NERDS AROUND TOWN
Nerds Around Town: Texans, New York Comic Con and funny commercials
Oct 7, 2019, 7:35 am
ART BY JESUS RODRIGUEZ
Born with a comic book in one hand and a remote control in the other, Cory DLG is the talent of Conroe's very own Nerd Thug Radio and Sports. Check out the podcast replay of the FM radio show at www.nerdthugradio.com!
GOOD DEED OF THE DAY
This week Nerd Thug Radio sets up our plans for Extra Life which will be November 2nd. Donations will be going towards the Children's Miracle Network of Hospitals as they have every year. This thing is awesome, basically on November 2nd we'll be gaming all day. ALL DAY. And then we collect donations and bring awareness and blah blah blah. Here's what's important, the Children's Miracle Network is awesome and the money goes into local branches so LITERALLY the money you donate could SAVE YOUR CHILD. That's the stuff I'm talking about.
GOOD SPORTS WEEKEND TO THE WORLD
The Astros are winning in the playoffs, the Texans won against a suddenly alive Falcon's offense, the Rockets season is about to begin and the Cowboys lost. This is the kind of sports weekend I like talking about, good news all around is the kind of news I want to have, and hell yes I like when the Cowboys lose. But honestly, Texans, clean up the return game, we got lucky that the referees don't know the rules either but at some point mistakes will burn us.
NEW YORK COMIC CON
I've been to it before, it's awesome. This is the one where all the creators go to, where all the news comes out of and all the fun stuff gets announced. This year I want to start getting out to all the various events and meeting more people, that's the next step for me as a writer. The industry is tight knit and it's hard to break in although once you break in, you are in until you suck. Anyway this is where the big time happens and tons of cool stuff was announced, and Birds of Prey were there hanging out. They announced a new Wolverine book with Kubert on it, which is one of the guys who needs to be drawing Wolverine or the x Men all the time. I'm pumped for everything to start coming out.
GOOD ADS
Tide and Head and Shoulders have been making some good ads lately. Peyton Manning is the perfect football pitch man and Patrick Mahone's (weird voice and everything) has made some great commercials himself. The one between him and Troy Polamalu is great, they added to it this week with them disagreeing on tons of words and then there's a great bit with the wind blowing their hair back and I won't ruin it, but it's worth seeing.
NOT THAT YOU ASKED
DC has released a timeline of its comic book history and honestly this is always a mistake. Always. Lining up how long ago something is or was on paper suddenly makes things look wrong. For example now by one creator's estimate World War 2 was in the mid-1960s… oops. This doesn't make any sense at all and this is exactly why you don't put these things down on paper.
Feel free to check out my brand new comic book Another Day at the Office or buy a shirt from Side Hustle Ts where some proceeds help people struggling with cancer or listen to Nerd Thug Radio. Thoughts, complaints, events and comments can be sent to corydlg@gmail.com.
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Astros keep doing this, and it’s getting hard to ignore
Jun 25, 2025, 10:01 pm
While the rolling Astros have a week of possible World Series preview matchups against the Phillies and Cubs, it’s the Rockets who made the biggest local sports headline with their acquisition of Kevin Durant. What a move! Of course there is risk involved in trading for a guy soon to turn 37 years old and who carries an injury history, but balancing risk vs. reward is a part of the game. This is a fabulous move for the Rockets. It’s understood that there are dissenters to this view. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, including people with the wrong opinion! Let’s dig in.
The Rockets had a wonderful season in winning 52 games before their disappointing first-round playoff loss to the Warriors, but like everyone else in the Western Conference, they were nowhere close to Oklahoma City’s caliber. While they finished second in the West, the Rockets only finished four games ahead of the play-in. That letting the stew simmer with further growth among their young players would yield true championship contention was no given for 2025-26 or beyond.
Kevin Durant is one of the 10 greatest offensive players the NBA has ever seen. Among his current contemporaries only Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic make that list. For instance, Durant offensively has clearly been better than the late and legendary Kobe Bryant. To view it from a Houston perspective, Durant has been an indisputably greater offensive force than the amazing Hakeem Olajuwon. But this is not a nostalgia trip in which the Rockets are trading for a guy based on what he used to be. While Durant could hit the wall at any point, living in fear that it’s about to happen is no way to live because KD, approaching his 18th NBA season, is still an elite offensive player.
As to the durability concern, Durant played more games (62) this past season than did Fred VanVleet, Jabari Smith, and Tari Eason. The season before he played more games (75) than did VanVleet, Dillon Brooks, and Alperen Sengun. In each of the last two seasons Durant averaged more minutes per game (36.9) than any Rocket. That was stupid and/or desperate of the Suns, the Rockets will be smarter. Not that the workload eroded Durant’s production or efficiency. Over the two seasons he averaged almost 27 points per game while shooting 52 percent from the floor, 42 percent from behind the three-point line, and 85 percent from the free throw line. Awesomeness. The Rockets made the leap to being a very good team despite a frankly crummy half-court offense. The Rockets ranked 21st among the 30 NBA teams in three-point percentage, and dead last in free throw percentage. Amen Thompson has an array of skills and looks poised to be a unique star. Alas, Thompson has no credible jump shot. VanVleet is not a creator, Smith has limited handle. Adding Durant directly addresses the Rockets’ most glaring weakness.
The price the Rockets paid was in the big picture, minimal, unless you think Jalen Green is going to become a bonafide star. Green is still just 23 years old and spectacular athletically, but nothing he has done over four pro seasons suggests he’s on the cusp of greatness. In no season has Green even shot the league average from the floor or from three. His defense has never been as good as it should be given his athleticism. Compared to some other two-guards who made the NBA move one year removed from high school, four seasons into his career Green is waaaaaay behind where Shae Gilgeous-Alexander, Anthony Edwards, and Devin Booker were four seasons in, and now well behind his draft classmate Cade Cunningham. Dillon Brooks was a solid pro in two seasons here and shot a career-best from three in 2024-2025, but he’s being replaced by Kevin Durant! In terms of the draft pick capital sent to Phoenix, five second round picks are essentially meaningless. The Rockets have multiple extra first round picks in the coming years. As for the sole first-rounder dealt away, whichever player the Rockets would have taken 10th Wednesday night would have been rather unlikely to crack the playing rotation.
VanVleet signs extension
Re-signing Fred VanVleet to a two-year, 50 million dollar guarantee is sensible. In a vacuum, VanVleet was substantially overpaid at the over 40 mil he made per season the last two. He’s a middle-of-the-pack starting point guard. But his professionalism and headiness brought major value to the Rockets’ kiddie corps while their payroll was otherwise very low. Ideally, Reed Sheppard makes a leap to look like an NBA lead guard in his second season, after a pretty much zippo of a rookie campaign. Sheppard is supposed to be a lights-out shooter. For the Rockets to max out, they need two sharpshooters on the court to balance Thompson’s presence.
For Astro-centric conversation, join Brandon Strange, Josh Jordan, and me for the Stone Cold ‘Stros podcast which drops each Monday afternoon, with an additional episode now on Thursday. Click here to catch!
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