First We sign Steve Francis longterm. Next do not sign Walt, sorry Walt love u man but ur not apart of our rebuilding plans. Ok now that we part with the Wizard , know Reshard Wants to come back to Houston, so we Offer Seattle Cato and Kenny Thomas for Rashard. but Seattle has to sign and trade him. Now as for the Draft we will probebly end up drafting Jefferies. Rashard can show Jefferies what it takes to make in in the NBA. NOw assuming Toronto makes the playoffs we get the #14 pick we draft Sampsons nephew, he could be a steal. We might also maybe package Langhi, Collier for a #first round pick. I think that is all we need to be a playoff contendor for atleast 2 years, then in 3-4 years We will be Championship Contenders Francis/Norris Mobley/Morris/Torres Lewis/Rice/Jefferies Griffin/Taylor/Morris Taylor/Sampson/Griffin Tell me what You All think
there's absolutely no way in hell that i would give up both kenny AND cato for lewis. maybe KT straight up, but there's no contention potential without a legitimate big man, even if it is cato. i'm not at all against rashard coming here, matter of fact, i would kinda like to see it because of the sheer sentimental value, him being from here and all. i even played against the guy in high school, so that would be pretty cool to be able to say "i've played with one of the rockets." but not cool enough to give up cato and kenny. sorry. your 3-4 year plan sounds pretty realistic though.
if we do get lewis i dont think getting jeffries is a need rite now. our forward position is clogged rite now and its probably either one or the other.
We'd be left with a rookie and two guys out of position at center. Also, it's pretty questionable if we could get a decent pick for Langhi and Collier.
Right now we dont have much of a Center anyways, Cato isnt a true Center anyways man how tall is he 6'10? Cmon Im sure a Beefed up Taylor can do more than LAzy Ass Cato. If Sampson can be half as good as his uncle we are in Business my friends. The Rookie would be taken under Rashard and Rice's Wing, they will show the Rook how the NBA game is played. Rice has tons of experience and Lewis knows how to play, dont get me wrong Rice does too, but hes more or a shooter than an All round player. It would be nice to get a proven veteran center who would teach Sampson, maybe after Olajuwon retires (hopefully he will soon) Houston will give him a coaching Job to help the big guys. We could use our 2nd Rounder on a waste of Space like Christoferson from Oregon, even though i think he is the most intalented Center ever, he is still Raw and huge. All we need from a Center is 10+ rebs a game thats it please GOD give us a Center
Cato is 6'11" and 255. He is a true center. Maybe not a very good one, but a true center. Mo Taylor can't guard centers, and I doubt he'll ever average 10 rebs. I don't really follow college, so I can't comment much on Sampson or Christoferson. I agree, please God give us a center. I did see Jeffries play a few times, and I was impressed, until he disappeared in the Final Four.
Man I don't know what you guys see in samson the guy has never dominated the game... not in high school and definately not in college you would think someone who's supposed to come into the NBA would be heads and shoulders above the ppl he's playing against here's a project, what are his career high's in pts rbd and blk? how about averages? high school and college if he comes out it's nbdl or some foreign league for him
Are you kidding, dTown333? You're saying you wouldn't trade Thomas and Cato for Lewis? Lewis would fill the hole at small forward, Cato's massive contract would be gone, and you'd still have Griffin and Taylor at PF (even if Taylor is a wuss). We wouldn't have a center, you say? I think you're forgetting we have a lotto pick. You don't think we could trade that for a legit big man, or at least draft Borchandt, Marcus, or Ely (none of whom could possibly be worse than Cato, especially considering Cato's contract)? And if we got the Raptors' #14 pick, we could use that to draft one of those three centers and maybe use our pick on Gooden, and then trade Maurice "What's a Rebound" Taylor for spare change (maybe a backup 2 guard).
drexlerfan22, it would be harder than you think to replace cato's contribution to this team. have you actually watched a game in the last 2 months, this is not the same lazy guy. i'm not saying he's untouchable by any means but if you factor in kt playing at a high level than that is WAY too much for just rashard. if we want to contend in the future we can't afford to lose cato without getting a proven center or a super-stud prospect(ming) in return.
BigM, I have no ill will towards Cato, but Lewis is an unquestionably solid starting small forward, and it would be tough not to get a good center with the 6th (AND possibly 14th) pick in the draft, either through drafting someone or trading the picks. Cato's good, but he's not the long-term answer ESPECIALLY WITH HIS CONTRACT LIMITING OUR OPTIONS AT OTHER POSITIONS.
Christofferson will not make it to the NBA. Too slow, and poorly conditioned. He's a poor man's Serge Zwikker.
Forget Christofferson who we need is Amare Stoudemire. I saw him play in the highschool All American game. He is an agile 6-10 and probably is still growing like Eddie. Amare has the body and to me the demeanor of a center. He also has handles. He could easily be the one that has to fill the place of Cato. With this lineup the only teams that should challenge us in the West are Spurs Mavs, LA Lakers, KINGS Francis/Norris Mobley/ Torres/ Morris Lewis/ Rice/ Morris Griffin/ Taylor/ Stoudemire Stoudemire/ Griffin/ Collier WE should make the playoffs with this line up
For purposes to get back to the playoffs next year, I don't think the Rockets will take a hs and count on him to be a key part to the team. It will take a year or more to get acclimated. The Rockets want wins to put more people in the stands especially with the arena opening in two years.
This is What nbadraft.net has to say about Sampson Strengths: The dreaded "P" word. Jamal has great potential. But at this point his game is very raw. However, 7 footers with his athleticism are not a dime a dozen. Has long arms and very good shot blocking ability. Has the potential to be among the game's elite centers, but has a lot of dedication and hard work in front of him before he can even think about that. Has excellent quickness for a 6-11 bigman. Good shot blocker/rebounder with touch around the basket. Weaknesses: Lack of skills. Jamal will be another player on the 3-4 year plan. A high risk/reward type. Sometimes these (early entrant) players blossom into superstars and sometimes they fizzle into duds. Had injury problems in high school. Lack of strength will keep him from making much of a splash quickly. Desire is still under question. Doesn't appear to be the most disciplined player. G MIN PPG RPG APG 26 652 7.2 7.0 1.2 If he can hit the weight room this offseason we are in business, if we draft him
like the man said, kelvin cato is as good as any of the BS centers playing in the nba today, if alone for his size. defensively, he's not all that bad. what i know is that we already have a center that can play at the nba level (kinda) and if we risk it on a draft pick, it might even take longer for us to get back in the playoff hunt. now if one of those draft picks were to turn out an actually good player some time down the road, then that move would've been a smart one. to me, it's just that you never know with that and if you end up having to wait a few years with us missing out of the playoffs, then by the time the guy matures and is ready to make a solid contribution, the youngsters on this team will be getting into the latter years of their prime and the window of opportunity will be closing on a team with absolutely no playoff experience. plus i'm an impatient guy and i'm tired of waiting on talent to mature around here. I WANT US TO WIN NOW!!!!
You guys are looking at the small picture, talking about trading Cato for Lewis...yadda, yadda yadda. These players are average players. Trading one for the other isn't gonna get us to the playoffs because truthful these guys are a small part of the puzzle. Getting our team to the playoffs, and getting our team to the finals are two totally seperate issues. We need to aim for the second of these two. We need Steve and Cuttino to bring their games to the next level, and we should also be looking for a veteran or two, for leadership.
