{"id":703244,"date":"2026-04-07T12:28:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703244\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T12:28:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:28:29","slug":"wizards-rookie-will-riley-is-a-creative-artist-on-and-off-the-basketball-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703244\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizards rookie Will Riley is a creative artist on and off the basketball court"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014 Will Riley has always sought artistic outlets.<\/p>\n

As a child, without taking a lesson, Riley taught himself to play the piano. He learned how to juggle. Around the seventh grade, he started cutting friends\u2019 hair, even setting up a makeshift barbershop in his mom\u2019s basement. He customized his own clothing, occasionally turning pairs of jeans into art pieces.<\/p>\n

When his family would gather for major holidays, he sometimes entertained everyone with juggling and magic shows. His mom used to joke with him that, if his basketball career didn\u2019t work out, he could always make a living as a circus performer.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I know about Will is that he\u2019s a very creative kid,\u201d his mom, Tracy Hooks-Riley, said in an interview.<\/p>\n

Riley still plays the piano \u2014 with one of his first NBA paychecks, he even purchased a baby grand \u2014 but these days, he saves most of his creativity for the basketball court.<\/p>\n

A 6-foot-10 rookie swingman, Riley has emerged as one of the Washington Wizards\u2019 most intriguing players, an impresario when he dribbles and drives to the hoop. With team officials sitting many other rotation players down the stretch, Riley has led the Wizards in scoring in five of their last six games, including a 31-point performance in a loss Saturday in Miami and a 30-point performance in a defeat Sunday in Brooklyn. His late-season surge could earn him votes for one of the league\u2019s two All-Rookie teams.<\/p>\n

The scoring totals indeed have impressed, but perhaps even more promising for his future, and for the Wizards\u2019 future, is how Riley has compiled his points. He plays with an artistry, a sophistication and a distinctive pace that sets him apart from most first-, second- and third-year players. He has excelled at finishing near the rim and at drawing fouls. He makes difficult shots against tight defenses, but he also manages to generate open shots for himself through his unpredictable dribbling, shifty footwork and improvisational use of his pivot foot.<\/p>\n

None of this has surprised his Wizards teammates. Bilal Coulibaly, the team\u2019s best perimeter defender, has played plenty of one-on-one against Riley. Coulibaly found it challenging.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s one guy I cannot guard. It\u2019s Will Riley \u2026,\u201d Coulibaly said. \u201cHe\u2019s just different. Like the way he moves, you don\u2019t see it really often. So that makes him really, really tough to guard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last two weeks, Riley has made accomplished veteran defenders such as the Golden State Warriors\u2019 Draymond Green, the Portland Trail Blazers\u2019 Jrue Holiday and the Los Angeles Lakers\u2019 Jarred Vanderbilt look foolish.<\/p>\n

On March 27 in San Francisco, Riley found himself guarded by Green one-on-one during the final eight seconds of the shot clock. Using hesitation dribbles and dekes<\/a>, he drove from the right wing to the basket, faking out Green with a modified show-and-go, up-and-under scoop layup.<\/p>\n

On March 30 in Los Angeles, Riley cut across the lane, toward the basket, and received a pass from Tristan Vuk\u010devi\u0107. Because Vuk\u010devi\u0107 led Riley a bit too much, Riley\u2019s momentum carried him along the baseline, heading to the court\u2019s right corner, with Vanderbilt draped over Riley\u2019s back. Riley maintained his dribble, rotated to his left and faked out Vanderbilt<\/a>. The sequence ended with Riley tiptoeing along the baseline for a dunk with Vanderbilt unable to contest the shot.<\/p>\n

Two days later, a reporter showed Riley video of that possession against the Lakers and asked him to describe how he maneuvered past Vanderbilt. \u201cI think it\u2019s just feel and just knowing where your defender is and just making a read off him,\u201d Riley answered.<\/p>\n

Riley sounded as if he had made a routine play. His response was almost a matter-of-fact response, as if he did not want to sound boastful. To team outsiders, he tends to appear quiet and almost unduly modest.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

