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2020 NBA Draft reportedly set for Oct. 16, free agency to start on Oct. 18

This 2020 calendar year has been very strange for the NBA. Offseason activities will start right when previous regular seasons would have started.

By Albert Lee
Washington Wizards Open Veterans Day Practice
The Wizards’ offseason activities will be timed in a much different way than we have been accustomed to in the past.
Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images

The coronavirus pandemic has altered the 2019-20 NBA season’s timing. As you might imagine, this is generally the time when we would be talking about draft prospects. But instead, the Washington Wizards still have at least eight games to play before possibly getting a run in the NBA Playoffs.

Since the NBA Finals will end in October this year, the league finalized the dates for the NBA Draft and free agency. According to Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press, the 2020 NBA Draft will be on Oct. 16, 2020 and free agency negotiations can start on Oct. 18, 2020.

With the Draft now in October, that also makes things a bit interesting for men’s college basketball players. Normally, the early entry deadline would have passed in the spring. But now, players who aren’t seniors in college can enter the draft as late as Aug. 17 and could withdraw as late as Oct. 6. These dates are notable since they are right during the fall semester at most American colleges. And that early October draft withdrawal deadline is very close to the traditional start of the college basketball season.

Our site’s content calendar schedule has been in some limbo since last March due to the coronavirus and the uncertainty about when the draft and free agency would be. But now that we know that these offseason dates, we can finally have our traditional postseason reviews, draft prospect previews and so much more.