How do the NBA drafts work

The NBA Draft is a pivotal period for basketball players dreaming to play in the biggest basketball league in the world. It is a two day period that marks the occasion of professional teams in the league choosing eligible basketball players to join their rosters.

In this sense, the NBA Draft essentially sets up players to be the future of the league not just on the court but beyond as well. The NBA draft is held once a year and is meant to reignite the league with a fresh pool of talent and competition from the top college programs in the country and from overseas leagues.

Over the years, some of the most notable number one draft picks have been LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal and Tim Duncan to name a few. That being said, it is not merely the position at which the players get drafted that determines their success. Testament to this are Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Rudy Gobert who were drafted low in the NBA draft, but are regarded as one of the best players in the league.

How does the NBA draft work?

The NBA closely monitors and regulates the draft to ensure fairness and to uphold the competitive spirit of the game. In doing so, there are many processes to ensure the workings and success of the NBA Draft. These include ensuring that only eligible players are invited to the draft, setting up and conducting the draft lottery, setting the draft order, conducting the draft in a phased manner, monitoring the status and facilitating trades of drafted players and lastly monitoring the status of undrafted players.

Eligibility for the NBA draft

Players are allowed to declare and enter the draft if they are eligible. The NBA has a list of eligibility criteria to determine if the player can take part in the draft. The most basic amongst these include being at least 19 years of age and having completed high school education at least one year prior to the declaration of the draft.

Draft Lottery Picks

The NBA Draft Lottery follows a lottery system to determine the order of the draft for the first few picks of the NBA draft. In the lottery, only those teams who did not take part in the playoffs in the previous season get the opportunity to win a high draft pick. Typically it is seen that the team with the worst regular season record has the highest potential to land the number one draft pick.

Draft Order

After the lottery order is set, the remaining non-playoff teams are ordered based on their regular season record. The teams with poor records get preference in being placed earlier in the draft. After the non-playoff teams are ordered, the playoff teams are provided with an order based on how they fared in the postseason.

Draft Rounds

The next stage is drafting the players who are in the NBA draft. This is the stage at which NBA teams choose which players become a part of their roster for the future. Typically, the draft happens in two rounds with each team having at least one pick in each round.

However, it is possible that teams do not have picks in the two rounds as they may have traded away the picks to other teams in the past. There is a time limit of around four to five minutes between each pick. If the team fails to make a pick between the time elapses, they will have to forfeit the pick.

Monitoring of Picks

The players who are drafted become part of the official NBA team roster. However, it is upto the agreement between the team and the player whether the player will immediately play for the franchise or if he is required to complete education or spend time training before making their NBA debut.

Undrafted Players

There are cases where players who have declared for the draft, do not get picked by any NBA team. In this case, the undrafted players become unrestricted free agents. This means that they can sign with any team as long as there is a mutual agreement between the player and the team.