Miami Heat shooting guard Josh Richardson has been hearing the rumors of his inclusion as the lead man in a return package for Minnesota Timberwolves star Jimmy Butler and finally spoke of it during a private moment.
“It's a business,” said Richardson, according to Ira Winderman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “It is what it is. It's a cutthroat business. I know that. I can't get too up or too down about situations like that.”
Those situations have also grown hard to ignore.
“For like the first hour, I was hearing from everyone,” said Richardson of the initial report that mentioned his name as the Timberwolves' trade focus. “But after that, it is what it is. I don't get too much into it. When it first came out a little bit, yeah, it was hard to ignore.”
While Richardson is not a household name and a relative unknown to those outside of the Eastern Conference, he's continued to make headlines with his play, despite trade talks having gone dormant in the past few days since the season started.
The three-and-D extraordinaire has put up the right numbers, scoring 21 and 28 points in the first two games of the season, clearly leapfrogging the injured Dion Waiters as the starting shooting guard of the team.
Richardson has taken the most shots in the Heat's first two games of the season — a clear sign that he's made the leap from a role player to a frontman.
“Mentally,” he said, “you just don't have any possessions off anymore.”
The Tennessee product signed a friendly four-year, $42 million extension last summer, one which has proved a boon for the Heat and an enviable asset for the Timberwolves, who refused to make any deal without involving him as the leading man.
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