AJ Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson: Who will the Washington Wizards draft at No. 1?

It’s the question NBA fans want answered: Who will the Washington Wizards draft at No. 1: BYU wing AJ Dybantsa or Kansas guard Darryn Peterson?

To break down each prospect’s game and how each would fit with Washington, The Athletic has brought together NBA draft analyst Sam Vecenie and Wizards beat writer Josh Robbins for a one-on-one discussion.

Josh Robbins: Sam, you and I have held many discussions before previous drafts, but we’ve never discussed a scenario in which the Wizards held the top pick. I’ve read The Athletic’s 2026 NBA Draft Guide. You classify the two players the Wizards are considering at No. 1 — AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson — as Tier 1 players, who are potential franchise cornerstones with All-NBA upside.

Let’s start with Dybantsa. What qualities and characteristics make him a potential franchise cornerstone?

Why AJ Dybansta is the no. 1 prospect in this year’s NBA Draft

Sam Vecenie

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Sam Vecenie: First and foremost, he’s a prolific scorer. He averaged 25.5 points as a teenage college freshman while shooting 51 percent from the field, 33 percent from 3 and 77.4 percent from the line. Only two other players have done that. Moreover, Dybantsa creates high-value shots. He got to the line 8.5 times per game this year and took more free throws than anyone else in the country. On top of that, he averaged over five attempts at the rim per game in half-court settings, one of the best marks in the country for a high-major perimeter player. He also makes those shots efficiently and effectively with room for growth and improvement as he ages.

On top of that, he also has a counter as a midrange shooter. He drilled 50.7 percent of his midrange jumpers between 10 and 18 feet this season, a mark that would be among the best in the NBA. He also displayed passing ability, dishing out nearly five assists per game over his final 10 games of the year, when his teammate at BYU, Richie Saunders, went down with an ACL tear. Dybantsa is starting to see the court better, and showed growth as a playmaker for others in a way that should allow him to be successful as an on-ball offensive hub in the NBA.

Essentially, Dybantsa is a dynamic athlete at 6 feet 9 who plays with bend and explosiveness, creates the best shots that you can create on an NBA court and is getting better in a hurry. It’s an easy translation to the NBA offensively that should only get easier when he has more room to operate in the open court with better spacing around him. Then, throw in that he’s a charismatic personality who has superstar qualities that should allow Washington, D.C., to get behind him, and it’s easy to see why Dybantsa has a chance to be a franchise cornerstone.

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Overall 1 Wing 1

AJ Dybantsa BYU

Elite tools for a wing; could easily become a top-10 NBA player.

Read full profile ›

Robbins: At this stage in his development, what areas of his game could prevent him from reaching his upside?

Vecenie: Three areas stick out. First, Dybantsa’s handle can be a bit loose. He is awesome in a straight line when he has space to get downhill. But his ball control is a bit inconsistent if the defender can keep his chest in front of him. He doesn’t always separate to get to anything other than a heavily contested pull-up. His handle can also be a bit robotic. He loses control of it at times and gets loose with his crossovers. He needs to get stronger on the ball, which I do think will happen as he ages.

Second, Dybantsa is an improving shooter, but not yet an elite one in the way superstars need to be. He made 30.1 percent of his catch-and-shoot 3s this season, per Synergy, and was an up-and-down pull-up shooter prior to this season.

Third, Dybantsa’s defense was hit or miss this year. His overall awareness and ability to read and react quickly to what’s happening around him seemed to be a step slow. He has some issues mapping the court at times when he’s away from the ball and understanding where he needs to rotate to quickly. It’s why his block numbers are not particularly strong despite him being this large, and why you could see him be a touch late on tape to what was happening around him on defense.

How would he fit with the Wizards?

AJ Dybantsa is an elite scorer who excelled at generating free-throw attempts during his lone college season. (Chris Jones / Imagn Images)

Robbins: In terms of fit, there’s the macro and the micro.

The macro is this: Dybantsa would immediately be the most talented player in the Wizards’ young nucleus and the most likely among the young players to develop into a franchise cornerstone. As you know, a team cannot win big in the NBA without a cornerstone-level talent. At this stage of the Wizards’ build, the macro is, by far, the most important consideration. Bring aboard the talent first, and then focus later on the roster fit. That would be my approach.

In terms of a more roster-specific, micro view, the Wizards already have a lot of wings, and Dybantsa would add one more to the mix, albeit the most talented one of them all.

I would argue that the last two NBA postseasons have shown the value of having a multitude of high-level wings on a roster. But absent some kind of consolidation trade this offseason, the wings will face a crunch for playing time that didn’t exist in prior years. Kyshawn George likely wouldn’t face a reduction in playing time. But players lower on the depth chart, such as Will Riley, Justin Champagnie and Cam Whitmore, likely would find minutes more difficult to come by. Perhaps Tre Johnson, too.

What’s your opinion of Darryn Peterson? What qualities and characteristics make him a potential franchise cornerstone?

Why Darryn Peterson’s best basketball is still ahead of him

Sam Vecenie

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Vecenie: Peterson is also a wildly dynamic scorer because of his shooting ability. Few guys are this elite as shot-makers at this age. He is a good ballhandler who counters defenders well with herky-jerky actions that are hard to wall up against. He can keep his dribble alive and continue to threaten defenses with his creativity out of ball screens. Then, he’s a lights-out shooter. He drilled 47.7 percent of his 3s off the catch this season at Kansas, has a strong in-between game and can also drill pull-up 3s behind screens, in transition, or off relocations.

