we're not
going to straighten that.

Speaker 6 (48:40):
I will get you all the best players at all
the positions, regardless of need, and regardless of lack of
addressing a need. I can't believe he would take what
happened to this offseason and let it continue through the
fifth of his five drafts, because he hasn't changed his
philosophy in any of those five. So some people want

(49:01):
to feather in your cap, and hey, stand up for
what you believe in.

Speaker 5 (49:04):
This is what you've been doing, and it's.

Speaker 6 (49:06):
Okay to say that because the success rate of their
draft picks. They're trying to draft players that are good
at football, that are going to be helpful to them
or helpful to them later on in a trade, whatever.
And by and large, they've been really really good at
drafting good football players.

Speaker 5 (49:23):
But he's also.

Speaker 6 (49:24):
Wearing blinders, and they're killing this team. The blinders are on.
I think if we have the best talent in the NFL,
we will win, even if we have the worst talent
on offensive line. And you can make an argument, and
I will challenge somebody to say this is incorrect. There's
thirty two teams. There's definitely not a top thirty two
linemen on the Texans. There's not a top fifty linemen
on the Texans. There's probably not a top seventy five

(49:46):
linemen on the Texans. And now you're talking most every
other team has two or three of those such players.
When you get past sixty four and when you push
past ninety six, how are you going to perform?

Speaker 5 (49:57):
How are you.

Speaker 6 (49:57):
Going to let Nick Kayley and see j Stroud cook
if you don't have the proper items in your kitchen
to cook with. Is where people come out of this draft.
And I think the lineman they did draft was perfectly
good value, a perfectly good player, probably the most promising
of their young players, at least as promising. Is Blake

(50:18):
Fisher more promising than Juice Shruggs or Jarrett Patterson but
not likely to be the protector for C. J. Stroud
on the left or right side in the very near
future at last week one.

Speaker 5 (50:30):
Yeah, and here's okay.

Speaker 6 (50:32):
So Denny's going to replace fourteen million dollar Cam Robinson
or second year second round pick Blake Fisher.

Speaker 5 (50:40):
That's why I was gonna ask, which.

Speaker 6 (50:41):
Is fine because you already know they're not great, Rye.

Speaker 5 (50:44):
I got a better question, who are your guards?

Speaker 8 (50:46):
Because if you have now four tackles that potentially two
of them are shifting inside of guard.

Speaker 6 (50:50):
Yeah, this guard's guard claims well after this, especially he
was a guard before this.

Speaker 5 (50:57):
Yeah, in my opinion, So how do you feel about
the Texans offensive line?

Speaker 6 (51:02):
It's unchanged? If that's the case, Well, of course that's
the case. That's not a revelation. They drafted one player
who's somewhat of a developmental player.

Speaker 8 (51:13):
I remember, guys, also gotta remember, somebody's got telling Necessario
what does need exactly mean?

Speaker 5 (51:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (51:19):
I can appreciate everybody who has the time or makes
the time to attend. I do as often as I can.
An additional hour earlier to entertain the people of Houston
makes it a little more difficult. Yes, I probably could
have said to my family, get lost. I gotta be
up there to counter some of Nick. But when he
says stuff like that, that's when a counter is necessary

(51:44):
so he can explain why he feels the way he does.
And again I do think he's explained it with his actions.
They keep drafting player after player after player, regardless of position.
It's called best available player, which most teams believe it
and probably should. But at this point, third year of
trying to put a team around the guy you just drafted.
Remember he was the first pick three drafts ago, so

(52:06):
had all the draft picks after that in twenty twenty three,
plus all the draft picks in twenty four, now all
the draft picks in twenty five and two off seasons
to do what everybody knows they have to do when
they have their guy quarterback protect him. But he just
continues to choose best available player over everything, no matter what.

Speaker 4 (52:26):
It's just wild to me how many times we've had
this conversation about this organization, regardless of who the GM was,
regardless who the quarterback was, And this is by far
the best quarterback they've ever had.

Speaker 6 (52:36):
It just is again the line they had when they
broke out of the expansion era that was really the
only other in my opinion, this is the only other
time they've had line issues like this, unaddressed and unfixed
and incapable of playing. So I didn't even compare it
to any other era. You know, you draft two linemen
in the third round and they both hit and one
gets hurt, like Eric Winston and Charles Spencer. Doesn't work out,

(52:58):
but they tried. You know, they haven't much capital on
first round picks. They've spent a lot more while Nick's
been here on second round picks at that position. But
you spend and spend and spend and spend until it's fixed.
And I don't see how that's happened this offseason. And
that's why I think people have got to be questioning,
how's it going to be better this year?

Speaker 5 (53:16):
And we still are.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
The a team on Sports Talk seven.

Speaker 11 (53:22):
Ninety Hey wex, Yeah, did you see who's leading off
for the Astros tonight against the Tigers?

Speaker 6 (53:38):
Uhes Victor Carrottini Chas McCormick, No, chas McCormick's mustache.

Speaker 5 (53:44):
No, but that would be a good choice. Jeremy Panya
Yep again.

Speaker 4 (53:48):
Yeah, just a little wrinkle Al two Vay's batting second.

Speaker 6 (53:53):
I thought that was going to be the case when
he got his day off yesterday. Did Jose al Tuve
had played in every game up until then. Jeremy in
the leadoff spot, came through quite a bit, a couple
of RBI hits for him. Jordon Alvarez in a couple
of different spots over the course of the week, some two,
some back to three also hit two extra base hits

(54:15):
three RBI. So I wondered if this might also be
in their future, because they clearly are. They're limited with
who can be out there. They have their roster. These
are the thirteen guys we have to choose from on
any given day on who is going to be in
today's lineup. You can play the hot hand a little bit,
but it's pretty relative. I don't think anybody's really had
what we'd call a hot hand. If you get two

(54:35):
hits in a game or three, you have a hot hand,
and you will be in the lineup next day, unless
you jam your thumb sliding into second Chas McCormick in
the lineup today. I need to look at that real quick.
I'm trying to prove my theory. I mean he has
a hot hand, yep. So that's all Joe can do.
So the other thing he can do is well, I

(54:56):
can't really protect Jordon in the three hole with Christian
Walker in the four hole because he's about an awful season.
So I'm gonna move him to five and you'll work accordingly.
You saw what they did with Perettas and Alvarez moving
Alvarez to two. Jeremy Paine is batted first and fourth
and fifth and sixth in all different spots over the
course of the season, and even Cam Smith's bounce around

(55:16):
Jake Myers was moderately warm. At one point in the season.
He batted fifth following some of that. So again, there's
only so much that Joe can do when this many
guys are still waiting for it to come around. There's
one player, I think, maybe two, but one of them's mean.
One player who's doing about what you thought he would
and should be able to do on the positive side,

(55:38):
and that's Eastak Perettis. It's gonna hit two forty, maybe
two fifty if you're lucky. Should get on base thirty
four five percent of the time. It's gonna hit a
bunch of homers and one ballpark that he plays in,
and probably have some extra base hits in the other
ballparks that he plays in. And he's also gonna draw
a ton of walks, which is how he gets his
on base average one hundred points better than his batting average.

(55:58):
Josel two is not having a offensive year, nor is Paynya.
Although Paynya's numbers look remarkably similar to last year, in
the year before and his rookie year right now, they're
unbelievably similar because he's probably the same player. Yourdons are
way down walkers and Diaz's are embarrassing, and then on
down the line, that's what Joe's dealing with, and there's

(56:19):
still a game over five hundred and right there for
first place in the division.

Speaker 5 (56:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (56:23):
The Tigers and the Astros go to battle tonight with
as the two teams that have allowed the fewest runs
in baseball eighty seven for the Tigers, eighty eight for
the Astros. The Astros also are number one in baseball
in this not often discussed defensive category, although it should
they've given up the fewest unearned runs in baseball this year.

(56:45):
I think that's rather important that you don't do that.
It's one way I would look at it. Like I said,
I don't think anybody else ever does. I mean, if
you commit a low number of errors, you probably can
keep that number down. Or if when you commit the
errors you can hitch around it. That's another way to
do it. Both are awesome yep, and the Astros have
been very good at that this first month.

Speaker 4 (57:06):
The two of the best pitchers in baseball just missing
facing off against each other tonight, Yeah, Hunter.

Speaker 6 (57:11):
Brown's ridiculous, awesome and Scooble part of a shutout effort yesterday.

Speaker 5 (57:16):
Jack Flaherty has been very good.

Speaker 6 (57:18):
The youngster job is going to pitch against the Astros
to close out this series. But the pitching staff in
general for Houston all the way from one through five
in the rotation, which for now remains unchanged. We got
another start coming on the minor league level for Lance
mccullor's junior after a very successful one over the weekend.
Five shutout innings against Or with the Corpus, Christy Hooks
and the Bullpen. Two sixty three ERA for the bullpen

(57:41):
best in the American League.

Speaker 5 (57:43):
You know, since we're on the subject, I want to
ask you guys.

Speaker 8 (57:45):
This last week we talked about the Baltimore Orioles failing
to meet expectations as like the next version of the Astros.
Do you feel like that there's at least something there
where the Tigers may be that breakout team that we
start talking about in such a prominent light that they
are viewed as a contender the way at the Astros
were starting off in twenty fifteen.

Speaker 6 (58:05):
Maybe not as more of the juggernaut kind of yeah,
in less some more of their young cornerstone players that
you know, Kerry Carpenter, Riley Green and Joe Clearly and
maybe one or two others, Totle Sin staining hot, I guess.
I mean they were about at wits end with what
to do with him. He'd been so such an underperformer
for all these years after being the number one prospect,

(58:27):
the top pick.

Speaker 5 (58:28):
So I think there's a ways to go on that.

Speaker 6 (58:29):
But that's the only way you can equate to what
the Orioles had in their system and then what the
Astros did at the major league level with what they
had in the system. And that's still the big separator.
When the Tigers players do that, then I'll say, yes,
their pitching is already there and they I don't know
if they lucked into getting Jack Flaherty back or they
got him back, but that really to me solidified everything.

(58:51):
They're eighteen and ten. Guess who has a better record
in the American League.

Speaker 5 (58:55):
Nobody. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (58:56):
They also that was such a smart move I think
from Detroit at the time, simply because you got yourself
a shortstop in turn in the return, and then you
were able to get back a pitcher that didn't seem
like he wanted to leave the location to begin with.

Speaker 4 (59:07):
Why don't I feel like they dropped two out of
three to the Royals who just have not been at
least as strong as they started last year, and they'll
rise to the occasion against a much better Tigers team.

Speaker 8 (59:18):
Because they just did that against Toronto where they roast
the occasion at home.

Speaker 6 (59:22):
Yeah, I mean they should not have allowed. I mean
their offense dictates that they could it could happen on
anything to.

Speaker 5 (59:28):
Pitch his butt off the other night, it didn't matter.

Speaker 6 (59:30):
Well, he scored zero runs, right, I mean, they got
a complete their first complete game of the season. And
they lost because they didn't score. Now, Kansas City has
a good pitching staff, but I didn't think to that level.
It's you're starting to look at the best pitching staffs
in baseball and there's kind of kind of a common theme.

Speaker 5 (59:49):
Do you know what that common theme is? This?

Speaker 6 (59:52):
The teams that they pitch for have awful offenses overall.
No outside of the astrosh the number one pitching team
in the league is the Mets. Astros opened the season
with them. Next is the Tigers, who they'll play and
I'm sure fare very poorly offensively against the Astros will
next after them, as the Padres have played them three times.

(01:00:12):
Then the Astros and Rangers, then the Royals and Giants. Giants, Royals, Padres,
Mets for the top seven pitching teams, or technically for
the top six because the Astros are one of them.
The Astros have played against these pitching staffs, which are
probably very good, but they looked even better because they
have twelve games pitched against the Astros.

Speaker 4 (01:00:34):
Yeah, that has to factor into the astros offensive woes,
but if you're not good, then that's always going to
be the case.

Speaker 6 (01:00:43):
Well, there's two teams with nineteen wins in the majors.
Both of them have played the Astros, and both of
them are among these very strong pitching outfits. Although the
Mets lost two out of three, I know that's what's remarkable.
They beat the the Astros won that series though the
Giants are the other one of those teams. They swept
the ass three games and pitched very well. The Astros
offense is bottom ten and hasn't really changed, and until

(01:01:06):
it does, their pitching staff is going to be taxed mentally.
They really weren't taxed at all this weekend. Brian Obray
is like, am I still wearing an Astros uniform? I
remember I'm on the Hey, Joe, did you forget about me?
How am I supposed to pitch him?

Speaker 5 (01:01:19):
By eighty games this year? Hello?

Speaker 6 (01:01:21):
He's pitched the fewest innings now of their key relievers.
Okert hater by design King because of the workload we
talked about, well by design and because they the team
has allowed for it. If they're not winning, he's not putting.
He hasn't had felt the heat and you have. I
don't care what their names are, I don't care how
few letters you had to stitch on the back of
King and okurts Jersey. He feels and should feel supremely

(01:01:45):
confident handing them the baseball. You're getting up three runs
between those two guys all season, or four runs now.
They got four relievers now that are nails, and unfortunately
one reliever Forrest Whitley who's unavailable again and knee injury crop.
So one good outing of two innings and he had
to go back on the fifteen day il Caleb Ort

(01:02:06):
has not pitched for the Astros this year, but that
should change at some point over the next three days
against the Tigers. Was added back to the roster on Sunday.
They have a really good bullpen and they're getting a
little bit more rest as they get these starts. They
didn't win or score a lot this weekend, but they
didn't have to be taxed when Wesnsky started. They certainly
weren't tasked. When Fromber started, they didn't even pitch. And

(01:02:29):
yesterday you were able to get the final nine outs
of the game because Hunter got through his usual six splendidly,
and even Taylor Scott was on the mound and luckily
didn't force you to get Hayter up when he nearly
brought the tying run to the on deck circle. Taylor
Scott is certainly trending towards the next player they can't

(01:02:50):
have on the roster when either Whitley or maybe sooner
Lance McCullers Junior returns.

Speaker 5 (01:02:56):
Yeah, not a huge fan.

Speaker 6 (01:02:57):
Well, he doesn't get guys out often enough here always
had a couple of outings that were super important, but
his whip is out of control. It's two to three
base runners almost every time he goes out there, or
extremely well hit balls that are caught in addition to
those base runners that are always running around the base
pass like they were yesterday.

