TRAINING CAMP

[Hoopalotta]

Well, I did watch the video footage of the camp practice.

First I must compliment the announcers as doing quite a good job considering that they are not local guys: they seemed to have done a good bit of homework and while I might quibble with a few points - they were overly high on Stevenson and didn't give Gil enough credit as a playmaker - they did speak on the 'zards for a good hour and a half without making fools of themselves. Pretty lively too.

Anyway...

I think the criticism of Foye's pointiness is fair judging by what I saw, but having said that, I am still optimistic as to his ability to be the backup point guard considering the diversity of our other personnel.

I don't think we want to see much of Young and Foye together in the backcourt really, especially if the three spot isn't passing much either (say, Jamison). This is not a complimentary arrangement as far as ball movement. But, he is good with the ball in his hands and I'm curious to see how he's going to drive to the hole this year; as noted by others, he was down last year as far as taking it inside and hasn't been able to draw fouls over the course of his career, but it seems the raw tools are there for some good dribble penetration.

Now, said dribbles seems to take place with a certain degree of 'head-low, hell or high water' one mindedness that precludes much in the way of dishes off the drive. So the question is, can he get the offense into sync with other wings there to facilitate the ball movement and then use that drive as an efficient bowling ball like weapon unto it's own. In other words, he's good driving, but it's not necessarily a drive that sets up the offense as a whole. On the other hand though, his ball handling is easily good enough to perform the utility and safety valve tasks of the Point.

In any event, much has been made of Flip's offense being hyper point guard dependent and I think it is fair to say that Foye is not yet going to look much like a prime time Billups, Brandon or Marbury. Maybe he can improve like Billups, but we shouldn't bet on it too much. But, be that as it may - and with an eye towards Flip being flexible - could a lineup with say Foye, Miller, Butler and Blatche move the ball enough to make up for Foye's 'pure point' shortcomings? And going even further, could it be that with that much passing spread on the floor, could that lineup be even more dangerous with Foye - who's obviously a danger to score from many places on the court - than a traditional backup point guard?

Related to that note, will Foye's scoring efficiency go up now that he's playing with better talent? Can he be the 'default point guard' and play off guys to where he's shooting 38-40% from 3-point land while drawing more fouls?

More questions than answers here, but it seems the potential is there for Foye to fit in with our personnel without necessarily transforming his game.