Wizards’ Anthony Davis reassures AJ Dybantsa that there’s no rookie star pressure on him originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Rookies who get drafted first overall are expected to be the savior of their teams. Plenty of squads tank ticket sales and take losses just for a chance at a more competitive future; thus, a whole ton of pressure lies on their shoulders. AJ Dybantsa is starting to learn this the hard way after his first seven games with the Washington Wizards. He has delivered some great performances, but it’s just not enough to get them wins. Anthony Davis stepped in to console the rookie and relieve him of any negative thoughts that may come from being a top pick.
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Wizards’ Davis reassures Dybantsa about immense rookie star pressure
Coach Brian Keefe has a solid core of players that could go far in the postseason. Anthony Davis and Trae Young are leading the way. Kyshawn George, Alex Sarr, Deandre Ayton, and Bilal Coulibaly have also been instrumental in building a winning culture. However, all eyes have been on a microscope and focused on AJ Dybantsa. The Wizards rookie has been the talk of the town so far.
See, Dybantsa is averaging 16.7 points on a rough 43.3% field goal percentage and a horrid 27.3% clip from the three-point range. The fact that the Wizards have lost four straight games and sank all the way to 10th in the Eastern Conference also did not help. Everyone was expecting huge things from the Wizards rookie and thought he would be a star right from the get-go. Davis tried to relieve their young gun of all this pressure. He outlined how Dybantsa should worry about having to improve and not carry the superficial weight of winning alone, via Josh Robbins of The Athletic.
“He doesn’t have any pressure on him. Don’t feel like the weight of the world is on him. Don’t feel like he’s putting pressure on himself to try to make our team better. We have enough guys who’ve been in the league for a while to help him with that, and he can go out there and just play his game fluidly,” the Wizards star declared.
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There are a lot of telling signs that this could be a systemic Wizards problem instead of just being a sole woe for Dybantsa. Their offensive rating of 109 ranks 23rd in the whole league due to a 24th-ranked eFG% of 0.514 and a 28th-ranked ORB% (offensive rebound percentage) of 13.4.
The same goes for the Wizards’ defensive rating of 114.4, which is 16th in the NBA. They do limit their opponents to a seventh-ranked 0.512 eFG%, but their point-of-attack defense only generates a 27th-ranked 12.0 TOV%. Moreover, Davis and Ayton, along with the other Wizards big men, only get a mere 69.4% DRB% (defensive rebound percentage).
None of these can be solved by Dybantsa being more efficient. Davis is right; it will take a team effort for the Wizards to get out of this rut. There is no point in criticizing the 2026 first overall pick to extreme lengths as he tries to grow.
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