Speaker 4 (01:03:16):
Yeah, I I am glad that they missed out on
schoolbl for this series. But the Tigers, that's gonna be tough,
especially for this offense, which, by the way, I hate
everybody's saying it it's low hanging fruit. We already know
why the decisions were made, but it's just it hurts
my heart to see that Bregman's doing what he's doing,

(01:03:37):
and we knew that Kyle Tucker would be doing this.

Speaker 5 (01:03:39):
It's the regular season.

Speaker 6 (01:03:41):
I don't honestly, I know the old slow start thing exists,
but you let two good offensive players leave that the
expectation is they're going to remain good offensive players, and
they have.

Speaker 4 (01:03:51):
But that's not what we were saying about Alex Bregman
on his way out the door. No, he was declined
and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 6 (01:03:57):
But still a good offensive player. Put his awful numbers
that we're alluding to on this year's team, he'd be
their best hitter.

Speaker 5 (01:04:02):
I'm not even kidding.

Speaker 6 (01:04:03):
The player that walked out the door those numbers would
be the best hitter so far on this year's team.

Speaker 5 (01:04:08):
That is sad.

Speaker 7 (01:04:11):

Speaker 4 (01:04:22):
It is the eight team Sports Talk seven ninety chance
for us to head on out to the Bay Area
and catch up with our good buddy Craig Ackerman, who
will be back on the call tonight. Craig, I cannot
emphasize how much you were missed during that game three lot.

Speaker 5 (01:04:36):
I appreciate that, well, thank you. It's just I missed
it as well. I don't I don't like not working games.
It is what it is. But I appreciate that. Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:04:44):
So when you guys are doing that and you're in
the arena, I mean you you're obviously attending the game.

Speaker 5 (01:04:49):
Is it just killing you not to be able to
call it?

Speaker 12 (01:04:52):
We were, I was actually home. We didn't fly up
here till yesterday. But they're yeah, I mean, but like,
for instance, we had a game earlier this season in
Sacramento where, yes, we were in the building.

Speaker 5 (01:05:04):
And I was like, you know what, I don't want to.

Speaker 12 (01:05:07):
Sit here and just watch. So I was like, Matt,
can I join you?

Speaker 5 (01:05:11):
So I went on. I joined Matt on the broadcast.

Speaker 4 (01:05:13):
I remember that. I remember that that was a roadie,
as you mentioned. Well, all right, tell us what she
saw that.

Speaker 12 (01:05:18):
Was preferable to just sitting there and watching.

Speaker 4 (01:05:20):
For sure, for sure, especially in this building. Tell us
what she saw on Saturday night as the biggest culprit
as to why the Rockets are having a need to
even up this thing tonight.

Speaker 12 (01:05:32):
Well, look, Steph Curry is still the best player on
the floor. We've all seen that, we all knew that
he's having another incredible series. He has been the rockets kryptonite,
as have the Warriors have been for a very long time.
So that's that's that's the first thing. But secondly, you know, look,

(01:05:52):
Golden State's an excellent defensive team and they've been even
more so since the acquisition of Jimmy Butler. Obviously, Jimmy
Butler didn't the other night, but look in their two losses.
It comes down to and there are a lot of
complicated ways as to why they can make more shots.

Speaker 5 (01:06:08):
They just don't. They didn't weren't making enough shots.

Speaker 12 (01:06:10):
Golden State prevents teams from getting to the rim as good,
if not better than any team in the league, even
when they don't play with size, which they do the
majority of the time. I thought the Rockets kind of
forced the issue LUI that they missed way the need
they're going to concede those shots in the mid paint area.
The Rockets missed way, way, way too many of those shots.

(01:06:31):
They have got to make those moving forward in the series.
And of course, the Rockets have been the worst free
throw shooting team in the league and miss way too
many free throws. And that's not a recipe to win,
especially a playoff game, especially a row playoff game, and
that's really not much of a recipe to beat anybody
in this league. So they're going to have to make
more of their shots in the paint. They're going to
have to be better at the FREEQ line, and they
just need to be more aggressive and assertive. You can't

(01:06:53):
be passive offensively taking too long to get into your
sets against this Golden State half court defense.

Speaker 6 (01:06:59):
Yeah, that's something I'd definitely talked about during the broadcast
the other night in Game one and earlier on today's show.
To that end, do you anticipate a change in rotations?
There's no reason to change the starting lineup. We've got
into that earlier. But could you see maybe tonight there's
a real opportunity to play Aaron Holiday or take the
ball out of Fred's hands a little bit while he's

(01:07:20):
on the court and let somebody else bring it up,
set it up, start things moving forward. Jabari Smith Junior,
maybe a little bit different role. Any of those things
seem like a possibility as we're into Game four.

Speaker 12 (01:07:31):
Yeah, I mean, I think it's a possibility. Saw Aaron
a little bit in game two, coming off the Game
one loss.

Speaker 5 (01:07:36):
I certainly think that's a possibility.

Speaker 12 (01:07:38):
I certainly think it's a possibility that you're going to
see more of Jabari Smith Junior moving forward. He was
averaging what in like the mid twenties in minutes. Perhaps
maybe he plays a little bit more moving forward, perhaps
they do allow some different guys to kind of get
them into their sets early, but I think in terms
of just the general rotation, I think what you've seen
is what you're going to get. I mean, and they

(01:08:00):
went to basically an eight man rotation in the last
several weeks of the regular season in preparation for the playoffs,
and I don't think that's going to change. And if
they do happen to play another guy off the bench,
it would probably be Aaron Holiday first, and then the
only reason for anybody else outside of those top eight
to play would be if somebody is in significant, or
somebody's are in significant foul trible, and or there's an injury.

(01:08:21):
But I think they're going to roll with the group
that they feel that they that they're most confident with
and let the chips fall where they may.

Speaker 4 (01:08:28):
Talking to Craig Ackerman here on Sports Talk seven ninety,
I mentioned this the other day to WEX, I said,
you know, is there a scenario where a hamper Jimmy
Butler actually could play into the Rockets, you know, in
their favor basically because he's taking up minutes as a
not completely healthy player.

Speaker 5 (01:08:48):
I don't know.

Speaker 12 (01:08:48):
We'll have to see how he's moving out there tonight.
I would guess that for some reason he does become
a significant detriment to them, that he's they probably won't play,
or they'll pull them and go in a different direction.

Speaker 5 (01:09:00):
But I'm under the assumption.

Speaker 12 (01:09:02):
It looks as if we won't know for sure, but
it looks as if things are trending that he's going
to play tonight. I don't think they would. He would
be playing if he couldn't go, and I don't think
they would do anything to hamper their chances. So I
expect Jimmy Butler to play. I expected to be at
his best, and the Rockets need to be prepared for that.

Speaker 6 (01:09:19):
How do you think the Rockets have handled everything? First playoffs,
first road game, being down one to zero, being down
to one Draymond, et cetera. How do you think they've
handled all of it?

Speaker 5 (01:09:28):
Mentally? It's it seems like some you know, look, these.

Speaker 12 (01:09:33):
Are all first for all these young guys. I think
some of the things that you've seen from them are
not unexpected, you know, first row playoff game, first home
playoff game. That's where they really kind of struggles. I
think they've actually handled it pretty well, but look, it
still comes down to execution, and even outside of the

(01:09:53):
young guys, Look, Fred Vanvleid had a very good first
quarter in Game number three, but he's got to be better.
He has struggled against gol State all season long. He's
not shot the ball well at all against them at
any point consistently all year. He's got to be better.
And Men Thompson has to be better moving forward. He
has not had a great series. Jalen needs to become
a bit more consistent. Shinggoon's got to make his free throws.

(01:10:16):
So I mean, I think that they've settled into what
is to be expected of them in this kind of
the scenario. They've now had their first experiences in terms
of again their first ever playoff game, their first row
playoff game, so you know, hopefully all that stuff is
behind them, but it still comes down to execution and
for the Rockets more or less just making shots because
their defense has been as good as Curry has.

Speaker 5 (01:10:39):
Been in this series and then their only loss.

Speaker 12 (01:10:42):
Look that he scored twenty and maybe trying to stop
him from scoring thirty would be a pretty nice component
to this moving forward. But as good as he's been,
you have to expect him to be this way moving forward.
It still comes down to the Rockets needing to just
make more shots, and hopefully they can do some more
of that here tonight even up this series and then
make it a best of three with two of the

(01:11:02):
final three games in Houston.

Speaker 4 (01:11:04):
Yeah, you talk about making shots, and that's what I
think maybe Game three came down to with Jalen Green.
I thought maybe they you know, they were it was
spoken about that they were going to go after him,
that they were going to hunt him defensively, because imy Udoka,
you know, pointed that out in his presser. But is
it as simple as he was just missing open shots
or was it more of the Warriors defense or was

(01:11:25):
it a mix of both as to why he kind
of came back down to earth in Game three.

Speaker 12 (01:11:30):
I mean, they definitely, they definitely sent more defensive help
to him in Game three, coming off this big game
in Game two.

Speaker 5 (01:11:37):
There's no question about that.

Speaker 12 (01:11:39):
Look again, the gold there are certain things that Golden
State's going to allow defensively. Look, they are susceptible to
live ball turnovers, and if you do turn them over
in a live ball situation. Rockets haven't been great converting
off those turnovers, and this you have to convert those
points because you've got to be able to create easier
scoring opportunities in transition. You just have to When the

(01:12:00):
Warriors make a mistake in a live ball situation, you've
got to punish them in the open floor. But you've
got the Rockets were their minds. They were just more aggressive,
more assertive in Game two. They got into their stuff quicker,
they were pushing it, they were attacking, they played more
to their DNA. They didn't play as passively as they
did in Game one, and then at times in Game three.
They've got to continue to play with that mindset moving forward,

(01:12:21):
and those shots.

Speaker 5 (01:12:21):
Again in the mid paint are going to be there.

Speaker 12 (01:12:24):
I think they've tried in things at times, especially in
men Thompson looks like he's forcing trying to force the
issue too much getting to the rim in the half
court set. Unless you're getting into your actions quick, that's
just not going to be there. But those shots in
the midpit area are going to be there. They've always
been there against Golden State, and they've got to start
making those shotshn Gum was very good at making those

(01:12:44):
shots in the first two in games of the series,
struggle with that. In game three, those shots are going
to be there. They're going to have to make those shots.
I expect this team to continue to defend at a
really high level. I continue to expect Steph Curry to
be his usual self. He is just a tough sh
and that's just who he's been his entire career. It
just comes down to these guys executing in the half

(01:13:05):
court set, taking what's given them, trying trying not to
force so much stuff at the rim and just try
to settle into the game, but a little bit more
that way. But they again, it comes down to them
being aggressive. If the Rockets are the team, and we've
seen this all year, if they're the team that punches
first and continues to punch, they're better off than their
pat than they are if they play a table less

(01:13:27):
they play with more, they're more passive. Because this team
just reliably from a game to game basis, just can't
count on them making enough perimeter threes to stay in games.
They've got to continue to be the aggressor. They've got
to win the offensive rebounding battle. They got to win
the second chance points. They've got to win points off
the turnos. They got to be better in the paint.
These are things that they have to do at a

(01:13:49):
very high level if they expect to win this series.

Speaker 4 (01:13:52):
Never being accused of being passive, he is Craig Ackerman.
He'll be on the call tonight on the Space City
Home Network side of things. Craig, appreciate the time from
the Bay Area and bring us back a series tie.

Speaker 5 (01:14:02):
I'll do what I can. Looking forward to coming home.

Speaker 4 (01:14:04):
With this thing tied to too too awesome stuff. Craig
Ackerman here on the A team Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:14:12):
The A team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 4 (01:14:25):
It is the eighteen Sports Talks seven ninety. Thanks again
to Craig Ackerman, who will be on the call tonight
on the Space City Home Network side of things.

Speaker 5 (01:14:33):
Rockets v.

Speaker 4 (01:14:34):
Warriors Game four Rockets looking to tie that thing up
before Game five will be played here at a six
point thirty tip off. By the way, wex, we'll be
out there. It's kind of an odd day because the
Astros have a day game, and you'll hear that right here,
and then we'll be over there at Toyota Center for
a bit of an abbreviated show getting you into Rockets

(01:14:57):
network coverage is that thing's gonna tip off thirty minutes
earlier than most home games would after a very late
start the first time around.

Speaker 6 (01:15:04):
Yeah, we'll be over there at TC, over at one
of their concourse lounges who can come by and see
us over at the bar area and again six thirty
tip You got happy hour going on from five pm
until tip off, So certainly an additional reason to get
inside early for Game five of the postseason, hopefully an
opportunity to take the lead in the series rather than

(01:15:27):
the alternative. Also, as has been the case Games one,
in Game two, Game five will feature t shirting again
right there on your seat. It'll be red, you'll go
ahead and want to wear it. And they also will
have some light up batons for those that get there
early to help what the crowd did a very good
job of in games one and two and be a
home court advantage. You know, the hometown sixth man over

(01:15:49):
at Toyota Center, So yes, we will be over there
for that. There's no definitive game time for Game six yet,
but it will be either eight pm or nine pm.
It's nine PM on Friday night under every scenario except
if the Rockets and Warriors are the only series playing
a game six that night, and there could be as

(01:16:10):
many as four. So if all three of the other
series that could get there do not, then this being
the only game six would be at eight o'clock. Otherwise
it's gonna be at nine o'clock from out west. But
it's also still an if necessary game.

Speaker 5 (01:16:24):
That was right.

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
I was trying to think because game six of if
there was Timberwolves Lakers that would be.

Speaker 5 (01:16:30):
In LA, would it not? M hm hmmm.

Speaker 4 (01:16:34):
Interesting, They're gonna have to figure out which California team
they want to feature more.

Speaker 6 (01:16:38):
The Lakers are the early game no matter what, and
let I mean they're later only under one scenario, and
that would be if Miami's series, which is three ZIP,
is still playing. If those are the only two games
that night, then Lakers Minnesota would be eight thirty. All
other scenarios for the Lakers in Minnesota have them playing
all but one other scenario, should say, have them playing

(01:16:59):
a six to thirty Big Bart time.

Speaker 4 (01:17:01):
Gives me great pleasure knowing that Tyler hero is gonna
get swept out of the postseason.

