PHOENIX - In a major shake up to the roster the Phoenix Suns have traded Jason Richardson, Hedo Turkoglu, and Earl Clark to the Orlando Magic, KTAR's John Gambadoro confirms.
The Suns, in return, will receive Vince Carter, Mickael Pietrus, Marcin Gortat, a future first-round pick and cash.
The Suns have been struggling throughout the season and are having a hard time finding any consistency.
Turkoglu is averaging 9.5 points per game in his first season with the Suns. His minutes have gone down over the last 10 games.
Richardson is scoring nearly 20 points for the Suns, although in the past five games he has only been above the 13 point mark once.
It was a shooting slump of sorts for Richardson as he went 4-for-28 and 0-for-12 behind the three-point line in three games last week. He also was 0-for-5 from long range in the Suns' loss in Dallas on Friday.
Carter is averaging a career-low 15 points so far this season. The veteran is in his 13th season and will be joining his fourth team. It seems the days of Carter putting up more than 20 points are gone. The pace of the Suns and having Steve Nash at the point may be able to fix that for Carter.
Carter is under contract for $18 million next season, but only $4 million of that is guaranteed.
In 25 games this season, two starts, Gortat has four points and 4.7 rebounds.
The center is in his fourth NBA season, all with Orlando.
Gortat is signed through 2013 at about $7 million per season.
Pietrus is off to his slowest start in three seasons with the Magic. He's getting under seven points a game and wasn't in their starting rotation.
His best stretch came in the playoffs two seasons ago when he was contributing more than ten points in the Magic's playoff run to the NBA Finals where they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Pietrus has a player option for $5.3 million next year.
The Suns are currently ninth in the Western Conference with a record of 12-13.
JDudley has already tweeted goodbye to his teamates. I like this move a lot. I like Gortat, and Pietrus is solid. Carter is whatever because he's gone after this season anyhow. I like that we got a draft pick outta this too.
Absolutely wrong(imo), we had to trade him. This team as it stood a few days ago is garbage. By garbage I mean, everyone knows we aren't a threat. We're not gonna make it to the Conf finals again. Richardson is a helluva player and really our only player we could trade besides Nash that has any value. I hope the Suns trade Nash too.
Also I think VC could be packaged again for some youngs or picks because of his expiring contract. At the very least we lose his contract after this year and we aren't strapped down by Hedo's anymore.
Im kinda in the middle of something, but I'll say this,
-Carter and Nash? Z0mg
-Im gonna miss Jdudley so much!
-Turk back in Orlando will be interesting
-If the Magic dont play Clark, Im going to boycott them
Im kinda in the middle of something, but I'll say this,
-Carter and Nash? Z0mg
-Im gonna miss Jdudley so much!
-Turk back in Orlando will be interesting
-If the Magic dont play Clark, Im going to boycott them
Well I have great news for you, Jduds is not and was never part of this deal, so you don't have to miss him anymore!
Although I give the team a few years of mediocrity. Once Nash retires, Dragic runs this town, and hopefully the Suns from there will start to build a true championship contender.
Suns blowin' it up! Trade JRich, Turk & Clark
