We’re still over two months away from the 2026 NBA draft, but before we get to June 23, there are several other important dates and deadlines on the calendar. Here are some of those dates and deadlines worth keeping an eye on:
April 24 (11:59 pm ET): Deadline for early entrants to declare for the draft
College and international players who aren’t automatically draft-eligible this year have until the end of the day on April 24 to submit their names into the 2026 NBA draft pool. Those early entrants can withdraw their names later if they decide they’re not ready to go pro, though if college players want to maintain their NCAA eligibility, they can’t hire an agent who’s not certified by the NCAA.
Once the early entrant list is officially set, NBA teams can begin conducting or attending workouts for those players.
May 8-10: NBA G League Combine
The NBA has experimented in recent years with the format of this event, which was previously known as the G League Elite Camp. It was revamped in 2019 and consisted that year of 40 veteran G League invitees participating in the first half of the event, followed by 40 top draft-eligible players (who weren’t invited to the actual combine) taking part in the second half.
However, after being canceled in 2020 due to COVID-19, the Elite Camp only featured 40 draft-eligible prospects, without the G League players, when it returned in 2021. That format has carried over to subsequent years, including when the event was rebranded last year as the G League Combine.
The league invites roughly 40-50 prospects who didn’t make the initial cut for the NBA’s actual draft combine to the G League Combine, then a handful standouts are invited to remain in Chicago for the full-fledged combine that follows.
May 10: NBA draft lottery
The 2026 draft lottery will be the eighth one employing the format that was introduced in 2019. With the lottery odds flattened out, the NBA’s worst team has a 14% shot at the No. 1 overall pick, as opposed to the 25% chance it had prior to ’19.
The volatility of the format reared its head over the last couple years. In 2024, the Hawks jumped up from 10th in the lottery standings to nab the No. 1 overall pick, which they used on Zaccharie Risacher. A year later, the Mavericks entered lottery night with the 11th-best odds and lucked into the top pick in a draft that featured a consensus top pick, Cooper Flagg.
There’s not a single prospect that stands head-and-shoulders above the rest of the class in 2026, so any team that moves into the top four and comes away with a player like AJ Dybantsa, Darryn Peterson, Cameron Boozer, or Caleb Wilson should come away from lottery night pretty happy.
Notably, this will almost certainly be the last draft that uses the current format. NBA commissioner Adam Silver, looking to discourage teams from tanking, has vowed to implement lottery reform ahead of the 2026/27 season. It’s possible that the odds will be further flattened in 2027, leading to even more unpredictable results on lottery night.
May 10-17: NBA draft combine
This week-long event, which takes place annually in Chicago, allows NBA teams to get a first-hand look at many of the year’s top draft-eligible players.
The combine is often particularly important for early entrants who have yet to decide whether or not to stay in the draft. The feedback they get at the combine could go a long way toward dictating whether they keep their names in the draft or return to school for another year.
In the past, the draft lottery has taken place after the conclusion of the combine. The NBA flipped the two events on its calendar in 2024 and has stuck with that schedule since then. The May 10 lottery results figure to have an impact on which teams focus on which lottery-caliber players in Chicago.
May 27 (11:59 pm ET): NCAA early entrant withdrawal deadline
College underclassmen who want to retain their NCAA eligibility will have to withdraw their names from the draft pool by May 27. NBA rules call for a later withdrawal deadline, but the NCAA has its own set of rules that say the deadline is 10 days after the combine ends.
An early entrant could technically wait until after May 27 to withdraw from the draft and could still retain his NBA draft eligibility for a future year. However, he would forfeit his amateur status in that scenario, making him ineligible to return to his NCAA squad. College players who want to play overseas for a year or two before entering the NBA draft could take this route.
June 13 (5:00 pm ET): NBA early entrant withdrawal deadline
This is the NBA’s final deadline for early entrants to withdraw their names from the draft pool and retain their draft eligibility for a future year.
By this point, we generally know whether or not a college player decided to keep his name in the draft, but this is an important deadline for international players, who aren’t subject to the same restrictions as college prospects. We’ll likely hear about several international early entrants withdrawing from the draft during the days leading up to June 13.
June 23 and 24: NBA draft days
The most exciting few weeks of the NBA offseason unofficially begin on draft day, which is often when several of the first major trades of the summer are completed and when we get a sense of which direction certain teams are heading.
In 2024, for the first time, “draft day” actually referred to two days, as the NBA and NBPA agreed to make the draft a multi-day event, with the first round occurring on a Wednesday and the second round taking place on a Thursday. The league is sticking with that format in 2026 for a third straight year, though it’s moving the first round up to a Tuesday and the second round to a Wednesday, presumably to avoid a conflict with Team USA’s last group-play match in the FIFA World Cup on Thursday, June 25.
While the decision to expand the draft to two nights has drawn mixed reviews from fans, the NBA and most of its teams seem fond of it. Front offices now get the chance to regroup halfway through the draft to reset their boards and have more time to consider possible trades. The league’s broadcast partners, meanwhile, are able to devote a little more attention to second-round picks that frequently used to be made when the television broadcast was in the midst of an ad break, and fans don’t have to stay up so late into the night to see the end of the second round.
Each round of the draft will begin at 8:00 pm ET.
The hours and days after the second round ends will be hugely important for many of this year’s draft-eligible prospects — a ton of players who aren’t selected with one of the 60 picks in the draft will reach agreements shortly thereafter to play for an NBA team’s Summer League squad, to attend training camp with a club, or to sign a two-way contract.