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 |
G |
GS |
MPG |
FG% |
3P% |
FT% |
OFF |
DEF |
RPG |
APG |
SPG |
BPG |
TO |
PF |
PPG |
|
07-08 |
39 |
31 |
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 |
43 |
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 |
G |
GS |
MPG |
FG% |
3P% |
FT% |
OFF |
DEF |
RPG |
APG |
SPG |
BPG |
TO |
PF |
PPG |
|
07-08 |
60 |
51 |
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.