The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Replacing D'Antoni, Around the NFL & How About Hopkins

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

So much larger than life. Yeah. Lunch timers is the Matt Thomas show. 12 o'clock at H-Town. What's happening in luncht timers? Good afternoon to you. And welcome to a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 alongside Ross Villarreal and Brendan Rodney, my producer.

I'm Matt. It is nice to have you guys with us and ladies too. so much to get to. I would say so little time, but Ross, we have 180 minutes. We've got plenty of time to get into everything. Can't wait. We will also on the radio program today. Get into Bill O'Brien, who met with the media earlier today.

So as the usual Monday tradition, it's what you're talking about Bill O'Brien? I'm all right. I'm excited. I was rounding in a form in the last one. Yeah, I feel like when they lose and they're playing a team like Baltimore, you're probably got a pretty good shot of getting a lot of these right or pretty damn close to it. Well, at least Baltimore didn't look great yesterday, right? How did they go? I don't know.

Lamar Jackson, every time I put it on, and I was not watching that game per se. I was on the red zone all day long, which actually Baltimore was in the red zone a lot. So I actually saw quite a bit of the game. They're going to go old one too, aren't they? They might even get a worse beat down than they got against the Kansas City Chiefs.

because I don't think Kansas I mean Kansas City was ready to do these long time-consuming drives six and a half minutes off the clock with that rookie running back it's got like nine names I mean Clyde Edwards Eiler I'll get it down by fourth week I promise He had to say in your occasion accent as well Clyde Edward Eileo

So this isn't going to go well So Texans Karen Texans Debbie Texans Michelle Texans Leonardo Texans Donatelo You probably can have all the parties you want to and where all you're bling and whatnot. It's probably not going to matter.

And get on Zoom so you can be a virtual fan with your face paint on. Are they doing that? I didn't really notice that. They did it for a few people on Thursday night. Oh, did they? They cut to some, like, Texans fans with the red face pain and the, you know, the red spiky troll wigs. Yeah. I mean, let's be brutally honest.

No one in this towns were in their team gear right now. Rockets finishing off a terrible end of their season against the Los Angeles Lakers, Mike Dantonia is out. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about that. We have to talk about it. The Astros has finished off a road trip, but they went two and eight. And their lead for the second place spot in the American...

Two and nine. Right? Oh, I'm sure. Whatever. Yeah, two and nine, it doesn't really matter at this point. It wasn't good. It's a two in the first half of the column. You kind of lose track of the losses after a while.

But yeah, maybe it was two and nine, because they lost yesterday on national television. And actually, Kenley Jansen came in and actually threw a decent inning yesterday. So we got, they're holding on for dear life for the second place spot in America League West. Really the brightest thing from Houston sports this weekend? HBO football. Is that where we're going? No, we're not going there, but I just said the brightest thing. Because they hung tough with Texas Tech.

And my son, who is a proud Texas Tech University student in his junior year, left at halftime because he thought, well, at some point they're going to pour it on. They never did. and the Red Raiders won by just two single points. So the best thing in Houston sports right now is a team that lost. Beat it? Well, I know a team that has a lot of kids from Houston on it. They got into an intrastate grudge match against UT El Paso.

Is that the Longhorn's new rival now? It might be. U-Tap? I mean, it's only team they'll schedule on a regular basis because apparently A&M won't play him. Well, they play Baylor. They play TCU. They play Texas Tech. Okay, so we're just talking about...

Those are all Texas teams. We're just excluding Texas A&M. And whose fault is that again? Is it A&M's fault or Texas's fault? Hey, this is not from my mouth. This is from Joel Klat's mouth. What did he say? They were running scared or it was their fault.

He believes A&M is running scared. Speaking of Joe Klatte, he finally decided to do a game worth a damn this week. He will be on the call with Gus Johnson in Waco for Houston versus Banner. A game that was on the schedule. As of what? As of Saturday. Saturday morning. So by the way, anybody that says, well, A&M in Texas can't get after it and schedule things.

People can change pretty damn quick. Like Houston and Baylor. Cougar, we were supposed to go to Memphis to play the Tigers this Friday. Well, they decided to get on a party bus and have over 20 positive COVID-tested people plus another 15 or 20 in the contact tracing. So that basically eliminated that game. So Chris Pezman calls up Mac Rose, former 88 U of H, and says, hey, would you like to play? They said, why don't we do a long-term schedule? So we'll play two more times this decade.

So Baylor, Houston in Waco at McLean Stadium on Saturday. I'm looking forward to going there. I've never been in the new facility. Bears versus Cougars. Yes. A Southwest Conference rivalry renewed. Can't wait. America's the game of the week.

How much is Baylor favored in that one? Touch, I think it's seven a half. Oh, it's nothing. Nothing at all. By the way, tonight, Cougar Sports Magazine makes its debut, a brand new one-hour show on America's school. Notre Dame? No, no, no.

The University of Houston. Yeah, that's not America's school. Oh, it is by a lot of people. By who? It's America's game of the week, 11 a.m. Duff. Fox, number one broadcaster. No, usually the big broadcaster at night and in 2.30. No, not this case.

Now, Fox believes in doing their game at 11 o'clock. Well, that's just because they want to get home early. Well, I mean, wake-go to L.A.? I'll be home by dinner time. I'm not necessarily worried about that. You know, Waco to Dallas, L.A., right? Yeah. Well, you can, yeah, I don't know who's any waygo to L.A.

Flights. Wakeo, no direct to L. No. All right. If you'd like to join us, we've got a lot to get to today. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790 is how you reach us. Through Twitter, it's at SportsMT,

at SportsMT, at Sporce, and at Brendan Riley underscore. You worked Saturday's Rockets Post-game show. I did. Your tried-and-true formula is stay on as long as you need to. Yes. You win an hour? About an hour and 20. Okay.

It started off slow, but then the call started rolling in. So I watched the post-game press conferences. Everybody said, yeah, we want Mike D'Anne Tony come back. Mike wants to come back. Yeah, James Hardin said, of course, of course. Yeah, Russ said basically that he thought more of, he didn't say they didn't think of his coaching acting was very good. He just said he thought more of Mike.

He got to know Mike and know him as a person, and he really appreciated the person that Mike D'Antoni is. So then Sunday, they're flying home, and Mike Dantone tells the. Rockets. I don't know if it was before or after the Rockets would have said, well, maybe we need to think about this. My guess is Rossi that this was probably a, you know what, this probably isn't a good fit for me anymore. And the rocket said, yeah, this is probably not a good fit for me anymore. And I'm going to guess he already has an offer on the table from a, from a good situation.

Well, here's the thing. There are a lot of jobs. Philadelphia, where you was an assistant coach, not too far from his West Virginia home that he has in the offseason. New Orleans could be interesting. I don't know if Indiana is on the list. per se, but Indiana is open. Oklahoma City is open. So for anybody to be a free agent coach, it would be sought after, this is the year to do it, correct? Yeah.

It's going to... We'll see where he lands if it's going to be in Philadelphia. That's the rumor, right? That's what Mow just talked about. If you held my feet at the fire and said, which team he's going to go to, I would lean more Philadelphia. Well, I'm not into that, but yeah, I would have to say probably. Because Oklahoma City, I think is going to be in a... It's going to probably trade Chris Paul.

I think there's probably five or six teams, strangely enough, that are very interested in Chris. Not that he's not a good player, but it's the contract that comes with it. It's so expensive. Rockets here, got a lot of tough decisions to make. Do you kick tires on trades?

You don't have a lot of wiggle room financially. You've got to, you know, would this have been the best spot? I mean, if the small ball work or the Lakers small ball, just outperform your small ball. I mean, there's a lot of, A lot of different things. Indiana, to me, Oladipo's interesting.

But I don't know. Miles Turner, Longhorn, great. Yeah, it's fine. But if you're in the East, I guess if, you know, you think, well, you've got a better chance of being in the Uber competitive West, you would think from an athletic standpoint, having Joel Embed and Ben Simmons on your team

would make you automatically a favorite. But Philadelphia just has not been able to put it together. So he's going to go from a very talented point guard that cannot shoot to another very talented point card that cannot shoot. That's unfortunate. But it's younger and cheaper. And I'm not ready to put the death nail into rush yet. I mean, obviously.

But, man, everybody's like, Colin, what do you think? I mean, they're so tight-lipped over there. And I'm okay with that. You know, Ross, you and I have talked about this before. I think loose lips are the worst in terms of, well, here's what I think's going to happen. Here's what we want to do. I'd rather them keep it Uber secret and be super surprised by it. About what?

Anything. Trade, coaches. Okay. I mean, when Woj drops the... Luce Lips sinks ships, man, is what you're saying. That's what I'm saying.

When Woj drops the bomb, you can treat it as gospel because Wode doesn't miss. But you're going to find out on social media in the next couple of weeks until the coach is hired that there's going to be 40 different websites and 40 different NBA writers saying, I've heard this or I've heard that. You know what that is, Ross? That's an agent calling reporter saying, hey, can you do me a solid here and throw my guy's name out as a potential candidate? Leverage play is what you're saying.

I don't know if it's leverage. It's, hey, let's get the conversation going a little bit. I have no guesstimation as of all who I think will be the coach. I will say this. I do believe that Tyron Loo will be a guy that will be on the short list. I don't know anybody else after that.

all I know is, and I've told you guys this before, and this is regardless of whether I'm talking about the Rockets or any team, NBA players are doing more of the hiring than anybody else. Whoever gets this job will have it with the complete seal of approval of James Harden and to obviously a lesser extent, Russell Westberg. They're not going to bring in a coach here who is going to present a style that is not going to fit James and Russ's needs. and frankly how the team is run.

That's just my guess. But I don't need to, you know, I will be looking on Twitter like you guys will. But when the Rockets announce it or Woj drops the bomb, I'll be happy one way or the other because it'll be a new Mark in Rockets basketball. It'll be a new fresh face. And you guys know how I feel about Mike Dantonie personally.

Love his family. And we've really enjoyed our experience. We've done four years of radio shows. I don't know if the new coach will come in and jab me as much as Mike Dan Tony did, but it'll be okay. I'm just telling you, and I got into a little bit with somebody on Twitter about this yesterday, Mike Dantonie's a really good human being. And I like good human beings to be successful. And I wish that he could have stayed here.

And I wish that the Rockets could have gone to a championship under him. Because let's face it, Ross, Mike Dantonie's been chasing after that crown for a long period of time. And he's got one contract left in his NBA career. He's 69 years old. Wherever he goes will be likely his final spot. I would like for him to get a championship. I thought he did a pretty good job here. Yeah, I'm with you.

There are a lot of eight holes in coaching. A lot of them. In fact, there might be one here in Houston. Dana Holgerson? No. No. But my point is, I like the good guys to win sometimes. And for Mike, it just wasn't here.

1212 on the Matt Thomas show, 713-212-5-790. Did you see Lamar Jackson yesterday for the Baltimore Ravens? Holy smokes. Astros barely holding on. did you see how DeAndre Hopkins did yesterday? Did you see how Randy Bullock did yesterday? Cam Newton did good. Tom Brady?

Eh. We got what you're talking about Bill O'Brien at 1 o'clock, 1.30, our NFL recap segment with Ross. We debuted that today. Brian T. Got home super early from Kansas City on Friday, Ross. So what do you do after you work late in the night and then you get up an early flight on Friday morning and you get home?

What do you do naturally? You make your appointment with a day. Matt Thomas show that's been set in stone for weeks and you pick up the phone. Or you take a nap. So, BTS felt terrible. So he's going to join us at 2 o'clock today. We'll give him some general ribbing about that. 1213, Matt Thomas Show, 713-212-5-790.

Lunch-timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. How much is that Arizona-Samp-Fatisco games you watch? Hopefully if you're a DeAndre Hopkins fan, well, he didn't reach the end zone. own Ross. Not a great fantasy pickup. But he caught everything I was throwing to him basically.

I scored 29 PPR points. Oh yeah, I got him in one of my leagues. See, I don't want to be that douche. That's me. I'm never doing two leagues again. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever. Because it's too much work. I'm in three.

And? I wish I were in more. Really? Yeah. You're like Roto? Yeah. What did he say? What did he say?

Well, he usually says six to seven, but I bet there's a few more this year. Okay. The Rona gets you to spend more time in front of your computer. It's fun, man. I don't want to see what the issue is. Oh, I missed. I'm into our league and interleague. I did not replace Kenny Gallaudet because he was hurt at 1030 and I didn't replace him.

I'm still going to win that game. That's good. Because Tom Brady is my quarterback in that league. And even though the Tom had a very, eh, game, he got me some fat, decent fantasy points. And we'll get more on this with Dr. Royal later this week. but yeah, I just, I can't only do one. My mind goes in 48 different directions. By the way, also Saturday I was doing

earning dad points by taking Carly and Oliver Buddy to the Woodlands Mall. Did you hashtag mask up? Well, we wore a more mask, yeah, for sure. That's good. But the mall was jammed. Did you go to Annie Ann's? No, I got some Hawaiian chicken that filled me up.

Did you hit the hot topic? I got. In the journeys? I did get a, Mr. massage. Yeah. What's going down at the, at the Billabong store?

Didn't go there. Oh. That was when all the stuff was going. I got my me massage. I went and had lunch and then I just texted everybody I knew about the Houston Baylor game. Yeah. Did you buy some knockoff perfume from a kiosk?

