Who do you pick in the draft? The best player available. Plain and simple. You don't draft to your needs...you draft talent. Talent is tradable. If you have a need, then trade for it. Cato is an almost perfect fit to this team. He doesn't need to develop a 5 ft shot. What good is a 5 ft shot anyway? He needs to develop a post-up game. The biggest hole on this team is the inability to post-up down low and draw the defense. Griff can't do it. MoT can't do it. Cato can't do it. Willis is the only guy who can remotely handle a post-up. If we address one need this summer, develop or acquire a post game. If we can, that'll do wonders for our guard play. Plus you can't go far in the playoffs without a half-court set.
Cd did inquire about Odom. I'm not so sure Rice has the spot locked, if something better is available. Just because we overpaid for Rice and can't get rid of him doesn't mean he gets to play. Cato sat on the bench dnpcd when he was in the doghouse last year. Rudy does talk with crazy love about Rice's (former) game, but surely they knew they needed a young replacement during the contract, anyway. Rice had creaky knees and was injured when they got him - so I have to think they had already put an age-life on him and his pt over the contract. I keep reading that the team has to do this or that for emotional reasons. I frankly think there's too much money on the line, and expect accountability and professionalism. Shaq and Kobe didn't like each other very much not so long ago, but the right business decision was to make it work. Heck, even Barkley and Drexler were able to play together for some 60+ wins. The rockets don't have to be a scruffy but loveable underdog. They could command respect and begrudging admiration for multi- talented personnel and clockwork execution of devious, troublesome schemes. That path requires a great deal of professionalism, and a leader who will demand and enforce it. I can only imagine the wrath of Hakeem if you failed to give up the ball. I can remember Cassell getting a nasty scowl even after a make. I remember Magic telling Vlade to keep his panties on when he came looking for a hug, and of course Jordan cracked his teammates repeatedly. I believe he once dropped Steve Kerr cold. I hope to see that develop with Steve and Cat in the next few years, if they want to be leaders, and not just players. I think they are both capable. Professional doesn't mean mean or mean-spirited. Dallas is a very professional organization. They are constantly looking to improve. They admit mistakes. They have the most assistant coaches in the league, every tool they can provide. Real pros want to be there, and it seems they also have fun. That's a bit expansive as a reply to Rice is the three, get used to it, but that's just not the sort of thinking I can accept.
the magic of our BBS...Marc Jackson can go 11-5, and get a thread devoted to him. Kelvin Cato goes 14-11-4, in a game AFTER the all star break, when he was allegedly supposed to revert to his former ways, and gets criticized. Get used to it. Kelvin Cato, playing the way he is, will be the main center on this team for the next 5 years. He has no need to develop his offensive game, asking for an offensive is asking that he become BETTER than Theo Ratliff. And he IS developing a mid-range shot-he's displayed it with some positive results before. The fact that his offensive game suffers when Steve is out is a testament to Steve's increasing passing skills, and/or a form of proof Moochie that when Moochie goes to the lane, he goes for the shot much more than the dish. Freak-I wouldn't say Rice has the starting job, but certainly a role on this team. It'll depend on Rice's health, and his play how much of a role he plays. He may be used as a stabilizing type on the 2nd unit, if a young stud could be acquired. Look at Kevin Willis.
Rice needs to lose a little weight so that he can jump again. The guy is just to big in the upper body and has no spring any more. I believe that he can come back and contribute quite a bit given the proper conditioning and playing strategy. Even if he is only a spot up shooter on offense, he is still smarter than most of our guys and can make good passes. If Rudy uses him in the right situations, he could be an excellent starter. If he decides to isolate him.... you can just kiss Rice's productivity goodbye. Trade Cato if possible (his stock is rising) and draft a center. I will never believe in Cato's fragile progress until I see him perform at a decent level in a playoff game that means something. Even if he looks good for a while, I would put money on him choking when it counts.
