Gater says Francis is not a 2. I say he's certainly not a 1. What the hell is he then? I would love to trade MoT + Cato for Penny + Othella Harrington + Dikembe Mutombo. Shandon could back up Houston, and Frank Williams could back up Marbury. Mutombo and Harrington don't play anyway. I think they'd do this deal, especially if Vin Baker decides to go elsewhere.
I never thought I'd say this: I'm not sure we can afford to get rid of Cato, unless we have someone we know can fill his role. I think we could have won the Lakers game if Cato had played. Cato isn't terribly overpaid for a 6-11, 260 pound guy. NBA teams just overpay for big men because there are so few of them. Unless we get someone who can definitely fill Cato's role, I'd rather keep him. I don't like having to put Oak or Spoon on Shaq when Yao is on the bench or in foul trouble. As for Taylor, I like that he can spark the offense at times, but I'm amazed by his lack of rebounding and defense. How can a guy who is 6-9 and 260 not bang inside? If we're going to get rid of someone, I'd rather it be Taylor. Of course, there have been times when Taylor has kept us in games because he was hitting his shots. I'm not worried as much about how much cap space these guys are taking up as much as I am having consistent production within a given role, although cap space is obviously still a concern. Cato seems to be finding his role on this team. I'm not sure Taylor has. If he gets his hands on the ball, he's going to shoot -- end of story.
Sane - I thought it was fairly obvious. Maybe it isn't. Francis is a scoring PG. He has similar skills to Iverson but is not as fast footspeed wise and can't catch and shoot flatfooted or off of screens anywhere near as well as Iverson. These two clear reasons why Iverson can play SG are the reasons SF3 would be at best a mediocre PG. Francis' only advantage over Mobley is SG ISO play...with less D and at twice the price. My whole (but maybe obscure) point was that there is nothing wrong with Cato and Taylor as a combo unit given that few star-level PF's can play 18+ mpg at C. It also seems obvious to me that if the topic is bang for the buck, the first player to be looked at to move is SF3. As far as Deke, Penny and Othella, you must be joking. At this stage in their careers, Cato is far superior to Mutombo (who can't play PF) and Othella (who can't play C in the WC). IOW, given the ages and playing in the WC, Cato is worth more than Mutombo and Harrington and paying Hardaway $30+m for 2 years to backup Mobley or Francis is far worse than paying Taylor $27m for 3 years to backup and occassionally start at PF. And you'd probably come out on the short end of the deal. Apart from the issues of trading two bigs for one overpaid small (Stoudamire for example), you're ignoring some important facts...like playing in the WC, age, contract lengths, team fit, etc. Cato can play C and PF. Cato and Taylor offer a choice of offense or defense at crunch time. Cato + Tayor combine for 17.6 ppg and shoot 46.7% from the field, and 4.1 ORebs and 8.0 DRebs per game. Is that great? No. Is it more than adequate $15-16m? Absolutely. All NBA NBA teams are a combination of over, under and equal achievement for pay. Singling out Cato and Taylor as the problem with the Rockets is IMHO very myopic.
One good player is better than two bad ones. From your list, I'd rather have SAR C Webb AD and JYD Z (better than Cato, contract finally running down) KVH Wally and Kandi Jalen Rose and yes, Stodemire and his expiring contract. Cato and Taylor stink. All those problem guys above have more upside for the team. The sooner they're gone the better. That said, I completely agree they're not the biggest problem.
