Josh Richardson: Heat have ‘great pieces’ to put around LeBron

LeBron James signed with the Cleveland Cavaliers a year before the Miami Heat drafted Josh Richardson, preventing the two from becoming teammates. But now, with James on the verge of becoming a free agent, Richardson has publicly lobbied for the game’s greatest player to go back to the franchise with which he won two championships.

The following is an excerpt from an article by the Miami Herald’s Manny Navarro:

“I mean I think we have great pieces to offer to play around him,” said Richardson, who is out in Santa Barbara, California, training and looking to add some bulk to his 6-6, 205-pound slender frame this offseason. “We play with a lot of intensity. We’ve got a lot of dog in us. You need that in the trenches. That’s all I can really say about it.”

Of course, Richardson’s comments come around the same time that Udonis Haslem revealed that he and Dwyane Wade spent time with James in Miami just prior to the 2018 NBA Finals.

As I’ve said before, the Heat’s three young, promising players to build around are Richardson, Bam Adebayo and Justise Winslow. If the Heat manage to find a way to sign James without giving up any of those players — an improbable situation, as the Heat don’t have cap space to sign James outright — then I would agree with Richardson.

But in the meantime, let the speculation begin.