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Stan Van Gundy continues to round out his coaching staff, with the latest addition being former Van Gundy player Quentin Richardson, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.
Stan Van Gundy plans to hire Quentin Richardson in a player development/mentoring staff job for Detroit, league sources tell Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) August 7, 2014
Richardson had a 13-year NBA career that came to a close after being an end-of-the-season addition to the New York Knicks in 2013. Richardson played one game in the regular season and spot minutes in the postseason for the Knicks.
Prior to that he played two years with the Orlando Magic alongside Stan Van Gundy. Richardson wasn't a big part of the rotation in Orlando, clocking the ninth-most minutes on the team each year. Richardson, however, must have impressed Van Gundy with other skills that led him to believe that Richardson would be the right kind of person to bring on in a player development/mentoring role.
Steven Kyler of Basketball Insiders, who is based in Florida and well connected in NBA circles, was the first person on Twitter that I saw compliment the move so I asked him his thoughts on Richardson as a coach:
.@detroitbadboys: what can you tell me about @QRich as a possible coach? ---> should be a solid influence for young guys, knows Van Gundy
— Steve Kyler (@stevekylerNBA) August 7, 2014
.@detroitbadboys: ---> Stan runs a complex defensive scheme, having guys who can teach on the floor matters. Also good to have mentor types.
— Steve Kyler (@stevekylerNBA) August 7, 2014
Richardson joins a coaching staff that features Van Gundy, Brendan Malone, Bob Beyer and Charles Klask with Adam Glessner as a team scout. So in essence, we've traded in Rasheed Wallace for Quentin Richardson, which, frankly sucks, but, hey, if Richardson can help this crew play some actual NBA-caliber defense I'm all for it.