For the Philadelphia 76ers, now is as good a time as any to evaluate the starting lineup. Next, we look at shooting guard Josh Richardson.
When Philadelphia 76ers wing Josh Richardson hit the scene in the summer of 2015, many were unsure how he would pan out. While he did show promise in college, his role on an NBA roster did not seem clear. As a former mid-second round pick, Richardson was nothing more than a low-risk, high reward pick for the Miami Heat.
Boy did that risk pay off.
After averaging 10.3 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game over his first three seasons in Miami, J-Rich signed a four-year, $42 million contract in 2017. Ultimately, Josh Richardson would be traded to the Philadelphia 76ers in a deal that helped them land Jimmy Butler. While Miami ended up with the better player, the Philadelphia 76ers were able to recoup some of the initial losses by landing Richardson.
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With that said, Josh Richardson’s tenure in Philadelphia has been a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, Richardson shows promise as a secondary ball-handler to his teammate Ben Simmons. On the other hand, he has been lack-luster from beyond the arc and does not provide much on the defensive side of the ball. In turn, one must look at both sides of the ball before coming to a final decision.
Offense
It really comes down to whether or not you believe in the idea that the Philadelphia 76ers have too many ball-dominant players on the team. Richardson seems to do some of his best work when he’s on the ball. At first, this was not a huge component of his game, per se. In actually, because of the need for Ben Simmons to dominate the ball, it still isn’t a huge facet of Richard’s game.
Richardson went from 4.1 assists per game last season to 3.1 assists per game this season. He is also averaging fewer minutes, going from almost 35 minutes per game to around 31 minutes per game. Again, this could be a matter of “too many cooks” in the kitchen. In Miami, Richardson HAD to be the guy. His only other capable teammate was Goran Dragic, leading to Richardson finding a large piece of the pie. In turn, Richardson was able to shine in Miami.
In Philadelphia, he has a different role to play. Because of the current construction of the Sixers, Richardson plays more off-ball. Ben Simmons runs the show, and if he can’t drive into the lane, there are two real options: dump it off to Joel Embiid or kick it out to a shooter. Richardson plays the latter role here.
However, J-Rich has not excelled in this role, shooting 32.7 percent from beyond the arc. Now, he has never been a prolific shooter, only shooting above 40 percent from three once in his career. That said, in order for the Sixers to succeed, Richardson will need to find a way to bail Ben Simmons out more often.
Defense, ball-handling
Defensively, Richardson has not provided as much of a spark. Averaging under 0.9 steals and 0.7 blocks per game is not a good look for J-Rich. On top of that, Richardson is boasting a 110 defensive rating per 100 positions. So, it’s safe to say Richardson was not brought in to clamp down the opposing offense. Now, he’s not a J.J. Redick level of a defensive liability, so there’s that.
For what it’s worth, the Philadelphia 76ers do have a starting lineup that might not be constructed properly. From head to toe, the lineup seems clunky and ill-fitting. Richardson may not be the cause of it, but there is no reason that Richardson cannot be a beneficiary of some sort of change.
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To me, as we have seen so far, Josh Richardson SHOULD be the secondary ball-handler going forward. Now, that could come about in a multitude of ways. One way could be staggering minutes between Simmons and Richardson in a similar fashion that head coach Brett Brown staggered Al Horford and Joel Embiid’s minutes.
The other option would be to move Richardson to sixth-man, and having him run the second unity. He could run minutes with guys like Matisse Thybulle and Furkan Korkmaz, thereby giving Richardson a purpose similar to his days in Miami, just on a different unit.
Ultimately, both could be done. You can have Simmons and Richardson start, swap Richardson out a few minutes into the game, and then bring Richardson back in when Simmons needs a breather. Maybe start Thybulle or Glenn Robinson III and then bring Richardson back in later on? It wouldn’t hurt to try.
Overall
So, the main takeaway that this season has brought the Philadelphia 76ers is simply that the starting lineup may not fit as well as previously hoped. There are a lot of pieces that seemingly mimic each other in different ways. This creates an issue of spacing and overall offensive proficiency. One of the pieces that has fallen through the cracks in this case has been Josh Richardson.
This could be fixed by coaching manipulations or even by moving one of the pieces down the line. Ultimately, Josh Richardson gets a grade of a C from me. He simply needs to improve in certain ares in order to truly excel in the current system. However, I still believe Richardson has a role on this team, and it will come down to execution in order to determine if these expectations become reality.