This baffles me. Listening to local radio shows and reading threads on this board, it appears everyone wants to trade Cato simply for the sake of shedding his salary. I keep hearing idiots on the radio talk about how "we're tied down by Cato's awful contract and need to move him." I don't get this. Last year, this guy was an absolute stud. How many teams would kill to have an athletic, 7 foot, young rebounder on their team? Not many. You clear cap space for the purpose of <i>adding</i> guys like this to your team. I can completely understand the idea of "trading him now while his value is high" for equal talent. However, all I see are people wanting a salary dump. Why is this? The guy was a <i>stud</i> last year.
i will only like to see cato get traded if we get a staring small forwars of equal value in return, other than that we have a great combo at the 5 with yao starring and coming of the bench.
Stud? He was competent. Studly? Notso. Why do I want him traded for other good talent? Because he was effective last year -- but I don't trust him. Because he was effective playing 15-18 minutes -- but what if he had to go 35? I don't trust him. I don't want to give him away, I want someone desperate for a 7' stud to treat a trade for him as if he really is a 7' stud.
You are paying $7.3 million for a guy who averages 17 minutes per game. Cat makes $5.5 million. Stud? Ridiculous.
I don't know about being a 'stud', but I agree with you. Cato is overpaid, that's pretty obvious. But he's also turning into one of the better back up centers in the league. A good center is hard to find and a good back up may be even harder. Cato has accepted his role and ran with it. Personally, I think we have a great 1 2 punch at the center position right now. Yao clearly isn't ready to play 40 minutes a game, so having a good back up is essential IMO. We have one, so why trade him for the sake of trading him?
How is it ridiculous? You cannot argue the fact that last year, he was </i> great at what he did. He comes in and pours it all out for half the game. That can be very disruptive to opposing teams. I would also submit that he was our team's most consistent player.
yep, we may need Cato more than ever, since yao still can't do the full-time or over-time on a regular basis so a good back-up is essential, and I think we got that as was previously stated...I certainly don't want to trade Cato. Not now.
If a team wanted a good backup Center, why wouldn't they have signed Michael Olowokandi. Heck, he's a legitmate starter who's making about $5.4 million/year for the next 3 years. Kelvin Cato will average about $8 million/year for the next 3 years. Who would you rather have? Michael Olowokandi and Piatkowski or Cato. We'd be lucky as hell to trade Cato.
I like Cato and I want us to keep him. I want to see him play more minutes, getting some at power forward.
Your talking apples and oranges RIET. Do we need to go over the average salary for centers again? He was a quality player/center last year and made a difference. Cato(02-03 version) is exactly what we need coming off the bench and as a role player. Obviously we all want Garnett but with our cap situation: considering we have Francis maxed and are plannning the same for Yao; why weaken our team as of now for a pipedream? If an opportunity for a quality starting small forward came along I could see moving him. Yet I honestly believe a servicable 3 such as Griffin, is just fine for our team now and in the future.
If our PF situation is so dire, why didnt we sign Juwan Howard and Piatkowski. We couldve gotten bothof them for Cato's salary.
mmmmkay? uhhhh... not everybody wants to trade cato. i sure in the hell don't. you're completely right. the dude was a stud last year. this is the way i look at it... if he can play the way he did last year UNDER RUDY (not to bad mouth rudy or anything... well... yes, to bad mouth rudy), imagine what the guy will do for van gundy (notice the "will" in bold... van gundy won't take schit from anybody). all it took was a quick trip to the bench for him to get his act together. he's a starting center for almost every east team, and a strong center off the bench for teams in the west. he's a no-nonsense type of guy. some people look at last year's flagrants as a problem. it's just what van gundy wants (i think).
I don't understand what you're talking about. What is an average Center worth today, not yesterday or 3 years ago. Michael Olowokandi and Rasho Nesterovic are both better players than Cato and make $2.5 million less. So, what rational GM today would trade for an $8 million backup center when 2 better players at the same position just went off the market for a LOT less money.
Re-read my post. I'm not talking about replacing him with equal talent. I'm talking about those who want to trade him for garbage simply to drop his salary. Re-read my post. Same applies here. Yes, and wasn't the collective reaction to the Olowokandi signing by media and fans that the T'Wolves got an absolute steal by signing him for so little? That would indicate they got him far below his market value, riiiiight? Nesterovic is <b>not</b> better than Cato.
Joe "CC" Poster (thinking to self)....Let's see...Kelvin Cato will make nearly $24m over the next 3 years as a backup for Yao. He's underachieved in all but one of his 6 NBA seasons. He doesn't set a screen very well and his offensive game consists mainly of dunks. Of course, if Yao ever has an injury were going to need Cato's for the short-term. What are we going to do with him? (Moments later)...Wait, the EC has a shortage of big men. That's it...pure brilliance....we trade Cato for an EC All Star SF or PF like say... Antoine Walker. The Celts need a Center, right? Man, I can't wait to logon in and start the trade thread.... Sadly, I can't recall having seen a trade posted which included Cato and also matched salaries, value and both teams' needs. Let's keep him...he's seems to like being Yao's backup.
Cato's salary would be a lot easier to swallow if we could unload Moochie and/or Taylor and their fat contracts. Right now we MUST keep Cato until Yao proves that he is ready to play 35-40 minutes a night.
This is great logic. So Rasho is not better than Cato but Olowakandi is. If so, then why did Minnesota offer more $$ to keep Rasho than SA but had to settle for Olowakandi as a contingency after Rasho turned them down. Rich.
Teams would be lucky to get Cato!!! Cato was by far our most consistent player last year. He would come in get his 4-5 hard fouls get his 8-9 rebounds and put in 5-6 points and add two blocks consistently when given minutes. His averages are obviously lower because there were games where he would play only 7-8 minutes total. I would not trade Cato unless we get in return someone like a Vince Carter or another tier 2 star. I honestly think he is that valuable. I think the only thing this team is lacking is some time to gell. Call me crazy, and people probably will but a center is still more valuable than any other position. When Yao becomes the most dominant player in the land then I think we can afford to trade Cato but not until then or if Jerry Buss just has to trade Kobe for Cato then that will work too.
"You are paying $7.3 million for a guy who averages 17 minutes per game. Cat makes $5.5 million." You compared two different postions to make a point about salary equating to being a stud. Do you acknowledge that Cato was a good player for us last year? What does salary have to do with if a player is a stud or not? As far as Candy man and Rasho, contracts are steadily going down for most players given the cap. But you just named two quality players that were FA's - show me some more fa's right now that are quality centers. The fact is centers are in need period. And teams aren't going to find a Rasho or Olowokandi type FA till the end of each year. But they still are at a premium, and not every team(29) will sign a quality fa center in the offseason. There has to be another means other than free agency to get a center - oh right - it's called trade, even when your spending too much for it. Every contender needs a decent center or two to compete. "So, what rational GM today would trade for an $8 million backup center when 2 better players at the same position just went off the market for a LOT less money." The rational Gm that just watched the "2" quality centers go to their division and conference rivals.
not crazy... absolutely f*cking nuts is more like it! you honestly equate vince carter's value with kelvin "career underachiever" cato??? omg.