Speaker 5 (01:17:05):
Well, I mean they barely got into the postseason. That's
exactly right.

Speaker 4 (01:17:08):
I mean we knew they were going in like actually,
I felt like it was weeks before they were a
lock to be in the play in.

Speaker 6 (01:17:14):
Yeah, they're bad. They were bad when the Rockets played
them and lost to them. And then they said, yes,
we're bad. You can have Jimmy Butler, so we'll be
even worse.

Speaker 5 (01:17:23):
And they have been.

Speaker 4 (01:17:24):
Yeah, that was I you know, the only like saving
grace for this scenario is that it goes bad everywhere
he's gone for one reason or another. And I don't
know if there's enough time left for it to matter
that it'll go bad in Golden State, but I think

(01:17:46):
it will.

Speaker 6 (01:17:47):
I mean, he's only going to be there for two
more years. That's enough time. I mean, this has They've
been him with the heat since nineteen. This is he's
there for this year. He's kind of there for next year,
but he's gonna play. They're gonna have to do it.
But they did this year all over again. Even though
he's on the roster all year, he's only gonna play
fifty games. They're gonna hope he's healthy in the postseason,
which they successfully and them and Miami.

Speaker 5 (01:18:10):
They got him healthy by the end of the year.

Speaker 6 (01:18:12):
He also didn't play in a lot of games because
he didn't want to be there, so he got suspended
for them while he was healthy. But he's not gonna
be a regular season player ever again in his career.
He'll take a ton of nights off. He needs to
do that in order to maybe be healthy at the
end of the season. If he's healthy at the end
of next year, best case scenario, and if you believe
in what they did during the regular season, and they
did have the second best record in the West for

(01:18:33):
one third of the season, that's a pretty sizable chunk.
They were twenty four and six plus games one and
two twenty four and six when they're both in the lineup,
that's phenomenal. That's an eighty percent winning percentage. They could
still finish top four if they play a lot. But
the bottom line is they'll go into the playoffs next
year if healthy as a threat, just like they are now.

(01:18:55):
You're only counting on him for two more years of
playoff Jimmy. They don't even care what he does as
regular season Jimmy. As long as they make it in
the they would have preferred to avoid the play in tournament.
This year they didn't, but they were at least seven,
so they played at home, they won and moved on
not as the eight seed, but the rest of the West.
I don't know how much is going to change next
year around. Ok see, I don't see the Clippers getting better,

(01:19:17):
but they're a factor. I won't see the Nuggets getting
better if they're a factor. I mean, these teams are
all going to be back next year in this very
similar spot.

Speaker 4 (01:19:24):
Yeah, you talk about Jimmy, it sounds like you're saying
load management without saying it.

Speaker 5 (01:19:31):
Well, he always has nagging injuries to you with him,
it's not necessarily like with Kawhi Leonard.

Speaker 4 (01:19:37):
After he gets healthy from whatever ails him, which this
year took forever, it feels like he is the king
of load management, going back to his Spurs days. But
he's getting the last laugh right now. I mean, unless
they blow this series, but they look awesome, and I
you know that in that way, he's getting the last laugh.
But I you know, you were talking earlier about the Rockets,

(01:19:58):
me saying the Rockets are the better tea, and I
know this isn't the end all be all, but I
just look at the amount of time the Rockets have
led during this series, and it's almost double the amount
of time the Warriors have led. I know that's a
it doesn't tell you the whole story of the series
and all that kind of stuff, But to me, if

(01:20:18):
you're leading, you know, ninety five minutes of the series
that have been played so far, and the Warriors are
leading forty five, not even that minutes of it, I
just I feel like, going back to the very first
segment of the show, before we're even on the television side,
it's the Rockets series to lose if they shoot themselves

(01:20:40):
in the foot, if they get out of what they
do best. Yeah, I get it, Just like Craig just said,
they've got to make shots and that's that's not a
given with this. I didn't want to call it an
offense because sometimes it feels like a hodgepodge of just
trying to make baskets put string baskets together. But the
way they defend they stick to that game plan, I
really do feel like it's their series lose. And I

(01:21:00):
know that Craig just got done saying Steph Curry is
the best player on the floor. By a lot, but
Steph Curry being your best player got you a five
hundred record, needing to trade for Jimmy Butler because he
was so good.

Speaker 6 (01:21:11):
And then that very same team you just said beat
you by eleven points Saturday night.

Speaker 5 (01:21:16):
Yeah, without Jimmy Butler.

Speaker 6 (01:21:17):
That's what I'm talking about. They were an average team.
Without Jimmy Butler. That average team just beat you by
eleven points.

Speaker 4 (01:21:22):
But you have if you're going to keep saying that,
you have to keep talking about what the Rockets did
or didn't do it.

Speaker 6 (01:21:27):
So those numbers ninety five to forty five, for those
legitimate that's through three games.

Speaker 5 (01:21:32):
So forty seven minutes of that was game two.

Speaker 4 (01:21:34):
Right, Well, no game one is where this is not
really doesn't show you the accuracy because they led for
nearly thirty three minutes of that.

Speaker 6 (01:21:41):
Game, right, But Game two they never trade ever trailed,
So we'll give him forty seven minute. I can't remember
the time where they scored their first bats forty seven
eighteen exactly, Okay, so knock forty seven off of ninety five,
so you got forty seven left. So it's basically fifty
to fifty forty seven and forty five win in.

Speaker 4 (01:21:57):
Game three, which the Rockets lost by eleven. They led
that game for thirty four minutes and the Warriors led
for eleven.

Speaker 6 (01:22:03):
Right, The point I would make is you've basically each
led the same amount of time in Game one in
Game three, and you're zero to two in those games. Yep,
because they know how to play in the fourth quarter
and you don't.

Speaker 4 (01:22:14):
But I don't agree with that simply because when the
Rockets really hit a wall in Game one, it was
the thirteen point second quarter, right, every competitive.

Speaker 6 (01:22:23):
Got it within three late, yeah, and got blown out
the rest of the way. Obviously, the other night on
their eleven point loss, they were in the game late
and they let them get away from them.

Speaker 5 (01:22:32):
Again. Interesting series.

Speaker 7 (01:22:35):
You talk seven ninety two lifelong Houston sports guys named
at him talking your team, Adam.

Speaker 3 (01:22:48):
Clinton and Adam Weckler are the eighteen.

Speaker 4 (01:22:56):
Four o'clock how underway here on the eight team Sports
Talk seven to ninety Space City Home Network already had
a conversation with Craig Ackerman from San Francisco, as he'll
be on the call tonight Rockets and Warriors Game four
of that series. Rockets can tie that thing up. Headed
back here to Houston for a Game five with a
win tonight. Jimmy Butler looks like he will play. It's

(01:23:20):
not like official yet, at least I haven't seen anything
official because it's not gonna start until very very much later.
But my guess is from all the things that we're
seeing out there, he will likely give it a go,
and then we'll see how effective he will be. And
more importantly, regardless of who's out there, we got to
see how effective the Rockets are going to be regardless
of what end of the floor they are on on

(01:23:41):
any given possession. Astros are gonna be taken on the
Tigers opener of that series tonight before they head right
back out on the road following this three game set.
And Steve Sparks had his weekly appearance here on the
station earlier today and was asked a number of things,
But the first question was on whether or not fromber
Valdez and Hunter Brown, who just got done having yet

(01:24:05):
another filthy outing yesterday. Actually they both did complete game
for Fromber and a loss, but asked whether or not
they are the best one to two punch currently in
the American League.

Speaker 13 (01:24:15):
I agree, and you know, Hunter Brown might be Pictuer
of the Month. I agreed, his stats stuck up with
anybody in the league right now. And he's been doing
this for a while now, it's been since May first
of last year. He's got the.

Speaker 9 (01:24:25):
Best era in the American League.

Speaker 13 (01:24:28):
So it's not a flash in the pan, and we
can all watch and just understand that the confidence is
through the roof.

Speaker 5 (01:24:34):
Now.

Speaker 13 (01:24:35):
He's kind of a bully with his fastball and I
love it, you know. It reminds me of JD and
his Aday, just going at guys and just daring him
to try to make contact with either one of his fastballs,
so the two seamer or the four singer. But one
of the hardest throwers in baseball. You love, you love
everything about what he brings. And I say this all
the time fromber. If he's right, he can tell you

(01:24:59):
he's got he's got three pitches that he could tell
the hitter what's coming, and they still not make very
good contact at all. They might just hit a hit
a ground ball and get you a double play, and
he could tell you what's coming because of the late
turbulent action on all of his pitches.

Speaker 14 (01:25:15):
Steve last year at this very time, Hunter Brown struggling early,
and you'd come on here and we asked about it,
because there was that time we missed a start, and
there was there was even the talkles he going to
get sent down to get right. And I remember you
saying on this and said, what is a mechanics? And
you said it may be just as simple as taking
the inner part of the plate, challenging people inside. But

(01:25:35):
it's almost like that that mandate to himself or from
somebody who was like, all right, I'm gonna do this
and his whole game turned around. Is it just as
simple as that to turn it around?

Speaker 9 (01:25:46):
It is? It really is. But I mean there's a
couple of things.

Speaker 13 (01:25:50):
I don't know if you remember this too, But Verlander said,
hey man, go back to shug Land a couple of
years ago, find your best two games and let me
look at it and see if there's anything different on something.

Speaker 9 (01:26:00):
Did I tell you this?

Speaker 5 (01:26:01):
No?

Speaker 9 (01:26:02):
Okay, So he said you used to. He watched the film.

Speaker 13 (01:26:05):
He said, hey man, you used to kind of drift
towards the right handed batter, step toward him and then crossfire.
He said, all your pitches looked like they were a
little bit more lively back then why don't you, why
don't you just kind of inch over just a little
bit to see what it feels like. And he did,
and he's kind of inched a couple more.

Speaker 14 (01:26:24):
Yeah, maybe you did tell us this you're talking about
on the stride?

Speaker 8 (01:26:29):
Got you?

Speaker 5 (01:26:29):
Okay?

Speaker 13 (01:26:29):
Yeah, So he's throwing across his body now, so he's
not stepping straight toward home plate. He steps across his
body and it keeps him clothes longer, and it's filth.
It makes that two seamer right and a little tighter.
But everything else just explodes out of his hand. And
a lot of credit to him, you know. I read
an article not too long ago talking about his off

(01:26:50):
season program and how much more flexible he is. And
I ran into him during batting practice the other day
at Diking Park and.

Speaker 9 (01:26:57):
I said, hey man, you can do it back back?
Then he goes, you want to see it? I said, yeah, So.

Speaker 13 (01:27:02):
Behind the dugout, you know, we're in this little tunnel area.

Speaker 9 (01:27:04):
He gets on his back and just forms a perfect
backward see.

Speaker 13 (01:27:09):
And he's flexible, but you cannot pin him. If you're
trying to wrestle him and trying to pin him, he's
going to get off of his shoulders because he can.

Speaker 9 (01:27:16):
Bend out of that position. So he's done a.

Speaker 13 (01:27:19):
Lot of work, you know, and he's flexible. He bounces
back start to start. I'm not sure if I've seen
anybody this year being able to bounce back and have
his A plus stuff every odding. That's really hard to do,
by the way, and he's a different guy. I hope
he's a picture of the month. He deserves it, and

(01:27:40):
he's starting to get a lot of notewrit And you
hear other managers talk about Hunter Brown and most of
these guys are saying that's the best arm we've seen this.

Speaker 14 (01:27:48):
Year, Steve at the middle and with him last year,
you know, Christian Walker. We see this all the time.
People go through struggles, new team, it happens, and then
they alive.

Speaker 5 (01:27:56):
Whatever it is.

Speaker 14 (01:27:57):
For the reasons, does physical effect men or does a
mental lapse? I almost feel like the mental lasts longer,
but that the physical is why the metal gets adjusted.
You get what I would like in Christian Walker's case,
you grind more on the middle than the physical or
is it opposite?

Speaker 5 (01:28:14):
Steve? What comes first? Well?

Speaker 13 (01:28:16):
I kind of go back to the part like which
comes first? Success or confidence right, and for me, and
I'm sure you've dealt with this throughout your career, I
think you have to have confidence in.

Speaker 14 (01:28:29):
What you do to prepare and believe in it before
you even present it, right, Steve Right.

Speaker 13 (01:28:34):
If you practice right and you believe in your preparation
and it's worked in the past, just stick with it,
that's what's.

Speaker 9 (01:28:41):
Going to win out over the long term.

Speaker 13 (01:28:43):
You know, things are going to creep in your mind
when you're at the plate or if you're pitching or whatever,
but you got to learn there's little ways. This is
what happened in my career. I think it was probably
my fifteenth or sixteenth year as a professional baseball player,
and I remember pitching at Fenway and I remember just

(01:29:04):
about to release the ball and I remember something popping
into my head, and it was I wonder if my
family made it to the ballpark yet. I threw the ball,
and I remember afterwards just going, how in the world
did that pop in my head? With thirty two thousand
people screaming? Right, So, all it is is an illustration
of how crazy and weird your mind is and what

(01:29:26):
can happen if you're not locked in and taking care
of that, and this is what I learned. Maddox did it,
A lot of great players did it. They had a
pre pitch routine, but part of the pre pitch routine
involved repeating something which is a mantra, which is one
of two three words. For me, it was I developed

(01:29:46):
hit the glove. So once I got my sign, I
took a big, deep breath. I would come set. Then
I would repeat, hit the glove, hit the glove, hit
the glove, hit the glove. By the time I released
the ball, nothing else could pop in my mind, right,
not the base runner got the hitter.

Speaker 9 (01:30:01):
What was simply my tax was to.

Speaker 13 (01:30:03):
Hit the glove, and that's all that was going to
pop into my mind at that point.

Speaker 9 (01:30:07):
It changed a lot of.

Speaker 5 (01:30:08):
Things for me.

Speaker 6 (01:30:09):
Pitcher knows best sparks breaking it down on the best
pitcher in baseball. Maybe we'll certainly find out for a
month if he was or some other competition for that.
I don't think the award will make much of a difference.
The Astros need to continue seeing that from him, and
if they do, they're probably going to be in this
race throughout the year. Mariners and first Rangers or second

(01:30:31):
Astros are in third. Probably stays roughly like that for
a pretty long period of time. The A's aren't that
far behind. The Angels have started to slump. A's and
Rangers get together early this week also, so maybe one
team dominates the other. You could see something. The Rangers
loss yesterday, we certainly saw something. Did you see how

(01:30:51):
they lost yesterday?

