2018 NBA draft

The 2018 NBA Draft was held on June 21, 2018, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. National Basketball Association teams took turns selecting amateur United States college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. It was televised nationally by ESPN. State Farm was the presenting sponsor of the NBA draft for the seventh consecutive year. This draft was the last to use the original weighted lottery system that gave teams near the bottom of the NBA draft better odds at the top three picks of the draft while teams higher up had worse odds in the process; the rule was agreed upon by the NBA on September 28, 2017, but would not be implemented until the 2019 draft. It was also considered the final year where undrafted college underclassmen were forced to begin their professional careers early; on August 8, 2018, the NCAA announced that players who declared for the NBA draft and were not selected would have the opportunity to return to their school for at least another year. With the last year of what was, at the time, the most recent lottery system, the Phoenix Suns won the first overall pick on May 15, 2018, with the Sacramento Kings at the second overall pick and the Atlanta Hawks at third overall pick. The Suns' selection was their first No. 1 overall selection in franchise history. They used the selection on the Bahamian center Deandre Ayton from the nearby University of Arizona.
This draft was also notable for its lack of draft-day trades involving NBA veterans. An average of more than five veterans per year were traded on the day of the last three drafts, but this draft was the first since 2003 in which no such trades were announced. At the end of the 2018–19 season the top 5 picks from the draft were picked as the All-Rookie 1st Team, the first time this had happened since the 1984 draft.

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Draft selections

Player

Team

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Notable undrafted players

These players were not selected in the 2018 NBA draft, but have played at least one game in the NBA.

Player

Pos.

Nationality

School/club team

Combine

The invitation-only NBA Draft Combine was held in Chicago from May 16 to 20. The on-court element of the combine took place on May 18 and 19. A total of 69 players were invited to the NBA Draft this year, with two top talents in Deandre Ayton and Luka Dončić declining invitations for the event that year, with the latter player being involved with the 2018 EuroLeague Final Four at the time. Both mystery man Mitchell Robinson and Chandler Hutchison would remove themselves from the event at the last minute, although two other players would enter the event instead of them, leaving the proper number of official participants at 69. At the end of the draft deadline for international players, 12 players that entered the NBA Draft Combine that year ultimately withdrew from the NBA Draft, with 11 players returning to college and Brian Bowen planning on playing professionally before trying another NBA draft instead.

Draft lottery

The NBA draft lottery took place during the playoffs on May 15, 2018. This year will be the last time it uses what was originally the updated system for the NBA draft lottery to upgrade draft odds for teams in the lower regions of the NBA. Starting in 2019 onward, the newer updated draft lottery will give the bottom 3 teams equal odds for the No. 1 pick, while some of the teams higher up the NBA draft would get an increased chance for a top-four pick instead of a top-three pick like in this year, thus hoping to discourage teams from potentially losing games on purpose for higher draft picks. There were also two tiebreakers involved for lottery odds this season; the first involved the Dallas Mavericks having one more result favoring them having the No. 1 pick over the Atlanta Hawks after splitting the odds together, while the second tiebreaker had the Chicago Bulls splitting odds with the Sacramento Kings, resulting in the Bulls having slightly better odds on their end in the process. Funnily enough, both of the teams mentioned that lost the tiebreakers would wind up being in the Top 3 at the end of the NBA draft lottery. Furthermore, the Hawks would trade their Top 3 selection to Dallas for their selection in the draft instead.

Denotes the actual lottery result

Eligibility and entrants

The draft is conducted under the eligibility rules established in the league's 2017 collective bargaining agreement with its players' union. The previous CBA that ended the 2011 lockout instituted no immediate changes to the draft but called for a committee of owners and players to discuss future changes.

