i think that all are agree that Cato should play more minutes so maybe if he substitute Yao and EG too he will play more and imagine Kato a Yao in the paint they will scare any player i think that it can works. What do yo think?
Sure would be nice to have Kevin Willis right now, then we could put Yao and Cato out there at the same time.
. So? So what? He's got 6 fouls, why not use them. The guy is only getting 15 min, up him to 25 with spot time at the 4. We're not talking starter. With EG behind, (then MoT and Tmo) we have adequate coverage. Go ahead, foul Cato out. So what. The team would be bigger and stronger with Cato sliding over some. Our main problem in the West is going to be 4s, anyway. Let Cato body and Yao attack from the weak side. The only thing holding this back is Mo., and Rudy trying to get him minutes. Screw him. Cato is much better than MoT.
He has those 6 fouls to spell Yao and give Yao a rest, and Cato would get destroyed by most of the league's better PF's. It just so happens there are quite a few good PF's in the league. Eddie Griffin at center? Ha! The guy has problems not getting bowled over by 6'9" 240 lb guys muchless the big men in the paint. MoT's a better PF than Cato. Why? Because who the hell is gonna guard Cato when he's 15 feet out? Like he's going to take that shot. We'd have a PF with a 2 foot range. Wee. Big threat. That combined with we're trying to get Yao more comfortable in the paint. Mmm... nothing like a clogged up paint for the defense to collapse on. Who knows... maybe Rudy will give in to the oddball lineup. I'd much rather see MoT come out of his shooting funk. He'd be the best PF we have, and the type we needed, if he could get his shot going. He'd open things up for Yao in the middle unlike Cato the PF Who Waits For The Next Alley Oop.
Hmm....see!!!! There was another thread about this...and everyone was like yelling at me for saying Cato shouldn't play with Yao at the same time. Jebus!!! How times can change.... lol......did anyone see Cato drive through the lane? He has psychological problems. He was like looking for someone to pass to and then all of a sudden started running and almost threw it down. It was hilarious. Eddie was a center for a while when we didn't have anyone except Cato. Eddie is still a good shotblocker...sometimes he does pretty good and sometimes he can't shoot at all. Mo Taylor...I can't stand him. I want him to do good, but he's not good! It looks terrible when he misses. But if he returns to scoring 17ppg, that would be nice. He's too small to play against the tall power forwards...
Man, I keep hearing the same arguments about this topic. "Cato can't defend power forwards in the NBA." "Who is going to guard Cato on the 15 foot jump shot." First of all, if Kelvin Cato cannot guard power forwards, Mo Taylor definitely can not guard power forwards in the NBA. He is too short, and secondly, he's not that quick. Cato is a little slower, but he is taller and can block more shots. Foul trouble is not an issue here, we're talking about playing Cato 25 minutes instead of 18-20 minutes. You guys make it sound like Mo Taylor is actually a legit power forward defender, which he is not. Secondly, on offense, we don't need Cato to be left open for a 15 foot jump shot. He does well roaming around the paint. If he plays with Yao, he will probably be the recipient of some nice passes, or the recipient of more Steve alley oops. Again, can we really trust Mo Taylor to hit the open 15-17 foot jumper anyways? He hasn't hit anything all year, and gives us nothing in return on defense or in rebounding. I'm just confused as to the argument against Cato playing PF. 1) People who are doubting haven't seen Cato play PF 2) It is pretty obvious Mo Taylor is a mediocre PF or even a bad one, so why not try an alternative, especially when the alternative (Cato) has been busting his ass on crashing the boards. Cato will help us on offense, simply because he doesn't get any defensive attention, and this allows him to crash the offensive boards much more easily. This improves GREATLY when both Yao and Steve are in the game.
