The Killer B's: Joel Blank & Jeremy Branham
10/09 Hour 2 - Do The Rockets Need To Trade For The Next Harden?
At the UPS Store, we know being a small business owner means holiday time is still go time, still get those orders shift time, and still re-up on stamps and supplies time. That's why this upcoming holiday, while others close up shop, will be open. And happy to help you keep being unstoppable. Coming to your local store today. Most locations are independently owned. Product services pricing and hours of operation may vary. See Center for Details, the UPS Store, be unstoppable. [MUSIC PLAYING] Don't sweat the technique. Coming to you live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios, it's the killer bees. On ESPN 97.5 and 92.5. Here's Joel Blank and Jeremy Branham. Rockets are young. They have a ton of ton of town, very, very deep. Do you think they have a star? I don't. I don't think that they have a star. And I think that in this league right now you need three. But at least you needed two to three, just to really be a solid playoff team that's competing for the upper echelon. And I was watching them the other night, and I forgot about Jay Shontay. And I'm like, my goodness, they have so much young talent, but they don't have a star. And I know that a lot of people believe Shen Goon is a star. I don't think he's a star. I think he's a really good above average player in this league. And I'm not sure that he's a star. But if he's a star, if you're looking at it for a big three, he's probably your third best player on a really good team. Jalen still has a ton to prove, and I'm not sure what he is. But at a certain point, you got to start asking yourself and evaluating talent around the league, too, to look at situations to figure out how do you find the star? And I don't mean the 30, 31-year-old star. We talked about a lot of the guys that were available last year could have been available if they were facing free agency. It's like trying to find harden when harden was at OKC when they realized that they just had too many guys to wrap up, and there was a guy that you might be able to go get. Because I think at a certain point, you got to start looking at what you have on this roster of all this young talent and saying, how many guys am I willing to part with? And who am I going to target to go out there to try and find a guy that can take this team to the next level? Because right now, I just think they have a bunch of young guys, a lot of log jams, a lot of positions. And I don't see anybody that stands out to me. I have two questions. Define star for me. What makes a star? I think an all-star caliber player. I think a guy that, in a lot of ways that you can lean on and depend on and go to at key moments in the game that can kind of be the difference between winning and losing a couple of close games, but also kind of step up and be the guy that you can have as a go-to guy. I think that you have to have guys that are almost a guaranteed bucket. But you can go to when you really need to get a bucket. All right. So like a top 30 player in the NBA, somewhere around there, if we're talking about all-star. 'Cause I don't think that the Rockets have a star yet. And by definition, they don't. Like if they don't have a top 30 player, Outfish and Goon was close last year to being an all-star, but was not an all-star. Then no one else on that team is all-star caliber. To me, it's the way that they're built. Like, I don't think that because you don't have a top 30 player in the NBA that you should be trying to package a bunch of these young players to go find a top 30 player in the NBA. You can only deal the hand that you have. And also think that you can develop stars. I think there's a better chance for the Rockets to turn Outfish and Goon or Jalen Green or a Min Thompson, maybe even Jabari Smith into an all-star level player, then to package two or three of them for a Jimmy Butler type. Like I rather them develop their young guys and hope they can develop an all-star caliber player than to be so desperate that you're packaging two or three of those guys to go get a guy who's in their mid-30s or early-30s. - And I'm not saying to be desperate, but I'm saying be more forward thinking in the fact that you've got guys that are gonna wanna develop more, that are gonna be searching for the minutes. You still are putting in force-feeding Dylan Brooks and Fred Van Vliet. When you have a log jam at a lot of the positions that you have and the way you're constructed. And I'm looking at that and saying, Jimmy Butler's not the right fit 'cause he's one of those guys that I wanna avoid 'cause he's older. I need a guy that's going to be able to fit right in with the younger talent and they can all play together, but he's gonna be a step above in a lot of ways. Reed Shepherd might be that guy in a couple of years. He's not close to being that guy right now. I don't believe that Jabari Smith is more than what he really, I think he's an above average role player. I don't see Jabari Smith as ever being one of my big three type players. There are some guys that do have the potential still to be one of those big three type players, but it's just a tough, they're playing OKC tonight. We talk about Shay Gilgis Alexander and you've got a guy or even chat that might end up being a guy that could be a top three player on a playoff caliber team. - But how did the Thunder make those guys that? They drafted them and then developed them. - They traded for Shay. - Yeah, they're the clipper straight. But they'd chat with somebody that you drafted to develop. I don't, like you have to play the hand of your Dell. Like what solution is there? Like that's the kind of the hang up that I have with your point is what do you want them to do? - Well, I'm not saying it, it's not desperation. I'm not, don't misread that. It's not desperation. But at a certain point, you got to start looking like the way the Celtics found White turned him into one of those big three big four type guys. Look around the league and say are there gonna be teams that have just such a glutton of talent or that the young guys aren't gonna be, they're not gonna be able to pay them or start evaluating some of the talent of the last couple of drafts and see if there isn't a guy because on a team that's more of a playoff caliber team where you might be in line to say yeah, I can package a couple of these guys that are all that are playing the same position. I'm not trying to like deplete all the depth that you have of young talent, but maybe get a guy that in your system gets the minutes that he needs to be able to flourish better than where he's at and start looking at that kind of talent evaluation instead of like you said, taking the assets you have and trying to get the best players that you can get, there's a way to do this to kind of not fast forward it, but get to the next level. - You don't think they're doing that though? - I don't. - You don't think that the general manager of the team is looking around the league and trying to capitalize on certain things that could become available. I mean, this is the general manager that draft pick Rio allocated, their future first with Brooklyn and all of a sudden got Phoenix's future first. So like that type of trade was very like trying to look ahead, trying to position themselves for a much better spot. So if you have a general manager that's doing those kind of trades, I have to believe that that general manager is looking at possible players on teams. Should they become available that we could be aggressive at