The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Anything Goes Friday! Rockets Fall In OT vs GSW, Pena Might Miss Opening Day

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

Anything Goes Friday! Rockets Fall In OT vs GSW, Pena Might Miss Opening Day

is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 10 o'clock in H-town. Good morning and welcome to a Friday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Bless the steroid shot, Sports Harvey. Good morning to you, Houston, Texas. Start calling you from Double-Cheek, Thomas.

I mean, you could. I mean, I don't think it's the most polite thing you've ever called me before. It's also not the word. Oh yeah, there's plenty of things you probably said worse about me. The thing I was appreciated about you is I think the worst things you've ever said about me has been to my face. That makes me feel bad. That's one million percent true, actually. Ross, it's not a great Friday.

I've got to be honest with you. Why? What's going on? The Rockets were terrible last week. How's Rockets' Twitter doing? Oh, my God. Can I tell you a God's honest story? Go ahead.

Yesterday we had an amazing lunch that you paid off on, and it was fun. Yes, we did. It was delicious. But I drank a lot of water at lunch, and I've had a lot of water during the game. You know, you're trying to get over this cold or whatever these allergies are, and so I've been just consuming a lot of water. I think I told you if I've been drinking about a gallon a day the last handful of days. And so I've had to go to the rest of your about every 75, 90 minutes.

So every time I do that, when you go in the middle of the night, you check your phone, see what's going on. Rockets Twitter, you are gaining so fast on Astros Twitter. It's not even funny. I'm glad you're coming to the dark side. I've been telling you. So what I had to do today. The toxicity and the idiocy is at an all-time high. I had to mute about 10 people that I don't even follow because I didn't want to see it on my 4U tab.

Love it. The thing that troubled me was the amount of people that I muted have thousands and thousands and thousands of followers. Now, granted, a lot of those could be bots. I try to weed out all the bots that I can. I like to have my peer number. That's why my numbers don't go up any. I don't even care anymore. But I like to have the peer people.

I don't like him, but I probably got rid of about 10 accounts on the mute that had, I don't know, between 15 and 40,000 followers. And that scares me is that there is bad analysis from fanboys that is reaching a lot of people. Last night, the rockets were terrible. Golden State does not have a complete G-League team, but there were some G-League parts to it. You had no Curries.

You had no Butler. You had no Porzingis. You had even no Moses Moody. You had no Gary Payton. It was a bad loss. And I'm sure EMA Adoka will back that up coming up at 1130 when he joins us. And the Rockets have had some bad losses this year. In fact, the Rockets have been, and this is not atorializing, this is facts.

They are two and eight in games decided by three points or less. They're one in six in overtime. It's, that has been, for as much good as this team has had this year, there has been one downfall, and that has been late game play. But really, the game yesterday was about how sluggish things got off in the first quarter when they were down 10. but I'm noticing and again I don't want to for so many of you you're smart good fun interesting people to talk to but that doesn't translate to the social media streets

and it is fire adoka we've got to start uh Jabari smith is an idiot outbrin shangoon's got I mean my I've never I actually I have seen things fluctuate Joe's spot is an idiot on Monday the greatest manager on Tuesday. You're getting right up there. And I think that's just a byproduct of 2026, or for the last 15 or 20 years since social media has given us all an additional voice,

that we are just losing our minds literally Rossi on a game-to-game basis. It's pretty absurd. And as you said, last night was a bad loss. And last night, it was ugly. It was ugly. And I understand people are frustrated. I understand especially. Twitter has gotten worse and worse and worse with more negativity being spouted. And I think it's as people, because happy people have left Twitter.

Like we have to be on there for our jobs. If you're a happy, pleasant person, you've seen what's happened on Twitter and you don't need it in your life, you've gotten off. Like the people who are staying there are a lot of miserable people. Not everyone.

As you said, we have to remember. Like if 90% is positive and 10% is bad, for some reason we've focused. focus on the 10%. But it's getting worse and worse. And it's, like you said, it's getting into the hive mind of people with thousands of followers become voices and leaders of voices. And it just becomes this like this ocean of toxicity and anger and angst and everybody needs to be fired. And everybody is an idiot. And then you have these, these fans who are just fans of one player, who are just Durant fans, who are fighting with people who are just Shangoon fans. I mean, it's,

it's just getting worse and worse. It's on a downhill slide and it's bad. It was important for us, what would you say, seven or eight years ago to have a good Twitter account? Yes. Lots of people following. It doesn't, it's not that anymore. It's being, it's using a tool to get good information,

but the school of mute has become my friend. And today, as I was going to the bathroom, I think four times. I mean, it is what it is. I was meeting about four of them. five people every time I went. He made anything to go to the doctor. No, I mean, I know it was, it's good. You know, the.

Four and one night. Your own sample and plenty of water, I was going good. Okay. Well, I, four times in a night feels high. Well, I mean, I, you know. Are you drinking more liquid as you get up? Sometimes I am, yeah.

Parched. No, I'm okay. Water consumption is my friend. Okay, well, yeah. As somebody with more of a medical background, maybe, can help us out on Twitter. Yeah, No, no, no, we don't want your medical advice.

I just, I mean, I drink all, I think we had six glasses of water at lunch yesterday because I was so thirsty. And then I drank and had the game, had two cups of coffee at the game and called the game. So, I mean, yeah. A lot of broadcasters back in the 70s and age would just drink Coke all the time. So at least I'm not doing that. Okay. You're right. You're doing great then.

I mean, I don't have I'm doing great. I'm still a hot mess in a lot of things, but I'm just saying. Okay. And again, my family's out of town, so I'm kind of about myself. So I'm not. awesome. Well, I mean, when you sleep with somebody next to you most nights, you get an afflimate to it, so.

Okay. Well, bring the dog in. Oh, the dog, Sadie's up on the bed right now, so that makes you feel better. Sadie's my dog, for those are one of my, my, my lab ruddle. Hey, so we got that to chew on today. And an email

will be just a, just a, I'll make a lot of fun on that conversation coming up at 1130 today. Then we have Jeremy Pena's back in training, camp, it's spring training with the Astros, Rossi. That's good, right? No, it's not. Back in training camp. No. Back from WBC, everything good?

No, no, nothing's good. Oh. And then we got Carl's Korea pulling out of today's game with back spasms. And the Astros had one hit yesterday. Is that true? Is that Cole? I know they were getting the perfecto to start the game by Cindy Alcantara.

Yeah. We got Daniel Hunter got paid. I mean, and got paid? Yes, he did. Lordy, Lordy, Lordy. And a restructure that made $14 million in cap space. Yep. I just heard a bunch of randow thoughts.

I love anything goes Friday for those of you that don't know. And Ross, explain to the audience, what anything goes Friday it's all about. It's about what you heard in the first 11 minutes. We're worried about Matt going to the bathroom five times in the middle of the night. I don't do that regularly about it. We're worried about the Rockets' Twitter. We're worried about the Ashro's bats. Neil Hunter got paid, anything sports related, anything non-sports related as well.

