“I’m not into the baggy clothes,” he added.

Moments later, Derrick Williams, a forward with Arizona and the second pick in the draft, showed up in the green room. Wearing a conservatively cut black suit with a red silk tie by Élevée, he looked ready for a board meeting. And why not? The N.B.A. is serious business these days.

“This is the most important days of everybody’s lives,” said Williams, 20. “On draft day, you want to build your own brand.”

The procession continued onstage. The Brigham Young guard Jimmer Fredette ascended the stage in Joseph Abboud, the Kentucky guard Brandon Knight in Ermenegildo Zegna (“Whatever my agent tells me to get, I get,” he explained later).

In contrast to bygone years, the handful of players who pushed the style envelope did so in understated ways. The Charlotte Bobcats’ new guard, Kemba Walker, called to mind a Gatsby-era dandy: he wore a bespoke steel-blue suit, a tasteful matching argyle tie and pale pink saddle oxfords. “Dress to impress,” he said. The Indiana Pacers draft pick Kawhi Leonard sported a custom navy suit with white piping on the lapels that called to mind a British schoolboy jacket.

Perhaps the most GQ-ready look was found on Tristan Thompson, the fourth player selected, also by the Cavaliers. The forward from the University of Texas wore a custom charcoal suit by Paper Brown Bag, a Harlem label, that called to mind a very fashionable Pee-wee Herman with tapered pants and a shrunken jacket. Thompson, 20, comes to the league with a taste for Ferragamo, YSL and Comme des Garçons. “I definitely like a European look, pride myself on the European style,” he said.