J-Rich's high-flying game will be a great fit in Phoenix. (AP/Thearon Henderson)

I somehow managed to write 950 words in my gut reaction piece on the Jason Richardson deal yet still have 10 burning questions relating to the trade to sort out today.

1. Is this deal a continued purging of the D’Antoni years?

Only through names, not in actuality. If anything, it’s closer to a return to the D’Antoni Era.

Yes, D’Antoni liked Diaw more than most coaches would, but he’s not even really as much of a shooter to be considered a prototypical D’Antoni big like an Al Harrington or Tim Thomas.

As for the guards, Richardson is much more of a D’Antoni player than Raja ever was. If you remember at the time of the Raja signing, people were unhappy about it if it meant Raja would replace Joe Johnson (as he eventually did) because he would not fit the system as well.

The system made Raja into the offensive player he was, not vice versa. Richardson would have been a perfect player for the “Seven Seconds or Less” Suns, and thus I think the deal will signal a bit of a return to running-and-gunning.

Now, of course there won’t be as many threes jacked up and things will be more controlled with Shaq, but anybody with an ounce of basketball IQ could see the Suns were stifling Steve Nash with the way they’ve played much of the year. Now you at least have the option of crazy small ball lineups like Nash-Barbosa-Richardson-Barnes-Amare as well as a half-court game with Shaq. That’s the best of both worlds.

The Suns are really stupid if they don’t run more now with Richardson replacing Bell; that’s got to be the plan. I think the Suns will settle into a quicker pace and do a better job of utilizing everybody’s talents.

2. What does trading Bell do to the Suns’ defense?

General manager Steve Kerr has given major lip service to improving the Suns’ defense, but that doesn’t exactly jibe with trading away Shawn Marion, Kurt Thomas and now Bell in his tenure, as those three Suns were about the only players known as defenders during the D’Antoni years.

Raja hasn’t been quite as good defensively as in his All-NBA team years, but you’ve got to think this is a downgrade defensively to Richardson, although like Amare his athleticism should theoretically make him a good defender.

Maybe Suns fans should be optimistic based on Richardson’s comments to Suns.com.

“People don’t give me enough credit for my defense,” he said. “I can do a lot better job than what I’m doing now. I love challenges. Whatever the coaches and front office ask of me, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Sounds like he was dogging it defensively in Charlotte from those comments, so let’s hope that’s a different story in Phoenix.

And by the way, the Suns rank 22nd in defensive efficiency at the time of the trade, so maybe they can stop pretending to be the Spurs and go back to focusing on being one of the best offensive teams in the league, which really they already are, ranking fifth in offensive efficiency before the trade.

3. Are there enough balls to share?

Not sure.

This could be Nash’s greatest test yet.

We all know Amare needs his shots and Shaq was not quiet after the Milwaukee game about his need for touches. Now you add a guy used to taking a ton of shots in place of a guy like Raja who really was just a spot-up shooter.

The Suns better hope this becomes one of those teams that doesn’t care who’s getting shots as long as they’re winning. In that vein, this thing could blow up if they’re not winning.

4. What should the Suns do with the extra roster spot?

The Suns now have two weeks to sign a player to meet the league minimum roster requirement.

It’s no surprise Kerr has said the team wants a veteran backup point guard, because does anyone trust Goran Dragic at this point?

I read Damon Stoudamire’s name mentioned as a possibility, and the UA alum would be a perfect fit.

The Suns basically desire a quality backup point guard who is currently unemployed and willing to sign for the veteran’s minimum, and Stoudamire may fit that bill.

5. Does this deal make up for the Joe Johnson fiasco?

Well, it doesn’t take away the pain of wondering whether the Suns would have won a championship in the last three years with JJ, but it’s interesting how the Suns basically acquired Bell and Diaw for JJ three years ago.

As you may remember, the Suns signed Raja to that five-year, $25 million deal while contemplating what to do with JJ and then acquired Diaw in the Johnson sign-and-trade deal. They subsequently messed up in signing Diaw to his five-year, $45 million mistake of a contract so as not to see a repeat of the Johnson situation in which the guy has a great year and his price tag goes out of their range.

Now the Diaw overreaction is off the books and the Suns have their most dynamic shooting guard starter since JJ.

