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. • All drafted players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In terms of dates, players who are eligible for the 2020 draft must be born on or before December 31, 2001. • Since the 2016 draft, the following rules, as implemented by the
NCAA Division I council for that division, are: • Declaration for the draft no longer results in automatic loss of college eligibility. As long as a player does not sign a contract with a professional team outside the NBA, or sign with an agent, he retains college eligibility as long as he makes a timely withdrawal from the draft. • NCAA players now have until 10 days after the end of the
NBA Draft Combine to withdraw from the draft. Since the combine is held in mid-May, the current deadline is about five weeks after the previous mid-April deadline. • NCAA players may participate in the draft combine and are allowed to attend one tryout per year with each NBA team without losing college eligibility. • NCAA players may now enter and withdraw from the draft up to two times without loss of eligibility. Previously, the NCAA treated a second declaration of draft eligibility as a permanent loss of college eligibility. The NBA has since expanded the draft combine to include players with remaining college eligibility (who, like players without college eligibility, can only attend by invitation).
Early entrants Players who are not automatically eligible have to declare their eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than at least 60 days before the event. For the 2020 draft, the date fell on April 26 at first, but the deadline was postponed indefinitely and moved to August 17. After that date, "early entry" players arcanttend NBA pre-draft camps and individual team workouts to show off their skills and obtain feedback regarding their draft positions. Under the CBA a player may withdraw his name from consideration from the draft at any time before the final declaration date, which is 10 days before. Under current NCAA rules, players have until 10 days after the draft combine to withdraw from the draft and retain college eligibility; however, due to COVID-19 disruptions, the NCAA announced that for the 2020 draft, the withdrawal deadline would be changed to 10 days after the combine or August 3, whichever came first. A player who has hired an agent retains his remaining college eligibility regardless of whether he is drafted after an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee. Underclassmen who declare for the NBA draft and are not selected have the opportunity to return to their school for at least another year only after terminating all agreements with their agents, who must have been certified no later than August 1, 2020.
College underclassmen This year, 205 underclassed draft prospects (i.e., players with remaining college eligibility) had declared by the initial April 26 deadline, with 163 of these players being from college or were high school postgraduates. The names left over mean they have hired an agent, or have announced that they plan to do so before the night of the draft. At the end of either the August 3 deadline (or the other one which was 10 days post-combine), 71 players declared their intentions to enter the draft with an agent, while 92 announced their return to college for at least one more season (or enter college in the case of
Makur Maker). Additionally, one more academy postgraduate student managed to enter at the new underclassman deadline. Furthermore, three different underclassmen that were confirmed at the time (
Jermaine Bishop,
Isiaha Mike, and
Filip Petrušev) all signed overseas contracts in Europe while waiting for this year's draft to begin, though they still remained listed under their colleges they played for before beginning the draft process as opposed to the new teams and leagues they signed for; Petrušev later withdrew from the draft on November 8, 2020 to stay with his new team, the
Mega Soccerbet in Serbia, initially leaving the final number of underclassmen students entering the draft at 71 (69 excluding Bishop and Mike). At the November 8 deadline, Tony Goodwin II also withdrew his name from the draft, though Nikolaos Okekuoyen (a Greek-Nigerian postgraduate student from Ridgeview Prep) was approved for the draft that day, which still left the number of players at 71 by that time. •
