I am pulling HARD for Cato now. Damn Willis trade! :(

ON BALANCE, GREAT MOVE BY THE ROX1

In Willis they get a lot of things they need:
- toughness and interior rebounding
- decent interior defense
- class individual
- great work ethic (who cares if he is 61 years old, he only looks about 39 and plays like he's 34
- veteran leadership on a team that lost some veterans in the off season
- a mentor and role model for Griffin, Cato and Collier
- and he can score from outside of dunk range (vs. Cato)

And they gave up very little to acquire him! Again, give CD and the organization credit for doing what they had to do to keep this team on track despite a devastating injury to a key player.

 

Willis fills the Rockets' needs perfectly. His per-minute production last season was pretty consistant with his career numbers, actually. Instantly he's the Rockets' best inside presence, best power forward, and best center. He's also a hard worker and leader by example. I see him coming off the bench, because he shouldn't play more than 25 minutes a game, but those 25 minutes will be damn productive.

Root for the Taurus all you want, but I'm glad to see a proven vet who can get the job done as his backup.

 

Dollar for Dollar Kevin Willis gives more value than Glen Rice, Moochie Norris, or Walt Williams. There was so littte to pick form - I think the Rockets pulled a rabbit out of thieir hat, Congtatulations CD for a job well done. We could not have gotten Keon Clark without losing a significant player. Anthony Mason or Chris Gatling would not have fit in chemistry wise. This is the best we can do now.....

We are better off today than yesterday

 

Geez. We got the guy for free and some people still complain. What did you expect? KG? Seriously?

Great deal.

 

Amazing how everyone suddenly sees the positives of Willis...

I am Happy.

 

The fact that some people don't like this deal just proves the old addage that "you can't please all the people all the time". WHAT A TAINTED MEMORY OF THAT JAZZ SERIES. WE LOST TO THE JAZZ THAT YEAR BECAUSE STOCKTON MADE MALONEY HIS BIT**. STOCKTON OUTPLAYED MALONEY 40 TO 1 IN EVERY WAY IN EVERY GAME THAT SERIES.

We gave up next to nothing to acquire much needed help at the 5/4 this year. Without Willis, if Cato go down for any length of time to injury, you were looking at Mr. "cement shoes" Collier and the NBA lottery next year for sure. Willis conducted himself with class and was the consumate professional when he was here. He provides our young team with veteran leadership and much needed minutes at the 5. Willis should allow Cato to play more agressively as a shot blocker since there will now be a quality backup big man in the event of foul trouble. I am very pleased that we were able to use the injury exception in such a positive way! CD does it again!

 

As long as we can get decent numbers from him, like 8 to 12 points a game and 8 to 12 rebounds a game, then everyone will be happy here. I'm betting that despite being 39, he can do it.

We had to do something, and considering that we lost nothing, I think we made out like bandits. This is a deal that will help increase our seeding..moving from 7th or 8th ot 5th or 6th.

 

Common John, don't be so negative. Well at least now with our guard-oriented offense he won't as many chances to throw up stupid shots. Actually he can hit the 10-15 jumpshot. He is a banger and mixes it up w/other bigger players.Something we don't currently have. I like the fact that he doesn't back down from anyone and take 5hit from other players. Physical play does wear down post players. Hopefully he'll pound Duncan,etc.

 

Clutch should gift-wrap this thread and send it to CD because it captures the positive feelings of Rocket fans all over the world. Oh what an off-season!

Folks, there is just no team in the NBA that scares me right now. Bring them on. The team is now balanced and is as great defensively as it is offensively

 

The X factor of this season, and I think most would agree with me on this, was the performance of Cato. If Cato does well (12/8) then we go to the play-offs as long as everyone else performs as expected. But Cato is an X factor. With Big Kev, we know what we are gonna get. In the crazy up and down game that is the NBA, Big Kev is one of the most consistent players out there.

If Cato steps up this year, WE ARE GONNA KICK SOME BUTT. But even if he doesn't, we have someone who provides the insurance of big, strong, experienced consistency.

 

i can see why nuggets made that deal: they will tank & get good lottery selection & milwaukees first round pick & healthy mcdyess, but why did this deal milwaukee?? they gave up scott williams & first rounder against alex radojevic & second rounder. was scott williams such a salary cap loader? he was 4,5 mil per year?

 

I like Kevin Willis....he's always ready to play. However, I thought he was about 6'9" not a 7 footer.....what is his true height?

 

Kevin Willis is a legit 7 footer. Always has been.
He has short arms and small hands so he is not a great shotblocker but he is one of the strongest guys in the NBA and a damn hard worker who stays in great shape. (Have you seen Shaq try to post up on him in the past? Talk about holding your ground!) He's also got a minor reputation as a dirty player, but with rather soft big guys like Mo Taylor, Kelvin Cato and especially Jason "No vertical doughboy" Collier as well as underweight young big men in Eddie Griffin and Terence Morris, we could use an enforcer-type bruiser like him inside!
He's always been a solid rebounder and he knows how to put the ball in the basket. Considering the very strong possibiliy that he could be putting up similar numbers to Patrick Ewing and possibly Hakeem (9 and 9 a game), I'd say we made out as bandits.
I was very upset we lost him in the first place, but considering the situation with MJax, things most likely couldn't have turned out any better.
KUDOS to the Rockets front office once again!

 

uh, my previous question: i looked only the trade. milwaukee got now space to sign mason. it will be the low first rounder. nuggets were robbed.

 

I think it was a good pick up by the Rockets! We needed someone who can bang in the paint and someone who can rebound. Willis can do all that. We may not necessarily need him to score all the time, but heck if he can pull down the rebounds for us, that would be a great help! We cant have Francis leading in rebounding all the time! Secondly if Van Excel and Issell are not happy and feel that they had helped the Rockets, then they know what they are giving away! Van Excel has been ticked off cuz he has been giving double double since McDyess went down. But that is one thing I dont understand, why did they give him up?

 

I too hope that this puts a thumb in Cato's back. Maybe he can even beef up a little too. I don't think Willis is the key to our future, I think he gives us some stability in our weak frontcourt until the future arrives.

 

He has short arms and small hands so he is not a great shotblocker but he is one of the strongest guys in the NBA and a damn hard worker who stays in great shape. (Have you seen Shaq try to post up on him in the past? Talk about holding your ground!) He's also got a minor reputation as a dirty player, but with rather soft big guys like Mo Taylor, Kelvin Cato and especially Jason "No vertical doughboy" Collier as well as underweight young big men in Eddie Griffin and Terence Morris, we could use an enforcer-type bruiser like him inside!
Well said Axsomebody. Its nice to have a dirty or rough player for change. When we traded him a couple of years ago, I didnt lose sleep over cuz he did play dumb at times and it would aggravate me. However like the song goes," don't know what you got till it's gone", I never thought I'd be glad to have him back considering how soft we've become. When you play on a team, you always like to have that rugged player who will do the dirty work and won't take crap from anyone.It gives you a sense of security. That's all we need from him while Cat,Francis and Rice hopefully will take care of the scoring and Griffin and Cato take care of the swats.

 

Sometimes it's the little trades that make the big difference. We can't overlook the intangibles that a player make bring. Like when we got Elie back in the summer of 93, nobody thougt much of it cuz he simply was a role player. But it was that type of player we needed to take our team to the next level. I'm not saying that this trade is gonna take us to the finals, but Willis is a missing ingredient that we don't have.We have all the youth,athleticism and skilled players already, this may be what we were missing. KEEPING MY FINGERS CROSSED.

 

I meant a player may bring

 

you know you can just edit your original post right, unlike the espn boards