The Washington Wizards opened their first preseason game of 2026-27 on October 5 at Madison Square Garden, and the point was simple: see what Trae Young, Anthony Davis and AJ Dybantsa look like together. For a team that finished last season 17-65, this was the first public test of a rebuilt roster built around three new names rather than one hope.
That is why the game mattered now. The Knicks hosted Washington in New York, and the matchup arrived with the Wizards still trying to turn a roster overhaul into something coherent. AJ, the 19-year-old 6'9" scoring wing and the number one pick out of BYU, was one of the central pieces in that plan, alongside Young and Davis, with the team expected to find out quickly whether the fit could work in real minutes.
Washington’s projected starters were Young, Kyshawn George, AJ, Davis and Alex Sarr, which already showed the shape of the experiment. The idea is straightforward enough on paper: Young handles the ball, Davis anchors the middle, and AJ stretches the floor as a wing scorer who can attack from different spots. But preseason lineups are only part of the picture, and Washington also listed Bub Carrington, Bilal Coulibaly, Khris Middleton and Deandre Ayton as bench options, a reminder that the depth chart is still being sorted rather than settled.
The problem is that the new look is arriving before the roster is fully clean. Sarr was a game-time decision with a foot injury, Tristan Vukcevic was out with a hip injury and Jamir Watkins was out with a knee injury. That leaves Washington asking its best version of the lineup to assemble without much margin for error, which is not ideal for a club that last season averaged 112.9 points while allowing 124.9. The talent level is better, but the supporting cast and staff still read like work in progress.
That is the real reason this opener drew attention beyond the box score. New pieces can change a reputation fast, but only if they share the floor long enough to show rhythm, spacing and defensive shape. If Sarr can go, Washington gets a cleaner read on the starting group. If he cannot, the first answer the Wizards offer will be incomplete, and the next one will have to wait until the lineup is whole enough to tell the truth.
