The 2020 NBA draft was held on November 18, 2020 as the 74th edition of the draft. The National Basketball Association (NBA) teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. It was televised nationally on ESPN. The draft was originally scheduled to be held at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on June 25, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was instead conducted at ESPN's facilities in Bristol, Connecticut and was delayed to November, with the event held via videoconferencing. The draft lottery was originally scheduled to take place on May 19, 2020, but due in part to the 2020 NBA Bubble, it was rescheduled to take place on August 20, 2020, instead. This was the first draft since 1975 to not be held in June, as well as the first draft to be held at a time later than the month of June. This draft also featured the lack of a proper "green room" due to pandemic restrictions. The first pick was made by the Minnesota Timberwolves, who selected Anthony Edwards out of Georgia.
Draft selections
PG Point guard SG Shooting guard SF Small forward PF Power forward C Center
Player Team 11*SGMinnesota TimberwolvesGeorgia 12CGolden State WarriorsMemphis 13~+PGCharlotte HornetsIllawarra Hawks 14SFChicago BullsFlorida State 15SFCleveland CavaliersAuburn 16PFAtlanta HawksUSC 17PGDetroit PistonsRatiopharm Ulm 18PFNew York KnicksDayton 19+SFWashington WizardsMaccabi Tel Aviv 110Jalen SmithPF/CPhoenix SunsMaryland 111SGSan Antonio SpursFlorida State 112*PGSacramento KingsIowa State 113PGNew Orleans PelicansAlabama 114SFBoston Celtics Vanderbilt 115PGOrlando MagicNorth Carolina 116PF/CPortland Trail Blazers Washington 117SF/PFMinnesota Timberwolves Olympiacos Piraeus B 118SGDallas MavericksArizona 119SFBrooklyn Nets Villanova 120PFMiami HeatMemphis 121*PGPhiladelphia 76ers Kentucky 122PF/CDenver Nuggets Arizona 123SFNew York Knicks FC Barcelona 124SGMilwaukee Bucks New Zealand Breakers 125SGOklahoma City Thunder Kentucky 126PGBoston CelticsOregon 127CUtah Jazz Kansas 128SFLos Angeles Lakers Washington 129PGToronto RaptorsSan Diego State 130SGBoston Celtics TCU 231PGDallas Mavericks Stanford 232PFCharlotte Hornets Duke 233CMinnesota Timberwolves Minnesota 234PGPhiladelphia 76ers ASVEL Villeurbanne 235PFSacramento Kings Michigan State 236SFPhiladelphia 76ers Colorado 237PGWashington Wizards Casademont Zaragoza 238PGUtah Jazz Vanderbilt 239SFNew Orleans Pelicans Syracuse 240SFMemphis Grizzlies Mississippi State 241PGSan Antonio SpursDuke 242CNew Orleans Pelicans Kentucky 243SGSacramento KingsTexas Tech 244CChicago Bulls Mega Soccerbet 245SFMilwaukee Bucks Louisville 246SGPortland Trail BlazersWashington State 247#PGBoston Celtics Hapoel Tel Aviv 248PGGolden State Warriors Arizona 249SGPhiladelphia 76ersArkansas 250PGAtlanta Hawks LSU 251#SGGolden State Warriors Boise State 252SGSacramento Kings IMG Academy 253PGOklahoma City Thunder Michigan State 254SGIndiana PacersDuke 255SGBrooklyn Nets John A. Logan 256SGCharlotte Hornets College of Charleston 257PFLos Angeles Clippers Mississippi State 258PFPhiladelphia 76ers DePaul 259SGToronto RaptorsNevada 260SGNew Orleans Pelicans Utah State
Notable undrafted players
These players were not selected in the 2020 NBA draft, but have played at least one regular season or postseason game in the NBA.
