The 2026 NBA draft will begin on Tuesday, June 23 and wrap up on Wednesday, June 24, the league announced today (Twitter link). It will take place at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
As has been the case since 2024, the draft will be held across two days, with the first 30 picks made on day one and the second round – beginning at No. 31 – happening the following day. Each round will begin at 8:00 pm Eastern time, per the NBA.
While the draft format is unchanged, the schedule looks a little different than usual. When the draft was a single-day event, it was regularly held on Thursday evenings, and after switching to the two-day format two years ago, the league has kept the second round on Thursdays while conducting the first round on Wednesdays.
This year, the draft will begin on a Tuesday. The change may be designed to avoid a direct conflict with the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The U.S. is one of the host countries for the event and Team USA will be in action against Türkiye on the evening of Thursday, June 25.
Certain draft-related deadlines that are connected to the date of the draft itself have now been established, including the NCAA’s deadline for early entrants to declare for the draft — it falls 60 days before the draft, which will be April 24 (11:59 pm ET). Additionally, the NBA’s deadline for early entrants to withdraw from the draft pool falls 10 days before the draft. That will be June 13 (5:00 pm ET).
You know what else would be cool? If they just got it all done in one night.
You can’t be a basketball fan. Plenty of other stuff to watch.
Why? 2 separate nights gives teams time to evaluate remaining available players in more depth and formulate additional trades
I’m absolutely not tuning in to watch second round picks gets traded for future second round picks and a bunch of G-League players get drafted.
Then don’t. I don’t understand why you’re complaining
2017 draft — 16 one and done players from college were selected. A record that could be broken this draft. This year’s second rd will have plenty of bigs. Plenty of talent in 2nd rd. NBA should be a two day event. With the influx of foreign talent. Really has to be
link to basketball-reference.com
Tyon Grant-Foster’s time is now
This year, having a second (separate) day for the 2nd round helps the NYK, as the holder of the first pick of the second round at #31. They haven’t had the first pick on any draft day since 1985.
The FO needs to get over their draft phobia, and just make the 3 damn picks. The draft is supposed to be an exercise in talent evaluation (theirs), not a sideshow dominated by their salary cap concerns, or a test of how many times a team can trade down in or out of a draft. Thibs isn’t here to save them as he was in the drafts of 2020 and 2021. The FO needs to do its job.