attacking? - That's two different scenarios. That's just trying to play the draft yet again and we don't know how that's going to play out, but I mean, I don't have to believe that. I want to believe that, but I don't know that I can believe that right now. And I think that within the Rockets organization, this is a crucial year to start doing that. If you haven't done that previously, fine, because you've done a really good job stockpiling a lot of talent. But at the same time, as you look at what you have and where you want to go with it and where your owner and your coach want to take this to, I think just continuing to draft guys and hope at a certain point, you start forward thinking and looking around the league to evaluate on other rosters and what situations may be to try and acquire a guy you don't have that you might not be able to get just through the draft. - Yeah, I guess we have just a difference of opinion on what we think Rafael Stone is doing in terms of the forward thinking of his roster. And I'm okay with them just going this year. Like I'm okay with you have all these young players. Let's see how it all plays out. And then maybe at the trade deadline, you start to evaluate, okay, this guy isn't living up to the expectations we have. We think he has good value. Maybe let's include him as part of that trade. I don't want them to do anything until the trade deadline at the earliest. I think that their best chance of acquiring a star or developing a star is to develop the star. I think it's much easier that way. You have a lot of young players that could take that next step. And I don't want to be the team that trades those players like SGA before he took that next step. So I want them to hang on to what they have. The second question I had is do you need a star to win an NBA championship? - I think you do. I really do. I think you need more than, sometimes in a lot of cases, I think you need more than one. And I think you've seen that and a lot of the teams that have won the title recently with the Boston's and the Denver's and the teams that have won the title. I think you need more than one, but I definitely think you need one to kind of take it to not just getting in and being content with that and taking it to the next level. And that's why I think this is why maybe the better way to put that in terms of the point I'm trying to make is this is such a critical year for the Rockets that people are just kind of, a lot of people are just saying, "Hey, they're great. "If they're gonna be fun to watch, they got a young team." But I think that when you hear some of the comments that Tillman makes and E-May make and where they're trying to get to, I think this is a critical year because right, you might wait until the trade deadline, but between now and the trade deadline, not only evaluating what you have and you've got to see what Jalen and Shengun look like together and as individuals. And then with the guys that you have and the rotation that you set trying to figure out, hey, at a certain point, I got to look to make a couple of moves here to try and better this team because of where we're currently constructed. - You look at Boston and they have Tatum and Brown who are obviously all stars and would be considered top 30 players. I don't know if either one's considered top 10. I don't think Tatum or Brown are top 10. I mean, Tatum couldn't even get into the USA Olympic rotation. - Regular season, Tatum is a top 10 player. - I think it's borderline. I think it's borderline. Like, again, he couldn't crack the USA rotation and that doesn't even include like the international players. Like, Luca's better than him. Like, it's more of a star. Same thing with the Joker, like the Greek freak. So I think that you can come up with 10 better players than Jason Tatum. - No, I mean, he's right on the brink, right around there. He's not top five. I don't think he's up 10. Jalen Brown's definitely not top 10. You look at the way that the Celtics are built. They're built on depth. They're built on a bunch of really good players and they have two wall stars. They have Jason Tatum and they have Jalen Brown and Brown's probably closer to top 30. Tatum's probably closer to top 10. So if you use Boston as the model of building a championship team, I think you look at Boston and you go, "Okay, we need to create tons of depth. We need a top 10-ish player and then we need a Robin who's a top 30-ish player." Can you, is that kind of good enough? - It's better. I don't know that that's good enough to win a title. Simply be-- - Boston, Boston did it with a top 10 player, top 30 player. - But Jerry, you're also exploding the fact that in a lot of cases, including Milwaukee, Holiday was one of their three best players and was considered an all-star type-- - But that's the depth there though, right? - Like that's the depth. - Like that's the depth. - So is-- - So is-- - White hasn't been an all-star. Drew has. - No, but if you want to use your all-star analogy though, but in terms of how he gets in with your team, but I'm saying, but to take him and say that's what a team needs to win a title, if you have two of those type players, but then you have four or five guys that are all considered, or at one point had been, like the three best, one of the three best players on their squad, and you take Porzingis and throw him in the mix too, you're like, now they got five guys that legitimately you could go to to get a bucket that can get you stops, that can do the thing you need from an all-star. - They're incredibly deep. - But like my point is I think the Rockets have a closer build to Boston, then they do a team that stars and scrubs, like Milwaukee. Milwaukee's got the Greek freak, and they got rid of Drew, and sure they have a couple of other good players, but they're not nearly as deep as Boston. You look at Dallas, like they have Luca, yeah they have one or two other really good players, but then they're not very deep, four through eight. So I compare the Rockets closer to Boston than I would compare to a star, super star team with a bunch of like pieces around them, like the Lakers, like the Mavs, like the Bucks. If I'm the Rockets, I'm looking at Boston as the model. I need to figure out a way to have a top 10 player, I need to figure out a way to have a top 30 player, and then I need to figure out a way to have really good players around those two guys. Because yes, Drew has been a former all-star, Derek White, not an all-star, but really good player, and incredible at his role. Incredible at his role. Of course, he's gonna score 20 points a game. But for me, the best chance for the Rockets to get there is to develop what they have, and not to trade three or four pieces for one. I think the Rockets are one of the five deepest teams in the league. I think Boston is without a doubt in my mind the deepest team in the league, because it's not just deep, it's talented, and even Porzingis has been an all-star. When you start looking at the guys on their roster. I think somewhere in between, but you have the OKC model, the Minnesota model now. - He's 17, 18. It's been a while since Porzingis has been an all-star. - But he's been an all-star, and yet he was big for them until he got hurt in the playoffs where he can still do things-- - I can score, for sure. - And he can score over people, and he's long enough that he can be somewhat of a factor on defense. So I think that you're right. I think that I love the depth of the Rockets, but at a certain point I'm looking at it going whether you got OKC, got Chet, and Chet's got a chance to be a franchise player, and Jalen, we're still trying to figure it out. Sometimes you just have to make the right pick or have the guy turn out, but you're looking at the picks that you've had and what they've actually turned into, and going, yeah, I love your scenario, and I do like the comparisons to the Boston's and the OKCs, but the challenge for me is finding that guy that's that top guy. - And I guess what I'm challenging you with is how do you find that guy? Like, what is your plan to find that guy? 