2020 NBA draft

2020 NBA draft
General information
Sport	Basketball
Date(s)	November 18, 2020
Location	ESPN Studios, Bristol, Connecticut (draft held via conference call)
Network(s)	ESPN Yahoo Sports
Overview
60 total selections in 2 rounds
League	NBA

The 2020 NBA draft will be held on November 18, 2020. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, but will now be conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecticut, with it being held via videoconferencing. National Basketball Association (NBA) teams will take turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. It will be televised nationally on ESPN. The draft lottery was originally scheduled to take place on May 19, 2020, but due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead held on August 20, 2020. This is the first draft since 1975 to not be held in June, and also the second to be done later than that month, after the inaugural 1947 draft, conducted in July by the NBA's predecessor, the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The first pick will be made by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Draft selections

PG

Point guard

SG

Shooting guard

SF

Small forward

PF

Power forward

C

Center

#	Denotes player who has never appeared in an NBA regular season or playoff game

Rnd.	Pick	Player	Pos.	Nationality	Team	School / club team
1	1				Minnesota Timberwolves
1	2				Golden State Warriors
1	3				Charlotte Hornets
1	4				Chicago Bulls
1	5				Cleveland Cavaliers
1	6				Atlanta Hawks
1	7				Detroit Pistons
1	8				New York Knicks
1	9				Washington Wizards
1	10				Phoenix Suns
1	11				San Antonio Spurs
1	12				Sacramento Kings
1	13				New Orleans Pelicans
1	14				Boston Celtics (from Memphis)
1	15				Orlando Magic
1	16				Portland Trail Blazers
1	17				Minnesota Timberwolves (from Brooklyn via Atlanta)
1	18				Dallas Mavericks
1	19				Brooklyn Nets (from Philadelphia via L.A. Clippers)
1	20				Miami Heat
1	21				Philadelphia 76ers (from Oklahoma City via Philadelphia and Orlando)
1	22				Denver Nuggets (from Houston)
1	23				Utah Jazz
1	24				Milwaukee Bucks (from Indiana)
1	25				Oklahoma City Thunder (from Denver)
1	26				Boston Celtics
1	27				New York Knicks (from L.A. Clippers)
1	28				Los Angeles Lakers
1	29				Toronto Raptors
1	30				Boston Celtics (from Milwaukee via Phoenix)
2	31				Dallas Mavericks (from Golden State)
2	32				Charlotte Hornets (from Cleveland via Portland, Orlando, and L.A. Clippers)
2	33				Minnesota Timberwolves
2	34				Philadelphia 76ers (from Atlanta)
2	35				Sacramento Kings (from Detroit via Phoenix)
2	36				Philadelphia 76ers (from New York)
2	37				Washington Wizards (from Chicago)
2	38				New York Knicks (from Charlotte)
2	39				New Orleans Pelicans (from Washington via Milwaukee)
2	40				Memphis Grizzlies (from Phoenix)
2	41				San Antonio Spurs
2	42				New Orleans Pelicans
2	43				Sacramento Kings
2	44				Chicago Bulls (from Memphis)
2	45				Orlando Magic
2	46				Portland Trail Blazers
2	47				Boston Celtics (from Brooklyn via Philadelphia, Orlando, and Charlotte)
2	48				Golden State Warriors (from Dallas via Philadelphia)
2	49				Philadelphia 76ers
2	50				Atlanta Hawks (from Miami via Boston and Cleveland)
2	51				Golden State Warriors (from Utah via Cleveland, Detroit, and Dallas)
2	52				Sacramento Kings (from Houston)
2	53				Oklahoma City Thunder
2	54				Indiana Pacers
2	55				Brooklyn Nets (from Denver)
2	56				Charlotte Hornets (from Boston)
2	57				Los Angeles Clippers
2	58				Philadelphia 76ers (from L.A. Lakers via Orlando)
2	59				Toronto Raptors
2	60				New Orleans Pelicans (from Milwaukee)

Trades involving draft picks

Pre-draft trades

Prior to the day of the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between the teams. Trade details to follow.

Draft-day trades

Draft-day trades will be made on the day of the draft.

