The NBA league received a suggestion from its teams to change the date of the draft, and to postpone the event for the start of the August.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, arguably the best NBA insider in the business, this suggestion was revealed to the league executives yesterday. The organizations want to have more time to gather all the required information for their later decisions, and at the moment, that is impossible due to the current circumstances.
“As information gathering on draft-eligible prospects remains limited in a pandemic, many NBA teams are united in hopes of encouraging the league office to push the date of the June 25 draft until no sooner than August 1,” Wojnarowski wrote on his Twitter account.
Right now, the teams don’t even know what is going to be the order at the draft, and that affects their strategy not only for that event but also for the free agency as well. Some franchises would like to use their picks in certain trades, or maybe to trade up or down on the draft night. Others would like to collect as many picks as possible and fill in their rosters with youngsters. However, the entire strategy depends upon the order of the selections.
Also, according to the organizations, the majority of the players are still an enigma, and they don’t have all the intel about them. Scouts weren’t able to see them during the most important part of the season, and that is the NCAA tournament (or the finish of their leagues, if they come from abroad). During this period, the players show their true potential, unlike the regular part of the season when there isn’t that big of pressure involved. During the eliminations, scouts can assess the mental capabilities of the athletes more precisely, and that is something they don’t have in this situation.
Interviews, personal workouts, medical tests, all this is on hold due to COVID-19 pandemic, and the teams are pretty much blind for many things. It is why they asked the league to help them and allow more time for evaluations.
The NBA released a memo early this week in which they allowed virtual interviews between the organizations and draft prospects, with the condition that it can’t be longer than four hours per player. The memo also stated that there couldn’t be any virtual workouts, and forbids the usage of any video material made after the suspension of the NBA activities. For now, the teams and their scouts can use older recordings that include games and workout sessions.
All the teams, as well as the entire NBA community anxiously expects May 1, which is the date when the league decides about the future of the season.
As for the NBA draft, there is a huge debate among the fans who would go first Anthony Edwards or James Wiseman. These two youngsters are the biggest talents according to many, and what might be the decision-maker, in this case, is the draft lottery and whoever gets to chose the first. Teams who need a backcourt player would pick Edwards, while those who want a center are going with Wiseman.
