Report: NBA Draft Scheduled for Oct. 16, Early Entry Deadline on Aug. 17

The 2020 NBA draft will take place on Oct. 16 with an early entry deadline of Aug. 17, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reports.

Despite the delayed draft, NBA free agency reportedly will still begin on Oct. 18, with a moratorium on deals from Oct. 19-23. Free agency negotiations are permitted to begin at 6 p.m. ET on Oct. 18, per Wojnarowski. The draft lottery is set to be held on Aug. 25, and the early entry withdrawal date is Oct. 6.

In addition, the NBA has set the transaction window for the league from 12 p.m. ET on June 23 to 11:59 p.m. ET on June 30, according to The Athletic's Shams Charania. During the window, teams can conduct rest-of-season contracts, substitute players ($183,115 minimum for two years of service), two-way contracts and waivers. 

The NBA draft was originally scheduled to take place on Thursday, June 25 before the season was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic in mid-March. The season is currently set to resume on July 30 at ESPN's Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fla. 

At Walt Disney World, the remaining 22 teams will partake in ranging health and safety protocols within the NBA "bubble." All teams will play eight regular-season games before play-in tournaments to decide the No. 8 seed. Each conference will then enter postseason play with a champion set to be crowned by Oct. 13, per Charania.

The league will test all players and staff for COVID-19 on June 23, prior to returning to training camps.