Charlotte Trades Away Richardson

DynastYWarrioR6 · Dec 10, 2008

The Phoenix Suns completed a deal with the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday to acquire high-scoring swingman Jason Richardson.

The multiplayer deal requires the Suns to part with forward Boris Diaw and defensive ace Raja Bell, two mainstays from the team that averaged 58 wins over the past four seasons under former Suns coach Mike D'Antoni.

The Suns also received a future second-round pick from the Bobcats and forward Jared Dudley while sending Sean Singletary to the Bobcats.

"We felt like we needed to shake things up a little bit," Suns general manager Steve Kerr said in a telephone interview. "We wanted to add a great scorer in the backcourt to give us better balance to take some of the pressure off of Steve [Nash]."

The deal is essentially a wash for both teams financially but fits into the recent objectives of both teams, who have been among the league's most active in trade discussions during this hectic first six weeks of the season.

The Suns have been aching for more of a scoring threat at shooting guard next to Nash.

The Bobcats, meanwhile, have been looking for a frontcourt partner for Emeka Okafor and will be hoping that Diaw's offensive versatility fits well next to the bigger Okafor after initially pursuing a more traditional big man such as Los Angeles Clippers center Chris Kaman.

The hard-nosed Bell, furthermore, figures to be an instant favorite for new Bobcats coach Larry Brown, whose young team is short on veterans with Bell's know-how.

Bell, though, was possibly Nash's closest friend on the team, so the trade does come with an emotional component for Phoenix. But the Suns have clearly struggled in their transition from D'Antoni to new coach Terry Porter -- with Nash publicly complaining more than once about the Suns' subpar effort and lifeless demeanor -- so a shake-up trade was not unexpected.

Senior writer Marc Stein covers the NBA for ESPN.com.
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http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3760914

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Charlotte Trades Away Richardson

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