Wizards Get Foye And Miller For 5th Pick

[HMFFL]

The Washington Wizards have agreed in principle to acquire Minnesota Timberwolves guards Randy Foye(notes) and Mike Miller(notes) for Etan Thomas(notes), Oleksiy Pecherov(notes) and Darius Songaila and the fifth pick in Thursday’s NBA draft, a league executive with knowledge of the deal told Yahoo! Sports.

The teams are still working out details but the deal is expected to be consummated. Link

Mike Miller can probably acquire Washington a future first.

[raleigh]

Don't really understand this trade for Washington just yet.

[theatlfan]

Don't really understand this trade for Washington just yet.

WASH dumps some contracts, get a marksman to spread the floor for Arenas / Butler / Jamison, and a scoring 6th man type with elite quicks. If they stay healthy and play even passable D, then they have to be considered close to a championship contender. Not sure what you don't understand about it...

[raleigh]

1. Miller isn't that good anymore and cannot play SG. He's a reserve "marksman." Certainly not worth trading the #5 for.

2. Yes, they spread the floor, but they get even worse defensively.

3. Wouldn't Curry be able to do the same thing as Foye for less money and more years?

They have a ton of scorers, but no post threat and mediocre defense. They're nowhere near worthy of contender considerations at this point.

[lunarblues]

this puts washington officially over us if they keep those players

areanas/foye/crittenton
stevenson/young
butler/miller
jamison/blantche
haywood/magee

that's a ridiculous team. grunfield could win exec of the year if they stay healthy.

[raleigh]

^^^Don't agree.

They were "over" the Hawks because of the return of Arenas and Haywood. But adding a backup combo guard and a backup wing won't be enough.

[evildallas]

If it goes down, it makes sense to me. They want to win now (86 year old owner) and they added two players who can play now. You can say Miller is in decline, but if he's the 4th option on the floor he can be deadly. Foye is a combo guard that shores up their back court and covers them if they have injuries. They dumped a player (Thomas) they didn't want it who notoriously had conflicts with one of the players they still see as a core player (Haywood). Minnesota wanted a do over to get a true PG and remake their roster quickly.

[Hawk4Playoffs]

Wow... great trade for Washington! I really like Washington's chances this year if they can stay healthy... at least second round of the playoffs. Randy Foye is a solid player and will give quality minutes at the backup PG and SG position. Miller is a great 6th man that can handle the ball and shoot well. It looks like the Wizards have a 10 man rotation!

mrhonline... i don't know how giving up Songalia and Etan Thomas makes them worse defensively... from what I know, Miller and Foye are not terrible defenders... I don't see how this is a bad trade for the Wizards in any way. They didn't give up and starters and added 2 quality bench players.

[raleigh]

mrhonline... i don't know how giving up Songalia and Etan Thomas makes them worse defensively... from what I know, Miller and Foye are not terrible defenders... I don't see how this is a bad trade for the Wizards in any way. They didn't give up and starters and added 2 quality bench players.

Thomas and Songalia would'n't have played much anyway. The #5 was their chance to grab a defensive player. Instead, they got a poor defender in Miller (worse every year), and will be taking minutes from Young to give them to a worse defensive player in Foye (especially at the 2).

[HoopsGuru25]

There were alot of threads discussing trading Marvin for Richard Jefferson and Mike Miller a little over a year ago. Those would have been pretty crappy trades in hindsight.

[theatlfan]

Thomas and Songalia would'n't have played much anyway. The #5 was their chance to grab a defensive player. Instead, they got a poor defender in Miller (worse every year), and will be taking minutes from Young to give them to a worse defensive player in Foye (especially at the 2).

I understand where your going, but completely disagree. Miller may not be the best defensive player, but he's at least passable against other SFs when motivated (aka, not in a situation where he knows he won't sniff the playoffs). The bigger deal is that on O, he's a 40% 3-PT shooter for his career - a deadly sniper from distance. Opposing D's simply can't leave anyone uncovered when playing WASH or they'll pay. What's more - even if he isn't a fit, no biggie, his deal expires anyway. Also, Foye could challenge for the 6th man of the year award in WASH. Not only does WASH get to reap the reward of a few years of development and the knowledge that you don't want him on the point on O, but they also have the depth to pick and choose where they want to deploy him.

No, it isn't a groundbreaking return for a #5 pick, but considering that they get players at least as good as where they were picking and dump some $$$, it isn't a bad return.

[JoshB914]

Washington adds more scoring. The problem is, they already had enough of it. This deal doesn't give them the distributor at guard they need. I love Foye and enjoy his game, but he is at his best when used primarily as a scoring guard and no one is taking that role away from Arenas. Maybe they can use him off the ball a little bit as he has a good three point shot, but why trade the no. 5 pick for a guy that is going to be a secondary scoring force for you and little else? Washington will obviously be better next year, but they do that no matter what once they get Arenas/Jamison back healthy anyway.

They'll be right back where they were before, inconsistent and in the middle of the pack. I'm not especially worried about them.