713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-790. Yep, we got that going on. We've got Astro Spring Training Baseball Day, which we'll have for you coming up at 1150. We have, what else we got? Oh, we got Wimbidama going off yesterday for the San Antonio Spurs. That'll put you in even more of a foul mood today. We have a former rocket

Got a DUI in Scottsdale yesterday. That's not great. Oh, really? One of my faves. It was like Scottsdale's a hot spot for DUIs. You know what it is? It's just close enough to go hang out if you live in Phoenix,

but it's just far enough to get in trouble if you've had too many. Yeah, you got to drive. Yeah. That's why Uber is your friend when you're making, I don't know, an excess of $30 million. Seriously, people.

Come on. Yeah. So we've got a little bit, a lot to get to, we're going to move up. I'm sorry's this morning to 11 o'clock. Usually do it 11.30 on Friday, but we're doing it 11 o'clock today because email is going to join us at 1130. So if you want to apologize for things you've said and done this week, and my guess is Ross, you're probably got a long list. We'll look forward to hearing that coming up at 11 o'clock this morning.

Okay, can't wait. So we got anything goes. Yes. Pena, yes. Rockets, Hunter, Correa, Wembe. We don't have to talk about Wembe. No, it's not. Let's not talk about 38, 16, and five blocks.

He had like 24 in the first half or 28, right, in the first half? I don't know. I don't want to be discussed. Against the pistons. The pistons are really good. Like a title contending team. Anything goes Friday. 713-212-5-790.

Anything goes. Okay, good. Anything goes. I'm glad we're not doing gut feelings today. No, we're saving that. After those rockets and spurs results. But I'm sick of Golden State having the Rockets number. I don't like Golden State.

They have nice people that work behind the scenes. I can't have Brandon Pajamsky dribble driving the lane on the regular yesterday. And even my former cougar, L.J. Cryer knocking back threes. Pat Spencer, that lacrosse playing guy, three straight layups, points in to paint yesterday. Golden State had 60 of them. Al Horford's like

I mean Al Horford played in the You know you want to call somebody a peach basket That's a peach basket not me Yeah He was playing when it was like the NBWEL He played when they had the Kansas City Kings He was a Buffalo Brave

He was a Rochester Royal He was a St. Louis Hawk He and Naismith with the high school together Terrible Bad Oh Dramon's like in secret like we like playing here It's a good place for us.

Yeah, it is. It's not fun. I don't like it. At least the Rockets win in Golden State. They've gone two straight trips there, and they've won game six first-round series there. And then they won an opening game in November in San Francisco. At least maybe Barry is not that bad after all. Cold State is building.

Anything goes. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-578. Also, WBC, double-headed today. at Dyken Park, including Team USA at 7 o'clock. Shepard with Melton. No, baseline, turns, spins, floater,

back iron, no, the putback, no. The second put back is yes. Santos missed the first one. Melton put the second tap up in, and Golden State's got a lead of 115 to 112 with 5.3 seconds remaining. Really good perimeter defense by Reed Shepard on that possession.

Unfortunately, they could not get the, he could not get the box out, and Melton got the second tip back. Yep. You know what? I'm too close to it. I'm going to be, I'm going to voice of the team. I'm not close. What do you want me to say?

I mean, they're not championship contenders right now. They're looking like a first or second round exit team right now. They can get better. They can improve, but it's, and they'll beat, teams. They'll beat the Wizards and the Kings and the Jazz recently. And they also won in Oklahoma City. And, you know, they have no SGA.

Yeah, but they didn't have MN. I mean, look, it's still a really, it's a good basketball team. It's just the close-out games have been very tough. I mean, this is, this is what, what I tell you, one in six and overtimes? I mean, that's tough. Yeah. I don't, the ankle must not be great because he just had no weight. He lost the jump ball to Al Horford.

And people are teasing him about that. Let me tell you, I'm Team Jabari. Me too. As good of a dude as it gets. Yes. He had had a good run, but that last night, the ball did not look coming off of his hands. Didn't even look good at it all. He lost me some money, too.

Just FYI. I'm on the hay train for a little bit. Hmm. What happened? You had an over on Jabari points or something? You got three? Over on eight points. Oh.

Oh, he had three. Yeah, yeah. He took eight shots. You got a lot of rebounds. I know. I know. He had 11 rebounds. Oof, for 8.

He was not good. Alper and Shingoon finally got cooking there in the later in the game. He had seven in a row. He wasn't good for much of the game. Reed Shepard was spectacular. Are we going to talk about this? 61 points against Golden State and two games, by the way. 31 in the first game, 30 last night.

Okay. I like Reed Shepard. Me too. I think he's great. But people who are acting. like Ime Adoka needs to be fired because he doesn't start, need to relax. Should he start? It's arguable. But he played 37 minutes last night and nine seconds. That's more than Alper and Shingoon in the whole game. That's more than Tari Isson in the whole game. And he's providing you bench scoring. And he closed. He played four minutes and 56 seconds of the five minute overtime. So he's been closing and he's been providing some bench scoring. So people need to cool their jets acting like it is like the worst coaching decision in the history of basketball. that Reed Shepherd does not start.

They want to run offense through Kevin Durant and Alperin-Shingoon, and when you put Reed Shepard into that mix to start, then it does just joint things a little bit. So allowing Reed to come off the bench and have the reins there and score and thrive in that role

and then also be in closing lineups, I think is a great happy harmony for the Rockets. Yeah, you know, as I said before, and I've been coming to a few people, I like having a bench score and this rocket bench is not as deep as it was, and it never was super deep because of the fact that

Fred has been gone all year long, so you're taking us first guy off the bench, and now he's starting. We're talking about, you know, most likely Tari or Jabari in some respects. DFS has not scored much this year. Clint's not going to score much. Akegee will get you a side pocket three on occasion,

three of those last night, but he's not a main go-to threat. I like not having to solely wait for five starters to all be above 17 points a game. That's a lot to ask. And it's always about to me, who finishes as compared to who starts. And if you're telling me that he played 4.56 of the 5 minutes,

why are people losing their mind because Reed Shepherd doesn't get his name announced at 7.08 p.m. It's crazy to me. I mean, we always love the backups, and we always want to criticize coaches, so that's part of it. But, yeah, as I said again, like, if Reed Shepherd starts, maybe they're better off. I don't know. But they're going to be in lieu of who? Tari Isson, if you're looking for spacing for Alperin Shingun and Kevin Durant, Tari Isan provides that.

He shoots 42% from three this year. You're not going to put Jabari, you're not going to take Jabari Smith, Jr. out there. You need the length and the height, especially when you're trying to defend other bigs, because Alper and Shingun, we love. he's not the greatest big man defender in the history of time. So I think it's a pretty good role for him. Can he eventually become and blossom into a full-time starter for the Rockets? Absolutely. But to act like Eme Adoka needs to be fired over this is ridiculous.

Well, the number one reason why you would do it is that you are playing large chunks of minutes, whatever that may be on a particular night, Rossi, with two guys that can't shoot beyond about 15 feet. And that's tough in today's NBA. And so to do that, you would be benching them in Thompson, and I just don't think that that's going to happen.

And also, again, they have the fewest bench points per game in the NBA. You need bench scoring. I like it as it is. I don't think it becomes an issue when you beat a good team or you run 7 of 10 wins.

I think it becomes easy, low-hanging fruit point one when you lose a game in overtime. Yeah. which he played all of, except for four seconds. All right, let's go the phones next. Roger and Emmanuel will start with you guys. 713-212-5-790.

