The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Season Comes To A Close... Rockets Playoff Recap , Astros Lose Series vs White Sox

Episode Date: May 5, 2025

Rockets Season Comes To A Close Rockets Playoff Recap , Astros Lose Series vs White Sox

Good morning. It is a Monday edition of the Matt Thomas show of Ross. This is Sports Talk 790. Yep. I heard it in your voice last night. I listened to about 90% of the postgame show. I was so sad. Me too.

The freaking Golden State Warriors. Again. Fifth time in 10 years. Again. I told you I didn't want to face them. I told you. You told him. I did.

The whole city said. I did. I want no good. Golden State. Well, some people wanted to slay the dragon. I don't if they air-corded it, but I want to kick their ass right now. Well, the dragon burnt you to ash. Again.

Like the good, I want the good dragon like in Shrek. Okay. I got the bad dragon instead. I got the Buddy healed dragon. Twelve, 12 of 15, buddy freaking healed. Nine of 11.3. I mean, my God. Could not miss. And was unguarded.

for a lot of those attempts. Open threes. But the biggest story, Matt, to me, 23 of 55 in the paint. 23, that's 41.8% in the paint. It was also driving me crazy, among many things last night.

The Rockets couldn't get into their offense until about 8 on the shot clock. No, they were standing around. They were tentative. I don't want, I don't want to use the word shook. Not there for the moment. That can happen in game seven.

of course. Yeah. I think it happened in moments. I don't think fatigue was an issue. I think it was, you know what? Steph and Dremont and who else is a veteran among that group? Jimmy Butler. Jimmy Butler.

I mean, they've all been into at least five game sevens in our life. They know what it's like. That was a game seven for the first time for, I'm guessing everybody not named Fred Van Blede and Jalen Green. I mean, Dylan Brooks, maybe. Maybe Stephen Adams. Yeah, I mean, maybe Jeff Green. Well, Jeff, I mean, yeah, but it was Amin Thompson's first game seven.

He showed up. And he was great. He showed up. I, you know how people literally love Jose Al Tuvei? Yes. I literally love Eminempsons. And by the way, you and I argued about this. Not argue.

We just debated. I'm going to go ahead and say it. Untouchable. Even with Janus involved. Yeah, I said it. Two-time MVP. Hold me to it. That's fine.

Hold me to it. Well, I'm going to guess that a men's not going to win two MVP's. So I will say not untouchable for the right price, but for the most part, untouchable. Yeah. Well, of course. I mean, if you were putting a list of who's not grabable, you can't go grab him. You can't go grab him. Yeah.

Like your wife is untouchable unless Prime Margo Roby shows up. Yeah. Ashley Judd pre-facelift shows up. Scarlett Johansson, but you get my drift. Yeah, that's right. If you want to trade me, my wife for Scarlett Johanson, Kim, it's been a good run. But this is probably not happening. Yes.

I think, look, if you want to say he's untouchable, I get it. But you're hoping he grows into the player that Janus already is. Defensive player of the year and two-time MVP. Plays four positions, guards four positions, rebounds, blocks, he's amazing. Defends. I wouldn't touch it. High basketball IQ.

For Kevin Durant, no, thank you. Even for Devin Booker. I mean, we're going to have to see what else is getting given up. but I mean, yeah. I'm with you for, we're mostly on the same page. I know, no, I get it, I get it. 23 of 55 in the paint. And Alpi made all-star season.

The finesse part of Alpi's game has got to go away. He, yeah, he's only 22 years old. He led the team in this series in points, rebounds, assists, steals. He was great for the most part. And should absolutely be a huge part of us. successful future rockets run. I'm not going to doubt that. The shooting percentages have to go up. They've gone down for three straight years. He's got to get the strength and conditioning up. He has to shoot better, especially in those short area, you know, bunnies, whatever you would call it, push shots,

hook shots. He shot 45% from the field for the series. And I would say, what, 80% of his shots are within 10 feet? Right. For a six, he took eight threes, 131.131. out of 131 field goals. So it wasn't like he was just bombing threes. You cannot, as a 6'11 big man who's supposed to dominate in the middle, shoot 45% for a 7 game series. He has to be better than that. Yeah.

This is going to sting for a while. Game 7s just by nature are hurt. And you're down 3-1 and you get game 7 at home. You got them on the ropes. You go to San Francisco and Frotty Rossi and beat them. And the Warriors, just completely gassed and out of it. And then Buddy Healed happens.

I mean, my goodness. And you had Steph play 4530. Jimmy played 4441. I mean, I thought they, I thought after playing 42 minutes each in game number six, they would have had nothing left from the tank. They were going to jump on a plane, fly the four hours back here. Rockets had the home court, energy good buzz, red shirts everywhere. You know, you get the series back.

You mean laying on empty seats? No, they were, they was better. I think you were a little tough on them. I'll show you a picture I took. But I mean, but by the mid first quarter, I looked around, there was very few empty seats. I will give, I will give the Rockets crowd an A minus. What is it an A? Like Toronto gives it in Chicago or A's, New York are A's.

I was A minus. A minus B plus, whatever. But point being is, as the game was progressing, just like in my call of the game, we all kept waiting for, I mean, the ready, The crowd was ready to get energized and fired up and you didn't have to use the scoreboard or the PA announcer or somebody else to get you going. They were just chance. It was, hey, let's, we're ready to explode, get loud, get behind the team. And then Buddy Heel would have a left angle three or a right side three. Or Jimmy Butler was a baseline three with Alperin in his face with a shot clock going off.

I mean, relatively speaking, Curry and now, man, got to. 22, but it wasn't like it was the prettiest 22 of his life. The last three games, Steph Curry wasn't a huge difference maker in this series. And you were able to survive it twice and the third time you were not able to. Dremont Green

with 16 points. He hadn't had 16 points, probably the previous, any of those games, it had been his high watermark of the series. I think it was. You get nothing from their bench. Their five beat your eight. And there's a name. I think we've scarcely mentioned that we have to

to. Is it the two guard? Jalen Green. I've already been on a Phoenix radio show this morning. The Jalen Green problem. How big is it? We'll discuss next. 10, 12, if you want to jump into the conversation, you 10 o'clockers are always slow to wake us, get waking up. Woken up, waking up, whatever. We're here. We're not going anywhere at 2 o'clock. The tell the truth is at 1130 today.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Let me give you the phone number again. I was so happy you had so many calls yesterday, which makes me sad that they're there, but they only come out when things are not great. We took calls for an hour and 45 minutes. After midnight, I was on. Was there like any postgame spread for you to go get some need or something, drink? No. That's fine.

I got drunk after. No, I didn't because I had to be here, but I wanted to. I know. The show started at noon, you don't want to have an extra beverage to know you would have. I could have just stayed up. 10 o'clock changes everything. 713-212-5-790 7-1-3-21-2-5-790 it's 1013 and it's the matt thomas show with ross here in a Monday on sports talk 790 1019 on sports talk 790 it is the matt thomas show ross we're going to play some audio from the locker room throughout the

course that i'll let you handle what you want to play because i know what i'm kind of hearing and but it says it mean our audience does not want to hear it and which different ways do you want to be depressed Matt? I don't know. I was, I usually, it's funny because I usually leave the arena fairly quickly at soon as the games are with because we had a quick turnaround for the show. And I turn around,

go towards the parking garage. I actually walked downstairs to the arena floor and said goodbye to a few people here and there. And I didn't want to leave for a while. And then I realized everybody was just, you know, I could hear the celebration from the Golden State locker room. Oh, E-May was going to talk to the press and I thought,

God, there's really nothing else for me to say or do. I can't, you know, I mean, I'll see everybody again, but it's just, this tough. Tough before the game. I put a Ted Cruz tweet out.

I got hate from both sides. I mean, incredible, incredible hatred. You don't do politics, Matt? I mean, just vile, mean, awful thing said to me. My favorite was the guy that was like, that's like saying,

I was sitting in the middle of a hurricane and saying, I don't like rain. I'm like, that's exactly the way, that's a perfect analogy because you can't control the hurricane. Wait what happened.

Put me. Oh, and I had actually had to stop the replies because I was just like, I was being called nasty, ugly, ugly things. Are you aware of the Ted Cruz curse,

Jonathan? Some way it becomes we lose. Yeah, basically. So Matt was just saying, you know, hey, politics aside, we don't care if you're left or right. We need Ted Cruz out of the building. Look, if you've listened to show for any length of time or you've looked at my Twitter timeline,

look, I do have political opinions. I just don't share them because it's, this is a show about lighthearted sports and fun. I don't, you go to politics, you go to Michael Berry. You go to sports and goofiness. You go to me and you. So I don't bring up politics because, again, my philosophy is, and I still align from Michael Jordan, Republicans buy tennis shoes too. Oh, yeah.

So I want as many people regardless of their political affiliation to listen to the show. So that's why I don't bring it out. And I brought it up because Ted Cruz, the curse, I mean, it is what it is. I mean, he was in, it's not real. It's not real, but the last time he was at a game that I know of, it was real. It was in San Antonio for the national championship in my squad loss. So I'm a little bit better towards that. Uh-huh.

I understand. So I just put that out there. And it just, it got super, super ugly. And the thing that made me happy was it got super ugly on both sides. I was called horrific, terrible things by both Republicans and Democrats. And that's why I once again said to myself, man, it's just good to talk about sports and life. I will say this for the one millionth time and maybe never and again. There are three things I will not talk about on this radio show in particular.

One is religion. Two will be politics and three will be how to raise your children. Everything else we'll talk about. beautiful women sports cars cheesy music I listen to television shows I watch

all fair game Linda Ronstadt Linda Ronstadt The Bachelor movie The Bachelor movie Airplane The Astros Lance McCullers

I mean I will do a lot of things but those three things are not going to happen on this show and I've kind of made a nice career for myself kind of staying those three three things and I'm going to stay with it yeah

Our lane is sports and we stay in our lane. Yeah. I'm with you, Matt. But I will say this. That will be the absolute last tweet about anything. That would be your last Ted Cruz reference. So it's funny because one person said, man, you weren't bashing Biden like this. And I said, or Trump.

And I said, now I've got you confused. Now I win. What? Yeah. It's, it was. And then this morning, after being called a variety of things for people that, by the way, that don't follow me that are. Yeah, I hate when a tweet gets out of your bubble of your followers.

So I just put people only people that can reply are people on my followers. So it's a few thousand people. So it's, yeah, I just, I, lessen 100% learned. I'm a, you know what I am, I'm a sportscaster. I'm a dad. I like to laugh a lot. I'm a doofus. It's fine.

I'm all those things. I'm not a voice of Houston sports. I'm not a political person. And once again, for the nine million time, it proved why, because you get in there and you just, you get viciously treated by anonymous people. And it, and it, and it, it was not fun. It was not enjoyable to take. And I thought it was kind of a lot harder meeting like Ted Cruz don't come in. I mean, you guys know. There's, Ted can go to a hundred sporting events. Mm-hmm. He goes, he goes to a hundred sporting event. He goes to an Oklahoma City game. They're going to

win. I mean, it's always about the competition. But then I had people saying, imagine, a, a, a sports kept thinking that a politician showing up is going to make a difference in the game. I'm like, you're right. That's exactly my point. So, that's it on that. Let's go to some phones and we'll get to the Jalen Green conversation. Can you mind not putting up a line? Yes, I will. Let's talk to

KJ on 798, 1024. KJ, good morning. Morning, fellas, as usual. I'm always listening even if I'm not calling it. Thank you very much. Real quick, you were my smart TV this week, this what is series. Matt, I worked nights, so I wasn't able to watch the game. I had to listen to it over the phone.

So kudos to you. It was an excellent job that you did. Thank you. Shout out to you, too, Ross, man. I know you caught hell doing that post game show. Thank you. I thought for the most part, go ahead, KG, go ahead. It was similar for the most part.

Yeah, I was going to say. Yeah, go ahead. My bad, my bad. Having listened to you guys over the years, I think I know both of you well enough to know that, Matt, there were several things you wanted to say during that broadcast. When I would hear you say,

hmm, that's big but alone said a lot. Yeah, I unfortunately, and I'll just peel the curtain back a little bit, I pounded, did this a lot, I repeated myself multiple times, which I don't like to do,

but I was just like because, again, forgetting about my responsibility as the voice of the Rockets, I'm also a fan of the Rockets. I mean, I grew up with the Houston Rockets. So there was a lot of fandom that was pouring into my voice as I was calling the game.

And a lot of frustration about Buddy Heel being open, a lot of frustration about the points in the paint the like thereof, a lot of frustration for a young man, KJ, and Jalen Green, who I personally like. I personally have seen some of his best moments. I thought game two for me, watching him grow was this is the young man that said, you know what, the game one jitters are out of the way. I'm going to come make a difference in his series.

But unfortunately, Kaj, Janet. It's back to you. Six of the seven games. That's not a sample size. That's a resume right there. And that was a tough, tough thing to put on your resume. And I know that there's going to be a lot of Jalen Green criticism and justifiably so. But let me say this. I have two takes and I have a question to close up with you guys for. But the first take is this. I hear a lot of people saying that he's young. He's literally, if not, give or take a year the same age as Anthony Edwards and you look at the guys that came out of the draft with him you have Scotty Barnes you have Kate Cunningham you have

someone who no one mentions who bawled out in the playoff for his team Franz Wagner with Orlando all these guys came out in the draft with him and all of these guys showed that they're the type of players who can be built around I'm not seeing that with Jalen Green this is four years I literally looked

at his stats there's been a two point flux two point flux in his stats from his rookie year to right now. There is no growth there. And again, I'm not saying Jalen Green can't become that player, but based solely off the numbers. And what I saw in this series, he's not someone that can be relied upon. I'm not

the Kevin Durant guy. I think getting the Kevin Durant was stymie, whatever development you have here. With that said, I expected more. You look at Shingoon. Shingoon obviously came out that same draft as Jalen Green. Shingun, granted, missed a whole lot of bunnies. But one thing you couldn't question

with Shungoon this series was his effort. And with Jalen Green, you can question that. And that's what bothers you the most. If Jaila Green went 0 for 18 in game seven, at least I can say as a fan, well, look, the guy was doing what he could. The shot just won't fall in. But for him to be a complete zero

for six out of the seven games, really, really put a bad taste in my mouth. And my question to you guys, it's a two-part question. Part number one, where do you guys stand with the quote-unquote Kevin Durant talk? and question number two,

and I'm going to let you guys have it. I thought during stretches of this series, when the offense wasn't clicking, you have a bona fide bucket on the bench in Cam Whitmore. Does he have his deficiency? Yes, but obviously other players on the floor had deficiencies too or we wouldn't have lost some of the games that we should have won. Even if it's just for a three or four minute stretch here or there,

do you think that he may should at least give Cam Whitmore some runs, seeing how Cam Whitmore, I'll be whatever shortcomings he has? one thing he is very good at is putting the ball in the hole. Do you think that that should have been some Cam Whitmore sightings during the series? Once again, love the show, guys. Stay still listening. Keep doing what you do.

And I'm going to say a silent prayer for y'all's peace of mind. Thank you, Roger. We appreciate that. We'll answer all those things coming back. 1028, Sports Talk, 790. This is a Matt Thomas show at Ross. 713-2-790. 7-13-212-5-790.

We'll enter those questions. We'll talk to Omar. We'll talk the rest of you. until 2 o'clock today. We are open line. We only have one segment, which is our Monday, 1130, which is to tell the truth. We'll have that for you. We've got the news at noon. And believe it or not, 713, 212-790. Missed shots, close-range shots, I think 23 for 55 in the paint. A lot of really good looks there. Didn't get up that many threes. Only 18 on the night, made six of them. So that's a low number for the threes that we had been generating. And then the zone that they ran got us a little stagnant.

but when we did find the openings in it in the middle, I missed the threes that would kick out over the close range shots. And so, as I said the other night, sometimes shots go in and makes it, it masks some things, and tonight stood out the other way. That's Eme Adoka discussing that points in the paint category, 23 of 55.

