Make: Josh Richardson
After a number of weeks in the “miss” column, Josh Richardson finally welcomed himself to the season with an offensive game that resembled what we’ve come to expect from him.
Richardson was consistently playable because he was (and still is) one of the best defenders in the league and certainly the best on the Heat’s roster. That type of lockdown defense is imperative in late game situations, but his offense left a lot to be desired.
Finally however, the Heat’s defensive stopper found his shot, with a 27-point effort against the Hornets to lead the team to victory at home. Richardson connected on 11 of his 14 attempts, including 3 threes, and got into some of the offensive principles we spoke about previously.
Instead of forcing long, contested two-point jumpers, or 3’s from two steps behind the line, Richardson eased into the game, making simple plays within the scheme of the offense to get an open shot. Here, he simply tracks Tyler Johnson’s drive as his man (Nicolas Batum) gets lost watching the ball.
When you’re in a slump, the little things become extremely important. Something small such as moving within the flow of the offense and spotting up in-rhythm, can make a ton of difference. Here, it gets Richardson on the board early and fuels the rest of his game.
And once he gets directly involved in the game, Richardson can turn defense into offense with the very best of them, as he uses his defensive prowess to shoot the passing lane and take it the other way.
This is the type of Richardson you want to see every night and hopefully by season’s end, we can remember the first 20 games as just a minor hiccup in an overall successful season.