Combine

Main article: NBA Draft Combine

Due to the still-ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the invitation-only NBA Draft Combine and the event's on-court elements will be held in multiple phases, lasting from September 28 until early November, just days before the draft begins. For the first part, players will begin league and team interviews via videoconference feeds, similar to this year's draft lottery. This segment will last from September 28 until October 16. Then, during the month of October, players will begin their individual, on-court programs at the NBA team facility nearest the player's home or interim residence instead of at one standardized area, starting in September 2020. This program will include strength and agility tests, anthropometric measurements, shooting drills, medical testing and examinations, and a "Pro Day" video filmed via HomeCourt, a mobile basketball training application. The NBA will also expand their Combine HQ tool for this period.

At the start of this year's draft combine, only 60 prospects were confirmed to participate in this event. The top, headlining prospect involved with this combine is LaMelo Ball, an automatically eligible draft prospect that gained fame as a professional player years earlier and is considered to be a potential top 3 selection for the draft. In addition to him, R. J. Hampton was also invited as an automatically eligible draft prospect for this year, both representing Australia's NBL as outsider Rising Stars for different teams. Other notable invites include five fully international prospects (Deni Avdija, Killian Hayes, Théo Maledon, Paul Eboua, and Karim Mané, the last of whom played in a Canadian CEGEP), two high school postgraduates (Kenyon Martin Jr. and Josh Hall), and Jay Scrubb, a junior college prospect. Like with prior years, players still held the option to either sit out the combine or have only limited participation there, such as with LaMelo Ball doing interviews with teams only.

Draft lottery

Main article: NBA draft lottery

External videos
2020 NBA Draft Lottery Drawing, NBA's official YouTube channel. August 20, 2020.

The NBA conducts an annual lottery to determine the draft order for the teams that did not make the playoffs in the preceding season. Every NBA team that missed the NBA playoffs holds a chance at winning a top-four pick, but teams with worse records have a better chance at winning a top-four pick, effective as of the 2019 draft. After the lottery selects the teams that receive a top-four pick, the other teams receive an NBA draft pick based on their winning percentage from the prior season. As it is commonplace in the event of identical win-loss records, the NBA performs a random drawing to break ties for not just lottery teams, but also for playoff teams with equal records. This year, the Sacramento Kings won a tiebreaker for the draft lottery over the New Orleans Pelicans despite having a better overall record to conclude the regular season, bubble games included.

The lottery was to have originally taken place on May 19 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the length of the 2019–20 season's suspension. On July 21, 2020, the lottery was rescheduled for August 20. The lottery teams included the eight teams that did not play in the resumed 2019–20 NBA season in July and August, which were the Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, and Charlotte Hornets. They also included the other six teams that missed the playoffs in the resumed season (Washington Wizards, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings, New Orleans Pelicans, & Memphis Grizzlies), with seeding completely based on the teams' records from March 12, 2020. The new lottery still took place in the United Center, but all the guests representing the teams in the lottery were seen virtually through video communication feeds instead. This year, two of the bottom three teams (Minnesota & Golden State) received the top two selections, while Charlotte and Chicago both jumped up into the top four; teams that resumed their seasons remained at their initial positions set at the time, with Memphis moving down to the 14th selection after initially being set for a playoff spot.

