A trade from a few days ago
Minnesota Timberwolves receive: Quentin Richardson
Los Angeles Clippers receive: Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith and Mark Madsen
Link
A link to SI.com’s report on the trade — starts of by considering what this means for Ricky Rubio rather than the actual trade.
“This is not a precursor of any sort,” Kahn said Monday from New York shortly before he was scheduled to hop a flight across the Atlantic. “We have no feel yet as to whether Ricky will be joining us.”
Mike Dunleavy summarizes the move for the Clippers
“We are really excited to add these three players to our team,” Clippers general manager and coach Mike Dunleavy said. “This move really gives some much needed depth.”
Kahn had two main reasons for the move (1) fill a hole and create better roster balance (2) move Telfair because his days were numbered
“I felt we needed to start addressing some of the roster imbalances that were created as part of the Wizards trade and this is a step toward that,” Kahn said. “If we want to add another player, we now have a place to do that.”
After selecting point guards Rubio and Jonny Flynn back-to-back in the first round of the NBA draft last month, Telfair’s days with the Timberwolves appeared to be numbered.
“Because of how the point guard situation may evolve, and this doesn’t have anything to do with Rubio per se, I sensed that playing time for Sebastian would wane over the next few years,” Kahn said.
The Trade
Los Angeles Clippers
I don’t like this deal for the LA Clippers. I thought Quentin Richardson offered more to the Clips, than the other three players combined offer.
The Clippers have a massive hole on the wing behind Eric Gordon and Al Thornton, and Al hasn’t exactly been a spectacular performer over the last two years either. Quentin Richardson could have given them a good seventh man, and a primary backup for the wing. That would help put players like Mardy Collins and Ricky Davis in less important roles, and hopefully in positions where they can be more successful.
Sebastian Telfair is the best of the three players the Clippers received and he will fill a hole as the backup point guard, allowing Mike Taylor to fill the third string point guard role. Unfortunately it appears that Taylor isn’t making as much progress as I hoped he would, and his NBA prospects are declining. Still, he’s a decent prospect and could have a good future in this league if he works harder and smarter.
Why do I think this hole was less important than the hole on the wing?
(1) There’s a lot more minutes available on the wing (96 mins) than at the point guard position (48 mins). Baron Davis will take up 35 or so minutes at the point, leaving 13 minutes for Telfair, while Thornton and Gordon could have left up to 30 minutes for Richardson.
(2) Baron Davis is a heck of a lot more talented than Al Thornton or Eric Gordon, but particularly Al Thornton. There’s more of a need to have a good backup behind those two wings because one of the two is more likely to put up a bad performance than Baron Davis.
(1) The Clippers could have filled this backup guard hole (Iverson, Flip Murray, Anthony Carter, Brevin Knight) with a low contract signing easier than they’re able to replace Quentin Richardson.
Craig Smith is the other noteworthy signing. He will be the Clippers fourth big in the rotation, and will provide adequate cover for Blake Griffin. The Clippers have three highly talented big men, so Smith is unlikely to see much time here unless the Clips are hit by injuries (good possibility of that with Kaman + Camby).
Mark Madsen is irrelevant. He’s the sixth big in the Clippers rotation behind Griffin, Camby, Kaman, Smith and DeAndre Jodan. Madsen should barely see any court time next season, and if he does it likely means the Clippers have bigger problems (their best players are hurt) to deal with. As a sixth big, Madsen is solid.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Who would have been more valuable to the Wolves — Sebastian Telfair or Quentin Richardson? I’m not sure.
I thought the Wolves would have gotten good service out of Telfair next season while young Jonny Flynn learned his trade as a rookie. Ergo, I thought Telfair was a valuable piece for another 12 months for Minnesota.
Meanwhile, on the wing, the Wolves have just as large a hole as the Clippers do. They only have two out and out wing players in Wayne Ellington (rookie) and Corey Brewer (injured last season), both of whom are players with major question marks beside their names. The Wolves have a combo forward in Ryan Gomes, who plays a good chunk of his time at the three and is likely to start there next season. So clearly there is a need for more talent on the wing, and Richardson does answer that need.
The Wolves have a surplus of big men after their draft day trade — Al Jefferson, Kevin Love, Darius Songaila, Brian Cardinal, Etan Thomas, Oleksiy Pecherov — so there was no real need for either Craig Smith or Mark Madsen to stay with the team. Their loss is largely unimportant.
Overall, I’d call it a lateral move. Just swapping problems/solutions from the point to the wing.
Wolves + Free Agency
I do think it’s very important that the Wolves sign a veteran point guard to help Jonny Flynn next season. It’ll be interesting to see who they try to target to fill this hole, and whether or not that player will be an able mentor for the rookie.
Short Term
All four of the players involved in this trade are on one year deals and are unlikely to be anything other than a short term hole filler for either team.
In other words, this trade is all about next season and the future of these players with their new teams is probably non-existent, and at best is unimportant (all players acquirable at a later date if clubs are steadfast in their commitment to them).
Edit: Sorry I was wrong on the contracts. Telfair has a player option worth $2.7 million for 2010/11, and there’s a decent likelihood that he opts into that deal. So the Wolves do get out from underneath that year’s pay, which is a nice bonus for the Wolves and a stupid move from the Clippers.
Quentin Richardson
Your heart has to go out to the guy this summer
- Traded on draft day to the Memphis Grizzlies for Darko Milicic
- Traded soon after to the LA Clippers for Zach Randolph
- Traded now to the Wolves for three role players
So, in the last couple of weeks Richardson has been apart of the Knicks, Grizzlies, Clippers and Wolves organizations. Getting traded three times in one summer is bad enough, but to these three teams? Would someone in the playoffs please bail Richardson out and give him a new home? This is starting to get ugly!
Worse news still for Richardson … he may get traded again before the summer is over … there is already some talk in the press (lost the link) that the Wolves are considering moving him along again.
Conclusions
I think this is a bad trade for the Los Angeles Clippers. I thought they would have gotten more value out of Richardson than the three players they acquired.
I think this is a lateral move for the Wolves. No gain, no fall. Just swapping issues.
Posted on July 24, 2009 by Dave