BREAKING: Washington Wizards Select Will Riley 21st Overall | High UPSIDE Scorer?

BREAKING: Washington Wizards Select Will Riley 21st Overall | High UPSIDE Scorer?

the pick is in the Washington Wizards have made a selection in the 2025 NBA draft i’m Tenra Batist and I’m joined now by host of lockdown on Wizards Abdullah Aub and the Wizards have selected Will Riley the guard out of Illinois with the number 21 pick so Abdullah the Wizards get Riley by way of the Utah Jazz was this for you a good move bad move or more surprising move for me I say it’s surprising i think one thing for sure is that the I thought the Wizards are going to draft a big man i think the lack of depth in the front court is something that you need to address will Riley though is an intriguing prospect uh versatile scoring wing and does join a young court here in Washington 19 years old one thing that does concern me is his thin frame so I don’t know how much that is going to affect his transition into the NBA but he can definitely put on some weight but his ability to be a three-level score is something that I’m definitely going to be looking forward to for his rookie year and I’m hoping that the trade back that second round pick that they get they have to draft a big man because again the how thin they are at the front court it’s a little concerning and I just know Will Dawkins no matter what draft because just last year those three first round picks that you get you hit on all three draft picks in a weak draft class so Will Riley at 21 I can’t say I hate it i don’t want to say I love it it was just very surprising but knowing it’s Will Dawkins is regime picking it I’m all for it so I gotta ask what made it so surprising of a pick for you was there another pick that you felt like was maybe a bit more of a fit for what these Wizards need so for I think it was Asa No i think a guy like him he was supposed to potentially be late in the lottery but he’s been falling and I thought a guy like him maybe the fact that he and Alex Tar play the same position but I truly thought that you can put new in the four and then transition start to the five sar needs to be more aggressive i think that’s something that we’ll see come his sophomore year but Will Riley was just I didn’t think he could be a possibility at 18 and for sure I thought there was the idea of trading up for a guy in common mileatcher queen but they went out early early right after the top 10 so we’ll just we’ll have to see but again Will Dawkins this whole regime they know what they’re doing when it comes to drafting and we clearly saw that from last year’s draft so when you think about Will Riley and like you mentioned some of the upside there and some of the areas of improvement do you feel like he’s a player that truly does have maybe more of a higher ceiling versus say a high floor yeah he definitely h definitely has some potential i think um the the size of him at 68 averaged a little under 13 points per game last year uh the free throw percentage could get a little better i think that’s something that the Wizards just haven’t been really good last year with when it comes to the free throw line you got to make your free throws but I’m going back to the whole like thin being a thin wing is just something that especially if you want to be a guy that can score take you to the paint you’re going to be bruised a lot in today’s NBA and we expect him to be that wings uh that can score especially if Bal Kulabali doesn’t take that year three jump offensively yeah and obviously to get the number one pick in the draft like Alex are that means you’re not that good unless of course you’re talking about this year with a 1.8% chance and you’re the Dallas Mavericks or even a 3.7 or 3.7% chance that the Atlanta Hawks had in getting Zachary Reach but when you get up there in that space of where Reach and Sue where they were obviously you’re most often not that good of a team that said Abdullah when you look at this pick how does if at all especially in the short term how if at all does Will Riley help this DC team to just finally somehow find their way out of the dwell the I call it seller dweller of the East i think a big thing is just offensively the Wizards have been bottom five in a lot of offensive ratings and scoring wise when it comes to a young team it’s identity and you’re paired up with a lot of young guys in the team we got Bob Carrington Alex Sar Keshan George I don’t Will Riley Trey Johnson there’s going to be a lot of touches that need to be spread out and a guy in Will Riley can definitely make his uh mark sooner rather than later especially with the summer league coming up i’m excited to as much as I love Trey Johnson but Will Riley is now going to be an intriguing guy to watch come summer league and I can’t wait and again I don’t want to hate on the draft pick i’ll go back to the whole like who was there obviously I brought up Asa New but also a guy in Danny Wolf who I was a big fan of i thought he was a seven foot jokish the way he can move but again knowing Will Dawkins there’s always a plan and I think in the second round you have to go with the big man and just a real quick one for you it wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t asking you about Jordan P just real quick what are your thoughts on uh Wizards parting ways with him yeah it it sucks because for me I get attached to a lot of players and a guy in JP3 how he got better here in Washington was just so amazing to see i did think the compensation that we got back wasn’t as great i get the salary cap dump but at the end of the day the fact that Desmond Bane goes for four and protected first round picks Mikuel Bridges goes for five draft picks I get it those guys they are better than Jordan P don’t get me wrong but he could have net one first round pick to me it’s just it’s a little absurd but at the end of the day Will Dawkins realizes that he just didn’t fit the timeline here in Washington and he’s more focused on the development of guy like Bob Carrington there it is appreciate you Abdullah and for more on Will Riley here’s Locked on Ali host Sunny Burma will Riley might end up being one of the best scorers in this NBA draft my name is Sunny Verma your host of Locked on Alina and it was such a pleasure to cover Will all season long will came with a lot of fanfare he was the highest ranked recruit for Illinois in the modern era and he did not disappoint a three-level scorer who can find his own shot he can attack the rim he can shoot the three-point shot as the season progressed he got better with his playmaking skills and I would argue by season’s end Will Riley was the best player on a 22 win Ali team i don’t know where Will Riley’s going to eventually end in the NBA draft i do think he has potential to go in the late lottery pick but I will tell you one thing i think there’s going to be a lot of teams that are going to regret passing on him for continued coverage of Will Riley check out Locked on Wizards on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts what are the lockdown podcast network your team every

With the No. 21 Pick in the NBA Draft, the Washington Wizards select Will Riley. Tenitra Batiste and Locked On Wizards host Abdullah Ayubi break down the selection. #washingtonwizards #willriley #nbadraft

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