Bub Carrington just confessed the entire operation in plain English and walked out of the building without a fine. The Wizards guard told WUSA-TV the quiet part that front offices spend years dancing around.
“We’ve all, in a way, been held back just because, like you said, we were trying to get AJ Dybantsa. That’s no secret. That’s no secret.” Then the line that should be framed in the lobby: “But now no one has handcuffs. Everyone’s shackles-free.”
Seventeen wins. Sixty-five losses. Worst record in the league. Lottery odds at 14 percent. Number one pick. AJ Dybantsa in a Wizards jersey. The plan worked exactly as designed, and a third-year guard just narrated it like he was reading the scouting report.
I have no interest in the soft version of this story. Carrington did not stumble into a soundbite. He described an organizational choice with the same calm he uses talking about pick-and-roll coverage.
Cuban Paid $600K for Saying Less
Mark Cuban caught a $600,000 fine in 2018 for telling Mavericks players that losing was their best option. Owner speaks, league swings. Player speaks, and Josh Robbins and Sam Amick of The Athletic report the NBA is not expected to discipline Carrington or the Wizards.
That distinction is the whole racket. Trae Young appeared in five games after the January move. Anthony Davis never played a minute after the February deal. The stretch run went to the kids and the fringes while the lottery math did its work. Everybody with a standings page already knew the assignment. Carrington simply stopped pretending the assignment was development.
The honest counter is that a player describing the vibe is not an executive announcing strategy. I get the legal wall. It still leaves the league looking ridiculous. Carrington used “we were trying to get AJ Dybantsa” like the tank was a shared Google Calendar invite. Front offices denied tanking for years. His quote is louder than every denial combined.
The NBA already rewrote the lottery after seasons like this one. Expanded field. Altered odds. Commissioner talk about eight-figure fines for intentional losing. Then a 21-year-old guard walks into camp, says the shackles are off, and the league shrugs. The new rules were theater the second the first player admitted the old ones worked.
Dybantsa Was Never the Mystery
They got the guy. BYU freshman put up 25.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists. First Wizard number-one pick since John Wall in 2010. Three straight seasons under twenty wins — 15-67, 18-64, 17-65 — bought the golden ticket.
Carrington is already selling the sequel. “So that alone is already a conversation starter, but then you put that on top of the coaching, on top of the vets that we have. That’s a playoff team, and that’s gonna happen.” He went further: “Like whenever we get there, whether that’s this year, next year, or the year after, we’re gonna stay there. And that’s the culture we’re trying to change.”
Culture change after three years of intentional freefall is a hell of a claim. The handcuffs came off because the prize arrived. Dybantsa, the young core, and whatever veterans they stacked around them now get the green light Carrington says was missing. “We just haven’t been told yet to go be the best version of yourself” is the most damning sentence any player has put on the record about a rebuild this decade.
I believe the honesty. I do not automatically believe the stay-there part. Franchises that treat winning like a scheduling conflict for three straight seasons do not flip a switch because one guard said shackles-free on local TV. The test starts when the losses stack again and the lottery math starts looking attractive.
Washington spent last season limiting its own players so it could draft the one who leads the nation in scoring as a freshman. Carrington labeled it. The league declined to punish it. The only remaining question is whether the wins actually show up before somebody quietly puts the handcuffs back on for another run at the ping-pong balls. The standings will answer that one. Carrington already answered everything else.
