Orlando Magic: Do the Magic Regret Re-Signing Jason Richardson?

With a season-high 22 points, Jason Richardson had his best game of the season Sunday night against the Sacramento Kings.

He looked aggressive, and even after the game, he was quoted as saying, “Everyone knew that with Dwight out [with foul trouble], we all had to be more aggressive."

My question is: Why wait until Dwight is out of the game to be aggressive? Clearly, as the starting shooting guard, it's a given that you should be one of the most aggressive scorers on the team.

He's one of the players who should theoretically create his own shot. That's why the Magic signed him to a four-year, $25 million deal.

After averaging 18 points per game in his career, he has added a paltry 11 points per game this season and looks like an odd fit with the Magic.

He excelled with the Phoenix Suns in their run-and-gun offense but has failed to find his niche in Orlando.

It can be argued that he doesn’t get enough attempts to keep up with his scoring average in Phoenix. In Phoenix, he averaged 48 percent from the field, and he’s only averaging 41 percent from the field this season and averaged 44 percent last season. It's hard to give a player attempts when he's constantly throwing up bricks.

Besides scoring, he doesn't do anything else particularly well. He has averaged five rebounds and three assists for his career, but even those numbers are down since he joined the Magic.

I hate to play the hindsight role, but the Orlando Magic brass should have recognized what they had in Richardson after last season. They should have let him go in hopes of freeing up cap space to land a top free agent and to keep Dwight in Orlando.

Instead, it looks as though they have put another odd-fitting band aid on their roster.

I have nothing against Richardson, but he either needs to step up or step out. Unfortunately for the Magic, as long as he continues to struggle, his trade value is less than his contract warrants and is virtually untradeable.

Comparatively speaking, Jamal Crawford was being considered by the Magic when Richardson was a free agent.

Jamal signed for a more reasonable two-year, $10 million contract and had similar numbers to Richardson’s.

More importantly, he has less years remaining on his contract.