Richardson Traded Again

Quentin Richardson, who played for the New York Knicks last season, has been traded again, this time to the Minnesota Timberwolves from the Los Angeles Clippers for Sebastian Telfair, Craig Smith, and Mark Madsen. Richardson was traded earlier from the Knicks to the Memphis Grizzlies for Darko Milicic. The Grizzlies then proceeded to trade him to the Clippers for Zach Randolph, who was Richardson's teammate with the Knicks early last season. Richardson is a hot trade commodity because he is in the final year of his contract. The Timberwolves also fill their shooting guard position after trading away Randy Foye and Mike Miller to the Washington Wizards.

I definitely feel sorry for Richardson the way he's been moving around this offseason. He has absolutely no clue which team he will be with at the start of the regular season. One positive thing is that all of these trades are happening in July and not September, where players with new teams look to settle in to the city or state of their team. Richardson now has time to settle in and find a place in Minnesota.

I find two odd things about the trades that have been going on involving Richardson. Not one team that have been involved in the trades were good last season. The Knicks, Grizzlies, Clippers and Timberwolves were all lottery teams after last season, so Richardson didn't go to a better situation in any of the three trades. Also, I believe the Timberwolves gave up too much in getting Richardson. Smith was a good forward who can score and Telfair can score as well, and he can give stability at the point guard position off the bench for Baron Davis. Richardson hasn't been playing good since he left Phoenix, and when he was traded for Zach Randolph, that didn't match up either.