J-Rich on his role and team changes

Do you start to feel the importance of your role a little bit more this year as a scorer than in the past?"

Jason Richardson: "Not really. I don't put any added pressure on me. We know that we lost a lot of scoring with Amar'e gone. I'm just going to go out there and be the same person I was, just being a little bit more aggressive and not putting too much pressure on myself and just going out there having fun and help this team try to win games."
Question: "You don't think you'll be more of an option, though?"

J-Rich: "I think so. I hope so. I'm ready for that. Most of my career, I was always the one or two option. It wouldn't be nothing new if I could go back to that role, having the ball in my hand, getting the ball to score baskets and being one of the main guys to put baskets up for us."

While it took longer than expected for Richardson to return to town, it is clear he hasn't been lying around the house all day. He is lean and chiseled. He said he worked out two weeks this summer with Idan Ravin, one of the NBA's most popular personal trainers, and spent the rest of the time working out on the court with a friend.

From the moment he left Phoenix at the start of June, the team dramatically changed with three new leaders in the basketball  operations office, Amar'e Stoudemire going to New York (Richardson joked about starting a Web page to keep Stoudemire after the season), Leandro Barbosa's trade to Toronto for Hedo Turkoglu and free agency signings like Hakim Warrick and Josh Childress.

"It was strange," Richardson said. "It was like a domino effect. To see one guy and then the next guy. It just kept on going. I had great relationships with everybody. With Dave (Griffin), Steve (Kerr), LB and Amar'e. We all had great relationships. We all had something special here last year and you hate to see any of your teammates go, especially when you built a great relationship with them and you had a successful season last year. But that's part of the NBA. That's part of the business. We've got to move on."
He said Turkoglu is getting back to a style similar to the one he thrived with in Orlando, "where we get up and down, he can handle the ball, play a little point guard."

"It's going to be fun," Richardson said after his first scrimmaging with some of his new teammates Wednesday. "I was just telling Grant (Hill), 'We're in the same boat as last year but it's going to be even more that people don't expect us to do anything this year.' I love that we're underdogs. No pressure on us. Go out there and have fun and just learn each other and get ready and try to win as many games and sneak by people as possible."