Guide to the NBA Draft

✧ The NBA draft is a yearly event where NBA teams select eligible participants to join their team. These participants are normally college basketball players, but they can sometimes be international (examples include Luka Doncic and Yao Ming). The draft is normally during the end of June, during the offseason. There are two rounds, and sixty players are selected by teams.

In the past, high school players could be selected, but it was changed in 2006–now, high school players have to wait one year after graduating. They also have to be 19 by the end of the year that the draft takes place to be eligible. Some high school players use their year off to play internationally. Thom Maker is an exception–he was eligible for the 2016 draft, even though he didn't go to college, because he chose to take a postgraduate year; technically, he had one year removed from his graduation.

✧ The following types of players are automatically eligible for the draft:

College players who have finished their 4 years -> click for examples

22 year old international players -> click for examples

High school players who have taken a year after graduating and will be 19 by the end of the calendar year that the draft takes place -> click for examples

Although the players listed above are automatically eligible, players who want to enter the draft can declare their eligibility–however, this is risky, because if a player declares his eligibility but doesn't get selected, they can't go back to college, as declaring their draft eligibility removed their college eligiblity.

✧ The draft lottery takes place annually, where the 14 teams who didn't make the playoffs have the opportunity to gain one of the highest picks in the draft.

During the lottery, 14 numbered Ping-Pong balls are mixed in a glass jar, Because the four-ball sequence 11-12-13-14 is not used, there are 1,000 combinations of numbers–these combinations are given out to the 14 teams based on their records. After the first three picks are determined, the remaining 11 are given to the teams based on their records–this means that if the worst team's combinations aren't drawn, they're still guaranteed a top 4 pick.

✧ The draft is normally televised and shown on ESPN. Once the actual draft begins, each team has five minutes during the first round (two minutes during the second) to make their choice or trade their draft pick with another team. Adam Silver, the commissioner of the NBA, announces the first round selections, while his deputy Mark Tatum announces the second.