NBA implements big change with draft
Jun 2, 2022; San Francisco, California, USA; NBA commissioner Adam Silver talks to media before game one of the 2022 NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Boston Celtics at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports
The NBA is taking a page out of the NFL’s playbook.
On Monday, the NBA announced that this year’s draft will be spread across two days. The first round is set to take place on Wednesday, June 26, and the second round will follow on Thursday, June 27.
2024 NBA Draft on ESPN and ABC pic.twitter.com/S6kUauxJo2
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Adam Schefter of ESPN notes that this is the first time in NBA history that the draft has been divided into two days.
The league is following the lead of counterparts like the NFL and Major League Baseball, whose respective drafts occur over the course of multiple days. That said, the NFL Draft features over 250 selections, and the MLB Draft has over 600. Meanwhile, the NBA Draft is a mere 58 selections (60 without counting the picks taken away for tampering violations).
It is a definite risk for the NBA as the second round of the draft is not usually very interesting (on top of the 2024 draft class generally being viewed as a weak one). But some All-Star players in the league today, like Nikola Jokic, Jalen Brunson, Khris Middleton, and Draymond Green, were second-round picks themselves, and there are some major names projected to go in that range this year too.
