NBA Draft expert identifies key traits Jase Richardson must improve in NBA

After just one year at Michigan State, Jase Richardson is taking his talents to the NBA. However, The Athletic‘s Sam Vecenie believes that Richardson still has a lot to improve on before he can reach his potential at the next level.

“[He is] extremely left-hand dominant. He is exceptionally good with the left hand, but he has to improve the comfort level with the right,” Vecenie said on the Game Theory Podcast. “Really spatially aware, but I think he has some mechanical stuff he needs to fix.

“I thought his footwork getting to his pull-up was really bad. Only made 27% of his pull-up 3’s this year, felt like he had to take some extra steps to kind of get into it, and often ended up with kind of a narrow base. And, he’d lose some power going up through the shot. I think the handle just has a lot of room for growth. He takes very wide angles off the screens, and DHOs.”

Richardson’s potentially bad habits didn’t stop him from having a standout freshman campaign for Michigan State. In 36 appearances and 15 starts, Richardson averaged 12.1 points, 3.3 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game while shooting 49.3% from the field and 41.2% from beyond the arc.

Jase Richardson only stepped up his game during March Madness. He scored double digits in three of Michigan State’s four games in the NCAA Tournament, including a stunning 20-point outing against Ole Miss.

For his efforts this past season, Richardson was named an All-Big Ten Third-Team selection and an All-Freshman Team member. Despite Richardson’s success on the court, Vecenie isn’t convinced the 6-foot-3 marksman won’t run into trouble in the NBA.

“He tends to pick up the ball when defenders really get tight with him,” Vecenie continued. “Against longer, athletic defenders, I can really see that being a problem. Just also limited as a passer. I don’t know if I saw him pass with his right hand this year. Genuinely, I’m not sure I saw it, and that feels somewhat concerning for a player this small. He wasn’t much of a defensive playmaker either.”

Of course, a projected first-round pick also has plenty of impressive parts of his game. Vecenie wasn’t shy to list those, either.

“Jase is an interesting guy because, obviously, he has incredible touch, was unbelievable with the left,” Vecenie said. “The scheme that [Tom] Izzo created where he was having him start on the right side of the court, take dribble hand offs, getting to his left — they really actualized him really well this year.”