The Arizona Republic

Suns spend $44M to bolster backcourt with Richardson

By PAUL CORO

The Arizona Republic

PHOENIX – The Phoenix Suns had to wait, but now guard Quentin Richardson is the newest member of the team.

The Suns learned yesterday that the Clippers declined to match Phoenix’s six-year, $44 million offer sheet to the 24-year-old swingman.

Yesterday was the deadline for the Clippers to decide on Richardson, a restricted free agent who signed the offer sheet with Phoenix on July 14.

“I’m elated, but I’m already working on the next deal,” said Suns president and general manager Bryan Colangelo.

Richardson gives the Suns a loaded backcourt with Steve Nash, Joe Johnson and Leandro Barbosa.

Richardson is coming off a career-best season in his first year as a full-time starter. He averaged 17.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists.

He became expendable to the Clippers after they made a trade with New Jersey to acquire shooting guard Kerry Kittles.

Elsewhere

NETS: New Jersey continued to dismantle its roster, trading Kittles to the Clippers for a future second-round draft pick.

Kittles is the second starter to leave the Nets this month. Power forward Kenyon Martin went to the Denver Nuggets for three first-round draft choices.

To fill the void left by Kittles, who spent eight years with the Nets, the club signed free-agent guards Jacque Vaughn and Rodney Buford.

Kittles has career averages of 14.3 points, 2.6 assists and 3.9 rebounds.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 30th, 2004 at 2:36 pm and is filed under Sports. Tags for this post: Arizona, Basketball, page-8C, Paul Coro, Phoenix, Phoenix Suns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.