The Philadelphia 76ers have had a lot of starters over the years thanks to the front office getting the need to retool almost on an annual basis. One player who took on that mantle for the team in the past was Josh Richardson, who was a full-time starter for the squad during the 2019-20 season, which was notable due to the team underperforming all year long.
Anyway, Richardson has bounced around the league since then, but he remained a productive role player for a bunch of teams. Unfortunately, his luck seems to have run out as he now finds himself outside the NBA. He saw his market completely dry up in free agency, which was probably a byproduct of his forgettable campaign last season.
Richardson sniffed the floor in just eight total outings last season for the Miami Heat, mainly due to his persistent injury issues. During those games, he averaged just 18.8 minutes per game, which was easily the lowest mark in his career. Now, there has been little to no updates about his current status, signaling that his time in the NBA is most probably over.
Former 76ers guard Josh Richardson is now out of the NBA
Since exiting Philly when the 76ers traded him to Dallas for Seth Curry, Richardson stuck around as a nice connective piece for a lot of teams. Aside from the Mavericks, he had brief stints with the Celtics, Spurs, and Pelicans before returning to the Heat, the team that drafted him way back in 2015, during the summer of 2023.
Richardson was still a key player for the Heat in his first season back in South Beach, but as stated, injuries derailed him in the following campaign. As such, him not getting suitors in the open market was not surprising, although it was still mildly shocking to see him not even get offers given his stature as a steady wing.
Now 32 and probably still hobbled, Richardson is unlikely to make it back to the league. He has not given any indications that he is retiring just yet, although there has been utter silence with respect to any plans on an NBA comeback. Well, there was that rumor about an Italian ball club zooming in on him way back in July, but that went largely uncorroborated.
The former 76ers wing still had a productive NBA career. But if last season was indeed the last we’ve seen from him, it is undoubtedly unfortunate that he was not able to end things on his own terms.