Speaker 5 (01:30:52):
I actually did not. You don't know how they lost,
y now, they were playing.

Speaker 6 (01:30:57):
Pretty good team. The San Francisco Giants game was tied
in the ninth inning. There wasn't anybody on base was
in San Francisco, so the Giants were obviously at the plate.
Didn't get a very good piece of this one, but
this is still what happened.

Speaker 5 (01:31:11):
Promos is one for two taps, just one to third
and Bill and he is gonna stut, no, no, He's
gonna go to third.

Speaker 15 (01:31:26):
Here's the three this game is the Giants win the
game on a little league home run.

Speaker 5 (01:31:38):
Tell me you've seen that one before? All all the
sun was ten years old.

Speaker 6 (01:31:44):
Home run line. I mean little leaguers are trying these.
I don't know if these major leaguers were trying. That
was Halio Ramos hitting it towards He's a left handed
hitter hit it towards third base, didn't go very far.
Pitcher fielded it and fired it past the first baseman.
Not sure why Ramos, who plays his home games there,
didn't realize this ball was going to roll for a
long long time. Luckily he did stop at second, only

(01:32:08):
to start again because had he run all the way through,
I don't think Berger makes the throw. Burger's the first baseman.
He realizes there is potentially a play at third, and
then Berger throws to third from deep in foul territory
behind first base and makes an errant throw that Josh
Smith can't even get a glove on. So Ramos s
gets back up out of his slide at third base
and scores the final play of the game.

Speaker 5 (01:32:29):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:32:30):
I'm watching the video now, and when I was initially listening,
I thought the ball was hit down the third base line.

Speaker 5 (01:32:37):
It was.

Speaker 4 (01:32:39):
Oh that's right, he okay, I see now. Yeah, I'm
watching in real time on the radio, which is good radio,
by the way.

Speaker 5 (01:32:46):
Good. I'm glad the Rangers lost like that.

Speaker 6 (01:32:48):
They deserve it, but another well pitched game for them.
As I've mentioned before, they're they're pretty much right there
with the Astros. We're not paying much attention to them,
but they're all pitch, no hit, just like you. So
far this year they're pitching has been absolutely incredible. Multiple
starters are probably competing with Hunter Brown for Picture of
the Month with Avaldi and Malley and their Bullpen's bit

(01:33:11):
a lot better than expected.

Speaker 5 (01:33:12):
But Seeger's hurt.

Speaker 6 (01:33:13):
Obviously, Peterson's been awful, even though he broke his forty
one slump, and up and down their lineup, they're just
not hitting at all for some of the same reasons
we thought this would not happen in Houston. They have
too many guys with a track record, and the Astros
for the most part, do as well. It should not
be happening. What is happening? And at some point it's
got to stop. How's the Dolas Garcia doing.

Speaker 5 (01:33:34):
He's having a down year.

Speaker 4 (01:33:35):
A down year? Or is he just not that good
and he was for that one year. I don't know
he's having a down year.

Speaker 5 (01:33:45):
He never take the bait.

Speaker 6 (01:33:47):
You want me to say he stopped cycling, but I
know you don't think that. I think I think he's
still cycling.

Speaker 5 (01:33:54):
I hope he is.

Speaker 6 (01:33:55):
I mean, he has four straight years of twenty five
plus homers going.

Speaker 5 (01:33:58):
Into this year. That's awesome. Good for him.

Speaker 6 (01:34:00):
So I guess he's done a lot of it every
year till this year. This year doesn't he's not trending
to a twenty five homer season having easy have he
has four? Okay, he has a east Operettis number of homers.

Speaker 5 (01:34:10):
He's a cycle harder.

Speaker 7 (01:34:14):

Speaker 4 (01:34:26):
It is the eighteen Sports Talk seven ninety one segment
away from our signature segment on Monday, the Good, the Bad,
and the ugly from over the weekend. A lot to
choose from on all three categories. I would say, I uh.
I was listening to the Matt Thomas Show with Ross

(01:34:48):
earlier and they were playing the audio of Bill's GM
Brandon Bean getting very upset with I'm assuming it's a
weekly show. He calls into, Yeah, look, Nick Cassio is
never gonna get upset like this because Nick Cassario is
a cyborg. And I mean, we've talked about it already,

(01:35:10):
we taught you played it earlier.

Speaker 5 (01:35:12):
He doesn't.

Speaker 6 (01:35:14):
I know, it's like easy to say this, but like
I when is the last time you were at a
press conference with Nick Cassio where he said anything it's
like word solid.

Speaker 5 (01:35:21):
To bring it to what you're talking about.

Speaker 6 (01:35:23):
For those that didn't hear it, he was listening on
hold as he waited to be punched up and talked
to them and they apparently were having a conversation about
the Bills draft and not addressing the wide receiver position.
So he came on and before they even got into
their interview, he goes He basically said, that's a load
of bs. What are you guys watching what? I know
you guys have to fill time. I know you guys
have to complain about something, but we just score outscored

(01:35:45):
every team in the NFL last year. We just scored
thirty points a game. I mean, what do you want
us to do our wide receiver? What do you It
makes no sense. I get it you guys again. You know,
I understand you have a job to do, but you know,
complaining about that it's just total nonsense, you know, Nick.
For Nick to say that, you know, Cole just called Nick.
He's he's on hold right now, so he's listening to us.
We'll punch him up here in a second. But before

(01:36:08):
we cleared the line, can so he can get him
on here. He's gonna be listening while he's on hold,
and he's gonna hear the two of us say, well,
the Texans didn't do anything of significance to address the
offensive line. Now, granted, their defense is really good. They've
won the division in back to back years. They've played
at home and won in the postseason and back to
back years. But they had a poor offensive line a
year ago, and what they've done to fix it, you know,

(01:36:30):
leads a little bit to be desired. Oh he's ready now, Yeah,
let's punch Nick Cassario up now so we can talk
to us here.

Speaker 5 (01:36:36):
A Nick, you got Adam and Adam he.

Speaker 6 (01:36:38):
Wouldn't have anything to say because we're not picking on
an area of strength. Erroneously. The Bills are awesome. Their
wide receivers didn't slow them down or let them down.

Speaker 5 (01:36:49):
They were this close to the Super Bowl. Y.

Speaker 6 (01:36:51):
Yes, I mean you can improve it, you can address
it in a certain way, but it's not going to
be their downfall, not by any means. And they spent
money to keep Shakir there. They did spend draft capital
last year a Keon Coleman. They obviously had some time
with and without their number one tight end like Josh
Allen running that offense for whatever else you might pick
at or say we can improve it, which is perfectly fine.

(01:37:14):
There's ten other spots on offense, but Josh Allen is
good enough to overcome whatever it is you want to
complain about their offense, every single bit of it. For
like six years running. CJ's had one opportunity to overcome
disaster offensive line and it was too much. It was
too much for him, it was too much for the OC.
The OC got fired, the offensive line coach got fired.

(01:37:36):
The best way that in their minds to help this
team that they've actually done something about, they have taken
away offensive lineman because they made the decision these guys
aren't helping us enough and the value of Tunssel and
trade is worth more than keeping him here. So they
do recognize there is a problem. They recognized there was
a coaching problem. They fired the offensive line coach, they

(01:37:57):
recognized there was an offensive core ordinator problem. Certainly an
in game offensive coordinator problem is that they just watched
it all happen every week, and so they fired him.
But there's one other area. After you tell all these
guys to like to go away. Well, you have to
replace them with better players, players you think are going
to be better for your new system. That last thing

(01:38:19):
I said is the only possible thing that they've done
to make this offensive line better. Is if they think
new coach, new oc, different skill sets of these lesser
talents who all had bad years last year in the NFL,
are gonna come here and be good.

Speaker 5 (01:38:34):
I mean, it's throwing it at a wall right to me.

Speaker 4 (01:38:38):
I mean, I'm only assuming I'm clearly not on the
inside of that building, but.

Speaker 5 (01:38:44):
I'm gonna take you there next good.

Speaker 4 (01:38:46):
They have to think that the aforementioned new or new
offensive coordinator and new line coach are going to make
a giant difference.

Speaker 6 (01:38:56):
Right, That is what I'm exactly what I'm saying. They
think that is going to fix it, and obviously it's not.

Speaker 5 (01:39:03):
It's gonna make it better. And I think maybe some.

Speaker 6 (01:39:05):
Of the absolute total utter breakdowns of random linemen coming
free five times a game because it was five different
people against the Colts, it's five different people against the Packers,
and on and on and on that maybe that will
be corrected. But you can also the aspirations should be
higher than man. We got to get a better line.
It's what I've been saying for weeks. It's not about

(01:39:26):
getting better players. It's about rebuilding a positive part of
your team. And you only do that through signing younger
players that have approven track record, and they did none
of that, or drafting younger players you believe can help
your team. And they did that with one pick at
forty eight. The line they're putting together for this year,

(01:39:47):
Guess what, They're gonna have to do it all over
again next year because they don't have the foundation there.
And unless it's Fisher and Scruggs and Patterson and Ursery,
then that's what I'm talking about. And Titus Howard is
the only veteran hold that's really got any recent good
football on tape. But I said I was going to
take you inside the facility, and I mentioned a couple
hours ago that I was going to do that for you.

(01:40:08):
This was just before the draft began. Everybody was in there,
you know. Nick decided to address the group of personnel people, staffers, owners,
Demiko and everybody else that was in there as they
were prepared to do what we've said over and over
and over again, try to make this weak link better

(01:40:29):
with an eye on exactly what they're there for. And
then this is what he had to say, Yes, this
is a parody, auys and gals.

Speaker 12 (01:40:36):
Our whole goal this offseason was stuff to do everything
we could to help protect our quarterback.

Speaker 5 (01:40:44):
At every step of the process.

Speaker 12 (01:40:45):
This got past the test film, Senior.

Speaker 14 (01:40:50):
Bowl, combine the private workout, the thirty visit.

Speaker 9 (01:40:57):
And he passed it with flying colors.

Speaker 7 (01:41:00):
These are the types of players who want our football team,
so we're going to build a champion.

Speaker 9 (01:41:03):
Right.

Speaker 6 (01:41:03):
I'll give you a little repeat of what the general
manager of the Texans said to everybody in the room
as they were going to do this.

Speaker 14 (01:41:12):
Our whole goaldest offseason wants to do everything we could
to help protect our quarterback.

Speaker 6 (01:41:18):
Except that's not the current Texans general manager. It's not
even the last Texans general manager. So it's not even
the general manager before that, because you do have to
count both Jack and Bill, but it was the general
manager before that that was in advance or how they
put the video together of making the phone call to

(01:41:40):
Titus Howard yep, Texans first round draft pick, and later
in that conversation, Bill O'Brien was on the phone to
protect DeShawn Watson. This is our investment. You're here to
do this. This is why you're our guy. As you
heard Gaines, Brian Gaines say, our whole focus this off
season is to protect our core. As badly as the

(01:42:03):
time period was, how it went from Gain to Bill
to Jack to how much better it is clearly much
better with Nick Cassario's GM. How much would you kill
for Nick Cassio to have said that to anybody walking
this planet and then executed it this offseason because he
won't do it?

Speaker 4 (01:42:23):
First of all, I forgot just how boring Brian gain
is and was for his what nine months that he
was the GM here, seventeen wasn't really that long.

Speaker 5 (01:42:34):
It was It was longer than a year. It was over.
It was over twelve months.

Speaker 6 (01:42:38):
But he only had one draft. Yeah he got correct.
Yeah that's over a year.

Speaker 9 (01:42:43):
That is.

Speaker 6 (01:42:45):
But a simple, stated, obvious goal every team with a young,
soon to be star quarterback has to have.

Speaker 5 (01:42:56):
Maybe it's already in place.

Speaker 6 (01:42:58):
Maybe you're a team that's lucky enough to have drafted
quarterback not right there at the top. Your offensive line
isn't awful or in shambles and already has some young
players that you're hopeful with. You know, clearly through drafting
Howard Nadding, Laramie Tunsel the thing, they were doing some
of those things, but they clearly without going out of
their way to say, bleep, this best player available. Nonsense.

(01:43:21):
We're drafting need only and we're reaching for everybody as
long as they play all line. Because we're having a
hard time looking away from that, even though something we've
barely discussed at all today. Now that all nine players
that they drafted are in house, they drafted good players.
The wide receivers are going to their top four wide

(01:43:43):
receivers now, Nico, Christian, Kirk Higgins and Noel This has
the makings of an exceptionally helpful to your quarterback group
immediately game one and every six all the sixteen games
to follow, and some of the other players that were
brought in I think are going to help this team immediately.
It was a good draft in some ways, but the

(01:44:04):
one weakness of this team could still derail all the
moves that you made.

Speaker 5 (01:44:08):
I just can't. I can't.

Speaker 6 (01:44:10):
And then okay, if you're gonna do that, fine, But
then to give the SoundBite that he did, well, he's,
like I said, he's trying not to lie to us.
I can appreciate that. I think it's a foolish way
to address it because you're not addressing it. It isn't
foolish to draft your best available, It isn't foolish to
stick to your board. But you're gonna have a hard
time winning games unless your hope that we discussed in

(01:44:30):
this segment that a coaching change fixes it is the
way you're going to fix it because it didn't come
with talent. Usually I have not brought talent in.

Speaker 2 (01:44:42):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 7 (01:44:48):
Now the good, oh good, the bad that's my good
and the ugly.

Speaker 5 (01:44:53):
Don't make me good?

Speaker 2 (01:44:55):
With the A Team, were still want you a.

Speaker 6 (01:44:57):
Good bad signature segment time four thirty weekday afternoons. Here
on the A Team, we hit you with that Mondays,
bring the good, the bad, the ugly. We each way
in on one of those items. I'll have the back
end of this with the ugly. Cole's got the bad
ac get us started with the good.

Speaker 5 (01:45:16):
It's not going to be what you're thinking. I'll tell
you that much. You're gonna be good. Well, it's gonna
I'm gonna take a bad and turn it into something good, good,
and you're gonna drive off the blanket.

Speaker 4 (01:45:25):
Yeah, exactly, So you're you're probably all and you guys
definitely are very well aware of how the Nicks Pistons
game ended.

