14 players in a new system: Randy Foye

by Mike Prada on Oct 16, 2009 5:00 AM EDT in Player Analysis Comment 25 comments

So ... is Randy Foye a point guard or a shooting guard? Or is he a "combo guard?"

So far, during the preseason, Foye has played a lot of point guard, and, well, he can dribble okay and pass fine, but he isn't exactly creating a ton of efficient offense. However, even then, Foye is better than any backup point guard option on the roster right now, with Javaris Crittenton injured and Mike James being Mike James (WHO?). He's also displayed his skills better when paired with former teammate Mike Miller.

But what we haven't seen from Foye is him running off screens and catching-and-shooting much. Even when he has been the lead guard with a point forward like Miller, it's been Miller running off screens and Foye delivering the passes. This is too bad, because as we discussed earlier this summer, Foye is a pretty good catch-and-shoot player with excellent balance on his jumper and excellent percentages when he catches and shoots. He just hasn't used those skills enough in his career because he's been such a slasher, both by mindset and by circumstance.

But it's still early, and there are a lot of SG candidates to work in. Ultimately, where and how much does Foye play? Make the jump to discuss.

Why he might play more minutes than expected: His ability to play both guard positions is crucial, so he'll get his minutes. The only reason he's playing a lot now at the point is that those skills take longer to pick up.

Why he might play less than expected: There are too many shooting guards to work into the rotation, so Foye is mostly playing backup point because that's the only place to put him.

My best guess: Foye will play the 12-15 minutes Gilbert Arenas doesn't at point guard and will get another 8-12 minutes playing alongside him at shooting guard, depending on the matchups. Against smaller backcourts, we'll see him more; against bigger backcourts, probably not. If it were up to me, those splits would be reversed (12-15 min at SG, 8-12 minutes at PG), but I doubt that happens because there are too many shooting guards on this roster. Have I mentioned that a trade eventually would make sense?

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5 AM?

Is this you waking up, or not getting to bed yet? The latter for me… Playing too much NBA 2k10 with the Wizards. Setting up plays for a Mike Miller corner 3 is just too fun…

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Oct 16, 2009 5:34 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

my 360 just died

playing 2k10. Great game a little disappointed with the wiz ratings.

by forthepeople on Oct 16, 2009 5:35 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Haha

There were some OUTRAGEOUS attribute scores with some individual players… I changed them, but then enabled living rosters. I’d rather have a live, updated roster, despite some things being ridiculous.

You see Haywood’s defense score? Versus Caron’s? The 2K guys ever even seen the Wizards play before? Then… Look at Flip’s coaching score… He gets like a D on offense and a D on defense. Just absurd.

I was messing around a lot with the playcalling – the game is a lot more fun when you do that, but then there are just too many combinations of things you can do while dribbling… (one of which is NOT a crab dribble) – My head was spinning.

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Oct 16, 2009 5:43 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No

You can schedule posts on sb nations software so they get published at a certain time. I actually wrote this last night.

I’m not that crazy.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Oct 16, 2009 7:55 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Ah

That’s kinda cool, actually. No wonder why bwoods’ articles are consistently timely.

My swag was phenomenal.

by se7en on Oct 16, 2009 4:34 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

As a general rule of thumb

When the time of the post ends in :00 or :30, it was probably scheduled.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Oct 16, 2009 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If we move Foye

we go after a backup pg preferably on a cheaper and/or short term contract.

Off the top of my head these are some guys I would be interested in.
Chris Duhon, Raymond Felton, Andre Miller/Steve Blake, Ramon Sessions

So far Foye seems to be adapting well. I think as the lineups shake out hes going to be better.

by forthepeople on Oct 16, 2009 5:34 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Kirk Hinrich

Probably deeply entrenched but we have a good mix of assets.

by forthepeople on Oct 16, 2009 5:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

That's a list of potential backups?

by MR on Oct 16, 2009 6:36 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Backups

I was thinking backup Pg because its a clear need and big for small is usually hard to pull off. I probably shouldn’t have said Foye but rather the extraneous SG.
I think Sessions, Hinrich, and probably Miller are backups now.
Sessions is very talented young player and Min needs a sg. I don’t know if we can take on his 4 year contract.
Miller and Blake are just two really good PGs we probably don’t have a lot to offer unless the situation blows up.
As for Duhon I don’t see the Knicks as that committed. It seems like all their talk this summer was about one pg or another. They could also use a sg although they probably would try to salary dump something to us.
Hinrich does it all, shoot pass and defend. Bulls could also use a SG.
Felton is playing for the qualifier and he will probably split time with DJ Augustine. The Bobcats don’t know which guard they are going with yet. They also have a hole at SG.

by forthepeople on Oct 16, 2009 2:29 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sessions and Miller are definitely starters

Hinrich is hella expensive, Duhon is expiring (so he’s not going anywhere) and Felton is basically untradeable because he can veto any trade (and surely will because any trade means he surrenders his Bird rights).

I’d trade Foye for Felton in a vaccuum, most likely, but it’s not there.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Oct 16, 2009 3:09 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I wouldn't trade Foye for Felton...

Felton is not going to be able to play the 2-guard much at all. He would be a hecku’va nice backup point, but he’d brood playing 14 minutes a game behind Arenas and he’s a free agent next year. Sessions would be great, and his four year contract is a plus as far as I’m concerned (I think it’s @ $4 mil per year? reasonable), but I doubt he would be excited about backing up Arenas either.
Duhon could be moved for another expiring. But he’s a real short term solution.

