Cato was not much of a shot blocker last year because he was told to just stay in front of his man so he wouldn't get into foul trouble. This year, he will be responsible for less than 20 minutes with five fouls to give. He can be more aggressive on the defensive end without worring about staying in the game.
I would NOT tell Cato to get more aggressive on blocking shots, because he just doesn't get it. I would continue trying to teach him to stay down, and wait for it. He gets faked way too much, resulting in easy buckets, FTs and 3pt plays. I would rather tell Cato to get more aggressive on holding ground, blocking out, and going for every rebound. That's where your theory of "don't worry about fouls" works, imo, not going for highlight reel blocks. Cato is just not much of a shotblocker. He has no displine. He is just an athletic and wild 6'11 player who guesses wrong more often than he guesses right.
i still have some hope that the way yao will make cato better is by cato trying harder to gain some minutes back.
Ming will put Cato so deep on the bench that we wont ever see him again and thus resulting in an invisible Cato which is better looking then the present Cato?
Yao will make Cato better by kicking his arse each time he fails to catch a pass, that way Cato'll have a much bigger swollen arse to push for rebounding position.
Wasn't there a thread on this saying the exact opposite? That Cato was NOT working hard this summer? That Cato works out only when he WANTS to work out (meaning NEVER)?
from what i heard, he went to bigmans camp. there were also some quotes from steve that said cato was working hard this summer. we should all have our finger's crossed.
I'm sorry guys, but Cato will be an important part of this team. When Yao struggles, Cato will play and vice versa. Also, Yao is not a guy that plays 40 minutes a night. Cato is a huge part of this team and when he puts his mind to it, he can flat out play.
as hard as it is not to rag on cato, he was pretty productive last year even after the traded deadline passed. if he truly feels his job threatened than hopefully he'll improve on that and provide exactly what we need while ming rests.
With any luck Cato will go from an appalling starter to something else. A player morphed into a back-up center that will make other teams envious. That event would cause me to go- . (I'm not gonna hold my breath, but maybe we're due for some more luck. We've been lucky lately. )
I also believe that Cato will be better this season by having competiton at his position. Competition makes players play better on the same team because the other will always want more minutes. So look for Cato to show a vast improvement the beginning of the season. Anyway this is just wishful thinking. Plankton mention of SBSP
I know someone is going to have to play against Yao during practice...So I know Cato is going to have to get better. Seeing Yao hitting shots from the free throw line with ease is going to help Cato defend some opponents further out. Possibly in certain matchups or cases where he may have to guard a power forward such as Malone. Gosh, I cant beleive I just used a jazz player as an example.
The problem with Cato this year maybe the coach. Rudy likes to have a PF/C type coming off the bench rather than a pure center. Someone like MoT to spell Yao for 15 minutes and Griff for 15. Remember Rudy normally uses 8 players and doesn't use a deep bench. 9 players max.
