Syracuse Basketball: NBA Draft date set and its impact on Elijah Hughes
By Ryan Lee
Former Syracuse basketball star Elijah Hughes seems a lock for the NBA Draft, and we now have an answer on when the draft will take place.
The NBA is the latest sports league with a return to play plan in place amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and the new plan reportedly has a date when former Syracuse basketball player Elijah Hughes will hear his name called in the NBA Draft. On Thursday, the NBA Board of Governors voted to approve the NBA’s plan to resume play with 22 teams in Orlando.
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the NBA’s Draft Lottery will be held on August 25, with the NBA Draft on October 15. The draft will be three days after a potential game seven of the NBA Finals, according to Wojnarowski.
This gives Hughes and other NBA prospects 113 more days to prepare for their first step into professional basketball, with the original draft date scheduled for June 25.
NBA has set an August 25 Draft Lottery and October 15 Draft, sources say.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 4, 2020
Hughes has received plenty of positive reviews and projections since the postponement of the NBA combine and lottery. Recently both CBS Sports and Fox Sports listed Hughes in the first round. This hype so far is not universal with both Sports Illustrated and Tankathon.com having Hughes go in the 40s or mid-second round.
To determine where Hughes will eventually wind up will be also decided when the NBA returns. Each team will play eight games to determine the playoff order and the teams that will be in the lottery in August.
That leaves room for teams’ draft positions to still be shaken up. Currently, the Bucks draft position is set at 30 and with a four-game lead, it seems like that will not be changing when the draft rolls around.
If Hughes gets selected late in the first round, six teams are within seven games of each other. This is important because each team will have a different evaluation of Hughes and the other prospects, and deem the value to Hughes to be worth selecting in some spots over others.
While uncertainty over where Hughes will be selected remains with a draft combine still potentially looming, it has become more and more certain that he will be selected and now we know what day he will be selected.