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After months of conjecture, negotiations and delay, the date for the 2020 NBA Draft has officially been set as November 18. That’s right, kiddies: We still have two more months before we get to find out who our Knicks will take with the No. 8 pick (and the No. 27 pick, and No. 36 pick).
But what about the Draft Combine and team interviews/workouts? The NBA has a plan for that, according to Shams Charania, and it’s suitably weird enough for this extremely weird year.
NBA will run predraft process and distribute to teams. League interviews consist of 10 questions; teams assigned 20 players for 30 min. each. Prospects travel by car to nearest team market for medical/strength/agility testing, 8 on-court shooting drills. No team personnel allowed https://t.co/v0pWj6e6H6
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) September 17, 2020
So draft prospects will travel to the nearest NBA city to work out at a facility and answer a set of predetermined questions. The team who owns said facility will not allowed to be present for the process, but the league itself will cut a “pro day video” to be distributed to all the teams.
Oh, how I long for the days of Phil Jackson trying to get a reluctant Dennis Smith Jr. to try a bite of calamari.
Some very important questions remain — like what can international prospects do, for example — but this seems like something the NBA is going to try to carry out.
2020, y’all...