{"id":520988,"date":"2026-01-06T21:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T21:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/520988\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T21:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T21:07:11","slug":"orlando-magic-rookie-jase-richardson-continuing-to-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/520988\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando Magic rookie Jase Richardson continuing to help"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday\u2019s game between the Magic<\/a> and Pacers<\/a> marked the 36th contest of the regular season for Orlando<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That number happens to be the same amount of games rookie Jase Richardson<\/a> played during his lone season at Michigan State before he declared for the NBA<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although Richardson has only appeared in 25 of the 36 contests so far in his rookie campaign, the near first-half of his first year as a professional has been tiring for the 20-year-old who\u2019s continued to adjust to his new life in Orlando.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to lie, I\u2019m exhausted,\u201d Richardson said after the Magic outlasted the Pacers at Kia Center<\/a>. \u201cIt feels like Game 66 already, but (I\u2019m) just maintaining my body, making sure I\u2019m staying as positive as I can (and) staying healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the experience has been taxing at times for the young guard whom the Magic took No. 25 in June\u2019s draft, Richardson has only grown more comfortable each time he steps on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just kind of feel my confidence growing from each game, just learning something new,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His numbers back up his talk.<\/p>\n

Before facing the Wizards<\/a> on the road Tuesday night, Richardson had appeared in each of the past 11 games, averaging 7.7 points on 37.9% shooting from 3-point range with 1.8 rebounds, 1.8 assists and half-a-steal during 16.9 minutes per night.<\/p>\n

In his most recent outing, when he played a season-high 27 minutes against the Pacers, Richardson knocked down two 3-pointers to finish with 12 points, four assists and zero turnovers.<\/p>\n

Magic guard Desmond Bane<\/a>, who specifically pointed out that Richardson ended with a team-best plus-minus rating of plus-14 against Indiana, saw firsthand over the summer the type of player the rookie could be for Orlando.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe thing that I learned about that kid from the first week is, he\u2019s not scared of the moment,\u201d Bane said. \u201cOpen gym, I\u2019m chirping at him, going at him and he (was) coming right back at me, so I was like, \u2018OK, I like this kid.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was in the game in the fourth quarter playing very meaningful minutes,\u201d Bane added. \u201cIt\u2019s big for him, big for his development, and we\u2019re going to need him. We\u2019re going to need to continue to lean on him.\u201d<\/p>\n

What Richardson lacks in height (he\u2019s listed at 6-foot-1), he makes up for with his energy on both ends of the court.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s scored in double figures five times and has recorded at least one steal eight times.<\/p>\n

The Magic will continue to need more of the same from Richardson as the team operates without All-Defensive guard Jalen Suggs, who was ruled out of Tuesday\u2019s contest at Washington<\/a> after previously being listed as doubtful on the team\u2019s initial injury report due to a right knee Grade 1 MCL bruise.<\/p>\n

Orlando travels to Brooklyn<\/a> on Wednesday for the second night of a back-to-back on the road.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether he\u2019s getting five minutes or 15, 20 minutes, he\u2019s just coming out there with a lot of energy,\u201d teammate Paolo Banchero<\/a> said about Richardson. \u201cHe\u2019s just aggressive and we want him to be aggressive when he\u2019s out there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe just does a great job of coming in there and giving us a spark.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next \u2026<\/p>\n

Magic at Nets<\/p>\n

When: 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Barclays Center<\/p>\n

TV:\u00a0FanDuel Sports Network Florida<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Sunday\u2019s game between the Magic and Pacers marked the 36th contest of the regular season for Orlando.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3779],"tags":[7,165,48,6,47,76,3883,1412,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-520988","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-orlando-magic","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-latest-headlines","10":"tag-magic","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-orlando","13":"tag-orlando-magic","14":"tag-orlandomagic","15":"tag-social","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115850198695597107","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}