The date for the 2020 NBA draft has been set for Friday, October 16, reports ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Wojnarowski also notes (via Twitter) that free agency will open up two days later, on October 18, with a moratorium period on deals from October 19-23.
The NBA draft was originally tentatively rescheduled for October 15 with the draft lottery moved to August 25 from the original June 25 and May 19 dates, respectively.
In a pair of tweets, Wojnarowski says that the new early entry deadline for the draft is August 17, while the early entrant withdrawal deadline is October 6. The latter date makes sense, since the NBA’s deadline for early entrants to withdraw their names always falls 10 days before the draft.
However, the August 17 update may require some further clarification — the early entry deadline initially fell on April 26 and there was no indication at the time that the NBA had pushed it back. The NCAA recently set its own early entrant withdrawal deadline for no later than August 3.
In regards to free agency, teams will be able to negotiate with players starting at 6:00pm eastern time on October 18, per Wojnarowski (via Twitter). Players and teams figure to start reaching agreements at that point, though they won’t be able to complete them until a few days later. You can track all the players set to hit free agency this fall here.
Additionally, traded player exceptions that were originally set to expire on July 6-10 will expire on October 23-27, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press (Twitter link). You can track those trade exceptions here.
The NBA is currently working toward resuming the 2019/20 season through a bubble league in Orlando. If and when the season can be resumed and completed, the new dates will impact franchise’s plans for building rosters toward the ’20/21 campaign.
Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick mahomes play Buffalo on Thursday night game on Oct. 15. Smart move by NBA to move their draft to Friday night.
Is this 2020 nba draft the weakest since 2000? Reporters keep saying 2019 nba draft is one of the strongest in the nba history.
19-years old Okongwu is currently projected at 8th pick. This is about him.
Tremendous athleticism
Exceptional rim protector
Moves extremely effectively without the ball
Elite defender and rebounder
Great pick and roll player
I think he is better than any of the 3rd pick to 8th pick in 2019 nba draft.
If not, who do you think has a better potential than Okongwu below players
Barrett -3rd
Hunter -4th
Garland -5th
Culver – 6th
Coby White – 7th
Jasson Hayes – 8th
I’d compare Hayes and Okungwu pretty favorably. Both athletic run and jump bigs. Both need to develop the jumper and the switching D. But both have the potential as modern day bigs. And u can’t really compare the Barrett, Garland, Culver, White picks to those 2 guys. They r all on horrible teams and Culver was at best a 4th option with KAT and Wiggins then with Wiggins leaving and DLo coming aboard and then Beasley coming too. The Wolves were in flux. I think Culver has the chance to play a solid role for a very long time. Garland and White were with bad coaches and poor front offices and teams with no real direction. And the Knicks went Knicks on us. So Barrett has a lot to over come. And that leaves Hunter. Who no1 really thought would b a star. Most things I read about him was he was the safest pick in the draft behind Ja and Zion. He’s going to b a solid 3 and D guy and will fall in line in Atl and b a very important piece with the defensive liability that Young is.
Hope that gm goes off. Good matchup.
Most important draft in years for Knicks. Gotta have it’s own night.