Ridnour is around, expiring and maybe expendable.
Bassy Telfair, cheap for two years, but he can opt out of next year.
Raefer Alston

A number of rookie point guards were just drafted: Lawson, Maynor, Collison, Teague, Holiday and Beaubois; don’t know who’s available or will pan out there, but at least of note as they have nice and cheap four year deals. Probably not much of a help for this year though even if they were available.

Nothing that screams out ‘this guy is a good deal straight-up for for Smiley Young!’ though.

I don’t know, kind of tough to find something that works.

by Hoopalotta on Oct 16, 2009 3:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don’t think they are the starters quite yet.
http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?id=1426&sport=NBA
“Flynn is the starter right now, but we still get the sense Sessions is going to take over at some point. But it may not matter, as we expect both players to split minutes regardless of who is starting, and it’s becoming clear they can’t play on the court at the same time.”

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=mc-millerblazers101009&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
“The reason for the benching was simple: The Blazers aren’t ready to call Miller their starting point guard, even if he was the team’s most significant acquisition of the offseason.”

by forthepeople on Oct 16, 2009 4:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Do you guys really think back up PG is our biggest need?

I mean, if gil is not healthy, they we are not winning so back up anything is irrelevant.

If gil is healthy, a better back up PG would probably help us win a couple of regular season games, but come playoff time Gil is going to be playing 40-44 minutes a night. The 4-8 minutes he is not on the floor is not going to swing the game. Foye or Critt can easily handle that.

Just not sure what a “true” back up PG really gets us. Especially since we dont even know what our rotation / starting 2 is anyways

I like the competition there for now, and maybe move a piece for front court depth. Where it is needed and will be useful

by Blatche4MVP on Oct 16, 2009 4:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I agree that backup PG is far less important than adding another big who can rebound and defend

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Oct 16, 2009 5:16 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

But the thing is....

We’re likely not gettin’ a quality big man. Holding out for a frontcourt help is an old song that’s often sung but rarely done.

On the other hand, a backup point is attainable and would in my opinion better balance the roster. By that I mean that the thing is that I think Foye could be real sharp at the two-spot full time, so the payoff is multifaceted, adding improvement beyond just the 12-14 minutes of Arenas backup duty.

Still, we do need to find out what the roster is before making a move. It’s fair to say I’m jumping the gun a bit on pushing this.

by Hoopalotta on Oct 16, 2009 5:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

They're starter-quality players, which is what matters

Nate McMillan’s comfort with Steve Blake and Minnesota’s overenthusiasm for Jonny Flynn don’t make them better players than Miller and Sessions.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Oct 16, 2009 5:15 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

but since this is a long view I thought I would include guys who might not be happy about their situation. Your right, playing behind Arenas probably isn’t appealing to most guys. If we can get a rotation big for fair value or a starter in a bigger deal I would definitely prefer that. Most importantly, there is no immediate need to make a move.

by forthepeople on Oct 16, 2009 6:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

not sure prada was advocating trading foye

but i can’t say for sure can i

by DarrellWalkerFan on Oct 16, 2009 9:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Why trade if we're just going to get another pg?

I get that most of these guys are probably better passers, but I don’t think it really makes the team significantly better. If we’re trading one of our sg, wouldn’t it make more sense to trade one of our wing players for a big man, rather than a combo guard for a PG? Stevenson or Young probably make the most sense (maximizing [Value to Other Teams – Value to Wiz]).

by steadyhand on Oct 16, 2009 12:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well....

(though I’m replying to steadyhand, I’m actually aiming at this whole sub thread going up to for the people)

I don’t think that “Have I mentioned that a trade eventually would make sense?” meant ‘we need to trade Foye!’. I took that to mean that some kind of a trade of a shooting guard for a player of greater need. I think it’s fair to say that if we trade a shooting guard, it’s the one(s) who aren’t fitting with what we’re doing.

As to trading for a big, that would be nice ideally, but I think it’s fair to say that we would get more value if we traded for another guard, simply because good bigs are hard to get.

I think a point guard is a place of real need though so as to maximize the depth that we have with 48 minutes of effective offense a night. I’ve looked over who all might be available taking into consideration contract and expandability as far as other teams with excess points and or a dearth of scoring guards. It’s kind of a tough fit really. The trick of it is to get a guard who’s content to play behind Gil with a decent contract that lasts for more than one year but who doesn’t, uh, suck. Not a lot of guys fit the bill really.

And at this point, it’s a bit early to say which of our 2-guards is excess, but the one guarantee is that not everyone is going to play.

by Hoopalotta on Oct 16, 2009 1:32 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

You are correct that “have I mentioned a trade eventually would make sense” meant trading any one of the two-guards, not necessarily Foye specifically.

You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Oct 16, 2009 1:39 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Heard Foye comparing himself to Chauncey Billups before the Cavs game, saying that’s who he models his game on.

No, just no. He’s more of a 2 than a 1, even though he’s capable of playing the backup 1 in Washington. Dude is a natural scorer, as we found out in Minnesota last year.

by Lu Galasso on Oct 16, 2009 9:59 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Crittenton

Foye is better than any backup point guard option on the roster right now, with Javaris Crittenton injured

Isn’t Crit supposed to be back in a few weeks? What do you think the chances are of him taking some or all of Foye’s pg minutes? If he does, will Foye get minutes at the two, or is he the odd man out?

by steadyhand on Oct 16, 2009 12:35 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs