Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition

A player of value

Richardson: I’m ready to contribute more.

- By Ira Winderman Staff writer

HeMIAMI — The quiet confidence no longer is quite as quiet.

A third-year emergence has bred something more for Josh Richardson.

“I’m capable of being a great player in this league and I think I showed flashes,” the emerging Miami Heat wing said of his desire for more, as he already began looking ahead to next season. “I think I just have to do it consistent­ly.”

Mostly a complement­ary scorer since being selected out of Tennessee in the second round in 2015, Richardson erased any doubts about belonging this past season, starting all but one game.

Now the goal is to become as respected on the offensive end as the defensive end, where there already has been All-Defensive talk.

“I want to be able to have a ball on a string next year so I can play in ISO situations more,” he said.

To this stage, Richardson has largely stepped aside so teammates such as Dion Waiters and Dwyane Wade could step forward. Now Richardson envisions himself as a player who could provide such relief scoring.

“I think he has that ability,” Heat President Pat Riley said. “Probably the two most consistent players that we had this year were Goran [Dragic] and Josh.”

Dragic, of course, was the Heat’s lone

also a Richardson goal.

The next step for Richardson could be settling in where he can make best use of his 6-foot-6, 200-pound frame.

“Is Josh a small forward? Is he a two?” Riley mused as he assessed his roster. “I think he’s probably more of a two, but in today’s game and also how we play and the fact that we’re guardorien­ted, perimeter-oriented in a lot of ways, Josh is pushed over to the three most of the time.”

To Riley, Richardson best sets up as a shooting guard, but has yet to show the innate scoring ability at a position where offense is essential.

“He’s going to have to improve,” Riley said. “There’s no doubt that his improvemen­t and upside and being sort of a go-to guy at the end of the game, [he’s] able to handle pressure.”

There already is elite respect on one side of the ball, with coach Erik Spoelstra saying Richardson, “really put himself into that conversati­on of being AllDefense. He put himself fully in that conversati­on.”

Richardson closed the season 11th in the NBA in steals, third among forwards, behind only Paul George and Thaddeus Young.

“I’ve always kind of been not a gambling defensive player, but very aggressive,” he said. “And I kind of pride myself on being a step ahead of the offense at times. I think the coaching staff has done a good job of letting me make mistakes at times. More likely than not, I’ll make the right decidom sion, though.”

For Richardson, it has been a delicate process, aware of Spoelstra’s requiremen­ts for positional defense.

“It’s not really, ‘Uh oh,’ ” he said of violating team precepts while gambling for steals. “It’s like, ‘Uh, I messed that up, my bad.’ And he understand­s, because I’m a heady player on defense, so you can’t be right all the time.

“I was more careful my rookie year, just because I didn’t really know if I could do that or not yet at this level. So it’s just kind of been a steady incline of it.”

Being afforded the freeAll-Star, to take such risks is why there is a belief that his possibilit­ies can grow on offense, as well.

But there were those times when the gamble for a steal failed, creating a sinking feeling.

“Terrible, terrible,” he said of such moments. “Even like if I tip it out of bounds and I don’t get it, it’s so annoying, but it’s what comes with it.”

All, he said, part of the learning curve that next will continue in the first season of the four-year, $42 million extension signed last summer.

And, as always, there remains the unceasing optimism of arguably the most upbeat presence in the locker room.

“I think it was a season of progressio­n for a lot of guys and for our team, coming from last year where we’re not in and got in this year,” he said of making the playoffs, even if it resulted in the 4-1 ouster to the Philadelph­ia 76ers. “I’m looking forward to next year. We can only go up.”

 ?? CHRIS SZAGOLA/AP ?? President Pat Riley says Josh Richardson, above, will have to improve his scoring to become a go-to guy consistent­ly at the end of games.
CHRIS SZAGOLA/AP President Pat Riley says Josh Richardson, above, will have to improve his scoring to become a go-to guy consistent­ly at the end of games.
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 ?? WILFREDO LEE/AP ?? Josh Richardson dunks the ball during the second half of a game in April against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
WILFREDO LEE/AP Josh Richardson dunks the ball during the second half of a game in April against the Oklahoma City Thunder.

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