My initial reaction was a B+ for the Suns. Richardson is definately better than Raja or Diaw (1-on-1) and gives our offense a LOT more firepower. He's a career 18.8 ppg scorer. With Shaq, Amare, and Nash... now we can play like the old Suns... with 4 players capable of going off for 20-25 pts on any given night. With Porter's Shaq-centric half court offense, J-Rich can also assume the Penny/Kobe/Wade role of the slashing athletic SG who can finish with contact. I expect to start seeing that entry pass, backdoor cut with J-Rich. J-Rich from the elbow into Shaq, cut baseline behind Shaq. Shaq either takes his man, hands off to J-Rich for a layup/dunk, or swing opposite corner for a spot up 3 (Barnes?). Awesome!
Defense wise we'll slack a bit (but then Raja is a half step slower now too) and we still have Barnes , who imho, is just about as good a defender as Raja now.
My only reservations was the thinning of our bench. We sent out Diaw and Singletary, but did not return any bigs or PGs. That means our bench big and PG would just be Robin Lopez and Goran Dragic (Tragic), which is HORRIBLE in terms of depth. We also got Jared Dudley in the trade, but he's more of a SF than a true big, and he's still pretty raw that we shouldn't be expecting any major contributions this year. This trade puts us at just 12 players though and the league requires a minimum of 13 players on the roster. So we definately HAVE to sign/trade for another player... so hopefully that new player will shore up our bench a bit as well. Btw, we have two weeks to fill that last roster spot.
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So that was my initial reactions. After a few days of thought and some media coverage, I'm ready to up my initial assessment and give the Suns and A on the trade.
First of all, Raja and Diaw clearly weren't happy with the new Sun's system. Apparently, Raja actually asked for a trade a couple weeks ago, and Diaw had some cheap parting shots for Suns after the trade. Phoenix GM Steve Kerr has gotten a lot of flack for senting mixed messages by bringing in the same type of players that would work best in the Run & Gun system rather than defensive orientated half court players. A lot of critics are saying why ruin a good thing? Why trade for the same players just to leave your mark on the team? My take on that is even if Kerr is just playing shuffling with the talents, (Barnes, J-Rich). At least these new players are players that have never played under D'Antoni and won't be consciously/subconsciously trying to sabotage the new coach.
I kept saying stuff like "I don't understand..." in regards to the PHX offense in the early season. Like why coudn't they selectively run off turnovers and long rebounds, or why can't they move to get open shots when Shaq is drawing double teams.
Well, if they weren't happy and were pining for the old, then maybe Diaw and Bell weren't really trying their hardest. Like they heard what Porter wanted (speed it up, but also play under control) and they were just fighting the system. Like, "oh, you want slow, I'll be slow". If you don't really want to learn something, you won't do you best at it. And we need everybody trying their best.
And Jason Richardson clearly wants to be here. He's only been to the playoffs once in seven seasons and was stuck on the frigid Bobcats (on pace to win just 25 games this year) until now. Now he'll have the chance to play in a winning system and for a playoff seed and with all-star teammates in warm Phoenix Arizona.
And in his first game as a Sun, Richardson came off the bench and had a couple highlight dunks that really excited the crowd. Overall, he scored 21 points on a very efficient 8/16 shooting. One other thing I noted was that he can actually play with our 2nd unit. One of my initial reservations was the thinning of our bench. But since Richardson can create shots for himself, if he's in with the second unit, that takes the pressure off of needing Barbosa or Dragic to be a playmaking guard.
So yeah, that's basically my take on the trade for the Suns. An A for Kerr and the organization. Since I like to make predictions, I say Richardson helps us win at least an extra 2-3 games this year and we get a top four seed. I'll be sure to gloat in April if I'm right ;-)
As for Charlotte... I have really no idea why they did the trade. Maybe just cuz Diaw and Raja are supposedly Larry Brown types who play hard and make the extra pass? But that's pretty crappy reasoning to trade away your leading scorer. Now CHA will be lucky to hit 85 on most nights. If it wasn't for a 30 point 4th quarter, CHA would have been lucky to break 80 last Saturday. They had just 13 after the 1st, 33 at the half, and 56 after 3 quarters.
Like I mentioned before, Raja has been noticeably a step slower for over a year now. The Suns with Raja were abusely terribly by Tony Parker last year in the playoffs and were lit up by Wade (43 pts) and Harris (47 pts) this season. In his first game with the Bobcats, he let Stuckey, Iverson, and Hamilton all shoot 46+% from the field. Diaw on the other hand can be brillant 1 game but terribly passive the next two games, and while he might "play the right way", his inconsistency is gonna drive Brown and CHA fans crazy. The only way this is a passable deal for the Bobcats is if they were getting the '05-'06 Raja and Diaw. I don't know. Maybe this trade lights a fire under them and they revert back to their old forms. If they do, great for the 'Cats, but they clearly weren't going to under the Suns.
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And regarding last Saturday's prediction post. 10 games, 20 bets. I got 9 right, pushed on one (DEN/GS score), and lost 10. Funny thing though, last week I mentioned that I needed to be more conservative with my over/unders, so this week, I picked 6 unders... ended up 5 right and push on 1. Actually, I only lost ONE out of 10 over/unders. That's pretty good imho. Of course, I also lost NINE out 10 spreads. LOL. I have no idea how they figure out these odds, but it's damn impressive how it always ends up close to 50/50. Ah well, more tweaking/strategizing this week and I'll try again next Friday.
Alrighty... that's all I got for now. Here's a funny/inappropriate pic from the Laker game last night. Courtesy of BDL. Who else thinks Miller's hands are just a little too low for a "friendly hug"?
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