'Cause I'm not disagreeing with the fact that you need a top 10 Nicallibre player. I don't think you need the best player in the NBA. I think you can have a top 10 player, top 30 player, and then a bunch of top 50 players, and be really good. Boston's an example of that. I like to look at Detroit back in the day when they had Chauncey, they had Rip, they had Prince, they had Rashid, they had Ben Wallace. Like, that wasn't a team that had a top 10 player, but they probably had two top 30 players and five top 50 players. Incredibly deep, incredibly well rounded, and beat the Lakers who had a couple of top 10 players. 0-979, you definitely need more than one. 8-8-0-7, you need to start to help define your team too. It helps to know who you were building around. I guess my challenging question is, how are you getting that guy? - Well, that's what I'm saying. Look, Darryl was very savvy and realizing, okay, see, he had a glutton of talent, and they had contract issues and salary cap issues to where they had to cut loose harden, and he was able to pounce, and he's able to get that guy. When you look at, you know, guys, teams that have developed the young players, a lot of times we didn't see them coming, but all of a sudden, they're there. You have to look at teams that are on the, you know, one on the cusp of trying to do something, you know, deeper with a veteran, and veteran, more veteran laden, and they're willing to let loose of a guy that they had that might turn into that star. It's a challenge, there's no doubt, but that's why I'm saying this is a critical year for them, 'cause I think they have to start changing their thinking a little bit, stop looking at the draft picks and the assets you have right now, or it might have down the road, and start looking at how do I turn some of the assets that I have into a guy that may, and it's gonna be a risk, but may be a guy that can take me to the next level, because Kyrie is there for Luca, Clay is just, you know, he's not the guy he used to be, but even with Dallas, Kyrie's a guy can take over a game. - Yeah, I just feel like it's a make-believe conversation unless you can say the player. Like, if you can't say the player that you want to attack, it's just, well, if somebody becomes available, to me it's not tangible, it's not real. - To me, it's real because of the fact that I think that's the way they have to think this year. They have to be scouring the league right now and trying to figure out who that player or players are. It's not Jimmy Butler, it's not, you know, the situation that Cleveland was possibly getting into with Spider Mitchell last year, and those guys aren't the right fit, because that's part of the challenge, too. It's not just finding that guy, it's finding that guy that blends with the guys that you're gonna keep and you have around, 'cause I think you can develop that two, three-star type of guy with some of the guys you still have on this roster, I just don't know who that number one guy is. That's my problem with it. Like, if you can't define what it is, well, how are you gonna go out and find it? Like, how are you gonna go out and trade for it? And if it's not available, then you can't do anything about it. - You could still, first of all, that's not what I'm paid to do, but at the same time, look, I think that what they should be doing is, my big thing is they need to adjust their focus, and this is a critical year for them to start, either start or finish doing that process, 'cause you're gonna have to make decisions at a certain point with the two guys that people were thinking we're gonna be two of those players, Shen Goone and Green, and then you also have to start looking around the league and saying, at a certain point, you're gonna get calls from agents and things that are saying, I need Tari to play more. I need whoever's not getting the minutes at the ones, twos, and threes to play more, and hopefully you get Van Vliet and Brooks off of the books sooner rather than later, so that you have some money to play with, too, if another scenario plays itself out, but I think you have to be prepared and start looking for who can be that guy. - Yeah, see, I think that a general manager's always doing that. And if Raffael Stone is not doing that, then that is a major problem, and maybe that's where our impasse is at. I feel like every general manager should be ready to strike when something like that presents itself. You're right, Morrie did that with James Harden. If James Harden, the unicorn, like popped itself up, yes, I would expect Raffael Stone to be ready to do that. But with the actions that he has made, I feel like he has proven that he's ready to do that. He's built an incredibly young team that are desirable for teams around the NBA, that if they were to trade a star, they would want a lot of the rocket's young pieces. Raffael Stone has built a treasure chest of draft picks that will be coveted by other teams should they trade their stars away. So I think that the actions of Raffael Stone have proven that he has positioned himself to where if a superstar of your liking pops up, they're ready to strike. - Okay, and we can agree to differ to a certain level, because I thought the Brooklyn picture is in the young draft picks. - I thought the Brooklyn picks were better than the Phoenix picks. I think it'll-- - It's about the same, but it's a little further out. - We'll see how it plays out. I think that-- - And they acquired an extra first rounder because of that. - I think that from the standpoint of it's, you know, it's one, it's evaluating talent one way or another. I think because, you know, he's also had swings and misses on a lot of first round picks, and he's unloaded a lot of his previous first round picks, basically just giving them away, trying to do some other things that whether they may or may not have either turned out for you or been helpful, you don't know. But at the same time, this is a critical year for Riffel Stone and for this organization, because I think you have to identify that, otherwise you're gonna be stuck in the mud, trying to develop your young talent with the guys that you have, trying to find a guy that, when we talk about Boston, they drafted both Brown and Tatum, and both of them hit to hit at different levels. - But it also took a lot of time for them to finally, like, hit it to wherever you wanna place them. Like Jalen Brown, wherever you wanna put Jalen Brown, people are texting top 15 Jalen Brown, top 30 Jalen Brown, top 25 Jalen Brown. It took 'em a while to become that player. Like Jalen Brown wasn't a top 25 players, 30 year in the league. - Right, but at the same time, you also, every scenario is different, and the fact that you have an owner that's running to take it to whatever phase you call it, your coach is looking to take it to that next level, I don't know how patient they're going to be, but that's why, again, why I'm saying this is such a critical year to start trying to think a little differently, and try to identify who those players are, or, and maybe they're already in the