Will Riley’s 25-Point G League ERUPTION Proves Washington Wizards Made PERFECT Development Decision

Will Riley’s 25-Point G League ERUPTION Proves Washington Wizards Made PERFECT Development Decision

Will Riley just exploded in his Capital City Go debut? I think he’s too good for the G-League, but this was the right decision to have him get those reps there. Let’s talk about it on Locked on Wizards. You are Locked On Wizards, your daily Washington Wizards podcast, part of the Locked On Network. Your team every day. DC family, you’re locked on to the Washington Wizards where you’re part of our family. We thank you for making Locked on Wizards your first listen every single day. We’re part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, the number one sports podcast network in the nation where it’s your team, the Washington Wizards Every Day. Ben Strober taking you through this one today on your Wizards wrap-up. Every single week if we have a little bit of bonus content for you like we do today, typically around 15 to 20 minutes, we’re going to call it the Wizards wrap-up. Shout out to our friends with the Lockdown Mavericks podcast. They’ve coined theirs as one more thing, so I kind of stole the bit uh but spun it in my own way. Wizards wrap-up comes to you today because Will Riley, Wizards first round pick, 21st overall in the 2025 draft, exploded in his Capital City Go debut yesterday. 25 points, seven assists, six rebounds on 11 of 18 shooting. was a plus seven in the Capital City Go debut for the kid out of Illinois. Super excited uh to see him get this opportunity uh to get the reps in the G- League. And at the last time that we recorded, we were with Danny Rouier from the Grant and Danny show. Uh he had yet to been optioned to the Capital City Go. We felt like it was something that might happen at some point throughout the season here uh with this Will Riley kid because he’s not getting a lot of reps at the NBA level so far. And I know he’s flashed at times when he’s gotten those opportunities out here for the Wizards. But with that being said, I don’t want to see him rot on the bench in a lot of these games because if Brian Kee’s not going to play him, he needs to get those opportunities somewhere else. And that’s exactly what I want to get into today. I think he’s too good to be in the G-League if I’m being honest with you. I think he already has the skills to that he possesses where he could get minutes at the NBA level. But this was the right decision for the Wizards to have him playing in the GLeague and get the opportunities to go boost his confidence, showcase himself. Went through and watched some of the tape. Uh shout out to Riley who posted this on Twitter. Uh so I got to finally see some of the clips of him. Super impressed with his innate ability to attack the basket, go up, uh absorb some of the contact, go up and finish. You know, this is a guy with a pretty slight frame in Will Riley. uh when he entered in the draft process at 6’8 195 pounds, you knew the weight, the slight frame was something people had some concerns with, but it’s not going to be an issue long term, I don’t think. Give him weight room, give him time, give him an opportunity to develop, and I think he can be a really special player coming off the wing for this Wizards team. Just think about the way people around the organization have talked about Will Riley, especially because what he did in the preseason. We saw that flash in the game against the New York Knicks where he went 7-Eleven uh seven of 11, excuse me, from the field. Super efficient. Uh looked really good as a playmaker as well. And that’s another underrated aspect of his game, the seven assists yesterday. I’ll get more into his playmaking ability as well. But overall, I think this is the right decision to get him these reps with a Capital City Go because I want to see him possess some confidence into his game. I’m going just look at the game logs where he’s checked into some games. The only games he’s played 10 minutes or more, uh that’s three contests against Cleveland, New York, and Boston. Those were all games where the Wizards were getting blown out. And I know the Wizards are in a situation right now where there’s going to be plenty of opportunities where they are getting blown out and you’ll see him play plenty of minutes in those opportunities. But right now, when you just, you know, look at some of the most recent games, Houston only checked in for three minutes in a blowout game against OKC. He only played five. He only played four against Dallas, four against Milwaukee in the season opener. He’s not getting enough opportunities at the NBA level as it currently stands right now. And he’s a raw talent. At 19 years old, Will Riley, he spent just one year in college basketball out of Illinois where he was the Big 10 six-man of the year. One of the best freshman in that entire class. He came off the bench for that Illinois team, but kind of developed himself into this six-man starter hybrid role for that Illinois team because of how good he was as a scorer. He played in all 35 games, only made eight starts, but he was still third on the team in scoring. 12 and a half points per game for Illinois, four rebounds, two assists. 