Josh Richardson embracing Miami Heat reunion tour
MIAMI — From the moment he departed in July 2019, sent to the Philadelphia 76ers in the sign-and-trade transaction for Jimmy Butler, Josh Richardson kept a Miami Heat reunion in his thoughts.
Considering how he left, Richardson said it was hard not to.
Prior to that departure, there was an emotional moment, Richardson reflected Wednesday, with coach Erik Spoelstra.
“We had a talk before I physically left and it was kind of like, ‘You’ll be back, hopefully,’ ” Richardson said Wednesday, two days after signing back with the team that drafted him out of Tennessee in the second round of the 2015 NBA draft. “He said, ‘There’ll be a time where we’ll be talking again, it’ll be possible to bring you back.’ ”
Friday, at the start of NBA free agency, there was another conversation with Spoelstra, this time urging a reunion, albeit at the NBA minimum salary, as the Heat were losing Gabe Vincent and Max Strus.
“It was enough to kind of sway things a little bit,” Richardson said. “So that should tell you enough about it.
“Sometimes you just got to sacrifice certain things. So I had talks with the guys and coaches and after weighing the options, I thought that it would be in my best interests, and everyone involved best interests, to come back and give it another go.”
Fact is, even after moving on to the 76ers, Dallas Mavericks, Boston Celtics, San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans, Richardson never left, maintaining a Miami residence all the while.
“I mean it kinda was always there,” Richardson, 29, said of a reunion tour. “It almost happened a couple of times in the past, but it never really worked out all the way. I mean, the Heat was always kinda in mind, but I think the timing just kind of worked out for everybody right now.
“It’s hard to compare walking into the gym to the intensity that’s shown here and all the attention to small details to a lot of other places. I think it could just help me get back to doing things to how I was once used to.”
His play largely uneven since his Heat departure, with his 16.6 scoring average, 4.1 assist average and 3.6 rebound average with the Heat in 2018-19 still career highs, Richardson sees the return as the opportunity for a revival, able to opt out of his two-year $5.9 million contract after next season.
“I don’t think I’m that much different,” he said. “I think that once I get back in the swing of things, growing that same intensity back that I know that they approach every day with, I think that things can be similar.”
Richardson’s final Heat season came with a roster that prominently featured Goran Dragic, Hassan Whiteside, Justise Winslow, Dion Waiters, Tyler Johnson and James Johnosn, with Bam Adebayo mostly a bit player.
Now it is Butler and Adebayo as leading men.
“The lineup is different,” Richardson said, “so I have a different role, with Bam and Jimmy and those guys, who are the alphas. But I don’t have a problem with figuring out where I fit in, where I can best help the team win games.”
So, no, not the same as it was. But also returning wiser to appreciate the nuance of this reunion.
“I guess that’s for us to see, honestly,” he said of reintegration. “From watching, though, I don’t think it’s that much different. But I’m kind of a guy who can kind of play wherever. So you can kind of just throw me out there and I’ll figure it out. So wherever I see that we could use help, I think that’s where I can step into.”
