Early on this season the Rockets had been giving Cato a fair share of touches in the low post, usually resulting in a bad turn around shot or an akward move by Kelvin. This used to kill me, because I see it as a wasted possesion for the Rockets due to the fact that any shot from another player has a better chance of going in. To make matters worse, when Cato had the ball at the top of the key, his defender would sag off him preventing the entry pass to Yao or Mo, and the other defenders would deny their man the ball... leaving Cato to create something offensively. Another bad idea. These two scenarios, IMO, have been a primary cause for some of the Rocket's offensive woes at points in time this season... In the past few games it has been different. Doc River's comment caught my attention to the change and now I have been looking for it ever sense... Now when Cato receives the ball at the top of the key, they run the guards off him while he pivots to the basket... when the guard makes a hard cut off Cato and he drops the ball of to him, Cato's defender has to remain close to Cato in order to close off the corner to the guard... this opens up the ENTIRE floor.. now Yao/Mo can flash to the post, Cato can slip the screen, Steve can take it to the hole... the whole floor is wide open.... They ran this set everytime Cato touched the ball and stopped giving it to him on the low block... I think it has changed the offensive output drastically. JVG must have just figured it out finally and the players seem to be buying into it... for the first time this year I have not been cringing when the Rockets have had the ball... Anyone else notice this offesive scheme change as well? Excuse the grammatical errors, I am a measily engineer who can't type worth a damn....
I noticed that too and it worked extremely well. Now is Cato can hit an open 15 footer our offense would be unstoppable. Cato hands the ball off to Francis, two defenders trail him. Francis dumps it back to Cato for the open jumper.
I'll just say that his passing as of late has been a breath of fresh air. I have been extremely pleased with Cato , except for the occasional bonehead jumper, for about the past year. The offense has looked pretty decent lately, and I am hopeful they ahve finally turned the corner.
Cato's long jumpers dont look all that bad. His low post moves on the other hand.... Hey, we wanted a rebounding tough enforcer who throws it down and plays bad cop to Yao's good cop so I'm content. The man is invaluable to our league leading defense. We've got so many offensive weapons already I wouldn't sacrifice putting Mo in the starting lineup. That would kill our bench production too...
Jeff, You're right on. Cato is actually a pretty bright guy with good bball sense. Glad to see JVG morphing the offense with lotsa different looks. BTW, I'm a Vandy grad also. D R
I remember a quote from an article posted here where JVG was praising Cato and said he could still improve and already has his workouts planned for the offseason. From what I remember it was about Cato dropping more weight to be more versatile against perimeter oriented power forwards ( i.e. Garnett, Sheed, Nowitzki.) Not that you can really stop any one of them from dropping 20 on you ever single night, but atleast making them earn their points instead. Also while there have been posters complaining about Mings slow progress under Ewings influence, Cato's definitely flourished under Ewing. I think in the offseason and even now during practices, JVG and Ewing are working on Cato nailing that midrange jumper. I'm glad he's laying off it for the most part right now ( in fact I encourage it.), but you can tell he's been working on his jumper. His FTs look much more fluid, and you can more or less tell when he's going to make it. I think he's still shooting roughly 60% from the FT line, but I still think he's making effort at developing an offensive game to try and compliment Ming. If he could nail that 15-18 foot jumper, it would be invaluable to our offense. If he can drop some more weight in the offseason to be more mobile around the perimeter, and learn to consistently hit that midrange jumper, it'd be fantastic. Then maybe he could learn a hook shot the season afterwards to atleast be more of a threat in the low post as well. But that's just thinking way too far ahead. Long story short. I'm glad to see Cato's game is improving.
Larry Brown decreed that Ben Wallaxce had to pull his weight on O in Detroit and the results are there! Padgett over KC? The results were there, because -- there was O, and the threat thereof. It is apparently necessary for Cato to be able to keep his guy 'honest'. This is why I always liked the thought of a Walker or LaFrentz type as a Rocket 4 with Yao.
I think Cato rushes his shot in a game situation. He looks pretty good shooting free throws, I can't understand why he can't take it out 10-15 feet and shoot it a little better than he does. Good catch with that play. One of my favorites to watch is when Steve is driving the baseline. Watch as JJ gets in Steve's sights by migrating over to the opposite bassline just behind the 3-point line. Steve's passed off on a number of difficult layups he'd ordinarily attempt in order to feed an open JJ behind the arc. I've refrained from mentioning it before, 'cause I didn't wanna jinx the play, but hey, if opponents haven't noticed it by now ...
Cato hit two jump shots from 15 ft out in the same week. That's got to be his career high. Now if only he can made a turnaround. . . Hmmm, maybe lately Yao is teaching Cato how to shoot and Cato is teaching Yao how to snatch rebounds.
I watch Cato shoot all season and have to admit his jumpshot form isn't. He's just too giddy on his jumpers. I bet with ya in 1 practice, he actually make quite a few jumpers. Diagnosis: Positives: Cato Squares his shoulders to the basket, get his leg under him, his elbows are tucked in with decent release. He releases the ball cleanly. At least the ball goes straight. Negatives: No confidence in the game and terrible rhythm when he shoots. Cato gets very antsy when nobody is guarding him and every jump shot he takes is at a different pace. When he releases it slow, he air balls it. When he's fast, he's too strong. Solution: Only play him in garbage time and run the offense through Cato. let him gain some confidence shooting the jumpers.
Cato is HORRIBLE with the ball, he panics and turns it over a lot. I wish JVG would put him on the bench and start Mo T or Padgett...both of which are better entry passers. Cato should be a backup center not a starting PF.....Gasol killed him tonight.. DD
