The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Beat Nuggets, Can Texans Knock Off Defending Super Bowl Champs? Ravens Claim Diontae Johnson

Episode Date: January 16, 2025

Ross Villarreal of "The Matt Thomas Show with Ross" and Dan Mathews of "The A-Team" recap the Houston Rockets defeating the Denver Nuggets 128-108 to earn their fifth straight victory. Jalen Green scored 34 points, and Alperen Sengun had 20 as the Rockets are 10-3 in their last 13 games. Ross and Dan also:preview the Rockets facing the Sacramento Kings in the second of back-to-back games with Ben DuBose, editor of The Rockets Wirediscuss the Texans facing the Kansas City Chiefs on the road for a Divisional Round matchup with NFL quarterback veteran and ESPN analyst Dan Orlovskyreact to the Ravens claiming Diontae Johnson off waiverstalk about the latest update on free agent Alex Bregmansay "I Just Don't Get It" and more.

Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 10.0.2 in the A.m. on Sports Talk 790. Hello and good morning. And welcome in to a Thursday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Hambley and the logo. Right side of the floor. Pulls up.

Looks. Lobbs it, left side. Adams. Back door pass. There's Thompson for a flush. Another nasty handoff between Adams to amend for the finish. Three. Around the Shangoon's ball. It's affected by Jordan has a steel and throws it back out to mid court.

Brown had it momentarily back in the hands of Shangoon. New shot clock, right side Jalen 3. Porter and he nails it. Rock is just working at a different speed tonight. He's going to jam it over Dario Sarich. That's just not nice, period. 9572 my goodness it's all nearly fucking away by a man it is stolen by Whitmore look out he's all by himself and a reverse jam michael malone called a timeout highlights galore primarily with the guys wearing red and black

rockets to shoot well defend well and take advantage of two of the best Denver players out of the lineup and secure in the bottom high city a kids win Final score tonight, your Houston Rockets, 128, the Denver Nuggets, 108. Oh, in honor of Matt Thomas, not being here, we're going with John Denver to open up the program. Well, also because you can't really come up with a better song from Denver, can you? I think Jimmy Buffett had a song Mile High in Denver.

Yeah, we get it, Jimmy Buffett. You like to smoke weed and sing a song, about being on the beach. Cool stuff, bro. Well, anyways, we went with the Rocky Mountain High instead with John Denver to open up the show to honor the Houston Rockets and their big win. Yeah, I still say big win. Yeah, Nicola Yochich didn't play. Neither did Aaron Gordon. Eric Gordon didn't play either, for that matter. But I still say a big win for the Rockets over the Denver Nuggets yesterday, a part of the

conversation we will have today, along with many other things here. on the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. So because of that game last night in Denver, Matt traveling with the Houston Rockets to Sacramento, they will be on a back-to-back. Good news is the Rockets were blowing out the Denver Nuggets. So the starters didn't play the last five minutes or so of the game, and some of the starters didn't play at all, I think, in the fourth quarter.

I'd have to pull that back up. But the Rockets get to win. Matt is traveling with the Houston Rockets. They will be in Sacramento tonight. and then Portland on Saturday. So in the meantime, you have me right now solo because, well, we're a little shorthanded. Matt's out. Gordy's on vacation.

That's okay. Dan Matthews is going to show up at noon. So I can handle two hours by myself. I used to do it on Saturdays on the Sports RV show. You can be my co-host if you'd like to get in at 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90. You can also send tweets to at SportsRV. Connor McGovern is on the is well here as well you can find him on the Twitterverse at Connor D.

McGovern coming up at let's see 11 o'clock we've been Dubose to talk some rockets we'll also get the news at noon eventually we've got a Bregman update for you coming up on the show but I do want to I'm going to do it against my better judgment all right I'm doing a temperature check where are we at on the Houston Rockets right now are you paying attention are you watching are you starting to creep back in and get a little bit of into it because I'm somebody who has always been a Rockets fan. When I was growing up nine, ten years old, that's when the Rockets were winning their championships. That was my first love as a sports fan here in Houston. Somebody who was born and bred in this city. And the Rockets took over the city in those times. I think he came a Lajuan, of course, and then Clyde Drexler, all that. We don't have to go through the names.

So it's always been ingrained in me to be a Rockets fan. And obviously, it's been tough sliding since then. There was the nice run with James Hardin. There was the Catino Mobley, Steve Francis Mullais. And then after the James Hardin era, it's been like Christian Wood season and when are these young guys going to perform? But right now, the Houston Rockets are 27 and 12. They are number two in the Western Conference. They are two games up on the Memphis Grizzlies, three and a half games up on the Denver Nuggets, who they just beat in that spot.

and they are far exceeding expectations for this year to where, all right, you're thinking playing game, then the season keeps going along, keeps going along, and you're thinking, okay, top six would be nice. Now it's like, I want top four. I want home court advantage in the first round of the playoffs is what I'm looking for, for the Houston Rockets. And they play hard, they play good defense. They're number one in the NBA in rebounding.

They're top two, three in defensive rating, which is. points allowed per 100 possessions, which accounts for pace. So it's a number that I like. So they play great defense. Amin Thompson is flying around. Jaylen Green's playing like a freaking All-Star right now. He scored 34 points last night, 10 of 16 shooting. The hot three-point shooting will subside at some point.

He's been shooting over close to 50% from three in the last seven games. That will go down. But his aggressiveness is getting to the basket. His getting to the free throw line has been. key as well. 11 of 11 from the free throw line two games ago, 8 of 8 from the free throw line last night from Jalen Green.

Fred Van Vleet is a fun guy to watch. He's got a good assist to turnover ratio. Outbrinch and Goon, making fools of people in the post and behind the back passes. You know what else is sneaky about the Rockets? I like Stephen Adams coming off the bench. Stephen Adams comes off the bench for

like 10 minutes or whatever. He grabs a bunch of offensive rebounds. Dude's throwing no look behind the back to amend Thompson cutting to the basket. This Rocket's team has been really fun. They're really good. And I don't know where they're going to end up at the end of the season. I don't know how far they're going to go to the playoffs.

But right now it's all gravy. It's all exceeding of expectation. And in the last couple of weeks, there has been some discussion talking about, okay, what now? Should they go for Jimmy Butler? Should they try to make a big move for Devin Booker or Devin Fox and get that superstar player? I don't think that's entering the mind of the front office and this coaching staff at all. I think they are looking at the guys that they have in front of them saying we can win with these guys.

Maybe you want to tweak and add a piece on the bench or something like that. But I would be surprised if between now and the end of the trade deadline in February, if there was a major earth-shaking move from the rockets, that's even before they started surging up the standings now that they've won five in a row. I think they're trusting the process. I think they like their guys. You're allowing Jalen Green some time to blossom. He is looking like a superstar in the last seven games.

And we'll see if it lasts because we've seen it from him before, like March of last year. But he's 22 years old. He'll be 23 on February 9th. Happy early birthday to Jalen Green. And sometimes it takes guys years and years to figure it out. To me, this is the best defensive season. had and it's not the best

offensive season in terms of raw scoring numbers, but as far as being a complete player and doing things offensively for himself and for others and recognizing and reading defenses, I do think it's starting to shape up to his best offensive season.

And his three point percentage right now is at 35%, which if it can just stay around there, I'm not asking him to shoot 50% like he has in the last seven games. If it could just stay in a good range, Jalen Green is going to be extremely effective for the Houston Rockets. We know he's a streak shooter.

He's on a great streak right now. Hopefully it can't sustain. Rockets are looking good. Are you paying attention? That's what I want to know. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you would like to get in. 7-13-212-5-7-90. A lot of stuff to get to.

As I mentioned, Jeff Passon and Buster-only commenting on Alex Bregman and the latest. We'll talk about that coming up at 1030. Also, we will talk about the Texans as they prepare for the chiefs going up to Arrowhead. We got much to discuss anything you want to get to. You can at 713-212-5-790. It is the Matt Thomas show without Matt Thomas. We got Dan O'Lawsey coming up at noon. We got Ben Dubose on some rockets coming up at 11.

Dan Matthews is going to join me as we go along and you. It is the Matt Thomas show till 2 o'clock. We're going to take quick break here back in a minute. This is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. on Sports Talk 790. Is the Matt Thomas show with Ross? Without Matt Thomas. And with just Ross sitting in right now.

Dan Matthews will join as we go along. We have Ben Dubose on to talk some Rockets. He of Rockets Wire fame. You can also find him on Twitter at Ben Dubose. Dan Orlowski. Talking about the Texans versus the chiefs of ESPN. Great get by Dan Matthews. He'll be coming up at noon here on the program.

Then we still have, I just don't get it. I mean, we've got a lot of stuff to get to here with you until 2 o'clock. Yes, if you have not heard, tell your friends, tell your neighbors. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross is 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. here on a sports talk 790. Phone lines open at 713-212-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Some people still not getting with the program with the Rockets. and I get it and it's okay.

And, you know, I understand. Not everybody's like, you know, there's some of us like me and probably many of you, first of all, if you're listening to the station, you're a big sports fan. We appreciate you. Thank you for listening to this station. But also, some people pick and choose. Some people like the entire buffet of sports. And they really get into all of us, all of us choose what we get into.

Because I don't get into every sport. I'm not deep in the cricket game. I don't watch F1. I'm not a big NHL guy like my producer, Connemer, Governe is. there are certain things that I pick and choose. I choose to get into. You got only a finite amount of time. Certainly, if you have any sort of personal life,

you can't get into every single sport. You have to choose. And I've had people tell me that on Twitter before. Like, yeah, I used to be a big Rockets fan, but then I had kids and I had to choose and I chose the Texans or I chose the Astros or I went some other way. And I get that. But to me, it's really a fun brand of basketball.

You have football kind of letting up. Baseball isn't getting going right now for a while. while and even the end of the basketball season is before the baseball season really ramps up in full. Probably the end of the rocket season will be anyways. The finals are in June. Playoffs are in April, April, May-ish. So, yeah, I would say it'll be fun to watch. And this is a team that is basically built from the ground.

Now, big free agent deals with Fred Van Vleet and with Dylan Brooks. but the core of this team right now is Jalen Green and Alpern-Gingoon, both draft picks for the Houston Rockets. So it's been fun watching them grow and mature, and there have been some growing pains for sure. And it's been a long road on this process with the rockets where some people have called this guy bust, that guy bust, Jalen Green included.

There have been some moving and shaking guys. I really want Josh Christopher to be the next thing, and he's gone. And oh, Christian Wood, he's the worst and he's gone. It's been an interesting run in the post James Hardin era for the Houston Rockets, but things are going great right now. 27 and 12 as the number two seed in the Western Conference, beaten the Grizzlies 3-0.

Denver Nuggets didn't have Nicoliochich, but a nice win from the Rockets last night. Mention the phone lines are open at 713-212-5-790. Let's get to Roger, Northwest Side, holding longest. What's up, Roger? What's going on? on Rossi or that call you Rossi. Yeah, he calls me Rossi and it's kind of weird because the only people that have ever in my life.

And now I think people take cues from him and everyone calls me Rossi now. But before he kind of picked that up, I only heard it from my family. Like my mom would call me Rossi. My sister always called, you know, since she was a little kid, would call me Rossi. And then my nieces and nephews call me Uncle Rossi. So Rossi is not something I normally hear outside of family, but you're family now, Roger, so you can call me Rossi. Oh, well, thank you. awesome so we're going with uh you know i if you're calling this sports station and don't know that

rockets are you know are legit then i'm not sure why you're calling the sports station but anybody who's not living under a rock should know that rockets are viable candidate for a top four seed also i'm getting a lot of a lot of uh whispers and rumors about trading and and and and getting some kind of guy who can shoot and this and that i'm of the i'm of the part of hey stop broke don't fix it if you want to do all that Just wait for the off season. Let this thing play out because it might just be very, very special this year. You got guys that just fit.

The pieces just fit. They might not fit on other teams or other guys who come in might not play the same role as other guys are playing now. With the exception of poor Reed Shepherd, he just looks like he's just a little bit, a little bit not ready yet for the primetime players. But, you know, he took a shot yesterday. His feet weren't even set yet. But aside from that, this team's on a roll. Let it play out.

These trust-to-process type thing is going on here. And it's looking really, really nice. On the Breggie's breaking situation. You ever see those cartoons back in the day when, you know, the cartoon character makes a goof and his head turns into a jackass? Yes. Well, the same situation. Like Homer Foote? Correct.

This situation is going to play out. again but in real time in real life oh no i really think i really think uh his his his agent scott boris really did him a disservice and we we gave him probably the best deal and you know all full disclosure how many how many years out of those six years do you think he was going to play we're going to just go ahead and let him have the money anyway i think about four of those years would have been viable the last two would have been you know whatever he wanted to do and i don't know why he just didn't think about that because we would get we gave him

the best option and what teams are signing up and what general manager co-signing for a three-week a rev-up period or three-week calibration period that he's a three-month calibration that he starts up with every year just to get going you know what teams are signing up for that I'm going to tell you only one team it was us to tolerate it that because it was pregnant he's our own he's a legacy player and it was okay I don't see other teams that are signing up for that much less you know media members and fan bases and all that so there you go that's what I got Ross Have a good one. Thank you, Roger.

Appreciate you getting in. Yeah, a couple things. Yeah, on the Rockets part, as you said, yeah, I expect them to not rush things to trust the process. They talked about phase two two years ago with the hiring of Ema Adoka, with the signings of Fred Van Vleet and Dylan Brooks. Like, it made sense in theory, and it's making sense now in practice. We're bringing in those three guys represented and have brought a culture reset for. the Houston Rockets. A culture of accountability, a culture of toughness, of just not taking anything from anyone,

setting a defensive edge, trying on both ends of the floor, and not accepting failure. And it is, so far, it has worked in spades. And it has looked great. And I know there are more so the last couple of weeks before this five-game winning streak, like, okay, what's the next step? You got to get over the hump. Got to win the championship. Got to win the championship.

Okay. Yeah. or you can just kind of trust your core that has you exceeding expectations right now and let them grow and get better and flourish. Not saying the rockets are the next great dynasty and basketball, but if you remember, it took a few years for the Clay Thompson-Stef Curry Warriors to get to the level that they reached. You have to bang the door down a couple of times normally before you bust through it,

save for like off the top of my head, like the 2008 Celtics who got ready. Ray Allen, what, Paul Pierce, and who was, Kevin Garnett is their big three, and then they won in their first year. And that was all free agents stuff. Normally, teams have to grow. We can point to Michael Jordan getting over the pistons hump and the Rockets, losing to the Sonics in 93 and then finally busting the door down in 94, 95. Like, it takes a little bit of time. It's not win, win, win now, win now, or you're a loser. I know that's what a lot of the sports discourse is surrounded around.

that's a lot of the talk that we have. But in reality, with Raphael Stone and Ime Adoka, they have a vision, and it seems like to me they're going to give this vision time. I could be wrong. They could go and make a big move for Devin Booker. I don't think Jimmy Butler is way out of the realm of possibility, in my opinion. But you can let these guys grow and flourish. If you're looking for that superstar player who can rise this team to a new level,

maybe it's Jalen Green to an extent. Maybe it's Alpern Shungoon to an extent. Certainly it could be a men Thompson to an extent. I mean, that guy is doing everything. It's almost like he had a bad game. He had 11 points and 9 rebounds, four steals and two blocks. He does everything for you. He's a huge X factor in all of this.

It all kind of makes perfect sense. Ideally, right? Just think about it. You've got your veteran defensive pieces who can knock down threes, at least their career track record. says in the case of Fred Van Fleet, he and Dylan Brooks. Those guys are going to play defense. They're going to provide leadership. Then you've got a wing player who can blow by anyone on the perimeter, can dunk on anyone,

and can knock down step-back threes. And then you've got your big man in the middle finishing with both hands and he's a good passer and has a really high basketball IQ. I mean, think about that. From a team building standpoint, that sounds really good. A good second big man and Stephen Adams coming off the bench. a three-point sniper gunner slash score off the bench right now and Cam Whitmore in the way that he's playing.

This team is well constructed. And it's not an accident that they keep winning and winning the way they do. On the Bregman thing, well, we'll get to that on the other side because I do have a Bregman update that Roger did bring up Bregman. How much did he shoot himself in the foot here? How much did he overplay his hand or

how much is it bad circumstances say, I don't think it's unfair to say, I want more than Matt Chapman. And then apparently the market disagrees. All right. So certainly some nuanced discussion to get to on the Bregman thing. We're talking some rockets. Anything you guys want to get to as well.

We do have to take a bottom of the hour break. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90. Ben Dubbo's talking some rockets coming up at 11 o'clock. Dan Orlovsky and Dan, man. It's a double Dan coming up at noon as well in the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Matt Thomas, Ross via real.

It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. Yes, it is the Matt Thomas show with Ross, but without Matt Thomas. He is out traveling with the Rockets right now. I am here. Dan Matthews will be joining in a little bit along with Dan Orlovsky for an interview coming up at noon. Ben DeBose at 11 to talk some Houston. Rockets as well. And you folks have been great getting on the phone lines. I do appreciate you.