22 games where he scored in double figures. I think you’re looking at a guy that’s a really fun developmental project here for the Washington Wizards. And I talked to Chase Hughes uh a lot when I go over to Capital One Arena. And one of the things that he said to me is Will Riley is going to be a special player. He’s going to be a special dude. And I had some conversations with Chase saying, you know, you know what gives you this idea? Like I can see it. I see the vision you have there. But he says just watching him uh within the practice facility and what others were saying around him like the other players on the Washington Wizards when they speak to the media spoke really highly of Will Riley, you know, despite him being such a young guy in this team. So that gives me a lot of confidence for what we can see out of a guy in Will Riley. You know, going back to the point I made with him not getting enough opportunities at the NBA level, he had only taken, let’s pull up the totals here, 18 field goal attempts uh through the first eight or so games that he played in this season. And 18 attempts just isn’t enough for a guy that has a lot of offensive upside. When you have a guy with his level of ability to handle the basketball, to shoot from the outside, uh to get it done, uh you know, penetrating to the basket, beating his man off the bounce, that’s something Will Riley can do, but he’s going to need to polish his game from that standpoint. Find ways to improve himself, find ways to get his confidence up. It’s just not going to happen now at the NBA level. I think if he actually got plenty of minutes for this Wizards team, I think he’d be fine. I think he’d have his ups and downs the way any rookie player would. Kind of like we’re sim uh seeing with Trey Johnson. I think Trey Johnson obviously a much more NBA ready player right now. So, I’m not like trying to make any proclamation like that that Will Riley would be out there as one of like the lead players as a rookie. I think it’s smart though that you have him playing with the go- go, allowing him to build up his confidence, allowing him to see what he can do when he asserts himself because if you get him up here at the NBA level at this point, really, really early on in his career, just 12 games into an NBA career, he’s not going to get the opportunity to showcase himself as a guy that can be an alpha type of player that can do it all for this Wizards team. Now that you have him playing for the go- go where he can be the number one option for a period of time, I think you’re looking at a really fun developmental process with him. I love what Will Dawkins has tried to build here where you can get these project type players like Will Riley later in the first round. I know the Wizards are probably going to pick 30th uh late in the first round this year. So maybe if that pick doesn’t get moved at some point for the Wizards, you see them take another project. And then you got a couple second round picks as well, uh, where you can get these project type players and send them to the go- go. But Will Riley, I think, is going to be a really good player for a long time here in Washington. And I’m not even just basing that based on one performance that he had with the go- go here. I think there’s a lot more uh to the story, a lot of layers to his game that are super special. Brad Underwood, the head coach of Illinois, he said he was the second highest or second best tough shotmaker he ever coached. This was a guy that was a freshman last year playing in the Big 10 conference. I remember watching him last year because I was a guy at Maryland. I was calling Maryland games. Got to see him play against Illinois and he flashed for me when I saw him play and I didn’t really know a lot about his NBA draft uh projection at that point whether he was going to be a guy that would actually come out in this draft, you know, despite being a freshman and not even starting for that Illinois team. But once I did some more research and dug a little bit more into this guy and what real Riley can be, I was like, “Okay, I’m a bit intrigued by this.” Because if we’re really an organization that preaches development and how we bring guys up through the Capital City Go, that’s exactly what I wanted to see overall is that we took a guy with super high upside like Will Riley. A lot of these picks that we’ve been making have been these upside players. I know in the second round Jir Watkins he’s a bit older and that’s a bigger swing actually to take a player that’s a little bit older at 23 almost 24 years old from Jir Watkins he’s got that experience to help you out on the defensive side of the basketball and now he’s another project that the Capital City go trying to work the kinks out. When is Will Riley going to get his NBA opportunity? I think he’s going to have plenty as the season goes on. That’s really the bottom line for me if we see him continue to play at this level in the go- go. I know it’s just been one game so far. Uh, but I think he’s really too good to be there at this point. I think he’s going to shine in in the majority of the games that he plays and he’s going to carve out quite the role for himself at some point in this organization. There’s a lot to love within his game from his reach. I think he’s going to be a guy that when he puts on the weight through the weight room and through this program developing him, I think he can provide upside as a defender as well because of his reach and the wingspan. Uh, and then this the offensive ability to kind of mold him into this like mini Keshan George type of player right now because you can maybe use him as like this point forward type of role. If you develop Keshan and Will Riley to be such great, you know, playmakers for this team, these point forward de facto type point guards at some point, then you’re looking at a situation where maybe you can swing and get a guy like