King Kaufman's Sports Daily
NBA draft: On a wheeling, dealing night, all trades lead to Portland.
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June 29, 2006 | One thought for each pick in Wednesday night's NBA draft, which is either a stately Internet tradition, dating all the way back to 2003, or lazy columnist schtick. Either way, it's 29 more thoughts than I have on most Wednesday nights, and 30 more than I have on some of 'em.
1. Toronto Raptors: Andrea Bargnani, F, Italy
"This is a very rowdy crowd," David Stern says as he steps to the podium. Always is. Charles Barkley helps make it rowdier when TNT has the draft. I still think they should move the thing around, let a different team host it every year, instead of having doltish Knicks fans screaming at Stern every year.
What's the matter with doltish Cavs or Sonics or Rockets fans?
Bargnani is a 7-footer with three-point range who's basically been a reserve in the Italian league for most of the last couple of years, though ESPN's Fran Fraschilla says he became his team's go-to guy at the end of last year. At 20, he gets compared to Dirk Nowitzki a lot, which looks like a setup for failure.
Jay Bilas of ESPN says he doesn't think Bargnani -- who he says doesn't defend, rebound or post up at this point -- is going to be great, but will be a good player. I've never seen Bargnani play and don't know how accurate that statement is, but I said this last year, and I'll say it every year: If you have the No. 1 pick, you have to get great. Good is a waste of the No. 1 pick.
If you're not going to trade the top pick for a package, then I think you have to take the guy with the best chance of becoming a superstar, even if he also has the best chance of being a bust. In this draft, I think that's either Tyrus Thomas, a ridiculous athlete, Rudy Gay, a hugely talented college underachiever, or Brandon Roy, whose name wouldn't have just made you raise your eyebrows if he'd played his college ball in the Eastern Time Zone.
2. Chicago Bulls (from New York): LeMarcus Aldridge, F, Texas
The Blazers are trading fools. The Bulls are going to trade this pick, which they got from the Knicks in the Eddy Curry trade, to Portland for the No. 4 pick, forward Viktor Khryapa and future considerations. The Blazers are going to take Thomas for the Bulls at No. 4.
The teams have to make the pick, then trade the player, rather than just trading the picks, because of picayune bookkeeping rules involving a 2 p.m. deadline.
Next page: How is Sebastian Telfair worth a seventh pick? Plus: Knicks fans threaten to riot