Will Riley Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Illinois’ Will Riley Among Draft’s Latest Early Entrants

April 14th, 2025 at 3:00pm CST by Luke Adams

Illinois wing Will Riley has decided to enter the 2025 NBA draft following his freshman season, he tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN.

Named the Big Ten’s Sixth Man of the Year for the 2024/25 season, Riley averaged 12.6 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 2.2 assists in 25.7 minutes per game across 35 outings (nine starts). The Kitchener, Ontario native posted a shooting line of .432/.326/.724.

Givony refers to Riley as “far from a finished product,” noting that his lone college season featured a number of ups and downs, but stresses that the 6’8″ swingman has major long-term upside. He’s the No. 15 player on ESPN’s big board for 2025.

“I learned a lot through the season,” Riley said. “I faced a lot of adversity, which helped me. When I was younger, I had no idea what it was like on the American basketball scene. That transition from Canada was good for me.

“The biggest difference was the physicality. I put on 22 pounds before the start of the season. NBA teams saw my potential as a ball-handler and creator, my IQ, and my ability to make reads. These are things you can’t teach. I got adjusted midway through the season and started to blossom.”

In their latest ESPN.com mock draft, Givony and Jeremy Woo had Riley coming off the board 16th overall to Orlando.

Here are a couple more updates on early entrants declaring for the 2025 draft:

Alabama freshman guard Labaron Philon will enter the draft and is “all in on starting (his) pro career,” he tells Givony (Twitter link). Philon, whom Givony praises for his two-way versatility, averaged 10.6 PPG, 3.8 APG, 3.3 RPG, and 1.4 SPG in 2024/25 for the Crimson Tide. The 6’4″ point guard was the No. 43 player on ESPN’s most recent top-100 big board, though he didn’t show up on last week’s 59-pick mock draft.
Virginia Tech junior Toibu Lawal is testing the draft waters while maintaining his NCAA eligibility, he announced today on Instagram. Although Lawal wasn’t on ESPN’s most recent big board, Givony refers to him as “perhaps the best athlete in the ACC” (Twitter link). The 6’8″ British forward averaged 12.4 PPG and 7.0 RPG with a .559/.371/.641 shooting line in 30 games (all starts) for Virginia Tech and said he intends to return to the Hokies if he withdraws from the draft.

Draft Notes: Uzan, Markovic, Coward, 2025 Mock

April 13th, 2025 at 11:56am CST by Rory Maher

Houston junior Milos Uzan, who helped the Cougars reach the final of the NCAA tournament, is declaring for the 2025 NBA draft, agent Aman Dhesi tells Jonathan Givony of ESPN.

Uzan is a 6’4″ guard who spent his first two college seasons at Oklahoma before transferring to Houston. In 40 games this past season with the Cougars, he averaged 11.4 points, 4.3 assists and 3.1 rebounds in 31.5 minutes per contest, with a shooting slash line of .453/.428/.783.

Givony suggests that Uzan, who goes No. 42 overall in ESPN’s latest mock draft (Insider link), will be testing the draft waters this spring. If he withdraws from the draft, he will return to Houston for his senior campaign.

Here are a few more notes related to June’s draft:

Serbian forward/center Bogoljub Markovic is entering his name in the draft, agent Misko Raznatovic announced (via Twitter) earlier this week. Markovic had a productive season for Mega Basket in the ABA League, averaging 13.7 PPG, 6.7 RPG and 2.6 APG on .526/.391/.757 shooting in 26 games (29.4 MPG). The 19-year-old is another projected second-round pick, coming off the board at No. 50 in ESPN’s mock.
Washington State senior Cedric Coward is declaring for the NBA draft, agent Todd Ramasar tells Jeff Goodman of The Field of 68 (Twitter link). Coward is also entering the transfer portal to keep his options open for his final season of college eligibility. Coward only played six games for the Cougars in 2024/25 due to a shoulder injury, but he put up big numbers in those appearances, averaging 17.7 PPG, 7.0 RPG, 3.7 APG and 1.7 BPG on .557/.400/.839 shooting. The 6’6″ small forward is projected to go No. 55 overall in ESPN’s mock draft.
Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports updated his 2025 mock draft after the NCAA tournament ended earlier this week, with some noteworthy differences from ESPN’s. For example, O’Connor seems higher on South Carolina forward Collin Murray-Boyles (No. 5), Colorado State wing Nique Clifford (No. 14) and Auburn guard Tahaad Pettiford (No. 22) than ESPN is (they go No. 10, No. 25 and No. 39, respectively, in ESPN’s mock). O’Connor is also a little more bearish than ESPN on Oklahoma guard Jeremiah Fears (No. 11 vs. No. 6 at ESPN) and Illinois forward Will Riley (No. 21 vs. No. 16).

And-Ones: Dybantsa, NBC, Crawford, Miller, T. Antetokounmpo

December 11th, 2024 at 10:14am CST by Luke Adams

Top recruit A.J. Dybantsa, projected to be a top pick in the 2026 NBA draft, has committed to BYU for the 2025/26 season, he announced on ESPN’s First Take on Tuesday (YouTube link). Sources tell Sam Lance and Adam Zagoria of ZagsBlog.com that Dybantsa’s NIL figure was close to $7MM.

While Dybantsa is still at least a year-and-a-half from being drafted, there’s plenty of excitement among scouts and evaluators about how his game will translate to the NBA. He has been considered the frontrunner to be the No. 1 pick in 2026 since he reclassified last fall to the 2025 recruiting class.

“Let’s put it this way,” ESPN’s Jay Bilas told Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter on Tuesday (link via Zagoria at NJ.com). “If Dybantsa was in this (2025) draft class, along with Cooper Flagg and Ace Bailey and Dylan Harper and all the outstanding players — this is a great draft class — he may very well be No. 1.”

With Dybantsa not eligible to be drafted for another year, Flagg, Harper, and Bailey – in that order – continue to hold the top three prospects on ESPN’s newest big board for the 2025 draft, according to Jonathan Givony of ESPN (Insider link). In his latest rankings update, Givony has moved BYU’s Egor Demin up to No. 7 (from No. 11), Illinois’ Kasparas Jakucionis to No. 8 (from No. 15), and Illinois’ Will Riley to No. 12 (from No. 22).

We have a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world to pass along:

NBC, which will begin broadcasting NBA games during the 2025/26 season, has reached a deal to hire Jamal Crawford as an analyst, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, who says the three-time Sixth Man of the Year is expected to call games for the network. Crawford, who has worked with TNT Sports, NBA TV, and MSG Network, isn’t the only former NBA guard drawing NBC’s attention — Marchand says the company also has interest in lead TNT analyst Reggie Miller and that talks with Miller are ongoing.
Thanasis Antetokounmpo will turn 33 in July and is recovering from an Achilles tear, but he has no plans to call it a career, according to Jim Owczarski of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, who spoke to the former Buck about his recovery and comeback efforts. “I didn’t miss a beat when it came to my rehab. I’ve been working almost every day, six out of seven days,” Antetokounmpo said. “That’s why I’m in this condition that I am now. Guys see me out there like, ‘Hey man, you look great.’ I was like, thank you, I’ve been working my butt off, I’m not gonna lie. I’m just proud.”
ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Insider link) breaks down which players are currently trade-eligible and which players will join that list in the coming days and weeks, providing an in-depth summary of the trade restrictions affecting players around the league. Most offseason signees will become trade-eligible on December 15, though others will remain ineligible to be dealt until January 15 or other dates.