<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">San Francisco Chronicle: "Jason Richardson plans to work out in Chicago this offseason and possibly hook up with Tim Grover, Michael Jordan's former trainer. But Richardson will be eager to return to the Bay Area -- for next season and, he hopes, several more after that. The Warriors' leading scorer is interested in signing a contract extension with the very team he wanted to leave after last season."</div> Full Article ========= http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...SPG3P61LO61.DTL
"I like it here, I want to be here. I want to turn this franchise around. '' J-Rich sounds alot like Jamison right before he got the max...ha ha, I love J-Rich but I hope the brass does not rush into giving him the max just yet.
My thoughts exactly, cburson. Richardson would really have to improve his defense so its at least as good as his offense. Then if he's having an off night he's got to learn how to create for others and distribute the ball. He generally just has to make his team better whenever he's on the floor. Jamison could never make his teammates better. He was just a good role player for scoring and doing a little rebounding and nothing else. He never passed or played defense. J-rich at times does make his teammates better with finding people on the court and when he creates for others. The behind the back pass to Dunleavy for a 3 pointer was brilliant this year. He needs to do more of that instead of taking 20 shots and shooting 30% like he did last night.
I think JRich should take 16-20 shots per game. The reason why he took 21 shots, was because no one else was stepping it up. I remember in the second quarter he wasn't even looking for his shot, he must had known he was on an off night(or so it seemed). The main problem with that, was that there wasn't much of anybody else that was scoring neither. And it sorta seemed like he wanted to force other people to make their shots, trying to show that he can be productive even on a bad shooting night. Finally in the second half, he just said, forget about passing i'm going to get this team back in the game with some points. He started off making a couple jumpers then took the ball to the hoop a couple of times, and that 3rd quarter he was almost unstoppable. I love that attitude. He isn't going to let some other team beat him, even if things aren't going good. He's going to go out there and compete and never die. That's the attitude i like, sorta like Allen Iverson. But on that article, his comments do remind me a ton of what Jamison was saying when he was a Warrior. It's also good to hear that him and Musselman are starting to talk more this year. I think Musselman went through some growing pains last year. But i think he's learning and is still becoming a better coach, every week and every day. And just a minor thing, on JRich. I think he has to make some crisper passes, he can make some weak/sloppy passes that can get stolen easily. And his ballhandling still needs some polishing. He is doing very well with the ball, but he can lose it a few times also. But I love what JRich has done this year. And I thought JRich and Murphy already signed extentions like last year. Why do they have another extention to sign? On hoopshype.com i thought it said the Warriors had them for another year or two.
It might be an extension for after the 2004-2005 season that would sign him up for the next x amount of years. It would make it so no team could touch him. Hence he's locked up.
I'm glad that he wants to stay; I just hope that the management doesn't somehow mess it up like they did with Gilbert. I see Jrich being one of hte top 2's in the league in the future and I dont want them to just let him go.
In terms of just stats, Richardson ranks number 5 behind Vince Carter, Michael Redd, Paul Pierce, T-mac. Not bad for a guard that awhile ago couldn't dribble, hit midrange shots, and now he's starting to hit free throws and get to the line more. He is the best rebounding shooting guard in the league and #10 in line for most points scored per game. Out of the top 5 shooting guards in the league, he is second behind Michael Redd for Field Goal percentage accuracy and #21 overall. Calbert Cheany is #2 in the league for field goal percentage. So Jrich is taking good shots as far as guards that take 10-20 shot attempts, but as of late he's been facing some tough defenders like Trenton Hassell and some other lockdown defenders. It's also tough when they fork the ball over to you expecting you to be the last to shoot it with 5 seconds on the shotclock left. He is also #20 in assists. I think with practice in passing and getting a new coach who can make plays using the two man game, he can get that assists number up higher.
If you ask me, I don't really think that you can entirely fault Jrich for having a bad night against the Wolves today. Trenton Hassell and the rest of the Wolves played some intense and inspired D, especially in the second half, and even though JR got to the basket sometimes, he wasn't able to make his shots. He has got to learn to handle good defenders better.
But I didn't fault him. Guys like Bruce Bowen, Trenton Hassell, and Ron Artest are considered the league's best backcourt defenders. They shutdown guys like Kobe, T-mac, Ray Allen, etc to single digits and below 40% shooting at times.
