The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Brian T. Smith - There Is Really No Fix for Load Management

Episode Date: November 8, 2019

Brian T. Smith of the Houston Chronicle joins Michael to talk Astros' Reid Ryan decision and the Rockets

is the Matt Thomas show The Matt Thomas show But no Matt Thomas Michael Connor here with you Until 3 o'clock Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle On the show every Friday Brian

What's going on? I'm well man You sound a lot better than Matt Thomas To yesterday Michael I heard he sounded like hell I honestly didn't listen to a show yesterday I felt bad for it I usually listen every day like you do

But yesterday I was very busy taking in the rain day by laying in bed and watching TV, you know? I felt, I felt bad for Matt. I felt worse for his dedicated, devoted daily listeners. Matt, but, you know, Matt Thomas is a man of the people. He powered through and he handed off the baton to you. And I know you are carrying it like no other person in Houston can. We're trying to. We're trying to.

We'll get into some rockets with you here in just a second because you've been over there with them before they head out on the road. but the Astros will start there. Yesterday, the news of Reed Ryan taking a lesser role with the team and Jim Crane's son coming in. Takeaways from you on this whole thing? The whole thing's interesting. It's interesting. The timing's odd.

What I don't know and what hasn't been explained and, you know, Crane did speak with a Chronicle. But there was obviously no press conference in that situation. I mean, this is something that will play out. I think it's more complicated than it initially appears or was put forward. And that's how it often goes with these situations, right? I mean, he mentioned the succession plan. That makes sense. But it feels like there's more to it than that.

The fact that Nolan Ryan is, you know, according to what Nolan told Mark Berman, the fact that Nolan Ryan has instantly parted ways with the Astros after they they worked so hard in 2013 when I was coming the team as a beat writer. That was a huge deal for that organization at that time period when things were so low and they were losing 100 plus games and they were playing in front of 10,000 people and they couldn't give away tickets and they were able to bring Nolan Ryan back. I mean, that was a key foundation piece. And Reed Ryan after Postolos, who obviously,

it did not work out very well during his short time, you know, leading that side of the Astros, you put all that together. And the fact that it happened right after Game 7 of the World Series, the whole thing, feels odd, looks odd. But the flip side is, Jim Crane has proven big picture since 2011 when he purchased a team. He obviously does know what he's doing. And he always does, you know, he's had a plan. So I think in a lot of ways, to me, it feels like classic Astros in this era. You know, there's a plan.

It may not make everybody happy. It's much more complicated than it can initially appear. But sometimes, you know, you look back and it ends up working out. So I think on one hand, you have to, I mean, it's Jim's Crane. The Jim Crane's team, right? I mean, he purchased the team. He is the owner of the Houston Astrosy. He gets to call those shots. Who am I? Not that I am, but who am I or you, or if anybody else to say, hey, you can't do this. He can obviously do it. What makes it much more complicated and interesting is the fact that it was tied to pretty much what appears to be Reed Ryan suddenly being pushed aside and Nolan Ryan going along with him. That's where it's not exactly what it appears to be.

Yeah, that's where the questions will continue to be, and who knows if we'll ever know the exact story. Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle with us here on the Matt Thomas show. So with all that being said, Jim was out the other day at the unveiling of Memorial Park golf course when they opened up part of it and talked about Garrett Cole. And we all know, I mean, look, I'm pretty sure you're going to be where most of us are that have a logical brain that Garrett Cole's pitching somewhere else. But could you see any scenario where Jim Crane actually does what he said we'll look at and make a run at Garrett Cole? here's you know this is the other part of this

Jim Crane in many ways and there's it's been a long-term plan he's pretty much always backed up what he has said with the Astros I mean the classic line and 13 was we're going to save our powder

right for when we can really use it well they they did you know I mean it took to the Verlander trade and it took to the Grinky trade and the coal trade and the extent extensions from Bregman and Altuve and on down the line. But he backed up that part of it. And I spoke to Crane on the field before the ALCS started game three in New York at Yankee Stadium.

And, you know, he made it very clear then that, yeah, it's complicated. And it's not easy and it's unlikely and all these things. But he never said we are out on Garrett Cole. We're not going to be competitive on Garrett Cole. There are many things they could do, whether it's, you know, trade. and moving pieces around. You don't have a hard cap in baseball. You do have a very punitive increasingly luxury tax, Michael.

But I would not count them out to be a player in this. And I think ultimately it'll come down to what Garrett Cole wants to do. And that's what Krain said at Yankee Stadium. You know, if Cole has his heart set on pitching for the L.A. Angels or pitching for the New York Yankees, they're not going to be able to sway him, right? They're probably not going to have the largest offer. If Cole wants continuity and he says, you know what, I just had the greatest two years of my career with the Astros,

and I'm very close friends with Justin Burlander and I love playing for AJ Hinch. I love playing in Houston, and money is a huge part of it, but he wants to return here and finish off what they came so close to finishing in game seven. Maybe that plays a part in it, but I don't believe that they're out of it. And I do believe that they'll try to make a run of this. And as long as they're in that conversation and their financial, competitive, then it's going to come down to what Garrett Cole wants to do, and that's what Jim Crane's been saying

all along. Yeah, just sit back and cross your fingers and hope that he decides to go with you at that point. It's an interesting offseason. We'll have plenty to get to as it moves along, but you're over there hanging out with the Rockets today. Just the early season, it's been, look, it's been no defense, it's been bad shooting, but they've

weathered the storm to have a record at five and three through the first eight, even if it doesn't all that pretty. What have you made of the first eight games? Is this just a early season building of chemistry, working the out type of thing? Yeah, I think there are a couple things going on. I think number one, everyone should remember the rocket started much worse last season.

