Linked by trade, Roy, Foye at different career stages

Slowed by injuries, Randy Foye (left) hasn't made nearly the impact that Brandon Roy has in two NBA seasons. AP

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The more you think about it, the more plausible it gets that the Timberwolves' draft-night decision in 2006 to swap Brandon Roy for Randy Foye was one of those heat-of-the-moment, wilt-under-the-bright-lights mistakes.

If Marisa Tomei could win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress of 1992 simply because old coot/presenter Jack Palance messed up on his "And the Oscar goes to ...'' envelope tear, why couldn't the Wolves' brain trust get a little confused by all the "rand'' and "-oy'' syllables floating around early in the proceedings, on that night in June two summers ago.

(Actually, it is an urban legend that Palance screwed up. It could never happen, not with those two dour accountants from Price Waterhouse standing just off-stage to verify every Oscar call. By contrast, Kevin McHale, the Wolves' vice president of basketball operations, never has worked with any such safety net.)

Maybe the Minnesota personnel guys second-guessed themselves into the mistake, correctly saying "Roy,'' then changing their answer to "Foye'' when they should have been putting down their pencils. As the proctors of the SAT and ACT exams always tell you, your first instinct often is the right instinct. Step away from the eraser!

Maybe the cell signal from the Wolves' war room at Target Center to Madison Square Garden was especially shaky that night -- "Can you hear me now?'' -- and the whole Roy-Foye, Blazers-Wolves switcheroo was the result, just like in the commercials, of an ill-timed, dropped-call mishap.

Then again, maybe Minnesota just blew it, throwing one more log of miscalculation onto a fire that has roared for most of the franchise's history. Given some of the team's colossal gaffes through the years, from the illegal Joe Smith contracts and the drafting of Ndudi Ebi right through owner Glen Taylor's bizarre toss-under-the-bus this week of former Wolves superstar Kevin Garnett, being too clever (and greedy) by half in their pursuit of Foye fits right in. Comfortably, even.

Had the Wolves simply taken Foye with the sixth pick, leaving Roy on the board for Portland at No. 7, it would be considered an error in judgment, at least to this point. And it would pack only a modicum of regret and embarrassment because a) Foye hasn't exactly been a bust and b) using hindsight to evaluate draft picks is one of the easiest and sleaziest things fans and sports media people do. It is the equivalent of filling a barrel with fish, then blasting away.

"I think that happens with every draft, picks that are right next to each other and how they develop four or five years down the road,'' Minnesota coach Randy Wittman said. "Certain people are always going to bring up [Darko] Milicic over Carmelo [Anthony, drafted second and third in 2003].''

This one, though, is different. This one is almost too easy, like tipping that barrel over, then simply picking up the fish by hand as they flop around on the sidewalk.

In this one, Minnesota already had the better player. It chose Roy and had him -- had him! -- right up on that stage with commissioner David Stern, a Wolves cap tugged down over his youthful, smiling face. Then McHale got ... creative. He traded Roy minutes later to the Trail Blazers for Foye and $1 million, delighting his owner with both the free cash and another $1 million saved in paying the seventh pick rather than the sixth. At that point, the Wolves announced that they had preferred Foye all along. "We just felt Foye had more juice and was quicker,'' McHale said, "and was just such a ball hawk and such a defensive presence and such a tough kid. We just really wanted to get him.''

So how's that working out for the Wolves?

Since that draft, Portland is 6-2 in head-to-head meetings, including a 4-0 sweep this season. Roy, the 2007 Rookie of the Year, made it to New Orleans last month as a member of the Western Conference All-Star squad. He has led the Blazers in scoring 34 times this season and in assists 37 times, and has scored at least 25 points in 20 games. He scored 22 or more in all four meetings with the team that drafted him.

Who knows, if the league's best newcomer had clicked instantly with Kevin Garnett in Minnesota a year ago, the entire look of the NBA might be different right now.

Foye? He missed the first 43 games this season with a left kneecap injury (funny, it was Roy who had durability questions coming out of college, but he has averaged 38.1 minutes in 2007-08 while missing four games.) The 6-foot-4 combo guard has regained confidence and shaken off rust lately, with 39 assists to 10 turnovers in his last seven starts (Minnesota is 5-2). But this largely has been a lost season for the kid from Villanova; he still hasn't proved he can run the point guard spot at this level, something Roy, at 6-6, already was doing last spring.

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