{"id":147025,"date":"2025-07-04T16:14:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T16:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/147025\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T16:14:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T16:14:15","slug":"utah-jazz-select-will-riley-in-2025-nba-draft-trade-to-washington-wizards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/147025\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah Jazz select Will Riley in 2025 NBA Draft, trade to Washington Wizards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Illinois<\/a> F Will Riley<\/a>, after reclassifying up, was one of the top freshmen and reserves in the Big Ten. With that, he\u2019s made his way all the way up into being a one-and-done selection in the NBA Draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Utah Jazz have selected Riley in the 2025 NBA Draft, but will flip him to the Washington Wizards. They did so with their No. 21 overall pick.<\/p>\n

Riley made 35 appearances, just nine being starts as he primarily came off the bench, as a freshman for the Fighting Illini. He averaged 12.6 points (43.2% FG, 32.6% 3PT on 1.3 makes), 4.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in those outings, which would have him as their third-leading scorer after taking the most shots this season for Illinois. With that, Riley would go on to win Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s after Riley, a native of Kitchener, Ontario in Canada, came down to play in high school at The Phelps School<\/a> in Malvern, Pennsylvania. He, following his re-class, would finish as a Top-30 recruit as a four-star prospect in the 2024 cycle<\/a>. He also finished rated as the No. 10 SF and the No. 2 player out of the state, behind only Jalil Bethea<\/a> (Miami<\/a>, Alabama<\/a>). That\u2019s according to the On3 Industry Ranking<\/a>, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.<\/p>\n

What NBA Draft experts are saying about Will Riley<\/p>\n

With his re-class, Riley is among the younger names in this draft class. That, per On3\u2019s James Fletcher<\/a> coming out of the NBA Draft Combine, makes him a great development piece, especially considering where his offensive game already is.<\/p>\n

\u201cWill Riley is a high-powered offensive prospect, who is also one of the youngest players in the class this year. He slowly grew into his role in college, ending his freshman year with offensive firepower worthy of watching,\u201d wrote Fletcher in May<\/a>. \u201cThe defense remains a work-in-progress, but he possesses all the physical traits needed to add strength and improve there.\u201d<\/p>\n

RotoWire.com saw much of the same, despite him not playing as much as a reserve, in their draft profile of Riley<\/a>. They see a wing scoring prospect, at six-foot-eight, with other tools and time still to become a quality pro in the association.<\/p>\n

\u201cRiley was expected to be a 6-foot-8 point guard in college, but he didn\u2019t have the chance to play as a floor general at Illinois, so his handling and vision didn\u2019t develop as one would\u2019ve imagined. Despite the limited minutes he had as a bench player, Riley showed the ability to score near the rim and handle isolation plays, and his frame will help him succeed at the next level in individual duels, particularly if he stays as a guard and is not moved to a forward role,\u201d they wrote. \u201cHe reads the game very well and tends to make himself available in offensive situations due to his smart cutting to the rim. He has an above-average IQ and can make plays with ease on both ends of the court. He\u2019s also an efficient defender, and again, his size will allow him to become an above-average defender, or even better, if he continues to evolve and gain strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRiley didn\u2019t have the chance to be a regular for Illinois, but he didn\u2019t need to log heavy minutes to show the kind of player he might be at the next level,\u201d they wrote. \u201cHe\u2019s a player who has all the physical tools to be a solid player across the board, but his shooting and handling aren\u2019t top-tier yet. However, he compensates for that with excellent IQ and solid defensive skills across the board. He may have to earn his stripes as a wing defender before being given more offensive responsibilities at the NBA level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Illinois F Will Riley, after reclassifying up, was one of the top freshmen and reserves in the Big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,6,682,468,3892,1492,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-147025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-washington","11":"tag-washington-wizards","12":"tag-washingtonwizards","13":"tag-will-riley-25-the-phelps-school","14":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114795857150742984","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}