Bulls, Blazers swap rights to top draft picks

06.28.2006

New York, NY (Basketball News) - The Portland Trail Blazers continue to be busy during the early stages of draft night, trading the rights to LSU forward Tyrus Thomas and the contract of forward Viktor Khryapa to the Chicago Bulls for the rights to second overall selection LaMarcus Aldridge and a future second round draft pick.

Earlier Wednesday night, the Blazers sent point guard Sebastian Telfair and forward Theo Ratliff and a 2008 second round draft choice to the Boston Celtics for forward Raef LaFrentz, guard Dan Dickau and the seventh pick in tonight’s draft.

With the seventh selection, Portland received Villanova guard Randy Foye from Boston. The Trail Blazers then sent the dynamic scorer to Minnesota along with cash considerations for the rights to Washington guard Brandon Roy.

Chicago drafted the Texas forward with the second pick with the intention of shipping him to Portland. The Trail Blazers then drafted Thomas for Chicago with the fourth selection, completing the proposed deal.

Thomas and Aldridge met when Texas faced LSU in the Atlanta regional final last season. The athletic Thomas got the better of Aldridge, scoring 21 points and grabbing 13 rebounds in the Tigers’ 70-60 victory to advance to the Final Four.

Questions arose about Aldridge’s physical nature during the Elite Eight contest, as the forward contributed only four points on 2-of-14 shooting and was pushed around by LSU’s bulky big man Glen Davis.

CHI POR

Post your comment:

No profanity or inaproppriate remarks. All i.p. addresses will be saved and abuse/hate posts will be reported to providers and authorities as part of the anti-spam act of 2003, thank you for posting comments on the articles only.