"We Were Held Back Because We Were Trying To Get AJ Dybantsa. That's No Secret" - Bub Carrington Said The Quiet Part Out Loud When It Came To The Wizards Tanking Last Season

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If there's one thing Adam Silver tried to pretend to care about last year, it was tanking. Despite the fact that there are plenty of more pressing issues for the league to address (cough cough, their officiating, cough), for whatever reason Silver and the NBA acted as if tanking was the #1 problem in the sport. So much so that they were fining teams left and right for sitting injured players, they completely revamped the Lottery format which hilariously didn't even solve the tanking issue, all because 2026 was a generational Draft that had teams doing their best to land a blue-chip prospect. Very prisoner of the moment if you ask me, but oh well. 

Last season was one of those situations where you didn't even have to say it out loud that tanking was what you were doing, we could tell. The teams at the top of the tank race certainly didn't try to hide it. The Wizards ended their season on a 10 game losing streak, the Jazz had just 2 wins over the final month of the season, the Grizzlies only had two wins over the final month and a half of the season, the Pacers only had 4 wins after the All Star break in mid-February and nearly went the entire month of March without a win. And you know what? I don't blame them one bit. That's how team building existed in the NBA at that time. The worst place you can be as a non-contender is stuck in the middle. Given none of those places are free agent destinations, they have to build through the Draft, and when the top of the Draft consists of franchise altering talents, you lose your dick off in an attempt to land one of them.

How do we know that? Shit, just listen to Wizards guard Bub Carrington. He essentially admitted the quiet part out loud when talking about AJ Dybansta

Live look at Adam Silver:

Giphy Images.

I love how Bub clearly has no idea what he even admitted to, and even though we all knew what was happening when the Wizards were tanking in real time, it's still something you are never supposed to actually admit in front of a camera. As a reminder, the Wizards did not get fined for tanking last year while Adam Silver punished the Jazz and Pacers, and I think that's what makes it even funnier. All that effort to stop tanking, and the Wizards were clearly tanking to the point where their own players are admitting it, and they got nothing. Good job Adam!

And as we know, it worked

Arturo Holmes. Getty Images.

Based on what we've seen from his limited Summer League appearances, all signs currently point to AJ Dybansta being awesome and well worth tanking for. He feels like a guy who will be making an impact on Day 1, the second he steps onto the floor in real NBA games. 

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Which then brings us to the 2026-27 Wizards as a whole. Call me crazy, but I look at this roster and I think it's actually pretty damn good

Yes, I know there are injury concerns around Trae Young and Anthony Davis, I get that Khris Middleton is in the later stages of his career, I get that Ayton may not have lived up to the hype of being a #1 pick, but I look at this group and I see a good mix of legit vets and very exciting young prospects, Bub being one of them. Guys like Kyshawn George and Alex Sarr took leaps last year, Bilal Coulibaly showed legit two-way impact, Tre Johnson showed to be a legit shooter, the list goes on and on. 

I think when it comes to the Wizards, people have this perception of the Wizards of old, which would be a mistake. This is a different front office, a different roster, and you could make the case that now after landing AJ, they are ready to take their first step as a non-tanking franchise. Every year we see a surprise team make that leap, and I think the most common choices for that leap this year are the Jazz and Wizards, which makes sense. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the Wizards are fighting for a Play In spot. Why can't they be a team like last year's Heat or Hornets? I suppose the jump from 17 wins to low 40s might be aggressive, but if they get normal health seasons from Young/AD and AJ hits? I can see it. The quickest way to make that leap in the NBA is to solidify yourself defensively, and outside of Young, there are legit defenders on that roster. If the Wizards go from 30th in defense last year to say, 18th this year, I think that will help their win total immensely.

Either way, the Wizards (at full health) should be fun as hell to watch, which probably hasn't been the case since the Prime John Wall days, and that was a decade ago. After three straight sub-19 win seasons, perhaps this will be the year where we see the results of all that losing. At the very least, they're an instant League Pass watch team in my eyes.