College Wolf wrote:
Your right, it is pointless to talk about what we think he will do. Pretty dumb competition with only one judge, imo.

mwithers wrote:

He said that last week he got Babcock's opinion on the submissions... I curious as to what Babcock said, or the type of input he gave.

College Wolf wrote:
Yeah, that would be interesting to know who's entry he liked the most.

mwithers wrote:
I'd like to point out that on the last question, in which Babcock had input, CW and I came in first and second place

Umm... Isn't he the guy who engineered the Vince Carter trade?

I'm with CW...Foye is much more suitable at the off-guard position. He never seemed comfortable running the offense and will most likely never be stellar at the position. If you are banking on Foye becoming a Deron Williams or Chris Paul, I think you'll be extremely disappointed. He reminded me of Wade his rookie season; he was made to play the point but was definitely not able to handle the position in a manner that would constitute a successful career at the position. I'll break it down into what I see as the \"essentials\" of playing point guard in the NBA.

Handles: Although Foye has decent handles, players like Paul and Deron are much more adept at bringing the ball up the court. Watching pure PG's run the ball up the court is a thing of beauty. Although Foye can complete the task, he just never seems like he enjoys bringing it up the floor. He seems tense and uncomfortable; something the Payton/Kidd type players rarely depict. He also seems much more apt to go to his right hand when initiating the offense. I don't know if it was just me but it always seemed as if the offense was usually started going right. Foye also overuses his right hand, even when going left; something that hurts his overall game as well as his pg skills.

Creativity: Although Foye had some nice dishes here and there, he definitely lacked the ability to creatively get his teammates the ball. I'm not simply discussing outstanding passes; I'm also defining creativity as the \"sense\" that a PG subconsciously understands the duties of running an offense and their overall capability in doing so productively. As most that play basketball know, it takes years of honing your skills to be capable of creatively getting your teammates the ball. Not only do you have to be looking to get your teammates the ball, you have to be subconsciously aware of what your teammates are going to do and what you can do as a player to initiate a successful exchange. It takes time to develop these tendencies of a \"pure\" PG; something Foye severely lacks with only one season under his belt. This is in comparison to players who have most likely had years upon years at the point. Although there are players that have successfully shifted; it was due to their naturally apparent tendencies.

Tendencies and Time: Every PG I ever played with had several years under their belts, and even with a lack of natural talent, still developed a natural tendency in understanding how a PG should run the show. Handing the reigns to Foye on the fly in the NBA undermines his ability to learn the position purely. With what takes many years to develop a mastery of, we're essentially demanding that Randy learn the nuances immediately as to what constitutes \"being\" an NBA PG. Instead, Randy is playing \"like\" an NBA PG. Randy played four years of college basketball in a whole different role. Lowry and Foye are combo guards who were called upon to partake in both duties. Neither were demanded to strictly handle the PG position, and it shows in the style that each play. Foye is a much more dynamic shooter when he is catching off kick outs than he is off the dribble. He is also much more relaxed when driving the lane rather then initiating an offense.

My comparison of Foye and Wade is not of their skill. Rather, it is about the situation each was put into during their rookie season. Wade was somewhat successful playing the Point due to his athletic ability, as was Foye. This fails to take into account several other nuances that are necessities in \"being\" an NBA PG. We can continue to let Foye play \"like\" a PG, but as CW is getting at, it will essentially hinder Foye's capabilities in leading this team in the way he is fashioned as a player.

Tim, good to have ya back!

That post was awesome!!! (Definitely worth a howl.) I completely agree with it all. I wish I could have expounded upon my submission, but 250 words is pretty short. Anyhow, you pretty much nailed it (and my thoughts on this matter.)

You should modify your post a little and submit it as a member article on the main page!

Round 3 Results are up:

http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/battle_of_the_bloggers_analysis_3.html


Following are the standings from this week, with total points in parenthesis, and subsequent analysis of the analysis.

