haha. jumpman you are going too? I'm definitely going with friends in waterloo. hopefully I can get enough ppl to get a group discount... --and to everyone wants bateer on rockets: keep your hands off my precious bateer! after so many years searching for a reason to support raptors wihtout result, you are not going to take my boy away~
Mateer would appreciate your enthusiastic comments, but you don't just bulk up and play for 2 years to pull off 10 and 7.
TY I'm not familiar with the raptors line up. Do you think Bateer will be starting and what position will he play? Who are playing center and power forward for team?
Bateer played better than Yao when they were both on court. For some funny reason I think he's got more aggressivness. His failure in Denver is due to several reasons: mainly language. But IMHO, he is a very decent power forward and no way a scrub. He plays hard and has very high work ethics. I will be following him very closely next season.
Crash, why don't you pull your head up from Cato's lap and look at some real facts!! You a basing all of your weak stats on the 5 games that Cato started in the Yao Ming era. 5 GAMES!!!! How about looking at 01-02 when he started 73 games. And WOW!!! Look what we have here!! YEAR TEAM G GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% OFF DEF RPG APG SPG BPG TO PF PPG 01-02 HOU 75 73 25.6 .583 .000 .582 2.30 4.70 7.00 .4 .53 1.27 .71 2.80 6.6 Based on a 73 game scale Cato seemed to average only 7 RPG in an average of 26 mins. These facts I would consider "the truth" more than a stretch of 5 pointless games! And once again your post has bombarded this thread with weak facts and utter nonsense. Next time you want to debate about somthing make sure you bring some bona fide statements or stats or anything that means something with you. And lastly, don't ever compare Ben Wallace and Kelvin Cato again please. Cato should never be mentioned in the same breath as Wallace let alone compared. Wallace is a certified starter that could out hussle, out rebound, out block, and can simply out play Cato on Wallace's worst day. Not to mention he does it night in, night out, for 40 min a game. Wallace is a physical specimin that also gives up size to Cato. (2 in and 35 lbs)
I'm sure spending time in practice with Duncan and Robinson has had a possitive impact on his game, but in the frontcourt challenged Eastern Conference, I can't see Toronto giving him up. Especially for how little (by NBA standards) they will be paying him. If he were a UFA, bring him in and see what he can do, otherwise it's a moot point. (First post, I've been lurking here for about a year )
I'm glad that Toronto sign him because he's going to get a chance to prove himself. Saw him play against the US and he's better then people give him credit for. We'll just gonna wait and see.
wow......this has to be the biggest waste of the BBS that I have ever seen......who cares.....Its Mengke Bateer.....He's nothing special....he's a big guy that can't do anything but foul. No one w/ any basketball knowledge would sit Taylor or Griff for Bateer. The guy is here jus because he's big. That is it......Bateer is a waste of time and so is this thread.....If ya wanna put him in Colliers' spot fine.....but dont be stupid and compare Bateer to Cato. There is no comparison. Cato is a legit starting center on almost every Eastern conference and a few western conference teams......On second thought, Bateer could bring Yao water....... dont waste your energy crash.......
And why don't you pull your head out of your ass long enough to turn on the TV and watch a game or two buddy. If you had you might have noticed Cato played pretty damn well the last season and a half. You want to bombard me with Cato sucks crap when he clearly played very well last year and then you support bringing in Bateer and think he is better than Cato? Please. The guy basically averaged 6 rebounds and 1 block in only 17 minutes of play over the course of an entire season last year. Oh but by the way Cato sucks. For whatever reason Cato decided to start playing ball. He was the biggest underachiever on the team once but not anymore. Last year proved it, not over the course of a few starts but over the course of an entire season. Cato produced.
BTW your scale is out dated. Cato averaged right at 6 rebounds a game in about 17 minutes last season.
I'm as familiar with raptors as you do. but from what I heard from friends who do follow raptors, Menke is signed as the main sub for both 4 & 5 -- hopefully, as least. btw, considering he actually turned down the raptor's initial offer of two years and only signed 1 year, that should be a positive sign for bateer. -- as least, he is confident that he'll be hanging around the league and doing better than a minimun wage guy. err... I do agree... a menke thread for 2 pages. when does the season starts...
Moot point. Bateer is too slow to play pf in the NBA. On offense he can bulldoze over any pf but on defense he'll be out speed by opponents. Don't make Bateer out to be garbage, the man is capable of commending double teams against some NBA teams. He'll at least make for a solid backup center.
Ty185, count me in, I do need some cheap tickets with a whole MTL team rushing to T city. Btw, MB won't be able to start as 5 in Raptors, but if Davis is on IL, he might have a chance, while he really disappointed me a lot with all those stupid fouls in Denver, guess he didn't improve a lot with one year training in Spurs. But anyone who think that he can make a breakout season in Toronto and earn over 2 million next year should be nuts, he would be happy enough to see a long contract to secure him another 4 years with 1M per year. Anyway, Toronto is pretty the same weather as his hometown, so guess he will adjust well, I bet he misses snow a lot in SA.
crash, why are you wasting your time debating with these people who actually think Bateer is better than Cato? Bateer would make a great 15th man....just sign and trade Collier for him. He's not going to impact us much though. Did Bateer even play last season for the Spurs?
before yao came of age, china was ruled by wang zhizhi and bateer, I dont think bateer could start but i would take him over collier, evan eschemeyer and tractor traylor, he could be a fairly solid 3rd string center but i wouldnt put im on this team, id put him in the east where he can actually strive. his first year in denver was a bad season but its because he couldnt play defense at all and the nuggets used him like a wang zhizhi, making him shoot threes. how dumb is that? making a 300 lb mongolian sit out on the perimeter. i say give him a year in toronto, this could be his chance to breakout and get some solid minutes, from what ive read he is finally learning to be more physical. if he pans out next year, something like a fair 8pts 6.5 rbs and 1 blk, i would gladly trade kcato off and get some genghis kahn to backup yao at center (not pf, i dunno why people are saying that, hes even slower than yao)
Bateer has the size and great work-ethic, but not enough natural ability to be a factor in the NBA games. He will probably stick in the NBA for a few more years to come, but he won't make any major waves.
There is no comparison between Cato and Bateer, why is there even an arguement going on about it? Cato is definitely the better right now. However give Bateer a chance, he might turn into something of a decent NBA player, he hasn't really had a chance. But so far things don't look so good for him. Pass on him for now.
