If you had plans to watch the 2020 NBA Draft on June 25th, it might be wise to make other plans; The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor reports he’s hearing the draft will be pushed back from its planned date at the end of next month.
His league sources are saying the annual roster replenishing event will take place in August or September, which makes sense for a number of reasons. Chiefly, at least for now, there’s still the remainder of the 2019-20 NBA season to be played.
For those who are not steeped in the mechanics of how the NBA Draft actually functions, this is critically important, as the regular season records of each team plays the biggest role in what order all teams select.
In theory, the league could cancel the remainder of the regular season and go straight into the postseason based on current standings, but that would require front offices to manage participating in the postseason at the same time they focus on the draft without an especially compelling reason for doing so.
That they are considering moving the draft signals the league is serious about finishing the regular season though, as a move to cancel it would then make the draft a relatively straightforward affair.
As O’Connor notes, moving the draft back also has the benefit of giving scouts more time to evaluate players in a draft that will almost certainly have no pre-draft workouts or a combine after little in the way of postseason tournaments which also play a role in creating evaluative information.
As with many things in this pandemic, it’s still too soon to say — but we’re starting to get a rough outline of how the NBA would like things to go pending many things beyond their control or even knowledge at this point.
