We’re still nearly two-and-a-half months away from the 2025 NBA draft, but before we get to June 25, there are several other important dates and deadlines on the calendar. Here are some of those dates and deadlines worth keeping an eye on:
April 26 (11:59 pm ET): Deadline for early entrants to declare for the draft
College and international players who aren’t automatically draft-eligible this year have until the end of the day on April 26 to submit their names into the 2025 NBA draft pool. Those early entrants can withdraw their names later if they decide they’re not quite ready to go pro, though if college players want to maintain their NCAA eligibility, they can’t hire an agent who’s not certified by the NCAA.
Once the early entrant list is officially set, NBA teams can begin conducting or attending workouts for those players.
May 9-11: NBA G League Combine
The NBA has experimented in recent years with the format of this event, which was previously known as the G League Elite Camp. It was revamped in 2019 and consisted that year of 40 veteran G League invitees participating in the first half of the event, followed by 40 top draft-eligible players (who weren’t invited to the actual combine) taking part in the second half.
However, after being canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, the Elite Camp only featured 40 draft-eligible prospects, without the G League players, when it returned in 2021. That format has carried over to subsequent years, with the league inviting between 44 and 50 prospects who didn’t make the initial list of invitees for the NBA’s actual draft combine.
While the event has been rebranded again this year as the G League Combine, there’s no indication at this point that the format will change as well. Assuming it remains the same, several standouts from the G League combine will likely be invited to remain in Chicago for the full-fledged combine that follows.
May 12: NBA draft lottery
The 2025 draft lottery will be the seventh one employing the format that was introduced in 2019. With the lottery odds flattened out, the NBA’s worst team has a 14% shot at the No. 1 overall pick, as opposed to the 25% chance it had prior to ’19.
Although the current system reduced the odds of the league’s very worst teams claiming the picks at the top of the draft, we had gone a few years without any major surprises. That changed in 2024, when the Hawks jumped up from 10th in the lottery standings to nab the No. 1 overall pick, which they used on Zaccharie Risacher.
If we get another surprise in this year’s lottery, it figures to be even more meaningful than it was for Atlanta in 2024, since Duke star Cooper Flagg is considered one of the top prospects of the past decade and is viewed as a lock to be 2025’s No. 1 overall pick. That wasn’t the case for Risacher a year ago, when the race for the top pick was more wide open.
May 11-18: NBA draft combine
This week-long event, which takes place annually in Chicago, allows NBA teams to get a first-hand look at many of the year’s top draft-eligible players.
The combine is often particularly important for early entrants who have yet to decide whether or not to stay in the draft. The feedback they get at the combine could go a long way toward dictating whether they keep their names in the draft or return to school for another year.
In the past, the draft lottery has taken place after the conclusion of the combine. The NBA flipped the two events on its calendar last year and is sticking with that schedule in 2025. The May 12 lottery results figure to have an impact on which teams focus on which lottery-caliber players in Chicago.
May 28 (11:59 pm ET): NCAA early entrant withdrawal deadline
College underclassmen – and seniors who are eligible to play for more one season – who want to retain their NCAA eligibility will have to withdraw their names from the draft pool by May 28. NBA rules call for a later withdrawal deadline, but the NCAA has its own set of rules that say the deadline is 10 days after the combine ends.
An early entrant could technically wait until after May 28 to withdraw from the draft and could still retain his NBA draft eligibility for a future year. However, he would forfeit his amateur status in that scenario, making him ineligible to return to his NCAA squad. College players who want to play overseas for a year or two before entering the NBA draft could take this route.
June 15 (5:00 pm ET): NBA early entrant withdrawal deadline
This is the NBA’s final deadline for early entrants to withdraw their names from the draft pool and retain their draft eligibility for a future year.
By this point, we generally know whether or not a college player decided to keep his name in the draft, but this is an important deadline for international players, who aren’t subject to the same restrictions as college players. We’ll likely hear about several international early entrants withdrawing from the draft during the days leading up to June 15.
June 25 and 26: NBA draft days
The most exciting few weeks of the NBA offseason unofficially get underway on draft day, which is often when several of the first major trades of the summer are completed and when we get a sense of which direction certain teams are heading.
In 2024, for the first time, “draft day” actually referred to two days, as the NBA and NBPA agreed to make the draft a multi-day event, with the first round occurring on a Wednesday and the second round taking place on a Thursday. The league is sticking with that format this year, with round one scheduled for Wednesday, June 25 and round two to follow on Thursday, June 26.
The change drew mixed reviews from fans a year ago.
The NBA’s thinking in splitting the draft into two days was that it would benefit teams, who get to regroup halfway through the draft to reset their boards and have more time to consider possible trades; the league’s broadcast partners, who will be able to devote more attention to second-round picks that are often made when the television broadcast is in the midst of an ad break; and fans, who won’t have to stay up so late into the night to see the end of the second round.
In 2024, the first day of the draft began at 8:00 pm Eastern on Wednesday, with day two starting at 4:00 pm ET on Thursday. A U.S. presidential debate took place on the evening of day two last year, so it remains to be seen if the NBA will stick with that afternoon start time for the second round or if it will also get the prime-time treatment in 2025.
The hours and days after the second round ends will be hugely important for many of this year’s draft-eligible prospects — a ton of players who aren’t selected with one of the 59 picks in the draft will reach agreements shortly thereafter to play for an NBA team’s Summer League squad, to attend training camp with a club, or to sign a two-way contract.