Officially, the NBA draft is scheduled for June 25. That’s not happening. The NBA draft lottery and the draft combine both have been postponed indefinitely as part of the league’s coronavirus shutdown, and the Draft itself eventually will be pushed back until after the season is finished, whatever form that takes.
That rescheduled draft could fall in late August or early September, Marc Berman reports at the top of a mock draft in the New York Post.
The NBA draft always follows the NBA Finals, sometimes by only a week or 10 days. We likely will see that tight schedule again, and this report suggests the NBA would be looking to finish its season in late August or early September.
That was the original plan for the league, to finish no later than Labor Day weekend, but those dates are flexible and seem to keep getting later, according to chatter from sources around the league. A mid-September finish for the season is not out of the question. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver mentioned a possible October finish to players last week.
The new date for the draft will not be set until the NBA figures out what the restarted season will look like, which could be another month away. Until then, current NBA players will start working out at team facilities, and the rest of the NBA world will continue to circle in a holding pattern, including players entering the 2020 NBA Draft.