The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Rockets Secure MASSIVE Trades in Dorian Finney Smith & Clint Capela, How Are We Feeling? Astros Start Their Series vs Rockies Tonight

Episode Date: July 1, 2025

Rockets Secure MASSIVE Trades in Dorian Finney Smith & Clint Capela, How Are We Feeling? Astros Start Their Series vs Rockies Tonight

10.01 in H-town. Good morning. And welcome to a Tuesday edition of the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We are spinning. I mean, I'm trying to watch some volleyball among 15,000 whistles in Dallas, Texas at the K. Bailey Hutchison Convention Center. And my timeline is going off with, Rockets do this. Rockets do this. Rockets do that.

Rockets, Ross, we got to plan out this championship parade. Let's go. We're already in that territory? Let's do it. You want your fire engine, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I'll be towards the back. I get that, but I should get my own fire engine.

With a Dalmatian? Yeah, with a Dalmatian, for sure. And you are welcome to come on there. Now, again, I'll have to, I'd probably put you in the passenger seat. I wouldn't want you out there in public. Why not? What was the point of being on the fire engine? I'm going to go and throw beads at people.

Ooh, that may not be a bad out situation for all of us, right? What do you mean? Well, you know what happens when you throw the beads, right? What happens when you throw the beads, Matt? You know, I don't know. No, I'll tell you all later. It is a very adventurousome day here on the Matt Thomas Show at Ross as we take you till 2 o'clock today at 713-212-5-790.

713-212-1-2-5-7-90. There are like, I don't know, Rossi, 50 free agent moves yesterday. Now, granted, we are not a huge non-rocket NBA town, so I will probably not go through any of them, except the ones that involved the Rockets. But you and I have not discussed this, at least on air. What an intriguing, interesting, and now Deep Rockets team that will be ready to go come 2025-2006.

Yeah, it's been a great off-season. for the Rockets. I mean, you get the Kevin Durant move, and then you get these players around them, and it sounds like, I mean, there was some speculation that these moves were leading to something else, something else perhaps somebody from Greece, but maybe that's not the case.

Either way, the team's really good right now. And maybe I need to backtrack on my yesterday to tell the truth. Maybe the Western Finals, it is the Western Finals or bust. You know, I think at some point it's got to be right. I don't think you do all this to maneuver all these signings and keeping yourself still evolved in drafts. Into the luxury tax?

No luxury tax, the apron, if you will. Again, if anybody wants to know what the apron is, go look at Google because for me to try to explain it would just be awful. But basically, it's just a luxury tax, and there's two levels of it. And the Rockets, again, Ross, they have not shown me their numbers yet, but I don't think they're going to be in that tax at this point.

I thought that, okay, I'm confused too then because I thought they were into a little bit of a tax, but there's a little apron after the start of the text. Or am I wrong? You know, we're going to skip this whole coverage. It's just not what we got into sports talk radio for. They should be short of the first apron. I do know that. Yes.

So that is a very good sign. But nevertheless, and I talked about this, I think I early gut feeling it yesterday at like 147 or something, I think. Yeah. First tax level is $187 million payroll. They're at, and first apron is 196. So I think they're up against, so they're into the tax, but under the apron. Does that make sense? I'm going to completely believe you.

Okay. Is that fair? Yes. You could tell me there in the 99% tax threshold and they're going to be penalized for life and I go on. That sounds about right. I mean, it is what it is. But a lot of excitement. Doreen Fennie Smith was a rocket killer last year.

I mean, he just was. Part-time starter for the Lakers. Has improved his three-point percentage every year. He's been in the league. Apparently he's a really super good guy, good defender. He can play multiple positions. He's a jump shooter. And then you get Clint Capella.

And then as soon as Clint Capella, you got Clint Capella, Stephen Adams, Alperin-Shangoon, and you did exactly what you just said, what I did off air. I'm like, are they doing what I think they might be doing? As in, could Alpern-Shingon be gone as part of a Janus deal? And then, so what did our group chat do yesterday? We were throwing trades against the Texas.

Yes, we were. That's what you do on a group chat Tuesday. Yeah, it is a group chat Tuesday. This is exactly what you do, yeah. And again, all I will say is it feels like, and again, you have to play the games. Injuries are a part of it. performance obviously but if you spent any time

looking on the worldwide streets of social media if you watch any in the morning talk shows this morning universally people are like the Rockets off season absolutely crushed yeah everybody's given a bunch of a pluses and it beats the alternative of what are they doing

like for instance Los Angeles Laker fans are flipping out no center yet which they've been looking for ever since the Luca Donters trade LeBron picks up his option of over $50 million. They don't have Lucas signed to a long-term deal. And nobody really knows what the Lakers are doing

because they have not been... I mean, their big acquisition, Ross, stay with me on this. They picked up Jake Laravia. Hmm. Huge. The funniest part about this morning, I was watching First Take, and this is Scrimonet is off,

so I can actually watch the show now. Mm-hmm. the woman that was filling in from Molly Karam tried to pronounce La Ravia and she had no idea and I can tell you that I have been in that situation before where you see a name pop up and you don't know what to do except try it and it didn't go well. I always read it as La Ravia.

What did she say? Laravia? She said anything but close to La Ravia, La Ravia. It wasn't, I mean, and Winhorst and I think Tim Bond Temps was on there and was kind of like, you know, it happened. happens and she's like if you bring it up one more time that I mispronouncing them I'm going to throttle you both well get it right lady yeah so we would never make fun of mistakes we've made on this show oh my god I mean I can't remember I think the last time I made a mistake

on this show was like 2017 it's been that long mm-hmm must be yeah all right so that is kind of what part of the theme of the radio show is today part of the radio show theme today is the Astro is getting ready for a series with the Colorado Rockies, and we'll Joe Espada join us from Denver at 1230. We've got the NFL rewind. We do have one interesting, not surprising NBA free agent announcement today, not for agency, but picking up of a brand new contract. Sheaildedis Alexander, who is the MVP of the Western Finals,

MVP of the League, the MVP of the NBA Finals, signed a new contract that's going to pay him $75 million per year. and as part of that he has to promise to cure cancer of all sorts no matter which kind it is he's got to solve it two hundred eighty five million dollars for four years fully guaranteed well you know what that's that's more than 75 isn't it it's uh really quick math on that rossi seven uh no it's 71 and a change 71.25 god that's good money he's doing all right i mean you and here's The crazy part is, you know the gas is cheap in Oklahoma City? Not that he's worried about it, but...

Okay. Oklahoma's cheap. How much gas is he buying our week anyways? He's getting chauffeurs, I'm sure. You see that much money and you go straight to gas prices. Well, I mean, the guy's trying to be economically viable. I mean, if you make... Maybe he's driving a Prius, you know?

You don't know. Yeah, that's true. Well, he now has a... He now has a charger at his house now. I don't worry about going to the gas station. Yeah. You can afford his own gas station. Yeah.

I mean, if you make $70 million a year, you can't ever... ever let somebody buy you a meal, correct? Unless it's the owner. That's true. Like, for instance, if I was to actually make decent money, the three of us would go out to lunch, I would make sure I'd pay every single time. Oh, yeah, right. I've seen you alligator arms. Oh, that's not even, that's terrible.

That's, A, that's not true. I've seen you at the alligator obzigma in the wild. That you're supposed to be nicer. I'm just kidding. You know what? I think I get like. we've talked about this. I get 15% meaner when you're on the road, and I'm sorry.

I'm trying to be better. All right. Well, I'll see you next week. You better be nice to be next week. I will. I will. All right. So that has been very intriguing.

Again, a lot of little pieces around the NBA puzzle that don't necessarily make a whole, a lot of sense for the Houston audience. But I can just tell you that the Twitter streets, Ross. And, you know, I'm going to for you, probably way too much. Yes, you are. The 4-U is very pro-Huston Rockets Day yesterday. It's been fun. It's been kind of nice to see that the Rockets, by the way, are now the second favorites to win the NBA championship behind Oklahoma. My 4-U tab randomly recently thinks I'm into anime.

And there's all these references and tweets that I have no idea what they're referencing. I have no clue. My 4-U says, do you like these? And I'm like, well, I do. Yes, you do. And then you hit the like button. And then you get more of it. Your 4-U tab is better curated than mine.

My wife is listening, so I had to be polite during the show. Oh, okay. Good. Roshy, she just told me I was number one. You are number one. You know Kim will do that to me. Yes. All right.

So if you are a Rockets fan, I just want to just brag about how great your squad turned out, at least in Freighton, so you may do so. At 713-212, 5 is 790. 713-212-5-7-9-0. If you want to follow us on Twitter, it is at SportsM-T and at SportsRV. We have the news at noon coming up. We have, again, gut feelings at 1130. Do I get a gut-feeling win on what I said late in the show yesterday?

I think that's a gut feeling. You said they signed at least one player. Yeah, you did, yeah. That's a win. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I also predicted the sun was going to come up. You just said you're going to be nicer.

Oh, dang it. All right, I'll shut up. No, no, no, no, no, no. He said it was 15% meter-el-off. I know, but I'm going to try to be nice. It feels like it's 45% meat on the road. I don't think you're ever nice to me, period. That's not true.

I'm nice every day. I hold at least one or two things that pop into my head every day. I'm just going to say that. And you probably do this same. No, no, no. I actually have a problem. I do tell you everything I feel. That's maybe a part of the problem.

I should hold back. I rein back some. Just less. You're not here for whatever reason. My daughter's volleyball team went over and three yesterday, so I had to definitely hold some things back. It's like on the internet, you'll be meaner than in person. Maybe it's kind of like that effect.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Like on our Facebook page, our 790 Facebook page, our show page had a question about, you know, whether Framber Valdez was coming back. And some loser is like, you suck, Matt. You don't know what you're talking about. We were talking about how I think Fromber is going to be gone. And that's been a foregone conclusion.

conclusion for a while, yeah. And this dufist called me, he says, you're just like CNN. And I'm like, what does that even mean? I don't even mean, but it means you're an idiot is what you mean. So I think let me see what the guy's name is. I'm going to call him out right now. You should. I don't think he's a listener to this.

But you know what? If you're stupid, you're going to get called out stupid. If you're smart, we're going to call you smart. It's Julio Franco? Yeah, Julio Franco. The former met and brave? Yeah. And well, a lot of other things.

Listen to me very carefully. You're the dumbest person in Houston. I don't say that with... I mean, I've met some dumb people. Most people that we've listened to and talked to and met are smart. You're really dumb. I mean... Oh, he's really...

He's dropping some gems on Facebook. Matt, you suck. Astros are doing great and you're always negative. Matt is CNN. Matt is CNN. It's crazy. They know what they're doing. and this is of course the incorrect spelling of there it should be the T-H-E-Y-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-R-E. They know what they're doing if we listening

if we listing to you, Matt, we would have traded Watson for nothing like you wanted. What? Yeah. The dumbest, we have officially found the dumbest person in Houston, Texas. The name is Julio Franco. Most third graders could spell better than this. And by the way, I take a fairer.

to being CNN. If I'm going to be a channel, I'm more like Comedy Central or E. I'm not CNN. He's a good pick. Ross, if you were a cable channel, what channel would you be? What's the channel where they sell bootleg jewelry?

Your home shopping network? Yes. You're not even a cable channel. You're a streaming service. You're a peacock. Some would say so, Matt. I'm a peacock. You just got to let me fly. Okay. He knows P.Cust.

No, I am definitely not seeing it. I am E. I am Comedy Central. I am not Lifetime. Not Hallmark Channel. I mean, come on. The easy answer is ESPN, but we're better than that. I don't know if I want to be an ESPN.

They're having a bad little run of things. Although they are buying every SEC. Yeah, they're doing okay. Yeah, I guess they're fine. 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Your rocket. are making some serious, impactful 10-deep moves to really become a title contender.

Why is it going to work out in my mind? Well, because I'm calling the games A, but B, I've got other reasons why. We'll tell you about that next. 1015 on Sports Talk 790. 1020 on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. I'm here in Dallas doing being a volleyball dad. Apparently, Ross, our friend Dan Matt, Matthews who hosts the morning show with one Sean Salisbury.