Remember, that's 15 feet. That's a painted area that's from the free throw line in. There were some angles, that were frustrating me. There were some jump hooks that weren't falling. There was the fallaway jumper. I mean, and I'd be curious to see those numbers from up until they scored 15 points in the last

2.30 of the game in garbage time. There were some three pointers over me too. Yeah, exactly. He talked about 18 threes. They only had 12 going into the fourth quarter. With 231 left, they had 74 points. 74 points. They finished with 133.

It's 89, but that's misleading. Even some of the paint makes that they had, that's misleading. And the three-point attempts, that's all misleading. 74 points with 231 left. I mean, they were in the 30s shooting-wise, and they finished the game at 41%. So if you take a, let's say you put the first 44 minutes on a box score. Yeah, if we could find that somehow, it would be markedly worse, all of those numbers. All right, to the point, we'll go to Omar in a second here.

Playoff rotations shrink Except for Golden State But again, they have no bench really to speak of to begin with I mean, they went eight players essentially yesterday Actually, actually they went nine Post played three minutes, Kaminga played seven, Moses, Moody and Kavanaughney played a 10 and 11 So it's, you're not looking at equal time

I don't know the real story about Cam Whitmore Except that I believe I believe I'ma Doka wants to put the best players out there. I believe that what you produce in practices, film study, the time on the floor, you'll get rewarded.

I don't think there is a personal bias with E. Mae Odoch and the Torms Cam went more. I think I have to deduce that there is a combination of things from jacking up shots to not defending, to maybe not running the offense, to practice habits, I don't know what it is,

but I'm going to deduce that Cam Whitmore, when he does get on the court, he scores. But a lot of that is in the non-essential, crucial parts, and coaches like to put players in who can shoot, especially for a team

that has struggled as much as the Rockets had this year in overall shooting. Yeah. If you think Coach Yudoka is smart, which I think Coach Udoka is a good and smart coach, you have to tell yourself there is a reason Cam Whitmore is not on the floor. And I think it is because of, I think a key point you mentioned there is that when Cam Whitmore is going off for 20 points and 15 minutes, it's usually in garbage time. It's usually against the back end of somebody's bench. It's not like he's going out there and starting games and dropping 30 bombs.

So he plays two out of control on offense. He misses defensive assignments. He's got a bad attitude. And I think you add all that up. And Coach Yudokin did not want to. trust him in a seven-game series against a really good team with a really good smart coach.

Golden State is smart. They're old, but they're smart. Draymond Green is their only legit center. Kavana Luni plays a little bit here and there, but in the crunch of the most important moments of games, Dramon Green is 6 feet 6.

And he was locking up Schengoon for a lot of the series. Locked up Shingoon. Jabari Smith could not get to the lane very often. was pulling up and hitting the mid-range or at least try and tempting the mid-range. Tari-Eason couldn't finish much of the basket either. Yeah, that's another thing. We do have to give credit to the Warriors. Yeah. They did great. They adjusted well to the zone. Buddy Healed finding pockets open in that zone.

And as the rockets were over-helping on Steph Curry, that's what allowed Buddy Heald to be as free as he was in those zone minutes. Yeah. 713-212-5-790. Oh, uh, KJ was asking about the K, the Durant. They're going to talk to each other. Phone calls. Phone conversations will be happy. Oh, I mean, I don't think that's even necessarily a secret.

Mm-mm. And not that, again, not the Raffel Stone. The only thing that Raffel is over ever told me that I was worthy of repeating on air. Was that he's got in his mind two or three untouchables, which I think you guys can get to do is who that would be. Mm-hmm. And number two, I'll listen. Yeah, he should.

Excuse the pun. He will not leave a stone. unturned. He will... Because sometimes general managers, it makes me strange to all. Sometimes GMs won't even take the call. They're like, look, I've got to worry about other things. They're going to sit back and maybe not necessarily today, but they're going to decompress. They're going to look at the season.

They're going to say, well, our strengths for our weaknesses. Do we stay with what we are, which we build through the draft? We have all these young players that are 20... Got a lottery pick. Maybe even a really good lottery pick depending on what happens next week. They're all 25 and younger. Can they grow together? Or do

you go to the route of going to get an aged veteran, whomever that may be, potentially ruining your salary cap, potentially ruining giving up major draft picks, and going all in. There are examples. I was on a Phoenix radio show this morning, driving

to work, as a matter of fact. And they admitted, they said, look, we went all in. We went all in on Bradley Beale. We went all in on Kevin Durant. And look at us now. We've got no draft picks. We're sitting salary cap hell, and we don't know who the hell we are. And I I said, as they were saying that, I said, guys, I don't feel that here in Houston, Texas.

And that's why you have to legitimately, it'll be a room with Rafael Stone, it'll be E. Mae Adoka, it'll be Patrick Fertita, who's now kind of running the day-to-day because dad is now the ambassador to Italy. But I'm sure Tim and will be involved in the conversation as well. And they're going to say, how'd you like this season? Who can we trust? Are we one player away? That's the number one thing that that room, if you were to build a book report, you know, I always put a big title in the front of your book report. are we one player away?

That's what everybody has to answer. Yeah, the team needs to grow and get better. And the question is, can we do that without a huge external move? And you mentioned Phoenix being in cap hell. We've talked about Janus. Milwaukee's in the same boat. Milwaukee's in a bad spot. Milwaukee went all in with Janus and making the trade for Dame Loder.

They've got no picks. They've got a hugely. Spent a lot of money in. They got a horrible cap situation. They went all in. and they were a five seed this year and the future's looking bleak and they're looking to move Janus.

And so when you make that type of move for Kevin Durant or for whoever and you go all in, you have to ask yourself, why is that guy available? Janus is available because there just wasn't enough help around him. If you trade all the good help around him to get Janus, he's in the same boat here.

So that's what you have to figure out. I will also say this. And I don't know exactly how much maneuvering Boston will do or have to do. But they've also, they're also in a very bad salary cap situation. Now, they're a little bit different. They're about to play in the Eastern Conference semifinals and are probably a significant favorite to beat the New York Knicks.

Do they just get purchased? They did. I think they're the most expensive team now. There was the most expensive purchase and maybe in NBA history, I think. So they've got a lot of guys on their payroll that are significantly expensive. We're talking about Drew Holiday and Al Horford and. and Chris Tapp's Porzingis. I think they're already locked in with Tatum and Brown long term.

But they're going to be looking. Everybody's looking for a little relief. Because those aprons and those tax penalties are significant. And everybody's strange as it is to say this. Everybody's also looking to replenish the draft due to because if you do it on the cheap and you win, i.e. Oklahoma City. Although the Shea Guild of Alexander was a huge deal with them with the Clippers. I mean, you don't want to be Philadelphia. Look at Philadelphia with all the money that spent.

Look at the Clippers right now. Do you think the Clippers do you think their future in their world is bright today? You got another playoff game seven from James Hardin. Speaking of somebody that went all in, they went all in with Kauai, James Hardin, and then Paul George. Yeah. How was that going for him? Norm Powell's in cheap. I mean, this is going to be as active of an offseason as we've had probably in a long time. And it's going to be about teams that were really good or on the cusp of being really good. try to get rid of star players because you can't put a supporting cast around them.

And that's the Rockets thing, the best thing they've got going from right now is they've got a nice supporting cast. The problem is you want who you put on the marquee. Yeah, it's a nice ensemble cast. There's no star, Matt. Except, of course. Alperin was an all-star, but. Yeah. Omar, on 790 at 1041, Omar, good morning.

Good morning, guys. I have two comments, even though I would like to say 3,000 things. So I was at the game last night, and I heard what you said about the fans or empty seats. To me, the empty seats were not the issue. The issue is we're in a game seven coming down 3-1. And the fans are sitting there eating nachos and drinking beer. I mean, get on your feet. This is game seven.

This is not the regular season where we're. playing the Charlotte Hornets. But that was very frustrating. I was actually yelling at my section, like, please get up. Because the Rockets needed our, you know, some help from the fans to push them mentally. And the second thing I want to say is with Jaylen, you know, like, well, I heard what E-May said in the post game. He said they were blitzing him, so Jaylin got rid of the balls.

But I also noticed something, and I wanted to see what you guys thought, but it seemed like whenever with the pick and roll at the top with Van Clee and Sanguin, Van C. wasn't even looking for Jaylen. And so that was something that I didn't really pick up watching the games at home. But when I went to game seven, it seemed like Jaylen was not even a part of their scheme or offense. And it's hard for me to really pinpoint Jaylen for that game because he just didn't seem like he was even in the plan. So, you know, those are the two things I wanted to say.

and thank you guys, a big fan of the show. Thank you, Omar, nice to hear from you. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. We'll also address those points. Plus, Gorda's going to stop by Sunday, the Astros. McCullors. Hey!

You and I split and I gut feeling, by the way. We did? Yeah. Well, he should have gotten that call. He should have got to four innings. I know. I know. That was a three-two count,

and the ball at the top of the zone should have been a strike. Can I? We got about... Good thing we got human element. Can I wig out about one stat of that entire game yesterday? Yes. We'll do that. We come back.

1044, Sports Talk, 790. 7-13-212-5-790. 1049, sports talk 790. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. It's going to be an interesting week for us. I think largely the Houston audience will turn off basketball, and you and I will just have to text each other to say, man, you see that great playing? Because I don't know if we're going to do a deep dive on anything in the NBA that's left. it would have been fun to continue to get the NBA chatter.

You and I've been waiting for it for five years, and we did get a fair number of it. We continue to do so. And I think today will be a good day for that, and we are with you today until 2 o'clock. So if you want to chime in, 713212-5-790. I do get to go see my son graduate college on Thursday. Yeah, see the Rockets were nice.

They did that for you. Is that what that was? Yeah, because that would have been game two, right? Yeah, it would be game two. So I'm going to miss Thursday to go see him graduate from the Texas A&M University. and looking forward to that. Nobody calls it that.

Okay, how about Texas A&M or Texas Aggies? That's A&M! I'm not doing that. Okay. I think I'm going to wear. I got a maroon shirt I'm going to wear, though. Okay. Who's doing the commencement?

I don't even know. I think it's Clay Walker. Is it really? Clay Walker, okay. I'm just kidding. I think it's Lee Majors. Is he alive? Yeah, I think he's from Michael Berry.

Oh, okay. Ramon, did you ever watch the $6 million man? What's the $6 million now with all this bad inflation? You know, Ramon, what, uh, if it was $6 million back in 1975, what is, what is the man worth now? Ramon, did you think the Bionic woman was hot? Was she? I mean, she wasn't ugly, but I mean, she was built of wire. I don't know what the Bionic woman is.

That was the female counterpart of the $6 million. She was in a... How much she cost? That's a great question. She was, her parachute did not open properly. Oh. And she landed awkwardly and she shattered entire body. Skydiving, I'm out.

Skydiving, out. Hot air balloon riding, out. Helicopter riding, out. Bunger jumping in Mexico? Out. Kim, when my wife went ziplining two weeks ago, I'm like, what are you doing? All right, real quick, if I'll go back to phones. The most alarming number for me, surprisingly, but still caught me off guard was Lance McCuller's through 80,

Pitches. I mean, Rossi. I mean, what about a slow build? They were looking for 75 to 80. He threw 71 in his last rehab start. And you told me he's never going to pitch 100 pitches, so we'll see. 89 scared the hell on. I mean, I felt like I needed to call him to make sure his arm is still on ice.

89 in his first pitch. I mean, that's a great. If he can go 89, I'll take it. But 87. Oh, excuse me, 80 south. that was 89. Still, Ross, that's a lot for a first guy I hadn't pitched in two and a half years

in a major league baseball game. Mm-hmm. So, well, he's been building up in the rehab. He built, he threw 70 pitches his last rehab. So you're saying he's built for this. Well, we'll see. So far he has not been built for this. And again, I'll say with it.

Ross has a past inspection. Back to the crowds. I thought the crowd did everything they possibly could. The game dictated. Oh, the energy was fine. The energy was fine. Now, Ross did show me some empty seats.

No, he said, but that's, in the clubs. I didn't realize the club scene was so good. By the way, again, shout out to the Rockets for $40 drinks. I mean, my God. Well, they're $5 before 7, I think. That's good. They're holding block parties. I mean, they're doing happy hours. They're trying to do what they can. You can't get the city of Houston 7.30 on a Sunday. Can't get in their seats in time for a game freaking seven. That's why we're who we are. We're just a mid-unctory sports town. We're spitting in the wind to complain about it. You're right. It's like complaining about the wave. It's just going to keep happening.

Don't get me started on that. Cameron on 790. Our time is 1053, 713, 212, 570. And is it punching up? I can't tell. I think it did.

It was latent, but you're there. Hi, Cam. Good morning, gentlemen. Just want to thank you guys for what you guys do with the season, every season. Thank you. The only reason I'm thankful

that was the game seven last night was to show the future of the team, which is a men Thompson. As far as I'm concerned, we can ship Jalen Green off for a bag of chips. I don't care. But the only reason we even close that gap in the second half was because of him. And also because of Adams. But this future is bright.

And as much as I want to be in a foul mood, I've got to be happy for where we go from here. And also, Draymont Green has the goal to say, oh, I respect the team after injuring half our team. I don't get it. That's funny. Cameron, thank you for the nice words. We appreciate you calling it. You know, Fred said, I don't worry about previous Golden State Rocket Series. I'm who I am.

And Draymond fought back and said, you know, I'm paraphrasing here. It's the organization. It's not the same team, but it's the same organization. And he's right. It reminds me of the Astros in the 90s, Ross, going against the Atlanta Braves and never being able to beat the Braves. This is five times in 10 years. Now, granted, this latest version of the rocket. is nothing close to what the James and Chris

and before that you know, Rocket team, Dwight Howard. But damn, dude. I mean, and here's the thing. The Rockets beat Golden State three times in six games. I can't tell the last time they did three times. It had to been like Mitch Richmond was running

the Golden State Warriors when the Rockets could beat him three times in six games. Yeah. Well, they couldn't get to the fourth. Adonis Foyle was playing for the goal. Golden State Warriors. Donald Foyle. Good. Adler's.

Anders Bedrons and the boys. Monti Ellis. But yeah. And you won game six in nasty, loud, crazy chase center. And you did it, frankly,

without much fanfare. Without any really fourth quarter drama to it. Nope. I thought, I thought they were going to steamroll me yesterday. I really did.

Because again, stupid me. You had Butler and Curry both play 42 minutes in game six. Yes. Gary Payton was sick yesterday. Yes. So you had one less perimeter guy to go to. Yes.

Buddy Healed didn't do Jack squat in the previous two games of the series. And then he, I mean, you just... 33 points for Buddy Hill. You just can't leave people open the NBA. You can't leave perimeter shooters open. There's just no other way around it. I mean, 9 of 11 is hot shooting. Even if you get 11 wide open three, it's generally an NBA player, even a

Buddy Hill's caliber is not going to make nine of them. So, I mean, you're a victim of a little bit of bad luck, but you also left them wide open too far too often. All right. The Astros fall to the White Sox losing two out of three to the White Sox. Ugh. Rain short in game. McCullors out there.

Defense lets them down. The rain, frankly, did the Astros no favors. The Astros' bullpen gave up that big lead. And now they're in Miliwalka to take on the Brewers. On deck tonight with the boys, the 18 boys. I'll have the 10th inning show. Oh, wow. Tonight and tomorrow.

Wow. Yeah. Look at you. I told you guys, step up. Put it in the hours. Thank you, Matt. Yeah.

