The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.
The NBA draft returned to Brooklyn after last year's draft was held through videoconferencing at ESPN Studios in Bristol, Connecticut due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With the first overall pick, the Detroit Pistons selected Cade Cunningham. The NBA used a "ceremonial pick" for the late Terrence Clarke, between the 14th and 15th pick of the draft.
2021 NBA draft | |
---|---|
General information | |
Sport | Basketball |
Date(s) | July 29, 2021 |
Location | Barclays Center (Brooklyn, New York) |
Network(s) | |
Overview | |
60 total selections in 2 rounds | |
League | NBA |
First selection | Cade Cunningham (Detroit Pistons) |
PG | Point guard | SG | Shooting guard | SF | Small forward | PF | Power forward | C | Center |
+ | Denotes player who has been selected for at least one All-Star Game |
# | Denotes player who has never appeared in an NBA regular season or playoff game |
~ | Denotes player who has been selected as Rookie of the Year |
These players were not selected in the 2021 NBA draft, but have played at least one game in the NBA.
Prior to the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between teams.
Draft-night trades were made after the draft began. These trades are usually not confirmed until the next day or after free agency officially begins.
Prior to the NBA Draft Combine, the 2021 NBA G League Elite Camp, which took place on June 19–21 at the Wintrust Arena and Marriott Marquis in Chicago, provided another chance for players not originally invited to the combine to impress scouts. The best performers from this camp were given invites to the main combine.
The NBA Draft Combine was held on June 21–27 at the same site sponsored by Microsoft. A total of 69 players attended the NBA Draft Combine 2021, with these players undergoing a series of interviews, five-on-five games, drills, and measurements. Lottery-projected pick Keon Johnson broke the combine's vertical leap record of 45.5 in (1.16 m), set by Kenny Gregory in 2001, with a vertical leap of 48 in (1.2 m). The combine also featured some recent graduates of the inaugural NBA G League Ignite team, which is a developmental basketball program meant to provide prospects with a paid alternative to playing NCAA college basketball. The success of these players, Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Daishen Nix, and Isaiah Todd, may pave the way for more top prospects to participate in the G League system pre-draft.
Projected top picks who decided not to attend the NBA Draft Combine include potential No. 1 pick Cade Cunningham and likely top-four pick Jalen Suggs. Numerous other potential prospects, especially those playing overseas, also decided to skip the Combine.
External videos | |
---|---|
2021 NBA Draft Lottery Drawing, NBA's official YouTube channel. Jun 22, 2021. |
The NBA draft lottery was held on June 22. It was also televised nationally on ESPN.
Denotes the actual lottery result |
Team | 2020–21 record | Lottery chances | Lottery probabilities | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | 11th | 12th | 13th | 14th | |||
Houston Rockets | 17–55 | 140 | 14.0% | 13.4% | 12.7% | 11.9% | 47.9% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Detroit Pistons | 20–52 | 140 | 14.0% | 13.4% | 12.7% | 11.9% | 27.8% | 20.1% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Orlando Magic | 21–51 | 140 | 14.0% | 13.4% | 12.7% | 11.9% | 14.8% | 26.0% | 7.1% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Oklahoma City Thunder | 22–50 | 115 | 11.5% | 11.4% | 11.2% | 11.0% | 7.4% | 27.1% | 18.0% | 2.4% | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Cleveland Cavaliers | 22–50 | 115 | 11.5% | 11.4% | 11.2% | 11.0% | 2.0% | 18.2% | 25.5% | 8.6% | 0.6% | - | - | - | - | - |
Minnesota Timberwolves | 23–49 | 90 | 9.0% | 9.2% | 9.4% | 9.6% | - | 8.6% | 29.7% | 20.6% | 3.4% | 0.2% | - | - | - | - |
Toronto Raptors | 27–45 | 75 | 7.5% | 7.8% | 8.1% | 8.5% | - | - | 19.8% | 33.9% | 13.0% | 1.4% | <0.1% | - | - | - |
Chicago Bulls | 31–41 | 45 | 4.5% | 4.8% | 5.2% | 5.7% | - | - | - | 34.5% | 36.2% | 8.5% | 0.5% | <0.1% | - | - |
Sacramento Kings | 31–41 | 45 | 4.5% | 4.8% | 5.2% | 5.7% | - | - | - | - | 46.4% | 29.4% | 3.9% | 0.1% | <0.1% | - |
New Orleans Pelicans | 31–41 | 45 | 4.5% | 4.8% | 5.2% | 5.7% | - | - | - | - | - | 60.6% | 17.9% | 1.2% | <0.1% | <0.1% |
Charlotte Hornets | 33–39 | 17 | 1.7% | 1.9% | 2.1% | 2.4% | - | - | - | - | - | - | 77.6% | 13.9% | 0.5% | <0.1% |
San Antonio Spurs | 33–39 | 16 | 1.6% | 1.8% | 2.0% | 2.2% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 84.8% | 7.5% | 0.1% |
Indiana Pacers | 34–38 | 12 | 1.2% | 1.3% | 1.5% | 1.7% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 92.0% | 2.3% |
Golden State Warriors | 39–33 | 5 | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.7% | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 97.6% |
The draft is conducted under the eligibility rules established in the league's 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with its players' union, with special modifications agreed to by both parties due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The previous CBA that ended the 2011 lockout instituted no immediate changes to the draft. but called for a committee of owners and players to discuss further charges.