We still owe you some audio from Jeremy Pena. Today down in West Palm Beach, he is back with the Astros and off the WBC squad. You know why. 1028, Sports Talk, 790. 7-13-212-5-79. If you want to apologize for some things, you've got a half hour to get them ready. Let's talk to the great people of Houston, Texas at 7-13-212-2-5-7. 790.

It is and anything goes Friday 11 o'clock this morning. We'll ask you to call in and say you're sorry for the things you've said and done this week. 1130 e-may adoka will join us. So we got Astros baseball at 1150 as they take on the Washington Nationals. We'll hear from Jeremy Pena coming up before the top of the hour. Roger on 790. Roger, good morning and thank you for waiting. Good morning, gentlemen.

Just real quick. I believe this season is going to be summed up in three chapters or three parts. One part being the complete, the complete deterioration of the culture that they, you know, they had built it up in that year and a half span when they got, when they got the three, the three guys that are running, one in Phoenix and the one still here injured. We got those two guys there, the culture changed and it started to grow and it started to develop. You had some accountability. You had some gatekeepers that kept people accountable so that everybody was on point and, you know, mistakes and focus were good. Everything was clear.

Everybody had to set role. Now, I know Fred being injured kind of messed that up and the big guy being injured as well, but there's a total deterioration of that culture. And that's kind of like part of it. Who's not being held accountable? Who's not being held accountable on this team? Obviously, when you got Pajemski and other guys running to the basket, unabated to the rim, multiple times, somebody's not being held accountable, Matt? Hi, my name is Ross. Oh, Ross.

That's okay. No, Pajmsi, no, who is the player who is playing poorly, who is not being held accountable, that everybody's just allowing them to not try? I'm asking who the player on the Rockets? I'm not talking about Brandon Projimsy. I'm saying who on the Rockets is not being held accountable. Well, I don't know.

Who's the guy that was supposed to hold Pajefsky two or three times that he went to the basket? Who's the other kid that the other little sharpshooter that kept on flees to the basket without anybody? I don't know who was supposed to hold him. But whoever that man was supposed to guard him, Jambore had a bad night. Sometimes KD has brainfarts all over the plates. You know, who's holding them accountable? There's no accountability. And he...

So then, help me out here, Roger. If you want to hold on, Roger, Roger, Roger. Roger, if there's accountable. So how would you describe what the coach has to do to make them accountable? I'm curious what your thought is on that. I don't know. And whatever it is not working, I'm just thinking some kind of, you know, some kind of pride. You know, last year we didn't have these hiccups and mistakes.

If we did, they were not, they were so far between. And then, and then, you know, you don't lose a game like this without, not by a large, large, but you got out-coached a bit. You know, maybe, you know, Projemsky's going to be the only guy that can create his own shot when it's two, three minutes left. Why not have Thompson draped all of them

like a cheap suit in those possessions? I don't know. Maybe try to, you know, do something else, but, you know, drawing up plays, he doesn't do that well after timeouts. You know, just small stuff like that. Now, it's not big stuff, but it's noticeable stuff. This is why we're not that team anymore.

We're, you know, we're the team that might be bouncing, second round or maybe in the first. Who knows? And Shangoon, we can go ahead in the offseason, remove that untouchable label off of him. And we had it full for that first

game in OKC. We was knocking down three and we thought he expanded this game. And that turned out to be an anomaly more than the norm. And you know, just think like this. It just, you know, it just rives its head more, a lot of times in this season it's just like it's over and over.

The two losses in Portland I want to stick out the most, and then, you know, just games like this. I know. I know. This is frustrating. And thank you, Roger, for the phone call. I get it. I don't, I mean, Ema and Dundoke and I are not best friends, but I've been with them for three years.

And I've been to plenty of practices and shoot-arounds and some very difficult film conversations. I don't think Eme flippantly goes, oh, just an off-night for us. You can coach and you can yell and you can do all you want, but these are grown men that have been successful. You have grown men that are making good amounts of money that are going to be making some great amounts of money, and you have to hold them accountable for some things. And, you know, it's not, there's not a perfect formula.

There's not a secret recipe. And I wish I knew. I'm not the analytical side of things. I call the play-by-play. I see it in front of me. I don't know why things are created, way that they are. But, you know, I get it. It's frustrating. I get it.

But this team is missing pieces, and it's not as deep as it needs to be for a championship run, and I think the Rockets are probably the first to admit that. I mean, and, you know, there are nights where Alpy just, you know, he gets to the basket, or else, and he is, get out of my way, and there are other nights that he will settle for the mid-range. I think Alpy's got to stop shooting threes. That shot is not. been the same since the first month of the season. And, you know, a man for as awesome as he is for so many

things, has limitations outside of about 15 feet. Did not get a three-pointer yesterday, which is good, but that's not been a common occurrence. I mean, I love this team, but I understand it's got its flaws. I do. Yeah, they have limitations. I mean, they're not a perfect team. And Imadeoka

is not a miracle worker. Kevin Durant is their best player, especially when you factor, I mean, both sides of the ball, he's their best score, and he's He's very good and I think underrated defensively. But Jabari Smith Jr. is inconsistent. As you said, Alperin Shingoon, he runs into problems when he goes up against bigger bigs. And he can go nights where you're scoring 20 points on, I mean, excuse me, 17 points on 20 shots.

It's a big man. That's not good enough. Tarry Easton is not a superstar. Amin Thompson has his limitations knocking down shots. Reed Shepherd has his limitations defensively. Clint Capella is not what he once was. And then your other rotation player last night was Joshua Kogi because you can't play Dorian Finney Smith on back-to-back. So yeah, it's not like I just named eight future Hall of Famers on this team.

They're not going to be perfect. 38 and 23 and fighting for a three spot in the West is where they are. And that quite frankly sounds about right to me. And you know what? The Spurs are better than them. Yeah. The Dundra are better than them. They've taken the leap.

And it's Women Yama, it's Castle, it's Deeran Fox, it's Harrison Barnes, it's Dylan Harper. They have a better roster. They do. Yeah. It'd be closer if Fred Van Vleet and Stephen Adams were there, but you know what? They're not. You have a team that has these, as I was talking on the Rockets Wrap last night, it would be nice to have a guy who was like a floor general who could shoot 37, 38% from three, get them into their sets and calm things down and play some good defense like a Fred Van Vleet. He's not on this team. And when you do have two non-shooters on your team like Alpern Shingoon and M. Thompson,

and you can have some issues, you know, knocking down buckets. it'd be nice to have the best offensive rebounder in the last decade plus in the NBA and Stephen Adams. But you don't. They know that they have some limitation shooting, so they are the best offensive. They're the best rebounding team in basketball. And you're missing one of the best rebounders on the planet. So, yeah, they're struggling sometimes.

I don't understand where we're trying to hold them to this lofty expectation that they should be going 72 and 10. because that's what we thought what's going to happen when Katie got here. And, you know, and injuries played a role. The roster that was put together before the training camp started has never materialized. Let me say this real quick, though. Guys, we can say all of this, but first started the season, OKC, the top dogs right now, Houston's right there at him. Double overtime.

Like, we all saw that game. We can't go to later a season like, oh, they don't have it. we know for a fact Houston has that. Right? That's probably where like Roger and all these people are getting confused.

