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Wow! Phoenix management is really taking heat, I wonder if Q-rich and D'antoni talk to each other about their days in Phoenix? They may both be fueling each other's bitterness
After all these years, Quentin Richardson is expected to play Monday against the Suns in Phoenix for the first time since he was traded for Kurt Thomas after the 2004-05 season.
You may recall that team started the season 31-4 en route to an NBA-best 62-20 record - despite having the youngest roster in the league.
Almost immediately, the Suns began tinkering with that club, trading Richardson and then sending Joe Johnson to Atlanta in a sign-and-trade.
Some deals made sense at the time. Some didn't.
We wondered if Richardson ever thinks about what might have been had the Suns kept that 2004-05 core together and let it ride.
We only had to ask once:
"The most amazing thing is that most of us are still tight to this day. Every time we go to Atlanta, I go over to Joe's house. When they're in New York, he'll come hang out. In the summer, I'll go to Atlanta. Joe will come to Chicago. We'll see Shawn (Marion) all summer, and we'll hang out with Stat (Amaré Stoudemire). No matter where we are, we always talk about that - 'Why did they have to do what they did?' "
He wasn't done:
• "If you look at it, we were really just a healthy Joe Johnson away from being able to compete with San Antonio. It's unfortunate, but sometimes that's the way the NBA is. They think they have to do this or that to fix something, when the reality is if you give us another one or two or three years with our same core group of guys, we would have won a championship."
• "The most frustrating part about it all, when you've been around the league you know when you have a special group of guys with that blend of talent and the kind of egos that allowed it to work, allowed everybody to be who they were. You don't come across that a lot."
• "You get teams with a lot of talent, but you don't have guys who are willing to sacrifice and are willing to say, 'OK, we'll take the back seat.' Guys who really know what it takes to win."
• "Everybody is making money and having good careers, but at the same time we all realize and acknowledge that we had something pretty good. Even from coach. We had a great coach that everybody got along with. You never get that - all the players on the same page and the coach likes everybody and everybody likes the coach. We had a rare thing, and it was pretty much dismantled in the snap of a finger."
• "The way it unraveled, nobody expected. It would have been different if we weren't getting along or we weren't having success and we had a clue that it was coming. We were ready to go right back at it again, then boom, it just exploded, and it has been one piece after another since then."
• "I mean, dead serious, we still talk about it till this day because we had a great time. We loved the fans, loved being here, and we had a great group that all hung out together. That (62 wins) is the result you get. I definitely, in my heart of hearts, know we would have won it if we had a couple years."
• "I was especially disappointed about Joe. I know who Joe is, and the way they tried to portray how everything came down. . . . I watched the game when he came back here when they were booing him. Anybody who knows how Joe is, they know he won't say anything controversial. He just took it with a grain of salt and played. But anybody that knows him, knows the spin that was put on it, it was never like that."
• "The whole season long, they told him he's the top priority in the off-season. Then he's not the top priority. Then they tell him to go get a new deal. They signed Raja Bell before they got him signed, so if he's the top priority, why are any moves being made before he's taken care of?"
• "Joe was important. He was our backup point guard, too. People forget that, and they're still looking for a backup point guard."
• "They said he was going for the money. Yeah, after you stick it to him once, twice - man, you still think he's coming back here? Joe did not want to leave. But that's the business part. They have to cover their own butts so the fans won't say, 'You ruined our team.' In actuality, they did."
Wow! Phoenix management is really taking heat, I wonder if Q-rich and D'antoni talk to each other about their days in Phoenix? They may both be fueling each other's bitterness
PHX only has themselves to blame for being ringless with all the talent that went through that franchise. All the wasted draft picks they sold that could have given them the pieces they needed. Just a pathetic ownership.
Q-Rich choked in the '04-'05, so he became expendable. Joe Johnson left because he wanted big money and wanted to be "the man." He got his wish. There's no way we could have kept that 5-man lineup of Nash, Amare, Marion, Q-Rich, and JJ together.
That 04/05 team was pretty damn great.
Joe Johnson was more about the money than being the man. I think he would have liked to stay if they paid him.
It's not surprising that the Suns fan call him $arver.
But as an owner, I guess he has to do what he has to do to make his franchise profitable.
75 Wins^?
Why didn't you do your usual lame "Odom for Q-Rich and Marion ROFL" bit?
I think the Suns and all former Suns players should blame Avery for their demise
If Richardson shows up at all for that series the outcome might have been quite different. IIRC the Spurs had Bowen on Marion, a big not named Duncan on Amare, and had Duncan assigned to Richardson for big chunks of the game. Q shot so poorly that Tim could just sag off him and practically dare him to shoot.
Andto Red Hawk. I definitely think Q and D'Antoni are like peas in a pod with their hurt feelings.
They should thank Jason Terry for not playing defense on Nash at the end of Game 6, or they would have been out in the 2nd round.
yes, that 3 pointer was pretty damn clutch but you could also blame avery for not calling a timeout with about 3 seconds left , instead Stack takes the ball off the inbounds and jacks a 35 foot jumper
I've always heard that Avery was yelling for a timeout, but Suckhouse ignored him and tried to be the hero.
Either way, that 04-05 roster had to be one of my all-time Mavs favorites...
PG: JET, Harris, DA
SG: Fin, Stack
SF: J-Ho, Marquis
PF: Dirk, Van Horn
C: Damp, Henderson,Bradley
Yeah that was a nice team. I still think they underacheived. Should have swept the Rockets and beaten the Suns.
Nash, Johnson, Q, Marion, Amare vs. JET, J-Ho, Stack, Fin, Dirk....I still remember at times Fin guarding STAT and picking up a few charges
swept the rockets? that series went 7. they should thank the refs for rigging that series at game 3 or the Mavs will be out at the first round already
swept the rockets? that series went 7oh, you mean they should have thanked the refs for not giving Yao preferential treatment and calling him for legitimate fouls, right?
Rajon Rondo and Loul Deng come to mind.
Yeah, Q-Rich sucked in that series, and actually The S0ns made a great move removing him to the dumpster called Knicks. But regarding Joe Johnson, that's one heck of a revisionary comment of yours, because i still remember the ordeal, that your cheap a$$ owner simply didn't think all that much regarding JJ.
RonMexico have said and explained stuff in the past, that JJ was actually asking for a reasonable contract, similar to what Manu got, which actually was lower than the market would bear -shown by how much Atlanta was willing to pay for him. But since Sarver thought that JJ was nothing more than a mere role player, not a real future all star and borderline superstar, he simply low balled him. Well, stuffs doesn't really come out as expected, do they ?
Yeah but great teams like the Spurs are successful because win or lose they don't go every offseason and blow up thier roster. Imagine if after the 1st season Popovich decides to trade Manu or Parker. Point being you have to allow teams to grow. They dismantled a great team because of a 5 game loss to the Spurs in the WCF w/o a healthy Johnson.
Trading Q for KT was a good move but losing JJ still stings. He deserved what he was asking for. We all see what he is doing in Atlanta. I mean he did alot for that team he was even the back up point guard for Nash. Which they still really don't have to this day.
If Phoenix was able to retain JJ, i sincerely believe that they should be able to win atleast 1 ring in Nash's peak years. JJ is the second offensive creator that complement Nash & Amare into a -should be- very potent trifecta offensive machine. They simply moved the wrong guy, with Marion still on board being paid gazillions dollar, with all of his glaring defficiencies. $arver ed your franchise, no doubt about that.
lol, yao's moving picksswept the rockets? that series went 7
How could they let JJ go?
Even back then, he was obviously their most versatile player
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