The Whole Wizards Rookie Class Is Making Noise in Las Vegas, Not Just the No. 1 Pick

AJ Dybantsa averaged 25 points and 7 rebounds in two games and looked every bit like the franchise cornerstone Washington drafted him to be. Then the Wizards shut him down. Then people noticed that Will Riley averaged 25 points and 4.5 rebounds in the same stretch. And Tre Johnson went out in his one game and dropped 26. Washington is not building around one player. Washington is building.

Three hours before the most anticipated game at the Las Vegas Summer League, AJ Dybantsa was on a trainer's table. He was getting a massage and treatment inside the 26,000-square-foot ballroom that serves as the Washington Wizards' facility at Mandalay Bay. At the same time, assistant coach Cody Toppert was running the No. 1 pick through video clips on an iPad showing him how to attack different defensive coverages. Darryn Peterson and the Utah Jazz were on deck. What happened next was normal before a regular-season NBA game but rare at summer league because of the back-to-back format: Dybantsa stepped onto the practice court and spent over 30 minutes shooting midrange jumpers, threes from every position on the arc, shot-creation moves, and free throws. From his pregame routine to his 6-foot-9 frame to his thoughtful postgame interviews, Dybantsa looks, acts, and sounds like a franchise player. He always has. The surprise in Las Vegas has not been that AJ Dybantsa is good. The surprise is that he is not alone.

What Dybantsa Actually Showed

Dybantsa's two summer league appearances produced 27 points and 7 rebounds in a 92-88 win over the Utah Jazz on July 9, followed by 23 points and 7 rebounds in a 104-85 victory over the Sacramento Kings. The 27-point debut against Peterson in the No. 1 versus No. 2 matchup the entire basketball world had circled generated the most attention, and it deserved it. On one first-half play, Dybantsa drove past two Jazz defenders, temporarily lost the ball in midair, then punched in a two-handed dunk and screamed while flexing to the crowd. The sequence was not a highlight. It was a declaration.

His averages across the two appearances: 25 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists per game. He shot efficiently without forcing. He made the right reads in transition. He defended with the effort that does not always show up from top picks in exhibition settings. The Wizards went 2-0. And when summer league coach T.J. Sorrentine announced that Washington was shutting Dybantsa down for the remainder of the schedule, the decision felt less like caution and more like conclusion. There was nothing left to establish. The mission was accomplished in two games.

"It's a culmination of camp all the way through the games," Sorrentine said. The message was clear. Dybantsa was not shut down because anything went wrong. He was shut down because everything went right, quickly, in front of the people who needed to see it.

The Other Guys: Riley and Johnson Refuse to Be Footnotes

The full story of the Washington Wizards' summer league is not a solo. It is an ensemble.

Will Riley averaged 25.0 points and 4.5 rebounds in his two summer league appearances. That is the same point average as the No. 1 overall pick, produced by the 21st pick in the 2025 draft, a player who spent his rookie season developing behind the scenes on a Wizards roster that was not yet ready to compete. Riley is 20 years old. He is a long, fluid scorer whose ability to get to spots on the floor and convert in contested situations mirrors the professional polish of a player two years deeper into his career than his age suggests.

Tre Johnson, the sixth overall pick in the 2025 draft, played one summer league game. He scored 26 points against the Jazz. One game, 26 points, performance complete. The Wizards shut him down along with Dybantsa and Riley within the same announcement, a collective decision that served as the clearest possible statement about what Washington's coaching staff thinks of this group's readiness for the regular season. You do not shut down players who haven't proven themselves. You shut down players who have.

The three players averaged 25, 25, and 26 points in their respective summer league stints. The 2025 draft yielded two of the three. The 2026 draft yielded the other. Washington has a pipeline producing impact talent across consecutive draft classes, and the summer league in Las Vegas served as the first public demonstration of what that pipeline looks like when the players step onto the same court.

What the Wizards Are Building

The vibes around the Wizards organization in Las Vegas were electric in a way the franchise has not generated in years. The entire roster was present at Dybantsa's debut. Trae Young, who signed a four-year, $212.8 million extension on the morning after Dybantsa's first game, attended the contest and watched from courtside. Anthony Davis was present. The connection between the franchise's veteran stars and its ascending young core was visible and deliberate.

Young's extension announcement came with the full organizational picture around it: Washington has Young, Davis, Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George, Tre Johnson, Will Riley, and now AJ Dybantsa. They have made the playoffs just once since 2018. They are building toward the first time since then that the playoff bar seems genuinely reachable from the inside rather than merely aspirational from the outside. With Dybantsa's arrival, the pressure is on to be competitive and make the playoffs for the first time since 2021.

The Wizards also have the No. 1 pick in BYU's history, the highest-scoring second-year wing from the 2025 draft class, and the player who dropped 26 in his one summer league appearance, all on the same roster, all under 22 years old, all performing in Las Vegas in ways that made everyone watching recalibrate their expectations for what 2026-27 in Washington might look like. Dybantsa is the centerpiece. Riley and Johnson proved in Las Vegas that the center has a frame worth building around.

Washington Wizards Summer League record: 2-0 (Las Vegas). AJ Dybantsa (No. 1 pick, 2026): 25 PPG, 7 RPG across two games. 27 points, 7 rebounds in Game 1 (92-88 W over Utah). 23 points, 7 rebounds in Game 2 (104-85 W over Sacramento). Will Riley (No. 21 pick, 2025): 25 PPG, 4.5 RPG across two games. Tre Johnson (No. 6 pick, 2025): 26 points in one game vs. Utah Jazz. All three shut down after 2026 summer league games by coach T.J. Sorrentine. Trae Young signed 4-year, $212.8 million extension July 10, 2026.