Word on the Street: Green Room Invites, Trades (Final Update 1:36 AM)

DraftExpress has exclusively obtained the list of players that will invited to attend the NBA Draft in Madison Square Garden Theater on June 28th. This is an exclusive list of players that the NBA has done its due diligence to confirm that they will be drafted in the lottery or not far after, compiled from a poll of NBA GM’s conducted by Stu Jackson.

Being invited to the Green Room means the player will sit with his family at the front of the theater in front of the commissioner, have his name called [hopefully] early in the draft, given a hat with his new team’s logo on it, and then brought up to the podium to shake David Stern’s hand.

The day before the draft, the fifteen players invited will participate in a media session at the Westin Hotel, which will be attended by two DraftExpress staff members.

2006 Green Room Invites

Adam Morrison
Tyrus Thomas
Rudy Gay
LaMarcus Aldridge
Andrea Bargnani
Brandon Roy
Marcus Williams
Randy Foye
Patrick O'Bryant
Shelden Williams
Ronnie Brewer
Cedric Simmons
Rodney Carney
J.J. Redick
Hilton Armstrong

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Snubs?

It’s difficult to argue with any of the players on this list. In fact, every player in the lottery of our 2006 mock draft appears here. Many will wonder where Rajon Rondo is on this list, but that might just be nitpicking. What is interesting is that Rondo wasn’t one of the 20 players on the “physical-only” list at the Orlando pre-draft camp either.

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2005 Green Room Invites

*The players are listed in the order they were drafted in. Players in brackets are those that were not invited to the Green Room, but still went ahead of players that were. Considering the difficulty in composing a list of this nature over a week before the draft, the NBA did a fine job in this case.

Andrew Bogut
Marvin Williams
Deron Williams
Chris Paul
Raymond Felton
Martell Webster
Charlie Villanueva
Channing Frye
[Ike Diogu]
[Andrew Bynum]
Fran Vazquez
Yaroslav Korolev
Rashad McCants
Sean May
Antoine Wright
[Joey Graham]
Danny Granger
Gerald Green
Hakim Warrick

2004 Green Room Invites

*The players are listed in the order they were drafted in. Players in brackets are those that were not invited to the Green Room, but still went ahead of players that were. The exception here is Luke Jackson, who was invited to attend, but declined. The NBA did not do as good of a job this year, as Sergei Monya was forced to sit until the #23 pick waiting for his name to be called. All the media attention, though, focused on the impressive poise of Wooden Award winner Jameer Nelson as he held his son in his lap and watched countless high school players get drafted ahead of him, which ended up being one of the biggest storylines of this draft.

Dwight Howard
Emeka Okafor
Ben Gordon
Shaun Livingston
Devin Harris
Josh Childress
Luol Deng
Rafael Araujo
Andre Iguodala
[Luke Jackson]
Andris Biedrins
[Robert Swift]
[Sebastian Telfair]
[Kris Humphries]
[Al Jefferson]
Kirk Snyder
Josh Smith
[JR Smith]
[Dorell Wright]
Jameer Nelson
Pavel Podkolzine
[Viktor Khryapa]
Sergei Monia

2003 Green Room Invites

*The players are listed in the order they were drafted in. Players in brackets are those that were not invited to the Green Room, but still went ahead of players that were. The exception here is Luke Ridnour, who was invited to attend, but declined. The NBA did a difficult time this year once again, especially with Maciej Lampe, whose buyout problems with Real Madrid saw him fall to the top of the 2nd round. Brian Cook was surprisingly invited to the Green Room and ended up slipping to the 24th pick.

LeBron James
Darko Milicic
Carmelo Anthony
Chris Bosh
Dwyane Wade
Chris Kaman
Kirk Hinrich
T.J. Ford
Mike Sweetney
Jarvis Hayes
Mickael Pietrus
Nick Collison
Marcus Banks
[Luke Ridnour]
[Reece Gaines]
[Troy Bell]
Zarko Cabarkapa
[David West]
[Aleksandar Pavlovic]
[Dahntay Jones]
[Boris Diaw]
[Zoran Planinic]
[Travis Outlaw]
Brian Cook
[Carlos Delfino]
[Ndudi Ebi]
[Kendrick Perkins]
[Leandrinho Barbosa]
[Josh Howard]

[12 picks in between]

Maciej Lampe (drafted 30th overall)

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Roy, Aldridge Turn Down Charlotte

The day started off with interesting news from Charlotte relaying that LaMarcus Aldridge, Brandon Roy and Tyrus Thomas have pulled out of their scheduled workout with the Bobcats set for this morning. The news on Roy and Thomas should come as no surprise, as we reported that in a column a few days ago already. Aldridge’s decision does, as being picked #1 or #2 is anything but confirmed at this point with how strongly Toronto and Chicago seem to be leaning towards drafting Andrea Bargnani and Tyrus Thomas respectively.

