{"id":849788,"date":"2026-10-03T07:27:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-03T07:27:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/849788\/"},"modified":"2026-10-03T07:27:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-03T07:27:13","slug":"wizards-player-makes-stunning-admission-about-his-team-tanking-for-aj-dybantsa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/849788\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizards player makes stunning admission about his team tanking for AJ Dybantsa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Washington Wizards<\/a> guard Bub Carrington<\/a> was not hiding his team\u2019s tanking tactics from last season.<\/p>\n

Carrington, a former lottery pick himself, implied in a recent interview that the Wizards were playing for the ping-pong balls last season. The No. 14 overall selection in 2024 sat down with WUSA9\u2019s Marshall Kramsky and discussed the team\u2019s outlook for next season.<\/p>\n

The Pitt alum admitted the Wizards intentionally \u201cheld back\u201d<\/a> the team to increase their chances of landing the first overall pick in this year\u2019s draft. The plan ultimately worked out, with Washington picking AJ Dybantsa<\/a> with the first overall pick in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just haven\u2019t been told yet to go be the best version of yourself,\u201d Carrington told Kramsky, who asked the third-year guard to explain further.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve all, in a way, been held back just because, like you said, we were trying to get AJ Dybantsa<\/a>. That\u2019s no secret. That\u2019s no secret. But now, no one has handcuffs. Everyone\u2019s shackles-free. So that alone is already a conversation starter. But then you put that on top of the coaching, on top of the vets that we have. That\u2019s a playoff team, and that\u2019s gonna happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most fans felt the Wizards were obviously tanking last season, particularly when they made two midseason trades for injured stars Trae Young<\/a> and Anthony Davis<\/a>. Young played in only five games, while Davis never took the court for Washington after arriving in a deadline deal.<\/p>\n

What is surprising is hearing a young player like Carrington openly admit to his own team \u201chandcuffing\u201d players in an effort to make them play worse for the sake of draft lottery odds.<\/p>\n

The NBA imposed massive fines on the Utah Jazz and Indiana Pacers<\/a><\/a><\/a> for alleged tanking practices last season. But according to The Athletic\u2019s Sam Amick and Josh Robbins, the NBA \u201cis not expected\u201d to penalize<\/a> Carrington or the Wizards over the point guard\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Washington Wizards guard Bub Carrington was not hiding his team\u2019s tanking tactics from last season. Carrington, a former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":741557,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3780],"tags":[2695,7,2644,6,682,468,3892,683],"class_list":["post-849788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-washington-wizards","tag-aj-dybantsa","tag-basketball","tag-bub-carrington","tag-nba","tag-washington","tag-washington-wizards","tag-washingtonwizards","tag-wizards"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117375798044854764","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849788","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=849788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/849788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/741557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=849788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=849788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=849788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}