Can’t wait to watch those Utah Jazz-Houston Rockets games next season, can you?
The Bulls were quiet in Tuesday’s annual NBA draft with no selections and little luck. Two of the projected second-rounders they were pursuing went higher than expected and they were unable to swing a deal for them.
But Illinois was a winner again with two of its five starters on the NCAA tournament runnerup, Deron Williams and Luther Head, going in the first round.
Williams became the highest NBA pick in school history when the Jazz made him the third player selected after a draft-day trade with Portland. Utah was so eager to get Williams–the top point guard selected, just ahead of Wake Forest’s Chris Paul–that it traded Portland its Nos. 6 and 27 picks from this draft and a future first-rounder.
Kendall Gill previously had been the Illini’s highest pick, going at No. 5 to Charlotte in 1990.
The Jazz looks at Williams as the heir to John Stockton in coach Jerry Sloan’s famed pick-and-roll offense.
Williams’ backcourt running mate, Head, was tabbed by the Rockets at No. 24 in a deep draft.
The Rockets, with Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, are considered one of the top Western Conference contenders. They look at the Manley High School alumnus as the kind of young athlete and shooter they want to incorporate into their team. Figure to see Head, a 41 percent three-point shooter last season at Illinois, getting lots of open shots in next year’s NBA playoffs.
The top of the draft went as expected with consensus player of the year Andrew Bogut of Utah going with the No. 1 pick to the Milwaukee Bucks and North Carolina’s Marvin Williams going No. 2 to the Atlanta Hawks.
Bogut joins Utah quarterback Alex Smith, whom the San Francisco 49ers picked first in the NFL draft, as rare dual No. 1s from the same college in the same year.
Williams, who was a reserve, joined North Carolina teammates Ray Felton (No. 5 to Charlotte), Sean May (No. 13 to Charlotte) and Rashad McCants (No. 14 to Minnesota) to give the Tar Heels four lottery selections.
“This matches up [to winning the NCAA title],” Williams said. “I’m speechless right now.”
He will go to an Atlanta team overloaded at his position, which probably means a trade of veteran Al Harrington, someone the Bulls tried to get last season before the draft.
“When you win 13 games, nothing is etched in stone,” coach Mike Woodson said. “We’ll see where he fits in and go from there.”
The Bulls, who gave up their No. 1 pick this year to draft Luol Deng last year, after failing to land Harrington, had preliminary talks with several teams about acquiring a second-round pick. They wanted to go after Jason Maxiell of Cincinnati, who went in the first round to the Pistons, or LSU’s Brandon Bass, who went high in the second round.
Bogut, a sophomore from Australia, is the Bucks’ fourth-ever first overall pick after Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) in 1969, Kent Benson in 1977 and Glenn Robinson in 1994.
Bogut should be somewhere between Abdul-Jabbar and Benson, a solid center who could give the 30-victory Bucks a big boost, especially with the possible return now of T.J. Ford after neck problems. Plus, they hope to re-sign Michael Redd.
“We felt with Andrew, he could step in right away,” Bucks general manager Larry Harris said in an interview with ESPN. “We feel we could get back in the playoffs next year. Adding the quality of Andrew Bogut, we feel we’re solid in the center position.”
It was the first time since Kenyon Martin in 2000 that a U.S. college player has been taken No. 1 in the NBA draft.
Three of the last four top picks were high schoolers with Orlando’s Dwight Howard going first last year, Cleveland’s LeBron James in 2003 and Washington’s Kwame Brown in 2001. The Houston Rockets took Yao from China with the top pick in 2002.
There were three high school players taken in the first round–shooter Martell Webster No. 6 to Portland after the trade for Deron Williams’ rights, center Andrew Bynum No. 10 to the Lakers and the athletic Gerald Green to Boston at No. 18.
It is the last time high school players will be drafted, at least for the next six years, with the expected ratification of the new NBA collective bargaining agreement that sets the minimum age at 19 for a player one year out of high school to enter the NBA.
The selection of Bynum, rumored for weeks, nevertheless was a surprise with the return of Phil Jackson to coach the Lakers.
Though general manager Mitch Kupchak said Jackson was on board with the pick, the talk out of Los Angeles this week is Jackson didn’t want the high school center, who has been likened to the Bulls’ Eddy Curry.