No. Dang. If you're a young guy, that's where the young girls are working, right? On the kiosk girls? Have you ever said, like 16? No, I'm talking like 22, 23. Okay. No, no, no, they're not.

16. No, they're handling thousands of dollars of merchandise. No chance. People who work at the mall are pretty young.

That's what I'm saying. But I didn't say 30. I think 22, 23 is pretty young. Well, Brendan, how are you, my ask?

27. Okay, well, you're in that rule. He's in the comfort zone. He's more in the, I don't know. Would you ever did a 23-year-old

kiosk girl? Sure. I mean, yeah, 23. I don't got a problem, 23. Yeah,

see. Yeah, Matt. he's a good shape. I'm just saying mall workers. skew young i do agree with ross make sure you idea out there you might be aging a little bit up here okay next time i go the willens mall just go i'll just randomly ask a bunch of girls how old are you yeah that'll be nice i'm 24 you creep you'll be escorted out within yeah there's no chance

all right seven one three two one two five seven ninety seven nine seven one three two one two five seven ninety uh you have already have you cut up what you're talking about bill o'brien for one o'clock i have and how do you do today by the way i thought he was okay i'm trying to figure out which ones to recommend, but I thought overall he was okay. Okay. You ready to go? Yeah, sure, as ready as I'm going to be. The only way I'm not ready is if I listen to them, I'm not going to do that. Don't do that.

It's part of the charm of the segment. I know, Matt. I'm honest and true. You are honest and true. You are honest and true. Like sneaky snake Jake. Jim, on the northwest side on the Matt Thomas show at 1221, Jim, good afternoon. I got a couple of quick things, but I wonder if you

did you get a pedicure and a manicure when you got your massage. No, I didn't. Okay. Before we get to end to Billy, oh no, I'd like to ask you guys if you remember that under Dan Tony, by the way, Dan Tony would be a great name for an Italian restaurant, but do you know that he was actually a groin pull away from being a coach of an NBA championship team

a year or two ago. You guys remember that? Well, of course. You mean talking not a groin pole was a hamstring pole? Yeah, with Chris. Correct. Right. So he was a lot closer than people thought. It just was bad luck in game

five. What I've evaluated with the Texans, everyone, is that year after year after year, I'm not saying they don't work hard or they don't try, but they have poor leadership.

They don't practice their offensive plays enough. They ought to be practicing those things all summer, practice every play, 10 times they have to stay out there until midnight. They're never ready. The offense is never crisp at the beginning of the year, and it stays that way throughout the season because they don't practice their plays enough. And I'll hang up and listen to your expertise. Thank you.

But I'll hang up and listen. Ooh, wow. We're off to a rambunctious start, aren't we? Let me ask you all a serious question. Well, it's probably not serious. It's been a while for that. See, you'll learn, Brendan, and as you get, grow with this show, that will interrupt that in the middle of a call sometimes.

It kind of makes us feel better. But nice, Paul. Nice pull. All right. Ross, do you think the Texans practiced enough on their offensive plays? No. No, I don't think so either. I mean, they only scored seven points in the first three quarters, Matt.

They weren't practicing. So let me ask you all this. And also, I mean, that guy is Jim going to be, or whatever his name was? He can be at the last stop later on this weekend. He dropped a Dantone's. He dropped a, oh, did you get in a panicure? And a manicure. Let me ask you all this.

why aren't the Texans practicing enough of their offensive plays? I mean, Jim's got a fair point. They only scored seven points. Has Jim been in practice this week? Is Jim been out there in the practice bubble covering the squad? I wonder what Bill O'Brien would say to Jim and his complaint that the Texans just aren't practicing enough. My computer's not working. Why isn't it working?

Are we a billion-dollar company? Yes. It's like we're almost out of debt? Well, once they lower your pay a couple more times. Well, help out some. Once was plenty. Jim. Jim's, oh, okay.

All right, let's move on. 7-1, 3, 2. This is what, here we go. Let me give you a little radio 101. There's nothing that ruins. He's getting better every week. Say it again? I think he's getting better every week.

Who, Jim or the Texans' offense? Jim. Nothing ruins a segment or more than a horrible call, and that just ruined it. We're going to rally from it, Ross. All right. If you're the Texans and the Ravens have pass-catching tight ends, they have Lamar Jackson who looked like he could throw the deep ball with great fluidity. Rightfully so.

What in the world are they going to do this week to stop that? With zero pass rush? It starts with me. I've got to do a lot of things better. With zero go-to receivers. Holy smokes. With defensive linemen that are putting barely any pressure on the quarterback. Doesn't matter, Brian.

And the linebackers who have a very difficult time in coverage against slot receivers and tight ends. Will we hit the panic button at 0-2? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know. We'll have to see. Well, I think we know the answer to that, right? We knew this was coming, Matt. We did.

We saw the schedule. you're playing the two best teams in the FACC first and second. We have no idea what Pittsburgh is because they haven't played until tonight. I think they're going to be good. They've already got a great defense. And as long as the Roslisberger stays upright,

yeah, that'd be fine. Jiu Smith, Schuster, James Connor, Deontay, Thompson, and Eric Ebron, they're going to be fine. They're going to be fine. Then why did I say 9 and 7? That's a question for you to answer. Well, I mean, they can go own... Vikings look beatable this weekend, so they can start...

Green Bay looked amazing. Guess what? Both teams are on the schedule. That was almost a gimmie victory, right? we thought. Yeah. Green Bay is 1-0 in domes. Guess what?

Texans play indoors. Yeah, they catch the Packers this year, Ross, in Houston. They don't have to go to the tundra this time. All right. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-9. We've got a new Rockets coach to go find. You have anybody on your list that you thought, wow, that's interesting.

People have mentioned, I like the Sam Casell name is fine. Tailu doesn't really excite me. I mean, other names that have been. Let me ask you why does Sam Kasso, and I'm not against it, but we don't know what he does. Yeah, we don't either. Yeah, he's been an assistant with the Clippers for several years. But at least I know who Tyloo is. Tyloo works well with superstars.

I guess. LeBron James. You mean, he just lets LeBron James walk all over him? Is that what you mean? I don't know. I mean, the second LeBron was gone, he was out and it was a complete disaster. Yeah. Is Frank Vogel an amazing coach?

I think so. I think he's pretty good, yes. I think he's okay. But LeBron, I think Frank Vogel is a bit. better coach in Tyloo. I thought Vogel did a lot of good things in that series against the Rockets, changing up the offense. Did Frank Vogel come from somewhere else?

Where was he before? Was he Milwaukee? No, he was, wasn't he Memphis? No, that's Fisdale. Point is that Frank Vogel wasn't spectacular somewhere else either. I'm just saying that this is a star-driven league. I'm sorry, the Pacers is who I was thinking of. Okay.

The Pacers before. And then, yeah, the magic he flamed out there. And then now he's built the Lakers. And he was like their fourth choice. Yeah. All right. 1228, sports talk, 790. 713, 2125, 790.

Which talking about Bill O'Brien coming up at 1 o'clock, NFL recap 1,30, and Brian T joins us at 2 o'clock. Who do you guys want for the Rockets coach? What kind of do you want a guy that's going to, I mean, again, my thought is it's going to have to make James very happy. James is going to have a seal of approval. I cannot imagine chemistry issues with a brand new coach. Well, I mean, the idea has been floated out a couple of times.

So now is Jeff Van Gundy coming back? This would be the perfect spot, right? It not? He appreciates James. He lives here. He lives here. And he's probably thinking, I've got one chance left. And the money's good.

I mean, Dan Tony made five, six million bucks a year. I mean, I know ESPN pays well, but the Rockas would pay better. We would get back to Jeff Van Gundy, like the Adam Clanton impression of Jeff Van Gundy. Oh, yeah. Slow-talking, miserable. giant bags under the eyes. But maybe he would be different. I don't know that for a fact.

But he and his brother Stan have done an amazing job on these broadcast. But, you know, I don't know. I don't have an opinion. And I guess I'm supposed to, but I don't have an opinion about what kind of coach. Because I don't know what the current culture is like. If they want someone here to get right in James' face and right in Russ and say, you guys got to play your different game. Or if they, you know, how attractive is this job?

Does somebody want to take this small ball and take? get to the next level. Who knows? 1229. Sports Talk 790 with a message here for oops steam cleaning. The folks at Oops understand there's been a lot of rain the last handful of days and that means dogs are having accidents inside your home. If you're tired of the stains, tired of the messes, call 281 822.0561 and get with oops. And that's Sports Talk 790. Credit with a grand slam! Home of your Astros. First I'll go back to my room right now and have a little pity party and then after that

we'll figure it out. So, you know, right now this still stings enough to where I'm not going to think about much else other than just this little bit. Well, Coach's pity party didn't last long. Maybe like a day. You know, my feeling is he knew about this for a long period of time. I would imagine. You just did.

That's fine. I'm sure not getting something done in the offseason and rubbed him the wrong way. I would imagine. Also, my guess is that his agent had a lot of. lot to do with this. Warren LaGarie, I think it's how you pronounce it, is very well connected in the NBA because he basically represents about 80% of the coaches in the NBA. He's been able to, you know, secure a lot of the coaches. So he's in the pipeline of where jobs are, who's open, what's going to be open, what kind of coach is looking for each particular type of situation.

So it makes sense. And again, when they couldn't get something done last year, year. Although, you know how I feel about lame ducks? We are, we as citizens in life, work off lame ducks. Yes. So why should NBA coaches or NFL players or majorly baseball players or managers be any different? It's, uh, it just seems like it's manufactured by the agents. So that's right. More money. Did the Rockets playing differently because Mike was on the last year of his contract? I don't think so. No, they didn't. It didn't. So I just, it's one of those things that I just, I applaud the Rockets for doing it, but you take a risk with that. Yeah, you put yourself in this situation where he's a completely free agent and he can decide

where he wants to go. Yeah. But you're also never going, if you do that, you're never going, well, not never, but much more rarely going to be paying two coaches at once, which I think owners want to avoid. Yep. And you're also betting on yourself, too, if this team would have gone deep in the playoffs and won an NBA championship, then you could say, I'm going to need your blank checkbook, please, I can fill it off for whatever I want.

Apparently, Tomey had offered some kind of contract that was incentive-laden, and Mike Dantonian didn't want to do that, nor should he have to, if he doesn't want to. Yeah, it's his choice. I think there's a trend, though, that you're trying to get coaches' salaries more in line with what it should be. The problem is, as I said, with Warren Legerry is the agent, and he represents half or two-thirds of the coaches in the NBA, you can't agenda set without the agent going along with it. The agent doesn't want any part of that because the agent's never done that before. and doesn't have any interest in doing that.

So, you know, again, I think the world of Mike, and I wish him the very best wherever he goes, I do believe he will be an NBA head coach next year. It'll be very weird to see him doing so. He'll be probably wherever he wants to be as far as there. There are options. Yeah, I would still lean probably Philadelphia more than anywhere else. But, man, Philadelphia is a tough town.

First of all, is it one of the ugliest towns in America, really rude people. Secondly, it's Ben Simmons, for all the wonderful things he can do, the ball leaves his hand like it's not going to go in. Right? Well, maybe Dan Tony can coach him up. I don't know.

It's like he fixed Russell Westbrook's jump shot. You know, you fix Russell Westbrook's jump shot. Did you have him take less? Take fewer ones. Not to take them, yes. But yeah, I mean, he's coached in New York and L.A. He'll be fine in Philly. Yeah, I was going to say, if there's anybody that can probably handle it, he's so even keeled.

And there isn't any adversary relationship that he's had with media in his life. So, you know. He'll be fine. He'll be fun. Let's go to, uh, Kyle in Cyprus at 1238 on 7. How's it going? How's it going? Good. What's going on? So I'm sitting here thinking about the Astro season and obviously it's not going how all of us as all of us think it should go.

With the recent news on Burlander, what kind of effect do you all think he can truly have if he comes back even about 75% of what he usually can? 75% of Justin Verlainter will not allow the Astros to advance in the playoffs. Not the answer you were thinking, was it? No. You know, I think we've been spoiled so much these past couple of years. We all expect so much. And right now it's just like we're a 500 team and we need them. Well, here's the reality.

When Kyle, and I'm going to have you turn your radar down so we can get a, so I can know the echo. If Justin Verlander comes back and he's 100%, I don't need him to go seven innings. I'll take five and 80 pitches. But if you're giving me only 75% performance of what he normally is, that's going to make him very hitable, not on the mound very long, and the Astros will find themselves in a deficit.

They're going to be playing playoff teams. Now, it's a bigger playoff bracket, obviously, than years past. But it still means these teams that the Astros are going to be facing. they get there, have done something offensively to accomplish getting to the playoffs. So if Justin is only hitting 88 on the gun, 87 of the gun, he'll be very hitable and it will be very rough. The only way I suggest he comes back is if he is the Justin Burnlander that we know of that can routinely hit 95 on the gun. And I just don't know if that's going to happen. And we'll leave it at that. Thanks for the phone call.

I disagree, agree, indifferent? I don't know what we're going to get out of him. I would say 75% would actually be great. is he going to be, when we've talked about it, it's difficult to throw fastballs when you have, if he is going to need

Tommy John's surgery or something like that, right? He's just going to come in here and fire a bunch of breaking balls and at what velocity and how long and how often? I mean, I'm just counting him as zero right now.

