00:00So we had a question from a texter earlier, Seth, and I'm having trouble finding the actual text.
00:05So I apologize to this texter if I'm framing the question the wrong way,
00:08but I thought it was an interesting thought because we've got three GMs in town
00:12who are all to varying degrees embattled or have maybe, I don't know if blind spots is the right word,
00:20but have like maybe one Achilles heel with how they've been conducting themselves as a GM
00:24over the last year or so, let's say.
00:26So I'll paraphrase what the texter said and just which GM is failing in their areas the worst of these
00:35three.
00:36Nick Casario in building the offensive line for the Houston Texans,
00:41Raphael Stone in addressing the point guard issues with the Rockets this season,
00:47or Dana Brown addressing pitching with the Houston Astros.
00:52Oh, all right.
00:54I've got my answer, but I'm curious what yours is first.
00:58Okay, Raphael Stone is the one that I'm, hmm.
01:02I'm going to write mine down.
01:03It was served up on his doorstep at the, and I'm not bringing it up first because he's my answer.
01:10I'm just, I'm going to make an excuse for him.
01:12It was served up on his doorstep right before the season began,
01:14and then he hadn't told the trade deadline to do something about it.
01:18And it was the combination of him and Udoka.
01:22It almost, it felt like the organization felt differently about Reed Shepard perhaps than Udoka did.
01:29Because, like, to not go out and just find any warm body to be a competent point guard,
01:34that, that was the frustrating part as Kevin Durant is at the stage of his career where he is.
01:41But I'm still going to give him an excuse on, I'll give him an excuse for the,
01:46I'll give him an excuse just because of the suddenness and the surprise.
01:50The timing of it.
01:52Right now, and maybe it's just the white-hot heat of the moment because I'm just so miserable with the
01:57Astros right now,
01:58I guess I'd go with Dana Brown.
02:00Dana Brown.
02:00And just, it's not just the pitching, but just the overall roster construction and where they stand right now.
02:08And also the fact that they've just flat-out openly paraded Paredius around trying to trade him away
02:14because of the acknowledged issue they had with the balance on their team and didn't do anything about it.
02:19And it's cool in the short term, but that awesome offense isn't doing a damn thing to combat the problem.
02:25Like, none of these pitches you brought in in the offseason have done a damn thing.
02:29What about Nick?
02:31Nick, on the offensive line, it's hard because, okay, is this a one-year question or a multi-year question?
02:36Yeah, good question.
02:37I don't know.
02:37Yeah, I guess maybe, I would say over the last year, just maybe leading into, for the Texans,
02:44this offseason leading into the season for Stone, obviously leading into this season,
02:48I would say just specific to how they've done it for 2025-2026.
02:52I would say for, the problem is, this is the thing.
02:55This is how it felt last year.
02:57I don't know if this is accurate or not.
02:59It felt like it was almost a try-out year for Cole Popovich.
03:03And they said, hey, here, let's see if you can drive this old jalopy real good down on the dirt
03:09track down the road.
03:10And maybe then we'll get you a stock car.
03:14And I'm like, okay, cool.
03:15But they're racing that jalopy in a NASCAR race.
03:19Right, right.
03:19Hey, these games count.
03:21Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:23Yeah, so it worked out.
03:25Okay, they brought it at Ingram, and that worked out.
03:27Trent Brown was a budget signing, and that worked out.
03:30Kind of.
03:31Yeah.
03:31Except that Trent Brown was injured by the end of the season, by the final game.
03:35It was too little too late to get home field advantage by the time you figured out the offensive line.
03:40And, yeah, I think that that's – if you hadn't had to tiptoe into that season trying to figure out
03:47who could even play offensive line for you,
03:50and those guys had an entire season together, that it's very conceivable that that team could have gone to the
03:57Super Bowl.
03:57Yeah.
03:57So that's the biggest failure for me out of those three.
04:00Yeah, yeah.