I'm not giving up either. I'm not, no. That's what it sounds like right now. They can hang with teams. Yeah. Yeah. They can,

if they went to a seven game series with the Thunder, they could win a game or two. They're not going to be favorites. They're not good. They're not as good as the Oklahoma City Thunder. Yeah, in an individual game they can.

And that was the first game of the season. And they also had Stephen Adams in that game. And the double big lineup was something that they loved. And it was very, they thrived with that double big lineup with Alper and Shingoon and Stephen Adams. And then throw in to Jbarry Smith Jr. in there and stuff like that. They can't do that anymore. Let's go to Emanuel's not that guy. Before we get to Jeremy Payne update.

Emmanuel, good morning to you. Hey, Matt and Ross. Manuel, again. I wanted to say, be a little more positive. I was a little harsh on the Rockets last week after visiting to the Nick. So I'm really impressed with Reeve, Shepard. I mean, when the beginning of the season, what people thought he was going to be,

and now he's scoring. I mean, he could be desired, yeah, but, I mean, certainly something positive from last night. I mean, he led all scores, and he looks like he's really getting into the use of being an NBA player now, understanding how he has to play in defense, what does he have to do to get his shot and get going. So, I mean, there's something positive.

I'll take that. You know, he was positive. But, you know, Barry Smith and some of these, the Thompson guys, they have, because it's the night. Triglin had a bad night. And we, Bobby had a bad night. It happened, you know, their young kids. And, yeah, the injuries really affected, especially Adams.

I don't think really realize people, how much Adam's really changed the whole dynamic on the defense. I got those amazing rebounder, and we got in the ways, got some blocks. So, you know, I'm disappointed like everybody else. I hate me as well, but I still love my rocket. I'm going to be positive, and I'm very happy to see how Shepard is turning into. For a first-round pick, everybody was already picking him as a bus. Right. And he's starting to get bone pick.

He's starting to play a little better defense. And I'm excited about that. And real quick, and that's a little bit off topic, but the big, I'm going to talk about the Big 12 turning up, the Big 12 tournament. you're going to be insane. I'm so excited to see that also. But you guys have a good day and go rock. Thank you, Manuel.

By the way, we forgot to mention this. People were ready to bury Reed Shepard about 10 games into this season. Barry him. Just slow down. With everything in your sports life, slow down. I mean, frankly, he should be having a slump at some point because he has played so many minutes and so many,

he already played last year. We were relatively speaking. And he's getting better. Defensively, there's still some work to be done. But he's still... He's improving. He's improving on that. He's got good intuition for still in the basketball.

He blocks shots for a guy who's what... How tall is he? 6-1? I think he's listed at 6-2. I'm going to be honest. When I stood next to him, when we interviewed him, I think I'm taller. I'm of 6-2 without sure.

Maybe you're growing. You never know. I don't know from one way, not the other. Okay. But also, I mean, his offensive repertoire is getting better. Matt, do you see that sky-hook he? knocked down last night? And he was, I think he was perfect inside the arc. He would knock down a nice floater. He knocked down like a, basically a sky hook looking shot. He did a little bit like a old school

late stage, Michael Jordan, bully push off, fall away mid-range. Like he's growing and improving. Absolutely. Is there work to be done? Of course. But for a guy getting as many minutes as he has in this, really his first full season. I mean, I'm bullish on him. And if he wants to become a full-time point guard in the league, which he wasn't even a full-time starter in Kentucky, even we were talking about that with EMA yesterday, pre-game media availability, or my pre-game radio visit.

He was a six-man. He was a six-man of Kentucky. Instant offense. I like it. Will we see much offensive Jeremy Payne? Maybe on opening day. We'll discuss that next. 1045.

Sports Talk 790. It is Madden Rawls. Anything goes Friday? You want to apologize for something? That's coming up in about 15 minutes here on 790. We start our regular visits with Brian McTaggart next Thursday on the radio program. On Wednesdays, we'll have Brian Bogusovic. So we're going to give you good baseball.

Joe's spot up with us every Tuesday at 1230. We'll have players occasionally on the show depending on their schedule. Wednesdays will be Bogusevic at 11. Thursdays will be McTaggart at 11. Speaking to Brian McTaggart, he had a chance to catch up with Jeremy Payne, who has made his way to back to the Astros West Palm Beach Complex because he's got a, what are they calling it? What is the official ruling on this? I don't want to give you the wrong. Is it a fingertip fracture?

Yeah. Yeah, it's, well, bottom line, he's not going to have it reevaluated for a couple weeks, but here is more from Jeremy just about an hour ago. It's been like just with the injury and having to come back here and not playing the WBC. Tough. I mean, it sucks. I feel like the last 48 hours has been very, you know, uncertain. But it is what it is. You know, it's part of the game.

Injury is a part of the game. And, you know, I wish I was out there playing with the guys. We have a great team. Teams ready to go, though. So I'll be rooting, watching the game and train the team off. Did you ever just about the severity of the fracture? And you kind of wait your timeline was there? So we don't really have a timeline right now.

We are going to reevaluate in two weeks. But I don't think it should be bad injury. I think it's, I think we should be good. Did you know at the time that when it hit that, I mean, the video looked like you were looking at your finger? Did you think that you know there could be an issue? kind of a longer term ratio at that point? I did.

And once the ball hit my finger, I just thought it was a broken nail. I was like, okay, that's fine. I could play with a broken nail. And then we decided to go check it out, get some imaging done, and, you know, fracture came out. And, yeah.

For the next two weeks that you've completely shut down, are you going to be able to be? I'll be active. I'll be active. I'll join the team, do what I can, do sprints. do my single-handed work, lift, get strong. You know, use this time to be productive.

And, you know, because when I get back and I could use the handful of time, we don't need to ramp up from zero. All right, that again, Jeremy Payne on the fingertip fracture. Unfortunate. Unfortunate. It could have happened at spring training. Could have happened. It's just a ground ball. Groundball.

Man. when's the last time you heard about somebody getting a finger fracture on a ground ball? I don't want to say it's unheard of, but it feels rare. You know, I don't know if it has to do with the type of glove he's got or just crawled up a certain angle. Who knows? I mean, it's crazy. It's crazy that a fingertip would cost you two weeks.

You couldn't just wrap it up. I'm not saying he shouldn't. Yeah, there's no reason to push anything and let it heal up. No. It would be all right. Because you don't want this to be something. it's prolonged over the course of the year. That's fine. You can face national pitching some other time.

Yeah. But you can tell, I mean, he's bummed. He's devastated, but he's obviously very disappointed. Yeah, he wants to be out there representing the Dominican Republic. Yeah. And again, Carlos Correa, a late scratch for today's game with back spasms. So everything okay on these buses? Jake Myers had back spasms. Now, Correa's got backspasms. Those guys are. traveling on buses. You got two players missing time with back spasms.

I mean, that's true, I guess. Line up today, we'll go like this. Jose Altovae at second. Yordon will be the D.H. Cam Smith and centered this afternoon. Joey Lopofito and left. Oh, Raleigh Unro moving to the fifth spot in the lineup today. Riley Unroo, baby.