Denotes the actual lottery result

Team	2019–20 record	Lottery chances	Lottery probabilities
			1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th	13th	14th
Golden State Warriors	15–50	140	0.140	0.134	0.127	0.120	0.479	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Cleveland Cavaliers	19–46	140	0.140	0.134	0.127	0.120	0.278	0.200	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Minnesota Timberwolves	19–45	140	0.140	0.134	0.127	0.120	0.148	0.260	0.070	—	—	—	—	—	—	—
Atlanta Hawks	20–47	125	0.125	0.122	0.119	0.115	0.072	0.257	0.167	0.022	—	—	—	—	—	—
Detroit Pistons	20–46	105	0.105	0.105	0.106	0.105	0.022	0.196	0.267	0.087	0.006	—	—	—	—	—
New York Knicks	21–45	90	0.090	0.092	0.094	0.096	—	0.086	0.298	0.206	0.037	0.001	—	—	—	—
Chicago Bulls	22–43	75	0.075	0.078	0.081	0.085	—	—	0.197	0.341	0.129	0.013	0.000	—	—	—
Charlotte Hornets	23–42	60	0.060	0.063	0.067	0.072	—	—	—	0.345	0.321	0.068	0.004	0.000	—	—
Washington Wizards	24–40 (25–47)	45	0.045	0.048	0.052	0.057	—	—	—	—	0.507	0.259	0.030	0.001	0.000	—
Phoenix Suns	26–39 (34–39)	30	0.030	0.033	0.036	0.040	—	—	—	—	—	0.659	0.190	0.012	0.000	0.000
San Antonio Spurs	27–36 (32–39)	20	0.020	0.022	0.025	0.028	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.776	0.126	0.004	0.000
Sacramento Kings	28–36 (31–41)	13	0.013	0.014	0.016	0.018	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.861	0.076	0.001
New Orleans Pelicans	28–36 (30–42)	12	0.012	0.013	0.015	0.017	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.920	0.023
Memphis Grizzlies	32–33 (34–39)	5	0.005	0.006	0.006	0.007	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	0.976

^ 1: For the last six teams here, their records showcase both their records held on March 12, 2020 on top and their final records including their eight bubble games at the bottom. The extra eight games played for these teams ultimately did not affect the actual lottery rankings from team placements (such as Washington being placed above Charlotte, Phoenix being tied with Memphis, etc.), with the records above them being the focus for these teams instead.
^ 2: The Memphis Grizzlies' pick was conveyed to the Boston Celtics since their selection stayed at pick 14, outside of the top 4.

Eligibility and entrants

Main article: Eligibility for the NBA draft

The draft is conducted under the eligibility rules established in the league's 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with its player's union. The previous CBA that ended the 2011 lockout instituted no immediate changes to the draft, but called for a committee of owners and players to discuss future changes.

• All drafted players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In terms of dates, players who are eligible for the 2020 draft must be born on or before December 31, 2001.
• Since the 2016 draft, the following rules, as implemented by the NCAA Division I council for that division, are:
  • Declaration for the draft no longer results in automatic loss of college eligibility. As long as a player does not sign a contract with a professional team outside the NBA, or sign with an agent, he retains college eligibility as long as he makes a timely withdrawal from the draft.
  • NCAA players now have until 10 days after the end of the NBA Draft Combine to withdraw from the draft. Since the combine is held in mid-May, the current deadline is about five weeks after the previous mid-April deadline.
  • NCAA players may participate in the draft combine, and are allowed to attend one tryout per year with each NBA team without losing college eligibility.
  • NCAA players may now enter and withdraw from the draft up to two times without loss of eligibility. Previously, the NCAA treated a second declaration of draft eligibility as a permanent loss of college eligibility.

The NBA has since expanded the draft combine to include players with remaining college eligibility (who, like players without college eligibility, can only attend by invitation).

Early entrants

Players who are not automatically eligible have to declare their eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than at least 60 days before the event. For the 2020 draft, the date fell on April 26 at first, but the deadline was postponed indefinitely and moved to August 17. After that date, "early entry" players are able to attend NBA pre-draft camps and individual team workouts to show off their skills and obtain feedback regarding their draft positions. Under the CBA a player may withdraw his name from consideration from the draft at any time before the final declaration date, which is 10 days before. Under current NCAA rules, players have until 10 days after the draft combine to withdraw from the draft and retain college eligibility; however, due to COVID-19 disruptions, the NCAA announced that for the 2020 draft, the withdrawal deadline would be changed to 10 days after the combine or August 3, whichever came first.

A player who has hired an agent retains his remaining college eligibility regardless of whether he is drafted after an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee. Underclassmen who declare for the NBA draft and are not selected have the opportunity to return to their school for at least another year only after terminating all agreements with their agents, who must have been certified no later than August 1, 2020.