Jackson rarely played rookies when he coached the Bulls and is intent on returning the Lakers to the playoffs.
The top four picks of Bogut, Marvin Williams, Deron Williams and Paul were expected, and Charlotte went for need and local appeal with North Carolina guard Felton No. 5.
There were some major surprises afterward, especially with Toronto at No. 7.
It picked underachieving Connecticut center Charlie Villaneuva despite having many holes in its roster. Villaneuva plays power forward and the Raptors’ top player is power forward Chris Bosh.
The Knicks got their center, though not a Patrick Ewing, 20 years after they took Ewing, in Arizona’s Channing Frye, a New York area native.
The Suns used their first-round pick to select Nate Robinson, then sent him to New York to complete the trade of Quentin Richardson to the Knicks for Kurt Thomas.
As part of the trade, Phoenix got New York’s second-round pick, Dijon Thompson. Thompson, a 6-7 guard-forward from UCLA, was the 54th selection.
The Indiana Pacers did well with senior Danny Granger falling to No. 17.
Boston ended up with high schooler Green, said to be a major talent who was being talked about as a top five pick right up until the draft.
The Bobcats went strong with home state North Carolina picks of Felton and Sean May and if they cannot improve much on the court, they should do well at the box office.
There were four international players in the first round, Spain’s Fran Vazquez the first at No. 11 to Orlando, Yaroslav Korolov No. 12 to the Clippers, Johann Petro No. 25 to Seattle and Ian Mahinmi of France No. 28 to the international NBA champion Spurs.
Second-round selections
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NO. PLAYER TM HT WT SCHOOL
31. Salim Stoudamire Atl 6-1 190 Arizona
32. Daniel Ewing LAC-a 6-3 185 Duke
33. Brandon Bass N.O. 6-7 252 LSU
34. C.J. Miles Utah 6-6 207 Skyline HS (Tex)
35. Ricky Sanchez Port-b 6-11 215 IMG Acad.
36. Ersan Ilyasova Milw 6-9 220 Turkey
37. Ronny Turiaf LAL-c 6-10 250 Gonzaga
38. Travis Diener Orl-d 6-1 175 Marquette
39. Von Wafer LAL 6-5 210 Florida St.
40. Monta Ellis G.S. 6-3 175 Lanier HS (MS)
41. Roko Ukic Tor-e 6-5 185 Croatia
42. Chris Taft G.S.-f 6-9 261 Pittsburgh
43. Mile Ilic N.J. 7-1 240 Yugoslavia
44. M. Andriuskevicius Orl-g 7-3 230 Lithuania
45. Louis Williams Phi 6-1 175 Gwinnett HS (GA)
46. Erazem Lorbek Ind 6-10 240 Slovenia
47. Bracey Wright Min 6-3 210 Indiana
48. Michael Gelabale Sea-h 6-7 175 France
49. Andray Blatche Wash 7-0 230 Kent Prep (Conn)
50. Ryan Gomes Bos 6-8 248 Providence
51. Robert Whaley Utah-I 6-10 260 Walsh
52. Axel Hervelle Den 6-9 230 Spain
53. Orien Greene Bos-j 6-4 208 Lafayette
54. Dijon Thompson N.Y.-k 6-7 210 UCLA
55. Lawrence Roberts Sea 6-9 240 Miss. St.
56. Amir Johnson Det 6-10 220 Wstchstr HS (Cal)
57. Marcin Gortat Pho-l 7-0 250 Poland
58. Uros Slokar Tor-m 6-10 238 Slovenia
59. Cenk Akyol Atl-n 6-4 210 Turkey
60. Alex Acker Det-o 6-5 183 Pepperdine
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a–from Charlotte; b–traded to Denver; c–from New York through Atlanta and Charlotte; d–from Toronto; e–from Orlando; f–from L.A. Clippers through New Jersey; g–from Cleveland; h–from Memphis; i–from Bulls through Houston; j–from Sacramento; k–from Houston; l–from Dallas through New Orleans;m–from Miami; n–from San Antonio; o–from Philadelphia through Utah and Phoenix
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sasmith@tribune.com