And there are a couple of lines opened if you'd like to get in. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-2-1-2-5-7-90. Holding longest Mike and Tomball, go ahead and get after it. Hey, Ross. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing great. What's up? You know what? I was just going to chime in on the Rockets thing. I'm a little older. I watched the Rockets since I was a kid as well. Back to the Moses Malone and Ralph Samson, Aaron, then the Hakeem and the Drexler-Barkley stuff. And then T-Mack, T.Aulming, Steve Francis, James Hardin. And I got to admit, I've kind of taken a break the last few years, like a lot of us probably because of the state of the team.

But, man, I'm stoked. I started watching them again last year pretty hard and seeing the team improve the way it is right now. This is a good young team, man. They're exciting. I'm not a big fan of trading a bunch of that talent away for some big name. I just don't think they should do that. I think they should let this marinate. And if they do that and this team gels like it's been doing,

I think it could be one of those teams where you have a great team, a championship team for a long time. I don't know what you think about that. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate it. It's like a good room, Mike. You got to let the flavors blend. You got to add a little bit of the onions, the bell peppers,

and the trio, the trio. Then you got to saute it. put some garlic in there, then you start adding other stuff and you let it grow. Rockets added, Jalen Green, and Alperin Shingoon, and well, Josh Christopher at the time, who was gone, and then you add Jabari Smith Jr. One year, then you add him in Thompson, another,

and he has really blossomed him into a guy. People are talking about as far as a, is like a first-team all-defense quality defender. I'm in Thompson. He's going to need to stay in the starting lineup, which I think he will, even when Jabari Smith Jr. comes back. back to live up to those expectations.

And Alper and Shingoon doing his thing. And you add it in as well. The injection of life, as I said, with the coach E. May Udoka, with Fred Van Vleet, and with Dylan Brooks. And this team is really playing well. And they're fun. And they're knocking down their threes right now. That's what we need to happen. Now, is this a short-lived spurt where Jalen Green's knocking down all his threes and the team's hitting 50%

48% 3s the last couple of games where they've basically been one of the worst three-point shooting teams in basketball and the water will find its level and go back down, it's possible. But the good thing is, they can bring their hard hat, their lunch pail, whatever cliche you want to make. They bring that defense on a night-in, night-out basis. Entire year long, they've been basically one, two, or three

as far as best defensive-rated teams in the league. Oklahoma City Thunder has been consistently number one and that's probably not going to change and they're going to be the West favorites, that's probably not going to be changed. But that's okay. We're ahead of schedule right now. If you had told me that the rockets

almost halfway through the season, 27 and 12 in the 2 seed, I would have said you were crazy. I would have thought you were crazy and we would have had you locked up. But now you're free because the rockets are 27 and 12. So we appreciate you.

All right, 713, 2,1, 2, 5, 790, the phone number. Let's keep it rolling on the phone lines with our good friend. Let's see. What was Biscuit right about this time? Biscuit, go ahead. Ross, Ross, Ross. What's up, my brother? Biscuit, Biscuit, how are you? I'm just chilling, listening

some Zapp and Roger. What do you got? There you go, man. Hey, you know, me and you, man, we basketball all day long, man. I don't know why. We can't get people. You know, I'm happy now to the Rockers are winning, man, because now I get some of my fellow to go to the game with me and everything.

There you go. Well, you buy their tickets, don't go, Biscuit. I'm going to disagree with you on one thing, Ross, that you just stated earlier. All right. You said the nucleus was Sangu and Jalen Green. I say the nucleus is Sangu and Jalen Green and Amin Thompson. Yeah, I think with Amin Thompson in there. I was thinking of that they're in the same draft class and that's really when the rebuild started.

So I put them together. I mean, of course, came a couple of years later. but you're talking about on the floor right now. The nucleus of the rebuild is Jalen Green and Alpern-Shingoom, but the nucleus on the floor right now, absolutely a manned Thompson's in that mix. Well, what I mean the nucleus, them to three guys, I'm not trading. Yeah.

I may move some of the other pieces. Some of the Fred might not be here when we make that championship run. Jabari maybe and get moved. Those three are untouchable. That's what I'm talking about. Those three guys right there, they're untouchable. And you talk to the coach. other day. And they recognize it.

And there's no coincidence, Ross. That Jaylen Green run last year and his run this year basically happened with a man Thompson on the floor. There's no, it's no, that's not a coincidence. Those guys play well together.

And one of the reasons is because Thompson is probably the smartest player on the team. And so when a green tax the bucket, if somebody comes over, Thompson goes to the open spot. So he knows he has somebody he can get it to. So, you know, and they kind of both like to run. And so that's, you know, that's the positive thing about it.

But the coach got a decision to make. You say Jabari come back and you say Thompson may stay in the starting lineup. And I tend to agree with you, but the guy to me that's going to go to the bench and going to be Jabari. To me, it's going to be Brooks if they make that move because they still need the height of Jabari. You know what I mean? last night, Jackson on Memphis was taking advantage of Brooks with his height, you know. And so I don't know how the coach is going to do it. I tend to think he's not going to take Brooks out of starting line up just yet, maybe next year move.

But here's the question I would ask you, Ross, so you said, let it work. And I'm with you to a point. But if I can get De Aaron Fox without giving up, without giving up those three guys, I just said, you got to look into it. Because if you add Fox to this, now you can get Oklahoma City. You see what I'm saying? And we're talking about championships.

You know, and you always talk about me, Ross. I said 11 game improvement over last year, and you and Matt laughed at me at the beginning of the season. I said, man, it's going to be like 11, 12 game improvement. And y'all like, ah, I don't know about that. I'm telling you. But if you get Fox with Jalen Green and Sangu and Amund and Amman Thompson. Now you got something. But I'm not going to know, once again, I'm not trading

Thompson, Green or Sangoon. Yeah, I don't know that you can get him. Thank you, Biscuit. I appreciate you getting in. I don't know that you can get him without giving up something substantive. Can you go to the Kings? Now, I think Deerrin Fox has one more year in his deal. Can you go to them and say, uh, here's Jabari Smith Jr. and Cam Whitmore and a first round pick or two? I don't know. I mean, this is just me speculating. bitballing right now live on the air. So I don't know if you could do that without giving away something like that. What exactly are the Sacramento Kings looking for in return?

But yeah, it's pretty much impossible to trade Shingoon and Jalen Green the way with the extension signed. It's a poison pill situation. You have to match that much more money and salary. In the NBA trade, you have to match salary up to like close within 25 percent or something like that. So if you send out $50 million, you've got to send out at least, what, $40 million in that somewhere in that neighborhood. And Rockets would have to do that and then some, I believe.

And when you're sending out, I think they would have to send out that much more salary if they were to trade one of those guys. So I don't think it's going to be happening with either of those guys. You're certainly not trading him in Thompson. I mean, he's completely untouchable right now, the way that he's been playing in the X factor of this team. kind of the Swiss Army Knife, do everything guy, do everything except shoot, and the offense still hasn't skipped a beat.

And then as far as the starting lineup, it could be Dylan Brooks going away for a men Thompson. I think Coach Udoka still loves his toughness and what he brings. And I love the toughness. And, I mean, now you have kind of two players. It was always Dylan Brooks getting the assignment of the toughest player to guard on the other teams, on the opposing team, one through four.

generally not sinners but sometimes if it's Victor Wimbunyama Dylan Brooks has been dispatched on him to get physical and with him and try to keep him off the block and stuff like that to wear a lumbering big man wouldn't be able to stay in front of

Victor Wimbunyama as much but it'll be interesting to see which way it goes if it is Jabari off the bench because Jabari does provide good defensive versatility for the rockets he can guard one through five on switches They like to switch with Jabari Smith Jr.

Anno, by the way, he's a credible three-point shooter, which is the Achilles heel of Amin Thompson. So it's one of those good problems. Rockets have a lot of good starting candidates. Amin Thompson is emerging as an extremely viable dual threat, cutting to the basket, getting offensive rebounds, and playing crazy great defense, whether it be on-ball defending or off-ball,

flying in for blocks, poking away balls for steals, just has a nose for the basketball, extremely high basketball IQ for a men Thompson, extremely valuable to what the Houston Rockets want to do. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number if you'd like to get in. Duane, I see you on hold. We'll get to you as well. We still owe you an Alex Breggman update.

We've got Ben Dubos to talk some rockets coming up as well. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. You folks want to get in. You can at 713-212. 5-790 7-13-212-5-7-90. Matt and Ross return on Sports Talk 790. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross, as the big voice man said. Rosvi-Rial with you until 2 o'clock.

Dan Matthews joining at noon. Let's see. We got, I just don't get it coming up later on the show. News at noon at some point on the show. Ben DuBose coming up to talk some rockets as well, and you at 7. 113, 212.5.790. 713, 212579. Dwayne and El Paso has been holding for a very long time, so we appreciate him for that, and we'll go ahead and get him on. Dwayne, go ahead. The floor is yours. All right. Thank you, Ross. Hey, I got a question for you. I was looking at the Chronicle of, and it says that the Astros signed 20 international players. Now, my question is to you, the Mets I read this morning, they signed a top prospect international player.

And they were given or they were either the Mets paid them $5 million or did the International League pay them $5 million. Probably the Mets. I would imagine the Mets. You get a certain amount of pool money. You can trade for the pool money. Also, I think, you know, in the years past, one of the problems with the, the whole. whole cheating scandal is the rocket, I mean the Astros got penalized. Pool money. I'm not sure exactly what goes into the total year after year, but the Astros had

just over $5.5 million in pool money this year and they signed 20 guys. Okay, then. So does that, because the pool money, does that go to that player or does it go to the? Yeah, you sign each them to a contract and you make them an offer and they agree with you. example, the rockets, I mean, guys keep working through the rockets mode all hour. The Astros, the Astros, Crown Jewel, apparently this year was a Cuban prospect named Kevin Alvarez, who is a lefty outfielder prospect with a good hit tool, good power. They signed him to $2 million. That's basically the headliner of their international pool, international signings.

Oh, okay, okay. Now, question, do I go to the Chronicle to find out how much they pay each player or where do I I don't know if they have those numbers, but yeah, I mean, I guess you can go to the Chronicle. You can try the athletic. I don't think we have a post up here or anything like that, but let me go. I saw the list yesterday. Yeah, it's a list of players. It's not necessarily a list of the signings for. You want to see who everybody signed for? Why do you want to do that, Dwayne? You get a lot of free time? No, not. No, yes, sir, I do. But I was looking through it. They have catchers. They have three or four pitchers. But the point I was, the point I

was trying to get to is that is everybody making money on this 20 or yeah all 20 signed to a contract yes some certain amount of money okay appreciate you Ross God bless thank you Dwayne appreciate you getting in thank you yeah the

the Astros as I said Kevin Alvarez is a top 10 international prospect but the last time the Astros signed a top 10 international pool prospect his name was Pedro Leone they spent $4 million on him and well he's looking like a quadruple a player right now.

So no guarantees to be sure, but the young teenage Kevin Alvarez hopefully can work out and develop in the Astro system because the Astros have really relied on some of these international pool players to play very well for him. From Rale-Blanco, I want to say he signed for me, wasn't he washing cars and he signed for like $5,000, then the dude's throwing a no-hitter. I can't wait for the Rono Blanco movie. That'll be really, really fun. I think

Christian Javier signed for cheap as well. So we'll see what happens with Kevin Alvarez. He's a Cuban outfielder who is, as I said, supposed to be the crown jewel of the Astros' international signings. 20 of them yesterday. Well, speaking of the Astros,

I do owe you one of these. Bredman O'D! The bit's never going away, much to the chagrin of some. The bit is never going away. The update on the Matt Thomas show, Alex Bregman, ESPN putting out an article with some updates on the free agent moving and shakings. Buster Olney and Jeff Passen commenting on Alex Bregman, who might be intertwined with Pete Alonzo, as in if one signs, then the other will, especially as it relates to the Mets.

Buster only on Alex Bregman. The perception from some of the teams involved is that Scott Boris might simply be waiting for someone to get closer to the financial terms they wanted at a time when some execs think Bregman's market has been largely defined. Matt Chapman's six-year $156 million deal is just about what the Astros offered. Astros have moved on. Red Sox, Tigers, and Blue Jays all have varying degrees of interest. Jays are in position to offer the most money

given their level of desperation. Hmm. Hmm. Jeff Passon says, all it takes is for either to sign is to one team. And in Alonzo's case, the obvious team is the Mets. And then he starts talking about Matt Chapman and Blake's Nell

and blah, blah, blah. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with Alex Breggman. But according to Buster Olney, Red Sox, Tigers, Blue Jays all in on Alex Bregman. And it's in a way, I feel bad for Alex Bregman. Because for him to see, it doesn't seem unreasonable for him to scoff at the Astros' first offer of five years, what, $1156 million. Because that's only $5 million than the Matt Chapman deal.

So wait, wait, wait, $6.156. I thought 651 was the Chapman. deal. Buster only is saying, hold on, hold on. Let me pull this up, folks. I thought it was six, yeah, 6151. Did it right, Buster. 6156 is what the Astros offered. And for Bregman to believe that he's more than $5 million over six years, he's worth more than that than Matt Chapman, I don't think that's crazy to say. I don't think that makes me say Alex Bregman, you're a diva and you should have signed the deal.

I think it's smart for him to go look elsewhere. But apparently the market is saying, yeah, you're closer to Matt Chapman than you think, buddy. And Scott Boris, whether he wanted to say the market was reset that much by Juan Soto and or Matt Chapman and they want to be that much higher than Matt Chapman, right now the market isn't saying that that is the case. But we'll see as far as the, so far as the, so far as the landing spot for Alex Bregman,

because time is ticking. We're basically about four weeks away from pitchers and catchers reporting for some squads. And as it gets closer and closer, it feels like it's more and more likely. Alex Bregman will sign to a short-term deal, or maybe something will happen. It was around this time last year. Was it the 15th? Today's the 16th.

Was it the 15th that Josh Hader signed with the Houston Astros? Somewhere around there. So it's very, very late in the game. Here we go. I'm pulling it up. January 19th. So we're a couple of days away from that. And if you remember, that was late in the game and very much a surprise with Josh Hader coming to the Houston Astros.

So something probably needs to happen soon or it's going to be three-year deal with opt-outs for Bregman, which is not a good idea for a 30-year-old. Locking up a long-term, like what if he gets hurt? And well, I guess he would opt in. So he would have that option. why do teams even sign those deals? Either A, the player's going to play great and opt out or B, they're going to get hurt and be terrible and opt in.

It's lose, lose to me, for those teams to sign those types of deals. All right, we're going to take a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. And when we come back, we will have Ben DuBose of the Rockets Wire to talk some Rockets Ball as well. Look, where are you home with the Rockets? They're the number two seed in the West. We're talking a little Rockets Ball. I hope you get into the squad as well. then coming up at noon, Dan Orlovsky of ESPN and Dan Matthews as well.

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Launch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Hour number two of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is traveling with the Houston Rockets, who last night defeated the Denver Nuggets. Tonight will be on a back-to-back taking on the Sacramento Kings. That'll be a 9 o'clock start here on Sports Talk 790, 8 o'clock Rockets launchpad as well. Coming up at noon, we'll have Dan Matthews joining me in studio. Dan Orlovsky will be joining us to talk some Chiefs and Texans.

But right now, Ben Dubos, I would say two of the three people on the show right now, all about the Mizzou Tigers. Ben, thanks for the time. How about them rockets? I know. This is the most fun. It's been to watch this team in a long time. I know you can point to, you know, the Jalen Green surge last March.

But that was just scrapping to get back to 500, maybe in the back. tour of the play in tournament to not only have jalen going off but to win games five in a row and consistently beat good teams yeah this is the most fun it's been shoot since the james hardin years yeah uh and so where where are we now when do i buy in and jump in with two feet and say this is i mean are we past the threshold to where i say this is this real rockets team because you got the big victories over the grisleys okay it was a short-headed nuggets team but i haven't seen a game even against the Oklahoma City Thunder, they have lost some of these games, but a lot of them have been close.

Like, this is the real 25 rockets, isn't it? Yeah, I think it is. And, you know, they do have a difficult schedule coming up. They've got three games in a row against the Cavas and Celtics towards the end of this month. You've got a game at Madison

Square Garden. So, it's not that they're just going to run off and go on and at least I don't think they are, a 10, 15 game winning streak. But I think the sample is a enough, actually have had one of the most difficult schedules in the NBA today. I think it's pretty real. I think what stood out to me the most about this, Ross, the last time, well, there's two games

basically all year that they have been uncompetitive. Two games, one at the very beginning of November against Oklahoma City, and they played the Thunder competitively twice since and beat them once. And then that game in Boston or at home against Boston a couple of weeks ago, when you didn't have a men Thompson, you didn't have Jabari, you didn't have Tari, and that's the defending NBA champions. That's the only game in the last two months that the Rockets have not at least had a chance to win in the fourth quarter. So on top of the record being legitimate, 27 and 12, and everything that comes with that, the fact that they are so competitive night in, night out,

there's not any game where it looks like they don't belong. That, to me, makes it seem like that it's pretty real. USA Today's Rockets Wires, Ben Dubose here. on the show. And of course, we cannot have you on to talk Rockets without talking who you mentioned, Amin Thompson. Where is all this coming from with Amin Thompson? And I mean, just, do you think he's going to make probably a first or second team all defense, certainly if he stays in the starting lineup, which we can get to in a second? Yeah, I think he will. And I do not envy Eme Udoka when Jabari Smith Jr. comes back because I just don't see how they can take him out of the starting lineup. It's not even so much

what he does for Jalen Green. I know there's been a lot made of that. It's just he's a really good basketball player, period. He makes the game easy for everyone because he provides value in so many different areas. He doesn't have to have the ball in his hands to be effective. The heavy lifting

he does defensively, I think that's where it helps Jalen the most, and Jalen identified that after the game the other night at home against the grizzlies. A men is so dynamic defensively. The Rockets have a lot of good defensive players. Amin is the one that's truly great. And he does so much heavy lifting on that end that it allows someone like Jalen Green to sort of conserve his energy a little bit and load up for the high leverage offensive possessions where he can, you know, attack the rim much more

aggressively, draw more free throws, those types of things. So yeah, do not envy Eme Udoca because, you know, the politics of a midseason lineup change if you're winning games. That's always dicey in the NBA. But Amin is so good. I think it's clear on a per minute basis. He's the best player on this team already. So I just don't see, unless the team falls off and I don't expect them to over the next two or three weeks, I just don't see how they're going to be able to take them out. Yeah, the chalk pick is Amin Thompson staying in the starting lineup. Then that begs the question, who is out?

