The NBA Draft of 2006 took place last night in the city of New York. The Knicks had 2 first round picks, the 20th (from Denver) and the 29th (from San Antonio) and have selected
Renaldo Balkman (not to be confused with Rolando Blackman) and
Mardy Collins.
Balkman, is a 6-8 small forward from South Carolina, being described by Isiah Thomas as an “unique talent” and compared to Dennis Rodman and Ron Artest. He is also said to be a great defensive player, as he was named Most Valuable Player of the 2006 Postseason NIT and led hist team in rebounding (6.3 rpg) in 2005/06. Renaldo said during workouts last month that it would be a dream come true, to be coached by Larry Brown. Looks like he's going to keep on dreaming. Isiah Thomas selected him over point guard Marcus Williams which ended up as a New Jersey Net.
Chants of “Fire Isiah” could be heard minutes before the start of the NBA Draft. Chicago Bulls had the #2 pick, from New York Knicks. Before picking LaMarcus Aldridge (traded after for Tyrus Thomas) the fans started to yell "Where's our pick?"
The other pick, Mardy Collins is a 6-6 guard from Temple, is described as a “ego-less, selfless, forever team-first player” (nyknicks.com). He was also tought by the insiders to be on of the top-two point guards in the country. (This means we have both of them?)
“We got the two players we wanted. We are very excited with the players we’ve got. We have offense on our team. We wanted to complement that offense with players who can play defense.” Isiah Thomas concluded.