He's ready to match. And we have had more Raleigh Unrope box scores. And I ever thought we'd ever think we'd ever. potentially happen for this team. He's the goat. He's the grapefruit goat. Lucas Spence is in Rightfield. James Nelson's at third base. He's wearing, oh, by the way, we forgot to do the uniform numbers.

Oh, thank you. Riley Unrow is 82. Lucas Spence is 89. James Nelson is 98. Jack's Biggers. I told you how I feel about the name. I love Jacks Biggers. You have no idea.

First of all, he could be the most awesome as human being alive. No, I saw him in the club. when we were there. Nice guy. Is he? Yeah. Okay. You know, I'll give you the benefit out. I bet Jacks is the sweetest kid available.

He's wearing 81. Seazar, Boo, Seizor Salazar can't get any more A-Bs and James Nelson, Jackson, Biggers, and Lucas Spence and Roddy Unru? They're just getting him accustomed to his. He's going to be in the nine spot. Boy, he is Mr. Nine Spot, didn't he? Yes. And Mike Burles is going to pitch today.

He's just got to work on his sacer. You know, I hate buntz. I'm okay with Sazars R. Salazar Sack Bunts. Yeah, just advanced 90 feet. Give me something on that nine spot. Jack, let me tell you something. When you get a serious amount of Sazard or Salas, I mean, Jake Myers, like, I get out of the nine hole.

Ha ha. Come on now. Jake was, I think, didn't, I want to say, didn't Jake, he was hit like five at one point. He might have been cleaned up one day. In spring, of course. I mean like with all the injuries Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You may be right about it. Like on a getaway, like on a getaway Thursday. Hey, he had a good season last year. I was a, remember he said he wanted his slug and be a little higher? Yes. He's ready, baby. He's ready. You know what?

He wants to be out of that bottom third is what he's thinking. Mm-hmm. He's the only thing about getting a payday here eventually too. I don't know if he's going to get it, but he's thinking about it at least. All right. Let's apologize for some. things we've done. Okay.

We've got to get into Daniel Hunter, new addition to. We'll be to do that around 1120, but if you need to apologize for something. Two games batting cleanup for Jake last year. Don't ask what he hit. I won't. Won't you all save it for like the secret Jake Myers fan club meeting?

It'll be in our notes. It'll be a trivia. It'll be like in your stock report when you have all the stock members meeting up together. No, we always started a meeting with a Jake Myers trivia question, so we'll use that one. Okay. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

All right. Let's go. Walk it up this time, sports RV. I've been doing it for many, many weeks. To this song? Yes, sir. Hurry. Apologize now.

And say this. I was early. Yeah, that's all right. I'm not paying attention. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Are you in Friday mode already? No.

You know what? I need to get off. Twitter today. As soon as we hit noon, I need to get off. It's just ridiculous. What's going on now? Because now people are, look, people were talking about Alper and Shingu and being like future five-time MVP, and now they're talking about how he needs to be off the team and trade.

I mean, come on, people. What do you think about me getting off of Twitter completely in 2027? Do we, that's a great question. Do we need to be on there for the show? We do have a lot of listeners that still interact with us. I do. And that's the thing is I do love, look, and I don't need everybody that follows me on Twitter or I interact with to agree with everything I say. No.

I, I, that's, I mean, that's okay to debate things. Absolutely. But toxicity and, and viciousness and just no room for changing of the mind at all. Or even adhering anything to the contrary. I just, and again, I'm just having to mute a lot. Too much time muting yesterday, and I was so disappointed. Because here's what I do need. The rockets do fall behind when it comes to access, not access,

but in terms of energy for the city, because the Astros, huge following. Texans, huge following. Rockets, you would have thought would have gotten a little bit more of a bump because of last year's team and getting Kevin Durant. And it still lags. And that makes me sad because that's my team. I'm the voice of the team.

I wish we could talk Rockets a lot, but I'm not foolish to know that it's not going to carry a show until you get sustained success. And that's what they support mean. We didn't have that for the Astros for a long time either. The Texans still wait. We still don't have it for the Texans. We got moving parts here.

We got DeNeil Hunter getting himself a brand new deal. And yet people still worried about, you know, offensive line. I get it. I'm worried about that. Trent Brown's going to hold it down. Okay. Jonathan, we need to start off with you today. What do you want to apologize?

I know you got something you got to say that you're probably going to apologize your girl for something. Nah. This is going to be a sports. I'm sorry. Oh, please. Because I'm sorry, guys, but I'm with the people that think Reed should be that guy. I mean, I saw last night. You have to be sorry.

No, I'm saying the fact is I don't see, like, he played, what, 16 minutes straight and balled out that entire time and ramped up that energy in the third to the fourth quarter. I watched that whole entire game because sometimes I don't want to turn I don't turn the game I'm just like okay you know rockets you know But when a game like this like the Golden State And I'm like okay let's see where we're at In the West like Golden State always

Whoops on us right Yeah I can't see Like I'm sorry to Shingoon and KD But dude like If you guys are going to be those star caliber players You have to show up for games that are given to you

Like no one was on the goal Everybody was in some sweats on bench. That was a heavy sweat game. And you're telling me you can't make, you can't, you're contested, you can't make your hooks four different times. If you're not, if you're cold, pass it out, man. But it feels like there's something wrong with this team that they're not synergizing. And I just, I can't get with it.

And Reed's the only person, and this goes with Jabari and Tarisen, reads the only ones showing out. And when he's on the floor, they're all playing hard. A men's playing hard, getting his deals, getting his picks. I'm sorry, man. I just feel like these top, our stars, we're saying our stars aren't acting like when it's games that really do matter. Oh, sorry. Yeah, look, if he needs, like I said, if he needs to start, he needs to start.

But then you're hurting your bench scoring. You've gotten, you're the last in the NBA in bench points per game. And again, I will make the analogy. Sometimes, as you know, Matt in baseball, when it's Marisio Dubon or somebody and they're hitting a button, And I'm not calling Reed Shepherd, Maricio Du Bon. He's better than Maricio Du Bon. The upside's way higher. But when a guy is playing only against left-handed pitching,

and he's hitting 300 with an 800 OPS, and everybody's like, man, he needs to start. He needs to be there in every day. He's hitting 300 with 800 Ops. Well, yeah, if he's in there against every pitcher and every repertoire, a lot of times the numbers go down, like when it happened with the Iner-D-S. If Reed Shepherd's scoring against backups,

and he's also allowed the reins because you don't have to run things through Kevin Durant and Alper and Shingoon, maybe there's a reason that he's thriving in that role. And again, not to say that he can't thrive on the floor with those guys because he was in that closing lineup. He played 37 minutes. He played more than Upper in Shungoon. He played more than Dintari Isan.

So he is playing and he is doing well in that bench role. So, I mean, I don't even want to say this, but I'm sorry, I'm going to apologize. I'm sorry, you can shuffle the deck around however you want. This roster is not a championship roster right now. I'm so sorry. But I can't... I want to apologize to Adam Clanton. Okay.

Oh, no. You don't even know this is bad. I was going to guess it's wimby, but go ahead. No, no, no, no. The coffee machine in the media dining yesterday was not working up until tip time. Uh-huh. And he's dine for coffee. I said, I go get you a coffee.

