The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Will Guillory on Fred Van Vleet and NBA Free Agency

Episode Date: July 2, 2026

And a new friend of the show making his first time appearance. He's got a 504 area code. You know where that is, don't you? That would be New Orleans. New Orleans. He's like, I am tired of talking Pelican basketball. That's good. I'm coming to the big time.

Will Gillery, the athletic, with us here on the Matt Thomas show with Ross. Am I true on that, Will, or am I lying to the audience right now? Now, listen, man, it's just a true honor on my part to be a part of the show. This is the day I've been waiting for. I think my whole life. I want to say. So I'm truly blessed. All right.

Will Guillory replace Kelly Iko, who's now working for that other group? We want to mention. We want to just love on the athletic because you get my money. Will, you are a New Orleans guy through and through, correct? Yes, sir. Born and raised. All right. So if that accent starts to kick in, you know you're always welcome to bring that accent out of the show.

Listen, I can't control it. So every now I know it, it'll jump out of me. What I don't need any control of it. I got you. Y'all don't judge me. No, we will not judge. That's my favorite accent on the planet. Yeah, we love it.

So just if you want to talk in pure New Orleans a whole time, absolutely. So let me ask you this. You've been on these NBA streets for a while. Freddie Van Vleet, who I love and is an easy guy to cover, an easy guy to root for. You didn't get to cover much of him last year because obviously he was hurt. He goes to his IG and scrubs a bunch of things, and you've been talking to athletes for a long period of time. What is your take on not only athletes that use their Instagram to send cryptic messages, but are you hearing anything about maybe?

maybe the Rockets using him as a trade chip at all. What are those streets selling you right now? Yeah, I think, you know, it is a hilarious part of the job matter. We need to evaluate, you know, Instagram posts and what are guys secretly saying on their IG stories to try to deliver a message to us. And like you said, I didn't get a whole lot of time around for it last year, but just the little bit of time that I have been around him and when I have heard him talk, he doesn't seem like a guy that would go about, you know, delivering messages

cryptically through Instagram, especially when it comes to his business. But I mean, you know, in today's age, you've got to pay attention to all of that stuff, especially when a guy's going into the final year and his contract. And I think, you know, to talk, you know, throughout the past couple weeks for a lot of people with what's going on with Fred's knee, how healthy will he be at the start of the season, how much is the potential market smart signing, you know, a sign that, you know, the Rockets are telling us how they feel about Fred's family and his future in Houston. But I think, you know, as far as we know now,

It seems like he's progressing in a pretty decent fashion. We'll know more as we get closer to Summer League and all that kind of stuff when we get to be around the team and talk to some of the staff and stuff. But I think the one good thing about the Mark and Smart signing is that it really gives you coverage both ways. You don't have to really play him over for a friendly, those guys to play together. If things are on work with Fred, you can move Marcus Smart to that point. So that's why I think it was a really smart move. And I think the one thing about it is that you don't really have to be in a rush to make a move of Fred.

You can kind of give him time to figure it out, see what he looks like going in the training cap. And if it's not right, then you could progress and figure out the next step. But it was a smart move by them just to get that market smart piece as insurance for either way it goes. Were you surprised that he picked up the option? And I don't know if you had heard because, look, I'd love to go and build a text for fail, but he's like, Matt, I'll talk to you in the fall by. No, were you surprised that there wasn't any thought of maybe trying to extend Fred a little bit or maybe you think the Rockets from their perspective were saying, hey, I don't want to

extend you because we don't know exactly what you're coming back as. Yeah, I think that has to be part of it, especially, you know, for coming out and letting people know that it was more than just a torn ACL to be also tore his meniscus and, and, you know, what was the word he usually said, his knee blew up or something like that? So I think that's something that you have to factor on when a guy, you know, going into his 30s, wanting to give him additional years on his contract. And of course, you know, with the Amman Thompson, you know, extension looming, you want to be able to maintain as much flexibility as possible, especially in that backcourt.

So I think, again, that's why the market smart trade is so great because it's a short-term deal. It's a small dollar amount. So you have the flexibility to make additional moves. And I think that's something that this team has to factor in whatever they're doing with some of their long-term contracts is the fact that you're going to be paying Alper and Shangoon and Amman Thompson big money moving forward. And you have to be able to move accordingly to build out the rest of the roster. And that's not even factor in, you know, KD and his future money. You want to sign Tari Eason to a new deal. You already signed Jabari Smith to a new deal.

So this roster is going to get real expensive, really quick. And you don't want to have all of that additional Fred Vance lead money on the books. If that need, it's going to be right, you know, a year or two from now. Ross, with you here as well, Will Gilleri joining us from the Athletic here on Sports Talk 790. And so you have these moves, and there has been a talk about, of course, Jalen Brown has now been traded. Yannis has been traded. So does it seem like the most likely scenario is the Rockets, kind of keeping the core. the way that they have it together and not making any kind of earth-shaking move.

Yeah, I think that's kind of been, you know, the mindset throughout all of this, because all we heard throughout, you know, those trade talks with Yonis and Jill and boundaries that the Rockets weren't really involved. They weren't really trying to throw their hat in the ring, and we know, you know, what the assets they have. They can be in these talks for any of these guys, the draft picks they have with some of the young assets they have, they're a fact that whenever one of these big-name guys come up,

and I think, you know, it allows them to feel free if another one of these guys pop up out of nowhere because they always, you know, a new guy always comes up every couple of months. They have the ability to kind of get to go after one of those guys rather than invest in a max contract and a Yonis Officer Kupo as he's going into his mid-30s.

