2006 NBA Draft

The recent announcement that the Toronto Raptors won the 2006 NBA Draft lottery comes as relief to the beleaguered fans in the Great White North. After countless poor NBA campaigns, the Raptors may be on track to do their best work since Vince Carter was a young pup. The problem with the 2006 NBA Draft, however, is that there is no clear number one selection. In this case, it is not a race to the top to see who is the best player but more of a race to a resting spot near the top of the 2006 NBA Draft. Unless the first pick in the 2006 NBA Draft ends up being Michael Jordan or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, they will be counted among the pantheon of poor NBA Draft selections, while their counterparts in the top five of the draft will get an increasing amount of benefit of the doubt for not being selected number one. The first overall selection in the 2006 NBA Draft and the following picks are going to be based on need rather than potential more than any draft over the last decade, now that high school players cannot enter the NBA Draft. The following is a mock draft of the top five picks in the 2006 NBA Draft.

1. Toronto Raptors: LaMarcus Aldridge (Center, University of Texas)- The Toronto Raptors get the burden in the 2006 NBA Draft of picking the first of a group of solid, but not overwhelmingly talented, players. The pick of center Aldridge makes sense for the Raptors, considering they need a big force in the center to complete a young, talented front court that includes last year’s NBA Draft pick, Charlie Villanueva, and talented power forward Chris Bosh. While Aldridge may have questions about how good he will be as a pro player, there is no question that this is the best combination of talent and fulfilling a need in the 2006 NBA Draft.