{"id":194844,"date":"2026-05-10T20:25:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:25:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=194844"},"modified":"2026-05-10T20:25:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T00:25:07","slug":"washington-wizards-luck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/05\/10\/washington-wizards-luck\/","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Wizards Finally Luck Out In The 2026 NBA Lottery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Washington Wizards have had some of the worst NBA lottery<\/a> luck in the last few years. From missing out on multiple first picks to selecting players who didn’t quite pan out, it’s been a long and exhausting rebuild for the organization and fans. From tanks to just horrid luck<\/a>, Washington hasn’t held the first overall pick in over 15 years.<\/p>\n

However, the 2026 NBA Draft has flipped the script. Washington will get the first selection in the 2026 NBA Draft<\/a> for the first time since 2010, when the team drafted franchise legend John Wall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Washington Wizards Finally Luck Out In NBA Lottery<\/h2>\n

Before the lottery on Sunday, Washington had only held a top-five pick four times since the franchise selected Wall. In such a crucial year, Washington has claimed the prize and will no doubt select a new star with the first overall pick in June. With the lottery out of the way, let’s break down Washington’s next few crucial periods of the offseason and dive into their near-lock selection at first.<\/p>\n

Moving Forward…<\/h3>\n

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After the lottery, one major offseason process is the NBA Draft Combine. In such a critical time in Washington’s rebuild, all eyes will be on the top prospects, seeing who they should take to lead their young core beside veterans Trae Young<\/a> and Anthony Davis<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The combine officially begins on Sunday and will run through May 17. Over the course of the combine, BYU forward AJ Dybantsa<\/a>, Duke forward Cameron Boozer<\/a>, and Kansas guard Darryn Peterson<\/a> will prove their case for being selected first overall. Events over the week include scrimmages, individual workouts, athletic testing, and organization interviews. Dybantsa<\/a> does hold the experts’ favor as the first overall pick, but Boozer<\/a> or Peterson<\/a> could become a dark horse with an outstanding week.<\/p>\n

While the Wizards may have a plan for the first pick, this will also allow them to scout out around the latter half of the first round. In turn, they could make a move to secure a second pick in the later stages of the first round.<\/p>\n

And With The First Pick…<\/h3>\n

A major question with a somewhat obvious answer currently is who Washington is targeting in the draft. Dybantsa grew on experts throughout the season, and seems to be a near-lock as the first selection in the draft. The freshman phenom absolutely dominated last season for BYU and will look to continue that heading into his rookie season.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old led the nation last season in scoring<\/a>, with an impressive 25.5 points per game on over 50% shooting. His offensive skillset will pair perfectly with a team that may struggle to find consistent weapons outside of their All-Star duo.<\/p>\n

Dybantsa should find himself with starter minutes as he enters the league. He’ll find excellent offensive opportunities at small forward in the starting lineup. With a projected lineup of Young, Kyshawn George<\/a>, Dybantsa, Davis, and Alex Sarr<\/a>, the Wizards will have a fine core of elite offensive production from all three levels.<\/p>\n

In the postseason, the Eastern Conference has proven to be much closer and nearly wide open. Most series have had five or more games, with most contests ending dramatically. Washington could prove to go from worst to contender in just one season, and may provide the league with extreme dark horse potential.<\/p>\n

Featured Image: David Banks-Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Washington Wizards have had some of the worst NBA lottery luck in the last few years. From missing out on multiple first picks to selecting players who didn’t quite pan out, it’s been a long and exhausting rebuild for the organization and fans. From tanks to just horrid luck, Washington hasn’t held the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5480,"featured_media":194891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,62,556,3,18],"tags":[49353,49244,240,49715,49782,310,49322,1349],"class_list":["post-194844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-nba","category-nba-draft","category-news","category-wizards","tag-aj-dybantsa","tag-alex-sarr","tag-anthony-davis","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-darryn-peterson","tag-john-wall","tag-kyshawn-george","tag-trae-young"],"modified_by":"Benjamin Yu, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5480"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194844"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194892,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194844\/revisions\/194892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}