The Rake Magazine

Tag: Randy Foye

  • Abbreviated Three-Pointer: No D in Wolves

    Game #78, Home Game #40: New Orleans 122, Minnesota 90

    Season Record: 19-59

    1. Trying to Trade Baskets

    The Minnesota Timberwolves shot 73.3% in the third quarter last night, 11-15 FG, including 3-4 from beyond the 3pt arc. The worst shooting performances were Ryan Gomes and Chris Smith at 1-2 FG; Al Jeffeson was 2-3 FG, Rashad McCants was 3-4 FG, and Marko Jaric and Kirk Snyder were each a perfect 2-2 FG. Eight of those eleven baskets were assisted, led by Gomes with three dimes.

    The Wolves were outscored 41-27.

    The front line of the New Orleans Hornets annihilated Minnesota’s frontcourt, shooting a collective 14-18 FG, including a trio of treys by Peja Stojakovic, for a collective 31 points. Chris Paul chipped in 8 points on 3-4 FG and 1-1 FT and dropped five dimes with nary a turnover. Morris Peterson went 2-3 from the free throw line to complete the scoring.

    In the fourth quarter, the Hornets cooled down a tad, shooting only 57.1% (12-21) after the blistering 77.3% of the third. Alas, Minnesota could only muster 5-20 FG, making the final a blowout 32-point loss after being a bucket down at the half.

    Asked how tough it was going up against MVP candidate Chris Paul, Randy Foye was begrudging. A lot of it is the people around him–they have great finishers," said Foye, adding, "we were stopping him."

    The operative word in that last sentence is "were." Yes, Paul failed to register a field goal in the field half, arriving with just two points (2-2 FT) and one rebound at the break. Foye, meanwhile, had exploded for 16 points in the first period, including 4-4 from three point range in his 6-7 FG overall. But Paul also had 8 assists in the first half, compared to Foye’s 2. So if we compared the two *point guards,*, Paul generated only four fewer points–his 2 points and the 16 from his eight assists–than Foye’s 22 generated points (18 scored plus 2 assists).

    And that was the first half. In the second half, Paul shot 6-7 FG, added 3-4 FT, grabbed four rebounds and again dropped 8 dimes in the half, to finish with 16 assists versus one turnover. Foye went 0-6 FG and 2-2 FT in the second half, with three assists and zero turnovers. Final line: Foye outscored Paul 20-19 but got out-assisted, 16-5. Asked about what happened in that second half, he was still begrudging, noting that "I got in a little bit of foul trouble, picked up some cheap fouls."

    Paul’s teammates may be great finishers anyway, but it helps that the frontcourt towered over Minnesota’s front line by 3, 4 and 2 inches, respectively at the center, small forward and power forward positions. That explains how five of Paul’s assists were alley oop dunks.

    2. It’s The Meat (Size) and the Motion (Penetration)

    After the game, coach Randy Wittman bemoaned the fact that his team went with the jump shot as the default position. "We need that guy who will put it on the floor," he said. "We have struggled all year getting free throws–we had 9 tonight–and we’re settling for jump shots." When Foye’s first quarter scoring explosion was mentioned, Wittman re-emphasized, "Yeah he made some jump shots but then he kind of fell in love with that…We moved the ball pretty good but we have got to look for people who will put the ball on the floor and get to the rim."

    Asked if that is the team’s biggest need, Wittman gave an answer that should be applauded for folks who are sick and tired of smallball. "No, we need to get bigger. What is prefereable?" he asked rhetorically, the penetrator or the larger bodies? "Whatever presents itself. We also need outside shooters. Al is a willing passer."

    3. McCants and Brewer

    Whatever drama may have existed between Wittman and McCants is again on the back burner, as Shaddy played 30:09 off the bench and was his usual self, leading the team in points and field goals and tying Foye for the high in FGA. Foye and McCants combined for a gaudy 9-17 in three-point shooting and yet the ballclub still got pasted by 32 points. Not coincidentally, defense has been an achilles heel for both Foye and McCants this season.

    On the other side of the ledger, Corey Brewer continues the out-of-body experience of watching his season disappear down the rabbit hole. As happens enough to be something of a pattern this season, Brewer came out and stuck his first two jumpers, including a nifty dribble-drive left, put on the brakes and nail a fade-away sequence early in the second period. But then he came down and chucked up a heat-check J on the very next possession that clanked, leading to five more misses that were lucky if they clanked. Also in the second period, Marko Jaric drove beneath the hoop and fed the rook on the baseline for about a 10-footer that he flat-out airballed, a shot so inept that the 12,000 or so people in the stands were murmuring about it for the next 15 seconds. Then there was the four footer he was gift-wrapped in the second half that barely grazed the front iron. In all seriousness, I’m not certain giving Brewer any more burn in these final four games is a good idea. Better just to let him keep practing and then proscribe an off-season diet of milkshakes, bench presses, squats and cheeseburgers along with a daily diet of about 10,000 jump shots. The boll weavils have infested his confidence and it will take a few months to clean them away.