All drafted players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In terms of dates, players who are eligible for the 2018 draft must be born on or before December 31, 1999.
Since the 2016 draft, the following rules, as implemented by the NCAA Division I council for that division, are:
*Declaration for the draft no longer results in automatic loss of college eligibility. As long as a player does not sign a contract with a professional team outside the NBA, or sign with an agent, he will retain college eligibility as long as he makes a timely withdrawal from the draft.
*NCAA players have until 10 days after the end of the NBA Draft Combine to withdraw from the draft. Since the combine is held in mid-May, the current deadline is about five weeks after the previous mid-April deadline.
*NCAA players may participate in the draft combine and are allowed to attend one tryout per year with each NBA team without losing college eligibility.
*NCAA players may enter and withdraw from the draft up to two times without loss of eligibility. Previously, the NCAA treated the second declaration of draft eligibility as a permanent loss of college eligibility.

The NBA has since expanded the draft combine to include players with remaining college eligibility.

Early entrants

Players who are not automatically eligible have to declare their eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than 60 days before the draft. For the 2018 draft, the date fell on April 22. After that date, "early entry" players can attend NBA pre-draft camps and individual team workouts to show off their skills and obtain feedback regarding their draft positions. Under the CBA a player may withdraw his name from consideration from the draft at any time before the final declaration date, which is 10 days before the draft. Under current NCAA rules, players had until May 30 to withdraw from the draft and retain college eligibility.
A player who has hired an agent forfeits his remaining college eligibility regardless of whether he is drafted.

College underclassmen

A record-high 236 underclassed draft prospects had declared by the April 22 deadline, with 181 of these players being from college. The names listed here mean that they hired an agent, or had announced that they planned to do so before the night of the draft. At the end of the deadline, 77 players declared their intentions to enter the draft with an agent while 100 players announced their return to college for at least one more season. Meanwhile, Matur Maker, Brian Bowen, Micah Seaborn and Tavarius Shine did not enter the draft after letting their deadlines to retain college eligibility expire. These players instead decided to enter in 2019 via either the NBA G League or another professional league.

/ Deng Adel – F, Louisville
Rawle Alkins – G, Arizona
Mike Amius – F, Western Carolina
/ Kostas Antetokounmpo – F, Dayton
Deandre Ayton – C, Arizona
Marvin Bagley III – F/C, Duke
Mo Bamba – C, Texas
Keita Bates-Diop – F, Ohio State
Tashawn Berry – G, Dakota College
Leron Black – F, Illinois
Jordan Brangers – G, South Plains College
Mikal Bridges – F, Villanova
Miles Bridges – F, Michigan State
Bruce Brown Jr. – G, Miami
Troy Brown Jr. – F, Oregon
Jalen Brunson – G, Villanova
Elijah Bryant – G, BYU
Tony Carr – G, Penn State
Wendell Carter Jr. – F/C, Duke
Kameron Chatman – G/F, Detroit
Bryant Crawford – G, Wake Forest
Eric Davis – G, Texas
/ Tyler Davis – C, Texas A&M
Marcus Derrickson – F, Georgetown
Hamidou Diallo – G, Kentucky
Donte DiVincenzo – G, Villanova
Dikembe Dixson – F, UIC
Trevon Duval – G, Duke
Drew Eubanks – F, Oregon State
Jacob Evans – G/F, Cincinnati
Tremaine Fraiser – G, Westchester CC
Melvin Frazier Jr. – G/F, Tulane
/ Wenyen Gabriel – F, Kentucky
Kaiser Gates – F, Xavier
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander – G, Kentucky
D. J. Hogg – F, Texas A&M
Aaron Holiday – G, UCLA
Kevin Huerter – G, Maryland
DeAngelo Isby – G/F, Utah State
Jaren Jackson Jr. – F, Michigan State
Justin Jackson – F/G, Maryland
Ismaila Kane – F, Atlanta Metropolitan State College
Devonte Klines – G, Montana State
Kevin Knox II – F, Kentucky
Terry Larrier – F, Connecticut
Marquez Letcher-Ellis – F, Nevada
Makinde London – F, Chattanooga
Brandon McCoy – C, UNLV
De'Anthony Melton – G, USC
Chimezie Metu – F, USC
Shake Milton – G, SMU
Max Montana – F, San Diego State
Doral Moore – C, Wake Forest
Malik Newman – G, Kansas
/ Josh Okogie – G, Georgia Tech
Ajdin Penava – F, Marshall
Michael Porter Jr. – F, Missouri
Jerome Robinson – G, Boston College
Mitchell Robinson – C, Western Kentucky
Brandon Sampson – G, LSU
Corey Sanders – G, Rutgers
Collin Sexton – G, Alabama
Landry Shamet – G, Wichita State
/ Yankuba Sima – F, Oklahoma State
Anfernee Simons – G, IMG Academy
Fred Sims – G, Chicago State
Zhaire Smith – G/F, Texas Tech
Ray Spalding – F/C, Louisville
Omari Spellman – F/C, Villanova
Khyri Thomas – G, Creighton
Gary Trent Jr. – G, Duke
Allonzo Trier – G, Arizona
Jarred Vanderbilt – F, Kentucky
Moritz Wagner – F, Michigan
Lonnie Walker IV – G, Miami
Robert Williams III – F/C, Texas A&M
Trae Young – G, Oklahoma