From the information we’ve gathered from speaking to a wide range of sources, both Aldridge and Roy do not seem to think that their chances of being selected by Charlotte are very high, and prefer not to waste their time by flying out there to work out with the Bobcats. Many seem to feel that Charlotte’s mind has been made up a while back already about whom they want in this draft, be it Adam Morrison or Rudy Gay depending on which player is on the board, and that that sentiment has been well established for quite some time now. “Charlotte is trying to act like the victims in the way they released this, but in actuality, it’s the other way around,” said one source with a deep understanding of how the process works.

In addition to already being set on who is at the top of their draft board, many feel that the Bobcats are not committed to putting a winning team out on the floor, at least in terms of making the proper financial sacrifices that go along with that. The Bobcats are a team that is losing quite a bit of money despite moving to a brand new arena in a seemingly fertile basketball market, and seem to be content building their team up through the draft rather than splurging in free agency.

In a draft world where all NBA agents are much more concerned with the second and more substantial contract their client will receive rather than the first rookie deal, the sentiment is that it’s often better to slip a few spots down in the draft and land in the right situation rather than attempt to be drafted as high as possible.

Evidence of this is in the fact that Brandon Roy is scheduled to work out on Saturday with the Houston Rockets, which confirms that Roy did not pull out of the Charlotte workout because of a promise from another team. The Rockets by the way are rumored to be in discussions with the Minnesota Timberwolves about swapping their first round picks (#8+Luther Head for #6) if Roy is on the board, with Minnesota dropping down two spots to nab Randy Foye.

Hassan Adams was initially scheduled to work out with Roy in Houston, but was forced to pull out after suffering a stress fracture in his foot in a New Jersey workout, courtesy of PJ Tucker who stepped on his foot. Adams has cancelled the rest of his workouts until the draft.

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More Trade Talk

-Expect the Suns to find themselves in the teens on draft night, as high up as 13. The Sixers are supposedly willing to move down in the draft in return for the #21 and #27 picks, although the Sixers are somehow hoping to squeeze Leandro Barbosa into the deal in place of the #21 pick.

-Players the Suns are rumored to have their eye on is growing by the day, and now includes Hilton Armstrong and Ronnie Brewer along with the already known Thabo Sefolosha, Saer Sene and Rodney Carney.

-Many wonder whether Armstrong already has a promise in place, possibly from the New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets at #15.

-The most impressive player in the four man Toronto workout yesterday featuring Randy Foye, Adam Morrison, Rudy Gay and Denham Brown was Foye. Foye was teamed with Rudy Gay in the two on two portion of the workout and could not miss a shot from the perimeter, particularly in the beginning. He got to the basket at will while being guarded by Denham Brown, played outstanding defense and tested out extremely well both athletically as well as in the interview portion of the workout. The consensus in the NBA seems to be that Toronto will draft Andrea Bargnani (whether it’s at #1, #3 or #4), particularly now that his Assistant GM is on board, but Foye may have given them something to think about if they can somehow get another pick in the top 10.

-Portland is almost definitely trading the #30 and #31 picks. Don’t be surprised to see them package those picks to New Jersey for the #22 pick.

-Most NBA teams we've spoke to think that Daniel Gibson has been promised by the Cleveland Cavaliers at #25. Gibson shut down his workouts a few weeks back and decided to pull out of the Orlando pre-draft camp at the last minute. The only two teams he had time to work out for were Cleveland and Houston. Numerous NBA teams, including the Rockets, have contacted Gibson this past week to request him come workout for them, but were told that he is done.

There is a history between the Texas native Gibson and Cleveland's top decision makers. Both the General Manager and Assistant General Manager, Danny Ferry and Lance Blanks, have spent conisderable time scouting him this year and last after working for the San Antonio Spurs up until last summer.

On paper, Gibson is a good fit for the Cavs, as he seems to compliment Lebron James very well. Gibson is an outstanding perimeter defender and outside shooter, and his biggest weakness--lack of point guard skills--can be easily masked playing next to a dominant ball-handler like James. Gibson has an excellent attitude and it's believed that with his youth and terrific athletic ability, he should have plenty of upside to continue to improve. The player he's most comparable to from last year's draft or beyond is Luther Head.