And he goes, well, you'll buy me. And he says, yo, I'll buy you on him. Great. So I bought a coffee for myself, bought a coffee for him. He spilled his coffee. I only drank half of mine. So out of the two large cups of coffee. He didn't drink any of his. I drank half of mine. He paid about $12.13.

That I say, Adam Clinton, I'm sorry. He spilled 100% of the coffee. I want to say 90 of it for sure. So we got some extra coffee brought up from the downstairs. And I said, you want my extra coffee? I said, it's got cream in. And he goes, no, I don't like cream and coffee. So another one, I'm sorry. Oh, sorry. Mm-hmm.

Hmm. I got to apologize to, there was a caller last night. who was complaining that the Rockets don't run plays, and that's just to me, low-hanging fruit. Teams run sets. The teams aren't running a bunch of like four-man Princeton weaves or what, like in prints and backcuts in the NBA. You run some sets. You have some, and then, yeah, you have run some out-of-timeout plays,

and then you go from there in the NBA. The Eme Adoka, Steve Kerr, Phil Jackson, whoever, is not calling a play every single time a team goes down on the floor. and I said that he was not paying attention and that was kind of rude I should have phrased it a better way but I was frustrated after the loss last night and I wanted to apologize to that caller.

I'm so sorry. Do you have any callers listening or do we lose him forever? We probably might have lost him forever. I just said you're not paying attention. Yeah, we need as many listens. That was kind of rude. Yeah. Well, I mean, look, I'm rude to calls.

I was frustrated and they've lost. You know, I've ever been rude to any of you as callers? I don't say I'm sorry. I'm saying I'm sorry. Even though I'm sorry. Do you hear other Sporris radio hosts say that I'm sorry? to you folks and when we make mistakes. We're not, we're not, we're not, uh, oh, I'm so flawed.

So flawed. I had, uh, Shay Wick and playing for Team Canada yesterday. For that, I say, I'm sorry. It happens. I'm sorry. What was the one I missed? I forget. Oh, you had, uh, you couldn't figure out who was out in Shake Shack field out there

in right field yesterday. Yeah, that's right. You were saying sorry to every fast food chain that's ever been at, uh, Dikin Park. Sorry. I turn over. Yeah, you even got a plucker's dude to call me and say that you were on. Yeah. You owe pluckers. Do you owe pluckers

do an apology. Oh, I'm sorry. Spend some more money on your ingredients. With their blue cheese, it used to be great. Now it's terrible. Your lemonade is. Pluckers is amazing. Everything else is made. I loved pluckers when I lived in Austin. It's gone downhill.

I'm not waiting two hours for chicken wings. Have you been gone downhill? My wings are going to big shit. Jonathan, I got bad news for you, bro. I'm sorry. The answer is yes. I'm so sorry. He asks if everything's

Is everything gone downhill? Poor guy, he missed the boat. Because every time we talk about food, every day. Either you or Matt are just saying, yeah, it used to be that good. Now it's just, it's a good. Yeah, Burger King. I mean, like Ruckers. Well, let me give you five restaurants that have gone downhill.

Okay. When I was in high school, Jonathan, you're not going to believe this. And seriously, I want no age jokes. Okay. All right. My high school graduation dinner with my family, we went to the Rolla Rarden. And it was great. Actually, Matt is correct on this.

I used to be like a, a family dinner spot. Oh, absolutely. I think that's one of the worst restaurants you can go to. Sorry. So Rol of Rarden, step up your old game. What else we got that could have been proved? Runner Ruggers' drive-thru is some hot mess.

That's got to improve. I'm so sorry. This is depressing. This is change topics. I don't want to hear that. Sorry. Ruckers, I mean, I went to see you in Austin a couple times over the years. you're mid you should have the best blue cheese in the game now that's big city wings well i i i 100% agree

thank you very much as a i i am calling myself the official blue cheese aficionado you are mr blue cheese oh you're mr lot of cheese yeah grierre havarti formunda guda mm-hmm all right let's move you know what i'm sorry forgive me that was pretty cheesy All right, I'm sorry again. By the way, can I do it in a reverse? I'm not sorry. Okay, good. You know what? We should do that one week.

I'm not sorry, segment. I'm not sorry that I still don't buy into the WBC, and I've had plenty of athletes tell me how much you love it. They have two games coming up today. There's going to be huge crowds here. Yes. Great. A lot of passion.

I don't care. Atmospheric. You can have it. I'm going to try to tune in more. They got a game at noon, I think, at Dinkin Park. I think noon and seven or something like that. Who is it? I don't know what it is.

I think it's Burkina Faso versus Macedonia. Absolutely. Oh, that's not. That's some EuroLeague soccer, right, or something? I don't know. All right, let me get a call in here before we get to Neil Hunter. Anybody else that wants to say, I'm sorry, 713,

2, 112, 5, 790. Ryan, what are you sorry for? I'm sorry to all my fellow Texans that still think Waterburgers the best. I'll take Shake Shack in and out. I'll take literally anything over Waterburger nowadays. It's turned into dog water. Unless you're getting like one of the specialty burgers, miss me with it.

I hate it. So sorry to everybody who still thinks Waterburgers, the Supreme. It's not. It sucks. I'll talk to you guys later. Thank you. I love Rotter Burger. I just don't like the wait.

I can't wait 30 minutes to eat a hamburger. I'm sorry. Yeah, burgers are still great. I can't believe he said that. I mean I think we're done Yeah, thank you I think we've

dug enough into our grave at this point And I'm sorry Jeremy Payne is sad But I'm sorry that he's back home Where he should be resting, getting ready for the season By would you see Shohi Otani crushed it for his team this morning early I guess or whatever it was last night

Yeah, it's got like 14 million views that tweet from the WBC. Mm-hmm. What a huge international star he is. I'm sorry for saying that you congratulations at Los Angeles Dodgers for warning another world series. I'm so sorry. 70,000 retweets, 257,000 like 16 million views. So some people are caring about the WBC.

That they are. 1115, if you want to apologize for something, 713-212-5-790. Gerard says he's sorry about the rocket. Is this our Gerard? I think so. All right. We'll find out next. E-Madoka, bottom of the hour, here on 790.

7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. E-Madocca is going to join us in about 10 minutes here on the radio program. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. A visit from Gerard is with us here at 1121. Gerard, good morning to you. Hey, how's it going, Matt? How's going, well? Good.

you. Yeah, I'm sorry that, you know, Fred Van Fleet, the only Qiguan Guard got hurt before the season, got hurt in the pre-training camp in the Bahamas. I'm also sorry that Adams got hurt during the season. He was our best rebound and our best screener. Screening is a tool that don't get emphasized in the NBA, man. He's one of the best screeners in the NBA alongside of Draymond Green.

But that's a good tool that he was usually that we don't no longer have, you know at that level. Now, I know a Doca's going to come on in a little bit. I think the Rockers need to seriously consider, you know, changing the lineup, you know. I think Amin Thompson, man, he thrived in the ducal position last year. I think you need to put him at that position in a small forward. You implement Reed Sheppin until the lineup,

and you bring Tariq Ethan off the bench because Tariq Isan has shown that he could play at a high level off the bench. Your bench was a sister of Tariq Easton, Coli and Capella. And then you put in a mayor of Aaron Holiday here and there, you know, depending on the matchups. That's what I would go with. I would probably, you know, put a finish nip on the bench, man.