I don't want him at 75. I mean, he'll be, now if he makes it back, then you have to give him his applause. But I don't want any pitcher at 75. I mean, we saw Lance McCuller's at 75.

He got hitable. He was very hitable. Yeah. I don't think in October, 75% is going to win you a baseball series, which is not. So I would say, unless he's all the way back.

Now, again, endurance is one thing. If he's on a pitch count, if he's at 75, 80 pitches, and he gives you four amazing innings to start a game, that means Jose Arcitti can come out of the bullpen, or it could be Fromber Valdez,

or it could be Christian Javier. If you can find that middle ground, and had that second pitcher come in and eat two or three innings, here's the thing. You don't want Syneed pitching in relevant innings of a playoff game. Who am I thinking of? Blake Taylor. Well, okay, but a lot of pressure on those guys.

Chris Davinsky is nowhere close to what he was. You know what I mean? I mean, that's what I'm saying, is that if he's going to come in, he needs to be the normal Justin Verlander. him just trying to survive and get out there just for the good of the team where you know T.J's on its way. I don't think there's any good. So you're saying Astros closer, Justin Verland.

No, I don't think you do that either. I don't think you do that. I don't think you take him out of his comfort zone. I think it would be awesome. It would be really awesome. But I don't think it would be in the best interest of the organization. But hey, that's just me. 1242, Sports Talk, 7-90.

Which is talking by Bill O'Brien coming up in less than 20 minutes. Right now, I want to tell you about what's happening with Berkeley. Eye Center, they have taken care of my eyes for over 20 years. They've taken care of my wife's for a similar amount of time. And they take care of all my kids' needs, especially when they're moving to context. At least two of the three of them have. Berkeley Eye Center has great news. You know, summer may be coming to an end, but guess what?

Due to popular patient demand, they're going to extend their end of summer LASIC celebration right now at Berkeley Eye Center. So here's how it works. All you got to do is text the word LASI. to 484848 and you'll receive a pair of designer sunglasses valued at $300. Plus, you'll get savings of up to $1,200 on LASIC. So let's repeat that. $1,200 in savings on LASIC and a free pair of designer sunglasses,

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We've not really new. We've done it in the past. Ross every Monday at 1.30 will run through some of the most interesting games of the NFL weekend. I just look at the crawl on ESPN minute ago. You know, Cam Newton led the Patriots past the Dolphin just today. He carried the ball 15 times. He's never going to survive carrying the ball 15 times a game. Now, I don't know how many of that was design run or how much of that was improvisation or if it was avoiding the pass rush.

But Cam Newton's been hurt a lot the last three seasons. He can't carry it 15 times a game. He's going to have to develop and be something different in that maybe five or six, being able to move around in the pocket clearly will help. But make this guarantee. if Cam Newton is carrying the ball 15 times per game in each of the next six or seven weeks, he will not be throwing the football in the month of December. He'll get beat up, just like he had been the last couple years.

I didn't see the carries. I don't know how many big hits he took. He is a big guy as well, and he's pretty stout. And the injury that he had was a shoulder injury, right? Yep. But also, he was throwing his body around, so that being hit on that shoulder probably didn't help. So, I mean, last year was the only year that he really missed significant time. That was the first time.

And it was a- Which his last three years? Last three years before, so he played two games last year. Before that, he played 14 and 16. Okay. His whole career. 15, 16, 14, 16, 16, 16. How old is he now?

30, uh, 30 something probably? 30 something. 31. Okay. Yeah, I'll stand by it. 15 times. If I'm in the New England war room, I'm thinking we've got to make sure he throws a ball or is not a part of as many run plays.

If he's sliding and getting out of bounds, he'll be fine. But yeah, if he's taking big hits, obviously that's an issue. 713-21-2-5-790, 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90. Let's go to, this Mark and the Heights on the Matt Thomas show. Mark, good afternoon. Hi, hi, guys. How are you doing? Great, yourself?

I'm doing fine. I'm here to say that I'll say the three things about the three teams to try to make you feel better. first of all the Astros when they come home are 16 and 7 so we can maybe just say we've got that to look forward to for the Astros is at least we do win at home now you said who do we think that the rocket should get as a coach I think Nate McMillan from Indiana is a great choice and there's a lot of reasons for that other than the fact that he knows how to play fastball And for the Texans, all I can say is this. I know that it was in the second half, but I always have to look at what the team's determination look like. And it looked to me during the second half, even though they had buried themselves defensively in the first, they, the offense made every attempt to come back to win that game. And it didn't, I don't know, but it didn't look like they thought themselves out of it. So that's my three good things to counter everything today.

Well, unfortunately, that's a very optimistic viewpoint. Thank you for the call. I didn't think the Texans quit. The Texans tried their hardest. They just couldn't do anything until the game was out of hand. Yeah, Matt, they rallied and they have something to build on. No, they don't. That's what Bill O'Brien says.

Well, he's lying. I think we as fans go to the they quit card a little bit too quickly. Yeah, for sure. I mean, people all weekend were telling me the Rockets quit, the Rockets quit, and every game was like, game two, they got down 21, they came back and took the lead. Game four, they were down 23 and came back and got within five with a minute to go. Game number five, they got down 22 multiple times, came back within seven multiple times. And then you say, oh, well, they just quit.

These now, I mean, maybe high school teams quit or middle school teams quit. These guys who get to this professional level where this is their job, I think there's far less of that than people talk about. It's just this it's this thing we say when they're playing poorly and shots aren't falling or they're just not moving the ball. Oh, they quit. No, me, sometimes the other team's better. Sometimes things don't go your way. Sometimes you need to execute better. And the reality, it doesn't mean you're not

quit. When you're down 20 in the fourth quarter, layups are nice, but they're only I mean, the only way you come back is by hitting if you're a team to a focus is on three point shots. You got to hit a boatload of threes in a very short period. If they did not try against the Chiefs, they would have lost by 50. Yeah. No, I don't. This is a a question of the Texans not trying.

Yes. Whitney Mercials was trying to get to the quarterback. He just didn't get close. Sometimes the other guy's better and you're just not successful. You know, look, the Lakers went, and I don't mean to be crossing sports here, but I'm just trying to use a bunch of examples. The Lakers went small. Markief Morris got on the floor. They went

smaller. Now, granted, you're never going to be an Uber small lineup if Anthony Davis is on the floor, right? I mean, he's six, ten. He's got like a seven, four, five wingspan. He'll never be misconstrued as, you know, P.J. Tucker 65. Yeah, but they may move their

power forward to center. The Rockets move their power forward, PJ Tucker to center. That's going small. So, I mean... Yeah, so they made the adjustments, and the Rockets couldn't beat that adjustment. And LeBron James and Anthony Davis were miles better as a tandem than James Hardin Russell Westbrook. And two other role

players stepped up, Rajan and Ron. And, looks, Alex Caruso, not a great three-point shooter. He's not. But he did in this series. Well, in fact, didn't the Lexers just bombard the Rockets with threes? The Rockets got beat by their own game. Yep, they played three. Hit threes.

Yeah. So, yeah, I didn't, even in the game when it was out of hand, I didn't see any quit. Let me tell you, I have called basketball games, Ross, in college and the pros. I remember doing a game in Phoenix a couple of years ago. The sons quit. This is when they were just a hot mess, their general manager was in flux, coach was new. When the rocket scored like 70 and a half or something like that?

Oh, it was 81. Or 81. Yeah, it was something crazy. I was like, y'all quit. Not y'all being Houston, y'all being Phoenix. Yeah. So I've seen teams quit. I didn't see it.

I didn't see the Texans quit on Thursday. I'll give you another one. People were, when the Astros were down 5'1 to the Dodgers, multiple people in my mentions, oh, the asteros quit. Then they came back and won. Okay, quit, and then they decided to play or just things happen in it's sports. Yeah. That was a very nice win on Saturday.

Oh, it was much needed. It gets overshadowed by the rest of the awful road trip, but it was still nice. At least you had that one. And at least you got to Kenley Jansen, who looked very ordinary. And you did it, yeah. I mean, especially the first few hits,

weren't very hard hit. But it was nice to get that done, especially after the idiot Dodger fans are camping out on the street so that they can yell at the Astros bus and all that stupid stuff. And going by the Joe Kelly mural. Joe Kelly has a mural in Los Angeles.

And how about the signs being made and the flyovers? Stupid. So stupid. Your state is on fire. Donate that money to firefighters or something. You don't have people just flying up and having signs or what do you call it? Sky. Not Skywalkers. That's Luke. What do you call it? Sky signs or whatever. Like Sky advertising, basically.

Yeah. Skywriting. How do they get clearance, by the way? Those are little single engine planes flying over the heart of major metropolitan cities. Does the guy who does that make good money? I don't know anybody in my life that's ever done that. Skywriter salary. Well, I mean, you got to pay for the gas.

It can't be cheap, right? That's what I'm saying. And you're flying over, I mean, not that LAX is right around the corner, but it's not far. Yeah, I don't know how. But whatever, it's a waste of money, is the point. Because the only time I've ever seen Skywriters that really make a difference. difference is like over college, you know, and you're like when you're tailgating and you're over the same lot for several hours, that makes sense.

Baseball fans don't tailgate, and they're not going to let you hover over the top of the stadium. There's no way with going on with today's security world we're in. There's no way they're going to let them just hang out there. $3,500 for a plus ferry fees for the aircraft? For like an hour? How long do you get it for? I don't know.

It depends. So you tell me that there were some people in theory that were Dodger fan that were ready to spend that kind of cash, just talked. just talk about the Astros being cheaters? Yes. Must be nice in Los Angeles. Again, I think there's a charity out there would rather have that money than the Skyriders, but that's not the...

Wildfire Relief Fund.calfund.org. Donate to them rather than sending money so you're for your Jackassery at the Dodgers Stadium. Is that a new word in the Webster's Dictionary, Jack Assery? It was Jackassery, wasn't it? I don't think I'm disagreeing with you. All right, 713-212-5-790.

7-13-213. 2.5.790 is how you reach a show. Hour two of the Matt Thomas show begins with what you're talking about Bill O'Brien. Also, bottom of the hour, we'll get to Ross's NFL recap from the weekend. And Brian T. joins us on the Rockets search for a new coach. That'll be at 2 o'clock. This is Sports Talk 790. Yeah. I'm on my way. Is the Matt Thomas show. Here we go with hour number two on Sports Talk 790 with you until 3 o'clock. Busy hour of NFL conversation still ahead. We'll have the NFL recap on the weekend. We're not going to run through every game because I don't think many of you care about Seattle and Atlanta, except for fantasy football purposes.

I don't think it'll be a lot of Jets' Bills talk on this segment. I don't imagine much about the Chargers bingles. But there are some relevant games, and Ross will find them and run through some of the high and low lights of such a fair. All right, every Monday at 1 o'clock, we ask a sports RV to get out his, crystal ball and try to anticipate what Bill O'Brien would say at a press conference. He had his press availability earlier today. Ross has not heard it. So thus we ask him to do this.

What you do, what you draw my? Coach O'Brien. Again, most sports radio stations will just play three sound bites and go, oh, that's really good. Let's dig into those sound bites. We don't need to dig into them. It is what it is. We want to have Ross try to predict what is being said when I give you today's clue

phrase. You ready? I'm ready, Matthew. First one is 39 seconds, bouncing back from the loss. By the way, we grade Ross on a 1 to 5 scale. I do it. Brendan does it as well. 1 to 5.

39 seconds on bouncing back from the loss. Yeah, look, anytime you're in the National Football League, any game, after a win, after a loss, it doesn't matter. You just have to look forward to the week ahead of you, and we know that we can do that, and we've been doing that for years. So we're focused on Baltimore. They got a really tough team and Lamar Jackson and those guys playing well. So we got a really tough game ahead of us this week on the schedule.

All right. Every time that we think we hear something that works, we'll give you a ding. I present to you, Bill O'Brien, 39 seconds. You know, I don't know. I think you learn a lot in the first game, especially this one. You know, obviously there were some good things in the game, you know, obviously not enough. But there was a lot of things to build on. But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, when you're,

you look at the game, there were 20 missed tackles. There were too much inconsistency on offense. You know, special teams was okay. You know, so we just need to, we need to really just have a great week. One day at a time, we need to have a great day today. And then have a great Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and be ready to go. I didn't hear one ding. I really didn't think he was going to go reflect back. I thought he was going to be Mr. Let's move on. to the next one. Dang it. You get zero stars.

Brendan, anything? You said one to five. I get at least one. Okay, you get one for at least putting on an effort. Thank you. I don't think anything was close. I'm going to go with the one. And by the way,

be liberal with the dings because he needs reassurance. Thank you. I've never, I've done the segment with you guys. I've never used a ding before. I want you to use a ding. I don't have a ding. Excuse me?

I want to get that checked out. You don't have a ding? I don't have a ding. When Joe's got a ding. Last week, yeah. I will see if I can find Joe. Just look for a bell in there somewhere. If not, we'll just make it our own sound effects, and we think you've actually hit one.

So so far, you've got one star of a potential five. Next up, 47 seconds. Let's see. I can't read my own handwriting. That's on my Matt Thomas bingo cord. That is. I don't even know what this says. Preparing for Ravens.

Preparing for Ravens, 47 seconds. These offenses are very unique. Yeah, these offenses are very elite. Doesn't count. He doesn't get credit for that. It's a long one. You know he's going to say that. It's basically what I did in the last one.