What’s funny is Kerr talked about not wanting to pay a backup power forward that kind of money, saying he’d rather direct those resources to a starting shooting guard like Richardson.

Now they’re paying him about the same as Joe Johnson, so in hindsight wouldn’t the Suns just have been better off giving JJ a huge deal knowing what we now know?

6. What’s the impact of losing Raja and Boris off the court?

First off, Porter should have better control of his locker room with a couple guys wanting to play hard and impress the new coach instead of a duo that has shown through their comments and actions they were far from happy that Mike D’Antoni is in New York.

We’ve all known for a while through his public comments that Raja wasn’t happy, and there were even reports that he was the reason Porter recently sent his team to the showers in the middle of a practice, but I didn’t realize how unhappy Boris was before his post-trade comments.

“It definitely wasn’t as fun,” Diaw told The Arizona Republic. “… It wasn’t as exciting for the fans. It’s not as fun for everybody (on the team). I’ll always remember Phoenix with Mike (D’Antoni). We went from a winning team that was the most exciting team in the league to a half-winning team that wasn’t exciting at all.”

I wonder what he’ll think of Charlotte.

In any case, it’s good to send a player who feels like that as far away from Phoenix as possible.

You’ve got to feel for Nash for losing a best friend teammate in Bell just like he did when he left Dirk Nowitzki and Dallas, but that’s life in the NBA.

Nash will be OK by the first time he assists Richardson on a fast break, and anyone writing about Nash being the next to go clearly doesn’t understand this move. This trade was bad for Nash as a person, but it’s the best thing that could have happened to Nash as a player.

The Suns are now embracing their inner Golden State Warrior with Richardson now joining ex-teammate Matt Barnes. Barnes is pumped to play with his old buddy again, and their familiarity should ease the Suns’ search for chemistry.

Dudley will provide the Suns with energy off the bench. (AP/Rick Havner)

7. How will Dudley fit in?

 Quite nicely, thank you very much.

In his Suns.com interview he said he’s a Boris Diaw-type player, which is great, because that who he’s obviously replacing, only he’s on his rookie contract instead of making $9 million a year. (On that note, who else considers Diaw’s contract a negative in this trade? So basically the Suns are getting J-Rich, Dudley, a likely high second and getting rid of Boris’ deal just by trading Raja. Wow.)

He’s going to bring some intangibles, rebound a little, play the pick-and-pop game if necessary with the second unit, and I think in time he can develop into a really solid role player either as a starter or off the bench.

It’s also really comforting to read a Charlotte reporter write, “I’ll really miss Dudley. The man is way too unpretentious to play in the NBA. The Suns will love him. What a team needs, he attempst to provide.

“Many people – I can’t call them fans – believe the NBA is about spoiled players who refuse to do the dirty work. They never saw Dudley play.”

8. How does this affect lower-profile Suns?

First off, I think a consideration for this deal involved finding more time for Robin Lopez.

Regardless of whether he deserved it or not, Lopez just wasn’t going to be seeing much floor time in a frontcourt dominated by Shaq, Amare and Diaw aside from the games Shaq sits out.

Lopez has been a poor rebounder, with just three in 32 minutes against the Lakers and a rebound rate of 6.1 per 40 minutes, but the man hustles and gives it his all on every play. Last night he seemed to be the only player in a Phoenix uniform challenging shots.

The Suns need his infusion of energy and shot-blocking presence, and now with an undersized four in Dudley taking Boris’ minutes (meaning you can’t play him at center like Diaw at times), I expect Lopez’s minutes to go up.

The loser of this could be Alando Tucker, who was already in a roster crunch before the deal whenever he’s healthy enough to return to the court.

Richardson figures to play even more than Bell did, and Barbosa figures to steal away the remaining two-guard minutes. There’s no small forward minutes to be had with Hill and Barnes (and possibly Richardson in a small ball alignment with Barbosa), so I just don’t see where his PT will come from.

In the short term, this also means Dragic is the definitive backup point guard, but he may not see the floor much once he’s competing with a legit veteran backup, who the Suns can now sign with the roster spot freed up by dealing Singletary.

9. Speaking of Singletary, how many days until the Bobcats trade him?

You’ve got to feel for the rookie.

Since being drafted in the second round by the Kings this summer, he’s been dealt from Sacramento to Houston in the Ron Artest deal, Houston to Phoenix for D.J. Strawberry and now from Phoenix to Charlotte in this trade.

