2024 NBA Draft: Date, location, order of picks & how to watch

The 2024 NBA Draft takes place this week and although this particular class of rookies is not hailed as the strongest, every draft has a chance to shape the course of franchises all across the league for years to come.

Let’s take a look at everything you need to know for the upcoming draft.

2024 NBA Draft dates

The 2024 will be held across two days, from Thursday 27th June until Friday 28th.

2024 NBA Draft times

The first round on Thursday 27th June begins at 1am BST, while the second-round selection process gets underway at 9pm BST on the same day.

2024 NBA Draft location

This year’s draft will be staged in Brooklyn, N.Y. at the Barclays Center, home of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets.

2024 NBA Draft how to watch

In the early hours of Thursday morning you can watch the first round on both ABC and ESPN. The second round will be televised on ESPN.

2024 NBA Draft format

Barring trades either before the draft (of which there have been many) or during it, each of the 30 NBA franchises gets a pick in both the first and second rounds.

The order is determined by both the regular-season standings and a lottery involving all 14 teams that missed the playoffs.

The lottery determines the first four spots, after which picks five through 30 go from worst record to best record.

2024 NBA Draft order

1. Atlanta Hawks
2. Washington Wizards 
3. Houston Rockets (from Brooklyn) 
4. San Antonio Spurs 
5. Detroit Pistons 
6. Charlotte Hornets 
7. Portland Trail Blazers 
8. San Antonio Spurs (from Toronto) 
9. Memphis Grizzlies 
10. Utah Jazz 
11. Chicago Bulls 
12. Oklahoma City Thunder (from Houston) 
13. Sacramento Kings 
14. Portland Trail Blazers (from Golden State via Boston) 
15. Miami Heat 
16. Philadelphia 76ers 
17. Los Angeles Lakers 
18. Orlando Magic 
19. Toronto Raptors (from Indiana) 
20. Cleveland Cavaliers 
21. New Orleans Pelicans (from Milwaukee) 
22. Phoenix Suns 
23. Milwaukee Bucks (from New Orleans) 
24. New York Knicks (from Dallas) 
25. New York Knicks 
26. Washington Wizards (from Clippers via Dallas and Oklahoma City) 
27. Minnesota Timberwolves 
28. Denver Nuggets 
29. Utah Jazz (from Oklahoma City via Toronto and Indiana) 
30. Boston Celtics 

2024 NBA Draft top prospects

Arguably the top two draft prospects in the 2024 class are Frenchmen - Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr.

Both are 19 years old. Risacher (10/21 to be the No. 1 pick) is a 6’9’’ forward who played this past season in France’s top league. Sarr is a 7’0’’ centre who most recently played in Australia.

Two other notable prospects hail from the NCAA champion UConn Huskies - Donovan Clingan and Stephon Castle.

Clingan is a 7’2’’ centre who starred for two seasons with the Huskies. Castle is a 6’6’’ guard who left college following one year with head coach Dan Hurley’s juggernaut of a program.

Other names to look out for this week are Kentucky’s Reed Sheppard, Kentucky’s Rob Dillingham and Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht.

NBA Draft history

The first NBA Draft was conducted in 1947 following the league’s inaugural season. It has been every year since then, albeit with various modifications.

In 1966 the draft lottery was established and thus the ‘66 selection process continues to be recognized as the first modern NBA Draft.

Through 1984 it involved only the worst teams in their respective conferences. Those two teams would go head-to-head in a coin flip, with the winner earning the rights to the No. 1 overall pick.

Beginning in 1985, the NBA Board of Governors expanded the lottery to all teams that missed the playoffs in the preceding season.

In 1985 the lottery determined the draft order of every single non-playoff team.

Starting in 1986 the lottery determined only the first three selections. The remaining spots for both non-playoff teams and playoff teams were based on record.

There have been minor tweaks on a number of occasions relating to the number of spots determined by the lottery and the odds a certain team in the NBA standings has of getting a certain draft pick.

The last change came in 2017, when the NBA Board of Governors expanded the lottery to the first four spots in the draft and assigned the same odds of winning the No. 1 pick (14 per cent) to each of the three worst teams in the league.