[JoshB914]

Thomas and Songalia would'n't have played much anyway. The #5 was their chance to grab a defensive player. Instead, they got a poor defender in Miller (worse every year), and will be taking minutes from Young to give them to a worse defensive player in Foye (especially at the 2).

I understand where your going, but completely disagree. Miller may not be the best defensive player, but he's at least passable against other SFs when motivated (aka, not in a situation where he knows he won't sniff the playoffs). The bigger deal is that on O, he's a 40% 3-PT shooter for his career - a deadly sniper from distance. Opposing D's simply can't leave anyone uncovered when playing WASH or they'll pay. What's more - even if he isn't a fit, no biggie, his deal expires anyway. Also, Foye could challenge for the 6th man of the year award in WASH. Not only does WASH get to reap the reward of a few years of development and the knowledge that you don't want him on the point on O, but they also have the depth to pick and choose where they want to deploy him.

No, it isn't a groundbreaking return for a #5 pick, but considering that they get players at least as good as where they were picking and dump some $$$, it isn't a bad return.

The Wizards already spread defenses out with Arenas/Jamison/Buter all being fine outside shooters to say the least.Their weaknesses lie elsewhere and they were certainly not addressed in this trade.

[HoopsGuru25]

Thomas and Songalia would'n't have played much anyway. The #5 was their chance to grab a defensive player. Instead, they got a poor defender in Miller (worse every year), and will be taking minutes from Young to give them to a worse defensive player in Foye (especially at the 2).

I understand where your going, but completely disagree. Miller may not be the best defensive player, but he's at least passable against other SFs when motivated (aka, not in a situation where he knows he won't sniff the playoffs). The bigger deal is that on O, he's a 40% 3-PT shooter for his career - a deadly sniper from distance. Opposing D's simply can't leave anyone uncovered when playing WASH or they'll pay. What's more - even if he isn't a fit, no biggie, his deal expires anyway. Also, Foye could challenge for the 6th man of the year award in WASH. Not only does WASH get to reap the reward of a few years of development and the knowledge that you don't want him on the point on O, but they also have the depth to pick and choose where they want to deploy him.

No, it isn't a groundbreaking return for a #5 pick, but considering that they get players at least as good as where they were picking and dump some $$$, it isn't a bad return.

The Wizards already spread defenses out with Arenas/Jamison/Buter all being fine outside shooters to say the least.Their weaknesses lie elsewhere and they were certainly not addressed in this trade.

Agreed. Washington was always one of the better 3 point shooting teams in the league outside of last year when everyone was hurt. I think this trade helps them in the fact that they have more fire power to hold up during the 10-15 games(atleast) that Arenas and Butler will probably miss. They didn't really fill a weakness that brings them closer to being a contender now or in the future though. They are still going to be a terrible defensive team and I think their roster requires additional tweaking. They have too many questions. Why didn't they force Minny to take Stevenson instead of Songaila? The only reason I can think of is because they plan on him being in the rotation next year. We know Miller and Foye will be too-what does that mean for guys like Nick Young, Critt,and Dominic Mcguire now?

[evildallas]

I still think it was a good trade for both teams.

Washington was unhappy with the 5th pick's value and wanted to move it. Evidently they felt they wouldn't get impact from the pick. Foye gives them Arenas insurance for if/when he goes down again. Miller gives a veteran presence off the bench and scoring with the second unit. What more were they going to get for the #5? I wanted it but only when combined with assets they did not surrender in this deal (Butler or a combination of McGee or Blatche and Young). They gave up very little in terms of current talent.

Minnesota gets a do over on Foye whom they would have had to decide soon if they wanted to invest in him long term. While they are still intent on trying to use the 5 and 18 to get up to #2, they are likely to get one out of Rubio, Curry, Flynn and one out of Harden or Evans which could be an impressive unit in 2 years with Al Jefferson and Kevin Love down low. They have a serviceable and inexpensive 3 in Ryan Gomes, but they'll likely upgrade that spot along the way. A lot of people slam this draft class, but it looks better than 2006 to me. Of course, time will tell. The only part of the 3 players that I find interesting is Pecherov. He's raw and needs to put on muscle, but he has some upside. Thomas is an expiring contract that feels like a buyout candidate and Songaila is in my eyes a bad contract (2 yrs for a total of 9.4M). He's a scrappy vet, but doesn't seem to get many rebounds and doesn't have range. I see him as very limited.

[td00]

Unless Minny makes a move, it doesn't make much sense to me. They now have what, 4 picks in the 1st round?
On the Wash side, perhaps Arenas won't be healthy enough this year and they needed vets to fill in.
To me, they only gave up the potential of a Evans or Curry, but they do want to win now and after last year, their time is very limited. If they aren't in the playoff run this year, expect a total makeover and being stuck long-term with Arenas.

[lunarblues]

the wolves are in rebuilding mode. they might trade the late pick for a future 1st or cash, or they may use some picks on Euros.

for the wizards their strength just became that the have a second starting lineup on the bench. foye, young, miller, blantche, and magee are all good players. compare that to law, murray, evans, jones, and pachulia. we get beat pretty much across the board. the wizards have a two-year window to get into the finals.

[Retrovision]

Ah ****, this makes them even stronger assuming arenas is healthy.