NBA postpones 2020 draft lottery

On Friday, the NBA announced that it has postponed the 2020 draft lottery, which was originally scheduled to take place on May 19. It has now been officially pushed back until further notice.

The NBA draft lottery is when the league and team executives, through a lottery, determine the order in which teams get to pick rookie players for the NBA Draft. Traditionally, the lower the team standing at the end of the regular season, the more chances they have to get early picks in the draft lottery.

However, since the regular season is currently in hiatus and has not yet officially ended, the league does not know team eligibility in the lottery. To date, there is still no official announcement on the fate of the 2019-2020 season.

Since the league suspended games on March 11, their priority has been to monitor the coronavirus pandemic situation. Decisions will be made as the situation unfolds. And the situation, at least for the USA as a whole, is not good. The United States now has over 1.1 million COVID-19 cases and over 65,000 deaths. The last week of April is the deadliest so far for the US, with over 10,000 Americans dying from the disease. Americans now account for 27% of worldwide deaths in the pandemic.

According to NBA.com, only the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference, and the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference had clinched playoff spots when the games were suspended. The remaining 26 teams still have a chance of getting into the postseason or losing their current standings.

Delaying the draft lottery and most likely the draft itself (originally scheduled on June 25), will give teams more time to study new players that joined the draft selection. Typically, at this point, team scouts meet with players personally and interview their coaches, teammates, and family as part of the vetting process for signing new players.

However, the league has also prohibited team scouts from traveling to do their jobs. While interviews can be done remotely, most organizations would like to do such things face to face. While there are areas in the US where travel restrictions have been loosened and businesses are allowed to resume, the situation is far from normal, and the delay will give teams more time to prepare.