Miami Heat Makes and Misses: Justise Winslow’s expanded role and more

Miss: Josh Richardson

After a promising start, Josh Richardson regressed offensively this week and did not produce to his ability with a number of troubling patterns developing in his game.

Still, Richardson is a key part of the Heat’s attack because he is without a doubt one of their most reliable defenders and has to be on the floor in crunch time. But offensively, Richardson was just 12-of-29 over the last four games including 4-of-14 from 3. Even more troubling, Richardson totaled 12 turnovers over four games, further contributing to the Heat’s turnover problems.

Many of the plays, particularly the turnovers, are especially confusing and out of character.

Here, it’s not entirely certain what Richardson expected Bam Adebayo to do when rotating away from him. First of all, Richardson doesn’t drive with any purpose, instead inviting an easy double team from the Warriors ,as he traps himself on the baseline with nowhere to go.

Not only that, but Richardson then throws a bad pass to Adebayo who, as a rookie, shouldn’t be put in that situation. Richardson should’ve recognized the situation and instead opted to stop and assess the pass, or simply dribble back out to get the ball to James Johnson.

Many expected Richardson to take the next step as one of the Heat’s centerpieces and while he’s certainly done that defensively, the offensive development has been slow, particularly this week. The hope remains that the end of the road trip brings about some promising performances for Richardson as the month progresses.

Next: Second half shooting drowns the Miami Heat against Detroit Pistons

Until next week…