With 5 games over 8 days I think Cato's minutes will take care of themselves. That will be good. Cato getting more time with the team only makes the final rotation more cohesive. Cato will be a major part of the team over the rest of the season. He will be a big part of beating Shaq in LA games as he has done on occasion in the past. I am not a HUGE Cato fan but the guy has improved and with just a little more consistancy, mayactually progress to the point of earning his money!!
With all this talk about Cato and Ming playing side by side, do you think that Ming could play the PF and Cato play center, similar to what Hakeem and Sampson did? I really like what we have now, but a backcourt of Ming, Cato and Griffin does seem somewhat intriguing. Imagine the weekside blocking potential
I Strongly believe that this thread should be LOCKED. The vote is intenationally misleading: look at it close. entire game Most of the game Half the game (Notice one option missing here????) Not play at all This guy obviously wanted to come up with a voting result that favors CATO, via such a delicate yet shameful cheat. And look at his ID you know who he is. BTW. do not get me wrong. I like CATO. but this fan is just making a mess here with no benefit to either yao or cato or the team chemistry. CATO-INSTITUTE. ACT AFTER YOU THINK.
that's what i'm thinking too. i wanted to vote "leave it as he is now" (10-15 minutes) but there's no option. hell, i voted last option instead. because if he plays half the game that means yao plays half the game... ONLY?!?
Cato is a classic case of why there should be limited guaranteed contracts in the NBA. Cato has been effective lately, not playing great....he has been used as he should...a role player who can provide good size and some defense. overall though, you can see the difference in talent compared to Yao. Yao makes plays even when he is not sharp--case in point last night! When Cato is ineffective, he really disappears from the game. There is the difference cato is a good backup, who is overpaid. we have to accept our $ mistake and move on. Realistically, he should be making about 3-4 mil per....so let's eliminate the $ from the picture and stick to reality today.
As much as I'd like to see Yao and Cato playing the same mins, I don't think Cato should play PF. Think about it, Yao can play about 30 at most 35 a game, who's gonna sub in when Yao's wasted if Cato is playing the same mins?
That would classify under "Little or no minutes". And as bluecat would say, Actually it's THINK BEFORE YOU ACT (what the hell were you thinking?). Chalk up another one for tha institute.
I agree that the options are not acceptable. Kelvin is having a great year. Last night he was a man mountain. But he is a center, and shouldn't move to power forward, and you can't take out Yao. Kelvin should play about 18 minutes a game. We should rest Yao some so he doesn't burn out from fatigue like so many rookies. We should also junk the small lineups Rudy has often used. They generally have not worked well, and Kelvin is playing better than any of our power forwards.
catoinstitute, Are you Cato??? If so what is your problem??? You said that you didn't mind coming off of the bench behind the great Yao Ming. "There are some people that are so dumb that you can't even call them stupid."
I can't believe there would be a thread dedicated to complaining about Cato not having enough PT. Who would have thought about that just a couple of months ago? Seriously, I think in the long run, Yao should play around 36 min. a game in the regular season and 40 in the playoffs. The rest is Cato's. He has shown that he is a pretty good backup center. I am kinda worried about Yao playing too much right now. It would be ideal if Yao gets about 30 min. a game before he gets his conditioning better. Fatique could lead to higher probability of injury.
I think that Cato should get about 15-20 minutes a game. He is rebounding great this year and blocking shots. His defense is pretty good and he is hustlilng. He is exactly what we need for a backup center. I don't think that there should be many times, if any, when either Cato or Yao are not on the court. With that being said, someone mentioned not taking miuntes away from our "true power forwards" to play them along side each other. I say, give it a try. If our power forwards want to start playing like "true POWER forwards", then fine. But I would love to see those two next to each other in the lane. Maybe even with EG playing SF.
He IS a rebounding machine. And he's a defensive presence. I just wonder why we don't see a Twin Towers in Houston with Yao & Cato. Especially since none of our power forwards have expressed enough interest in winning the starting role.
