By Greg Rosenstein, John Hollinger and Mike Vorkunov
The NBA Draft will expand from one to two nights, the league announced Wednesday. The first round will be held on June 26, and the second round will take place on June 27.
The Athletic reported in November that the NBA had discussed the possibility of expanding the draft during a meeting with general managers, as team executives believed they could use more time to make selections in both the first and second rounds.
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ESPN will continue to air the draft. The league said Wednesday that the first round, at Barclays Center in New York, will continue to feature five minutes between selections, while the second round, from ESPN’s Seaport District Studios, will see four minutes between picks (up from two minutes in previous years).
“Based on feedback about the NBA Draft format from basketball executives around the league and my own experience in draft rooms, we believe that teams will benefit from being able to regroup between rounds and having additional time to make decisions during the second round,” Joe Dumars, the league’s executive vice president and head of basketball operations, said in a statement. “Two nights of primetime coverage will also enhance the viewing experience for our fans and further showcase the draftees.”
Why it’s needed
The NBA Draft has five minutes between picks in the first round and just two minutes in the second, all so it can try to cram 60 picks in between 8 p.m. and midnight (ET) in one evening. In particular, the second round becomes an afterthought: NBA Finals MVP Nikola Jokić was famously drafted during a Taco Bell commercial.
This isn’t just a marketing issue; it’s also a time issue for the teams involved. During the second round, it can be difficult to complete trades involving picks in the allotted time frame of just two minutes. This has been true in recent drafts where the same pick has changed hands multiple times in rapid succession; teams trying to trade up sometimes have to track down who owns a pick before they can propose a deal to acquire it. — John Hollinger, senior NBA writer
What this means for viewers
The impact on both fans and teams will be interesting to see. This should, theoretically, make life easier for teams. They will have more time to work for what has historically been a chaotic round where it’s hard to keep track of who is being drafted, by which team, and if that pick has already been dealt.
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Not only did the NBA move the second round to another night, they also doubled the amount of time teams will have to make their picks from two minutes to four. That should make things a little more coherent, one would think, especially for a round in which teams and agents are usually trying to play a game of chicken for roughly the last 10 to 15 picks about if players even wanted to be drafted.
We’ll see how viewers respond to a spun out broadcast for round two. The interest level hasn’t necessarily been high for it in the past. Often, fans don’t know what’s going on because of the speed of business. We’ll see if the NBA finds a way to fix that and streamline things a bit. — Mike Vorkunov, NBA and basketball business staff writer
Required reading
- NBA discussing move to 2-day draft format as soon as 2024, per sources
- 2024 NBA Draft Big Board: USC’s Isaiah Collier No. 1 as season of uncertainty kicks into high gear
(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)