Is it Jabari Smith Jr.? Is it possibly Dylan Brooks? I've seen some fans say that Fred Van Fleet should be the odd man out, which I don't think there's any chance of that one. But how do you think this starting lineup is constructed if Amend Thompson stay? Yeah, it's tough. I tend to think that Chabari will be the odd man out because he's in year three. He's just 21. I don't think there'd be any hurt feelings. And, you know, he's got a guy in his same draft class. Tari

Easton, who's arguably been, when healthy, been a better player than Shabari. And Tari has come off the bench. So I don't think it would be a huge shot to Chabari's ego. With that said, Dylan Brooks has fallen off a little bit over the last few weeks. So you could make a case for maybe leaving Jabari in the starting lineup and bringing Dylan off the bench. But given, you know, veteran status and the fact that the team is winning games now with this amend at Power Forward, Dylan, at Small Forward configuration, I think the easiest thing for EMA to do would be to say, you know what, we're going to stick with what's working and we'll figure out everything else in the offseason,

not a shot at you, Jabari. The other thing that would be interesting with bringing Jabari off the bench is that in these games where Alper and Shungun struggles defensively and you want to play five out, be able to switch one through five, then you can bring Javari Smith as your backup five off the bench. It'll be a little tricky because Stephen Adams has played better of late as well, but I think in these games where the Rockets want to play smaller, they want to be more agile, bringing Javari off the bench might help you in that area as well. Yeah, it's funny because, I mean, just as the team is constructed now with Jibari Smith Jr.

Feeling like the odd man out, I mean, the starting five that it is right now, you have a dynamic, quick, scoring wing. You have a big man who can, I mean, operate from the elbow, who can operate in the low post. You have a Swiss Army knife, do everything, defender, who can basket cut and stuff like that. And then the two veteran guys who set the edge as well. That's just, I mean, it feels like if I was like conceiving a team, it would be pretty close to what the Rockets have in the starting five right now. Yeah, absolutely. And I think to go back to the earlier point on a men's defense,

that's so important because if he is able to, and it's not a shot at Jabari because he's a good defender, but a man is a great one. And so because of that, if you can conserve energy for Jalen Green, so often it comes down to the efficiency for Jailet. I heard you talking earlier about the free start. That's so important. Last night he was eight for eight. I think the other night against the Grizzlies, he was 11 for 11. That's the hack in terms of getting his true shooting percentage where it needs to be clearly above average.

and it has been. In the last 20 games, it's been like 61 and a half. To get it to that level, you need to get to the free throw line. What do you need to get to the free throw line that often? If you're an undersized guard in the NBA, you need energy. You need a willingness and ability to absorb contact on your drives. How do you do that? You have other guys that do the heavy lifting defensively and give you some possessions off. And so when you have a men Thompson and Dylan Brooks being able to physically handle and take the pounding that comes from guarding top shelf wing players on the other end of the floor, then that's truly what it is. what Jalen Green needs, in my opinion, to really, you know, attack the bucket relentlessly on the

offensive end. And so I think what a man in Dylan do defensively. And then Fred Ben Fleet, look, one of the really impressive things to me about that Memphis game, he hit one of the biggest shots, that three in the fourth quarter, he only shot five times the entire game. A lot of players around the league need shots to get in rhythm. The fact that Fred is, you know, so graceful and able to sort of scale down his. goal without needing a ton of touches or shot attempts. And so if Jaylen has it going, he's willing and able to defer without it taking a toll on him. Yeah, I think that's a pretty perfect backcourt partner for Jaylen.

And so because of that, I just, you know, I feel bad for Jabari, but I just don't see who you can take out, assuming the team keeps clicking the way they are. Yeah, going from the starting lineup to the bench, what are we making a Cam Whitmore? The scoring has been up. We know, of course, the post game comments a couple of weeks ago, email addressing those on this show, saying it's much ado about nothing, especially with the body language stuff as well. And how are you feeling

about Cam Whitmore and the rest of the season how it's going to go for him? Yeah, I've been encouraged. I thought there was a play at the end of the third quarter in that Memphis game that showed a lot of growth from him. The clock was winding down. He pumped fake from three and he could have gone to the rim, could have pulled up from

mid-range. But he found Aaron Holiday in the corner for an open three, which Aaron made at the buzzer, it cut it to five. And from that point forward, it felt like it was competitive game. Great crowd. And I think Cam's willingness to make the right read to pass, even when everyone in the building would have understood if he took the shot himself with a little bit of space and the shock clock running down, that's why the Rockets have had him on something of a tight leash.

The gifts are there. But while he can score easily, what's going to be the difference in him being a good player or a very good player is going to be whether he can do the other things. And so we know offball awareness defensively. He may talk about that a lot. You got to defend at least at a capable level to play for Imeu Joka. He's gotten better on that in. But offensively, the fact that it's not just his scoring and, you know, putting up shots and putting up numbers,

but the fact that he seems to be seeing the floor a little bit better, in your two at just 20 years old, that's really encouraging. So I don't think they're going to be able to take him out of the rotation. It's going to be tight if and when sorry Eason comes back. I think Kim Whitmore has done enough that. This is a team that needs scoring punch at times. And now that he's coming along in the other areas of his game, I think Cam's going to play.

I think barring, you know, a traumatic downturn in his performance. I think he's earned at least something of a role for the rest of the year. All right. Three weeks from today, February 6th is the trade deadline. How much do you think the rockets are itching to make a move in Raphael Stone? Or how much do you think they just say, hey, we can improve enough internally. and trust the process. Yeah, I think at this point it's trusting the process.

I think, you know, a month ago, when Shailen Green's numbers were below average efficiency-wise, you could wonder about, hey, do you use his contract as something of a trade shop and try to upgrade that spot because that was the clear deficiency, getting a tip of the spear score. But look, what people forget about this rocket's team, plan A is not trading for a star. Plan A is that it works out organically. and this core seven of first-round prospects that you drafted the last four draft cycles, that enough of them work out that you don't have to go out and make a big deal for a Devin Booker or a Donovan Mitchell or whoever it might be.

There were times the last couple of years where it was fair to wonder if Jalen Greene is actually capable of being that guy. I think at this point the sample is long enough. The last 20 games are what they are. But really, going back to about this time a year ago, the last 80 games, he's been above average efficiency-wise, scoring about 22 points per game, leading scorer on a good rocket team. He's defending at a capable of enough level that E. Mayor Doe could trust him. So if you want to give Jaylen Green longer runway, and I think he's absolutely deserved at least the rest of this year, if not longer,

I don't think you're going to upgrade that spot. And then beyond that, the reason I don't think they do anything, Ross, who are you going to bench to give a new guy minutes? This team is so deep. We were talking about Cam Whitmore. The question is, how do you keep playing Cam Whitmore enough when Tarie Eason comes back? And it looks like that's getting pretty close. So I just don't see who they could bring in.

And by the way, we haven't mentioned Jay Chont Tate. he's been good the last three weeks. So I'm inclined to say the rocket stayed the course because the biggest weakness was the Jalen Green spot. That's obviously sort of resolved itself the last few weeks. And then beyond that, where are they going to play? That's my big question. I'm inclined to say they just stayed the course.

You see what happens the rest of the year. You see what happens in the playoffs. And if anything bigger needs to happen, Ruffelstone looks at that this summer. That's my prediction. Ben Dubos of USA Today's Rockets Wire. Ben, let the folks know where they can find your stuff. Yep.

Ben Dubos on Twitter slash X, the logger line, the Rocketswire on the same, rocketsware.com for all your daily Houston Rockets News coverage. Look at this. You got this nailed down, Ben. Thanks for the time, as always, to talk to you down the road. Absolutely. Thanks for having you, bud. All right, appreciate it. There you go. Ben Dubose here on a Sports Talk 790.

We're doing a lot of Rockets talk. Y'all are getting in with some Rockets talk. I love it. Let's go. 713-212-5-790 is the phone number. 7-13-212-5-7-90. agree with Ben. I think they do trust the process, stay the course with this team. Are they better than the Thunder? No, but are they still ahead of schedule? Yes. Or do you say maybe you've got some expiring deals like Fred Van Vleet and that might offer some value to somebody in three weeks when the trade deadline passes for the 2025 campaign? All right, time for a quick break.

Coming up at noon, we'll have Dan Orlovsky talking about Texans and Chiefs. Dan Matthews will be joining as well. We've got I just don't get it coming up later on the show. News at noon at some point. We had Dan Rolowski at noon. We're not going to do news with him, so we'll figure out when we're going to do that and you at 713-212-5-79. The Matt Thomas show

with Ross continues on Sports Talk 790. Swang and you swing and you swing to the lift. Oh, welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas. Thomas. He is out traveling with the Houston Rockets. He will be back tomorrow from, no, not from Sacramento. From Portland on Friday? Yeah, I think they play Sacramento tonight, travel to Portland tonight, and then play Portland on Saturday. So Matt will be joining us from Portland. That should be fun, certainly, tomorrow. He is out today. Dan Matthews is coming in at noon. Dan Orlovsky will be joining us at noon of ESPN as well to talk some NFL. You do not want.

want to miss that. We will certainly go into Texans mode at some point. Also go into whatever mode you want to at 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-790. Talking with Ben and we, I didn't realize it was only three weeks away from the trade deadline in the NBA to see if something will happen. I mean, as constructed, the team is really good if everyone is living up to their potential. Right now it's easy to say, right? Jalen Green is living up to his potential last seven games. He's been playing great, averaging over 30 points, shooting like 48% from three as well. That is going to go down. That is something we do need to realize, right? I think kind of talked about it. The first, what was it, the first five games of the season where he had 20 plus points at all five games.

And as we've done, it feels like half dozen times at this point with Jalen Green. Is this the real Jalen Green? Well, no. Then he goes into a lull and he's not playing well and he's scoring in tingled digits. So is this the real Jalen Green so far seven games into January? 30.6 points per game. How about 94% from the free throw line? 47.8% from the three point line. And these things are splashing in. This dude is straight up swishing these threes.

like it looks natural. It doesn't look like an accident. They're not just rattling in or banking in or anything like that. It doesn't look like there's any luck involved. It's been incredible. Basically every type of three. Catch and shoot wing, catch and shoot corner,

step back in the wing, top of the key, like every kind of which way you can score. Jalen Green has the capability of doing that. And so far, in the year of 2025, the year of our Jalen, so far. He's been very good. And a big part of this rocket's surgence, the resurgence of the standings.

And the good thing was that we've already saw earlier in the season. They can win with him not performing. Other guys can step up. The Alper and Shinggoons of the world. I'm in Thompson doing a great job. Fred Van Vleet here and there. Dylan Brooks here and there. You're not going to expect 20 a night from those two guys,

but it can happen. Talking about Dylan Brooks and Fred Van Vliet, you do expect 20 a night from Alpern Chingon. Sometimes he had bad nights, but that's everybody. And sometimes he's completely going off. And really that game a couple of weeks ago, that Thursday night,

like that first quarter against the Grizzlies where the Rocket scored like 45, 46 points or whatever it was, that was about as good as their offenses as I've seen. Against a really good defensive grizzlies squad, where it was everybody doing their part, and it was like a well-oiled machine. We've seen it more and more from this offense. they continue to get better and better on that side of the ball

while not really seeing slippage on the defensive side of the ball. They're number three in defensive rating right now, number 11 in offensive rating. They were hovering around 1920 for most of the season. Offense is really coming along. And if they can have a top 10 offense and a top three defense, they're going to have the capability of beating just about everybody. So it's been really fun to see from the,

Houston Rockets. David in Vegas has rung in here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. What's up, David? David, how are things in Nevada? They're fine. Hold on a second. Let me get my phone adjusted here. All right. Don't hurt yourself. Well, I got to get off the damn speaker phone here. Okay. I appreciate that. But I can't get my thing to work. All right, Dan. I mean, David. Sorry. Dan. Dan's coming up at noon. Are anything else, David? Can you hear me? I can hear you perfectly fine, so you can just go ahead and talk.

First of all, I'm just a personal note on the Rock. I love this basketball team. I always have it changes my mood, whether they're doing well or not. So this is good. That's how things are in Nevada. I'm in love with my basketball team. There's a cool thing going on for direct TV subscribers, because I don't get that full court thing.

I don't get to see very many Rockets games since they still don't get their fair share. Just go to the book, David. What are you doing? there well you know I stay home a lot but anyway there's a free preview going on over a week of it so I get five Rockets games

that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten and I'm in the middle of that and what a joy but as for the trade versus stay where we are thing I mean I think the most important thing is this is we've still got Easton we're doing all this without Easton

without Jabari Smith Jr. And when you think of their coming back it's just seems to me that we've really got a lot in terms of depth and sort of the things, the roles we think we need, that I kind of would be a stay-of-course guy. But I guess

the other way to look at that is maybe those guys could be your trade assets. I mean, I don't know who's going to trade for two guys that are injured right now. I know Jabari is going to come back in time for the playoffs and everything like that. So I think you can look at it one or two ways. I mean, we

apparently get assets because we don't want to sit there and put Jaylen or or or a I'm in or a men or Shingoon you don't want to put any guys in the trade package I don't think

and then the other thing is just the you know who's really attracted I think we want what backcourt help maybe outside shooting is what we're sort of would we be trading for I suppose and I look at like at the Aaron Fox might be the best possible name that's around that's possible to get but

you know he's shooting 32.5 behind the arc this here. And then we as a team are shooting 33.9. So are we really upgrading? I mean, all we're doing is, to me, is adding a little depth. And, you know, we'd give up depth to get depth. So I think I'm in the state of course category. All right.

Thank you, David. Appreciate you getting in. Yeah. And I was thinking, I would feel like Darren Fox, a name that was more floated the last couple of weeks. And, yeah, he is not a great three-point shooter. You mentioned 32 and a half. I think he's career around like 33-ish somewhere in there.

That's not great. It's viable. It's okay. It translates to about a 50% from the floor two-point shooter, which is not bad, which is pretty good. But you would like more. You would like somebody who can come off the bench, shoot 38, 39%.

Basically 3.D way, like you, in theory, in the NBA in these days, you get a couple of superstars, and then you get as many 3D players as you can to space the floor for three-pointers and to play good defense. And then let the stars do their thing. Now you're hoping as of right now, as I'm speaking, as these words are coming out of my mouth,

Jalen Green is playing like a superstar. Now, how much will that continue remains to be seen? But right now, shooting his highest percentage from the three point line in his career, highest field goal percentage as well, highest free throw percentage as well, over a 39 game sample, which is not nothing, although it's really surged up those numbers past his career numbers last seven games or so. But we know he has the capability of catching fire like he has. All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

When we come back, we're going to take a look at some of the sports items going along in the sports world. We've got Dan Matthews and Dan Orlovsky coming up. That's the news at noon. We have to get to it a little bit early because at noon we will be having it. interview. So news at noon coming up next here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 1132 in the a.m. here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas, traveling with the Houston Rockets coming up at noon, Dan Orlovsky and Dan Matthews. We also will have, I just don't get it coming up at about 1.30. If there's something you just don't get in your life,

it's a couple hours away. If you want to stay with us, you can circle back. I know four hours is a long show. Trust me. But a lot of stuff to get to here as we do go along here, including, well, because we have the interview coming up at noon, we're going to do the news at noon at 1130 with Conno McGuven. Oh, just great newsbed here. Makes you feel like something important happening.

What do we got today, Connor? Jalen Green scored 34 points in Alper and Shungoon had 20 in the Rockets' victory over the Denver. Nuggets last night. Tate sets a screen for Jalen, down the lane he goes, and he's going to jam it over Dario Sarich. That's just not nice, period. 9572.

My goodness. That's just not nice. Matt Thomas is on the show. That's not nice. That was a great jam over Dario Sarge's head from Jalen Green, part of a 34-point performance, a 34-point performance, as you mentioned. but I would say most impressive game of the season was a couple of days before that against the Grizzlies. He had the 42 points on 18 shots, 11 of 11 from a three-throw line.

