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- Matt Moore of ProBasketballTalk: “Obviously Smith gave Richardson the four-year deal, via Yahoo! Sports. It’s a terrible idea. Richardson was probably going to get something similar to that deal on the open market, but that says more about the market than Richardson. He’s a good defender. He can hit from the outside. But he’ll be making more than $8 million when he’s 35 and the Magic are trying to move him for anything they can. He’ll be a chain around their neck. It’s the kind of deal that got the Magic into this situation. Maybe Smith is in shock. Maybe he doesn’t understand what’s standing before him. Maybe he just really thinks Richardson can still put in big numbers. But the reality is that Orlando is watching the Titanic sink, and now they just had a new dining table airlifted in.”
- John Schuhmann of NBA.com: “Now, $6.25 million a year isn’t that unreasonable for Richardson. It’s almost a 60 percent pay cut from what he made last season. And this is a guy who shot 40 percent from 3-point range over the last four years. But Richardson is on the wrong side of 30, with his production bound to decline each year of that contract. More important, if Smith is in the process of evaluating trades for his franchise player and possibly facing a rebuilding process in the wake of a deal, then why is he committing to a contract that won’t expire until Richardson is 34 years old and will be difficult to move in a trade for at least the next two seasons? Wouldn’t he want to remain relatively flexible instead of going deeper into luxury tax territory?”
- Royce Young of CBSSports.com: “Four years at a little more than $5 million per year is a pretty good bargain for a player like Richardson. Considering what a lot of other guys in the same neighborhood as him are going for, I’d say the Magic did pretty well. But that’s not the whole story. Because the Magic are in flux right now, or at least should be. Richardson faded mightily last season and will greatly damage the Magic’s chances of getting under the cap in the near future. Which seems like the logical plan post-Dwight. Cut salary, open up some flexibility and rebuild. Instead, it seems like Otis Smith is trying to prep to continue on with a mediocre roster that may include Nene or Brook Lopez in the near future. Curious.”
- John Hollinger of ESPN Insider: “What makes this move particularly egregious is that, combined with the Davis deal, it submarined Orlando’s post-Howard future. Should the Magic trade their star center, they presumably would want to get under the cap, and use the lure of Florida’s sunshine and 0 percent tax rate to grab a prominent free agent, just as they did with Lewis the last time they were under the cap. But the $12.5 million in added 2012-13 cost with the Davis and Richardson contracts will make that feat much more difficult. (Bass was on the books next year but had an opt-out he would have almost certainly used.)”