You worked a lot of hours yesterday, so I figured I'd do the 10th inning for you. So that's coming up tonight. 1056 second hour, Matt Thomas show starts with Ross, what starts with James and Alvin. You guys want to jump in. You may do so at 713-212-5-790. We also have to tell the truth in just 35 minutes here on Sports Talk 790. All right, here we go, 1101 Sports Talk 790. It is a Monday edition.

and we're going to feel sorry for ourselves. Have we put enough depressing songs? We just want to get it off and get all that out of our system. Or do you want to go with a, you know what, glass half full rocket season? Unless you won't be bawling on air. I'd rather not. Now, when you cry, will the tears hit your beard and all of a sudden it becomes really nappy down there? No.

Okay. I mean, what do you mean? It's pretty trimmed up right now. Yeah, the rest of the moment. The rest of your mane is a mess. What do you mean? Look at you. Fresh. Fresh today.

Curles are popping. You're crazy. Do you wash your hair every day? No. How often you do it? About once a week. Is that right? Okay.

If you do, every day it would just dry out. It's not good. When you have long hair. I wouldn't know these things. But then it gets a little too tangled and then you start getting rats nests in there. I have not had a full head of hair since 1994. I'm sorry. Thankfully, I'm still beautiful.

I mean, you've saved so much on haircuts and shampoo? I do get shaves, though, because I'm a diva that way. Okay. Straight razor? No. Super shaver. What is that? That's just the...

Okay. You know, they do that. Okay. It's good. I don't want to give you the audio sound effect, but I just did. Yeah. Thank you. All right.

Astros dropped two or three to Chicago. We'll get to that. We've got to tell the truth at the bottom of the hour. We have the Rockets season coming to an end yesterday. day. And needless to say, the Jalen Green future question is in place. So, before I go to the phones, and we'll talk to James and Alvin a just second here. Look, Jaylon's got talent. Janlin is a 20-point score in the NBA. He led the Rockets in scoring this season. Yeah, we should say that. His three-point percentage got better as the season progressed. He should,

very good free throws. Turnovers are probably more than I would personally like compared to his assistant. totals. Defense at times can be locked down. Sometimes it can be where were you supposed to be, that kind of thing. But I would say I would not consider him a negative defender. I would agree with that. But my goodness, seven shots to be a hero in a series or at least be a component in a playoff game, win or lose.

38 points and the rest of them are hard to even look at box scores. Lack of shots. Turnovers especially early in the series. But just a lot of, and I found myself doing this as I was calling these games. Jalen comes in for this stretch. This is going to be the time he needs a step and it just never happened. He took eight shots. He's the single-digit shots again for how many times in this series.

I mean, let's say, put things in perspective here. Alperin-Changoon shot 131 shots. Fred Van Vliet was second when 95. Three, excuse me. A man Thompson was third with, uh, Jeline Green was third with 86. And take the game two out of it when he went, when it was eight of 18 from three. He took 26 threes in the other six games.

How many do you make? Five? Five. Yeah, five. He shot 30% from three, and that includes the 8 of 18 in game two. I wouldn't say, like, he and I are never going to break bread. I mean, I'm not, but you can have people that you appreciate who's polite, who's nice, you know, all the little things.

Guys, you root for. There are some guys in the Houston sports teams in the sound I don't root for. I guess, because I know who they are, what they're built on, and if they're successful and help the team win, that's great, but they're not personally people that I go, oh, that's a guy I'm personally rooting for. I was personally rooting for Jalen Green. I'm rooting for Jalen Green.

I wanted him to be the pick over Evan Mobley. And as you know, Matt, I root to be right. Yeah, and you're hard to admit when you're wrong. Yes. And it's feeling like I'm losing the threat on this one because of it's not just what Jalen Green has done on the floor because you can excuse it. And we can be in this Rockets bubble and here in Houston and say, well, yes, he's only 23.

Yes, he's improved every season. Yes, the lights were too bright. And, oh, it was just his first playoff series. Look on this team of players. It was their first playoff series. It was a men Thompson's first playoff series. He vastly outplayed Jalen Green. It was Alperin Shingoon's first playoff series.

He led the team in points, rebounds, assist, and steals. And then you go look around the league. You look at the Kate Cunningham, the Scardy Barnes is. As KJ mentioned, Wagner. Franz? Franz or Mo or who at which one of the Wagner's, whatever. Palo Bencaro, the Ant Edwards, the John Morant to the world. Those guys, those players have, I was pulling it up on the postgame show.

I don't have it all in front of me. But for the most part, not for the most part. Jalen Green has more single-digit playoff performances than all of those guys. and Edwards has never had a zero point I'm sorry a single digit game he's never had one John Morant's never had one Devin Bucke's never had one Steph Curry's been in like 155

playoff games he's got like two you got four in one series he shied away from the moment and it's it's the most concerned I've ever been for for Jalen Green in his growth he's gotten better for sure he's a good playing there's a difference

You can say, did he lose his intensity, did he lose his desire, or did Golden State throw something at him defensively, that he just couldn't find the right space? I mean, they did, but he was double-teamed and he was blitzed. Steph Curry was blitzed. He went around both guys and then was getting buckets or finding buckets for other people. Steph Curry gets blitz. Aunt Edwards gets blitzed.

John Morant gets blitzed. All the best players and ballhandlers in the league, they get blitz. You have to figure something out. You cannot say, Well, I got double-teamed and that's that. You have to figure something out. There's that play. You remember that a Min Thompson play where he was on the right side?

He dribbles behind his back and goes and finishes a circus layup around Dremont Green. He went around the first level of defense. Dramon Green was waiting for him and then he finished around it. It can be done. It can happen. Jalen Green didn't do that. If Jalen Green has the ball in that same scenario, he stops at the top of the key and he passes the ball away. He needed to be aggressive.

He needed to have that mindset, and he didn't have it. And when he bounced back in game two, part of me was like, okay, finally. He heard the noise. He heard it and he stepped up, and he's going to continue to do this. But no, then he hears the noise after game three and four. You're coming home for game five. I mean, that's a soft landing spot for you. The other team's playing three games in five days.

And then he was a no-show. And then a no-show in game six. And then the no-shows kept piling up. and then I keep getting more and more concerned. It's problematic for him to be. He's going to be a good NBA player. He's, and he already is,

and he can be the third or fourth best player on a championship team, but that's not what you drafted him number two overall to be. And to expect, let's say that you were in the camp of Jaylon's got to be moved. You just described with the national television lights on, the playoff implications, the most intense part of an. NBA season that Jalen had six of his seven worst games of the recent Jalen Green era.

What are you expecting in return? Yeah. You're either going to have to give up draft picks. You're going to have to give up more than one player. And that's where it gets, I think, very interesting. There is a core of eight. How many of the eight are you willing to give up and what are you getting in return? Right.

Indeed, if Durant's the only Phoenix son, be very careful. He's 37. Still can score the best of them. But there's enough part of his game that says, you know, Father Time remains undefeated. I hate to use a cliche term, but it is what it is. Do you do enough to convince Phoenix to say, you know what? We love Devin Booker, but we can't build a team around Devin Booker. And that if they're really going to completely rebuild the Phoenix Suns, having Booker

and Duran on that basketball team doesn't do them any favors next season. Unless the Phoenix Sun say, look, we think we can build around Devin Booker, and he is not a tradable piece. As you always, we were talking about guys that are untouchable, is really, Kevin is really Devin Booker untouchable, especially if you get, let's say, the Rockets get into the top five of the draft next year. Yeah, Luca Donchitz trade tells us nobody's untouchable. If a 25-year-old phenom is, is,

isn't untouchable, then nobody's untouchable. But yeah, as far as the value of Jalen Green, you either... Got to be very careful what you think you're... Literally trading him as somebody said for a bag of peanuts or whatever. You can't do that. No. The NBA doesn't work that way. Exactly.

And then ultimately, again, if you think Jailen's your issue, why would another NBA team say, well, I'll put him under my wing and we're going to be, he'll be just fine with us. Yeah, there could be some of that, but I don't think it's a lot of it. I think maybe you need to change your sphere thinking in that, not you, Matt. I'm just talking about in general of the way this roster is constructed. You have to stop thinking of Jalen Green as the future cornerstone, and you have to think of him as a future complimentary piece.

So can you go, can he move somewhere? If you were to move him, knowing that he's about to make a significant salary bump coming up next year, can he be your number two on a basketball team as long as your number one remains a super alpha dog? And that's what the Rockets at this point have to decide. Can Alperin Shingoon, a men Thompson, be the alpha dog? dog. Can they be the clear number one? If you have those two guys as your one, two, and then Jalen Green is your three or even four, and you have a lottery pick, that can still be a successful, very good team. They can't.

You can keep Jalen Green and still be a good team. You just have to lower your expectations of him. Yeah, knowing that I saw what he didn't. Because again, I will actually chock up the first playoff game jitters. I'll actually even buy into the first game road playoff jitters. But a man Thompson shook themselves Ofrin Shingoon was okay Cade Cunningham scored 20 plus points in every playoff game he was in Now it wasn't efficient

He was shooting poorly But at least he was getting I would have liked to see Jalen Green go over 20 You know we're not seeing efficiency anymore in the NBA We're just not We're not but he's still below average You know we talk about ERA plus They have field goal percentage plus

He's below average everywhere on Jalen Green I don't even want to know what that means I'm going to stay far away from that It's bad don't look at the advanced number for Jailene Green. If you want him to be successful, just don't look. And again,

the Rockets can very easily say, we're going to fix this. We're going to get out be bigger, faster, stronger. We're going to develop him being more efficient in the mid-range. And within five feet,

a men's going to continue to produce like he did from season one to season two. And we can make subtle changes. Who's the same? Or they go for it all. But that would be something they've not done since going to make the trades for Chris Paul and Russell Westbrook. 1113, sports talk 790. Those of you on hold James, Randy Ron.

We'll get to you guys coming out of this. Coming up at the bottom of the hour. And I'm working on the list of my amazing sports stakes Rossi. I believe only, I believe three of them, one I don't believe. So be ready for that. Come up at the bottom of the hour. All right, Mr. No Game Sevens in round one. there were two

I mean it was potentially eight so I'm still winning in some respects yeah you know what if you want to frame it that way let me sell my own arguments that way I play the higher percentages well I said zero and there's only two but I was pretty close give me credit all right you know what

man I'm giving you full credit thank you very much I appreciate that 713 212 570 713 212 5790 you guys have some great callers I want to say hello and we want to give you guys an opportunity because That's what we do. We are a talk show. We don't like to listen to ourselves, talk for hours and end.

We like to listen to people have safe things. Yeah. As long as you make somewhat sense. Well, yeah. Even if it goes off the rails and you sound drunk. Yeah. We make the most out of that. We take chicken and make...

An omelet? Nope. No chicken bleep and make chicken salad? There you go. Okay. We squeeze lemons to make the lemonade. James and Alvin on Seven out ofe. James, thank you for winning and good morning.

Oh, thank you, gentlemen, for accepting my call. You guys got a great show going on. I want to start off with, I think Jalen Green, he's an above-average NBA player. I wouldn't put this seven-game loss solely on him. I think that the whole loss ended up in game five when the Rockers had a 30-point lead with nine minutes left to go in the third quarter. Steve Kerr took his, he took his starting five and put him on the bench, put in his reserves, and the Rock is put in their reserves.

And then next thing you know, with nine, minutes left in the fourth quarter. The Rockers are down by 11. The coach of the Rockets had to put his starting five back in to play the nine minutes of the fourth quarter to seal the game. Five. I thought that made a big difference going down the stretch. But Paul's last night, the Rockets looked fatigued.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It did not make a big difference. They played the next game on the road in San Francisco and won that game. It was a war of attrition, Matt. And it was six minutes, by the way. It was around the eight-minute to the two-minute mark. Well, what I'm trying to say is you had to put now, granted, Steve Kerr risked his fire for a whole quarter and nine, well, I thought it was nine minutes.

So I put it like this here. Those, those legs of the Rockets had to come back and finish the game to close out to seal a game. I saw last night. But again, stop. Hold on. Hold on. Stop a second. I just told you the very next game they played, they won it. They won it. It took effort. It took effort. It took determination. That takes a lot out of you. I'm just saying, I put it like this here. I saw Frays. I saw Muhammad. To me, I went to Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. in the latter rounds of the fight, farming got tied, just like the Rockets got tied,

and Golden State portraying Ali as great as Golden State was in the past, they was able to pull one out. That's all I'm just saying, gentlemen. I got you. They pulled a rope-a-dope on them.

Yeah, thank you for the phone call. It was like the rumble in the jungle. Look, you could argue that they got down 3-1 and they used so much energy to scratch and claw and win game 5 and 6 that they were gas for game 7. But see, I don't think we can do that because we were the ones,

I may have been the leader of the pack saying this is an athletically younger spry, ready to go. You just saw Jimmy Butler and Steph Curry play 40 plus minutes in the last couple of games of the series. They're bouncing back and forth

between San Francisco and Houston. The Rockets have a younger team. They're built for this. Physically they can run them out of the gym. but Golden State's just smart and crafty and knows it's not a killer instinct it's just

we've been there done that and the Rockets have not they just they missed too many opportunities in the paint and the offense was just horrible in game seven and I think again the number of times you would watch the Rockets offense unfortunately getting into their whatever they were going to get into

the sets with the sets with less than 10 seconds the clock was It scared me frankly because it was one shot and out it was also sometimes rush shots. I think a word I used was clunky. It was just clunky. It was just out of sorts.

It was a little too just joined. And you know, we can say, oh, it was game seven. It was the pressure. Oh, it was they were fatied because they spent all the injury coming back. We would see this on a Tuesday night against the Wizards. Like, I mean, this could happen at any time. This offense was the big weak point coming in, especially the three-point shooting,

and the field goal shooting, I think, was one of the worst in basketball as well. Oh, they were both. Everything was bottom 10 this year. But Fred Van Vleet played out of his mind. I mean, held his own as much as he could yesterday, but three straight games, that was asking a lot for him. He came up huge. You know, Dylan didn't do much in the last two games of the series.

A man after a sluggish start got going. Alpi got to you your points, but it was in volume. Way more shots that you'd want him to, take, a lot of offensive rebounds, a lot of second chance opportunities, and the little putbacks and stuff that Stephen Adams was able to do earlier in the series last night, the first, you kind of, and not that I would ever let Stephen Adams decide how things are going to go offensively, but he had two pretty good looks inside five feet and missed him both. I don't thought, you know what, those are the kind of little subtle baskets that make him

a folk hero. Not only that was his defensive work, the double bigs, the offensive rebounds, and when those weren't falling, mispossessions, long contested shots with three to four seconds left from the shot clock in Golden State, rockets went three two zone. They said, all right,

or the Golden State did and said, we're going to let you bury us from the outside and the rockets for the better part of three and a half quarters couldn't make an outside shot. From distance. They were befallen by their offense, which was an issue all season long. Randy on 790. Randy, how are you?

Hey, Matt, good morning. Good morning. Yeah. I just want to say, my opinion, that J.G. Jalen Green, it seemed like the moment was just too big for him. You know, he was just frozen. He had that beer and headlight syndrome, you know? So from a rocket standpoint, they have a big decision on him. But Matt, since you are well-traveled in the sporting arenas, and from my NBA standpoint, I was going to ask you three things, actually, who has the craziest, loudest, rudest fan

and who has the nicest stadium and what is the nicest stadium and what is the biggest dump? Can you help me out with that, brother? I would appreciate it. Sure. All right. Two rudest fan bases are the Utah Jazz and the Golden State Warriors.

Okay. Everybody else is a distant third. Interesting. Nicest arena and then he said biggest dump. These arenas are all about the same. these days. There's no, you know, like in baseball, Fenway Park is not like Minutemate or Dijkin Park and Dodger Stadium.