Last night, 8 of 8 from the free throw line. So I can't count back to the third game, but at the very least, 19 straight free throws made for Jalen Green. He's looking pretty good. We've been talking a lot of Rockets ball on the show, probably more than we have done all year. I would say deservedly so. have time to talk about the Texans and the chiefs and what's going on with them, but I'm feeling pretty darn good about the Rockets.

I'm feeling pretty good about them getting locked into the top four at this point. To where Thunder, one, then Rockets, Grizzlies, Nuggets in some conglomeration. I think they're clearly better than the Clippers and the Lakers at this point. Again, I will stick with it. Lakers,

fraud alert. Fraud alert on the Los Angeles Lakers. We'll see what happens to the Mavericks when they get healthy. but as teams are comprised right now, health notwithstanding, Rockets are going to finish top four in the West in my opinion. I mean, yeah, like you said earlier in the show, the Nuggets were without their two or were without two of their rotation players, you know, leading scorers.

But, I mean, the Rockets, that's their fifth win in a row. They're 10 and three in their last 13 games, and they remain the number two spot in the Western Conference. Nicola Yokets running scared from Alperin-Shingoon. What's up, Nicola? Nicola. Yeah, Baby Joker has overtaken the Joker. No, I'm just kidding.

Nicolio Hic is the greatest player on the planet. He had, what was it? Elbow inflammation? I can't even remember what he had. It doesn't matter. The reigning MVP. Yeah, that's fine. Whatever.

His NBA champion. Greatest player on the planet. Greatest horse trainer, a second greatest horse trainer on the planet behind Bob Baffert. Alp he's going to get there. Don't worry. He's going to get there. He's going to be an all-star this year along with Jaila.

They're both going to be all-stars. It'll be fine. I hope you're right, but. They won't both be all-stars. I'd say predicting multiple NBA MVP for Alper and Shung would be a little bit much. but we'll see. He's still very young as well. We talk about Jalen Green being young.

Alper and Shingoon is even younger. So much room to go. What else is going on? On the news at noon, Connemoghvern. We'll talk about the Texans. A wide receiver, Deontay Johnson, was claimed off waivers by the Baltimore Ravens

one day after parting ways with the Texans. Johnson joined the Texans on December 26th after being waived by the Ravens. He played one regular season game and one playoff game for the Texans, recording three receptions for 24 yards. Johnson can't technically join Baltimore until after the Super Bowl

since he's an unrestricted free agent this offseason but he could potentially earn the Ravens an extra draft pick in 2026 if he signs with another team through the NFL's compensatory pick formula so I guess that's why the Ravens picked them up. Deonti Johnson back to the Ravens. They're working the system so I don't get it.

They claimed him and then but they can't sign him until next year and now okay here I'm reading a story but I claim the them. The Ravens will have a chance at earning a compensatory selection depending on the contract

he signs in free agency. What if he didn't sign with anybody? Does anybody you don't want to sign this guy or anything but a non-guaranteed camp invite? I mean, gosh. I mean, the report about him in the Texans locker room is not going to help his case, especially because those were already concerns before he got to the Texans. Yeah, I don't

think the Ravens are keeping him. I guess he's they put, so he's on the roster because they claimed him, but they can't. This is very confusing, but it seems like it's very smart stuff from the Ravens if he does indeed sign somewhere else. If another team, besides the Steelers, Panthers, Texans, and Ravens

who all gave up on him within the last year, want to sign Deontay Johnson somewhere else. Man, that's, I mean, you're a team, you're going up to Arrowhead, you just lost Cades Dover, and things are so bad with the Deontay Johnson situation that they waived him.

Not saying the Texans are in the wrong here at all. Clearly the track record is Deontay Johnson isn't worth it. That's crazy to me. I mean, yeah, why wouldn't Deontay Johnson, even if you was just a role player and taking the attention off Nico Collins, why not ride it out? You could be in the-

Don't you look at the mirror at some point? Apparently, he was all upset about his targets and his usage. Don't you look at the mirror at some point and say, you know what? The Panthers traded, the Steelers traded a wheelie away. The Panthers traded me away. The Ravens cut me. They all need wide receiver help. The Texans aren't using me.

Maybe I'm not as good as I think I am. We all have these moments in our life. All right? You get shut down by three straight girls in the bar. You're like, you know what? Maybe I'm not as handsome as I think I am. Maybe it's time to reevaluate.

That's what Deonté Johnson needs to do right now. Go after someone a little bit more realistic. You're saying, find the big girl with a mustache in the corner is what you're saying. Sometimes a five's okay. Two five's equal a ten. That's what I've always said, Connor. That's so true. As head coach, in regards to DeMonte Johnson, as head coach D'Amico Ryan said,

the Texans are on to the Chiefs, where they will face a high of 26 degrees and a low of 7 degrees with cloudy and clear conditions and winds up to 10 to 20 miles per hour. Wait, where are the winds? 10 to 20 miles per hour. No, where? Oh, Kansas City. Ooh. Yeah, so high of 26, low of 7.

It's not quite that cold here in Houston, but offensive coordinator, Bobby Sloick, says the weather in town is helping them acclimate to game time. conditions. Yeah, I mean, I think it's always helpful. You know, the closer you can get to what it's going to be like on game day, you know, the better it's going to be for you. Obviously, when we were out there, we got a little bit of rain, made the field a little slick for us. But, like, truthfully, when you go play in cold weather, and it gets real cold and that field starts to freeze, it gets a little slick, you know, so it's good training for us. And thankfully, we got a little cold wave coming through right now, which is helping acclimate. a little bit, but I really think at the end of the day, we're prepared to go play

wherever we need to play whenever we need to play. And at the end of the day, I think, like always, you know, we feel like it's going to be about us and what we do. The Texans are ready for whatever the Chiefs can throw. Yeah. That's what he's saying. Well, we'll see how it goes, especially with these practice reports, DNPs from Shaq Mason and Juice Scruggs has me worried about the offensive line this weekend. But speaking of Bobby Sloak, I'm still waiting. Does anybody want to call? Go 71321-21-2-5-7-90.

Congratulate Bobby Sloick for his play calling over the weekend. I said it. Thought he did a great job. They had their best offensive performance of the year relative to the yards that they gained and against the quality of the defense. Bobby Sloick had himself a Saturday. Hopefully he can do it again, but it's going to be tough

with Steve Spagnolo and the Kansas City Chiefs. And that defense is going to definitely give them some problems, certainly if they're missing a couple of their offensive pieces. but certainly something to keep an eye on is going to be that win because cold kind of matters, snow, rain kind of matters, but it's really about those wins. If the winds are high, this is a little preview for me for you folks on tomorrow when I make my Draft King spotlight picks. I'm going to be looking at the wind.

And if they're low, we might be all systems go on some passing yards for some folks. We do know the lions are going to be in a dome. That'll be the only domed game of the weekend, Lions versus the Washington commanders. What else you got in the news at noon? Connemagovine. The final piece on the Texans, a wide receiver tank Dell underwent a successful surgical procedure yesterday.

He has multiple surgeries left in front of him to repair that left knee, but is expected to make a full recovery and return to full football likely by the 2026 season. One down, a couple more to go, but it's good news. Yeah.

He's, oh man, what a bad injury that was, too. And that was just like, it was just friendly fire. Like when he got rolled, it was concerning the first injury that he had last year or last season, as it were. We got rolled up. It's like he shouldn't be in there. He's too small. This time it was kind of a freak accident.

It can happen to anybody. It's the NFL. It's a violent game. I mean, breaking basically every ligament in his knee a year off, you're going to be missed. Texans clearly having to address the wide receiving court in the offseason, especially with Tank Dell, not factoring into the plans. Are anything else? Anything offbeat? Connor before we get to break? Not really offbeat. I don't want to end on

then the news on a sad note. On a sad note. But I kind of have to news that come out about an hour ago. Bob Euker. Bob Euker. Former Major League catcher, the voice of his hometown Milwaukee Brewers and recipient of honors from the Hall of Fame has died at the age of 90. Yucer was best known as a

colorful comedian, a broadcaster who earned the nickname Mr. Baseball through his numerous appearances on the Johnny Carson's late night talk show. He was also known for his iconic role in the major league movies as the announcer for a down-and-out cleveland franchise that becomes a playoff contender. Vaughn a juvenile delinquent in the offseason in his major league debut. Vaughn into the windup in his first offering.

Just a bit outside. He tried the corner and missed. Ball four. Ball eight. Low and Vaughn has walked the bases loaded on 12 straight pitches. So rest of peace to Bob Yucer, a baseball legend. Bob Euker, certainly a legend, diagnosed with small cell lung cancer, 23, dead at 25, 22, 25 at the age of 90.

Maybe we'll honor him tomorrow in believe it or not. I think we might have had Bob Euker before. Maybe when he retired or something. I don't remember. I don't have to dig up those archives. All right, that's going to do it for the news at noon at 1130, because coming up at 12, we do have a guest and a co-host joining. It's Dan and Dan.

Dan O'Rlofsky, Dan Mathew's joining the Fold. Coming up here on a Sports Talk 790. In the meantime, you can get in if you'd like. It's 7-13-2-1-2-5-790. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross marches on until 2 p.m. here on Sports Talk 790. More Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Now on Sports Talk 790. 11.50 a.m.

Here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Hour number three is coming up. You want to make sure you stay here. coming in. Dan Matthews as well. It's a double Dan joining the show. But Dan will be co-hosting the final couple of hours. Then later on we will also have, I just don't get it. We've been talking a lot of fun stuff going on with the Houston Rockets and the way that they're playing now. They've won five straight games. They're number two in the Western Conference. They are not going to catch the thunder. They're not as good as the thunder, but they are in the mix as one of

the best teams in basketball. They continue to prove it night in, night out. Now on the second half of a back-to-back, thankfully blowing out a short-handed, yes, short-handed Denver Nuggets team enough to where they were able to rest their starters at the end and then the back-to-back in Sacramento tonight. Then one day off and then it'll be three games at four nights Saturday against the Portland Trailblazers who are a dumpster fire so far this year. the worst teams in basketball,

Jazz, pelicans, wizards, hornets. Rockets need to take care of business against those teams. Not must-win games, but very important. And that's one of the beauties of this season is the Rockets, okay, outside of the opening night against the Charlotte Hornets,

they've really been taking care of business against those lesser teams. That's what good teams do. They beat bad teams. You go 50-50-ish against good teams. You're going to end up with a pretty darn good record by the end of the season. That's where the rockets are right now. No mistake that they're at the number two seed. 39 games into the year. Crazy how they continue to surge up the standings.

Phone lines open for you at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for, let's see, it's Thursday. So they're playing on Saturday are the Houston Texans for a practice report. But the... the practice report from yesterday, not encouraging, especially on the offensive line. I went back and watched the game again. To me, the offensive line, at first I was like, yeah, they did really well.

They weren't giving up a ton of pressures, but a couple of those plays that CJ Stroud made when he was running down the field. He was running for his life. I thought Bobby Sloick and the offensive scheme, they did a good job of the quick hitting passes. Boom, one, two, three, drop, passes already out to Dalton Schultz,

passes already out to Nico Collins, or John Metchie, even on the first play of the game where unfortunately John Metchie fumbled, the quick hit passing game was huge for the Texans in limiting the pressures and the run game. At the end of that game, that was the Joe Mixon fourth quarter. It was the Joe Mixon drive. I believe on the last drive, if my math is correct, so don't 100% quote me on this. I probably, I didn't go back in the fourth quarter for sure he had 12 carries for 67 yards and a touchdown. I think 10 carries of that for 58 yards were on the final drive for Joe Mixon.

He just took over the end of that game and put it on ice. And a lot of that was him doing some magic. There was a lot of the plays getting, but Puna Ford, Longhorn Legend for the Chargers. And there was another guy who was a name Tair, Tate, I think, or something like that. Like on the interior, Titus Howard was having issues. Titus Howard could have been called for like five, six holds in that game, and he wasn't. That's every game. The NFL, players can get called for holdings, but it was egregiously bad, in my opinion, from Titus Howard.

I'm a little worried about his run blocking long term because they were getting blown up by some, I mean, now they're very good players in the interior. Puna Ford having a great season for the Los Angeles Chargers, but if you're going to tell me that Shaq Mason is going to remain out, I know a lot of you hate Shaq Mason, but I still think he's a good option on the interior for the Texans and Juice Scrugg is going to be out. Man, I'm a little bit worried about what's going to be happening on the interior of that line for the Houston

Texans this coming weekend on the road against the Kansas City Chiefs, against Steve Spagnolo and his defense to where the communication issues, especially on the road, have been problem for this offensive line all year long. The best remedy for that is coaching in continuity. If you're not having continuity, Juice Scrugg's going to be out again

and you're reconfiguring your offensive line again. It has me worried. It has me backing off of my opinion like the Texans are going to go up there and I don't think they're necessarily going to win but they can go up there and they can compete. They can cover the eight and a half points, make it a one score game late,

and then maybe a ball will bounce their way and they can win. But injury report from yesterday, Aziz al-Shahir did not practice or this is from Tuesday why do I have this from Tuesday? Interesting. All right, well, let me try to pull up the latest practice report.

I'm getting from yesterday. Robert Woods did not practice. Dalton Shultz Limited. Aziz Alshahir Limited, Joe Mixen Limited as well. So hopefully, yeah, juice grugs. And Shaq, we'll see with Shaq Mason.

not the biggest miss if he's not involved. But I'm worried about this offensive line this weekend for the Texans. That is the biggest storyline. I'll be paying attention closely to practice reports later today from the Houston Texans. All right, we're going to take a quick top of the hour break here on Sports Talk 790. When we come back, Dan Matthews will join to co-host Dan Orlovsky of ESPN. And we'll come in to break down the Texans and the Chiefs as well. then later on we got stuff like, well, I just don't get it and some other fun stuff with you until 2 o'clock.

But Dan Orloskey and Dan Matthews next here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. 12 o'clock noon straight up here on Sports Talk 790 hour. Number three of the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews, without Dan or Apparently, now, Dan, thank you for graciously booking us, Dan Orlovsky. You're welcome. During this time. But as you know, the old phrase, it's live radios.

That means things don't always go according to plan. So TBD on Dan Orlovsky joining the program or perhaps the A team later on. As we say in radio, we're efforting Dan Orlovsky. Yes, we are efforting. Maybe he's working on some more bad food takes. Oh, what did he say? I mean, he's notorious for his bad food takes. Yeah, I don't pay attention.

And I was going to weave that into our conversation. Oh, you were? Do people get more angry with your food takes or do they get more angry with your football analysis? Hmm, okay. I'm not aware of his food takes. It sounds vaguely familiar. He's had some dozies. I mean, you know, specific examples I can't think of right at this moment.

But he's had some that has sent the Twitter world into a blaze. Okay. Plain nachos he likes? That's weird. I'm just hitting Google and seeing what have, seeing what Dan Orlox is into as far as food. Just the cheese and the chips nacho? Yeah, I guess. Like Will Ferrell's making at the beginning of Stepbrothers?

Movie reference. No, those rule. Those rule. D. Yeah, like, you know, you sprinkle some cheese. I did it. You sprinkle some cheese. No, those don't rule.

Stop. Yes, they do. Come on. I mean, those are great. You throw some jalapes on them. Come on, man. Class it up. Put some.

When you're in a pinch, it's not a bad thing. Oh, I know. You get in a pinch, all right? You got to throw the tootinos in there and fold it in half like a taco, and that's your dinner. in college. I've been there. But then maybe you've got to throw like some queso on top or maybe even some sour cream. Okay. Some people like the pico de gallo. We're saying we're calling time out on the food references here. It is noon though, I suppose. A little hungry on here? What's happening at lunch timers? I mean, I was going to say, this is your show, the show that that caters to the

lunchtime. Oh, we also cater to the people with very short attention spans because we move from topic to topic sometimes within the same sentence on this show. Okay, so Dan Matthews is here. Dan Orloskey, I'm throwing up the shrug emoji. I don't know when he's going to be here. I guess we'll keep you abreast of the situation as we go along. Maybe that could be for about the next 10 minutes or so that we're in this segment. What's your favorite emoji? 7-1-3-212.

No, I'm kidding. How about this? I'm going to throw questions at you like I would, Dan Orlovsky. Instead of, we're going from one Dan to another. So Dan Matthews... Half the criteria, but go ahead. Gracious enough to co-host here with Matt Thomas, of course, lazily out. I mean, that guy's been here like half the days of January so far.

He's got some nerve to come after other people, especially other people who come from said show and sub in for him. As they say in radio, that is the bit. Therein lies the rub. But anyways, now, if you want to go out to the Adams, that's fair game. Oh, well, we do. Everyone is fair game on this show. That's how we roll. All right, Texans going up to Arrowhead this weekend.

Connor McGovern was talking about the wind. it possibly could be a factor 10 to 20 miles an hour. Also worried about some possible injuries on the offensive line for the Texans. But I would say, especially when you factor in the situation and the defense they were going against, most yards the Texans scored, I mean, gained all year was 435 against the Jaguars. Jaguars defense is terrible. 429 against a really good Chargers team. And you turn the ball over three times.

