2020 NBA Draft Class: Analysis, Grades, and Looking Back

The 2020 NBA draft was the strangest one the league has held. It was supposed to happen in June. The pandemic pushed it to November 18, and it was run remotely, with the commissioner in a television studio and the players at home with their families. Five weeks later the same players were in real NBA games, with no summer league and barely a training camp.

At the time it was called a weak class with no obvious No. 1. It turned out to have a franchise player at the top and several stars hiding in the back half of the first round.

2020 NBA Draft Class List

The first round, in order:

Pick	Player	Team	From
1	Anthony Edwards	Minnesota Timberwolves	Georgia
2	James Wiseman	Golden State Warriors	Memphis
3	LaMelo Ball	Charlotte Hornets	Illawarra Hawks (Australia)
4	Patrick Williams	Chicago Bulls	Florida State
5	Isaac Okoro	Cleveland Cavaliers	Auburn
6	Onyeka Okongwu	Atlanta Hawks	USC
7	Killian Hayes	Detroit Pistons	Ulm (Germany)
8	Obi Toppin	New York Knicks	Dayton
9	Deni Avdija	Washington Wizards	Maccabi Tel Aviv (Israel)
10	Jalen Smith	Phoenix Suns	Maryland
11	Devin Vassell	San Antonio Spurs	Florida State
12	Tyrese Haliburton	Sacramento Kings	Iowa State
13	Kira Lewis Jr.	New Orleans Pelicans	Alabama
14	Aaron Nesmith	Boston Celtics	Vanderbilt
15	Cole Anthony	Orlando Magic	North Carolina
16	Isaiah Stewart	Portland (traded to Detroit)	Washington
17	Aleksej Pokuševski	Minnesota (traded to Oklahoma City)	Olympiacos (Greece)
18	Josh Green	Dallas Mavericks	Arizona
19	Saddiq Bey	Brooklyn (traded to Detroit)	Villanova
20	Precious Achiuwa	Miami Heat	Memphis
21	Tyrese Maxey	Philadelphia 76ers	Kentucky
22	Zeke Nnaji	Denver Nuggets	Arizona
23	Leandro Bolmaro	New York (traded to Minnesota)	Barcelona (Spain)
24	R.J. Hampton	Milwaukee (traded to Denver)	New Zealand Breakers
25	Immanuel Quickley	Oklahoma City (traded to New York)	Kentucky
26	Payton Pritchard	Boston Celtics	Oregon
27	Udoka Azubuike	Utah Jazz	Kansas
28	Jaden McDaniels	L.A. Lakers (traded to Minnesota)	Washington
29	Malachi Flynn	Toronto Raptors	San Diego State
30	Desmond Bane	Boston (traded to Memphis)	TCU

The Second Round of the 2020 NBA Draft Class

The second round was thinner than usual, but a few picks stuck:

• Tre Jones (41st, Spurs): a steady point guard who became a starter.
• Nick Richards (42nd, Hornets): a 7-foot center who worked his way into a rotation.
• Isaiah Joe (49th, 76ers): cut by Philadelphia, then a key shooter for Oklahoma City’s 2025 championship team.
• Kenyon Martin Jr. (52nd, Rockets): went straight from prep school to the NBA.
• Paul Reed (58th, 76ers): the third-to-last pick, and a useful backup big man.
• Sam Merrill (60th, Bucks): the very last pick, a champion as a rookie and later one of Cleveland’s best shooters.

2020 NBA Draft Grades

With a few years of hindsight, these are the grades for the picks that mattered most.

• Timberwolves, Anthony Edwards at No. 1: A+. The right pick in a draft where nobody was sure there was one. A multiple-time All-Star and All-NBA guard who took Minnesota to back-to-back conference finals.
• Warriors, James Wiseman at No. 2: F. Golden State wanted a center for the future. Knee injuries cost him most of his first two seasons, and he was traded in his third. LaMelo Ball and Tyrese Haliburton were both on the board.
• Hornets, LaMelo Ball at No. 3: A-. Rookie of the Year and an All-Star in his second season. Injuries have kept the grade from being higher.
• Kings, Tyrese Haliburton at No. 12: A for the pick, and an incomplete for what came next. He fell to 12th and was plainly a steal. Sacramento then traded him to Indiana in 2022, where he became an All-NBA point guard and led the Pacers to the 2025 Finals.
• 76ers, Tyrese Maxey at No. 21: A+. Most Improved Player and an All-Star in 2024. Twenty teams passed.
• Grizzlies, Desmond Bane at No. 30: A+. The last pick of the first round became a 20-point scorer. In 2025 Memphis traded him to Orlando for four first-round picks.
• Timberwolves, Jaden McDaniels at No. 28: A. One of the best wing defenders in the league, picked up as a throw-in to a larger trade.
• Celtics, Payton Pritchard at No. 26: A. A champion in 2024 and Sixth Man of the Year in 2025.
• Pistons, Killian Hayes at No. 7: F. Never found a jump shot and was waived in his fourth season.

