Why can't Josh Richardson be that guy?

[Chicagojk]

What makes you say this? Is it because of the role change during the playoffs? 

It seemed to me like Carlisle was his biggest fan, and he put off making that obvious change longer than most people thought was reasonable, but that's speculation, I guess. 

Still, we know that as far as analytics are concerned, Richardson was one of the worst rotation players on the team pretty much all season. We know that because @"Kammrath" told us so like once a week. I think it's fair to assume that Bob V or anyone else crunching numbers for the Mavs probably reached a similar conclusion, don't you? My hunch is that Carlisle was being semi-pressured to move Richardson to a much lower rung in the rotation by the end of the season, and BTW, that turned out to be a good move, right?

You are probably right.    My preference is we move on from him.   I also agree Rick gave him chances all year to fill the role he was asked to do.   Being relegated to the bench was  a big sign that they had given up on him as what they envisioned.   

But we have a new GM, and a new coach now.  Every player will be evaluated.  Some will play worse than they did under rick and hopefully some will play better.    Maybe they view Richardson (if he opts in) that there is not value there to move him and it would be better to see if you can get the Richardson from 2 years ago.   

I would be surprised if he is back, but I can see a scenario where he is on the roster next year.  Probably not likely.