And although he’s going to a bad team, point guard is the one position Charlotte’s deep at with Raymond Felton and D.J. Augustin.

At least the Philadelphia native and Virginia star will be closer to home.

10. Last but certainly not least, are the Suns now legitimate contenders?

Let’s put it this way, they would have been lucky to eke their way out of the first round before, and now I see them back in the muddled Western Conference pack behind the Lakers.

How many teams can throw out a starting five with as much offensive firepower as Nash-J-Rich-Hill-Amare-Shaq, with Barbosa and Barnes off the pine?

This team obviously needs to find an identity, hopefully one that includes scoring a ton of points and pushing the pace a bit, but the makings of a contender are in place.

Nash was quoted as saying something like he hopes the Suns aren’t blowing this thing up, but I think that is the last thing they’re doing. They recognized a change needed to be made on the court and off it, and what resulted was a fleecing of a deal.

Sure, December and maybe even January might not be pretty as the Suns feel their way out, but I think this could be a team that peaks at the right time.

The parts of an elite team are now in place.

Whether it is championship-worthy still remains to be seen.

The Suns upgraded their offense in a big way by acquiring Richardson in a deal involving Bell. (NBAE/Getty Images)

I was taking a quick run on the treadmill when I saw highlights of Raja Bell flash on the screen in front of me.

That’s odd, I thought, why the hell would the local news be showing clips of Bell four hours before the Suns played the Lakers?

Well, of course now I know that’s the last time I’ll see Bell in a Suns uniform as he was shipped off to Charlotte with Boris Diaw and Sean Singletary for guard Jason Richardson, forward Jared Dudley and a 2010 second-round pick.

Advantage, Phoenix.

Although I generally oppose deals that shake up the core, Bell and Diaw were starting to move to the fringes of the Suns nucleus.

Raja has voiced his displeasure about the Suns’ offense all season, unhappy that he can’t jack up 3s at will like he did in the D’Antoni years. I think Bell is enough of a team guy that it would be unfair to call him anything close to a cancer, but he clearly didn’t see eye to eye with head coach Terry Porter.

With Leandro Barbosa starting to find his comfort zone, he’s begun to cut into Bell’s minutes, such as Saturday against Utah when Bell didn’t score in 18 minutes, the first time he played less than 20 minutes with Phoenix besides last season’s finale in Portland when the vets were resting.

As for Diaw, he’s never really played up to his 2005-06 level that earned him a five-year, $45 million contract, and he wasn’t going to do so playing next to Shaq and Amare. Diaw was at his best when Amare was out for the year and he had room to operate on the elbow, leading him to earn Most Improved Player honors.

These days the Suns have too many other players who need touches to utilize Diaw to his fullest, so for his sake let’s hope Charlotte uses him like the Suns did in ’05-06.

In return the Suns get the best player in the deal, Richardson. A general rule of thumb in trades is that the team acquiring the best player got the better end of it, and that’s no exception in this case.

“He’s athletic and gives us a really potent offensive player,” Suns general manager Steve Kerr told The Arizona Republic. “… He’s also an excellent defensive player and he’s in his prime. He’s a very high-character guy and well-regarded around the league for his professionalism.”

Richardson is a dynamic scorer who becomes a part of the former Big Three with Nash, Shaq and Amare as far as top-shelf offensive players go. Whereas Raja couldn’t do much on offense aside from spotting up for open 3s, Richardson can penetrate, slash and post as well as hit 3s at a 45.8 percent clip, and Richardon’s 18.7 ppg average about doubles Raja’s 9.6.

The Suns can now throw out a lineup with Nash, Barbosa and Richardson and go up and down in a hurry like they used to. And you know the two-time dunk champion won’t have layups blocked from behind on fast breaks like someone else did.

Jared Dudley

Dudley, a former first rounder in his second year, hasn’t done much in the NBA, but I always loved him in college. The guy has a knack for scoring around the basket and while only 6-foor-7, 225, I think he can provide some punch off the bench.

“I’m high on Dudley,” Kerr told the Republic. “… He’s versatile and can guard multiple positions and play like a small four or a big three.”

Most importantly, this trade is essentially a wash on the salary cap. The Suns get out of three more years at $9 million per through 2011-12 with Diaw and next year’s $5.25 million of Bell in return for $13.33 million of Richardson next year and $14.44 million of Richardson in 2010-11.