league, because of the fact that right now, with the draft picks you have, the guys you have on your roster, and the fact you don't have as many draft picks going forward, it's gonna be critical to how you continue to get better. - Well, you have more draft picks now, they're just not coming up soon. - Right. - You kick the can down the road to acquire more draft picks, and, you know, whether or which trades better, it's gonna depend on where Phoenix is at, quite frankly, versus where Brooklyn's at next year, the next couple of years. But if that never presents itself, what are they to do? - There's, between guys that have come up in free agency, between, you know, you always see this, I mean, look, you talk about the way Phoenix was able to get a Bradley Beale, but, you know, Booker was a guy that a little younger at age, but you don't know from year to year, we see teams suddenly wanna blow it up, we saw what happened in Brooklyn, we saw teams that we thought were gonna be perennial, playoff teams that can blow it up too, to where, that's all I'm saying is that this is, a lot of people are just saying it's gonna be a fun year to watch. I think this is gonna be a critical year for this entire organization to try and figure out how to take the next step. - I think they're a playoff team. - And I don't, I think they're a playoff team. - So let's say they don't make a trade and they don't like, you know, find that guy or have that guy pop free, but they're a top 16 in the Western Conference, don't you think that would be a win? Like, isn't that a, in a critical year, your words, isn't that a win? That you have this really young core with a treasured chest of draft picks and you're a top 16 in the Western Conference, I think that that would be the identity. - If they, if they show me this year that they're a top 16 in this league, then that means that someone that you already have on your roster is, is starting to step up to look like, at least one, if not more, is starting to look like a guy that can lead this team. - Yeah. - Yeah, and that goes back to the developing thing. - Right. - Like developing those guys and making, and I think that's your best chance of finding a star. Like, I think your best chance to have a top 30 player to have a, to have an all star is to develop your own. I don't think it's to make a desperation trade. I think it's, okay, I'll be some goon, you're gonna take the next step and become an all star. Oh, Jalen Green, you wanna be a 25 point per game score under a Imeidoka, that's fine by me. I'm in Thompson, you wanna be a triple double machine? Awesome. I think that's better than like, hey, let's take a very risky trade where we're trading a couple of our young players for this guy who might be a superstar, 'cause you might already have your superstars under contract. - Yeah, I'm not saying to make a desperation move, but I'm saying that in terms of why it's a critical year and how you have to evaluate things is, because you have multiple guys playing the same position, same age, close enough, and doing the same kind of things, that as you try to identify, how do I take the next step? That there's just a lot of agents aren't gonna like the minutes their guys are getting anyway, too, and that's gonna be part of the equation as well. I think if they get to the six seed this year, then they've done a great job developing their guys to where now you're not as, like, I wanna say desperate, but now you're not as focused at trying to find a guy that could be a top 15-ish player. - 71370, 0ESP, and let's go out to the HRMP listener line. D, you're in the hive with the bees, what's up? - It's a, I'm just listening to my NBA star conversation. It was two things that I wanted to talk about. He said, "Jason, Kate, I'm using a top 10 player. "You don't think the field picks had a top 10 player "on the team at all times?" - I think he's top 10-ish. He had a very difficult time cracking the USA rotation, which is about seven to eight deep, and that's before we talk about it. - No, I'm surprised that you're nitpicking me. I thought you were gonna go after blank. Shocker, I can't believe it, D. No, but that don't even, that don't, like if USA rotation, that'll have nothing to do with it. 'Cause he won a ring, and it didn't play, so I mean-- - Okay, you think he's top 10, I don't. What else you got? - Yeah, but anyway, yeah, and I looked at the odds for a coach of the year coming up, and he and me, a duck is at the front, so I mean, it looked like something is gonna change, but we're gonna see, I'll hang up a little bit. - All right, appreciate it. - What does that, I don't understand what-- - I think that was, yeah, I'm not really sure how that added. - How does the conversation-- - How does the conversation look a factor into that conversation? - That he's gonna get the most out of the young core, at least that would be better for my side of the argument. - I think the one thing that we can all agree on is that Adoka's getting the most out of guys that Stephen Silas wasn't getting anything out of, or trying to develop, they need Adoka, there's no doubt. - And I think that's probably why I'm more pro-developed than bro-trained, is 'cause if Stephen Silas was the head coach, I'm not gonna sit here and yell pro-development, but I believe in he made Adoka to develop his players. A couple of quick text on this, how do you feel about Carl Anthony Townsend, would he have been somebody that's-- - Who? - Yeah, me either. - Stay away. - 579, oh sassy, Branum. Part of the issue is we thought Shungoon was that guy, but then the team played better when he was out. That is a wrinkle, because let's see what that looks like this year, hopefully they can figure it out. Jalen Green, that game may not have evolved until it gets near the deadline, that's what I think. I think it's, this conversation's probably closer to deadline talk, and then 4229, the personal negative bias Joel has to stone. Mentioned you being biased towards stone. I'm calling what I see, and you can have your opinion, it's fine. - All right, 713-780-ESP, an HRNP listener line, 713-780-3776. Stresson or blessing, what do you stresson or blessing? It is the bees on ESPN 97-5 and ESPN 92-5. - Right now, I wanna tell you about Vandeford Air, Vandeford Air is the best in the business, because as a service company, when you deal with companies that come out and do things for you, you wanna make sure that it's all backed up, you wanna make sure that it's in writing, you wanna make sure it's guaranteed, you wanna make sure that if anything goes wrong or you're not satisfied, you can get your money back, and that's what Vandeford does. Vandeford does a variety of different services, they can re-pipe your house, they can put a dehumidifying system in your AC units, in your house, but the main thing that I'm focused on right now while it's still warm in Houston is the air conditioning. Your HVAC and your AC units are so vital to your everyday happiness, and when something goes wrong, you want a company that's gonna take care of it now, and that's what Vandeford Air does. All you gotta do is remember they're numbered, 281557, cool. When you put that number in your phone, whenever there's an AC issue, you call them, they come to you, it's guaranteed that when you call them, within 24 hours, they'll be there to see you. You don't have to wait for days on end, you don't have to hope that they have time to see you, and then when they come to see you, they're gonna identify what you got going on, they're gonna put everything in writing, they're gonna tell you what it's