They're all about the same. I like pound for pound. The basketball-iest. Basketball-iest? Does that make sense? Yeah, sure. The most basketball feely to it. This is

Cambridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Okay. Spectacular Arena. Why? Because it just, it has the windows open. It's like, it's like The Hoosiers Gym. It's like a field house. But it's a modern,

you know, beautiful 18,000 seed ring with all the bells and whistles of sweets and whatnot. Okay. What else do you want to ask? Oh, biggest dump. Biggest dump would be. You say MSG a lot.

I hate MSG and I hate Miami's Arena. Dump and dump. Nisest fans, Toronto. Toronto, they get there early. You don't see. They sit in their seats. They cheer.

They sing O Canada and the U.S. Anthem. And they know one to cheer and no one to sit and no one to get going. And that's strange because that's one of the younger teams in the NBA. New Orleans Arena is a dump too. Smoothie King? Yeah, it's dump. But nice would probably be Kinseko would be probably or Cambridge would be on my list.

Chase Center is nice in San Francisco. It just is. And I do like the aura of crypto.com. Lakers, celebrities, the darken arena. It's it's it's basketball like not sex but it's just it's just it's a nightclub with a basketball game in it. Does that make sense to you? All right. There you go.

Thank you, Matt. Thank you. All right. James, Ron Sterling, G. You hang tight. We got to tell the truth coming up next and we'll go back on the phones as well. We'll get the news at noon at noon. Ross, what is today's edition of believe it or not at 150?

Oh, what? What? I was asking what today's edition. That's fine. We'll figure it out. Okay. 1128, sports talk. State Warriors?

I mean, it can be if you wanted to be. Steve Kerr, Jimmy Butler. Ooh, Steve Kerr. Rockets, Warriors' history? No, I don't want any part of that. Jaylen Green, great playoff performances throughout history? Nope. Would you stop?

I mean, at one point, are you going to stop doing that? Now. All right, I'm going to tell you about affordable tree service. But I do. Real quick, all of you on hold. This is going to be a very fast, I mean, a super fast edition of the Telfth truth. Because I got people that want to talk and this is what we're here for. We are a talk show. Speed edition of the tell the truth. Jonathan, you ready to go? I got four

takes. I believe three of them. Oh. Okay. Which one do I not believe? Here we go. Number one, I would not rule on an overhaul of the Rockets Corps eight players this offseason. Okay. Meaning I would think if I was a betting man, I would lean more towards a earth-shattering move than an on. Okay. I'll say more or shattering than not. More likely than more probable than not.

Correct. More probable than not. I don't think they'll stand pat. I'll just make it that way. I think they're going to do something special. Okay. Number two, the government will 100% get involved in NIL regulation. Okay.

When you have Nick Saban go to Donald Trump and have a meeting, that's some stereo of business. Okay. I think the government will be involved in the NIO regulation. I can't tell you when or how, but probably under the Trump administration at some point. It feels like we got bigger problems to tackle, but I'm just telling you. Number three, this Cam Smith center field practice, it's a bit. Who's leading the team in OPS? Who's leading the team in batting average, Maddie?

That's our guy. Jake Myers fan club, 13 bases on Saturday. I would expect limited, if not zero play for Cam Smith and center field. Okay. And number four, I think the Boston Celtics sweep the New York Knicks. 4-0 in the Eastern Conference semifinals. That's a random one. Nick Celtics, all right.

That's, this is a speed express edition of the Celtics. Yeah, yeah, okay. And you believe one or all? I believe three of the four. Here are those. No, I believe three of the four. Wait, you believe three. Yeah.

Here they are. I said it wrong, but I was right. I would expect a, more than likely, a significant shift in the Rockets roster. Two, the government will absolutely get involved in NIA regulation. Three, the Cam Smith Center field is just a bit. and number four, Boston swims New York. Which one of the four do I not believe? Gentlemen, please discuss quickly.

I think he's talked about Rafael Stone trusting the process. I'm going to go with the one. I'm going to go. I don't think he believes NCAA is going to be involved with the government. So I'm going to take two. Okay. I think Boston does sweep New York. Okay. I do believe the government will get involved in the NIR regulation.

Okay. And I think the itchy trigger finger for the Rockets is no longer going to be itchy anymore. They're going to pull off something. Okay. So the one I don't believe is Cam Smith being a bit. I think they like Zach DeSenzo. They're going to have to figure out a way to get Cam Smith out there and give...

You can't put Jackie Myers on the bench, baby. You can put Jackie Myers on the bench. He is white hot. Dude, he was hot in May last year. How did June, July, August? He's leading the team in OPS and average. I just watched Zach DeSendo drop a fly ball. Oh, no.

Get him. I just thought that this morning I'm just saying I'm just saying he's going to play some center field The fan club knows that Jake's not going to OPS over 800 all season in all likelihood

It'd be nice if he did It'd be wonderful if he did You can put him in the all You know what If he goes the all-star game I'll buy your ticket Oh Where is it this year

I don't even know where it is Probably somewhere cool right Is it Seattle? No where is the all-star game this year No it was in Seattle last year Was it not? It's a national league park this year Atlanta?

May July Atlanta 10 July? It's not a bad town. It's his first pitch at 10.15 p.m. What's your healthy humidity at first pitch? And that's our quick edition of the tell the truth this week. Let's go to Ron on 790, 1138. Ron, thank you for waiting. Good morning. Hello, Ron. Hello? Hello? Ron? The floor is yours, Ron. Ron, you're on 790, a major market radio station in Houston, Texas. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, I can. Where are you in the bathroom?

Yes, the name wasn't Ron, though. What is it? It's Rock. What is it? Rock? Rock. R-O-C-K in the USA? Rock?

Brock? Like Brock Lesnar? Yeah, Rock for short. Yeah. All right, Rock. What do you got, Rock? Yeah, I was just talking about the Rock. My predictions, first of all, the Rockets, I thought that they were losing six games.

My second prediction that they were losing seven is basically because of the inexperience. thought, but I was real disappointed with Green and I think if they can do something with him. One of the scenarios I read about a week ago was that John Marant was going to look for a chain of scenery. The number one option was the Rockets, they had the assets to do so. And I would think any untouchables would probably be Simgoon, Thompson, maybe Tori Heeson, and they also have that draft pick. from Phoenix. But that's my take on it.

But Green, he was just a disappointment. I don't think he can foresee that he's going to change. For John Moran, you know, you've got to go for that if it's a possibility. Thank you, Rock. Thank you, Rock. I think there's too much baggage with John Morant. I just do. Yeah, I don't know.

I think he got rid of Taylor Jenkins. who I think he's a very good coach. Clearly, the off-the-field stuff has impacted him the last couple of years. The one thing I do like about him is he's really tough. He'll play through pain. He tried to go in the game for their series.

Is he good enough outside shot? The contract is actually pretty friendly. Is it? Three more years at 39, 42, and 45 million. You're saying, that's astronomical. That's what... That's Fred Van Vleet money.

That's number one player money is what it is. I would say it's a stay away for me. It's not a stay away from me. I would look. Okay, yeah, he puts his gun hands up on the court and gets fine. Whatever. If as long as he's dropping 35, I don't care. I just don't know if the mature... I need my star, Ross,

and maybe this is just me being me, I need my star to also be mature and I think there is still a very, very large part of John Morant's life that is not matured. Seems to be lacking matured. surety. I can get with you that, but you know who would be a good coach to straighten him out? Oh. Is it rhyme with

B-May Monmoka? It does. So I think with this culture and everything over here, that he could thrive and improve, and it could be a wake-up call for him, getting traded away, perhaps. Do you trace him within your own division? His defense is not very good, but he's one of the

most dynamic scores on the planet. And if he could ever develop a good three-point shot. I was going to say the three-point shot is a tough watch. Yeah, he's a three-point shooter, but he's still good overall. His field goal percentages are better than... Can I ask for a three-point shooter? I think we've been asking him for this for five or six years.

I think people are talking about Malik Beasley, I think, as a free agent after this year. He shot 41% from three for the Detroit Pistons. Maybe I would have to look at the other free agent market. And that's actually what we're talking about big earth-shattering move and trusting the process. It could be in between. They could make a trade for a shooter and a complimentary piece

because they have enough assets to do that. You could, yes. You could, and I don't want to throw names out there, but you could, you've got enough guys that are rotational players in this rocket lineup that are young. That's the great thing about this rotation is the only really guy in the eight-man rotation that's just elderly, relatively speaking, is Fred's 30. Stephen Adams. I don't really count Fred being old at 30. Now he's a veteran, been around, been there, done that, but I don't think he's old. By the way, Stephen Adams is going to be an interesting conversation to have.

Did Stephen Adams do enough in this playoff to get beyond a mid-level exception? Give him whatever he wants because it's not my money. Yeah, but you can't think that way. We are in, we are, we are, we are, we are, we can afford it. Well, that's then the question of that. It's sizing everything up. Can you get Fred renegotiated on a longer-tum deal at less per year? Now, Frank, and all saying, wait, man, I sign this deal and I want you, I want to take it.

Or if I don't get, if I don't, if you, if you drop me, I think I can go find a better deal somewhere else. I think Fred really, really likes Houston. I think Fred would like to finish his career as a Houston rocket. And Fred made a lot of money the last couple of years. Can he at 30 years old say, you know what? Maybe my minutes back off a little bit. Maybe I'm a backup wing.

I mean, does Reed Shepherd come into equation here at any point next year? It's a huge year for him on that. That's a big question. Yeah. If we're going off for year one? No. he is not a fact, but he's young and he can improve. And a lot of guys have been rookies that have been buried on the bench

come back in years two and three and four. It's not atypical. All right, back on the phones. We return 1143 is our time. It is the Matt Thomas show with Ross. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90. I can go on the phones here in one second.

I rarely, because my sports takes sometimes are astronomically horrible. But Ross, can I tell you, and I told you so, and I told you about this a year ago, and it is right along the lines of what I was telling you for 12 months. Okay. So Cal are, they're having their golf tournament the Texans are today. And Cal is asked about the stadium. He's like, yeah, we're thinking about a variety of different things, hang around NRG. We're also looking for a practice facility.

We're also willing to get out of the NRG area to open up all of the Southeast Texas area. We are looking at all of our options. I mean, I pegged this from the jump. It hasn't happened yet, Matt. I pegged it from the joke. Give you the win if it happens. Cal McNary says they're wanting to move on an energy for a new stadium. They'd like to stay in the greater Houston area.

Of course they would. Oh, yeah. I thought they were going to go to San Antonio. No, I mean, when they mean by that, they want to stay in Harris County. Oh. And I believe the, what's the thing we do on Wednesdays? What's it called Ross? what's that thing we do at 11.30 on Wednesdays?

I don't know. Ain't nobody got a time for that? No, think about something else. There it is. The Harris County is going to tell the Texans. Shut your bum ass up. You want it. You know what I do?

They should give them a land deal. I'm okay with that. Aren't they a billion dollars in debt to them? It's so cute. We want to really work with the energy people on the rodeo. You want your own stadium with your own little. You know what they want, Ross? They want their own Jerry World.

And Jerry had to go to Arnold. to go get that done. Well, yeah. So what part of Houston wants to be Arlington? Pasadena. I don't think there's real estate in Pasadena. Now, my guess,

the closest thing to inner city would be Edo, I guess. There's some real estate in Edo, I think. Yeah. But just generally, you guys drive around town. We're a pockets of area that you could build a, in theory, 70,000-seat stadium with a training facility, and I'm going to presume hotels, restaurants, bars, gift shops.

I don't know. I mean, you need quite a bit of real estate. You just do. It's very interesting how that's turned out. Maybe the southwest side by Kirby and the Loop. Honestly, where it is now is, but nobody goes over there. Yeah, but I think that could just be Houston. I mean, we have these wonderful downtown ballpark and arena facilities.

downtown doesn't thrive. No. And that's why, again, who wants to invest in that? Do you really think if we put a Texanville at, say, $290 and the Beltway? You know that is, right?

Yes. Absolutely. Jones Road around there? Yeah, yeah. If you built Texanville, could that be busy 12 months a year over there? Let me ask you this. Why?

I mean, there's a bunch of land around where they are now. there's a bunch of parking lots a bunch of I mean it never it's never built up anywhere because there's my thought is they're probably thinking that's an area that people

just won't go and spend time it's right off the light rail there is the medical centers right there you got a lot of young nurses doctors and stuff living not too far a couple miles from that area so in theory you figure

there would be some sort of party atmosphere but as you say that why didn't it happen the last 20 years yeah I don't know that's what I'm saying So I'm saying if it doesn't happen there, does that mean it's going to happen at 290 in the bell? Well, if you're going to 290 in the belt, I'm just throwing an area out. Yeah. You're doing it because you're hoping the family of four is the one going to the restaurants.

You're not worried about the single crowd. You're not trying to build Edo or Washton Ave. You are trying to build a complete family plex with an indoor, you know, one of those water parks and something. I mean, it would be more amusing park than it would be nightlife. You can build it, but will they come? Well, so far the answer is no. In case and point, the amount of available real estate in downtown Houston. Sterling with us at 1154 on 790.

Sterling, good morning, and thank you for holding. Good morning. How are you? Can you hear me? Yes, sir. Okay, dig this. I was thinking, I saw the stuff last night. I don't know if I would, I would keep Jalen Green, but he needs to be.

I think you don't know it. I think he didn't make the appropriate adjustments, and I think it starts with the kind of team that he built. Nobody on Golden State's team cannot shoot. He has, anybody on their team can shoot. We have apparently pockets of people who can't shoot. So you build a team that's around defensive players. They build a team with shooters,

and we'll take, we're worried about defense later. And another thing, he went at, One of the best defensive players in the league. He went at Draymond with Shangoon, and that just didn't work. It just didn't work. Why would you play toward another team's strength? It's not like Draymond turned into a great defensive player. He's been this way, and he's pretty much shown that he can handle Sangu.

Okay, so if you're not giving the ball to Shangoon, hold on, if you're not giving the ball to Shingoon, who is your primary scoring presence for the Rockets? If you're saying stay away from him. You've got Jabari. You've got sides. You go with Jabari Smith. You're going to run your offense through Jabari Smith, Jr.? Off the bench?

I tried. I give it a shot because what you're doing is not working. Jabari had mismatches all night. It worked three times in the series. What are you talking about? He's got an extremely limited... Jabari, I mean, I love Jabari, but Jabari Sterling, and thank you for the...

call is not, you're not running your offense to Dr. Javier Smith. He doesn't put his back to the basket. He is a straight up face to the basket shooter. He's a perimeter guy. He may be 610, but he doesn't, his body and his frame and his offensive skills are not dictate

getting in the low block. Yeah, and to say that the Warriors don't care about defense is just wrong. I mean, Draymond Green was locking down things in the paint. Jimmy Butler is a plus defender. Steph Curry, for all fun we make of him. He played good defense in this series.

That defense of Golden State played it excellent. Jalen Green, think about this, Ross. Even when Jalen's three-point shot does not drop during the regular season, what does Jalen have the inability to do, slice and die through defenders, diverse layups, get to the lane, get to the free throw line, they cut that off. The only person that had any sort of regular six, the two people, Albury to a certain extent and amend Thompson later in the series.

Short of that, who went in the paint? Did Fred Van Bleak going to the paint a lot? Not much. Did Dylan Brooks go in the blame very much? Nope. Did Jabari Smith? No. Tar Easton, you don't really count because it wasn't shooting a whole lot of shots.

Golden State defensively stepped up. I don't want to say that. It pisses me off. They did. Yeah. And since trading for Jimmy Butler, they had the best defense in the NBA. So saying that they had no defense is just flat out false.

Yeah. All right. 1157, the news at noon is up next. We'll get to that. We'll get to. Can we skip one news item? Well, I can only think of the two local ones. Is there anything else going on?

