Will Richard mentioned in The Athletic's NBA Rookie Rankings
Will Richard, a standout on last season’s NCAA championship Florida Gators basketball team, is having a strong rookie season in the NBA with the Golden State Warriors. So much so that The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie has included Richard in his updated 2026 NBA Rookie Rankings, where he features 15 players.
Vecenie explained, “A refresher on this exercise: We rank the league’s top 15 rookies, based on how they have played in the NBA thus far, not as a projection of who they will become. This is a full-season ranking, not based on “who is playing the best right now.”
“What do I look for when I rank players? Minutes and roles matter. What is each rookie getting asked to do? How often are they seeing the court? Are they being asked to create offense? Is their role limited, and how successful are they in that role? How successful is the team with them within that role? What is the degree of difficulty of said role? Is the player logging major minutes on a good team or eating up minutes for a bad team?
This is an art, not a science. The rankings involve examining numbers and analyzing a painstaking amount of tape; I value the latter more.”
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Will Richard cracked the top 15 in the rookie rankings
Guard Cooper Flagg of the Dallas Mavericks sits in the No. 1 spot. He’s averaging 20.4 points, 6.6 rebounds and 4.1 assists. Chalotte Hornets guard/forward Kon Knueppel is No. 2.
Meanwhile, Richard is ranked No. 14. He averages 6.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.2 steals. He has played in 50 games, while starting 15 of them and averaging 19.2 minutes played.
Richard, the 56th overall pick in the 2025 Draft (second round) has been one of the most pleasant surprises in the NBA this season. He has been a valuable complementary player for the Warriors, who are 29-27 and currently the No. 8 team in the Western Conference standings. If the season ended today, they’d be in the playoffs.
Richard has scored in double-figures 13 times, and 15-plus points five times.
Richard is the only rookie from UF ranked. Here is the list.
| 1 | Cooper Flagg | Dallas Mavericks |
| 2 | Kon Knueppel | Charlotte Hornets |
| 3 | VJ Edgecombe | Philadelphia 76ers |
| 4 | Cedric Coward | Memphis Grizzlies |
| 5 | Dylan Harper | San Antonio Spurs |
| 6 | Derik Queen | New Orleans Pelicans |
| 7 | Collin Murray-Boyles | Toronto Raptors |
| 8 | Tre Johnson | Washington Wizards |
| 9 | Egor Demin | Brooklyn Nets |
| 10 | Ace Bailey | Utah Jazz |
| 11 | Jeremiah Fears | New Orleans Pelicans |
| 12 | Maxime Raynaud | Sacramento Kings |
| 13 | Ryan Kalkbrenner | Charlotte Hornets |
| 14 | Will Richard | Golden State Warriors |
| 15 | Hugo Gonzalez | Boston Celtics |