I mean, this was a team that started two and five last year. They were 11 and 14 on December 8th. We're a month away from that. And if they're 11 and 14 this December 8, there will be a lot more questions because obviously it's Dan Tony, you know, in a one-year deal. It's harder than Westbrook. It's the season after trading away. Chris Paul.

They're five and three. You know, the defense has been horrible. The defense also, I guess everyone's forgotten. They lost Jeff the Dulloch, and that's a huge deal for this team. Elston Turner's got a lot of work to do. You're adding in Russell Westbrook, who, you know, will play competitive defense, but he's never been, you know, he's not known in the last five years for being an all-MBA type of guy. That's a lot of change in there.

For the Rockets, they're five and three. I think they're going to beat the Bulls. They'll be six and three. They probably win both of these upcoming road games. Then there's seven and three. And if there's 7 and 3 after 10 games, and this whole season is geared toward, you know, trying to get a top 1-2-3 seed, have home court advantage in the second round, have Westbrook and Hardin staying healthy and getting the chemistry going, and you're peaking in May, that's the whole goal for this season. Now, I do think the defense obviously has to be infinitely better, and I don't put any stock in them beating the non-warriers warriors. But I don't think things are nearly as bad as some people are making it out to be after 5 and 6 games in an 82 game season,

especially when they finished very strong at the end of the regular season last year, and they were much worse at the start of this season, at the start of the season last year. I'm with you. You go league-wide. There's just a lot, and you watch these games. It feels like there's just a lot of going through the motions from teams early on and just trying to find their way that pre-season is less. They practice less than they ever have. And it's just one of those early things.

That's exactly enough. I'm not trying to be so really optimistic. And look, if they drop a game to the Bulls, if they are, you know, 11 and 14 in early December, that'll be an entirely different conversation because you have the Dan Tony factor. You have Westbrook and Hardin. You have no Chris Paul.

But James Hardin, you know, James Hardin has not shot well at all. And he entered the Warriors game leading the NBA with 36 points per game. the defense, that's going to be a season-long fix, and they continually got better and better as a playoffs approach last year. So I just, right now, unless things really drop up a cliff, this is a team that's set up for the 82-game season,

not trying to impress talking screamers on ESPN after five games. And part of that impressing screamers and whatnot is something that they're going to do and something that's been a hot topic of the NBA. I know you were talking to Austin Rivers about it and everything, but load management with Kauai Leonard. It's been a topic. We'll see Russell Westberg have a little bit of that load management. What do you think of this whole thing?

And I just don't see that there's a fix for it in the league. I'll have a column in Sunday's Chronicle, and I was just asking Van Toney and Hardin and Austin Rivers about this. You know, two things. Number one, and we just have insanely short memories, I guess, nowadays in the sports world. I agree with you. There is really no fix. I mean, unless they come down with a hard rule or they shorten the 82 game season and just like the NFL, you know, taking out two preseason games or, you know, going to 18 games, that's all a revenue issue.

Until there's some type of hard rule or the NBA, you know, really kicks it in, I don't know how they're going to fix this. And this has been going on for years. I mean, you can go back four or five years ago. And it was, you know, whether Dwayne Wade or superstars and, you know, you know, you. You know, guys resting back to backs and not playing on national TV. And, you know, Adam Silver had to come out a couple years ago and address this. But now because of Kauai and the Raptors and load management, I mean, a lot of this started with Greg Popovich, right? And the Big Three in San Antonio, but it's hit another level.

And it is, if you filter it through the Rockets prism, it is very interesting. Because, yeah, Russell Westbrook is being load managed a little. They load managed Chris Paul the last the previous couple years. They load management in May the previous couple years, but the guy who carries the rockets, the MVP overall in the league the last three seasons, James Hardin, James Hardin doesn't do load management, but James Hardin does tend not wear out as much anymore, but he's not exactly the same player. And by the time May rolls around, right, and it's the playoffs. So they're caught in the middle of all this, but I don't know how the NBA says, the NBA backs Kauai. and back the clippers by saying he doesn't have to play. And so when the NBA does that, I think you're either finding all the loopholes you can

and saying, yeah, James, we're going to load manage you and you're going to play 65 games a year, which is horrible for the league and horrible for Rockets fans. It's a very murky middle, and I agree with you, and I agree with Austin Rivers. It's an endless argument, and there's no easy answer for it. Yeah, there's never going to be because we can never be inside of guys' bodies

and whatever that's going on with him. Ryan Smith at the Houston Chronicle with us here on the Matt Thomas Schar. We'll get you out of here with this one. It's a big college football weekend. So Alabama, LSU. How do you think this one's playing out? I cannot wait. I am off on Saturday, thanks to the Texans,

thanks to the Astros, the rockets are gone. I'm going to sit in front of my TV at 2.30 on Saturday, and I hope the game lives up to it. I'm speaking LSU. I think with Burrow and that offense, and it just feels like Alabama's been a little off this year, but obviously, you know, home field advantage of the different situation.

All I hope, Michael, is that this game lives up to it. Usually this is, you know, the 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock game. This feels more like a 1990s SEC game to me. I cannot wait for Saturday at 2.30 and LSU Alabama. I cannot wait. I'm with you there. And for my standpoint of being safe, I need Alabama to win so my girlfriend doesn't, you know, lose their mind.

I'll pull for Chris Gordy. So, you know, I'll plus, plus for LSU, but who in the world is going to be shocked or stunned if Alabama finds a way to win? Yeah, absolutely won't be. Cron Brian Smith is where you find him on Twitter. Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle. We'll be looking out for that column on Sunday with the load management stuff. Appreciate it as always. And hopefully the bald one will be back in a live with you next week.

All right. Thanks a lot, Michael. Take care. Appreciate it. Brian Smith of the Houston Chronicle with us here on the. Matt Thomas show.