Golden State Warriors Have Found a Gem In Will Richard

Golden State Warriors rookie Will Richard, the 56th overall pick in the 2025 NBA draft, erupted for 30 points in his first career start on Wednesday.

Believe it or not, most of it was easy to see coming.

Nearly a month ago, head coach Steve Kerr was asked about Richard playing well enough to claim rotation minutes, and he told reporters: "He's making the right reads and rotations defensively ... I have no doubt when his name is called, he will play."

Kerr's praise began in training camp and continued into the early part of the season, but those direct and public comments didn't speak nearly as loudly as the whispers caught by mics in practice.

There's your ringing endorsement, the true sign Richard was more ready than most late second-rounders. That's not a pump-your-guy-up answer to a reporter's question. It's a sincere expression shared by two people who know what real players look like.

If you'd seen the 22-year-old play in October exhibitions or observed his spot minutes during the first couple of weeks of the regular season, you'd already have seen evidence to support Kerr and Jimmy Butler's belief in him.

Ready Right Away

Richard, a 6'5" wing with four years of college experience and 40 starts for the 2025 national champion Florida Gators, arrived as a highly developed rookie. Having seen the mountaintop as an amateur, he reacted to his breakout game with a professional's perspective.

Golden State suited up against the Sacramento Kings without Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green. Unsurprisingly, it lost. That fact meant more than anything else to Richard.

Though he may be best remembered for putting up 14 points in the first half of the National Championship against Houston, keeping his Gators in the game early, he isn't defined by his scoring. He topped out at 13.3 points per game at Florida and only shot 35.5 percent on threes for his college career.

Instead, Richard excels on the strength of his hustle, defense and general basketball smarts. He's a quintessential "right place, right time" guy—one whose positioning and timing have nothing to do with luck. Against the Kings, he made shrewd cuts into space to bail out teammates, snuck past snoozing defenders for offensive rebounds and ran the floor to create opportunistic scoring chances.

Is anyone outside the Warriors locker room talking about Richard today if he goes 2-of-8 from deep instead of 5-of-8? Probably not, but that doesn't diminish the consistency of his on-the-margins impact.

Golden State recognizes a quality contributor who adds value independent of his scoring, partly because it's also seen a lot of the opposite.

The Kuminga Contrast

It's ironic that Richard, not Jonathan Kuminga, led the way against the Kings as Golden State sat Curry, Green and Butler.

Kuminga spent his first four years bouncing in and out of the rotation because of a disconnect between the kind of player he thought he was and the kind of player the Warriors needed him to be.

Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

Thrust into the alpha role he's long craved, Kuminga wasn't quite good enough at it to beat a similarly shorthanded Kings team. He passed up a wide-open game-tying three-point attempt with less than a minute left, then turned what should have been a clean layup into a ridiculous fadeaway that clanged off the back of the rim.

For years, Kerr and the Golden State coaching staff implored a resistant Kuminga to do everything Richard does naturally. Only now, after a protracted offseason contract stalemate that almost certainly portends a trade-deadline exit, is he even halfway embracing the rebounding, cutting and effort the Dubs begged him to contribute for almost half a decade.

Nobody's going to argue Richard is a better player than the current version of Kuminga, whose abilities as an on-ball scorer and athletically overwhelming force (plus four extra years of pro experience) give him clear advantages, but it's impossible to miss the contrast.

Credit Where It's Due

Richard isn't going to crack the 30-point mark often this season, and Kerr's history suggests there may even be multi-game stretches where the rookie slips out of the rotation.

Then again, with so many vets needing frequent rest and the likelihood Kuminga is playing elsewhere in February, Richard could be in for a larger role than many of the young Warriors of the recent past.

Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images

Golden State seems to have figured out its type, and he fits into it. Last year, the Warriors snagged five-year collegian Quinten Post from Boston College at No. 52, and the 7-foot center worked his way into the rotation by burying 40.8 percent of his threes. The year prior, it was Trayce Jackson-Davis at No. 57. He's averaged 16.2 points and 11.0 rebounds per 36 minutes while starting over 50 games since entering the league.

These are exactly the kinds of hit-the-ground-running talents you need when the Kumingas of the world take four-plus years to adapt.

Richard's playing time will fluctuate. His 79.4 effective field-goal percentage won't hold up. But his consistent effort, high intelligence and fine-tuned feel are legit. He's a genuine NBA rotation player as a rookie, and he might even become something more than that for a Warriors team that needs exactly what he provides.

Stats courtesy of NBA.com, Basketball Reference and Cleaning the Glass. Salary info via Spotrac.

Grant Hughes covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Bluesky and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, where he appears with Bleacher Report's Dan Favale.