Uh-huh. Wants me to go find Jerry O'Connell today. He's here with his daughter. Oh, really? Okay. That's the... What role would you say he's most known for? God, I don't even know.

Joe's apartment, right? Joe's apartment with the roaches? That's what I think of them in. Oh, Tomcats, that was terrible. Kangaroo Jack? Oh, he was in standby me? Okay. He used to host a game show, if it's still not Pictionary.

I think he does stuff for Barstool, or he's Barstool adjacent? Yes, he's heavy barstool. Okay. It says his tweet this morning or yesterday was, in Dallas for Girls Volleyball Nationals and reflecting on our nation's history. Also, considering drafting Pickens, a wide receiver from the Cowboys for Pardon My Take League, RIP, President Kennedy. What a respectful way to drop a pardon my take and a President Kennedy in the same tweet.

Whoever thought you'd hear George Pickens and John F. Kennedy in the same sentence? Yeah. You know what that means? Ross, we've got to step up our Twitter game. How can we cross over trade historians? Uh-huh. I'm going to go with your thoughts on Brooke Lopez going to the Clippers, along with Benjamin Franklin as one of our greatest inventors in all the time.

Go. You know, I'm wondering how Dorian Finney Smith, is going to fit into the Rockets rotation. And was Jonas Salk inventing the polio vaccine the greatest moment of the 20th century? Yeah, that's interesting. How about if Kim Whitmore, is he going to get traded by the Rockets? And in return, do we have the, who created the polio vaccine? I just said that, John Salk.

Yeah, I don't think that was, you know, I think of somebody else. Oh, it wasn't? No, I think I'm wrong. Right. Okay. Yeah, but I just said it. I was listening to a different show. Are you serious? No, no, kidding. I was thinking of something else. Okay. I got one more.

Yeah. What are the benefits for the rockets staying into the luxury attacks to build their team, but also avoiding the aprons? And what would have happened at Normandy if Hitler had the installations more fortified? Rather than thinking there was going to really land at the Pade de Calais? should the Texans have got a fourth, first round pick for DeShon Watson, and what would have been like if Ross Pearl would have won the presidency? What would it be like? Was he more for the people or for the billionaires? I don't remember.

Wait, he's a politician, I'd probably guess. Yeah, but he was independent. The Dana Carvey, Ross Perl, was phenomenal. Yeah, I remember that. I used to have a shirt that said Ross for boss. Well, that's because you were just, you were an eagle maniac. No, my parents, I was like 12. My parents, or not even 12.

I was probably had like 10. When was that? Which election was that? That had been what? Was that 88 or 92? I think it was 92 then. Yeah, I was like seven years old. My parents bought it for me because it was funny.

Because my name is Ross, Matt. More important, let's go to the best impersonations of Dana Carvey. Okay. Johnny Carson. Okay. George Bush, the first. Bush. H.W.

Regis Philbin. did he do a good regis he did a great regis the recent the recent bideon was was decent yes it was funnier than it was more good

it's more important to have a funny impression than a good one like like will feral's George w bush wasn't really a good impression but it was funny

you know because he said strategically and we use that word all the time now his jimmy sturt was underrated by the way for those of you

are dating a car oh okay yeah that's true that was a good one like will feral's alex trebek wasn't a dead on Alex Trebek, but it was just funny. Yeah, and the Sean Connery was by

Darrell Hammond was nothing like the rural Sean Connery, but it was just funny. Right. I'll take Swords for 600. Hmm. All right, back to sports, because that's what people are here for. Of course. Okay, so the Rockets, help me out with this, Ross.

I feel like they've got a balance of veterans. Okay. But yet the young core is still there. I was talking about this with my wife this morning. You still have a man, Thompson. You still have Jabari Smith. You still have Harry Easton. Who else?

One more young guy. Oh, Alper and Shingoon. I mean, these are still relatively babies in the NBA. Yeah, you've kept intact. Outside of Jalen Green, a lot of your building blocks of the players that you listed, that you can still say this is a young core with room to grow. And even if Kevin Durant signs a two-year extension, I mean, at the last year of that, it'll be tradable.

and it's it's you you kept the present and the future open did rafel stone i think it was a it was a great great offseason and i'm excited you know when they went in they went all in for sure and it's been absolutely fantastic and i'm i mean i have i've never been honestly and i was super i will say this in all the years of me calling the games this will be my 10th year coming up that um when chris paul got here i was just beside myself and And this is probably even more excitable at this point. Because I just, first of all, Durant is one of the greatest ever to play this sport. He's got a great surrounding cast.

And Ross, and we'll go to the calls here in just a second. He doesn't have to do all this by himself. It's not Kevin Durant and a bunch of guys you've never heard of before. Yeah. It's a team that you won 52 games last year. And, I mean, you gave away two pieces of it, but you got back a lot. Yeah. All right, let's take a short timeout.

we'll come back and get to the phones. I've got some people that want to talk. If you want to get in, you are more than welcome to do so. We'll talk to you in the next segment exclusively. 713-212-5-790. That's 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Your Houston rockets are killing it in the off-season. And we haven't said that always about teams in our town

when it comes to free agent acquisitions, and that's exactly what the rockets are doing. 7-13-212-5-7-90. All right, Ross. I just invited Jerry O'Connell to come over and watch my daughter play volleyball tonight. That's weird. That's not weird at all. You must be a connoisseur.

It's fine. And I told me we would talk about Pictionary as TV. He's game show he's hosting that he gets to host and I don't. I'm sorry. Apparently, Trevor says on Twitter that Jerry O'Connell gets his junk bitten off in Prana 3D. I never saw the movie. Prana 3D. I didn't catch that one.

It's on my short list. Yeah. Kenny says, well, the Rockets' make another move before the season and would Grover Cleveland win the hot dog eating contest at Cody Island? All right. We have some breaking news in the NBA. I don't know.

It's not, I guess, it's more relevant in Indiana and Milwaukee, but a breaking news center, I guess. Maybe two? This is a pretty big deal, right? I would say hit it two. Yeah. Yeah. Is it three?

No. Yeah, I don't think so. It's not three. Not for us. If we were in Indiana, it'd be like four, five. If we were doing Pacers radio, we'd be really losing our mind. Well, if we were in Milwaukee, Milwaukee, it's a five. Yeah, but everything in Milwaukee is a five.

Did you see that map of all the drunkest counties in America, and they're basically all in Wisconsin? Let me tell you something. Knowing you like I've known you for the last 15 years, your liver could not survive Wisconsin. What? I've slowed down My old age

I only drink like one One day per week, two max I'm just telling you Between the 200-pound women And the brats and the beer I would never see you Okay Huh

Nothing is anything wrong with 200-pound women It's loving to It seems like you're being negative But maybe not I mean We in Texas Have beautiful women There's no

There's no hot women in Milwaukee Get out of here Some people voted for Laverne and Shirley. All right, let's move on. I'd put Wisconsin in the bottom 10. I'll just put that one. Miles Turner is a Milwaukee buck. And Damian Lillard is no longer a Milwaukee buck.

You're saying, well, he's got a guaranteed contract for a couple more years. He's been waived and stretched, which that means you get a stretch provision, which you can kind of, you can pay out the years left, guarantee. for an extra couple of years to kind of save some cap space. So Lillard has been waived and stretched. And Miles Turner is now a Milwaukee buck. So let's put things in perspective, and that we do a lot of pace of radio here on the Matt Thomas show, Ross.

They're within a half of winning an NBA championship. Tyrese Halliburton ruptures and Achilles. Yeah. And they trade Miles Turner. and by the way it was Miles Turner a free agent I guess I'm sorry yeah he was a free agent okay that's right there's no trade I had it wrong I had it wrong okay he said because I saw it originally you're right my bad the the the the the original tweet I said I read to acquire Miles Turner so I thought acquire and trade but that was the the wrong I took it the wrong way

it happens Matt yeah it's fine we're going to make mistakes so how does how does how does Indianapolis radio handle this today. I mean, they're not in a great mood, are they? Honestly, I applaud the bucks for, oh yeah, Indianapolis can't be happy. I thought you said Milwaukee at first. Indianapolis is not doing so hot. You get to game seven of the finals and Turner's gone and, yeah, as you mentioned, Halliburton's out for a year and who knows how much he'll ever be the same after an Achilles injury.

Turner, by the way, a four-year contract worth $107 million, a player option in 28-29. and a full 15% trade kicker, meaning if he gets traded, he gets a 15% bump. Hmm. 100. I mean, he's good, but his best days are behind him, honestly. Yeah. I remember being all excited when he put on a longhorn bucket hat and committed to the longhorns. I remember the reason why they did this is because Brooke Lopez signed with the clippers yesterday.

Yes. So I would say Miles Turner greater than Brooke Lopez at this point in his career? Yeah, Miles Turner is only 29, I think. A lot more athletic than Brooke Lopez. He just turned 29 in March. God, he's been in the league of long time. What do you start playing when he was 14? Yeah, he only, a Longhorn legend, he was only there for one year.

He's been in a league since 2016. So yeah, he's got 10 years in the league, but he's only 29. Okay, then you know what? That's a pretty big win there. That's an upgrade. Do you think that affects how Yannis thinks about Milwaukee at this point? I would say, certainly. Absolutely.

Wouldn't it? Yeah. 39.6% from three last year. 36% career. I mean, honestly, Ross, if you're an Eastern Conference team that's at least decent, why are you making, why would we honest want to go west if he could? The East is wide open. Tatum Achilles, Halliburton Achilles, well, Lillard Achilles was on their own team.

New York doesn't have a coach yet. Yes. So, yeah, it's going to be Cleveland. Mitchell doesn't win, Donald McChlellan doesn't win big playoff series. Cleveland and New York. Orlando probably thinks. they're up and coming, but who knows, we'll see there. Same thing for Detroit.

Yeah. And then Milwaukee's right in that mix. Yeah. If you're honest, you've got to stay there, right? Plus, even if you're miserable, you've got two years left, then you can go be a fringe and go wherever you want. Choose where you want to go. And you still only be 32.

Wouldn't be like you'd be like, you know, you're ridiculously old. Yeah. So there you have it. Miles Turner going from Indiana to Milwaukee, and Damien Lillard is just going to sit it out. this year and collect all that money. How much money they owe him on that contract? I think it's $50 million.

Oh, God, Ross. Yes. Kid our, get your kids to pay basketball. Yeah. It's so worth it. Just be over 6'3 and one of the greatest shooters to ever walk the planet. And you'll get $59 years. It's easy.

And dribble. Yeah. Oh, great handles. You're right. You don't even have to go to college. Just be really good on the AAU circuit and work your game that way. Damian Lillard couldn't even. he played defense or

a handle a blitz pick and roll, but he still made $50 million a year, so good for him. Good for him. Let's talk to the people of Houston, Texas. 713-212-5-790. If you want to chime in, 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. Our first call today is in Las Vegas, Nevada. So we have nobody in Houston that's excited,

but Las Vegas apparently is thrilled. David's with us on the Matt Thomas show. David, good morning. Hey there. Well, like everybody, I'm just excited. cited as can be by the Rockets off season here. But last night

when I heard that they had acquired reacquired Clint Capella, I just was puzzled. I've got something about there getting awfully stacked up deep at the center position. I thought I had to call you first thing. Trying to figure out what was going on, basically in early, I just don't get it,

segment it for me, if you will. But I also have a conspiracy theory that goes with it now, the more I sleep on it. You don't think this could be part of acquiring the assets they need to make a go at Janus, the Greek freak, do you? I mean, let's look at Milwaukee's situation. They just lost Brooke Lopez of three agency. They basically need two centers now.

David, David, we just told you that Miles Turner is going to the Milwaukee Bucks. So, yeah, they're going to try to keep them. Yeah. Okay. All right, well, we're going to try to keep. I've been, you know, I've been thinking that they're trying to accommodate a trade. and, you know, we've talked about it. The Ross of particular has been sort of keeping his radar up on this.

