The Washington Wizards won the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery, and the biggest immediate winner of that result may be the top of the draft board itself. With the lottery settled before the June 23, 2026 draft, a post-lottery mock update now has BYU’s AJ Dybantsa projected to go No. 1 to Washington.
Dybantsa is the player who has changed the conversation around this class. The 6 foot 9 forward is described as a dynamic, explosive scorer, and his season numbers explain why: 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 51 percent from the field. He also hit 33.1 percent of his 3-pointers and 77.4 percent of his free throws, and he got to the line 8.5 times per game.
The lottery reshaped the board behind Washington, too. Utah moved up to No. 2 for the first time in franchise history, Memphis jumped three spots to No. 3, and Chicago climbed from No. 9 to No. 4 under a new front office. The LA Clippers will pick at No. 5 after the Ivica Zubac trade in February, Brooklyn fell to No. 6 and Sacramento dropped to No. 7. Indiana lost its draft pick this season to the Clippers.
That movement matters because the class is front-loaded with star power. Along with Dybantsa, the top tier is built around Kansas guard Darryn Peterson, Duke forward Cameron Boozer and North Carolina forward Caleb Wilson. Peterson is projected to go No. 2, which puts the Jazz in position to add another high-end prospect after their long climb in the lottery. Memphis and Chicago, meanwhile, have suddenly been handed prime access to a draft that looked very different before the ping-pong balls were drawn.
The sharpest case for Dybantsa comes from a line that puts him in rare company. He and Michael Beasley are the only two freshmen in college basketball history to average 25 points, shoot 50 percent from the field and take at least eight free-throw attempts per game. That combination of size, scoring and pressure at the rim is what makes him the cleanest No. 1 projection in this updated order.
For Washington, the lottery win is only the beginning. For the rest of the league, the order shift has turned the path to June 23 into a new kind of race, with the Jazz, Grizzlies and Bulls suddenly holding far better draft slots than they did a day earlier. The lottery changed the board in a few seconds; the mock draft now has to live with it.
