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Richardson an undetermined commodity
By Rick Morrissey
Special to ESPN.com
Two players stood together on a balcony observing the action at the NBA's Chicago pre-draft camp earlier this month. One of them, high school star Darius Miles, was most certainly above it all. He's projected to be among the top eight picks in the June 28 draft.
|  | | Quentin Richardson was a rebounding force in college. Can he do the same in the NBA? |
The other player didn't really know where he stood, and still doesn't. When Quentin Richardson looked down at the scrimmaging going on below him, you had to wonder what he was thinking. That he was better than those future mid-first- to second-round picks battling as if their lives depended on it? That those players looked a lot like him, talent-wise? That he'd made the right choice to leave DePaul after his sophomore year? That he didn't?
Whatever, he wasn't talking. His personal trainer was under orders from agent David Falk to keep reporters away from Richardson and Miles. In that sense, the two players are on equal footing, even if they might be worlds apart in the way NBA teams look at them.
Richardson chose not to play in the Chicago camp, just as he has opted out of some of the other pre-draft competitions, and that was probably a good thing. A little more mystery surrounding Richardson can't hurt. NBA teams still aren't quite sure what to make of the former DePaul star.
Richardson had a better freshman year than sophomore season, even though his numbers were nearly the same. He was a preseason Player of the Year
candidate. He appeared on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's college basketball issue. He was the consensus Next Big Star. But it didn't happen
that way, not even close.
He chose to return to the Blue Demons after his freshman year in order to develop as a shooting guard. That's what he was told he'd play in the NBA.
One problem. He didn't develop those skills last season, either because he couldn't play the position, which is what his critics say, or because DePaul
needed him inside, where he has always done his best work.
Richardson has said he can adapt in the NBA.
"I think with more time spent on the perimeter, I'm going to get better doing it," he said.
Richardson needed to show NBA teams he could score off the dribble last season, and he didn't. He can shoot from outside, and he's a monster on the boards, at least in the college game, but it's the in-between that has gone largely unanswered.
That leaves this: Richardson is listed as 6-foot-6, but he's closer to 6-4. He'll need to prove quickly he can play the shooting guard position in the NBA. If he doesn't, that leaves small forward, and the last 6-4 forward to dominate was Charles Barkley.
Does Richardson have that in him? That's part of the bigger question of whether NBA teams believe he has hit the wall in terms of ability.
What's better with Richardson? What he's done in two years or what lies ahead?
"You judge both, and then you decide what the overriding factors are," one Eastern Conference general manager said. "If the potential is strong
enough, you might draft a guy who's not ready yet. If he has potential and in two years he's Tracy McGrady, then you may do that."
Does Richardson have enough potential?
"That's a good question," the general manager said. "I don't have an
answer to that."
Richardson falls into that vague category of Guys You'd Want on Your
Team. He's a lot like Michigan State's Mateen Cleaves, another question mark.
Richardson wants to win. He works hard. He's willing to share the limelight.
But that, too, has been one of the knocks against him. Last year, with
games on the line, he often would pass off, rather than keep the game in his
hands. Stars are expected to carry teams, not be equal-opportunity players in
crunch time.
There are still many questions that need to be answered, and many NBA
general managers believe Richardson would have been better off answering them
at DePaul.
"I thought he should have stayed in school," a general manager said.
"I thought he improved a lot from his first year to his second year in that
he showed a perimeter game his second year. If he had stayed in school, I
think he would have developed a game by putting the ball on the floor. That
would have been nice, but he didn't. So it is what it is."
It's this: Richardson has been picked to go anywhere from 10th to 25th
in the first round, and that's not bad for someone with as many question
marks as he has. The team that takes him is betting that he'll develop the
type of game he couldn't at DePaul. He'll have to learn on the job.
More than likely, he'll learn on the bench.
Rick Morrissey of the Chicago Tribune is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
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Richardson goes strong to the rack for two.