According to Janny Hu in the Chronicle this morning Richardson is facing surgery for his pain ridden left knee. While this does cause an immediate sense of panic amongst Warriors fans, it might be a good thing if he actually misses some games.  Pietrus who averaged 22 minutes a game last year, and had his own injury problems is coming off a season where he was flat in development versus his sophomore season.  Monta is also in need of more playing time as he demonstrated last year, he is our fastest player, and can get to the rim at will.

Richardson has had the 2 guard spot locked down since his rookie season, relegating Pietrus and Ellis to spot duty, or in the case of MP, playing some small forward.  JRich has missed very few games due to injury, mainly featuring the occasional ankle injury , and a more serious hand injury suffered in the second game against Utah in the 04-05 season, then a back problem last year.

Pietrus in a January 27th start against the Lakers in LA scored 20 points  on 7 for 17 shooting and had 10 rebounds in a 1 point loss. He followed that effort up with averaging almost 16 points and 5 rebound in heavy minutes through early February when he was playing primarily small forward alongside Richardson.

Monta was impressive in the Warriors 114-102 victory over the Mavericks on April 12th, 2006; with 17 points on 6 for 9 shooting, as well as logging 4 assists.  He also had an impressive 14 points in 27 minutes on 7 for 10 shooting in the Warriors 98-83 drubbing of the Jail Blazers on January 28th, the same game where Pietrus was replacing the injured Richardson in the starting lineup.

With MP coming into his final season under contract, and Monta showing signs of star potential last year, worse things could happen for the warriors than to see those two with more playing time to start the season.  If the Warriors cannot make a move to get a legitimate low post scoring and defensive presence, then the playoffs are still a dream for the 06-07 season.  Even if the Warriors do manage to make it into the playoffs, you can expect a first round bounce.

So why not see what these two can do?

On a side note, what is with waiting until August 21st to have surgery? Why not say June or July?  Let's just hope that Richardson isn't using the same doctor as Barry Bonds.