How Many Picks Are in the NBA Draft?

The 2024 NBA Draft is stretching its wings and expanding over two nights on June 26-27. All the exciting fashion and rookie roster construction will emanate from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The NBA Draft Lottery will take place on May 12 in Chicago so we don't know which middling team will be rewarded with the first bite of the apple. We do know there's no transcendent player like Victor Wembanyama but that's okay. Plenty of the guys selected will grow to be important cogs in a team's design.

How many picks are in the 2024 NBA Draft?

This one is pretty simple to solve. There are 30 teams and they all begin with a pick in each round. Now, obviously franchises have been giving these things away like candy for almost a decade now but that doesn't matter for the final answer as teams often have two or three picks per round. So, in total, there are 60 picks over the two rounds. Normally.

However, this year, there will only be 58 players selected. The Philadelphia 76ers were forced to forfeit their own 2024 second-round pick for tampering in free agency. The Phoenix Suns were also forced to forfeit their own 2024 second-pick after being found guilty of similar infractions. So in 2024 there will be 58 picks.

How many picks are normally in the NBA Draft?

In standard years there are 60 picks in the NBA Draft-- two picks per team, 30 teams in total. There hasn't been a draft with 60 picks since 2021, however. In each of the two drafts two teams have been docked second-round picks due to tampering violations, lowering the number of picks in each draft to 58. The 2024 NBA Draft will mark the third consecutive draft with only 58 picks.

What about players who go undrafted?

The maneuvering isn't done when the final selection is made. Teams can sift their way through every draft-eligible player who wasn't drafted and pick them up as a non-restricted free agent. These are commonly of the two-way, Summer League, or Exhibit 10 contracts.

How many picks did there used to be in the NBA Draft?

The number of picks in an NBA draft over the years was directly connected to how many teams existed at the time, a number that changed regularly between the dawn of the league and now. To keep it simple, though, here's a basic breakdown.

Back in the day (like way, way back) teams would simply continue to select players until the prospect pool was empty. In 1960, for example, the draft went 21 rounds despite there only being eight teams in the league at the time. This was the case until 1974, when the NBA instituted a 10-round limit on the draft. Then, in 1985 it became seven rounds. In 1988 the draft was shortened to three rounds and in 1989 it became the two-round format we know and love.

As you can see the number of picks in each draft varied wildly until 1989. From 1989-1995, there were only 54 total picks. The '95 season brought two new teams in the form of the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies, upping the total to 58 picks (29 teams, two picks per team). Finally, in 2004, the founding of the Charlotte Bobcats gave the league 30 teams and brought us to the yearly total of 60 picks per draft.

That's about everything you need to know about how many picks are in the NBA Draft.