2006 NBA Draft

With the 45-33 record from the 2005-06 season, the Hawks ended up with the 18th and 48th picks in the draft.

The 18th pick presents the first pick since taking over as the GM of the Good Call Hawks where I will pass on the best player available. The best player would be Rajon Rondo with this pick. However, with Paul and Duhon already on the roster on rookie contracts, Rondo would just be ridiculous depth. Normally I'm fine with that idea, but knowing the personality of Rondo and the fact that he would never be able to get in front of Paul on the depth chart, it would probably be a problem. Duhon has the Coach K training from Duke, so he'll take his bench role in stride. Meanwhile, we'd have a moody Rondo messing with team chemistry. Plus, in the rules of this scenario, I don't have the option to simply trade Rondo down the line. Finally, the team really needs some talent down low to take it to the next level.

So with the 18th pick, the Good Call Hawks take Paul Millsap. He can fill the same role that he did with the Jazz by providing some bench toughness, rebounding, and some scoring. Plus, this will be perfect for the later trade of Al Harrington.

The next pick is the 48th, and we're once again picking from bit players. The only decent player left that was drafted is Leon Powe. If you go to the undrafted players, you can include Louis Amundson and Barea as options. Once again, we have the problem of a logjam at the two guard positions with Johnson, ellis, Paul, and Duhon. While I would prefer to pick up a center prospect at this point, there's not really any options. Therefore, I'm going to go with Powe. He was a quality backup starting in his first year. He's a bit redundant after taking Millsap, but the Hawks can go small with the second unit and play both together against certain teams.

Next post is the 2006 offseason.