But I just thought, you know, this gives us a second center. They're going to need two big men, two centers, and we could now package, you know, Capella with Sangoon. And, of course, we don't want. Capella hasn't signed a contract yet. He's coming to play for the Rockets. I mean, David, thanks for the phone call. appreciate. No, the Yannis stuff is over with, I think, here in Houston.

I think so, too. I think so. Don't hold me completely hold me to it. Yeah, this Miles Turner thing, they're trying to keep him there. Now, I think, ultimately, it's Janus's decision, right? If he says, I want out, they're going to just submit to his demands, I think, right? Yes, but it doesn't necessarily mean that Houston would be a top spot for him. Yeah, I think, I don't know, if you have to get into the aprons and the caps and where they are now, God, no more apron talk. I don't want to bring up. It's confusing.

You can get to the tax, but not to the apron. And that's where the rockets are, I believe. So Tillman's shelling out the cash. Good. I'm sorry, Patrick? All the above. Would that be fair? Sure.

I mean, what kind of, do you think that's done over Zoom? Are they paying long distance mobile charges? I mean, if, I'm assuming that Tillman's there. I don't know. Yeah. I would. Can he use the. the government issued laptop from the embassy.

Who can you can somebody like pick that up and said we need to do a deep dive in it? Make sure there's no intelligence on there and there's like all these rocket proposals. You can't have that. Wikipedia says he's been in San Marino since May at the

at the embassy. What do you mean do you live there? I mean do you live in an embassy or do you like? I think so. I think the ambassador lives in the embassy, right? I don't know. It's like the king in the castle. This is all beyond me, man. I don't know. San Marino's nice.

Sitting on the coast? I'd ever been. Well, let's go. Talk to your boy, Tellman. Hey, maybe we're sending up a pre-sison game in Italy or something. That'd be nice. I'd go. I'd go.

Actually, I'd probably get the word. Matt, we're going to have you broadcast from Houston. Oh, thanks. That's fine. That's what happened when the game was in China, right? It was. My first ever Rockets play-by-play game was done over a television set. Yeah, San Marino is on the Adriatic.

C, Matt. I have never been. We're near. Okay. By the way, the Rockets preseason schedules out, I'm not going to Italy this summer, this fall. Pretty close, though.

Birmingham, Alabama and Atlanta. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. You always say Birmingham's underrated. It's okay. It's okay. I'll be to say Birmingham is not pretty.

Actually, it's a pretty area. It's just not a lot of stuff to do there. And I do like Atlanta a lot, that's a good city. It's like it's very close to Houston, actually. Big concrete jungle, but it's got more hills than a Houston does. And I do like the southern accents. Yeah.

They're very charming. All right. 1043 on Sports Talk 790. 713-212-5-79 if you want to chime in. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90. If you want to follow us on Twitter, you can do that at at SportsMT, at SportsRV. We've not got into a little Astros chatter, which we'll do that coming back. People, Rossi, I got to be honest with you, are winging out over Jeremy Paine.

We'll get to that in a minute. 1043 on 790. Ross, you know who Jerry O'Connell is married to? Oh, gosh, I do. I can't remember. She has a famous ex-husband. I can't remember. Rebecca Romaine.

Oh, yeah, that's right. I knew it was one of those 90s stars, but I couldn't remember her name. I was also thinking of the girl that was married to Bobcat Goldthwaite. I'm glad you said his name properly because I've butchered it many of times and gotten in trouble. She was hot. Nikki Cox, that's what I was thinking of. Oh, Nikki Cox. Wow.

Well, this is like late 80s just TV nostalgia time right now. That's right. She was married to Jay Moore. And then Jay Moore is currently married to Jeannie Bus. Yes. and they don't live together. Isn't that weird? That's smart.

I'd like you to explain. What do you mean? You said it's smart, so I will reply back what makes it so smart. You've got to have your space, Matt. Yeah, I know that, but do you want to, do you think you should live in at least the same apartment or house? Well, maybe if it's like a mansion,

you can get your side, she gets her side. Okay, well, apparently it's not working out that way. You got to get your, solitude every now and then, Matt. Do you think that she signed a pre-nep for him? Probably. I mean, she's worth way more than Jay Morris. Yeah, she's worth billions, right?

Remember we used to carry Jay Moore on this radio station way back in the day? We did. That was the genesis of Good Morning Strippers. It was like we started the station at zero listeners, and we moved, we slowly moved it up. It was, um, it were tough times. It was a trying time, if you will. The two to four slot of the Matt Thomas show.

at that point. Higher ups at corporate don't always make the right decision. No, they just, no. We love our corporate. Oh, they're great. They're the best.

Oh, amazing. Infallible and wonderful. Please don't let me off. All right. So, Astro Nation, Ross, is flipping out over Jeremy Payneur. Explain.

Do we need AOs out of this? We haven't had AOs all year. We, have it. You know what? If we're going to do it, you got to show Jonathan where the A.O. Music is. Okay.

Maybe we do it at the top of next hour. You'll give a chance for you. You tell me. You do a little research. If you think there's enough substance for a segment, we'll do it. Oh my God. Are you kidding me? If I went to Astros' Twitter right now, which is at Astros. And let me see where they put out, they had

to put their PR release on there. Oh, here it is. 23 hours ago. Okay. Update on Jeremy Payne. just to put things in perspective, 365,000 views. Mm-hmm. 1,900 likes, 3702 retweets, 181 comments. That's a lot of comments.

So I could probably find 5 to 10 of them will be completely irrational. All right, well, let me know when you want to do it. We'll do it at 11 o'clock. Okay. because my point is I think we're Astro fan base and not that Astro's Twitter is a huge segment of the population

but it is an emotional, highly charged watch every move part of the team is probably not overly I'm not even going to look at them until we read it at 11 o'clock. Oh, this one's funny. Okay, we'll have some good ones. Okay, 713-212-5-790. Let's go to Richmond next,

and let's go to Brian on 790. Brian, good after, good morning. to you. Hey, how's it going, Matt? I just wanted to say congratulations on your correct prediction yesterday before y'all ended the show about the rocket signing someone else.

Well, first of all, thank you very much. Secondly, I knew there was something cooking. Dorian Finney Smith, I don't know how big of an NBA fan you are, Brian, but that guy has gotten better every single year. He's a good jump shooter. He is going to be

a single... And I look I like Dylan Brooks, but I think Doreen Fennie Smith is a better player than Dylan Brooks. All right. All right. Thank you very much. Short and simple, baby. That's right. That's fine.

Would you agree? Do you know much about Doreenna Smith, Ross? I mean, I know he's good. Yeah. I like him, too. Good three-point shooter. Last couple years, especially. I don't think he's a 30-minute a game guy, but I think he's a guy that can play, for sure.

He's been floating around. Yeah. I honestly don't know much about his perimeter defense as it relates to Dylan Brooks. Dillan Brooks wasn't a lockdown guy, but he was good. I would put him in kind of the, no, I would put him ahead of like the Pat Beverly category, but where his reputation's a little bit better than he actually is. But I don't think of Dylan as like, you know, racing guys off the floor. Like he's not say what, what I'm in Thompson is.

Well, Dylan, and look, I was a Dylan guy and will always be a Dylan guy. I mean, no matter what he does, he does as a son. and he got better last year. But there were a lot of time that he was a lot of time to his first year that you want your lockdown defender also not to get into foul trouble. And I think at some point last year,

not this past year that year before that, I think Dylan loved the league in foulouts. So it's, you know, look, Dylan Brooks brought tremendous value and I will never besmirate him. I don't care if he gets in fights with every rocket for the rest of his life. Yeah, if he arm bars Alper and Shingoon,

you're going to be mad at him. Don't lie. Only if he close lines him. Yeah. which he might. By the way, Dylan can't fight with a bar with a man. Mine will hip toss him. Hmm.

I don't know. Dylan's pretty strong. A men's wiry, but he does have the, the fast twitch muscle fibers. Because, yeah, he tossed Tyler Hero like he was nothing. Yeah.

Yeah. And by the way, you don't want to scrape with Tar Easton, too. Tar will hit you hard, too. Well, as long as his legs okay. Oh, and Dylan, what? Gee, too soon. What?

I said as long as his looks. Yeah, as long as it looks okay. I'm going to get Tar Heson's mom on you. Oh, no. Any part of that. All right, delete this from the podcast, please. Dylan averaged 16 points per game last year. That ain't nothing.

That's production you need to figure out somewhere. He was their best three-point shooter and 16 points per game. That's significant. And again, he was the best three-point shooter. shooter on the team and frankly Ross, they went even close. Yes. So there is certainly some value in

Dylan Brooks and that was part of the reason why you could make that move because you had to give him. I mean, look, if it works out for Phoenix and they bare minimum do what they did as a rocket, Jalen Green and Dylan Brooks are going to score 40 points a game for the Phoenix on between the two of them.

That's not terrible. Well, against the bad teams. I mean, they're going to load up against the Wizards. Yeah. And Trey Johnson. Well, they'll be good. They'll be interesting. Their defense got better.

Chris Haynes. Chris B. Haynes. Ross, what do you put them on the believability scale? B tier, but I would say pretty reliable. Breaking. Chris Haynes. Do we need sounders? It's opinion.

So do we break new sounders and opinions? No, never mind. No. 18 minutes ago, breaking. Milwaukee Buckstar, Yonnas, Adentacumpo is not pleased with the team's decision to waive Damian Lillard. League sources tell me.

Breaking news, get over it, Yonis. He's got a torn Achilles. He's like 35. Well, they want to keep him around just for blank and giggles? Yeah. He still gets his money. That feels very, I need some hit some hits on my Twitter page.

Don't you think? You said it not me. I've got nothing to say. Well, I mean, was Chris Baines going to come after me or something? He might. He's got 600,000 followers. Damn, dude. It's pretty good. What outlet is he with now?

I know he was with Yahoo for a while. He's on his own. Oh. He's on Haynes Briefs. That's what he called his YouTube channel. You got a YouTube channel. You know what? There's no bad names in a brainstorm,

but you got to throw that one out. You got to throw that one out. He's Team Fresno. You ever been to Fresno, California? Oh, my God. No. It's the Plummer's butt of America. Okay.

All right. I'll take your word for it. I mean, no, I'm not letting you go to Fresno. Unless you want to go to Yosemite. Yeah, I think it's like an hour away from Yos

right? Right. All right. Let's come back with some AOs on Jeremy Pena's stint of the injured list. This may not be pretty. 10.58 on Sports Talk 790.

Ross Hulio Franco on Facebook responding when I called him an idiot. He says, no, sir, you are. Oh, he was listening? No, it's on Facebook. He's probably just staring at Facebook.

He didn't listen to show. You called him a genius, I saw the comment. Then you called him an idiot? Yes, I said, sorry, actually, you're an idiot. And then he says, no, sir, you are. And then I respond, please don't get hit by a bus. Oh, okay. I said, please don't.

I'm glad you're wishing him well, Matthew. I am. Now, if he gets hit by a bus, hopefully the injuries are minimal. Hmm. Hmm. I don't know. Like getting hit by a bus would be I don't think it'd be great.

No, it sounds like it could be quite injurious. I don't know what the word is. Did you say injurious? Injurious? Oh, injurious. Okay. Induresome, as the kids would say. I think injurious is a word.

I don't think injuresome is. Okay, I think I made it up. It sounds better. Okay. We'll get my friend Miriam Webster on that. Miriam, she was like your first love, in the day, right? Actually, yes. All right. Are we ready to do

this? Are we ready to do this? And we get the music? Yes. It's been a while, everybody. Those of you new to the show, we have something we, turn it up a little bit. Let's get it going. Little Astros overreaction, we call it AOs here on the show. And let's all sing together. Here we go. Hey, oh, let's go.

Hey, oh, let's go. Astros, over. Reaction. Right here. On 790. All right, here we go. So the Jeremy Pena release comes out that says he is gone for a period of time because of the ribs on the left side of his body are crumbling. That's not true. Not crumbling, Matt. Slight fracture, slight.

