RealGM: From The Rafters – Quentin Richardson Dealt To The Knicks For Kurt Thomas
Quentin Richardson will be dealt to the Knicks in exchange for Kurt Thomas and a future conditional number one draft choice. This deal is pending league approval and should be formally announced after Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Thursday.
At first I started reading this and was like ‘Why would Phoenix trade Q-Rich?” Then I remembered… dude’s pretty overrated. Of the current and former Clipper shooting guards, I’d much rather have Corey Maggette with his 13 FT’s per 48 minutes at 85%. And when you read that Real GM part on how well Kurt will fill the holes the Suns have, it’s not a bad trade. For the Suns at least. I’m not sure what Zany Isiah thinks he’s doing… Of course, ESPN is saying that the teams are only discussing this deal, but I’ll run with it anyway.
Another take on the Quentin trade from Rising Suns.
Fantasy Impact
(How long has it been since I’ve written that?)
I’d be ‘specting QR to be the starting SF for the Knickerbockers since double-T only managed to put together half a season this year (or is it last year now?) J-Craw was throwing up almost identical numbers to Richie Rich (wrt FG%, Pts, 3-pointers, FT’s) last season… Quentin’s Rebounding was better, but his Assisting not (of course, he was getting assisted most of the time). I wouldn’t expect him to hit as many threes with the Knicks since Starbury and Crawford like to do their fair share of three point shooting… but Marbury’s penetration is good enough that Quentin should get open looks. Predictomatic says he’ll hold the company line at 15 pts, 6 rebs, 2 asts, 1 stl, and 2 threes.
Kurt Thomas, as I mentioned before, will actually be a pretty good fit with the Suns. Except for the whole running part. He will certainly help out Stoudemire with his blocks, and take some pressure off of Stoud and Marion wrt Rebounding. He should easily maintain his 11 and 10 average and I’d expect an increase of 1-2 blocks (from 1.0). I’m not sure he’ll be able to keep up with the Suns the whole time at age 32, but he should be able to be more efficient with them than with the Knicks, so if his minutes go down from 35.7, he should still be able to give you the numbers the Predictomatic is giving me.