2026 NBA Draft Opens With 4 Chalk Picks as Intrigue Shifts to No. 5

Q: Were the Jazz the last team to truly win by tanking before new NBA rules change the game?

Probably yes — or at least they are the clearest recent example of a team cashing in on the old system just before the NBA tightened the rules. Utah’s 22-60 season led directly to the No. 2 pick in the 2026 draft, where it took Darryn Peterson, widely viewed as one of the elite talents in the class. In that sense, the Jazz plainly benefited from losing: they were rewarded with a franchise-level prospect after an overt tanking year. The draft coverage itself framed Utah as a winner because its tanking “paid dividends.” What makes the Jazz stand out is the timing. New anti-tanking rules are set to reshape the lottery beginning with the 2027 draft, including restrictions aimed at preventing teams from repeatedly stacking premium picks. The searched material says those rules will bar teams from back-to-back No. 1 picks or three straight top-five picks, with some provisions effectively reaching back to recent drafts. Utah had already collected top-five results in consecutive lotteries, making it a direct example of the behavior the league is trying to curb. So it is fair to say the Jazz may have been among the last teams to truly “win by tanking” in the traditional sense. What cannot be said with certainty is that they were definitively the last, because that depends on how the 2027 lottery and future enforcement play out. But their 2026 outcome is exactly the kind of payoff the NBA’s new rules are designed to make harder.

3 articles · Updated · Yahoo Sports · Jun 24

AJ Dybantsa went No. 1 to Washington, giving the Wizards a centerpiece to pair with Trae Young and Anthony Davis after the veterans combined to play just five games for the team.
The first 4 picks unfolded largely as expected—Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer and Caleb Wilson—leaving the draft’s real uncertainty to begin after No. 4.
Utah emerged as an early winner after landing Peterson, whose scoring upside now joins Lauri Markkanen, Jaren Jackson Jr. and 2025 No. 5 pick Ace Bailey on a team that finished 22-60.
BYU also scored a milestone when Dybantsa became the program’s first No. 1 overall NBA draft pick, surpassing Shawn Bradley’s No. 2 selection in 1993.
The broader takeaway is depth: the 2026 class is viewed as one of the deepest in a decade, especially at guard, which could make the middle of the first round unusually consequential.