This was the Texans team. we talked about early on in the season. Where are they? Who are the real Texans? When are they going to play their best ball? Well, it's been one week, so we don't know if we want to completely buy in, but that was their best ball this past weekend against the Chargers. You almost wondered if there was some sort of come to Jesus on the sidelines of, is this really how we want to be remembered this year?

We want to be remembered as the team that missed every single chance, every single opportunity, and never came up clutch. Because, I mean, there was an absolute flipping on that field. And maybe it wasn't even said. It was the CJ play of when that happened. And CJ also realizing to himself, I can either stay back here and get hit or I can run with the fear of possibly getting hit. But one way or another, I'm going to get hit. And that was him finally saying, you know what, enough of this.

I'm not going to be shackled back here. I'll take off. I'll show these guys that I can pick up yards myself. And it translated to the rest of the team. And if that's the team we get in the second half, or for this game, against Kansas City that we saw in the second half, shall I say, then it's a much better feeling coming out of that one than you have for many games that you stepped into that fit this criteria of teams like this.

It did feel in many ways like a flipping of the switch with C.J. Stroud. He talked about how when he threw that interception, he was like there was acres of space, and there was. He could have ran for a long, long time if he had taken off in that moment when he was feeling the pressure. And then he had that the 99-yard touchdown drive with that big pass to Xavier Hutchinson. Then the next drive when they got the ball back quick and got the field goal, the 27-yard gain that he had on the ground, that was when I was like, man, this looks like maybe a switch has flipped for C.J. Stroud.

He looked a lot more confident, even later in that game, whereas last year, talking about 23, not, you know what I'm saying, his rookie year, he was taking hits and still standing in the pocket. This year he started to take off. He started to look a little skittish, see ghosts. It wasn't as much poise in the pocket, and it's not necessarily his fault. He was getting beat down in that pocket. But it's some of that came back.

That pocket poise, especially in that second half of the game, was coming back for CJ Stroud to where he started to look like himself from last year. It was both of those things. I mean, him using his feet and then, you know, the play where he scrambled out. out and it just looked like, you know, oh man, don't throw that football. Actually, no, do throw that football. Because CJ, I don't think by any stretch of the imagination is a timid guy. He is a guy that exudes confidence, at least last year did.

And then over the offseason on podcast where, you know, hey, you're dealing with a killer. You know, all of those different things that he said, I was getting, you know how we said during Astro season, I want good Frumber. Yes. We were not getting good CJ. We were getting timid, concave chest, C.J. is who we were getting. And that interception was one of them.

That's timid C.J. Right there. That's him just... You know what he was doing. I mean, it... Throwing the ball away or not? That's what I couldn't figure out either. That's how bad of a throw it was.

But, I mean, and that's the thing is, is after he did that, he finally said, that's enough. That's enough. If I don't have Nico Collins, I don't have Dalton Schultz. I don't even have John Metchier or Xavier Hutchinson. and I hadn't even mentioned Joe Mixon, then it's going to be up to me. I'm going to be the one that makes it happen. It was like he grabbed A.J. Brown's self-help book in the middle of that game and then really started to believe in himself. Maybe he did that?

See, here I was thinking the other day when Brian McTaggart tweeted that, I was like, did McTaggart, like, co-authored that? Because I was like, that's interesting if that's the case. But I don't think so. I think he was just pointing out that it was that book and then promoting his book as well. Oh, Brian McTagher did? Oh, if anybody wants to read into the dugout. Yeah, I saw that tweet. Yeah, maybe we can give it to C.J. Stroud.

C.4 works. No, don't mess with C.J. Stroud. He's good. They're coming off the best game of the season. And then it's like, kind of like we were asking last year, who are the real Astros? And really, we're like, are these the real rockets? Because they're the number two seat. Who are the real Texans? Because they did go, they did start out of the gates five and one. But none of the wins, except for the Patriots were extremely impressive.

And then it was just bad, bad, bad to worse to the lowest of the low as it got was at loss to the rate. I have good news, by the way. Dan Orlovsky is going to join us in five minutes. In five minutes. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's go ahead and take an early break then. Okay. I suppose here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Dan Orlovsky was supposed to join us, but he will be joining us in a few minutes.

So we're going to go ahead and take a break right here. Appreciate you, folks, hanging with us. Don't go anywhere. Dan Orlovsky is next. Back to Matt Thomas and Ross Villarreal. On Sports Talk 790. 15. And the PM here on Sports Talk 790, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Ross back with you. Dan Matthews with us as well until 2 o'clock.

Connor McGovern has been here for the duration. And we were told five minutes till Dan Orlovsky. Well, it's been five minutes and we're still trying to track him down. We will go ahead and figure something out. We'll make it happen. Yeah, it'll be fun. He won't let us down. Stop jerking us around, Dan. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. It's not like that hasn't been said to me before. So, you know, it's. Yeah.

So I'm getting in the territory that I shouldn't get into. Juice, Scruggs, and Shaq Mason back at practice. Shaq Mason apparently going to be back at right guard for the Texans. Now, my only, as I was kind of talking about earlier and we have been talking about this, this offensive line and how it's going to be shuffled around for the Texans, the biggest thing I want is some continuity. I like Shaq Mason, but it's not. like, you know, he's had some issues this season as well. I want to say I don't like them. I like them as options for the Texans for what they have,

because they clearly, of course, have some issues in the interior of the line and have for a long time. You missed your chance. I'm sorry. You missed your chance. I mean, if you were playing all of that well, I think that they would have wanted you to get back even sooner. But the way this offensive line has played, they've at least been serviceable. I don't mess with it. Like, why?

Why even tinker with anything that you have installed into this offensive line? And I mean, has you Scrugs necessarily done anything to lose the job? No. Now, they put, so what they did, initially, was it the first game they did it against the Chiefs or was it before that? What they wanted was Tonsle, Scruggs, Patterson, Mason, Howard. I want to say that they'd done that before. Then with Mason going down, they kicked Titus into left guard because they were getting thrashed on the interior by pass rushers, which Titus Howard did not have a good game. He could have had five holdings called on him.

He had his hands full of Puna Ford and Tyre Tart on the interior with the Los Angeles Chargers. And are they saying with him back, are they going to go back to that configuration? because on Sunday it was Tunsell Howard Patterson Scruggs Fisher who I thought Fisher did okay

he comported himself well he didn't give up a lot of pressures he was getting beat up physically but kind of held his own it was kind of a bin but don't break performance from to me for the most part from Blake Fisher he was getting pushed around by Joey Bosen Kalil Mack when they were switching around but for the most part he wasn't giving up a ton of

pressures unlike Larry Me Tunsell who by the way did give up the sack They had the bad one on the stunt that there was missed by Titus Howard. So, and still the offensive line was better, but that's like going from absolutely horrible abomination to just bad to me on Saturday against the Chargers. But better works. I mean, better is fine. You aren't getting better.

You were getting awful. You were getting terrible. You were getting either pre-snap. You're not on the same counts. You're getting holdings. You're getting all of these different types of things. And at least with the group that you've run out there the last couple of weeks, They haven't crashed the car.

I mean, at this point, that's my expectation for that group. And you want to mess with it again? I mean, just because, hey, we've showed out a lot of money to this guy. And, hey, he hasn't necessarily done anything to lose his job. I disagree. He was all of those things. And I'm not saying that you inserting Shaq Mason back into the offensive line is going to be the reason you lose the game. I just don't understand going away from what has at least given you an opportunity.

Yeah, well, I'm just going to say that they feel like it's the better option, obviously. They wouldn't be putting Shaq Mason in there if they didn't think he made the offensive line better. However, they're going to configure it and however they're going to put the five guys out there with, is Shaq Mason one of your best five linemen? I would say yes. I don't think so at this point. I think the best five offensive linemen you have are the guys you got out there right now. And on top of it all, too, I mean, just to kind of further your point, do you trust that they're going to get this right? No. Because, I mean, it's, you know, you're hearing about, oh, hey, we really like this configuration of five guys that we're running.

Why weren't you messing with this before then? Like, why were you not trying to find this before when you had awful offensive line play? Like, I mean, it just seriously offensively this year has just seemed like it is a period of just insanity where it's, hey, it's going to work. Trust me, it's going to work. it's the guy in the relationship that tells the girl, I'll change, I'll be better. Soon enough, you realize they're not going to change. They are who they are.

Yeah. Fold your hand and move on, man. Okay, I see where you're going. So, yeah, I feel like we'll see. It is, I don't like the shuffling. I don't like going in and out doing this because, like I said, one of the things that this team needs, their biggest issue has been, especially early on in the season as it went along,

dealing with those stunts, dealing with those pressures. and if you're shuffling around the offensive line a ton, that's where you are going to run into these types of issues, and that's what I'm a little bit worried about. On the road, in a loud environment, in Arrowhead Stadium, with this Steve Bespagnolo defense that's going to show seven, eight guys at the line of scrimmage,

and are three coming or are six or seven coming? I don't know. So that's where the offensive line, to me, is going to have to be on the same page. Right now, pleased to be joined by Dan Orlovsky, Mr. Do Everything for ESPN on Get Up on the NFL shows does a great job as well. Thanks for joining us. Dan, how are you? I'm doing fantastic. How about you guys?

Good. We're also pulling our hair out trying to figure out what's going to happen with this tech as an offensive line. We'll get to that in a second. But you as the quarterback, of course, and as somebody who played here in Houston, Ross and Dan with you here. I do have to ask you right off the bat, who is the real C.J. Stroud? Yeah, I mean, C.J. is a sensational. player. He's a young man that, you know, obviously took the league by storm last year. And, you know, all offseason, I was one who was pretty clear of what he did was even greater than maybe the numbers painted the picture as because he was so remarkable on third down. And that masked a lot of some of the inefficiencies of the offense as a whole. And that's obviously one of the harder downs to be good

at that position in league. So it was even more impressive than again, maybe the surface numbers let's said. And then this year it caught up to them a little bit. This year the poor performance on first down caught up to them. This year the lack of consistently being able to control the line of scrimmage on a little downs and the poor protection. I remember going back to week one and I did a quick little thing

on NFL line. I was like, man, they better figure out that protection because it was ugly. And it's, it's rains, tear around their offense and as it impacted CJ's, you know, play negatively there's no question about it. Has he played lesser than he has at last year? Absolutely. But I think

that's the direct reason why that the protection has kind of impacted him, impacted his vision, made him a little antsy at times, which is 100% a real thing. But I don't think that's made him a lesser player now. Again, Dan Orlowski, join us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross, Dan Matthews in for Matt. Dan, a couple of the things that we've been talking about all week that seemed like it was the aha moment for CJ is one, the busted play with the fumbled snap and he's got to roll out, find Xavier Hutchison, and also using his legs. Did you see a guy in the second half who got back to being the guy that he was last year where, I mean, let's call it what it is, his own words. He was a killer on

the field last year. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's kind of one of the things that he has done a little bit more. I would say this year is take off with his legs and be a threat, you know, situationally. it's not necessarily that you're designing quarterback runs for him, but those situational backbreaker, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow type of runs where, you know, it's third and six and they take off and it's like, oh my gosh, everyone was covered, but he got a first down. So, yeah, I saw that. I don't have any reservations about who CJ is or what CJ is.

I think that, you know, some of the injuries and the lack of performances have been the significant part of why the play has fallen off. But that's going to be a huge part in this game for them this weekend as well, is, you know, for both quarterbacks is who's going to have those two or three runs and those crucial moments to either, you know, keep a drive alive or put points on the board or take three minutes off of a clock longer. And so, yeah, I think that's another kind of as, I don't want to see, asterisk, but bullet point in this game is, you know, can CJ pull those off?

One of the big problems with the offensive line has just been allowing those free runners, Dan, with maybe a lack of communication. And I am worried about that going up against the Spagnola defense. this weekend on the road in a loud arrowhead environment. How do the Texans in the offensive line prepare for that? Yeah, I mean, it's obviously a huge part of the challenge. I think the number one thing that they can do to help that is you've got to run the football and 21 personnel, something that actually going back to a couple weeks when they did play,

they were decently successful at it. And so 21 putting a fullback on the field or maybe utilizing a tight end in that role, but you've got to be able to do that. The second thing is this. Actually, I'll make this the first thing. Every single time that CJ breaks down and walks the line of scrimmage, he's got to be thinking blitz. Because it comes at any point from anywhere.

The situations don't matter. So there has to be a constant at the forefront of his mind. Where's the blitz coming from? Where's the end? It's almost like as a quarterback, you're often reacting to the blitz. This is a reacting to the no blitz situation if you're CJ. Like every play you're expecting. a blitz so it doesn't surprise you. Then again, the 21 personnel has got to be a big run.

I think the second thing is you got to try to hit some screens against them when they pressure you. You know, there's two methods dealing with pressure as an offense. You want to try to survive it or you want to try and kill it. And one of the ways that you try to, you know, do both of them at the same time as some perimeter screens where it protects you, you get the ball out of your hands. There's usually more than not a bad play that out. But if you catch it at the right time, right angle, right people, you can hit on run. And so I think some of the perimeter screens or slip screens would be a big deal. And then, I mean, one of the things that was disappointing is the plan for protection and the execution for protection.

And so, you know, you got to have a plan for it. You got to know exactly how you want to protect it and communicate it. And while it's hard, you know, it's one of the challenges of the business. If it's third down, I wouldn't be surprised if you get into some no huddle and try to give yourself as much time at the line of scrimmage to communicate. And then one of the things I've always learned, and I learned this from Coach Kubiak, and if everybody's wrong, we're going to be okay. So you don't chase perfection in these situations, you know, like to think that you're going to get to line scrimmage and know exactly what's going to happen. And that's not real. But as long as everybody's on the same page and it knows what or who the problem is,

you're going to be okay more often than not. So that's the big thing is you can't have four guys thinking one thing and one person doing another thing. That's when catastrophe happens. Again, Dan Orlowski, join us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. And you mentioned the screen game. I mean, that's something that I've been screaming about all season, Dan, with Joe Mixon. I mean, you see it all the time.

He's running into a wall. He's running for 40, 50 yards a game. You can't really get the run game going. And you hear Bobby Sloak talk about one that get the run game going. But all off season, Dan, we have. heard about what a great pass catcher he was out of the backfield. I mean, are you kind of disappointed in Bobby Sloick for not using that part of his game more, especially factoring in the struggles at times?

Well, there's no question about it. I mean, I'm a massive fan of the screen game in general. I mean, if you look at just if we're, you know, tree top view looking at some of the offenses that have been really good this year and certainly in years past, you would sit there and go, Kansas City, man, okay, really good screen game. And then you'd go, well, Detroit, yep, really good screen game. And, well, the Minnesota Vikings, really good screen game. And the Los Angeles Rams, really good screen game.

And the Buffalo Bills, really good screen game. So, you know, I think in totality, you know, that's got to be one of the foundation staple of your offenses, different screens that you can get to. You're just trying to create a numbers advantage and then space advantage. And so I think it's a different way to get Joe mixing the ball. It's a different way to, you know, what a mix in strengths. He's a tough tackle, man. This does a tough tackle in space.

And so, you know, I think it's also a breather for your quarterback. You know, we're calling this player. We're running this, but you don't have to think much. And so, you know, it's something that I would try and hit four or five times on this game. A couple of more minutes with Dan Orloskey. And Dan, I mean, off topic football-wise, I told Ross, I told the audience I'd ask you this. You're pretty renowned for your food takes. So two-part question here.

Number one, what gets more of a visceral reaction? analysis that maybe upsets a fan base or your food takes. And is there a food take that you are willing to die on a hill for? And I mean, even you're hunched over skull and bones on that hill when it's all said and done that you will not come off of it. Yeah, definitely the fan bases. You know, I always say this. Every year it feels like the fans become more and more passionate. And listen, when you're in my role, like, and you're convicted about the things you say, it's going to come your way.

So at times I'm like, oh, that's a tough one. But definitely the fan bases. But the food does make people upset in an odd way, you know. The food take that I would die on is I think mushrooms are disgusting. That's one that I ain't blinking off. I ain't blinking off that one. I know. Me too.

Yeah, I often say like, I love a good meal. I do. I do. I love a good meal. But I don't need to. a good meal every time I eat. It's not like I have to walk away from having, you know, food and being like, oh my gosh, that was an auto body experience. And so, you know, I think that that's probably one as well. It's funny, you guys, Houston, we used to live down there. We were having a, you know,

group text with some friends up here in Connecticut. My wife was vividly describing L-T-Empo to them. And a sponsor too, Dan. Well done. Yeah, I honestly did not know that. And it was great having the, uh, the questions fired back from them of like, wait, what? They put brisket and casso and we're like, yep. And then they were like, wait, you dip your fajitas and butter and we're like, yeah, oh, yeah. It just, the food stuff triggered my mind.

