I have family friend who is in operations side of Spurs Sports & Entertainment (mostly involved with Toros) - anyway he offered this buzz on Richards when we saw each other Mother's Day weekend - In practice sessions and 2on2/3on3 pickup play his ceiling offensively looks very high - he said in terms of facing basket and putting ball on floor as a 4 he is NBA ready (stated possibly good enough handles to play the 3 in certain matchups), but there were big question marks? In the same scenarios he lacked fundamentals defensively and some bad habits (specifically showed the ball too much/lack of protecting ball) on offense. The biggest concern is due to compe ion/coaching level he has been exposed to at this point, and the Spurs not having really worked with him in a 5 on 5 organized manner it is hard to gauge basketball IQ and how game translates against bigger/athletic compe ion. Also commented on FO still doesn't have a good feel for his level of work ethic/discipline (not that their is a problem there just a unknown in many ways) Anyway basically said some in FO seem very excited in his long term offensive potential, but also said he thinks would have to make real strides in BB IQ and physical/mental maturity and is long shot to play this year (not breaking news) but mentioned the people "sold" on this kid are hopefully excited he will play next to Duncan for at least one year.
We talked alittle about roster moves/changes - he seem to get the feeling the organization wouldn't be aggressive in terms of trades and of course don't have the cap space to do much FA wise - he said he thinks they are willing to listen to trades for just about anyone but didn't think they would be actively shopping anyone - says probably weigh cheap vets available vs some of the young talent currently in organization (Blair,Anderson, Butler, etc.) in terms of filling starter/bench roles so in many ways sounds like more of the same
Of course he said things can always change and the FO is tight lipped (again not breaking news) so as a mid level operation manager not like privy to much insider info