On one hand it’s too bad to have Richardson’s big number clogging up the cap during the much-awaited summer of 2010, but having Richardson in place could be the best thing the Suns could do to lure back Amare and/or others.

In Richardson the Suns are getting one of the better players in the NBA in his prime, and he’ll only be 29 during the summer of 2010. You’ve got to believe there’s a hell of a better chance that Amare would want to play with a core starting with Richardson and Barbosa than Diaw and Barbosa.

I know this is looking way too far down the road and so much can change as we saw with the trade today, but now the Suns’ future can include building around both Amare and Richardson in a year and a half and possibly adding another pretty big free agent and/or re-signing Nash at a smaller salary.

If Amare makes it known he wants out a year from now, then the Suns can blow it up but at least have a stud like Richardson in place to combine with the Amare haul and a 2010 free agent with all the cap space they’d get.

But that’s not why the Suns acquired Richardson.

If the playoffs started today, the Suns would be seeded eighth. Sure, the West is so bunched they’re only 1 1/2 games out of second, but they’re also only a game ahead of the lottery. In fact, John Hollinger’s playoff odds have Phoenix on the outside looking in with only a 55.4 percent chance of even reaching the postseason.

With a quartet of Nash-Amare-Shaq-Richardson and a rotation also including Matt Barnes, Grant Hill, Barbosa and Robin Lopez, this team is more of a contender than it was a couple hours ago.

And if they gel, don’t sleep on the Suns.

A rested Shaq led the Suns' balanced attack. (AP/Jim Mone)

The Suns played about as balanced a game as they could Wednesday in their 110-102 win at Minnesota.

All five starters scored at least 12 points, and eight Suns went for at least eight while leading scorer Steve Nash put in just 20. The starters all took at least eight shots, and aside from Amare Stoudemire’s 39 minutes, every starter logged between 28 and 33 minutes.

With the victory, Phoenix improved to 9-0 when scoring at least 100 point to sweep a two-game trip against teams the Suns expect to beat.

“To get those two wins against teams – we should get the wins, but to finally have them, it feels great,” Amare told Suns.com. “We played a team game tonight. Everybody was able to chip in and play well.”

Overall the Suns did a lot of things well in a game they never trailed, shooting 53.6 percent, including 63 percent in the first half. They committed just 13 turnovers (five in the first half) to turn it over less times than their opponent for the first time all year.

On a night when turnovers weren’t as much of an issue as they usually are, the Suns’ biggest weakness came on the glass, where the Suns were outboarded 49-36 overall off the strength of Minnesota’s whopping 21-3 edge on the offensive glass.

Al Jefferson grabbed 12 of his 17 boards on the offensive end of the court, an issue that prevented an easy Suns rout.

“They really hurt us on the boards tonight during stretches,” head coach Terry Porter told Suns.com. “That was the difference when we didn’t turn the ball over, we were able to have some good possessions. When we turned the ball over, we allowed them to get on the boards and that allowed them to get back in the game.”

Jefferson added 28 points, as the Suns continue to be unable to defend him after the forward averaged 30.5 points and 15.3 boards per game against Phoenix last year.

A rested Shaq is a good Shaq

The Daddy played a characteristically strong game coming off three days’ rest, going for 18 points and 10 boards, while shooting 53.9 percent (7-for-13).

Shaq is now averaging 19.0 points and 9.8 boards while shooting 62.1 percent shooting in his five games on multiple days’ rest as compared to 13.7 points and 8.1 rebounds per contest in his other nine games in which he’s shot 56.0 percent.

This disparity is even worse in the two games Shaq has played on consecutive nights, Oct. 30 against New Orleans and Nov. 17 in Utah, as the Big Cactus averaged a mere 8.5 points and 4.5 boards in those contests while shooting 40 percent.

Shaq was OK in the New Orleans game with eight points and eight boards in a game the Suns were playing catch up in and couldn’t just pound the post, and how much could Shaq really be affected by fatigue in the second game of the season?

But the Utah contest was by far Shaq’s worst outing of the year, as he went for nine points and one rebound on 3-for-11 shooting (27.3 percent) in 32 minutes. Shaq has shot below 50 percent in just one other game, and he has only once grabbed just one mere rebound when playing more than five minutes, back on March 29, 1999, for the Lakers against the Grizzlies.

