The Pistons didn't pick up his option, and I doubted they would. For the minimum, he'd be an okay addition since we need another big body in the frontcourt to back up Yao.
I'd do it in a heartbeat. Forget Yao.... Imagine Deke goes down. We're royally screwed with absolutely no one who can back Yao up. Aside from that, say we're playing the Spurs or Heat, I would like to have Cato around to push some people around. Terriffic rebounder, terriffic shotblocker, knows our system, likes JVG... I think it's a perfect fit, and we can play him into shape too. If he's in some kind of good shape, I'd even offer him the rest of our MLE for two years guaranteed. That should come out to 5M over two years right?
who else can we get that can patrol the paint or block a shot? cato would be perfect in a bench role!! all you cato haters speak up!! who else is there? that's what i thought... don't just poo-poo cato, suggest a better option. if he signs for the minimum, i think it would be a good pickp.
we *need* another big body Mutombo is no going to make it at least not all season so either you OVERWORK Yao trying to save mutombo for the playoffs or you accept a lower seed I like mutombo but he is over 70 Rocket River
Cato at the vet min. would be a good pick up IMHO. Doesn't have to play big mins. just spell Yao and grab some reb. and block some shots
Actually it did. He got two triple doubles in 5 games, they gave him the big contract, and he never got another one. The problem was that they evaluated his worth based on too small a sample size (like 5 preseason games). So, while the blame should certainly go to the Rox front office and not Kelvin (he didn't get to pick the salary they would offer, after all) he did technically have a decline in performance after signing the contract.
History buffs what was the original deal to acquire Cato? Would love Kelvin back if the price was right.
I think Cato would be a great addition to our team. All he can do was dunk and catch a few alley oops, but with Rafer in the backcourt I think he'll do a lot better than when we had SF3 back there. We need the rebounding, and we definitely could use the size. Besides Yao and Deke we don't have any "big men" the next tallest guy on our roster is Novak at 6-10.
It was the Pippen to Portland deal. I believe the only other notable player we ended up with was the infamous Walt Williams.
Agree with you, he will get way more than the veteran minumum. With Mutombo retiring after this upcoming season, the rockets would have to give Cato a serious look. He would bring this team alot of toughness and he defends Tim Duncan extremely well.
I would welcome Cato back on the cheap, i rooted for him (also laughed at his mistakes) when everyone bashed him but when we got Yao and the season when he banned the media (was that pre-yao? or rookie yao?) he played much better. If we can get that type of production back as a 3rd C or split time with Deke backing up Yao I can't see what risks would make it a bad deal.
If he was the Cato that showed up his last year in Houston, that might be different, but that Cato hasn't played the last couple years.
