2026 Pre-Draft Thread Part V

[nate33]

You guys screwed up and got to 100 pages 3 days ahead of the draft. Now I've got to make this thread now, and then another for draft day.

Continued from here:

[Paris41]

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[payitforward]

You guys screwed up and got to 100 pages 3 days ahead of the draft. Now I've got to make this thread now, and then another for draft day.

Continued from here:

Hey! You were as much a part of the screw up as the rest of us!

Have we ever had a 5-iteration pre-draft thread before?

[payitforward]

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Ok. I'm convinced. DP it is.

[The Consiglieri]

Kinda funny, this whole time I thought it was Thursday like it always is which was going to be a problem because the US plays Turkey Thursday night, but the US just won the group so that game is a formality and its not on Thursday, its on Tuesday lol. Otoh, it's DR Congo vs Colombia on Tuesday Night and that game is HUUUUUGEEEEE to a big Sub-Saharan CAF fan like me....So we gotta be done drafting by 7pm. I can miss Croatia-Panama, I already know who'll win that game.....


Also kind of funny that I'm swinging like another poster here, totally undecided, and swinging daily back and forth between AJ and Peterson, the more Peterson moves from an extreme long shot, towards a 20-30% chance the more worried I get and switch to Dybantsa lol. It's interesting how deeply both fans, and insiders are convinced that it is one guy, or it's totally an unknown right now. Btw, if Peterson really is a 2 guard, and can't play the point, as some have argued in recent days, I move to Dybantsa, that just takes too much away from the value to me of Peterson, especially considering we already have a potentially good 2 guard in house, but lack an otherworldly freak athlete weapon like AJ. Peterson manning the point eventually with all his talent makes him viable to me, but him being a 2 guard? Meh, that would move me a bit closer to Dybantsa than him.

[tontoz]

There was plenty of Fears smoke last year but no sign of interest in Tre Johnson. Literally nothing.

AJ still -450 on Fanduel.

[Tyrone Messby]

There is just ZERO reason to take DP first overall. Jazz owner has a vested interest in AJ and was instrumental in his NIL deal at BYU. If we take DP first, we are still just a league stooge. And F Danny Ainge.

[closg00]

There was plenty of Fears smoke last year but no sign of interest in Tre Johnson. Literally nothing.

AJ still -450 on Fanduel.

We stockpiled wings in Bilal, Kyshawn, and Will. All things being kind of equal, do you think we add another in AJ?
I will be very surprised if we draft AJ, Winger does not like the Athletic prototype IMO.

[closg00]

There is just ZERO reason to take DP first overall. Jazz owner has a vested interest in AJ and was instrumental in his NIL deal at BYU. If we take DP first, we are still just a league stooge. And F Danny Ainge.

Agree. Ainge always wins, he’ll get AJ for nothing.

[tontoz]

There was plenty of Fears smoke last year but no sign of interest in Tre Johnson. Literally nothing.

AJ still -450 on Fanduel.

We stockpiled wings in Bilal, Kyshawn, and Will. All things being kind of equal, do you think we add another in AJ?
I will be very surprised if we draft AJ, Winger does not like the Athletic prototype IMO.

Will and Bilal can both play the 2. It's Dawkins that is making the pick.

The fact that they didn't even work out AJ tells me they already decided he's their guy. They did their due diligence on Peterson just in case they get a big offer to trade down.

[Benjammin]

A stat geek's type of analysis: https://patelsahil2002.substack.com/p/the-sheets-only-case-for-aj-dybantsa?r=3ft29x&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=split&triedRedirect=true

TLDR---The Cliff Notes version of this is AJ's ability to be a playmaker and get to the rim means he can function as the lead for a team with the ball. The benefit of that is playing larger lineups where his rebounding makes his defense more acceptable.

From my perspective, he can get a few years of grace with Trae on the team to grow into that role as being the lead or point forward type initiating offense. Then his play off-ball offensively doesn't matter as much nor does his 3 point shooting since he is the one making the plays for others.

Boozer---He can't play the 5. Period. He doesn't have an inside defensive presence at the rim. But he does so many other things well.

DP---He wasn't analyzed in the piece.

[DCZards]

There is just ZERO reason to take DP first overall. Jazz owner has a vested interest in AJ and was instrumental in his NIL deal at BYU. If we take DP first, we are still just a league stooge. And F Danny Ainge.

Agree. Ainge always wins, he’ll get AJ for nothing.

Nah…the Zards will win this time. We’re gonna get the top guy on our dance card. That’s what matters most. I could care less who Ainge gets.

[nate33]

There is just ZERO reason to take DP first overall. Jazz owner has a vested interest in AJ and was instrumental in his NIL deal at BYU. If we take DP first, we are still just a league stooge. And F Danny Ainge.

Agree. Ainge always wins, he’ll get AJ for nothing.

It's not "winning" if Ainge happens to draft the second-best player with the #2 pick.

[anselmheifer76]

There was plenty of Fears smoke last year but no sign of interest in Tre Johnson. Literally nothing.