That's great, Dan. One last one before we get you out. Just your eyes, what the Texans defense is going to have to do and then a prediction and then take it easy on us with the prediction here in Houston. Yeah, again, I think Kansas City wins the game. I don't want to misrepresent it, but I do think, Houston can hang and the really question is like can they do enough offensively um you know can they do enough obviously the depletion but i think defensively if you had to ask me you know build a defense that

could you know really um hold its own and and have success against this chiefs offense i say man you got have two good edge rushers and you got to be able to play man coverage well you know and so i think that's what gives them a good feel in this game is you know will and and veneal were freaking unbelievable last week and I think their heavy hands are a big deal versus these tackles. Al-Shayir definitely was a miss when you felt his impact

and then they can play man you know and so I actually think that their defense can keep them in the game. I wouldn't be surprised that this is a one-score game on the fourth quarter. I just I don't know if they can do enough offensively versus a darn good defense. Dan

appreciate the time man. Good stuff as always. It's great to Here are you getting here in Houston, and of course you get to see him on Get Up, first take, pretty much any of the NFL shows. Everything. I was going to say. I mean, you know, fill in the blanks that I'm missing here, Dan. Yeah, there is nothing. I tell everybody, Austin, you know, the best part about ESPN is it's 24-7, you know, so it's obviously got a massive platform and there's a lot of opportunity. And the worst part about ESPN is it's 24-7.

You know, there is always another show looking for somebody. So, no, it's all good. I'm super grateful I get to be a part of it. Awesome, man. Hey, thanks for carving us some time for us today, man. We really appreciate it. And we'll catch up soon. Thanks, guys.

All right. Take care, Dan Orlovsky, again, ESPN, former Texan. You'd even thrown out the idea of do you throw out Texans legend? Texans legend, Dan Orlovsky. Appreciate him making some time for us. He was a stalwart in that locker. He was always a go-to guy, talk to. Even off Mike, you know, you knew that he probably had the gift for doing what he does now.

The gift of Gab, certainly. Good stuff there with Dan Orlovsky. You want to react to anything he had to say about the Texans this weekend against Kansas City Chiefs. You can do so. Those of you on hold, we will get to you as well. It is the Matt Thomas with Ross, without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews and you at 713-212-5-790. Lunch timers. It's the Matt Thomas. show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. All right, we're back with you. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross, without Matt Thomas, with Dan Matthews, with Connor McGovern, with you at 7-13. 2-1-2.

And we got golf on in the studio. 5-7-90. Yeah, look, I don't like watching these talking head shows. I like to put on live sports. And truth be told that, well, of course, it is an adjustment moving from 12 to 3 to 10 to 2. But there's not as much live sports on 10 to 2. 10 a.m. I don't know what's happening in Pakistan. Can we put some cricket on or something?

I don't want to watch talking head shows. They just make me angry. So I always want to put live sports on. Easier to do 12 to 3 normally when day baseball season is happening as well. What about darts? I'll watch darts. I was going to say. Do I want to watch darts or don't want to watch Screaming A. Smith say a team's got zero percent chance in the final four of the AFC playoffs. I'm going to go with the former. Well, the week before you had Rex Ryan, so just I'll switch out one guy from next. I don't want to watch any of those guys. They're screaming.

They're going for reaction. That's fine. I'm going to die on this hill all by myself. Not all by myself. With a few of you with me. But that's just where sports discourse is headed and where it already is. And I just don't want any part of it. See, for some of Dean Orlovsky's renowned food takes, I'm with them on mushrooms.

I can't do them. No matter what? The chewiness. Yeah, it just, it weirds me out. I think they get a good flavor on certain things. I get a good beef stroganoff. What mushrooms can add to it. pick around them. Okay. That's fine.

Yeah. I, like, like onions. I love onions. I love onions. People don't like onions or idiots. Onions are the backbone of cooking. Literally, onions, garlic, peppers. Yeah, my grandfather was not a big garlic guy. Oh, all right. Now he's getting, now that's out of control. You can't cook without onions and garlic.

I was going to say, I mean, it's the, it's the benchmark for most of the foods that I eat. Why don't you just eat dirt, Grandpa Matthews or whichever? He pretty much did. His burgers were well done, his steaks were well done. You have to remember, he grew up in that hardened era in the Midwest. I don't want to catch their trichanosus. Oh, this beef is dirty. Where you don't complain about anything and you cook the hell out of everything and you eat it and you have a smile on your face after you eat.

Oh, you know who was like that when he used to order his burgers? Well, Polly, I'm ordering a hamburger. This is what he would tell the waitress. All right, this is the way I wanted. I want it well done. And then when you think it's well done, I want it put. back on the grill. He would literally do this to the waitress. And then when

you think it's well done from there, I want it back on the grill. Get me that thing. Burned to a crisp, honey. I'm like, all right, Milo. Cool. He would get it like it, like, it would be like the most burnt. I saw him send back a hamburger. Then that thing looked like burnt to a crisp. He's like, oh,

this isn't done enough. You think, like once it went back to the kitchen, the server just brings the plate back and goes, Milo. Put some dust on you. Exactly. And the cook or shows at a certain place that was sponsoring the Astro Lines at that time, which, by the way, Astroline coming up at 6 o'clock tomorrow. Yes. 6 p.m. here on a sports talk 790.

Astroline back with Joe Espada and I believe Bryce Matthews. And I think Jeff Blum is going to be part of it tomorrow too. All right, man. Yeah, hey, I'm going to be part of it, man. Let's go Cal Bears. Talking with Bryce Matthews, you said? Cool, dude. It's going to be a good time.

All right. Getting ready for the season at Dike and Park. I heard somebody say Dakin Park We had to get this figured out The video that they released with Todd Callis Was welcome to Dichen Park Okay I can't do it like like AC can

No no of course I mean we'll be hearing it soon enough Absolutely absolutely All right anyways Let's get Martin's been holding patiently Martin I just want to remind you before we start this call You are not funny go ahead Oh

Hey Martin Hey I called Hey I called about the Texas I wish they would incorporate Damien Pierce into the offense more to have confidence in Damien Pierce, huh? It doesn't seem like that. He got a lot of run there in that last game against the Titans. What do you have like 190 yards or somewhere in that neighborhood? He had that big run, but clearly they're more trusting of Joe Mixon.

And Joe Mixon did a great job. He closed that game for them in the fourth quarter. He had like 10 carries for 58-year-old. guards on the last drive. I'll take it even a step further. It seems like they have just as much trust on third down and Daria Gumbulli do. Darry's definitely the third down guy. He's a good pass catcher. They like him in pass pro and stuff like that. He's been the

third down guy all year long. For whatever reason, Damien Pierce just has not been the right fit with this regime change and Bobby Sloick's offense. Yeah, I have a tribute to John Denver. Go ahead. Rocky Mountain High.

All right. Thank you. Martin. I reminded you before the call. I reminded you before the call, Martin. I mean, technically he wasn't really trying to be funny. Oh, what was he trying to be? He was trying to show off his seating close. Next time he calls, I'll have two reminders

for Martin. You're not funny and you can't sing. Man, it almost sounded like the country boy was in this room with us right now. Nobody wants to hear. The ghost of John was here. Nobody wants to hear people who can't sing, sing it on the radio. That's ridiculous. All right, quick break

here on. There's no place of people who think they can sing like church and you know of course, you know well there is that but I mean at least with karaoke there's drinks involved so it kind of takes off the edge but it's when you're at mass or at church service and somebody's just belting out the hymns and you're

just like that it's it's not it man please don't do that. Just give him a little signal. Just tune that up. Just just hum along. All right. Just do what most of us do. Just hum along. A quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. short segment here because we went a little bit over with Dan O'Aulovsky, but of course it was worth it.

He was talking to some Texans. How are we feeling about this offensive line? If I say Shaq Mason inserted back into the offensive line, you say what? We know that Dan says the same thing when he sees mushrooms. He says yuck. But we'll talk about that as we go along. Hour number four of the program coming up soon as well. We'll also have I Just Don't Get It with you until 2 o'clock. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas back after the short break. Lunchtimeers, back to Houston's longest running lunchtime sports show with a guy that yells Nothing but nylon. Nothing but for a living.

Yes. Matt Thomas. The legend continues now. Well, the legend's going to continue tomorrow because Matt Thomas is not here. Welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. I'm telling you, I understand sticking up for Connor. I understand like when I'm out. but if I ever hear it from that

about me being out boy it is going to truly be the what was your favorite sports MTV this part of the bed it's how he rolls it's like I how I'm saying it now and I miss basically the entire month of November here

that is true I get a lot of vacation so I take a lot of vacation I've been in this I oh my gosh I think I just hit 16 years it's sports talk 790 I think this week or at at I heart Houston. So I take my vacation.

I take my vacation. But also when I'm here and Matt's not, we're going to make fun of them. Well, it's not just me. It's the people on Twitter streets. And it's also, too. I mean, isn't it funniest too whenever you're off and then somebody, hey man, can you sub in? I'm like, I'm off. Oh, man, I really need somebody.

The first part, kind of knocked out the second follow-up right there. Yeah, that's fine. I know. If you're off, I don't ever bother you. You don't. You don't. All right. Well, moving along here on the, well, you want to send some tweets you can at SportsRV at Dan Matthews, H-O-U.

That is Matthews with one T. Daniel making some good points. He said, let's get real. When are we going to change the show to the Ross Show with occasionally Matt Thomas? I like that. I like that a lot. He's making a lot of good points. Mike said, what was your favorite sports and team memory?

Then he put the hashtag sarcasm on there or the sarcasm signal. So, yes, just some sarcasm, having some fun. Matt Thomas would do the same to us. So that's why we, he likes to make fun of people, and we like to make fun of them back. See, that's all part of it's called family. That's it. That's it. It's all the fun of it. I mean, you know, we all had that old friend that they were good at dishing out the barbs, but then they weren't good at taking them.

Oh, some people that I can think of that are very bad at that. And that's neither of you guys. You both. I appreciate that. And Conner's got broad shoulders. He's a good fit with the show. Connor, Conner McGovern doing a great job. Oh, I'm sorry.

Connor McGovern, one of the finest lads from Limer Oh, that's where he hails from Swings a Wide Shalele. All right, we're doing a great job here on the Mad Tom show with Ross, having a good time talking sports here. Let's see, we're talking Texans in the last segment. We'll talk some rockets coming up as well.

We have Astros. I don't know if you heard the Bregman update from earlier on the show. The Bregman update was there wasn't much of an update, but Buster only saying that the latest is there is the Toronto Blue Jays, the Red Sox, and the Tigers down. It's still in the

mix for Alex Breggman as a possible landing spot. I mean, it truly is. You know, I know that we've had the JV update before. You guys have had the JV update. I mean, it feels like that there does need to be production of day, whatever, of Breggman watch. We do have a Breggman update. We did use that earlier. All right. So, I mean, I'm just saying that, you know, it's getting to the point here where, I mean, what, we're a week away from Fanfest happening. And I'm not saying this from the

perspective that the Astros could get him a the last minute. They're done. They've moved on. But, I mean, is this a we pull into West Palm Beach and we get the notification on our phone that he got the Carlos Correa deal? Like a short term opt-out late deal with somebody? That was fine. That was fine because Correa hit free agency at what, like 27?

I think so, yeah. Breggman's about to be 31. That's one year off-offensive numbers have not been great. Yeah, I mean, it's... Very good. But not great. Very good. OPS plus a 1118 is solid plus a gold Glover. It's solid. Plus the leadership. I think there's no accident that the Tigers and Red Sox are in the mix with Alex

Cora and A.J. Hinch, guys who know Alex Breggman and with a value that he can bring to a team there. But we are just drawing closer and closer and closer to pitchers and catchers as you said. And I brought this up earlier as well. Josh Hayter deal last year was felt very late

in the game. That was January 19th. We are three days away. That's Sunday on this calendar to where, I mean, if you get even further past that, I mean, Alex Breggman's going to be working out getting ramped up no matter where he is, but he needs to be in camp with whoever he's going to sign with. It happened the day before me, you, Gordy, and whoever else was out there for Fan Fest freezing our, you know what, so I think the wax was out there. But yeah, I mean, the very next day, we had Dana Brown on and we got to ask him about it. And I mean, famously,

Ryan Presley was not there, so didn't have a chance to talk with him about it. But, Yeah. I mean, that's... No, Ryan, we had him scheduled. He ducked us. Ah. Yeah. That's a shame. He was like, yeah, I don't know. I think he ducked his media availability before that.

I mean, I can understand that, though, too. I mean, it's just kind of like... I'm sorry, Ryan Presley. Josh Hater's better than you. I'm sorry. We love you, Ryan Presley. You're another year older and not as good as Josh Hater, who they signed to a big time. We'll get Hater this year, too. And if...

Hopefully. That's the time that I'm on air. I've got to ask, you know, hair care routine. I mean, I've got to know. Yeah, that's true. Maybe he's, maybe he can give us the secret tips. You guys did gut feelings.

Tuesday, yes. So, yeah, so I was, yeah, it's Thursday. I don't know what day it is. One of the best days of the week. Ever. So can I add a late gut feeling? Okay, let me get the file out from Tuesday. Now, I should just reverse sort this

because I have to scroll down. I have like four years worth of gut feelings on this file. All right, here we go. Go ahead. Oh, I'm writing 2024 on these years. It's 2025, you don't. All right, let me go ahead. Ryan Presley will be traded.

That clears the way for the Astros to go get a capable enough left fielder. I hope you're right. I mean, they're just going to have to send cash with Ryan Presley, though. Nobody's going to pay him $14 million to be a seventh inning guy. For one year? Eighth inning guy for one year. I don't think so. I don't think so.

they would. And, I mean, who's to say that, for example, he's got a no trade as well. So he's not going to want to go to a bad team. So the Yankees, they lost Clay Holmes. They don't have a closer right now. Okay. Do you want to help the Yankees like that? Well, actually, we're, you know what, Ryan Presley, go close for the Yankees.

I actually don't mind that. I mean, I don't think that you can necessarily think about, you know, who it helps or who it hurts. I mean, I just, I think that you find yourself in a situation where you're up against it with the CBT. Yeah. you need some help out in the outfield. You cannot go to West Palm Beach with this outfield the way that it is and think that you're winning the AOS. That's not going to happen.

Yeah, Jack Peterson signed with the Rangers. Who are the lower rent outfield options right now? I know there's a few. I've heard, Randall Gritchick. Randall Gritchick. Randall Gritchick. Is he from the area? Is he from Texas?

He's a Lamar consolidated guy. He was that Lamar Little League team that went to the World Series. years ago. So he's a local kid. Okay. And another guy that I've thrown out too, numerous times, Adam Duval. Adam Duval. Okay, well, either way, sounds better. Look, I like Maricio DuBahn, but you like him in the

utility role playing all over the place, and he's not an everyday bat. We know that. The Gold Glove utility finalist, and before that, gold glove utility winner, but certainly room for improvement, because if you're going with Dubon, Myers, and McCormick, Hopefully Chaz can bounce back, but it's not a great outfield.

You saw it last year. I mean, of, you know, hey, we need to start Maricio DuBon. We need to start Maricio DuBon. Hey, the bat's not as good. Gee, I wonder, there's a reason why he hasn't been an everyday starter. Is that reason right there that you just said? So, yeah, you can't sell me on the idea of a left field that is platoon with, hey, Maricio DuBond's going to be one of those guys.

I need Maricio moving around. Yeah, exactly. You need to use him everywhere. Days off for guys, stuff like that. So we'll see what happens. I like that guy feeling. If they trade Ryan Presley, sign a left fielder, I'll be feeling a lot better about what's happening. Not necessarily that I want Presley gone. He has value in the bullpen, but they want to offload the salary to stay as low as possible into the competitive balance tax. Time for a quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Three hours in, one to go. Dan Matthews is here. We got rocket stuff to get to as they beat the nuggets last night. Firmly in the two spot, they've won five games in a row. Yes, your Houston Rockets are there.

Texans getting ramped up for the Chiefs over the weekend as well. We'll have the latest for you on the offensive line and what's going there. Also have, I just don't get it coming up at 130 and you at 713-213-2-5-790. 7-13-212-790. Lunch timers. This is the Matt Thomas show. Hour number four of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Without Matt Thomas, he is out traveling with your Houston Rock.

It's last night playing in Denver, getting the victory over the Nicola Jokic and Aaron Gordon-Liss Denver Nuggets. But still, counts as a W in the column all the same. They will be taking on the Sacramento Kings tonight here on Sports. Sports Talk 790. That'll be a late night, 9 o'clock start. You or me, Dan, on the Rockets launch pad at 8 o'clock. Is it you? It's me tonight. I'm the guy. So 830, it's going to be me. No rockets wrap, though. No rockets wrap with the late. We want you to get your sleep. We hope that you're getting your sleep after. Which, by the way, I mean, even though it's a back-to-back energy might be low a little bit.

I got to believe there's a feeling going back into that building with the non-calls on Donatus Sabonis. that it's a little bit of, hey, we're going to make these guys feeling tonight. It's Rockets Revenge. Well, the good thing is you had your starters not play a bunch of minutes there at the end of the fourth quarter because you were blowing out the nuggets. Emio Doka pulling everybody out with about five minutes left to go. Five minutes of rest, not huge, but it matters on the back-to-back any second that you can get. There were only like six and a half-point favorites in that game able to get the victory and the win.

So Dan Matthews is here. I am here. It is the fourth hour of the Matt Thomas. Connor McGovern is here. You can send us tweets at SportsRV at Dan Matthews, H-O-U, that is Matthews, with a single T. And those are you on the phone lines that would like to get in. You can as well at 7-1-3-21-5-7-90. 7-1-2-5-7-90.