  • The Three Pointer: Giving One Away

    AP Photo by Paul Battaglia

     
    Game #73, Home Game #38: Detroit 94, Minnesota 90

    Season Record: 19-54

    1. A Rough Night For Foye

    There is more than one goat in a game where the Wolves blew a 21-point lead and wilted down the stretch against a Detroit Pistons team resting arguably their top three starters–Chauncey Billups, Rasheed Wallace and Rip Hamilton. But in a contest that was obviously Minnesota’s for the taking, point guard Randy Foye was especially noticeable in his inability to deliver at either end of the court.

    It certainly didn’t begin that way. In the first quarter it seemed apparent that the Wolves were keyed up to win their 5th straight home game and that the Pistons were mailing it in. Especially impressive was the chemistry between Foye and Al Jefferson, starting 70 seconds into the game when Foye fed Jefferson for a slam dunk. It happened again at the 7:21 mark, and a third time–this one finishing with a Jefferson jump hook–at 1:09 to play. The period finished with Jefferson going 4-4 FG, three of them on dimes dropped by Foye. Couple with an aggressive 5-5 FG by notorious clanker Corey Brewer, the Wolves had raced to a 30-18 lead via 9 assists and a 14-6 rebounding edge.

    The pattern continued with both benches on the floor during the first half of the second quarter, Minnesota pushing the lead to 43-22 with 6:50 to play before the break. A Flip Saunders team had just 4 assists in the first 17:10 and Wolves were heading for a blowout.

    Then coach Randy Wittman subbed back in his starters (Jaric, who had entered at 11:43, was already in the game. Brewer came back at 6:16; Jefferson and Foye together at 5:30; and Gomes at 4:35. Yet the Wolves didn’t score a single field goal in the period after Chris Richard’s put-back dunk with 5:38 to play. "Up to that point, we were moving the ball and making the extra pass," Wittman said, and indeed the team’s assist/turnover ratio at the time was 13/4. Added Wittman, "I think we gave this game away in the last six minutes of the second quarter."

    Pistons’ coach Saunders agreed, and even pointed to the specific moment. "I’ve always said one play can change a game and for us no question it was when they missed those four free throws in a row [two by Jaric and two by Jefferson] and we went down and scored and cut the lead to nine." That was during a 16-2 Pistons run that had them back in the game, down just 5, 49-44, at the half.

    Coming out for the second half, Minnesota went back to their bread and butter–Jefferson in the low block. After getting one measly FG attempt in the second period, Big Al scored 7 of the team’s first 10 points in just the opening 2:25 of the third to bump the lead back up to 59-51. At that point Jefferson had 19 very efficient points on 7-8 from the field and there was still more than 21 minutes to left play. But Saunders found a pair of matchups he liked–Tayshaun Prince posting up either Corey Brewer (for 6:43) or Kirk Snyder (for 5:17) and rookie backup point guard Rodney Stuckey (playing for Billups) taking Foye off the dribble. Together, Prince and Stuckey combined for 19 of the Pistons’ 21 points in the third to keep the Wolves’ lead contained at 7, 72-65, heading into the final period.

    But with Jefferson on the pine, the Wolves endured another scoring drought in the first three minutes, enabling the Pistons to tie the game once more. Jason Maxiell in particular was owning the boards, and a cold Rashad McCants kept clanking jumpers. But then Craig Smith executed a nifty pass in the corner to set up Jaric for a trey (The Rhino’s 4th assist) and McCants finally stopped shooting and started dishing, finding Richard for another slam and then, after Gomes and Jefferson returned to action at 5:46, Shaddy fed Big Al for a layup 17 seconds later as Pistons big Amir Johnson committed the foul. Wittman chose that time to sub in Foye for McCants. I asked three journalists around me who they’d rather have in the game right then, Foye or McCants. Everyone (including me) said McCants–it just wasn’t Foye’s night. Jefferson converted the free throw to make it 83-80 with 5:29 to go. And then Foye pissed away the game.