Peterson also didn’t get a chance to showcase his on-ball skill at Kansas this year because of the team structure and his cramping issues. In high school, he was a seriously impressive ball-screen playmaker for his teammates. He has finally started reading the second and third levels of defenses and attacking accordingly. Because he slowed down how he plays, he opened up passing angles everywhere and had the vision to hit them.

There is a case that Peterson is the most well-rounded overall offensive player in the class if you believe what you saw in high school is true, and what you saw in college was more because of his struggles with cramping. He’s also regarded as a high-level competitor, despite what happened with his injury issues forcing him to sit at times this year at Kansas. He’s quiet and introverted as a human, but he wants to go out there and take the opponent’s soul when he’s on the court.

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How Did We Get Here?

Darryn Peterson blames cramping issues at Kansas on high doses of creatine

Peterson, who began cramping before last season, addressed what he said caused the issue for the first time in an ESPN interview.

Robbins: What areas to his game, as it stands now, could stop him from hitting his upside?

Vecenie: For me, it’s determining how often he’s able to get to the rim consistently. He was more capable of doing this in high school than we saw in college, but his college situation and the cramping issues clearly created some problems. He had absolutely no space to attack because of a lack of shooting around him at Kansas, and often was forced to play off the ball next to Melvin Council. But it is at least a question that teams have as to whether or not he can consistently create the easiest shots on the court.

I will at least take this moment to note here that while I don’t think of this as a weakness, it’s worth discussing that he’s not the loudest guy in the room. He describes himself as an introvert and might not be quite the leader that Michael Winger has noted publicly that the organization seems to want in this pick. Again, I can’t emphasize this enough: Anyone who has spent time around Peterson regards him as being highly competitive. He wants to go out there and destroy his competition. But think of him more like a Tre Johnson-type in terms of personality as opposed to someone who is an extroverted, more traditional leader. Both Peterson and Johnson are exceptional workers who go about their jobs with a high degree of professionalism. But they’re both quiet by nature.

How do you think Peterson would fit in Washington, Josh?

Darryn Peterson converted 47.7 percent of his 3s off the catch during his lone season at Kansas. (Aryanna Frank / Imagn Images)

Robbins: A lot of what I said about Dybantsa’s fit applies here. Peterson instantly would slot in as the Wizards’ most talented young player and their franchise cornerstone.

As a combo guard and with Trae Young likely to remain with the team as its starting point guard, it would seem that the bulk of Peterson’s minutes would come in a two-guard, off-the-ball role. And that, in turn, could have downstream playing-time impacts on combo guard Bub Carrington and on wings such as Johnson.

How do you think the presence of Young and Anthony Davis will impact either Dybantsa’s early development or Peterson’s early development?

Overall 3 Guard 1

Darryn Peterson Kansas

An elite shooter with All-NBA scoring guard upside, despite his strange Kansas year.

Read full profile ›

Vecenie: Yeah, it’s a great question. Young will at least help the team create easier shots due to his ability to organize the offense. He’s a dynamic ball-screen player who diverts a lot of defensive attention his way. But there are just a lot of developmental reps that need to go around still in Washington, and Young can be a player who tends to dribble the ball an awful lot. Can the team find the reps for all of Dybantsa or Peterson on top of getting more on-ball opportunities for guys like George, Riley and Johnson, all of whom have earned those chances in some respect? Let alone also Alex Sarr, although Sarr will just naturally get some in ball-screen situations with Young.

I honestly don’t know what to make of the Davis component given that he’s set up to likely start at the four next to Sarr at the five, something that hasn’t been quite as successful in recent years despite Davis’ desire to play more at that position because of the physical wear and tear on his body. I worry about what the team’s spacing will look like if Sarr’s jump shot doesn’t take a big leap this season. The team might be best off staggering Davis’ and Sarr’s minutes aggressively in order to get the requisite spacing out there that they need in order to give some of these younger players space to operate.

Robbins: Those are all legit potential issues.

I think the bigger picture is that Young and Davis should take at least some of the pressure off the incoming rookie, whether he’s Dybantsa or Peterson, as well as the rest of the young nucleus. The young core players won’t have to win games on their own; Young and Davis are the leaders in the short term, and I think that’s valuable for the youngsters.

All right, let’s get to the bottom line: Who do you think the Wizards should pick at No. 1 and who do you think they will pick?

Vecenie: I would take Dybantsa and I think in the end that will be their pick. He just ticks more of the boxes of what the organization seems to want from a player in this No. 1 overall pick slot. It feels like they want star quality, and while Peterson is certainly a star-level talent, he doesn’t have the same gravitas as Dybantsa as a franchise cornerstone. Dybantsa wants all of the pressure that comes with being a No. 1 overall pick. He wants that placed on his shoulders and has the kind of temperament that will have no issues accepting it.

On top of that, for me, the thing that this Washington team needs more than anything within its young core is someone who can pressure the rim. Sarr is more of a perimeter-based big who takes a larger number of floaters around the basket than most centers. George and Johnson can struggle to get all the way to the rim. Young is much more adept at using his floater game and has increasingly drawn fear fouls over the last four years of his career. Davis was better at it in Los Angeles, but this past year in Dallas was much less inclined to put his body in harm’s way.

Dybantsa is a fearless driver who will create easier shots because of his athleticism and power as a driver. That’s the type of player who makes the most sense within this incredibly fun core of young players the Wizards have built.

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What You Should Read Next

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AJ Dybantsa or Darryn Peterson: Who will the Washington Wizards draft at No. 1?

Analyse

2026-06-22 03:01:28