| 10 December 2008
This season has seen it's fair share of curious trades that make very little basketball sense for one or both parties involved. But this trade seems to actually serve a purpose for both teams. The Bobcats desperately need a frontcourt player who isn't Sean May, Alexis Ajinca, or Ryan Hollins. The Suns needed a shooting guard who could put the ball in the basket with more consistency that didn't require a bell chime to be played over the PA system when doing so. So it's a win-win situation for both teams, right? Well, not exactly.
For the Charlotte Bobcats, they're getting a player in Boris Diaw who hasn't contributed a positive performance since Amare Stoudemire returned from micro-fracture surgery. He's a soft player who doesn't seem interested in getting better, attempting to get better, and/or care about becoming a better basketball player. He's this generation's Tim Thomas only he doesn't shoot as much from the outside, he defends even less (it sounds impossible but it's true), and he talks like Pepe Le Pew only with less sexual frustration. He's a nice playmaker in the halfcourt sense and can even be a dangerous weapon in the low post but he never seems to be focused enough to do so. Playing for Larry Brown will also be interesting. Larry Brown is notoriously tough on players and will try to break them down and if he's still in town, build them back up into guy of his liking. But if Diaw doesn't care and won't care, can Larry Brown get through to him?
In acquiring Raja Bell, they still keep a reliable outside shooter and get a slightly more reliable defender. Raja Bell used to be a hard-nosed defender that made it quite difficult to score but in the past year or so, he's begun to show signs of aging. Bell is no longer an all-world defender but he is a guy that will make the three-point shot. Unfortunately, he doesn't do that enough to make the Bobcats fans miss Jason Richardson. The Bobcats are the worst offensive team in the NBA and it isn't really close. They're the only team that is scoring fewer than 90 points per game and Richardson was their best scorer at just under 19 points per contest. So where will the points come from? Adam Morrison? D.J. Augustin? Any of the other poor draft choices by the Bobs?
For the Suns, this is a really nice trade. I might have liked it better when Mike D'Antoni was the coach because Jason Richardson is a player that is best utilized when he's set up in an up-tempo style. But with that said, he's the first good scoring shooting guard that Steve Nash has played next since Michael Finley was still good. He should fit in nicely with Steve Nash, Amare Stoudemire, and Shaquille O'Neal because they will draw a lot of attention and set up those 20-footers that J-Rich loves to hoist. While the Dallas Mavericks version of Michael Finley was a much better player and more dynamic scorer than present-day Jason Richardson, Nash could still make him a very valuable player. He's now the fourth option on a team instead of the first but that could greatly benefit him. He doesn't have to work hard at all on the offensive end because he will always have his shot manufactured for him. He may be able to expend some more energy on defense and utilize his athleticism.
My favorite part of this deal for the Suns is actually Jared Dudley. In a more open court system like Phoenix's, Dudley could be a valuable weapon. He can score in a variety of ways, plays solid defense and attacks the glass. He isn't going to take minutes away from Grant Hill and/or Matt Barnes anytime soon, but he can definitely be a big role player with the team next season and at the very least gives them a nice trade asset for a team that is desperate for wing players in the future.
The Bobcats didn't get better with this deal but in theory, they traded for what they needed. The Suns did get better with this deal because they added something that they could really use. And for once, neither team made the deal to make cap room for the 2010 Summer of LeBron.
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