{"id":736475,"date":"2026-05-17T04:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T04:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/736475\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T04:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T04:42:12","slug":"draft-notes-dybantsa-ejiofor-momcilovic-updated-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/736475\/","title":{"rendered":"Draft Notes: Dybantsa, Ejiofor, Momcilovic, Updated Mock Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Among the ways AJ Dybantsa<\/a> stands out from the rest of his draft class is his openness about wanting to be the No. 1 pick, writes Sarah Todd of The Deseret News<\/a>. Todd notes that Dybantsa\u2019s bravado was among his characteristics that were on display during this week\u2019s draft combine in Chicago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely a goal of mine,\u201d Dybantsa said of being the first name off the board. \u201cI\u2019ve been number one in the ranking since what, ninth grade? And I ain\u2019t dropped. So, I\u2019m not planning on dropping in the draft.\u201d<\/p>\n

Todd adds that the ultra-confidence can be interpreted in various ways by different team executives. While some may be concerned about drafting a diva, there\u2019s an understanding that most highly successful professional athletes have a certain level of ego. Dybantsa\u2019s stated desire to become a \u201cHall of Famer\u201d should appeal to decision makers who are looking for someone to carry their franchise.<\/p>\n

Although Dybantsa is considered likely to go to Washington with the top pick, he met with several other teams at the combine as well as the Wizards, according to Marc J. Spears of Andscape (Twitter link<\/a>). Dybantsa also had sessions with the Jazz, Bulls, Kings, Nets, Hawks, Mavericks, Grizzlies and Clippers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s more on the draft:<\/p>\n

St. John\u2019s forward Zuby Ejiofor<\/a> raised his draft stock at the combine with a strong shooting performance, states Brian Lewis of The New York Post<\/a>. During the shooting drills, Ejiofor connected at 17-of-30 off the dribble and 12-of-25 in the three-point star drill. He went 16-of-28 in a side-middle-side drill and 13-of-25 on spot-up shots. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s something I could\u2019ve shown a little bit more in college,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then I had the opportunity to just come out here and just prove, not only to myself, but to everybody around that I could do it. And I had decent numbers. And I was pretty proud of it.\u201d Ejiofor\u2019s agent believes he\u2019ll be selected somewhere between 25th and 35th, Lewis adds.
\nIowa State\u2019s Milan Momcilovic<\/a> is still focused on the draft, but he\u2019ll be the top player in the transfer portal if he decides to pull out, per Adam Zagoria of Zagsblog<\/a>. An NBA source tells Zagoria that Momcilovic is likely to earn more than $5MM in NIL money if he stays in college. Momcilovic recently told Ben Roberts of The Lexington Herald Leader<\/a> that he sees Kentucky as \u201ca good fit.\u201d
\nJonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report<\/a> updated his mock draft in the wake of the combine with Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson<\/a>, Cameron Boozer<\/a> and Caleb Wilson<\/a> as the top four. Wasserman reports that \u201cthe needle didn\u2019t move in either direction\u201d for Peterson at the combine, while Boozer left the event with no new concerns regarding his size or athleticism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Among the ways AJ Dybantsa stands out from the rest of his draft class is his openness about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":736476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[2695,7,7146,17047,17641,41225,219],"class_list":["post-736475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-aj-dybantsa","tag-basketball","tag-caleb-wilson","tag-cameron-boozer","tag-darryn-peterson","tag-milan-momcilovic","tag-zuby-ejiofor"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116588088079903251","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736475","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=736475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/736475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/736476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=736475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=736475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=736475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}