AJ Dybantsa Drops 27 in NBA Summer League Debut: The Wizards’ Future Just Got Real
AJ Dybantsa is officially living up to the hype. In his NBA Summer League debut for the Washington Wizards, the No. 1 overall pick dropped 27 points and grabbed seven rebounds in just 26 minutes.
The performance came in a 92-88 Wizards win over the Utah Jazz on July 9. Nineteen of Dybantsa’s 27 points came in the first half, including a viral dunk that already has a life of its own on social media. This is the guy the Wizards drafted first overall. This is what he was supposed to look like.
The matchup added an extra layer of intrigue. Utah started No. 2 overall pick Darryn Peterson. The two rookies traded punches for the full game. Peterson finished with 24 points, no small effort in his own debut. But Dybantsa was the star, and the Wizards walked away with the win.
Dybantsa played one season at BYU after reclassifying up. His freshman year was one of the best in college basketball, and NBA scouts had him locked in at No. 1 by midseason. There was some late buzz about Cooper Flagg making a run at him for the top spot, but Dybantsa’s combination of size, athleticism and skill made him the clear pick.
The Wizards shut him down after his debut. That is not a bad sign. That is a modern NBA front office being smart. Why put a franchise cornerstone in a summer league game he does not need to play in? Better to protect the body and get him ready for real training camp.
What Dybantsa showed in his one game was exactly what Washington needed to see. He got to his spots. He finished at the rim. He hit a couple of jumpers. He rebounded like a wing should. He looked like the future.
The Wizards are trying to piece together a real team around him. They just gave Trae Young a four-year, $212 million contract. They landed Anthony Davis in the wild deadline trade with Dallas. Now they have the No. 1 pick to build around, and reports say Davis’s extension talks start on August 6.
That is a Big Three of Young, Davis and Dybantsa if the moves all work out. Add in a healthy roster and the Wizards go from lottery joke to serious young playoff contender in a matter of months.
Dybantsa is not going to start his rookie year and immediately be a star. That is the honest truth. Rookies almost never come in and dominate. The transition is real. The physical strain of an 82-game season is different than college. But Dybantsa is not a normal rookie. He has the size, the length and the shot creation of a Year 3 pro.
Head coach Brian Keefe has to figure out how to use him. The obvious answer is to let him play through mistakes. If Washington is not making the playoffs, and they almost certainly are not, the point of Dybantsa’s rookie year is development. Let him take the tough shots. Let him guard the top wings. Let him make and learn from the mistakes.
The Wizards’ future has been dark for years. Dybantsa’s debut was 27 points of proof that the light is coming.
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.