No, it's not slight. It's small. Didn't say slight, small. Okay, whatever. Let's find out what the 181 comments. comments are. Okay. All right. Uh, call up Bryce. That's probably not going to happen, but that's not terrible. Let's see here. Bryce Matthews. Uh, ASMini 27 says worst medical team of all time, L.O. We all saw this coming. Why worst medical team of all time? I don't, I'm not giving them the L on this one. Uh, Amanda says we need better doctors. I understand that Houston is supposed to

have a great medical community, but there are entirely too many injuries that are being missed by your doctors. Hashtag Need Better Doctors. Hashtag, stop being cheap. All right, look, folks, I have to say on this one, he got hit in the ribs, they did imaging,

swelling went down for a couple days, they did re-imaging, they did everything right. Right. And it turns out there was a little bit of a fracture. Here's Boomer in the Hill says, See you with September call-ups, Jeremy. It's been real. Oh.

That is an A-O. See you with September call-ups? Come on, man. Astros say small fracture. This is from Shadow. Fan base is required to expect Jeremy no longer has ribs. You got them removed? Like Adam?

Can you live without ribs? I think you can't live without ribs, right? I think you can get a couple removed. You got two or three. At Gulf Coast Clown says, so he's out until September at the minimum. Got it. Thanks. Oh, no. Did you read the one from Phil Losassel?

Losassau? What does he say? It's an acronym for Astros. Okay. Ailments, strains, tendinitis, ruptures, osteoporosis. Oh, no. And in the S word, I cannot say. But it's four letters.

Four Leocos is generally. Jeremy Paine will be out of all next year, too, as new imaging show that he lost his rib cage. Let's see here. Texas Tweety says, Glad to see they're doing repeated imaging, baby steps. Yeah, see this is good. That's positive.

At DJ Maccabee says cheese and rice. What does a Mexican side dishes have to do with this? Cheese and rice? Cheese and rice. Okay. Let's see here. A lot of Matthews. See you in September, Jeremy.

That's from Kevin. Oh, I just saw what Phil said. You can't read that last one. Yeah, that's not good. At Mr. Webi says this reminds me of Correa 2.0. Oh, come on. Let's see. Nacho G says as soon as a spot of mention that there was pain

when Pena took deep breaths. I already knew a rib was cracked. That was kind of. of a red flag. Yeah. Let's see. Let me do a couple more here. Let's see.

Do something about, this is from Gamer Glory. Do something about your medical team where you're going to have an all minor league lineup and nobody wants to watch that when it's an MLB team. Do something you have the money. What kind of at least the Astro is saving money by these injuries? They're sending everybody to Walgreens. Jake Astro says, in two weeks are going to say his rib

actually vaporized and needs season ending surgery? No. No. What is wrong with you, people? Astros, what are you lost it? Terrible. At Pedro says, see you next year. Bucco.

Andrew David Christian says, is this karma for Boris? Wow. Ooh. Come on now. It's not like Scott Boris is a He just gets people more money. Yeah, I was going to say, let's see. The losing, this is from music guy says the losing streak of this medical staff needs to be examined.

And let's do one more here. Oh, great season, see you in 2026, bud. Oh, no. That, my friend, is a little Astros overreaction. Right on cue, right, RORUS? I mean, they just, they're a special breed. The team is 50 and 34 folks. Correct.

Six game lead. Come on now. Well, it's down to six now. Well, I'm because the Mariners won last night. Yeah. I wasn't on Mariners' watch. Another homework for Cal Raleigh. You're more standings obsessed at this point than I am.

That's all. Well, look, my daughter's volleyball team in 0 and 3. Was I supposed to what else was. Ooh. 03 03 1. What are the conversations

like that after that? Well, you tell me when you've lost something three times in a row What your loss is What your conversation would be like? Start blaming teammates That's tough

You know, a month and a half ago I had some friends of friends in town For like a rec league, a beer league hockey thing And they lost With literally one second left in overtime Uh-uh They traveled from Nashville

And the finals I've never seen anything like that Yeah, I was out of the game And after the game It's just like Oh man That was a rough one Yeah, we know it was a rough one

So wait a minute You buried the lead You've seen more ice hockey in the last County year than I have That's true I mean it was beer league Travel Ball Now are these guys out of shape

Or are they in shape? They're fairly in shape But they hit the keg literally mid-game You mean drink beer while on the ice? Yeah. Well, okay, not while on the ice, but during intermissions, and while they're on the sidelines before a line change.

Hmm. They bring the Zamboni out in between periods? No. Where did you go watch some play at the Galleria? It was in Sugar Land. Oh, they don't call it the Aeroom, but they... I don't remember what it's called. Sugar Land Ice Center or something like that.

Oh. I didn't realize you were such a hockey fish, you know? Well, I know. I told you some friends of friends. were in town and I went to go support and then it was literally the last second of, they were one second away from a shootout. And the other team, yeah, they're from Nashville. The other team was from Lafayette, actually.

Imagine being the Goldie and you're tipsy. You can't even see the, where the fuck's had. Yeah. Well, here's the reality. My daughter's team got two matches today. Okay. Bounce back. I will give up the two matches if.

If. If Jerry O'Connell comes over and says hello. Does that get you all out of there faster if they lose all? the matches or they're like consolation matches? No, we're here for four days regardless. No matter what. By we, I got some breaking news here. Non-sports breaking news. What? Yeah. Uh-oh. This is anything Middle East related, is it?

No, it is not. Oh, thank God. Let's go ahead and hit it again. Whoa! Non-sports related. Okay. A celebrity has died. That is correct. Well, not necessarily a celebrity. Oh. I would say a television figure has died of the age of non-sports. 90 years old. 90. Television.

Dick Van Dykes older than that. Okay, let's see if you can figure this out. And this may be, this guy may be too old for you. Robert Loz-ya. Controversial television personality. Non-entertainment. Non-political.

Non-political? Yeah. You just say it. Jimmy Swagger. I don't know that, brother. Yeah. Televator. May he rest.

Oh, okay. Yeah. If you did a, you could do it. You don't do it. Wasn't he the one they didn't, wasn't he on SNL? And they did him like crying his eyes out and stuff like that? Yes, I think he is, he, uh, Phil Hartman did a Jimmy Swagger. Yes.

He would do is come on there and cry. That's the only way I know Jimmy Swaggered. That's funny. That's funny. Yeah, I think he did something. I think he, him and Pat Robertson were in cahoots. Like, if you don't give money that God's going to come down and hit you. that kind of stuff.

You know how that works. All right, we have gut feelings coming up at the bottom of the hour, and I have to brag on some of my gut feelings, including the one I gave you yesterday. I told you the Rockets would be going and doing some things yesterday. So we'll get, now the other gut feelings I have are not so hot. 713-212-5-790. 7-13-212-5-7-90.

Jerry O'Connell or Jimmy Swagger, believe it or not today, Ross, what are you going to do at 150? Well, you have to get Jamie Swagger. I mean, not Jimmy Swagger. That'd be crazy. if you got Jimmy Swagger on the show. You'd have to get Jerry O'Connell on the show, I thought. Oh, let me tell you something.

If I get him on, he and I will do a selfie video, and it will go viral. Okay. You know, I know the name of his daughter's team's name. I can figure it. You know, I'll just go stalk him. Yeah, that sounds normal. I think it'd be fine.

Yeah, go ahead. I think so too, man. I think you should go do that. If daughters are a year younger, so they couldn't play you to them. That would have been an easy one. Grubman. easy one to

Yeah Okay Yeah he has twin daughters That are a year younger So that would not be plunging them All right 713-212-5790 We got the gut fillings

Coming up at the bottom of the hour Rossianis is tweeting Like a motto today He wants Brooke Lopez's jersey Retired in Milwaukee All right, relax How long was he there? Well you know the Rockets went after him

A few years ago So it had to be within the last five years I think But he was with them and then re-signed, right? I think so, yeah. I think, yeah, would you retire Brooke Lopez's, I don't know. I mean, good player, solid three-point guy, but did you retire the jersey? Hmm.

I don't know. What jersey number does he even wear? I have no idea. He was there first. He was there for, seven years. Are you retiring a jersey guy that's been there seven years? Seven years. 13 points

5 rebounds I mean come on See this is what makes me laugh And this is not exactly Apples Apple's what he's saying But some of these other things And these players say And they go on it's like

You have to have played the game To talk about the game Players say crazy stuff too And they vote crazy as well When you see some of these votes For All Star and all this other stuff Correct Correct

And they also want to do They all run and do podcasts and they figure out how if they do three or four of them, it's kind of cool. But if they do like every other week, they go, it's too much work. I don't want to do it. Well, then stop. Let us do it then.

We can put the timing. We can put the work in. Yeah, you can't get all the athletic talent and the podcast. Pick one. Yeah, one or the other. Number 11, Brooke Lopez for the Milwaukee. And like I said, there's a lot of guys that do sports analysis. Do you respect?

I mean, there are some crazy things that Kendrick Perkins has been saying for a better part of five years. He's talking about how he'd lock up Yokic. Yeah. I think I'm on Shumper does a good job. I have not seen much of him. But he did do some stuff with Vanessa over on the news streams. Broadcasting. And you watched all of that, Matt.

Don't get in trouble. Don't get in trouble. Oh, yeah. I watch every single minute of it. She knows. There you go. I was in Vegas for one. I couldn't watch every minute of it.

Okay, well, she knows. Trying to help. We're team Vanessa. What's cool? We got it. Okay, one other thing I want to get to. Do you know who's getting a lot of hate right now? Is the city of Cleveland?

What they do? First thing, I told you yesterday, they're going to build their new stadium outside of downtown. They're going 50 miles to the west suburb. Which, again, I told you this is becoming the new trend because they just, the inner city stuff just isn't. Although Cleveland's an old town, and they do have a great downtown. I don't understand.

And that's confusing. There must be a real estate issue there. Or we have different issues in Houston. But now the Cleveland Brown fans, Rossi, are mad because they're building a dome stadium. They think part of the charm of having teams come to Cleveland is having to brave the elements. Oh, please. Get over yourself, Cleveland. Wasn't there, there was a game like, was it last year or the year before?

There was like 40 mile an hour wins the entire time. Nobody made anybody got a time for that. Sorry, that's not real football. It isn't about the It isn't about the weather conditions It's about what you do with your building What happens Ross in the National Football League When you build a new stadium

You get a Super Bowl You get a Super Bowl Do you think that Roger Goodell Would ever in a million years Put a Super Bowl In February In Cleveland, Ohio Without a roof on it?

I wouldn't think so They did New York What, 10 years ago? I'm trying to think of the last cold weather. There's Minneapolis, but there's a roof there. There's a roof. I think, isn't Buffalo going to have a roof, I think, too? I hope so.

You want them to play in Blizzard conditions. Well, that's what I think part of the time. I like watching Blizzard. Do you know the NFL does too? Isn't it weird? Oh, they always put it on, if there's snow, like if it's a playoff game and it's in Green Bay or Buffalo, they make sure it's a three or seven o'clock game, for sure. Seven o'clock games in New England.

are a thing of the normal there. But the reality is if you're asking for taxpayer dollars and you're putting in your own money, you want a Super Bowl part of the mix. And my guess is Cleveland will someday host a Super Bowl. Well, yeah, it was in MetLife in 14. Okay. And I don't have it year by year. The future ones are Santa Clara, Englewood, and Atlanta.

But I'll tell you, Ross. it's in Santa Clara in San Francisco. Mm-hmm. There's a puncher's chance it could be cold miserable that day. I guess. San Francisco in late January, early February, they have the prettiest place in the world.

Well, it's not great in the summer, even. It's cold, as you know. Oh, yeah. You like to complain about never going to a Giants game again at night. That is actually accurate. During the day, can't wait. Nighttime, you can have it.

Okay. Ross, I just don't believe in, and tasting my own All right. I know where you were going to say that. I knew how that tennis was going to finish, and I just didn't want you to. Well, I went there anyway.

Let's talk to Yankees Keith on Sports Talk 790. Our time is 1125-713-212-2-5-790. Keith, good morning to you. Good morning, gentlemen. And congratulations to the rocket. I'm really excited about all the trades we got or the acquisitions we got. I'm a little concerned about this Dorian Finney Smith.

I looked at his stats, and he's averaging like eight points. And what is his specialty? Maybe I'm missing something. Good three-point shooter. Can play multiple positions. Been around, done that. Good defender. Good guy, good locker room guy.

