Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations, sent a memo to NCAA coaches Tuesday morning to inform them that the league is accepting applications to the Undergraduate Advisory Committee, which provides feedback to players on potential draft stock.
In the memo, VanDeWeghe briefly addressed the “rapidly evolving coronavirus situation,” indicating that information will be provided at a future date “regarding changes, if any, to the NBA’s pre-draft process, whenever such information is available.”
NBA executives widely agree that the pre-draft process will be severely limited, if not lost altogether, as the prospect of having athletes or scouts board commercial flights in the near future for individual workouts, pro days or a league combine appears extremely unlikely. That will make it challenging to gather feedback and assess a player’s standing in the eyes of NBA teams.
Players have until April 16 to apply, and will not be able to “test the waters” while maintaining their NCAA eligibility without first applying for an evaluation. The UAC was formed in 1997 to assist players in the decision-making process, and will likely play an outsized role this year due to the disruption affecting all industries during the coronavirus pandemic.
The UAC sends NBA executives a series of emails with a list of names, requesting their team’s assessment of players’ draft stock. The player is then informed of the consensus reached by weighing the NBA executives’ responses and offering feedback on whether the player is likely to be a lottery pick, first-rounder, second-rounder or undrafted.