gonna cost to fix the part, if it's just a part, and or if you wanna replace the system, they'll give you that written estimate too. And then once they do the work, their workers' work is guaranteed, that they're gonna do top-notch work the first time, and be exactly the way you expected it to go, that the system or the part that they replace is guaranteed to work exactly how it's supposed to work, and that overall, your AC is going to be exactly at the temperature that you prefer. If any or every of those things go wrong, it's 100% satisfaction guaranteed, or your money back. That's why I tell you to lock their number in your phone. Even if you don't need anything right now, and you don't feel like getting your AC unit checked, and they can do that too, when you need them, you need to have that number ready to go, because they're gonna be the ones that take care of you the best. 281557, cool, or go to vandafordair.com. ESPN, 97.5. (upbeat music) You are back with a Killer B's on ESPN 97.5 and 92.5, live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios. Here's Joel Blanken, Jeremy Branham. Oh, it's Wednesday, it is 4.30, so it's time now for our weekly, are we blessing, are we stressing? Garrett, HoustonStressons.com, IG, Houston Stressons, text and commenter, on TikTok and Twitter, how you doing? What are we blessing or stressing on today? - I'm doing great, there's obviously a lot of news going on today, but my first thing is, I'm gonna ask, are we blessing or stressing on playing Drake May in his first ever start? (laughing) Obviously, I'm blessing, but with the old Texans, I would definitely be stressing. This does bring me back to the last time the Texans played a rookie with his first ever start was none other than Jacobi Bursett, and we all know how that game went, so I'm expecting a much different outcome this game. Obviously, the matchup of the Pat's O-line versus RD-line is a massive advantage for us, so I'm blessing. - I'm blessing the fact that he doesn't scare me right now at this point in his career, and we talked about earlier in the show today how the calling card for this team so far has been the defense. And I think that when you take a defensive-minded head coach with the weapons that he has to unleash, you mentioned their offensive line, but then just putting Drake May in a whole bunch of uncomfortable situations to try and quickly make reads and see different kind of stunts and blitzes and things, I think that they're gonna make life very uncomfortable for him, and that's why I feel a little bit more comfortable playing him than I do Jacobi Bursett. - Yeah, I can't say that I'm stressing playing Drake May, but I would be blessing more if they were going up against Jacobi Bursett. I think Bursett's an easier quarterback to beat. Drake May has talent that we don't know about yet. If you listen to CJ Stroud, Drake May with CJ Stroud's favorite quarterback in this draft. Drake May's more athletic, I think he's got a bigger arm. He's far more talented than Jacobi Bursett. Now, he's a better quarterback today than Jacobi Bursett. I think that's to be determined, but no, I'm not stressing a rookie quarterback, and I'm not gonna be the guy that tells you that the Houston Texans were the team that handed Bryce Young his first win last year. I'm not gonna do that. - Yep, I mean, so obviously, like you mentioned, the past comes into play, and then on Bursett too, like it would be nice. He kind of is like a statue in the pocket, but I still think we'll be fine. The next one I got is Blessing or Stressing. The idea that D'Amico Ryan's put out there that we should make the H-town blue uniforms are Texans primary uniform. I am big blessing on this. I was at the game on Sunday. This is a uniform and a logo and a theme that has slowly but surely grown on me. At first, I was kind of indifferent, but seeing it live in person is just a whole 'nother element in my eyes. And being at the game, like the entire aesthetic of the whole stadium was just electric, between the video boards, the end zones, the H logo on the field. And obviously, a win makes it that much better, so I'm big blessing on that. - I'm gonna stress it on this because of the fact that I like the fact that they implemented Houston blue. I just need more of it. And the uniforms, I'll probably get killed for this, but to me, the numbers look cheap. They looked plastic. I didn't like the way that they looked on the uniforms. And I think that maybe if this is the first adideration of what might come to fruition more down the road where we get more of the Houston blue, where that becomes more of a predominant color, we don't know what the legalities of that are with the Adams family in Tennessee, and if they can or they can't. But for me, if we're gonna go and implement Houston blue, I wanna see more of it. I want that to be more of the predominant color in that uniforms scheme. - Yeah, I'm stressing. D'Amico's taste in uniforms is like D'Amico wanting to run the ball or pass the ball on third and five with 44 seconds left to play. That led to an intentional grounding. I don't like them either. I'm with blankers on this one. I couldn't read the numbers on the back of the uniform. And as a guy who wants to see the numbers on the back of a uniform, I want numbers that I can see. They were like bunched together. The dark red, once you get a little sweat on them, made it difficult to see against the dark blue. I like the H logo as a secondary logo. I don't like it whenever you have three colors on it though, because now it becomes the circus. You have the H-town blue, you have the little navy blue and then you have it outlined in red. It looks cartoonish, it looks circusy to me. I like it when it's one solid color. I like it on the back of the normal helmets. I do like the H-town blue Toro that's on the back of the helmet. - The ultimate logo. - Yeah, I really like that on a hat, that on a polo, that's really sharp. I do like that they added the H-town blue, but I am not a fan of these uniforms. - I think the one thing on that too, Jeremy, is the fact that when you think about, when you use that kind of that old school letter, you think about the Tigers, you think about the Yankees, you think about teams that use that, it is a standalone. And when I see it on the helmet, it kind of gets, it all gets kind of just washed into the helmet to where if you had like a light silver or a bright outline of just the H, I'm good with it. - It's too busy with it, but there's a lot going on. - It looks like a cartoon. Like make it, if you had it one solid color, like you do see it like with one solid color and then like a red outline on the normal helmet, or you see it like on shirts. I think it looks good like that. Once you have the three colors, it looks too goofy. - Or the one in the end zone too, where they just use two colors, I think it's a red, and it pops, right, exactly. 