Re-drafting the 2006 NBA Draft Lottery picks

The 2006 NBA Draft was one of the worst in recent memory, but there were a few gems that are worth looking back on during the COVID-19-induced hiatus.

The 2006 NBA Draft is a long way in the rear view mirror now. As this was one of the more pedestrian draft classes since 2000, the 2006 rookie class didn’t make a huge impact over the long haul. Most of the top 10 picks in this draft class were out of the NBA in less than five or six years, and while playing in less than 450 regular season games.

If you dig deeper, this draft class later in the first round and throughout the second did have some hidden depth to it. Hidden gems can always be abundant for teams that do their research and vale second round picks (not something the Chicago Bulls front office is really accustomed to). But second rounders don’t have to have a very long shelf life in the NBA nowadays.

All that needs to be said for how inconsistent this draft class was amid the lottery picks is that two of the first three players off the board were center Andrea Bargnani and forward Adam Morrison. Those two were some of the biggest busts among top three draft picks in that entire decade.

The 2005 and 2007 draft classes featured much more of a plethora of talent in their lotteries than 2006 did. What makes the 2006 draft class fun is how deep you can dig to find the hidden gems and configure what value those players actually brought to the table within the last 10 or 15 years.

Here’s a deeper look into Pippen Ain’t Easy’s 2006 NBA Re-Draft with the novel coronavirus pandemic dominating the basketball news cycle at the moment.