04:00Yeah, so that's – so mine is, relative to those three, is Stone, only because he didn't really try to
04:07fix the point guard position.
04:09Yeah.
04:10You know, and even at the trade deadline, he had that press conference after the trade deadline where he said,
04:15well, maybe this just isn't our year.
04:17And that's – that was a pretty damning thing, I thought, for a GM to say and put out there.
04:21You know, it was just to – and who knows if maybe that factored into that lull of really bad
04:26basketball that they had.
04:27Like, when you hear your GM sit there at a press conference after the trade deadline, a trade deadline in
04:33which you did nothing.
04:34And I know – I'm not, like, waist deep in the salary cap issues and the aprons and things like
04:40that.
04:41They may have prevented him from doing something.
04:42But he is the GM that put this roster together.
04:45If you're prevented from doing anything because of what your salary cap situation looks like or because you signed Dorian
04:51Finney-Smith to this horrible deal
04:53that's putting you in a position where you're hard capped and you can't do things, you are the GM that
04:57did those things.
04:58You didn't inherit those things.
04:59That's where I give Dana Brown a little bit of grace is that Dana Brown came in on the heels
05:04of a really weird situation for one thing.
05:07You know, and I know it's been a couple years now.
05:09Seems perfectly natural to me now.
05:11But the part where they let James Click go after winning a World Series, then decide that the owner and
05:17Jeff Bagwell running things is the way to go about –
05:19and Reggie Jackson is the way to go about things.
05:21They make two or three horrible decisions and then hire Dana Brown, who comes in on the heels of those,
05:28and into an organization where the minor league system has just been – like, it's just been torn through because
05:35you've been making all these trades
05:36and you had bad drafts or whatever – or you had the punishment, too, from the sign-stealing scandal.
05:41I give him a little bit of grace.
05:43It doesn't mean that he's – you know, he's far from perfect, obviously.
05:46But these injuries are just such a weird thing that's going on with this team right now.
05:51You're right.
05:52The Dana Brown sound – I feel like – I keep wanting to give Dana Brown the benefit of the
05:57doubt when he said they'd had discussions
05:59where they thought, well, maybe this just isn't our year.
06:02It did – it felt like I was – if you're a soldier in a battle back in Vietnam or
06:09something,
06:09and your lieutenant all of a sudden just is like, well, you know what, maybe it's just not our day.
06:13Right.
06:14Right.
06:15All right, cool.
06:15Like, what do – all right, can we maybe do something about it?
06:18They're going to play the rest of the war.
06:20Sometimes things don't work out, you know.
06:21These games are going to count in this war that we're in right now.
06:24Yeah, yeah, yeah.
06:26Yeah, so that part, again, it's not enough to tip the scales, but I – yeah, I don't know.
06:33Boy, I wish that texter hadn't framed this question just like this.
06:37Yeah.
06:37Because I'm not feeling so hot right this moment.
06:39Right, right, right.
06:40I don't feel – I don't – I'm enjoying these Astros game because they're putting on such a show offensively.
06:47I would much rather – if the Astros are going to be a non-playoff team, at the very least,
06:53it's fun to watch the games.
06:55Yeah.
06:55Because they – you feel like they've always got a chance.
06:57Yeah, they're never out of it.
06:58Yep.
06:58They're delivering as opposed to if you're just – if you had awesome pitching and no offense, we've been through
07:04that before.
07:05Right.
07:05It's a – it's a – it is a battle to get through those games.
07:09Yeah, I would – for me, the answer to the question is Stone just because there was – it didn't
07:14seem – it didn't seem like there was any big effort to address the point guard thing.
07:20And then the point guard – the lack of a point guard has been the issue with this team when
07:25they've had issues this year.
07:26Yeah.
07:26You know, it's – you know, it's – so it's – that's it for me.
07:31With the – the benefit that Nick gets, I – because I would say I think Nick and the offensive
07:36line are just the Texans
07:37and how they've built the offensive line.
