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The NBA announced today that it has indefinitely postponed the NBA Draft Lottery and the Draft Combine due to the current COVID-19 crisis. It has not made a decision on the overall NBA Draft.
The NBA has indefinitely postponed its NBA Draft Lottery and Draft Combine in May in Chicago due to coronavirus pandemic, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) May 1, 2020
The draft combine was scheduled to take place on May 21-24 and is a multi-day showcase in which players showcase their talents through a variety of drills and scrimmages. The NBA Draft lottery was scheduled for May 19.
These two pieces make it a huge question mark if the NBA Draft will commence as scheduled on June 25. Granted, the date is almost a full two months away, but if the NBA has not figured out which team is getting the No. 1 pick by then, and teams haven’t had the chance to work out prospects, it seems unlikely the draft will happen on that date.
Joel Ayayi, Filip Petrusev, and Corey Kispert all declared for the draft without hiring agents, meaning they are allowed to remove themselves from early entry status and return to school by June 3.
However, if the NBA Draft is postponed until, let’s say September, will the NCAA respond and allow underclassmen to maintain eligibility by moving the date? Considering the NCAA tends to react retroactively instead of proactively, that also remains to be seen.