After four seasons in Miami, Josh Richardson finds himself on a new team. The shooting guard was shocked when he first heard about the Jimmy Butler sign-and-trade that sent him to Philadelphia. However, after digesting the news, he became excited for the new opportunity, as Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald writes.
“I mean once it happened and I started looking at everything, it was smooth,” Richardson said. “I got excited once I saw our roster that we’re going to be working with, and I think we’ve got a good chance to come out of the East. And I’m excited to be able to go and play for a contender.”
While Miami appears to be a lock for the playoffs this upcoming season, the Sixers have positioned themselves to make the NBA Finals. Adding Richardson and Al Horford to go with incumbent starters Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Tobias Harris arguably gives Philadelphia the best starting five in the league.
Richardson saw an increase in field goal attempts in each of his four seasons in Miami with last year’s 14.1 shots per game representing his career high. The shooting guard understands that he may see fewer attempts on his new team, but he’s not worried about being deemed the fifth option in Philadelphia.
“It’s not really like that — one through five — that makes no sense,” Richardson said. “It’s not like a certain amount of touches every game. But being able to play with so much talent, it’s exciting. You can’t give one guy too much attention because you have four other guys that can hurt you just as much. Being able to play with guys like Ben and Jo, Tobias, Al is just, I don’t know, I’m excited.”
I wouldn’t call Miami a “lock” to make the playoffs. Yes it’s the East, but they missed the playoffs last year, and didn’t really make any improvements other than losing Whiteside and swapping J Rich out for Jimmy Butler. Likely to make the playoffs sure, but far from a lock.
Yep they may very well be left on the outside looking in. Jimmy can be injury prone. There’s been Dion Waiters sightings tho, dude slimmed up.
Sixers, Bucks, Nets, Celtics, Pacers, Raptors are the locks. Heat, Magic, Pistons battling for 2 spots. Hawks and Bulls could grow up and be in contention for #8 too. Vegas liked the Heat most of the laggards tho.
Raptors are no where near a lock
The Raptor vets may be un-motivated if they’re at #5 or so and the team could drift and be caught. Siakam is unproven as a leader and as a focus of opponents.
Speaking of, JOSH R is unproven as a follower! He could kind of disappear or be confused by the stylings of Embiid & Simmons.
The Nets aren’t a lock