The Knicks can't trade Kurt Thomas. Kenny Thomas will not do anything for us....they need a rough player like Kurt Thomas, Kenny just makes the Knicks more undersized. Cato is just for size, I think Harrington would be the centerpiece around a trade for Cato.
Cato stays! The Knicks have nothing we would want that they would be willing to give. Ming & Cato A nice pair of bookends. Sprinkle in a little Collier and we got a nice three-headed monster in the middle that is as good as anybody except Shaq.
If the Rockets could swing the Cato/Thomas for Thomas/Knight, I would be all over the deal in a heartbeat. I have said for a long time that the only person on the Knicks who I would be interested in is Thomas. Thomas would be a great bench player for the Rockets and while he is generally overmatched when he is forced to play center, I would rather have him backing up Ming than Jason Collier. The Knicks really need a full-time center. And McDyess (sp?) has basically taken away Kurt Thomas's position. Cato, for better or worse, might be the best center the Knicks can get right now. And Kenny Thomas, while he would not start on the Knicks, would get significant playing time, backing up McDyess and Sprewell. This is a good deal for both teams.
we are going to have to accept that Cato is only worth 2 bench players at best who salaries match...I am talking deep on the bench not close to the scorers table. I say we get it over with. I will trade Cato for a Jerome James and popeye jones type right now..
I will also bet you that Collier could get traded for a pair of second round picks.......I am just thinking that the roster is tight right now and the only place for him is IR maybe. I am feeling this vibe in the organization that the train is moving down the tracks and it is time for the schlepps to get off or pick up the slack!!
This might be the only chance we have to trade Kelvin Cato. If we don't he'll continue to eat up salary cap dollars that could be used elsewhere. So let's trade the "hallucination" for Kurt Thomas. Kurt Thomas would be our starting center until Ming can take over. Also, Mo Taylor will be suspended for the first 5 games of the season because of weed. That means that Griffin will start at PF. I personally liked the deal to bring in Othella Harrington and Kurt Thomas for Kenny Thomas and Kelvin Cato. If the Knicks are dumb enough to take this worthless waste of space then let em have it. Meanwhile we get two serviceable big men who can play both 4 and 5 in spot duty. It would be okay to keep Cato if he were reasonably paid. Unfortunately he is amidst a grotesque 6 yr, $42 million contract. We could find a better center in the CBA or NBDL. Hell we could even use our exception on Keon Clark or resign Kevin Willis.
Outlaw...that trade would NEVER happen... Hottoddie--That trade makes no sense...we give up KT for an inferior Kurt Thomas and we give up Rice and Cato for an overrated and way overpaid Allan Houston. Rice's contract expires soon and Cato will be just fine. Until Ming proves himself, Cato is our starting center and last year he wasn't as bad as you all make him out to be...
I think you might be forgetting all the 0 point, 2 rebound, 4 fouls performances that Cato puts up on a nightly basis. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players/gamelog?statsId=3185
Why in the hell would we want Shandon????? AnotheR huge Contract to come off the bench. Let's face it...... Rocket brass would rather eat Rice for 3 years than swallow Shandon's for 5.
I concur... He makes more than he should but there are no exceptable replacements. Ming has to prove he is ready so I say keep him for now if Ming blows up then he willbe expendable, teams will see mings progress and come calling to see the availability of Cato, if ming is a flop then we keep Cato, Descent big men are hard, even though he is an under achiever and my expectations for him were higher than what he has shown, there is not many that are capable of what h MIGHT bring on any given night...
I like that idea by tod, KT/Cato for Thomas/Knight. I think Knight wouldn't be a bad back-up, and Kurt Thomas would be a nice addition, even though a healthy Mo would make it tough for him to get a ton of minutes unless he plays center. I actually think that Cato, when motivated, is a quality center. If the Knicks can get him motivated (and starting at center on a team that wants him may motivate him), he, Spree and Dice up front = playoffs. Of course motivating Cato is the near impossible key.
I dont think the Knicks will give up Kurt Thomas in a deal to get Cato. Kelvin is overpaid and underachieving plan and simple. The guy is moody, has a limited offensive game and simply does not understand simple concepts ie boxing out, how to play position defense etc. Basically, Kelvin is an athletic 6-11 body that has added mass to his frame. At this stage, basketball moves cannot be viewed only from a talent perspective. The luxury tax and such causes teams to have to view moves from a salary standpoint as well. Kelvin Cato may have more marketable talent than Othella, but Othella and Ward for Cato would enable the Rockets to wipe roughly 5 mil off the books (Ward's salary) after this season. That would mean something like 70-75% of Cato's salary would be wiped off the books. The Knicks are being penalized enough for having to take on Cato's outrageous contract, I dont think they will give up a productive player like Kurt Thomas on top of that. Also, with Cato gone, I'd fill the backup center void by making a play for someone like Marc Jackson on the trade market with Mooch as the bait or see what big bodies are avail on the FA market.
Baqui99: "I think you might be forgetting all the 0 point, 2 rebound, 4 fouls performances that Cato puts up on a nightly basis." I looked at the site you referenced and did some analysis and found no 0 point, 2 rebound, 4 fouls performances at all for Cato. And lest you think I am being picky, Cato had 13 zero point games all year, and 7 of those were DNP. In his six nonscoring games, he averaged 14.8 minutes and 4.7 rebounds, which is not very good, but also not typical. Cato played 75 games, averaging 26 minutes, and fouled out only 5 times. He averaged 2.8 fouls per game, which was an area he had been asked to improve on. He averaged 6.6 points and 7 boards (13.1 per 48, which is not too bad) and blocked 1.3 (2.9 per 48, which was disappointing but not terrible). As for all those turnovers, I guess the scorekeeper missed them all. He averaged 0.7 TO (including 39 games where he had none at all), 0.5 steals, and 0.4 assists, for a "good hands" average of 1.30 (assists+steals/TO). Pretty fair. Value to the team? The Rockets were 28-54 (.341) overall. In the seven games without Cato, they were only 2-5 (.286). When Cato played 30 minutes or more, they were 9-15 (.375) and when he played 40 or more, they were 4-1 (.800). It really doesn't sound like he hurt the team all that much. He had 11 double doubles and the Rockets were 6-5 in those games. He had double figure rebounds 24 times. Wasn't rebounding the other main area he was asked to improve in? Don't get me wrong: I am not claiming Cato is a great player. But I do think he's getting a bum rap from a lot of you who want him to be Hakeem Olajuwon because he once blocked 11 shots in a game. He's a top 20 center in the league and worth having even with his overpriced contract. Compare him to, say, Todd McCulloch, Greg Ostertag, or Bryant Reeves and count your blessings. Eventually, the fates willing, Cato will be a backup to Yao and would have to be considered one of the top reserve centers in the game. Right off the top of my head, I can't think of a single team with a better backup center, although I didn't look at rosters. He's surely a Top 5 reserve center. Give the guy a break. P.S. I put all those stats from the web into an Excel spreadsheet for analysis. I'll post it on the web if you want to download it. You'll need Aladdin Expander to unstuff it.
ricealum, great objective view of the stats. cato just gets flamed due to the lofty expectations of Dream. Unfortunately, when presented with the facts jealous others(kobe8) try to make their argument with one or two words. anyone who talks poorly of cato, should be banished. _________________________________________________ - that means i'm too cool
