Lakers Rumors: NBA teams pushing league to move the NBA Draft back
By Nick Ziegler
Recent Lakers rumors have been that teams are hoping to push back the NBA Draft until at least August with the coronavirus still ongoing.
As we still deal with the suspended NBA season, recent Lakers rumors have been about when the league might resume. Almost daily, there are new options and solutions thrown around to get the season resumed and concluded.
Recently, the discussions have been about the upcoming NBA Draft. As of now, the NBA Draft has been scheduled for June 25th. However, due to travel restrictions, and large gathering bans as of now, getting information on players is not going to be easy.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski, teams in the NBA are united that they want to see the NBA Draft pushed back until at least August 1st.
Reporting with @DraftExpress: 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. Story soon on ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 10, 2020
With it already being mid-April and the country still dealing with the coronavirus, moving the draft back makes a lot of sense. If the league is going to be able to resume play eventually, it is going to be going a lot later than June in all likelihood.
By pushing the NBA Draft back, it will also teams and executives to properly scout players. Since March Madness was canceled, a lot of scouts were robbed of opportunities to see these players play in important games.
For the college athletes and foreign players, pushing the draft back is in their best interest. Every year we see players impress in the combine and move up the draft board. However, that can’t happen if there is no combine.
The NFL is moving forward with their draft as scheduled, but they were able to have a combine and Pro Days. The NBA has been hit pretty hard with the timing of the coronavirus, and moving the draft back makes all the sense in the world right now.
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Hopefully, the league agrees with the teams and moves the draft back to a later date. If not, it would very unfair for the players and teams and make the drafting process nearly impossible.