Perhaps Rudy has a keen memory of the Twin Towers experiment during the Ralph/Akeem era. bejezuz mentioned using Cato at the 5 with Yao at the 4... well, Sampson was a natural 5 (as is Yao) and he was moved out of position by Akeem. Ralph would play the 4 and Dream would play the 5 when they were both in together. They were enormously effective, but when Dream sat, Sampson played better playing at his natural spot... center. Some have argued that he might have lasted longer had he played center his entire brief career. This is a guy who was All-Star MVP during Dream's rookie year at center. I know there is absolutely no remote comparison between Cato and Dream, but there are many between Yao and Sampson. It could be argued that Yao may end up being a much stronger and much larger, more durable "version" of Ralph, and if he turns out that well the Rockets are lucky indeed. Maybe some of these things ran through Rudy's mind, at least concerning Yao at the 4. Who knows? I guess it comes down to many of us wishing we had a "real power forward" playing next to Yao and are driven with wishful thinking... misplaced.
Wow, Yao at the 4 position. Thatll be sumthing to see! Goin against malone, and all them. Wow, i would love to see that. Lovely recomendation!
vangundy commented, and i agree with him, that cato had a great year. i think he will play an even more prominent role this year. if eddie keeps throwing line drives at the basket from the three point line and if big soft mo doesn't hit the boards, van will send in cato to kick some ass.
Playing Yao at the 4 is ridiculous! He wouldn't have any more of an advantage at the offensive end because the other team would have their center defend him and have the PF defend Cato. So our dreams of having him abuse the Mailman down low all night would never be realized. More importantly, playing him at the 4 would diminish his contributions at the defensive end. Yao is not quick enough laterally to stay with most of the PFs in the league. At 7'5", he's not built to defend on the perimeter... he just doesn't have the pure athleticism to do so. Second, while he's trying to stay with a versatile PF like Dirk on the outside, the small guys like Steve Nash and Nick Van Exel would be running wild in the lane. Yao is a shot blocker and a lane clogger. He can't be effective if he's not in the lane at all times.
Rudy never put yao and cato in at the same time last season. you people are mistaken. I watched every game last season and i'm positve yao and cato never played together.
Yao and Cato played together at least once. They played together against the Bulls on January 26. I'd like to see them do it a little more this year. It would be nice to try it against teams that are height challenged in the front court like Philly was last year.
Haven't read the whole thread, so sorry if this has already been mentioned. Think back to Cato's first months here as a Rocket, when he was traded to us along with Walt and I don't remember who else for #33. His preseason play was incredible. He averaged five blocks a game, never blocked less than three in any game, and versus the Cavs he rejected an amazing twelve shots. Six of those were against (back then still strong) Kemp. He was an absolute monster, and showed such amazing shot blocking ability we were all expecting him to lead the league in blocks that very year. He showed such ferocity in his first months that clutch referred to him in the recaps as "The Foaming One." After his amazing preseason play the Rockets rushed to get him locked up in a multi-year contract extension rather than have him test the waters as a free agent the coming summer. And when we saw the numbers, very few questioned it at the time. Cato played that preseason at the 4 next to Olajuwon at the 5, replacing the then-injured Barkley.
Why not do this trade MoT to the jazz for a second round pick... Sign Drobnak and it would work out and we could have this PG: Francis/Mooch SG: Mobley/Pike SF: Rice/A. Griffin/Boki PF: Cato/Griffin C: Yao/Drobnak HMM... that would be pretty cool.. . i think
I was all about Cato when we got him from Portland. Then I wished we had never had him. Then I was glad we had him as a backup, and still am. But I think he has shown he is one of those guys who is great to have as a backup but sux as a starter.
I fall into this category as well. Coming from Portland I'd heard all about his shotblocking and rebounding skills. I thought that working with the Rox could help him improve his abysmal offensive game. Though he was a project, I liked his defense most. Then he got signed to a hugeass contract and he started sucking. Like everyone around here, I started b****ing about the Rockets front office. Now, he's a decent backup for Yao, and maybe giving him a few minutes OFF THE BENCH at the 4 is ok, but there is no way Cato should start.
