As far as the salaries working out, both Houston and Orlando have Trade Exceptions to smooth out the trade. Ours is 6.9 mil from the Rice trade. I saw somewhere that someone said ORL had one for 1.5 mil, but I don't know if that is accurate or not. With Orlando's exception alone, once the BYC issues are gone, there could be a trade of Steve and Cat for just McGrady, or include Howard and Gaines, depending on whether those are players Houston wants, or that Orlando is trying to unload.
I don't think that CD is trying to lowball them. He may very well be waiting for July 15 so he doesn't have to inclue Cato but I don't think it's because he is trying to lowball the Magic. I think it's a mistake to wait, unless you are absolutley 100 percent certain that you will get Mcgrady. If your not, you do the deal as soon as you can. You don't wait. It's too risky. You don't know what could happen between now and then.
I wouldn't take the risk of screwing this thing up over Kelvin Cato. It'd be robbery if we got to keep him, but too many things can change from now until July 15th (ie: Cuban figuring something out) for my liking. Just get this thing done.
I think it's just a problem in being redundant at this point. Having the two words "Chad" and "Ford" together automatically imply the word "stupid" or similar terms.
Exactly. I wouldn't get too attached to Kelvin Cato. Guys like him are a dime a dozen. We could always pick up James Thomas as a FA, a poor man's Cato.
Power forward from the University of Texas. He is a poor man's Etan Thomas. In other words, undersized and not enough athleticism to stick in the NBA.
once again what is the fascinatoin with cato? The guy is overpaid, and only shows up when he wants to.
I agree. The longer McGrady is "out there" the better chances some teams have of trying to find a way to get him. We just need to secure him ASAP and then worry about our roster later. I have no problem giving up Francis/Mobley/Cato. I wouldnt chance this deal at all just to see if we could keep Cato. McGrady has to be here at all costs at this point. There is no turning back. FYI in the Orlando RealGM forums the fans there are crapping bricks that Cato might be out of the deal. They were bashing the Rockets trade proposal for such a long time, and now that there arent many teams left and the word is out that Cato might no longer be involved it has got them pissed off! I mean before they looked at Cato as some stiff, and now they say they NEED him as part of the deal. Kinda funny to see the change of heart.
We know he is overpaid, especially if he stays on this team and play 15 minutes a game as backup C. If we can save Cato from Tmac deal, we can trade him somewhere else to improve our depth at 1 and 3. We need a cheap backup C. Howard/Taylor/Spoon seems a bit flat for the 4 position. It would be nice to get Sheed, but not likely. SAR would be nice too. Is Portland in a rush to get rid of his contract?
He is undersized at 6'8, but he's an excellent rebounder and shot-blocker. Man you put JT's heart into Cato's body, and you'll have another Ben Wallace. As it is, JT had a horrible senior year at Texas, which probably kept him from being picked this year. Houston would be wise to bring him into camp as a FA, seeing as though we have the weakest PFs in the NBA.
Well, I think this is all a part of a PR campaign aimed at Orlando fans, after they had such a major negative reaction to the initial news of T-Mac getting traded. I have a feeling that is part of why this is all slowed down. Wiesbrod has been using the media to let the fans realize what the possibilities out there really are, and to rewrite and renegotiate Francis's response to going to Orlando. The fans are beginning to realize they could go from the worst team in the league to: 1) Cato/Okafor or Howard/Hill/Mobely/Francis 2) Cato/Okafor or Howard/Brown/Mobely/Arenas 3) Cato/Okafor or Howard/Butler/Allen/FA PG 4) Cato/Okafor or Howard/Lewis/Mobely/Hinrich 5) Cato/Okafor or Howard/Chandler/Mobely/Hinrich Theres a lot of options, but all of a sudden, Cato looks good beside all of them ... and they can see how that the team can truly be rebuilt into one that goes far into the playoffs, and is more entertaining than in a long time. I'm impressed that TMac has stuck to his guns, and fortunately for us, he chose the Rockets, which has limited ORL to certain options. I think Wiesbrod wanted things to be free, so he could play all sorts of possible hands tonight at the draft. But, once that is over, I would bet that this trade goes down sooner, rather than later. Its in everyone's best interest.
with all this trade craziness - the little things are starting to impress me like the fact that no one has referred to Cato as "Kato" in this thread yet... check the other posts from yesterday if you are just joining us
James Thomas was the PF for the Texas Longhorns that graduated this year. One of the best natural rebounders I've seen in college for a while with some ups. Just don't ask him to make a chippy because he shoots below 30% from inside 5 feet (which is sadly why his rebounding wizardry will never be appreciated at the NBA level).
Why not dump Cato now?!? This is your chance! Don't pull another "We'll get back to you, Larry Brown".