Maurice is a 47-48% career FG shooter coming off a 1 year layoff. I'd rather have him get back his shooting touch by playing than experiment with Twin Towers II. I'd rather have Taylor give up 25 and score 15 than watch Cato get in foul trouble, get shredded while the Karl Malones, Kevin Garnett's, Dirk Nowitzki's (possibly), Tim Duncan's, Chris Webber's, Rasheed Wallace's, etc. of the world absolutely run him ragged all over the court. Cato averages almost 3 fouls a game averaging something like 17 or 18 mins per game guarding slow-footed centers. I don't want to know how long he'd last against the Western Conference stud PF's that you know are going to get the calls. My biggest complaint is that we need to give Mo Taylor every opportunity to get his shot back. That shot is what will help Yao more than another 7 footer clogging the paint. You guys want to give up on Taylor and I don't. Neither does Rudy apparently. KT is gone and Rudy is giving EG and Taylor all the opportunity they can get to step it up. If Taylor doesn't improve his shot somewhere during the 2nd half of the season, maybe we'll see a change and see this combo you guys want to see. Who knows.
I agree with you! lol...you have a dislike for Dirk Nowitzki? He is a good player...shooting 3's. I just hope Mo Taylor will get better. He just returned to playing but he better get back to his normal self if we plan to do well in the playoffs. It's funny cuz the other thread about this was all Pro-Twin Towers. Weird... Rudy may try it...
Dirk would destroy Cato. Cato would have a heart attack chasing him around the court. The only reason I said "possibly" is that Dirk plays about 3 positions. He spends some time at the SF, too. I can see this tandem of Cato and Yao possibly working if we go zone, but if we play anything remotely close to man defense, I'd be worried.
Dr. of Dunk, Please keep in mind that I am not an idiot who is suggesting that we match Cato up against power forwards that are as talented as Dirk Nowitzki. Nor am I suggesting that we play Cato 25 minutes at power forward. I am suggesting that he plays about 15-20 minutes as backup C, and an additional 5 minutes at backup PF. Cato averages 2.5 personal fouls in 17.8 minutes per game. What's the big deal? He doesn't get his fouls guarding slow-footed centers, he gets them usually having to make up for bad defense by his other teammates, or loose ball fouls while rebounding, which I can live with. Who cares about fouls, he's not going to foul out of the game, and he's aggressive. When is the last time you saw Mo Taylor picking up loose ball fouls trying to crash the offensive boards? I am not giving up on Maurice Taylor, but I do believe that you earn your minutes based on performance and hustle. Cato has been giving us good performance. After all, Cato is leading the league in rebounds per minute and also averaging 1.2 blocks per game. Cato is also shooting 53% from the field. I don't see how people can argue that 53% is nothing given that most of his shots are dunks, because that's also one main reason why Shaquille O'Neal has such a high FG %. Has Mo Taylor been giving us a consistent effort? I don't think so. He doesn't give a good effort in rebounding, hasn't shot well this year, and he doesn't give you much on the defensive end. Even if the effort is there, the results aren't. The Rockets need to play their best players every night if they want to make the playoffs. Cato has also gotten more playing time than Mo T the past two games. I don't know why people think Mo T is a good player; he's always been a poor man's Kenny Thomas who plays worse defense, and Rudy T will figure this out eventually.
hey, i was just talking about 10 more minutes as a PF, he probably wont take many shoots and he probably get more boards to the team MoTs and EG look very small against some elite PF, so Cato can help keep in mind that can be a strategy in some games
5 minutes....five minutes would be good. ONLY 5 minutes. I think it would work then if they were in zone defense. Cato and Griffin and Yao. But ONLY five minutes. And only an experiment.
The lack of defense argument is weak, imo. That's one of the benfits of the zone defense. The disruption on offense argument is also weak, given that our current PF crop is certainly not being respected for their outside game, or any offensive game for that matter. The get Mo Taylor back into game shape argument is solid. If Mo could get significantly closer to his form of 2 years ago, it would be a very very nice compliment to Yao's game.
1994 starting lineup: dream, ot, horry 2003 lineup? ming, cato, griffin multiskilled center power forward who gets junk baskets and does dirty work shotblocking, 3 point shooting small forward its so obvious it hurts
Except Yao is no Hakeem. Except Cato is no Otis Thorpe. Except Eddie Griffin is no Robert Horry. Horry, Dream, and OT complemented one another. Ming, Cato, and Griffin are still trying to find their games.
