The Sixers lost a lot when JJ Redick signed with the Pelicans this summer.

They lost a 40% three point shooter, a veteran who was the fulcrum not only of a number of designed Brett Brown play calls but also common actions that made up the backbone of the ‘A to B’ base offense. Redick and Joel Embiid exhibited a fantastic understanding of hand-off and screening concepts in the two-man game, which now falls on Josh Richardson to replicate as Redick’s replacement.

Tuesday, we asked Embiid about the Sixers’ new look offense and whether he felt like he could reproduce that success with somebody else in the shooting guard position:

“It’s different. Josh brings something different than JJ. JJ obviously with the crazy shots and off-balance threes and all of that. But Josh is more athletic than JJ, especially when it comes to back cutting and me throwing lobs, or him turning the corner and attacking the defender. I think in that sense he can do that better than JJ. But obviously we lose a lot of shooting, especially that connection of me screening for (Redick) and him screening for me. I’m going to get Josh on pace and teach him how we should play, especially with the action I’ve been running since JJ got here. I’m sure Josh is gonna be (able to do it). He’s so athletic and he’s intelligent. We’re going to figure it out.”

Richardson spoke today, Wednesday, and said the pair started working through that, communicating on floor spots, screens, and preferences. Sounds like he’s game, like he’s up for the challenge and looking forward to playing with Embiid.

Let’s take a look at the film then and see what we can find. I’ll give you three Redick clips and three Richardson clips, focusing on their off-ball movement in the hand-off game, beginning with this snippet from the 2018 playoffs:

That was prototypical Embiid and Redick right there. Overplay on the dribble-handoff? Redick is going to fake it, then make the short back cut to get himself an open three-pointer. Joel typically did a nice job of holding the ball and reading where his teammate was going.

Here’s another clip, the game winner against Orlando, where you see a similar overplay and return pass, with Embiid resetting his feet and flipping to screen:

Last example here, and this one is rather ironic since Richardson is in it.

This was the huge dagger that Redick hit in game four of the Miami series in 2018, the brick wall type of screen that Embiid set to put his future teammate on his rear end:

Embiid and Redick were just so good at those two-man DHO actions, but the good thing is that Richardson is actually a decent dribble hand off player himself.

Using the NBA’s tracking data, here’s each guy’s hand-off statistics from last season:

  • Richardson: 2.4 possessions per game, 14.1% frequency, 1.01 points per possession, 39.6 field goal percentage, 70.6 percentile
  • Redick: 5.2 possessions per game, 32.4% frequency, 1.10 points per possession, 44.9 field goal percentage, 85 percentile

That’s really not bad for Richardson. Redick was a top DHO guy in the entire league, both in frequency and production, so most younger players in dissimilar systems are probably not hitting that 80-85th percentile. For context, Joe Ingles was a 0.98 PPP guy on hand-offs, while Marco Belinelli finished with a flat 1.00 number, right around where Richardson finished, yet we would probably compare those guys to Redick more than Richardson in terms of play style. Those numbers tell me that there’s enough promise in the DHO game to justify putting him in those Redick sets as a Sixer, especially with MVP-candidate Embiid screening for him. Also, that 14.1% frequency number actually places Richardson in the top 25 of guys who ran the most hand-offs last season.

If you go further into his numbers, Richardson was only a 47th percentile pick and roll player. He ran less than one isolation possession per game, so that number is pretty much moot. On an average of four spot up shots per game, he finished with 1.05 points per possession and a 38.3% field goal mark. And in the transition game he finished with 1.12 PPP, about the 51st percentile. None of that really blows the doors off numbers-wise, but he doesn’t seem to lag behind in any one specific area.

Here’s another comparison between the two, just a juxtaposition of shot charts, with Richardson on the left and Redick on the right:

Redick was obviously well above league averages from most floor spots, but Richardson was too, especially in the left corner, where he shot 44.9%. That’s a spot Brett Brown identified when he talked about “hunting for corners” at the media luncheon when describing the change to the motion offense via a new starting point for the nearside wing player.

Back to the film then, and for the purposes of comparing Richardson to Redick, I wanted plays like this one:

Just a little weave motion right there and you see the same DHO and counter that I clipped with Redick above. Richardson is able to step through there and pull up for a long two despite the rear contest.

Here’s another clip showing a double stagger, with a rub off both Kelly Olynyk and Bam Adebayo. The Sixers used this every once in a while with Embiid and Ben Simmons screening for Redick:

Pretty smooth right there, and Richardson is a good catch and shoot three point guy. According to NBA Stats, last year he shot 38.5% on 4.6 catch and shoot three pointers per game and 28.8% on 1.6 average pull up threes. Redick’s numbers are higher in both departments, though he took a lot more pull-up three pointers as a result of those hard rubs and one-dribble space creating moves. Richardson’s off-ball style looks more like a mix of Redick and Robert Covington, the latter of whom was more of a spot-up three point shooter playing as a small forward in Brown’s system.

This is a good example of what J Rich might look like in the Sixers’ offense, with another corner starting position, then he comes high to receive the hand-off from the big and rifles a catch and shoot three:

So it’s there, the video evidence of Josh Richardson being able to do some of the same off-ball DHO things that Redick was able to do. He’s certainly not the same pure shooter as JJ Redick, and most people aren’t, but if Joel Embiid wants to attempt to rebuild the two-man game that was really successful over the past couple of years, then I think he’s certainly capable of making it work with Richardson in the fold.