Three Teams Just Got The Hardest Decisions In The 2026 NBA Draft. None Of Them Is Washington.

The Washington Wizards got the first pick of the 2026 NBA Draft on Sunday afternoon. The three teams immediately behind them — Utah, Memphis, and Chicago — got the second, third, and fourth, and every one of those three has a roster math problem that turns its lottery jump into a six-week decision rather than a six-second one.

The Utah Jazz landed the No. 2 pick after jumping up from the fifth-worst regular-season record. Kansas guard Darryn Peterson — 6'5", 18.9/4.8/5.1 on 49/40/82 shooting in his freshman season, the cleanest scoring profile in the class outside Dybantsa — is the consensus pick at No. 2 on most published mocks. The problem for Utah is that the Jazz are not short on guards. Keyonte George broke out into a 19-point-per-game scorer this season; Walter Clayton Jr., the rookie who came over in February's Jaren Jackson Jr. trade with Memphis, is the de facto starting point guard already; Cody Williams, the 2024 first-rounder, is still in the long-term picture. The five-out shooting room is full. The wing on the wing is the gap.

The Jazz front office has a real choice here. Take Peterson at 2 and trade either George or Williams in the summer to clear the lane (the more likely path, given Williams's flagging value and George's restricted-free-agent year coming up in 2027). Take a wing — Boozer or Caleb Wilson, depending on how the No. 3 pick goes — and stay with the existing guard rotation. Or trade the pick. The Jazz already own the most aggressive trade-capital portfolio in the league after the JJJ deal (three protected first-rounders from Utah, Lakers, and Suns coming back in future drafts), and a team in the No. 6-9 range with a young veteran the Jazz actually want is a real trade-up partner. The most likely outcome is Peterson at 2; the second-most-likely is a trade down to No. 4 or No. 5 for a wing and a 2027 first.

The Memphis Grizzlies are the team that needs the most help and also has the least obvious next move. Memphis jumped three spots in the lottery — from a projected No. 6 to the No. 3 pick — and now holds three picks inside the top 32 (No. 3, No. 16 from Phoenix, and No. 32 from Indiana in the second round). Duke forward Cameron Boozer is the obvious slot at No. 3. The 6'9" 235-pound forward averaged 22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds, and four assists at Duke this past season on 55% shooting; he is a clean fit alongside whoever runs the Grizzlies' point next season (Walter Clayton Jr. is gone; the team will lean on Marcus Smart as a temporary placeholder while it figures out the post-Ja Morant point-guard era).

The trickier question for the Grizzlies is whether Boozer is the player who solves their actual problem. Memphis just traded its best front-court player — Jaren Jackson Jr. — to Utah in February to begin a full rebuild around Ja Morant (whose own future remains a closely-guarded internal conversation). Boozer at No. 3 is a long-term build piece; it does not move the team back into the play-in race in 2026-27. The alternative path is a trade-down package — pick No. 3 plus a future pick for two picks in the No. 6-12 range — that lets the Grizzlies double up on Caleb Wilson-class talent (UNC forward, 19.8/9.4/2.7/1.5/1.4 on a 2-way ceiling) and a true point guard (Cooper Flagg's college teammate Dylan Harper, or a Jase Richardson-tier shooting guard with point-guard upside). The Grizzlies are the team most likely of the top four to actually move the pick.

The Chicago Bulls jumped from a projected No. 9 to No. 4. The pick is, by every published mock, UNC forward Caleb Wilson. Wilson is the most polarizing prospect in the top four: a 6'10" two-way forward who averaged 19.8 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.5 steals, and 1.4 blocks per game, with a perimeter game that is — by the numbers — not yet there. He shot 25.9% from three at North Carolina. The Pascal Siakam comparison is the optimistic one (Siakam shot 14% from three as a rookie and developed into a perennial All-Star). The pessimistic one is that Wilson is the prototype of the modern 4 who can't space the floor in playoff basketball.

The fit in Chicago is, in the Bulls' rebuild reality, near-ideal regardless of the shooting question. Matas Buzelis (second-year wing, 12 PPG breakout in 2025-26) and Josh Giddey (first-time All-Star in 2025-26, the Bulls' best player) are both north-south players who push the ball, get to the rim, and play above the rim in transition. Wilson is the third player in that trio — a 6'10" finisher who recorded 67 dunks in 24 games at North Carolina. The half-court spacing problem the trio creates is real, and the Bulls' front office will spend the next six weeks deciding whether to address it with the rest of the roster or by trading the pick for a more conventional shooter. Most internal expectations are that Chicago stands pat at No. 4 and takes Wilson. The Bulls' history with the fourth pick — their last six No. 4 picks have a combined zero All-Star appearances — is the only structural reason to think otherwise.

The downstream effect on the rest of the lottery is that the LA Clippers at No. 5 are now the most-watched pre-draft team in the league. If Washington stays at No. 1, Utah at No. 2, Memphis at No. 3, and Chicago at No. 4, the four name-brand prospects (Dybantsa, Peterson, Boozer, Wilson) are gone before the Clippers pick. LA's front office spent the regular season signaling it would target a long-term post-Kawhi-Leonard wing in this draft; with the top four gone, the team's options narrow to BYU forward Egor Demin, Florida shooting guard Jase Richardson, or Houston combo guard JT Toppin. The trade-down market the Clippers facilitate at No. 5 will set the actual market price of the No. 2-No. 4 picks, because every team in front of them now has a reason to talk to LA.

The June 23 draft in Brooklyn is six weeks away. The lottery is in the books. The actual draft order, when it comes, will be decided by which of the three teams behind Washington holds its pick and which one trades. The single highest-leverage question of those six weeks is the Jazz's. The single highest-volatility one is the Grizzlies'. The Bulls', for now, is the safest bet to be a simple selection.