He's going to do in this one. Look, they're one of the best teams in the league. Lamar Jackson is a guy who people talk about his legs. They don't realize he can throw it. I mean, this is a guy who led the league in touchdowns last year. So he's playing really well. We've got to watch out for Mark Andrews. The offensive line play is good.

We've got to really be on our touchdowns. chose because they can beat you a multiple number of ways. So relative to other offenses, they are just dangerous everywhere you look. And we're going to have a tough task on our hands is coming up this weekend. Yeah, these offenses are very unique, you know, just, you know, in many ways like our offense. You know, you have to, the Ravens offense is very different than the Chiefs. There's absolutely no comparison to what they do. They just use different personnel.

They run, you know, totally different types of plays. You know, Lamar is excellent player, Ingram the back. I mean, Hollywood Brown, the tight ends. Ding. Got a lot of weapons, good offensive lines. Like I said, we're going to have to have a great week. Our scout team's going to have to do a great job, but giving a really good look. And, you know, we're going to really have to, you know, play a very disciplined game.

We weren't disciplined enough on offense, excuse me, on defense. On Thursday night, we have to be more disciplined and play a more disciplined game. man if you'd have gotten one discipline in there you'd have really done well for yourself I'd give you I give you oh wow okay yeah I only named off all the players in the office exactly like he did oh you want two and a half give you an extra half star no your stars mean your stars mean nothing to me I feel pretty good with a three it's a 47 second clip and Ross got like a a comfortable 25 seconds of it all right I'll change my opinion no you just change you I don't need your approval in my life you got a third star from me last one oh

this is going to be tight here 14 seconds. Yeah. On what? And again, I can't read my writing. Oh, if Watson needs more time. With weapons. With his new, with his weapons under and in parentheses weapons.

Well, obviously, things can go our way as far as practices and with the pandemic and not being able to get in the work and the preseason. So, yeah, I mean, it was safe to say that we can get these guys on the same page. but everybody's dealing with the same thing, and we just got to do better and work hard at it. No, it's only one game, Sarah. No, we move the ball. I mean, we move the ball. Really?

Oh, really, Sarah. No, we just need to have a good week of practice. Sarah. We just keep trying to get better. We move the ball. We move the ball. Seven points in the first three. Do you all hear that in Houston, Texas?

Man, he's going in a full spin zone. Because Dusty doesn't spend. Mike didn't spend too much Bill spun We moved the ball A lot to build on momentum at the end What is it? What game was he watching?

All right, I got one for you. How long has Tim Kelly got left? I'm going, I went there that early. Oh, I've been saying this all off season. Is he calling the plays after week four? They got to go more up-tempo, right? They were the first ones that met after the game. They were just,

slogging their way up and down the field when they were on the field because Kansas City took minutes and minutes and minutes off the clock with their positions. Yeah, they won the possession, 3525. So I shouldn't be blaming Sarah. It should be, it's the response to Sarah's question. I would agree with that. It's not Sarah's fault. Sarah Smile. Bar shop, Matt.

Yeah, she's the ESPN Texans report. Well, you know what, the Texas did gain 360 yards to 369 for the chiefs. it feel that way? No. Did it feel like the last one quarter of play was nothing but garbage time? I'm not sure that was garbage time. That's a great question. I don't know.

Well, I think I know. It was 80% of it was garbage time. Oh, God. It's like, man, you get in that Texans bubble and it's like, it's a new world over there, isn't it? A whole new world? Well, it's a world of, you know, we did some good things. What was the best thing that came out of the game?

David Johnson had seven. 27 yards on 11 carries. Honestly, the best thing on the game was that first drive. That David Johnson broke tackles and got to the end zone and that this thought of day, and again, it's only been one week, but David Johnson proved to be a solid number one running back for an NFL team. You get 100 yards from scrimmage like you almost got from him. I think is what you got, right? Basically 77 plus whatever he got through the year.

Yeah, he had 32. Oh, so he was over 100 yards. That's very encouraging. That's the most encouraging thing. Other than that, there was a lot of discourage. encouragement. Yeah, your running back didn't look like a complete corpse. And Willful looked like number one and made it through the game.

And got thrown to way more than anybody else. One of the highest target chairs in the NFL. Do you think it was because he was, the Sean was isolating on him, staring him down? Like people used to say that criticized him about throwing a lot to DeAndre? Well, I didn't see Randall Cab of Brinan cooks much. They were out there according to the Snap count. Yes.

Now, what were they doing out there? We don't know. Picking daisies? I don't know. Do you think that's what they were doing? No. They were like six-year-olds playing their first game of a Major League of Little League baseball?

Picking flowers? I think he was in the first half. Randall Cobb was. Does anybody have isolation view on, well, actually, I'm sure the NF the Texans do. They would be able to bust Randall Cobb if he was picking daisies or sunflowers when the rest of people were running formations. that's not how you know what i'll have to look at the film on that matt that's not how you welcome

yourself to a team making over eight million dollars a year right which could have gone to dionre hopkins yes answer my question no why not because you have to pay deshawn and tonsul well you still could have paid it you didn't be jack you're not you're not paying those guys as that cunningham is way too much this defense matt what if the texas would have just renegotiated the last two years tore up and said here we'll give you bigger fatter money for two years should have done a year ago, yeah. You know what I'm saying? This got out of control so badly.

It's Brian Gaines' fault. Now, I will say this. The money that Arizona is paying DeAndre down the road, that could be troublesome for them. But they ain't feeling that right now, especially when they went to the NFC champions and beat them on their home field. Yeah. And you're, I mean, one of the biggest values in sports is a good starting quarterback on a rookie deal, which they have now. And the Texans don't have. 113 on Sports Talk 7.9.

It's the Matt Thomas show. We have a lot to get to. The Rockets looking for a new coach. The Astros in full hang-on mode. I cannot believe that we are sitting here with less than two weeks ago in the season. And the Astros lead for the second American League West playoff spot is down to a game and a half. The Sucky Mariners. And they're not really as sucky as I thought they were.

Either out of the Astros have really downplayed their abilities this year. one and a half games. That's it. And by the way, guess who you got to root for, Ross, tonight? The Oakland A's. We're rooting for the A's, and your unofficial home for A's baseball. Sports Talk, 790. 713-212-5-790 with a message for Big City Wings.

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Big citywings.com. One dollar chicken tenders all day today at Big City Wings. All right, NFL rewind from the weekend with pick three or four games that were of interest. I think Arizona's got me in the list because of what DeAndre did. Tampa Bay, New Orleans. Baltimore game, Lamar Jackson. I, you know, I don't buy the Sunday ticket anymore, but I will be honest.

The first week's free. Yes. I don't think I left my couch to not watch a second of Red Zone. Red Zone may be the greatest channel ever made. Yeah, you can get Red Zone on another TV. I think is it true direct TV? You have to buy the whole thing to get Red Zone. Yes, you cannot buy Red Zone by itself.

It's like $10 a month on X-Finity. How good is that? It's amazing. You don't need the other games. No. Especially if you don't have a... Now, if you're a fan of Sid the Niners and you want to get the Sunday ticket.

Yeah, I mean, if you're like, for some reason, you just want to punch yourself and watch the Lions all over the place, and, you know, you can do that, but... Yeah. Oh. Yeah, you went, you're starting to do a lot of these selfie videos following the Lions games. I didn't mean, I had no intentions of doing the one post-Lions game. I was just too frustrated. I do intend to do them post-Texans games, though. Man, if you just want to really be sadistic and watch the Lions every week, you can do that. But I mean, I'm just a red zone guy. Certainly, it's because you have, uh, next time Kenny Colliday is not playing. Will you let me know a little bit of advance, please? I mean, that was announced on like Friday. Yeah. No, it was not. It was doubtful. He wasn't really. Yeah, doubtful means he ain't playing. Well, that's on you, man.

I'm still going to win, so I feel pretty confident. And the guy feels like ass because I'm still beating it with a player that didn't play. That's not here nor there. Yeah, so that was actually a game that was on late because the Lions yanked up, what, 17-pointly or something like that? Yep, fourth time in the last 15 years. That'll conclude Lions conversation for the show today. Jim Caldwell went 9 and 7 and got fired. Yeah, Matt Partition should be fired soon, right?

another member of the Belichick coaching tree that falls have fallen flat on his face Bill O'Brien is the star of the Belichick coaching tree numerous AFC South Division Championships numerous AFC wildcard well not numerous but some wildcard victories and Ross several divisional appearances two not wins appearances. Appearances.

Yeah, you got to win over Connor Cook and I went over Josh Allen in the playoffs. Quite frankly, thanks to Sean Watson being amazing. And not being able to, and not taking a sack. Yeah. I don't think Bill O'Brien drew up the one where both edge rushers

collapse and destroy your offensive line and then knock into each other is Deshaun Watson escapes and checks down to who, Taiwan Jones or whoever. Yes, may he have a great career elsewhere because he's not here. Wherever the hell he is.

Yeah. That's the thing about I will never spend a lot of time critiquing Deshawn and whether or not he's holding on the ball too long because Ross, does he not save this team's bacon more time than not? You take the good with the bat with him. He holds on to it too long sometimes, but then a lot of times he makes plays out of that. Well, it's like, it'd be like criticizing James

for shooting three point shots. James, don't take that shot. Don't take that shot. Oh, it went in. He's going to go two for 17 sometimes. There'll be nine for 11s and there's going to be two for 17s. It comes with the territory. Yes.

I don't think that's ever going to change about who Deshaun. Watson is. I think he'll, oh, if the easy critique of him will be he needs to get rid of the ball quicker. I don't think you, I don't think, I mean, there'll be times that he'd be like, yeah, I should have got rid of it. But he's also got to be thinking the back of his mind is I'm the safest guy on the team. That if the ball's in my hand and I'm still standing, I've got a really good chance of doing something special. And more times than he's done that.

Sometimes, though, he runs himself into sacks and just makes things worse and takes hits because of it. That's what scary. Is that for all the heroism he wants to be and how he wants to lead this team and find that receiver deep down feel with, you know, when he's been nearly sacked four times,

at some point he's going to take a hit that he's going to regret. Because it happens to all the quarterbacks. It just does. And the NFL's a cruel world. I mean, It doesn't have to be necessarily on a sack. It can be just a good old-fashioned quarterback hit or a hurry that forces him out. And thankfully, he's been able to survive that. I did the same thing when I watch Lamar Jackson.

This new theory or this new style of quarterback in the last, what, 10 or 15 minutes? Really since Michael Vick, right? If my quarterback, the guy that I love is in a position where he's getting hit a lot, it does scare me. You just have to be judicious with it. I saw today that Kyla Murray ran 13 times yesterday for 91 yards. That's a lot. 12 of them were either touchdowns or out of bounds. One of them he got pulled down by his jersey.

So he didn't take any big hits, but he did run 13 times for 91 yards. And you'll take that every day. There's one week or an entire season. Yesterday, that's what he did. Oh, okay, okay. So they were for first downs, not touchdowns, right? Either they were either for touchdowns or out of bounds. Oh, okay.

So he knows he has good escapeability and he knows when to, get out. So in all 13 runs, he took one tackle, and he was pulled down by his jersey. It wasn't a big hit. Wow. You see, how about Tom Brady getting a two-yard touchdown run in his first? I mean, of anybody that you, if they're on the big board of how Tom's going to score, intermediate pass, deep bomb, rushing score, that had to be way down on the list. Well, no, he's got a bunch of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of, of QB sneak touchdowns because he's so smart. That's the thing that I was, like, what are you doing, Saints? Tom, there was nobody over the center on the left side, and then they're two yards away. Tom Brady is going to check himself to

a run every time there. He's been doing the QB sneak thing for years. I watched a little bit of that game yesterday. I watched Taysam Hill take some snaps. You better hope Drew Brees is going to stick around for a while. He's not the savior. I think Chasem Hill and small doses can kind of throw things off a little bit.

Kind of confused defenses. I think Taysam Hill taking 25 snaps in the game would be an unmitigated disaster. But I don't think they really need it. James is there for all that, Matt. Will James Winston, ever be the starting quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, ever? Not due to injury?

Not due to injury. Probably not. Because Drew retires this year, goes to television booth. Can you put James Winston in a Taysam Hill legitimately in a one-two quarterback competition? I'll go Jason. I'll go James. I would too.

He's 30 for 30, Matt. Well, my point is, Taysam is, again, something different, something interesting, something you would do five to ten snaps a game. You don't want him taking 30 snaps a game. I think he becomes predictable, ordinary, and it kind of exposes why he never was a real quarterback to begin with. He can't throw. Yeah.

All right, 126 is our time. Here's our plan for the next half hour. We're going to come back with, running through some of the extraordinary things we saw in week one, some sound bites from various people and or calls. And then we're going to try to figure out what you guys want in a coach for, not the Houston Texans. He's still there.

the Houston Rockets because Mike Dentone telling the team yesterday he does not want to return. That means there is an open spot and there are lots of different candidates. Do you want to go with a guy that's been a coach before? Do you want to go with a guy that wants his first opportunity? Do you go to the college ranks? What kind of coach would you want? We'll discuss all that and more in the next half hour. This is the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790 where I want you to start feeling better.