Darren Peterson in this draft. He’s not necessarily a true point. he does have the ability to break down the defense, but maybe more of a true two kind of alongside Trey Johnson. And then maybe you’re not as worried about not having a pure point guard on the roster because we know that’s kind of the main issue that this Wizards team is is running into right here at this point. All right, we’re going to take a quick break. When I come back, I’m going to tell you when I think Will Riley’s going to get those opportunities and what it’ll look like eventually when he gets gets up here to the NBA level. The NBA season is heating up and Door Dash has found the perfect way to keep fans in their bag all season long. Whether you’re watching for the highlights, your fantasy team, or just your favorite player, Door Dash makes every game night even better. Door Dash is the official on demand delivery platform of the NBA and they’re celebrating with something called the Bag Drop. Every time an NBA player scores 50 points in a game, Door Dash drops 50% off your order with Dash Pass the next day and you’re automatically entered for a chance to win the ultimate fan bag. 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It delivers three times the electrolytes of half the sugar of leading brands using a science-based formula trusted by medical professionals, firefighters, and over 90% of collagen proteins. I like using Drip Drop as part of my daily routine. I mix a packet in the morning before I go to the gym or sometimes during that midday slump. It tastes amazing. My go-to flavor is the lemon lime and it becomes my secret weapon for staying sharp and energized throughout these long days. Right now, Drip Drop is offering podcast listeners 20% off your first order. Go to dripdrop.com and use promo code lockdown NBA. That’s dripdrop.com. Promo code lockdown NBA for 20% off. Stock up now before the heat hits hard and keeps your body and mind performing at their best with Drip Drop. I’m so giddy right now. I’m psyched that Will Riley had this type of performance at the GoGo. So many people were so frustrated yesterday to see the news that he got assigned with the Capital City Go. And I was waiting for this to happen. honestly because I was tired of seeing him not get opportunities at the NBA level. This guy needs to figure out who he is as a player. He has the innate ability uh to get to the rim to playmake for others. He’s got skills to his game. He needs to polish it. He only played a year of college basketball. Like everybody needs to keep that in mind. He needs reps. He needs reps. And if you’re not getting that at the NBA level, you got to go down to the go- go and really develop. The Wizards have developed a pretty good track record so far with the Capital City Go developing these pieces and by the time we get post trade deadline, I think we’re going to see a lot of Will Riley at the NBA level and I think he’s going to look really, really good. There’s so many possibilities that you can think about with a player in Will Riley and how he’s going to fit into this rotation. And I know sometimes injury is a big part of it. You never know uh you know what the status is going to be of some of these guys moving forward because we don’t even know what this organization is going to look like two years from now. Who’s going to be here? Who’s not? Because the Wizards are in this asset gathering phase. You’re trying to find as many assets as you can. See what works, see what doesn’t, and try to build your organization through that. But one thing Will Dawkins, Michael Winger, Travis Schlank, they’ve done throughout this draft, they’ve done their due diligence. They’ve been looking at this kid Will Riley since he was in high school. Dawkins gives a lot of credit to these grassroots scouts that go and scout players as early as high school to see what kind of, you know, ability they have at that level. They start to keep tabs on players as young as 15 years old. And now that Will Riley at 19 years old and playing minutes for the go- go and finally getting an opportunity to showcase himself as an offensive player. This just means that the organization believes in him. You don’t demote a guy because you don’t feel like he contribute to your team right here. They demote a guy like Will Riley to the Capital City Go because they know he can be a great offensive player in this league, but he needs the reps to get that done. It’s exciting to think about like we’re in a prosperous era of Wizards basketball where we’re finally as an organization doing things right in terms of player development. All of the best model organizations have developed their players this way. You gather assets, you develop them as the time goes on. you’re rebuilding, you’re losing plenty of games, but you’re acquiring assets to build alongside. And with a player like Will Riley, and I think the ability he has as a playmaker that we saw early on in the preseason and some of the limited minutes he’s had at the NBA level, I think that’s something that’s going to be really valuable to this team going forward, especially in the second half of the season. And I know it hasn’t quite worked out for Bub Carrington trying to play in the point guard position and that’s why the team has kind of deferred to Keshan George in a lot of these situations, but maybe at some point if things aren’t working out with Bub, if you know he doesn’t progress at all. I still hold out hope uh that he’s going to work out in the future as a combo guard, maybe not necessarily in the role that they’ve thrown him