Cato can only catch alleyoop passes, but that's good. His range is the circumference of the rim. His game is ALL athleticism, he doesn't have much smarts either, that is the only knock on him. The only reason why we pick on him so much is because he makes stupid mistakes. It's good that Stevie has made things simpler for Cato with those alleys. Seriously, we are soo lucky to have him as our Center. This fella has madd hops, quick on his jump and almost every time they dish it off on a drive he is automatic for the dunk. Very few centers have got that type of athleticism.
Of course I expect him to be better than Theo Ratliff. He has more physical skills. Hence, he should be better . I'm satisfied with his development thus far, but it needs to continue.
Everything I've heard tells me that Ming is not just another stick-figure who knows how to palm a basketball. He's supposed to be the real deal - can shoot, has good situational awareness, good rebounding positioning, etc. I would love to get him. I wouldn't tank to get him, but I would definitely cut a large trade to do it come draft day. Cato's a good backup. Nothing more, nothing less. Until we get an "answer" at the 5, we're not gonna hit the top in the Western Conference. 3 or no 3.
Im am so gladd that someone else has noticed that Cato is starting to take and make a few 5 to 10 foot jump shots. He did last night as well. It should be hard to critisize someones offensive production when they have been giving your team 10 plus points on about 50% fg average and he is not suppose to be a scoring threat at all. BTW can anyone tell me what 5 has outplayed Cato over the last couple of months? What five is currently playing better? Cato is one of the few 5s that have the size and athletic ability to play D on Shaq. I think that we are all so used to watching hall of fame type centers in this town that we have forgotten just how rare that type of center is. Cato is no hall of fame player but he has been a damn good center in todays NBA over the last couple of months. So how many centers in this league would be an improvement over the way Cato is playing now? Not many.
The guy hasn't had a chance in a play-off game yet... are you going to trade him before he can prove himself in a play-off game as well?
Who doesn't make stupid mistakes on this team every once in a while? Cato has been putting up double-double numbers for a long stretch of games now. Last year alot of us would have been excited at Cato getting 8pts, 10 rbds, 2 blocks. Now he's doing exactly that, and more, yet we ask for more and more. We are expecting a 15 foot jump shot off Cato? The best center in the game today can't hit outside of 5 foot to save his life (Shaq for da homers). If Cato doesn't stay in Houston for at least the next 2 years I am greatly disappointed in the Rockets organisation. They put alot of money in Cato to begin with, now they should work with him and give him the credit he is working to deseave. And that's his spot on our roster and starting at the C.
There are no centers worth CRAP coming out of college this year. The Rockets really missed out when the Marc Jackson deal fell thru. He's not the best, but he's definitely an upgrade from Cato. That being said, I'm very impressed with Cato's progress lately. It looks like he's finally getting back into game condition after a season and a half of constant injuries. This is the Cato that blocked 12 shots in one game. I don't think the Rockets are as bad off as we think with him. If he can rebound and patrol the paint, and pick up garbage points, that will be tremendous for us. When Mo Taylor is back he'll be the primary front court scorer and Cato will probably get a lot more rebounds because Taylor shoots more often from closer range than the guards (which means less long rebounds). I think Cato will flourish next year with Mo T back in the lineup.
here, check out yao mings player profile. would you risk dropping cato if you had this guy? http://www.nbadraft.net/profiles/yaoming.htm
after reading this thread i'd be pumped to get yao ming. i like jayz's idea of having a cato, ming, and griffin frountcourt. that's a pretty intimidating line to throw out there every once and a while.
Somehow I feel next year's center position will be held down by Cato/Mo-T/EG/Collier. Unless we manage a miracle trade of some sort. Yao Ming? Whichever team gets him will have to jump through a lot of hoops first: Chinese gov't, Chinese army, Shanghai Sharks, Mommy and Daddy Ming... Landing him would be a great coup, though. I don't know what kind of NBA player he'll be. Probably very good. Supposedly the Shanghai Sharks would want a player in compensation for Ming. Can you imagine if we sent Cato and his purple-and-pink ride over there? Let's not give China a reason to invade Taiwan.