\n An array of fakes, dekes and hesitation dribbles makes Will Riley a difficult player to guard. (Brad Mills \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

He does not need to tout himself, though. His teammates will do that for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cTiming peoples\u2019 dribbles is the best way to guard them,\u201d guard Bub Carrington said. \u201c\u2026 You can\u2019t time his dribble. He has a unique way of dribbling, a unique way of moving. So, in a way, you can\u2019t time him, you can\u2019t guess. So, you\u2019re always reacting (as a defender against him), you\u2019re never the aggressor. You\u2019re always reacting to Will. So, you react too late or you react not enough. You\u2019re going to foul him or whatever. He\u2019s got you from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley\u2019s statistics show how difficult he has been to guard. Since the All-Star break, he has made 49.8 percent of his shots overall and 34.8 percent of his 3-point tries.<\/p>\n

In that same span, Riley ranks in the 88th percentile among the league\u2019s wings in converting attempts at the rim and in the 89th percentile among wings in drawing shooting fouls, according to Cleaning the Glass, an advanced analytics database.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis efficiency, for someone who is so young in this league, that\u2019s pretty unique,\u201d Wizards coach Brian Keefe said. \u201cMost guys aren\u2019t that efficient, especially around the rim. His ability to get to the rim, his ability to get fouled, that stuff really stands out.\u201d<\/p>\n

If Riley is this efficient now, having turned just 20 years old in February, how much better can he become, especially when he\u2019s complemented by more experienced teammates? In recent weeks, he\u2019s played most of his minutes alongside players such as Carrington, Jamir Watkins, Justin Champagnie and Anthony Gill. Next year, he might earn a higher proportion of his minutes alongside Trae Young, Kyshawn George, Anthony Davis and Alex Sarr, who should all command opponents\u2019 attention to a greater extent than Carrington, Watkins, Champagnie and Gill do.<\/p>\n

These \u201cwhat ifs?\u201d make Riley\u2019s future especially tantalizing.<\/p>\n

If it sounds as if Riley came out of nowhere, there\u2019s a reason for that. During his one-and-done season at the University of Illinois, he started slowly. Although he was named the Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year, he did not make the conference\u2019s All-Freshman team. He was overshadowed by Rutgers\u2019 Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey, Maryland\u2019s Derik Queen, Michigan State\u2019s Jase Richardson and Illinois teammate Kasparas Jaku\u010dionis.<\/p>\n

He lasted until the 21st pick in the draft last June, and the Wizards acquired his draft rights (along with Watkins\u2019 draft rights and a pair of future second-round picks) from the Utah Jazz for Walter Clayton Jr.\u2019s draft rights. The trade has the potential to be one of the most insightful decisions that Washington\u2019s current front office has made.<\/p>\n

General manager Will Dawkins said the Wizards\u2019 scouts had studied Riley\u2019s game as far back as Riley\u2019s early prep school days in Ontario, Canada, viewing him as a potential ballhandler and offensive initiator.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew he kind of fit our profile,\u201d Dawkins said. \u201cWe spent a lot of time on the grassroots watching and seeing who he is as a player there. He was different than when he was at Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n

To put it another way, Dawkins and his scouts recognized a creativity in Riley\u2019s game that Riley didn\u2019t always have the opportunity to show in college but has always been there.<\/p>\n

Riley still plays the piano, about every other day when he\u2019s in town, for about 15 to 20 minutes at a time. He said it serves as a release when he\u2019s bored.<\/p>\n

His interest in music and his on-court skills stem from the same place.<\/p>\n

\u201cA creative mind,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel it takes me very far.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 Will Riley has always sought artistic outlets. As a child, without taking a lesson, Riley taught…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[7,7367,6,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":{"0":"post-703244","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-wizards","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-illinois-fighting-illini","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-wizards","13":"tag-washingtonwizards","14":"tag-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116363429075890950","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703244","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=703244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}