Gater wrote- It is entirely based upon the fact that at his age, it is better for him to go right from warmups to game and not sit and cool. For me, this excellent point ends this discussion. ------------------
Hakeem the Dream, of course... If Hakeem 82 games scores no points, has no steals, bloks or assis, and turns the ball over 200+ times... he still would be remembered as the Rocket who brought two banners to Houston. The other guy... Kelvin who? ++SA ------------------ -- SoftWeb Consulting - IT Division www.softwebnet.com 6501 Crown Blvd.
I'd start him and substitute him out early, a la Stockton. Get a feel for how well he's playing early. If Cato is playing well from that point, Rudy can leave Cato in there. If Cato gets into foul trouble, and Dream struggled early, try Collier for a few minutes. Bring Dream back in when he's got a favorable matchup, or a necessity dictates. Same thing to start the second half. I think Rudy needs to pick and choose Dream's minutes more carefully this year. Don't have the mentallity that he's the starter and should be in there the majority of time. If the matchup isn't there, I'd say let him watch. ------------------ "There's 1,000 different things we're looking at, but there's not a lot of things there." -- Rudy T., apparently after taking a hit of acid.
This upcoming NBA season will be Rocket's legend Hakeem Olajuwon's last season in the league. He brought the city of Houston their first two championships. Over the past few season's "The Dream's" stats have been going down. Last season due to injury Hakeem missed a good amount of the season. When he was injured, Kelvin Cato started in his place. Cato averaged 8.7 points compared to Olajuwon's 10.3 a game. But Cato shot 53.7% from the field (Olajuwon shot 45.8% from the field) and is a great defender. In my opinion Cato is capable of being better then Hakeem this year. But since Hakeem's done so much in 16 seasons with the Rockets, should he start? This is a very hard question to answer. Should the Rockets start Hakeem out of respect or should Kelvin Cato start, because he is young, new, and is highly capable of playing better then Olajuwon? I think that Cato should start, mainly because last season, when Hakeem did play, he seemed to be lazy. Countless times last year, when Hakeem missed missed easy shots, such as layups instead of being mad at himself he started laughing. There is no reason that a player should laugh when they do something wrong during a game. I remember one game last year, the Rockets were losing by 4 points with 1 minute left. Hakeem was wide open down the court. He got the ball and went up for a layup and missed it. Well for one thing, if a 7'0" center is wide open right under the hoop, he should dunk it, so there is almost no way you can miss and there is no excuse for missing a layup. But that wasn't what really got to me. The fact that he started laughing and didn't seem like he didn't care about it when he missed got to me. To top it all off, when the play was over he didn't even hustle to the other end of the court. I am a huge fan of the Rockets. When that happened I freaked him. If he made that layup the Rockets would've had a chance to either tie or win the game. If you make such a crucial mistake during a game, you better hustle your behind for the rest of the game. I know Hakeem has done a lot for the city of Houston, but that doesn't mean he can be lazy and do whatever he wants. There is no excuse for being lazy (especially when you are the highest payed player in the league, making $16 million). Another reason why I think Cato should start is because he is a young player. The more experience he gets, the better he will be later on and besides, Cato can play better then Olajuwon right now. I think that the Rockets will probably start Hakeem , but he will play about the same amount of minutes as Cato does. ------------------
Collier ------------------ I'm sticking with Charlotte. I can't flip because I don't want to be confused with Peter Vecsey. -- Charles Barkley
Hakeem should be the contious starter. You gotta start the Dream. Life is but a dream ------------------ against all odds
Will the real Dream please stand up. If Hakeem comes back in shape and with anything close to his old game than who should start is a mute point. It has nothing to do with loyalty or respect. It has to do with talent and ability and who best can help our team win. Start the center who can do this for us. And I believe if he is back to his old form even partially than Hakeem “the Dream" Olajuwon is our man. ------------------ [This message has been edited by Old Man Rock (edited September 12, 2000).] [This message has been edited by Old Man Rock (edited September 12, 2000).]