You didn't break the bank with him either. You know, again, he can, he's, he's, he's, listed as a power forward, but he's more of a swing than he's anything else. I would not describe him as a back to the basket kind of guy, although most power for his days aren't. He's 6'7. So, yeah, he's, to me, he's more forward

than he's big forward, but in the last two times the Rockets played them, he ate the Rockets lunch. He could definitely knock down the three-point shot. Okay, so he's what's considered a 3-n-D guy? Yes. Yes.

Okay. That's great. And now we've got all the sides that we need to match up with an okay seat so i'm really excited can't wait to the season start uh that makes two of us keith thanks for the phone call last year for the lakers he played in uh let's see 63 games between brooklyn and the lakers played both places 63 games, made 40 starts, and it looks like to me, Ross, he shot about 41% from three-point range. That's pretty good. I'll take it. That's well above his career average, but it's pretty good.

Yeah. Hopefully it's staged. Yeah, yeah. It's gotten better. His three-point numbers have gotten better over his career, but, yeah, I wouldn't ever say a pure shooter. Like, the Luke Conard, that would have been kind of serious for me if he'd have gotten there. A knockdown guy for sure.

But, yeah. I'm pulling up since his first three years in the league where he wasn't a great shooter. DFS has been 37.7%. So that's pretty good. Yeah. And again, streaky, I would say a guy that could knock, you know, very, very much like a Dillenbrook.

Yeah, Dylan Brooks is like that, yeah. Yeah. Some nights he'd go, you know, one for seven, and then some nights he'd knock down four or five, three-pointers. Let's go to, oh, our buddy Rossi, Gerard, 1127, on the Matt Thomas show. Ross Gerard, good morning. I'm doing good, man. How are you doing? Good.

What are you doing about? I'm doing great, Gerard. I appreciate you asking. That's good. That's good. Yeah, the market, man, they were making some strong moves here. They brought in Clint Capella, brought in, Dorian, Fini Smith. Dr. Smith's basically going to replace Dylan Brooks, like you just said. They bring in their toughness, you know, they got it, and shoot it in some. and play defense. It's going to be interested to see how the on-cation turns out because you've got three centers. You got Capellas, you got Adams, and you got Saddam.

Like, I know last year, Sagoon was an all-star player, but some games, you know, Suno would kind of come out, kind of lack of days or you kind of struggling. So, you know, I think if that's the case, maybe, you know, you put in Adams and maybe you put in Capella, man. You know, go and play they role and play their role at a high level. I think this is a good moon bottom rocket. You know, it's going to be ever to see what they're doing with Cam Whitmore. You know, I think he's probably on the outside looking in.

There's probably the 10th of a level guy on this team. But you look at the start of five, I think it's probably going to be the goals, the rats. You know, Javar and Smith are Tari-Smith, I'm going to base on what happened last year. Probably be Tarekishin, but it could be Javari. Then you got a mean Thompson and Van Fleet in the back court. And then your rotation is going to be steaming at them. Morris Smith, what's on the beached with that one don't start,

so you got a Reed Shepherd, and then you got Teddy Smith. That'll be your nine-man rotation. I guess Ken Whitmore on certain nights when you need to make some offense off the bridge, maybe you bring in Cam Whitmore. So he's definitely going to have to, Whitmore, he's going to have to improve on his defense

and improve on playing more organized basketball. Because it seemed like to me last year when he came out of the league, he gets up a lot of shots. This game is more AAU type of run game, so he's going to have to learn how to play. play within the scheme of the rocket's offense. He's able to do that. He's got to,

the skillset to be a 20 points per game score. But it's just all about defense and all about learning how to play in the rocket scheme. But all in all, I like the Rockies move. I think there's a number one threat to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA. And I think they got a good chance, man. They got a cold and give it to the red. I just like the move, man.

He just don't come down to what the rotation going to be. It's going to be very, very interesting. So you're going to have some guys like Deshaunate. We didn't talk about the guy that they said they signed earlier this week, or late last week, Eric Gordon and, not Eric Gordon, but Aaron and what's other guy, Deshaunate, and they signed to Jeff Green. So those guys there, you know, we talk about those guys, those guys, not even in the top 12.

So it's going to be in a rest of seeing what happens when they break from camp and what they're going to finish in there. But I like to move, and they're a deep team, and that's definitely championship concept. Thank you, Gerard. Ross, I just ordered lunch from room service here at the hotel. I just ate lunch. I got a club sandwich, extra mayo, cider fries, and iced tea with a glass of watered lemon.

I ate a chicken salad club with a pickle spear. Yeah, the pickle spear is underrated. Underrated? I think it's properly rated. No, no, no. You feel like if you don't have a pickle spear with your sandwich, you're getting something left out. Sometimes I don't get one.

So we'll agree to disarrated. agree on that one. Thank you, Rod, for the breakdown of the trade and the breakdown of the roster and the breakdown of the Rockets. And we look forward to hearing you much more this year during the Rockets Rapp Show, primarily hosted by Spiceb.

And never, I believe, ever hosted by Adam Wex or Adam Clayton. No, I think they did one of the, I was out of town and, yeah. I think they stepped up once or twice this past year. And then they never do the 10th ending shows unless it's in their time slot.

do it sometimes. It's in our time. It's in their time. And they'll do on decks on weekends. Well, the 10th thing is the weekend. I appreciate them. They always, you're out a lot and they always step up for me, so I got no issues with the Adams. All right.

We love the claim. There we go. Lexlers. Time for some gut feelings. What do you got? 713-212-5-790. 7-1-2-7-90. Time for you to make some sports predictions.

We'll see how we did, and then we'll get yours in. You have sports predictions. We want to hear from you. 713-212-5-7-9. Listen up, girls and boys. Days have been so appealing. Chris and Matt Thomas. This is their gut feeling on the Matt Thomas show.

All right. Time now for some gut feelings. This is an opportunity for you to call in with sports. predictions. If you get them right, you call us in following weeks, subsequent weeks, and you brag about them. Speaking of bragging, Ross, let's get to the brag of how we did last week and just yesterday here

on Sports Talk 790. Yes, Matthew, I wrote down what you said yesterday, and you were correct that the Rockets will have a new player when free agency opened and they have multiple new players.

Clint Capella, Dorian, Finney Smith, Anyone else I'm missing? So that was correct. So that was from yesterday though. But from last week, you said the Rockets will try to get into the draft but will be unsuccessful.

Correct? I guess were there reports that they tried to trade up? I think there were talk about if there's a certain number of players fell that they would try. So I don't know. We'll give you a win on that. Why not? I'm just going to tell you, I'm not a fanboy.

I know things, okay? Just trust me when I say. Okay, Matt. I don't, I don't, I'm not talking about you. talking about everybody and their mother's like, I have this inside source. You don't have sources. You have the internet.

Sports empty when it comes a rocket. That's what you call you, M-Sider, M-T. Thank you very much. You have the Astros, one of the AL-West, that is TBD, but looking very good. You know what? Ooh, I'll save it.

I'll save it. Continue on. Oh, you already put your name on it. Okay. Are you doing more? I got more. Ooh, an addendum? Yep.

Okay. then you had Kyle Tucker with three or fewer hits in the Chicago series. I want to say he had four and one game. You definitely had four and one game. And then I think he got a hit or two on Sunday. Hold on. Let me pull this up actually because I just want to see actually how wrong you were. Thanks, Ross.

Okay, just one hit on Sunday. So we only had five hits. He didn't have any hits on Friday. I was feeling very good about that. You were feeling good, weren't you? I absolutely was. And then Saturday happened. Yeah, that's fine.

That's okay. That was all your predictions. I had the Houston Rockets making the Western Finals this upcoming year. I'm feeling even better about that after the free agency period. Yep. And I had Kyle Tucker over three hits. Hashtag FadeMT. That's a win, folks.

I also had the Astros, though, three and three over the, six-game stretch against the difficult national league opponents. They went five and one. You had four and two, but so you're a closer man. But it's not a win.

He's got feelings about accuracy. Four and two or better feels good. So I'm giving you at least three-quarters credit on that. Thank you. I appreciate that. How did our friend Jonathan do? Jonathan, let's see. He said the Astros would win the series

versus the Cubs and Phillies. Whoa. They won both the series. Oh, I thought I said straight wins, though. You didn't say sweep, I don't think. I didn't write sweep at least. I'm still good. All right.

Yeah, you're good. I was beat up. Oh, you were going ahead of the schedule. You already have ones for this week. You said they're going to lose at least one game against Colorado, and then they will win the series versus the Los Angeles Dodgers. Yeah, I'm going to have to make another gut feeling after opinion, so. Hmm.

It's not looking too hot. And there you go, Matt. Did our music go away or I just don't hear it? I hear it. Okay. Hashtek faint. By the way, Baylor Doug, just sending a tweet to us for Ross, as I mowed the lawn, cooked breakfast, and did my taxes during Gerrads call.

Hashtag Goat. That's good. I'm going to take you some. Gerrads. Always welcome in this show. Better late than never on your taxes. Ooh, you're paying a heavy penalty on that, are you not? It depends.

Not if you don't know. It's a lot for extension. All right. Here we go. The Astros are now only going to win the American League West. They will finish with at least. the second best record in the American League. There I said it.

Wow. Let's go. LFG Stros. You know that Jeremy Paine is going to miss some time, right? Right. I got another one for you. You know that Yordon's out, right? Another one.

You know McCullors is the rotation, right? The Astros, this is more of a bold gut feeling. The Astros do not get Cedric Mullins. That's not that bold. I just, I don't understand the love of fear. I mean, if he comes here and he's, I mean, I heard he's a great guy. Obviously, had a very successful majorly career, but I want punch. I don't need 707 OPS.

He's got a good ballplayer's name. Cedric Mullins. That's an alias I use in some hotels. Oh, really? Matter of fact, if you call the Dallas Hotel, I'm in right now, I use the name, Settich Mullen. I thought you were going with IP Freely. What did you say?

What? IP freely? Okay. Actually, I use the name P. Bismal. Interesting. Yes, I figured it's much. Ross, what do you got in your gut feelings this week? Manchester City wins the primary league this next year?

Write it down? Mm-hmm. I don't know what that means. Let's go. We're back. Even though they lost to Al-Halol yesterday in devastating fashion. Lost to what? Al-Halal in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Don't you get that? It's not like a type of a chicken shwoma kind of dish. Al Halal is a way Yeah, but it's also the club. They were from, they lost to a Saudi Arabian club. Oh, Jesus. Unfortunately, in the Club World Cup. That's okay.

Is there no God, Ross? Is there no God? It was pretty devastating loss, Matt. Oh, it's been an extra time. All right, anyways, Astros sweep the Rockies, but,

however. Uh-oh, I know what you're going to say about the Dodgers. L.A. It's a gut feeling. Gut feelings are wrong all the time. such a hater. Hater? See, it's ridiculous.

You know, when I predict, I don't predict a team to go 162 and O and I'm a hater. All right. I predict there will be no injuries involving Astro fans at Dodger Stadium because I think we've done an effective job of telling everyone there should be no Astro fans at Dodger Stadium. Yeah, but some Astros fans like, some people I should say, not just Astros fans, go out looking for confrontation. Oh, so you've been to Dyken Park this year? I mean, what do you mean? Yeah. People can, Astro fans can scrape too.

Let's talk about who we really are. Remember that Astros fan got knocked out by the Dodger fan? Was it last year or the year before? It was embarrassing. Astro fans could throw hands. He got clocked though. Yeah. We have some on violence, on violence too.

Yeah, there's Astros on Astros, for sure. Yeah, for sure. All right. Jonathan, what do you got? All right. Since Pena signed with Scott Boris and got hurt, I feel like this is going to wake up Christian Walker. All right. He's going to wake him up.

It's going to wake him up. Two and two together. Okay. Christian Walker. He's on the team. Wakes up. He sees all this going on. Wait, I don't have my cushion anymore.

Jake Myers is out showing me. Everybody's hurt. I got a step up here. If I really want to stay, I want to get in trade talks. I think Christian Walker wakes up at least in this next series. Wow. Five hits. Five hits against Iraqis?

