Possibly the most interesting and positive development for the Rockets so far this season has been the emergence of Kelvin Cato as a servicale power forward, and a nice compliment to Yao Ming inside. Cato's bruising physique and willingness to go to the glass has enable Yao to concentrate a little more on other apsects of the game, irrsepective of how effective that has proven thus far. In my opinion, Cato proveides the two most essential elements we need from the pf spot on this team; tough interior defense and rebounding. Without them Yao will find himself in a lot more foul trouble, and havgint to work a lot harder on the boards at both ends. On the other hand, there are two significant detrminetal aspects to Cato assuming the role of poweer forward full time; it leaves us without a legit back-up center, on a team whose starting center is still prone to foul flurries and fatigue, and Cato simply doesn't stick the 10-15 footer with enough consistency to dissuade other teams from constantly doubling off of him onto Yao. Now if we had a Jason Kidd type of point guard, who could penetrate off of the PF double on Yao and kick it to Cato for the easy deuce, that second factor would be somewhat lessened, but we don't, and it isn't. If Amechi played the way he did two years ago in Orlando, the first wouldn't be an issue either, but he doesn't, and it is. There are those who say the solution is Mo Taylor, but in my mind Mo answers only one question; the double, while opening up so many more; interior D, rebounding, toughness, etc. I honestly believe that Mo is the worst kind of compliment to Yao, among power forwards who have any skill worthy of being starters. The dream solution would be an Antonio Davis or a Kurt Thomas type; can stick the medium J, so doubles pay, but also bangs the boards, plays tough interior D, etc...I suppose that we could think up trades for dream pf compliments to Yao, but in the meanwhile, short of that eventuality, what in your mind is the answer to the Cato question? Do we keep him at the 4 spot, dal with the constant interior doubles off of Yao and hope he develops a 15 footer, do we go with Mo, and pray his time off hgas allowed him to grow a backbone? Do we rotate those two as desired, trying to offset weaknesses a possession at a time? And also...long term...what do you feel will be the solution, if any, the Rockets come up with? DO you feel Cato will develop enough offense to make defenses stay honest, or that Mo will get tough, or that Eddie will come back stronger than before? Or do you see a trade as an inevitability in our immediate future? I myself certainly don't have the answers...but I think the questions are worth looking at.
WOW...another long post. Honestly, I don't believe Griffen will ever play again in a Rocket's uniform. It would be a dream if he did comeback (with out the assualt charges) and was stronger than ever. But that is just a dream. EG was a waste. He had no disire to "play" basketball this year. What I mean is that when he was asked about how he felt about Van Gundy's scheme EG said he would rather hang around the arc and shoot the 3's like Rudy T had him do. He did not show any desire in developing a post game. which to me seems just lazy. Maurice Taylor has a great jump shot. Most of the time he is very consistent. In the Blazer game he was there swishing all those 15+footers. It was nice to see a PF doing that again. I like having Cato as the starting PF, but if the game doesn't seem to be going our way, especially if the opposing team is winning by the outside shot and not taking it in, then I think MoT should play the majority of the minutes as PF. I hope Yao can get his coordination right when going for rebounds. He appears to tip the ball way too often leading to another chance for the opposing team to score. This has been about the only concern I have had about Yao, that and he needs to become more aggressive. BUT both of those things can easily be fixed.
Great post MacBeth! I have been thinking the same thing here lately. But I think at the end of your post you answered your own question: We don't have the answer to these questions. However I think we see the answer to the question in the way Jeff has been running the team. He starts out with Cato. He lets Cato and Yao set their tones. Yao on the offensive end and Cato doing the dirty work, rebounding, diving for balls, and making the other team's power forward pay if he has the balls to try and come in on our team's version on the "Twin Towers" Once the double teaming starts pull Cato or Yao for a breather and send in your Ace shooter at the 4; Mo Taylor. I suppose though that if you wanted to get creative (which we have creative people on this board) we could purpose some kind of a trade to bring in your dream 4. I would think that in the last year of contract that Rasheed Wallace might be doable, but doubtful. There is Kurt Thomas, Antonio Davis. Im rambling now, maybe something I said made some sense, but Im sure if it didnt around here I will hear about it.
cato,steve,mobley,moochie should be traded soon if the rockets want to make the playoffs this season. Let alone championship in the future. I know it wont happen,so Im barking up the wrong tree. Im going to call in 610 on monday and hammer the message that doesnt seem to resinate here. But on the radio will have thousands of listeners to presuade. Anyways, its a houston thing I think. Started with rudy. Its the david wood and scottie brooks syndrome. IN other cities,if a player sucks,they usually get booed and dropped from the team,here in houston those players get standing ovations like in 1999 of "ca-to, ca-to" only to have a outragous contract put forth. Then, as long as you hustle, the rocket fans will pay good money to watch you break a sweat. Doesnt matter if you suck,or airball layups,or be the embaressment of the rocket franchise on espn,only thing that matters is if cato can grab a occasional rebound that phone booth yao misses,and cato gets the love from JVG and annointed starting pf for the next 5 years. Who cares if he cant shoot. I dont either. Its fun watching airballs and butter fingers. I love the hustle. I loved scottie brooks because he tried and his hair would be cute,who cares if he nearly cost every single lead every time he stepped onto the court ala moochie. Everyone loved him ,so the moral of my post is lets forget about championships and playoffs,I only want guys like cato and moochie to play because they try harder in practice and dont smoke dope.