The NBA announced on February 26, 2021, that for this draft only, all college players who wished to enter the draft, regardless of class, had to formally declare eligibility. In October 2020, COVID-19 led the NCAA to declare that the 2020–21 season would not be counted against the college eligibility of any basketball player. The exact language of the CBA with regard to automatic eligibility of college seniors is "The player has graduated from a four-year college or university in the United States, and has no remaining intercollegiate basketball eligibility." Due to the NCAA ruling, every college senior in the 2020–21 season had remaining eligibility. The league was required to consult with the players' union and the NCAA to determine whether it would require seniors to opt out of the draft (which was implemented by the NFL for its 2021 draft, affected by a similar NCAA ruling for football) or require opt-ins, with the latter option being chosen.
Players who were not automatically eligible had to declare their eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than at least 60 days before the event. For the 2021 draft, the date fell on May 30. Under the CBA a player may withdraw his name from consideration from the draft at any time before the final declaration deadline, which usually falls 10 days before the draft at 5:00 pm EDT (2100 UTC). Under current NCAA rules, players usually have until 10 days after the draft combine to withdraw from the draft and retain college eligibility. They must have withdrawn on or before July 7, 22 days prior to this draft.
A player who has hired an agent retains his remaining college eligibility regardless of whether he is drafted after an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee. Players who declare for the NBA draft and are not selected have the opportunity to return to their school for at least another year only after terminating all agreements with their agents, who must have been certified no later than August 1, 2020.
The NBA released its official list of early entrants on June 2, 2021, consisting of 296 players from college and other educational institutions and 57 international players. The current version of the list found in this article omits players who withdrew from the draft after June 2.
Terrence Clarke, a freshman guard from Kentucky, declared for the draft, but died on April 22, three months before it. At the draft, the NBA honored him with an honorary selection.
"Redshirt" refers to players who were redshirt seniors in the 2020–21 season. "Graduate" refers to players who were graduate transfers in 2020–21.
International players that declared for this draft and did not previously declare in another prior draft could drop out 10 days before the event, on July 19. A total of 51 international players withdrew their names from consideration for the draft, with only the following eight prospects remaining after the international deadline.
Players who do not meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:
As noted above, the NCAA's COVID-19 eligibility waiver for 2020–21 resulted in all college seniors having remaining eligibility, leading to the NBA and its players' union agreeing that seniors would have to declare for the 2021 draft.
Players who meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:
Player | Team | Note | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Owen Hulland | Adelaide 36ers (Australia) | Left Hawaii in 2020; playing professionally since the 2020–21 season | |
Filip Petrušev | Mega Basket (Serbia) | Left Gonzaga in 2020; playing professionally since the 2020–21 season | |
Isaac White | The Hawks (Australia) | Left Stanford in 2020; playing professionally since the 2020–21 season |
After previously not having a proper "green room" invitation process for the 2020 NBA draft due to the COVID-19 pandemic (with players instead being conducted interviews and showings through videotelephony), the NBA allowed for invites to attend the NBA draft event once again this season. The NBA usually annually invites players to sit in the so-called "green room", a special room set aside at the draft site for the invited players plus their families and agents, with 2020 being considered an exception due to the unprecedented nature of COVID-19 impacting the world at the time. This year, a reported 20 players were invited (listed alphabetically).
This article uses material from the Wikipedia English article 2021 NBA draft, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license ("CC BY-SA 3.0"); additional terms may apply (view authors). Content is available under CC BY-SA 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
®Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wiki Foundation, Inc. Wiki English (DUHOCTRUNGQUOC.VN) is an independent company and has no affiliation with Wiki Foundation.