We were 5-0 when Cato has 23 min or more per game. We are 1-5 when he has less. In those games he had between 6 - 12 reb and usually scored around 8-9pts. Now I know he is not the reason we won or lost but I think that he needs to be in there long enough to get into the game. Rudy is just going to Willis and leaving Cato on the pine. I think we still need Cato to get more minutes. He needs to be out there still learning to be an NBA center. Alot of mediocre centers have bad games but bounce back to have big ones. Willis is putting alot of pressure on himself, and Kenny Thomas is just not big enough. WE NEED CATO.
6min a game is just not enough. I don't care how bad he plays at times. He has had good games and he can play well again. He plays fairly well when he gets the minutes.
Give Cato more minutes... ...that way he might have a cardiac arrest and die. Then we could get a medical exception from the NBA. There's no other way we're getting out from that contract.
Ottomaton, that's cruel. I don't think it's coincidental. When we have KT or Willis inside, people are gonna keep going in. None of them are shotblockers. Before anyone points out Cato's shotblocking average, I would like to point out that anyone playing in the league would know that Cato's best quality is shotblocking. Beleive it or not, teams would rather go for the dunk on KT/WIllis rather than Cato. Give Cato minutes. It's been a nice day, Woodlandsboy and oeilpere have both made positive comments about Cato...lol..
usually, Puedlfor gets straight to the heart of the matter with his posts, but this time he is getting way overly-complicated with that superfluous prepositional phrase "in extended time." Keep it simple: "When a player sucks, the answer is not to play him more minutes." we can even simplify that more with less words: "When a players sucks, the answer is not to play him." The reason that works works better is because it works with Langhi, too. You could use that same phrase with Langhi, but you'd have to modify Puedlfor's original phrase if you were talking about Langhi rather than Cato. bottomline: Absolutes don't need prepositional phrases for modification.
We had the good record because we played a bunch of stiffs and barely beat them. Now we're playing good teams and losing which isn't a surprising. If we can't get inside play, then we are a jumpshooting teamwhich doesn't bode well in the west. We're inthe same group as Clipps,GSW,and Denver, very inconsistent young teams. The problem i always b**** about is when they don't come to play. The Clipps may lose, but they play hard everynight. They don't say we won 45 games and now we should make the playoffs because of that. The Rockets need to forget last year because they still wound up in the lottery. The Rox just need to play the guys that are going to play hard every night. If that means Rice or someone playing 5 or 10 min, so be it, but this is the second time we've walked on the court and took a ass whipping. Thats the problem I have!
We need to put people on the court that give us the best chance to win. Just because someone plays hard doesn't mean he gives us the best chance to win. I say giving Cato playing time gives us a better chance of winning and our record shows it.
You are assuming a causality where, in all likelihood, none exists. 1) 23 Minutes is a completely arbitrary cut-off point. What signifigance does this point have? That it provides the starkest difference? Why not 30 minutes? Also, how many of those game minutes are skewed by the numerous Overtime games the Rockets have played? 2) If Cato played more than half the game, it was in all likelihood because he didn't suck that game. If he didn't completely suck that game, it was likely that we got above average play from the center position, and that likely affected how well we played. The fact is that Kelvin Cato brings nothing to this team when he's on the floor. Not offense, not defense, not even consistent effort. Yes, there have been games where's he's showed signs of life, but those have usually been tempered by his below-average basketball skills. He should not be starting, nor playing.
I think what "Woody" is getting at is that Cato isn't being given the chance to suck in some games(ie. Sacramento 6 min = suck). Go for it! Give Cato more minutes so he can suck more!! In all reality, I like Cato when he plays NBA basketball. What does he eat/drink/etc. the day of or night before a game where he plays well?? Give him more of it...whatever it is. I just started watching the game from tonight and loved the way he scrapped and dove for the lose ball. Go Cato!! Sick 'em!!!
I think it's a good idea to give Cato a consistent number of minutes that is greater than just 6. Obviously, he's a little testy and needs to feel wanted... and that's not going to happen if he's riding the pine. (Heck, if I was getting paid $42 mil, I'd feel wanted, but that's just me.) As for comparing Willis's output to Cato... Isn't Willis a black hole when the ball goes to him? Willis may score more, but is that simply because the ball never comes back out when someone gives it to him?