'Cause I don't like the fact that it all just kind of gets mismatched together. Some people said it looked like if you were playing Madden and you created your own team and used that logo on the helmet. - I guess what I'm not seeing as being at the game, maybe it looks one way in person as opposed to TV, the number argument sounds fair to me, but I will say too, the one part that I do like is the accessories, the armbands, and the gloves, with the H-town blue, that kind of pop, but-- - Unless you're trying to avoid holding calls and you see that those bright blue gloves really stand out when they're grabbing jerseys. - That's a whole 'nother story right there, but yeah, at the very least, it seems like this is just a way for us to put our foot in the door to maybe introduce it as a more permanent color going forward, so. Next up I got, are we blessing or stressing the potential that Damian Pierce will be RB1 this week? I guess I'm just like a super optimistic guy. I am blessing this. For a couple reasons, I was obviously low on Damian Pierce this pre-season. In hindsight, you look back, it was a small sample size, and a pre-season game, obviously. I mean, Cam Aker's like a world beater, and we've seen what he's done now, so obviously pre-season is way different than regular season, but. One thing I've noticed the past two weeks with Bobby Sloak is we've gotten away from the zone running scheme. We've actually had the past two weeks more attempts rushing in gap scheme versus zone scheme, so I don't know if he's doing that, just trying to mix things up, or if it's because the offensive line personnel, they're better at gap scheme, but we all do know one thing about Damian Pierce, he's a much better gap runner than zone runner, so throwing that in the mix, I'm excited to see what he can provide, and I say give mix in an extra week of rest. Yeah, I think we're all on the same page to give mix in the rest. To me, I'm not gonna go and give Damian Pierce running back one carries this week. I think that what I saw of Cam Aker's was enough for me to believe. Cam Aker's against the New England Patriots should be just fine, and then we'll go from there. I don't know what I expect from Damian Pierce. I heard all the accolades and all the compliments all the way through camp, but I haven't seen enough to believe that he can translate that to the regular season no matter what scheme they're running, and I like the combination of Cam and Dari and what they did last week, at least for one more week. - Yeah, I'm blessing the idea of Damian Pierce's RB1 ever, ever again, even whenever Joe Mixon is out. Damian Pierce is the JJ Taylor replacement, I'm not sure he's a better one. He's your RB3, he's your kick returner. Cam Aker's Dari will combine to do what you need him to do. Dari's probably gonna be RB1, even though I thought Cam Aker's ran the ball a little bit better. And then Dari, of course, is gonna be the back in the backfield whenever you're looking to throw the football. But no, I don't think that Damian Pierce should be RB1, so I'm stressing the idea of that. - Yeah, and so I think we should note too, with Cam Aker's, it feels like just from the naked eye that he hasn't played good, but then you go look at the box score the past two, three weeks, he's averaging like four yards per carry. So he's one of the most productive backs. And on the flip side, Dari had 15 carries for 30 yards. Two yards per carry, so he shouldn't be RB1, but he is an outstanding, outstanding third down back. So I got one more, I got a, are we blessing or stressing who will step up with Nico on the IR? So I guess are we stressing the fact that Nico is gone and that we won't be able to succeed without him? Again, obviously I'm stressing that he's gone, but I'm blessing the idea that we can rebound without him. I think we have guys that'll step up. This could be a good opportunity for Tank to step up, primarily in the scramble drill facet of the game. Tank had a lot of big plays last year with CJ in that regard. Nico kind of took that over this year, so I would expect to see a lot of big plays between CJ and Tank and the scramble drill. - Brian wants to get in here as soon as possible to let you know his feelings on the fact that with Nico out, this could be a disaster. - He's stressing, huh? - He is, I think that we talked about this a lot earlier in the show, I look for this as a great opportunity to get more footballs in the direction of Tank and Steph. I think the big thing is going to be who is going to, I believe that they have a deep enough wide receiver room that they are going to be able to take care of the majority of this and they're going to be fine. The biggest problem is going to be who's going to take over that deep threat? Is it going to be Tank like he did a year ago? Is Tank going to be able to create the separation, get deep and do the kind of things to kind of give you still have that weapon in the arsenal? But other than that, I'm not stressed. - No, I'm blessing this. I'm actually excited to see what this looks like without Nico, 'cause I think that it has a chance long term to benefit their offense later in the year. Yes, obviously, the next four weeks, you much rather have Nico than not have Nico. Nico is playing at a wide receiver one in the NFL level. So you much rather have him on the field than have him off the field. I think the Texans go three and one. If Nico only misses four games, I think it's going to heighten what Tank Dell can do, what he has proven that he can do and what he's going to do again. And then I think once you bring Nico back with these receivers that have had to step up, maybe a tight end that has had to step up, Dalton Schultz, maybe a running game that has had to step up. I think that this has a chance to actually bring up the Texans offensive ceiling when it's all said and done. So I'm excited for this. I'm excited to see what it looks like. Much rather have Nico, but I'm blessing the idea to see if everybody can step up and then bring this offense up as a whole. - I like to your point, the one guy that I put on that more than anything else is Hutchinson. This might be the first really golden opportunity to have the door fly wide open to establish a spot for later in the year. - Well, Hutchinson is the ex-receiver behind Nico. So he will get those reps right off the bat. So it's now it's a question of where the targets will go. And y'all make great points. I mean, it's not only receivers tight ends can step up, running game can step up, but I really do look at this as a silver lining for us to kind of get other guys involved. I know it's been a big thing in the Texans world about Tank Belge in a slow start. So it's kind of a blessing in disguise. And I do say that I will agree with this on Demika Ryan's philosophy with players. He airs on the side of caution with injuries. - Not in game. (laughing) - Yeah, not in game. - I know your take on that, but like as far as recovering from injuries, I feel like Joe Mixon is a case in point. Like I really feel like he could probably play this week, maybe even last week, but he probably thinks a bit more big picture than anything. Nico Collins himself last year, when he had a calf strain, he missed two games. He probably could have played at least one, if not two. I know Casero even mentioned that himself. So I'm blessed on that. - I'm wondering the X position in 12 personnel. Like do you think that Hutch is gonna be, you know, the X in every single 12 personnel snap? - I've thought about that too. So basically your X is always on the field, but if your X is a Nico and it's Hutch, who's a second year guy, I've limited reps. I thought, will they put digs as an X and Tank as a Z? That's a great question. I mean. - Yeah, I'm curious about that. Like that's the one thing that I'm looking for early in the game Sunday. In 12 personnel, how much? 