The success of these players, Jalen Green, Jonathan Kuminga, Daishen Nix, and Isaiah Todd, may pave the way for more top prospects to participate in the G League system pre-draft.

Projected top picks who decided not to attend the NBA Draft Combine include potential No.

[74][75] Notes: The draft is conducted under the eligibility rules established in the league's 2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with its players' union, with special modifications agreed to by both parties due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October 2020, COVID-19 led the NCAA to declare that the 2020–21 season would not be counted against the college eligibility of any basketball player.

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.

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

[81] The current version of the list found in this article omits players who withdrew from the draft after June 2.

Terrence Clarke, a freshman guard from Kentucky, declared for the draft, but died on April 22, three months before it.

The NBA usually annually invites 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, with 2020 being considered an exception due to the unprecedented nature of COVID-19 impacting the world at the time.