The 2026 NBA Draft is one week away. The man at the top of every mock draft has been there since November. AJ Dybantsa is going to be the No. 1 overall pick, and the league has made peace with it.
Dybantsa, the 6’9 forward out of BYU, just finished one of the best freshman seasons in college basketball history. He led the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game, posted a 60 percent effective field goal mark, and dragged BYU to a Big 12 regular-season title before the Cougars bowed out in the Elite Eight.
That production at his size, with the smoothness he plays with, is what NBA scouts have been waiting for.
The comparisons have been everywhere. Some scouts call him a younger Brandon Ingram with better defensive instincts. Others see flashes of Jayson Tatum at the same age. The most ambitious projections invoke Kevin Durant, although Dybantsa is not that level of shooter yet.
What separates him from previous No. 1 picks is the floor. Dybantsa is the rare prospect who scouts say has no real weakness in his game. He shoots it. He passes. He defends multiple positions. He has the body to handle NBA contact already. He plays hard. The bust risk is minimal.
The team taking him is still being decided. The Charlotte Hornets won the lottery and own the No. 1 pick. That is good news for Dybantsa, because the Hornets have a clear need at forward and the cap flexibility to build around him. He would step in next to LaMelo Ball as a primary scoring option and immediately make Charlotte more watchable.
The Hornets have been bad for a long time. Drafting Dybantsa is the first step in actually being good again.
Behind Dybantsa, the draft gets interesting fast. Kansas guard Darryn Peterson is the consensus No. 2. Duke power forward Cameron Boozer, son of Carlos Boozer, is the No. 3 pick. North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson rounds out the top four. After that, the board gets messy.
The top four picks are also why the Knicks rumors involving Trae Young feel less urgent. The 2026 Draft is loaded. Teams that want to add young talent should be sellers right now, not buyers.
Back to Dybantsa. The interview process is reportedly going well. NBA executives told The Athletic he is mature beyond his years, professional in workouts, and clearly understands what is being asked of him. The maturity matters in Charlotte, where the franchise has whiffed on culture moves for over a decade.
The financial side is fascinating. Dybantsa already has multi-million dollar endorsement deals with Nike, Sony, and Beats. He is going to be a marketing star regardless of what team he plays for, but landing in a smaller market like Charlotte could actually help him. Less media chaos. More room to develop.
The 2026 NBA Draft is on June 25. Dybantsa is going first. The Hornets get the kind of franchise cornerstone they have not had since Larry Johnson.
This draft class is deep. The headliner is the real deal.
It is going to be fun watching Dybantsa figure out what he is in the NBA, because the ceiling is legitimately scary.
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.