Player Pos. Nationality School/club team SG Creighton (Jr.) SG Cincinnati (Sr.) SG Delaware (Sr.) C Duke (Sr.) PF Virginia (Sr.) PG Kansas (So.) PG Rhode Island (Sr.) C Wichita State (Sr.) SG Arizona State (Sr.) PF Saint Mary's (Jr.) PG Saint Mary's (Sr.) PG/SG Florida State (Sr.) PF Baylor (Sr.) PG Kentucky (So.) SF Moravian Prep (NC) (H.S. Postgraduate) SG/SF Stephen F. Austin (Sr.) SG Houston (So.) PG Marquette (Sr.) SG Arkansas (Jr.) PF/C Oregon State (Sr.) SF/SG Virginia (Sr.) PF/C William & Mary (Sr.) SF Vermont (Sr.) PG Vanier College (HS Sr.) SF Xavier (Jr.) SF Butler (Sr.) SF Oklahoma State (Sr.) SG Denver (Sr.) SG Seton Hall (Sr.) SG New Mexico State (Sr.) SF Cal State Fullerton (Sr.) Matt Ryan SF Chattanooga (Sr.) SG Cincinnati (Sr.) PG Michigan (Sr.) C Cherkaski Mavpy (Ukraine) SF Kansas State (Sr.) PG/SG Northwestern (Sr.) PF Penn State (Sr.) C Michigan (Sr.) SG Truman (Sr.) PF/C Gonzaga (Sr.) SG Oklahoma State (Sr.) SF Duke (Sr.) C Georgetown (Jr.)
Trades involving draft picks Pre-draft trades Before the day of the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between the teams.
Draft-day trades Draft-day trades will be made on the day of the draft.
Combine Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that started earlier in the year, the invitation-only NBA Draft Combine and the event's on-court elements were held in multiple phases, lasting from September 28 until November 16, two days before the draft began. For the first part, players began their league and team interviews via videoconference feeds, similar to this year's draft lottery. This segment lasted from September 28 until October 16. Then, in the second part, players began their individual, on-court programs at the NBA team facility nearest the player's home or interim residence instead of at one standardized area. While players were allowed to continue working out on their own even back in September 2020, this section lasted from October 16 until November 16. This program included strength and agility tests, anthropometric measurements, shooting drills, medical testing and examinations, and a "Pro Day" video filmed via HomeCourt, a mobile basketball training application. The NBA also expanded its Combine HQ tool for this period. While the NBA disallowed their staff members to be involved with these workouts in person (either in the team's practice facilities or near the player himself) at first, they eventually relaxed some of these restrictions to include up to three team executives meeting with a player they're interested in personally, as well as allowed a player to workout with multiple teams at the same time in their towns. The NBA also gave a limit of 10 meetings total with the candidates there, with any extra meetings with someone cutting into their amount allowed for this year.
At the start of this year's draft combine, only 60 prospects were confirmed to participate in this event. The top, headlining prospect involved with this combine is LaMelo Ball, an automatically eligible draft prospect that gained fame as a professional player both nationally and overseas years earlier after skipping his junior year of high school and was a top-3 selection for the draft. In addition to him, R. J. Hampton was also invited as an automatically eligible draft prospect for this year, both representing Australia's NBL as outsider Rising Stars for different teams. Other notable invites include five fully international prospects (Deni Avdija, Killian Hayes, Théo Maledon, Paul Eboua, and Karim Mané, the last of whom played in a Canadian CEGEP), two high school postgraduates (Kenyon Martin Jr. and Josh Hall), and Jay Scrubb, a junior college prospect. Like with prior years, players still held the option to either sit out the combine or have only limited participation there, such as with LaMelo Ball doing interviews with teams only. For the first half of the combine, each participant was given a standard set of 10 questions to answer in front of each team asking them, as well as league officials under a half-hour set, with players being allowed to interview as many teams as possible. In the second half of the combine, teams were allowed to meet with any candidate that had mutual interest in them back, though each team had a set limit of meetings with players in mind before the draft began. These meetings with players allowed teams to properly gauge each player to the best of their abilities during this time.