College underclassmen

This year, 205 underclassed draft prospects (i.e., players with remaining college eligibility) had declared by the initial April 26 deadline, with 163 of these players being from college or were high school postgraduates. The names left over mean they have hired an agent, or have announced that they plan to do so before the night of the draft. At the end of either the August 3 deadline (or the other one which was 10 days post-combine), 71 players declared their intentions to enter the draft with an agent, while 92 announced their return to college for at least one more season (or enter college in the case of Makur Maker). Additionally, one more academy postgraduate student managed to enter at the new underclassman deadline. Furthermore, three different underclassmen that were confirmed at the time (Jermaine Bishop, Isiaha Mike, and Filip Petrušev) all signed overseas contracts in Europe while waiting for this year's draft to begin, though these three players will still remain listed under their colleges they played under for 2020 as opposed to the new teams and leagues they signed for; Petrušev later withdrew from the draft on November 8, 2020 to stay with the Mega Soccerbet in Serbia, leaving the final number of underclassmen students entering the draft at 71 (69 excluding Bishop and Mike). Finally, at the November 8 deadline, Tony Goodwin II also withdrew his name from the draft, but Nikolaos Okekuoyen (a Greek-Nigerian postgraduate student from Ridgeview Prep) was approved for the draft that day, leaving the amount of players still at 71.

• Precious Achiuwa – F, Memphis (freshman)
• Milan Acquaah – G, California Baptist (junior)
• Ty-Shon Alexander – G, Creighton (junior)
• Cole Anthony – G, UNC (freshman)
• Brendan Bailey – F, Marquette (sophomore)
• Saddiq Bey – F, Villanova (sophomore)
• Tyler Bey – G, Colorado (junior)
• Jermaine Bishop – G, Norfolk State (junior)
• Dachon Burke Jr. – G, Nebraska (junior)
• Vernon Carey Jr. – F, Duke (freshman)
• Nate Darling – G, Delaware (junior)
• Lamine Diane – F, Cal State Northridge (sophomore)
• Devon Dotson – G, Kansas (sophomore)
• Anthony Edwards – G, Georgia (freshman)
• C. J. Elleby – F, Washington State (sophomore)
• Malik Fitts – F, Saint Mary's (junior)
• Malachi Flynn – G, San Diego State (junior)
• Josh Green – G, Arizona (freshman)
• Ashton Hagans – G, Kentucky (sophomore)
• Tyrese Haliburton – G, Iowa State (sophomore)
• Josh Hall – F, Moravian Prep (Hickory, NC; postgraduate)
• Rayshaun Hammonds – F, Georgia (junior)
• Jalen Harris – G, Nevada (junior)
• Niven Hart – G, Fresno State (freshman)
• Nate Hinton – G, Houston (sophomore)
• Elijah Hughes – F, Syracuse (junior)
• Isaiah Joe – G, Arkansas (sophomore)
• Dakari Johnson – G, Cape Fear CC (freshman)
• C. J. Jones – G, Middle Tennessee (junior)
• Mason Jones – G, Arkansas (junior)
• Tre Jones – G, Duke (sophomore)
• Saben Lee – G, Vanderbilt (junior)
• Micheal Lenoir – G, Creating Young Minds Academy (Irving, TX; postgraduate)
• Kira Lewis – G, Alabama (sophomore)
• / Nico Mannion – G, Arizona (freshman)
• Naji Marshall – F, Xavier (junior)
• Kenyon Martin Jr. – G, IMG Academy (Bradenton, FL; postgraduate)
• Tyrese Maxey – G, Kentucky (freshman)
• Jaden McDaniels – F, Washington (freshman)
• Isiaha Mike – F, SMU (junior)
• E. J. Montgomery – F, Kentucky (sophomore)
• Aaron Nesmith – G, Vanderbilt (sophomore)
• Zeke Nnaji – F, Arizona (freshman)
• / Jordan Nwora – F, Louisville (junior)
• / Nikolaos Okekuoyen – C, Ridgeview Prep (Hickory, NC; postgraduate)
• Onyeka Okongwu – F, USC (freshman)
• Isaac Okoro – F, Auburn (freshman)
• Daniel Oturu – C, Minnesota (sophomore)
• Reggie Perry – F, Mississippi State (sophomore)
• Nate Pierre-Louis – G, Temple (junior)
• Immanuel Quickley – G, Kentucky (sophomore)
• Jahmi'us Ramsey – G, Texas Tech (freshman)
• Paul Reed – F, DePaul (junior)
• Nick Richards – C, Kentucky (junior)
• Jay Scrubb – G, John A. Logan College (sophomore)
• Jalen Smith – F, Maryland (sophomore)
• Cassius Stanley – G, Duke (freshman)
• Isaiah Stewart – F, Washington (freshman)
• Tyrell Terry – G, Stanford (freshman)
• Xavier Tillman – C, Michigan State (junior)
• Obi Toppin – F, Dayton (sophomore)
• Jordan Tucker – F, Butler (junior)
• Devin Vassell – G, Florida State (sophomore)
• Nick Weatherspoon – G, Mississippi State (junior)
• Kaleb Wesson – F, Ohio State (junior)
• Kahlil Whitney – F, Kentucky (freshman)
• Emmitt Williams – F, LSU (sophomore)
• Patrick Williams – F, Florida State (freshman)
• James Wiseman – C, Memphis (freshman)
• Robert Woodard II – F, Mississippi State (sophomore)
• Ömer Yurtseven – C, Georgetown (junior)

