There’s two big reasons that the Golden State Warriors gave No. 56 pick Will Richard an NBA contract for next season. One is that the team believes in the Florida’s wing’s ability to develop into a three-and-D guard whose toughness and rebounding fit what Steve Kerr wants in a backup guard. The second reason is that he’s cheap.
Golden State traded up to get Richard at the end of the second round, giving up the rights to the legendary Justinian Jessup to move up three places. Richard’s a slightly undersized shooting guard at 6-foot-3, but he sports a 6-foot-10 wingspan. He shot an acceptable 35.9% from three-point range as a senior at Florida and put up a lot of shots outside the arc — 5.6 per game. Richard is known for his toughness, and he only missed one game in his college career, and started all but six of them.
All that makes Richard a solid bet for a back-of-the-bench spot, with the chance to grab a bigger role later. He’s also a good fit because of the NBA’s rules about rookie contracts.
A first-round pick gets a contract that’s guaranteed for at least two years, with the salary based on his draft slot. For a second-round pick, there’s no rules. Quinten Post got a two-way deal as a second-round pick last season, which later got upgraded to an NBA deal. No. 52 pick Alex Toohey is getting a two-way deal after going four picks ahead of Richard. What Richard is getting is a full NBA deal, with the first two years guaranteed, and presumably two team-friendly options on the final two years.
Because the Warriors are almost certain to be hard-capped at the first luxury tax apron due to signing Al Horford, a deal that was very likely to involve the use of a salary-cap exception, every dollar matters for them. That’s especially true since Jonathan Kuminga might make anywhere between $7.9M and roughly $22M next season, depending on what he decides before Wednesday’s deadline to accept his qualifying offer.
That’s why it helps to have Richard on a very cheap deal occupying one of the team’s roster spots. Last season, the Warriors were so close to the hard cap that they had to space out their 10-day contracts to keep from running out of money. We can probably assume Richard’s deal is at the rookie minimum of $1.273M, which is 2.03% of what Steph Curry will make next season.
It’s a gamble, but the Warriors are betting that Richard can play at the level of the 8th man off the bench. And, if he turns out to be a useful player, he’ll be extremely affordable for 2026-28. The Warriors are rolling the dice, but they believe that the uncertainty they might have with Richard is less damaging than the financial uncertainty they’d have with a more expensive player.
Plus, he and Horford can talk about Gainesville together. They call those chats a Florida Man-To-Man.