Draft lottery
The NBA draft lottery is held annually to determine the draft order for the teams that did not make the playoffs in the preceding season. Every NBA team that missed the NBA playoffs holds a chance at winning a top-four pick, but teams with worse records have a better chance at winning a top-four pick, effective as of the 2019 draft. After the lottery selects the teams that receive a top-four pick, the other teams receive an NBA draft pick based on their winning percentage from the prior season. As it is commonplace in the event of identical win-loss records, the NBA performs a random drawing to break ties for not just lottery teams, but also for playoff teams with equal records. This year, the Sacramento Kings won a tiebreaker for the draft lottery over the New Orleans Pelicans despite having a better overall record to conclude the regular season, bubble games included.
The lottery was originally scheduled to take place on May 19 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the length of the 2019–20 season's suspension. On July 21, 2020, the lottery was rescheduled for August 20. The lottery teams included the eight teams that did not play in the resumed 2019–20 NBA season in July and August: the Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Chicago Bulls, and Charlotte Hornets. They also included the other six teams that missed the playoffs in the resumed season: the Washington Wizards, Phoenix Suns, San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings, New Orleans Pelicans, and Memphis Grizzlies, with seeding completely based on the teams' records from March 12, 2020. The new lottery still took place in the United Center, but all guests representing the teams in the lottery attended virtually instead through video communication feeds. This year, two of the bottom three teams (Minnesota and Golden State) received the top two selections, while Charlotte and Chicago both jumped up into the top four. Teams that resumed their seasons remained at their initial positions set at the time, with Memphis moving down to the 14th selection after initially being set for a playoff spot.
Denotes the actual lottery result
Team 2019–20record Lotterychances Lottery probabilities 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th Golden State Warriors 15–50 140 0.140 0.134 0.127 0.120 0.479 — — — — — — — — — Cleveland Cavaliers 19–46 140 0.140 0.134 0.127 0.120 0.278 0.200 — — — — — — — — Minnesota Timberwolves 19–45 140 0.140 0.134 0.127 0.120 0.148 0.260 0.070 — — — — — — — Atlanta Hawks 20–47 125 0.125 0.122 0.119 0.115 0.072 0.257 0.167 0.022 — — — — — — Detroit Pistons 20–46 105 0.105 0.105 0.106 0.105 0.022 0.196 0.267 0.087 0.006 — — — — — New York Knicks 21–45 90 0.090 0.092 0.094 0.096 — 0.086 0.298 0.206 0.037 0.001 — — — — Chicago Bulls 22–43 75 0.075 0.078 0.081 0.085 — — 0.197 0.341 0.129 0.013 0.000 — — — Charlotte Hornets 23–42 60 0.060 0.063 0.067 0.072 — — — 0.345 0.321 0.068 0.004 0.000 — — Washington Wizards 24–40(25–47) 45 0.045 0.048 0.052 0.057 — — — — 0.507 0.259 0.030 0.001 0.000 — Phoenix Suns 26–39(34–39) 30 0.030 0.033 0.036 0.040 — — — — — 0.659 0.190 0.012 0.000 0.000 San Antonio Spurs 27–36(32–39) 20 0.020 0.022 0.025 0.028 — — — — — — 0.776 0.126 0.004 0.000 Sacramento Kings 28–36(31–41) 13 0.013 0.014 0.016 0.018 — — — — — — — 0.861 0.076 0.001 New Orleans Pelicans 28–36(30–42) 12 0.012 0.013 0.015 0.017 — — — — — — — — 0.920 0.023 Memphis Grizzlies 32–33(34–39) 5 0.005 0.006 0.006 0.007 — — — — — — — — — 0.976
Eligibility and entrants
The draft is conducted under the eligibility rules established in the league's 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with its players' union. The previous CBA that ended the 2011 lockout instituted no immediate changes to the draft but called for a committee of owners and players to discuss future changes.