So when combined with the fact Shaq has been relatively injury-free in the early going, it’s easy to say the resting Shaq idea on back-to-backs has paid off thus far.

I still worry about the psychological edge the Suns provide an opponent with when Shaq is rested specifically against them to get ready for the next game, but you’ve got to believe the Suns can run their way to a couple victories without the big man.

Based on Shaq’s stellar play with extra rest and his struggles in back-to-backs, something the Suns clearly anticipated going into the year, the resting Shaq idea appears to be for the best.

And a little rest for Nash, too

No, Steve Nash hasn’t shown any signs of needing to rest on back-to-backs, especially after he put together two of his best games of the year with 40 points and 21 assists during this set, but it was great to see Porter play Nash just 28 minutes after his 43-minute day on Tuesday.

Sean Singletary’s strong outing allowed Nash to rest almost 12 consecutive minutes of game time during Wednesday night’s first half, something that used to happen about as often as Nash would tally 43 minutes in a non-overtime game.

Singletary ended up playing 20 minutes for the contest, scoring a career-high eight points while tying a career high with five boards.

That might not sound like a ton, but Singletary held his own and did nothing to prevent the Suns from ballooning their lead up to 16 in the second quarter. If he can keep that up, Porter won’t be so tempted to over-extend Nash.

Speaking of Nash, the two-time MVP was more aggressive looking for his shot coming off the heels of Tuesday’s 12-point outburst in the fourth quarter. That’s a good sign going forward since Nash has been tentative much of the year with his own offense despite still being as good of a pure shooter as there is in this league.

Is Dragic losing his grip on the backup point guard role? (AP/Paul Beaty)

We all know the Suns picked a point guard in the second round to be their point guard of the future and backup point guard of the present, but three spots earlier the Kings selected a point guard who wound up in Phoenix and thus far has only been known only as the guy who gets in when the game is over.

But with Nash and Barbosa out, Sean Singletary got his first significant minutes Friday in Sacramento and played reasonably well at times, hitting a clutch 3 in the corner in the fourth as part of a five-point, five-rebound effort in 23 minutes.

Both Singletary and more heralded backup point guard Goran Dragic put up similar stat lines, each shooting 2-for-7, while Dragic scored five points, grabbed four rebounds, dished four assists and recorded three steals.

Dragic logged 30 minutes in his first career start, but with the Suns clinging to a three-point lead with a minute left in regulation, head coach Terry Porter substituted in Singletary and left him in for the balance of overtime.

As strange as it was seeing a garbage player leading the offense in overtime, Singletary even had the cojones to shoot an open jumper at the top of the key with a two-point lead and 21 seconds left after faking a defender. It was the right shot to take, especially as Dragic often passes up open shots trying to create something, but he missed badly.

The rookie point guard on the whole didn’t look quite like the brash senior who single-handedly beat my Wildcats in McKale Center last year after calling out U of A for being soft the year before, prompting UA coaches to post his quote to their players’ locker before last year’s game.

Sean Singletary

Having watched him smoke Arizona four times while I was a student, I think Singletary has the skills and attitude to be a player in this league, even at 6-foot even. He was a three-time All-ACC first-team performer, no small honor playing for a mediocre school in a great league, and even had his jersey retired at Virgina before he had even left campus.

I wonder if Nash’s suspension may have turned Friday’s contest into a one-game audition for Singletary to prove he deserves backup point guard minutes.

Dragic has looked like a rookie point guard, showing bursts of ability at times but on the whole too much inconsistency and passiveness. Overall Dragic has averaged 3.5 points, 1.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 16 minutes per game.

In Sacramento, head coach Terry Porter told Suns.com that Dragic looked “a little tired down the stretch” and that he thought the rookie “played decent” in his first career start.

But I’m sure Raja felt tired after playing 44 minutes in regulation, Grant Hill felt tired after playing 40 and Shaq certainly felt tired after 38 minutes of regulation, and I know there was never a thought of taking them out for the last guy on the bench.

Porter felt playing Singletary in overtime gave the Suns their best chance to win a basketball game in Sacramento, just like he did playing the Suns’ regulars.

If Singletary gets his sea legs in the NBA, maybe he will start to see some of the minutes Dragic has thus far backing up Nash.