    Yes, Foye nailed a trey to flip a two point deficit into a one point lead with 2:33 to go. Yes, Foye hit a back-arching floater driving across the lane to make cut a three-point deficit down to one with just 31.6 seconds left to play. And yes, Foye’s line doesn’t look that shabby at all: 18 points (on 6-14 FG), 5 rebounds and 4 assists versus just two turnovers.

    But Foye couldn’t stay with Stuckey on D, as the rook drew four fouls on Foye in the final 4:29; none of them the sort of strategic grab meant to pray for missed FTs to cut a lead. In fact all of them occurred with the teams within two points of each other. Stuckey was 7-8 FT as a result, and also stuck 14-foot jumper to break an 88-88 tie in the final minute. Asked why Foye couldn’t stay with Stuckey, Wittman at first pretended he didn’t understand the question (or maybe he was just fatigued). When I clarified–was it bad foot speed, overplaying the dribble, inexperience?–the coach replied, "By labelling it that, you are just making excuses. You [meaning Foye] have got to defend."

    At the other end of the court, Foye’s inability or disinclination to get the ball to Jefferson was driving Big Al crazy–his last field goal attempt occurred with 4:45 to play. With little more than a minute to go in a tie game, Jefferson was literally jumping up and down demanding the ball in the half court. This display of pique was most unwise because it practically obligated Foye to force-feed the rock–something the Pistons well knew, and stole the entry pass Foye attempted on the left block. (Pin that Foye turnover on Jefferson. Pin the half-dozen times Jefferson, who finished 9-12 FG, didn’t get the ball when he should have in the 4th quarter, on Foye.)

    After the steal, Stuckey came down and canned that pull-up jumper over Foye. Wittman called a timeout and subbed in McCants for Brewer to spead the floor a little bit, as the Wolves were down 2 with 45 seconds to play. Out of the timeout, with 15 seconds still on the shot clock, Foye attempted and missed a difficult fadeway over a charging Maxiell. Asked if he’d gotten the shot he wanted on the play, Wittman didn’t play dumb. "No," he said flatly. "There was a switch and we didn’t take advantage of it. Maxiell [Jefferson’s man] switched out and we didn’t take advantage of the mismatch." As the Wolves walked off the floor, there was steam coming out of Jefferson’s ears as he pursed his lips and shook his head. Foye finished at minus -14, five points to the bad of Brewer’s second-worst minus -11.

    In the first and third periods, Jefferson was 8-9 FG, Foye was 4-7 FG with 4 assists, and Wolves outscored the Pistons by 14. In the second and fourth quarters, Jefferson was 1-3 FG, Foye was 2-7 FG with zero assists, and the Pistons outscored the Wolves by 18.

    2. Blistered By the Bench

    Their bench kicked our rear end," Wittman announced after the game–no mean feat, given that three typical Piston benchwarmers were starting in place of Billups, ‘Sheed and Hamilton. McCants and Craig Smith–two Wolves with eFG% that are among the highest on the team–combined for 3-19 FG and 0-4 from beyond the arc. Overall, Detroit’s subs outscored Minnesota’s 40-17, led by Walter Hermann, who dominated the Brewer/Snyder tandem and occasionally Jaric for 11 points.

    3. Kudos

    In tonight’s press kit, Wolves stat guru Paul Swanson put together individual totals for the players both in the past 12 games (not counting tonight’s loss) when Minnesota went 7-5, and in the previous 5 contests, all of them losses. The biggest difference in the
    7-5 and 0-5 playing rotations is that Marko Jaric get the minutes normally allotted to the injured Sebastian Telfair. And whereas Bassy’s assist to turnover was an impressive 6.0/1.6 during that 5-game losing streak, Jaric’s marks over the last dozen are 5.0/1.1, and he shot 50% (versus Telfair’s 40.5% in the previous five) besides.

    Kirk Snyder likewise is shooting well–50.6%–over the past dozen, is getting to the free throw line through aggressive penetration, and is defending as well as Corey Brewer. Bottom line, if no one knew who was the heavily-invested first-round pick and who was the recently-acquired player from whom not much was expected, people would be as likely to name Snyder as the keeper right now as they would Brewer. No bias there (I actually like Brewer, as most folks are aware), just fact. Tonight Snyder tied Jaric with a team-best plus +9, while, despite his hot early shooting, Brewer finished at minus -11.

    Ryan Gomes was among those who had a tough night shooting (3-10 FG), but in classic Gomes fashion did enough little things right to register a plus +2. Before tonight, Gomes had converted half his field goal attempts and was averaging 17.8 ppg over the last dozen. His improvement and the development of Foye in the backcourt have enabled the Wolves to shoot a surprising 49% as a team since the all star break.

