http://www.nba.com/timberwolves/news/chatting_with_rex_and_randy_070628.html
Throughout the summer, Timberwolves Randy Foye, Rashad McCants and Craig
Smith have been working out with Minnesota's assistant coaches. We spoke to
Wolves assistant coach Rex Kalamian about Foye and Smith's progress so far
this summer, and heard from Randy Foye about the Juwan Howard-Mike James
trade and more.
REX KALAMAIN
Mike Trudell: How has Craig Smith looked thus far in the off-season?
Rex: Craig looks great. I saw him when we were in Los Angeles together a
couple weeks ago. He's been playing in the mornings up at UCLA working out,
he's been taking Pilates classes religiously, four days a week he goes, and
you can tell his body is just much stronger. He's kind of slimmed down a bit.
It's going to help him. It's going to help him with his endurance, his speed
and his quickness. Working with Dave Vitale has really paid off here and just
putting in extra work. Summertime is when players get so much better.
Summertime is when you can really work on your skills and work on your body,
and it's a time to just grow from June to October. He's really done a great
job of really getting himself prepared for the upcoming season.
MT: What's your role with Craig as it relates to the basketball stuff?
A: Well, we're both from Los Angeles, so when we do leave the Minneapolis
area we meet in L.A. and work out. There are a few moves that Kevin McHale
showed Craig that he wants him to work on throughout the summer. So, McHale
showed me those same moves and we're trying to enhance that as we go along.
Craig and I have a good relationship, we work well together. He's a very
coachable kid and anytime I can try to get him on the floor I love to work
with him. So, I can't say enough great things about Craig. He's the best.
MT: How's Randy Foye been doing this off-season?
A: Well, I think with the trade that we made, it kind of gives him a little
more confidence coming into the year, knowing he's going to be a starter or
at least compete for that starting job as our point guard. He's been coming
through here and putting in good work and he's been really working on his
ball handling. That's something that we do, all the coaches when we put the
guys through drills, we start everyday with ball handling. It's something
that even if you're a great ball handler you can still work on it. Randy,
that's something he's been working on and he knows that's something that he
needs to work on. It's been good.
Then, a lot of pick-and-roll situations. Not only offensively, but
defensively. It's really important that he learns how to run the
pick-and-role offensively, and that's the thing we've tried to put into our
workout here. We try to spend 20, 25 minutes a day just on pick-and-roll
situations -- coming off to score and then coming off also to hit big guys,
who set the screens. All this work for him is going to be invaluable, not
only right now but when we hit the summer league and he gets to put in
40-minute games or whatever it is -- he's going to play 80 percent to 90
percent of the game at that position hopefully, point guard. Last year in our
summer league he kind of played both; he played on the ball and off the ball.
Hopefully this year he get a lot more time on the ball, with the ball in his
hands, and he can of try and control the game with the basketball. So some of
these are going to be big step for him. Not only the five games that we play,
but the two-a-days leading into that, and then right after that we have
another week or so where we may go back to Las Vegas and work with him again.
MT: Will you be coaching the summer league again?
A: I don't think so. I don't know we haven't really talked about it. So I'm
not sure who's going to coach. We've got a lot of coaches.
MT: I'll actually be out there ...
A: Well we'll be in Vegas for about 10 days, and after that we'll come back
for 12 days. Then we'll go back to Vegas for a skills camp for NBA players.
They get about 50 NBA players and assistant coaches and head coaches and they
just teach. We work two-a-days, in morning and in the evening. Some of those
guys will come back for that, Randy being one of them. So, there's going to
be a lot of basketball played this summer and we anticipate these guys really
growing, hopefully.
MT: We'll get our first chance to see these guys in the summer league, then
we'll move on and the season isn't that far away all of a sudden:
A: Yeah, last year our guys kind of convened back here in early August. I've
never seen a team get together like that. We had the majority of our players
back here in late August, which was great. They got up and down the floor,
and I think they bonded a little bit. Hopefully we can resurrect that again
and get these guys beck here early. It just kind of gives you extra time to
work with them and it gives them time to not only work on basketball, but
weights and speed and strength is such a big part of it now that it's
important that they get here and work on their bodies, too.
RANDY FOYE
On the way he handled himself in his rookie season:
Foye: I thought that there was a lot of pressure put on me when I was put
into games. I would have liked to play the whole game as a young player, but
I was ready for the challenge and looked forward to it -- you've got to just
keep working hard and take it a day at a time.
On the team's confidence in Foye, exemplified by the James trade:
I think that's why they drafted me so high... When I was playing in the
summer league, I thought that I was going to be rewarded, but then they
signed Mike. When they first signed him it kinda hurt, because I knew if they
signed a guy for $24 million he was going to play all the way. I had to back
him up, but I learned a lot from him. I just took it and tried to be a
sponge. I didn't play as much at first, but I knew if I kept working hard
that I would play, and that's (what happened) toward the end of the year.
On the most important thing he learned from James:
Just his work ethic, his work ethic was great. He worked so hard, every day,
even when he wasn't playing as much and I was getting more of the minutes, he
still was still putting in the work before and after practice.
On what he's been working on the last couple weeks in Minnesota:
Just everything. We've been watching clips of Tony Parker, Deron (Williams),
Baron Davis, you know, because I'm bigger and taller than most of the guards
that I play against so they want to post me up. I've been working a lot on my
post-up game, my shooting and my ball handling, and just competing
one-on-one.
On what he thought about the four prospects who worked out last Friday (J.
Wright, Brewer, Al Thornton and Thaddeus Young):
I think it's good, all four of them out there just giving it all they got. I
think it's important to show the coaches, because it's not just the
Timberwolves here but there's other teams here watching (too). It's important
that you show the other teams what you can do.
On how much he's looking forward to passing the ball to Juwan Howard:
Yeah, definitely a lot. He's been in the league a while, sorta like KG, you
can tell just by speaking to him on the court. He seems like a cool guy.
On if he's expecting more trades to go down:
I have no idea what's going to go on, any other changes that occur or
happen... How can I say this -- just write this: Any changes that occur or
happen, if it happens it happens.
On how he found out about the James trade and what his reaction was:
My agent called me and told me. At the end of the year, when (McHale) gave
his speech you could kinda tell that some changes (were going to be) made,
because he wasn't happy with how we ended the year. I just think that it came
kinda fast, but most of the guys were expecting it.
On whether he's given thought to switching to off-guard if the Wolves draft a
point guard at #7:
I'm a point guard, you know, just like I'm a scoring guard. If you look at
the league now, there's no true point guard. Look at Tony Parker, Deron and
Baron Davis -- they all score, they all make plays. That's how they want me
to play. What they tell me is they don't want a true point guard, they want
an "attack" point guard, and that's what I am.
On if he's more ready now to be the starting point guard than he was a year
ago:
Yeah, definitely. I've got a year under my belt, I'm familiar with a lot of
things and my work ethic has been better than ever. Even in college, they
made us come back for the summer, but I've just been doing everything on my
own -- no one has been telling me to do anything. It's all about the team,
and I'm a good team player. You watch me play, I know when to make certain
plays and I know when not to. I know when to pass it and when not to.
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