"That team instantly would be in the playoffs with you," former Wizards superstar Gilbert Arenas said to AJ Dybantsa in a recent conversation.
BYU star AJ Dybantsa heard "No Chill Gil" share what he would do if he could choose the draft order, and the answer Arenas chose was the perfect storybook ending of continuing his blossoming career with the Utah Jazz.
Gilbert Arenas told AJ Dybantsa that if he could manipulate the ping pong balls he would put him in Utah and the Jazz would instantly be in the playoffs with him in year 1.
— Art Cummings (@ArtTakesNote) June 3, 2026
I agree. pic.twitter.com/x3qY2Has30
Citing a built-in fanbase thanks to spending his high school and college years in the Beehive State and the fact that the Jazz could use a player of AJ's caliber to lift them to their first playoff series since blowing up the Donovan Mitchell-Rudy Gobert era squad.
It's all very magical, and as a fan of both the Utah Jazz and AJ Dybantsa, his uniform would certainly be a day-one purchase for my catalog that includes one Lauri Markkanen uniform and a knockoff Shanghai Sharks Jimmer Fredette uniform that I proudly wore as often as possible in high school.
Add to the mix the fact that nobody can seem to get a grasp on what the Washington Wizards intend to do with the first overall pick (according to recent rumors, Dybantsa, Peterson, and Boozer are all in the mix), and Dybantsa falling into the Jazz's arms isn't such a stretch in the weeks leading up to draft night.
But there's fantasy, and there's reality, and when it comes to reality, the Utah Jazz would be better off picking Dybantsa's opposite and the player considered by many to be the best guard prospect since Kyrie Irving: Darryn Peterson out of Kansas.
It may be blasphemous to declare my caution for the Jazz selecting Dybantsa, but I've been pretty clear on this topic since the draft lottery results were released. Though AJ may be a generational talent -- one who I believe is entirely deserving of the number-one overall pick -- Peterson makes much more sense with the Utah Jazz's current roster construction and would be a much more natural fit alongside Keyonte George in the backcourt.
Yes, the Jazz can always figure out a way to make AJ fit on their roster -- he's the type of player you build around, after all -- but with a loaded veteran front court and the immediate need for a starting shooting guard, where better to look that the man many believe will be available at 2?
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