Philippine Basketball Association draft

The Philippine Basketball Association draft is an annual Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) event dating back to 1985 in which the league's teams can draft eligible prospects seeking to join the league. Each team has one draft pick per round to select players and the draft lasts for as many rounds as needed until all teams have passed their selection.

The draft usually takes place between October and December, during the league's off-season. During the early to mid-2020s, due to the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the league's schedule, the draft is scheduled towards the earlier or middle part of the year. No player may sign with any PBA team until he has been eligible for at least one draft.

Eligibility

All players have to be natural-born Filipinos. Persons who chose Philippine citizenship by the age of maturity are considered as natural-born citizens.

The following are the eligibility requirements for local players:

• Entrants of at least 22 years of age on the day of the draft must be at least four years removed from high school or have played one year of college basketball;
• Entrants between 19 and 21 years of age must have had at least two years of college education;
• All entrants must be at least 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) in height.

Eligibility requirements for Filipino-descended foreigner entrants (Filipino-foreigners) are similar to the locals but with some additions:

• All Filipino-foreigner entrants must be a holder of a Philippine passport.
• All Filipino-foreigner entrants must have previously played professional basketball elsewhere and is not under contract with other teams.

Players who apply for the draft on the fourth or fifth year of eligibility will instead be assigned to a lottery separate from the draft proper. Foreign players, or imports, don't enter the PBA draft. Instead, they are signed directly by teams and only play in conferences which allow imports, such as the Commissioner's Cup and Governors' Cup. Naturalized citizens are classified as imports.

Beginning with the PBA season 51 draft in 2027, players who have existing contracts with teams from other leagues cannot declare for the draft. The new condition came as more players were drafted from the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, whose season runs from March to December, and were required to fulfill their contracts with MPBL teams before joining the PBA.

Historical requirements

From 2015 to 2019, all entrants were also required to play at least seven games across two PBA D-League conferences. Anyone who played for the Philippines men's national basketball team was exempted from this rule and was automatically eligible for the draft. Starting with the PBA season 46 draft in 2021, this requirement was abolished for all players.

Until the season 46 draft, all Filipino-foreigner entrants must have had documents from the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Immigration proving their Philippine citizenship. This clause was repealed later in November that year, abolishing the rule as of the PBA season 47 draft in 2022.

Order

The draft order is determined by the teams' final rankings within each conference from the previous season, with rankings from the Philippine Cup having heavier weight than the import-laden Commissioner's and Governors' Cups. Teams pick in ascending order of the weighted cumulative rankings, with the team with the lowest cumulative ranking picking first while the team with the highest cumulative ranking picking last. The draft order can also change if teams choose to trade their first- or second-round picks to another team.

Number of rounds

From 1985 to 2004 and since 2011, the PBA draft consists of a minimum of two rounds where teams are required to pick. The draft can go past the second round, but from the third round onwards, teams have the option to pass. Doing so opts the team out for the remainder of the draft. Once all teams have passed, the draft is finished and all undrafted players become free agents.

From 2005 to 2010, the association limited the draft to only two rounds with no selections beyong that point. This restriction was attributed to an agreement between the PBA and the Philippine Basketball League (PBL), which also included a development fee to the PBL team from which the player was drafted. This was removed in 2011 as the PBL had folded, and amateur players played in the PBA D-League instead.

Occasionally, Gilas Pilipinas players may be placed in a special Gilas draft. In 2016, the Gilas draft was held as the first round of that year's draft, but in all drafts since that have the Gilas draft, it is held as a separate round from the draft proper.

Draft lottery

Before 2015, a draft lottery determined which team gets the first overall draft pick. The lottery involved the two teams with the worst cumulative rankings from the previous season. The team with the worst cumulative ranking had a 2 in 3 chance of clinching the first pick while the second-worst only got a 1 in 3 chance. The lottery was usually held prior to the finals of the final conference of the season. It was abandoned after the controversies that aroused during the lottery for the first pick of the 2014 draft.

Expansion draft

There have been three expansion drafts in the league's history. The first was in 1990, in which the new teams Pepsi Hotshots and the Pop Cola Sizzlers selected up to six players from the expansion pool, which is made up of three players from each of the six existing franchises. The second was in 2000, when newcomers Batang Red Bull Energizers selected players from the draft.

An expansion draft for new teams Blackwater Elite and Kia Sorento was held on July 18, 2014, so that both team can form its rosters for the 2014–15 season. The 10 existing PBA franchises protected up to 12 players in their roster. Two time MVP Danny Ildefonso of the Meralco Bolts was selected as the first pick of the expansion draft by Blackwater, followed by Reil Cervantes of Barako Bull by Kia.

Carry over amateurs

If a new franchise also has an existing franchise from an amateur league (from the Philippine Basketball League before 2011 and the PBA D-League afterwards), the franchise, upon approval from the PBA's Board of Governors, may be given an incentive of selecting players from their amateur team to be directly elevated to their PBA team. This was last given to the Welcoat Dragons, who elevated three players from their PBL team.

List of first overall picks

Flags indicate the country where the player competed as college student-athletes; all players are Filipinos until proven otherwise, like Sonny Alvarado's case where he fled the country as his citizenship was being questioned.

Notes

By school