No it's not a whine thread so don't bring any cheese ! With Mo Taylor returning, what do the Rockets do with Cato? Keep rotating him at the 4 slot when Yao is in or have him drop back to filling in mainly as a 5?
It wouldnt surprise me to see Cato start this game with Mo coming off the bench. Whether or not Mo starts after that depends on his play against GS and if VG really likes what Cato brings to the starting role. Regardless of starting or not, expect to see much less of Cato at the 4 from here on out. What I mean by that is that Cato will continue to log minutes at the 4, just not as much. As he should, I like the twin towers look.
Cato has to be the starter. Cato is big, strong, plays solid D and rebounds which allows the Rockets to dominate in the paint or match-up with strong frontcourts. And the rebounding allows the Rockets to dictate the game and pull out wins during bad shooting nights.
Maybe Van Gundy should put both of them in and hope that the Refs and fans and opposing team don't notice the sixth Rocket on the court.
mo will be instant offense off the bench until he learns to rebound like cato. if anything a reduction in KFC's or yao's minutes.
I'd like to see Cato as a starter at PF. I think that we will most likely see him & Taylor get fairly even minutes, but time will tell.
guys, i think cato has surpassed motay now... cato is this years surprise story... motay will definitely not be just given the starting pf spot...
IMHO, as long as Cato is playing D and rebounding he's starting. As for minutes, it will depend on the matchup. For example, versus POR Cato is a better matchup when Zac Randolph is at PF and Rasheed is at SF. With Wallace at PF, he will take Cato out to the 3 point line and Mo T or even Braggs is better out that far from the basket.
And the above may also be true in trying to guard Cliff Robinson who will try to take Cato away from the paint.
It really doesn't make much sense to put MoT in as a starter. For one Cato has done such a great job...he's the phycisal presense the starting five needs. Mo, is mainly a scorer, so it'd be better for him to provide that spark off the bench. Besides Cato has been the starting 4 since the beginng of the season. No reason that'd change now.
I think GATER pretty much summed it up with how we will deal with Cato/Taylor. I really think Cato will be the starting PF all season. Taylor just looks taylor made to come off the bench as the 6th man. Though in close games I would not be surprised if Taylor is the finisher.
As when people (myself included) get on SF for idiocy even when we win, I have to point out that we are 7-3 with Cato starting. MoT should eventually turn into a very solid bench guy. His scoring will offset the defensive lapse while Cato is out. I can not see Cato losing his job to MoT in the near future.
I don't think Mo should be given the starting job, but I believe he will earn it sooner or later. MoT has the body to bang around in the post, and if he's willing to do that, his offense more than makes up for the dropoff in defense between him and Cato. Right now, this team is starved for points and doing good on defense. I personally would rather bring Mo's scoring to the starting line-up, and make Cato play ALL the backup PF minutes and ALL the backup C minutes. Meaning 18 at PF and 10 at C, a total of 28 minutes. In these 28 minutes, he'll be up against worse players, so his scoring will go up, rebounding efficiency will go up too. I just think that our defense does NOT work on the basis of Cato's shotblocking ability. It works on effort, knowledge, and toughness. I believe MoT can bring these 3 things to the table, while Cato would struggle to bring MoT's offense to the table. Right now, let MoT work some rust off and get used to everything off the bench. But eventually, I believe he'll be playing too well for us to deny him (12pts/6reb on close to 50% shooting).
You can maybe sneak mooch or maybe JVG in there but I don't think it's easy to overlook MoT. MoT is the perfect 6th man off the bench with his scoring. Cato should start for a while.
Cato should continue to start and split time at the 4 and 5. Yao, Cato and Mo should have just about all of the minutes at the 4 and 5. Garbage time or foul trouble bring in Braggs. I like Cato starting for now Because Yao needs to get his touches down low and Steve, Cat and JJ can get there game going. But Mo will make a big difference because when Yao can't get anything going and the outside shot isn't falling we don't have to wait on Steve to shoot some dumb as* shoot. Mo can almost always at get a decent shoot off. So what would you rather have a decent shoot in close or a dumb as* shoot 30 ft away. Don't get me wrong I think Steve is great but he really needs to be more aware of whats going on. I think that if we had Mo here we would have won the Raptor game and had a lot better chance against Dallas. Lets see Mo back AG and Pike on the way
I think it all depends on MoT. If comes and plays to his potential then Cato is starting on barrowed time. If that sweet little 15 foot jump shot starts falling for MoT like we all know it can, plus if he starts pulling down at least 7 boards a game then how do you keep him out. We have guys that can come in and give us offensive production off of the bench...Padget, Boki and Pike when he comes back although all are complimentary offensive players and not feature weapons. MoT would provide a featured scoring threat off of the bench if he stays there, something the other players on the bench do not provide. For now Cato is our best option at PF but when MoT gets back in the grove then I think the Rockets may have to reassess the situation.
I don't know if we win either of those games but I certainly agree that it would have given us a much better chance...especially in the Raptors game. One of the things that killed us at the end of that game was the lack of a low post scoring threat that Steve trusted or the Raptors respected. Yao Ming was single covered most of the final two overtimes and Steve still never had the confidence in him to pass him the ball. I think Steve would have passed the ball to MoT.