It's all Jake Myers talk. The next two hours of the show. 13 bases on Saturday, baby. Tying the team, the club record tied by Jake Myers. What was he? Do you bet nine's on Saturday? Yeah, he was at the ninth spot. It was like a historic game for a nine, it was like four extra base hits for a nine-hole hit or it only happened like a

four times. All right. Those will be on hold. Geo, Dave, James. James, Felipe, Stephen, hang tight. We'll get to all of you. We're taking your calls all the way to 2 o'clock this afternoon. We appreciate you guys spending some time with us, whether we agree with you or disagree with you.

We thank you for being a part of the Sports Talk 7-90 Matt Thomas show with Ross family. News at noon and your phone calls next. Thank you for being a part of our radio program today. Matt Ross with you here at 1202. It is the Matt Thomas Show hour number three of four. Tomorrow, Joe Espottable. We'll join us from Milwaukee. Astros and Brewers will be on the agenda tonight.

and tomorrow. On deck 530. I'll have the 10th inning both tonight and tomorrow, but right now we present to you the news at noon. And we'll do that with the Robert Flores of the Houston sports scene. It's Ross Fidoreal. Wow, Matt, what a great compliment. Go Coogs.

What a fantastic Coogalum Robert Flores is. Of course, we know headlining the news at noon. It's going to be the Houston Rockets. It's bouncing back in the series down 3-1. They force game seven at home

and unfortunately they fall short. Jalen Green with another poor performance. Eight points for him on three of eight shooting in 30 minutes. Four rebounds and assist. Didn't turn the ball over but that's also because he wasn't handling the ball much. Jalen Green

not mincing words in the post game talking about his playoff performance. Besides that one game I got to be better. first playoffs is an excuse and yeah it's got to be better

got to be better first playoffs not an excuse it was an S word that was bleeped that's good by Jalen Green describing this place we are a family radio station

so thus the bleeping is appropriate yes a little bit more here's Fred Van Vleet talking about Jalen Green and what he can take away from these poor performances in this series yeah just stuff to work on in the offseason fuel motivation.

Every great player has struggled at times. Every great player had to learn how to adjust and adapt. The ultimate sign of respect from the opposing team is to take him out. We saw them do that in multiple games this series. But Jalen's going to be all right. And I don't, not really online right now. So I'm not, I keep hearing like the narratives that are going on. I haven't really seen much of it.

But we're not, we're not going to make this about Jalen. You know what I mean? He's, he had an incredible. incredible season this year. It carried us a lot, made big strides play unbelievable basketball. And obviously, you know, in the playoffs, it's tough. You got to find ways to be

effective. And I believe in him. And I know that he's going to use this this summer to get even better and come back next year, a better player. Man, what a savvy vet that is. I mean, he just said, I got you on this. Yeah, he was an asshole series

and I had to start making shots in the middle of the series because he couldn't make anything. and I can't believe he acted like such a punk and went into a turtle shell all series long, and it was disappointing, but at least he's got those millions to sleep on tonight. Is that what he wanted to say? No. No, I don't think. Fred is not a BS guy.

He's authentic. I'm just kidding. I'm sure he's very disappointing the way his teammate performed, but I do believe that there was very little BS come out of that. No, look, you can convince yourself. You can spend this however way you want. He's young and he's going to get better. You can spend that.

Or this is who he is. And guess what? Who's going to have to decide that? Not us. Rafael Stone and the Rockets are going to have to decide that. And he may. He's with him every single day. So it's going to come down to two,

really about four people's opinion. And the rest of us can just live in this conjecture where we live in. Yes. All right. Elsewhere, Matt, we hadn't talked much about the Houston Astros. Well, they lost a series over the weekend to the Chicago White Sox. But how about Lansom?

Lance McCullors, Jr. making a start. Here comes the 3-2 to Vargas. And he pops it up. Right side of the infield. Rogers going out. Coming in as Desenzo, it's Rogers who makes the catch, and the side is retired. So Lance McCullors loads the bases with two outs,

but wiggles out of trouble. When have you heard that before? Vintage Lance McCullors, Jr., three walks, three hits, and three and two-thirds innings. Pitch should have got to four innings. there was a strike three call missed on his last batter that he faced. 87 pitches, Matt, 51 for strikes and 4Ks in those 4, 3 and a 2 thirds, excuse me, innings pitch.

Yeah, I can't imagine if he goes 3 and 2 thirds again, it's going to be that high of a pitch count. It should be four innings pitch and 5Ks. That would have felt a lot nicer. Yeah, but mistakes happen. Umpires are not perfect, Ross. Oh, I know. It's funny. I was like, we had this, it'd be crazy if we had this technology to get every call right,

and then we just refused to use it. Wouldn't that be wild? But Lance McCleys, Here's the reality of it. I don't think it's going to be that kind of a wonky stat line again, but it can't be because remember, you're in a six-man rotation for the next two or three weeks. If your starters are pitching that much

and giving you that little production, the bullpen's going to be in massive trouble. It's going to be massively overworked. Well, I imagine they're going to try to get him built to be able to give up it, like get to at least five or six innings. He did throw 87 pitches. If he was a little bit more efficient, he could easily gone four or five innings.

Well, another story from the weekend on the Houston Astros, who is on a five-game hit streak, who had 13 total bases on Saturday, four for four, two home runs, a triple, a double, seven runs batted in, and then he followed that up as he got on base every time he came to the plate on Sunday with a hit and a couple of walks. Jake Myers is your Houston Astros batting average leader and your Houston Astros OPS leader for the season. And how about this? How about let's get him a little Major League Baseball Player of the Week nomination? Oh, how do you think about that?

Just saying, throwing it out there. Sounds good to me. I don't think he's going to beat Aaron Judge. Aaron Judge is hitting 423. He's hitting a home run basically every time he comes to the plate. This is the first time in 36 hours of checked the standings in America League's West. Okay, I'm proud of you, Matt. You know what?

I am turning the corner a little bit. Ooh, we're in third place now. It's okay. The A's are in second. It's still early. Seattle is three in front of Houston in the West. By the way, the Rangers have imploded. They've dropped seven of ten.

They are only four back, so it's not terrible. What a, what a... Just a meh version of America League West we've got this year. Astros right now with only four everyday players. No, actually, really... really three. Desenzo, I wouldn't count an everyday player with an OPS of over 700. How's your on his hand, by the way? Oh, yes, that's right. I didn't mention that. He missed a couple of games over the weekend with a sore hand. He heard it in batting practice. No update. He's still listed as day to day. Hopefully he can be back in there tonight.

Tonight, as the Houston Astros take on the Milwaukee Brewers. That's right. So I have a three-game series. Adams will have the on deck. I'll have the 10th inning show tonight and tomorrow. One of the NBA note, Sorry about James Harden, seven points in game seven. Hey, one point for every game of the series. The owner, Steve Balmer, had a charter full of Clipper fans to go to Denver. Yeah. To see their team personally get their ass kicked in front of their home fans. And then James Harden did not speak to the media for the third time of the series.

Ironically enough, all in those and losses. You know how it goes, Matt. Sometimes you want to chase your dreams and you want to follow your team and watch them get a championship and you spend money and then you just watch them fall short. $500 million in your piggy bank or one great game seven. $500 million. Yeah, me too. That's what I'm going to go with.

Well, elsewhere in the NBA, how about the Indiana Pacers upsetting the Cleveland Cavaliers? Eight and a half point favorites were the calves. They lost by nine. I almost did to tell the truth on taking Indiana to win that series, but I couldn't pull the trigger. That would have been a lie, right? Are you thinking about it? Okay, you're on the fence. Yeah.

This is good, but I mean, Boston is the best team in the East and not even close. All right. I think Cleveland's been great. I think they'll bounce back. I still think they're going to be able to win that series. In NBA action tonight, you do have the Nuggets and Thunder game number one. Nix and Celtics game number one. Both home teams, nine and a half point favorites in those games.

Can the Nuggets take it to six games in that series? Six maybe. If Yokic is just insane, which he is. Okay. And who do you like in the Clippers Warriors? I mean the Warriors, Timberwolves. I don't care. I like the earthquake. I'm going to take you the volcano minus 10,000. You want a natural catastrophe to interrupt the series. Yeah, I mean, I'll go to the Timberwolves. I'm going to be rooting against the Warriors the rest of the way. I've had enough.

Five times in 10 freaking years. All right. Also, Matt, Intrepid Sports Talk 790 reporter, Adam J.R. Wexler on the scene as Cal and Hannah McNair discussing some considerations for a new practice facility slash headquarters or a stadium potentially somewhere else

offside of where they are in the Greater Houston area. Your reaction. Told you so. It's so strange. It's so strange. 25 years ago, everything was go to the inner city. Now in the last 25 years it's let's build elsewhere. Chicago's going to

Atlanta is how much? Okay, we'll come back out. Atlanta already went out. Chicago is going to probably go out. The Cowboys went out. Who will anybody else go out? Atlanta stayed in the city. Cincinnati's looking for a new stadium.

I think Cleveland won't stay where they want to stay. Anybody else go outside of the metro? I don't know. But that just gives you three examples right there in the last 15 years. We'll have to see and keep it. Monitor the situation, as they say. You don't need to monitor. What I'm going to monitor is,

is how Calhahan are going to go plead to Fort Bend County and get some funding. Well, we'll see what happens there. Matt, that is your news at noon. All right. Calls the rest of the way. You hear me? We're going to talk to you folks. We're going to let you have some space on this radio show. 713-212-790 is the number. All of our lines are lit. So once a open line goes up, we'll let you know about that and let you get in. Gio Dave, James, Felipe, Stephen, Biscuit, all of you coming up between now and two o'clock. Believe it or not today at 1.50. All right. Rorata is a betting website.

How do we feel about Rorada? They follow me on Twitter, I didn't even realize it. Offshore, shady, and they'll cut you off if you're a winner. So basically, it's Rorada. It should not get any mention it at all, but I'm going to mention anyway. We can go with the line. They have a line on where Jalen Green will be next year if he was to move from Houston. Oh, really?

Just throwing it out there. Uh-huh. Lakers are the favorite? Lakers. Nicks, then Heat, Clippers, Warriors, Celtics, Thunder, and Raptors. That's kind of rando. That is very random.

That is as random of a conversation piece you could have. There are no signs at this point the rockets are willing to move on from them. As a matter of fact, they just gave him an extension. So if you would be, the leader would be for him to stay. But, yeah, I mean, again, you're trying to generate some sort of action, which would be stupid of you to try to do.

But yeah, the teams that would be most of the Lakers, the Knicks and the heat are the top three in that country. Oh, boy, Gordy's here. What the hell have you been? You're supposed to be out of 10.50 today. He's eating fajitas. Yeah.

Did you all get something? First of all, turn your microphone on. It's on, but he's got it. We got it. No, we're going to go, we're going to get some, but they're all talking. We have a new member of our team. She is on the, uh, what's up, what's up, what's up, Rod Ryan show. Yeah, Monica, something or other?

No, it's Mo. Mo. No, don't give away that. She's Mo. What's what her? Okay. She calls herself Moe. All right.

I'm sorry. Give up bits? I mean, just because I have an alias. I mean, you know. I thought her Instagram said her name, so I'm sorry. Oh, you already on IG? I like how you were. I saw it on Instagram earlier today.

Wait until people find out your name's not really Ross Fioriel. I know. Oh, uh-oh. Stage name. You're Darren Williams. Okay. What are you going? Can we talk some?

I got, I don't know. Gordy. We have people want to talk to us. What do you got? What do you want to talk? You want to talk Astros? You want to talk Rockets? Well, I don't know.

You were at the game last night. Did you have a good time? I did. I thought the crowd was, look, the T-shirt. shirts covering the seats I thought was a great plan because I thought it looked pat. I was like, it is sold out here. And Rossported out. Those are chairs with t-shirts on it.

But I was like, it looks good. Look good on TV. They ought to do that more often. But I thought it was loud. The intros, everything. I just thought, and I was telling Matt this before the show, I thought they look scared at the top, like the not shooting open threes. I thought it was like, it was almost like you were scared to go, I don't want to be the

guy that takes the three and misses it. I thought they were just hesitant and it's probably the sign of a young team and guys playing their first playoff series so far. And then I thought to Kavana Looney rotation piece through Shingunov. There was more, with him and Dremont down low, that size threw Shingunov. And he was taking bad angles because of that. And because he dominated Dremont this series. Like the first few games, he was getting whatever he wanted down low. I would disagree with that, but he dominated the non-Dremont minute. When he got in foul trouble, when he had five fouls, what was that game four? I thought, how many times did he back down Dr.

Alpy was better without Dremont on the floor. He just was. He shot like 45% in the series. I thought when Dremont was in there, he was doing what he wanted. But last night, it was just loony in there, just it clogged up the lane. It almost looked like that was their M.O. Every time somebody's tried to drive through the rim, there were three bodies down there. Yeah, you can pack the pain against the rockets, force them to shoot threes,

because they're not a good three-point shooting team. And like you said, they were a little bit tentative. They were just unorganized, maybe, disjointed, whatever you want to say. It was just, I'll go back to the word clunky. It was just clunky office. They fought, the warriors fought hard, too. For every loose ball, every rebound, they were, they were just a little bit more of an intensity from them. But I thought the Rockins overall played good defense.

Like, they did what they needed to do defensively. The offense was just not exist. Yeah, the open threes for Buddy Healed was the hardest thing to watch. Curry making his shots. Jimmy Butler making the mid-range. But that was their MO, right? We're not going to let Curry kill us. He was good.

If Buddy He'll have a game of his life, so be it. I don't know. You always say that before the game, and then when it happens, you go, you let Buddy He'll beat us? That's what I'm thinking. Nine of 11 from three. It's a top 10 draft pick. It's not like he's some weird.

He's a great three-point shooter. He's a great complimentary piece. Often travel NBA player. But, man, found a sweet spot. And not for him. As I mentioned, when I was calling the game. Not for Buddy Healed. They're not winning the, they don't win game seven.

He was the number one alpha dog on that court last night. A proud owe you sooner, but not an SEC guy. Big 12 guy. Thanks for the SEC mentioned, Gordy. Bully, congratulations to the fighting Texas Aggie baseball team. Scored four in the eighth yesterday and beat Ellis. Why didn't you bring up the sweep last week? What sweet?

And now you're talking Aggie baseball? We weren't talking Aggie baseball last week. Let me finish. When a longhorn swept. their ass at Austin. A&M scored 4 in the 8th and beat LSU 6-4 in college station yesterday. Good for them. A young

Peyton Thomas of the ball game yesterday, very happy about that. Did he go to any of the games in Austin? No, he did not. He was studying. He had his finals. Thank you very much for a ask. He's got their celebratory bubbles off. When they hit a big homer, they blow bubbles and it's like a fun event for children. It's great.

And then a clown is doing balloon animals. Billy Lucci had to remind LSU fans. He goes, as a clean sweep Tiger fans We beat you in football, basketball and baseball That's your Billy Lucci I can't do a lichie

You just tried That was awful That's like Billy Lucci mid-stroke Do it Chip Brown I don't know I don't know what he sounds like Man don't you Isn't he on one of the stations you program

Or it used to be Did you fire him too? No We have like three employees in Austin And you're one of them You're doing a four-hour show I'm going to propose soon a Matt Thomas show simulcast. Oh, I like that.

They would hate, no. They don't want me in Austin. No. We'll try to get me over there. Make me an offer I can't refuse. They want me breaking down the linebacking court for Texas Spring football game. It'll be me and Craig Wake talking huddo, hippo volleyball. The only offer you will get to work there will be refusable offers.