If you don't feel better, now we'll listen to Ross. He's got some great advice for you. That's right. If you're feeling sluggish, you're a little tired. You haven't felt like yourself, and you say yourself, man, I'm moody and I'm not feeling like me. What is the deal? How do I change us? How do I fix this? How do I get out of this rut? Let me tell you how to do that. That's Synergenics, Houston's premier men's health clinic specializing in low-tie treatments, because it might not be your fault. It could be low testosterone. And what they do at synergenics is they take a uniquely individualized approach that bases treatment on your total testosterone levels to make a truly customized plan that's right for you with, no side effects. So don't ignore the symptoms of low T. You're moody. You're losing interest in sex. You're weak. You're sluggish. A $25 low T test can get you back on your game. It can happen with Centrogenics. Get back in the game of life. Call Centrogenics to set up that $25

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Just ask. Hey, Google, play Sports Talk 790 on IHartRadio. Altube pokes one to left field fairly deep. It sends back gardener looking up. Sports Talk 790. Jose Al-Tube puts the Astros up. Your home of the Stroes. 132 Sports Talk 790 every Monday at this town.

we will run around the NFL. It really only give you stuff that you care about, or at least that were the most interesting of the weekend. And with that, Ross goes around the NFL. Well, it's started off, Maddie with the Brady versus Breeze battle in New Orleans. The Saints winning that one, 34 to 23. Tom Brady has now thrown one of these in three straight games. Now a second down in 15 from their own 32.

Ball in the left, hash bucks working from our left to right. Chris Godwin in motion again to the right. Brady takes a gun snap, quick throw near side. It's picked off. Janores Jenkins, 15, 10, 3, 2, 1. Touchdown. Genores Jenkins, pick six. Jenkins running from the 10 to the 3 in no time flat.

Pretty quick. 15, 10, 3, 2, 1. By the way, quick trivia, Ross. In the last two quarterbacks to throw pick sixes in three consecutive games. That would be Blaine Gabbard and Matt Schaub. Tom Brady coming for the crown, baby. He's thrown a pick six and three straight games. Matt Schaub holds the record for four straight games.

He was 239 yards, 26 and 36, two touchdowns, two picks. He says he has to play better. It's a game of execution. And obviously, they made more plays than we did. And I made some just bad, terrible turnovers. And it's hard to win, turn the ball over like that. I obviously got to do a lot better job. So, Matt, one week, nothing to worry about?

Or is there significant slippage? in Tom Brady's game. Nothing to worry about because the Saints, the best team in the NFC South, and they will win the division, probably comfortably, and the Buccaneers will rally and get better. We've got two main targets. Well, Mike Evans has been hampered with his injuries. He was listed as doubtful, upgraded to questionable,

and then he played and only got one catch for two yards. Yeah, that's fine. When he gets healthy, they got too many threats. Great tight ends. Mike Evans is an elite receiver. Got a decent running game. Offensive line will give him protection. I just thought Tom Brady,

look like a guy that had not played any preseason games on his brand new football team. How about Leonard Fournett, too? So he's in a shotgun, is Brady, and Fournett's behind him in the shot. You don't see that too often, especially when Tom Brady's like, get the hell to my hip. Leonard Fournett will be a factor for them, I think, at some point this year.

Well, it was a lot of Ronald Jones. He had 17 carries. He had a couple of catches as well. So the majority of the running done by him, Leonard Fournet, five carries for five yards. So we'll have to see how that shakes out. Moving along, let's go to, well, the place that Tom Brady left. Cam Newton and of the New England Patriots, taking care of the Dolphins in a 21-21-11 win, and Cam Newton running in two scores.

First down in 10, outside the 10 of the Dolphin 11. Burkhead now to the backfield in motion left. Newton fakes to him, rolls to the right. Cam's going to run it to the 10. Outside to the 5. Newton to the pylon. Touchdown. Patriots.

His second. It is New England debut. That's a man right there, boy. That's a man right there, boy. 217 rushing yards as a team for the New England Patriots. Tony Michelle also dropped in a score. Maddie, what do you think of the new look, New England Patriots? I think Bill Belichick loves this.

I think he's enjoying the new opportunity, the new challenge. And look, as we talked about on Friday's show, I think Buffalo is the chalk picked to win the division. I'm not counting on New England. Their defense is very, very. strong. And if Cam Newton stays upright, and as I said before, doesn't carry the ball 15 times a game, he leads him for 16 games. I think they're going to be very much in the thick of things of the EFC East. And Ryan Fitzpatrick doing Ryan Fitzpatrick things. He had under the 200 yards. He had

three picks as well. Miles Gaskin getting the majority of the calls on the running game for the Miami Dolphins. And also, Matt, I have to ask you, shade or no shade. Here's what Bill Belichick had to say about Cam Newton. He's very. He's very. very, very unselfish player. He's a great teammate. He's earned everybody's respect really daily. He just continues to do everything that he can to help our team. And that's really all you can ask from anyone. And he continually does that, puts himself last and puts the team first. So puts himself last, the team first, just talking about Cam or taking a shot? Full shade. Full shade. Full shade. 100%. What are the kids saying 100 full shape.

agree or disagree you don't go ahead say it Matt I'm right I don't know probably some shade I know Bill Belichick wants to win without time it's not something is probably shade

it's either probably raining or it's not going to rain they give you rain probabilities every single day but I'm saying if the drops are coming that means it's raining it's not probably raining well maybe it's drizzling

perhaps it's sprinkling it's big old fat rain and rain to come up from the ground that's shade okay next Well, let's look at the Texans next week opponent. The Baltimore Ravens went 14 and 2 last year.

They've got Lamar Jackson. They made additions to the defense with Callais Campbell and others. So they're going to get even better. And, well, this is an opener against the Browns would pretty well for him. Jackson to throw on third down. End zone touchdown. Mark Andrews, his second of the day. Back-to-back touchdown drives for Lamar Jackson.

And the Ravens have extended their lead to 12. Baltimore Ravens blast the Browns, 38 to 6. Lamar Jackson, 275 yards, three touchdowns through the air. Robert Griffin, the third got in the game. This got so bad for the Browns. John Harbaugh says Lamar Jackson was the difference. Lamar Jackson just played a phenomenal game. He just played a top-level game in every single way,

and I think he was probably the biggest difference in the game. Marquise Brown, Hollywood, five catches 101 yards. Mark Andrews was a couple of touchdowns. that Baltimore Ravens offense is looking pretty, pretty good, Maddie. So they're not going to be able to put together that kind of effort for two straight weeks, is what you're saying? I didn't. No, I didn't say that. You're saying that being an energy setting would be the difference for the Texans as compared to being in Kansas City.

I'm saying the Baltimore Ravens are probably going to score at least 30 plus and destroy the Texans this week. All right, boys, really quick. Texans right now are what, seven and a half point dogs at home? Sure. What do you think? Texans cover the seven and a half? No. Ross?

Well, they could get a late touchdown. Answer my question. No. Eight points. No. Ross? No, I'm probably not. Nine.

I'll take nine and a half. It's six and a half right now. I'll take nine. I will right now say it's at least a ten point game. then it could be worse. Okay. How in the world is Baltimore going to jump on the plane and do different things than they did

against, it's Cleveland's defense much worse than the Texans? Is it on par? Is it better? Texans is better, I hope. Because they can't rely on the Texans crowd. The bullpen won't be there. Yeah, you won't have those guys

slapping the side of the... You won't have Clay Walker singing the national anthem. Oh, no. Actually, that's probably true. That's at least a three-point boost right there. I'm just saying, all right. They get extra time to prepare. It's true.

Hopefully they all watch the game as a team via Zoom or something like that. Keep an eye on it. So let me say, do you think the Texans watch the game on as a Zoom and they all saw like, oh, I can't. Cover this. Who's covering Hollywood Brown? No one's raising their hands. Yeah, Bill O'Brien left in the middle of third quarter. He said, screw this.

I got to do something else. All right. That's what happened. No, let's go along to the, how about the Arizona Cardinals? mentioned Kyler Murray, 13 carries for 91 yards, 230 through the air. And the Cardinals, surprising, taking out the NFC reigning champs 24 to 20. Of course, the big story in this one has been DeAndre Hopkins and the amount of catches he was able to get, I think it was 14 on 16 targets because my computer is screwing up right now.

It's something like that. But you know what? Cliff Kingsbury says he's been admiring Hopkins for afar for some time. I've admired him from afar for a long time. I was at the University of Houston in 2008 through 2011. Go Coot. And so it was very familiar with the impact he had on that organization. And just love the way he played the game on Sunday. I mean, he plays with a passion and his toughness.

And it's just fun to be around. And so to watch him do that today, you know, I didn't know he was going to go for that many catches. But he got hot and Kyle and him got in a rhythm and just excited he's a part of our organization. 14 catches 151 yards on 16 tariff. targets, D'Andre Hopkins had himself a day. He had more catches and yards than the entire Texans receiving court, correct? Probably. And I said 9 and 7, right?

Yeah, you did. You know, I can't be that guy. No, you can't. No, you can't do that after one week. Hey, you knew they were going to lose against the Chiefs. Right. No matter anybody was predicting. If you had him going 15 and 1, the one loss was probably to the Chiefs.

Yeah, no one in America except Mindy Kalu. He's an ambassador, man. He's got to protect the brand. fine. We all have to ambassador somehow somewhere. Like, I mean, again, I said this in all seriousness. I don't think Mark Van Damer is going, you know, I don't think we got a chance in this one. Yeah. It was like Matt in the first

round of the series against Thunder, you go rockets and five. And then the next series, yeah, I don't make predictions. Yeah. I mean, I totally understand it. That's how it goes. So like the last one, how about some AFC South action? This one is a surprise. The Jacksonville Jaguars

taking out the Colts 27 to 20. Late Philip Rivers turnovers and late Gardner, Minchew, magic? Play fake. Minchew looks. Fires. Quarter to the end zone wide open. Keel and Cole's going to walk into the end zone. Touchdown, Jacksonville. And the Jags have taken the lead with 556 to play in the ball game. Listen that pumped in crowd noise. Marlon Mack tore his Achilles, so he's going to be out for the season. Philip Rivers, a couple of interceptions. Did throw for 363 yards being a touchdown, though.

But the interception, fourth quarter late, killed him. Well, signed Philip Rivers quarterback teams for the last decade. He's going to the Hall of Fame, right? Yeah, I would imagine. It's not right away, though. Maybe not. The numbers are going to be there. No Super Bowls, correct?

No, you went to one AFC championship game. He played that with a torn ACL, and he didn't play well. What do you think? Would you think of the, I was going to say the Chargers? That was his old team. The Chargers were in those yellow pants just. The charges. I like the Chargers uniforms. They're nice. They're some of the best in the NFL if you ask me. Real quick, I don't know if you have the audio. Randy Bullock has a chance to tie the game.

It's 1613 L.A. Chargers in Cincinnati. The Joe Burrow led Bengals, and that's a strong term, but they did get close. All Randy Bullock's got to do is kick a field goal. He misses the field goal wide right and then comes up lame after hurting himself. Yeah, he starts grabbing his leg. Fat rolls do not help with yards and fitness. Well, he's just a kicker. They've been fat kickers all over the place. Signed Sebastian Janikowski. Okay, name another fat kicker in the last decade.

You can't. A lot of fat decades a long time ago. It's Randy and Seabas. That's it. Like Justin Kick, Tucker isn't fat. That's true. He's an opera singer, though. Yeah, but today's NFL kickers usually are, I mean,

they may be small and stature, but they're not fat. like Tony Fritch is my favorite kicker of all time for the Texas for the orders. He was fat. Yeah, he was fine. He's your favorite kicker. And he was fat, but he made field goals, unlike Randy Bullock. Well, but Randy is just a little thick. Okay, I'll go with that.

There's more of him to love. Thick Randy Bullock is what the kids call him, right? The kids aren't calling Randy Bullock anything. 144 on Sports Talk 7-90. When we come back, who do y'all want for a coach? I'm really, and Ross, I'll let you start with this. Okay. I'm literally open-ended.

I don't know what they want. I don't know what you want. What kind of coach fits James and Russ? I have an article with some of the just coaching candidates in general in the NBA. We can run through some of those if you like. Okay, we'll do that. Coming back, 144, Sports Talk, 790, 713-1-2-125-790 with a message once again for Oops, steam cleaning.

281-8-2-0-561 is the number you can reach to get a hold of the folks at oops. They'll do a great job with your carpets. They'll take care of your dining room chairs. If you have oriental rugs that are very, very difficult to clean, you must get with oops because that's a specialty. If you own a small business, they handle commercial carpet cleaning as well. They also do air ducts. They also do a towel and grog cleaning. They're just an one-stop shop for all of your carpet and your upholstery needs.

281-8-2-200. The Houston Lunchtime Sports Conversation most respected by head coach Bill O'Brien. I have a tremendous amount of respect for Matt Thomas in his career here in Houston of sorts. The Matt Thomas Show. 713212-5-790 if you'd like to chime. I mean, we've had a lot of different things going on from the NFL slate to how the Texans are going to possibly stop the Baltimore Ravens this weekend. How the Astros are going to possibly hold off the Seattle Mariners. with a bunch of crappy opponents.

Their schedule, the Astros are, and we'll get to the Rockets here in just a second, significantly easier the rest of the way than it is for the Seattle Mariners. I believe, and I want to make sure I double-checked this right on the MLB schedule tonight, there is a double header in Seattle between the A's and the Mariners. So let's put this in perspective. If the Mariners sweep the double header, the Astros will wake up tomorrow,

one half game in front of them for the second position in the American League West. Now, if the A's, who are the better team by far in the division, and are going to walk away with this thing rather easily in the American League West, win both, then the Astros can open up tomorrow two and a half games better. So let's hope that happens. So what you're saying is go A's. I'm saying, go A's.

