I wonder which team Vladimir Stepania is holding out for? Seems that teams would be interested in signing him. I'm sure many of us have wondered about trading Cato for, say, Wesley Person, then signing Stepania at a much lower amount; but would Memphis do that? (Possibly: they offered Person and a #1 for Kandi.) Will we give up the luxury of Yao Exhaustion Insurance (Cato)? If we need to get "burlier" (or whatever Ewing's quote from the summer league was), Stepania isn't the answer, unless you beefed up at PF.
According to the Miami Herald, the Heat offered him a 1 year contract but he wanted to hold out for a longer deal. If you watch him play, he's actually not bad. He has good size, very good rebounder and some offensive skills. He can also block some shots. The problem is he's holding out for too much money and everyone else is signing their backup centers to much smaller contracts. Teams have pretty much decided that they aren't going to overpay someone who can't play more than 25 minutes per game.
Your first point I don't get, I never claimed Kelvin or Nesterovic was overpaid by NBA standards, or maybe it seemed like that, but the point I was trying to make was his numbers are not much better than Kelvin's and both teams paid for potential. They make about the same and they are about the same as far as production is concerned. As far as Minnesota is concerned, I definitely never contended that they paid too much for Olowokandi as a matter of fact I think they that is the best move of this off season. On your second point, Andre Miller led the league in assists just two seasons ago, and was in the top ten this past year, so no Nesterovic is different than Andre Miller, he's a big man with potential but hasn't produced much, as opposed to a point guard who has shown he can lead the league in his craft and they are paid about the same. Point being, big men are more valuable based on potential alone. James Posey, well he's overpaid.
is it feasible to move yao to the 4 (scoring) and put cato at 5 (defense, shot block, rebound) while playing both at the same time? That would put the guy to use, also most centers don't score anymore anyways.
I would have no problem dealing Cato for useful players and signing Vlad for semi-cheap. Say Cato to memphis for Battier and Knight or Swift and Knight. Cato shouldn't be in the longterm plans unless they think he can be effective on the court with Yao. So trade him while he has value, if he has that(which I think he should). but trade him just for a ****ty player with an expiring contract such as a Rice? no thanks. I'd rather have a good backup center in case Yao struggles or gets injured.
For those who are comparing Cato with Stepania, Cato Career: 19.0 mpg, .522 fg%, 5.2 rpg, 1.33 bpg, 5.5 ppg Best year: 25.6 mgp, .583 fg%, 7.0 rpg, 1.27 bpg, 6.6 ppg Stepania Career: 14.4 mpg, .426 fg%, 4.6 rpg, 0.57 bpg, 4.4 ppg Best year: 20.2 mpg, .433 fg%, 7.0 rpg, 0.51 bpg, 5.6 ppg From these number, we can see that Stepania is NOT a better offensive player. He shoots 43% (as a center!), never scores more than 6 ppg. He seems to be as good a rebounder as Cato, but not very good at shot blocking. I say Cato is better than him in almost every aspect of the game (even in ft shooting).
Kelvin Cato has 0 offensive game. He shoots a high % because they are all alley oops. Stepania tends to force the action but he has some moves - and theyre not dunks. What does Zydrunas Ilgauskas shoot? He's considered the 2nd best center in the NBA. Plus, it's difficult to get a good sample when you're taking 5 shots a game. You say Cato is better in every aspect because all you look at is statistics. Try watching a game. Oh wait. I forgot FT shooting. Last year Cato shot 53.2% while Stepania made 53%. Yep. Cato is definitely better.
You can knock stats all but the fairest stat for evaluating a player is field goal percentage, you make shots or you miss them, and if a center shoots 43.3% he sucks. Its not even arguable.
Premise: Zydrunas Ilgauskas shot 44.1% last year. Does he suck? I guess so. It's not even arguable. Kelvin Cato shot 52.1%. Conclusion: Kelvin Cato is a better offensive player than Zydrunas Ilguaskas.
This thread was already funny...and then Scarface shows up and says he wants to trade Cato for Vince Carter...
Considering he played for the worst team in the league, he isn't that good. But seriously at least he's a 46% career shooter who began his career shooting over 50%. He had an off year, it seems he will be around 48% for his career. 43.3% was above Stepania's career average of 42.6%. He sucks.
Premise: 2001-2003 Zydrunas Ilgauskas shot 43% Vladimir Stepania shot 45%. Conculsion: Vladimir Stepania was a better offensive player the last 2 years.
kelvin cato's career FG% is 55%. hakeem olajuwon's best season ever, FG% wise, is 53%. cato is the man. olajuwon's a poser who only wishes he was as effective and efficient as king kelvin cato.
Don't twist my words around, but thanks for being an a hole, if you can point out where I wrote that centers should be completely evaluated on fg% and the and the one who shoots the best is the best, then your attempt at humor might be funny. But until then its just stupid. Hakeem shot 51% for his career, obviously that's a good percentage.
What are you pointing out REIT, all that statement points out is that field goal percentage is a fair statistic. It doesn't say the best field goal percentage shooting center is the best center, which is what I didn't write, but since I have to point it out twice, again, show me where I wrote that. Its a fair stat. Nothing more, nothing less.
RIET, thank you. pgabriel, you said it was the fairest way, yet when i used it, i'm being an a hole. mmmkkkay. edit: fair? fair for judging what exactly???
