LAS VEGAS — Nicely, now.
Thomas & Mack Middle noticed the most recent iteration of “Who’s Subsequent” within the NBA on Thursday. For the primary time in nearly a technology, the Washington Wizards had the man on the forefront of the talk.
AJ Dybantsa’s first evening in a Wizards uniform produced electrical energy that hasn’t been seen in a Washington participant or in a Washington recreation in an excellent, good lengthy whereas. And it made the three years of tanking, the final producing sufficient ping-pong balls following a 17-65 season, for Washington to win Could’s lottery and get the No. 1 decide. There was by no means a lot doubt whom the Wizards have been going to take.
Thursday confirmed everybody why.
Watch This: AJ Dybantsa with the robust Summer season League slam in his debut
Dybantsa had 27 factors, seven rebounds, two steals and two assists within the Wizards’ 92-88 win over the Utah Jazz. He was dynamic. He was aggressive.
“He’s obtained his personal shoe already?” a surprised Paul Pierce, the Corridor of Famer, sitting courtside, requested early within the first quarter, seeing Dybantsa in his new Nike rollout, a to-be-named shoe anticipated to be a part of Nike’s GT Mannequin.
Then, to Dybantsa: “I would like a measurement 15, my boy.”
Two minutes later, on the different finish of the courtroom, Dybantsa drove the paint, misplaced the ball midway up — however gathered it again, and in a single movement, punched it on Utah’s Justin Harmon. The highlight-reel play produced the type of roar from the near-sellout crowd that has nearly at all times been reserved for Wizards’ opponents a lot of the final decade.
“That regarded like No. 1 to me!” Pierce stated. “I’m about to depart. I’ve seen sufficient.”
And The Fact, certainly, headed out a few minutes later.
If all the pieces round him appeared to swirl and pulsate, Dybantsa was in no way shaken within the eye of the storm.
“Every part felt regular,” Dybantsa stated afterward. “I believe my recreation type of is constructed for the NBA — me getting in transition loads, me getting downhill loads, and me with the ability to make performs for my teammates.”
His soon-to-be regular-season teammates got here out in power Thursday. Most each Wizard who will likely be within the common rotation subsequent season was at Thomas & Mack: Trae Younger, Anthony Davis, Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George, Justin Champagnie, Bub Carrington and the newly reacquired Khris Middleton. Most of them sat collectively courtside, subsequent to educate Brian Keefe, common supervisor Will Dawkins and the group’s governor, Ted Leonsis.
The evening was billed as a showdown between Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson, the stellar guard from Kansas, who went second to the Jazz. They’ve been linked for some time among the many prime highschool gamers within the nation. Famously, Peterson outscored Dybantsa 61-49 in a 2025 recreation, with Peterson’s Prolific Prep beating Dybantsa’s Utah Prep, one in every of two wins Peterson had over Dybantsa in highschool. Final season, within the Massive 12, Peterson’s group gained once more, as he scored 18 of his 20 factors within the first half, staking Kansas to a 20-point halftime lead.
The Wizards gave the ball to AJ Dybantsa, proven guarded by Cody Williams, regularly as some extent ahead Thursday. (Ethan Miller / Getty Photos)
And the Wizards additionally noticed how a lot Dybantsa was champing on the bit after Peterson put up big numbers in two video games for Utah within the NBA Summer season League this week.
“I watched,” Dybantsa stated. “Tremendous spectacular. I believe the primary recreation he had, like, 28. Second recreation he confirmed his facilitating skill, had 12 assists. I imply, the dude is a canine. He’s going to be an awesome participant.”
Thursday was Dybantsa’s flip. Peterson scored 24 factors, however made simply 6 of 18 photographs, with the Wizards’ Jamir Watkins in his shirt a lot of the evening. Dybantsa wasn’t wildly environment friendly both, going 7 of 18 from the ground. Virtually all of his jumpers, whether or not inside or outdoors the 3-point line, got here up quick. However he put continuous strain on Utah’s half-court protection.
The Wizards gave Dybantsa the ball a lot of the sport as some extent ahead, letting him provoke the assault. Generally he obtained slowed down and obtained tunnel imaginative and prescient as a substitute of shifting the ball. And he took a number of of the extraordinarily tough fadeaways he shot in school. However Dybantsa additionally made a number of eyebrow-raising photographs: a reverse layup, a floater in site visitors. He made an awesome bounce go forward to Will Riley for an and-1.
And the way he obtained to the road.
Of all of the offensive numbers Dybantsa posted at BYU final season, essentially the most spectacular was this: He led the nation in free-throw makes an attempt. And he displayed that skill in abundance Thursday evening. The bend that Dybantsa will get on his drives, as The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie wrote about earlier than the draft, places a lot strain on defenders. Once they meet Dybantsa’s power with their very own, he snaps his head again like a 10-year vet and takes the contact to the ground. He shot six free throws within the first half, and it will have been double figures apart from the NBA’s “experiment” throughout summer time league, which has individuals shoot just one free throw quite than the customary two or three.
“You don’t know what to anticipate, however you see his expertise. So we wished to get him the ball in his fingers, and let him go,” stated T.J. Sorrentine, the Wizards assistant who’s teaching their summer time league group right here. “Finally, he began off fairly good, obtained him comfy. Yeah, man, he’s simple to educate.”
For 3 years, the Wizards’ new entrance workplace spoke softly in regards to the alternatives that would come within the subsequent few drafts. Specifically, the 2025 and 2026 drafts have been the way in which out of the hell the franchise had been in for therefore lengthy. There have been Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper final yr; Dybantsa and Peterson and Cameron Boozer this yr. The Wizards didn’t say it out loud, however they needed to get a type of guys to present them a future, an opportunity to construct a long-lasting contender in an NBA transitioning from the LeBron James and Stephen Curry period.
The longer term arrived Thursday. He’s years from being the very best he will likely be, however you didn’t should squint to see what’s potential. It was there, proper in entrance of you. The Wizards have Dybantsa, and the Jazz have Peterson, and everybody ought to sit again and see what the 2 of them develop into. If it’s something like the very best rivalries the NBA has produced over the a long time, all they might want to see is the nightly recap of what the opposite did, and so they’ll be again within the health club, chasing the opposite, yr after yr.
“Off the courtroom, we’re very cool,” Dybantsa stated of Peterson. “He’s not my greatest pal; we don’t see one another each day. However each camp that we’ve been to, we performed in USA (Basketball), gained a gold medal (Peterson for the U.S. group on the 2023 FIBA Americas U-16 group; Dybantsa for the 2025 FIBA U19 Males’s World Cup group).
“However the media, and simply the NBA gods, type of constructed it right into a rivalry. I imply, I seen anyone say it’s type of like Tracy (McGrady) and Kobe (Bryant), reimagined. I’m an enormous Tracy man; he’s an enormous Kobe man. So, I imply, I suppose they’re going to fuel that up. However I believe we’re going to be taking part in in opposition to one another for a protracted, very long time.”