Speaker 5 (01:45:35):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:45:35):
If somebody like me, who's always constantly railing on officiating,
especially in the NBA, gets a clear cut example of
why a lot of things need to be revisited when
it comes to just officiating in general, but especially in
the NBA, then I'll take this. I mean, after all,

(01:45:56):
my team didn't lose because of it, but the Pistons did.
And if that means we get better officiating next year,
I think that's a good thing because it takes examples
like this in the postseason to at the very least,
you know, kind of change or tweak the review or
officials themselves, or the accountability. In other words, when they

(01:46:17):
admit that they blow a non call in the waning
moments of a playoff game that benefited the team that won,
I think that's a good thing that it's, you know,
put in the spotlight, because it means it's going to
force the hand of the NBA to make changes.

Speaker 6 (01:46:32):
We'll see if it forces their hand if you aren't
familiar with it. The Nicks and Pistons in a one
point game, late scramble for the basketball with Pistons trying
to take the lead with a game winning shot. Scramble
for the ball ends up at the three point line
in Tim Hardaway Junior's hands. He jumps, takes a shot,
ends up looking very awkward when he takes the shot,
and it also comes up about three feet short the

(01:46:54):
official standing right there. He raises his right arm because
it's a three pointer. Watch does it happen? And then
is ready to walk off the court because it doesn't
go in and they lose.

Speaker 5 (01:47:03):
JB.

Speaker 6 (01:47:04):
Bickerstaff was running onto the court screaming, that was a foul.
I think everybody thought live it was a foul. Once
they finally got to the replay, it was pretty easy
to see that it was a foul. The pool reporter
clearly was allowed to ask about that and the response
from their crew chief David Guthrie. During live play, it
was judged that Josh Hart made a legal defensive play.

(01:47:25):
After postgame review, we observe that heart makes body contact.
There's more than marginal the Hardaway Junior and a foul
should have been called. Last two minutes report for any
other call is not out yet, but obviously there will
indicate in there this was an incorrect call, because the
officials just said as much after their own review, not
necessarily the full review that will happen for the last

(01:47:45):
two minutes report. But when you watch a player launch
a shot like that and there are two other officials,
some think the official that didn't make the call was
so close to the play and where the contact was,
maybe he doesn't see it. And I'm not sure how
the other officials don't see it. But I'm not sure
that this indicates there will be a change. There's a
change that I think clearly could be made, and the

(01:48:06):
NFL finally started doing it, and after this offseason's meetings
they will do more of it. It's just going to
add more time to games and people are going to
get mad at when and if they use it.

Speaker 5 (01:48:17):
They need replay assist.

Speaker 6 (01:48:19):
They cannot give the challenges to the coaches to infinity
because they are never going to do that. You shouldn't
rely on the coaches. Like the Rockets game on Saturday night,
there were three coaches challenges. They were all successful because
all three calls were missed. That's not an acceptable solution.

Speaker 8 (01:48:36):
That.

Speaker 6 (01:48:37):
Well, we gave them the challenges, so they got them right. No,
they had to challenge and then they had to run
out of challenges because more calls were going to be missed,
as were the first three. When you assist in the
NFL has helped officials make better calls while the play
is happening. They've got thirty five seconds forty seconds in
between plays. It's not apples to apples, but it would

(01:48:58):
be nice if there was a way for the everybody
that saw it, besides the three people wearing ref free uniforms.

Speaker 5 (01:49:04):
Somebody could help them. No, whose job it is to
see it the first time around? They're just knocking.

Speaker 6 (01:49:09):
They're getting better at some of this stuff is probably
wishful thinking. Yeah, it's just difficult. Yeah, exactly that, right there.

Speaker 5 (01:49:15):
I hear that time too.

Speaker 6 (01:49:16):
These are not all that We've said it all week
for the postseason. We've been in the playoffs for only
nine days. The amount of easy calls, calls you should
never miss, that have been missed, and you're citing this
game as what you hope, you know, benefited the team
benefited New York and you hope this leads to something. Well,
we saw a review in the Lakers game that was correct.
They missed this call on the court. Also, Lebron James

(01:49:39):
fouled Anthony Edwards, ball went out of bounds. They gave
it to the Lakers. They would have had the ball
with a chance in a one point game and no
timeouts to go down the court and win the game. Well,
they reviewed it went very very very very close to
the play and zoomed all the way in and yeah,
I guess he did hit him on the wrist. I
guess that is a foul, which they then called corrected
it and he made us too free throw. Then Lebron

(01:50:00):
James passed up the fiftieth shot in the fourth quarter
because he was invisible on the fourth quarter offensively, gave
it to Austin Reeves who missed and they lost. So
the Lakers would have benefited from the live call, but
replay benefited their opponent who beat them.

Speaker 5 (01:50:16):
What's the bad?

Speaker 2 (01:50:17):
Cole?

Speaker 8 (01:50:18):
Congratulations to the nine players that were drafted by the
Houston Texans this weekend.

Speaker 5 (01:50:21):
Some are really good.

Speaker 8 (01:50:22):
I agree with you one hundred percent that when you
bring in Higgins and no there exceptional wide receivers that
are gonna better c J.

Speaker 5 (01:50:28):
Stroud's passing game.

Speaker 8 (01:50:30):
Nick Kayley's a tight ends coach, So getting a Luke Lache,
who many people believe is one of the better blocking
tight ends, are.

Speaker 5 (01:50:35):
We going to do the obvious joke with him?

Speaker 6 (01:50:38):
What even though he's not generationally appropriate for this joke,
I tight end. No, that's that's the football joke. But
it's not a joke because Iowa tight ends are good.
The joke is his name's Luke Lache. That's a very
famous boy band, last name.

Speaker 5 (01:50:52):
God. No, he's not part of what New Kids on
the Block is not what he was in.

Speaker 9 (01:50:56):
That's not the same.

Speaker 6 (01:50:57):
No, it was more of a measurement boy band ninety
eight Degrees. There were two Liches in that band, one
of whom was with both Jessica Simpson for TV YEP
and now Venessa Manila.

Speaker 5 (01:51:08):
Because he's got smarter, good for him, Good for no.

Speaker 6 (01:51:12):
He drafted Luka and Nick Kaylee likes tight ends.

Speaker 8 (01:51:14):
Go on, Yeah, anyways, it's okay that Nick Caseiro does
not want to ever let the media in on anything,
but I was at said press conference. I actually told
my family to screw off that night I didn't want
to be around them, didn't want to be in any
of them. So I went to that press conference, and
for the most part I expected it to be simple, Nick,
except for this part.

Speaker 10 (01:51:33):
This whole concept of drafting for need. Honest to god,
I don't even know what it means. I mean, what
does it mean.

Speaker 5 (01:51:38):
If someone could tell me that, I'd love to hear it, great,
I'll tell you what it means. Nick. Last season, your
offensive line gave up fifty six sacks, including fifty four
to CJ. Stroud.

Speaker 8 (01:51:46):
You had the highest paid offensive line in the NFL.
Oh and by the way, those eleven sacks that were
a lot in the postseason, three of which came on
fourth down in a divisional game that you could have
won on the road against the number one team.

Speaker 5 (01:51:59):
So when you don't want to go into detail.

Speaker 8 (01:52:02):
With us the media about how you don't think that
we know what you're doing if you just want to
draft the players that you want to draft drafted.

Speaker 5 (01:52:09):
But you know what that says.

Speaker 8 (01:52:10):
It's a condescending way of saying I know more about
football than you. Sit down, shut up, and like how
I do it? And you make the entire fan base upset.
When you act that way, don't know what need is.
You gave your quarterback a heart attack in the playoffs.
That's a terrible quote regards of how you feel about him.

Speaker 6 (01:52:26):
So nine players drafted this year, nine players drafted last year,
nine players drafted the year before, and nine players drafted
also the year before. These are all Nick Cassario drafts,
all the drafts where he had his first two rounds
worth of picks. Two offensive linemen in twenty twenty two,

(01:52:48):
two offensive linemen in twenty twenty three, two more offensive
linemen in twenty twenty four, one offensive lineman in twenty
twenty five, coming off of the season that Cole just
described very very interesting that they needed less from the
draft this year while having little to show for any
of the other three drafts leading into it.

Speaker 5 (01:53:05):
But somehow Cole's rant not ugly. I'll have the ugly
for you.

Speaker 6 (01:53:10):
On the other side, I got a boatload of audio
that we've never gotten to over the last couple of
draft days, and certainly one of those items fits next.

Speaker 5 (01:53:18):
I think it's ugly in a very very fun way.
That's next.

Speaker 2 (01:53:23):
The age on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (01:53:29):
Over here on the eight.

Speaker 6 (01:53:30):
Team wexac Cole Thompson here with you, gets to five
o'clock in a few minutes, and we'll bring it football
at five and dig a little deeper into the Texans
actual acquisitions, because again they helped this team. They did
a lot with what started as a little and then
turned into a lot. I said, as you heard me
say earlier, nine picks in four consecutive drafts, the league
gives you seven. You have turned those twenty eight picks

(01:53:54):
into thirty six over the last four years. Now makes
make the most out of it, and everywhere on the roster.
N Casserio pretty much has. But I ask you this
Saturday morning, I imagine neither of you lost eight minutes
of your life watching CBS Saturday Mornings.

Speaker 5 (01:54:12):
Is that accurate? Do we still have cartoons on?

Speaker 6 (01:54:15):
No, it's a news program much like the Today Show
and the Good Morning America program and CBS Mornings that
airs during the week.

Speaker 5 (01:54:22):
This is basically just the Saturday edition.

Speaker 6 (01:54:24):
So the second in lines and the fourth reporters and
the nineteenth best Stories, and they put those on on
Saturday mornings. So in that you did not see it,
you may have seen it floating around the social media
landscape yesterday and of course today, because of course, when
you write a book, it's time for you to do

(01:54:45):
a book tour and a media tour, and of course
when you need even more help selling your book, you'll
pretty much do any interview if the people in your
camp allow it. Very well dressed Bill Belichick sat down
for an interview on the Art of Winning, his football
book that was written and he hopes to I think
make money on I don't really think he's excited.

Speaker 5 (01:55:06):
About sharing with the world about the art of winning.
So the.

Speaker 6 (01:55:12):
Questions came his way, like Robert Kraft, see, so he
fired you it was a mutual parting. No, it says
he said he fired you. It was a mutual parting.
He's not even mentioned in your book. He's not in
the acknowledgement.

Speaker 5 (01:55:25):
He's nowhere in.

Speaker 6 (01:55:25):
There's a couple of questions like that, you know what
you're doing now North Carolina. And obviously the conversation did
shift to his new girlfriend, Jordan, who was present for
the interview. As we've seen with North Carolina football and
pretty much everything else, she's present for everything else. And
that's been a point of contention with a lot of
people that are looking at the program, saying this seems odd.

(01:55:46):
So she's there for the interview, and after a question
from Tony d the interviewer, he asks him about what
You're much more visible on social media and you and
she have posted pictures of you know, you holding her
up with her feet and she's doing a Titanic pose
and no, da da da da dah. And he says,
how have you how have you handled the reaction to that?

(01:56:10):
And Belichick says reaction to it and he goes into
a long, super boring, awkward I'm on it, but I
don't really pay any attention to it, in other words,
telling us something we already knew. Anything that gets posted
there isn't posted by him. He doesn't care what they're posting, apparently,
and he's not interested in what they're posting or what

(01:56:30):
anybody has to say about what they're posting. But social media,
as you know from Best of X, it's all.

Speaker 5 (01:56:35):
About the comments. That's why we live here. As people say,
I love this app, you know things like that. Bill doesn't.

Speaker 6 (01:56:42):
He's not interested, and it's unaware. Probably. I don't think
he's a great liar in this situation. I think he's
telling me the truth unaware of the comments, and you say, okay,
so he was just asked a question about a social
media and he says, you know, I'm not really aware
of any of the comments. As the interviewer presented the
relationship between he and Jordan, you ask me, will you

(01:57:03):
get to the Ugly already? And I say, well, absolutely
I will. Here was the next question, how did you
guys meet not talking about this?

Speaker 5 (01:57:15):
No, no, I mean off camera, just making it known
this is not happening, not talking about this.

Speaker 6 (01:57:27):
We're going to have that in the system for the
end of time. Yeah, so we'll be able to use
that a lot, like when you bring up O. J.

Speaker 5 (01:57:34):
Simpson. I'll just use that. But how did you guys meet?
How did you guys meet not talking about this?

Speaker 11 (01:57:45):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:57:46):
No, no, no, I mean this is you're selling your book,
which she's not a huge part of, even though she's
in it as his so called muse. He thanks her
for what she's allowed him to do in this book,
I guess share his art of winning now Ugly maybe
taking it a bit far, but this is so ridiculously

(01:58:09):
unlike the fifty the first forty five years of had
to be public.

Speaker 5 (01:58:15):
Bill Belichick.

Speaker 6 (01:58:16):
He's an NFL coach, the last decades worth of it,
an NFL head coach, So we know him even more
in how he deals with the media and how he
doesn't deal with anything else, and how he's on to Cincinnati,
and how he doesn't care about his dress he was wearing,
how he dresses. He was wearing a a sweater shirt
with a hole in it for this interview, this television.

Speaker 5 (01:58:35):
He doesn't. It's with the team that he doesn't even coach. Yeah,
but he respects him, He respects him. He respects Navy
as we all should.

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

Speaker 6 (01:58:43):
Now other people, you know, Mike Flora is gonna jump
in on this, and he did because this was this
what I just played for you was kept in their
eight minute television interview. And sometimes you'll that'll happen like
we saw it many times political interviews people have, you know,
walked out a lot of sports interviews, people just that's
not what I said, I not what we agree to,

(01:59:04):
or not what I'm here to talk about, and the
subject will get up and walk away, or oftentimes the
interviewer will say we're not talking about that, Okay, well
then we're done. But they put it in there, so Mike,
the sleuth that he is, NBC Sports has learned this
was not the only interruption, and many more existed, but
CBS chose to keep this one in. How much of

(01:59:26):
his life do you think she controls?

Speaker 8 (01:59:29):
Now?

Speaker 6 (01:59:30):
Because unless he's wearing a headset on Saturday afternoons, it
seems like he's allowing her to pretty much do anything.

