Offseason acquisitions assumed control after starters left Monday
The way Mike Miller and Randy Foye played together, a little confusion with the jerseys they were wearing might’ve been justified.
When Gilbert Arenas, his left knee and the starters gave way to the reserves in the Washington Wizards’ preseason opener, Miller and Foye assumed the helm, displaying both a veteran presence and a comfort with one another, proof of how the former Minnesota teammates expect to bolster the Wizards roster this season.
“A couple times last year when Mike used to get the rebounds, we used to just take off because he could handle the ball,” said Foye. “A couple times [vs. Memphis] I caught myself going off of it, and then I heard the coach say, ‘Get the ball, Randy,’ and then I’d run back.”
Foye had the jitters early in his Wizards debut, not only due to a change from his role with the Timberwolves, but also because he didn’t enter the game until Arenas finally sat down after playing more in the first quarter than he’d been predicted to play in the entire game.
“Last year I was at the two and at the point a little bit,” said Foye. “But it’s just something new for me. I had to get my mentality back of playing point guard and seeing everything, setting people up.”
With Miller on the floor — he was just 1-for-6 from the field but made up for it with ball-handling and dirty work (6 rebounds) — Foye settled in as the game wore on, scoring nine of his 14 points in the fourth quarter to go with 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals.
“[Foye’s] not as vocal as you’d like him to be right now so Mike gives you another facilitator,” said Wizards head coach Flip Saunders. “He’s almost like a point guard that can play small forward as far as he can handle the ball, gets guys to spots, so I try to put him there because I thought he would help Randy a little bit, calm him down, which it did.”
