The NBA draft will be held virtually on November 18, announced the league and ESPN, after being delayed by the coronavirus pandemic since mid-March of this year.  

The draft will see NBA commissioner Adam Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum announcing the picks from Bristol, Connecticut on that day.

Some top players are expected to join the draft virtually.

As to when the 2020-21 season will start, Silver expressed last month that his "best guess" was the new season would happen as early as January, before which rumor had it that the season would start on December 1. 

November 18 is five weeks away from when the 2019-20 season ended, with the Lakers winning the Championship title with a 4-2 lead in the series on October 11. 

Silver originally planned for the new NBA season to have a standard 82 games played in front of fans home and away as usual, but as the pandemic is still penetrating into the country and possibly spiking again comes fall, it has become a challenging task for the league to figure out ways just to get through safely.

Given the new season kicks off at some point in January, it will most likely last until September 2021.

(With input from agencies)