Nets Met With AJ Dybantsa at NBA Draft Combine. Is the No. 1 Pick Still Locked In?
The Brooklyn Nets sat down with AJ Dybantsa at the 2026 NBA Draft Combine. The Nets pick eighth. Dybantsa is the consensus No. 1. So what was that meeting actually about?
The simple answer is due diligence. Teams at the back of the lottery meet with every projected top-five pick. Sometimes a player slides. Sometimes a top-three team gets desperate and trades down. Brooklyn would not be doing its job if it did not have a read on Dybantsa.
The less simple answer is that this is the type of meeting that gets noticed for a reason. The Nets have draft capital. They own multiple firsts over the next three years. If the Washington Wizards decide they want to flip the No. 1 pick for an established veteran plus picks, Brooklyn is one of the few teams in a position to put together a real offer.
That is not happening. The Wizards have a brand new front office and a fan base that has been waiting for a star prospect for a decade. They are not trading the first overall pick. Dybantsa goes to Washington. Anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
But the Nets meeting shows what the rest of the draft is going to look like. Every team in the lottery is going to do its homework on the top players because the gap between the consensus top four and the rest of the class is wider than usual.
Dybantsa himself has done nothing but help his draft stock all spring. He averaged a clean 17 a game at BYU as a freshman. He grew into the lead scorer role in conference play. At the combine he put up a 42-inch vertical and shot 18-for-25 in spot-up drills. The defensive concerns from his high school tape are mostly gone. He has the body and the motor to guard three positions in the NBA right away.
The Wizards are going to be excited. Their last lottery pick of this caliber was John Wall in 2010. The franchise has been waiting for a foundational star for the entire decade since. Dybantsa fits the timeline. He fits the need at wing. He gives Will Dawkins something to actually sell to a fan base that is starting to wonder if the rebuild has a finish line.
The bigger question is who goes second. Darryn Peterson from Kansas is the consensus pick at this point. Cameron Boozer from Duke is the other top-three lock. The Jazz at No. 2 and the Grizzlies at No. 3 are going to be making choices that shape their next half-decade.
The Nets meeting will not amount to anything. Dybantsa is a Wizard. Brooklyn will land somewhere in the No. 8 range and walk out of the night with a quality player. The story is just a reminder that the 2026 draft has a clear top tier, and every team in the lottery is trying to figure out which side of it they are going to land on.
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.