All right. We've got people that want to talk. They're going to bring more to the table than this SEC. general stuff that you bring every day to the show. You're assuming, you're going to be so viable in the fall, we're just going to just use you and abuse you for SEC football talk. I can do it all. I can do it all. I can bring a little baseball at

table. By the way, Friday night was out there at Constellation Field and the best part of being out there they serve the Crawford Bach from Carbock brewing out there. So whether you're at Dyken Park or whether you're at Constellation Field, they got plenty of Crawford Box. So I enjoyed

I enjoyed the pregame. There was no game. The game got rained out between the Space Cowboys in the Round Rock Express. But at least got my Spencer Araggetty Bobblehead and joined a couple Crawford Box before they called the game. And you didn't go sell your bobblehead, did you? No, I keep it. I have some moron though tweets me now every time

it is, check it out, Gordy, got my haul. I didn't see you, and he's got like four bobbleheads. I'm like, okay, you realize every time you send this, it shows what a loser you are. A loser. Go right ahead. How many bobbleheads do you have in your house right now? I've got about 100.

Wow. What's your most valuable one? I like the Bun B one. where he's standing on the street corner with the cards, there's Astros, Bobblehead. Okay, so which one would you put on eBay and get the most money for? I'm not putting any on eBay. If you could, though.

I tell you, I really like the Joron Breggman back-to-back. Bumbleheads, remember those? They did them separately. That's a really cool one. All right, Gordy, thanks for being an hour and a half late. We appreciate you. And you're going to help out Ross on Thursday while I go to A&M, which is a member of the SEC.

See my son graduate from college. You're going to be there for that? Wow, you got kids graduating out. I got two down and one to go. You're so old now. Thanks. Thanks so much. I remember around when I started here, we had your, I think it was your 40th.

I got a big cake for you. Yes. And now you're approaching AARP. Gio in Ataskas City at 1226. Hi, Gio, thanks for holding. What's going on, guys? Hi. I was always good stuff.

Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Before I get into it, man. I know the Rockets talk is going to come to an end. So I just want to give you guys your flowers while I can. Matt, Anytime I get a chance to listen to you, man.

I tune in. Ross, you do a great job, man, on the Rockets launch pad and the Rockets rap, man. I love listening to you guys when I can. Thank you. Thank you, Geno. Gio. Want to go ahead and say, yeah. Oh, yeah, you got my name, right?

Good stuff. My bad. So, anyway, I want to say, as far as the Rockets, man, I hear everybody down and rightfully show. But, I mean, let's be honest. We had a great season, an amazing season. did we really expect to take it all the way this year? I mean, it was going to happen, whether it be the first round, second round. I mean, as much as I love these rockets, I did not see us taking it all the way this year.

And to be honest, man, this series, the Warriors, besides the three-point shooting, the Warriors had something that the rockets lacked tremendously, and that's your experience. You know what I mean? We, they've been there, they've done that, their champions, they got multiple MVP's on their I mean, you know, it's, it is what it is, man. We showed up, we showed out, but it didn't, you know, work out for us in the end. I want to say that the, I'm really looking forward to the offseason. One thing that we do have on our side is youth and talent and time.

You know, the guy, our core is 25 and under, you know what I mean? So it's going to be amazing to see how these guys develop. And my last question is I want to know. Ross and Matt, what do you guys really want to see happen this offseat? Thank you. All right. We'll answer that question coming back

because we want to get to our break, but it's a great question. What do you want to see? When do we come back? When we come back? Yeah, I just, there's so many thoughts crossing my mind right now about that. Because I could really go in about three or four different directions.

Matt, can I give you two scenarios? Are you okay with that? Or do you need me to be definitive? No, you can give me two scenarios. All right, you promise? Okay, thank you. 713-2-1-2-5-7-90. 7-1-3-21-2-5-7-90.

We'll talk to Dave, James, Felipe, Stephen Biscuit. Do not go anywhere. One line is available. If you want to come in and join us, get on the list. We want to talk with you, folks. 1234, Sports Talk, 790. The Matt Thomas Show with Ross continues.

7-13-212-5-7-90. 7-1-3-2-1-7-90. Astros baseball tonight on deck 530. First pitch, I think it's at about 6-40. Let me make sure get the first pitch right. You know, these central time zone people do really weird things here. First pitch tonight is at 640, which means I'll have the 10th inning show after that. And tonight and tomorrow.

And then we have a day game on Wednesday. And then they have a day off Thursday. Then the Cincinnati Reds are in town for a weekend series. I like this new schedule, by the way, that you play everybody at least once per year. It's great. It's kind of balancing things out a little bit. Hey, look, anytime you can get the Cincinnati Reds in town, you'll take it. It's true.

All right. To the previous question that was asked, so we can go back to the phones over that. Yes. Only lay out the options. The options are big game hunting, trade a lot of your pieces and picks for a superstar. Here's what scares me. There are examples around the NBA that you've gone all in on the megastars. And it does long-term damage to you.

Phoenix and Milwaukee being two of them. Let's look at the top teams in the NBA. Cleveland did make a big trade for Donovan Mitchell. And they also drafted well. that has paid off. Boston Celtics, I would say, is mostly internal. Those, J. Lynn Brown and Jason Tatum, they were their draft picks, but they did trade for Porzingis. But I would say the core of that team was a lot of it was built to the draft. And I would say the same for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Oh, the Thunder built. You have built through draft. No frames go there. And you also make the deal of a lifetime snagging Paul George from the Clippers or to the Clippers and getting SGA back in return. Denver Nuggets built through the draft. Lakers are out. Minnesota Timberwolves made a huge trade for Rudy Gobert. They're still in it as well. So it's kind of a mix. And Anthony Edwards was built with the draft. Yes.

I don't mean to huff and puff because I'm not trying to kill time here. Because I really am. It's not that easy. I'm very torn on the situation. I will say this. I would have serious conversations about the two most talked about free agents. Not for agents. The two most talked about trade pieces out there.

I would have serious conversations. But I don't want them to break the bank, especially on one of them, because that one in Phoenix, is 37, defensively not the player than he was, still turns a ball over. Is injury, I would say at this point in his career, he's probably injury prone. You can call it 37-year-old and prone to injury. Anybody 37, yeah. So I wouldn't give up the farm on that. How much would it take to get the other big man? Again, also we're talking about if Janus is even going to be even up.

I mean, Janus may say, I'm going to have riddy to bring it back here in Milwaukee. He has to ask for a trade. Right. Anybody else that would be thought of? Now, there could be some free agents that we don't, we're not thinking of because we won't see the free agent list. I would, okay, leaning towards, let's go for it. Because I think Imaidoka is so widely respected around the NBA that he would be able to get the type of player that he would want there. And that type of player coming here would absolutely under all circumstances understand what would be expected of him if he was being run, if he was being coached by Eman Toaker.

Well, there will be a former NBA MVP available on the free agent market if he opts out. Oh, I know you're talking about. And that ain't happening. He's got a big beard. Uh-uh. No, I'm good. I've already had enough frustrations in game sevens. LeBron James could opt out too.

LeBron could opt out. Luke could also could say, no thank you to Los Angeles. Kyrie Irvin can opt out. Yeah, but Kyrie's hurt. Oh, that's right. Ross, this is going to be, and I don't know how much this is going to impact our show, this could be the craziest, craziest offseason we haven't quite some time in the NBA. It'll be very interesting to see how it unfolds.

Let's go to Felipe at Minute Maid Park at 1238. Hi, Felipe. What's going on, guys? Hi. I don't know. I'm not going to talk. take that away. I mean, I know we lost. We had a good season. The Warriors, I would have

took the loss against any other team besides the Warriors, but it had to be against this, but everybody has to look at it as positive that what we finished 50-fitts, it is what it is here. And now, what are we, 56 wins this year? 52. Okay, I mean, either way, it's still

I mean, we're moving in the right direction. That's what I like. We're young. We still have time to build positive, and it's been trading them. I don't know. I would see it happening, but I doubt it. I don't give him another year. If he doesn't perform like how he does, like how we expect him to perform,

then does that the guy develop us. You know, he's not that guy. But I will say two things. There's your answer. At my funeral, I'm on bite the rocket so they can let me down one last time. Oh, Felipe. Be nice.

Good Lord, Felipe. Let's talk to Dave in spring at 1240. Dave, thank you for holding in. Good afternoon. You guys haven't talked too much about Jabari. And we talked about afternoon, John, being so young, and guys still have, you know, ceilings and room to develop. And what this team is an interesting player.

You know, he missed part of this season, so is, you know, Jabari interrupted. But I like what we got from Jabari in this series. He wasn't on the floor. Elvin was kind of, but, you know, he's probably one of the better shooters on this team. Maybe the stat out much. Back it up, I don't know. But he has a nice release. He looks like a shooter.

He was a shooter in college. He could be kind of a strong number three on a very good team. Sort of a, I wonder type guy, even, or Horace Grant kind of guy. If you had the right, Chris Bosch, one in the number two spots. Yeah, I'm going to let you run. We got a, your connection is going to spotty. No, this two, yeah, there's two phone calls in a row. It's probably our fault.

I think it's our. And I apologize because we use Internet and not real phone lines. Yeah, we've moved to web-based phones and they can be spotty. I think the last two calls were affected by. that. I like Jabari. I don't think Jabari is the third go-to threat. I mean, I want Jabari in the team. I think there's a role for him defensively, hits the mid-range, his three-point shot. It got significantly better. They're just not enough offense for me on a consistent basis. I think he's my third guy. The game wouldn't have to go. He could be a third best spot. I think he could.

You were talking about like 15 points a game. Something like that for your third. guy. You're not talking about 20.25. Okay, so if you're giving me 15 out of the third, I can live with that. Absolutely. Yeah, he averaged 12 points a game this year. If he continues... Team missed him when he was hurt with the broken hand. Yes, they did. And he was looking, like, as far

as the confidence, and maybe we're just saying this just because the shots were going in. But he was knocking down everything in this series. He was huge. And he's got that little spot-up game where if there's a mismatch and Steph Curry or somebody shorters on him, he can get that turnaround jumper with relative ease. Yeah, Jabari

shot 50% from the floor and 46 from 3, that's outstanding. The only thing that probably Jabari doesn't have for you, and no one said he was going to ever have that, for God at 610, he's got no back to the basket game. Well, he's only back to the, yeah, it's only a turnaround jump. Right, right, right, right. Does he not making hook shots?

No. He's not doing Alper and Shingoon footwork stuff. Correct. And if he could get that into his game, build up a little bit of a strength, that would, that would be extremely helpful for his versatility. And again, personally, I'm a fan of is. I like the development of his game since the first time he came here. Because, frankly, he probably didn't have the first season he wanted to have.

But he's gotten better. The shooting percentage is better. He's always counting on now for two or three makes per game. It just, the question is, can he take his offensive game up a notch to get to that 15, 16, 17, 17 point range? Mm-hmm. And I think that's the first thing he's probably thinking of at this point, too. All right, 1242, Sports Talk 790. If you want to jump in, we've got two. lines available. Come in and talk to us if you'd like. We have enjoyed Tech talking with you at

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. It's 1243. It's the Matt Thomas show at Ross, and we go over to Ross to get you feeling better about yourself. Yes. Some growth, some good, some bad. Obviously, yeah, poor ending. To play, you know, one of our worst games in the playoffs in game seven. We had a few bad ones early and kind of corrected ourselves from there in a lot of ways on both sides of the ball and then to come out a little bit flat tonight. Obviously that's going to leave a sour taste in our mouth for sure, but you look at big picture of the growth that we made. You know, we just said no moral victories or whatever. We could be much more consistent, but getting to the two seed and 50 whatever wins and the growth that guys have showed. Kind of have a blueprint for where we want to be and the standard on your-to-year basis.

but while that doesn't really matter when you go out with a chance to move on, obviously, in advance. And, you know, like I said, kind of laying an egg in our last game. It's going to sting for a minute. So you get a blueprint out. When the blueprint is in front of you, and for those of you, architects can give us the answer to this question, do you make subtle changes or do you go, well, let's move this roof over to this part of the house. Do you add a bedroom here or do you put it here? construction is ahead of schedule

or at least it was but it bogged down in the first round do you add a in-home theater or do you make an extra spare bedroom all right enough for those architectures how about a gazebo outside

if I'd have told you before this season 52 wins two seed out in seven games in the first round you would have said yes or no way, no, that's not going to happen. Are you giving that to me? I would have said, that's a decent season.

That's above, it's ahead of expectation. Yeah. But you would think a two seed could win. But you weren't taking on a normal seventh seat. So let me ask you, the average human being, when it comes to patience, this is a rocket team has been patient for five years. Built to the draft. Yes.

Made a couple of interesting things. free agent signings this past two years ago, did nothing this past off season. How itchy is the trigger finger for the upper brass of the Rockets organization? Do they go, we know what we are and can't wait to see what comes back next year? Or did you open up a wound with some people on this team to say, you know what? We need to be better. We are able to have success and we think we can have more. We know who our core is.

We know who our untouchables are. let's go see what else is out there because they've not done the super mega trade. They've made little side deals like getting Stephen Adams for all those second round picks. Genius move. The trade involving the Phoenix Suns that got the first round picks from them.

Big time move. If I had to guess just right now a gut feeling, it will be a rotational player trade but not a superstar player trade will be made. There will be a little bit of shifting around. somebody who can shoot and play some defense. I would, yeah, if you had a betting line,

I don't think either you know who in Phoenix or you know who in Milwaukee would be coming here, but I also believe they're going to take the phone calls and they're going to have deep conversations about it. But yeah, I could see a, I don't want to throw out names because I don't want to do, I don't want to you earnestly throw up me, oh, you're a Rockets guy said.

a mid-level exception-type perimeter shooter coming here and a concerted effort to give Reed Shepherd every opportunity to be in the rotation next season. Man, if Rees Shepherd could take over, be a good point guard, knock down threes, basically take over the reins of what Fred Van Vleek gets you. That would be huge. Yeah.

Yeah, it's funny. I mean, New York Post, Jalen Green trade talk start immediately after Rockets' loss. Kevin Durant Intrigue. I mean, it's, you can go, it will take you one second on Google on a search to see that names are being brought up. Mm-hmm. That's the NBA. It's the nature of the NBA.

The question is, if indeed Jalen has brought up in trade conversation, is there a team in the NBA going, I saw what he did in Houston? I'm going to put him in a better spot that he's in there, that that's not going to happen when I need him to be my number one guy. Look, all you got to do is flip on Jalen Green's highlight reel, and you can convince himself, convince yourself the dude's going to be a superstar. The highlight reel is superstar quality. And lots of 30-point games. And lots of games where he takes over and scores 14 of a 17. Hey, crushes the Wizards for 40 every time. But the Wizards ain't in the playoffs.

That's the problem. I mean, I don't have a memory, great one. All I know is he has struggled against the Warriors and didn't sell in the regular season. So this is not a complete shock that he struggled against Golden State because Golden State's good and he had not had great success against him before. I mean, it would be too simplistic to say that Jalen just got fat and happy off of the second-tier teams, right? You're telling me he didn't play the Lakers well. He didn't play against Dallas very well. He didn't play very well against the Cleveland Cavaliers of the Boston Seleks of the world.

Is that what you're telling me? If you are, you are. But I mean, look, I would imagine. He's had some good games against some good teams, but I don't think he's been consistent, at least to me, in his career. Let's go to Los Angeles. Stephen on 7. Stephen, good afternoon to you. Hey guys, how's it going?

Good. I just wanted to say, I'm glad I'm not a betting man because I was certain if they Rockets won game 6 that they would win game 7. And instead, we got pretty much a carbon copy of game 1 easily. And for my money, the loss that hurt the most was in 2004 because, you know, you were up by, what was it, 7 or 8 at halftime. and then they just went into that game for a game offensive coma in the third quarter where they couldn't score. And then they didn't say a chance to at least tie the game at the end. But pretty still had to show significant that they were able to go basically seven games

without really having a, you know, a shooting guard for six of them. But, you know, I'll say this. I would point, you know, kind of, I was obviously upset last night. I really wanted that win. But I think I've talked myself into trust. the process. You know, there's a lot of stuff that this team can work on in the offseason. You know, Shingun, I think it last night that he was really bad around the rim this year. You know, he's got to work on his mention that he's not going to be aggressive towards the basket.

