How the 2006 Draft Resurrected the Portland Trailblazers
| 9
|
by user Jpit
Heading into Draft Day 2006, the Blazer franchise was at an all-time low. Coming off a 21-win season, Portland’s young “talent” consisted of Sebastian Telfair, Travis Outlaw, Martell Webster and Ha Seung-Jin (a.k.a. the Embarrassing Sideshow). The Blazers were relying on Zach Randolph (post-microfracture), Darius Miles (pre-microfracture) and Theo Ratliff (completely crippled) for “veteran leadership.” Despite holding the league’s worst record, and thus the league’s most ping-pong balls, the Blazers struck out in the lottery, landing the #4 pick. The Blazers were coming off a disastrous 2005 Draft, in which they had traded out of the #3 pick (and a chance to draft Chris Paul or Deron Williams) and selected Webster at #6.
Leading up to the draft, the 2006 class of prospects was considered to be weak. Texas forward LaMarcus Aldridge was projected as the #1 or #2 pick the entire season by http://www.nba.draft.net/. LSU pogo stick Tyrus Thomas burst onto the scene with a tremendous NCAA tournament and became the potential top pick. Andrea Bargnani was a wildcard – kind of a Dirk Nowitzki-type, but not nearly as good. Brandon Roy, Rudy Gay and Randy Foye were all mentioned as possible top-5 picks. Blazerland was clamoring for management to draft the “Stache”, Gonzaga’s Adam Morrison. (In retrospect, Morrison crying during an NCAA Tournament game, while his team still had a chance to win, probably should have alerted everyone that he was not a top-5 pick. Also the fact that he doesn’t play defense or rebound.)
Heading into the draft, I wanted LaMarcus Aldridge. I’m a Texas alum, and was a big fan of LaMarcus as a college player. The one guy I didn’t want was Tyrus Thomas. My Darius Miles Detector starts beeping whenever I see a guy who is (i) really athletic, (ii) can’t shoot, and (iii) seems like kind of an idiot. Thomas hits the trifecta.
I groaned when the Bulls drafted Aldridge. I would have groaned even louder when the Blazers drafted Thomas, if the Blazers/Bulls trade (Thomas and Khryapa for Aldridge) hadn’t already been reported. I was satisfied at this point. Contrary to Stephen A. Smith’s inane rant on the subject, the Blazers had given up very little to land the top prospect in the draft with the #4 pick.
But the Blazers weren’t done there. Sometime prior to the draft, Danny Ainge apparently felt a twinge of guilt over letting the Blazers down in the ’92 Finals against Chicago, and decided to make things right. To help get the Blazer franchise on track, he traded [[Boston Celtics|Boston]’s #7 pick to Portland for Sebastian Telfair. After a swap with Minnesota, the Blazers landed the soon-to-be 2007 Rookie of the Year, Brandon Roy. I had labeled Brandon Roy as the next Shane Battier – a nice role player who wasn’t athletic enough to be a star. I am happy to have been proven wrong. I would have taken Morrison ahead of Roy, which I guess makes me more like Michael Jordan than Kevin Pritchard.
(In between the Blazers’ two picks, the Atlanta Hawks decided Duke’s Shelden Williams was worthy of the #5 pick, apparently because they liked the added value of being able to project their game film on his forehead. Check out: http://www.nbadraft.net/actorteam.asp Scroll down about ¼ of the page to see the remarkable likeness Shelden bears to the animated Ken Griffey Jr. with gigantism from the classic “Homer at the Bat” Simpsons episode.)
Roy was the league’s best rookie from start to finish, averaging 17 a game and quickly becoming the most popular man in Portland. Aldridge hit his stride late in the season, averaging close to 15 points and 8 rebounds in the month of March, while showing all-star caliber potential. The Blazers improved by 10 wins, turned the team culture around, promoted Kevin Pritchard to GM, then won the Oden/Durant Sweepstakes despite 20-to-1 odds. Draft Day 2007 will be remembered as the day the Blazers landed Greg Oden, but Draft Day 2006 was the Blazers’ Resurrection Day.
Check out our blog: www.returntoblazermania.blogspot.com