I almost got vomiting my own mouth. Say it. Go A's. Go A's. Go stomper the elephant. Stomp on the Mariners. Go A's. I'm looking to see who's pitching.

Jesus Lazzardo in game number one. Wonderful. Game number two will be Mike Minor. Go A's. Maybe he can turn. How's he pitched for them so far? Has he pitched for him yet?

Yeah, he's in one thing once or twice. He wasn't good with the Rangers this year. No, but he was really good. last year for them. All right. So you got that going for you. Meanwhile, the Astros have a nice, steady diet of Texas Ranger baseball coming up. There you go. The Rangers have but a big old Ken to quit in the rest of their season, which has been nice. So the Astros scheduled the rest of the way. Three with Texas. Three with Arizona this weekend. Three at Seattle. Four with Texas to close out the year in Arlington. So even if the Astros implode in Seattle, get fat and happy on.

off of Texas in Arlington, give yourself a huge lead, and then even if things don't go the way that they want to in Seattle, don't screw it up against the Rangers in Arlington to close out the year. I'll put it this way. If they don't make it, they don't deserve it. No doubt about it. It's being handed to them on a platter

right now. For sure. For sure. God. I don't know if 2020 could get any worse if the Astros don't make the playoffs. And I know that there's a lot of people that have kind of checked out because this really isn't the Astros.

I mean, it's not. It really isn't a season. But Lordy, Ross, to not make it with all this offensive firepower that supposedly the Astros have had and they still do have, it would be one of the great embarrassments. And guess who would have the last word, last laugh? All the national media. Who cannot wait for the Astros not to make the playoffs? Screw them. Just telling you. It's been a weird pandemic.

Everybody's hurt. That's right. Everybody's been hurt. All right. for the Rockets job. What are you hearing? Well, let's see. First up that has been mentioned is Tyron Liu. Okay. I think he is a, not the leader, but a clubhouse leader.

Is that fair to say? I think he's going to be sought after by several teams. So that Nashville puts him in the category. Yes. Let's see. Joan Howard, coaching at Michigan right now. Michigan? Yes. Really? Mm-hmm. Just because he's got tremendous NBA route? He's got NBA ties, yeah.

Obviously, he has Michigan ties, and he tweeted before this season, he said, oh, people have been rumoring, but I'm dedicated to Michigan, but that isn't really being all I am. You take the opposite of that. Yeah. How about Charles Lee? He's been an assistant in his first six seasons under Mike Boodenholzer in Atlanta and now Milwaukee. Couldn't tell you a word about him. Okay. Seems like a nice guy.

Like Sam Cassell, you brought up earlier. There was a report from somebody over the weekend that said the Rockets and Sam had mutual interest. It's, Ross, it's not fair for me to decide whether, not that Sam's a good candidate or not right it's not fair for anybody nobody knows if sam's a good coach a terrible coach or just a coach what you that's why you have to do your due diligence you have to make lots of phone calls and frankly don't you have to roll play a little bit how do you excuse me you know what I'm saying how do you handle a situation when this happens off the court yeah I'm sure or how do you handle the situation 14 seconds left what are you drawn up

I mean, he's a, I would figure he would have the respect to the players. He's a former player, multi-time champion, one of those bulldog role players, and those are usually the guys who flourish more as coaches rather than superstar players. He's been under the tutelage of Doc Rivers, who's one of the better coaches in the NBA. Oh, by the way, that series has gone on a seventh game, surprisingly. Yeah, well, yes, it is. But still, Doc Rivers' track record speaks for itself as a coach. General manager, here and there.

But so... If Doc calls Tillman, could Doc make a convincing enough argument? Sure he could. Probably. I would imagine so. A few more. And then how about Kenny Atkinson, former Nets coach? Like him a lot?

Supposed to be one of the most sought after. And when he was the Brooklyn coach, they did a lot of the Rockets philosophy. We're going to bomb a ton of threes and do whatever it takes to get those three-point shots. So I think there would be some alignment there. Houston ties, yep. Yep. So you also have Jason Kidd. I'm going to get another head coaching job in the NBA.

No, thanks. No thank. Big no thanks to Jason, kid. Also another big no thanks to this one, Mark Jackson. Yeah, I don't. And maybe it's not fair. But Rossi, when Mark Jackson was fired and replaced by Steve Kerr, the owner of the Warriors, do you remember this one when this first came down? They said, why did you fire Mark Jackson? Guy won 50 games, got to the playoffs. You know what his answer was? We found somebody better. I just don't think Mark Jackson was a good coach. yeah i i don't know enough he's only what he's only there one year right was there a couple years the warriors yeah a couple years okay but not enough of a sample says for me again um i i i and again this is terrible for us in the sports real but i do you really have when you hear those names do you do you go any of them like oh hell no or oh that's my

guy not really no that's just that's how coaching searches go it's not our job to know who's going to be like the next rising star and then of course the big one we've mentioned before jeff And a Gundy. Intriguing. I just don't. And Jeff's a smart guy. I don't think Jeff's going to revert back to 1999 Jeff Van Gundy coaching or 2003, or whatever it was.

I think he would change the times, correct? He's a smart guy. He's a smart guy. He'd have to know that the NBA has changed so much since he last took the court as a head coach. He's not going to try to instill something that worked 20 years ago when today's players coming out of college in high school aren't playing that style of basketball. I agree So who's your favorite of that bunch?

I mean, I could start naming a bunch of other assistants Yeah, I know Chris Finch, the assistant with New Orleans has He's been mentioned. Rockets Time. Wes Unselt Jr. No opinion on that. Darwin Ham. No opinion.

Paul Silas. I'll give you a one wild card. You ready for a complete wild card? Okay. Dick Vitale. Calvin Samson. No problem with Calvin Samson. He was the Rockets defensive coordinator, has a relationship with James Harden.

He's in his 70s, though, at this point, right? Late 60s, NBA. Okay, yeah. Yeah, I would figure maybe he would want to say in the college game, maybe like even saying the state of Texas. I just think. Maybe even, you know, go to the Capitol. The reason why, if I'm Kelvin, he's always wanted to coach the NBA. He's 64, I'm sorry.

He's always wanted to coach the NBA. So if you still have that taste for it, you'd love the opportunity. But what you've got right now at U of H, you have the best facilities in Texas. alongside probably what well I mean the Frank Irwin Center's not good and I mean they're building a new arena

but I mean for right this second and it's a much bigger job and higher prestige job but you of H's had way more success than the tournament in the last five years in Texas does the last five years yes yes for sure for sure I guess for sure yeah

no there's no for sure it's definite but UT still a way bigger bigger and better job in an actual conference where you're not playing Tulsa and Tulane and stuff like that you know well you're not getting to the sweet 16 like you're doing U of H. I know there's a lot of tough matchups against UCF in that conference,

but I mean, it's just, don't you doubt UCF. Big Bois basketball. Point being is this, while you guys are enjoying your NIT runs every year, my Cougars are going to the NCAA tournament every year. Well,

they didn't go last year. Nobody did. Not a single soul went. I just think when you have everything you want at U.S. I mean, facility-wise, arena-wise, if it ain't broke,

don't fix it. You know, don't put yourself in a spot where you built this from scratch, I'd take advantage. But he's been at OU and Indiana, so you have H's got for a little small time. No, U.H is big time. Really, really big time.

Perennial tournament team now. Probably going to be... Yeah. So like two years? No doubt will be the American Athletic Conference favorite to win the conference and probably a three or four scene in the NCAA tournament. Don't be jelly. Don't be jelly.

That's all I say. Don't be jelly. It's only as Tulane doesn't have themselves a year. You guys will be okay. No, we're going to be just fine. By the way, tonight, Cougar Sports Magazine at 7 o'clock. Oh, can't wait. You should.

It's right after. You better leave me in with a great lead-in. Nightcap at 6, Cougar Sports Magazine at 7. Can't wait. I'll listen for the 8 minutes. I'm driving home. All right. Brian T. joins us in a matter of seconds to start the final hour, the Matt Thomas show.

This is Sports Talk 790. This is the Matt Thomas show. 203 on Sports Talk 790. Today's edition of Believe it or not is coming up in 50 minutes from now. Topic is famous Sally's in honor of the latest named Hurricane. that and the fact we'll have to save our Lamar Jackson for believe or not for later this week. Right now, our buddy Brian T. Smith, now, Brian, you worked hard Thursday night in Kansas City, right? Yes, I was in Kansas City on Thursday night.

And then you flew home early Friday mornings. Want to see the wife? I want to see the dog. You wanted to get back home. I slept for three hours, and I had to leave for the airport at 4.30. Yep. And I flew out at 6.30. Yep.

And we have a new puppy that we got from a rescue place. There's actually a great, you know, shelter rescue called K9 Rescue Angels and the Heights. And there's been a trend of a good trend of people, you know, picking up, helping out with, you know, rescue dogs, shelter dogs, fostering them. And we fostering them. And then we adopted one, his name is Moni, and he's absolutely incredible. And he's six months old. So, yeah, I wanted to get home to Monty. So Monnie says, hey, Brian T, you've worked very hard.

Come snuggle with me at 155 in the afternoon. Yes. And turn your phone off. And I fell asleep on the couch. I had my phone. I didn't know my phone was on mute. And I woke up with Monty on my lap at like 3 o'clock and I had like 20 missed calls. And you felt great though, though.

I mean, sometimes those midday naps are really good. People take nap during my show occasionally. I actually felt pretty empty. I felt really guilty. Oh, no, no, no. I don't get paid enough. Been there, done that. All right.

So let's get what, we will focus, you and I visit on Friday about the Texans game coming up, but let's get to, let's talk Rockets here. You know, I honestly, I'm a terrible feel for coach who's needed. Like when the Astros are going through managerial search, I didn't know who the right selection was. And it's not because I don't have an opinion. I just, that's just not a strength of mine. I don't know what a team wants or needs because unless they let you inside the bubble or inside the peel the curtain back completely, you don't know what they need.

All I've said was is that whoever becomes the coach of this basketball team is going to need to be get the seal of approval from the two-star players. And I think you'd agree with me on that, right? 100,000 percent. And I honestly, I think it's much more James Hardin than it is Russell Westbrook. and I've, you know, we could talk with this for an hour, Matt. I mean, the rockets for as disappointing as they are, and in some ways, I mean, and I wrote this a couple days ago, I mean, who does less than more? Seriously, like, who does less and more?

I would say that the rockets have done less with more. Now, they've come very close, and it's a back and forth conversation with the rockets, because for as much praise as you want to give, you know, factually, statistically, we. We can say James Harden is the best score in the NBA and they fall short. And we can say Mike Van Tony is the best regular season coach in Rocket's history. Statistically his winning percentage during the record season is through the roof. I mean, you know, Rudy T. Kevin McHale, whoever you want to pick. No one's even come close to him. And they kept falling short, Matt.

And part of it they fell short because of the Golden State War's Dynasty. Part of it they fell short because they underperformed and they didn't adjust enough in the playoffs. And they were in a lot of ways, I think the Rockets have been. forced to realize that the way that they've been constructed has been, except for that that, that, that 2018 with Chris Paul, they, they excel for the most part up to the last two years in the regular season. And at some point, they hit a wall in a seven game series. And guess what?

James Hardin hits a wall in a seven game series. So you put all that together and you look at the state of this team right now. And there really will be, you mean, you can throw Tad Brown in the mix, but it's really going to be Tillman Fritita, Darry unless something completely changes and Tillman decides to move on from Darrow, which right now, I don't see that happening. And James Hardin making this decision,

but here's the thing. That was, you know, pre-Tilman, that's sort of how it was before. Now, it was less before, and it was Darry, and they went with Mike Dan, Tony. But, Matt, the reason they went with Mike Dan Tony was because they wanted to find a coach who could get the best to James Hardin, right? I mean, that's,

before it was Hardin and Dwight Howard, and Kevin McHale. And James Harden was truly coming to his own. He was becoming the face of a franchise. Van Tony got the best out of James Hardin that he's ever been. And Mike Dantone chose, chose to walk away from the Rockets. So there's so much with this team, with this franchise. I've written about it a lot in the last few days in the Chronicle.

I'll continue to have done it for the last few years. They're not a horrible franchise. They're always in the conversation. I mean, they're in the national conversation. but they always fall short and I don't believe that they're going to get to that next level that they want to get to

that James Harden wants to get to unless they get the right coach this time. And at this point, I mean, we're hearing so many different candidates from guys that have been coaches before to assistant coaches that want that opportunity. Is there anybody that you've heard

and you're reading the same stuff I am? Is there anybody? My answer is I don't have one. Is there anybody that you're like, yep, I feel like that's the kind of guy. there's there's none of the names blow me out of the water at the start I mean we're you know of course we're not going to know for a couple years there's nobody right now that you can look at and say oh my gosh that is that that person is so much better than Mike dantonia and Matt I'll tell you a couple things for the fact for a fact number one Mike d'antone chose to leave the rockets okay the rockets were still considering whether or not to bring back Mike d'antone and I mean on the simple level you at Garrow morey I believe into the bubble or going into the bubble saying, you know, the most important thing we can do this off the season is to bring Mike back. Now, the series against the Rock, I mean, against the Lakers,

it ended up being horrible. Those last four games were incredibly disappointing. Games four and five were a joke. I thought it was going to be very difficult at that point to bring back Dan Tony, because if you weren't going to bring him back the previous year on a multi-year deal that was favorable to him, why would you do it now? But there are other open jobs. And there's nobody on paper. right now that you can usually say that's going to be the perfect fix. Here's the other thing that I know for a fact. If you look at maybe Tailu or Sam Cassell or, you know, whoever it's going to be, they will. Now, I don't know if they're going to follow through because sometimes the rockets talk big

and then they don't follow through and they kind of go in a different direction. But I know for a fact, Matt, right now that they want to find a coach and the coach has to be able to bond with Hardin and just like Mike get the best out of them offensively and defensively, but they want to finally find a coach who will go head to head with James Harden, who will call him out. And if it's not just Hardin, it can be Westbrook, it can be the entire team, it can be the entire roster, it can be the Rockets on a cross-country trip. Tomentertit owns the Rockets, Darry has been the general manager since 2000 and freaking 7. And I said this on TV on Sunday night. I mean, think about all the grief.