IMO, besides tough interior defense and rebounding, another important attribute of having Cato starting alongside Yao is that Cato knows his ROLE on the team - which is something very important considering we have 2 improvisational player in our backcourt & Cato is not the shooting-happy type that will take away shots from Francis & Yao. Agreed. Another issue of having Cato at the 4 is the lack of quickness to guard the atheletic/mobile forwards such as Nowitzki & Garnet in the west. However, I still believes the adv of having Cato complemented Yao's game & addressed the various aspects of our team's need at powerf forward is more than out weight the cons. I believe Cato is already doing the best he possibly could right now & I don't expect him to develop a long jumper anytime soon if ever. As for the long term, I do feel that JVG will bring in another bruiser/good rebounder in to address our deficiencies at PF & C. IMO, if we are going to keep both Francis or Mobley in the long run, I'm with you that an Antonio Davis/Kurt Thomas type will be the way to go. However, if either of the 2 gets traded I'll hope that we trade for a more balanced PF (Elton Brand type) that have no trouble of playing team oriented game. I think the key aspect for the future development of the team is to assemble a group of player that are ' team oriented & knows their roles' i.e. smart plays.
I agree with you on this point MacBeth. In fact, one of the problems with offensive continuity is what to do when Yao sits down near the end of Q1? Sometimes I think it's better to go with size and girth than just talent. Though I like MoT, I think he is the odd man out when it comes to finding the right rotation absent Yao. I'd rather have Torayye Braggs and Cato together with Jackson, Mobley and SF than MoT. MoT brings some added offense but is not the big body for rebounding that we get with Braggs. Moving Cato to and from the PF to the C position also requires a lot of flexibility on Cato's part. I think there are times when Cato is caught off/late on defensive rotations/help b/c he forgets where he should be playing. I don't envy his task one bit, but the Rox need to figure out how to bring more depth to the center position. theSAGE
First, the Rockets have never had a player named Griffen. Second, Mo Taylor has been showing the aggressiveness needed to be a good rebounder. I think JVG or PE has been teaching glass. Cato IMO is best utilized as a backup to both the center and PF positions, which would earn him 30 to 35 minutes per game.
I think Cato's doing a wonderful job a a replacement. However, I don't think he'll ever be able to develop the kidn of offense that we'll need to win a championship. I fear his trade value will drop, and these 5pt/12reb games will become somewhat normal to other teams. I also think that MoT can be a great compliment to Yao. I'd MUCH rather have him being the 3rd option than Cat, since he shoots a higher % and is more consistent. Basically, what I'm trying to say is that with THIS roster, Cato is best suited coming off the bench, with Mo starting. Cato obviously has trouble scoring against starting PF's, and we need a backup C. Yao's improvement in the rebounding dept. has made the thought of starting oT way more feasible. I'd give Cato a few more games before demoting him to the bench, and until Mo shakes off ALL the rust. At that point, I'll see if our team is becoming "smarter" offensively. If not, I would like to see Mobley, Cato and Mooch shipped out in the same deal for some very solid player, someone who will score a bit, defend more, and most importantly play smart team-ball. There are some interesting names out there. Antonio Davis, for example, would be superb IMO. However, his contract is so bad that I'd want to see ALL our long contracts gone in such a deal. Cato, MoT, Mobley, and Mooch for Antonio Davis, Alvin Williams, Mo Pete. Something like that. Right now, I think it's also VERY important to see what Pike does for this team. I'm hoping that he comes back, and improves our spacing A LOT, giving Francis and Yao more open looks, Mobley and Moochie less playing time, and the Rockets some more wins. Ofcourse, I don't anticipate any trades or major shakups for another 7 or 8 games. It's still too early to judge, and we're still exceeding expectations.
From watching the Rockets games this year I seem to notice that most of the offensive rebounds and putbacks by Yao is from driving misses by Cato in close. And when Yao misses, almost no offensive rebounding is done by the teammates. When the Rockets take mostly perimeter shots, Yao has almost no chance for rebounds and putbacks. What would happen if they start going to the hole more often besides Cato?? What would happen if the Rockets stop assuming that every shots that Yao takes would go in and crash the boards???