Speaker 5 (01:59:38):
That's the point too. But why uh? That part I
can't answer.

Speaker 6 (01:59:43):
But I mean, I know the low hanging fruit answer
and it's very obvious. Yeah, you guys don't have to
say it.

Speaker 5 (01:59:50):
We got it. But this, for who he seemed to be,
would not seem to be of all that great interest
to him.

Speaker 6 (02:00:00):
Well, if it's even after the waresoft, if it's not
football related, then she does.

Speaker 5 (02:00:05):
And that's the number one reason why. That's why.

Speaker 6 (02:00:09):
And then flip it to the other side. This clearly
can make her famous, which in turn could make her money.
But what's what's her end game in this game?

Speaker 8 (02:00:18):
Like?

Speaker 5 (02:00:19):
What is the money from Bill when he kicks the bucket? Right?
So be in the will?

Speaker 6 (02:00:24):
Yeah, exact, it could either make her famous or just
simply earn her money, or she's absolutely head over heels
totally in love with the old doesn't his coach son
get some say in the Wilms, Yes, sons, he has
multiple coaching sons are actually both with him, right, Yeah

(02:00:45):
they are.

Speaker 8 (02:00:45):
And the funny the funny part is is that in
the contract as of right now, depending on how many years,
if Bill were to leave, Steve just gets promoted a
head coach. So he got him the job as like
nepotism to make sure, Hey, my time's going to continue
my legacy and become a head coach this.

Speaker 6 (02:01:02):
Way, as she indicated, as we heard earlier, if you
missed this, I don't think we ever brought this up. Apparently,
when he was hired, she went to the PR department,
the sids, etc. And wanted the wording in the release
to not make it look like what Cole just said. Now,
he is an established NFL defensive coach. He was a

(02:01:23):
college football defensive coordinator last season. If his name wasn't Belichick,
this could be construed as a totally normal, real hire.
His name is Belichick, so it's hard to look at
it that way. But he has a pedigree, or at
least a resume. I don't know how great you evaluate
his work as a coach, But nonetheless I felt like
this out of the ordinary Bill Belichick Jordan Hudson scenario,

(02:01:45):
it's probably never going to go away, and if people
like me keep bringing it up, well, it certainly won't.
We're supposed to have a little bit of fun here
on the A Team. Football at five comes your way next.

Speaker 2 (02:01:57):
The A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 3 (02:02:02):
Adam Clinton and Adam Wexler are the eighteam a.

Speaker 5 (02:02:18):
Football at five.

Speaker 6 (02:02:19):
Here on the A Team on Sports Talk seven ninety, wexsay,
seeing Cole here with you. As Cole mentioned earlier, he
was attending the post round pressers for the Houston Texans
this last week, all but the first one, which I
prevented him from attending since he was stuck here hosting
our draft coverage on opening night to discuss at length

(02:02:42):
the zero selections the Texans made on Thursday night after
their second Draft day trade of this year's draft, which
traded them out of the first round, but then on
over the weekend began the Friday day portion of the draft,
the post eighteen portion of their draft. This weekend Friday
evening ten selections, they ended up with nine selections and

(02:03:02):
an incredible amount of deals. Seven draft day deals made
all nine players that Nick Cassario selected for this upcoming
season with four year contracts now in hand. They were
all acquired via trade, every single one of them, none
with their original picks. They have additional selections in next

(02:03:22):
year's draft because of some of the work that they did.
They gave away some selections in next year's draft when
they moved back into the late third round of Friday's
portion of the draft. They had to do so in
order to make that happen. But all in all, as
I think most have agreed, the players they picked the

(02:03:43):
USC guys seemed like they were good players, but maybe
didn't need to be picked there. But if they're good,
they're good, So that's something you could certainly add. The
picks they took in the later rounds, I think both
the defensive tackle and the tight end are going to
make the team and make it look like they're continuing
to find players later in the draft. And I also

(02:04:04):
think the players they drafted the first three, the two
wideouts and their offensive tackle, these are good prospects. These
are likely to be good football players in twenty twenty six.
It's very reasonable that you know Taesrie. It will be
their start a starting tackle. It's possible that Blake Fisher
is the other. These will be two second round picks

(02:04:25):
of Nick Casseio that start. It's almost a given that
Jalen Knowle and Jaden Higgins are going to be big
contributors to this year's team. As much as we talk
about the offensive line and not finding replacements or better players,
they had a wide receiver room for to start the
year with before the draft, Niko's you're one Kirks, your
two Hutch and Mechi or your three and four and

(02:04:47):
you move on from there. But they took players they
think I guess I hope they feel more confident in
being better than at least your three and four Hutch
and Mechi, and maybe even as a potential Kirk replacement
if he's not a Texan after this year.

Speaker 5 (02:05:04):
These are good players. These come from a good program.

Speaker 6 (02:05:07):
These come from we're ready to help immediately, which most
wide receivers draft in the top eighty should be. They're
going to be better for it, and most of our
discussion has been on the other side of it. But
I do think that the success from this draft will
be very evident, very soon for the Texans.

Speaker 5 (02:05:23):
Yeah, I just hope that CJ has time to get
it to these guys.

Speaker 6 (02:05:27):
Yeah, I think he will, because I can't imagine it's
what you just said, is why Bobby Slowak isn't here anymore. Yeah,
because they thought that should have happened last year, even
with their bad line, even though with their poorly coached line,
even with their injured line, and it wasn't happening. And
rather than I think erroneously fully blaming it on CJ.
And by no means is he blamed lists. There's probably

(02:05:49):
one out of every ten to fifteen dropbacks you're like,
come on, drop throw, why didn't you do this? Or
here you know this read isn't there or you've seen
this there one thing we've barely discussed going to get
into too deep here either because there's really juicy other
stuff maybe elsewhere in the NFL to get to it
Today's football at five. But his involvement in their offense

(02:06:09):
was pretty good before talking about CJ and Bobby working together,
but not the way in which I think you need
to have a successful offense. If they trust their quarterback
like they claim they trust their quarterback, he's just got
to be more in control of things. They have to
be willing to yield more of the control to the
player on the field, whether he's calling more of his
own plays, whether he has even more ability to change

(02:06:32):
plays at the line.

Speaker 5 (02:06:33):
They have to have that. And it sounds like what.

Speaker 6 (02:06:35):
He's said briefly and what Nick Kaylee has said briefly,
that's more than likely what's going to be the case
in this working relationship that they will work much more
together on trying to make this offense work around what
we think are pretty obvious problems. And they put pressure
on CJ. Stroud by drafting ors replacement Graham Mertz.

Speaker 4 (02:06:56):
Hah, awesome Mercedes commercials by the way, awesome Mercedes commercials. Yeah,
a lot of them on his Instagram. Oh and in
order for him, Yeah no, if I were him, I
would have done the same thing. You gotta make some money.

Speaker 6 (02:07:10):
So, like I said, we definitely the analysis of the
individual players and soon rookie mini camp soon our opportunity
to meet them. The Texans one of just a couple
of teams that had no need for an introductory press
conference because there was no big dog from their draft class.
There was no first round pick, none of the top
thirty three selections or Texans elsewhere in this division. You

(02:07:31):
bring in a tight end like Loveland, you bring in
the number one overall pick like cam Ward, and the
number two pick in the draft also goes into this
division with Travis Hunter, so much, so much Travis Hunter
and his GM James Gladstone audio, I don't even want
to waste it today. I want to cultivate it more
and give it time to breathe and really get into it,

(02:07:52):
really dig in. So we'll go with the unfortunate number
one talkie from Thursday, Friday, and so Saturday and Sunday
of the NFL.

Speaker 5 (02:08:03):
It has nothing to do with Houston.

Speaker 6 (02:08:06):
It has everything to do with arguably the worst quarterback
room in the NFL, Joe Flacco, Kenny Pickett, Deshaun Watson,
Dylan Gabriel and Shodour Sanders your quarterback room for the
Cleveland Browns. Now before we take it in the direction
you absolutely want to go. And the outrage that people

(02:08:30):
had all weekend long, What are the end what is
the NFL doing? How can this happen? Or the other side,
this is all on the Sanders family, et cetera. And
then the other story about the prank, which came to
light in full today. I think we have to go
a different route. Why was Sanders even drafted by the
Browns in the fifth round?

Speaker 5 (02:08:48):
Adam? Because the owners made the gam do it wrong
to try again?

Speaker 2 (02:08:53):
Cole?

Speaker 5 (02:08:53):
Would you like to correct? Okay? Wrong? Not for the show.

Speaker 8 (02:08:57):
It isn't guess, Cole, because Deshaun Watson, it's a buddy.

Speaker 5 (02:09:01):
You want to go again? Ac No, Cole? You want
another guess? Yeah? Sure? Why not go for it?

Speaker 8 (02:09:06):
Because Kevin Stephans goes wrong? You're thinking about the football.
That's not where we are there on the show because
Dion Sanders next year?

Speaker 6 (02:09:15):
Come on, guys, all right, let's do we have some
fun on the show. Today in Washington, d C.

Speaker 5 (02:09:23):
There was a press briefing.

Speaker 16 (02:09:26):
And one more after the President's trout social post, the
Browns finally took to Sanders. Does the President think he
deserves credit for Sanders getting picked? And does he think
going to the Browns is better than being undrafted?

Speaker 3 (02:09:40):
Hey?

Speaker 5 (02:09:43):
All I will say is the President put out a
statement and a few rounds later he was drafted. So
I think the facts speak for themselves on that one.

Speaker 6 (02:09:50):
Peer as always handling it brilliantly from her stand at
the podium. It read Friday afternoon, April twenty fifth, four
o'clock in the afternoon, so in advance of rounds two,
three and four and five. Beginning Round five was middle
of the day Saturday afternoon.

Speaker 5 (02:10:10):
Donald J.

Speaker 6 (02:10:11):
Period Trump posts from his truth social at Trump Daily
posts from Donald Trump truth Social that after very afternoon?
What is wrong with NFL owners? Are they stupid? Dion
Sanders was a great college football player, when he's even
greater in the NFL. He's also a very good coach,
street wise and smart exclamation point. Therefore, Shadeur, his quarterback son,

(02:10:34):
has All Caps phenomenal genes and is all set for greatness.
He should be picked All Caps immediately by a team
that wants to All Caps win. Good luck, Shaudour, and
say hello to your wonderful father. And as miss Levitt said,
I'm just gonna give you the facts, a couple rounds
after this was posted.

Speaker 5 (02:10:55):
He was drafted. Now, hold up, she said that was correct.

Speaker 6 (02:10:59):
She said a couple more rounds, which is as she said,
those are facts two, three, four, then five.

Speaker 5 (02:11:05):
That's a fact.

Speaker 6 (02:11:05):
She didn't say right after or soon after she did
say it in a way that is truthful, that is
a fact. Depending on your semantics of the couple rounds,
you know you want more from him. Yes, well obviously
only if you allow me to switch from the Sanders topic. Sure,
I told you the Eagles visited today right now. Granted
it happened during the show, so this two really needs

(02:11:27):
to be given my full attention. Not something I can
do properly during our program, But I am aware of
one series of comments he made today. Our president, whether
it's Joe or Brock or any of our recent presidents,
were access to anything that was said. While our championship
teams visit means we're gonna get gold from them.

Speaker 5 (02:11:47):
They've all had it.

Speaker 6 (02:11:48):
Trump, being that he's now back again, has been very
good at delivering, and he's now got another championship team visit.

Speaker 5 (02:11:54):
It was less than a month ago the Dodgers were there.
We had fun with that. Of course, we'll have a
little bit more fun with the Eagles when we get there.

Speaker 6 (02:12:00):
But he decided to kind of walk us through the
postseason from the championship game for the Eagles all the
way to their Super Bowl victory, and in his explanation,
he kind of went about it like this.

Speaker 17 (02:12:14):
To fifty five points. In the day, the Eagles punched
their ticket to a Super Bowl rematch with the Kansas
City Chiefs, and you know what happened. It was an
incredible game, a little surprising, but right from the beginning
in the first quarter of the big game, which I
was there, I watched in person.

Speaker 5 (02:12:30):
I was there along with Taylor Swift. How did that
work out? How did that one work out? That's so petty,
It's very funny. It's yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (02:12:44):
As usual, a lot of the people involved with the Eagles, coaches,
coach dom others were invited up for their few words.

Speaker 5 (02:12:51):
Oh where is so and so?

Speaker 6 (02:12:52):
Let's talk to so and so so tomorrow hopefully I'll
have even more fun. But another championship team's visit to
our white house has been completed.

Speaker 5 (02:13:01):
Did McDonald's cater it? I don't know that this.

Speaker 6 (02:13:05):
The college teams I think were the real beneficiary of
let's serve them all this food, more so than maybe
the Eagles and Dodgers, etc.

Speaker 5 (02:13:12):
I don't believe.

Speaker 4 (02:13:13):
So, Okay, it's again going back to the Shuar Sanders
and we'll get to some of the elements of that.
But I still can't I cannot believe what we saw
from mel Kuiper of everything that happened, I still can't
believe what we saw from mel Kiper junior over the weekend.

Speaker 5 (02:13:31):
Well discuss.

Speaker 2 (02:13:34):
The eight on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 12 (02:13:42):
So.

Speaker 6 (02:13:42):
While it was a huge talker over the weekend and
on into today and will be for many years to come,
I'm sure we didn't really get into the reason why
here on that last segment. Xac and Cole here with
you should or Sanders often referred to as a likely
top pick I think after the season is really the
only fit to say he was projected to go blank

(02:14:02):
rather than at some points he could have been the
number one pick.

Speaker 5 (02:14:05):
No, that's not accurate, but he was.

Speaker 6 (02:14:07):
Likely considered the next two, maybe three best quarterbacks available
after cam Ward. When would a team that would needed
one be willing to take a chance on a new quarterback. Well,
the Texans are involved in this discussion in one way
at least, and probably a couple of other ways as
we continue. The next quarterback taking was taken with the
Texans first round pick. Texans made a deal with the Giants,

(02:14:30):
and the Giants did that deal so they could draft
Jackson Dart. Jackson Dart becomes the latest project for Brian
Dabole and the New York Giants and very very very
easily could be on the field quite a bit for
that team this year. The next quarterback drafted probably only
caught notoriety because his dog was so excited. Tyler Schoff
and Murphy was very very excited. He will be a

(02:14:53):
New Orleans Saint. He was the first quarterback drafted in
the second round. He's also twenty five years old. He
has been married for several years. He's an old man
as quarterbacks go, and played college in a couple of
different places forever. The next quarterback is from Houston. Jalen
Milroe played Katie Tompkins, superb athlete, elite athlete who also

(02:15:14):
plays quarterback. And again, if you can't throw the football
at a high enough level, you probably can't play quarterback
at the NFL level.

