Heat player exit review: Josh Richardson’s up and down season

It was certainly a case of the second year blues for Miami Heat swingman Josh Richardson.

From the outset, Josh Richardson’s second NBA season didn’t go according to plan.

The tone was set in the preseason, when Richardson suffered a partial MCL tear of his right knee. This resulted in Richardson missing the Miami Heat‘s training camp, all the Heat’s preseason games, and the first four games of the regular season.

Naturally, this was going to have some impact on Richardson’s play, and it showed throughout the course of the season. When Richardson returned from his knee injury, he played in 38 games, averaging 11.2 points in 31.3 minutes per game, which included shooting 31.0 percent from three-point range. He excelled in the final seven games of that stretch, posting 14.4 points, 4.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game.

Unfortunately, Richardson then experienced another setback, this time succumbing to a sprained left foot. He subsequently missed the Heat’s next 19 games. Upon return from his second injury of the season, Richardson struggled mightily. In his 10 games back, Richardson failed to reach double figures, averaging just 4.9 points in 22.5 minutes per game, including an atrocious 11.1 percent shooting clip from behind three.

However as was the story of his season, Richardson then turned things around. Over the last 13 games of the season, Richardson enjoyed by far his best shooting stretch of the season. He shot 43.2 percent from the field and an excellent 41.9 percent from three on 4.8 attempts per game. This included averaging 12.5 points, 3.5 assists and 1.8 steals in 35.9 minutes per game. Notably, this stretch included starting each game in the absence of shooting guard Dion Waiters.