With Dwyane Wade officially in Chicago as a Bull and several other players signing elsewhere from last season's Heat team, someone will have to step up and fill a void left by Wade. That guy could very well be former Tennessee Volunteer and second-year NBA player Josh Richardson.
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Richardson saw the floor in 52 games for the Heat last season and shot a blistering 46.1 percent from beyond the arc. He's more of a true shooting guard than Wade ever was in terms of actually shooting the long ball. This should help the Heat and give them another shooter on the floor next year with Goran Dragic playing point guard and Justise Winslow likely to start at small forward.
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Richardson is playing in the Orlando Summer League with Winslow and fellow 2015 draftee Briante Weber. All three are looking to become the next phase of Miami Heat basketball and stay competitive in the Eastern Conference. Richardson in particular has been working on becoming more a combo guard to make himself even more valuable to the team. He spoke to the media about what he's been working on specifically and how that's affected his play this summer.
"I saw some stuff today that I wouldn't see last game even. It's just been a lot of film study and keeping my head up when I'm dribbling the ball instead of just putting my head down and driving to the hoop."
While Summer League might be viewed as tedious by some, for Richardson it's a lab to keep experimenting with different parts of his game to hopefully boost his value to the team and to his teammates.
When asked about the difference from last Summer League to this one, Richardson said the game has slowed down for him and it's basically like playing pick-up ball.
"Playing against the people that we played against (in the playoffs) and under so much pressure, out here it kind of feels like pick-up a little bit comparatively speaking. Just being able to come out here with my teammates and have some fun with them has been great."
The shooting guard has also been working on his off hand and making his handle a little tighter as well going into the 2016-17 season. We'll have to wait and see how he plays in the regular season, but it sounds like he's ready to take on a bigger role for the Heat and become a full-time starter.