'Cause this past game, it's like, okay, well, Hutch was the backup in the week preparation. Tank has his role, Steph has his role. You know, they probably weren't working on it as much as you would, you know, in the preseason. But now that you have an entire week where you know Nico is not gonna be there, I wonder if they use a little digs, a little tank in the X in 12 personnel, and Hutch's snap count might go down a little bit. I'm curious, I don't know. - That's a great question, because I guess the one difference obviously between, and let's just say this, we all know this. Nico Collins, the big body X receiver, he's a unicorn, like getting a guy at that height, weight and speed to be able to run as fast as he can is super rare. So we have a guy now that has that same height and weight, but his speed is not as fast. So Hutch obviously doesn't have the deep threat that Nico has, so that kind of goes to your question, who's gonna be the X if we wanna stretch the field? - Yeah, I wanted to ask you that, 'cause you were a collegiate receiver. Not many people might know that looking at you, but you did play a little college football wide receiver. So I wanted to ask you. - What a deceptive speed. - I didn't, I was deceptively slow. Blessed in her stress, and with Garrett, you can find all of his work, IG, Houston Stresson's, Texans commenter on TikTok and Twitter, and as always, HoustonStressons.com. What should we look for this week at HoustonStressons.com? - So I actually wrote an article about this very topic. We're just talking about what Nico being out, and basically, I sensed a lot of people thought the sky was falling, but just a sense of optimism. Like we just said, like, hey, this is not necessarily a bad thing. We have plenty of options. It'll be better in the long run. So I'm starting to write more articles on there. I got basically a Discord channel on there. - Nice. - Creating profiles, so it's an ever evolving thing. And my whole goal with that is the same as social media. Be a one-stop shot for the Texans, and make it easier as a fan to consume content. Let me do the hard work, and I'll give you all the good stuff. - It sounds like a creator influencer, and a social media star. - You're gonna put on that this year. - You're blessing that the killer bees are your favorite radio show. - Absolutely 100%. - Check them out, HoustonStressons.com. I like Project Rudy. I like the Smash plan. What is that? Pretend it's a college football. It might be here sooner than you think. It is the bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. - Hey, before we go to the bank, I want to tell you a little bit about Stellar Rosa wines. Stellar Rosa wines are absolutely the perfect compliment to whenever you have a viewing party, a watch party, a big game where everybody's coming over to your house, and you don't want to just serve hard liquor and beer. You can give them another alternative, and it's served chilled, it's delicious. You don't have to pace yourself because it's the right amount of alcohol. It's all natural fruit, along with a lot of different flavors and spices, and they have a variety of different flavors and spices to go with whatever you're serving. If you're serving pizza and wings, nachos, chips and dips, and whatever else you might be putting on the table, the drinks also matter. And when you serve Stellar Rosa wines, you're going to serve something that everybody is going to enjoy. At any right time or wrong time, there's always a right time for Stellar Rosa wines, and you're going to love them because you can get them at your local retailer, serve chilled, they are the fantastic compliment to whatever you're doing at your house. Get out to one of your local retailers, get out to your liquor store this weekend and check out the Stellar Rosa wines because they are fantastic, and you are going to be a hit if you serve them at your party. And always, as I tell you, enjoy them, but please, celebrate responsibly. (upbeat music) - Yes, for you. 97, five. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Broadcasting live from the Veritex Community Bank Studios. It's the Killer B's with Joel Blanken, Jeremy Brannon. - On ESPN 97, five, and 92, five. (upbeat music) - 0979. Y'all days have passed. We the guys flex emoji. Y'all not the trend setters. Y'all's opinions on what's fire is irrelevant. The young guys know what's up, cringing face emoji. - That's all about the uniforms? - No, I think he's just, I don't know. I think he's just talking about our opinions in general, but he always listens. He listens. He our opinions stink, but he listens every single one of them. - Those who hate you listen twice as long. - You listen, yeah. You listen twice as long. The great Howard Stern once said that. - Yeah, I thought that was because we were critical of-- - I don't know if it was Howard Stern. - Fire new unis. - I think it was Rush. - I think it was Howard Stern. - I thought it was-- - I always heard the comment from Rush, but I mean, multiple people could have said it. - Yeah, I'll have to look it up. Were you saying, Blankers? - Oh, you guys have said that before, right? I mean, you have this-- - I thought it was Howard Stern. - And he, yeah. - But maybe it was, maybe they said similar quotes. - Yeah, they could have said something similar. One of them could have co-opted it from the other one. - I thought that that was the text was in direct response to ours not being pro new uniforms. - I would, if I had to ask from that segment, that would be what would drive that sort of comment. - Oh, no. Oh, I mean, he is, yeah, he is saying uniforms. - Okay. - He is saying, I agree. One, I mean, Blankers and I are not fashion aficionados. We wear T-shirts and shorts and, you know, we dress like we work in radio. So I would never say that you should listen to my opinion about fashion, ever. I would not give fashion advice. - Get in touch with Paul Galant. He is a self-proclaimed fashionista. - There you go. And Ocho's Brian Thomas Jr. text of the day. You know who does have Niko's height weight and is actually faster than Niko? (laughing) Brian Thomas Jr. - How many laps of this victory lap is Ocho taken? - Is he on lap 500, 592 right now? - I kind of like the obligatory Brian Thomas Jr. - I do, I do. - He's also-- - We deserve it. - He's also-- - Specifically me. We deserve it. - Branching out 'cause he's doing the same thing now on John and Lance. - Is he? Okay. - I like it. We're trendsetters here on the Killer B's. He is a freak. You know, he leads the NFL in receiving yards? It's a rookie for a rookie. - Really? - He's a head of neighbors. Now, neighbors was hurt. He had a concussion that factored into things. But Brian Thomas Jr. is a head of Malik neighbors. He's a head of Marvin Harrison Jr. for receiving yards as a rookie. And I would believe so. He is talented. He is going to be a handful for a lot of years in this league. - Yeah, guys are freak. He is very good. - What was the knock on him coming out that he just really didn't like football? - Yeah. - Yeah. I think he likes football just fine. - Let's see how three gets paid though. - Maybe. - Let's see. Like there's a lot of people who don't love sport that love money. And as soon as they get that contract. - They love it 'til the big contract. - Yeah, so we'll just keep that in the back of our mind. I'm not saying Brian Thomas Jr. is that guy. But I'll store it in the back of the mind. Have you heard of Project Rudy you've heard of the Smash plan in college football. SEC, Big 10 are the leaders that are kind of leading this all up. There's a lot of boring details. A lot of like, what is it? Hedge money and all of these. - Yeah, there's a hedge fund that apparently is going to put in like just over five billion to help fund some of this. - Yeah, long story short, there are big companies, big, you know, big money involved. They're going to give everybody big money. The teams that are involved, they're going to get more money than they're currently