Precious Achiuwa – F,
Memphis (freshman) •
Milan Acquaah – G,
California Baptist (junior) •
Ty-Shon Alexander – G,
Creighton (junior) •
Cole Anthony – G,
UNC (freshman) •
Brendan Bailey – F,
Marquette (sophomore) •
Saddiq Bey – F,
Villanova (sophomore) •
Tyler Bey – G,
Colorado (junior) •
Jermaine Bishop – G,
Norfolk State (junior) •
Dachon Burke Jr. – G,
Nebraska (junior) •
Vernon Carey Jr. – F,
Duke (freshman) •
Nate Darling – G,
Delaware (junior) •
Lamine Diane – F,
Cal State Northridge (sophomore) •
Devon Dotson – G,
Kansas (sophomore) •
Anthony Edwards – G,
Georgia (freshman) •
C. J. Elleby – F,
Washington State (sophomore) •
Malik Fitts – F,
Saint Mary's (junior) •
Malachi Flynn – G,
San Diego State (junior) •
Josh Green – G,
Arizona (freshman) •
Ashton Hagans – G,
Kentucky (sophomore) •
Tyrese Haliburton – G,
Iowa State (sophomore) •
Josh Hall – F, Moravian Prep (
Hudson, NC; postgraduate) •
Rayshaun Hammonds – F,
Georgia (junior) •
Jalen Harris – G,
Nevada (junior) •
Niven Hart – G,
Fresno State (freshman) •
Nate Hinton – G,
Houston (sophomore) •
Elijah Hughes – F,
Syracuse (junior) •
Isaiah Joe – G,
Arkansas (sophomore) •
Dakari Johnson – G,
Cape Fear CC (freshman) •
C. J. Jones – G,
Middle Tennessee (junior) •
Mason Jones – G,
Arkansas (junior) •
Tre Jones – G,
Duke (sophomore) •
Saben Lee – G,
Vanderbilt (junior) •
Micheal Lenoir – G,
Creating Young Minds Academy (
Irving, TX; postgraduate) •
Kira Lewis – G,
Alabama (sophomore) • /
Nico Mannion – G,
Arizona (freshman) •
Naji Marshall – F,
Xavier (junior) •
Kenyon Martin Jr. – G,
IMG Academy (
Bradenton, FL; postgraduate) •
Tyrese Maxey – G,
Kentucky (freshman) •
Jaden McDaniels – F,
Washington (freshman) •
Isiaha Mike – F,
SMU (junior) •
E. J. Montgomery – F,
Kentucky (sophomore) •
Aaron Nesmith – G,
Vanderbilt (sophomore) •
Zeke Nnaji – F,
Arizona (freshman) • /
Jordan Nwora – F,
Louisville (junior) • / Nikolaos Okekuoyen – C, Ridgeview Prep (
Hickory, NC; postgraduate) •
Onyeka Okongwu – F,
USC (freshman) •
Isaac Okoro – F,
Auburn (freshman) •
Daniel Oturu – C,
Minnesota (sophomore) •
Reggie Perry – F,
Mississippi State (sophomore) •
Nate Pierre-Louis – G,
Temple (junior) •
Immanuel Quickley – G,
Kentucky (sophomore) •
Jahmi'us Ramsey – G,
Texas Tech (freshman) •
Paul Reed – F,
DePaul (junior) •
Nick Richards – C,
Kentucky (junior) •
Jay Scrubb – G,
John A. Logan College (sophomore) •
Jalen Smith – F,
Maryland (sophomore) •
Cassius Stanley – G,
Duke (freshman) •
Isaiah Stewart – F,
Washington (freshman) •
Tyrell Terry – G,
Stanford (freshman) •
Xavier Tillman – C,
Michigan State (junior) •
Obi Toppin – F,
Dayton (sophomore) •
Jordan Tucker – F,
Butler (junior) •
Devin Vassell – G,
Florida State (sophomore) •
Nick Weatherspoon – G,
Mississippi State (junior) •
Kaleb Wesson – F,
Ohio State (junior) •
Kahlil Whitney – F,
Kentucky (freshman) •
Emmitt Williams – F,
LSU (sophomore) •
Patrick Williams – F,
Florida State (freshman) •
James Wiseman – C,
Memphis (freshman) •
Robert Woodard II – F,
Mississippi State (sophomore) •
Ömer Yurtseven – C,
Georgetown (junior)
International players International players who were declared this year and did not previously declare in another prior year can drop out about 10 days before the 2020 draft, which was November 8 this year. By the initial April 26 deadline, 42 international prospects, including one from a Canadian
CEGEP (Quebecer college), expressed interest in this draft. this officially brought the final number of underclassmen available down to 84 players instead of 86, with 23 international players exiting the draft by November this year instead of 21. • They have completed four years of their college eligibility. • If they graduated from high school in the U.S., but did not enroll in a U.S. college or university, four years have passed since their high school class graduated. • They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA, but anywhere in the world, and have played under that contract. Players who meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria: • They are at least 22 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In terms of dates, players born on or before December 31, 1998, are automatically eligible for the 2020 draft. • They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA
within the United States, and have played under that contract. ==See also==