Jason Richardson Traded to Phoenix

The remodeling of the Suns continues. Last year, it was Shaq, now, it's Jason Richardson. The explosive! two guard is heading to Phoenix along with Jared Dudley and a 2010 second rounder in exchange for Laker favorite Raja Bell, Boris Diaw, and rookie PG Sean Singletary. In the short term, it means the Suns will be playing with a skeleton crew tonight at Staples... and also totally messes with my planned pregame analysis. In the long run, it's another step in the process of D'D'Antonizing the roster, adding a more conventional, more talented shooting guard to a lineup that already includes O'Neal, Steve Nash, and Amare Stoudamire.

J-Rich

Richardson is a fantastic three point shooter (currently up around 46%) and given his explosive offensive talent- far more versatile than either Diaw or Bell- should help spread the floor for a team determined to force feed O'Neal down low. It should help Stoudamire as well. On the other end, Richardson isn't a good defender, making you wonder how exactly they're going to continue the drive to improve in that area- again it looks like Phoenix is built to pile up points- but overall it's a net positive for the Suns, at least on a sheer talent level.

It's certainly going to make them a more complicated cover for the Lakers, once everyone is on board and the Suns have had a chance to integrate Richardson into their offense.

How this makes sense for Charlotte I'm not sure, but frankly does it matter?