     

  • The Three Pointer: Back To Earth

    Copyright 2008 NBAE (Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)

    Game #70, Road Game #34: Minnesota 86, Houston 97

    Season Record: 18-52

    1. Stubborn Smallball

    Let the record show that Al Jefferson and Ryan Gomes tied for the "best" plus/margin (-4) among the 9 Wolves who played in tonight’s 11-point loss to Houston, that Luis Scola had the Rockets’ only minus at -1 and that Dikembe Mutombo was second-worst among the Houston’s starters at plus +3. Despite all these numbers, you can’t convince me that the Wolves were better off playing smallball versus this Houston team. They were soundly beaten on the boards, 58-38, lost the points in the paint battle by double-digits (sorry, can’t find the numbers for it) and also yielded more second-chance points due mostly to the plethora of Rockets putbacks by the bigs.

    The Rockets’ front line of Mutombo/Scola/Shane Battier finished with 14 offensive rebounds; the Wolves front trio of Jefferson/Gomes/Kirk Snyder had 19 defensive rebounds–a weak plus +5 rebound margin cleaning their defensive glass. And don’t look to the backcourt for bailouts, because these Rockets battle and box out. Randy Foye and Marko Jaric totaled 3 rebounds *combined" while Tracy McGrady had 11 on his own.

    It would have been nice to see Chris Richard or Michael Doleac matched up with Mutombo instead of Jefferson, who shot 9-21 FG and was appropriately pissed that he wasn’t getting enough touches at times in the second half. As much as I love Ryan Gomes, I’d much rather see Jefferson scrapping for rebounds against Scola, the hands-down Rookie of the Year (it’s not close) and one leather-tough hombre in the paint, who snagged a career-high 18 boards going against Gomes. Put Gomes out on his stylistic mentor, Battier, who had a rotten game on paper–3-12 FG, 1-7 3pt, 5 turnovers–and yet played such superb help defense against Jefferson and in deterring penetration and in rotating over that you understand how a team coached by Rick Adelman–a great offensive coach–is doing such a good job limiting points.

    A legit center beside Jefferson and Gomes would kick Kirk Snyder back to the backcourt to split minutes with Marko Jaric guarding McGrady who played like he was in significant pain for most of the night (he was, he has a sprained shoulder and wasn’t even expected to play) but rose to the occasion at crunchtime. More on that in a minute. The point is, Snyder and Jaric and McCants in the backcourt along with Randy Foye. And if you really are trying to win the game, forget about the confidence-depleted, late-season thin man Corey Brewer trying to stop T-Mac, who almost literally shrugged him off a couple of times going up for jumpers. Jaric, who did such a beautiful job hounding McGrady during the nail-biter the teams played at Target Center, was a little less effective tonight, but probably a titch better than Snyder.

    Bottom line, if Mutombo insists on guarding Jefferson, force Battier to run around with Gomes on the perimeter, spot up Doleac for little step-out pops against Scola, or have Chris Richard sealing Scola off the boards.

    It probably wouldn’t matter. In Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry, the Rockets have a couple more sweat-equity ‘tweeners coming off the bench who are better than Richard and Chris Smith (who combined for 2-5 FG and just 2 rebounds in more than 25 minutes of collective action). The string of patsies are temporarily over. You can see how this ballclub could afford to let Snyder languish on the pine without so much as a second or third look.

    Speaking of which…

    2. The Uneven Adventures of Kirk Snyder

    The guy with the Mr. Potato Head nose had a sparkling, maybe even thrilling, first quarter. It was the hackneyed story of the neglected dude traded away and now come to wreak vengeance and expose the traitor traders for their blind stupidity. Even with Battier on him (although Battier wasn’t necessarily making him the top priority), Snyder began by getting to the rim–his shots were layups, dunks, putbacks, and thus some free throws to boot. But better yet, he freelanced from penetration and maintained that drive and kick game he had flashed against the hapless Knicks last time out, doling dimes to Gomes, Jefferson, Foye and Gomes again to finish the tightly contested (23-24) first quarter with a triple double flirtation: 7 points, 4 rebounds (half the team’s total), and 4 assists (out of the team’s 7).