07:39It's been a multi-year saga.
07:41Yeah.
07:42I guess because they're not playing right now, they – the white-hot scrutiny isn't on as much because you
07:48feel like,
07:49oh, okay, well, they did some semi-aggressive things so far.
07:51Yeah.
07:51And then we'll see what they do in the draft.
07:53I expect they're going to draft an offensive lineman.
07:55But it's – it's been an ongoing saga where with the Astros situation, as you pointed out, it's an ongoing
08:01saga,
08:02but it's also Dane Brown inherited a bit of it.
08:04But – and with the Rockets, it's all – these issues – these issues are all this year issues.
08:10Yes.
08:10And it all started with Fred VanVleek.
08:12Yep, yep.
08:12And it's in the playoff start this week and how far can they make it.
08:16And you – you tried to build this team to compete with Oklahoma City and you're – it feels like
08:22–
08:23it almost feels like Rocket fans are resigned to the fact that, okay, you know, beating the Lakers should be
08:30a foregone conclusion.
08:30If it's not, then we've got bigger problems, but let's say they beat the Lakers.
08:34I don't know any Rockets fan that thinks they're going to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in a seven-game
08:37series right now.
08:38I just – I've not heard from anybody or talked to anybody who thinks that.
08:43And I think the other thing, too, Seth, that sticks in the craw of a lot of Rocket fans is
08:47that the San Antonio Spurs jumped into the HOV lane and just went right past you.
08:53You know, they were – they weren't a playoff team last year.
08:55They're the two-seed now.
08:56And they've got Victor Wimbayama, and I get that.
08:59He's an alien.
09:00He's a freak.
09:01He's the next big thing.
09:02But that doesn't – that doesn't make Rocket fans sleep better at night when you're sitting at a five-seed.
09:07Hey, one of our listeners earlier thought we were disrespecting LeBron James because we were ignoring the fact that LeBron
09:12James has carried bad teams or mediocre teams through the playoffs before.
09:16And he listed off his accomplishments, and I'm not denying his great and vast accomplishments, but he also – I
09:22just do – I do need to point out this detail.
09:25He didn't do any of those things when he was 41 years old.
09:28No.
09:28But it does – it was enough for me to be like, oh, wait a second.
09:33All right.
09:34If he's going to pull off one last miracle before he rides off into a playoff sunset, is there a
09:41chance that all of a sudden LeBron just does whatever it takes –
09:45Yeah.
09:45To play 40 minutes a night and just shows a different version of himself at this point?
09:50If you had no dog in the fight, would you be rooting for LeBron in this series just because he's
09:55the old guy that's trying to – or do you – you know, is it –
09:59I don't know.
10:00Is there anybody that doesn't have a dog in the fight?
10:02It feels hard to – it's – yeah, I don't – LeBron – no, I think if I weren't –
10:09yeah, if it wasn't –
10:10It'd be a cool story if he, at age 41, was able to turn back the clock with no Luka
10:16and no Austin Reeves and win a playoff series.
10:19I think the NBA would be into that story.
10:21They'd be into it, and I would want to get behind it, but it feels like every time LeBron does
10:25something incredible, he ruins it for me by the way he handles himself.
10:30Yeah, that's why I ask.
10:31No, but – but it would be one for the ages, yes.
10:34So if it weren't a team that I were – yeah, if it weren't a team I was a fan
10:38of, then, yeah, I would be into it.
10:40That would be pretty cool to watch.
10:41It would be pretty cool to watch.
10:42The other thing, too, though, –
10:42And I just wouldn't see – I wouldn't watch any of his interviews.
10:45Yeah, yeah, don't watch his interviews and don't look at what uniform he's wearing because it is the Lakers.
10:48I don't need to see him doing an interview where it talks about how he's always been the underdog or
10:51something like that.
10:52Nobody believed in me.
10:54Yeah, yeah.
10:54It's been this way forever.
10:56Yeah.
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