When the San Antonio Spurs’ Summer League team fell to the Miami Heat last Friday, Spurs 2010 draftee Ryan Richards saw no floor time as the majority of the center minutes were given to Frenchman Alexis Ajinca.
On Saturday however, Richards received his most minutes in S.L. in the Spurs’ final S.L. game where the team fell to the Dallas Mavericks in overtime. In that loss, Richards showed some of his unique qualities on Saturday.
Statistically, Richards had his best performance of his S.L. games Saturday, beginning with his minutes: 13:41 minutes, 9 points, 4-6 shooting, 1-3 free throws, 4 rebounds, 2 personal fouls, +1 in +/- rating
Now it’s time to analyze Richards’ final, and ultimately, last chance of earning an invite to training camp.
Offensive Strengths
1Q (First quarter): Richards squared up his defender from 17-feet out and hit a jumper in his defender’s face.
1Q: Richards began on the opposite side of the paint, ran and gained open position from 15-feet out in the corner, performed a fade-away left-handed jumper, but missed out of the post position.
1Q: Richards caught the ball when cutting to the basket, used a quick pro-hop and dunked with his left hand. This was a highlight play for the NBATV broadcast as the network re-aired the throw-down dunk.
3Q: Richards shot a turnaround left-sided fade-away jumper and was fouled for the and-1 opportunity.
3Q: Richards beat his man down the floor, which forced his defender to foul him away from the ball.
3Q: Richards’ teammate air-balled a 3-pointer; Richards captured the ball underneath the rim and put up a lay-up with his left hand.
3Q: Richards grabbed a rebound and ran down the court with the ball, he then fed James Anderson with no-look pass in the open court but Anderson threw the ball out of bounds once he gained possession.
3Q: Richards grabbed a rebound, and then was pushed out of bounds. His defender was called for the foul, which put Richards at the free throw line, but Richards missed both free throws.
4Q: In the open court once again, Richards fed his teammate with a no-look pass, which led to his teammate catching the ball in a position where he was fouled underneath the basket.
Offensive Weaknesses
1Q: Richards looked lost when running a play in motion on offense. He kept trying to set unnecessary screens and didn’t know where to go in the set.
3Q: On one possession, Richards set a pick for Cory Joseph, but once he rolled, he rolled into Joseph and got in Joseph’s way.
3Q: Richards received the ball on an out of bounds play, but then he shot a 17-foot jumper with new shot clock just starting.
Defensive Strengths
1Q: Richards had to switch onto a guard when defending the pick-and-roll, and stayed with guard relatively well.
3Q: Richards defended a pick-and-roll by switching onto a small forward and he forced the forward to take long missed 3-pointer.
3Q: Richards held his position in post defense, even though he didn’t box out and his player grabbed the offensive rebound, he managed to defend an attacking guard later in the play.
3Q: Richards defended a guard for an entire position,
3Q: Richards got switched on a pick-and-roll with a guard, the guard drove toward the rim and Richards defended the attack well, forcing the guard to miss lay-up.
Defensive Weaknesses
1Q: An opposing guard drove on a pick-and-roll; Richards helped out but was too late, as his teammate fouled the guard. Richards was beat to helping protect the rim.
3Q: Richards tried to help on a lay-up attempt, but he was once again too late and his opponent made the play.
3Q: On one play, Richards’ opponent drove left; Richards helped out but was called for a foul. The attacked used his body against Richards to draw contact for the foul call.
4Q: Richards once more was late in help defense, as the offensive player was able to draw another foul from one of Richards’ teammates.
Saturday was by far Richards’ best S.L. game as evidenced by the amount of positives he brought to the game as opposed to his negatives. He once again showed his inexperience and raw ability in his negatives, but the majority of those errors are due to his limited understanding of the Spurs’ system.
Now that S.L. has been completed, I’ll be putting together all five of Richards’ performances and evaluating them for a comprehensive review on whether or not I think he should warrant an invite to the Spurs’ training camp this coming season.
If you’d like to read the other scouting reports written on Richards, here’s a complete list.
Game 1: Atlanta Hawks
Game 2: Los Angeles Lakers
Game 3: Los Angeles Clippers
Game 4: Miami Heat – Did not play
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Twitter: 24writer
(Photos: Shep McAllister of Spurs.com)