International players

International players that declared this year and did not previously declare in another prior year can drop out about 10 days before the 2020 draft, which was November 8 this year. By the initial April 26 deadline, 42 international prospects, including one from a Canadian CEGEP college, expressed interest in this draft. By the end of the deadline set in August, seven of these players pulled their names out, leaving only 35 prospects, later adding one more player from a Canadian preparatory academy who also entered at that deadline. With Sergi Martínez & Joel Parra also dropping out of the draft before the draft deadline concluded, but after the official announcement came out, this officially brought the final number of underclassmen available down to 84 players instead of 86, with 23 international players exiting the draft by November this year instead of 21.

• / Deni Avdija – F, Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel)
• Adrian Bogucki – C, Anwil Włocławek (Poland)
• / Leandro Bolmaro – G, FC Barcelona (Spain)
• Imru Duke – F, CB Peñas Huesca (Spain)
• / Paul Eboua – F, Stella Azzurra Roma (Italy)
• Killian Hayes – G, ratiopharm Ulm (Germany)
• Vít Krejčí – G, Casademont Zaragoza (Spain)
• Yam Madar – G, Hapoel Tel Aviv (Israel)
• Théo Maledon – G, ASVEL (France)
• Karim Mané – G, Vanier College (QC, Canada)
• / Aleksej Pokuševski – F, Olympiacos Pireaus (Greece)
• Marko Simonović – C, Mega Soccerbet (Serbia)
• Mouhamed Thiam – C, Nanterre 92 (France)

Automatically eligible entrants

Players who do not meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:

• They have completed four years of their college eligibility.
• If they graduated from high school in the U.S., but did not enroll in a U.S. college or university, four years have passed since their high school class graduated.
• They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA, anywhere in the world, and have played under that contract.

Players who meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:

• They are at least 22 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In terms of dates, players born on or before December 31, 1998 are automatically eligible for the 2020 draft.
• They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA within the United States, and have played under that contract.

Other automatically eligible players

Player	Team	Note	Ref.
Terry Armstrong	South East Melbourne Phoenix (Australia)	Did not attend college; began playing professionally since the 2019–20 season
LaMelo Ball	Illawarra Hawks (Australia)	Did not attend college; began playing professionally since the 2017–18 season
Sam Froling	Illawarra Hawks (Australia)	Left Creighton in 2019; began playing professionally since the 2019–20 season
R. J. Hampton	New Zealand Breakers (New Zealand)	Did not attend college; began playing professionally since the 2019–20 season
/ Sacha Killeya-Jones	MKS Dąbrowa Górnicza (Poland)	Left Kentucky in 2018; began playing professionally since the 2018–19 season Played for the BC Kalev/Cramo in Estonia during 2019–20 before signing with a new team in July 2020
Alex Mudronja	Adelaide 36ers (Australia)	Left Saint Mary's in 2019; began playing professionally since the 2019–20 season
/ Kouat Noi	Cairns Taipans (Australia)	Left TCU in 2019; began playing professionally since the 2019–20 season

External links

• Official site
• How scouting for the NBA Draft was done during the pandemic