Cato and Yao Both On Court

Yes! I'm a little worried about our bench, but this is clearly something that needed to be tried. Even with Griffin not missing practices, he still hasn't even come close to proving he deserves to start in the NBA.

What was it? 26 rebounds between the twin towers last night? Hopefully JVG actally tries this in the regular season.

 

I would love to hear some myopians excuse for why Rudy never even friggin tried it.

 

I can tell you that everyone was extremely close to seeing Olajuwon and Cato for a whole season. But the summer proved fruitful and changed all of that.

 

Yao & Cato apparently can co-exist. Cato is a better defender & rebounder than EG & Mo Taylor. Don't really have to worry too much of points from the 4 spot b/c the ball will always funnel through Yao & Francis. Looks a like good defensive line up!

 

To be honest....I didn't think it would work. Although it is only preseason, I seem to have been very wrong. Cato, while he can't hit anything from outside, provides everything we have needed from Griffin and more. Power....hustle....mad rebounding....blocks...good FG% I only worry about how he would get abused by the quicker PFs. Then again....didn't Eddie and Mo? I think Mo and the scrubs might be able to back up the 4 and 5. Sign Eddies extention for trade purposes. If he continues to be a ****......let him sit on his butt for 2 years. Don't cut him and let him take advantage of his bad behavior. Let him try to become a star after pining for 2 years.



just my 2 cents.

 

I agree - that's been one of the more exciting things about the preseason is the way those two have played together. It could just be due to the injuries and we won't see much of this in the regular season - but I for one hope that we do. I hope it continues to work out.

 

Cato is the Rockets best power forward, without a doubt. Hard to believe that out of all the players its Cato who is a JVG guy.

 

I'm ticked that I haven't been able to see Cato this preseason at the 4, but I remember the idea being thrown around in the offseason. I thought it was worth trying, at least for a few minutes a game, as did some others.

Man, you had to duck! The ridicule was pretty overwhelming. Like I said, I haven't been able to see Yao and Cato play together yet, but it sounds like it's working better than my cautious pondering thought possible. I was thinking about 8 minutes a game. Maybe it will turn out to be significant minutes. A lot depends on Taylor and how he plays for Van Gundy when he gets back. If Taylor blows up, 8 minutes might be about all we'll see on average. I'm not factoring in EGriff at all.

It looks like a major part of how we succeed this year will be how Yao and Cato can handle increased minutes. We always knew that was crucial with Yao, but who would have thought that it might be with Kelvin as well?

 

I think Van Gundy sees a lot of Oakley in Cato. All Cato needs to do develop that jumper near the top of the key that Oakley perfected.

 

i started a tread during the offseason suggesting the possibility - 3/4 of the posters slammed me for it saying he wasnt quick enough to guard elite power forwards and that we would lose a good backup to yao. true, they have mainly played against two starting kings centers. but the fact remains- our other pfs cant guard the elite pfs in the west either and if they play this well together it offsets having maybe moT and meech as backups (playing against the other teams backups? ill take that). when the interior d is potentially this impenetrable, i think jvg can teach cato to stay out of foul trouble.

 

There was nothing Rudy T. could do when Yao could only play no more than 25 productive minutes. You need Cato to pick up the other 23 minutes at 5.

If Yao can play a solid ~35 minutes this season, and all the indications are he can, then Cato can be used at 4 regularly. Of course, this all based on Cato hitting open jumps when Yao is double teamed.


Peace.


--daoshi

 

I was one who didn't think Yao and Cato could be on the court at the same time. I thought Cato was quick enough to guard opp PF, what I feared was:
1) Opp might slack off Cato and double Yao all the time.
2) Cato not used to playing well in long stretch.
3) No back-up.

The experience has worked better than I expected but
1) We really have not faced regular starting team from the opp. Sacramento played Massenburg and some other scrubs for long stretches. Once they settle in with Web, Divac, Miller, their interior men will be tougher to guard. When Miller and Divac played more minutes the previous game , both Yao and Cato had 5 fouls.

2) Opp. had not doubled Yao much maybe 'cause this is pre-season, they may do differently later.

3) Amaechi, though not that impressive, is now a big body with some offensive skills to fill in a few minutes.

The positives with Yao and Cato on the court has been great. They defend the lane and rebound well together. On offense, at least 1 of them is available for reb. at any time so it is a big plus. If this keeps up, I 'll be more happy to concede that I was wrong.

 

Also having Kelvin play the four it kind of gives us the "enforcer" to protect Yao from getting hacked every time down the floor. I just don't think that Eddie or Mo T provided that and plus Kelvin has been busted some @ss in preseason, lets just hope that it carries over!

 

rudy did try it but only a handful of times for limited minutes. jvg is taking it a step further and it's paying off in preseason atleast. i doubt cato starts during the regualr season anytime soon, but i can see him playing important minutes next to yao in the middle of games, maybe even in the 4th.

keep in mind, we haven't seen mo yet, and if he is in the best shape of his career, i expect him to be a significant piece.

 

JVG does not expect Cato to hit jumpers (or even take them)

If they double down on Yao he won't be passing to Cato unless he is in the lane.

Cato actually helps get Yao low position by demanding the same attention on the other side of the lane.

If teams start doubling Yao with another big man, watch Yao exploit it by feeding Cato for dunks.

 

what i love about it (other than the obvious success it has had), is that this is unequivocally a jeff van gundy move. no one here can claim that "rudy woulda done it" or that "rudy tried it" or whatever. rudy had his opportunity to do it. fans (myself included) clamor for at least *experimenting* with it. but rudy would not.

so, the success/failure of this experiment rests solely on JVG's shoulders.

oh, and for the record, rudy has played motay & griffin at the center position before. so, even with yao logging 28 minutes, cato could have teamed with motay & griffin to cover the remaining 68 minutes at the pf & center positions.

 

Hey verse Rudy did do it, but you have to remember Rudy had Eddie and MoT to play as well and the minutes were just not there. Also this is no mark of genius, Eddie is gone and Mo T is injured someone has to play. Also Cato was not the player at the beginning of last year as he is now. He has continually improved under Rudy. Remember all the people who wanted to hang Cato. By the end of last season there were very few of those left. Rudy has developed Cato into the player that he is now and JVG can reap the rewards. In the end Cato will not be our starting power forward. It will be Mo T and Cato will come off the bench to relieve both Yao and MO.

All that being said I am impressed with the job JVG has done. And the Rockets will do fine with him.

 

I wholeheartedly and respectfully disagree.

For Rudy, Yao averaged 29 and Kelvin Cato 17.1. If we assume there are 96 minutes to distribute for C and PF and that Cato can handle at least 25 mpg (2002-03 was easily Cato's most producutve pro season), Rudy had every opportunity to play Cato at PF.

@ C:
Yao 29 and Cato 10 & Collier 9.
(Amaechi is onlt slightly better than Collier).

@ PF:
Cato 15 , Griffin 16.5, Taylor 16.5.

This is a very doable scenario considering those are fewer mpg for both Griffin and Taylor than they played in 02-03 and both were capable of minutes at C for some matchups.

 

After the Rox got Amaechi, my first suggestion was to start Cato next to Yao at the front line. Now it seems ot have proven, at least for the time being, that the two are the best starting front line for the Rox. Cato's natural position is PF. The only reason he played at the center position was the lack of big man in this league. On the other hand Eddie Griffin is too skinny to play the PF and his tendency of attempting long distant shots actually makes him more of a SF.