I agree with Puedlfor's second point!! We can all recognise that Cato is wildly inconsistent in his play - some games he plays like a million dollars (or is that 42 million?) and others he just walks around hanging his head down low. I would venture that when Cato plays well he gets more court time - this extra court time means that we have more time out of a good Cato game (which means production and a legitimate defender down low) and more rest for Willis meaning that he can play harder while he's on the court! This all adds up to greater presence from the center position, coupled with our great guard play that should amount to a W. Unsurprising that when Cato plays many minutes we win, but not to suggest that just leaving him on the court is any remedy for success. When Rice shoots over 60% I predict we win most games.
Seriously most of ya'll have to just get off his back. He is here and here to stay. By benching him or dissin him or bashing... what ever you wanna do to Cato is not going to help the situation. IMO Cato can score and has proven.... to me anyway.. that he can hit the 15 foot jump shot. BUT... he still has not been given a decent role in the offense and it must be frustrating to be trying to prove yourself, yet when your on the bench you see K Will, a major contributor in the offense. When Kelvin gets a piece in the offense he will explode and ya'll can say what ever, but until this happens he will be dis-interested. I watched the Lakers/Rockets game again last night and focused on Kelvin's play. He runs the floor every play but never gets a touch of the rock unless he grabs a board. That would seriously dis-interest me as well. If he didn't care about getting offensive touches.... why was he trying to get post position on Shaq? I have also been very interested to see how hard Cato would play in the play-offs and see if that would interest him at all to try harder. BTW.. Cato and more minutes would be a good thing but without the touches it is still not going to work.
Cato has been getting on my nerves lately w/his lackluster play and inability to catch the damn ball. But last night vs Portland, he played pretty good vs Wallace. Wallace had a harder time shooting over him as opposed to Taylor and Thomas. Last year he torched those players.
Miggidy, "Most of us need to get off his back" ??? Most of the bbs is overrating this guys defense. And you are saying the answer is to play him more *and* give him more touches. The answer to get a guy to play defense is to pamper him??? When Cato sucks, his defense is a liability...it hurts us. imo, his defense just plain sucks considering how tall he is, but that is me...imo, he'll never be a consistent defensive player, because he doesn't have *any* grasp of it. When he hustles on defense, doesn't give up ground, blocks out, doesn't fall for fakes or take the wrong man, fights for loose balls, then Rudy will give him more time. It is not right to say we should pamper the worst shooter on the team with more touches to make him happy, so that he will play fundamentally sound defense. I think that is a bassackwards approach. It is correct to say that about Dream, Willis, or other centers who show consistent defense, but not Cato. He must show consistency, first, before he gets more PT, much less more low post plays called for him.
I think the problem is that our guards do not share the ball enough, and therefore he feels uninvolved. If any of you ever play ball, then you know how frustrating it is to be frozen out of the offense, I am sure that when that happens it does not make you want to HUSTLE on defense. Cato has a guaranteed contract, he can sit back and rake in the money. Now, most professionals will not do this, but some are moody and need to feel appreciated. I think Kelvin is the latter. Take last night for example. Late in the first quarter, Cato is working HARD for post position 2 feet from the basket. Steve looks at him, and ignores him to launch a 25 ft brick..HUH !!!!????? Steve needs to THINK a little more out there, he can get his shot any time he wants it. I think he should go to Cato a couple of times early, just to get him involved. DaDakota
I'm sure this is obvious to everyone but the games that we are 5-0 were against Atlanta, Clippers, Nuggets, Suns, Philly(w/out Iverson). Against these teams the Rockets obviously had more margin for error and could still win because of the lower level of competition. Thus Cato could have more minutes and we still had a good chance to win. The 1-5 was against Minnesota, Lakers, Spurs, Nuggets(on 2nd game of back to back), Portland, Dallas. Against these teams the Rockets could take no chances with giving Cato more minutes to bumble some more easy passes away and still have a chance to win. The 1-5 record vs. these teams was because of the great competition they faced not because of Cato's minutes. Notice that though we had a bad record in these games we had a good chance to win each of them regardless of the Catomic Bomb's presence. Against good teams that is all you can ask for. When Collier is healthy put Cato on IR and start Willis with Collier and Griffin picking up the rest of the minutes.