That's actually fine. terrible. Yeah, all the guys are, yeah. He's going to wake up, not pop off. He's going to pick up. They're going up against three guys with the ERA round six. So I would like for Christian Walker to get five hits. Okay.

Five hits in Colorado series. Astros go four and two on this trip. Put it down. Okay. I'm Mr. Four and two guys. So you're the only one that has them losing, Ross. No, that's not true. I said, that's four and two is what I have on the go three and three.

But I said lose the series. I wasn't specific. All right. I said sweep the Rockies. We've got a lot of folks that want to talk. We're going to let you guys go next. We're done with our predictions. Yours are next.

Everybody online, do not go away. We're going to promise. Oh, Brad is fifth on the list, everybody. Just give you all heads up. So you all learned a little bit from last week. Got. Got feelings. Go in.

All before Brad. Every single person that calls in goes before Brad. and looks like my internet is down. So, oh, here it is. I got it. You got it? You got it?

Yeah, I'm good. Let's go to, and quickly, you got to get in here. Brian, quickly on 790. What is in your gut, my friend? First of all, guys, happy Bobby Benia day. I think the Astros, I think Yornaz will come back for a few games before the All-Star break. I think you'll get in when they get back home. and I think the Rockets will part with Alpi Shingoon

with the signing of Capella and some larger deal in the next few weeks. Ross, write all that down? Yeah, got it. Got it. Roger on 790. Roger, what's in your gun?

Cam. Okay. I think we're going to. Roger's melting down. I don't know if maybe our phones too. I think he has seven home runs now. It'll be a double-digit home runs. Not sure how many, but yeah.

Is he saying Cam Smith? Is that what he saying? Double-digit home runs? Cam Smith. Okay. Thank you. Thanks, Roger. He's got six, right? Yeah.

He's got six or seven. He's got six and I think three in the last 14 games or something like that. Yeah, by the way, Joe Espato, where there's at 1230 today. Really? This show? That's a good get, isn't it? I think so. Charles and Tomball. Charles, what's in your gut?

Yeah, I think it's time for the Astros to just bite the bullet, right to check and dump Lance McCullors out the window and get rid of him. It's just not worth an effort anymore. I mean, why would they do that? I mean, he was terrible overnight, but it wasn't like he was horrible before the injury. He was getting better. It was pitching longer. Yeah, I just, I don't know.

I just don't think he's got it anymore. I think he's kind of, he's got, he shows a little bit and then he regresses. He just doesn't stay steady, just, you know. To me, he's just not, he gets hurt too easy. You know, he goes to the weight room and twists his ankle and loses another two weeks or three weeks. I just don't think he's worth the effort. All right. Charles, thank you.

I don't think it's a gut feeling. I think that's just an opinion. I think it's a flat of opinion on that. Is he saying they're going to get, they are going to get rid of him? We could say he's predicting that. There was more of a just an opinion. Look, I'll be honest, Ross, there is not a tremendous amount of love for Lance. I mean, and I get it. Often injured. This one drilled them for a few more weeks.

And then the first appearance comes back, it wasn't good. I mean, we're a finicky bunch. That's just sports in general. I get it. Yeah. He's still getting a lot of strikeouts and ground balls, which he can do. But control has been an issue. Yeah. Let's go to Brian on 7-98. Brian, what's in your gut?

Hello, fellas. All right, so, hello, you're there. Hello. Hello, hello. Can you hear me? No, I cannot hear you. There you go. Okay.

Oh, gosh. I won with Chase Elliott last week in Atlanta, the hell of a race. Eleven lead changes the last handful of laps. I'll go with Shane Van Gisberg, and this week at Chicago Street Race. I want to know y'all's over under on my Astros winning 97 or 98 this year.

I would take the under. Yeah, I would take the under. On pace guy would say that it would be right on the number, but I'm going to say that they're going to regress slightly. They're on pace, but I think a couple of things. The injuries are piling up. Some of the one-run game luck will turn. And also, I think down the stretch,

you were kind of talking about, Matt, they're not going to need all these games, so you're going to get some guys rested. That's right. And here's the reality. We don't know how long Jeremy Payne is going to be gone. I mean, I know for a fact that Joe will have a positive spin on it when he joins us in 35 minutes from now.

But he doesn't know. He didn't know any more than when you and I do. He just doesn't. Gut feeling. Back by August 1st. Yeah, I'll go with that too. But that's just a pure gut feeling. Yeah, I have no idea.

I haven't seen the charts. Yeah, they're not allowed to. the silica the chart. We've asked. They said, no. It said, shut your bum ass up. Sean, what's in your gut this week? What's going on, guys? I got a gut feeling that the Astros, the Texans, and the Rockets

are going to win their division and make it to their conference finals. All three, huh? Okay, so that means aFC championship, NBA Western Finals, and America League Championship series. I could take that. It'd be a pretty good sports here for Houston, Texas, for sure. I believe it. You should believe it. Thank you, but.

Thanks, Sean. good positive attitude James and Klein what's in your gut? We're going to get another leadoff hitter because we need somebody that can go from first to third on a base hit so Joe's going to do Isaac as long as he can but by the end of the

World Show we'll have a new leadoff hitter. Joe's going to do who again? Who is it going to be? He's going to get another leadoff hitter because we need someone can go to first to third on a base hit. You want somebody not named Isak Paratus to lead off? Oh, I said Isaac. I was like, who's...

Esak Parade. Yeah, I can't imagine. Parake Myers? Al-Tube might go back. Ooh, good question. No, no. I'm sorry. Please don't.

Dubon's hitting 239. I'd rather somebody who gets on base a little more. Someone with some speed, though. Someone with some speed. Okay. Thank you, James. You know what? We can ask him about that coming up.

Yeah, we're going on. I'm writing that down. Last but least. Hi, Brad. Hey, I wanted to confirm. a couple of wins I got, two and a half, I think. I predicted Tucker would hit a home run.

Yes, you did. I've been predicting for the last two years the Rockets would get a center. They got one, two, what? Three, three centers, the one that's getting sent over to Phoenix, but I said they need to draft a center.

They need to get another center. They didn't do that. Well, they have centers on the team. They've had them all the time. but I said they need another one. I got a prediction. They're going to have a point guard. Well, no, I knew they needed a big man as soon as Oklahoma got two real good big men.

They were running double big with Shingoon and Adams this past season. Yeah, towards the end for the first time. All right, go ahead. What else? Please. Two years ago. And I predicted the Rockets would get some stars. but not the superstar, so I was half right on that.

No, you're wrong. No, the two guys they just got are stars. They're not superstars, but they're nice stars. What's Kevin Duran? That's a superstar. I was wrong on that part, but I was right on the other two. Oh, my God. Thank you, Brett.

Oh, good God. Oh, do you have anything for this week that I can write down that you're going to We're on time. Sorry. Okay, that's fine. Would you rather hear Brad's superstar definition or hear the Carpenter's song? I was half right. Probably the superstar song.

Carpenters largely underrated, I will say. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hits. No. They're hit hits, but they're not underrated. Okay, properly rated, but they're not by no means overrated. And then it just makes me think of Karen Carpenter's, falling, body falling apart.

This is awkward. Well, that's terrible. That's a sickness she had. I know. I know, but it just, I mean, I can't hear the songs about thinking about it. I'm going to listen to this ever start during the break. Young, brilliant drummer and a great singer. And then mental illness.

Yeah. It's unfortunate cost of her life. All right. 103 on Sports Talk 790. Final hour, the Matt Thomas show with Ross. We've got to the NFL rewind coming up at about 15 minutes from now. Believe it or not, today at 150 for fantastic prizes and chance to see a pair of a 90-year-olds

Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan Bob Dylan's 84 so he's a young He's young whippersnapper You're a whippersnapper Hey look I've seen 80-year-olds perform It is what it's a legendary That's your jam I'm such a hypocrite

I am Yeah we know How old is his old manolo? 82 Now they have to turn down the Stage light so his face doesn't melt, yes Rude I thought we lost connection in Dallas

Nope No we didn't I just wanted to figure out how I was going to politely tell you to shut your bum and I'll have to do that tomorrow. Hey, all right, so let's recap things. And I want to hear from you and you and you and you all of you. It's 713212-5-790. I am a first and foremost a Rockets fan.

I've been a Rockets fan since Moses Malone was leading the Rockets to the 1980-81 Western Conference Championship. And the NBA finals, we lost to the young Larry Bird. So I've been a fan for, what's 80, 45 years? But, Ross, I've been a Rockets fan for 45 years. That's a lot. That's a lot. That's when they still had two-pointers. I mean, only two-pointers.

No, not true. Don't listen to him. Everybody who's shooting granny shots, they invented the... Dolph Shays has invented the set shot. All right, for $1 million M.T. bucks. Okay. Dolph Shays had a son that played in the NBA. What was his name?

Rutherford. No, not Rutherford. Shays. No, it was not. That was pretty good, though. Come on. It is fair. We're all right off the back. Come on. Spontaneous answer, not bad. Ronald. Danny Shays. Oh, I know, yeah, Danny Shays. That was his dad?

Yeah, played for the Denver Nugget. Yeah. Primarily, yeah. I mean, yeah, I remember the name. I remember Danny Shays. Okay. He had some elite goggles, right? Yeah, oh, yeah. And he and, he and Paul, McKeskey used to use elbow pads, knee pad, they were all patted out. Whatever happened to the elite goggles and knee pad game in the NBA, Matt? No, no. Nobody wears goggles in the NBA now at all, right? Not unless they break something.

Yeah. A little bone or something. Oh, okay, yeah. Okay, so, okay, before we go to this, I was a fan of the Rockets in 80-81. They had the three-point shot. They had the shot clock. Now, the NBA did not have as many teams. How many teams did they have back in the day? I think it was six.

stop. That's why we call you Peach Basket. Okay. Jonathan, turn his microphone off. Let me have this time to myself. Go, go, go, go. No, no, I'm kidding. I'm looking up how many teams there were.

Okay, I may tell you who was not there in 80-81. The Kings were in Kansas City. There was no such thing as the Memphis Grizzlies. I found the amount of teams. Do I mean to tell you when you're doing your own thing? Okay, there's 30 right now, so I'm going to say there were 24 then. Ooh, 23. That's weird.

Every division had six, except for the Atlantic, only had five. There were four divisions, and used to play your team in your own division six times. That's talk about getting a rivalry going. Okay, so let me try to guess who the Rockets Division was in. Five divisional opponents. Five, here we go. Dallas? Yes.

San Antonio. Yes, those are the easy picks. Utah. Correct. Denver correct that's four there were rockets

were in a six team division or a seven six everybody was in six except for the eastern islands rockets make five there's one more team in their division yes you want a hint

no you want to try to think of it I want to think I don't think it was the Kings okay who is in their division I don't think it was Phoenix Oh, God, it's Who was the team? Does he get some thinking music here?

How much time I left? Before you zap me here. Is this painfully obvious? Oh, that's a good riff right here. It's east of Houston. You want a hint? Yeah. We've mentioned it.

This show, this team, and they are not located where they were located somewhere else then, than where they are now. Oh, it's time we're giving them. Yeah, you got to be about ten more seconds. And you mentioned them in this segment. Is it really the Kings? Yes. Oh, it is the Kings. There we go.

So that was the, they called it the Midwest Division, correct? I'm not right about that? Correct. Now, I never remember the Rockets being in the Eastern Conference. I never watched the Rockets on the Air and the East, but they were in the East and the 70s, which is really weird. Well, yeah. And then they brought this new franchise called the Minnesota Timberwolves,

and they came out and they played in the Spring Stadium called the Metrodome. They played in the Metrodome at first? Oh, absolutely. Wow. For years. It's cavernous. Minnesota was new. You had Charlotte that was new.

You had Vancouver that was new. and gallon of gas cost a nickel oh excuse me the miami heat and the orlando magic were new anew yeah they wanted to go with names that aren't uh they didn't have plurals which is always confusing i believe the the oh miami heat was the first no because the jazz beat him it was had to been the second team in sports it didn't have an ass the end of their name yeah we're just a jazz in general you start calling me the NBA curator you're the big i call you peach basket Everybody calls him Peach Basket. Nobody calls it.

