my bad. I somehow read "weak link on offense." i'm pretty confident that Rice is our defensive weak link when all the SFs from the East start arriving. sure, Coleman got K9 in the air once, but Thomas blocked him face up twice. Stud power forwards will score. And they don't seem to be able to stop Kenny much either. Is Kenny a Davis or Duncan on defense? No? But he is not an Antoine Walker, Coleman, Maurice Taylor or Glenn Robinson on defense, either. think about: don't you think the 76'ers BBS is screaming about Coleman's poor defense to lose the game against Kenny. Do you think Coleman can stop SAR or Garnett or Webber? Do you think Coleman can stop Kenny? I guess I am in a huge minority here when I say Kenny is playing better D than Griffin right now....that is based on Griffin not being strong enough and being backed in.
Kenny plays better defense on the stronger players, Malone, Duncan, Coleman. I would say that in the 15-20 minutes of the Minnesota game I saw, Griffin looked better against a finesse player in Garnett than KT. It may have just been a small sampling I saw or it may be that Griffin will fare better against the faster, finnesse PFs who nolify KT's greatest strength, quickness.
before the start of the season, I was hoping the rockets would trade cato for a "dominant" center (like most people ). As we know, that never happened. So i changed my expectations of what i wanted from cato. preseason wishful & expected thoughts: -don't foul out -hussel some more/start in the first place -stop falling for the headfake & leaving the ground -don't foul out -stat line expected: 13-18 min, 5-6 fouls, 3-5 bds, 0 asst, 2-6 pts, 1-2blk (i expected him to still foul out early). modest but acheivable (just!) season proper: -hasn't fouled out (much) -husselling & playing D -staying in position & on the the ground -actual stat line (nba.com, after 6 games): MPG FG% OFF DEF TOT APG BPG PF PPG 24.0 .515 1.20 5.80 7.00 0.3 0.83 4.20 6.8 -Ranks #12 in the NBA in Defensive Rebounds Per 48 Minutes(11.7) I personally am happy with the form he's showing. He's exceeding all my expectations quite significantly (bar blocking). Give credit were due (willis & rice ).
I would like to ask a few of you (who live in or near Houston and get the game) to watch the game tonight and focus on Kelvin Cato. Dont watch the ball just watch Cato. If you see something that I dont, please let me know. Its like rH was saying: "passion" means a lot, and I dont see that in this guy. Personally it looks to me like he is stoned......
You're high Drewdog I saw Cato sky high for a board making me wonder who the hell was saying that this guy needed to be more aggressive. For one, I see him trying and occasionally do an outstanding job. Granted, he has a long way to go but he has it right aiming for gradual, steady improvement. And I see it. 20 games everyone--give him 20 games and then let's talk about how consistent an effort he's giving.
As long as Cato gets 8pts, 7 rebs and Willis comes in and gets 9pts 9reb, I can live with that. I'm kind of surprised that cato has shown he can hit from about 12-15 on a consistent basis. That will come in handy. I wish our guards will stop waving off our big men when they have great positioning in the post. i saw one play when willis had Dike under the nets and Francis waved him off and shot a 20ft shot. Thats not good at all. If the guy hustles and gets aerly position, give him the damn ball!
Just because Cato's doesn't have fire flaming out of his ears and smoke trailing from his ass doesn't mean he does not care. And just what the hell should Cato do every second hes away form the ball? -- fling his arms away like a madman? moonwalk across the key before a play has developed for the sake of wasting energy? Last night, on a couple of plays your talking about, he had to be extra careful(im sure Rudy warned him of this) of not fouling out, so thats why he let DC thru the back door a few times. Big Deal! Come on man, Catos doing a decent job. Rudy seems pretty pleased, you should be as well.
He has gotten better than last year but his positioning and footwork is weak,he also needs to get fitter,he will have to work very hard to overcome his offensive and defensive liabilities.
Gotta crawl before you can walk, Cato has gone from stinking up the joint...to mediocre.... Still not 7 million bucks worth, but not quite like flushing money down the toilet like in the past. He still has a ways to go before he can be a HOF'er like the great Billy Paultz
For those who don't remeber not everyone was on the get rid of Cato bandwagon... It seems to me that he has been trying most of the season and has improved tremendously since the beginning and YES he did come in out of shape and now that he is in better shape he is playing better but he is also playing smarter... And honestly their are only a handful of centers in this league that would help our team more than Cato. He doesn't demand the ball. His ten points a game are in the flow of the game. He shoots a higher percentage than anyone else on the team. We don't need another iso center on this team not unless He is Shaq or Duncan ( maybe a few others). I would not trade him for just anyone. The truth is all we really need from our center is to give us some strong interior D. And SLAM a few dunks every once and a while to make the opposing center pay for going out and trying to stop Frances And Mobes. Right now Cato is giving us exactly what we need from the center spot and unlike many people I think he wants to be a Rocket and he wants this team to win. And that hasn't changed from the beginning of the season. The only thing that has changed is he has improved and he will continue to.