There's no way we give Cato up for Ming. The Rockets would be so so stupid to do so. Any logical human being knows that Ming can not play big minutes immediately for SO SO many reasons. Injuries, development, pressure. It will take him at the very least 1 year to be able to play 30 minutes. When you're 7'5, it's too much of a risk to play too many minutes. If we get Ming, it would be with our 2 picks, KT, and a future pick. That's what we can give up. Cato is not a backup C. He's just one of those players that produce at a much much higher rate when starting. He's BETTER than a backup C. I think only Cleveland has a better backup C than Cato. Like I said in another thread, a Cato/Griffin combination can improve our guards DRASTICALLY. Those off-shooting nights? Cato and Griffin will gobble up the rebounds. Defensive mistakes? Would you really bet against Catop and Griffin getting 10 blocks between them on any given night? Think about it.
Some people are saying that the Rocks should draft the best available player. I say that the Rocks should draft the player with the highest up side, i.e. a high schooler or college freshman. The Rocks next year are going to be better meerly since EG, OT, and TMo will have a solid year of experience under their belt. Add in a healthy MoTay and Rice, and the Rocks should be a 50+ win team. The Rocks will have two legit 20 pts/game scores in Cat and Steve. And they have two 15-20 pts/games scorer in Mo Tay and Eddie, ignoring that they played the same position. Rice may even have a full 15 pts/game season left in him. The team does not more O, just more D. Cato fits in well given that. Looking at their roster next year, 1 Francis, Norris 2 Cat, OT 3 Rice, TMo 4 MoTay, EG 5 Cato, EG, Collier IR Walt (signed to the minimum in case Rice gets hurt) The weakest starter and the weakest postion in depth is the 5. Maybe the best thing the Rocks can do is to draft the best high school low post player, who won't need to contribute significant minutes for the next 2-3 years. But when he does, the team should have two playoff runs under their belt and should look like 1 Francis 2 Cat 3 TMo 4 EG, MoTay 5 Player X Steve and Cat will be the veteran leaders, with EG emerging into a NBA all star, with Player X nipping on his heals. The dynasty will begin then.
Sane, I wasn't saying we should give up Cato for Ming. If the Chinese did their homework, they wouldn't take him anyway. And how would that player-for-player deal work? Because any player yielded to the Shanghai Sharks would kick and scream all the way. Is there even a precedent for such a move? Who pays the salary?
The idea of trading and sending an NBA player to China sounds absurd...certainly unprecidented. We keep Cato and send him to big man school. Imagine how nice it would be to pass the to Cato on the block and have him drop-step pump fake somebody. He doesn't have to be great...just a potential threat worth a doubleteam if he's inside of 5-10 ft. He won't get you 20 pts normally but just to give the defense another thing to think about. Right now, opposing 5's basically sag off as much as they want as long as they don't give up an ally-op. If Cato can learn a basic post-up game this summer, he'd be worth every cent of his contract. He's already doing a great job now. More improvement would be dynomite! If he just maintains this level of play next season, I think I'd be happy. I'm still worried he'll come back from off-season out of shape and fall back into his lackluster play. Right now I say keep Cato and continue to develop him. He shows desire and he's too athletic to give up on. It's riskier to dump and and look for a better replacement because chances are it won't pan out. Last comment: I'll say agian. You don't draft for need. You draft talent. If you pass up a more talented player to acquire a need, you'll regreat it almost everytime. All else fails, talent is tradeable.
If Cato continues to play the way he has and maybe attends big man camp this summer, there's no reason for him to be traded. He's one of the few centers who actually has a center's body. He's athletic and fits perfectly on this team. He doesn't have to score 15 every night just grab 8+ rebounds and block a couple of shots. He's not old either. If Cato's consistently dropping the Catomic bomb for the rest of the year the question's not whether we should trade him, but whether Mo-T or KT stays.
