On Sunday, amateur basketball fans and stakeholders were treated to their dream Peach Jam matchup.
AJ Dybantsa, a Brockton, Mass. native and one of New England’s best basketball prospects in recent memory, led his Oakland Soldiers (Calif.) squad against Nightrydas Elite (Fla.) and Cam Boozer in the Nike EYBL 17U title bout. Dybantsa is the consensus top player in high school, but he and Boozer have long been in heated competition for the label.
The Nightrydas got the better of the Soldiers in a 71-62 victory. It was an epic battle between Boozer, a poised 6-foot-11 forward, and the explosive 6-foot-9 Dybantsa. Boozer racked up 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting, 10 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 blocks; Dybantsa matched him with 25 points and 6 rebounds. The debate between the two stars only intensified.
We’re breaking down Dybantsa’s tape from that championship performance. Despite the loss, Dybantsa showed us why he has earned his reputation, and where he can still get better.
Let’s start with his most eye-popping highlight: this step-back jumper.
Good afternoon! Let's do a little AJ Dybantsa Peach Jam championship film breakdown 🎞️🏀
I want to start with this bucket because it's absolutely ridiculous. Look at where he starts and ends his stepback!! pic.twitter.com/bhteD4chdR
— Ethan Fuller (@ethman43) July 22, 2024
Dybantsa plants his right foot well inside the arc, and in one step, he transfers all that momentum to a massive step backward. It’s barely a two-pointer, but still — I don’t know many basketball players at any age who can cover that much ground on a single stepback. And he still carries enough energy to knock down the shot in rhythm.
That’s the separator skill with Dybantsa: his combination of quick twitch, explosive power, and long, controlled strides, that help him get practically anywhere he wants. Exhibit B: these two layups.
When Dybantsa can draw bigger defenders out to the perimeter, he's great at using his natural quick twitch to get them off balance and then attacking hard as soon as the lane opens up. Makes a lot of these drives look easy pic.twitter.com/rUB1TNBJpK
— Ethan Fuller (@ethman43) July 22, 2024
Dybantsa has a capable handle and can bait defenders with his body language. Here, he took Boozer (No. 12) on switches, got him off-balance, and immediately attacked the lane. Dybantsa isn’t overcomplicating his dribbling moves. Once he sees an opening, he takes it, and in a couple of steps, he’s finishing at the basket.
Related: Brockton’s AJ Dybantsa is taking flight, and bringing his family along for the ride
The Dybantsa-Boozer matchup happened frequently throughout the game. Both players won at different times. As shown above, Dybantsa had success when he could catch Boozer’s feet and body weight out of place before zooming by. In other instances, Boozer could stick with Dybantsa and outmuscle him around the rim.
Dybantsa is strong for his slender frame, but he needs to continue adding strength for when he takes on powerful opponents like Boozer. At times, Dybantsa would drive straight into Boozer and others to seek contact, but he couldn’t create space after the bump (see below).
That being said - he was 10/26 from the field. I think a lot of those missed shots were forced when he tried to use physicality to create space, but against the wrong players. Also runs into trouble sometimes when he picks up his dribble in the paint and has nowhere to go pic.twitter.com/Mg8wOUySfj
— Ethan Fuller (@ethman43) July 22, 2024
Dybantsa only made 10 of his 26 field goal attempts. Some were desperation shots when his team trailed late in the game, but others were like these above clips.
That being said, Dybantsa also hunted mismatches against smaller opponents, and thrived when he found them.
He's also super aggressive in seeking shots against mismatches, whether that's backing them down into rhythm shots (1st clip) or taking contact (3rd). I thought the 2nd clip was a sweet move, spinning onto the baseline and exploding up from behind the backboard pic.twitter.com/74r1QzneOZ
— Ethan Fuller (@ethman43) July 22, 2024
One detail that helps Dybantsa, particularly against mismatches, is the higher release point on his shot. Coupled with the elevation he gets shooting, it’s a tough jumper to contest.
Dybantsa made just two of seven three-point looks this game and was 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) at Peach Jam. It wasn’t a great stretch, but he’s shown plenty of evidence of prolific shooting, and his form looks clean enough. Here’s a look at Dybantsa shooting open off the catch, as well as a tough, contested bucket that highlighted the importance of his high release.
Dybantsa was 2/7 from 3PT in this game (8/30 in Peach Jam) but I don't have any major concerns rn, because he has plenty of evidence that he can shoot it and the natural touch is apparent. Here's a look at form open off the catch and heavily contested: pic.twitter.com/I4BWlpVEls
— Ethan Fuller (@ethman43) July 22, 2024
So far, this is a pretty positive outlook on a great, albeit inefficient, performance. We also have to look at his playmaking: one assist against one turnover. It was his lowest assist total in his last six Peach Jam games, and though assists also rely on a teammate to score, the eye test lines up similarly.
I believe Dybantsa is an above-average passer for his role, having watched him a lot at this point. He sees the floor well and can make high-level reads off the dribble. I’d diagnose Sunday’s low assist count three ways. Dybantsa too often appeared pressured to collapse the defense himself, Nightrydas Elite is a three-time championship team that plays sound defense and the Oakland Soldiers had some poor court spacing.
This was his toughest individual moment, practically a shot clock violation, no other player touches the ball. I think Nightrydas had a good gameplan with having the second-side guard help around the nail/elbow on his drives. I think he just needed to swing the ball there pic.twitter.com/2EI2SQymQK
— Ethan Fuller (@ethman43) July 22, 2024
This was probably Dybantsa’s worst possession. He has the ball in his hands for practically the entire shot clock, doesn’t make a pass, and nearly gets forced out of bounds (the Soldiers actually scored in the few remaining seconds following the pause).
Dybantsa struggles against the aggressive ball pressure and tries to turn the corner into a drive, but the defense is helping at the elbow/nail area. He’s stonewalled and stumbles into a bad situation.
In this case, I think Dybantsa’s teammates need to help him out by moving, but he also needs to just give the ball up and let someone else try to make a play. Too often, it felt like Dybantsa was the only one with the freedom to attack the defense in the half-court. He and Tyran Stokes, the top-ranked 2026 prospect, made 18 of the Soldiers’ 22 field goals — and took 45 of the team’s 61 shots.
However, that segues into the teamwide floor-spacing woes that contributed to the loss. Here’s one play that highlighted the issues:
But then you get a play like this where, yeah he drives into a tough spot here, but he has no outlet. The player who should be in the corner is kind of randomly in the midrange and you got two guys cutting to the same spot. Not ideal pic.twitter.com/6Cz7MMTzpa
— Ethan Fuller (@ethman43) July 22, 2024
Dybantsa drives hard to his left, but the defense is able to force him down to the baseline. He should have passing options here, but Stokes, who would ideally be in the weak-side corner, is aimlessly in the mid-range. Two other teammates are cutting to the same spot and drawing defenders with them. This is a turnover for Dybantsa and he probably could have made a pass anyway, but no one is giving him an outlet.
There are other mistimed sequences, like this one, that result in bad shots. The bottom line is: Don’t read too much into only one assist.
Dybantsa didn’t play his best by any stretch. However, his Peach Jam championship effort showed his natural physical gifts that few of his peers can match, and how he uses them effectively as the hub for a successful team. He's No. 1 for a reason, and he still has so much room to grow.
