long suffrin' boulez fan wrote:doclinkin wrote: Randy Foye attacks the lane and is a Gil mimic on offense.
Could we be seeing the start of a Gil/LH kind of pairing? I always thought Hughes' value to the Wiz couldn't be evaluated well in a vacuum. Hughes made Gil better by bringing the ball up court at times, taking on the lead scoring role at times, hitting the big shot at times... so that Gil didn't have to do it all each possession and so that he could come at teams from different angles.
This is the first time since Hughes left (for that utter wasteland that is Cleveland... Cavs suck) that Gil has had a back court mate with all around skills.
It's just been one game, but it is hard not to like what you see.
Gil agrees:
"Randy brings that Larry Hughes element where we can both play the one or two depending on who's hot and who's not," said Arenas, who has sorely missed playing alongside another playmaker and scorer like Hughes. "I work one side of the floor, he works the other."
I see it as a function of the Gil double team. If a team tries to load up on Gil, it's handy to have a guy who can drive it up court and confuse the opponent guessing which one to call the Point.
Not sure I'd call Foye a playmaker, but he's a far better longball sniper than Hughes ever was. Larry was better at the drive and dish, or collecting trips to the stripe. In that respect though it could be that Foye is the better fit, potentially less vulnerable to injuries in the paint (since he has the option to stay in jumper range) and his outside shooting keeps teams honest, prevents them from simply packing it in.
As a steady diet it's a solvable alignment, but It's a nice option to have, to trade off between Milller/Foye/Caron depending on who's hot on which team. Until Gil can shoot from the horizon again he's going to see players queuing up to stop him like the whole team bus unloaded in front of him, it's nice to have someone else racing up court on the other side and players wide open readyu to hit whatever shot the defense gives them.
That to me was the most hopeful sign: most of Dray's shots were wide open shots he took with no extra dribble or hesitation before the defense reacted. I liked the one-two pass where he kicked to DSteve then got it back and hit the J. In most cases the shots taken were the best available, especially in that 60% fg 2nd Quarter. The team made smart passes, good reads, hit the simple shot not the showboat acrobatic one. That's what kept the squad pulling away when the Mavs kept closing.
That and the defense. Caron pestering Marion to a subpar night. DSteve forcing a whistle on JKidd with a screen-flop. Oberto & Dray both bothering Dirk to a poor percentage game. Tertiary players like Goden unable to find room to do much. Brendan smothering Dampier.
We've been giving up a ton of free throws, true, but that's an additional side benefit of depth: more fouls to give. Nice to see Dray able to stay in the game. Good conditioning means he doesn't have to foul to check himself out of the game and get a drink of water.
Some good signs here.
