NBA Sets Dates For Lottery, Draft, More

The NBA has set dates for the 2020 NBA Draft Lottery and subsequent draft, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reports, giving franchise scouting departments a concrete timetable for when that process will proceed.

The NBA Draft Lottery will take place on August 25. The draft itself will follow on October 15th of this year.

The draft dates appear to have been set relative to the proposed return to play that was approved by the league’s board of governors on Friday.

A target date reported for the return of regular season action is July 31. The latest possible postseason game under the proposed plan would be Game 7 of the NBA Finals on October 12.

Since the ESPN report, Shams Charania of The Athletic reports that the July 31 return date was part of the package approved by the board of governors.

Charania also reports that fans could expect 2020 free agency to begin on Oct. 18th and potentially expect a Dec. 1 start date for the 2020-21 campaign.