I have come to the conclusion, after watching the Rockets this year, that Kelvin Cato should never see the floor unless there is a blowout in progress. I do not believe Cato brings anything to the game - he can't play offense, he can't play defense, and he can't rebound. All this is a product of his attitude on the court, his sporadic effort and his inability to body up on anyone. He not only brings nothing to the table, he's leaving the table with spoons and salt shakers crammed in his pocket. I say we should start Eddie Griffin at center. "Lunacy!" you say. Perhaps I'm crazy, crazy like a fox! Look at the comparison of Eddie to Cato. On defense Eddie Griffin will be overpowered by most centers in the league because of his size. Cato is overpowered by most centers in the league because of his ****ty play. At least Griffin will block a shot now and again, and will grab rebounds. Neither one of them will play great right now, but Eddie has the ability to learn to play great, Cato doesn't. On offense its not even a comparison. Cato bumbles, stumbles and otherwise looks like a long lost member of the Keystone Cops. Hell, even his dunks are 50-50. Eddie Griffin has a good turnaround and a decent shot. Hell, even if he didn't do anything its a positive improvement over Kelvin. Plus, you get the added bonus of giving playing time to a promising youngster. In conclusion, start Eddie, bench Cato, Go Rockets.
Hell yea I'm all for it. The only problem is that we'd have a sulking Cato, who would require an immediate trade outta here.
I say waive Cato and put Willis as a starter with Griffin backing him up or vice versa with Griffin starting and Willis backing.
Start Walt. While Walt is a defensive liability, he can create mismatches with his ball-handling skills. He's a good passer, and has a good, intuitive court awareness. Griffin hasn't developed these aspects yet. I do hope that Rudy turns more and more to Griffin, in leiu of Cato, as the 2nd big man off the bench. haven's proposed line-up C Kevin Willis PF Walt Williams SF Kenny Thomas SG Cuttino Mobley PG Steve Francis I know, I'm leaving Rice out of the starting lineup. BUt from what I've seen, the guy looks a bit lost and completely out of condition. Let him be "The Man" in the 2nd unit for now. He'll like having the ball more, getting to shoot more, and Walt will blend in better with the 1st team, which has enough offense anyway. KT, imo, could be an excellent Donyell Marshall style 3 now that he's trimmed down. He's an undersized 4, but would be a powerful 3 with enough quickness to guard most guys defensively. And that extra rebounding would help. The rest is self-explanatory.
I don't know. It seems he needs some serious seasoning. Tonight he jacked up 7 shots and only hit 1 for 2 points in 16 minutes. He was also 0-2 3ptrs. He also had 2 turnovers in just 16 minutes. He needs lots of shooting drills. Lots
haven, I like your starting lineup. It's time for Cato and Rice to hit the bench. Cato just sucks. Rice is struggling.
Just cut Cato. Lets face it, the guy will never amount to anything and in effect no one will want to trade for his overpaid ass!
I'm all for starting Eddie at center. Let's face it, the Rockets aren't going to contend this year, so there's no reason not to let Eddie get in there and get some experience. He's already shown that he can shoot, rebound, and block shots better than Cato.
I was against this idea at first because of Eddie's lack of size, but after thinking it over I have pulled a complete 180. I didn't see tonight's game, but I can see the negative Cato posts are mounting and see no reason that Eddie shouldn't get some time at the 5. Should he start? Maybe. I like Willis coming off the bench, but maybe what Kevin needs is the chance to start. He won't put up all-star numbers and Griffen likely won't either, but at this point anything is better than Cato pathetic display of.....whatever, it's not basketball!
I agree RP, It is not basketball! It's like Rudy says, "Kelvin, try to stay down this year, be patient, and not get into foul trouble." Cato: "hmmmm, I like that idea of never jumping, and avoiding foul trouble is easy. I'll just let Shaq run by me."
I agree with haven. Time to sit our 2 highest-paid players on the bench, where they belong. I am sick of us getting off to slow starts, and part of that problem is having minimal production out of two starters. Start Kev and Walt!
I agree a change should be made. Griffin, however is still learning so don't think he should start yet. Maybe around mid-season he can start, but right now Willis should start(he's producing big #'s for the minutes he's playing) and play the same # of minutes because he's old and probably couldn't take more minutes. Griffin should get the backup center minutes so probably around 20 minutes per game which should help him develop enough till he can start later. Whatever they do PLEASE Bench Cato for good!
Man, who would have thought that we'd be calling for Walt Williams to start for us after the Rice deal went down?
Yeah, great idea guys... a shooter struggles for a couple of weeks, lets send him to the bench! Every shooter goes through slumps. Rice didn't even have a preseason. He will come around, and be the third star this team so desperately needs very soon. Do not doubt this guy. He can score in the post, can create some off the dribble, and is a great shooter. He also passes the ball, shows leadership, has championship experience, etc. You guys want to dump him after a couple of bad weeks? For Walt Williams, who has been off for almost two years? Give the guy a chance... he's not going to come out of his slump if he's sitting on the bench.