Speaker 5 (02:15:20):
But Seattle is taking the chance that he can, and
it is a chance.

Speaker 6 (02:15:24):
But he is unbelievable and hopefully people have seen the
video of his former teammate Terry and Arnold, who is
on with Sirius XMNFL radio on site at the draft
when that pick was made and he absolutely lost it
in the greatest, coolest, neatest fun way possible. So it's
really neat. That's part of what's supposed to be fun
about the draft. And then the next quarterback draft, it

(02:15:45):
is the same as Shador. They're coming into the AFC
and they're the only ones, in my opinion, that should
be competing for the job there.

Speaker 5 (02:15:51):
Dylan Gabriel goes ninety fourth.

Speaker 6 (02:15:53):
Fifty picks later, the Browns go back to back selections
with a quarterback and that's where shudhoeuer Sanders gets picked.
Another eight quarterbacks were drafted. We'll get into those because
one of them was a Texan and one of them
was a Texas Longhorn some other time. But you mentioned
mel Kuiper and so many other people just in rant mode,

(02:16:16):
full on ramp mode for one reason or another for
about the last two and a half days.

Speaker 5 (02:16:20):
Well I can't.

Speaker 6 (02:16:21):
I mean, look, if you and a lot of you
have probably heard it already, seen the clip floating around like.

Speaker 4 (02:16:26):
It was, it was just so like you're mel Kuiper.
You have gone on the record as saying that Jimmy
Clauson's so good that you're going to retire if he doesn't,
you know, make it in the NFL.

Speaker 5 (02:16:37):
JaMarcus Russell was another whiff that you had. I mean,
it happens.

Speaker 4 (02:16:41):
That's this is part of why draft shows and all
that kind of stuff. I just have never been because
it's such a crap shoot in any draft, let alone
the NFL to try and predict this stuff. Who's gonna
be what, Who's going to make themselves something? But Shador
Sanders not getting draft did was a not some giant

(02:17:03):
collusion the way people like Stephen A.

Speaker 5 (02:17:05):
Smith are trying to say it.

Speaker 4 (02:17:07):
It wasn't some you know, personal vendetta against mel kiper
Junior's mock draft one two three four point zeros.

Speaker 5 (02:17:15):
It wasn't any of that stuff. Did he do some
things that.

Speaker 4 (02:17:19):
Might have helped his draft stock fall? Absolutely did he?
Is it the way he handled himself. Was it a
bad interview? I mean, we weren't in those interviews, so
I don't know. But I find it so hard to
believe that there's all these people with their butts on
the line, with their jobs on the line, with you know,
multi billion dollar organizations at stake in the future of

(02:17:39):
those things at steak, that they would all get together
and say, ah, we're not taking this guy for this
reason or that you know, shallow reason.

Speaker 5 (02:17:47):
You don't believe it because it's not what happened. That's why.

Speaker 6 (02:17:50):
Well, I mean common sense should tell you that exactly.
But why do we hear this stuff then?

Speaker 5 (02:17:55):
Because people don't know what else to do.

Speaker 6 (02:17:56):
And if we were talking about a much better prospect,
a much better player. And I'm not trying to really
make it so negative about his actual play, but this
quarterback class is awful. Right, cam Ward is the number
one pick, and he would not be He's not among
the top ten drafted quarterbacks in the last four or

(02:18:18):
five years in the first round. There's so many better
talents getting to the league. If he was a camp miss,
this would be a story.

Speaker 5 (02:18:24):
Do you want to know why?

Speaker 8 (02:18:25):
You know he's not a can't miss? How quickly they
moved off of Oh, cam Ward draft number one? Oh,
let's go talk for the rest of the draft.

Speaker 6 (02:18:32):
Yeah, And then that's a cam Ward story for our
many days ahead because he's the Titans quarterback and on
May fourteenth, will know when he's playing the Texans.

Speaker 5 (02:18:40):
Be great.

Speaker 6 (02:18:40):
If those games, or at least one of those games,
was very early in the season. Presumably Cam's not at
his best at the beginning of his career versus fifteen
or sixteen games in.

Speaker 5 (02:18:49):
It was great of Titan's legend Warren Moon to give
him his jersey number.

Speaker 6 (02:18:52):
Yeah, they that team got to have that kind of
moment because they had a press conference, they welcomed in
the number one overall pick, they had a special guest
and war Moon showed up and said, hey, man, if
you want it, it's all yours, and it was just
really feel good moment.

Speaker 5 (02:19:05):
But the Sanders angle on all of this.

Speaker 6 (02:19:08):
You consider those other quarterbacks I mentioned, mill Row's a
project dart, project chef, project Gabriel, not a great prospect
to begin with, just a tremendous productivity at the college level.
I mean, it's interesting that just what he did and
how much how much he accomplished, But it doesn't mean

(02:19:29):
you're a pro prospect. You say the same thing about
Quinn yours, who was watching awful college quarterbacks get picked
ahead of him over and over and over again until
he finally got picked by a pretty good in a
pretty good spot to Miami. But you were talking about
all these people, you know, putting their jobs on the
line and are any of these coaches and gms do
they want to put their job on the line to

(02:19:50):
take a chance on this player when he's not a
camp miss, when he's is how likely is it that
any one of the quarterbacks in the whole draft after
cam Ward?

Speaker 5 (02:20:00):
Is the answer? Including cam Ward, I'll still say is
the answer.

Speaker 8 (02:20:04):
But the.

Speaker 6 (02:20:06):
New GM there in Tennessee is his job on the
line on this one pick?

Speaker 5 (02:20:11):
No, but Callahans is. But he didn't have any choice.

Speaker 6 (02:20:14):
Yeah, I know, But these other coaches, these other gms,
why not draft a player you think can play and
help you for four years? Versus I'm guessing on Gabriel,
I'm guessing on Dart, I'm guessing on Milrow, I'm guessing
on Sandy. You can sign a backup quarterback for two
million bucks that you know can play at the backup level.

Speaker 5 (02:20:33):
The team that drafted him just drafted another rookie.

Speaker 6 (02:20:36):
That's how unbelievably desperate are And now I reopened the
door for the same question.

Speaker 5 (02:20:41):
Why did the Browns draft him?

Speaker 6 (02:20:42):
Cole? I think your answer was probably on the money
because the owner made him do it. Because if Jimmy
Haslam made the pick, and if you don't believe me.

Speaker 5 (02:20:51):
Look at the view. Look at the GM's face in
that hostage video. Look, here's how bad it is.

Speaker 6 (02:20:57):
Have you ever been cole or ac? Have you ever
been to late night talk show taping?

Speaker 8 (02:21:02):
No?

Speaker 5 (02:21:02):
Huh?

Speaker 6 (02:21:03):
What do they do when they go to break and
come back from break and inside the studio for the audience.

Speaker 5 (02:21:08):
They put a light on this as applause boom.

Speaker 6 (02:21:11):
That is what was going on in the Browns war
room when they captured that video of Stefanski and Andrew
Berry right in front of the camera with a whole
room behind him. He didn't see the light light the
least enthusiastic clapping to go along with hostage video.

Speaker 5 (02:21:24):
Look from Barry, Yes, here's how bad it was. Guys.

Speaker 8 (02:21:26):
Do you remember when Deshaun was introduced to the media
in Cleveland. At least Andrew Berry had to smile on
his face, but there was a white, hollow, empty pit
of despair on Kevin Stefanski's face. Yeah, and that was
the sign of I didn't make this move, I didn't
want you as my quarterback. I got stuck with you.
Both of them had that face, the exact same face.

Speaker 6 (02:21:46):
How about the fact that this quarterback room. He's not
even the first rookie that was drafted. Yeah, this, I
mentioned this, those five guys I mentioned here on the show.
If I was Kevin Stefanski, You've got Joe Flacco, Kenny
pick and these two rookies. Because Watson's not a factor
this year due to injury, Whatson Pickett won't be there
after a year. They correctly declined his option, so now

(02:22:09):
he's in the final year of his deal. Joe Flacco's
on a one year deal. You owe something to your veterans.
We say this every year, the Anthony Richardson Joe Flacco
discussion and everywhere else. You owe something to the people
in the locker room to give them your best, to
give them an opportunity to play for something like Miles Garrett. Yeah,
Miles Garrett is re upped. I'm sure he's very happy
with that decision. But because of it, they can't immediately say, look,

(02:22:32):
this job is open and these two guys are battling
for it. But if you look at what the resumes
are for the two other veterans and the resumes for
these two never NFL players before, I would absolutely open
up the quarterback competition starting when they hit training camp
or OTAs. Flacco would be number three, Pickett would be

(02:22:54):
number four, and these two guys would be one and
one A because I'm not gonna win with Joe Flacco.
Can't prove it any more times. You are not gonna
win long term for and I mean one season. Here's
this three hundred yard game that you win and everyone
thinks he's great. Well, then here are the other four
games where he's throwing the ball to the other team,
can't move and you lose.

Speaker 5 (02:23:14):
You should know that by now he's already played for you.
But because they're Cleveland, he'll start week one. He almost
assuredly will start start in week one, barring injury. I'll
give a quick piece of credit to Shudder.

Speaker 8 (02:23:25):
At this point, I'd start him week one, and the
reason is because of I think it's the best system
that he could have gone to. That says a lot,
because if that's how bad of a quarterback room you
have with a fifth round pick who the team didn't
want outside of the owner, yeah, that's your best option
to go start.

Speaker 4 (02:23:39):
It's just so funny that of all the places he
could have wound up after the disaster that was this draft,
for him with the prank call and all that kind
of stuff.

Speaker 5 (02:23:48):
He ends up in Cleveland like it's just so he's
behind the eight ball already.

Speaker 6 (02:23:55):
Yeah, there's in a case you missed it regarding that
prank call, which we will definitely get to next, a
little bit of sleuthing and unearthed on that today. Bad
situation all the way around for everybody involved, and most
notably the players that received prank calls on draft days
over the last couple of days.

Speaker 5 (02:24:11):
Hit you with in case you missed it, next.

Speaker 2 (02:24:15):

Speaker 4 (02:24:19):
In case you missed it, just about to get underway,
probably should tell you the obvious by now, it's been
out for a few minutes and it's not really a
huge surprise. Jimmy Butler's playing tonight for the Golden State
Warriors in Game four between the Rockets and the Warriors.
You're gonna see that right here on Space City Home Network.
You're gonna hear it right here on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 5 (02:24:40):
What else do we have?

Speaker 8 (02:24:42):
And in case you missed it, so let's start off
with something that we's brought up. There's a phone call
that was made. Huh, not just one phone call, multiple
phone calls. In fact, there was one of Sheer Sanders
that went viral and we all saw the clip of
it of some kid that was out at all miss
sitting a phone, pretend to be Loomis, some kids, some kid.

(02:25:03):
But then there was reportedly another phone call to eventual
Indianapolis Colts tight end Tyler Warren, and apparently there were.

Speaker 5 (02:25:12):
More phone calls.

Speaker 8 (02:25:13):
Now we don't know if all the phone calls were connected.
Phone gate is what the kids would call in it
these days. But there is the actual culprit revealed when
it came to the case around Shadur Sanders. According to
the Atlanta Falcons, defensive coordinator Jeff Albrick's son Jacks was

(02:25:35):
the one that was prank calling, got the phone number
of Shadur Sanders, pretended to be Mickey Loomis and eventually
led to this becoming an NFL investigation. In a statement
released by the Atlanta Falcons earlier this week, Jack's Albrick,
the twenty one year old son a defense coordinator Jeff Albert,
unintentionally unintentionally came across the draft contact phone number of

(02:25:57):
Shadur Sanders off an open iPad while visiting his parents home,
wrote down that number and later conducted a prey.

Speaker 4 (02:26:04):
Which part of it's unintentional, the part where he left
it open so it can be seen because the rest
of it's very intention.

Speaker 6 (02:26:09):
All intentional, it's all intention Why would okay, I'll take
you know. You know, so he's at home with his
wife the DC where his son does not live. No,
he's at college and he's going through his all. Right, well,
these are the you know, I've got my iPad open,
I've got plays and draft reports and all sorts of
other stuff, and the league's forwarded or my GM Terry

(02:26:31):
font knows forwarded all the pertinent phone numbers that you're
we're going to need. Super important that your DC has
the phone number of a quarterback you might draft, because
you're definitely gonna want to call him because you've been
scouting him so much, like.

Speaker 5 (02:26:42):
Back number eight overall last year.

Speaker 6 (02:26:43):
So they probably are too busy to siphon off the
proper names to the proper individual, so everyone just gets
a blanket. Here are all the phone numbers of the
three hundred plus people we might draft, so just in
case you need to call them on your own, because
you're going to be in the draft room and we
will have all the numbers there. We're gonna give him
to you and put theim on your iPad, which you're
going to leave on the kitchen counter.

Speaker 5 (02:27:06):
I mean, this guy's DC, he makes DC money.

Speaker 6 (02:27:08):
He's probably got a kitchen island so in his master kitchen,
just upgraded courts.

Speaker 5 (02:27:14):
Countertops, spending a lot of his money.

Speaker 6 (02:27:16):
He's got the iPad out, and he's just gone to
his wine cellar to get another bottle cell too.

Speaker 5 (02:27:24):
Yeah, he's rich.

Speaker 6 (02:27:25):
This is when Jack's, his college aged son happens by.

Speaker 5 (02:27:30):
Now he's brought his laundry back home.

Speaker 6 (02:27:32):
He's looking to make a cheese sandwich because that's what
he's used to eating at college, because it's all the
money he has for because his dad, Jeff, is spending
it all. And he's in the kitchen looking for some
table scraps basically, and the missus is nowhere to be found.

Speaker 5 (02:27:45):
She's probably.

Speaker 6 (02:27:47):
Taking a nice warm bath in their palatial grand master
bathroom a week. And so he walks by and he
sees the iPad and he does actually have to scroll
to the phone numbers, but there it is, jots it
down and off we are are on making the prank
phone call.