You know, he made to come in if we get some injuries or something like that. And I think he just has not contributed to what we thought he was going to contribute. That's what I would do. And I wonder what I saw a lot of this early in the season. I haven't seen that this much during the season, but go to a zone. Go to a little bit more of a zone. You know, you got reshepard in the game. Go to a zone.

was doing that early in the year, but for some reason he stopped doing that. Even though I think Rees Sheppard has got a little bit better on man-to-man defense, that's still not his strong suit. So go to more of a zone when you got him in Segoon in the line of starting. That's what I would do, man, implement a little bit more zone, and I just switch it up like that.

And then, you know, you take Reese Sheppie, take him, put him back on, you know, play him, start him, then go to the bench, and then you move Amin Thompson over to a point-gaw position, and you put Tarika in, so you bring him out the bench, you have Tariq Easton and then Amin Thompson, who was known that. as a Terrell Twins, they played well together, you know, last year and the year before last year.

So that's what I would do, man. I would put Rish up in a line of moving to Thompson to the three and bring Tariq Easton, who has thrived in the past off the bench, bring them off the bench as I score off the bitch. What do you guys think about that? Thank you, Gerard. Appreciate it. It's Tari, and I just want to make sure we get that clear on that. Yes.

Is Tari short for Tari? I don't think it is. I don't think so. No, but that's fine. It's okay. These are all conversations for next year. I don't, with 20 games left to go in the season, I don't think there's a philosophical change that's going to dramatically change.

I mean, these are puzzle pieces. And I think rearranging the puzzle to get a different result is, I don't know. Again, I'm not a coach, never pretended to be a coach. I just don't think there's anybody. I don't, I don't see it. I don't see. Tari's scoring numbers have gone down dramatically. The three-point shot has evaded him.

Yeah, again, I'm going to fall on this sword, Ross, and I apologize for being overly simplistic about it, but that's what we're going to do. I need 15, 17 points off the bench from a guy every single night, and I don't know if there's any, if you put, I don't know if a men could do that. Plus, a man just has too many other parts of his game. He steals the ball.

He's a good defender. He's got very good court IQ. and he's doing his best not to take the shots outside of his comfort zone, but sometimes they're being given to him, and he's taking one or two chances outside of his comfort zone, and he had a three yesterday, but his best spot is, you know, being on the floor, playing major minutes,

and for a team that does not have a lengthy bench, you're, you're, you're, you're, man Thompson's playing 37, 38 minutes a game. Even if you didn't start him, it wouldn't, It's not going to matter. You're going to be out there very, very quickly. That's not happening. And you're just dealing with a lot of, I mean, nobody's perfect,

imperfect players. I mean, if Men Thompson could shoot, he'd be like a top 10 player in the NBA. Yeah. He's first team all defense. As you mentioned, playmaker, court vision, slasher, a blur in transition, Euro steps, dunker spot.

The biggest Achilles heel, and he would be the first to tell you, that would be the outside shot outside of about 15 feet. I think he fades away too much in the mid-range. I think he should go towards the basket, not fading away. Some of that could be because he's going against taller trees. Yeah, and they're all hanging off of them.

Yeah. So, I mean, they're hanging off him because they're giving him that shot. I mean, I'm happy y'all are fired up about him. I will say this. I'm happy that you're, I mean, I'm happy they're disgusted because obviously losing, you know, if they had to beat the Warriors by 19, we would have a single rocket caller today? Probably not.

I mean, I get it. it's it's it's it's it's what we do in life if there's something we don't like we we cannot criticize it fast enough if it was something we enjoy we don't say a word about it yeah a minute rudder ruggers drive-thru was four minutes and five minutes we wouldn't say a word about it because a good burger fast drive-thru let's go if if ral of rarden's chicken parm didn't cost $34 in two thousand twenty-six I'd probably go there more often I'm sad I'm sad let's go to need to be fine we're going to We're going to talk to email.

He'll get us off the ledge. Yeah, sure. Hi, Nigel. Hey, how's it going? Good. So I had an observation and a comment, and you brought this up. Like, I've heard you mention it several times in the past, Matt, and I totally agree with it.

And I don't think that a lot of the fans are looking at this perspective. Shepard is not, you know, Steve Nash. not Luca. He's not Steph Curry who can more than make up for his lack of defense with offense. He's not a bad offensive player, but I mean, I watched the whole game last night

and, you know, time after time, I was hearing the announcer say, oh, they went right at Shepard again. They posted up Shepard again. He's not capable of playing defense down there. And if he were to be

put in a starting role, I just don't think with the work that he would have to do on the defensive end, like I don't believe he could be as good offensively as he is now coming off the bench. And if he's got an off-shooting night, you know, he's not going to cancel out his opponent. You know, if he only scores 10 or 12 points and he gives up 25, like I understand everybody loves his shooting and his hustle, but he's just not a, he's a below average defender, you know, and he's just not big enough to go against a lot of the guards in the league. So, you know, a lot of people saying that they think that he should start,

I don't think they're fully taken into account just what a liability is he is on defense. So, I mean, I'd be interested to hear what you think about that. Yeah, you know, it's getting better. It's still not to work. I mean, Pat Spencer got at him three times in row, wasn't it second quarter last night, Rossi? Mm-hmm. Three straight layups, I think. Yeah, he was fouling a little bit too.

first two possessions of overtime there was I think it was Brandon Pajemski took Reed Chepard off the dribble and then the second possession he couldn't hold up against a screen

and D. Anthony Melton was open for a three that he made I mean it happens teams go after I'm I'm a huge reach I know I don't even want to say this stuff out loud because it feels like I'm trying to like

hate on the guy and I'm not I'm not fair is that we can't say we can't be we're trying to be responsible here right yeah Well, we'll talk to coach about it. We're going to talk to him next. We're going to spend 10 minutes right now with EMA Adoka, Rockets' coach.

It's always fun to talk to him after big victories or good runs of things and a little more difficult when you have a disappointing loss. E may thank you for the time. How do you want to explain last night? That had to be a very frustrating night for you and the entire squad going against that Golden State team. They came together and put together 53 minutes of good basketball on a game that came down to literally the last couple of seconds. It's been a problem with us this year, I think, is playing up and down to the level of competition

and not a good trend, obviously, but had our chances. A lot of areas that have hurt us in the past really came out to hurt us last night and giving up 18 offensive rebounds to that team is way too high. And then the turnover is as usual. You know, I'm scoring 24 points off our 18. 18 points off for our 18 turnovers is way too high. And so, you know, we have some good looks in the fourth quarter. Defended at a high enough level, holding them to 101 in regulation.

That if we make some of those shots, it obviously masks that. But the areas that have heard us a lot of times have heard us last night as well. Yeah, unfortunately, too, they got to the paint 60 points. That's got to be way too high a number for your squad, I'm assuming, right? Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, you look at the team they had out there and some of the players that, you know, they've had injuries and guys have been extra aggressive, Pazzymsky, Melton,

and you can't let certain role players get that loose and have that much of impact just because some starters are out. And so paying points way too high, you know, offensive rebounds a big part of that. And when we don't defensive rebound at a high enough level, that always comes back to bite us. Give me an update if you can. Look, Jabari had an off-shooting night.

