Aj Dybantsa said Monday night at Game 3 of the NBA Finals that he believes he could help an NBA team reach playoff success quickly, even as he heads toward what is expected to be the No. 1 pick in the draft. The 6-foot-9 forward said his adaptability and work ethic would make the jump smoother than people might think.
Dybantsa made the comments in New York City with the NBA Finals still unfolding and the draft 14 days away, a timing that keeps every word from one of the country’s most closely watched prospects under a bright light. He has become the center of the draft conversation in part because teams are already weighing whether he can change a franchise’s outlook from day one.
What he saw on Monday fed that debate. The Spurs beat the Knicks in Game 3 and moved within three wins of a championship, a run powered in large part by Victor Wembanyama, who the Spurs took No. 1 overall three years ago. Wembanyama has averaged 24.1 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.5 blocks in the postseason while shooting 50% from the field and 36% from 3-point range, numbers that have turned San Antonio from a club with six straight losing seasons into a team playing deep into June.
That is the model Dybantsa is being measured against, and it is one reason his remarks landed now. He was widely projected to be the top selection in this year’s draft after a freshman season at BYU in which he led the nation in scoring at 25.5 points per game, shot 51% from the field and averaged 6.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists while earning First Team All-America honors. He also showed how much of his game travels, scoring 35 points and grabbing 10 rebounds in BYU’s first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Texas.
Dybantsa said his ability to get into the paint, create for himself and find teammates would carry over to the NBA, calling himself a natural playmaker who fits with others. That matters because the next team he might join is not guaranteed to be built like San Antonio. Washington, often mentioned in draft chatter around the top pick, has not had a winning season since 2018, has not won at least 50 games since 1979 and owns the NBA’s longest conference finals drought at 47 years. The Wizards led the league in losses, even after recent first-rounders Alex Sarr, Tre Johnson, Will Riley and Kyshawn George showed flashes and the team added Anthony Davis and Trae Young.
Dybantsa said learning from Davis, a future Hall of Famer, and Young, a four-time All-Star, would be “super exciting” and that gathering knowledge from them would be helpful. If Washington ends up with the first pick, the franchise would be asking a teenager to walk into one of the league’s bleakest histories and help lift it. If another team gets there first, the same question follows him somewhere else: whether Aj Dybantsa can turn promise into wins before the rest of the league finishes catching up.
