AJ Dybantsa is entering the next stage of his basketball journey carrying enormous expectations as possibly the league’s next No. 1 overall pick. The versatile wing has impressed fans with his combination of size, athleticism and shot creation during his freshman season with BYU.
Many are intrigued by how he could really fare in the NBA, and on the Gil’s Arena podcast, Dybantsa admits his focus is no longer just on making the league, but on studying the stars he hopes to compete against.
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Student of the game
Dybantsa, who averaged 25.5 points and 6.8 rebounds last season, opened up about how he views the game today, and the superstars he’s excited to play against. At the top of that list is the player whom many scouts have compared him to, due to his incredible frame, Kevin Durant, as well as LeBron James.
“Easy answer, KD, being my favorite player. I just want to guard him and be on the same court as him,” Dybantsa said. “Hopefully, LeBron’s still playing. Never know with that.”
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Like KD, Dybantsa is a long, skilled wing who can handle the ball and create shots. It makes sense that he would want to measure himself against a player who has truly become the prototype of oversized modern scorers.
On the other hand, facing LeBron as a rookie is also one of the many accomplishments young players have emphasized over the years. And with Dybantsa already having an emerging mentor-mentee relationship with the King more recently, his first potential duel with the King might become more important than most fans realize.
Beyond his idols, Dybantsa also shares how he is excited to see up close the generation of elite scorers such as Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who he says he is fascinated to learn how they’ve dominated defenders today.
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“Me being a student of the game and seeing how Shai gets his shot off and how Luka gets his shot off. I just want to see from a defensive standpoint how it feels ’cause they’re making it look way too easy. It’s probably easy for them,” stated Dybantsa.
“‘Cause I watched Luka live, and that was probably the craziest single-person performance I’ve ever seen. It was like a 40-point triple-double, easy. It was crazy,” he continued.
SGA has become one of the league’s most efficient isolation scorers by cleverly using pace, angles, and sometimes contact, rather than just purely creating space for himself. Doncic, meanwhile, possesses the same lethal scoring abilities but mixes it with his really one-of-a-kind flair.
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Both players’ styles seemingly speak directly to what Dybantsa wants to do when he steps into the league. He already has a solid foundation to build on: excellent size and athleticism, as well as great shooting mechanics. For him, it’s all about adjusting to the transition from college to the NBA.
“Definitely, now watching the NBA is way different from me watching it before. I was watching like as a fan, but now I’m watching it like okay, what spots is they choosing? How fast the game moving?” he said. “Defensive schemes, I’m seeing double teams, how LeBron’s breaking them vs how KD is breaking them. So, I’m kind of like dissecting it, where I would be.”
A future star
The Washington Wizards, or any other team, are undeniably focused on Dybantsa’s physical tools, but his mindset offers something more cohesive than his peers in this much-anticipated draft class.
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He had the confidence and openness to guard the best of the best and learn from them. Plenty of talented prospects with the same, or even better, scoring abilities Dybantsa has in recent years, but only a few of them have had the mindset that he has. And almost all of them have carved out solid careers in the league.
If he eventually becomes the No. 1 pick, his transition will still be difficult. But given his desire to learn more than just play alongside his idols, it suggests he has the patience to develop into one of the league’s future superstars.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Jun 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.