Texans fans gave the Texans and Bob McNair for Rick Smith. Darry has been the GM since 2007 and hardly anyone mentions it. But they're going to try to find somebody that can get the best out of James Harden continually, but can also challenge him, Matt. And it's not the numbers with Hardin. We've been doing this for eight years. It's not the stats. It's not the MVP.

There's really nothing left for him to accomplish statistically, except for a championship. And here's the kicker. except for being a better leader. And I still don't believe, as much as I praise James Harden, I still don't believe that in terms of leading a franchise, leading a team, that he's anywhere near the leader he has to be, and I think in a lot of ways,

that continues to hold back the rockets when it really matters. Let me throw a few things at you just to play devil's advocate. And again, this is interesting conversation. You know, the thought about Darrell being with the teams in 2007, If Darrell was to be let go tomorrow, how long would it take for him to get another job? It wouldn't take long, but see, here's how the rockets have to filter it. I'm not, I mean, I've never said they should get rid of Darrell Morris. But I do believe that just about every other team would have moved on at some point, just like we would set up the Texans and Rick Smith.

But see, the thing is Rick Smith was not going to, yeah. But is Darrell the right GM? This is what Tillman, I don't have to decide this. Tellman has to decide this. Is Darrell the right GM? for the Rockets right now at this point in their franchise history to win them a title in the next one or two years. Because here's the thing, Matt, if that does not happen, and I think it's much harder for it to happen right now than it was in 2017, 18 when they had Chris Paul.

If that does not happen, James Hardin's going to be 34, 35 pretty soon, and he will no longer be a top five player. Russell Westbrook won't even be close to that anymore, and they'll be forced to rebuild without even wanting to do it. So they don't have this three or four-year window. They've got a one or two-year window. When I try to compare general managers and coaches, I think about what their hireability is after they get let go. And that's why people that complain about Mike Dantone,

Mike Dantone is going to be on the ends on potentially four or five jobs. So it's not what the fans think. It's not what you and I think. It's what the league says. And the league says that Mike Dantonian more than likely is going to find another job. I feel the same way with Daryl Morey. So that wasn't just to be a little bit of a, you know, do you make the move or not because that would show you how much respect

Daryl has run the NBA that he would get a job probably instantaneously. To the hire itself, this is not about just the rock. This is about anybody. If you don't pacify and make the superstar, the alpha dog, the number one or number two players in your team happy, you're never going to win. So that's the slippery slope that the organization is going to have to go through. Right. But have they not pacified hardened to the play?

point that it's just ridiculous the last eight years and they've always fallen short. Well, that's the thing. It's, yeah, it all depends on how much blame internally the Rockets believe that James is for where this team is right now. And I don't, and I don't believe that to be a lot of it. I think the Rockets, I think the Rockets do, it's a great conversation. I think, again, we could talk about this for an hour. I think, I, you know, the heck with the Texans and the Astros, I think in a lot of ways, by far the most interesting conversation in Houston Pro Sports have been for years, the Houston Rockets, if you really

know your NBA and your pro sports. Here's the thing with Hardin. I have found for the last five freaking years, and I'm being 100% honest with you, because it would be much better for you and 790 and me and the Chronicle if the Rockets would just get it over and win a title with James Hardin, right? It'd be a lot better.

It'd be a lot more fun. Well, it would be all for all of us. I mean, James wants a title. Russ wants a title. We in Houston won a title. It's been 25 years. So, yeah, I think all of us would cherish this opportunity, for sure. But I think Mike's gone because they were spinning their wheels.

Kevin McHale was gone because they hit a wall. So now they're looking at a new coach. And this is what is about to say. I think the Rockets for the last five years, and they would never admit this. Darrell would never admit this. None of them would ever admit it publicly. But I believe privately. And I know this for a fact that they continue to say one thing about Hardham

because they feel like they have to appease them and pump him up and give them the keys to the franchise. Privately Matt, every year, every year they get frustrated and there are questions and they want more out of them. And it's this give and take balance because they can't lose him. And if they don't have him, I mean, Westbrook's not a number one anymore. He's the number two. If they don't have hard and they don't really have anything, but they continue to want more. And it's this tug of war that they have internally. They put on the happy face publicly, but internally, and they're dealing with the same thing right now,

which is why the impositive, they believe and they hope that this next head coach can be the one that, you know, it all clicks in the magic. finally happens. Well, leaving it at that. We'll talk to you Friday at 2 o'clock. Thank you for the time. We appreciate it. Brian T. Smith from The Chronicle with us here on the Matt Thomas show. Good points. Good debate. I love coaching searches. I just do. I just hope it's the right one because, man, it has been a long time. And I think all of us that our rocket fans believe that it's the way it's been long enough, especially after what has been put out there in terms of talent the last couple of years. 713-212-5-790 if you want to get in 7-13-212-5-790 with a message for

Improvemyerection.com. Dr. Rorick, his wife, Doty, run a clinic on the west side of town just off the Sam Houston Parkway. And if you want to call them, it'd be a great idea, especially if you are suffering from erectile dysfunction, 281-496-3355. 281-481-496-33-55. Get with Improvedmyerection.com. Get with Dr. Rorick over the sexual wellness

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Take him with you. Download the free eye-heartress. radio app for your phone at sports 790.com. Just remember you'll have to feed him. Interesting comments from Brian T. 222. Ross rejoins the conversation. Here's what I don't want. And the reality is this.

You have three players that basically, give or take, make $95 million. That's pretty heavy. And then, I mean, you add in Covington and you add in PJ Tucker's in for eight next year. Covington's like 12 or 14 the next couple of years. Those five guys are over 110 comfortable. You're at the salary gap basically right there. Reality is this. If you try to trade one of them, word will get out.

Correct? Nobody ever keeps trade conversations super secret. Somebody talks to somebody, somebody spread something, and then it becomes just a swarm of controversy. I don't know. I don't know in 2020 if you can, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, either one of them and maybe, and maybe they're not interested in, I don't think, I don't think, I don't think, I don't think they're really interested in training James. I don't. And I don't think,

that's all in the inner walls. Uh, and that's locked and they're like, Matt, we're not telling you what to say. We're not telling you what not to say. I'm okay with that. They don't want to tell me, that's fine. I didn't ask because that's their own business. But I think if you start kicking tires on deals, they'll find out, and that could be serious resentment. Secondly, what do you do? What do you get in return? Frankly, the only time you get rid of superstar players that make massive money is because you're going to run a rebuild.

And I don't think people want to hear want to rebuild here. Do you know how long it's been since the Rockets have truly sucked? It's been a while. It's been basically the early 2000s. And then they got the number one pick and got Yomeng and tried to build off of that. But I mean, I feel like the Russell Westbrook, trade came out of left field. The Chris Paul trade came out of left field.

You can have conversations. I hope you're right. And you've, and the last two deals have been pretty secretive. I'll give you that. So I think it's possible. And yeah, look, that's really where you want to go. Do you want to take that chance, though? If you think that James is your guy, which I believe the Rockets do, but still, do you

even bring it up in conversation like, do you hear what the Rockets are trying to do? Especially if you're one of those teams that doesn't want him. then they would have no reason why not to say anything, not to say something to somebody. Yeah, I guess you just have to have that trust in Durham. And that's a risk you take in with trying to make any move in the NBA. Yeah, that's where you have to go. You either have to say, we're going to make this work.

So, yeah, Robert Coventon's going to be making $12 million next year, I believe. And by the way, Eric Gordon is a non-trade clause, no trade clause in his contract. So he have to be very particular about if you were trying to move. him. They've got $122 million on the books already for next year. That's if the three points... Like what is the simple solution? If Tellman, who's... There are two blocks from us. Said, Ross, come over here and have a cocktail. Okay. You wouldn't turn it down, right? Are you paying? Telling? Well, of course. I mean, he owns that. He owns a hotel, post-oak, great hotel.

And billionaires don't get billionaires by spending money. My point is this. He brings you over. What would you tell him? I say, do you want to win now or do you want to win in the long term? That's your two options. To build around this, try to strike gold with players who are off the street at Daniel House Jr. Well, last act as a rocket this year, notwithstanding, he's been a good fine. There's no way he comes back, right? What do you do?

Can you trade him or wait? Absolutely. He's got two years left on his contract. I would like to keep Daniel House. He's making $3 million a year. He is such a good value, but you need guys who are outperforming their. contract. But that's the second straight year. Look, if anybody's going to forgive Daniel How's getting a piece of ass, it's going to be James Harden. Yeah, but boy, he, he tried to

include everybody in the, uh, he panicked. Yeah, he panicked. He tried to find a fall guy and they're like, no, I ain't going to be a fall guy for this. Well, we can't find a fall guy whenever they have the door data. You're just not, it's not going to work. So you need to find a fall guy with, when you can actually, when there's some shadiness or some unknown factors, Everything is under lock and key. That's what makes what he did so much more stupid. And that's why everything is under lock and key. And that's why PJ Tucker's got to find him and just cuss him out.

PJ Tucker, to me, him and Ross are the two best swear out guys on the team. If you're going to get sworn, like here in the office, if we do something wrong, we have some people who would be afraid of that would be mean to us. And it would be other people like, he's just talking on the side of his mouth. Right? There are people that, there are your bosses that you are like, if they admonish you, you're like, oh my God, I really screwed up. Or if the other person in Monash is like, okay, whatever.

Okay. I think PJ and Russ swearing at you, calling you names, calling you out, could shake him up and say, all right, I'll never do this again. Yeah, if he did something stupid, why, I mean, that's, you just throw him out of there. He can outperform his contract. He can play well enough. And that's what the Rockets need. On the flip, you can probably get a trade value for him.

Could you not? What? Well, if you're telling me he's value to your team, why wouldn't he be valued to somebody else? Yeah, okay, but what? What are you trading him? I don't know. I'm just throwing it out there. There are very few trade ships the Rockets have at this point.

He's a trade ship, but I mean, I would say maybe for draft picks. You're not looking for draft picks if you're moving forward with this team. If you're moving forward and saying Russell Westbrook and James Hardener are guys, then you have to find guys who are cheap, who can play defense and who can make three-pointers. Daniel House Jr. checks all those boxes. He can go to the team, make a formal apology. I'm sorry. I did this.

I'm an idiot. I put myself before the team. I'll never do it again. Perfect. And it was really horny. And hopefully we're not going back to the bubble. Yeah, he said, if we're out of the bubble, yeah, we're all good. But the problem is...

This is the first time an NBA player cheating on his girl? Yeah, but not in the bubble. When everybody was watching you... It was very stupid. It's like stealing money in the bank when you're in the bank, right? People have been doing that for years. Yeah, but they usually get in it out. You can't get out.

True? Well, except for an inside man. Think about that. All right. Like Ocean's 11? Yeah. So I don't know. I would like to keep Daniel House because I'm thinking of this from on the back on the court.

So you've already answered that. There are guys who are can't, you look, if they can't get along and this is it, then yeah, move on. So how about this? Why don't we just go get a legit six nine, six ten, shoot three, but can put us back to the basket if necessary. Because here's the thing. There will be somebody putting their back to the basket at some point next year, right? You would think the new coach is not going to go just do exclusively three in layups, right? There has to be major traits.

Your starting five is locked up. Tucker, Covington, Gordon, Hardin, Westbrook. They're all under contract next year. Yeah. You're going to go find a cheap big man, I guess. Mid-level guy. Like who? Tristan Thompson.

You excited about Tristan Thompson? For mid-level, sure. Okay. Is Tristan Thompson in the starting lineup better than, I guess, who would be Eric Gordon, would be the six-man? Well, if you wanted to go bigger, yeah. Look, I said, I'm just throwing us out there. The Lakers beat you by going small.

All I'm saying is, I don't think when you're over at Tillman's at the hotel, and he's asking Ross your opinion, I don't think you're saying, just pick up where you left off, right? I'm telling him. You tell him stay the course? No. I'm telling him blow up. You need to do one and two things.

You're staying the course or you're blowing it up. right I think well okay this is do everything you can to find a

trade suitor for for Russell Westbrook try to get a star level player back one with a jump shot

preferably is he is Russ appealing to other NBA teams today now Chris Paul

wasn't appealing to people last year and all of a sudden he became a star we thought that was an

tradable contract and it was moved so I mean we Elijah one back to Kenny

another three Kenny tries one more Clutch City. This is Kenny DeJet Smith, and you're listening to Sports Talk 790. I feel fairly confident that Kenny Smith will not be a candidate. Sam Cassell is intriguing, Rossi, but again, we don't know, except he's been on Doc Staff. Excuse me, Doc Staff.