Speaker 5 (02:28:02):
I do want to say one another thing.

Speaker 6 (02:28:04):
It was even worse for somebody else that had nothing
to do with this, when the internet's Internet sleuths incorrectly said, huh,
trade for with the Texans the drafted quarterback Jackson Dart
Joe Shane, Ole Miss Joe Shane daughter Ole Miss Huh. Well,
I guess his daughter must be the one who somehow

(02:28:26):
got a hold of should Ur Sanders number and helped
orchestrate this ole Miss driven prank call. And she, through
no fault of her own, caught a lot of Internet
negativity and who knows what else for absolutely positively no
reason other than dumbs on social media and the power
that social media holds.

Speaker 5 (02:28:46):
There's a lot of dumbs on social media. They are
what else have wait missed?

Speaker 8 (02:28:50):
So should Sanders to get drafted by the Cleveland Browns
and the fifth round? Congratulations. But a lot of people
are defending that this had nothing to do with his personality,
his persona. It was all because of Dion and how
Dion acts and how prime Time was gonna be too
big of a name to deal with. Well, and I
want you to stay with me through the end. Before
you interrupt, and so just to be safe, just to

(02:29:12):
be safe, I mute at you because I wasn't gonna
let you champ it.

Speaker 5 (02:29:15):
Just to be safe.

Speaker 8 (02:29:16):
According to Dov Kleim, this is why I said this,
Sir Deur Sanders through a massive party after being selected
fit in the fifth round by the Cleveland Browns. According
to the reports, Sanders also performed his hit rap song
and flex over one hundred thousand.

Speaker 5 (02:29:35):
Dollars in cash during the event.

Speaker 8 (02:29:37):
Now, naturally it's Dov Cleman, we don't believe him, but
Dion Sanders Junior, the son of Dion Sanders, decided to
go and take it a step further.

Speaker 5 (02:29:47):
Let's correct the story.

Speaker 8 (02:29:48):
Now it was actually a million dollars he flexed and
everything given to him was a gift. Do you not
understand that the entire premise of this was how you
acted factored into where you were drafted. And now you
are just justifying why you fell down to day three
and why mel Kiper was.

Speaker 5 (02:30:07):
Sitting here and going ta ta ta ta ta ta
ta ton, not.

Speaker 8 (02:30:10):
You, not you, sure ta ta ton And it just
is this just clarifies exactly why you weren't drafted in
the top twenty five.

Speaker 5 (02:30:18):
Wait, and why you were there? I'm good now, Yeah,
you're good?

Speaker 9 (02:30:21):
Now?

Speaker 5 (02:30:21):
Can I add just one more wrinkle?

Speaker 12 (02:30:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:30:23):
Did you see who the Browns just signed?

Speaker 8 (02:30:25):
Yes?

Speaker 6 (02:30:26):
Tell the people Deontay Johnson's former Texan legend. Okay, he
was here for like five minutes. Of every player that
gets signed to an undrafted free agent contract from the
twenty twenty five entrance to the NFL, plus to all
two hundred plus draftees, the most affluent family member of
that entire group of three hundred plus people is whom.

Speaker 5 (02:30:49):
Shiloh and Schadure.

Speaker 6 (02:30:51):
Correct, they have more money than everybody else that was
drafted by an enormous amount family money, obviously, and whatever
they're and I own money earnings are combined, and he's
showing it and he's Other players can have a like
Quinn yours can go to a taxidermist and have his
draft party, and Jackson Dark can have all of his

(02:31:13):
clones that look exactly like him at his draft party.

Speaker 5 (02:31:16):
When was that, Callas, Let's just get that out of
the way.

Speaker 6 (02:31:17):
And Shador can build a tent and have his party
with his family members there because he can, because he's
and he's more, he's more well to do than Jeff Olbrick.
He has even more money than the fake house that
I was building for Jeff and his family. And so
he enjoyed himself and so he's celebrated.

Speaker 8 (02:31:37):
Have you ever seen the meme of the guy that
like is popping champagne and throwing up the double bird
while he's getting his medal on and he's like an
eighteenth place.

Speaker 5 (02:31:45):
That's what it felt like, being.

Speaker 8 (02:31:46):
Drafted in the fifth round and throwing a party where
you're flashed off a million dollars. Sorry, I'm looking forward
to it because we're not far off from it, probably
within the next ten days. I don't have the dates
on the Browns, but all these draftees in a group
of about twenty five to thirty with their undrafted players
and tryout players, they all get on the field. Yep,
the rookie mini camps where you have, like I said,

(02:32:07):
about twenty five or thirty players.

Speaker 6 (02:32:09):
Their two quarterbacks will be their drafted quarterbacks. The Texans
will have probably two other quarterbacks that aren't Graham Mertz
or anybody on the roster because he's probably not healthy
enough to participate. But you'll get to see them and
obviously there will be some commentary from him from on
site with the Browns.

Speaker 8 (02:32:26):
I do have one more in case, Missip, but we're
against the clock and I want to make sure that
I hit it properly because of.

Speaker 5 (02:32:31):
This is a I guess where Mike's going off. He No,
this is a very very good one.

Speaker 8 (02:32:35):
This is a this is an AC special because of
somebody has no chill. Let's just start off with that,
somebody has no chill. That's next on the eighteen, the
eighteen on Sports Talk seven ninety.

Speaker 6 (02:32:54):
A few minutes out from Astros Baseball, I have the
Astros on Deck show coming up in a few minutes.
Matthews has that for you. Then Astros and Tigers not
long after that. A little bit after that, beginning on
News Radio seven forty k TRH, Game four, Rockets Warriors.
Pretty big swing from either down three to one or
all tied up for a happy flight back to Houston

(02:33:16):
at two wins apiece. Every other day is how this
series will go for as long as it goes. They've
got tonight's Game four, Wednesday night back at Toyota Center,
the is necessary Game five, a six thirty tip, and
then the if necessary games six on Friday seven, on Sunday,
I know there was an item or two we did

(02:33:36):
not get to last segment that's worthy of our time.

Speaker 5 (02:33:39):
What might that be? So just to be safe, just
just just to be safe when it comes to that. Hey, Ac,
I'll catch you guys tomorrow too. We got a perfect day.
Go just bye bye. Acy.

Speaker 8 (02:33:50):
Did you see that not only our fearless leader congratulated
Shader Sanders, but somebody else also went out of their
way to congratulate you.

Speaker 5 (02:33:57):
Hear our fearless leader. Yes, I know you think he's
talking about me, but he means the president. Yeah. Oh
that guy, that guy did he do the dance?

Speaker 8 (02:34:04):
He did?

Speaker 5 (02:34:04):
He did do the dance?

Speaker 6 (02:34:05):
Did he?

Speaker 5 (02:34:06):
I don't know.

Speaker 9 (02:34:07):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (02:34:08):
I thought you had like video evidence of this, of
course I know.

Speaker 8 (02:34:10):
But somebody else, very famous, also congratulated Shooter over the weekend.

Speaker 5 (02:34:14):
Let me read you the tweet.

Speaker 8 (02:34:16):
I was rejected one thousand and nine times before finally
landing my own famous original recipe. Sometimes all of Sanders
needs is a little time to cook the congratulation.

Speaker 5 (02:34:28):
The colonel from KFC set a congratulations.

Speaker 6 (02:34:32):
Dion Schaedeur, Larry and all the Sanders have a long
way to go to catch the most famous Sanders.

Speaker 5 (02:34:40):
Colonel.

Speaker 6 (02:34:41):
When's the last time you had it? That's a good question.
It's just it's so many other places. Actually, it's a
good like.

Speaker 5 (02:34:49):
It was very recipe like. The seasoning is unlike any
other Yep. But I don't know. I could not. It's
been at least I'll put it this way, it's been
at least twenty years. Really, yeah, I probably haven't quite
kick gone that long.

Speaker 6 (02:35:04):
But with there's so many other franchise I could run
through the whole list and other places that are more
local to us here in Houston or down south.

Speaker 9 (02:35:12):
Yep.

Speaker 5 (02:35:14):
We have so many good options.

Speaker 6 (02:35:15):
And it's not because I don't like it, and in fact,
this probably will make me want to go get it
one night this week.

Speaker 5 (02:35:22):
But that's good.

Speaker 6 (02:35:23):
I mean, there's a there's a super nice and easy
option that you probably don't eat on Sundays. There's one
that's more of a I love their sauce and them
down for tenders option. There's I can't not have ten
of their biscuits because they're so unbelievably good.

Speaker 5 (02:35:39):
Rhyme is that rhyme with mop Eyes? It might and.

Speaker 6 (02:35:43):
Everywhere else I you know what, hey, I heard no, no,
I heard Ross be smirching their their biscuits the other day.
He called them dry because they are okay. But here's
the thing, and buttery and tasty right well, the butter.

Speaker 5 (02:35:56):
On top is the key.

Speaker 4 (02:35:58):
And when you slather it, that's a word that goes
back to way long time ago, when you slather it
with honey.

Speaker 5 (02:36:05):
Trust me on this.

Speaker 6 (02:36:07):
And when you're you know, when you're leaving maybe an
athletic event over at one of our great local universities,
the University of Houston, you might pass by an extremely
extremely tasty chicken restaurant, Yes, right there next to the
old Houston's football stadium, as I think it's going to
be known as for at least a short while before
they officially.

Speaker 5 (02:36:28):
Changed the name. Yes, so TD is out.

Speaker 6 (02:36:33):
I think it's more it's I could be wrong, but
I think it's more of a reliant to energ shift.

Speaker 5 (02:36:40):
It's just there's a preferred new name. Hopefully prime Way
does the job.

Speaker 8 (02:36:44):
So I have a complete argument with this entire analogy
that you're coming up with. Ac Food should not have
to be doused in sauce to make it good. It
just should be good without the sauce, and the sauces
is an extra time.

Speaker 6 (02:36:56):
Seriously, I'm with you, Like the driest barbecue is always
my favorite sauceless, we've gotta have it now. I know
I'm saying something that people will really bust up the
phone lines immediately.

Speaker 5 (02:37:05):
Are you kidding me?

Speaker 6 (02:37:06):
There's barbecue out there that is unbelievable And I would
never put.

Speaker 5 (02:37:09):
Barbecue sauce on Chandler Rome. It's true. Backing Texas Barbecue
over Kansas City.

Speaker 6 (02:37:14):
I'm okay because we debate everything, but you and I
have both been to Kansas City. One of our favorite
listeners was just there in Kansas City and posting, well
we got to Gates and we got to Joe's and
it's okay to like both.

Speaker 5 (02:37:29):
Yeah, that's that's me. It's really really good sauce.

Speaker 4 (02:37:32):
What about up there is they have these stores all
over Kansas City that sell the sauces and the rubs
and the seasoning that come for all of the different
places in Kansas City that they're known for. They sell
those individual ingredients and so you can buy them. You
can get them online too and get them shipped here.
Joe's Sauce is spectacular. QC thirty nine sauce is spectacular.

Speaker 6 (02:37:55):
That's That's another thing that both both of these style
restaurants we've been talking about that's changed over the years
is the accessible accessibility of their sauces, products or recipes.

Speaker 5 (02:38:08):
Or just products in general.

Speaker 6 (02:38:09):
You can find and a lot of plate you could
order it, but in Bible sometimes just go to the
grocery store and there it is you can get.

Speaker 4 (02:38:16):
I believe it's Gates that you mentioned. That's or Jack Stack.
Jack stacks one up there in Kansas City. That's my
in laws favorite.

Speaker 6 (02:38:23):
They have sent it shipped to us freezer whatever the
dry dry ice man, I mean, like a.

Speaker 5 (02:38:31):
Whole thing of ribs. Yeah, so good stuff.

Speaker 8 (02:38:35):
I'm personally more of a Carolina barbecue person than I
am a Casey barbecue person.

Speaker 5 (02:38:39):
So would that be white barbecue sauce.

Speaker 8 (02:38:42):
No, that's more solidy. It's vinegar base, that's the way.
So both are different.

Speaker 6 (02:38:46):
You'd say white and vinegar based are two different, completely different.

Speaker 5 (02:38:49):
Yeah, just making sure they're both awful.

Speaker 6 (02:38:53):
Yep, totally awful. Good job, Wax, there you go, No, No,
there we go. I think I was in Maryland and
we went somewhere and all of the sauces. There was
a six pack of barbecue sauces on the table and
included both of the ones you just mentioned and many
of the other typicals, and I'm like, man, these are bad.

Speaker 5 (02:39:13):
Yeah, I'm not interested in these.

Speaker 8 (02:39:15):
I will say as somebody that went to school in Alabama,
where white sauce is very prominent there, it was fine.

Speaker 5 (02:39:20):
It was a solid sea. You can throw it on there.
It works if it's not there.

Speaker 6 (02:39:26):
Not complaining that is a perfect way to give us
the last couple of minutes of the show.

Speaker 5 (02:39:30):
You just called it a C. In other words, you
gave a grade to the barbecue sauce.

Speaker 14 (02:39:37):
I did.

Speaker 6 (02:39:37):
And huge hat tip for Cole, mainly because he's wearing
a hat right now, but to all three of us,
we didn't waste y'all's time today. We didn't even bring
it up today. And I'm only bringing it up now
to note that we didn't bring it up today. We're
not grading the Texans freaking draft. We're not grading the
other one thirty one other team's draft.

Speaker 5 (02:39:58):
But it's dumb.

Speaker 6 (02:39:59):
That's the only thing dumb are than saying what they're
gonna do and missing and then taking other people's grades
and letting you know the only thing I can't even
help myself with, and mentioning a draft grade as I
saw someone grade everybody's draft. You know how many people,
how many teams were given an F?

Speaker 5 (02:40:20):
Zero one? You know how many teams were given a D?
The correct answer was zero?

Speaker 6 (02:40:24):
Really zero got D as well zero, I think like
three or four, but also zero. This particular, it's a
worthwhile article. Every single team got an A or a B.
You're begging me not to read it now, So yes,
it is. So Like I said, we're not gonna get
into it today, We're not gonna get into tomorrow, a

(02:40:45):
couple of years from now. Maybe astros here on Sports
Talk seven ninety until completion Rockets basketball Game four. It's
a big one on news Radio seven to forty eight
o'clock

Speaker 2 (02:41:00):
On Sports Talk seven ninety

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