I've been thinking about the possibility of Cato moving to starting PF where he could be Yoa's enforcer ala Thorpe and Oakley. We could then take advantage of his rebounding and defense. He's not a player who demands the ball a lot. This might really work well with JVG's defensive mentality. We have a lot of scorers in the starting 5. Taylor can be the sixth man and spell either Yoa or Cato. If he replaces Yao then Cato can move to the 5. Thoughts?
No. What is Cato going to do when he's covering Dirk or Rasheed and they bring him out to the 3 point line? He'll get lit up and drove by all day long.
On nights when 'Sheed is lighting us up, play EG more at 4. I like the "twin towers" concept for defensive reasons. With both Ming and Cato in to start, that is a sizeable front line. I don't see how it could hurt to try it out when Malone and Shaq come into the Toybox.
No way. offensive we need a PF who can hit the mid range jumper, and cato can't on defense we wil be to slow. like redgoose said we wil not be able to guard quick PF and there ae alot of quick PF in the nba.
I would love to have a twin tower combo also. But in order for that combo to work, both players would have to be very agile and versitle. Cato is neither. If it was that easy to set up a twin tower system everone would do it with their back up center. That's what made the Spurs so special. They had two versitale players that could play D, run the floor, and hit the mid range jump shot. Also, believe it or not, Malone is alot faster than Cato. Besides, he could just bring Cato out to the arch where he has legitimate range, set a pick, and then let Kobe drive to the basket alone only to cause Yao to be left by himself and foul out in the first half. On a side note, if Darko is the real deal, you will be seeing the next twin towers of the NBA.
I agree with redgoose and arno-ed. I just don't see enough quickness and enough lateral movement with Cato to envision him guarding other power forwards.
Our hopes should not rely on Cato being able to play the 4. We should pray that Eddie can become a better defensive 4 under JVG and block shots like his rookie year and Mo plays like he did the second half of last year, especially in the post. cato should not play the 4. The only exception I would make would be against bigger teams, but only for a VERY few minutes. Cato shouldnt exceed his 20 minutes a night........disaster otherwise....
Cato played 4 last season once or twice... Don't remember? Because he sucked so bad a 4th grader would have pulled of off the court.
actually, If we were going to play both Yao and Cato at the same time (which is overall, not a good idea, I think), I'd have to say Yao is more suited for the 4. He's much quicker than Cato, and can hit the midrange-long range jumper. But that's clearly not the answer.
I don't mind seeing Cato at the Four part of the time. Not every minute of every game, but I can see it in certain situations. On the bad match-ups, ie Dirk (who is alos a bad matrch up for Grifin, Taylor and the rest of the league) maybe Yao comes out to guard him, and Cato stays home with Najera, or Bradley.
I would only advocate pairing Yao and Cato when the other team has a low post thug. I'd rather Cato take the beating early in the game than Yao have a rough start.
Cato can definitely play a good PF but the REAL question here is, who is gonna back up the best center in the basketball world?? But I do expect this to happen, especially when we're talking about defending 2 monsters, ShaQ and KarL, at the same time.
I can see doing it in particular situations, but as a general rule we need someone who can score, not defend (as much). We had a pretty decent defensive team last year; our offense was anemic. I'm not worried with our defense. VG needs to find a way to score more points in a game.
To augment that slightly - with Yao in the low block and Cato in the high post, it's too easy to sag off of Cato to double Yao or clog the passing lanes. My understanding is that JVG intends to run the offense thru Yao and Cato's lack of offensive skills is counterproductive to Yao's passing skills most of the time.
I think he could for a few minutes a game with the right match-up, but the guy is really a true 5. That's what makes him such a good trading commodity in the center starved East. And at some point before the deadline I think we'll move him. (unless Yao can obviously not play 30+ minutes due to fatigue. Then Cato is pretty handy, if expensive, to have)
Tru dat. Although I got excited there thinking that underline was a link to a Yao-Cato oop. I'd pay to see that .
Would i move cato to the starting 4 ? no would i experiment ?(depending on match ups) yes but only for a certain amount of minutes.
I would not start cato at the 4 but that combination on the floor does sound probable at times. If i were to match them up against the lakers I would put Yao on malone and cato on shaq. Malone while quick has become more of a perimeter player in his later years. Yao would give him a tough basket to shoot at with his height. While cato can go bruising against with shaq. From history, Cato has blocked a shaq shot or two. Moving him to a starter position would be unlikely though. Cato is definitely much better as a back-up for Yao