AJ still -450 on Fanduel.

We stockpiled wings in Bilal, Kyshawn, and Will. All things being kind of equal, do you think we add another in AJ?
I will be very surprised if we draft AJ, Winger does not like the Athletic prototype IMO.

Will and Bilal can both play the 2. It's Dawkins that is making the pick.

The fact that they didn't even work out AJ tells me they already decided he's their guy. They did their due diligence on Peterson just in case they get a big offer to trade down.

I agree. If they’ve worked out DP multiple times and haven’t worked out AJ, but brought him in to tour the facilities, that tells be they are leaning AJ. They ar certainly sniffing around DP a lot. Maybe they need to see him in person to see if his explosiveness look like his HS explosiveness, or the college version. And obviously to measure out his mentality.

It honestly seems like DP doesn’t know how to help himself in an interview. Can’t answer when he was last at 100%. Says that he’d rather shoot than drive to the rim but that Bill Self asked him to drive to the rim. I don’t see him knocking interviews out of the park.

And I think it gets glossed over that his availability issues go back to HS.

If this were the NFL draft, a guy that wasn’t available in HS or college, pulled himself right before playing the top team. Pulled himself at multiple halftimes, that guy couldn’t sniff #1.

[AFM]

"His college play isn't relevant. Look at what he did in 5th grade." - Dr. "Doc" Linkin

Watch on YouTube

[nate33]

We stockpiled wings in Bilal, Kyshawn, and Will. All things being kind of equal, do you think we add another in AJ?
I will be very surprised if we draft AJ, Winger does not like the Athletic prototype IMO.

Will and Bilal can both play the 2. It's Dawkins that is making the pick.

The fact that they didn't even work out AJ tells me they already decided he's their guy. They did their due diligence on Peterson just in case they get a big offer to trade down.

I agree. If they’ve worked out DP multiple times and haven’t worked out AJ, but brought him in to tour the facilities, that tells be they are leaning AJ. They ar certainly sniffing around DP a lot. Maybe they need to see him in person to see if his explosiveness look like his HS explosiveness, or the college version. And obviously to measure out his mentality.

It honestly seems like DP doesn’t know how to help himself in an interview. Can’t answer when he was last at 100%. Says that he’d rather shoot than drive to the rim but that Bill Self asked him to drive to the rim. I don’t see him knocking interviews out of the park.

And I think it gets glossed over that his availability issues go back to HS.

If this were the NFL draft, a guy that wasn’t available in HS or college, pulled himself right before playing the top team. Pulled himself at multiple halftimes, that guy couldn’t sniff #1.

I don't think it tells us anything.

They didn't work out AJ because they saw him at full strength in college and at the combine. There was no point in working him out. All they wanted to do was get to know him personally.

The did work out DP because they had reason to believe he was not at full strength at college and wanted to truly assess what he can physically do while at full strength.

Whether or not DP impressed them enough to move above AJ on their big board remains to be seen.

[Dat2U]

Will and Bilal can both play the 2. It's Dawkins that is making the pick.

The fact that they didn't even work out AJ tells me they already decided he's their guy. They did their due diligence on Peterson just in case they get a big offer to trade down.

I agree. If they’ve worked out DP multiple times and haven’t worked out AJ, but brought him in to tour the facilities, that tells be they are leaning AJ. They ar certainly sniffing around DP a lot. Maybe they need to see him in person to see if his explosiveness look like his HS explosiveness, or the college version. And obviously to measure out his mentality.

It honestly seems like DP doesn’t know how to help himself in an interview. Can’t answer when he was last at 100%. Says that he’d rather shoot than drive to the rim but that Bill Self asked him to drive to the rim. I don’t see him knocking interviews out of the park.

And I think it gets glossed over that his availability issues go back to HS.

If this were the NFL draft, a guy that wasn’t available in HS or college, pulled himself right before playing the top team. Pulled himself at multiple halftimes, that guy couldn’t sniff #1.

I don't think it tells us anything.

They didn't work out AJ because they saw him at full strength in college and at the combine. There was no point in working him out. All they wanted to do was get to know him personally.

The did work out DP because they had reason to believe he was not at full strength at college and wanted to truly assess what he can physically do while at full strength.

Whether or not DP impressed them enough to move above AJ on their big board remains to be seen.

Agreed, all this shows is that the Wizards aren't going just make a decision based off 24-game sample size where a guy may not have been 100%.

I've said repeatedly that alot depends on his workouts and to see if he's regaining the mobility, athletic pop that made him so dynamic prior to Kansas.

[closg00]

Wagler gaining 20 LBS has me intrigued considering he had zero dunks, looks like he is going to the Clippers after all.

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[tontoz]

Wagler gaining 20 LBS has me intrigued considering he had zero dunks, looks like he is going to the Clippers after all.

I don't think that is entirely accurate. From what I heard Wagler put on a lot of weight prior to the start of the season. He wasn't playing at 170.

[Paris41]

"His college play isn't relevant. Look at what he did in 5th grade." - Dr. "Doc" Linkin

Watch on YouTube

No way