AJ Dybantsa played his first NBA preseason game at Madison Square Garden, which is about as good a stage as a No. 1 pick could ask for. Washington beat the Knicks 111-109.
His line: 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting, two rebounds, two assists, and a team-high four steals in 23 minutes. He went 0-for-3 from three and 1-of-3 at the line.
The Steals Are the Takeaway
Four steals from a rookie in his first exhibition is more interesting than the scoring. Rookies get buckets in preseason all the time against rotations that have not been sorted out. Reading passing lanes against NBA spacing is a different skill, and most first-year players need a season to learn it.
The shooting was ordinary. Five-for-eleven with nothing from deep is a fine night for a 23-minute debut and tells you very little. The 1-of-3 from the free throw line is noise.
What matters is that he looked like he belonged on the floor in a close game at the Garden, which is not a given for a player who was in college last season.
Washington Has Actual Veterans Now
Anthony Davis led the Wizards with 16 points, seven rebounds, two assists and a block in roughly 17 minutes. Trae Young added 15 points and four assists and hit three from behind the arc.
That trio is the entire premise of Washington’s season. Davis and Young give the Wizards two players who have carried offenses, and Dybantsa gives them a reason to think this is a build rather than a holding pattern.
Seventeen minutes for Davis in a preseason game is the right amount. Washington has every incentive to keep him upright, and the Wizards are not going to risk anything in October to win an exhibition.
The Supporting Cast Is Still Unsettled
Khris Middleton rested and is trending toward playing Saturday against Detroit, per The Athletic’s Josh Robbins. Alex Sarr is dealing with a foot issue, and coach Brian Keefe said he is “trending in a positive direction,” with Saturday availability still uncertain.
Sarr matters here. A frontcourt of Davis and Sarr with Dybantsa on the wing is a defensive group with real length, and Washington needs to see it work before the opener.
Nothing from Thursday changes any projection for this team. What it does is confirm that the No. 1 pick can function at this level immediately, which is the floor Washington needed to clear. The ceiling conversation can wait until games count.
Washington opens the regular season needing Dybantsa to be exactly this: competent, disruptive on defense, and not asked to carry an offense that already has two players who can. Preseason tells you almost nothing about wins. It does tell you whether a rookie is overwhelmed, and this one was not.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.