The draft was held on May 20, 1974, so that the newly founded New Orleans Jazz could acquire players for the upcoming 1974–75 season.
In this draft, each of the seventeen other NBA teams had protected seven players from their roster and the Jazz selected seventeen unprotected players, one from each team.
[3] The Jazz were formed and owned by a group headed by Fred Rosenfeld and Sam Battistone.
However, none of them had long careers with the Jazz; Bellamy, who was 35 years old, was waived after one game and both Kauffman and Block were traded.
In exchange for Maravich, the Jazz sent the first guard and forward chosen in the expansion draft, which turned out to be Bob Kauffman and Dean Meminger, along with future draft picks to the Hawks.