Yep. And then, I would say don't shoot any threes. Just work on your jump shot. It has to, you know, around the pain. Yeah, we're going to let you run, Stephen. Thank you with the phone call. Again, the connection continues to suck because our company doesn't use real phone lines, but that's a different issue for a different time. You have to have three-point shooting. In today's NBA world, if you don't have three-point shooters, you're in massive trouble.

You can make it as far as you can on your defense, but the question is, where is that shooting come from? Does Jabari-Smith Jr. get better? Jaylon Green did get incrementally better as a three-point shooter, up to 35%, which is-Jabari. Jabari is interesting because there are guys that are 6-10, stretch fours, that knock down four or five, three-pointers per game.

It can absolutely happen. Yes. Are you giving him starters minutes to do it, though? You would have to, and then that means who does come out? I mean, would Dylan Brooks be part of a trade package that you would make, and that insert Shbarrett Jr. into the starting lineup. You really don't want to take a men out of the lineup, but when you have two non-shooting threats in the starting lineup,

we talked about this before a men had a great last three games or whatever it was, when he was five of 16 on the road, and was that game three with Jimmy Butler out? We were talking about possibly putting Jabari Smith Jr. in the starting lineup for a little bit of that spacing. But, of course,

I went out of M. Thompson is aggressive in getting into the basket, knocking down his shots. All that talk went away. I would love to be a fly on the wall. I just would because I could feel like every day I can wake up with a different philosophy. Like today, my guess is, if you were to pour true serum down,

EMA and refurb. Fells throw it. They'd probably say, you know what? Let's go start talking right now. But then Jaylin can come in and say, hey, I'm going to spend the entire offseason. I'm going to watch that tape. I'm going to learn by it. I'm going to be the guy that can give you 23 points per night. Alpi's going to come in and say, hey, I'm the type of guy that's going to go in there. I'm going to go to Turkey and work out with my guys again like I did the last couple of years. And I'm going to make that mid-range shot. I'm going to be able to better jump hook. I'm going to have less, not timid, less finesse, more,

power to the basket. Yeah. That's what I want from Alpi, and I do love Alpi's game, but I want the force. He's 611, he's 260, he can move people around. This fade away, left foot in the air, flamingo stuff, whatever. That's not what the Rockets won, I think. It's okay to hit the mid-range. It's okay to be at the free throw line.

Yeah. But you've got to be able to use your footwork to your advantage. And I think there's even more that can be done in his NBA career. He's going to have to continue to get stronger, which he can. He's only 22 years old. But also the question you have to ask yourself, if you're a trust-the-process internal growth guy, if we're trusting the process,

they can grow to me to get better than what they showed against the Warriors. They can beat the Timberwolves. But if Rafael Stone's goal is to be better than the thunder, then I think that is when you need to start talking about superstar players from another team. If Oklahoma City is the bar and they are the... the best team in the league and there's nobody even close. Like if Denver doesn't present a challenge and either Golden State or Minnesota doesn't present a challenge, you're sitting there going, that's an Oklahoma City team has won 65 games.

They're all under contract. They've spent their money well. They still got draft picks coming up. You might have to realistically think about shaking things up. But let's say Denver surprises or Golden State or for that minute of Minnesota surprises. Do you then say, well, it's a wide open mix and why would I want to? want to screw things up if I've already got a good core already in place. All eight teams left in the playoffs have an A1 type of guy, A1 closer franchise player.

And 25 years ago, you didn't have to have that. You do now, I think. Unless you're just trying to go 04 pistons with a bunch of really good players who play great defense. But that was a one time kind of thing. 21 years ago. 1 o'clock, sports talk 790. We got another hour left to go. Ross, what is today's edition of Believe We're not?

coming up in 50 short minutes. All right. We're thinking about how we're going to handle believe or not today. Nothing's coming to mind. That's really good. Everything of it's coming up is coming up bad. Warriors. Buddies.

For Buddy healed. Buddy guy, still kicking it like at 88, I think. Really? Yeah. Buddy Hackett? Long dead. Oh, may he rest. I hope.

Buddy healed. Buddy freaking healed. Can you? you play a couple of highlights i know we got some in here listen to see how exasperated i sound time to play how exasperated is mad okay how many how many of the highlights we got in there

i don't know here's one of the jimmy butler yield on a hand off to pachemski to butler with three and a half remaining the rockets down 12 butler right side against jalen green left side turns right elbow 16 foot shot up in and jimmy butler has put the go to the last four points and maybe enough to seal of Golden State win. 88.74.

You sound sad. Here's a Buddy Healed one. Healed, right side three-pointer. That's on the way and good. And Buddy Healed is trying to advance the Warriors of the Western semis. He sounds surprised there.

He just couldn't miss. My buddy, Tim Roy, is the voice of the Warriors. Just took a picture of the plane. They're going to Minneapolis. Block them. Block and report. Currie across mid-court.

They have six steals themselves tonight. Rockets have turned it over 11 times. Curry straight on, deep three up in good, and the Golden State Warriors are going to win this series. I have so many cheesy 70 songs we can play during this entire hour. No, I don't want to play any of them.

This is depressing as hell. Well, at least look at the Astros. Yeah, at least they lost a weekend series to the White Sox. It's great. Yeah, did they get screwed by the rain, by the way? They would have lost that game probably anyways, because of the bats. Well, actually, Jake Myers was another opportunity.

anything could happen. Yeah, you kept nine-hole hitter in your bench, and you couldn't get out there when the brain was... Jake Myers was like, let me at him, baby. Let me at him. They were trying to keep Jake down. What's his OPS now? It's over 800.

He's hitting 303, I think. Do we say All-Star? He's got my vote. Got to have at least one. 807 OPS. 129 OPS plus, by the way. All right. That's great.

713-21, 5. 790 713, 212790. Let's talk to Biscuit on this program. Biscuit, good afternoon. Thanks for holding. Hey, afternoon, my brothers. Hey, let me get a first go about over the series we just came through. To me, and I know Gordy said about Looney, but to me the deal last night was Draymond Green had its best game in the series.

And that made a difference. That made a difference. You know what I mean? Not to mention Buddy Hill. We all know that. All the moving 3s they kept giving them, knowing this dude is a score. But Draymond had his best game in the series, and that was an impact on this game. Going forward, though, you know, I've been always teamless state of course.

Now, a lot of people trying to make – this is a deal. Me and my buddy, we put it in the thing and try to see what trades would be feasible and what they wouldn't be looking at. And so the whole deal is, what you have to give up to get somebody. And if you have to give up too much, say for Yannis, now you got Milwaukee, but it's just in Houston. You know what I'm saying?

So like Yonahisray would have to be Jalen, Jabari, Whitmore, Shepard, and three draft picks. You willing to do all that? I don't know about that. KD would have to be Brooks, I believe Jabari and some draft picks I don't know

you know what I mean Katie's 36 the ideal guy to me would be Booker but are they willing to give him up they have said religiously no but that could be

a little bit of lip service too it would help if the the pick we got from them is a top four pick maybe then we could but my this is let me ask you this question I want to ask you in Ross, though. Let's look outside the box.

So let's say we're trying to, basically what looks like most people are trying to do, they're trying to replace Jalen with somebody else that's more of a consistent score. So what if we're talking about Zach Levine for Jalen straight up, or

Kobe White for Jalen? These are the type of guys, I think, you know, you're talking about along that line. Why would the why would the Bulls do that? I mean, because they haven't been anywhere, and if you gave them a draft pick maybe.

Yeah, and then maybe you're talking. Yeah, you said straight up originally, so that's why we were kind of curious about that. Well, I mean, you know, straight up far as players, you know, we got all those extra picks. I don't think the Rockers don't want to keep adding. You'd have to give them probably a first-round pick, if not a couple. Kobe White would be great.

He's average 20 a game. He was a good three-point shooter. Zach Levine as well. I would take those deals, but I don't know that the Chicago Bulls would. Yeah. To me, the best deal is probably to stay pat and just hope, you know, okay,

Jayland average 21 this year. Maybe he gets up to 23. Maybe the guy, I think, is going to get the biggest jump next year is going to be Thompson. So Thompson could be a 20-point-of-game score. And I think I threw out there last week, Walsh, about Thompson being the 0.3. And, you know, I'm not saying him being the point-golf,

but be the 0.3. and let Thompson kind of, you know, facilitate things and then let Jalen them come off the picks. The biggest thing, go Ross, are you going to pick up that team option on Van Fleet? That's $44 million. I think they're going to try to renegotiate a long-term deal that's not at a higher, like, you know, three years $90 million or three years 75. I don't know exactly what he would take or what it would take, but they're going to get that number lowered and then break it down into more years. I would bet. that's why Van Fleet can be involved in a trade.

I think it's because of the team option deal or whatever. Well, they would pick up the option and then they would trade him if they were to use that. But I can't imagine another team wanting to pick up $40 million for one year of Fred. Exactly. Yeah, I don't think there's too much admiration. Thank you, Biscuit, for the phone call. I've got to roll some other folks. I think there's too much admiration on both sides.

I think Fred has a role with this basketball team. He has a veteran mocks that you need. You like to have an aged back aged. 30. I mean, come on. I think you want a guy that's been there and done that. I don't think the minutes necessarily would be as much as he's had in the last few years. I don't think you want him taking 12 to 13 shots a game. But there are nights where he can help you out. And frankly, if this series would not have been extended, if not for the work of Fred Van Babley. Yeah, I think it's very clear. They want him back. Here's what you doca had to say about it

last night. Yeah, absolutely. I think both sides want to be here and want him here from day one. As I talked about, the importance of him, you know, the point guard position kind of leading us in a lot of ways and allowing guys to grow at the same time and understanding, you know, what he walked into, what he signed with. And, you know, he's a huge part of our growth in general. And so, you know, love everything he's done. You know, perfect combination of on-ball, off-ball for our guards and our young guys to grow. And obviously, I have them back, and I think the feelings mutual. Yeah. And I don't think that's lip service.

You can kind of read between the lines When somebody wants somebody gone or thinking about changes I think I don't know if he wants it back at the dollar amount But I think there is a thought of extension Because I don't think Fred wants to be bouncing around the rest of his career And he's never told me that But I just My feeling is I think he's very comfortable here in town

And they've still got some some shelf life That's for sure They don't make it as far in the series As they did without him No All right 114 Sports Talk 7 in in in he We'll talk to Steve and to James and anybody else one's jumping on the conversation.

713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. 120 Sports Talk 790. Let's continue on the phones and go to James next on 7-90. James, thanks for waiting and good afternoon. Hello, James. James, not waiting. All right, James, appreciate you.

Thanks for listening. Let's go to Steve in Missouri City at 120. Hi, Steve. Good afternoon. Thank you, Mac, for taking my... I'm confused and kind of, you know, I've watched every game for the last all years with the rockets. And I'm baffled. I'm baffled as far as if you don't have shooters consistently to why wouldn't you go to the bench and play Jabari a lot more. That's one of the hitting problems. The second issue in terms of trade, I listened to the former last caller talk about trade.

right now you have another player on the rockets that's for whatever reason cam cam and on the right now and the other guard jalen you can package them up for a and thoughts in reference to that all right thank you steve i'm sorry we're still having phone issues here but he was i think he was asking cam whitmore and jalen green package them up for for a good player and then why not jibari smit junior more minutes or more shots or both Um, you probably played 12 minutes. He was 1 of 5. He knocked down 1 3.

He got a lot of Stephen Adams action off the bench. He played 26 minutes. Only 16 minutes for Tari. It was mostly run with the starters. Except for Jalen Green, who didn't get as much run. 44 minutes for Fred Van Vleet. I thought that Amen Thompson would play some more minutes in the fourth. I thought he sat for a lot more time than I was expecting for a game seven.

His leg was hurting him. I think he had a pretty noticeable lint. That was part of the reason. Yeah, that could be part of it. But I don't think the answer was more Jabari Smith Jr. I mean, he was one for five in the game. He's decent when he's knocking down shots, but he's hit or miss.

He's not going to be a part of the engine of the offense. I'll put him in the same category as Dylan Brooks. Some nights he can go for 20, 25. Yeah. But it's not going to be consistent. It's going to be whether or not his shots are going in. It's predicated on that. He's not an offense starter.

You're not running your offense around. and Jabari Smith, Jr. Now, does it leave his hand better today than it was when he first got here? Absolutely. Yeah, that was the book of him coming out of Auburn. He was supposed to be a dead-eye shooter, and he was not good his first year. Made a leap in his second year. And I think shot 35% from three this year regressed a little bit from last year.

I just, good. He's a nice complimentary player who gives you professional work on both ends of the floor. He's young, Matt. He's young. He can grow. I love the young ones. You know how I feel about young ones. You can clip that one.

No, you don't. He's 21. He will be 22 in a week. Happy early birthday. Javari's only 21? Next Tuesday, he'll be 22 years old. Wow. These guys are babies.

They're absolute babies. See, that's what I'm saying. You can convince yourself that 23, Jalen Green, 22, Alper and Shangoon, 21, I think, I'm in Thompson. 21 Jabar's McJune. And I don't disagree with that. But there are guys at that age and that experience that have already taken that big leap. That's what people are waiting for.

Well, especially on Jalen Green's side. But there's also guys who, I mean, look, basketball players don't peak at 21-22. We're talking five more years down the road where basketball players peak. Now, the question is, do the do the rockets have the patience for that? Well, they've, you know, well, if you're going off of recent, the timeline, the answer is yes. They didn't make a deal at the trade deadline last year. They got the 41 and 41 and said, you know what? We got a nice building blocks here.

let's run it back. Matter of fact, not only we're going to run it back, we're not going to make any major decisions in terms of going to get free. Who are they getting afraid to you last year? Aaron Holiday came back. Jeff Green came back.

Landell came back. Stephen Adams was a trade of the year before. That's it. I don't know if they got anybody. No. Yeah. So if there's anything the rockets have shown is that they are patient with

what they have right now and said, hey, look what we've done. We went from a laughing stock of 60 losses to a 41 and 41 to 3. are 52 and 30 and you know you could go to that sky's the limit type of thing. Yeah, we live in this age of now, now, I want championships now.

But championships are hard. And if they feel like this core can get them there eventually within the next couple of years, I'm not going to tell them they're crazy. Really not. I'm making it. Remember when Mark Jackson was leading the Golden State Warriors?

That was pre all the championships. He was fouling the rockets because they were going for a three point record. Yeah. I mean, Steph was going through growing pains. They went through growing pains. Clay Thompson went through growing pains back early in those days.

It is highly unusual for a young team to get the playoffs for the first time and then, I mean, go win a championship or even make the finals. Yeah. Here it comes down to this. It's a seeing-eye test that Ross and Matt's opinion mean nothing. The seeing-eye test is, do we have enough of a sample size on our two oldest of the youngens? Does that make sense? Alperin and Jalen. They're both four years in.

Does four years indicate still growth? Or do you go four years in? We kind of know who they are. Most players, I think if we took their fourth year, we would know who they were. Not indicating whether that makes an indictment against those two players or not.

Yes. But I think four years is a nice, good, sample size for just about any NBA player. Players have taken year. Yeah. I think Zach Levine didn't break out until his fifth or sixth year. I want to say, like Norman Powell's been playing very well for the Clippers. It took him years.

Isaiah Hartenstein would be another example. That's a guy that moved around from squad to squad. That all of a sudden in that fifth, six year of his NBA, and again, maybe it takes four or five teams to find the right spot. But he was good in New York, and he's been great for Oklahoma City. That's a big man. Expectations are obviously different than being a number one on a basketball team. But there's a good example of a guy that floundered just trying to make an NBA roster.

