What About Foye?

by Peter W on Sep 18, 2008 7:42 AM CDT

Okay, so we've all defended Bassy in the last thread; what of our dear, should-have kept-Brandon Roy-combo guard?

Not quite apples to apples because of injury, but here are basic stat comparisons for last year and career between Randy and Sebastian:

Foye:

Year

MPG

FG%

3P%

FT%

OFF

DEF

RPG

APG

SPG

BPG

PPG

07-08

32.3

0.429

0.412

0.815

0.3

2.9

3.3

4.2

0.9

0.1

2.03

2.60

13.1

Career

121

25.9

0.432

0.387

0.844

0.5

2.3

2.9

3.3

0.7

0.2

1.91

2.40

11.1

Telfair:

Year

MPG

FG%

3P%

FT%

OFF

DEF

RPG

APG

SPG

BPG

PPG

07-08

32.2

0.401

0.281

0.743

0.3

2.0

2.3

5.9

1.0

0.2

1.85

2.90

9.3

Career

274

137

23.7

0.391

0.302

0.771

0.2

1.5

1.7

3.8

0.7

0.1

1.64

2.30

7.8

By any stretch, you can see that Telfair is the more traditional point guard; his role is significantly much different than Foye's however. Randy is still second to Jefferson as a go-to player; hoping to regain the "Fourth Quarter Foye" tag he was given in '06 by our local King of Clichés and Catch Phrases, Tom Hanneman. As a combo point guard, his focus will be playing the number two or three scoring option on the floor. But, given the increased offensive (positively speaking) options the Wolves have added to the roster this year, Foye's ability to run the team and get the ball to Miller, Big Al, and even Kevin Love will even be more vital. Despite the hope that Love will be a dynamic passer out of the front court--especially with an occasional gorgeous full court pass--it's still going to be up to Randy (and Bassy) to get the team into their sets, game-in, game-out.

Though I can see scenarios where both Telfair and Foye are in the back court, with Foye sliding over to the 2 guard, playing scorer to Bassy's distributor, the present lack of a serviceable third point guard makes a consistent pairing of the two a dubious strategy. The biggest question remains however: what if Foye isn't effective enough at the point, and is a better shooting guard? In that case, the club is in a pickle. McCants and Foye are replicants at the two; one of them would surely have to be moved if it's finally determined that the Foye experiment has indeed failed.

In addition to coaxing a better defensive effort from the team, the Foye-as-point-guard conundrum has to be second or third on the list of priorities for the Wolves front office. Since McHale did give up Brandon Roy to get Foye, how this all plays out has to be of prime importance to the club.

0 recs | Comment 8 comments

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I still agree with the Outlook bit (especially 2nd paragraph) of his draftexpress profiel: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Randy-Foye-454/

Out of all the guys that can play the 2, Mccants is the only one that can’t really play anything else. For the rest you can slide and change as much as you want with Foye, Brewer, Miller and Carney.

Especially if we could get Livingston as well, that would make the possibilities endless there.

by Wim (Belgium) on Sep 18, 2008 10:54 AM CDT 0 recs

If Foye does not work out as #1 combo guard, usually running the point, then we HAVE to get rid of McCants. I really don’t see McFail trading Foye, mainly because of his ego with the trade of Roy, he won’t admit defeat here. I am holding out hope that Foye WILL be the PG we need, with Bassy backing him up. Livingston, if signed, would simply be frosting.

by frankenhoops on Sep 18, 2008 12:53 PM CDT 0 recs

No love for a bassy + Mccants/Brewer/Miller/Carney lineup alternated by Foye + Livingston? Both lineups have one guy who’s more of a scorer and one guy who’s more of distributor. Bassy is a very good distrubtor while Mccants etc are not (ok, that’s debatble, see SnP’s part about that) and Foye and Livingston together can definitly set up offense good enough + they have the potential to guard bigger back courts.

You could even change Brewer and Mccants if you need more defense or offense…

by Wim (Belgium) on Sep 18, 2008 2:11 PM CDT up 0 recs

brewer and mccants

living in minnesota with no attachment to the team (warriors fan), i think i can say that brewer and mccants are never going to become legit nba starters or top tier bench guys. mccants should end up the better pro, he can provide some offense every now and then, but i can’t think of any top tier team that would include either as a top 7 rotation guy. even after factoring in a bit of development for both. brewer was supposedly going to be the wolves perimeter stopper, but he gets pushed around by even the smaller perimeter players. and while mccants can kind of score, he’s not really a guy who you bring off the bench to be the 4th or 5th option and convert at a high rate, so he’s not a great option off the bench either.

i think that those two players, along with foye for that matter, are the classic case of kevin mchale overvaluing players who have not earned the respect he gives them. it’s like the team as constructed is designed so that, if EVERYTHING goes right, and all the players develop as best as possible, they can have a shot the playoffs in a few years and that would be the apex. mchale seems to see superstar potential in guys who don’t have it. i don’t mean to pile on, but living here and seeing wolves games often, it just makes me sad, and must kill the real fans. is there a grassroots effort to get mchale out? do you guys send him daily letters asking him to resign? with isaiah out of new york, he’s clearly the worst gm in the nba. something needs to be done.

heart of a champion, will of the warrior.

by cap'n hack on Sep 19, 2008 2:58 AM CDT up 0 recs

It's a circular situation, actually...

If the team wins enough, and the playoffs are in sight, McHale just might leave. The problem is he’s still picking players, so they never get better. Glen Taylor provides cover for the Iron Ranger and quotes Forbes magazine while throwing former employees under the bus. Sports capitalism at it’s best.

We’ve know for awhile how bad McHale is, but legitimately, we’ve seen at least signs of hope and discipline in some of the roster moves they made last year. I’m personally not giving him the benefit of the doubt, but it’s hard to remain a fan and be negative all the time…

by Peter W on Sep 19, 2008 6:28 AM CDT up 0 recs

Playmaking Wing

I think the team needs a playmaking wing like a Joe Johnson (or Brandon Roy) if it wishes to play Randy Foye at the point. He simply hasn’t shown enough as a floor general to play alongside non-playmaking wings (strictly scorers/shooters offensively).

I also think Kevin Love’s passing and intelligence could help Foye out. However I think he’s the only big that could run the offense through the high post which limits that type of a strategy. Also, taking Al away from the low post is a no-go for me.

by NBR on Sep 19, 2008 7:24 AM CDT 0 recs

a playmaking wing … like Livingston? … (a)

by Wim (Belgium) on Sep 19, 2008 10:34 AM CDT up 0 recs

I was thinking more along the lines of a Tracy McGrady. Someone who is an elite passer and playmaker on the wing. Who can run part of the offense on behalf of his point guard. I think Foye will need someone like that to play the point on a contender …. so Foye isn’t responsible for every possession, and instead shares the floor general/creative/playmaking duties with another player (a wing).

Or else just play Foye at shooting guard which I think is the more natural position for his talents

by NBR on Sep 19, 2008 11:07 AM CDT up 0 recs