A quiet rookie season was expected for Jase Richardson after he went one-and-done at Michigan State and was drafted late in the first round by the Magic. Not many late-first round picks are ready to join the rotation immediately, but Jase was still able to carve out a role.
He averaged just 10.9 minutes but made the most of them. Jase shot 35 percent from three, 47 percent from the floor, and averaged 4.4 points per game. He had some big games here and there but he proved to be a pretty efficient scorer off the bench.
In year two, expectations have been raised and now that he’s getting more minutes, he’s starting to look like a player who can carve out a 10-15 year NBA career, at least.
Richardson is averaging 15 minutes per game through four games and two starts and he’s slowly gaining confidence on offense. He’s at just 6.0 points per game but he’s shooting 50 percent from three this season and he hasn’t seen fewer than 14 minutes in any game this season. His role increased once again on Friday night as he finished with 33 minutes and although he was just 2-for-5 from the floor, Jase made his presence felt with six rebounds, two assists, two steals, and a block.
Also, shooting 2-for-5 isn’t exactly a bad offensive night, just a quiet one. Richardson will need to be more aggressive on that end of the floor if he wants to keep playing 30-plus minutes but he clearly did something right if he started and played the fourth-most minutes on the team.
Oh, and he posted a whopping +26 in the +/- column which led all players.
It’s starting to look like Richardson is becoming that great all-around player that we saw at Michigan State — and remember, it took him a minute to turn into that in East Lansing.
Jase Richardson is forcing Magic head coach Sean Sweeney’s hand
Richardson has gotten three straight starts and outside of a not-so-great first start of the season against the Knicks when he was just 2-for-7 from the floor and had a team-worst -22 in the +/- column in a nine-point win, he’s been solid and good things happen when he’s on the floor.
Head coach Sean Sweeney is giving him his biggest challenge yet as an NBA starter and Richardson is responding exactly how the Magic had hoped.
It’s going to take Richardson a little longer to get fully comfortable offensively, but once he takes that step and becomes more of a scorer like he was at Michigan State, he’s going to be impossible not to play 30-plus minutes per game.
He’s already getting there.
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