The Washington Wizards won the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NBA draft lottery on Sunday, giving the franchise its first top selection since 2010 and a rare chance to reset after another lost season. Utah moved up to No. 2, Memphis will pick third and Chicago fourth, while the Indiana Pacers dropped their protected top-four pick to the LA Clippers, who landed No. 5.
The lottery reshapes the front end of a draft that already has one clear focal point: AJ Dybantsa is 's projected No. 1 pick in its latest mock draft. For Washington, the timing matters because the draft combine begins Monday in Chicago and runs through the end of the week, giving teams their first extended look at top prospects before the NCAA withdrawal deadline of 11:59 p.m. ET on May 27. The Wizards have not finished above.500 since 2017-18 and lost 26 of their final 27 games, a collapse that underscored how far they still have to go.
That is what makes Sunday such a turning point for Washington, a team in a protracted rebuild that has moved through multiple front offices and head coaches. The Wizards tried to accelerate the process at the trade deadline by acquiring veteran stars Trae Young and Anthony Davis, but the lottery gives them something more basic: control over the player who could define the next phase of the rebuild.
Utah is in a similar place, even if its path looks different. The Jazz rose to No. 2, their highest selection since 2011, and now have a shot at adding a player who can grow with the pieces already in place. They also strengthened their position at the trade deadline by acquiring Jaren Jackson Jr. from the Grizzlies, a move that signaled an attempt to pair draft capital with a more immediate push next season.
That puts Darryn Peterson in focus as the process moves into Chicago. His shot creation and elite long-range shooting would give Utah a potential top-tier scorer to build around, and this week he told's Ramona Shelburne that his doctors determined creatine usage played a role in the cramping issues that limited him at Kansas. It is the kind of detail that can matter in a draft room, where medical history, fit and upside often decide who goes first when the board is this unsettled.
By the time the withdrawal deadline passes on May 27, the picture could look different. But after Sunday, the Wizards own the most valuable card in the draft, Utah has a real shot to move the rebuild forward, and the rest of the league has a little less room to guess.
