2026 NBA draft

Pre-draft trades

Prior to the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between teams:

Early entrants

Players who were not automatically eligible had to declare their eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no later than at least 60 days before the event. For the 2026 draft, the date fell on April 24. Under the CBA a player may withdraw his name from consideration from the draft at any time before the final declaration deadline, which usually falls 10 days before the draft at 5:00 p.m. EDT (2100 UTC). Under current NCAA rules, players usually have until 10 days after the draft combine to withdraw from the draft and retain college eligibility.

A player who has hired an agent for purposes of negotiating with professional teams^[b] retains his remaining college eligibility regardless of whether he is drafted after an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee. Players who declare for the NBA draft and are not selected have the opportunity to return to their school for at least another year only after terminating all agreements with their agents,^[c] who must have been certified.^[87]

On April 27, 2026, the NBA announced 71 players (60 college players and 11 international prospects) who filed as early entry candidates.^[88] On May 29, 38 early entry candidates withdrew their eligibility.^[89] On June 16, three more candidates withdrew their eligibility.^[90]

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 no remaining 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 the 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 term of dates players born on or before December 31, 2004, are automatically eligible for the 2026 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.