I dont see what the big deal about Cato's contract is. He has potential, there is no doubt about it. He is tall. He is athletic. He is better than a whole lot of overpaid centers already. Ostertag? Macillvein? Big Country? Luc Longley? (hmm, those guys are all white, ) if Rudy doesnt think he can get Cato to reach his potential, I'm sure there is some sucker who thinks he could. Such as Pitino. So its not TOO bad of a deal, especially considering the Rockets were not gonna have any caproom this off-season anyway. ------------------ I'm not a role model.
Will, how right you are. Just in case, though, I would also suggest alcoholism to him. If he's too pessimistic to accept serious issues, then get him to ignore them! ------------------ [This message has been edited by Achebe (edited April 20, 2000).]
Other players -- Williams, Anderson, etc. -- looked bad before they found a comfort zone on the team and then they started producing. It could be that Cato has not found that comfort zone. But, I'm not betting on that. For those who want him to develop an offensive game, I think you're barking up the wrong tree. It'd be nice to have him as a great post-up option, but he's not and that's not why we got him. We've got plenty of offense in the back-court anyway (and I'd like to get a post-up option at the PF). What we do need him to be good at is defense (which he is) and rebounding (which he definitely is not). If he had consistently gotten 9 rebounds a game this season, I wouldn't have anything to complain about. That is my only disappointment. If we do want to trade him -- and I'm not sure we do -- I don't think we want a center in return. I think that approach would end up as a stiff-exchange and we'd have the same problem as before. We should trade him for a forward (or even a guard) and maybe some picks, and then do another trade with somebody to get someone to play our center position. We may be a donut team for a little while, but at least we could use the trade to strengthen some other positions. ------------------
Hey, I would rather have Cato's heart with his physical ability than Adonal Foyles heart and mind (supposed to have a great work ethic, very smart) with his physical ability. I was thinking of another player with zero heart and a lot of ability--Elden Campbell. But I wouldn't mind having him either. A 6' 10"+ guy with modest or better athleticism is just too hard to come by. You just hope they develop the ethic, find religion, or alcohol, or whatever. Of course if you can trade him for a guy with his physical size and ability plus the ethic so be it, but otherwise we have to go with him. Or maybe we can sign Foyle as a free agent and exchange their hearts and brains. ------------------
Is Adonal Foyle that bad? He's got bad hands supposedly and doesn't provide much on offense, but then, Cato doesn't have the best hands either. Also, Foyle's got the heart Sir mentioned unlike Cato, and he also provides a real shot blocking (he's one of the best shot blockers in the league) presence in the middle, which is Cato's main contribution to this team right now. I think Foyle would be an excellent pickup if we could get him for cheap like the $1.5 mil. exception. He could be a strong backup C/PF and push Cato to get better, maybe even starting in front of him if Cato can't get it together. ------------------
