The Wizards open their season in a place they know well: a rebuild. They’ve lived through the teardown, the patience, the draft-stock accumulation, and now they’re stepping into the next phase with a home opener against the Milwaukee Bucks at Capital One Arena.
There’s a certain symmetry to it. Washington, after years of reshaping itself, gets to start the year against a team that represents a smaller-scale version of that same reset.
Milwaukee is coming to D.C. with its own new-look feel, and that makes this opener less about glamour and more about discovery. The Wizards finally get a first look at how all of their pieces fit when the games start counting.
The biggest name not taking the floor is the reigning draft’s top pick, AJ Dybantsa. He put in heavy preseason minutes before rolling his ankle in the New Orleans-based finale, which means fans will have to wait a little longer to see his athletic finishes in person.
Still, his preseason flash was hard to miss: “AJ Dybantsa looks the part in pre-season…Remarkably easy fluidity and explosiveness at 6’9. Playing within himself.
Multiple lob assists & dunks. His downhill gravity & pace will be felt from day 1, with potential to blossom into game-breaking levels. pic.twitter.com/T5onBmQYM6”
Even without Dybantsa, Washington has plenty to sort through. Tre Johnson and Bilal Coulibaly look like the two most interesting options at the top of the rotation conversation, and they bring very different skills to the table.
Johnson has already shown he can juice the offense with a hot jumper and has built strong chemistry with Trae Young, but putting him in the starting group comes with real defensive questions. Coulibaly, on the other hand, offers length, disruptive defense and elite bounce, giving him a legitimate case to grab the spot start instead.
That choice matters because the Wizards’ bench is crowded enough already. Deandre Ayton and Bub Carrington appear likely to be used as second-unit pieces, with Ayton serving as a third big and Carrington helping as another shooting option. Khris Middleton is also expected to be part of the offensive mix, and Brian Keefe said he does expect him to play: "He was one of our better players and he's still going to be... we're going to rely on him in those situations and put him in those situations to help our team... trust me, Khris Middleton…”
Keefe may not have Middleton’s role totally mapped out yet, but there should be minutes there. Justin Champagnie figures to get plenty of appreciation for his work on defense and the glass, while Will Riley has seen his profile rise over the course of the calendar year as a 6-foot-9 playmaker on the rise.
One thing Keefe won’t be doing is simply going 11 or 12 deep and calling it a night. The early decisions will be tricky, especially with so many second-unit candidates pushing for time.
Then there’s the Kyle Kuzma angle, which gives this matchup a little extra edge. To plenty of Wizards fans, he still stands as a symbol of the franchise’s most difficult recent stretch: one of the primary shot-takers in the Bradley Beal era, then a loud, unavoidable presence during the earliest days of the rebuild. His frustration with Washington’s non-contending setup, along with his reluctance to give up touches to the younger players, eventually led to his trade to Milwaukee a year and a half ago.
That move sent Middleton and AJ Johnson back the other way, and Milwaukee’s idea of Kuzma as a needed scoring partner for Giannis Antetokounmpo didn’t last. His production has slipped, and the numbers against his former team have dropped too.
Kuzma has averaged 13.5 points per game with the Bucks, but that figure falls to 11.6 over five games against Washington. In two of his last three meetings with the Wizards, he failed to score more than five points.
Now he’s on the Bucks’ final-year contract, and with Antetokounmpo having moved on to the Miami Heat this past summer, Kuzma has a chance to reclaim a starting role he hasn’t regularly held since his Washington days.
Across from him will be Anthony Davis, his former Lakers teammate from the Bucks’ 2020 NBA Championship team. Dybantsa’s absence means the Wizards’ younger core will have to wait to see one of the league’s most talked-about prospects in action, but Kuzma won’t lack for attention. Coulibaly, Alex Sarr and Kyshawn George all watched him in his first-option days, and while Washington will also have to account for Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr. and former Wizard Ryan Rollins, Kuzma is the one who figures to draw the most eyes from the crowd inside Capital One Arena.
In Other News...
Wizards Avoided A Roster Problem Fans Might Be Overlooking
The Wizards have spent enough time trying to sort out their long-term roster that fit matters almost as much as talent, and Jaylen Brown is the kind of player who can complicate that equation. He is a better pure scorer than Anthony Davis, but the bigger question for Washington is how a star would actually slot in alongside the pieces already in place, especially in a deal framework that would have forced the team to give up significant value to get him.
Brown's appeal is obvious, but the roster conversation gets trickier when the fit is considered in the broader backcourt and frontcourt picture. Washington is better served by a player who can anchor the defense and work cleanly in the half court, which is why Davis would have made more sense for the Wizards than Brown, even if the latter brings more natural scoring. [Read more 🡒]
Wizards Have An Early Chance To Fix Two Problems Fast
The Washington Wizards head into the new season with a lot more optimism than they had a year ago, thanks to the arrivals of Trae Young, Anthony Davis and draft pick AJ Dybantsa. Even with that new talent, the preseason offered a reminder that good names do not automatically make a clean team, especially on offense, where the ball still tended to get away from them. There is at least a little room to settle in, because the opening stretch of the schedule gives Washington a chance to face some friendlier opponents while it keeps building chemistry.
The early games will also say plenty about whether the frontcourt gains the Wizards showed in preseason can carry over once the results start counting. If the offense can get organized and the defense can hold up against a softer run of competition, Washington could avoid digging itself an early hole. If not, the same issues that made last season such a grind could show up again before the schedule gets any kinder. [Read more 🡒]
Tre Johnson Is Already Pushing Anthony Davis The Way Wizards Need
Anthony Davis is still adjusting to life in Washington, but the bigger takeaway from practice has been the way he and rookie Tre Johnson are already interacting like teammates who expect something from each other. The 10-time All-Star and member of the NBAs 75th Anniversary Team is entering the 2026-27 season with the Wizards carrying obvious expectations, and Davis said mutual accountability matters as he works alongside a young player who is not shy about putting pressure on him.
For Washington, that kind of edge is part of what makes the pairing interesting. Davis still has to prove he can stay healthy and perform at the level the Wizards need if they are going to chase a playoff spot, and his preseason has been more modest than headline-grabbing so far. Even so, the early tone between veteran star and rookie has given the team something it can build on, especially if the standard in practice keeps getting higher. [Read more 🡒]