AJ Dybantsa Is the Consensus No. 1 Pick: How the BYU Star Locked In the Wizards’ Top Selection
AJ Dybantsa is going to Washington. The basketball world figured that out months ago. The lottery just made it official.
The Washington Wizards secured the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NBA Draft after the lottery results were announced earlier this month, jumping ahead of multiple teams with worse records to land the top spot. The Wizards finished 17-65, the worst record in the NBA, and the basketball gods rewarded them for the misery with the right to draft the consensus No. 1 player in the country.
That player is Dybantsa. The BYU star averaged a nation-leading 25.5 points per game during his lone college season, doing it with a combination of size, scoring versatility and shot-creation ability that has every NBA scout convinced he is the safest top pick in years. Dybantsa is 6-foot-9, can handle the ball, can shoot from deep, and creates his own offense in ways most college players cannot. He is the kind of prospect that comes along once or twice a decade.
The Wizards organization just got the lifeline it has been waiting for. Washington has been rebuilding aggressively for the last two seasons, stripping veterans, accumulating draft picks, and slow-playing free agency in pursuit of long-term roster control. The plan was to use the 2025 and 2026 drafts to find a franchise centerpiece. The 2025 effort did not quite produce a star. The 2026 effort just landed the best prospect in the class.
This is also a story about the NBA’s new lottery odds. The league has been transparent for years about wanting to reduce the incentive to tank, and the 2026 lottery was the latest experiment in that effort. The flat odds at the top of the board mean the worst team in the league only had a 14 percent chance to land the top pick. The Wizards won the cointoss with the basketball gods. Beginning with the 2027 draft, the NBA will introduce even flatter, more aggressive anti-tanking odds, which would have lowered Washington’s chances even further. Owner Ted Leonsis and the front office got lucky in the timing.
The full lottery order ended up as follows. Washington at No. 1. Utah at No. 2. Memphis at No. 3. Chicago at No. 4. The Clippers via Indiana at No. 5. Brooklyn at No. 6. Sacramento at No. 7. Atlanta via New Orleans at No. 8. Dallas at No. 9. The Mavericks landed at No. 9 with Cooper Flagg already in place from the 2025 draft, which positions them to pair Flagg with another high-end prospect and accelerate their post-Doncic rebuild.
For Dybantsa personally, the Washington landing spot is interesting. The Wizards play in a major market. They have a struggling but young roster. They have cap space and draft capital to surround him with complementary pieces. He will not be asked to win 50 games as a rookie. He will be asked to develop into a franchise face, which is exactly what the franchise needs.
BYU just had the most successful season in school history, and a large piece of that was Dybantsa’s recruitment last summer. The Cougars made the NCAA Tournament with him on the roster and immediately became a national story. That magic is over now. Dybantsa is going pro. BYU has to rebuild.
The actual draft is on June 23 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC and ESPN, with the second round on June 24. Dybantsa will walk across the stage, shake Adam Silver’s hand, and put on a Wizards cap. Washington’s rebuild gets its centerpiece. The Wizards finally have something to sell to their fan base. The 2026 NBA Draft has its headliner. AJ Dybantsa is officially the future.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
