How BYU helped Wizards' A.J. Dybantsa play much more like Kevin Durant, Devin Booker

How BYU helped Wizards’ A.J. Dybantsa play much more like Kevin Durant, Devin Booker originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

A coaching tree typically dictates what types of great players come out of a generational system. Coach Kevin Young may have been an assistant coach for the Phoenix Suns during their title-contending years in the 2020s, but he learned a lot during that time. He carried those schemes, rotations, drills, and lessons with him to the BYU Cougars. What happened next? Well, fate’s dominoes fell in insane proportions. Everything led to the Washington Wizards drafting A.J. Dybantsa first overall, as he plays much like Devin Booker and Kevin Durant.

How BYU’s Coach Young helped Wizards’ Dybantsa play like Durant, Booker

Being compared to an NBA superstar is one thing, but training someone to be exactly like certain players is another. A.J. Dybantsa was already great even before he played a single game for the BYU Cougars. However, Coach Kevin Young was tasked with making him even better so that the school could go deep in March Madness. Plus, it would earn extra brownie points if their star landed at the top of the NBA Draft.

So, what did the BYU head coach do? He traced back all of the schemes, rotations, and drills that the Suns used in the early 2020s. Dybantsa was trained like two specific NBA stars: Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, via David Aldridge of The Athletic.

“I’m big on, just, reference points — hey, we did this with Book, we did this with KD, or we did this with Tobias Harris, or Jimmy Butler. We put Dybantsa in a ton of pick and rolls, tried to teach how to read the game as a pick-and-roll decision-maker, knowing that those are the things he would be asked to do at the NBA level. And, truth be told, it was just my offensive comfort zone, too,” Coach Young declared.

All of that seemed to have borne fruit. The Wizards saw Dybantsa light up his opponents on both ends of the floor, like Booker and Durant. Over three NBA Preseason games, he averaged 23.9 minutes. The 2026 NBA Draft’s first overall pick then scored 13 points on 42.4% shooting from the field. He also grabbed 4.3 rebounds, dropped 2.3 assists, snatched 2.0 steals, and had 0.3 blocks.

There are still holes in the Wizards rookie’s style of play. For one, he is nowhere close to Durant’s and Booker’s efficiency from three-point range. Dybantsa shot a horrid 12.5% from outside the arc, which could be a cause for concern if they do not start falling soon. More than that, his 58.8% free-throw percentage needs a significant uptick by the middle of the NBA regular season. This is is so opponents don’t run a Hack-A-Shaq scheme against the Wizards.

It’s not hard to see how close Dybantsa plays to Durant and Booker. Both struggled with scoring efficiency early in their careers. Hopefully, Coach Young, the BYU staff, and the Wizards can help him get over these rookie humps faster than expected.

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