MacBeth, I agree with you that Cato has been crucial so far this season. I really like the defense and the rebounding that he provides. Also, I think his offensive game will improve as the season goes once he gets used to being more involved offensively. However, I think Taylor is going to play a very crucial part this year too I think. He seems to be hustling more than ever. He is active in the rebounding, and playing reasonably good defense. On top of that he provides a good jumper and good ball handling at the PF spot. He is a guy that can do very well in plays that involve the high post. The defenders have to respect him after switching off because he has a good jumper. He can also drive towards the basket, and have decent moves in the post. He is a guy that the team needs to get involved early in the game. His scoring in the second unit could provide a much needed boost for the bench. Once Taylor becomes more involved, I'd imagine Cato will be sufficient in playing center whenever Yao in the bench, so an additional backup C might not be necessary. There are a total of 96 minutes for 2 positions in a game. I think Cato, Yao, and Taylor are all capable of handling that. I also think that the emergence of Toray Braggs will provide more depth for the bench. Braggs is a bruiser, he hustles for rebounds and defense. He is also very good at finishing near the basket. I think he is a great fit especially if one of our big guys go down. I think the front court has been very good so far this year, and I think it'll get better as the team gels. While they are all learning a new offensive scheme, and sometimes that is all too obvious on the court, their defensive play and hustle so far has made a huge difference for the team. I personally would rather the team stick to what they have now, and see what product they have in a couple of months.
Cato is a decent role player; tough defense, good rebounding, decent at the FT line (irronically when the game is on the line). But he will not develp much more than he already has. He's not the answer to our PF spot. He's only temporary. He's a backup center. That's about it.
Exactly. JVG expects all to be role players. I've been a big Cato fan for a while, was disapointed in his play after signing the big contract and was pleased as hell when he started to come and play last year. All the trade rumors on here about Cato for... Total B.S. Yeah, he'd be a premier center in the East but who cares... You've got the best back up center in the league. You've got a good complement to Yao as a starting power forward and with MoT, who will hit his game soon, coming off the bench to offer that contrast of styles... We've got a good thing. Cat and Franchise are the ones who need to make their game secondary to the inside game and play off that strength. I still don't see a need to trade anyone (unless someone is stupid enough to trade for Moochie).
Yes, I agree with all the points raised here. But I do have reservation regardless how well Cato's improvement has been: (1) At the offensive end, Cato's man was often used to double team Yao. Obviously, his lack of offensive weapon hurts us big time from this perspective. (2) At the defensive end, whenever we play a team with versatile or atheletic PF, we lost that match in an astounding fashion. Even the rookie BOSH had a breakout game against us. Apparently, Cato had hard time defending that type of PF, which unfortunately is quite common in the Western Conference.
That happy-go-lucky attitude you talk about is what NEEDED to be killed when Rudy left. It was getting out of hand. He was going to take the ship down with him with his sappy "loyalty." Just as fans can be too "harsh" (Boston/Chicaco/NY), fans can be too "nice (Houston, Atlanta, Dallas, San Antonio). Southerner hospitality? Probably... Anyways, I'll have to agree with your assement about how Rocket management (and fan support) has been in the last 4 years. Houston management has been less pragmatism/realist and more about past dreams of glory. Well, when the past cloudes ones mind to the point that is hampers ones ablity to make the necessary changes to create a winning team. Well, that just's plain dumb (Too hell with the "warm fuzzys!")
DavidS- While I agree that the Rox management decision making had been questionable for a few years (ie Moochie's contract), I think they finally woke up this last offseason and made some nice pickups. (Also- anyone who says that Rocket fans can be too nice hasn't been on this board after a loss) But back to MacBeth's original post- you bring up a valid point, Cato will never hit a 15-footer to save his life. But, there are simply not many PF's in the league that can, and the teams that do that that kind of a player are dishing out a lot of $$ for them. Sheed, Dirk, KG to name a few. I can't think of any team that has a PF that can consistently hit 15ft's as a role player on their team. Even the ones that can that aren't considered "Superstar" quality players would be your Pau Gasol, Brad Miller type, who still make a hefty salary. I also think that people on this board are giving WAAAAY to much credit to AD and Kurt Thomas' ability to shoot the ball. I think more realistic possibilities of a PF role player that can shoot the J (and don't have ridiculous salaries) are the Cliff Robinson, Carlos Boozer, Christian Laettner variety. Also, remember this- The Lakers won their titles with Samaki Walker at the PF to complement Shaq. Yes, that's Samaki Walker. And I lived in LA for each of those titles, and can tell you that everyone around town criticized those teams for their poor PF play. The point is, all teams have their weaknesses, but good teams learn to play to their strengths and minimize their weaknesses. Personally, I think the Rox can win a title with Cato at the PF. They just need to play better basketball as a team.
