Despite his success throughout a three-year tenure at Florida, guard Will Richard faced an uphill battle in carving out a role at the professional level.
A late second-round draft pick by the Golden State Warriors, Richard was tasked with securing playing time in a loaded Warriors backcourt, with likely future Hall of Fame talents in Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, and it was hardly a given Richard would see the court from the jump.
Yet the first three weeks of the 2025-26 NBA season have seen Richard emerge as one of the top rookies in the class considering his Draft status, with a 30-point performance in his lone start less than a week ago in the Warriors' 121-116 loss to the Sacramento Kings. Richard and Philadelphia 76ers guard VJ Edgecombe, a first round pick out of Baylor University, are the lone rookies thus far to record 30 points or more thus far this season.
In his two appearances since a 30-point outing against the Kings, Richard has scored in double-digits on each occasion – a 12-point performance in the Warriors' 25-point loss to the Denver Nuggets and a 15-point showing in Sunday's 114-83 win over the Indiana Pacers.
Meanwhile, Richard continues to draw rave reviews from his newfound teammates, along with head coach Steve Kerr.
"Will's been amazing. Really early on in camp, I didn't know a whole lot about him when we got him, but really early on in camp you could see he really knew how to play," Kerr said Sunday night after the Warriors' win over the Pacers. "You could see he was constantly making the right cut, the right pass. He's solid, his fundamentals are fantastic, you can see all the experience he's had in big games coming in here. Will, he's a ball-player, and we're excited to have him, and he's going to contribute quite a bit for us this year, like he did tonight."
The 6-foot-5, 210-pound Richard is averaging 10.1 points and 2.6 rebounds per contest through nine games this season, having connected on 59.6 percent of his field-goal attempts. He's showcased his ability to score at all three levels, shooting 40.7 percent from three-point range while adding 14 assists. His defensive prowess has been apparent, too, with 10 steals to date, leading Butler to praise the rookie post-game Sunday night.
"He's a winner, he's hella smart, but I think the thing that I love the most about Will is his ability to listen," Butler said. "You tell him what to do, to the best of his ability he's going to do it, whether it's on offense or whether it's on defense, you know. It's really hard to try to please everybody, because you can be told five different things by five different people, and he's the type of human being that's going to try to do all five of those things that everybody's telling him, that could totally contradict each other. He's a hella fine listener, and whatever you tell him to do, he understands it's to win, so he's going to do it, and he just looks incredible."
Butler added he's provided Richard with advice thus far as he looks to continue his impressive start to his rookie season.
"I always say, like, to everybody, your time's coming. We don't know, I damn sure don't know when, but I was you at one point in the league, too, and it's always be ready, it's always going to be the next man up," Butler said. "When his number's called and his name's called, he shows up in a big way, so he just needs to keep going with that. You show up, you work out, you train, you do everything the same way, when your number's called you go out there and compete at a high level, you show up like he's been doing these past couple games."