A lot has changed in the last year for Will Riley. On June 23, 2024, Riley committed to Illinois as the program’s highest-rated recruit since 2002. Just a year later, on June 25, 2025, Riley heard his name called in the first round of the NBA Draft.
“I feel like it went by crazy fast,” Riley said. “It feels like yesterday I was in high school and I committed to Illinois and now in the NBA. It’s crazy.”
After being the youngest player on a very young Illini roster last season, Riley is going to another youthful team to begin his professional career: the Washington Wizards.
Washington has one of the most inexperienced rosters in the NBA, but the pieces that they have are all talented. In Riley’s own rookie class, he is joined by No. 6 overall pick Tre Johnson, a fellow 19-year-old collegiate star and the 2025 SEC Freshman of the Year. Add in 2024 No. 1 overall pick Alex Sarr, No. 14 pick Bub Carrington, No. 24 pick Kyshawn George and 2023 No. 7 overall pick Bilal Coulibaly, and the Wizards have a very promising young core.
Riley is excited for the opportunity to build from the ground up and develop with a large contingent of the roster that is relatively new to the league, just like him.
“I feel like it’s the perfect fit, just being able to grow with a bunch of guys who are around the same age as me,” Riley said. “Just being able to learn together and just being able to hold each other accountable is a great feeling.”
The first opportunity for Riley to get together with his young teammates was at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas last month. Riley only played in two of the team’s five games; he was held out of the final three games with an injured thumb.
Riley’s pro debut was with a five-point outing on 2-6 shooting, and he also chipped in three rebounds and three assists. Surrounded by all of Washington’s other young talent, he was not going to have the ball in his hands all the time. However, Riley still played at a solid level and his next and final game of Summer League was more efficient offensively. Riley dropped 16 points, going an almost perfect 5-6 from the field, and dished out three assists again.
With only two Summer League games under his belt, it is unfair to make any conclusions about how Riley’s game is transitioning to the NBA. Even so, Riley himself feels confident that the tools that led to his success at the college level, especially the last couple of months of the season, are already starting to translate to the pros.
“I think my ability to make reads, I feel like I translate (that) at any level,” Riley said. “So I feel like that’ll never change. And just being able to make reads and my IQ, I feel like translates very well.”
Riley has been touted as one of the most skilled players in his draft class, and he has shown that he has all of the offensive tools to be a successful pro. The questions for him have always come with his strength, and with that, his defensive capabilities. Riley recognizes that, and while he put on a lot of weight while at Illinois, he is continuing to prioritize his body ahead of his rookie season.
“I’ve just been super focused on the weight room, gaining weight, that type of stuff,” Riley said. “That’s been my biggest goal so far.”
Outside of his continued physical development, the 2025 Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year is also looking forward to learning from the Wizards’ proven players. Even though Washington has such a young roster, they have two very successful, experienced veterans who will provide valuable mentorship for Riley this season. NBA Champion and three-time All-Star Khris Middleton, along with 12-year veteran and career 21.1 point per game scorer CJ McCollum, were both added to the roster via recent trades.
“They just have so much experience on me, so just picking their brain when it comes to little things like defensive schemes, offensive schemes, different things like how to carry yourself and stuff like that, I just feel like it’d be important to learn,” Riley said.
The Wizards will begin training camp in about a month, with the preseason schedule set to begin October 12. Riley is slated to play his first regular-season NBA game on October 22 when the Wizards travel to Wisconsin to play the Milwaukee Bucks.
That game will take place at Fiserv Forum, which is where Riley played his final two games as an Illini in the NCAA tournament. Riley will go from playing a college game to the highest level of basketball, an NBA game, in the same building just seven months apart.
Despite now realizing his dream of being in the NBA, Riley will not easily forget his time at Illinois. In Las Vegas, there were plenty of fans wearing orange and blue or Illini jerseys supporting Riley, his former teammate Kasparas Jakučionis and other former members of Brad Underwood’s rosters. Riley appreciates the love he still receives, even though his time in Champaign was brief.
“I just keep making big strides,” Riley said. “So, you know, I’m just excited for the future.”
“We’ve got the best fans in the world when it comes to college sports,” Riley said. “Not a lot of people know about that, but everybody’s super nice. Everyone’s super kind.”
@sahil_mittal24