    Alas, the thing Snyder had the most of after that whirlwind first period was turnovers–5 of them, to total six miscues for the game. He also added a mere 5 points, two rebounds and two assists in the final three quarters (in which he played 18:13 to Brewer’s 17:47 after going all 12 minutes of the first) to finish with a respectable line, if not exactly the triumphant payback he’d hoped. But the numbers aren’t usually the story anyway with Snyder. He seems to play with a little bit of mean streak, and I vacillate between liking and frowning at that side of his makeup. On the one hand he makes the hustle plays that we all want to pin gold stars on Brewer for accomplishing. In the first half tonight, he had enough juice and foresight to hightail after Marko Jaric after Jaric had made a steal and subsequently blown the contested layup (big surprise, eh?), slamming home Jaric’s too-strong finish. Conversely, there was a play during Snyder’s second half turnover spree where, after the faulty pass, he flew down the floor trailing a Rockets’ 3-on-1 drill, and it took two nifty bits of execution–a feed back from T-Mac under the hoop to a driving Scola, who double pumped under Snyder’s flying block attempt to lay it in–to prevent him from making a glorious recovery.

    Coach Wittman clearly likes Snyder’s game, but also knows the downsides. The other day he likened Snyder to McCants, in that both can do stupid things due to overweening aggression, but since the vice and virtue of it are so close together, you have to accept the whole package. And after the Wolves had failed to score for about two and a half minutes early in the third period, we saw the vice and virtue collide as one–Snyder took the ball right up the gut and challenged Mutombo with an audacious slam-dunk attempt. The shot was missed–Snyder left his feet just inside the foul line–but he drew the foul on Mutombo even as he was driving his forearm into Mutombo’s jaw.

    Maybe everything that happened after that looked more soap operatic than it was–it’s hard to know watching on television. But the 41-year old African, who had been honored at halftime for his amazing humanitarian work building hospitals in his native Congo and other countries, didn’t take kindly to the shot in the kisser and began jawing at Snyder from his spot in the lane as Snyder shot the free throws. And right there, Snyder went back to being the contemptible scrub, called out by the distinguished vet, in the eyes of his former teammates. He missed the second free throw and began to get picked on–McGrady and Battier both went at him when he was playing D, and at the other end, his passes were getting picked off more frequently. But whether or not there was a little extra emotion out there, it’s unimpeachable that Snyder already has delivered more dividends–and the promise of more still–than the man for whom he was traded, the immature Gerald Green. But it is also true that, unlike the Wolves, Houston has a lot of guard-dog athletes that made Snyder reasonably redundant.

    3. A Few More Quick Things

    Randy Foye played his worst game in quite awhile and simply seemed mentally out of sorts the entire contest. He chucked his first ill-advised jumper 14 seconds into the game, and, aside from a really pretty reverse back to either Gomes or Jaric in which he dribbled left and then spun and tossed it back to right elbow, h
    e had the sort of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey shot selection reminiscent of Troy Hudson, both in shooting quickly on the shot clock, turning down some good looks, and taking a heat check after one basket (and that one was a lucky bounce that went way up and fell through the hole). He finished 2-8 FG, with 4 assists and 5 turnovers and but one rebound, far below his recent averages. No, this is not a call for Foye to be labelled a bust at the point–he had a bad game. Just as I needed two or three good games to bump me off the notion that Foye is overmatched running an offense, I’ll need this lack of court instincts reprised a couple or three more games before the serious doubts creep back in.

    Rashad McCants likewise had a mostly off-kilter evening, until he finally rediscovered his stroke early in the 4th quarter, exploding for 7 points in the first 2:27 of the period to cut a 60-69 deficit to 70-72 with 9:33 to play. The comeback was doomed when Shaddy chose to try and make incidental contact into a whistle, awkwardly chucking a long airball, which Houston converted into a McGrady jumper on the next possession. Once again we have a situation where McCants rallies the ballclub partway back. He has a knack for turning potential blowouts into more engaging defeats–and no, that’s not a compliment. It is always fun to watch him stroke the long jumper or negotiate the thicket on a drive to the hoop–he leads the team is visually pleasing points by a huge margin–but this 1-7 FG through 3 followed by 5-8 FG in the fourth is something we’ve seen before. What we haven’t seen, aside from a very early win over Sacramento, are that glittering stroke and those creative treks to the rim spelling the clearcut difference between a victory and a defeat.

    Only caught a little of the Phoenix-Celts game, but what a different enviroment for Kevin Garnett. Like everyone else, he abused Amare Stoudamire’s matador D and banged in 30 points, but can anyone imagine him playing more than 30 minutes without a single defensive rebound while here in Minnesota? Or that his team would win by 20 over one of the supposedly elite NBA teams?

    The San Antonio tilt is not televised except for League Pass and I’ll be out of town on another assignment during the Sunday home game against Utah. I’ll throw up an open thread for Sunday evening for those who want to chime in.