Wizards Land No. 1 Pick With AJ Dybantsa as the Clear Favorite. Will They Keep It?
The Washington Wizards won the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery with a 14 percent chance. AJ Dybantsa is the favorite to be their pick. Now the only question is whether they actually keep the selection or use it to flip the franchise sideways.
Dybantsa is the prize. The BYU freshman averaged 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists per game while shooting 51 percent from the field and 33 percent from three. He led the nation in scoring. He won the Julius Erving Award as the top small forward in college basketball. He was a Consensus All-American. He is a 6-foot-9 wing who can score from anywhere and defend multiple positions. The package is what every front office wants to bet on.
The Wizards have been the worst-kept secret in the lottery for two years. They have been tanking with purpose. The reward is a chance to draft a foundational piece. Most teams in this position would lock in Dybantsa and start building the next decade around him.
Washington might not be most teams.
Reports out of the front office indicate the Wizards are open to trading the pick. The internal view is that the No. 1 selection is not the missing piece for a roster that needs help in multiple places. The brain trust wants to maximize the asset, which could mean trading down for more picks or even moving the pick in a package for a proven player.
The Dallas Mavericks are reportedly already sniffing around. Dallas has met with Dybantsa, which is interesting because the Mavericks do not pick anywhere near the top of the draft. The meeting suggests Dallas is at least considering whether it can put together a package good enough to convince the Wizards to move.
Dybantsa has handled the lottery situation with maturity. His viral reaction to the Wizards winning the No. 1 pick was the moment everyone clipped. He addressed it publicly afterward and said the right things about being excited to play wherever he is drafted. The reality is that any kid would prefer to land in a winning situation, and Washington has not been a winning situation in some time.
The Wizards franchise is at a crossroads. Trading the pick gets veterans. Keeping the pick starts a multi-year build. Neither path is obviously correct. The roster is thin. The cap situation is workable. The fan base is patient but not infinite.
Dybantsa fits the modern NBA in a way that very few prospects do. He has the size to play three positions. He has the shooting to space the floor. He has the handle to create his own offense. He has the defensive instincts to guard ones through fours. That is not a one-skill prospect. That is a foundational building block.
The other names worth knowing are Cameron Boozer, Darryn Peterson, and Caleb Wilson, all of whom are top-five talents in this class. The depth at the top of the draft is real. The Wizards have options even if they trade down a few spots.
The draft itself is June 23 and 24 in Brooklyn. The lead-up will be a parade of rumors, mock drafts, and Wizards front office leaks designed to drive up the price of the pick. By the time the picks are made, the league will look different from how it looks today.
If Washington keeps the pick, they probably take Dybantsa. If they trade it, the package they get back will define the next half-decade of the franchise. Either way, the Wizards have leverage they have not had in a long time. The job now is to use it correctly.
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.