making. I like the idea of this. Now, it's all the power for schools. It's a total of 70 schools under one agreement. Some of the details on this, you're getting rid of all the other non 70, by the way. So like the group of five, what is the remnants of the pack? - Well, you wouldn't play either. You're not getting rid of them. You're just not playing. - But they wouldn't be in this. They wouldn't be in Project Rudy. - Right. They're on their own. - They're on their own. - The 70 teams only play each other. - Yes. So basically you're getting rid of them. - Yes, you are. You're just kind of. - You're getting rid of them. - You're not. - You're not. - You're not destroying their universities and football stadiums and taking them off the earth. You're not wiping them out with atomic bombs, at least not literally, but perverbally, maybe, because they wouldn't be in this new group, the Project Rudy. So you're getting the power for 70 schools under one agreement, Notre Dame would be involved too, because Notre Dame is always involved. You would only play games against the other schools in the Project Rudy. And then they had this idea of tearing these universities. Like a tier one is gonna make more money than a tier two. Tier two, more money than a tier three. Tier three, more than tier four, more tier four, more than tier five, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, further and further down. Actually, I think there's only three tiers. - Only three tiers, but there's a drop-off in money after each tier. Now, they would add in an element of promotion and relegation, like European soccer, so you can drop from tier one to tier two, tier two to tier three. You can work yourself up from tier three all the way up to tier one. The only thing I don't like about the whole Project Rudy and the smash plan is that you're gonna have some teams in the tier one that are there forever. They're fixed into tier one. These are like your die hard. - Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Notre Dame. - I don't like that aspect. - It's like seven. - That's the aspect I don't like about it. If those schools all of a sudden stink, they shouldn't be tier one schools. - I agree with that. - So I like this idea in general. I like Project Rudy. I like just breaking off the 70 programs into three tiers, having the conferences. However, the conferences are promotion, relegation. I'm a fan of this. - I actually like this. - Now from a standpoint of the national championship and everything like that, everything stays the same with 12 of the 70 teams. - I think that's a worth of progress. - They're talking about expanding. Part of the way to make more money is being able to sell better deals, rights, because they're playing more marquee match ups in the regular season, 'cause they're not playing the FCS and non-power five schools. The other part of that is, seems like expanding the playoff field. I can't imagine it goes too far, but I bet it goes up to at least 16. - All it said about it is changes to the future college football playoff format. It doesn't have a set thing. This would have to be something that is governed and talked about and all of that, but there would be expansion over 12. - 'Cause that's why I was just trying to figure out, you've had the three tiers, but a team on the third tier is still eligible to make the playoffs. - Oh yeah, yeah. - To do what it needs to be. - Oh yeah, and what I like about this is you have like a fighting chance. Like if you're a tier three school, you're number 70 in all the college football. Okay, well you can go to war and improve your lot in life. You can go out and okay, we're just gonna be better than everybody for the next five years and all of a sudden you've worked your way up to tier one and you're getting tons of money. Tier one's the top 16 schools earn per school revenue projections for $130 million once it gets going. Escalated all the way to $250 million in year two. So that's big money for your tier one school. - That's more than what SEC schools are making now. - Tons of money, your tier two, the next 22 schools earn a revenue of 60 to 110 million, which is similar to what the SEC and the Big Ten currently get. So if even if you're tier two, your school's 17 through 39, you're making 60 to 110 million dollars and then tier three, the last 32 schools, you have earning projections of somewhere between 30 and $60 million, which is similar to the Big 12 and ACC. So you don't lose money, you have a really good chance of increasing your money if you promote yourself because you're playing well and you go from tier three to tier two, now you're doubling your money, tier two to tier one, doubling your money. I love this, this is a great idea. - This is the best idea I've heard so far about trying to save college football because otherwise, the sustainability for the long term of having a lot of schools involved, I just think was slim and none because you're gonna see more and more schools fall off and it's gonna be the haves and the have-nots and the haves are gonna have a ton and the have-nots are gonna have less and less. So I like it. - You know who hates this? - The SEC. - I don't think the SEC hates it really. - Well the SEC commissioner does. He's openly talked about why are we inviting a third party into this? A third party's gonna wanna take money from us. We can do this on our own. - Yeah, I mean, he didn't like the idea of a third party. I think he likes the idea of taking off the group of five. - They can steal the idea and do it on their own. I don't think they're gonna actually do it with Smash Capital. - You probably need a governing body though. - Oh, for sure. - I know, but you probably want to be a governing body. - You probably should slash need have one. - Who hates it more than what? The teams that aren't one of the 70 schools. - That's you hates it. - The Boise State, the Washington States, the Tulane's, the right house. - Yeah, they're dead. - Yeah, I mean, they become, they become football championship subdivision. - Right, but yeah. - Pretty much. - From FCS. - Yeah. - They become, I mean, they still have basketball on your Olympics for boards, but good luck fun in that. - Boy. - Yeah, and the TV networks love this because they have more interesting games on a week by week basis. They're gonna be all over this. - Yeah, I like this selfishly. Now, if I was still a group of five person, I wouldn't love it, but now that I am an elitist, and now that I am power four, I love it. - So you're saying like all the schools in the Big Ten would be one of the 70s? - All the, like the Big Power four. So you got SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC. - So it wouldn't be Rutgers. It would be more the rice and the, yeah. - Yeah, Rutgers would survive, unfortunately. Sorry if there's any scarlet nighters. - I don't think there's any Rutgers alum here. - Yeah, but I'm a fan of this. Are you a fan of this? Seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, three, seven, seven, six. All right, Nico Collins, he's hurt. Does the injury of Nico make you regret any of Caesario moves so far this season? And does it make you change your mind a couple of guys, couple of names that might be out there? Seven, one, three, seven, eight, zero, three, seven, seven, six. It's the bees on ESPN 97.5 and ESPN 92.5. - Warning, warning. - You're listening to ESPN 97.5. - Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts for the power, performance, and reliability of a new superstar battery. Visit O'ReillyAuto.com. - Oh, oh, oh, oh, O'Reilly Auto Parts. [MUSIC]