{"id":717022,"date":"2026-04-24T09:39:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717022\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T09:39:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:39:29","slug":"byus-aj-dybantsa-officially-declares-for-2026-nba-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/717022\/","title":{"rendered":"BYU\u2019s AJ Dybantsa officially declares for 2026 NBA draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

BREAKING NEWS!!!\u00a0To absolutely nobody, while I\u2019m sure many BYU fans out there were crossing their fingers, holding out hope AJ Dybantsa would run it back for one more year, that stuff simply doesn\u2019t happen. Cooper Flagg<\/a> played with the same gimmick last year as well. These top prospects need to give their fans a break and stop acting like there\u2019s even a one percent chance they skip out on the NBA Draft.<\/p>\n

Dybantsa will continue to take his classes at BYU online, although something tells me he won\u2019t need that degree too badly.<\/p>\n

Dybantsa, clearly regarded as one of the biggest prizes in this historic 2026 class, with some even thinking he\u2019s the clear choice to be selected number one. I would personally argue with you on Dybantsa vs. someone like Darryn Peterson, but there\u2019s no doubt Dybantsa is an incredible prospect, and there is no limit to how far he can go in the NBA.<\/p>\n

Honestly speaking, Dybantsa would be a perfect fit on almost any team that had the opportunity to draft him, but let\u2019s be honest, he would fit especially well on the Jazz. Obviously, you have the BYU connection with Ryan Smith, Danny Ainge, and of course Austin Ainge. It\u2019s not just college in which Dybantsa spent his time in Utah\u2014he also spent his last year of high school at Utah Prep in Hurricane, Utah.<\/p>\n

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Dybantsa would slide right into this Jazz<\/a> lineup, and honestly, he\u2019d instantly make them one of the contenders in the Western Conference. Dybantsa and Ace Bailey<\/a> on the wing would be like Jayson Tatum<\/a> and Jaylen Brown<\/a> reincarnated! Thank you, Danny Ainge!!<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no doubt that if the Jazz do end up selecting Dybantsa, and he pans out how we all expect him to, he could go down as the greatest athlete in the state of Utah\u2019s history. Obviously, we\u2019re still a long ways from that\u2014only about two weeks from now the draft lottery will take place, and we\u2019ll all find out where the Jazz will be picking. If they do get the number one pick, there\u2019s a very strong case for the Jazz to select AJ Dybantsa.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll see what happens, but it\u2019s now official\u2014Dybantsa will be playing NBA basketball next season, and only a few months from now in Summer League. Let\u2019s cross our fingers for lottery night, Jazz fans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BREAKING NEWS!!!\u00a0To absolutely nobody, while I\u2019m sure many BYU fans out there were crossing their fingers, holding out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717023,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[224,2695,7,1580,225,1957,78,77,423,6,12,5592],"class_list":["post-717022","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba-draft","tag-ace-bailey","tag-aj-dybantsa","tag-basketball","tag-byu","tag-cooper-flagg","tag-deseret-news","tag-jaylen-brown","tag-jayson-tatum","tag-jazz","tag-nba","tag-nba-draft","tag-the-jazz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116459022855393242","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717022"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717022\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717023"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717022"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}