[68] For the first part, players began their league and team interviews via videoconference feeds, similar to this year's draft lottery.

[70] In addition to him, R. J. Hampton was also invited as an automatically eligible draft prospect for this year, both representing Australia's NBL as outsider Rising Stars for different teams.

Other notable invites include five fully international prospects (Deni Avdija, Killian Hayes, Théo Maledon, Paul Eboua, and Karim Mané, the last of whom played in a Canadian CEGEP), two high school postgraduates (Kenyon Martin Jr. and Josh Hall), and Jay Scrubb, a junior college prospect.

Like with prior years, players still held the option to either sit out the combine or have only limited participation there, such as with LaMelo Ball doing interviews with teams only.

This year, the Sacramento Kings won a tiebreaker for the draft lottery over the New Orleans Pelicans despite having a better overall record to conclude the regular season, bubble games included.

The lottery was originally scheduled to take place on May 19 at the United Center in Chicago, Illinois, but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the length of the 2019–20 season's suspension.

The draft is conducted under the eligibility rules established in the league's 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with its players' union.

After that date, "early entry" players arcanttend 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.

[77] A player who has hired an agent retains his remaining college eligibility regardless of whether he is drafted after an evaluation from the NBA Undergraduate Advisory Committee.

Underclassmen 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, who must have been certified no later than August 1, 2020.

By the initial April 26 deadline, 42 international prospects, including one from a Canadian CEGEP (Quebecer college), expressed interest in this draft.