And now he is a valuable piece of that Oklahoma City offense. Yeah, I'm just kind of looking up quick. Chegildegh Alexander didn't really blossom until his fifth year. But his underlying numbers as far as shooting percentages were much better than Jaylon Green. How about Tyrese Halliburton? Is that an example there? Tyrese Halliburton. See, this is the problem. Tyrese Halliburton is the Sacramento.

did what and compared to what he's doing now is an Indiana pacer. Yeah, he let's see looks like basically in his third year he was an all-star. Okay, bad example. We erased that from the log. And

in his third year he shot 40% from three. Jalen Green hasn't touched that anywhere close. Forty-nine percent from the field. Jalen Green hasn't touched that anywhere close. This is the problem. Like I said, if we look at only in our Houston bubble, we can say, oh, he's 23. He's going to grow. But if we look around, around the league,

to his contemporaries, especially winged players, he's lagging well behind four years into development. If somebody can point to me, I'm open to the idea. If you can find me a player that had the horrible shooting percentages and three-point percentages that Jalen Green has had his first four years, maybe horrible is a little bit of a strong term,

but bad to below average, and then really Blossom became a plus-plus shooter. I would like to see it. I think Lonzo Ball comes to mind, but then he's been dealing with a bunch of injuries. Can't say healthy. Um, yeah, those better ball. A big baller brand shoes really tore him up. He played 35 games this year.

He shot 34% from 3. All right. 713, 212.570. James call back. We'll get to him, Brad, Vince, Mack. We'll get to all of you before the top of the hour. And we've got, believe it or not, coming up at about 20 minutes here. Got you have a little shout out here, if you don't mind.

To one of our brand new 790 advertisers, Talier Brewing. They're like, yeah, Matt, we like your show. we like your audience. We think you're pretty cool. And I'm like, thank you very much, Talyard Brewing. Thank you for being a part of the Matt Thomas show with Ross family. Thanks for being a part of 790s family. And if you're looking for amazing craft beer and a great pizza kitchen

and an awesome place to enjoy pit barbecue with pickleball and a playground and live music, it's Talyard Brewing in Sugarland right next to Consolation Field, T-A-L-R-D-Brewing.com. tellyerbrewing.com. And if you want to join the 790 family, just like Tellyer Brewing did, do me a huge favor. Take you five seconds. You're a business owner and you're like, man, I got to get some people into my business. Then you find me. You shoot me an email, mT at sports 790.com. M.T. at Sports790. One of our great sales reps will get with you and we want to help grow your business right here at Sports Talk 790, just like we're doing with the great folks at Talia Brewing. 134 on Sports Talk 790.

Now we'll try for the third time to talk to James. Hi, James. Yeah, can you hear me now? Yes, sir. Okay, I was going to call about Reed Shepard. Do you think he could be anything like Austin Revis, Reeves? Reves?

Lakers, yeah. I don't know. I mean, I've seen Reed played very little bit this year for the Rockets, as of you. I mean, he's just given a few opportunities and just, unfortunately, for him to not make the most of it. So I think next year will be a very important season. I think he'll be back in Las Vegas to play in the Summer League. And I think it's a very interesting training camp for him and a lot of growing pains. And, you know, obviously, the Rockets loved him.

They chose him third last year. And I think they are stir very bullish on him. All right. Hey, I've got a new name for your show if you want to hear it. Oh, Lordy. Here we go. What do you got? Into the afternoon with Thomas and Ross.

Into the afternoon. I don't know. Thomas and Ross. All right. That sounds fine. Thank you. I didn't realize we're looking for a new name, but that's D.H's own.

Yeah, I like that. Yeah, let's take your name off this show. I called the Midday Shakeup. I mean, Ross is his first name and you get his last. What kind of egomaniac would name their show after themselves? I mean, come on. Actually, I did not name the show.

You had no say? That's the word. Because they said, why do we want to confuse people by giving you a goofy-ass name to your show? It's your show. You know. By the way, my Saturday show was a sports rave show. just kidding.

You know, if you want to be the Ross Villarreal show with Matt, I'm cool with that. I like that a lot. I bet you do. It's got a nice ring to it. All right. Let's go to Vince on 798-136. Hi, Vince. Hey, how are you guys doing?

Good. Hey, I've got three little quick, bold points. So, still feel Jabari Smith did not play enough. I'm hoping they keep him, and I frankly wouldn't mind him starting over Brooks next year. As far as defensive, guys coming in, people, you guys are talking about bringing in on trades, mega trades or whatever. Udoch is not going to want anyone in here. He's going to have to teach how to play defense or get them into that culture.

So I don't know, Durant, he's not going to be able to do that. And I don't even know if Booker isn't much of a defender either. So that's something to think about. And then as far as Jaylen Green's concerned, I think it's more about the way. he plays and what they let him do. Half the time when he's handling the ball out on the perimeter, trying to create his own shot, his dribble just usually don't take him anywhere.

And so he ends up taking a bad shot off the dribble or driving against three people and never getting calls. And so I don't have the facility to do this, but I bet you if you compare his shooting off the dribble from the perimeter to his catching shoots when someone sets them up for an open shot, I bet you he does much better with that. So I don't know if his role needs to change

to where he's not so much of a ball handler and more of a shooter. So that's what I got. Okay. Talk about Jalen Green? Yeah. Yeah, we can, I can find his catch and shoot numbers. You just got to give me a minute.

Oh, it's not a slide step. It's a dribble to the left wing, right, wing to try to get separation, or if you do that, he abandons that and goes with a crossover, hopefully get to the lane, the reverse layup variety, try to go against traffic. Now, one thing in his defense, that has

been tough for him, is that he can, he gets very few fouls called against, not against him. I mean, he gets way more contact and way fewer whistles than a lot of other players at his position. And that's been hard, because he gets beat up quite a bit.

and I don't know one thing we've not talked about, Ross, played it all 82, right? Yes. Do you think that had a factor in the series of him going to game 88? It is possible. Yeah, it's catch and shoot threes

40.9% But that's in... Jan Greene. That's in minimal opportunity, though, right? I mean, I can't think of a lot of times that Janlon was taking a pass and not taking a dribble and going on. Three per game.

Hmm. This is according to nbba.com slash stats. Oh, they wouldn't lie to us. That's regular season? Right, that's regular season numbers. I think so. I think I put it in regular season. So literally the definition is a catch and shoot, no dribble.

Yeah, that's right. No dribble. Off the bounce. I mean, yeah, Alpernching Goons finds it for threes. Reverend Flee, finds it for threes. He gets some catch and shoot opportunities here and there. Way more than I thought I would be at this point. But, see, to me,

the one thing I've appreciated about Jalen this year is the fact that when the three wasn't dropping, he was able to get to the rim and he just couldn't get to the rim in this series. Whether that's Buddy Healed, whether that's Remond Green, whether that's, I mean, it's not Curry. Isn't there a part of you that just gets frustrated

that he wasn't able to attack the rim like he's done against everybody else so far this year? Yes. Last year on Catch and Shoot 3s, he shot 31%. Oof. Maybe that's, maybe that led to his uptick of 35% overall. You know what?

You catch and shoot 40%. That's, pretty good. Because that's usually in rhythm. There's no wasted space. There's no extra dribbling. You can do it with a minimal time left from the shot clock. Okay. Give me 40% on catch and shoot. I'll take that from anybody and run the league. Most catch and shoot

attempts per game was 5.1 for Dylan Brooks. He shot 41% on those. Basically what Jalen Green did on 3.3. And that means to me, that means the extra pass is being made largely coming from Fred Van Lee. Or you mentioned Alpi out of the center spot. All right. Let's go. go to Mac in Pearland at 140 on 790. Hi, Mac.

Howdy, Jans? So I missed a few minutes because my wife had to talk to me, but you were talking about hitting threes and that, and you were talking about Jim Aris Smith. So I looked up his stats. He hit 45% of his threes and 58% of his tubes. I can't tell you if that's, you know, catch and shoot or what the deal is.

Right, right, right, right. That's pretty significant compared to the rest of everybody. But the playoffs, the sample size is smaller against the playoffs, and he didn't shoot as many as his counterparts. He shot 52% catching shoots, did you bury, in the playoffs? Oh, good. That's really good. Yeah. Probably not sustainable.

Why didn't they hit him more? Anyways, and then before he was injured, we were, I think, second in either rebounds or offensive rebounds. and, you know, I don't want to indicate that I don't want to play Taray East and our men Thompson, but the rebounding, our rebounding stats went down after he, after Jabari got hurt and the other guys were playing more. So I think he's a valuable piece and we need to hang on to him. I don't think they're openly thinking moving Jabari Smith,

but do I think Jabari Smith could be a part of a trade chip if it's a big deal, mega deal? Absolutely. Again, I think so. We always arguing last week about whether things sting or hurt. Yeah. I think you can you can sting when it's going after Duran if you were to do that. If you're going for Yannis, and again, we're just throwing that out there just because there's been the trade wins or a blowing. It's got to hurt. Milwaukee wants whatever team, if they do and decide to move from Yannis, and

Yonis decides he wants to move on from there. They want draft picks. They need salary cap relief. And they need a starter. right away. And Jabari Smith could be a starter for the Milwaukee Bucks tomorrow. Yeah, with more minutes and more opportunities, I think he could thrive. But he'd have to expand his offensive game, which is basically at this point, turn around 10, 15 footers and catch and shoot threes. Yeah.

What was this three points? When was the last time you saw him make a spin move and dunk on somebody? No, he drops up. And yeah, he's elbows, baselines. You can tell he's going to do it because he practices a lot. He makes them. You can tell he gets a little low. he's about to hit the

he's about to go up and rise and shoot you can kind of do he just kind of telegraphs it but yep it goes in all right last one let's in this segment Brad on 7 on a hello Brad what's up I wanted to ask you do the next time they come to the bargaining table

do you think they can bring up that subject for change somebody's salary is like like the Kevin Durant rule let's make that up that should be if two teams want to make a trade, it shouldn't have to be because this guy makes 51 million, so he's going to take

seven year players to make up for it. That's an unfair trade. It's called a salary cap. You have to adhere to it. Well, can't they change it or do something around it to, I mean, that's not fair. Who would want to trade with Phoenix

on a one-year old man, even though he's good, versus to get like five or six players that are young and got years ahead of them. Well, but Brad, I mean, Brad, somebody's going to do it. Kevin Durant's not going to be a Phoenix Sun next year. It takes one to tango. No, it doesn't. It takes one to do the Chachaw.

Well, somebody's got to trade with the Phoenix Suns. So it takes two then to trade. Two to Chachaw. Only one has to step up to the plate. You only need one person docee do. Is that true? Round you go, turn in a beck and round. What about to the wobble?

You can line dance with one Okay Now I got one day before You gotta show me how you do you wobble Yeah I can wobble with the best of them Can I really? I never wobble before my life

So he's good He's the Cupid Shuffle Master I've we've a wobble But I didn't fall down The Shell Federal Credit Union As we play Believe it or Not next If you want to join us 713-212-5-790

All right Let's see we got Everybody's on the line Ready to play Believe it or not That's fine We got a nice prize give away this one. You know, we have to do the prizes first. Jonathan, what are we playing for,

and believe it or not today? What do you got in the old vault today, besides the amazing 7-90 T-shirt? So today, we got a pair of tickets to see sticks with Kevin Cronin, former lead singer and songwriter of R-E-Z-O, Speedwagon? R-E-Z-O, Speedwagon, yes. And Don Bell did, former of the Eagles,

on the Brotherhood of Rock Tour on June 6th, the Woodlands Pavilion. That's okay, Jonathan. Hario Speedwagon's overrated. I don't know if anybody really rates them. But I'm going to keep on loving, you. And then you're going to sail away? Is that them?

R.O. Speedwagon actually got a little bit of a bump after they made a couple of cameo appearances on the show Ozark. I'll take your word for it. Yeah. Oh, riding the storm out was kind of a hit. They're all right, I guess. I mean, they're, they're, they're, they're,

can't fight this feeling. There's Cynthia Woods. Man, we got the evidence of it. It's elevator rock. Elevator Rock's a new phrase. That knows what I'm talking about, though. Yeah, I live in an elevator, right. My elevator goes up the 90th floor.

That's got to be some kind of reference that's over my head. It's not. I listen to Eagles almost the entire way back from San Francisco. Oh, good for you. New kid in town, heartache tonight. Hotel California. That's not one of my favorites. You know that.

Oh, my God. All right, five minutes left to go on the show. What should we do? We should play. America's fastest growing sports radio game show we simply call it B. Believe it or not, and here's how it works. You call 713-212-5-790.

7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Today's edition of Believe or not is all things about famous buddies. I'll read your statement about a famous buddy. Statements is completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Belie-Belie. And the statement is here on a minute if you'll say this.

Not. Two believer or nots in a row. We need those tickets to see that concert, June 6th at the Cynthia Woods-Mitchellion. Easy. On 7.90, easy. You ready to play, believe it or not? Believe it.

The 33 points scored by Buddy Heald in game seven is the most. He scored all year for the Warriors, whether it was a playoff game or a regular season game. Believe it or not. It is actually the number. Why don't you have his game long in front of you? Duh. It's very disheartening. Bill, what is your favorite REO Speedwagon song?

Ice, baby. Buddy Heald got his nickname. from his mother after Bud Bundy on the sitcom married with children. Believe it or not. You should. Statement number two for the win. His senior year at Oklahoma, Buddy Heald,

won both the Naismith Award and the John Wooden Award for the nation's top college basketball player. Believe it or not? Oh, that's a negative not. No, it is. You better believe it. Bye! You're not going to see R.E.O. Speedwagon. Sorry about that. Heartbroken.

Ken, on 790. Ken, what was your favorite part of today? 10 to 2 radio show. The disappointing game seven lost last night. Buddy heals the only player in NBA history with his name with his same first name.

Believe it or not. The only buddy in NBA history I should say. Oh, the only buddy. Yeah, yeah. Okay, the only buddy in NBA history with his same first name. Believe it or not. I'm going to believe it.

No, it's actually Buddy Baham. There's several others. Yeah. What else is there? I can't remember. I can't, I can't know that he love. Buddy Jones. He's making it up now.

Johnny's... That's enough. John on 790, you're ready to play? Believe it or not? I'm always ready. Legendary blues guitarist Buddy Guy is alive. Believe it or not? Believe it.

He has 88 years old. Believe it. Statement number two for the win. Buddy Guy's signature guitar is a Gretsch 5222 hollow body electromagnetic. Believe it or not. I believe that. No, it's a Fender stradalcaster.

Duh. Also has a, likes the gold top, Les Paul, Matt, as you know. This is definitely my top favorite, believe it or not. It was, it's a season ender. Kevin on 790, ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir. Before perishing in a plane crash,

Buddy Holly was set to star in the 1961 film Blue Hawaii. Elvis Presley took over the role. Believe it or not. Not. Yeah, he made that up. Statement number two for the win. As a child, Buddy Hackett was next door neighbors with Sandy Kofax. Believe it or not.

Let's see, born in 24. Nah, not. Oh, he was. I've said it once in a thousand times. You got to know who your neighbors are. You're all choked up with aren't you, Harvey. Hey, let me tell you about Big City Wings for a let you run. You want $1 chicken tenders tonight?

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Big on wings, big on sports, and big on daily specials. $5 on the. Ultra and Bud Lights today at Big City Wings. All right. Thank you very much. We had a really good time today. Talk to a lot of you great Houstonians about the Rockets. We'll get to more of that as the spring and summer progresses. Joe Espada joins the show tomorrow, among others,

as we present to you a Tuesday edition of the show. Up next, it's Wexler, it's Clanton. It's the A team on Sports Talk 790.