There's not a single person around town that calls him Peachman. Not a single person? Not a single person? Not a single person. Tweet Matt at SportsMT Peach Basket. Mm-mm. All right. Oh, so we'll make this.

I'm in a 45-year fan. I have never been this excited about an off-season. What a tangent. Kevin Durant's traded. I'm segueing here. I can segue. That's an old-timer right there. Jabari Smith resigns.

Van Bluette re-signed. Stephen Adams re-re signs. Clint Capella is. back. My boy, Clint Capella's back. That's my friend. Dwight Howard times were pretty exciting. That was good too, especially because we were on the chase for him. And then sneaky pick is going to be Dorian Finney

Smith. Yeah, Chris Paul Trade was kind of out of nowhere. Dwight Howard was, you want a sweepstakes. Remember we had our boy Jordan Schultz on it? He said there, he's sticking with his sources. He's going to Dallas. By the way, so he blocked me many years ago, right? Yes.

And he just got fire from Fox Sports. Sad not sad, you putts. What? He's got me blocked, too. Blocking is so stupid now. Why did Elon ruin this? Well, no, you used to build a block and feel good about it. Yeah.

Now, people have blocked me, and I still see their stuff. Yeah, it's stupid. Like, there's this dude that works in Victoria that blocked me the other day. I have no idea what the hell I did. you're probably talking trash about Victoria, Texas. I wouldn't. I've never been to Victoria. I can't even speak to it. Real quick, Max, I know you're very opinion on happy birthdays and stuff like this. Well, other people like messages.

If you told someone happy birthday and they haven't responded to you in the week, how would you feel? How'd you do it via text? A DM. Ooh, who you DM in China? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Oh, whoa, what, does the answer the question? Does the girl not about the DMs? Just answer the question.

you. Why are you DMing on this? Why can't you do it publicly? I mean, I don't, I don't want to see the person. I just saw his birthday. Told me hi birthday and I ain't got response. How good of a friend is he? One to ten. He's going, she's sliding down the list now. Pre-price-late. Pre-slide. I'll give it a one out of ten like a six. Now he's like a four.

no if you really let me tell you here's two if somebody is really really really a good friend you call them so you must be just a bare minimum friend if you're texting the guy happy birthday well every time you know what i'll put the better now you let here's the thing in fairness you can't literally text text everyone of your friend call everyone of your friends happy birthday but you can do a lot of it so all right so if they say a happy birthday like story and you're like oh okay i'll just aren't i'm gonna send a happy birthday and they don't respond to you for a week. Would you spill something away? No, because I get a bunch of, on Facebook and say,

happy birthday, man, and people are just cutting and pacing that bad. Yeah, but if they're friends and you call them a six out of ten friend. By the way, did I ever text you happy birthday? Let me do that. No. Let me do that right now. No, don't do it. Don't do it.

Don't, don't. I don't want anybody text me happy birthday. My birthday was a month ago. No, it's under a month. We're good. No. No. Aren't you the fifth? Yeah, fifth, right, yeah.

No, it's a way, but you know what? Then I'll do it all do. I'll send you a text back. You know what I'm going to say back to you? Shut my bum ass up. Happy New Year. Okay, that's fine. I don't know how we got to the birthdays in the rocket stuff, but I'm just saying I'm super excited. How about that?

I'll wrap it up by saying that. And I will also say that if you have a good friend that is at least a six or seven out of ten, you need to call them and don't text on your birthday. you don't want to hear that answer did you no i wanted to hear your answer so now you feel like yeah it's because this friend of yours is at least a six and you didn't even have the chance you didn't get into the stones it called it was no i said the message is friday it's tuesday it's over with you didn't

obviously you got a problem with me like for instance when i wish somebody a happy birthday on facebook i will say happy birthday and i will put something anecdotal so they know that i just didn't cut and paste what facebook told me to say like i'm never going to put happy birthday jonathan make it a great one. Well, of course, no deal you're going to make it a great one. Yeah, that's for you. That's for you. For instance, I, a friend of mine last week turned 46. Mm-hmm. I didn't know his age. So I put, happy birthday, Shane. I don't know your age, but you look like you're around 50, and he goes 46, and he sends me a middle figure emoji. That's perfect.

That's friendship. That's friendship. And we're probably about a five and a half, 5.75, but not a six, which meant I need to call him. I'm afraid to check my text. Just one text. Oh, happy birthday. That's fine. Ooh, I was going to print this out or put this on our text here on our Twitter account, but there's too many things I can't put on there.

Okay. So I'm going to save that. All right. It is 114. The NFL Rewind is up next here on the radio program. If you want to join us, 713-212-5-790. 7-19. 7-1-3-212-5-7-90.

Oh, we're doing a fantasy five. All right. What's the category this week, Ross? We were going to do, what did we come up with? Recently. Best ways to cook eggs? Best starting five of players who did not win a championship. Oh, okay.

But we never did that. It never came to fruition. We'll do it a week from Friday. We're off starting. Oh, there we go. These are the tones that make you think of one thing and one thing on. Sex in the 1970s. Is that what it makes you think of?

You think there was a lot of copulating happening around these? Let me say you something. There were 22-year-olds that were doing some serious moving around with this song. That in the hustle. Now, definitely babies were made to the hustle. Anything Marvin Gay was producing around that time. Have you ever listened to that whole I Want You album? No.

I took a pregnancy test after that. Did you? I think I got an STD after listening to three of those songs. Okay. That always takes it too far. I don't think it too far. Ross took a pregnancy test. And you got an STD.

And he's not pregnant. That's what that's what Tracy said. I'm not going to get that guy pregnant. All right, Matt. We mentioned this briefly. Yes, thank you. We mentioned this briefly yesterday, but we can get more into it. the Dolphins and Steelers with a couple of trades.

You have Jalen Ramsey and tight-ended John Hsu-Smith going to the Steelers. Now, I had pulled up the pro football focus ratings. Jalen Ramsey, they had at number 13, but there are a lot of people who question their coverage grades, but that's another story for another time. Anyways, thought of as one of the better cornerbacks still in the NFL. John Hussmith was very good for the Dolphins last year, but he is going to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Minka Fitzpatrick and a pick swap. Dolphin sending a seventh. Steelers rescinding a fifth. Not costing you a whole lot to pick up Jalen Ransy and John Hussmith. And you got Aaron Rogers. Matt, the Steelers have been playoff threats with guys like Mitcho Trubisky and Kenny Pickett at the helm. I mean, they went 10 and 7 with Russ and Justin Fields last year. I mean, are we talking about a sleeper?

AFC North or more like a 9 and 8, 10, and 7 again? I'm thinking 9 and 8, 10, and 7, a sleepy wildcard selection. I think Baltimore is still the crem to the crem de la creme of that division. I think Cincinnati's going to bounce back as long as they have somebody stopping anybody on defense. I think Burrough stays upright for 17 games. They're going to be a big trouble. I would say Pittsburgh, if they're going to do anything, it would be as a wildcard team. Weird question.

Do you have Mike Tomlin? I mean, we'd have to go through the list. Right. As a top five current NFL head coach, they always make the playoffs with like these crappy quarterbacks and offenses. Or at least a threat. Obviously, you start with Andy Reed. And Sean McVeigh.

John Harbaugh. John Harbaugh. Sean Payton. He got to the Broncos the playoffs in the second year. He's a maid man. Not a great dude, but a really good football coach. as a Super Bowl. Wasn't he caught cheating?

Well, he was, it was the, the bounty gate scandal. Yeah, bounty game with the first. I remember that. He was suspended for a year. Don't get Chris Gordy bursting in here, talking about how Sean Peyton was innocent. He was not innocent.

He still demanding passing cadaming. Isn't he doing some drills right now? Yeah, I think so. He's working on his five-step drop. Okay, so Reed McVey Payton. Shanahan, top five? Kyle? Yeah.

Ahead of Tomlin, Super Bowl, winner? I'm so I'm saying. I mean, if I'm filling out of... Okay, John Harbaugh, I'll say safe ones. John Harbaugh, McVe, Peyton, Reed are safe. Okay, so we got a fifth spot open. I would take Tomlin over Shanahan. Tomlin?

For longevity, consistent playoff success. Okay. How about over Jim Harbaugh? Yeah, I would say so, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. John over Jim. I think he's in the top five, then, yeah. Can I tell you something?

The AFC is like the NBA Western Conference. I could throw nine teams against a wall and go, you know what? You got a shot. Yeah, that's tough. How many chargers aren't going to be better in a second year with Jim Harbaugh running things? You would figure. Pittsburgh's getting better. They really started to let Justin Herbert turn it loose,

and well, then he turned it loose to the tune of four interceptions to get the Texans. The only way that Cincinnati is not better is if the whole Fitzpatrick thing blows up in their face, right? Yeah. Are they going to be a little stop anybody over the weekend? Texans, Chiefs, Charger. Yeah, AFC's stacked. Stacked. Not Cleveland, though.

All right. Anyways, Matt, moving along. Darren Waller coming out of retirement to join the Miami Dolphins, according to Adam Schaefter. He was a 26, I'm sorry, the Dolphins trading a 2026, six-round pick to the Giants

where he had been playing where he's like, I'm tired of Tommy DeVito and Daniel Jones. I'm retiring. But now Darren Waller, out of retirement, fantasy sleeper, Darren Waller, Matt? No. Out of retirement guy doesn't typically do much for me. Last played in 2023. Yeah, I'm good. Where he had 500 yards and one touchdown. He had his greatest season in 2020 with the Raiders when he had almost 1,200 yards and nine touchdowns in that season. Would he have him or would you have to try that?

Elvis Kelsey was at about 60% right now. I'm going to tell you that since you're not going to be in the league, I'm going to tell you who I always kind of target a late round quarterback that I think is slipping and shouldn't. I'm thinking backbound, bounce back season for Bamah Holmes. I think his demise is being greatly overexagger. Absolutely. Xavier Worthy really came on. Now Kelsey's old, but they've got some options.

What's his name? She Rice is going to come back from injury. Yep. Don't tell anybody, that. But I'm going to be targeting him in the later. rounds because I never go early quarterback ever. I have some breaking news for you, by the way. What? I might be in your fantasy draft.

Yes. I might. I might. I'm saying it's a might. It went from zero percent chance to like 25. Let's go, Maddie. Do you know why I do it honestly? That's what I'm talking about. That's the best part of the NFL rewind. The NFL rewind? Yeah, go ahead. Because it does keep it out. You do get to keep tabs on the NFL teams. And then you do the trash talk client when he has a bad draft? It's great. Should I bring back draft?

grades. I felt like I was, number one, I was hurting feelings, and number two, I was educating people. Draft grades are just... I cared more about the latter. I cared more about the latter than the former, by the way. No, no. You absolutely must grade draft. Because if we do well, and

you give a bad draft grade, we have more ammunition. Yeah, but I'm made man. Back to back to back, to back, champ. I don't got to win this league ever again. I mean, that's back to back to back. Let's go. What's the prize pool? Oh. Significant.

Oh, wow. Okay. It's a charitable donation. Yes. You know what I messed up? I should have got Spencer Erigetti's number when he said he was interested. Even though he said he's really good. That's why I told him, no thanks.

We should get Spencer in there. Fine. I'm not trying to Jerry O'Donnell today. You get Spencerergeting. He said he's really good, though. I don't want him in the league. That's because athletes are basically... No, he knew his stuff.

Remember? We were... I'm sorry, we spent half this my bad. We spent half the interview talking about fantasy football. By the way, a former member of our Fantasy League, Brian Leema, just texted us and said, F that fantasy league. By the way, you're getting roasted

on Twitter for your Jake Myers hate Lelima, so you better just back off, friend. Back off. I'm asking him if he wants back in because we need spots. Yeah. Jonathan's going to take out a payday loan. Get him in. That's what I said.

Johnson would only pick players. Oh, he's never played before? Oh, yeah. No, it's easy. Very affordable. Very affordable. If we like Clinton, we should let you in easy. I mean, you would only pick players from, say, 2006 and born after that.

