In an effort to make the NBA Draft more of a television spectacle, there are discussions about extending the NBA Draft to two days.
While rumors of this possibility have floated around, Shams Charania of The Athletic reported that it is being discussed.
The concept has been increasingly discussed in recent meetings as team executives believe they could better utilize more time for both first and second rounds. https://t.co/t9Cwt2fJKr
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) November 8, 2023
It’s amazing how these kinds of discussions seem to come up while a new national television contract is being negotiated.
Bottom line reasoning aside, there are advantages to this idea for teams as well as the obvious advantages for the broadcaster.
The first round would essentially remain as is. Currently, five minutes are allowed between picks in the first round, giving teams time to think through their decision and listen to any last-second trade offers. On the broadcast there is time for analysis, interviews, discussion of any deals and a commercial or two. The pacing is good.
However, the way the second round plays out is the time between picks drops down to two minutes and things move fast, especially because there are often more trades during this round. Players getting drafted get overlooked — Nikola Jokic was famously drafted during a Taco Bell commercial. If the league breaks the draft down into two nights it would allow a lot of “best guy left on the board” discussions after round one, as we see in the NFL draft. Plus, if the league allows more time between picks — four or five minutes — these players would get their due.
Teams also would have a little more time to think through those picks.
The reality of the NBA second round is that by pick 45, the odds of those players making and sticking in the NBA fall dramatically. Every year a couple of guys become rotation players, but most of the guys taken at that point are playing the majority if not all of their careers overseas (if they are not there already). That may not make for great television, but by that point the broadcast discussion can shift to winners and losers of the draft and other analysis.
This sounds like something that might happen, and probably should. It would depend on the broadcast partner — currently ESPN — but count this as another likely change during the run-up to a new national television contract for the league.
