Will Richard Makes Important Impact in Early Season
Amidst a brutal schedule to start the season, the Warriors have needed a lot of people to step up. Even with Jonathan Kuminga’s continued growth on all areas of the floor outside scoring and Moses Moody’s return to form after a rough stretch late last season due to injury, the team has had its fair share of early struggles, with veteran stars Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler both missing some time as the team works through a gauntlet of short rest and back-to-backs.
The struggle isn’t necessarily unexpected. The NBA’s abhorrent matchmaking has affected the Dubs more significantly than any other team at the beginning of the year: For one of the oldest teams in terms of average age in the league, it has the potential to cause issues late in another year where the Western Conference standings could have just a game’s difference between a top-4 seed and the play-in tournament. Guys like Kuminga and Moody stepping up is important to elevate this team to a contender, but when the stars have to take a seat, they’ll need even more contributions to stay afloat with the talent they’ll continue to face in this stretch.
Fortunately, the team’s front office delivered once again late in the second round on draft night, picking up former Florida guard and National Champion Will Richard with the 56th overall pick.
Richard has been a revelation in many of the ways that Moses Moody was when his minutes first became consistent. He’s a timely shot-maker, makes the right reads as a passer, and plays hard and disruptive on defense, all of which fill in a lot of the gaps that Golden State’s guards have missed with slower starts to the year or injury. It’s not hard with his play to see why his collegiate coach, Todd Golden, praised Will as an “elite culture-setter for the program” during the team’s run in the NCAA Tournament this past year.
He’s received some high praise from his teammates since coming to the NBA as well, most notably perhaps the best winner of the modern era: Stephen Curry.
"He knows he's got a lot of growth ahead of him, but for him to make his presence felt like that. That jump ball 50-50 ball, come down, hit a three, start talking... All that stuff matters because it lifts the whole group” Curry said of the former Gator in a postgame interview after a gritty win over the Denver Nuggets on October 23rd.
Richard’s buy-in with the Warriors seems to have some extra motivation on top of him being a flat-out winner, too. “I grew up watching the Warriors, so for me, Steph and Dray and all them, they made my childhood. So I feel like every time I’m on the court, I need to pay them back by going out there and playing harder” he told the media after a Sunday night win against the Pacers where he scored 15 points in just 19 minutes.
On top of a champion’s mentality and a self-implore to give it his all for the team he grew up watching, Will Richard brings a lot of game that enforces his deserving spot in the rotation. Throughout his 9 contests so far this season, he’s been taking 5.8 shots a game, converting on around 60% (and 40% on threes) of them by not forcing unnecessary difficulty. The bulk of his scoring comes from catch-and-shoot threes (shooting 50%) and touches within 10-feet of the basket (shooting 82.6%). Of his 3.4 field goals per game, 2.6 of them are coming without taking a dribble, good enough for 71% of his makes. Outside of the zone around the basket, he’s taken zero(!) shots where he isn’t considered Open or Wide Open, preferring instead to make the extra pass or thread the needle with a sharp read when a defender is considered Tightly or Very Tightly contesting him. He’s proven already that he can elevate his scoring beyond the fundamentals, however, something he did in the November 5th loss to the Kings where he put up an early career-high 30 points on 10-for-15 shooting (5-for-8 on threes).
Outside of his scoring, Richard’s an active presence on the floor, hawking 1.2 offensive rebounds a game of his 2.5 total, sporting a 2.7:1 assist-to-turnover ratio (1.6 assists to 0.6 turnovers a game), and converting 1.1 steals a game - which, per 36-minutes, would be 2.3 forced turnovers each night. While his on-ball defense leaves some room to improve (55.8% on defended field goals), his aptitude for getting into passing lanes and the way he moves on film indicate that with time, he can certainly bring that number lower once better-adjusted to the pace of the NBA.
While he has growth potential as a lead ball-handler, his scrappy defense and all-around offense have cemented him as a contributor when the vets head to the bench already. He’s one of the more likely candidates to see some reduced minutes once De’Anthony Melton is back from injury, but with the way he’s playing, he should certainly still see the floor regularly as he gets comfortable at this level. He has tools that are hard to teach, and the drive to maximize his talents on a Warriors squad that needs as much of them as he can muster.
Golden State continues their road trip tonight against the reigning champion Thunder, immediately heading to San Antonio for the second half of the back-to-back tomorrow and another game Friday against Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs. They’ll keep heading south for New Orleans over the weekend before wrapping up the tour with a back-to-back against the Orlando Magic and Miami Heat. With the stars and regular contributors looking at missing possible time for injury or necessary rest, many eyes will look to Will Richard for his continued success to try and help the Warriors get a few wins before heading back to the Bay next week.
(Photo credit: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)