The NBA/NFL Draft is one of the US’ most widely broadcasted events as both sports have garnered an immense amount of attention throughout the collegiate season and throughout the daily broadcasts of all NFL and NBA outings that continue to amass a widespread amount of viewers.
The NFL and NBA are the nation’s two most popular sporting leagues and have continued to dazzle fans with their impeccable highlight plays and sublime athletic talents that are always on show.
Millions of fans around the nation and across the globe continue to tune into all related football and basketball broadcasts from these two renowned sporting leagues, with most fans enjoying the opportunity to question which teams they should back in the latest odds on the DraftKings sportsbook.
One event on the NFL and NBA calendar that continues to draw audiences from different regions includes the annual draft which allows all franchises (who have a valid selection) to choose some of the top collegiate talents that have declared themselves as an eligible selection for the professional leagues.
While both draft events do offer their similarities in terms of scheduling and the overall selection process, there are a considerable amount of differences between both rivalling league’s presentation of the event as well as their overall palpable levels of excitement that both sets of events offer on a yearly basis.
- NBA Draft Lottery:
Without question the biggest difference between the NBA’s draft compared to the NFL, and all other major US sporting leagues, is the inclusion of the NBA’s draft lottery which takes place a full month before draft night.
Unlike the NFL, the NBA does not award its worst teams a guaranteed first round selection based on their final standings from the prior season, but instead the teams that are worser ranked in the league will have an increased percentage odds to land a higher selection.
This year, there a total of three clubs with a 14% chance of landing the first overall pick in the draft due to these teams being ranked with the lowest seed in their respected conference.
These odds will continue to rise based on the record of other rivalling teams meaning that the lower a team finishes, the greater chances they have of securing a higher pick in the lottery.
Ahead of the lottery announcement, ping-pong balls are placed into a machine to randomly generate the final standings of the draft selection, meaning that there is still a great chance that some teams could leapfrog their prior mock expected draft picks, something that the NFL does not incorporate.
- Number of rounds:
While the NBA used to have multiple rounds during the league’s earlier years, the 1989 rendition saw the league change to a two-rounded format that would allow every team the chance to pick at least twice in the draft (depending on whether that team has acquired or traded away any draft picks).
Due to the sport of basketball only requiring five total eligible players to be on the court at a time and most rosters being made up of a total of 15 players as well as the introduction of the NBA G League developmental division, there is no real need for the Draft to feature any more than two total rounds of selection for players.
However, the NFL Draft is more prolonged and takes place across numerous nights due to football rosters being much larger than basketball rosters, with the NFL Draft comprising of seven total rounds.
Any players that are not selected by a team during the draft will be declared as an undrafted free agent and will often have the chance to partake in a trail at any NFL/NBA club that offers them a non-guaranteed contract on their roster.
- The value of the draft system in US Sports:
While both the NFL and NBA offer their fair share of differences when presenting their rendition of an annual draft day format, there is no denying that both events draw in a major sum of intrigue and investment from fans all over the world.
This will often give the worser ranked clubs a chance to showcase their future talents that they have acquired and their value as a marketable team for the future, whilst also providing a platform for the next line of generational college or foreign players to showcase their value towards their latest endeavors.
Some examples of high-profile prospects that were selected at the early stages of their draft class and have since defined an era in both the NBA and NFL include LeBron James, Peyton Manning, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and John Elway.
Alongside these hall of famers, there are even more modernized high-end draft selections that have recently sent both league’s fanbase into a sheer amount of investment into their future development which includes names such as Joe Burrow, Luka Doncic, Trevor Lawrence and Ja Morant, with the next wave of generational players sure to be included in all future draft classes for the foreseeable future.
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