Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Spring in his step
Josh Richardson says last year’s trials matured him
Heat’s Josh Richardson says he’s turned the corner after a season of injuries.
MIAMI — It wasn’t just when he was sitting out those 29 games last season that Josh Richardson felt stuck in traffic, going nowhere.
“Last year,” he said, “I felt like every time I jumped, it was a flat. This year I feel bouncy.”
The hop in the step of the third-year Miami Heat guard has been undeniable this preseason, particularly in the past two exhibitions, with 19 points Saturday against the Orlando Magic and then 18 in Monday’s victory over the Charlotte Hornets at AmericanAirlines Arena.
After missing all of camp last season and the first four games with an injured right knee, then six more two months later with a sprained right ankle, and 19 more at midseason with a sprained left foot, continuity has again arrived after a strong finish last season and a healthy offseason.
“You started to see it last year,” guard Tyler Johnson said. “I think toward the end of last season he started to really come into his own.”
And then came a seminal moment in Saturday’s game at the Amway Center, when Richardson went up and over Magic shot-blocking center Bismack Biyombo, finishing with fury even while taking an elbow to the head.
“That was like, ‘Yeah, he’s starting to get back into form,’ ” Johnson understated with a smile.
Yet for all the fury of that moment, Richardson also patiently angled into penetrating position before launching himself at the
“Last year, I felt like every time I jumped, it was a flat. This year I feel bouncy.” Josh Richardson, Heat guard
rim.
“I think I’m more patient with the ball, ball screens or reading a game,” he said of the changes he senses in his game. “It definitely kind of slows the game down for me and lets me find my teammates a little better, too.”
After each injury last season, Richardson picked himself back up, pushed through the pain, attempted to maximize the opportunities. He said the experience makes him appreciate these latest moments even more.
“I think it was good for me to go through what I went through last year,” he said. “I’m more mature off the court. I’ve got a different outlook on things, and it just makes me grateful to be able to be out here now. So it’s helped me in a lot of different areas than just basketball.”
Different areas are exactly where the 2015 second-round pick out of Tennessee is expected to surface this season. He has started these past two games at point guard since the team is trying to rest Goran Dragic. Much of his previous action in the preseason came on the wing, still a candidate to eventually start at small forward.
“It’s really not that bad,” Johnson said of bouncing between perimeter roles, as he also has done, “because if somebody gets a rebound or something, then they pretty much become the point guard, anyway, if they don’t kick it ahead. It’s really not as weird as it is on other teams, to bounce around positions, because we all practice at different positions.”
Just being back in practice, back with a bounce in his step, is enough for Richardson at the moment.
“We have so many weapons,” he said. “You can go so many ways. [Coach Erik Spoelstra] is doing a great job of just putting us in different positions and giving guys different opportunities.”
And yet Spoelstra finds himself wondering after these consecutive showcases by Richardson about where the process could have been had there been a complete healthy second season of seasoning.
“It would have been really interesting,” Spoelstra said, “coming off his rookie year if he was healthy last year. Our expectations were pretty high last year. If he would have been able to put together several months of playing-game experience, where he would have been at the end of the year . . .? And where he ended up being anyway, it’s pretty darn good.
“He can really impact the game in a lot of different areas.”