Orlando Magic Shooting Month: Top 20 shooters in Orlando Magic history
Top 20 Shooters in Orlando Magic History
T19. Jason Richardson
By Zach Oliver
As a kid growing up watching basketball in the 2000s, whenever you heard Jason Richardson’s name, you always thought of his high-flying antics in dunk contests and in games. I never truly thought of him as a real dead-eye shooter, especially from beyond the arc.
However as his career wore on, he became one of the league’s better marksmen from three. But he always flew under the radar with it.
Through his prime seasons with the Charlotte Bobcats, Phoenix Suns and Orlando Magic, Richardson shot worse than his career 37-percent mark just once. That was his final season with the Magic when he shot 36.8-percent from three.
From coming off of screens to catch-and-shoots, Richardson was able to keep defenses honest with his shooting and fit in well with the Magic who were retooling after their loss in the 2009 NBA Finals, and subsequent Eastern Conference Finals loss the following season.
Whenever I think of Richardson in a Magic uniform, two games stick out: His nine made three-pointers in Milwaukee on Feb. 11, 2012, a game where it seemed like the former high flier was throwing pebbles into the ocean.
The other was a game in March 2011 against the in-state rival Miami Heat.
The Magic got down big early against LeBron James, Chris Bosh, Dwyane Wade and company. But behind the shooting of Richardson – he led the Magic with 24 on the night including six three-pointers – and Gilbert Arenas, the Magic slowly cut away at the lead and rallied to win by three.
Those games alone showed the impact Richardson could make as a shooter.
He was not a Ray Allen or a J.J. Redick, someone who could run for miles and off hundreds and hundreds of screens each game. But when he got hot, he was red hot.
Across his 109 games in a Magic uniform, Richardson made four or more threes in 20 games and gave Magic fans some of their better moments across the tumultuous two final years of the Dwight Howard era.
I ranked him 15th in my top-15 Magic shooters of all time, edging out the likes of Nikola Vucevic, Vince Carter and Courtney Lee.
While the Magic did not get the electrifying dunks Richardson showed off early in his career, they got some hot three-point shooting games, which to me is just as fun.