The Warriors may not have found their next franchise centerpiece yet, but they could already have a useful answer for the post-Stephen Curry years sitting in plain sight.
That’s where Will Richard comes in. Golden State used the 56th overall pick in the 2025 NBA Draft on him, and the early returns have been better than anyone could have reasonably expected from a late second-round selection. He carved out real minutes as a rookie, even earning a handful of starts early in the season, and the Warriors now have a young wing who has already shown he can stay on the floor.
Across 69 appearances, Richard put up 6.4 points, 2.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists while shooting 33.5% from three-point range. Those numbers won’t light up a box score, but they do point to a player who can contribute in multiple ways and has a foundation worth building on.
The bigger question for Golden State is what happens once Curry’s run is over. As Curry becomes eligible for what is expected to be the final contract extension of his career, the franchise’s long-running effort to juggle immediate contention with future planning starts to feel a lot more real in 2026-27. The Warriors do not currently have an obvious star waiting to step into that void, unless Brandin Podziemski makes a major leap in his second NBA contract.
But a team trying to stay relevant after Curry needs more than a single headliner. It needs dependable players, and wings like Richard matter in that kind of setup. For a Warriors roster that may be operating near the second apron, the ability to keep a cost-controlled contributor like Richard instead of leaning too heavily on veteran stopgaps could become important.
He still has work to do. Richard will need to keep developing defensively, using his physicality better, tightening up his movement on the perimeter and becoming more comfortable in Golden State’s rotations. On the other end, the simplest answer is also the clearest one: he has to shoot more.
There’s reason to believe the shot and the downhill game are in there. Richard showed both in college, even if he often played it safe when the Warriors needed more from him during his rookie season.
He is not the kind of player you build a rebuild around. But if Golden State is going to find a path to even semi-competitiveness after Curry, it will need a core of reliable role players who know the system and can help hold things together while the team searches for higher-end talent through the draft. Richard has a chance to be one of those pieces.
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For Russell, the larger issue is the same one that has shadowed him for a while now: where does he fit, and who still sees a clear role for him? He did not play for the Wizards after signing there, and if Memphis moves on, the next chapter would likely be as a free agent trying to latch onto a veteran team that still wants a backup point guard and believes there is something useful left in his game. [Read more 🡒]