Gay, Rondo and the 2006 Draft

[Cyclical]

(Please note the comma after Gay.)

Remember the draft talk through most of the 05-06 season? it was all about "The Rudy Gay Sweepstakes" for months up until a few weeks before the draft, when other names started popping up. Rudy dropped to 8th... Looking like a top 2-3 talent these days doesn't he? Could be a complete player in a couple of years and is already a beast. Teams should have stuck with the original notions. Toronto would have undoubtedly fared much better. Can you imagine Atlanta with him? I shudder... And Charlotte? Oh MJ, the guy who brought us brilliant No. 1 pick Kwame Brown now thought Morrison was a better wing choice than Gay and Roy... if you only had Ainge's eye for talent.

The biggest steals were Rondo and Millsap. Other notables below.

Notables:
1 Toronto Andrea Bargnani - Overrated but still lottery worthy
2 Chicago (Traded to Portland) LaMarcus Aldridge - Justified pick
3 Charlotte Adam Morrison - Absolutely positively ridiculous
4 Portland (Traded to Chicago) Tyrus Thomas - Overrated but still lottery worthy
5 Atlanta Shelden Williams - Overrated. Mistake.
6 Minnesota (Traded to Portland) Brandon Roy - Steal
7 Boston (Traded to Portland, then Minnesota) Randy Foye - Overrated. Mistake.
8 Houston (Traded to Memphis) Rudy Gay - Steal
9 Golden State Patrick O'Bryant - Absolutely Ridiculous

21 (Traded to Boston) Rajon Rondo - Co-Steal of the draft

27 Phoenix (Traded to Portland) Sergio Rodriguez - A bit of a steal IMO

42 Cleveland Cavaliers (from Philadelphia) Daniel Gibson - A bit of a steal IMO

47 Utah Jazz Paul Millsap - Co-Steal of the draft
48 Denver Nuggets (to Boston) Leon Powe - Absolute Steal

[SonicYouth34]

Millsap and Rondo (Powe to a certain extent as well) were the only real steals of the draft IMO. The teams in the top 3 were seriously looking at Gay and Roy for their picks, but ended up making the stupid pick (especially Toronto). If Portland didn't make the trade for the 2nd overall pick, the would've taken Roy with the 4th, but Paxon and McHale are dumb.

There was also some serious busts in that draft. O'Bryant, Morrison, Sene, Thomas, Foye...