2020 NBA Draft Best Players

If the draft were held again, the top five would look something like this: Edwards, Haliburton, Maxey, Ball, Bane. Only two of them went in the top ten.

Behind them is a long list of good starters: Devin Vassell, Deni Avdija, Immanuel Quickley, McDaniels, Onyeka Okongwu, Aaron Nesmith, Isaiah Stewart, Obi Toppin and Pritchard.

2020 NBA Draft Combine Measurements

There wasn’t a normal combine. The usual week in Chicago, with five-on-five games and every team’s staff in one gym, was cancelled. Prospects were measured and tested at team facilities near where they lived, and interviews were done by video call.

That is one reason the draft was so hard to read. Teams were picking players many of them had never met in person, and in some cases had not seen play in eight months. Wiseman had played three college games. Ball and R.J. Hampton had spent the year in Australia and New Zealand.

10 Facts About the 2020 NBA Draft

1. It was held on November 18, 2020, almost five months later than planned.
2. Nobody was in the room. Picks were announced from a studio and players reacted on camera from home.
3. The season started on December 22, five weeks after the draft.
4. Anthony Edwards said before the draft that he wasn’t really into basketball and preferred football. It worked out.
5. LaMelo Ball was the third pick, three years after his brother Lonzo went second.
6. The top three picks had very little college basketball between them: Edwards played one season, Wiseman three games and Ball none.
7. Deni Avdija, at No. 9, became the highest-drafted Israeli player ever.
8. Two Kentucky guards went back to back in the twenties, Maxey at 21 and Quickley at 25, and both outplayed most of the lottery.
9. Obi Toppin, the eighth pick, won the Slam Dunk Contest in 2022.
10. The 60th and final pick, Sam Merrill, won a championship ring in his first season.

Important Players Who Went Undrafted in the 2020 NBA Draft

• Naji Marshall (Xavier) signed with New Orleans and became a rotation forward.
• Lamar Stevens (Penn State) earned minutes in Cleveland as a defender.
• Trent Forrest (Florida State) stuck around the league as a backup point guard.

Was the 2020 NBA Draft Class Considered a Good or a Weak Draft?

Weak, at the time. There was no Zion Williamson at the top, the three favorites all had question marks, and scouts had less information than in any modern draft.

It looks much better now. It didn’t produce a player on the level of Luka Dončić, but it has at least four stars and unusual depth, and most of that depth came after the lottery. Compared with 2019, which had Zion Williamson and Ja Morant at the top and thinned out quickly, 2020 has held up at least as well.

Were There any Significant Trades from the 2020 NBA Draft?

Several, and they aged in interesting ways.

• Boston traded the 30th pick, Bane, to Memphis in a salary-clearing deal.
• Detroit came away with three first-rounders in one night: Hayes, Stewart and Saddiq Bey.
• Oklahoma City sent Ricky Rubio to Minnesota and got the 17th pick, Pokuševski. The 28th pick, McDaniels, went the other way.
• The Knicks moved down and still landed Quickley at 25.

Who were the Best International Players Drafted in the 2020 NBA Draft?

Deni Avdija, by a wide margin. He needed four seasons in Washington to find his game, then was traded to Portland in 2024 and became the team’s leading scorer. He wasn’t the only Israeli in this draft either: Yam Madar went 47th to Boston. See our guide to NBA players from Israel.

The other first-round internationals were Killian Hayes (France), Aleksej Pokuševski (Serbia) and Leandro Bolmaro (Argentina). None of the three lasted.

2020 NBA Draft Busts: Who are the Most Disappointing Players?

Wiseman and Hayes are the obvious two. Kira Lewis Jr. (13th) and Jalen Smith (10th, to a Phoenix team that never found minutes for him) never got going with the teams that drafted them. Pokuševski was a 7-footer who dribbled like a guard and never learned what to do with it.

Isaac Okoro (5th) and Patrick Williams (4th) are a different kind of disappointment. Both are real NBA players, good defenders with limited offense, and both were taken ahead of Haliburton, Maxey and Bane.