Key Points
Bullet point summary by AI
- Four NBA teams saw their lottery luck shift the veteran landscape overnight — the Bulls, Jazz and Wizards.
- Each franchise now faces a potential pivotal decision about integrating ultra-talented rookies into a mix that may be ready to push for the playoffs.
- The next move for each veteran will test whether depth or development wins out as the season tips off.
The 2026 NBA Draft Lottery wasn't short on shock value. The Washington Wizards became the first team with the worst record to actually win the No. 1 pick under the current odds structure. Naturally, those odds will change next season. The Utah Jazz moved up to No. 2 and the Chicago Bulls jumped five spots, all the way from No. 9 to No. 4.
In what has largely been hailed as a four-player draft, most projections have AJ Dybantsa to Washington, Kansas' Darryn Peterson to Utah, Duke's Cameron Boozer to Memphis and North Carolina's Caleb Wilson to Chicago. Which veterans might these uber-talented prospects replace?
Washington Wizards: AJ Dybantsa will replace Bilal Coulibaly
Washington will presumably add to its stockpile of big, athletic wings with Dybantsa, a god-tier advantage creator who can score at all three levels and is learning how to use his gravity to benefit teammates.
With Trae Young and Anthony Davis both healthy (ideally), Washington probably wants to contend next season. Tre Johnson remains a valuable off-ball scorer, while Kyshawn George and Will Riley are both malleable, super-skilled utility wings with underrated star upside.
Bilal Coulibaly probably draws the short end of the stick. Victor Wembanyama's former French teammate is a tantalizing defender with elite physical tools on the wing, but as these playoffs have shown, it's not enough to guard. You need to have a functional role on offense. Coulibaly is a career 31.3 percent 3-point shooter and the handle isn't strong enough to consistently beat closeouts or weaponize his athleticism on drives.
Washington will still deploy Coulibaly off the bench — he won't be out of the league or anything — but he will fade from the starting lineup and probably transform into a situational ninth or 10th man, barring a significant leap in skill development.
Utah Jazz: Darryn Peterson will replace Cody Williams
Utah will flip the switch next season with a healthy Jaren Jackson Jr., Lauri Markkanen and Walker Kessler. This is a team built to contend. Keyonte George took a critical step toward stardom, while Ace Bailey, Brice Sensabaugh and Isaiah Collier all exhibited significant in-season growth.
Bailey is probably the most direct casualty of Darryn Peterson, if that's where Utah ultimately lands. Bailey finished the season as a regular starter, and while he's still a special talent, Peterson does a lot of similar things on offense at an even higher level. He should be more of an advantage creator and facilitator, too, if he can leave the cramping issues in the past.
That said, this outcome is especially harmful for Cody Williams, who Utah selected with hopes that he could develop into a jumbo playmaking wing in a similar vein as his brother in OKC. While the younger Williams brother was more touted as a recruit, with better length and an impressively efficient college profile, his lack of refinement as a ball-handler and 3-point shooter (21.4 percent) has hindered his NBA transition.
One benefit of Utah's egregious 2025-26 tank job was that Williams was allowed to play through his struggles. He went from a 53 percent rim finisher as a rookie to a 68 percent rim finisher in year two, which is a major development. Unfortunately, if Utah plans to win basketball games next season, Peterson will start at the two, with Bailey, Sensabaugh and Collier dominating the bench minutes on the perimeter. Williams lacks the physicality to guard fours and slide down a position, so he probably ends up iced from the rotation.
Memphis Grizzlies: Cameron Boozer will replace Olivier-Maxence Prosper
Memphis will most likely end up choosing between Cameron Boozer or Caleb Wilson, with the former emerging as the early frontrunner. The Grizzlies' front office values analytics and Boozer will light up statistical models as the most efficient and well-rounded offensive prospect in this class. Not to mention the youngest.
He should start right away next to Zach Edey in the frontcourt, giving Memphis an unmatched size and physicality advantage. Boozer can facilitate offense, attack downhill, or float out to the 3-point line and stretch a defense. Edey is a monster post scorer who has shown a willingness to pop out for 3s on occasion. The variance in how Memphis deploys its two supermassive, super-strong frontcourt stars will be fascinating to behold.
Unfortunately, that will take up a lot of minutes in the frontcourt, which isn't ideal for Olivier Maxence-Prosper. A first-round pick in 2023, Prosper flamed out quickly in Dallas but appeared to find his second wind in Memphis last season. He started in 24 of 53 games, averaging 10.0 points and 3.5 rebounds in 18.6 minutes, with a career-high 40.5 percent 3-point rate.
O-Max has major tools and can defend well in the frontcourt, but Boozer will relegate Santi Aldama and Taylor Hendricks to more marginal roles. Those guys are ahead of O-Max on the pecking order and, with the league's new anti-tanking rules about to take effect, we probably won't see the Grizzlies tank so unabashedly in 2026-27. So Boozer's (or Wilson's) arrival probably comes at Prosper's expense, ultimately.
Chicago Bulls: Caleb Wilson will replace Patrick Williams
Patrick Williams has survived seven years in the Bulls rotation despite getting demonstrably worse as a finisher and a shooter virtually every season. He got his cushy second contract and has lived a full rotational lifespan as the former No. 4 pick, but now it would appear a new No. 4 pick will replace him. Probably in the former of UNC forward Caleb Wilson.
New Bulls lead executive Bryson Graham wants to focus on SLAP — size, length, athleticism, physicality — across the board. Wilson is the ultimate SLAP prospect, with a 9-foot standing reach, a relentless motor and a unique ability to levitate several feet off the ground for power slams or ferocious blocks.
He's the most pure competitor in the draft and he should have an immediate impact on the Bulls next season. He will join a core compromised of other comparably long and athletic forwards, with fellow lottery picks Matas Buzelis and Noa Essengue emerging as the focal points of Chicago's rebuild moving forward.
Williams played a career-low 20.5 minutes per game last season and brought very little to the floor. Once the ultimate vision of a 3-and-D power forward, with tremendous physical tools and a malleable skill set, Williams has simply proven incapable of making any sort of developmental leap. He's not tall enough to deter shots at the rim, he's not skilled enough to score at multiple levels, and now at 24 years old, the shine has unfortunately worn off. Wilson ought to banish him from the rotation, even if Chicago is stuck paying out the rest of his contract.
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