I don't know if the ankle's still bothering him. You used a lot of guys for a lot of minutes yesterday. Where are you right now? And I don't know if you've had a chance to gather the troops or just kind of going through text threats. But how is Jabari feeling right now? He definitely had some soaringness. You know, the ankle is not going to be 100% after, you know, a game or two.

But, you know, she had some really good looks as well. I think he'll be better as games go on. And so we'll get some guys. We'll get during him back tonight, you know, expand the rotation. in a little bit with the back to back and get a spark from some other people, but I expect Alperin and Jabari and everybody to be better than they were last night. Rocket Tech coach, Ima Adoka, was here on a Sports Talk 790. Reed Shepard was a bright spot for you.

And really, I was impressed by the versatility of the offense with his passing, with the pull-up shots. I mean, have you seen him make a right-handed running hook shot like he did in the game, too? He's had a few this year where he's got into his right hand, this little sweeping hook, a high lab, whatever you want to call it. But I think he's expanding his game. And it's good to see him take this jump in his second year and something we're going to need. Just a different look for us.

It adds another dimension to us. Obviously, the shooting is there. But handling and the pick and roll and starting to make those reads like you mentioned in the pocket and skip passes. And so great to see him take the step that he's taking. played a lot of minutes for you as well played all of overtime what is it like for you as a coach weighing thriving in that bench role and possibly being inserted into the starting lineup or being good where he is for us i mean read is great in both roles he's started at times this year and and has come off the bench majority of the time but i think he's he's good in both uh you know whether you take it

to last year or even kutucky you know him and dillingham you know didn't start and play uh with the starting line of it all in Kentucky and they go number three and number eight in the league and so in the draft and so those guys are very good at whatever role I think we've had a rotating foot fifth starter most of the year and you know we're still trying to zero in on what's going to work best

for us going into the playoffs and Reed is definitely in consideration for that Stephen at times when he was here and Josh early in here in Tari so based on what you need defensively or offensively it's good to have those options EMA you are a smart man for

avoiding social media, your fan base, including people that call this show, have been frankly fixated on why Reed does not start. And my philosophy has been, and it's always been this way, no matter who the player is,

regardless of it's Reed or somebody else. It's about who finishes as compared to who necessarily starts. But my number one argument has been, I love a six-man. I think six-man scoring 15, 17 points a game, which Reed has now become accustomed to, is needed. And you just don't have to it.

the length with your bench with the injuries that you had even before the start of the season. So when you consistently hear that and you get still questioned about it on occasion, what is your general response to that? Yeah, I mean, people see the scoring and the highlight plays and kind of get fixated

with that, but there's a balance to a team and whether you're looking at it from a defensive standpoint with the starting lineup or an offensive standpoint, you know, you lose certain things with Fred being out and Dylan being gone, and so you want to replace that and maintain your identity as far as that.

And then to your point, Fred being gone this year and our two main handlers being out there together at the start of the game, I'm in and Reed. It's easier to stagger those guys. But definitely a consideration for us. And like I said, he started at times. But I'll take it to a guy like Mano Genoble, who was obviously who I've been around, played with coached. And whether it's Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams, all those guys are valuable for that specific

reason and Reed is fine with whatever. And so if Reed was as concerned as the rest of the world, I don't think he'd be where he's at right now. And so we'll look at everything. And to your point, as always, since I've been here, I think whoever finishes and who's playing well is going to be in there at the end, and that's honestly more important to us. Got a scrappy Portland team coming in tonight and then San Antonio on Sunday. So this is, we knew this stretch was coming up. You got Denver next week. We're down about 20 games or so. The standings are changing. What's the mindset right now with your squad? We now officially can start really watching the scoreboard here between now and the end of the regular season.

Be consistent. That's the main thing. And play the way we play regardless of the opponent. You know, we want to be healthy and playing your best basketball this time of the year and going into the playoffs, and that hasn't been us lately. And so getting back to that, we still have time to do it. But the talk is ticking, and you need to zero on that and get our focus in the right place. And so for us, I think, zeroing in on those things and being a consistent offense and defensive team,

you know, that's something that we've had ups and downs with this year. And it's reflective in some of our wins and losses. And so the more you can be solid in those areas, I think it gives us a great chance. We know who we are as far as that. But the ups and downs is frustrating at times. We'll leave it at that. Thank you for the visit. As always, we'll see you later on tonight.

Good luck against the Red Blazers. Thank you. You got it. You may have doca joining us here for his weekly visit on Sports Talk 7. We've got about three minutes left to go on the show here. Anything you want to add to that before we get to real quick on Daniel Hunter got himself a big fat paycheck here? I think that's, I don't have anything to add there. Just unfortunately got to go back to the drawing board and try to win some games.

And hopefully, I mean, two seats just looking out of reach for the squad, unfortunately right now. So try to get in the third. Are we still rolling with that, I guess? avoid Oklahoma City like the plague? Spurs are pretty good too. There's no easy pathway to winning the West. Yeah, if you're going to win the West, you're going to have to beat. There's no cakewalk.

Some combination of Denver, Minnesota, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, maybe hell even the Lakers. You never know. Yeah. It's going to be tough. Welcome to the West for the last, I don't know, 25 years. That's why I'm praying to all the gods that Janus, when he decides to leave Milwaukee, stays in the east. Mm-hmm.

Unless he came to Houston. To this inside the 6-10 loop. Yeah. We can get him, uh... And you shut your bum ass up, rest of the West. Yeah. He's ours, go away. I'm not endorsing it.

I'm just saying that if he's going to move and, you know, who knows what's going to happen in Milwaukee. I mean, they could all run it back to you never know. Yeah. They could. He said he dropped the I'm not bleeping leaving. Wolf of Wall Street meme. Which, yeah, I don't believe it for a second.

Yeah, we'll see. All right. All right. So we got Astros baseball coming up. Yes. No Carlos Correa. Gordaun Alvarez, gets a hit. Guaranteed.

All right, number of hits for the Astros today. More than over one and a half, Matt. I'm going on the over. Will they score more than two runs? Yes. It's a nationals, right? I'm running out of time. I had the good feeling they were going to score 10 runs.

In a game? Oh, by the way, did you see the Reds? I got to the arena last night. They scored like 26 or something, right? They were like 14-13 yesterday. I'm like, damn, Reds, damn Dodgers? Yeah, Padres had 20. A's had 16, Angels

had 11, let's go. It's the West Coast. It's that Arizona thing here. Let's get some of that going. The Gregford League. To Cactus League to get some better offensive production going. It's got to happen.

All right. Hey, everybody, I want you all of a good weekend. We will see some of you tonight at the Rockets game against a Portland Trailblazers. Sunday, we've got the San Antonio Spurs and SSA, and then Ross and I will reconvene here Monday for a full four-hour show on Monday, as a matter of fact. So we've got conference,

weekend. We got the Cooke's hopefully going to finish up against Oklahoma State. Whose Texas have for basketball this weekend? Oklahoma. Big rivalry game. Is that a pivotable? Pivotable? Not pivotal. It's close to a must win. Close.

Close to a must win for the tournament? Up next, Astros Baseball. Talk to you tonight at 7 for the Rockets and Blazers here on 7-knit. Woo-hoo!