We don't know if, we don't know much about assistant coaches. Becky, we've argued about this on the Zoom before on our Monday night meetings. I don't believe there will be an NBA female head coach. I'm in the minority on that. She keeps getting looks. She'll get hired somewhere, I feel like. Pacers have interviewed her, right? Right.

You absolutely believe that young men will buy into a female telling him how to run the NBA game. You can say yes, you can say yes. I think it would be... I didn't say she's going to win 15 championships when she's the head coach. I'm saying I think she'll get a shot.

By win. 20, 2017. What did you say? 2027? Teen. Because here's the thing. Whatever that means. We're seeing assistant coaches in women's basketball in the NBA level get college head coaching jobs.

Like Carol Lawson was an assistant with the Washington Wizards. She's done the coach at Duke. Okay. I'll take your word for it. Yeah. Well, I mean, I don't think I'm lying to you. So I don't know. I still believe it's going to have to be.

Now, Becky would be the one because she's been in NBA circles for a long time. but I just, I don't know if it'll ever be a spot where female will do it. And again, I'm not trying to be sexist. I'm just trying to be real. That the NBA world is, I mean, for that matter, do you think it'll ever be an NBA female NFL coach? That one seems further off. Lindsay Gottlieb is an assistant with the Cavs.

She was offered the head coaching job for the G-League Iowa Wolves. She turned that down to go be an assistant with the calves. I would actually do that too. I think staying at the NBA level is the easiest way to get there. Now, the question be when Popper tires, shouldn't that be Becky Hammond's job to take? Tim Duncan probably didn't want that job, right? Does Tim Duncan want to be a head coach?

I don't know. He's an assistant now. He doesn't even go to the bubble. He's like, I'm going to be working out with Lamarcus. Well, guys got to focus on his priorities. Yeah. Answer my. That will be the indictment.

If Becky Hammond doesn't get the job when Pop retires, then it'll never happen. Suppose we shall see. I say she'll get a shot somewhere. Okay. Let's make a gentleman's bet on it. No, no. Five year bet?

That sounds lengthy. Five years for... No, I want ten years. Why, you already had five? No, five more. Okay, what a year are we in now? By 2025, will Becky Hammond be an NBA head coach? I want halfway through 27.

2750, we'll compromise. You want September 27? Okay, fair enough. We'll bet for a 10 piece of executive nuggets. Ooh, that sounds delicious. Let's say. Let's go to, oops, sorry, I've hit the wrong line there.

Let's go to James in Northwest Houston on 790. Hi, James. Hey, guys. Hi. How's everybody today? Wonderful. What's on your mind? Well, see if I can get this said the way I wanted to.

Before Chris Paul came along, before Russell Westbrook came along, you know, it's very obvious that the Antonio designed this offense around James Harden. It was most obvious when Hardin wasn't in the game because the machine just fell apart. Well, let's go first. He designed the offense. He made James a point guard.

It was the first time in James' life that it was a full-time point guard. Secondly, most teams don't have a bench with as good at players as your top dog player. When LeBron leaves the court for the Lakers, give me an example. Mark Keith Morris doesn't fill LeBron James' role as well as them. So falling apart is wrong. relative term, especially when you're talking about the number one player on your team, it'd be very hard to find somebody like that coming off your bench. But continue on. Right, right. And I'm not saying that they need to find someone like James Harding coming off

the bench because that's an impossible find. The point that I'm going to make is, if you remember Doug Collins and the Chicago Bulls, that offense highlighted Michael Jordan's and his capabilities. It was clear that the concept of the team was to highlight Jordan. And he had a lot of the team. And he had some unbelievable games. I think he scored above 60 in at least one game, maybe even more. And then Phil Jackson came along. He put the triangle offense in, which was an offense that was designed not to focus on one person. Jordan still put up amazing numbers because he's Michael Jordan. But the focus wasn't so obviously on Jordan, the way the focus is so obviously on James Harden in the Rockets offense.

So they bring in Chris Paul, and it worked, especially it was working when Hardin was, you know, on the bench and it wasn't on the floor. You had another guy in there that could run the offense. Same with Russell Woods, Rick. He had another guy in there that could run the offense. But it was a different style of offense. They didn't play the same offense when those two guys were on the court and James Hardin was on the bench for whatever restaurant that he was having.

If you look at what the Warriors did when they brought in Kevin Durant, he stayed in just like a glove. The offense played the same, operated the same with or without Kevin Durant or with or without Steph Curry. When one of those guys was out and the other one was playing, Steve Kerr did not have to change the way the offense operated if one of them was on the bench or for, you know, they only reps for a few minutes, but he was able to run the same offense, the same scheme, the same style in the same way, regardless if both of them were on the court at the same time,

or if only one of them was on the court at the same time. So when you have an offense, to my opinion, that's so obviously designed around one person, and you bring in another superstar, it's going to be difficult, like Russell Westbrook, It's going to be difficult for that other superstar to operate within that offense the way it's designed. So are you suggesting that the two don't play on the floor at the same time? I'm saying that it's difficult to have a guy like Russell Westbrook or even Chris Paul come in

and play in an offense that's designed to really showcase the talent of one person. It just is very, very difficult. I don't know what the right answer is. I'm not an NBA guru, but I am saying that that doesn't seem to work to be able to find that, you know, that superstar that, you know, is close to the level of James Harden and asks them to work within the offensive structure that's designed around one key component. You know, if you look at the games that Russ Westbrook had where he really was great, he generally was breaking from Dan Tony's offensive. style and sort of doing what he was used to doing in those games where he really put up some big numbers. In what way?

I don't see, I don't see, and I saw almost every game, I didn't think that Russ was running a different style of offense that the other four guys on a floor running. I don't see that at all. I didn't see it. And the Kevin Durant point is completely false. Absolutely, he didn't run the exact same offense, and he did do things that were just for him. And remember during those series when the Rockets were switching everything,

and it was all Kevin Durant ISO. All national media was upset that Kevin Durant was ruining their offense, and then he'd go out there and drop 40. So, yeah, they didn't keep it completely the same with Golden State, and the Rockets didn't get it completely the same with Russell Westbrook. They changed, they went to small ball offense because of Russell Westbrook. That's tailoring your roster to a player, because Clint Capella and Russell were on the floor at the same time,

and you have two non-shooters, and the spacing was all screwed up. That's why Clint Capello was shipped out for a shooter. I mean, they did change up stuff. Well, it didn't. You know, I watched a lot of games as well, and I saw something different. I didn't see it as a complete meltdown, like a combination that did not work. What I did see was simply that you could not showcase Russell Westbrook's full breadth of talent and capabilities. And on that note, I got a roll to a break.

The best of Russell Westbrook was everything 15 feet inside. Safe to say, right? Yes. The elbow jumpers using the backboard. No thanks. Dirk steps. No thanks. Everything was attacking the basket. That's when he was great. And that's why the deal was made for Clint was to clear some more space for him, not the clock up the middle.

And a small element of this, I think he wasn't healthy, completely healthy. He talked about it after the post game and said, I don't. I want to make excuses, but normally you get a couple of weeks. He talked about how he had COVID, and he had to be out for 20 days from that. Yep. How much does that matter? How much does that factor in? I don't know.

But health is going to be a determining factor with every team. I mean, it's just you can't, I don't think you can use it exclusively as a why a team didn't win or did not win. All right. All right. We're going to play, believe it or not next, all things about Sally's. I can't wait to hear about this. I also can't wait to tell you about, I'm going to do it right now, a brand new member of the 790 family. It's Balcones distilling.

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Matt Thomas is swinging for the fences here on Sports Talk 790. Tomorrow on the radio show, Dusty Baker, scheduled to join us. Astro Player, scheduled to join us. Aaron Reese will be on the show, schedule to join us. That's a power pack show. All right, I'll go ahead and take that one off. You got it. I mean, if you got vacation time, go ahead. I got two weeks to burn by now.

I need two. You're going to see much of me in December. Hope you miss me. That's 10th years. Really nice on the vacation. I was supposed to take Thursday and Friday off, but Cougars not going to Memphis, going to Waco instead this weekend. Yeah, you're not going to be walking in Memphis.

You'll be walking in Waco. I think we're going to go to Memphis. That's a downgrade. We're going to eventually go back to Memphis. Okay, well, as long as they don't go to anywhere, party buses. Yes. By the way, Cougar Sports Magazine, the debut of that tonight at 7 o'clock. mostly going to be on Saturdays

right after your show or right after Space City Saturday but since there's a game is 11 o'clock in the morning we could do anything after so we're going to go live tonight Chris Pezman's going to join us Athletic Director Joseph Dorsey from The Chronicle Ted Party

our color analyst on the football broadcast and then we'll hear some of the press conference today Derek King I think in the final second No he's at the University of Miami Do you know the starting quarterback is at U of H? Chicken Knowles I think No. You don't know, do you?

It's... That's okay if you don't. Donnie Diamond. Donnie Diamond. Yeah. Five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play America's fastest growing sports game show.

We simply called it. Believe it or not. And here's how it works. You'll call 713-21, 2-1-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-2-5-7-0. Donnie Diamond. Today's edition of Believe or not is brought to you. buy Woodhouse Day Spaws.

Print out your gift card for the gift of re-laxation at Houston Woodhouse Spas.com. Category today is all things about famous sallies. Famous sallies. I read you a statement about a famous sally. The statement's completely and utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it.

If the statement about a famous sally is erroneous, full of bunk and made up, you will say this. Two, believe it or not, on all things famous sallies and win your prize. Ross, what's the prize? It is DVDs. You know what? You're losing this title. Brendan, you are now...

And nobody told me with the prizes. Brendan, you are now the voice of prizes. It's random DVDs. It is a pick-a-flick. We have four DVDs here. There you go. Are you good?

It's a Gladiator, The Matrix Revolutions, and Airplane 2. No? Okay, it's none of those. You'll be able to pick. It's great DVDs. I'm sure we got some fantastic ones.

Oh. This is not how you sell a game. They're going to be great. If somebody give me a list of DVDs, I'll read them. I didn't know. It's 1917. All right.

Oh, that's good. Midway. You've never heard of 1917? Midway is good, too, yeah. 197. I'm going to actually, can we, can I steal one of us? Neil Young, Heart of Gold. Oh, good.

And BBC's old gray whistle test. 713. 1917 was an Oscar nominee. That was a great movie. 713-1-2-5-790. If that doesn't get you to call in with those great prizes, I don't know what would. 7-13-21-2-5-5-7-7-1-2-5. 790. Nate on 790, ready to play, believe it or not.

Let's do it. Sally Struthers is a graduate of UCLA School of Theater, film, and television. Believe it or not? Not. That is correct. Statement number two for the win. Sally Struthers, retired from acting in 2015. She's citing health reasons. Believe it or not. Not. That is correct. You have won a DVD. There's a Blu-ray these days, right? We got your Blu-Rays?

Rossi, nobody else wants to play. Well, they got... These people hate these prizes. Are laser discs available as well? Remember when they came out of the H-D-DV-D versus Blu-ray? I used to watch Star Trek, no, Star Trek, Star Wars on disc back in the late 70. Laser discs? Was that what they were called?

We used to have those in school. See, Brennan, you don't know. Laser discs were these giant discs. They were probably like six, like, they were like a large pizza size. We have a minute and a half left to go on the show to. Anybody else want to play? Yeah, we'll get somebody. 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 790.

I'm sure. If you want a DVD for Neil Young's Heart of Gold. Or, Midway. 713. What is Midway? 713, 212. I think it's a war movie. 713.

Oh, hey. 212. The Battle of Midway Island? 5790. This is the most futility we've ever had an addition of believing that. No, that's not true. We've had completely zero before. All right, I got one more person coming in.

Oh, look at them all popping in now. They want these DVDs before you can win them. A better quick question when we get him screen. What did Wex get a jack-in-a-box today? He's got a must have a large drink. Yeah. Is that a Diet Coke? Is that a tea or is that something with sugar in it?

Ultimate Cheeseburger, Curly fries, and two tacos. And what's a drink? Soda? Ice tea. First of all, Diet Coke. Dumbest thing ever to fast food. Coke Zero. Delicious.

It's a Dr. Pepper. Oh, with the real stuff. Full sugar, huh? And when I was, Ross really, really, really knows me well. That's my all-time normal order. Ultimate Cheeseburger combo. And tacos, too? Two tacos for 99?

Come on now. Andrew, on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. Sally Ride, the first woman to venture into space is alive. Believe it or not. Believe it. No, she died in 2012.

Oh. May she rest in peace? Horrible. Lastly, let's go to Jason on 790. Jason, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it. In 2019, a Sally Ride Barbie doll was released in Mattel's Incorporated

Inspiring Women's Series. Believe it or not? Not. Yeah, that's a believe it. Believe it. All right. That's it. We've taken enough of the time. Ladies gentlemen, Adam Wexam.

Who? Adam Clanton. They're actually going to do a three-hour full show today. Wow. I know. Stunning. Yeah, four of them this week, not five. What?

And then, Ross has the nightcap and then I had the Cougar Sports magazine at 7 o'clock. Stay tuned. Sports all the way next as part of the team on 7 o'clock.