Toronto wanted Marcus Williams

The topic of the Suns passing on both their picks in the 2006 draft has been done to death. But nothing is too dead to bring up for a revaluation. The most pressing need for the Suns this season was a backup PG for Nash. Coach Antoni had stubbornly persisted with Leandro Barbosa till last season, with very poor results.

The guys in this year's draft I was hoping the Suns would use their No. 21 and 27 picks were Marcus Williams, Jordan Farmar, Sergio Rodriguez, Sefolosha and to a lesser extent Rajon Rondo. For some reason, the Suns were not too keen on Marcus, Farmar and Rondo. The rap on Marcus and Rondo was their lack of athleticism and shooting ability respectively. Having gone to a Big East school I had seen Marcus play felt this kid really had it in him to be a future Suns PG. Almost the entire NBA went with body fat % and other such stupid numbers as indicators of Marcus' lack of potential and he slid all the way to 22nd in the draft where the Nets lapped him up.

Ultimately we did pick Rondo and Rodriguez, only to trade one of them to Boston and sell the other to Portland.

I saw a link to this very interesting war room video in basketballjones [via truehoop]. Apparently Bryan Colangelo was bullish on Marcus Williams and tried very hard to acquire him. Check this video out to watch Bryan Colangelo grapple to get Marcus.



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