The Wizards Lost 65 Games, Won The Lottery, And Pick First For The First Time Since Wall

The Washington Wizards bottomed out the way a tanking team is supposed to, and on May 10 the ping-pong balls paid it off. Washington finished the 2025-26 season 17-65 — the worst record in the NBA — and then won the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery at McCormick Place in Chicago, securing the No. 1 overall pick for the first time since the franchise took John Wall first in 2010. They won out of the tied-best slot at 14.0 percent odds under the league's flattened-odds format, holding the top selection that will be exercised June 23 at Barclays Center. After three seasons of deliberate roster demolition, the rebuild finally has its centerpiece selection.

The losing was historic, not incidental. The Wizards closed the season losing 26 of their final 27 games, a stretch that locked up the league's worst record and the maximum lottery odds. That is the bet a front office makes when it tells its fan base to be patient: lose enough to control the top of a draft you believe in. Washington's reward is the rare clean No. 1 in a class with a clear consensus prospect at the top, which removes the agonizing 'who do we take' question that has burned other lottery winners.

The order behind them shaped the whole first round. The verified top of the 2026 lottery: Washington at No. 1, the Utah Jazz at No. 2, the Memphis Grizzlies at No. 3, the Chicago Bulls at No. 4, the LA Clippers at No. 5 via Indiana, the Brooklyn Nets at No. 6, and the Sacramento Kings at No. 7. The Bulls jumped up from roughly 3 percent top-four odds and the Grizzlies climbed from 9 percent, the night's biggest movers, while the Clippers cashed the Pacers' pick. For Washington, the relevant fact is simpler: nobody picks ahead of them.

The rebuild this pick joins is genuinely young and genuinely deep. General manager Will Dawkins, in the third year of a full teardown, has stacked the roster with lottery-pedigree talent: Bilal Coulibaly, the No. 7 pick in 2023; Alex Sarr, the No. 2 pick in 2024 and now a second-year center; Bub Carrington, a 2024 first-rounder; Kyshawn George, also from the 2024 class; and Tre Johnson, the No. 6 pick in the 2025 draft. Several of those young players earned All-Star Weekend Rising Stars selections. The 17-65 record was the cost of giving all of them runway; the No. 1 pick is the payoff.

The consensus target is no mystery. AJ Dybantsa, the 6-foot-9 BYU wing who led the nation in scoring as a freshman, is the projected No. 1 to Washington across the major boards and was a -450 betting favorite to go first after the lottery. Dybantsa averaged roughly 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists, won the AP Big 12 Player of the Year and Big 12 Freshman of the Year, and was a consensus first-team All-American. A jumbo two-way wing who can create his own shot is the textbook best-player-available pick for a rebuild already loaded with guards.

The fit conversation is where it gets interesting. Washington's young core is guard-heavy — Carrington, George, and the rookie Johnson all need touches — and adding another high-usage perimeter player raises real questions about shot distribution and developmental minutes. But at the top of a draft, fit yields to talent, and a 6-foot-9 wing who defends multiple positions is the kind of connective, scalable piece that makes a crowded young roster work rather than clog it. Dawkins has shown a clear preference for length and two-way upside; Dybantsa is the purest version of that available.

The alternatives exist on paper. If a team trades up or the board breaks differently, Kansas guard Darryn Peterson and Duke forward Cameron Boozer — the reigning consensus National Player of the Year — are the only other prospects in the No. 1 conversation, and both have legitimate cases. But the most likely outcome on June 23 is the Wizards calling Dybantsa's name and ending a 16-year wait to pick first. The losing is over. The building starts with the top selection in a draft Washington spent a full season earning.