Man oh man what a draft... To be able to get Eddie Freakin' Griffin, as well as getting Morris for the frosting. But one thing remains unsolved, the center. Everyone is crying for Cato to be shipped off, but at what cost? The Rockets have no one that can replace him with Olajuwon likely to be gone and Collier lacking both defensive and offensive skills to be successful. One of the rumors I've heard is Cato and Walt for M. Miller. Ok, we've just gotten 2 SFs in the draft. There's another 3 on the roster (Walt, Langhi, and Bullard). It makes a lot of sense to pick up Miller then huh? Let's say we put Walt and Cato together as trade bait, what does that get us center-wise? Perhaps Big Country is as good as it gets, and I'd take Cato over Big Country ANYDAY. So that brings to the point, we're stuck with Cato. Can we run a successful NBA team without a legit center? It's possible, especially in playing with zone defense, one-on-one matchups become less important, and big men can be neutralized easier with double team and triple team. However, that's just an assumption. Honestly, I don't see the Rockets ready to march into the regular season without a legit center. That'd just be a dumb thing to do. I'd rather have a bad center (who has potential (hey I'm optimistic)) than having no center. ------------------ Louisville Rockets my ass
We should keep an eye on Marc (or is it Mark, anyway the GS center) Jackson. I know he's only 6'10" but he's a solid presence (meaning better than Cato) and at least has a better attitude. We still have a bunch of cap room to pursue him if CWebb doesn't work out for us. I mean do we even really need CWebb? Seems like we've added two young pups that grab a combined 17 or so boards a game + some added scoring. If anything we should pursue some serious bulk at center and our only options seem to be Jackson, D.Davis, and I heard Sabonis was a FA. What's up with that? I don't know anything about his status so if someone could fill me in it'd be much appreciated. Hell, Mutumbo is a free agent and personally if presented with the opportunity, I would use all our cap room to land him and lose Dream and MoT. Otherwise, if you're happy with Cato/Collier at C then speak and be heard! ------------------
Actually, looking at our personel now, assuming we re-sign Mo Taylor, I think we either trade KT and Collier for LaFrentz, or we stat put. Reduce Cato's role in the offense to put-backs, picks and jams, and he'll do ok, plus he can bang (sort of) with the Shaq's of the world.I feel we've got enough offense (Griffin provides the post offense we've needed.) to compete with Cato just being a garbage man, and, besides, he might even still develop some balls, you never know. ------------------
Marc Jackson? He's no more of center than Maurice Taylor is. I say, keep Collier and Cato on the roster, if we must, to throw at Shaq or a David Robinson. Thats all. What is that, about 6 games we'll be in need of a "center". My point here is the center position is not as important as you make it out to be. Who has legit centers besides LA and San Antonio? With the new rules, we can just collapse long armed versatile Forwards on a bullying big man. Now, the Rockets can get away with playing Mo or Griffen at center most of the time. This will allow us to still have another 6-10 versatile swimngamn out on the court. ------------------ A desirous Mo Taylor is better than a prude Chris Webber. [This message has been edited by ROCKETBOOSTER (edited June 28, 2001).]
For some reason I get the feeling that a lot of you don't know who Cato is. That is the only reason I can understand your support of the Rockets keeping him. Those of us who do know who he is don't want to get rid of him because he can't play the center position. It's because he is always hurt. You get nothing out of a guy who is sitting on the bench. And I think that is a lot of money to pay someone for just "6 games" a year. Plus, he has ZERO hands. ------------------ "If you don't understand it, don't try to understand it." -Carl Everett
Dogbelly, Since when does Cato make it from the medical ward to the bench? I think Cato could develop into a workable defensive center if he would just play. ------------------
Yeah, unfortunately I get the feeling that Cato is going to be the cap albatross of the team (seems like every team has at least 1). I guess we have to look forward to the 8 games per season where he actually resembles a backup NBA C. I'd still trade him for a 2nd round pick, used jock strap, anything. ------------------
LaFrentz doesn't have the physical tools that Cato has. Cato can potentially play D on big men, but doesn't. LaFrentz cannot potential play D on big men, and therefore he doesn't. As much as Cato's contract pain me, we really should keep him. ------------------ Louisville Rockets my ass
Brad Miller sucks worse than Cato unfortunately, but we get to dump Walt's salary too, so that's intriguing ------------------ Louisville Rockets my ass
OldManBernie: I don't think you really appreciate how awful Cato really is. It isn't *just* that he's not a good defensive C, which is what we're paying him for (those invisible blocks and rebounds). Cato also: 1. has absolutely no hands. He fumbles every pass directed his way. 2. has no shot. Raef Lafrenz does. 3. is a walking foul. He actually contributes NEGATIVELY to team defense because he goes for all these stupid highlight reel blocks... and ends up clubbing the shooter with his gangly 7 foot worthless body... or hte shooter just dumps it off to Cato's man who is under the basket for an easy dunk. 4. lazy cancer - he's already a laughing stock on the team; didn't Francis make a couple of snide comments about him towards the end of the year? Cato hurts chemistry. 5. his contract is loooong. Miller or lafrenz may not be a long-term solution... but at least we have the option of making them a SHORT-term solution. Cato will be here forever unless we trade him. ------------------ Don't let those uppity newbies get away with acting like vets... ...all newbies are equal, remember that. [This message has been edited by haven (edited June 28, 2001).]
Oh I truly appreciate how bad a player Cato is. Why he's gawd-awful. Unfortunately, getting LaFrentz on the Rockets is not the answer. In my mind for the Rockets to compete at a higher level, they HAVE to have an above average defensive center. Cato isn't it, could be it, but not it. LaFrentz will never be it. I'm actually more pissed off about Cato being injured all the time than say his bad play. Bad play can be ironed out with repetition if the talent is there. Unfortunately, in Cato we got ourselves a walking stretcher along with his potential. ------------------ Louisville Rockets my ass
miller? orlando only "wants" to trade him to free up cap space for antonio davis. they wouldn't trade him for two slugs who make, combined, probably 5 times what he does. deal in the real world. einstein tomjanovich didn't have his best day with the cato contract recommendation. ------------------
I went to the Matt Bullard Happy Hour a couple months back at Jillian's on I-10 (props to the Bullard Fan Club btw). Not to single any one player out, but Bull spoke very frankly about the center position (among other things). Many players were very dissapointed and unhappy with the performance of a certain young center on the team, and wouldn't be too sad to see that player leave. For that reason alone they should can him. They didn't even give Collier a chance. ------------------ ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US
You make it sound like it was the Rockets' fault that Collier got hurt. We probably have two of the most brittle players in franchise history with Collier and Cato. Bringing in someone who can hang for 82 games at center should be a huge priority. Hey maybe the Rockets can pull a Matt Maloney on Kelvin Cato, bet a lot of people on this board would loooove that. ------------------ Louisville Rockets my ass
Everybody wants a center. But Guess what?... theres not any out there, or anywhere for that matter, excepet in China, but those guys wont be free any time soon, so we can discount them. So it seems to me that nobody has any centers, and if they did, that they'd hold on to him and would certainly never trade him for a million dollar bag of ****. Cato will be a Rocket. So We can do two things: 1)We can eternally rag and rag on Cato and cook up some blinberry metaphors for his lazy ass. 2) Or we can just hope and pray to Mr.Naismith that Kelvins balls drop more and more each summer. ------------------ A desirous Mo Taylor is better than a prude Chris Webber.
We need to keep Cato around for a while, because otherwise after the free agents are signed, the name of the board would need to be changed from "Game Action and Roster Moves" to just "Game Action." ------------------