International players

International players that had declared this year and did not previously declare in another prior year can drop out of the draft about 10 days before the draft begins on June 11. Initially, there were 55 players who originally expressed interest in entering the 2018 draft, one of which was a player who came directly out of high school from Canada. However, by the end of the deadline, 43 of those players would ultimately pull their names out of the draft, leaving only 11 true international players entering the NBA Draft this year. Combining both the number of players listed previously and both LiAngelo Ball and Billy Preston as automatically eligible underclassmen under unique situations, the total number of underclassmen rounds out to 90 overall players.

Isaac Bonga – G, Frankfurt Skyliners
Luka Dončić – G/F, Real Madrid
Tryggvi Hlinason – C, Valencia Basket
Michał Kolenda – F, Trefl Sopot
Arnoldas Kulboka – F, Betaland Capo d'Orlando
Rodions Kurucs – F, FC Barcelona Lassa
Džanan Musa – F, Cedevita Zagreb
Williams Narace – SLUC Nancy Basket
Élie Okobo – G, Élan Béarnais Pau-Lacq-Orthez
Issuf Sanon – G, Olimpija Ljubljana
Filip Zagrajski – G, Vrijednosnice Osijek

Automatically eligible entrants

Players who do not meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:

They have completed four years of their college eligibility.
If they graduated from high school in the U.S., but did not enroll in a U.S. college or university, four years have passed since their high school class graduated.
They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA, anywhere in the world, and have played under that contract.

Players who meet the criteria for "international" players are automatically eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:

They are at least 22 years old during the calendar year of the draft. In terms of dates, players born on or before December 31, 1996, are automatically eligible for the 2018 draft.
They have signed a contract with a professional basketball team not in the NBA within the United States, and have played under that contract.

Player

Note

Ref.

Trades involving draft picks

Pre-draft trades

Before the day of the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between the teams below.

Draft-day trades

Draft-day trades occurred on June 21, 2018, the day of the draft.

Invited attendees

The NBA annually invites around 15–20 players to sit in the so-called "green room", a special room set aside at the draft site for the invited players plus their families and agents. When their names are called, the player leaves the room and goes up on stage. Other players who are not invited are allowed to attend the ceremony. They sit in the stands with the fans and walk up on stage when they are drafted. On June 15, 2018, 19 total players were announced as invites for the NBA Draft that year, while potential top 3 pick Luka Dončić was initially not invited to the event due to the Liga ACB Finals potentially extending through the draft. On June 19, ESPN reported that Dončić would attend the draft, after all, following Real Madrid's championship victory the previous night, extending the list to 20 players. The following players were confirmed as invites for the event this year: