What to watch for at the NBA draft tonight

Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Christoforous and Yahoo Sports' Vinnie Goodwill discuss the coronavirus impact on tonight's NBA draft.

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ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: The 2020 NBA draft is happening tonight at 8:00 PM Eastern, and here to help us break it down is Vincent Goodwill, Senior NBA Writer at Yahoo Sports. So, Vincent, it's going to be the strangest draft we've seen, I think, ever. What should we expect from tonight?

VINCENT GOODWILL: A lot of things that we're doing right now. As opposed to us sitting in a studio next to each other, we're doing this [? teleconferencewise. ?] That's something the NBA will be doing. They'll be doing this from ESPN's studios where Commissioner Adam Silver, as opposed to being at Barclays Center in downtown Brooklyn, he'll be doing everything telecommunicatively, and a lot of the players will be being interviewed and everything else in the same way. There will be nothing in person.

I think we'll get a chance to see a lot of players with their families with the cameras set up and everything. So if there is some family drama, we won't be able to be shielded from it. So I think the entertainment aspect will be a little bit different tonight.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Yeah, yeah, and we've seen that with the other drafts too and in other sports. So break it down. Who are the top NBA draft prospects, and where do you think they're going to land?

VINCENT GOODWILL: Well, honestly, this year is kind of a little bit different, Alexis, just because there was no NCAA tournament, and so many of the professional sports was cut off around mid-March like when the NBA stopped. So you didn't really get a chance to evaluate the top players, but Anthony Edwards from the University of Georgia, James Wiseman from Memphis, and LaMelo Ball who, of course, has a famous last name because of his famous dad and famous brother, they are the top-three prospects in the draft.

Now, Wiseman only played three games at Memphis before the NCAA ruled him ineligible. Ball, of course, didn't go the traditional route, didn't play in the NCAA. He played overseas. So a lot of this is almost like paint by numbers or close your eyes and saying eenie, meenie, miney, mo. It's hoping that I'm selecting the right player not necessarily as a player but also, Alexis, as a face of the franchise moving forward. I think these are multimillion-dollar decisions that these franchises are making, and you're putting it in the hands of a 19- or 20-year-old. You're hoping that he has the maturity and the wherewithal to understand the responsibility that's being bestowed upon him.

ALEXIS CHRISTOFOROUS: Yeah, that sure puts it in perspective for us. Vincent Goodwill, senior NBA writer at Yahoo Sports, you've got a busy night ahead of you. Thanks for being with us.

VINCENT GOODWILL: Thank you, Alexis.