Will Riley 2025 NBA Draft Profile

Will Riley 2025 NBA Draft Profile

We are less than one week away from the 2025 NBA Draft! Today, we will be previewing Illinois wing Will Riley! Let’s not waste any more time and jump right into it!

Height (no shoes): 6’8.25 (6’8.75 wingspan, 8’8 standing reach)

Weight: 185.6 lbs.

Draft Age: 19.4

Position: Wing

As a five-star prospect out of The Phelps School in Malvern, Penn., Riley was a top-20 recruit in his class, according to 247sports.com. He was the sixth-best small forward and the second-best player in his state, behind only Jalil Bethea. He chose Illinois over Kentucky, Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, Oregon and St. John’s, among others.

Fighting off a slow start, Riley averaged 12.6 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.2 assists across 35 games as a freshman, including nine starts. He shot 43.2 percent from the floor, 32.6 percent from 3-point range and 72.4 percent from the free-throw line.

Profile:

We’ll get into his handle in a little bit. But as the season went on, I was impressed with his ability to get to the rim without much burst or strength. He was decisive and he had a mixed bag of moves that he became more comfortable deploying, even though I have serious questions about how functional his ballhandling actually is (more on that below).

However, when I watched Riley early in the season, he was … kind of invisible when he was on the court. He improved, but that still didn’t feel much different; for the most part, he didn’t tangibly impact the game outside of his shooting … which was inconsistent, at best.

Riley is a poor ballhandler. It was looser than an untied shoe. He didn’t have great control with either hand in traffic, even though he tried to keep defenders off-balance with his “bag,” as the kids like to say.

I think Riley can function well off-ball at the next level, but I have serious questions about his ceiling as an on-ball creator. He doesn’t move very well at 6-foot-8 with stiff hips, a poor first step and mediocre change of direction. As a result, he’ll have a hard time getting to his spots and will have a difficult time creating any separation until he gets stronger.

His shot was too inconsistent; he was billed as a lights-out shooter out of high school, and while his form was pretty fluid, the results never came together. He was confident as an in-between pull-up jump shooter, but he made just 36.6 percent of his non-rim 2s, according to Barttorvik. He was best around the rim. He’s going to have to be relegated to a Morey Ball (3s and layups) shot diet to start.

Riley was a bad defender, point blank. He has a remarkably thin frame with uninspiring length. At times, he looked confused about where to be off-ball and didn’t present enough physicality, disruption or quickness on-ball to expect positive results (right away). That’s a huge work in progress. He didn’t deal with physicality very well (on either end) and he’ll have a bullseye on his chest early in his NBA career if he doesn’t adopt a Nikola Jovic-esque diet: Lots of PB&Js and filet mignons!

Projection: Late First Round

I have a second-round grade on Riley. I was (and still am) of the belief that he should’ve returned back to school. He has potential, but he’s rawer than an uncooked steak. He’s a pure upside play in the first round that I’m not sure I’ll take a flyer unless I guarantee he enters a situation where he won’t have to produce right away. He grew offensively, but he’s going to have to get much stronger and more fluid before I believe his potential becomes legit.

***

Click Here for more NBA Content

Subscribe to Vendetta’s Twitch

Subscribe to Vendetta’s YouTube

Check out the Vendetta Shop

Check out Vendetta Fantasy Contests