We had bid to Bose on earlier as well talking some rockets. And honestly, taking the slight uptick in rocket's interest in the city of Houston. In the building, as you know, Dan, you go to the games too. feels like people are getting there in bigger numbers and a little bit early. It's not like it's going to get to levels of where they were in 2017-18 just yet. But I'm feeling a little bit more of Rockets' interest in the city of Houston. It's trending in the right direction. I mean, I think if nothing else, this kind of feels like the 2015 Astros season.

I mean, even though you a little bit got that last year with the Rockets, but, I mean, 2015 was when they were hitting home runs like crazy. they get to the playoffs. Who's the Colby Rasmus of the Houston Rockets? I think you might be going with Jayshon Tate there. I think Jayshon Tate is going to be the one that has the crazy locker room celebration. Amin Thompson is the Carlos Correa. The young, well, Amin's not a rookie, but he's bursting onto the scene.

Was that Correa's rookie? But I mean, yeah. I think he was a true rookie in 15. You started to get those guys coming up. So you were like, okay, hey, we know what this is like. We think that this thing can be pretty great. We just don't 100% know yet. And that's what the rockets are showing already.

Yeah. So it's feeling good. Teams looking good. And we got the trade deadline three weeks away. There had been some talk the last several weeks or so about Dearn Fox or Jimmy Butler or the really swing for the fence move would be Devin Booker or one of the pieces from the Phoenix Suns who continue to just be mired in mediocrity throughout the season. So I think it's going to be a stay-the-course, trust-the-process type of trade deadline from the Rockets, maybe a bench score or somebody who can knock down some threes reliably, although the Rockets' three-point shooting is on a bit of an uptick.

No, I mean, you know, just from what Raffell Stone has said, I think that it probably is going to be what you said, that, you know, if you're going into that trade deadline expecting a massive splash move, you're not going to get it then. I think if the Rockets are going to make a move like that, that's an off-season move. That's a, in the middle of July, that's when the hot stove of the NBA fires up. But, I mean, two at the same time, it sucks because of injury. But you've gotten to the point now where even when Jabari Smith Jr. is healthy and readily available and relegated to the bench.

Bingo. Probably. I can't, I can't pull him in Thompson off the starting floor. I can't. No, you can't. It's, even though he is a non-shooter. and Alpern-Shingoon is a non-shoots. Generally, an NBA philosophy is in 2025. Having multiple non-shooters on the floor at the same time, not a good idea.

But with somebody who is so fast and active as Amin Thompson is, who can be a blur down the floor, he can be a one-man fast break. The basket cuts work so well. This action that they're doing now, where it's a pick and roll at the top, whether it be left side, right side with Jalen Green, then Shingoon starts rolling to the back. basket. Jalen Green pops it to Alprin Shingoon and then Amend Thompson comes on a basket cut. They do that three, four times a game and it's just an easy, it's an easy 100% fuel goal rate type of shot from Amin Thompson.

Or I mean, how many times have we seen it where it's an errant shot and it's even an airball. And it's, oh, hey, look, there's number one. He's right there. He's everywhere. It's like, you know how they said like Dennis Rodman would go in practice and shag balls basically off the shots of he would learn how Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippin and whoever else, where their misses were going. It's like he knows where the ball is going.

Wouldn't that one of the craziest parts of the last dance where he was, if a shot hits off the right part of the rim, it's going to bounce this way. If it's this way, I was just like, good God, that is just awareness that I don't think any of us can comprehend. But no, I mean, he just, he was that guy off the bench

for you. You loved what he gave you from that. And especially too, once Jabari got hurt. It precipitated the need for him to be on the starting floor. And you're like, all right, let's see what this guy has. And it's been a starting five that I think has given more confidence. That's not. I think I know, especially too when you see the way that Jalen Green is playing. Since he's been out, that's freed up Jalen Green.

John Green's now a guy that says, I can shoot this basketball. I can make this shot. Yeah. And there was, you know, people had been saying that, you know, Jalen, Amin Thompson unlocks Jalen Green. And that was like, at first, my first blushed reaction was like, I mean, I guess I don't know exactly how that makes sense because the way that the two of them, they're not necessarily running pick and rolls together, stuff like that. But where it is, it's, it is those actions where Amin Thompson is everywhere. But then it's on the defensive side where normally Dylan Brooks takes on the other team's best player and then it would be on to Jalen Green from there.

Now Jalen Green's further down in the pecking order to where it is a men Thompson that sometimes, even depending on if it's a fast wing. In the case of John Morant, John Morant, first of all, too quick for anybody, but certainly too quick for Dylan Brooks. They put him in Thompson on John Morant.

Then they put Dylan Brooks on Jaron Jackson Jr., whoever else as far as a threat. And then that does free up Jalen Green to where he's been a really good perimeter defender this season, but he doesn't have to sap energy on that side. In a 40-minute game, energy is finite. And some guys have more than others, of course, you know like Michael Jordan in the fourth court.

It was Jordan winning time and all that time, Kobe Bryant, etc. But everybody reaches a point to where they're not going to be as effective. And Jalen Green is saving that energy thanks to him in Thompson. And to Dylan Brooks, who was already ahead of him in the pecking order that way, to where he can be more effective for longer in games, offensively for the team. You're seeing in the last six games now seven with last night. And of course, he went above this number. He has scored no less than 22 points in those games.

He's averaging 30.6 over that stretch. The Rockets are 6 and 1 in that stretch. That's pretty good. So, I mean, you want to talk about what the key is for the offense. It's as simple as possible. And that's the frustration that people had for the longest time with Jalen Green of, man, we need more out of you. I mean, people are getting so upset with Fred Vien Bleet. And I'll give a shout out to Jackson Gatlin, who brought this up on his podcast not too long ago,

where he said, stop getting mad at Fred. You're asking Fred to do things that he's not supposed to do. He's not supposed to be counted on for key shots, crucial shots, late in games. That's not why you brought him here. You're getting mad at the wrong guy. Yeah, yeah. It's a lot. Fred offensive output has been lower.

You're asking less of him. Three-point shooting has been coming along a little bit in the last several games to where hopefully he can get somewhere closer to where he has been in his career. A 37% career shooter now up to close to 35%. So he started making the threes. It's taking the pressure off him. He's getting open looks. His Jalen Green is creating those.

I think we haven't even mentioned Alperin Shungun. He's been very good. We know what he's capable of doing as well. He had 20 points last night. So you add it all up. And I mentioned this earlier. If I'm building a team from scratch, I want an effective big man who can score and pass.

You have that in Alperin Shingoon. You want a dynamic wing who can shoot threes. And right now, Jailen Green is making threes. and who can get to the basket the way he is. You would like somebody like I'm in Thompson, a Swiss Army knife, do everything kind of guy, and then a veteran ball handle like Fred Van Vleet, and then a veteran wing defender like Dylan Brooks.

This starting five right now is like about the way you would construct an NBA team. That's why when Dylan Brooks had the line, it was a nice line of one night it's you, one night it's me, but it's always all of us. I said that's cute, that's nice. That's really great on T-shirts. it's not going to propel you to where you want to be. And where this team wants to be is to be a top seed in the Western Conference,

get into the Western Conference playoffs, and go as far as they can possibly go on the Western Conference playoffs. This team plays the way that they have right now. And you heard EMA Udoka talk about it the other night, that they still feel like they can get a ton better. You're, what, 15 games above 500 right now? Yeah. And you still feel like you can get better.

That's exciting to think about what's coming our way in March in April when you do get into playoff playoff positioning. Yeah, and things I often look at like point differential, net rating, stuff like that. Like I said, by those metrics, the Lakers are a fraud and they continue to tumble down

the standings. As I've been telling you guys for a couple of weeks, by those types of metrics, Rockets are a top five, top six team in basketball. So it is real, it is here, and it's a little ahead of schedule, but it's fun too. And it's also, you're taking care of the business you need to take care of.

I mean, you've already won the season series against Memphis. That's huge. You'll get them one more time, I think, in about a couple of weeks. And then you've still got Denver a couple of more times. But Dallas is banged up. You can try to tell me that Kyrie will be back, but you start having disc issues in your back. It's not good.

I mean, that's much more than just a week or two. Like, that's a prolonged all throughout the season. He's on, he's off type of scenario. Same deal with Luca. I mean, a couple of weeks ago, you get a video of Luca riding off the floor on one of those scooters. Does that look like a guy? Does that look like a guy that's going to be back anytime soon?

And a guy who likes to let himself go and get out of shape. When he even comes back, how well a shape is he going to be in? That's another question. It's going to be hell on the referees. Oh, God. Yeah. That guy's never committed a foul. Just ask him.

He's the worst. He's the worst. It really takes away from his dynamic, fun to watch the way. So far to the point that Brian, one horse even said the team talked to him and said stop complaining to the referees. Stop making an ass out of yourself. It's done, man. Stop doing it.

Get over it. Get this man in therapy or something. All right, time for a quick break here. On the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Dan Matthews is here. We got, I just don't get it. Something that's puzzling you. You can't figure out why that's going on.

We'll do that at 1.30. We can also get you in on anything you want to talk about. We've been talking some Texans. We did have a Texans call on hold. We can definitely talk anything you guys want to get to at 7. 1712-790. 713-212-5-790. Matt Thomas, Ross Villarreal. It's the Matt Thomas show with Ross on Sports Talk 790.

119 of the PM here on Sports Talk 790. Sounds like we're on the alternative rock show. I was going to say, before you hit the post right there. There was a guy I used to work with that we would, everybody's working for the weekend. It was kind of like our Friday work whistle. I got you. And he would act like 80s, 90s, cheesy

rock DJ and, you know, get you set up for it and then right before it hit, Everybody's working for the weekend. We've got a Friday prank coming up at 1.30 here. You're not going to be a one. I'm going to miss this one. Here's some Fleetwood Mac. We're going to have Bozo call in

from the car lot. All right, Dan Matthews here. Ross, Villarreal, with as well. Those are the Titans that paved the way for us. Connor McGovern. Yeah, we appreciate all of you.

You know, we stand on the shoulders of giants. That's it. Dan Matthews. I mean, hey, it's the guys that took the chances before us. And here we are. Bingo.

Here we are. Sports Radio. I appreciate you folks listening to us with you until 2 o'clock in the next segment we have. I just don't get it. You can get in as well. 713-212-5-7-90.

7-13-21-5-7-9. 90. I am like hurriedly trying to just look around. Our good friend Adam J. Wexer talking about what the Texans have at practice. I see Nico Collins there. That is good. He says he did not currently see Joe Mixen at the Open to Media part. It was listed as limited yesterday. But as Wex says, we should see Joe Mixen there.

Yeah. There's zero reason to believe that he doesn't play in this game. And we haven't had any reason to think that he's, won't play in this game. I mean, a lot of times it could just be getting a little extra treatment. He is listed on the injury report with an ankle. So that could be a part of it. There's also gamesmanship. I mean,

you're to the time of the year where paranoia even hops up another level. I mean, not so much to the level where, say, there was a former head coach who wanted the top level of a hotel nearby the practice field bought out because he didn't want somebody to possibly

be able to see into their practice. I mean, you know, it's not like anybody would ever do that. You know, but, I mean, you still want there to be, I mean, the Chiefs did it with the Texans with Patrick Mahomes when it was, you know, hey, is he going to play? I think I'll be

out there. Yeah, that'll be, yeah, well, of course he'll be out now. I mean, you know what, one of the things we had Dan Orlowski on earlier, I meant to talk to him about that, about the rest versus Russ argument, 24 days off for the Houston Texans. We'll get to that in a sec, but I did want to run through, at least yesterday's practice report, haven't seen today's. But he's,

Aziz Alshayor limited, as was Danico Atre, Shaq Mason, and Joe Mixon, Dalton Schultz, and Juice Scruggs. Latest we heard is that Shaq Mason will be inserted back into the starting lineup at right guard. What does that mean about the configuration around him remains to be seen? I've given my displeasure about making that move because, I mean, you've had two games and you've been able to run the football pretty well with the group of five that you have. Now has everybody been great? No, but have they been better?

absolutely they have and at this point you give me C minus work C passes the class there are times out there where you were running a group of five out on the field that was giving you Fs brother you getting yeah there were some S you had to retake that class in certain cases you couldn't retake that class a little cue drop back in the day you just yeah exactly you know I still have dreams by the way that like I haven't shown up to a class all semester that I had no idea that I was enrolled in really And the professor tells me to my face, no, I Q dropped you.

Oh. Or DQed you. And I'm just like, ah, what? I'm sorry, Dan. I'm sorry that you have to live. How does that make you feel, Dan? It's fine, because then I look on my wall and I see the diploma and I'm like, oh, okay, all right. You're all good.

But I mean, but that was the offensive line. I mean, they're having those dreams at times after some of the games this season. But 24 days off for the Chiefs. I imagine, this is why I say I don't think there's going to be much of a, a. rust factor. Even if the Chief did all play all their starters, they were still going to have the by week. You always want the by week for everyone to rest,

certainly for Pat Mahomes, whose ankle had been bothering him towards the end of the season. And if it were a bad idea, I just boil it down to this. If we're a bad idea, Andy Reid wouldn't have done it. It's also having trust in his team. I mean, he, the ultimate trust last year of the regular season by their standards

was ho-hum. And you're thinking yourself, well, there's no way they're going to go up to Buffalo and win. Then they did. There's definitely no way they're going to go to Baltimore and win, and the same result. And the following a couple of weeks later in Las Vegas for the Super Bowl. So I think that that's something that they kind of bank on. I mean, this has been a team that if you can say a football team has sleptwalk through a 15 and 2 season, they kind of have.

That's crazy. And that's how good they are. They're the number one seed. They were 15 and 1 in games that they actually tried in with the loan loss coming on the road to the Buffalo bills. And, I mean, back to back. Super Bowl champions. And I'm feeling pretty confident.

The Texans can make this close into the fourth quarter like Dan O'Loski said. I'm feeling confident because I feel like this is a Texans team who finally just, I mean, either it was said or it was just understood enough. Like enough. I understand there's been injuries. I understand that there's been suspensions and everything else that have kind of cut into the depth of this team this year. But, I mean, people were talking Super Bowl with us.

and we look like a team that doesn't even outside of playing in an awful division deserved to be here. And in the second half, I saw that team. I saw that team that had enough of hearing just how underperforming they were all season. And now I kind of hope that that's kind of carried into this week where they're like, that's the team that we're supposed to be.

It's get ready, Connor. It's Mike Lowry and... Mike Lowry. Yeah, it's Mike Lowry and I can't remember Martin Lawrence's character. name. But remember with Bad boys, which bad bad, bad boys for life? Bad boys won. Bad boys won the OG. Yeah, driving on the airport tarmac. From now on, that's how

you drive. That's how you drive. That's how you're supposed to drive. You know, there was somebody that was Mike Lowry in that locker room after that Texans game and said, from now on, that's how you play. Yeah. When you play, that's how you play. It's funny because, you know, we're always week to week in the NFL. If we were coming into this game somehow and we could teleport that 31 to 2 game, we'd be like, Texans are going to get crushed by 50 in this game.

But you had it, I mean, all three phases were really good. And we've been talking about the offense and the offensive line. But the way that the backbone of that victory was the defense, was the four turnovers forced at the hands of Justin Herbert and really locking up that Chargers offense that had been, I mean, through the air and on the ground, doing very well towards the end of the season. See, people can't see me. right now, but I'm doing kind of like

the grabbing. Okay. The grabbing. Are you grasping at straws? That's what you have to look out. No, no, no, not doing that. Okay. What you have to look out for in this game against Kansas City is this is prime defensive holding territory. Don't get angry. It's going to happen.

You're going to have a defensive back for the Texans. That's going to get flagged for defensive holding because of what Patrick Mahomes does. And if he doesn't have that quick out that he's able to throw immediately, then he's going to start running around. He's going to be elusive. He's going to be all those things. Scambling. And you're going to think to yourself, yeah, hey, we just got him for a 10-yard loss.

And then Clay Martin's going to get on the microphone and say, number 23, defensive holding. Like, that's going to happen in this game. Why you got to get Eric Murray like that? Eric Murray was a hero last week. I mean, look, it's not a Texan's wild card game at NRG Stadium. Unless somebody returns a pick six, he carried on the tradition. Good for him. Yeah, we do appreciate him for that.

in the last game. Texans played at Arrowhead. 27 to 19, Texans lost. Patrick Mahomes, 260 yards, touchdown, no picks. And the run game was really going with Kareem Hunt. He had 11 carries for 55 yards. And then Pat Mahomes himself scrambling around for 33 yards. 124 yards rushing on 28 carries. That run game was going pretty well for Kansas City in that game.

Yeah, the run game was working for them. And that's eventually what ended up, allowing them to salt it away. And your run game was not. Your run game was even without Chris Jones out there. 57 yards from mixing. That ain't going to get it done. No, it's not.

That ain't going to get it done against the Cincinnati Bengals who are not even in the playoffs. And that defense is terrible. But, I mean, that's something that this week, again, it gets back to the conversation we had about Shaq Mason. You ran the football last week. You ran the football against a hapless Titans team with that group on the field. Why are we switching this thing? up. Why are you overthinking it? It's not

broken. Don't fix it. It's kind of like, you know, the pitcher in baseball, all his mechanics. He's going to have problems. Well, he's still striking people out. He's still getting people out. And once he stops doing that, then you can go ahead and be the doctor in the laboratory with him. But until

then, leave him the hell alone. I'm just going to trust them. I'm going to say they know more about Shaq Mason in this offensive line than I do, and however they're going to configure it. I certainly am wary with you. I share the same like concern, especially going on the road. I want some continuity. I want good communication.

