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The 2026 NBA Draft is starting to come into focus.
The draft lottery and scouting combine are over and workouts at team facilities around the country are underway before the Washington Wizards officially go on the clock with the No. 1 pick. The top-four prospects have seemingly been decided but there’s no defining consensus yet on what order they might be selected. The real intrigue starts after that, with a bevy of talented guards and a few intriguing wings and bigs for NBA teams to sort through.
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That uncertainty is reflected in mock drafts across the country, as well as the latest first-round mock draft conducted by USA TODAY Sports through Microsoft Copilot’s artificial intelligence chatbot. Though AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson remain atop the draft board, there are any number of directions the draft could take from there.
Prospects like Michigan’s Aday Mara and Morez Johnson Jr., Baylor’s Cameron Carr and Santa Clara’s Allen Graves were among the players to see their stock rise in the eyes of AI after a fresh batch of intel in recent weeks. Alabama’s Labaron Philon and Duke’s Isaiah Evans, meanwhile, dropped a few spots in this AI mock draft, while several others fell out of the first round entirely based off Microsoft Copilot’s analysis.
Here’s a breakdown of Microsoft Copilot AI’s latest 2026 NBA mock draft coming out of the NBA draft lottery and scouting combine, including the chatbot’s reasoning for making each first-round pick:
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See NBA mock draft first‑round projections
1. Washington Wizards: AJ Dybantsa
TEAM: BYU | POSITION: Wing | BORN: Massachusetts | HEIGHT: 6-9 | DRAFT AGE: 19 – The Wizards have the second-worst offense in the NBA and could instantly inject life into their offense by selecting AJ Dybantsa, the NCAA scoring champion and Julius Erving Award winner. He emphasized that point during his one game for BYU in March Madness, putting up 35 points and 10 rebounds. The Big 12 Rookie of the Year led the nation in unassisted points scored (680) by a wide margin this season, per CBB Analytics. The emerging star also had 40 points against…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/2026-nba-mock-draft-ai-100252513.html
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Publish date : 2026-05-23 10:02:00
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