7 points: Anthony Hall, (15 total): twolvesblog.com
6 points: Derek Hanson, (11 total): twolvesblog.com
5 points: Sonia Grover, (15 total): twolvesblog.com
4 points: Stephen Litel, (15 total): minnesotabasketball.blogspot.com; hoopsworld.com
3 points: Kate Doan, (10 total): mnsportsfans.com
2 points: Alex Halsted, (5 total): minnesotasportszone.com
1 point: Dave Kelsey, (13 total): twolvesblog.com



So much for having a dissenting opinion llol...

College Wolf wrote:
Sorry CW. Maybe when he stated that he wasn't the only one to disagree with you, he looked at my posts.

TWolfTim22 wrote:
Not to take away from this well written post, but I find it difficult to understand how Foye does not compare to Deron Williams. There rookie stats are almost identical with 10 ppg for each. As far as assists go, Williams had 4.3 and Foye 2.8. Those numbers are nearly identical and Williams played 6 mpg more than Foye. Maybe you see something on the court but results are all that matters. Foye was able to produce results. As far as winning games, Utah wasn't that great in Williams first year either, going 41 and 41.

Maybe Chris Paul will be a different type of point guard all together. Maybe he is the correct type of point guard for New Orleans. But, unless he can get that team to win games, what does it matter. I believe that Foye can help the Timberwolves win games this year. And, maybe he isn't technically a \"true\" point guard, but like Trudell said, \"All it really means is a pass-first, set-up-the-offense-first guard, and there are about six of these players in the entire NBA.\" Other teams win without this \"true\" point guard so why can't we. Think about it this way, if Foye is running the point, it leaves an extra spot on the floor for Brewer, Green, or McCants. And Gomes can play the SF. What is better for this team? Should Foye play pg? He has shown that he can be effective in that position. Or should Foye play sg? We have four of those already with Davis included. What is best for this team??? Foye should play pg.

mwithers wrote:

I guess lol. I don't get what is the fascination with people extrapolating Summer League stats into real life NBA production. Whatever though I guess. We'll just have to wait and see... sigh.

(Summer League!??!? We don't want to play no Summer League!?!??)

College Wolf wrote:
I don't really understand that either other than the fact that they hope they can play like that. In all honesty though, it does separate those that can display their talent against a lesser competitor and those that cannot. You have to give props to a player that can perform and make their team better no matter what the situation. Granted it is against a weaker defense but he was also playing with a weak offense. That's tough to say because that is the core of our Timberwolves but it is true.

All that being said, we cannot totally rule out the play in the summer league but we need to differentiate those games from actual NBA games. You cannot base a players skill level on summer league play. I will say that I agree with a previous statement of yours when you said that you cannot base the amount of skill on a summer league series when they play good but you can if they are bad. If they cannot play against summer league competition they need to work on their game before they will be ready to play in an NBA game. It is like putting varsity high school players in a junior varsity game. They should be able to perform and if they cannot, they don't belong in a varsity game.

That is not the situation with Foye. He played very well in the summer league. You cannot base his skill level on his performance in those games. But, he was able to perform, so give him a chance in the NBA. Let him prove his skill level. He said he worked on his game all summer long and that he is ready to be the point guard for this team. Give him a chance to show it.

First off, it was nice to see TWolvesBlog take the top 3 spots! (Way to go CW! )

Actually, while Dave didn't have as many stats as others, I don't necessarily agree with all of Trudell's rebuttles. Using the summer league to prove any point other than that somebody sucks is a waste of time. So the fact that you didn't reference his summer league performance isn't grounds for demotion in my book. Also, you were right that Foye won't have much time to get used to playing with a lot of his new teammates. Trudell mentioned Smith and Davis, but that's only 2 of 17 people on our roster. It's a fact that he won't have played an NBA game with half of our team until opening night.

I don't think you deserved to beat Anthony, but I wouldn't have given you last for sure. But once again, that's my opinion. You're only going to find somebody who agrees 100% with Trudell 5% of the time with that many contestants.

DeROK wrote:

I just felt like taking this one for the team.

DeROK wrote:

LOL! You get a HOWL for that one...hahaha!