into this year. If it’s not working in the second half of the season, hopefully you don’t have CJ McCullum here anymore. You trade him away for some assets. You don’t have Chris Middleton anymore. or whether those guys are traded or bought out. I I hopefully that’s the happen that that’s what happens because I want to see the young guys like Will Riley get the opportunities to play and maybe you see a possibility where you have Will Riley come in and kind of be your deacto point guard in certain situations. I don’t want to necessarily see him doing that all the time because I don’t think it necessarily does him u you know the most justice to have him playing in some kind of like lead point guard role. But maybe you see him mold himself into the Keshan George role a little bit where you can kind of maybe take the weight off Keshan a little bit as you go down the stretch because man, it makes it that much more impressive for Keshan George what he’s done this season in terms of kind of filling into that role because I don’t think they anticipated this necessarily when they drafted him. Obviously, he was a point guard at Miami. They knew he had these skills, but you drafted this wing player because shooting was the biggest sell for him and he’s been great as a shooter. Talking about Keshan George from the outside, but we haven’t even got that opportunity to see him getting a lot of catch and shoot opportunities right now because he’s been the primary ball handler. Maybe at some point later in this season, Will Riley gets his opportunities post trade deadline and you see him get reps as a primary ball handler. Take the weight off Keshan George and see what Will Riley can do. I was I was really happy yesterday when we were talking to Danny Ruier and he gave us his perspective on what the Wizards are doing, how they did it with Alex Sar, what they’re doing right now with Trey Johnson where it’s kind of this like sink or swim mentality. Maybe some people don’t agree with it, but I definitely hear Danny’s point when he says you throw these guys out there and see what they can handle. And I feel like that’s what we’re going to get to with Will Riley eventually. He’s not ready for that as it stands right now. That’s why he’s playing with the go- go. Um, but he’s getting his confidence up right there. He’s seeing what he has as an offensive player and really getting the shots he needs to get. I brought it up earlier, only 18 shots through the nine or so games that he’s checked in. It’s just not enough for a guy in Will Riley. When we get to the later part of the season, Will Riley is going to get plenty of opportunities for this team. I think he’s going to thrive. I think him playing with the go- go right now is a massive, massive step in his development. I think it’s going to pay dividends in the end. and we might see some of those returns as early as this year. This is obviously a big time project talking about Will Riley, but I think right now as it stands, it’s going to be a pretty pretty solid thing going forward for this Wizards team just because of the abilities he has. And now you’re in this you’re in this situation here in Washington where you have so many different guys playing on the wing. You’re just trying to see what works. And if Riley ends up being one of those guys, you’re going to put yourself in a great position going forward for this organization. And so final message to you guys here to close out this Wizards wrap-up. I know it might be frustrating that Will Riley is not getting minutes at the NBA level and everybody wants to see the rookies playing a ton. This was what was best for Will Riley. He needs to get his confidence up. He needs to get his shots up. This was a good decision for Will Riley. I hope he continues to thrive down there at the G-League level. And who knows, maybe it’ll be sooner rather than later we see him back up at the NBA level getting significant minutes because I think we all know we want to see that as we move along here. All right, we want to thank you for making Lockdown Wizards this Wizards wrap-up your first listen every single day part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. It’s your team every day, the Washington Wizards. Let us know how you’re feeling about Will Riley. Is he too good for the G-League? I think he is, but this is the right decision. Do you agree? Let me know down in the comments. Wizards and Nets tomorrow. We’ll be out there at Capital One Arena for the coverage. Stay tuned for it. For now, I’m Ben Strober for Lockdown Wizards. We’ll catch you later, DC family.

Washington Wizards rookie Will Riley explodes for 25 points in Capital City Go-Go debut. Was sending the first-round pick to the G League the right move?

Ben Strober breaks down Will Riley’s impressive performance with the Wizards’ G League affiliate, analyzing why the 21st overall pick needed developmental reps despite being “too good” for that level. The discussion covers Riley’s limited NBA opportunities under Brian Keefe, his offensive toolkit from his Illinois days, and an insider perspective on why Riley could become a special player. Key topics include the Wizards’ player development philosophy under Will Dawkins and Michael Winger, Riley’s potential as a point-forward alongside Keyshawn George, and how post-trade deadline opportunities could accelerate his NBA role.

Can Riley’s playmaking ability solve Washington’s point guard issues? Will his slight frame hold him back, or does his tough shot-making translate to the NBA level?

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