But if in their mind, Shaq Mason is the best option, that's what they're going to go with. And we'll see what happens this weekend at Arrowhead Stadium. Might not even matter the way things could go with them eight point dogs in this one. All right, quick break here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Is there something in your mind that you do not understand? And you're like, what is going on with this?

I just don't get it. We're going to talk about it in the next segment. You want to get in, you can't. 713-21-2-5-790. What don't you get? 7-13-212-5-7-90. That's coming up next here on the Matt Thomas Show with Ross. Lunch-timers.

It's the Matt Thomas Show with Ross on Sports Talk 790. Do you have something in your life that you just don't get? No need to worry. No need to fret. We will discuss the topic. to see if we comprehend the things that may confuse our friends it's time to say I just don't get it

something you just do not understand like why is Matt Thomas taking off half the month of January already using all his vacation days I don't get it 713-212-5-790 is the phone number 713-2-1-2-5-790 Dan Matthews filling in here for Matt Thomas on the Matt Thomas show with Ross So Dan, we will give you the floor, if you would like, here in this segment.

Yeah, it's a two for one commercials. I mean, you know, we see them as we're watching the playoff games. Number one, suppose there is a burrito place that is of the fast food variety and no names for the sake of protecting the innocent. I don't care if your ingredients are fresh. I don't care what goes into making the burritos. Your burritos are mid at best. I am sick and tired of said burrito companies commercials. Oh, so no.

thing is frozen, I don't care. It's not good. What do you mean? You get a fresh batch of Listeria with every burrito. Allegedly. There are so many other options here at the Great City of Houston that you could go with. I didn't name any names. I mean, I could be talking about any of them. But, I mean,

it's just certain commercials. And then let's just say for part two of this, there is a certain insurance company that has a commercial with maybe a quarterback the Texans are going to see this week. And the guy the guy from Ted Lassow of their bundling football and foodball.

Dude, that commercial sucks. I seriously want to rip my TV. That doesn't make any sense either. As soon as I hear, hey, we've combined it, and then he starts budding life. Money life. I'm like, I'm going to take, I'm going to take my sound bar and like a baseball bat.

You're right into your TV. Oh, don't do that. Did you watch Ted Lassow? I love the character. The character is great. The show is great. Yeah. I almost kind of feel like it was people who made you feel obligated to like the show. Oh, it's such a good show. I'm like, okay, it's a cute, nice show and it's got, you know, at least. It's a good show. Yeah. It's got good lessons in it. Well written. And who would have ever thought that, you know, there'd be even parts of it that you'd start to tear up to.

Like, you know, I mean, I don't think this is going to be a spoiler because it's been out for five years. Like when Ted Lasso gets shot and killed on the pitch? Well, when his wife leaves him. Oh, hey, come on, man. That one got me. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. He doesn't get shot and killed on the pitch.

Matt Thomas was spoiling shows the other week. It was him. I almost did it to Ari Alexander the other day because we're both huge fans of Landman. So usually my way of broaching the topic is, did you watch it? And then of course, if they said no, that I'm like, okay. Yeah, then you move along, Dan. All right. I'm with you on that.

I think. You know what? I wasn't even going to bring this up, but there's a certain mattress company where their commercials, it's like some guy acting like a douchebag. He leaves sweat all over the equipment. Oh, yeah. And then the other guy's like double dipping chips and stuff. And they're like, oh, I'd buy a mattress from this place. So you're just saying douchebags buy your mattresses? Is this what you, is this how you're trying to sell us to get your mattress? I don't think it's necessarily the wholesaler. I think it's the type of mattress that they say they sleep on. And then they tie it into the said company of saying, Hey, we saw those mattresses here. I'm a terrible person.

I don't wipe down my equipment and I double dip community chips. You should shop where I shop. No, it doesn't make any sense. I don't get it. You drive 60 miles an hour in the far left lane. Hey, how do you sleep at night? Yeah. On this.

Yeah. Well, I just don't get it. I want to be like that person. So I'm not going to shop at your mattress store. See, I would feel like that you hit the target a lot better if you just had oblivious people. Because we've got countless of them. They walk among us. that you could have that as opposed to,

and I guess in a way with the sweaty guy at the gym that is being oblivious because I think you have to know what your perspiration is and you bring along the proper cleaning materials. I'm a selfish a hole. Buy your mattress where I buy my mattresses. All right, sorry. Let's see.

Connor McGovern. Is there anything that you don't get? Sometimes either before or after work, I go down to the gym. Oh, speaking of the gym. Do you wipe down the equipment? Afterwards? I do wipe down there.

That's great, great job. They have wipes there. Are you a heavy sweater? Actually, I kind of am, so I kind of need to do it. Oh, okay. So you get like seven wipes before the bad boys clean. I'm just kidding. Go ahead.

No, usually just one is fine. Well, yesterday, actually yesterday I went down there. I used a bench and then I wiped it down right after. And they guys like, oh, can I use that? I'm like, I just was like super wet. I just wiped it down. He insisted. So I'm like, okay.

Oh. That's very nice of you, though. It's clean. It was just like, you want to let it dry first? Maybe he likes your scent. Oh, well, that's kind of weird. I miss your musk. After this.

Is that your right? Just don't get it? We need to get an apartment together. That's this. We need a ding. We need more digs. Why don't you sit this one out, champ? There's not enough time.

It's okay. Go ahead. There you go. All right. So I was down there the other day, and it's not a very big gym. in the morning there's nobody there, but in the afternoon there were some people. And there was a woman down there and she had her phone on a tripod and was like filming herself working out. And I just kind of didn't get that.

Are you serious? I didn't get that. In the work gym? Yes. Get out of here. And it's not even that big of a place. Go to 24 hour plan of fitness. Don't be using the free work gym to be filming yourself.

That's horrible. Yeah, I don't get that at all. I'm like, I don't care whether you're an influencer or not. I don't want to be in the background of your video. And also like, hurry up. I want to use that equipment. You should go in the background while she's in the. mid-set and start scratching yourself.

That's what you need to do. Just ruin every one of her shots. That's ridiculous. See, I mean, you guys know the rules of social media, though. I mean, there's two things that if you don't post that you did it, you didn't really do it, is voting and working out. I mean, I want to say there's, what's one of the

ground rules of this work gym is there's no filming? I would think so, but it's also too. No, I know. I want justice on this. Let's unpack this just a tad. Did she look like that she was trying to focus on form and everything else. That's what I was like, are you just checking your form?

But it was definitely like pointing. Like there was definitely, I was in the background of a couple. So it was on an Insta story of here. I'm getting that work. I'm getting this daily bread. She's a part-time influencer, I suppose. Yeah, you should buy a fart machine and then you play it as loudly as possible in the in the middle of her shooting.

There are some gyms that have cracked down on that. Like it has gotten to a point where there's enough complaints where they're like, if we see you trying to be TikTok famous in here, we will not allow it. I'm going to buy you a shirt and shorts and say I do not consent to be in your video. And then you can just stand in the back with that on. It's ridiculous.

I'll keep you updated if it happens again. Thank you. That's out of control. Be like those people in the old jackass videos that would get angry because they're being filmed and they're like, don't film me. I'm good. I'm glad Matt Thomas isn't here.

He would have asked you six questions about how she looked. All right, let's keep it going on the phone lines. Paul in Myerland. Go ahead. What don't you get? Well, first I want to apologize for Rick Rowland Dan the other night. He did it. Okay.

I'm sorry. Had to do it. It was well played. I appreciate it. I just, you know, I was like, I just don't know if I want the door open for possible pranks down the road. Has that been broached? But no, you're good. All right.

We're good. Matt, I mean, Ross, you look really good like the most interesting man in the world in your little I-heart radio video the other day. Thank you. I appreciate that. Very well. That was amazing. Now, what I don't get, I've got what they call a high efficiency washing machine. Yes, and you have to buy the high efficiency detergent, correct?

You buy the high efficiency detergent, and you have to buy a cleaning solution for it. What are you supposed to clean it every three or four months? Why would you have to clean a washing machine? Its sole purpose in life is to clean your clothes. Why do you have to clean your washing machine? And if you don't do it, you know what happens? What? It stinks.

Yes, it does. Really? Yeah. They have like, what do you put vinegar in there? How do you clean it out? There's like these little, they've got a special solution

and you get it to store. Oh, you got to buy that too. That sounds like a scam, Paul. You can also buy like they're almost like dishwashing pods, but they almost kind of look like like a toilet cake. Okay. And you throw it in there and it cleans your washer.

No, that's why they tell you, Paul, to leave the door open and to wipe down the door. So then, you know, the water drying up does not start to stink. Which, by the way, speaking of that, appreciate to call, Paul. Speaking of that, there is a certain host who's part of this show who represents a company that takes care of said appliances. Okay. And I asked said host, hey, one of the things you just talked about in your live read, how much they charge for that?

I never got a response. Man, that's rude. That's rude. I don't get it. All I get it. Matt Thomas is rude. And is it bad? I'm not looking for free.

I'm looking to pay. But just how about a response of, hey, they charge this much? You know what I'll do? He's very busy. Because you're such a swell guy. I'll give him a call. Let me know what day works for you. Maybe he's very busy. He is very busy. Jet setting around town and around the country as well.

Eating $70 breakfasts. I do get that as well. Yep, he didn't respond. Time for a quick break here on the man. I'm going to let you take that up with him. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross without Matt Thomas. Dan Matthews is here. Dan Matthews is here as well.

We're going to take a quick break. final segment of the show. Ahead of the A-Team is coming up next. Listen to Matt Thomas Anywhere with our free IHeart Radio app. Number one for music, radio, and podcasts all in one. You know, like Matt Thomas, sports nut, cheeseball, and hotel snob. All in one. Oh, welcome back to the Matt Thomas show with Ross.

I waited to the last segment to ruin my vocal cords. so glad to do that here final segment of the program matt thomas not here he is jet setting with the heurson rockets he'll be back on air tomorrow see people who listen to the music that we just heard right there they're they're not doing miris they're they're not doing like mirror selfies i just combined the two oh miris wow mirrories you see him at the gym they might be my favorite two are the ones who they don't turn their flash off and it's just like okay like i can see legs i can see that there is a person there, but maybe turn the flash off before

you take a picture of yourself in the mirror. Okay. You know what I also don't like? I don't like when this happened to me. I was at a local music venue, and somebody was, okay, it's bad enough when you put the flash on to take

a video of the stage. Yeah. But then they were taking a video of the crowd and flashing the flash in everyone's eyes. I gave this Now, of course, this is a lady that was probably over 50 years old. I gave her the like, ah, like I was like she was blinding me. I definitely over-exaggerated my face and I covered my eyes.

I was like, oh. You've had a few drinks. You've had a few drinks. The eyes are sensitive at that point. I think I had two of B to Ambers at the time. There's a reason why you're all standing, you know, or at least that the venue itself is dark on the crowd and the lights are on the performers. Y'all got to stop with this.

It's too much. Do not put your flash on. most cameras these days are pretty good and low light. We don't, we don't. Nobody wants, first of all, number one, nobody wants to watch your two and a half minute concert video anyways. It's like take 10 seconds max, show if they're, maybe they're playing your friends' favorite's favorite song.

I guarantee you, the person you're sending that video to is not watching the entire length of that video. We don't need it, and we certainly don't need people who are trying to enjoy the show getting flash in their eyes. I would say that the loud singer, are that way too. Because another concert pet peeve of mine

is the person next to you who is singing incredibly loud. Oh, I like that, though. That brings the energy. Depending on the song and where you are. If I'm paying more attention to you than I am to the performer, then it's a problem. If the whole crowd's getting into it,

that's why you go to a concert. Well, and here's another reason at a concert that you're not at a concert for this, is the performer who does this. Oh, they let you sing the whole time? They're like, yeah. You can tell, especially

like when some of these old performers get into their like 70s and 80s, they're like, yeah, I'm going to sing half the song. You guys can do the rest. We'll go. We'll get it from here. You got to conserve energy. Like, Connor, it backed me up on this if I'm wrong. I heard Justin Timberlake did that. He did like the whole show. That's why people

I think Connor actually did mention that. This show was pretty mid. Like, dude, we came to see you dance. We came to see you perform. Dance, Timberlake, boy. You don't want to hear us singing sexy back. We want to hear you singing sexy back. I actually didn't notice it, really.

I mean, again, I wasn't, I didn't have the best seats. I was kind of out there. Yeah, and you're pretty hammered. Ah, wow. No, I'm just kidding. Not pretty hammered. Big, big, big, big lush this guy. I'm just kidding.

I think. I don't know. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, personal life. I had to drive. Like that. There you go. He's responsible. Okay, so it wasn't that bad.

I take back the lush comments. Yeah, when they have you sing the half the song, I got you. I mean, it can be fun whenever, like once or twice. when a whole arena is singing a song, I think that's one of the cool reasons to go to a concert. Otherwise, it's like you're at a crowd, the music, the concert is super expensive. The food and the drink is super expensive.

It's like, what are we here for? You're here for the collective energy. It's the tail off from a song I can allow for it. Like at the end of Welcome Home for Coheed and Cambria. I don't know what you're talking about. Coheed and what now? Coheed and Cambria. Bless you.

They're a rock band. Okay. Yeah. Like Elliot and the crew over there. at 94-5. They know who Coheed and Cambria is. The guy is a really large guy that has like a huge, like, it's not even an afro, but it's like massive hair where he almost looks like a sideshow Bob. Okay. And he, in his voice is as high pitch as you can possibly imagine. Yeah. But there's a song called Welcome Home. And at the end of it, it's the background vocals doing a ho. And the entire crowd was doing it. And I was like, that's pretty cool. I'm down with that. I'll take your word for it. Dan. But, like, you know, it's the singing at shows. Okay. Come on, man.

I went to go see, I don't know, Papa Roach. I want to hear Jacoby sing. I don't want to hear you sing. I don't care what you have. Hey, you know, I mentioned this on air before. I'm not a big Papa Roach fan. That dude, what's his name? Jacoby.

Jacob Roach. That guy's got stage presents. He's going to be... Some good stuff from Papa Roach. That was free tickets. I got to BuzzFest from work, so, you know, it is what he is. I was at that BuzzFest. You were?

Yeah, them and Bush and Cedar. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Bush kind of mailed it in. Dude. Yeah. He did like the run around the arena.

Yeah. Well, he did the... Looking good for his age. I think he was trying to pick him. He took his shirt off. Gavin Rossdale. I think he knew what he was doing. Yeah, of course.

I mean, he knew that... Hey, I'll see you at the Marriott on the waterway after this one. He's separated from Gwen. Gwen's now with Blake Shelton. Oh, really? So, I mean, you know, he's got to put himself out there. Absolutely. Good for Gavin.

Yeah, I'm sure he's still pulling. Dude, if you're a rock star, If you're a rock star and you're not, the problem is you. It's not the other way around. That's true. That's true. All right.

Well, what were we supposed to talk about? Oh, one last thing. I wanted to put on, I just don't get it, but I forgot. Why is Edward reporting that Dion Sanders would accept the Jerry, the car. No, actually, okay, I get why Dion Sanders would accept the Cowboys job. I mean, it's an NFL job. It would pay them a lot of money.

Why would the Cowboys go from Mike? McCarthy to Dionne Sanders as their head coach. I don't get that. Because Jerry the marketer, as we had a guest on, the week that the Texans played against the Cowboys, his line was Jerry the Marketer, will win out over Jerry the Football Man. And that's what it is. It's, you're bringing back Camelot.

And then watch, he's going to try to bring back, I don't know, Darren Woodson or somebody. Yeah. And, you know, Jason Whitten will be the tight-ins coach. What's Moose Johnson up to? He's still on Fox. Bingo. You could possibly bring him back. Troy Aikman, offensive coordinator. I like this, actually. Bad organizations find a way to remain bad.

Oh, man. The roster was finally pretty good for a couple of years, and they had some injury, some bad injury luck, and then they just got waxed by Green Bay in the wild card. It's the old saying, even bad bartenders do well during spring break. Wow, I've never heard that one. I'll take your word for it. I think Eric Winston actually had that line.

Oh, really? And I was like, that's pretty good, Eric. I'm going to steal that. Oh, yeah. With proper attribution, which I just gave. you. I'll take a refreshing Mahito. All right. We're going to take a, well, we're going to take a break. We're going to end the show here on

Sports Talk 7-night. Dan, thanks for hanging out. Dude, it's the best always. You know that. Thanks for getting, I'm always appreciated. Thanks for getting, booking like a muddha, as one Matt Thomas would say, with Dan Orlovsky, get him on the show. That was good stuff as well. Do you get that with Matt Thomas or you just get condescension? Condescension for four straight hours. Well, and he's a swell fellow sometimes as well.

So thanks to you for hanging out. Thanks for Ben DeBode for joining. Thanks to Dan Orlovsky for joining. as well. Coming up, you got to do this with me, Dan. It's not only one at them. It's another one. They call it the A team.

And they're next up here on Sports Talk 790. Don't go anywhere.