OK I understand everyone is excited about Yao Ming Hell i am too but was with this "Trade for Bateer crap" and "Lets try and sign Wang" Man that really pissed me off. I understand that all eyes in China will be on HOuston but come on. We all know all China has is Yao. No one else in China is worth jack $h!t. No offence but im not lying. So yea lets cheer for Yao and hope he turns into the next Abdul Jabbar but please one chinese player in our team is enough especially when hes the best of the best over there.
Agreed, they do suck. But they are better than Collier and they will also give Ming another friendly face to talk to. Face it it's going to be hard for Ming to really bond with anyone on the team due to the language barrier.
I dunno. There's two ways to think about having a teammate who speaks Yao's language. That could really get in the way of him picking up English quickly, and it could get in the way of him bonding with the other Rocks. I know an exchange student here in SF, and his English has actually gotten WORSE over the last four years because he only hangs with people from his homeland. He's actually kind of bummed about it.
So Bateer sucks... yet he outplayed Ming in a few games in the past tournament. Maybe we should be worried about our own pick.
Lemme see. SA got Bateer for a low second rounder and he gets paid league minimum yet he is definitely better than Collier and may be better than Cato who makes 42 million. I think it would have been worth getting him. We could have thrown away Collier and pay him his guaranteed amount and not have lost anything.
rockbox- Do you seriously believe that Bateer is in the same world as Cato? I dont think that Cato is great or anything, but come on Cato is basically an average starting center in the NBA. Bateer might be much better than I am giving him credit for, but until I am shown to be wrong then I agree with the Monkeyman. If we were to get Bateer or Wang we might as well become the Bayai Rockets or whatever the name of the CBA Rockets team is.
exactly. brooklyn already let one of those black guys in to the majors. there's no need to let another one in.
First of all, we are talking about Cato here who can only score on alley oops and put backs when he doesn't fumble the ball. Secondly, I said he may be better than Cato. If you saw the WC's at all, you would have seen Bateer had some success posting up the US team. Also if you look at Bateers numbers, they are not much worse than Cato's, especially when you consider he played less minutes than Cato and he joined the nuggets in mid season having never played a NBA game.
Watch out about Cato. He has a pumped up attitude, the coaches helped him in the offseason on his offense, and he has a big newspaper article about him today. The guy is on the verge of superstardom...
wow. mooch "outplayed" steve probably a couple times last year. i guess it has nothing to do with defenses specifically focusing in on ming(or steve) and trying to stop him. bateer doesn't have it easy but it's not quite the same. are you suggesting they're even remotely close in talent level?
HA HA HA HA...nice one. I'm just waiting for the massive flaming he is going to get for making this statement, whether it had the desired effect he wante dor not: "No one else in China is worth jack $h!t."
Bateer is definitely better than Collier. Whether he is better than Cato remains to be seen. Right now, he has only played 27 NBA games and his numbers are slightly below Cato's. I'd say he has a better upside than Cato. UT Baller: Cato is not an average starting center. He is an average backup center, imo.
I think he is above average as a backup. He also brings a different look relieving YM. We'll see how much improvement he made on O working with the coaching staff this year...
Get this straight. Bateer is compare to Collier, or Cato here by the poster. Not Ming. So I don't understand your logic at all. A better logic would be, can Collier do the same when the defense is focused on Steve? There are plenty of occasion when Yao Ming was not on the court along side with Bateer at WBC that enable you to glance what Bateer potentially can do.
Ok Verse lets be realistic. Do you really believe Chinese Pro players are going to come to the US and take our Basketball players JObs. I dont think the next Michael Jordan will be coming along soon much less from China. We got some Middle School teams here in the US that Can hang with the CHina nationa team so dont be giving me this ohh lets not let the Chinese in our basketball teams sarcasm. Hey anyone can play basketball its how well you play it that seperates you from the pack. I am just saying right now there is no quality players worth risking any time or money on that are Chinese except for Yao. I know everyone wants to get a chinese guy in here so he can show Yao the ropes but if they bring in a guy like bateer Yao will not be able to hang out with Francis or Mobley and create real Chemestry on and off the court. OHh and for those who say Bateer has a nice post up game. Well this is just me but Id rather have steve take a shot than have Bateer back it in. Bateer would probebly get 2 oppourtunities a night to post here in Houston cus he wont be a big part of the offence. What would you rather have 2 BAteer post ups a game not knowing whether hell make the shots or 2 Cato Ally oop dunks which will excite the crowd and well theres a better chance of the ball going into the basket. As for D Bateer has nothing Cato has some D and this year with the pressure taken off him due to Griffin and Yao being big shot blockers Cato will be more valuable.
Get real guys, I think CATO will emerge from all the years he was accused of not playing well. I think something is up for challenge for CATO, and that is YAO! I'm not hype with BATEER, but good thought, but not this life,Baby!!
