Which Phoenix Suns era team was the best: Small Forward
Richard Dumas vs. Quinten Richardson
Quinten Richardson was never an All-Star, but he was a great role player for the 2004-2005 Suns and he served his purpose well, standing outside hitting 3-point shots.
Richardson really played the Cam Johnson role with those Suns hitting 36 percent of his 3s and scoring 15 points per game. In the playoffs, he averaged 12 points per game while hitting 40 percent from deep.
Richard Dumas had problems. He wasted his talent because of his addiction to alcohol and drugs. Randomly, he actually blamed his drug use on former first lady Nancy Reagan through an interview with ExNBA.com:
"“She said ‘Just say no,’ so it got me interested. It brought it to the forefront. We didn’t have any big drug problem until Nancy said to say no to drugs. Nobody knew about half of it. Now they’re showing it on TV about what it does.”"
Dumas was out of the NBA by 1996, but before that, he made his mark with the Suns in his rookie season where he averaged 15.8 points and 4.6 rebounds a game.
What was that mark? Being it was his rookie season,16 points for a 2nd round pick is a great rookie year. More importantly, that continued into the playoffs and in the NBA Finals against Scottie Pippen and the Bulls between beer runs.
Here are some various quotes about Richard Dumas‘ rookie year with the Suns from Baltimore Sun writer Terry Pluto:
"“Doctor J. with a jump shot, a lock for the 1996 Dream Team,” says San Antonio coach John Lucas. He’s been called “unstoppable” by Charles Barkley. “He’s just amazing.” “From junior high on, I don’t think Richard ever played a game when he wasn’t under the influence of something,” said Suns coach Paul Westphal. “He thought playing high made him better, and that he couldn’t play unless he used something.”"
The Phoenix Suns were close to trading Richard Dumas to the Detroit Pistons for Dennis Rodman in August of 1993, but because Dumas was in rehab, it didn’t happen. Before you wonder what could have been, the Spurs got Rodman for one season before he went to the dark side (again), and while the second was a lost year for Rodman complete with multiple suspensions, injuries, absences, and quitting on his team.
Back on topic, since this is a seven-game series against the “7-Seconds-or-Less Suns and Dumas was a pretty good defender and he started for the ’93 team when it counted. I am taking him and his good 6 months of play into consideration.
VERDICT: Richard Dumas