Will Richard has made a stunning emergence at the Golden State Warriors through the first 15 games of his rookie season, having surpassed every and all expectations after being taken as the 56th overall pick in June's NBA Draft.
The rookie guard is making a lot of draft analysts eat their words with his play to start the season, including noted guru Sam Vecenie of The Athletic who didn't even think Richard would get selected going into the draft.
Draft guru Sam Vecenie has been forced to eat his words on Will Richard
Vecenie had no hesitation when answering who's been the biggest surprise among the rookie class so far this season, conceding that he didn't even have Richard in his top 70 prospects heading into the draft less than six months ago.
“I just didn't think he was quite big enough and athletic enough to be able to hold up on defense and to be able to hold up offensively to be able to really do anything beyond maybe shoot it at a high enough level," Vecenie said recently on The Athletic NBA Daily. “But like I have him in my top 10 rookies right now on the rookie rankings. And like I had him, I think it like 76 or something on my board."
In fairness to Vecenie, he wasn't alone in having Richard outside his two-round mock draft in June. ESPN's Jonathan Givony and Jeremy Woo didn't have the Florida product either, and nor did Bleacher Report's Jonathan Wasserman.
Golden State clearly had more optimistic projections on Richard, particularly given they traded up to draft the 6'4" guard. Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the front office went into the second-round armed with the 41st overall pick, before sending that to the Phoenix Suns for the 52nd and 59th selections.
They used the 52nd pick on Australian forward Alex Toohey who is yet to appear in a single game this season, then made a deal with the Memphis Grizzlies to move up to the 56th pick to acquire the draft rights to Richard.
From being a surprise second-round selection to now starting on a veteran, playoff-contending team, it's been quite the wild ride for Richard who continues to impress. He stunned the NBA world with an extraordinary 30-point game against the Sacramento Kings less than a fortnight ago, and has scored at least nine points in five of the six games since while earning a starting role over the past three.
Richard is now suddenly on track to be an All-Rookie Team member by season's end, something that no one would have possible foreseen less than a month ago before Golden State's campaign got underway.