The Washington Wizards selected BYU forward AJ Dybantsa with the first overall pick in the NBA draft on Tuesday night, choosing the 6-foot-9 freshman over Kansas guard Darryn Peterson in a decision that marks the most significant moment of the franchise’s ongoing rebuild and introduces a potential cornerstone piece to a young roster that is beginning to take meaningful shape.
Dybantsa averaged 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 1.1 steals per game in his lone college season while shooting 51 percent from the field, leading all of Division I in scoring. He becomes the first player to accomplish that statistical feat and go first in the draft since a Purdue forward did so in 1994. His versatility, size, and scoring range across multiple levels of the offense drew comparisons from Washington figures to some of the more athletically gifted wings the league has produced.
A franchise long overdue for hope
The significance of the pick extends beyond basketball. Washington lost at least 64 games in each of the past three seasons, a stretch that produced 120 wins against 290 losses, the worst record in the NBA over that span. The team has not made the playoffs since 2021 and has not advanced past the second round in more than four decades.
Dybantsa joins a short list of first overall selections in franchise history, in company with two previous top picks across the team’s long existence in the capital. His arrival is being framed by ownership and management as the beginning of the third phase of a deliberate four-part plan to rebuild the franchise from the ground up, with the deconstruction period now complete and the foundation-laying phase underway.
A young core getting more dangerous
Washington has been quietly assembling the pieces around which Dybantsa will develop. The Wizards traded for veteran star point guard Trae Young last season, and Young is expected to sign a long-term deal worth approximately $212 million to remain in Washington. Anthony Davis was also acquired and is eligible to sign an extension in August. A group of young wings including several players selected in recent drafts gives the roster the kind of developing talent that makes the combination of veterans and a new first overall pick potentially compelling within a few seasons.
Dybantsa spoke enthusiastically about what he believed the Wizards could build, noting the combination of established veterans and young players around him as a foundation for something meaningful. He also emphasized that the franchise had made clear what they expected from him defensively, challenging him to apply full-court pressure at 94 feet rather than simply providing offensive versatility.
The rest of the first round
Dybantsa’s selection was followed by Peterson going second to the Utah Jazz. Cameron Boozer, the college player of the year from Duke, went third to the Memphis Grizzlies. North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson rounded out the consensus top four with the Chicago Bulls taking him fourth.
The Los Angeles Clippers and Brooklyn Nets went guard with the fifth and sixth picks. Seven and eight continued a pattern of scoring guards and college freshmen. Eight consecutive freshmen taken to open a draft matched the record set the previous year.
Dallas ended the streak by taking a forward from national champion Michigan at ninth, reuniting the player with his new head coach who had departed the college program on the eve of the draft. The Milwaukee Bucks, navigating life after trading their franchise star, used two picks to begin building toward their post-Antetokounmpo identity.
Dybantsa said after his selection that the celebration would be brief. He planned to be in the gym within a day of being drafted, treating the milestone as the beginning of work rather than the culmination of it.