Who's the best Western Kentucky players in the league? Bailey Zappy. Oh, Bailey Zappy. Do you're right? Do you hang out with him? No, I talked to him when the trainers were back in the day, but it was all that. But no party. No.

I will say those football guys wouldn't, they'll show up at the parties and then leave probably like 30 minutes later. Very like clicky type of thing. You know what I mean? By the way we were getting more that Hayden West Nesky is a fan. Yeah, we talked to him about that too

and we told. Yeah. Because you've got to have two different leagues in the clubhouse is what we've been told. There's like the rookie guys on rookie deals league and then there's the guy on second contract league. Yeah, I need a rookie. I need a rookie player.

Like is Christian Walker want to be in our league? You can get a league of just Astros, cool guys we like and then us. No, I don't think we can afford Christian. Eric Grady's pre-arbitration. I think that's easier. Oh, we want the pre-arb players. Yes.

The name of our league called the pre-arb football league. Exactly. And that's your NFL rewind. Well, you didn't get that from anybody else. You just didn't. All right. Well, all right. So I'm not 100% in,

but I'm slowly turning the corner on that. And you knew it was going to happen. I really did. I thought, no, I believed you. But I want you back in. I don't really want to. We need you. I'm going to be honest.

Again, it helps him with other players are on the league watching kind of things. And it's not that I want you, Matt. It's that we need you. Yeah, you want my money. I get it. Or you take his money. I can't win four in a row.

There's no way I win this year. And I finished second one year, except for when Jamar Chase put a 50s in a group. That was brutal. That was terrible. Yeah. That was a low part of my professional. You would have beat him by,

like 30 if Jemar Chase didn't drop a 50 bomb. 50 bomb in the final game. Tough. All right. 713-212-5-790. If you want to jump in, 7-1-3-212-5-790. On Twitter, at SportsMT, at SportsRV, at Sports Talk 790. Ross, what is today's edition of Believe it or not? Yes, Matthew, that'd be all things about Dorian Finney Smith and Clint Capella. My guys.

You might want to look up his Swish National Team records, just saying. Is he the second best, is he the best EFS or would you go Daily Fantasy Sports? I'm a Daily Fantasy Sports guy, even though I lost my ass last year. The girls were also getting me some lunch because I'm busy trying to do a show with you, entertain Houston best we can. You getting Rod Raleigh? No, they're getting me a lobster roll. I know those your go-to-at lobster roll in Dallas, Texas?

Well, they're one of those food hall, you know those boozy food hole? place so you get to go like 10 different places. Those are really popular now. Really popular. So she said, how do you like your lobster roll? And I said, I like it cold with mayo. And the options are coal with mayo, warm with butter,

or don't like lobster all. And you can go vote on my Twitter account asper. I like them both. I do too, but I'm just saying this is a preference. Preference, meaning you like one more than the other. Maybe the hot when it's more kind of like a, it's almost like it's garlic bread. Yeah, that's delicious.

Yeah, I'm a preference Cole with Mayo, but if you brought me a woman But I'd enjoy that as well I mean, yeah, just get one of each Let's go. Well, I set you back, though. Lobster all ain't cheap. What do you think the girls are spending on lunch right now

As we speak? They're racking up them empty bucks. Spending my empty bucks. Oh, look who's here an hour late After doing gut feelings. Gail, this is your show. Just do gut feelings, whatever you want, my friend. How are you?

I'm doing good, guys. I know gut feelings was an hour ago, but seeing is that my gut feeling from about a couple of months ago, maybe even longer just hit in the last segment, I had a gut feeling that you wouldn't be done with fantasy football, Matt. And that's a good time. So thank you for that. Wait a minute. I'm not official now. Gio, I'm not officially.

You don't know this. I could change my mind. I hear in, Matt. You're in, Matt. All right. You know what? You're calling me out, Gio. That's fine.

Thank you very much. Look at Gio. That's pretty great. counts on me when necessary. You know what, Geo listens like all day every day. We appreciate you, Joe. And all of you, not just Geo, but those of you who listen loyal, we appreciate you all. Yeah, I think my man, Julio Franco, and I have made am in sort of.

Okay. Not the former NBA, I mean, Major League Baseball journeyman, right? Long time NBA. Yeah. See, I said NBA and then you said it. Oh, yeah, he was playing until he was like 50, right? He was at least 47. That's a career

That's not bad So I said I told you I didn't I said Julio I don't want you to die Injured yes but die no And he responds Have a good day sir Trust the Astros Papa

Oh alright Papa No that's I'm gonna tell you that's That's Mexican for like being dismissive Yeah that's like calling you boss or chief Like yeah all right papa Oh you know I hate that So you're telling me that Julio and I are not made I'm not going to buy you any of lobster roll.

It's a little snark thrown in at the end, at least in my experience. Well, then I'm going to get back at him then. By the way, uprooted Texas says if it ain't Connecticut style, it ain't worth eat. What is Connecticut style? I don't know. Lobster roll. Not sure. Julio Franco played until he was 48, by the way.

Okay, so I was, yeah, I was pretty close. Wow. Now I'm looking up a Connecticut style on the lobster roll is hungry. agree. Here we go. Connecticut-style lobster roll is warm, and the main style is the cold. So I think you got it right. So I think Connecticut-style traditionally omits mayonnaise, giving the lobster a richer, more decadent flavor profile.

It's all good either way. I'm not happy either direction. I'll be in Rhode Island in about 10 days. I'll be having like five different lobster rolls there. Oh. By we have, are we going to go to bed, Robster to go eat on that boil bag soon? I guess.

Is that safe? We got a, that doesn't have chloral-foral carbons in it, does it? I don't know. I mean, they got the hush puppies are back. We got the cheddar bay biscuits. So we got our carb count taking care of for the day.

I'm just going to have a basket of biscuits and head out. You're going to get water drink to, let me guess. Yeah, with lemon and packets of sugar. Oh, my God. You're going to make your own impromptu. Extra lemon? Hi, could I get some extra lemon

and a couple packets of sugar? Thank you for my water. Also, could you get me some hot water with a couple packets of ketchup? That's tomato soup right there, Maddie. We went to the raced of the raced of

Nexus. Steak restaurant about a month ago. That's some more empty bucks. Getting unloaded. The couple next to us were asking for to go box. which is fine because you're going to put your steak in there. No, they were taking the rolls from there.

I think that's fine. Of course you do. It's not classy. Now, okay. It's lacking in class. That's to be sure. It's just, you can't take too bad. Now, did they order some rolls?

Oh, they ordered extra rolls, then put them in baskets? It wasn't ordered because if you've been to the base of Rexis. No, they kicked me out. Well, the salad bar is is where the bread is. Oh, so they went to the salad bar and loaded up some bread? Yes. Yeah, that's not the classist thing. If you have like a steak and some mushrooms and a baked potato that you're taking home and you got room for the roll or the bread, I'm all for that.

I'm pro that. But you can't go to ask for it to go box just to load up with the various breads. That's just too much. Let's go to John on 790 at 142. Hi, John. Hey, guys, what's going on? Listen, man, I wanted to, well, I'm going to say that I think that the backup is doing a great job today, especially. But we can also see him and his host duties kind of develop in front of our ears.

But we need to let him know how good he's doing once in a while. Wow. Thank you, John. John, you sound like you're related to him. This is dad. No, my father's name is Ramon. Doesn't matter. You can change his name.

That didn't sound like my dad. That felt like somebody you were set and sent. Somebody, you pay somebody to say that? No, I appreciate John, though. That's my dog. That's my guy for life,

whoever he is. Mm-hmm. Thanks, John. Mm-hmm. Always squam with butter crushing on the lobster roll preference. 65%. That would be Connecticut style, right? And you ordered Maine style.

Yeah. 20% is don't like the lobster roll. Ooh, that's a. That's a pretty decent amount. Who didn't like lobster? How could you say, okay. Now, if you have a preference of one or the other, for sure, if you, I can even, I like both, like you,

but I can even wrap my head around just liking one and not the other. But not liking a lobster roll at all? Unless you're allergic. Yeah, I should, should I eat the lobster roll live on like a Facebook post and see if who You should take a video. They're telling us to get our content up. Let's go. Nobody wants to watch somebody eat.

That's ridiculous. Are you kidding? There's Instagram. followers with millions of followers they just eat at SportsMT I'll eat a sandwich live on there follow me on Instagram now follow me on Instagram I'm still following back till I get to 500

followed that means 21 more people at SportsMT I mean excuse me Sports RV here you see you mess me up No sports empty is fine sports RV I'll follow you back On the photo of me from Clint Capella in 2019 You're gonna love us we look warm and cuddly And I will not slide into DMs Well

One person disagrees with you Let's talk about But uptown appliance before we play, believe it or not. If you want to get in, 713, 212-5-790 to play, believe it or not, all things about the newest rockets, Doreen Phiney Smith, and Clint Capita.

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, 7-1-3-3-2-1-2-1-2-1-1-1-1-1-2. 2-5-790. Today's edition of Believe it or Not is all things about

Dorian Finney, Smith, and Clint Capella. I'll read your statement about one of those two gentlemen. Statements completely utterly accurate. You'll say this. Believe it. If a statement's erroneous, full upon commit up, you'll say this. Not. Two, believe it or not, a lot to a row in your prize, what are you playing for today, Jonathan? Of course,

the Sports Talk 790 T-shirt and a pair of tickets to see Outlaw Music Festival with Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, the Event Brothers, and Moore on July 6 at the Woodlands Pavilion. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. at Ticketmeister.com. We got a lot of prize horrors on the phone, folks.

So if you want to call in from Fresh Blood, 713-212-5-790, let's go to Ryan on 790. Ryan, you're ready to play, believe it or not? Yes. Dorian Finney Smith was the SEC player of the year in 2016. Believe it or not? Not.

That is correct. Statement number two for the win. Doreenfinney. Smith is fourth on the Florida Gators' all-time winning scoring list behind Eudanus Haslam and ahead of Stacey Pool. Believe it or not? Believe it. No, not even to the top ten. I'm sorry.

Is that unbelievable? Let's go to Andrew on 790. Andrew, what was your favorite part of today's 10-2 radio show? Hey, hearing about the rockets and how we're going to win the championship. Love it. Doreen Phenny Smith was on the SEC Academic Honor Roll. but also was one of the players mentioned in the NCAA academic fraud investigation. Believe it or not?

I don't believe it. No, Ross made that up. He's a fine young man. Come on. Ross, what are you squirching the DFS for us like that? It was a nuts. That's true. 713-212-5-790.

Raymond on 790. Ready to play, believe it or not? Better believe it. In 2022, Dorian Finney Smith started a. podcast with then net's teammate t j warren but new episodes have been have been have not been uploaded since two thousand twenty three believe it or not believe it no ross made at one two very creative today sports rv how was that adams you mentioned that earlier yeah adam on seven ninety ready to play believe it or not yeah in july of 2000 thank you in july of two thousand

Clint Capella was inducted into the Swiss International Athletic Hall of Fame. Believe it or not? Not. That is correct. Statement number two for the win. Clint Capella has twice garnered defensive player of the year votes, finishing 14th in 2018 and finishing sixth in 2021. Believe it or not? Not.

You better believe it. Come on. Let's say it once a thousand times. You're going to know who plays defense, who doesn't. in the NBA. Let's go to John on 790. John, you ready to play, believe it or not? Yes, sir.

John, Clint Capella's first love was soccer, but he got more involved in basketball as a youth after meeting fellow countryman and NBA player Tavo Savalosha. Believe it or not. Believe it. That's right. Statement number two for the win.

Clint Capella's favorite soccer player growing up was Swiss National Zeridan Shakuri. Is that correct? Rossi on the? You did great. Thank you. I threw you a curveball and you knocked it out.

Believe it or not? Not. That's right. It's French Arsenal player Terry Henry. Terry only. Terry Henri. Adam Wexla. Go to host the team.

It is up next. Tomorrow, Brian Bogussevick. And shut your bum ass up. Astros Rocky. Details on that coming up with the A team. Wex and Friends on Sports Talk 7-night.