Jase Richardson 2025 NBA Draft Profile

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Jase Richardson 2025 NBA Draft Profile

We are less than three weeks away from the 2025 NBA Draft! Today, we will be previewing Michigan State’s Jase Richardson, who is one of the most efficient guards in this year’s class! Let’s jump right into it!

Height (no shoes): 6’0.5 (6’5.5 wingspan, 8’0 standing reach)

Weight: 178.4

Draft Age: 18.7

Position: Guard

A four-star recruit out of Columbus High School in Miami, Fla., Richardson, the son of former 13-year veteran Jason Richardson, graded as a top-40 prospect in the 2024 recruiting class, including the nation’s fifth-best combo guard behind Dylan Harper, Egor Demin, Boogie Fland and Ahmad Nowell.

Richardson chose the Spartans over a slew of options from Alabama, Arkansas, USC, Kansas, San Diego State and Florida, the reigning national champion. His role may have been bigger at a few of those other programs, but Richardson was spectacular in his lone season at Michigan State. He averaged 12.1 points on 49.3 percent shooting and 41.2 percent from 3-point range.

Strengths:

This class is littered with guards who can’t shoot. Richardson’s an exception to that rule.

As I noted above, he shot 41.2 percent from 3-point range and was excellent off movement and relocations. He had a quick release with good arc and good-not-great lift. His release was very repeatable off spot-up and pull-up looks, and had very good balance with his lower half. He never looked too rushed when he was rising up; if you left Richardson alone, you’d pay the price more often than not.

He’s one of the best pure scorers in this class. He doesn’t have a lightning quick first step, but he’s got excellent foot work and body control inside-the-arc. Richardson’s capable of self-creating even the smallest windows to get off his shot undeterred, which is necessity as a small guard.

Richardson is one of the best play finishers in the class. He shot 69.9 on attempts at the rim, including 60.0 percent at the rim in the halfcourt, according to DataBallr. That’s not a number to sneeze at. Only eight “combo guards”–led by Amen Thompson and Tyrese Haliburton–made at least 69 percent of their attempts at the rim (min. 100 FGA) this season, according to Cleaning The Glass.

He’s comfortable finishing through contact, but will also go up-and-under with good concentration. Richardson’s 38-inch max vert didn’t always show up on tape, but he’s springy in the open floor. The Michigan State alum doesn’t need the ball in his hands to be impactful. He can be a secondary ballhandler, an ideal role for most rookie guards.

The fact that his role grew at Michigan State under Tom Izzo as a freshman says more about his talent as a player than anything. Izzo doesn’t trust everyone, especially as a freshman. Don’t be fooled by the raw numbers.

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Weaknesses:

It’s hard to start anywhere other than his size. The NBA is not a small guards league. Richardson is small.

To a certain extent, he played bigger than his size. He’ll be around 6-foot-2 with shoes on, which isn’t terrible. He has the wingspan and hand size that, say, Rob Dillingham didn’t (which was why I was so down on the latter). But if you’re a small guard, you’re inevitably going to get picked on–even though I thought Richardson was an adequate defender.

Thus, I don’t think he finishes at a near-70-percent clip at the NBA level. How will he fare against bigger, better shot-blockers more consistently? Navigating those in-between spaces efficiently will be important for his ceiling.

While I don’t have many *long-term* questions about his ability to playmate or run an offense, he didn’t do that enough at Michigan State. No matter the situation, I think he’ll primarily operate as an off-ball guard as a rookie. But (how) does a developmental staff allow him to adjust from being a secondary or tertiary creator to a primary creator? Does his next coach trust him to run an offense and flow off movement? Those are questions that I’m curious to see answered.

Richardson also needs to develop a right hand. While he has craft with his handle, he’s always going left. That will be scouted at the NBA level.

Projection: Lottery Pick

Richardson is a player. Again, don’t be fooled by the numbers. He’s a fringe top-10 player for me in this class and should be treated as such. I don’t need him to be a guy who has 20-25 percent usage right away. I need him to function in an NBA offense while holding his own defensively. With how efficient he was, I feel comfortable that he’ll carve out a role for himself. It may take time, but he didn’t make many mistakes and blossomed as his role grew throughout the year. That matters.

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