The Jalen Brown situation is very, you know, confusing right now. The whole NBA world is kind of reacting to that package is that Boston accepted for Jalen Brown. So I think you want to have freedom to if another guy pops up that you still have all your assets in place, you're not kind of

pushing your chips in so early. And I think, you know, a lot of the rocket turns don't want to hear, but I think a lot of people in that Houston front office feel like if they were able to maintain some better health last season that they do believe these young guys would have been better off and they were able to win more games. So you want to see them have that year of continuity coming back and understanding how to play with KD, you know, getting Fred back in the mix. They feel like they can make some noise and use that continuity as a weapon rather than, you know, starting all over with the Yonis, the way they had to start all over with KD last year. What did you think of the Bruce Thornton pick as it was made and his potential fit with the team?

Yeah, I think it's a great fit. I think, you know, in this year's draft, they had so much value with guys like Bruce Thornton with three, four years of college experience. He came out of, you know, Ohio State's all-time lead scorer, a guy who's proven can put the ball in a basket, guy's size, can shoot the three ball. You know, with last year's team, we were talking so much about, you know, email you docker looking at that bench and really not having a whole lot of options. You know, when they were struggling, it was like, could be.

So we throw Aaron Holiday in there. J.D. Davidson was getting minutes. We saw Jeff Green getting minutes, you know, in the playoff series against the Lakers. And now, you know, coming back this season, it feels like that group is just so much more fortified. But obviously, Stephen Adams coming back healthy. You got Bruce Thornton, Markets, Mark is smart, Bogdanovich. So it just says that they have a much more well-rounded group and they won't have to depend on their starter so much. I mean, you think back to last year, what Amman Thompson was number one in minutes,

KD was two, Jabari Smith was like four. they were playing all of those guys such heavy minutes and I think the goal this year, especially with KD, is to reduce those minutes, reduce that burden during the regular season and leaning a little bit on that bench and I think Bruce Thornton is going to be one of those guys that definitely gets thrown in the fire early on and it helps that he's got so much college experience

and he kind of understands where Roly has to play step in from day one. All right, two last questions. Will Gilleries to joining us the athletic here on Sports Talk 790 with Matt and Ross. Tar Heeson, what's the market looking like? some teams that may want to make an offer sheet, and I guess I'm presuming the rockets are going to wait

and see mode based on what he gets, correct? Yeah, I mean, it's always difficult for restrictive free agents because teams have the ability to match. And I think the good thing with the Marketsmar deal that they did sign, they gave themselves the freedom to basically be able to match whatever offer that Tarifian does get. So now it's kind of at that point where it's that stelle made, where everybody's kind of staring each other down,

we're waiting to see what the figure's going to be, because ultimately the Rockets don't have to be in a rush to get this done. They know whatever offer Tari gets, they're going to be able to match. So it's just about finding a middle ground for both sides. I don't think it'll probably have any time soon. We're probably going to wait through Summer League. I think the one goal for the Rockets has to be that you don't want this to kind of get, you know, hostile or where the two sides are kind of going back and forth.

And Tarr is kind of unhappy about the situation. You want him to come back and still feel like he's an important part of the team, Raffel Stone, whatever. he's talked about Tari has been very complimentary of what he believes Tari can be for his team and the roles he can play. So you want to find a deal that makes him happy, but you also have the ability now where you don't have to kind of go over the top to get him back because you have that restricted free agency as a weapon that you can use. All right, well, I got LeBron going to Miami. Ross has him going to Golden State. What say you?

I got to go to state. I'm a little skeptical about the AD LeBron package deal going to go to state. But, yeah, I believe LeBron wants to stay in Cali. He's always had the fascination with stuff. And, you know, Draymond loves him like he's one of his family members. So I think we'll definitely see LeBroner and a Go to State jersey. That'll be my bet. And we can just see, you know, as any of those guys are last until April.

That'll be the one thing watching Go to State. I mean, maybe AARP would like to get a gold membership sponsorship of that team, correct? I can get the jersey sponsorship. Yeah. Listen, if you own a Piccadilly's in the Bay Area, you'll win a big time once LeBon comes the time. There you go. Go-to meal in New Orleans. Fire away, please.

Oh, my God. You're talking spot or a specific meal? I don't know. Let's say that next time I go to New Orleans, which would be from Rockets, Pelicans. Where am I eating? I can drop your name and get a free appetizer out of it or something. I'm telling you, go to Dragos downtown, get the char-grill oysters.

You choose some gumbo. It'll change your life, I promise. That's all can ask for. Will, you're a part of our family now. you a beverage on a road sometime this year. Thank you for the time. Are you going to Summer League? Absolutely. I'll see you in Vegas. I'll be there for a few days of myself. So, Ross, we'll chase you down and see who you hanging out with.

We'll see him at the tables. Yeah, we'll see you at the table. 3-2. Thank you. Well, appreciate it, buddy. We'll see you. Thank you. Good, really good, really good dude. Love it.