The first six picks were began the night with a very dull clank, though Raymond Felton was a bit of a surprise at five, but Charlotte kept both their picks, wisely predicting the freefalls of the teens later on in the night.
When Charlie Villanueva was announced with the 7th pick of the night, heading to the Toronto Raptors, the 2005 Draft as we knew it and predicted it, changed with dramatic effect. All of those trades that my sources told me were in place, were all of a sudden unneeded and there would be no major hat-swaps.
Danny Granger was supposed to be the Raptors' guy. He liked Toronto and Toronto liked him. A very mature hard-working college kid and a classic small forward, with great skill on both ends of the floor, but Villanueva?s name was called, a 3/4 tweener, who overlaps with Chris Bosh.
As Raptors fans unfairly called for the job of Rob Babcock, speculation that Villanueva would be dealt ran rampant.
Villanueva was projected at 13 at the earliest, and since he was already off the boards in the teens, several GM?s who were planning on moving up, stopped answering their phones.
On a side note, Babcock recovered in everybody?s eyes during the rest of the draft, selecting Joey Graham and then Roko Ukic. These three players represent a very solid draft though. Villanueva's upside is as great as any college player in the entire draft, he is no Rafael Arajuo.
- The Knicks still got their guy at eight in Channing Frye and then the Warriors at nine with Ike Diogu. Diogu is a sound Pac-10 player who the Warriors hope to turn into a Larry Smith type of player, except with a more skilled offensive game.
- When the Lakers went with Andrew Bynum, instead of Gerald Green, the high schoolers freefall was sharp and deep and when he finally landed, he woke up in Boston, an ideal situation. Despite Doc Rivers comments to the contrary, there is an excellent chance that Paul Pierce will be traded this summer and Green could step in right away to help form one of the most formidable young frontcourts in the game beside Al Jefferson.
- The back-to-back picks of Fran Vazquez and Yaroslav Korolev were actually more shocking and appalling than the Villanueva monkey-wrench.
How both teams could pass on Green, McCants, Granger and Wright is beyond me.
- The series of the draft that saw McCants go to Minnesota, Wright to New Jersey, Graham to Toronto, Granger to Indiana, Warrick to Memphis and Hodge to Denver was the headiest part of the night.
All six players will be able to contribute immediately in positions of need, though New Jersey?s pick of Wright was a bit of a surprise. They were known to want a power forward and when their guy Sean May went to Charlotte, this column believed Hakim Warrick would slide right in nicely, giving Jay-Z and the Nets another high-flyer, but another high-flyer wasn?t what was needed, so Wright became the sound selection.
- As predicted and expected, Luther Head was drafted in the first round. His stock kept climbing and I hear he was going to be selected as high as 17, but Indiana wasn't going to pass on Granger, a guy who could have just as easily gone at five.
In Houston, he will learn the point quickly and will become their starting point guard by the All-Star break.
- The New York selection of David Lee with the 30th pick in the draft got nice chorus of boos, but these boos will be confined to the Theater at MSG. He will impress this town and is desinted to become the Jeremey Shockey of the Knicks with his fierce and gritty play.
- At the end of the night, the biggest surprise was not a single blockbuster deal was made. There was no Memphis blockbuster. There was no Magloire blockbuster. There was no Lamar Odom blockbuster. There was no Paul Pierce trade and good thing, Boston stayed put and got their guy at 18.
And that's really a shame for NBA fans because this was shaping up to be one of the most active trading draft nights in history.
Jiri Welsch was traded again today though.
Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM.com and may be reached at Christopher.Reina@RealGM.com.